La Habra council rejects developer-funded fast-track for West Ridge Hills project

The La Habra City Council voted down a developer-funded agreement that would have allowed Lennar Homes of California to pay consultants and contract staff to speed the city's internal processing of the proposed West Ridge Hills development. The motion failed, and the council announced, "Motion failed by a vote of 2 nos and 1 yes."

The agreement would not have shortened statutorily required public-review periods, Community and Economic Development Director Susan Kim told the council, but would have let the city hire additional contract staff and request consultants from the city's on-call list to "shorten internal processing time frames." "The proposed agreement would continue to allow full public review of the proposed project and would not reduce any of the associated statutory public review timeframes," Kim said during her presentation.

Why it mattered: the project would replace the West Ridge Golf Course with 534 dwelling units (the staff report lists 142 duplexes,…