By Michael Aushenker

Friday, October 22, 2021

The Valley Economic Alliance has presented 13 recommendations for licensing reform to the City of Los Angeles in an effort to streamline the current process of real estate development and construction.

A subcommittee of the Van Nuys-based alliance – which represents businesses in the San Fernando Valley, Calabasas, Burbank and Glendale – presented the recommendations to Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Liaison Officer in the Department of Building and the security of Los Angeles; and members of city council John Lee and Paul Krekorian.

“The alliance and its stakeholders are concerned that the city of Los Angeles’ current development process could significantly hamper commercial and residential real estate development, costing the city jobs and tax revenues,” the deputy said. -committee in a press release.

Changes the alliance committee would like to see include easier navigation via a case manager assigned to each project from start to finish and an online follow-up process.

The committee also made recommendations to smooth the approval process, including the unification and standardization of a review system among all departments in a city-wide program; using off-the-shelf commercial software with a more user-friendly interface rather than developing proprietary software; and the provision of specific timelines over periods of approximately three to six weeks.

The committee also recommended “a comprehensive standardization of plan change requirements in the inspection area in order to eliminate arbitrary judgment appeals.”

In addition, the alliance has addressed California’s Environmental Quality Act and would like to see collaborations with organizations that are actively lobbying for CEQA changes “to reduce the crippling impact of nimbyism to stop, block or extort the state of California ”.