Fire up the bulldozers?

An item of regional interest in the local news this week. San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn has proposed taking a serious hammer to the citizen planning groups that have been an integral cog in our county's planning process.

These groups can only recommend but serve a major function in acting as a pulse of the local citizenry in rural unincorporated areas when development is being considered. They are a quasi governmental group with limited authority but are very sensitive to the impacts that proposed projects will have in their community. On Feb. 29, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider the fate of the planning groups.

In the guise of cutting through bureaucracy Horn initiated the Red Tape Reduction Task Force, which recommended the board either eliminate the planning groups and county funding for them, or severely limit what they can do. Now Horn says that he wasn't trying to eliminate the groups but instead merely no longer indemnify them against potential legal liability.

I have been on both sides of this equation. I appeared before many planning groups when I was a developer and I sat on the Fallbrook Planning Group subcommittee for a period of time many years ago.
These groups provide the best barometer for gauging the adverse and beneficial effects of development on a community.

If Horn has his way, now a big developer merely has to wave the threat of a personal lawsuit in front of our fellow citizens, people who are voluntarily serving their communities, and watch them scatter for cover.

The task force's report to the board mentioned that some planning group members have overstepped their authority by requesting project studies and changes from developers. Horrors! Obviously more marxists trying to interfere with man's right to his private property.

Planning Group members were apparently never notified of many of the proposed changes to the scope of their committees, which include limiting planning group meetings to one per development proposal, shrinking the panels from 15 to seven members and imposing two two-year term limits within a 10-year period for the planners.

The County Board voted to adopt many of the recommendations of the Task Force, led by longtime Horn staffer Ivan Holler. They include creating an outside audit panel to regularly review the performance of the county permitting departments; giving county project managers more authority to make decisions across department lines; and creating incentives for county staff members to quickly process a project.

This whole tact is a stealthy way for Supervisors Horn and Roberts to throw their developer buddies a bone in the guise of lessening regulation. I hope that the other supervisors will more closely consider their responsibility, the needs of their constituency and deny this transparent ploy.