CITY SOFTENS SIGN-LAW BLOW; FEES REDUCED FOR APPEALS FROM UNHAPPY SHOP OWNERS.Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer Relief is at hand for small-business owners whose commercial signs would violate a city sign ordinance to be enforced beginning Nov. 13. There have been some changes to plans. The Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, City Council voted 5-0 on Tuesday night to waive To intentionally or voluntarily relinquish a known right or engage in conduct warranting an inference that a right has been surrendered. For example, an individual is said to waive the right to bring a tort action when he or she renounces the remedy provided by law for such the entire $415 fee to apply for a sign-ordinance variance and to cut the cost from $930 to $465 to appeal a staff decision to the Planning Commission Noun 1. planning commission - a commission delegated to propose plans for future activities and developments commission, committee - a special group delegated to consider some matter; "a committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours" - Milton Berle . This would cost the city up to $880 in unreimbursed expenses for every applicant who wants to fight the sign ordinance, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. city officials. The council left intact a $1,150 fee for anyone who wants to appeal a commission decision to the council. A slash in fees had been sought by the Santa Clarita Merchants Association. ``We'll take it,'' association member and commercial property owner Lyle Olsen said Wednesday. City officials anticipate that as many as 50 owners of small businesses might apply for variances in November, and the council transferred $30,000 from the city contingency fund into accounts for work on processing variance applications and appeals to the Planning Commission. The City Council last month asked the planning staff See: central planning team. for options on subsidizing variance permits and the appeal process for owners of small businesses. The new program would cost the city one-third the amount of one of the planning staff's proposals. The council decided against waiving all fees so owners of small businesses would have some incentive to work with planners to alter signs rather than just appeal all decisions, Planning Department Manager Conal McNamara said. The council also ordered closing of some potential loopholes that were pointed out by Berta Gonzalez-Harper, a member of the city subcommittee for code enforcement Code Enforcement is the act of enforcing a set of s, principles, or laws (especially written ones) and insuring observance of a system of norms or customs. An authority usually enforces a civil code, a set of rules, or a body of laws and compel those subject to their authority to and zoning. ``One thing they need . . . is (to) limit the amount of times a small-business owner can file a subsidized sub·si·dize tr.v. sub·si·dized, sub·si·diz·ing, sub·si·diz·es 1. To assist or support with a subsidy. 2. To secure the assistance of by granting a subsidy. variance and appeal to one per applicant,'' said Gonzalez-Harper on Wednesday. ``Otherwise, they can keep filing that appeal at the expense of the city and tie up the process indefinitely.'' Similarly, she suggested a limit of one subsidized variance and appeal per shopping center shopping center, a concentration of retail, service, and entertainment enterprises designed to serve the surrounding region. The modern shopping center differs from its antecedents—bazaars and marketplaces—in that the shops are usually amalgamated into , so the center owner would file the requests on behalf of multiple small-business owners. ``If you have 16 shop owners each filing these applications at one shopping center, that's another way for people to drag these appeal processes out for years,'' she said. |
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