New Planning Commission will Narrow Viewpoints, Increase Workload, Critics Warn

By Jorge Casuso

Expect little debate and a heavy City Council workload after the two newly appointed, slow growth planning commissioners take their seats next month, critics of the appointments warned.

Members of the council minority said that the early Wednesday morning appointments of Ocean Park activists Geraldine Moyle and Julie Lopez Dad will consolidate an anti-development faction on the council that will leave little room for dissent.

As a result, more projects will be turned down and appealed to the council, which already is burdened with a heavy workload.

"The new commission thinks the same way the council does," said Councilman Paul Rosenstein, a former planning commissioner who left the meeting before the 2 a.m. vote. "It appears there will be little diversity of opinion. They're either going to embroil us in lawsuits, or the council is going to hear a lot of appeals."

"It's different now. It's a total machine from top to bottom," said Councilman Robert Holbrook. "It'll reach a point where people reject it and start reacting to some of this stuff. We have one point of view dominating everything."

Despite his protests, Holbrook voted for the two appointees nominated by the Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights council majority. His votes surprised observers who expected him to nominate his running mate in the 1994 council races to another term on the commission.

"I didn't bring (Kanny) up because they nominated (Moyle and Dad) and they all nodded, so I thought it was over," Holbrook said. "Paul (Rosenstein) was gone, and I didn't see the point of it. Why rake (Kanny) through the coals.

"It's what the majority wants and they got the exact people and the same point of view they want," Holbrook said. "I'd rather not defend Matt. Let him run for City Council."

Kanny, who said he was disappointed by the council decision, had said he would not seek one of the four open council seats in November had he been re-appointed to the commission. After Wednesday's vote, Kanny, an intellectual properties attorney, said he is now considering a council bid.

Kanny supporters said they were disappointed Holbrook did not stand up for his former running mate even if he knew Kanny didn't stand a chance. By going along with the council majority, Holbrook was acquiescing to the monolithic mindset he denounces, critics said off the record.

Rosenstein came to the defense of Kanny and Eric Parlee, a local architect who will leave the board after serving out his second term. Last year, the council voted not to re-appoint commissioners Kathy Weremiuk and Frank Gruber, who were considered moderates, to second terms. Commission Chair Ken Breisch resigned last month, citing increased responsibilities at his teaching post at USC.

"The current council majority has dismantled the best Planning Commission the city has ever had," Rosenstein said. "They supported low-rise, low-scale, pedestrian-oriented development. They had different perspectives and were able to work together to come up with good planning decisions."

Rosenstein said that Councilman Kevin McKeown's contention that "the Planning Commission's job should be not deciding how to get a project built, but deciding whether a project should be built" is a misguided, and perhaps illegal, position to take. The reason for zoning codes and standards is to guide development, not squash it, Rosenstein said.

"They feel they can disregard the laws of what is appropriate development," Rosenstein said. "I've always referred to them as 'no-growthers,' but they say they are 'slow-growthers.' It's clear they want to disregard the laws their own city council has jurisdiction of."

Rosenstein cited comments by Moyle and Dad in Thursday's Lookout that the current commission has been too liberal in granting Conditional Use Permits, which allow for discretionary exceptions to the zoning standards.

Rosenstein, as well as other critics of the new commission, worry an ordinance proposed by McKeown earlier this month will only make matters worse by giving the Planning Commission discretion over many more projects.

The proposed ordinance would lower the threshold of commercial developments that require Planning Commission approval from 30,000 to 5,000 square feet.

"Lowering the threshold is going to totally bog down the city and put the council and commission in a position of micromanaging," Rosenstein said. "It throws the concept of community planning out the window.

"If every little project has to be reviewed," Rosenstein said, "what's the point of having general rules that govern development?"

Bill Rehwald, who owns W.I.Simonson Mercedes, worries that lowering the threshold will only lead to an inordinate number of appeals to the City Council. Two of his projects that were approved by the current commission were appealed - one by Commssioner Kelly Olsen, who was on the losing end of a 6 to 1 decision, the other by neighbors who appealed another 6 to 1 vote. One appeal took two hours and forty-five minutes of the council's time, the other three hours.

"It would seem that if the planning commission goes exclusively to a slow, no growth policy, it would be obvious that there will be a lot of appeals to the council," Rehwald said.

"How is the council going to hear every appeal if every development is vetoed?" he asked. "How can the City Council possibly conduct any other business but appeals?"