Planning and Building Department Structural Issues: Exposing the Cracks

Additional Recommendations 1

These recommendations are not explicitly linked to specific findings.

• R13-14
  will allow for certain building permits to be issued online. Renewed emphasis on regular activity reporting has allowed staff to identify reports that don't import necessary data, and inconsistencies in currently available data. We are working to address these issues, and best practices will be implemented moving forward. o The Department created and released a 2012 Activity Report, which provides an overview of activities encompassing the three primary divisions of this department (Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement). A revised report will be released once the data has been standardized and is fully accessible. o A capacity assessment of the Department's Planning Division has been submitted to the Executive Office in the form of an Action Plan. This document compares the division's current ability to provide service against a comprehensive list of mandates and responsibilities. (A list of implementation items contained within the General Plan, Housing Element, and Ukiah Valley Area Plan has been attached to this report as supplemental information) The Action Plan recommends organizational changes to enhance PBS' ability to implement these mandates and responsibilities, which will reduce outstanding liability to the County. The Executive Office has approved recruitments that do not push the Department's FY 13-14 budget beyond net County cost assignments; full implementation of this plan will require Board approval of the Department's submitted budget. o Staff has begun standardizing the naming protocols used in PBS' fee schedule, and reorganizing the structure to facilitate further review and analysis. It is expected that a related item will come before the Board in FY 13-14. 1 o Initial PBS stakeholder meetings were held in Ukiah and Fort Bragg at the end of 2012; followup stakeholder meetings will be held in both locations in early July. These meetings are intended as an open forum for our stakeholders to communicate with department leadership. o In addition to many meetings with individual members of the community, the Director was invited as a speaker to a recent meeting of the Ukiah Rotary Club. In response to questions and concerns regarding the County's authority to regulate grading activities, information has been posted on the website which provides general information and specific sources of authority. The page remains a work in progress. Code Enforcement Officers, Building Inspectors, and Planners are in the field every day with a very limited ability to communicate in the event of an emergency. With support from the Sheriff, the Department is procuring public safety band radios for all vehicles. We are additionally pursuing new cell phone service and equipment that should provide more opportunities for staff to remain connected while working in rural areas of Mendocino County. The County's Fish & Game Commission is poised to resume operations with additional funding available for administration and reduced overhead costs made possible through changes in State legislation and County allocation of charges. Dr. Jeanine Pfeiffer has been engaged to provide the Commission with administrative support; the Department facilitated processing of the related contract. In January, the Director issued a Determination of Vested Rights for surface gravel mining activities which have historically occurred at the Rowland Gravel Bar, located at the confluence of the Main Eel and Middle Fork Eel Rivers. While archiving ten years of planning files within the Ukiah office, staff recognized many old records eligible for destruction in accordance with County policy. PBS has begun compiling these records, and will work collaboratively to ensure necessary approvals are in place for any action pursued. To enhance the public's ability to track positions and recommendations of the Department on matters which come before the Planning Commission, a new section titled "Recommended Action" has been added to Planning Commission agendas. To provide the public with a more timely record of actions taken during meetings of the Planning Commission, a "Notice of Decision" similar to "action minutes" is now posted after meetings. The Notice of Determination does not replace or modify the form of official meeting minutes. Preliminary information indicates the California Department of Fish & Wildlife will be releasing a technical memo on recommended setbacks from waterways. More information will be provided to the Board as it becomes available. Personnel On January 28, Andy Gustavson began work as the County's Chief Planner. The skills and abilities Mr. Gustavson brings to this role greatly complement existing resources within the Department. In addition to working as a planning consultant, he has served as a planner for the Counties of San Mateo, Sonoma, and the City of Healdsburg. Supervising Code Enforcement Officer, Ray Madrigal, resigned from County employment effective February 14, in order to move closer to extended family. Supervision of the Code Enforcement Division has been assumed by the Director. Effective Monday, May 14, Mark Kendra is serving as a Staff Assistant for the Department, providing support and re-establishing capacity within the Fort Bragg office of PBS. To enhance the consistency of practices between PBS' two locations, Mr. Kendra was trained in Ukiah for two weeks. Effective Monday, June 24, Jim Kerr will begin working for the County as a Code Enforcement Officer l. Adrienne Thompson, the Commission Services Supervisor, is out on leave for approximately three months. The Department has trained an extra help employee to fill this