Pubdate: Thu, 26 Sep 2013
Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsreview.com/chico/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/559
Author: Howard Hardee

HIGH GRADES

County Supervisors Consider Changes to Grading Ordinance

 From the start, County Counsel Bruce Alpert made it clear that the 
workshop held during the Butte County Board of Supervisors meeting on 
Tuesday (Sept. 24) would not be specifically about growing pot. 
"Today, we're talking about the grading ordinance, not the marijuana 
[cultivation] ordinance," Alpert said, though he emphasized that the 
county "is not naive to the fact that these issues have become intertwined."

Indeed, the influx of grading permits received by the county's 
Department of Public Works this spring was largely due to the 
marijuana cultivation ordinance passed earlier this year, Alpert acknowledged.

"We saw a huge surge in permits, which is good," he said. "We want 
people to apply and be legal."

But in dealing with the high volume of permit applications and 
numerous complaints regarding grading activity this past spring, it 
became apparent to Public Works staff that the county's grading 
ordinance has room for improvement.

The ordinance, originally adopted in 1989, was revised in 2009 to 
require a grading permit for any work involving the movement of more 
than 50 cubic yards of dirt, while any project exceeding 1,000 cubic 
yards of dirt requires Planning Commission approval in the form of a 
discretionary permit. The amendment also eliminated the grading 
threshold, which required a discretionary permit for grading done at 
an elevation of 300 feet or higher. Under the revised ordinance, Mike 
Crump, director of Public Works, can issue exemptions for grading 
projects between 50 and 1,000 cubic yards on a case-by-case basis 
through a process called determination of exemption.

Earlier this year, an investigation into the grading complaints-many 
of which stemmed from concern about environmental damage caused by 
eroded material making its way into creeks and Lake Oroville-revealed 
that the grading work at many of the sites in question was not 
permitted. On May 7, Supervisor Bill Connelly signed a letter sent to 
the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board asking the 
state to help enforce the federal Clean Water Act; Connelly's request 
was rebuffed.

But the county continued enforcement efforts. On July 24, the county 
filed seven cases against property owners just outside Oroville and 
Concow for illegal grading related to marijuana cultivation.

"When it became more public that we were out there looking around, we 
were approached by a number of individuals who wanted a determination 
of exemption from public works so they could be legal," Crump said in 
addressing the board. Due to the sheer number of requests and the 
size of the sites-many involved grading projects larger than 1,000 
cubic yards-all of the exemption requests were denied.

Through that process, Crump said, it quickly became apparent that his 
staff lacked "any clear criteria" for considering the requests.

"We want a more refined process to review these projects and issue 
permits," he said. "We really want to have a better ordinance with 
understandable pathways for both the contractor and staff."

Crump and Tom Fossum, land-development manager for Public Works, 
looked at the codes of neighboring Tehama, Yuba, Shasta and Sutter 
counties to develop recommended changes to the grading ordinance, 
which they presented to the board as a slideshow on Tuesday.

Their recommendations included raising the threshold for projects 
requiring a grading permit from 50 to 250 cubic yards; entirely 
eliminating the determination of exemption process for projects 
between 250 and 1,000 cubic yards in favor of ministerial permits, 
which would allow for designs by the property owner or an agent of 
the property owner, as long as they meet the county's criteria; 
requiring additional review and designs by a licensed civil engineer 
for projects in sensitive areas like sites on steep grades or near 
waterways; raising the allowable driveway grade angle higher than its 
current 15 percent maximum; and maintaining exemptions for routine 
agricultural development, road maintenance, clearing fire breaks 
around homes, timber harvesting (which requires state approval), and 
drilling wells.

Supervisor Larry Wahl spoke in favor of reinstating the grading 
threshold as a means of curbing the environmental damage caused by 
marijuana grows. Wahl took a flight over the foothills a few days 
prior to the meeting, and he said he was appalled by "the desecration 
of the environment ... on the western and southern slopes of every 
hill between [Oroville] and Bald Rock and Feather Falls."

"We've got to put some limits on that," he continued. "If we don't do 
something, we're going to have all kinds of pesticides, rodenticides, 
fertilizers and God only knows what running down into our creeks, our 
rivers and our lake, from people who care not about anything other 
than profits.

"There needs to be something stricter above that 300-foot elevation 
line than there is in the valley."

Crump and Fossum told the board that they will consider the 
supervisors' input and present more specific revisions later this fall.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom