LAKEPORT — After about three hours of discussion, the county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to adopt a new grading ordinance Tuesday afternoon.
“This ordinance is much easier to read and understand and enforce,” said Dist. 1 Supervisor Ed Robey after the meeting let out late Tuesday. He said the board went through almost nine pages of suggested revisions, clarifications and typographical fixes from the Lake County Farm Bureau point by point, meticulously changing the ordinance”s wording.
The new grading ordinance replaces the current ordinance in chapter five of the Lake County Code and will be added as chapter 30. It includes a list of definitions of technical terms, certain permitting exemptions which may change when neighbors need to be notified of a new project and the possible refund of appeal fees when an appeal is granted.
“It breaks grading into three categories: simple grading, standard grading and complex grading,” said Robey. He said an ordinance that would outline fees that would accompany the different permits is in the works.
Robey called the new ordinance a “major rewrite” of the first draft, which was continued at the Board of Supervisors” May 22 meeting after a lengthy discussion. “It”s really well organized,” said Robey. “It deals with a lot of the issues that the other grading ordinance didn”t handle as well as it could. The new one I”m pretty sure could fix the problems we had in enforcing the old one. Plus it”s clear.”
He pointed out that in addition to the new, more readable ordinance, a check list is available to make applying for a grading permit easier. “It”s going to be much easier for people to know whether they will need a gradng permit or not and if so which type, simple standard or complex,” said Robey.
Echoing the voices heard at that meeting were representatives from the Sierra Club Lake Group, the Lake County Farm Bureau and the committee that painstakingly crafted the ordinance over the past several years. An environmental representative from Robinson Rancheria also joined the fray, asking that tribes be notified of any grading in order to preserve areas of cultural significance to the tribes.
Robey said the request was to incorporate a clause in the ordinance that would require notification to go out to a tribe in an area where grading was to occur. He suggested bringing that issue to the table at the next Lake County Tribal Leaders Council meeting to talk about the specifics of how that notification would be done.
“They”re sovereign nations, and they want communication on a government to government basis, so I felt that was the best form to discuss this in,” said Robey, noting that the ordinance can be amended.
Robinson Rancheria is working on a data base and map showing cultural sites in its area, which Robey said does not appear in the same format for all of Lake County”s seven tribes.
“Some of them (tribes) accumulate data quicker than others. Not all are as far along in the development of the cultural resource data base as Robinson is,” noted Robey, adding that particulars of contacting each tribe would need to be defined.
The new grading ordinance will undergo a second reading on July 10, then a 30-day waiting period from when it is approved until it would take effect.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
