- Nov 1, 2012
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This is a comment from the Facebook Group:
I just spoke with Lorrie Kurst at the Zoning Commissioner's office. (The Zoning Commission is an advisory body to the County Board of Supervisors.) The staff there has been tasked with coming up with a proposal to reduce the special permit licensing fee from $910 to...something reasonable, we hope. (There are a couple of other fee reductions on the board also.) Here's how the process goes, and what we need to do. The short version is, let's be prepared to lobby our supervisors early in February to get a reasonable price for a special permit. We should also have a speaker at the subsequent public hearing.
First thing is a meeting of the Board of Supervisors that authorizes advertisement of public hearings on fee reduction. It's public in that people can attend, but you can't speak. You can only lobby your Supervisor in advance of the meeting. This is really important, because the Board is ultimately limited to action on whatever numbers come out of this meeting (if the advertised range is, say, $300-700, the Board can't choose $200. This meeting is likely to happen sometime in February. Details on each item will be on the County website about a week before the meeting. After the proposal is advertised, the Planning Commission holds a public hearing on the proposed fee reduction. At that meeting, interested parties can present their views in person. Then, the Board of Supervisors holds a meeting to make a final decision.
I just spoke with Lorrie Kurst at the Zoning Commissioner's office. (The Zoning Commission is an advisory body to the County Board of Supervisors.) The staff there has been tasked with coming up with a proposal to reduce the special permit licensing fee from $910 to...something reasonable, we hope. (There are a couple of other fee reductions on the board also.) Here's how the process goes, and what we need to do. The short version is, let's be prepared to lobby our supervisors early in February to get a reasonable price for a special permit. We should also have a speaker at the subsequent public hearing.
First thing is a meeting of the Board of Supervisors that authorizes advertisement of public hearings on fee reduction. It's public in that people can attend, but you can't speak. You can only lobby your Supervisor in advance of the meeting. This is really important, because the Board is ultimately limited to action on whatever numbers come out of this meeting (if the advertised range is, say, $300-700, the Board can't choose $200. This meeting is likely to happen sometime in February. Details on each item will be on the County website about a week before the meeting. After the proposal is advertised, the Planning Commission holds a public hearing on the proposed fee reduction. At that meeting, interested parties can present their views in person. Then, the Board of Supervisors holds a meeting to make a final decision.
