Supervisors Seek to Improve Public Notices

By City News Service:

Implementing a new policy that ensures Riverside County residents are informed about plans to modify land-use designations was top on the Board of Supervisors’ agenda Tuesday.

Supervisors Kevin Jeffries and Chuck Washington were slated to introduce a proposal that would require developers to post signs notifying residents about pending actions that could impact their quality of life.

According to the supervisors, current efforts to alert residents about zoning and land-use modifications too often fall short.

They noted in documents posted to the board’s policy agenda that developers filing applications for permits to build within unincorporated communities are required to directly mail individuals closest to the proposed project area and sometimes post notices in newspapers, providing details about the projects and when hearings are scheduled before the board or the county Planning Commission.

“These methods can leave many interested community members in the dark as to proposed changes that may affect them,” according to a statement by Jeffries and Washington. “This is particularly the case when proposed projects are attempting to change the zoning or general plan designation ... (such as) from residential to light industrial, or from rural residential to higher density residential.”

The supervisors underscored the need for “transparency” by way of a “higher level of notification.”

According to their proposal, future notices should include signs “placed facing each street that borders the project as close as possible to the street so as to be easily read.”

The signs would need to be 4-by-4 feet in size and at least six feet off the ground, containing the county seal, basic details about a proposed project, the dates of upcoming hearings and all relevant contact information.

The Transportation and Land Management Agency would be responsible for enforcing the signage requirement, but all costs would be borne by project applicants.

Planning officials would have discretion to require more signs than the minimum recommended under the policy, according to the supervisors.

(Image via Shutterstock)