role on a temporary basis; critical duties include clerking for meetings of the Planning Commission, creation of agendas, and legal noticing. A recruitment is underway to bring a Staff Assistant Ill back into the Ukiah office of PBS. In addition to other duties, the selected employee will provide back-up for some of the missioncritical tasks of the Department that currently can be performed solely by the Commission Services Supervisor. As partial implementation of the Planning Division's Action Plan, a recruitment is underway to bring an experienced Senior Planner back in to the Department's Fort Bragg office. This position will re- establish onsite leadership and support for planning staff in that satellite office. Additionally, one opportunity in Fort Bragg and two opportunities in Ukiah have been created to allow qualified Planning staff to promote into positions with greater responsibility. Community Development Staff is working to bring the Mendocino County Lodging Association (MCLA) and Mendocino County Promotional Alliance (MCPA) contracts before the Board for consideration on June 18. Mendocino County's Economic & Demographic Profile is a report that was generated on an annual basis until FY 2010-2011. Funds have been requested in the FY 2013-2014 budget to resume creation of this document, which is useful for both the private and public sector. In 2006, the County received a HOME grant award of approximately $570,000, for investment in the affordable, self-help Lakewood Homes subdivision located on Lake Mendocino Drive. The subsequent economic downturn made it impossible for the developer, Rural Communities Housing Development Corporation (RCHDC) to finish the required number of units according to the established timeline. These project delays forced the County out of compliance with the grant agreement. Recognizing the unusual circumstances, Housing & Community Development agreed this month to amend their agreement with the County as necessary to allow the County back into compliance with the program. On behalf of the County, the Community Development Commission of Mendocino County (CDC) operates a Downpayment Assistance Program in the form of deferred payment subordinate loans for income-qualified individuals. This program is typically funded with Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) or HOME grant awards. In March, the County received its first ever request to approve a "short sale". A participant in this program was selling their home, and the market price would not generate enough revenue to fully repay the County's loan. CDBG staff indicated the approval of this short sale was a local decision; it was approved by the Director. Efforts are underway to establish capacity within the Health & Human Services Agency Workforce Investment Act (WIA) unit to oversee the CDBG program. To assist in meeting the immediate demands of that Program, this Department is hiring a contractor. Essential tasks in the contract will include assisting the County in clearing a program audit, requesting an extension of time for completion of studies in the Noyo Harbor, meeting special conditions of a new grant, and procuring a contractor for the County's Microenterprise Technical Assistance Program. The Director was designated as the County's WIA Conflict Resolution Officer, and a request for a hearing has been received from the Mendocino Private Industry Council. This will be scheduled and held in the near future. Building Division Every year, a number of permits are issued for projects that never received necessary inspections. PBS does not currently have a mechanism to determine whether these projects were canceled prior to construction, or if they were completed without benefit of inspections (and therefore completed without benefit of permit). While it is clearly the responsibility of the public to ensure their projects are compliant with regulations and have received all necessary inspections, the Department will be considering options to implement a methodical approach in contacting property owners with permits indicated by our records as expired/inactive, and reminding them of outstanding responsibilities. The California Building Code is updated every three years. It is expected the newest edition of the Code will be released June, 2013, with implementation of the new Code to begin January l , 2014. The Department will be bringing the Code to the Board for consideration and adoption after its release. The California Building Code requires permitting for both buildings and structures (such as private bridges). In recognition of expertise the County's Department of Transportation has with bridges, PBS has re-established a partnership with that Department to review plans and engineering as necessary for permitting of these structures. On May 14, 2012, the Board authorized a Fee Waiver program for building projects which result in the creation of either permanent new jobs or temporary construction jobs for non-residential projects. The program ran from June l, 2012 until November 30, 2012, and resulted in approximately $40,000 in waived fees for a total of four projects. It is expected that these projects will directly create 28 permanent new jobs in the county upon completion, with additional jobs created over time. Over the years, many policies have been created and implemented by the Department with primary goals that include clarification of Building Code and standardization of service delivery. Based on input from stakeholders, we are working to update these policies and will post them online. Code Enforcement To facilitate the sale of two unrelated coastal properties harboring long-standing public nuisance cases, the Department entered into agreements to reduce fees and penalties assessed by PBS. In return for this