A renewed recommendation by the San Benito County Planning
Commission to scrap the controversial Hillside ordinance will soon
be considered by the Board of Supervisors. When it is it will be
the latest chapter in the life of the star-crossed law.
Hollister – A renewed recommendation by the San Benito County Planning Commission to scrap the controversial Hillside ordinance will soon be considered by the Board of Supervisors. When it is it will be the latest chapter in the life of the star-crossed law.
The planning commission recommended against the Hillside ordinance last November, but a month later the previous board of supervisors approved it anyway. After holding four community workshops in March and April, the planning commission decided again June 1 that the ordinance is not what the county needs.
“We felt there were already regulations in place,” said Richard Bettencourt, planning commission chair. “We don’t need new regulations.”
Also, Bettencourt said, it is difficult to create a countywide ordinance that suits both city and rural areas. For example, he said that an ordinance that restricts hillside development in San Juan Bautista may be too restrictive for rural areas San Benito County.
“It is very difficult to satisfy everybody,” he said.
The ordinance restricts subdivisions of more than four homes on hillsides with a slope of 15 percent or more. It also imposes limits of 28 feet in height and 10,000 square feet in floor area on homes built on these hillsides. Before it goes to the Board of Supervisors the ordinance will undergo a review for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act.
Supervisor Anthony Botelho has been wary of the ordinance, which he sees as including “excessive” architectural design and grading guidelines, because of restrictions it imposes on individual property owners to build on their land.
“I always had concerns about the Hillside ordinance,” Botelho said. “I felt that it was very restrictive.”
Despite his concerns about the ordinance, Botelho said that he thinks the county needs guidelines for hillside development, especially for big development companies.
“There’s no question that we need to have guidelines in place to preserve and maintain our rural character,” he said.
The desire to preserve open space in the county is the reason Supervisor Pat Loe – the only supervisor left from the previous board that approved the ordinance – said she supports the Hillside ordinance.
“I think we have to protect our hillsides,” she said. “We have to have open space … there has to be a break (in housing) between San Francisco Bay and Monterey Bay.”
Loe said that the Planning Department recommendation to rescind the ordinance will not affect her support for restricting development on the county’s hillsides. But, she said, she is willing to work with her colleagues to create an ordinance that addresses their concerns.
“We have to have some ordinance,” she said. “We can work for a better ordinance.”
Luke Roney covers politics and agriculture for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at [email protected]
