The law and how to avoid it


Applications for exceptions from the law will surely make the reader’s head spin.  They use a peculiar jargon, and delight in pursuants to numbered sections of Ordinances, the Municipal Code and the Coastal Development Plan, Mitigated Negative Declarations, and on and on. 

But it is not rocket science after all--and if you want to (especially if you have access to a computer), you can be vigilant and, perhaps, save your neighborhood from inappropriate development.  Here is a beginner’s primer:

The Venice Specific Plan is Ordinance No. 172897.  You can find it at www.ci.la.ca.us/pln. Click on “General Plans,” then click on “Venice Coastal Zone.”  Now you can check all those section numbers the expediters use.

If a developer applies for an exception from the rules laid down in Ordinance 172897, he or she must justify the request by responding to the conditions laid out in LAMC 11.5.7 F2 (a-e).  You can easily access the “Los Angeles Municipal Code”--use a Google Search (and remember to put the quotation marks in).  But everyone who wishes to be armed in the struggle against inappropriate development should know what the Code conditions are.  For a specific plan exception to be granted, all 5 of the findings mandated in Section 11.5.7 F2 must be made in the affirmative [ugh--legalspeak!]  What follows is not a snappy read--but one blunt instrument deserves another.

(a)     That the strict application of the regulations of the specific plan to the subject property would result in practical difficulties or unnecessary hardships inconsistent with the general purpose and intent of such specific plan.

(b)     That there are exceptional circumstances or conditions applicable to the subject property involved or to the intended use or development of the subject property that do not apply generally to other property in the specific plan area.

(c)     That such exceptions from the geographically specific plan is necessary for the preservation and enjoyment of a substantial property right or use generally possessed by other property within the geographically specific plan in the same zone and vicinity but which, because of special circumstances and practical difficulties or unnecessary hardships is denied to the property in question.

(d)     That the granting of the exception will not be detrimental to the public welfare or injurious to the property or improvements adjacent to or in the vicinity of the subject property.

(e)     That the granting of such exception will be consistent with the principles, intent and goals of the geographically specific plan and any applicable element of the General Plan.

As you can see, there is some room for subjective response and honest disagreement--the area planning commissions are charged with resolving such disputes.  But you will also see, as did the City Planning Department, that the enlargement of an already oversized Marina Pacific Hotel, satisfies none of the 5 conditions.  On what, one wonders, did the West Los Angeles Planning Commission base its decision?

– Marvin Klotz

Posted: Mon - July 1, 2002 at 06:07 PM          

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