Given the
complexities of law, politics, and government, a synopsis of the planning process
may be useful for interested citizens.
GENERAL PLANS, ZONING, AND "SPHERES OF INFLUENCE" General Plans
Each city has a General Plan that lays out which areas will be residential and
which will be commercial or industrial. General Plans are important because they
determine the sizing of the infrastructure, for example, how wide the streets
are or how big the sewer pipes are. They need to be revised periodically and
they can only be changed a certain number of times a year.
Zoning
Each city also has a zoning map which is a more specific delineation within the
General Plan. The city assigns the zoning if the land lies within the city
limits. The county assigns zoning if the land lies outside of the city limits.
Jurisdiction Over Land Use
Land near a city but outside of its city limits, is probably within the city's
Sphere of Influence (SOI). When lands are in an SOI, it means they will ultimately probably
become part of the city. SOI's are usually determined by the closest provider of
services (police, water, sewer, etc.). The city can "pre-zone" land for
development in its SOI. If developers don't feel they are getting their way with
a city, depending on the property they can have services such as electricity,
water, and sewer provided by the county instead, thereby resisting any control
by a city's General Plan. Top
PLANNING BY THE DEVELOPER Landowner
Rights
Landowners carry a certain expectation of economic return or value based on what
zoning the city or county has assigned to it. They are entitled to a "reasonable
economic return" on their land.
Development of Housing Plans
If landowners want to develop their land, they hire a planning consultant firm that goes about developing plans for the land, based, in part, on the zoning
allowed and their profit goal. The land may be zoned commercial, light
industrial, residential or agricultural. Residential zoning is usually what
everyone is concerned about because of the impacts on infrastructure (roads,
sewers, water) and services (trash collection, police or schools).
Constraints Analysis
Residential land could have very low density (1 unit per 40 acres or 1 unit per
5 acres) and would be considered rural residential. Or it may have very high
density (30 units per acre) which would be an apartment complex. Landowners may
try to stay within the zoning allowance for their projects or they may ask for a
variance, which allows, for instance, more density or the addition of a
commercial area. The landowner factors the difficulty of approval into the
project: does the city council look dimly on development? Is there an active
citizenry that opposes the development? Are environmental organizations lining
up to oppose it? Opposition may cause delays that developers consider in their
original plan. They may also size up the community and offer to pay for amenities
like a new school, historical preservation site, or a widened road. They
almost always hire someone from the community to be their spokesperson for the
project.
Land Surveys
The landowner's planning consultant team members survey the land to see what
constraints exist on it topographically (e.g., steep canyons), biologically,
geologically, etc. For example, in the search for slope stability, the Canyon
Crest planning consultant mistakenly drilled on and bulldozed Chino Hills State
Park land.
More
Constraints
There are other
overlays on the property besides zoning which constrain its use: the presence of
endangered species, earthquake faults, landslides, tar seeps or neighboring uses.
The city may enact further restrictions on building. For instance, it may forbid
construction on ridge lines or prominent rock outcroppings. The Army Corps of
Engineers is called in if a development may negatively impact stream beds or
flood zones. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has jurisdiction over federally
listed Endangered Species (which are present throughout the Puente-Chino Hills
Wildlife Corridor at various locations), while the California Department of Fish
and Game has jurisdiction over species on the state's Endangered Species list.
Plan Submission
Once the plans for development are ready, they are submitted to the city or
county
planning department. It begins reviewing and processing the plan. The planning
department may or may not like the plan but it must process the plans within a certain
state-defined timeframe. Top
THE "ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACT REPORT" (EIR) The EIR
When the completed plan is received (with all necessary documentation) and the
landowner wishes to proceed, the CEQA process is triggered. CEQA stands
for the California Environmental Quality Act. CEQA was written to require that
important information be made available to the decision makers (planning
commissioners, city council members, or county supervisors) regarding the
impacts of any given project and whether the impacts can be mitigated
(fixed/ameliorated). This information is reported in the form of an
Environmental Impact Report (EIR).
Purpose of the EIR
The purpose of an EIR is to inform decision makers about impacts, not to stop
projects. For example, in a project that might be built in an area of
unstable soils and landslides, the city council or board of supervisors could
nevertheless determine that the economic benefits of housing construction are
more important than potential risks to future homeowners. In such a case,
decision makers can make a finding of "overriding consideration," thus allowing
the planned project to proceed despite the environmental hazards.
Requirements of CEQA
The CEQA law specifically requires a number of items to be assessed and provides
the minimum framework for review and timing. It was also written to require
citizens to pay attention. If citizens don't believe a CEQA document is
adequate, they can sue and ask the courts to decide. The strength of their case,
in part, hinges on their participation in the process from the start. They can't
come in at the last minute and try to sabotage a project.
Lead Agency
The "lead agency" for the CEQA process, which is usually a city or county,
initially makes a determination as to whether an EIR is even necessary. Some
cities or counties try to let the developer off the hook by not even requiring
an EIR. Or they may require a minimal look at impacts and allow a Negative
Declaration (of significant impacts) or a Mitigated Negative Declaration. If
they decide an EIR is called for, the law is very specific about what has to be
included in it: it has to assess traffic, geology, noise, air pollution,
biological resources, etc. It also lays out a minimum time frame for the various
stages of this process.
EIR Alternatives
Any given development plan is (1) supposed to avoid negative impacts, (2)
minimize negative impacts, or (3) mitigate them if they can't minimize or avoid
them. Landowners look at mitigation as an expense of doing business.
