The first train to leave the station was called the Process Improvement Team (PIT).  I have been a member of the PIT since its inception.  Our main charge was to simplify the land use planning by making the ministerial process truly ministerial. 

 

What does that mean?  When you need to get a permit from the County, you typically must apply for one of two kinds of permits, either a ministerial permit or a discretionary permit.  A ministerial permit is also called an over-the-counter permit.  What this implies is that the permitting agency simply ascertains whether the project comports to fixed standards.  If so, you actually have a right to get a ministerial permit -- no hearing is warranted or necessary.  A discretionary permit, on the other hand, requires and allows a hearing officer or body, such as a Planning Commission, to make a subjective determination as to whether or not to approve, deny or modify a project. 

 

A permit to build any number of things, including a single-family residence on land zoned for the same, is considered a ministerial permit.  Before PIT, the County of Santa Barbara was infamous for making people go through a hearing process when in fact the applicant should have received virtual automatic approval via the issuance of a ministerial permit.  For the past three years, PIT volunteers have been meeting on a monthly basis to streamline the permit process accordingly.

 

The second train to leave the station three years ago was a proposal by the Ballantyne family to build their dream home on 17 acres not far from the city of Goleta.  The house was designed by world-famous architect Barry Berkus and would sit on top of a small hill just off the 101 freeway.  County Planning staff denied the ministerial permit on the grounds that it violated certain fixed standards, mostly having to do with visual impacts.  You see, in the South County, higher value is placed upon the view of a motorist traveling down the 101 freeway than the views afforded to somebody trying to build a house.  Well, after staff denied the project, the applicant appealed to the Planning Commission.  The applicant volunteered to move the house back a little and create a berm that would serve to block the view of the house from the freeway, while still preserving the applicant’s view of the ocean.  The Planning Commission approved the project accordingly, and ruled that the project was ministerial.

 

Well, some NIMBYs and self-appointed guardians of the coast appealed the Planning Commission’s approval to the Board of Supervisors.  What was amazing about the hearing was that the county staff was supposed to present the project as approved by the Planning Commission, i.e., with a berm and moved back a little from the brow of the hill.  But instead, the staff presented their original complaint against the project as it was originally construed!  Chairman Brooks Firestone repeatedly asked the staffer why he was presenting information in the hearing that was not factual.  Firestone then, without success I might add, appealed to the Director of the Planning and Development Department to intervene and correct the record.  When that failed, Firestone directed the Board of Supervisors to temporarily adjourn the meeting and meet privately in closed session, right in the middle of the hearing!  He was obviously worried that the County was going to get sued for what can only be described as a kangaroo court!

 

What was the fight really about?  County staff, hand in hand with the appellants, wanted the house to be denied, or modified, by making it subject to environmental review.  Environmental review is reserved for discretionary permits.  Applications for houses are ministerial permits and are statutorily exempt from this requirement!

 

Unfortunately, the Board of Supervisors had been backed into a corner by their own staff and felt they had no recourse but to order the project to undergo environmental review.  Thus, county staff served to deny the applicants their rights and simultaneously derailed the PIT process.  It was a literal train wreck.  Supervisor Joni Gray indicated she had never seen such a mess.    

Beware of ever trying to build your dream home in this county because somebody will surely turn your dream into a nightmare.

 

Andy Caldwell is the Executive Director of COLAB and a 39-year resident of the Central Coast.  You may reach him at 929-3148 or on the web at www.colabsbc.org