Developers May Get More Time to Pay Traffic Fees : Ventura Boulevard: Planners OK a 10-year period. But some say this may postpone neighborhood improvements.

Los Angeles city planning commissioners approved a controversial plan on Thursday that would give developers 10 years, rather than two, to pay for traffic improvements along Ventura Boulevard.

The amendment to the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan, which governs development along the thoroughfare, would also set up a process for developers to appeal the fees. Passed unanimously by the five-member commission, the amendment is still subject to City Council approval.

Critics complained that delaying the fee payments might postpone neighborhood improvements, designed to compensate for traffic increases caused by the developments. Some of the money “won’t be collected in full until 2010,” said Kenneth Bernstein, chairman of a 13-member board appointed by the mayor and City Council to review implementation of the Specific Plan.

Commission President Theodore Stein Jr. said the 10-year plan was appropriate because developers in other areas of the city are allowed as many as 20 years to pay similar fees. “What we did today was simply to achieve equality throughout the city,” he said.

Developers said approval of the amendment, which has been before the commission four times, was a positive step in recognizing their inability to pay the fees during a time of economic hardship, and their right to challenge the fees levies on them. The fees are based in part on the estimated number of car trips each development will generate.

“I think they’re on the right track in trying to work out these cases,” said attorney Fred N. Gaines, who represents 11 developers. “It’s been a very long time in coming.”

But homeowners and community leaders denounced the decision.

“The plan was adopted 1 1/2 years ago and it’s already being dismantled before it has a chance to work,” said Tony Lucente, who represents a group of south Valley homeowner associations.

They said some aspects of the amendment, such as the delayed payment, would make it more difficult to fund the street and neighborhood improvements that the Specific Plan guarantees.

“Economic distress in Los Angeles and the Valley is being used to justify undoing some of the growth management measures put into place during very different economic times,” Bernstein said.

The amendment would give developers who pay the fees in one lump sum a 5% discount. Those choosing the 10-year plan would be charged interest, planning official Deuk Perrin said.

To sign up for the deferred payment schedule, developers would have to post a bond or sign a notarized promise to pay and register it with the county recorder’s office.

It was the second potential victory for developers in the San Fernando Valley in a week. On Thursday of last week, the Planning Commission delayed approval of the massive Warner Center Specific Plan to allow transportation officials to study a proposal to reduce developers’ fees for traffic improvements and pay the difference with state and federal transportation aid funds.

Protests against the Ventura Boulevard fees started with a group of 145 developers who had developed or redeveloped properties between November, 1985, and February, 1991.

To obtain building permits, those property owners agreed to pay whatever fees were subsequently adopted by the City Council as part of the Specific Plan. But many said they were shocked in December and January to receive bills ranging from $1,500 to $630,000.

So far, only about $700,000 of more than $14 million levied has been collected, planning officials said.

Many developers have complained that they cannot meet the payments or that they deserve rebates for road improvements previously implemented. Some contend that the fees were figured inaccurately.

The so-called trip fees are computed under a complicated formula that takes into account what kind of businesses will become tenants in the development, and how many car trips such businesses usually generate per working day.

One shop that sells coffee beans objects that it was designated by city officials as a restaurant because it has a counter with four stools where people can drink coffee, Gaines said. The restaurant designation increased the fee by at least $10,000, he said.

A Subway sandwich shop was designated as a fast-food restaurant on par with a McDonalds with a drive-through, Gaines said. That designation could triple the fee, he said.

Many developers say they are eager to appeal such fees.

“My father was initially told he would have to pay about $5,000 for trip fees, and then he got a bill for $200,000,” said Mel Kohl, whose father owns a 20,000-square-foot office building. “He’s had two heart attacks and he almost had a third.”

“It’s these kind of arbitrary fees that are just going to drive businesses out.”