Two lawsuits filed this year against the County of Mendocino for failure to develop a grading ordinance that would meet the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as required by the General Plan (1981) have spurred the most recent effort to adopt a county grading ordinance. In March, the Board of Supervisors appointed a seventeen-member Grading Ordinance Committee representing every interest from environmental to agriculture and development with instructions to write a grading ordinance for the county. The committee was given a budget of $80,000.
This is not the first grading ordinance the county has attempted. In 1991, a consultant hired by the county wrote an ordinance which was never adopted, largely due to efforts by the Farm Bureau and the Employers Council to block it. A much weaker version of that ordinance was proposed by the Planning Department in 1996, but again was blocked. The county presently runs under the Uniform Building Code (UBC). Mendocino is the only coastal county from Santa Cruz north that does not have a grading ordinance.
In 1998, Supervisor Mike Delbar, representing Farm Bureau interests, presented Ordinance 3971, to exempt agricultural reservoirs from the standards of the UBC. The ordinance passed unanimously but was challenged successfully in court by the Willits Environmental Center et. al., for failure to meet CEQA. The Board of Supervisors, in a motion by Delbar, seconded by Patty Campbell, ordered the Planning Department to restructure the same ordinance under terms that would meet CEQA. This motion was apparently never acted upon. Instead, the Planning Department has been automatically exempting any agricultural grading, including reservoirs, under Sec. 7003(b) of the UBC: "isolated, self contained area if there is no danger to private or public property." The failure this past spring of a large reservoir exempted by the county north of Ukiah (called "Golden Pond" in the press), caused extreme danger to the public. It spread mud and water across Highway 101, causing the closure of the roadway.
The Planning Department is apparently spending most of its $80,000 Grading Committee budget on a "facilitator/chairman," Michael Dimock from Aginnovations Inc., and a staff member, Julie Price. Price, who has excellent credentials, acts as secretary to the committee, while Ray Hall, Planning Director, both serves on the committee as a voting member and acts as staff. The committee voted to abandon the "consensus" mode for the parliamentary procedure more usual to governmental committees.
Only eight meetings were originally slated by the Planning Department, three and a half of which were devoted to "education." Very little time was left for writing an ordinance. At the June 17 meeting, with only two items determined by the committee, Hillary Adams (MEC representative) presented a full ordinance. It was developed from the Mendocino 1991 ordinance but updated for environmental protection with sections based on ordinances from Humboldt, Santa Cruz and Marin Counties. So far, the environmental protections have been voted down by a narrow margin. At the June 28 meeting of the committee, the Farm Bureau presented sections from the Mendocino 1996 ordinance, further weakened by words such as "where practical" or "if feasible."
In general, the committee has chosen Planning Department versions of the 1996 ordinance with terms which are moving in the right direction but may still be inadequate to meet either CEQA or the new "4-D" rules, developed by the National Marine Fisheries Service for the protection of Coho and steelhead salmon. For example, "winter grading" is prohibited on slopes greater than 15% that have a high erosion hazard rating (standard not yet determined); or greater than 30% that have a low or moderate erosion hazard rating; or in the Watercourse Riparian and Lake Protection Corridor (not yet defined). Vegetation removal in excess of one acre is subject to CEQA.
Meanwhile, the Farm Bureau also developed a "Hillside Ordinance" which essentially exempts agricultural grading, including reservoirs. It allows 3,000 cubic yards of grading and slopes up to 50% before a permit would be required. This ordinance was set up to go directly to the Board of Supervisors for a vote. Alicia Littletree of the MEC raised this issue at a Grading Committee meeting. Farm Bureau representative Ken Secora stated that any such ordinance would be presented first to the Grading Committee.
Since only three items of the grading ordinance had been discussed by June 28th, six more meetings were scheduled: July 17 and 25, August 4 (Saturday), 14 and 25 and September 8 (Saturday). All meetings are open to the public. The environmental members of the Grading Committee need your support. Please try to attend one or more of the meetings. Agendas and meeting times and places will be available on the Planning Department website:
(www.co.mendocino.ca.us/planning/AgMnIndex.htm); or through the Planning Department, 501 Low Gap Road, Ukiah 95482, (463-4281).
Ed. Note: Unfortunately, MEC representative Hillary Adams had to resign from the Grading Ordinance Committee in July. Daniel Myers has been appointed in her place.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2001
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