Planning Commission recommends Zoning Ordinance, County Code updates

The county Planning Commission recommended updates to the county’s Zoning Ordinance and County Code during its Oct. 22 meeting.

The recommendations were approved on a 6-0 vote, with Adam Day absent. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has the authority to amend the Zoning Ordinance, and county staff will likely docket the proposed changes for the county supervisors’ December 8 meeting.

One of the major changes is the allowance of temporary outdoor entertainment events, such as circuses or carnivals, on church sites without the requirement to modify the Major Use Permit, which allows the year-round operations in residentially-zoned areas. No more than six events per year would be allowed on the same property, and the event could not exceed five consecutive days. A separate change would allow up to four antique or art show and sales events per year with a limit of three consecutive days per show.

The proposed changes also amend the accessory use regulations regarding home-based businesses to allow for the tutoring or other specialized instruction of a limited number of students (up to six at one time and up to 18 during an entire day), allow for

non-commercial on-site storage of up to two inoperative or wrecked motor vehicles, amend on-premise sign regulations to allow one sign of up to 12 square feet for a wholesale nursery, modify the height limit for public stables on property with agricultural or general rural zoning, add commercial filming to permitted temporary uses, and clarify that certain non-habitable structures such as playground equipment do not require building permits.

The changes would also eliminate the discretionary permit requirement for wireless communication facilities, photovoltaic panels, gas-to-energy conversion facilities, and equipment storage facilities on county-owned solid waste sites and buffer

properties. Another provision covers gates across private road easements; the written consent of all property owners with access rights across that easement would be required before a building permit for the gate would be issued.

Project processing changes would waive a site plan requirement, although not the design standards itself, for certain minor projects, eliminate the need to renew a use permit issued in conjunction with a subdivision map if the completion date requirement for an approved map is extended beyond the use permit’s expiration date, and allow a landowner to request the termination of a use permit if that use is no longer operating on the site.

Currently the Planning Commission’s approval of a rezone is a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors while a denial of a rezone request must be appealed to the county supervisors. The changes would send both approvals and denials to the Board of

Supervisors for final action. The changes would also give the Board of Supervisors, rather than the Planning Commission, the authority to approve a use permit in conjunction with a Zoning Ordinance amendment.

The changes would also require a general plan amendment or rezone for any increases in density or reduction in lot sizes, which can currently be addressed by a variance.

The proposed Zoning Ordinance changes also add definitions of trade school and vocational school while designating outdoor trade school activities, security or paramilitary training facilities, and field medical training as major impacts. Carnival facilities and outdoor wedding facilities were added to participant sports and recreation use types while art studios, barber shops, beauty salons, vocational schools, and dance

studios were added to the list of general personal services activities.

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