Back in the 1980s, the Planning Commission approved the construction of a 10-story office building on the Jefferson Bowl site.
For those who are new to Culver City, the Jefferson Bowl was on Jefferson Boulevard, adjacent to Sunkist Park. It is the site of the old CompUSA and future Staples.
I wrote a letter to the city outlining all the problems with that decision. Then, in accordance with established Culver City appeal procedures, I brought the letter and a check for $50 to the City Hall and filed an official appeal of the decision. The City Council heard the appeal. They overturned the Commission decision.
Now we jump ahead to 2008.
Where the Tower Meets the Sky
With the Entrada Office Tower project looming on the horizon (in more ways than one), I decided to refresh myself on the current City procedures for filing an appeal.
I assumed, since my last appeal was more than 25 years ago, that inflation probably had increased the $50 fee.
I sent an inquiry to the city. When I received the reply, I was correct. Inflation had increased the fee. The fee for an appeal of a Planning Commission decision on the Entrada Tower project to the City Council would now be $5,020.
I can understand a fee large enough to eliminate frivolous appeals but a fee of this size eliminates all appeals for community members.
A fee of this size would not prevent a developer from appealing a rejection of a project by the Planning Commission. They consider this just the cost-of-doing-business.
An example of this occurred at the last Planning Commission meeting.
Matter of Compensation
Several of the Commissioners were concerned that the Entrada Environmental Impact Report understated the impacts on our Fire and Police services.
One Commissioner finally asked the Entrada spokesman if he would agree to purchase for the city a paramedic vehicle and a police motorcycle as a condition of approval.
The spokesman didn’t say they would consider it. Or that they would look into it.
He said yes, they would agree to it.
To someone who can agree to purchase an ambulance and a motorcycle that easily, $5,000 is pocket cash. Plus they get to write it off as a business expense. Well, $5,000 is not pocket cash to me, my friends or my neighbors. And we don’t get a writeoff.
Now Entrada is a large project.
If a citizen wished to appeal a smaller project, the fee probably wouldn’t be that large.
If you lived in East Culver City and wished to appeal a Planning Commission approval of a four-story office building in your residential neighborhood, it may only cost you $2,000.
But this is still too large. It stifles community dissent to government decisions. We need to contact the City Council and have these fees reduced to an amount that would allow public appeal of decisions.
These fees should be in the $100 to $200 range. And we can’t wait until they are needed to get these fees lowered. Then it will be too late. They need to be lowered now.
Mr. Supple may be contacted at tomjsup@ca.rr.com
