Planning Panel Adds 2 Activists

Two community activists were added this week to a Los Angeles panel charged with developing new environmental review procedures, after the city’s acting planning director was accused of stacking the original panel with building industry representatives.

Sylvia Gross, a Sunland-Tujunga community activist, and David Diaz, a land-use activist from East Los Angeles, were appointed to the Ad Hoc Task Force on EIR procedures. The panel will recommend ways to reform Los Angeles’ procedures for conducting the state-mandated environmental reviews of major building projects.

Gross is president of the San Fernando Valley Federation, a group that represents 16 Valley homeowner groups, and has been the land-use chairman of the Sunland-Tujunga Assn. of Residents for a number of years.

Melanie Fallon, acting planning director, had previously promised to appoint two more members to the 11-member committee in response to criticism from homeowner groups that there was only one bona fide homeowner representative on the panel. Fallon acknowledged after the original appointments that more homeowner representatives were needed to bring balance to the panel.

The city’s handling of environmental impact reports has been controversial for years.

Developers have contended that the city’s slow processing of the documents cripples their projects and increases the costs. On the other hand, environmentalists and homeowners say the reports lack credibility because the private consultants who essentially prepare them are hired by the developers.