Council OKs Stepped-Up Scrutiny of Projects

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved proposals by Mayor Tom Bradley making it more difficult for developers to erect large commercial, apartment and condominium buildings in residential neighborhoods and stepping up city scrutiny of such projects.

The City Council, by a 12-0 vote and without debate, concurred with a mayoral directive ordering city staff to conduct environmental reviews of all large construction projects beginning Monday.

Under Bradley’s order, the Department of Building and Safety will demand environmental reviews for projects of 40,000 square feet of floor area or more, those that add more than 35 dwelling units, for multiple residential units in single-family areas and for “any project that generates 500 or more average daily automobile trips.”

The proposal follows a California Supreme Court decision in June requiring cities to conduct such reviews before issuing building permits. In its ruling, the court upheld the contention of a neighborhood group, the Friends of Westwood, that the city should have conducted such a review of a 26-story office building and shopping complex on the fringe of Westwood Village.

The Supreme Court let stand an appellate court ruling that such reviews are required by the California Environmental Quality Act and that the city has the discretion to withhold building permits if such a development would have an unfavorable environmental impact.

Bradley’s proposal is similar to an even stricter plan--designed by two of the council’s leading slow-growth advocates--to oversee big development projects.

In approving the Bradley plan, the council also voted Tuesday to give city departments the go-ahead to draft procedures that would implement the proposal by Councilmen Marvin Braude and Zev Yaroslavsky.

The plan includes a controversial provision that would give the council veto power over building proposals.

In applauding the council action, Braude said it was “a testimony to a great victory” and should help the plan pushed by him and Yaroslavsky. That draft plan is expected to go to the council’s Planning and Environment Committee by early next month.