Supervisors Vote to Reorganize, Improve County Land Use Process
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Wednesday to improve the county’s land use permitting process by re-organizing, re-naming and re-invigorating it.
Starting late this summer, the County will create a new department called “Planning and Development Services,” which will include all of the functions and personnel of the current Department of Planning and Land Use and some land-use functions within the Department of Public Works and the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Other departments that are part of the land-use process, including the Department of Environmental Health, the San Diego County Fire Authority, County Counsel and other Department of Public Works functions that are not transferred to the new department, would be co-located within the new department’s offices.
The purpose of the reorganization is to streamline the County’s land use process and make it easier for the public to navigate. The Department of Planning and Land Use will cease to exist when the new department is created.
The Board of Supervisors also voted to create a new citizens’ committee — the Land Development Performance Review Committee — that will meet twice a year to review the County’s land use performance and report back to the Board; and to fund a “Continuous Improvement Program.”
County staff said the existing departments have established a commitment to improvement, noting initiatives that allow customers to do business online via the Internet rather stand “in line” at County offices; County ordinance changes that have already streamlined processes for land-use projects like “boutique” wineries and will do the same for horse-facility projects.
Staff members said emphasis under the reorganization would be placed on project management, budget and cost management, customer perspective training, and communication and organizational skills. Mentorship programs and employee development plans would also be included to create a “culture change,” speed up processing times and reduce customer costs without sacrificing the quality of the reviews of land-use projects.
Wednesday’s actions were part of a series of improvements that were recommended by a special task force that the Board convened last year to find ways to streamline the County’s land-use process. The Board created the “Red Tape Reduction Task Force” at the recommendation of current Board Chairman Ron Roberts and Supervisor Bill Horn.
Each of the supervisors said Wednesday that they supported the implementation plan that County’s Land Use and Environment Group (LUEG) and planning and land use officials had put together to put the re-organization steps into place.
“I think the presentation this morning was excellent,” said Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who made the motion to approve the items. “Everything that I’ve heard, both in the briefing and this morning, sounds terrific, but it’s actions that count.”
Horn agreed.
“I appreciate the report and I wholeheartedly agree with the outline here, but Supervisor Jacob said it perfectly, ‘it’s not the document, it’s the performance that counts,’” he said. “And we’re going to watch the performance closely.”
County staff members said the re-organization would take place in phases. The first phase would begin in late summer-early fall, when the new department would open its new offices at the County Operations Center in Kearny Mesa and the Land Development Performance Review Committee would be created.
The second phase would begin in fall and include system changes including budget and Information Technology changes to various County systems
The third phase, staff members said, would be ongoing and include whatever “cleanup” changes that would be needed to be made to County ordinances and policies to recognize the new department.
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