Fighting City Hall will get a lot more expensive under plan backed by L.A. Council

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred The Los Angeles City Council moved Tuesday to drastically increase the cost of appealing development and other land-use decisions, despite opposition from homeowner groups who said it will make it much harder for residents to challenge city actions.The proposal raises the fee for appeals on city development decisions from a flat rate of $229 to $1,145 for residents living in the project’s vicinity.

For those who don’t live near the project, the fee nearly doubles to $2,289, an almost 900% increase from the previous rate.The system also tacks on a various surcharges that would take the non-neighbor rate for appeal applications to over $2,800, advocates said.The City Council voted 13-0 without discussion to instruct the City Attorney to draft an ordinance for the fee hike, which will require council approval.

“To take away essentially the right of the community to have an opportunity to raise their voice about their concerns...is really an indication of how this is just a punitive measure on the part of the City Council to shut the people up,” Doug Haines, a representative for the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council, said to The Times before the vote.City Council members didn’t defend the planned fee hike at Tuesday’s meeting, but supporters have said previously that the higher fee would put Los Angeles on par with what other cities are charging and would discourage frivolous challenges that raise the cost of developing housing.

The Housing Action Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for building more housing in California, called the proposed increase is a small and meaningful step toward deterring unnecessary delays.“We need to pull housing out of this doom loop,” said Victoria Gomez, the coalition’s political organizer for Southern California.

“As long as appeals stay this cheap and...