2011/12/05ANAHEIM CITY COUNCIL
ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF NOVEMBER 15, 2011
HELD ON DECEMBER 5, 2011
The adjourned regular meeting of November 15, 2011 of the Anaheim City Council was called to
order at 3:35 P.M. on December 5, 2011 by Mayor Tom Tait for the purpose of holding a
workshop on the findings of the Anaheim Regulatory Relief Task Force. The meeting was held
in the Chambers of Anaheim City Hall located at 200 South Anaheim Boulevard.
PRESENT: Mayor Tom Tait, Council Members: Gail Eastman, Lorri Galloway, Kris Murray and
Harry Sidhu.
STAFF PRESENT: Acting City Manager Bob Wingenroth, City Attorney Cristina Talley, and
Assistant City Clerk Theresa Bass
WORKSHOP — REGULATORY RELIEF TASK FORCE REPORT
Mayor Tait announced the regulatory relief task force was established last year to review the
regulatory burden on existing and prospective businesses in Anaheim and encourage economic
growth in the City. Dr. Thomas Turk, Chapman University School of Business and Economics,
was chosen to head the task force, and Mayor Tait thanked him, members of the task force and
staff for their open - minded, solution- oriented approach to creating jobs and improving the
business culture in Anaheim while helping to foster more freedom for Anaheim's business
community.
Bob Wingenroth, Acting City Manager, introduced Dr. Turk, remarking the Task Force had
developed bold, innovative recommendations which struck a balance between protecting the
City and easing the way towards improving economic opportunities.
Dr. Turk remarked that the Mayor's Relief Task Force brought together key business leaders
and city staff to comprehensively review Anaheim's regulatory structure and make
recommendations to jump start economic growth. He thanked Task Force members for their
commitment to the City resulting in recommendations to promote more freedom for Anaheim's
business community. He added regulatory barriers impeded the ability of individuals to pursue
their economic dreams by increasing costs, imposing delays and introducing risk and
uncertainty when launching, expanding or operating businesses. The Task Force's focus was
to lessen this burden by reducing processing time, reducing the cost of compliance and
increasing certainty. He pointed out California ranked among the lowest state in the nation in
economic freedom and that research had shown economically -free states experienced job
growth 30 percent higher than heavily regulated states such as California. With that in mind, he
stated, the Task Force recommendations combined with the on -going efforts of Council and
staff to create an efficient, pro- business climate would make Anaheim a draw for new and /or
growing businesses.
The first recommendation was to make expanding economic freedom a central mission of the
City by having City staff serve as advocates for individual businesses, while at the same time
ensuring state standards were met. He added since senior staff had already been involved in
reducing regulations and streamlining processes, the culture adjustment would not be as big a
change as that needed in other cities. He noted Council would have a decisive role in
promoting this culture at every opportunity and keeping that same focus on internal operations.
The next step was to institutionalize the mission by tracking development outcomes, celebrating
Council Meeting Minutes of the adjourned regular meeting of November 15, 2011 held on December 5, 2011
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successes, creating vested ownership in success and to reinforce continuous improvement. He
remarked there should be demonstrable evidence that Anaheim's freedom culture was faster
and less costly to launch, expand and operate businesses than in any other city. The third
recommendation was to expand the Project Concierge Program, in which a project manager
was assigned as a single point of contact from the filing of an application to the opening of a
business. The practices already developed by the City under this pilot program should be used
by planners to guide a project through the entire permitting process. He stated another
recommendation was to expand staff's discretion to assist and become more proactive during
the process pointing out that City staff was currently researching processes to allow staff review
of discretionary permits or deviations to development standards.
He discussed the revenue benefits for the City in getting businesses up and running earlier than
anticipated and how those successes should be promoted. Marketing Anaheim's freedom
agenda was the 5 th recommendation put forward by the Task Force. Providing concrete
evidence that the City's development processes were faster, less onerous and less costly
should be widely promoted along with information that Anaheim's staff was proactive in
encouraging businesses to expand or launch. This advantage, he explained, should be
aggressively used as a marketing tool for attracting and retaining businesses.
Another recommendation was for streamlined development processes and using minimum code
requirements as the maximum requirement. The Task Force recommended Anaheim use the
minimum standards of federal, state, county and city requirements as the maximum requirement
to allow construction of safe buildings in a cost efficient and timely manner. Acceptance of a
customer's code interpretation by other California cities should be taken as evidence that the
applicable standard had been met. In addition, where ambiguity on code requirements existed,
the City should also defer to the customer. The City should proactively take the stance of
assisting customers to meet the standards in the least onerous manner.
Reducing the types of businesses needing conditional use permits (CUPs) to open was a
recommended strategy which would increase the pace of economic development. Dr. Turk
noted Planning staff was working on the CUP reviews and was also looking to eliminate a third
of the permits required by Title 4 of the Municipal Code along with its annual renewal fee.
Sherri Vander Dussen, Planning Director, further explained staff had been working with the
Task Force to develop a lengthy list of uses that could be moved from CUP's to permitted
categories, some of which would require standards for certain issues, such as screening or
hours of operation. The list of permitted uses would be ready in February; the second list with
standards included would follow and a third list related to industrial uses would be a part of the
Canyon Specific Plan. She added staff believed there was an opportunity to put into Code
those restrictions that typically would be approved by the Planning Commission through the
conditional use permit process.
Dr. Turk informed Council Anaheim already had one of the shortest CUP processing times in
the County with a standard schedule of 85 days and a median time closer to 70 days. The Task
Force was now recommending reducing this median time to 60 days and City staff had identified
several measures to take to meet this goal. Another recommendation was to give information
directly to the owner, not just their contractors and architects. The owner would then be in a
position to expedite the process, if problems arose. An expedited plan check process was also
recommended as well and to change it to a guaranteed expedited process or a refund of the
premium would be given if those expedited timelines were not met. These expedited processes
would mean more revenues coming in at a faster pace for both the business owner and the City.
Council Meeting Minutes of the adjourned regular meeting of November 15, 2011 held on December 5, 2011
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The Task Force also recommended preparing and distributing a "Top Ten" lists and related
materials of common plan check/inspection corrections to be readily available. This would
clarify to the customer exactly what the city was looking for when evaluating plans and reduce
uncertainty and delays. To increase the efficiency of inspections, the Task Force
recommended inspections be scheduled online or over the phone, and that inspectors be
available by cell phone to confirm appointment times and discuss results. Inspectors should
also commit to narrowing time frames for scheduled inspections and to provide adequate notice
which would reduce delays and the cost of doing business for the city and its customers. As
fiscal constraints permit, the Task Force also recommended online permitting be expanded as
broadly as possible to include on -line submission of plans, access to plan corrections and
project status. The City's website should be continually updated to insure it clearly described all
requirements necessary to prepare and submit an application correctly on the first try.
The last recommendations related to reduced taxes and fees. Dr. Turk indicated if Anaheim
envisioned being the "freest" city in the state for investors, its business taxes and fees must be
among the lowest and the Task Force was currently in the process of a comprehensive review
of impact fees, permits licenses, home occupancy businesses and other fees. The premium
charged for Platinum Triangle projects should also be reevaluated and as well as park fees due
to the sharp drop in real estate acquisition construction costs. Fees that cover city overhead
and the processing of fees would also be carefully reviewed as well as taxes and fees that
provided an administrative burden for businesses. He noted the Fire Department was also
suggesting restructuring their fees by eliminating some and reducing rates for the remaining
permits. Library Impact fees within the Platinum Triangle should also be reevaluated and once
research was completed and the results compared to other cities, the Task Force would then
look to reduce costs in Phase II of their report.
Council Member Murray thanked the Task Force for their efforts at improving the climate for the
business community and hoped to have those same relief measures apply to residential
customers as well. She encouraged having a "one -stop shop" on line showing customers how
to start, relocate or expand a business in Anaheim. Partnerships opportunities with the
Chamber of Commerce might also be part of this process by offering best management
practices or expertise from those having gone through this procedure. Council Member
Eastman appreciated the Task Force's efforts and encouraged their continued success in the
next research phase. Council Member Galloway also thanked the committee for their energy
and focus, supporting the idea of celebrating successes with employees and possibly using
event tickets as a reward. Mayor Pro Tern Sidhu concurred with going back to basics, reducing
the cost of doing business in the City, all of which would have a domino effect on encouraging
economic growth. Mayor Tait looked forward to having the Task Force recommendations
implemented as soon as possible.
ADJOURNMENT With no other business to conduct, Mayor Tait adjourned the meeting at
4:25 P.M.
Res ctfully sub itted,
resa Bass, CIVIC
Assistant City Clerk