To: Montecito Planning Commission
Re: Ministerial Permitting and Streamlining Ordinance Amendments
Good morning, Chair and Commissioners. CPA would like to thank staff for your work on these amendments. During the two workshops last week, staff reported that the Board of Supervisors instructed them to ‘swing big’ or ‘go big’ to narrow the County’s authority over development so that things moved faster and it cost the applicants less money and time.
Today, CPA would ask the MPC to request more time before passing this amendment on to the County PC and ultimately, the BOS.
We offer the following suggestions which might help future discussion and decisions.
- Request a summary list of changes, identifying the types of projects affected and the number of such permits for each change over the past few years. What is ‘broken’ about the current policy?
- Request an environmental review to assess the potentially significant impacts of these changes.
- Request that staff adds some qualifying limits on ministerial and exempt projects. Disqualify both ministerial and exempt treatment if:
The project is within 100’ of EShA, Is in a high fire hazard zone, On a site with potential for cultural, biological or historical resources or it Can create public safety risks, may increase traffic on an evacuation route, etc.
For ministerial projects, require notification/consultation with neighbors through some kind of mandatory “good neighbor” notification policy.
Please allow for more time to study these recommendations. There is no mandated deadline for this study and adoption process.
Marell Brooks, President