Hollister
– San Benito County’s hillside development ordinance may be on
its way out the door.
Hollister – San Benito County’s hillside development ordinance may be on its way out the door.
On Tuesday, the County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to rescind the ordinance. Planning Director Art Henriques said the final timetable still needs to be ironed out, but he said a resolution ending the ordinance will go before the Planning Commission and the board for a final vote in the coming months.
The supervisors who voted against the ordinance said it’s confusing and overly restrictive.
“It’s a cookie-cutter approach,” Supervisor Reb Monaco said. “We’re making the majority of people jump through all these hoops because occasionally we have trouble.”
When the development ordinance was passed in December 2004, Monaco was the only supervisor to vote against it. However, three members of that board have since been replaced. Pat Loe is the only remaining supervisor who originally voted for the ordinance, and she alone opposed the motion to end the restrictions.
Loe argued that the supervisors should try to improve the ordinance, rather than throwing it out completely.
“We should change the ordinance, or we should have a new ordinance ready (before we rescind it),” she said after the meeting. “And we don’t just have guidelines, because guidelines are very weak.”
Loe previously told the Free Lance that the county needs to protect its hillsides.
“We have to have open space,” she said. “There has to be a break (in housing) between San Francisco Bay and Monterey Bay.”
The ordinance restricts subdivisions of more than four homes built on hillsides with a slope of 15 percent or more; homes in those subdivisions are limited to 28 feet in height and 10,000 square feet in floor area.
Henriques said the restrictions have not applied to any of the hillside developments built since the ordinance was passed in 2004.
Members of the public also urged the board to rescind the ordinance.
Hollister resident Denny Madigan noted that the county already restricts development on prime agricultural land.
“In this county, that leaves the hills,” he said.
Local attorney Doug Marshall said San Benito should include hillside development guidelines in its general plan – which the county is currently revising – and use those guidelines to craft a new ordinance.
“You need a general plan in place before you put a plan like this into effect,” Marshall said. “That will lead to a more sensible ordinance.”
Henriques warned that without an enforceable ordinance, it will be hard for county staff to control hillside development.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, (neighbors) can work it out,” Henriques said. However, he said that if someone does build something that violates the county’s guidelines, “I think the county ultimately wants to ask that question. … How do we get them to return back to where they’re supposed to be?”
The supervisors also told the Planning Department to include hillside development guidelines in the new general plan and to prepare a less restrictive, stop-gap ordinance that will give the county some control over hillside development until the general plan is completed.
“I don’t want the legs to fall off this thing,” Supervisor Don Marcus said.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or
ah*@fr***********.com
.
