Huntington Beach leaders are looking to change who decides when residents get to change the zoning code, asking their staff to come back with a menu of options that will likely include bringing more projects in front of the city’s planning commission for approval.
The changes come as several city council members claim their zoning administrator, a member of city staff, is approving zoning variances and conditional use permits that negatively impact neighborhoods without thinking enough about the impacts.
Councilman Pat Burns, who proposed the shift, said his biggest concerns were around the administrator approving major projects in residential neighborhoods…