Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

Supervisors approve permit fee waivers to rebuild fire-damaged structures

Residents and property owners whose homes and other structures

were destroyed in the October 2007 fires will be exempt from plan

check review and building permit fees when they rebuild.

Two 5-0 San Diego County Board of Supervisors votes allowed for

the exemption. One vote added the off-docket item to the

October 24 agenda, while the second unanimous vote adopted the

resolution declaring the rebuilding of the structures damaged in

the Harris, Witch, and Rice fires to be eligible for the permit

fee waivers.

The text of the resolution approves eligibility for "victims of

fire incidents in the unincorporated area, including the Harris

Witch, and Rice Canyon Fires, within the approved geographic

boundaries". That language apparently makes victims of other

fires, including the Poomacha fire which broke out after the

request for off-docket consideration was prepared, eligible for

the fee waivers.

The permit fee waiver stems from the Gavilan Fire in Fallbrook

which destroyed more than 40 homes in February 2002. On March 6,

2002, the supervisors amended the county's administrative code to

waive plan check review and permit fees for rebuilding structures

damaged by wildfires or other natural disasters. That waiver

requires that the Board of Supervisors adopt a resolution

identifying the geographic area affected which is eligible for

the fee waiver. The first such application occurred in

August 2002, when the supervisors declared the area devastated by

the Pines Fire in the Julian area to be eligible for the fee

waiver.

The fee waiver applies only to legally built structures which

were destroyed by the fires and located within the boundaries of

the eligible geographic area. Since the geographic boundaries of

the affected areas were unknown at the time the supervisors

approved the resolution, the director of the county's Department

of Planning and Land Use was authorized to finalize the map to be

used to determine the exact boundaries for waiver eligibility.

Because the Board of Supervisors does not have land use

jurisdiction over incorporated cities, the waiver applies only to

the rebuilding of structures in the county's unincorporated area.

 

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