LAKEPORT >>The Lake County Board of Supervisors is exploring potential exemptions for those affected by the Rocky, Jerusalem and Valley Fires whose destroyed homes did not fit the county zoning ordinance. The board hopes to ease the rebuilding process.
Along with Interim Community Development Director Scott DeLeon and Principal Planner Audrey Knight, the board’s discussion focused on Zoning Ordinance 59.9, which allows homeowners to rebuild their non-conforming structures after a disaster on the condition of attaining a Major Use Permit.
An official decision has not been made, but a consensus of removing the permit acquisition so to encourage and streamline rebuilding was reached. “
To ask the staff to process major use permits, I think, is going to be really time consuming,” DeLeon said. “It’d be nice to find other ways to deal with this.”
For the most part, the exemptions will target those whose previous house was less than 720 square feet or those failing to meet required minimum distances from property lines and are particularly obstructed by the topography of their land.
“Those are the issues we are trying to address,” DeLeon said, adding that there have been a little less than 12 applications for permits so far. “It’s not a huge problem but it’s a problem nonetheless.”
In his view, the issue comes down to reconstruction philosophy — either to enforce current zoning and building standards on communities or allow them to rebuild in approximately the same configurations on the fire.
The three present members of the BOS (Chair Rob Brown and District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith were absent during the talk) concurred with the latter view but suggested that a future policy should give the board discretion in particular circumstances.
“There’s going to be a handful (of lots) where standard application is going to be problematic,” District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington said.
District 1 Supervisor Jim Comstock, who represents communities like Anderson Springs where small lots are bunched together, also wanted to make sure that new building practices were applied, calling it a “benefit to the individual and the community surrounding it.”
Other exemption opportunities regarding state building regulations were explored — even environmental health guidelines for those near creeks.
“There’s always flexibility depending on the circumstance,” District 3 Supervisor and former California Fish and Wildlife employee Jim Steele said.
Of course, something like that would require state approval but if certain exceptions can be made, it would be important for those in the vicinity of Anderson Creek. Under current state statute, septic systems cannot be within 100 feet of a body of water, preventing residents from rebuilding and forcing them to wait for a multi-million dollar sewer project.
Meanwhile, the planning department wants to ensure the residents have a say in the rebuilding process, which Knight said was the possible intent of the permit requirement in the ordinance when it was written.
“Overall the best policy moving forward is not requiring the major use permit but rather allow the community to at least have a voice,” she added.
Staff will take the matter to the Planning Commission at its next meeting on May 12 and get input. In the meantime, DeLeon and the department will work on an official policy to be voted on at a later BOS meeting.
“We want to give people incentive to build,” Farrington said.