cooperation, the new owners of these parcels signed agreements to substantially abate the documented violations within one year. We are working to create and implement a Policy & Procedure Manual for the Code Enforcement Division to provide for the uniform enforcement of all applicable county and state building and zoning regulations by staff, and establish minimum standards of professionalism. A first draft was released to staff for review in early 2013. The final version will be used as the regulatory guideline in the day-to-day operations for staff, and for use in the training of new personnel. It can also be used as a tool to educate citizens in the methods used by code enforcement, as well as the limits of code enforcement responsibilities and procedures. The purpose of the Manual is to document guidelines for the following: 1. Departmental requirements for employees in the Code Enforcement Unit. 2. Prioritization of code enforcement cases. 3. Complaint procedure and initiation of cases. 4. Investigation and enforcement of county codes. 5. Prosecutions and legal aspects of code enforcement. 6. Basic duties and procedures of code enforcement staff. Efforts are underway to ensure our limited resources are spent resolving "high priority" complaints/cases. A formal procedure is being tested that prioritizes and ranks complaints received by code enforcement officers. This system is intended to provide a fair and consistent means to rank complaints and/or open cases after a preliminary review is undertaken in accordance with the manual. Any complaint which does not meet the minimum required ranking is assigned a number and placed in a complaint file. The number is assigned sequentially based upon the month and year it is received. The complaint information is kept on a log page that is maintained at the front of the complaint file. In the event multiple complaints are received with regard to the violation, its numerical ranking may rise and cause a response from staff. Through proper management of current cases, our Code Enforcement Officers are regularly achieving voluntary compliance from violators. They have also begun a focused effort to reduce a case backlog that spans decades, and recently exceeded 2,200 open cases. The Officers have been reviewing old cases, starting frÖm the most -longstanding violations and moving towards present day. We have found some of these cases are duplicates, some were incorrectly closed, and others can be reviewed and closed with little investigative effort due to changes in ownership, etc. The focus and effort of our staff in this regard has allowed the Division to close almost 400 active cases, and reduce the total number of open cases down to approximately 1,840. Year Cases Closed (From Jan 1- May 8) 2013: 292 2012: 43 2011: 10 2010: 32 The Abandoned Vehicle Abatement (AVA) Program is in the process of being restarted. The City of Willits recently adopted its resolution adopting the service authority. We are circulating paperwork between the Cities for signatures, and will be submitting a completed packet to the California Highway Patrol (CHP) which will include a Joint Powers Agreement signed by the County, Ukiah, Willits, and Fort Bragg. Assuming the CHP approves the submittal, it will then be forwarded to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) where a program will be created to extract the one dollar tax from vehicles registered within the County. After the program is created, we will then be able to re- launch the program. Recognizing that abandoned, low value, trailers and recreational vehicles (RV's) 4 are an attractive nuisance that can create a "dumping ground" if left for too long, a temporary process has been setup to address these vehicles by abating pursuant to Chapter 15.28 of the Mendocino County Code. Code Enforcement staff organized a two-day regional training opportunity at the County Administration Center. Holding this training event in Ukiah brought staff to the area from the Cities of Sonoma, Cotati, Rohnert Park, and it lowered (or eliminated) travel expenses for staff participating from the City of Willits and County of Mendocino. Water Agency. and Stormwater Compliance Mendocino County was inspected for compliance with its Stom Water Management Program in May of 2012 by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) and Environmental Protection Agency. Three of the six "minimum control measures" outlined in the County's Stormwater Management Plan (SWMP) were reviewed during the audit inspection, with comments provided on two additional minimum control measures reviewed post-inspection. The compliance inspection resulted in the notification of programs in need of improvement or attention. The County subsequently received a Notice of Violation letter, dated November 7, 2012, and Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Compliance Inspection Report, dated August 27, 2012. PBS staff has reconvened the stormwater working group, which includes staff from DOT, GSA, and Environmental Health. The Department has also contracted with LACO & Associates, for technical support in meeting initial deadlines established in the County's response to the stormwater audit. The budgets submitted for PBS and the Water Agency allocate resources to continue bringing the County into compliance with the current permit and requirements of the new permit. A stormwater update is scheduled before the Board on June 18, which will request a decision as to whether the County should remain a Phase Il Permit holder, or switch to a Phase I Permit. Additional information will be available for that discussion, along with a recommendation from the Department. Planning & Building has identified an opportunity to better leverage the staffing and financial resources of the County and the Water