(a) At the time of filing an application for a development permit with a city or county, the city or county shall inform the applicant that he or she may make a written request to receive notice from the city or county of a proposal to adopt or amend any of the following plans or ordinances:
(1) A general plan.
(2) A specific plan.
(3) A zoning ordinance.
(4) An ordinance affecting building permits or grading permits.
The applicant shall specify, in the written request, the types of proposed action for which notice is requested. Prior to taking any of those actions, the city or county shall give notice to any applicant who has requested notice of the type of action proposed and whose development project is pending before the city or county if the city or county determines that the proposal is reasonably related to the applicant’s request for the development permit. Notice shall be given only for those types of actions which the applicant specifies in the request for notification.
The city or county may charge the applicant for a development permit, to whom notice is provided pursuant to this subdivision, a reasonable fee not to exceed the actual cost of providing that notice. If a fee is charged pursuant to this subdivision, the fee shall be collected as part of the application fee charged for the development permit.
(b) As an alternative to the notification procedure prescribed by subdivision (a), a city or county may inform the applicant at the time of filing an application for a development permit that he or she may subscribe to a periodically updated notice or set of notices from the city or county which lists pending proposals to adopt or amend any of the plans or ordinances specified in subdivision (a), together with the status of the proposal and the date of any hearings thereon which have been set.
Only those proposals which are general, as opposed to parcel-specific in nature, and which the city or county determines are reasonably related to requests for development permits, need be listed in the notice. No proposal shall be required to be listed until such time as the first public hearing thereon has been set. The notice shall be updated and mailed at least once every six weeks; except that a notice need not be updated and mailed until a change in its contents is required.
The city or county may charge the applicant for a development permit, to whom notice is provided pursuant to this subdivision, a reasonable fee not to exceed the actual cost of providing that notice, including the costs of updating the notice, for the length of time the applicant requests to be sent the notice or notices.
(Added by Stats. 1983, Ch. 1263, Sec. 11.)