L.B. Moves for Tougher Zoning Law on Builders

LONG BEACH — Even after zoning laws have been changed to keep apartments out of some single-family neighborhoods in this city, developers have been allowed to build them, sometimes as long as two years after apartments were barred from the area .

Under Long Beach’s generous “grandfather” clause, a developer’s project is protected from any local zoning changes once he has applied for any kind of development-related permit. More than 2 1/2 years could elapse between the application and the first building inspection, and the project would still pass muster.

That has perturbed neighborhood groups that achieved zoning victories, only to witness a continued invasion of apartment buildings into their districts. Now the City Council is taking action to bring Long Beach in line with communities such as Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, which require a developer to have a building permit in hand before his project gains immunity from new zoning regulations.

Kell Confident of Passage

With the support of neighborhood preservation groups and developers, a council committee this week forwarded to the full council a plan to tighten grandfather provisions considered too permissive by the city staff.

The lack of opposition on the proposal bodes well for its success. “I think it will pass,” Mayor Ernie Kell said Tuesday after the three-member committee’s unanimous endorsement of staff recommendations on the matter. “It seems like a reasonable compromise.”

In embracing the staff proposal, the Housing and Neighborhoods Committee rejected a more stringent recommendation from the city Planning Commission that would have insulated projects from zoning changes only after the start of construction. Los Angeles has such a regulation, but the Long Beach city staff argued a construction stipulation would hurt developers’ chances of obtaining financing.

Compromise Wording Praised

Moreover, Planning Commission member Pat Schauer told the council committee that the stricter proposal did not really reflect the commission’s views. She said it was approved on a split vote of 4 to 3 because the only other alternative before the commission was to let the existing grandfather provisions alone. Schauer, who voted for the stronger plan, commended the compromise wording.

She later added that it would be particularly significant for the council to tighten the grandfather clause at this point, when the city is about to embark on a major overhaul of the General Plan that will likely result in a number of zoning changes.

Councilwoman Jan Hall, chairwoman of the neighborhoods committee, was also enthusiastic about the compromise proposal. “These recommendations are sound. They protect the (neighborhoods) that have raised the issue.”

While endorsing the staff recommendations, neighborhood activist Stanley Green urged the council to also improve the city’s public notice procedures. Green, president of the Belmont Heights Community Assn., complained that under the city’s rules, neighbors of proposed development projects often are not informed that a construction application has been filed.

Noting the matter is the subject of a proposed ordinance being drafted by the city staff, the neighborhood committee is asking the Planning Commission to review the city’s notification regulations.

A building permit gives a developer the right to start construction, signaling that his project has met zoning and building code regulations. If he doesn’t start construction within 6 months of receiving the permit, or seek an extension, it expires and a new application must be filed. Immunity from zoning revisions would also be lost until the project again won a building permit.

A building permit would not always be necessary to gain grandfather protection, under the proposal. It would also give the Planning Commission the discretion of grandfathering a project once all planning approvals were granted-provided public notice was given of such pending action. And for projects of two or more acres, a development agreement between the builder and the city would give the developer protection.