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