Special event permits may get easier to get

Posted: Friday, August 10, 2012 9:59 am

Calaveras Enterprise

A simpler, lower cost approach to special events won glowing reviews from Calaveras County supervisors at a special meeting held with county planners Thursday.

All three board members on hand for Thursday’s joint session applauded the draft resolution presented by Planning Department Director Rebecca Willis, suggesting only minor tweaks to a permit-fee process built to handle events ranging from a garage sale to a sold-out fairground concert.

The lowest level of a new Planning Department fee schedule would offer a $25 over-the-counter permit for daylong events and small operations like a fireworks stand or garage sale.

Larger permitted uses could require as little as a $100 month-long permit or as much as a $4,764 multi-week application and public hearing process.

Willis said her staff took a tiered approach to the fee system in order to tighten a county zoning code that can hinder a small special event with “unnecessary government intervention” even while failing to provide sufficient oversight of larger, louder and sometimes unpermitted concerts and festivals.

“We need to make it really easy to get permits for responsible events, and then we need provisions to allow sheriff’s to address unlawful issues as an event,” Willis said.

Those were welcome words for Supervisor Steve Wilensky, who said District 2 constituents are equally familiar with the consequences both of red tape and insufficient county codes.

“I’m very much for not regulating stuff that has no impact,” Wilensky said. “We’ve never enforced a garage sale (permit) ordinance, let’s get rid of that. … People who don’t play by the rules should have a disincentive, just as much as the people who do the appropriate things in the appropriate places deserve a break.”

Wilensky suggested a fourth permitting level for stitching together these competing aims, explaining that some midsize events with a good compliance record could be “grandfathered-in” to a standing permit in order to reduce administrative costs.

Supervisor Gary Tofanelli offered an equally enthusiastic endorsement of the Planning Department model, calling the move a “first step toward shedding (Calaveras County’s) persona as not being business friendly.”

The board chair even encouraged adding teeth to a proposed county noise ordinance, although he was a little more wary of playing favorites with county events.

“I think we need to arm county law enforcement with the tools, the authority, to deal with some of these issues,” Tofanelli said. “But I think we need to be careful when we talk about grandfathering-in. The Wood Whomp has been (in Mountain Ranch) for two years already. I think we’re on the fifth or sixth ‘bump’ festival at Lake Tulloch. So we may need to consider great-grandfathering, because there are still other good events in this county that are well-planned and need to go forward.”

County supervisors did not take official action on Thursday’s Planning Department proposal, though board chair Tofanelli did suggest staff return with a revised proposal as early as next month.

Supervisor Darren Spellman also attended the session. Supervisors Tom Tryon and Merita Callaway did not attend.