Agency in meeting the needs of both entities. To this end, time from a Planner has been specifically allocated in FY 13-14 to continue leading the Stormwater Program, and we will be working to better integrate the County's Hydrologist position into the PBS staffing structure. Integration of the Hydrologist position is currently envisioned through a Planning Division Technical Services Unit which would include the Department's Cartographer, with both positions reporting to the Chief Planner. As outlined in a February 22, 2008 memo from Roland Sanford to the Board of Supervisors, the 2004 sediment release incident at the Mill Creek Dams resulted in specific tasks for completion by the County. On April 24, the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District agreed to conduct investigation on PBS' behalf to determine the current status of these tasks, and identify any outstanding issues. Numbering of items below is consistent with numbering used in the 2008 memo. 1. Obtain Streambed Alteration Agreement to allow for refilling of Upper reservoir. Status: completed. 2. Prepare and implement Stream Restoration Plan. Status: completed. On June 12, 2008, a "Feasibility Assessment of Restoration Options for Mill Creek" was completed by Entrix Environmental Associates. The Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) subsequently issued Order IB05127WNME for the repair/replacement of a failed gate valve at the base of the upper dam on Mill Creek, east of the City of Ukiah. At the time, the RWQCB indicated minor restoration work at the site would satisfy part of the compensatory mitigation and major compensatory mitigation was deferred and to be determined at a later date. On February l, 2012, Mendocino County DOT filed the application for water quality certification for the removal of the Feliz Creek dam. Condition #5 of WDID No. 1B 12012WNME indicates that the dam removal satisfies the compensatory mitigation requirements for the Mill Creek Dams' previous Order (IB05127WNVE). 3. Obtain Streambed Alteration Agreement for Long-Term Operations and 5 Maintenance of Mill Creek Dams. Status: in process. The County's Hydrologist has been tasked with completion of this item. 4. Select and Begin Implementation of Off-Site Fish Passage Improvement Projects. Status: substantially complete; waiting for written verification from CDFW. The Feliz Creek Dam was removed in September, 2012. Staff from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) indicate that upon completion of a five- year monitoring plan, all required mitigation per CDFW will be satisfied. This position was expressed by CDFW in 2011, and a letter to the County, memorializing the position, has been in process since March of this year. On the County's behalf, the MCRCD followed up with CDFW on March 6, and again on May 30. At this time, there is no firm commitment from CDFW as to when the letter will be sent. 5. Items 5, 6, and 7 from the 2008 memo are related to the long-term maintenance and management of the Mill Creek Dams. These items are addressed in the Department of Transportation Director's Report dated June 10. Planning Division The Department received and provided comment on the City of Ukiah's Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the potential Costco development. The Department received and provided comment on the City of Ukiah's request to amend their Sphere of Inflüence (SOI) The Mendocino Town Plan Update (MTPU) was initiated by PBS in 2011. The update process included a series of community meetings to gather input, and the current draft was considered by the Planning Commission at meetings in the Town of Mendocino in February and May of this year. The public has been very engaged in providing comment, and discussion on the more controversial elements of the MTPU did occur among Commissioners. The MTPU is scheduled to be brought back to the Planning Commission July 1 Ith for further deliberation. After receiving Planning Commission recommendations on the MTPU, the Board of Supervisors will consider the Town Plan Update and take action on the revised Town Plan and Zoning Code amendments. The resulting Local Coastal Program Amendment will be submitted for certification to the Califomia Coastal Commission. Staff is meeting weekly to develop criteria for two new zoning districts; Mixed Use General (MU2) and Mixed Use North State Street (MUNS). Successful adoption of these zoning districts will represent partial implementation of Ukiah Valley Area Plan (UVAP) direction and also facilitate compliance with the Housing Settlement Agreement. As specified in the UVAP, this effort will include development of Design Review Guidelines, established through Development Standards. Staff anticipates bringing this to the property owners in July, with an anticipated review by the Planning Commission in August. Compliance with both the County's Housing Element and the Housing Settlement Agreement requires 24 acres of land, preferably within the Ukiah Valley area, be rezoned to allow for higher density housing opportunities (specifically, R-3 or "Mixed Use"). To this end, the Board has completed the rezoning of 8 acres of land next to the Brush St. Triangle, and decided against rezoning land along Lovers Lane. PBS staff met with the community on February 20 to discuss opportunities for rezoning some portion of the remaining 16 acres of land along S. State St. to R3. This meeting was primarily attended by neighbors who were concerned about the increased development density this rezoning would allow. PBS staff is subsequently working to continue compliance by bringing a recommendation forward that would rezone to R-3 three acres of land on Laws Avenue which is zoned Rl, but developed with apartment complexes. The proposed rezone will be brought to the Planning