Fountain Valley expands efforts to notify property owners of pending projects

Fountain Valley will expand its efforts to provide notice of public hearings for development projects by increasing the scope of its outreach.

The city will now mail notices to property owners within a 1,000-foot radius of a project. Previously, notice of public hearings had been sent out via mail to properties within a 500-foot radius of the subject property.

State law requires that public notice be mailed out to property owners within a 300-foot radius.

The public notification enhancement passed by a 3-2 vote of the City Council at the May 21 meeting, with Mayor Glenn Grandis and council members Kim Constantine and Jim Cunneen casting the deciding votes.

“I don’t think there’s a single developer who would have an issue with it,” Grandis said. “It’s not cost-prohibitive. It’s not going to be passed on to the consumer. It’s a one-time cost. One of my four goals this year is to make sure that we’re informing the residents and transparency, and I think this falls in line with that.”

Constantine had hoped to see the noticing range increase further — to at least 3,000 feet — but 1,000 feet was where she could find support from the panel.

“I’m not in favor of increasing the notification radius,” said Councilman Patrick Harper, who along with Vice Mayor Ted Bui dissented. “I think we talked about some things that would not incur any additional costs, such as kind of having a recap in the City Council, maybe allowing more email options if people want to opt in for notifications, but sending out postcards to increase from 500 to 1,000 feet, I think, is a waste of time and money.”

Additionally, the panel opted to provide notification of public hearings via various social media platforms, including Instagram, Nextdoor and X.