Tag Cloud
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Mayor: Facilities permit program "effective"
by Kathleen Haley, published on November 10, 2009 at 7:54PM
Storyline: Sacramento City Government/Politics
No high resolution image exists...
Loading images
Mayor Kevin Johnson said Tuesday the outcome of the audit of the Community Development Department will be important to how he views the future of a permitting program that has drawn controversy in recent weeks. At the same time, Johnson said he thinks the Facilities Permit Program has been “very effective.”
The FPP, which is part of the Community Development Department, was shuttered Oct. 27 in the midst of public debate over the Nestlé company’s move to establish a water bottling plant in Sacramento. Nestlé’s plant had been approved through the city’s FPP program.
City officials investigated the Community Development Department’s approval of Nestlé’s construction work and temporarily shut down the FPP program. At issue was the approval that Nestlé and contractors received from a city building inspector to start construction work. While the company and its contractors had verbal approval from the city, they did not have a building permit or a “start-work authorization.”
Nestlé said that it has complied with city laws.
The city attorney’s office recently decided that it is illegal for the city to greenlight construction for a project that does not have a building permit, said David Kwong, the city’s planning division director.
Johnson told reporters at his weekly press conference Tuesday that the third-party audit underway on the Community Development Department will affect how he thinks about the FPP. “For me, I want to know what went wrong the first time,” he said. “We need to conclude that investigation.”
The third-party audit is in response to the city's approval of permits to build in the Natomas flood zone. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had prohibited the city from building in the flood zone.
Johnson talked of resuming the program, with possible changes. “I think people feel, by and large, it has been one of the best things that our city has done,” he said. “So, this would be an example that you can’t throw out the baby with the bath water.”
Through the FPP, businesses that work with the city can receive quick approval for tenant improvements or remodeling of commercial and industrial buildings, Kwong said.
Photo by Anthony Bento.
Sacramento Press staff reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this story. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.
Conversation Express your views, debate, and be heard with those in your area closest to the issue.
Leave a Comment
Interesting when Johnson campaigns against "business as usual." This IS business as usual.
It has gotten so ridiculously blatant on such an absurdly huge scale (Hi Nestle American River Water Diversion Facility) that it is IMPOSSIBLE to hide the can of worms under the rock again.
Despite Lisa Ling and engagement rings.
I have never ever seen this measure of corruption in this town before -- NEVER... KJ's 'crew' just does one belligerent act after another, and then softens the blow by blow with PR moves, such as those with the homeless, which now, just one week after the announcements, seem to be unraveling, and some obviously contrived 'weddin' plans...
What a shallow lot they are, but more, what a shallow lot this community must be to swallow these 'bright shiny objects' whole, unchecked by reality, seemingly oblivious to this cabal's amazing aggression and quest for authority and power...
I'm appalled, and profoundly disappointed in what's left of the justice system, especially since there was so much 'hope' invested in the Obama administration's fresh new approach... But it seems the machine has rocked one more time for this lucky local crook, and though more bright shiny objects are headed our way, they seem tarnished with the taint of deceit on the order of Mussolini's Italy, where the trains ran on time, and stage set cities were erected to divert public attention from the insidiousness that lay just beneath the veneer...
If only there was a local media source, an alternative to the daily newspaper and other media that prop up the deceit... a place where the community had access to more complete and accurate information, with out the spin and propaganda ...
These flakes have to understand that the law applies to them also and codes exist in order to safeguard the public's health, safety & welfare, not to line their pockets. So get used to it!!!