Commission for consideration on July 1 8th. PBS staff has identified land along S. and N. State Streets which will allow the County to complete the outstanding requirement for rezoning through the Mixed Use zoning designation. These parcels will be brought forward for rezoning upon adoption of the Mixed Use ordinance. Staff has completed a draft update to the Planning Commission's "Guidelines for the Development of Wireless Facilities". On a separate but related project, and at the direction of the Planning Commission, staff has drafted language to be inserted into the zoning code, identifying a new permitting process for certain types of wireless facilities (i.e. collocation applications, adding antennas to existing structures.) At the June meeting of the Planning Commission, staff will request 6 establishment of an ad-hoc working group of Commissioners to review both the Guidelines and Zoning Code update, and to work with staffin moving these items forward. Depending on changes to be made, staff would either schedule another stakeholder meeting or take the items to the full Commission. The Director issued an unclassified use determination in January establishing that a small indoor green material composting facility is a type of General Industrial use, as defined by the Zoning Ordinance. This determination was made in response to a new composting facility that C&S Waste Solutions proposes to establish in a pear packing plant building in south Ukiah. The determination was appealed to the Planning Commission, with a claim that all composting facilities should be classified as "Significant Impact Services and Uilities" uses. The Planning Commission upheld the Planning Director's determination. Two appeals of this determination were then made to the Board of Supervisors; a hearing is scheduled for June 10. Two coastal development permits involving State Agencies are scheduled for Coastal Permit Administrator (CPA) hearings in June. The first is a Ten Mile Dune Restoration project in MacKerricher State Park. States Parks will remove the deteriorated northern portion of the old haul road, which runs along the coast north of Fort Bragg and through the park, to help reestablish the dune ecology. The Coastal Commission and community are concerned this project may reduce public coastal access. The second project is a Caltrans Highway 1 repair project, north of Fort Bragg that will realign a short segment of the roadway. The Coastal Commission is concerned the repair may impact coastal wetland resources and agricultural land, and may appeal. Regulation of County mining operations in general required by both SMARA and the County Surface Mining and Reclamation Ordinance (County Code Chapter 22.16) is ongoing with annual inspection reports currently being prepared for the 2012 mining season. These will be submitted to OMR within the coming weeks. Annual inspections typically take place in the late Fall/early Winter months, and will be scheduled for later in the calendar year. In addition, cost estimates and updated financial assurance mechanisms, which are also required annually but submitted at different times throughout the year by individual operators, continue to be monitored by PBS staff for adequacy. In 2011 , the California Department of Conservation Office of Mine Reclamation (OMR) conducted an audit of the County's administration of the State Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA) program. A report was prepared by OMR's Lead Agency Review Team (LART), and submitted to the State Mining and Geology Board (SMGB) in July 2012. Subsequent to a review of the LART report by SMGB, the County received a 45-Day Notice to Correct Deficiencies (Notice) (dated December 21, 2012). The types of issues raised in the Notice involved mines that had been classified as "idle" under SMARA without a required Interim Management Plan (IN(P) or operations that have gone more than one year without updating annual cost estimates and financial assurances. A response to the 45 Day Notice was prepared by Planning and Building staff in February 2013 addressing the issues raised in the notice, which is scheduled to be discussed before the SMGB at its regular monthly hearing on June 13, in Sacramento. The Director and a staff planner will attend the SMGB's June meeting. Temporary events with more than 1,000 attendees require a minor use permit. On May 17, the Zoning Administrator approved the Northern Nights Music Festival which is scheduled to occur July 19, 20, and 21 in Cooks Valley. This approval has been appealed to the Board, and will be heard on June 18. On May 29, the Zoning Administrator approved the Enchanted Forest Festival, which is scheduled to occur June 28 — July I in Navarro. The County General Plan Housing Element is scheduled for an update in 2014; this project will need to be prioritized for timely completion. The 2013 Regional House Needs Allocation data, released by the California Department of Housing and Community Development earlier this year, establishes the total number of housing units needed to accommodate projected household growth. These numbers are then used to calculate affordable housing targets for the County and the cities within the county for the 2014 Housing Element Update. The 2013 RHNA allocation for the entire county dropped dramatically since the 2008, reflecting the recession and the related slow-down in housing growth. As a result the County's total fair share of countywide housing fell from 2,552 in 2008 to 168 in 2014. Staff worked with the Mendocino County Council of Governments (MCOG) on the 2013 allocation process, and recommends that the allocation reflect the capacity ofjurisdictions within the County to provide services needed to support housing, and not simply be based on proportionate population.