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AB 504 Clarifies Role Local Government and Non-Profits Like Civic San Diego Play in Guiding Neighborhood Development
March 6, 2015 (San Diego) – California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) joined leaders from local community planning, labor, environmental justice and economic development organizations today to propose Assembly Bill 504, which would create more oversight at local governments that rely on the planning, zoning or permitting expertise of non-profit organizations or private individuals.
Gonzalez said the goal of the bill was to clarify the ability of non-profit groups like Civic San Diego to perform permitting work for local governments, as it’s uncertain what legal authority in California law the organization has to approve building projects on behalf of the City of San Diego after redevelopment’s demise.
As it stands now, if residents do not agree with what Civic San Diego has planned for their community, they can only go to the board of directors of this nonprofit organization—which is not accountable to the city council that was elected to be stewards of the city’s development.
“Community voices can too often be ignored, responsibility deferred & benefits not shared when there’s a lack of public accountability,” Gonzalez said. “This is an issue about transparency and representation in government and the public deserves to have a say in the future of their neighborhoods.”
Gonzalez made the AB 504 announcement at a Friday press conference outside San Diego City Hall alongside representatives from the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, City Heights Community Development Corp., the San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council, Environmental Health Coalition, UNITE HERE Local 30, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 135, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 569 and the City of San Diego’s Community Planners Committee.
“If you’re going to have one entity in charge of making sure the complex needs of complex communities all over San Diego are met, it should be an organization accountable first to the public, not to maintaining its funding streams,” said Joe LaCava, Chair of the Community Planners Committee. “Permitting authority needs to be with our government, the City of San Diego.”
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