Opponents of projects often look at mitigation as merely a Band-Aid. There are
ways to mitigate off-site as well as on-site (a kind of mitigation
horse-trading). For instance, landowners could destroy an oak woodland on their
land in exchange for buying and permanently protecting an oak woodland
elsewhere. Regulatory agencies prefer mitigation on-site.
Lead Agency Options
When the city is the lead agency, it usually hires the consultant team and is
reimbursed by the developer. When the county is the lead agency, it usually
allows the developer to hire the consultant. The quality of the EIR depends on
the quality of the consultants. Some "hired guns" white-wash the issues, while
others are quite thorough. Neither Orange nor Los Angeles County have a very
good reputation for thoroughness. EIR consultants have been known to slant
information in favor of the proposed project because ultimately their future
business depends on their acceptability both to the landowner (who foots the
bills) and to cities or developers who hire them.
Notice of Preparation of an EIR
After determining if an EIR is necessary, the EIR consultant team sends out an
initial Notice of Preparation (NOP), which informs the citizenry and interested
parties (like the MWD or neighbors) that an EIR is on its way. The purpose of
the NOP is to bring forth for study additional significant information that may
not yet have been identified.
Input from Other Agencies
Some state agencies are required to comment on all EIR's because of their
regulatory mandate under the law. For instance, Fish and Game is required to
protect species, CalTrans is required to pay attention to traffic. State Parks
is considered, under CEQA, to be a trustee agency; hence it too is required to
comment on EIR's that affect its properties.
Gathering of Information
After the NOP hearings are held, the EIR consultants begin their assessment of
the impacts. They write a Draft EIR, which is circulated to all of the
interested parties. A time frame for responding to this is also established by
law. The bigger the document the longer the time frame is required for public
scrutiny.
Levels of Significance
EIR's determine if there is a significant impact on something (for example
additional cars on a street at peak hours). If there are significant
impacts, mitigations are proposed. The EIR consultants then assess (make an
educated guess) whether the mitigation enacted brings the impact below a level
of significance. The EIR specifically has to compare various levels of
development including a "No Build" alternative. It also has to address
"cumulative impacts."
Citizen Input
Once the Draft EIR is circulated, comments may be submitted on the EIR. Citizens
and agencies make comments and ask for accommodation to their particular
interest (e.g., CalTrans may want a traffic light or re-striping). Citizens
generally try to poke holes in the adequacy of the EIR if it displays major
flaws in assessing impacts.
Public Hearings at the Planning Commission
Usually at this point the project is brought before the city or county planning
commission for hearings. The role of the commission is to make recommendations
to a city council or county board of supervisors. It takes testimony, reviews
the EIR, and the development plans and makes a decision to accept or deny the
development proposal. Citizens should be involved at this level of decision
making in order to raise issues.
Public Hearings at the City Council or Board of Supervisors
The city council or board of supervisors then
goes through the same process of hearings with the goal of assessing whether
each of the impacts identified in the EIR are adequately addressed. It makes a
finding that the EIR is adequate or not. If the council/board of supervisors
approves the EIR, it is then re-circulated as the final EIR. If citizens are
unhappy they may sue the city/county on the grounds that the EIR was not
adequate. Top
FINAL APPROVAL OF DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS Once the EIR has been approved, other sets of approvals
also occur which give the go-ahead on the project. This may include a General
Plan Amendment, a Development Agreement, and Tentative Tract Maps. Some of these
are subject to a citizen referendum. This means that if citizens object to the
approval of a project, they have recourse through the ballot box. The vote on
such a ballot issue carries the rule of law -- but only for one year.
What Residential Development Means To the Taxpayer
Many cities/counties still view residential development as inevitable; in fact,
they think it is positive because they mistakenly believe it generates revenue.
Such thinking is simply erroneous. Residential development has never paid for
itself. Short-term revenue generated by development fees is a small fraction of
the total cost to a community in terms of services which must be provided later
- namely, by taxpayers who are later surprised to learn that they - not the
developer - are responsible for financing the additional infrastructure
(schools, water systems, police and fire protection, etc.) that housing
developments require.
Developer Strategy
Once the approval for housing is in place, the price of the land escalates
dramatically. Many developers in the State of California have thus recognized
that pursuing housing "entitlements" (approvals to build housing by the city or
county) is a way of artificially inflating the value of the land they never
intended to develop because of its geographic difficulties (for example,
landslides, pollution, poor access). These lands are frequently the targets of
intense environmental interest.
Entitlements
Developers are alive to the growing interest of Californians in preserving their
landscape. The "entitlement game" has thus become a mechanism whereby developers
attempt to acquire permission to build housing tracts before negotiating a
selling price for their land that will ultimately be paid with taxpayer dollars.
When city or county governments grant entitlements in the face of overwhelming
environmental and citizen objections to a project, it is an indirect way for
them to transfer pubic funds (in the form of State Park Bond money, etc.) to
private enterprise. In this way city or county elected officials may be favoring
the financial interests of big developers over the well-being of their
constituents.
Political Will
Responsive and responsible public officials are becoming increasingly aware that
communities may have an alternate vision for land use other than housing
developments. But it takes political will on their part to preserve these lands.
Nothing helps them develop this will more effectively than citizen participation
in the process. While many of us may feel that having influence in state and
national politics is out-of-reach, local decision making is well within the
sphere of the average resident. Let your voice be heard. The Puente-Chino Hills
Wildlife Corridor has been preserved because residents up and down its
boundaries have insisted on responsible decision making from their local elected
officials. Coordinated citizen action can make the preservation of our local
heritage a reality. Top
Constraints Analysis
Levels of Significance
What Residential Development Means To the Taxpayer