Chris Parker / November 16, 2021
One of the longest-standing and most influential neighborhood groups in Los Angeles filed a lawsuit this summer alleging that a recently adopted policy from the Department of City Planning will “dramatically alter oversight” of projects in the Mulholland Corridor.
The Hillside Federation’s lawsuit, filed on June 25 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, says that the policy change issued by Planning Director Vincent Bertoni on March 30 overreaches his authority. The suit alleges that the changes in how the Mulholland unit will review projects, as outlined by Bertoni’s memo, could only be created through a Specific Plan amendment process, which would require multiple public hearings and votes by elected officials.
Bertoni’s memo states that projects which are not visible from Mulholland Drive itself can be approved administratively through a Specific Plan Project Permit Compliance rather than submit and obtain feedback from the Mulholland Design Review Board at a public hearing.
Bertoni justified the change in policy by noting that when the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Specific Plan was created by ordinance in 1992, the Zoning Code did not have a Project Permit Compliance section. But in 2000, he wrote, when the City Council adopted an ordinance to amend the Specific Plan section of the code, a new Project Permit Compliance process was introduced applicable to all Specific Plans that will be used on Mulholland projects moving forward.
The Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife (or CLAW) wrote that this new policy will result in the removal of “a large number of land parcels from being included in the Mulholland Design Review Board public process.” The federation alleges that without these public hearings, the potential environmental impact of projects along the city’s preeminent Hillside road cannot be reviewed and mitigated. The federation called Bertoni’s memo “an immediate free pass to hillside developments.”
The Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations, Inc., or Hillside Federation as its more commonly known, is a non-profit umbrella organization for dozens of homeowners groups, non-profits and other organizations located in the city’s Hillside areas. It will celebrate its 70th anniversary in 2022.
The Federation has been influential in the creation of citywide ordinances to limit Hillside development, including but not limited to the city’s Baseline Hillside Ordinance, Retaining Wall Ordinance and Hillside Construction Regulations overlay district. Coincidentally, one of the Federation’s chairmen emeritus is Alan Kishbaugh, who is the current chairman of the Mulholland Design Review Board.
The city responded to the lawsuit last month, denying all allegations in the lawsuit and saying that Bertoni has the authority to make this change in policy. The first court date is set for June 2022.
