Open Space Zoning – Letter to BOS

To: The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors

From: Muriel Zeller, 2640 Stagecoach Drive, Valley Springs, CA 95252

Regarding: Zoning Ordinance Update, January 12, 2021 Board Meeting Agenda Item 26

Date: January 11, 2021

Honorable Supervisors,

The Calaveras County Zoning Update Code Analysis prepared by Miller Planning Associates and Mintier Harnish states on page 14, “…General Plan Implementation Measure COS‐1A, Open Space Zoning Ordinance, calls for a new open space zoning ordinance to identify lands which have been dedicated to open space purposes [pursuant to Government Code §65910 et seq]. This measure should be addressed by a new Open Space Zoning District.”

In an email to Planning Director Peter Maurer on February 11, 2016, I wrote, “As I said during public comments today at the Planning Commission meeting during which the Conservation and Open Space Element of the 2014 draft General Plan was being considered, I believe that the county is obligated to create an Open Space Zoning Ordinance according to California Government Code 65910…  The county is not merely allowed to ‘consider’ creating such an ordinance as commissioners revised the draft plan to read. The relevant government codes are attached.”  

You see, I was (and am) heavily invested in the preservation of open space.  The Planning Commission was not.  I concluded my email by saying, “If the Open Space Element does not embody a comprehensive open space preservation plan, it will likely not pass muster during the EIR process and, ultimately, may not be legally defensible.”

In Chapter 4, Required Elements (page 121), the California General Plan Guidelines state, “Together with the conservation element, an open space element identifies areas that provide value in an essentially undeveloped condition and creates a plan to preserve such areas.”  The Calaveras County General Plan adopted in November 2019 does not adequately identify valuable open space nor does it create a preservation plan for open space.  “Open-space zoning pursuant to § 65910 (e.g., exclusive agriculture zones, large-lot zones, overlay zones for hazards areas, etc.) must be consistent with the adopted long-range and comprehensive open space plan.”  Calaveras County doesn’t have such a plan, so it will be difficult to make open space zoning consistent with a non-existent plan.

According to Government Code Section 65560, “(a) ‘Local open-space plan’ is the open-space element of a county or city general plan adopted by the board or council, either as the local open-space plan or as the interim local open-space plan adopted pursuant to Section 65563.”  The policies of the open space element must provide that open space “be conserved wherever possible.”  In addition, the open space element must include an inventory of open space land including “any parcel that is essentially unimproved (i.e., need not be completely vacant).”  The General Plan does not even include an open space map.  

There is an open space map dated 2015 in the Background Report, but the Background Report is not part of the General Plan, and the 2015 map does not properly identify all open space.  In particular, it does not identify all lands under a conservation easement, the epitome of open space, including land known by the Planning Department at the time to be under a conservation easement.  (I can provide email correspondence from 2013 through 2016, which documents this fact.)

Please adopt a long-range comprehensive plan for the preservation of open space which includes an inventory of open space land as defined in the Government Code before proceeding with the adoption of an Open Space Zoning Ordinance.  Thank you for your consideration.

Regards,

Muriel Zeller

cc:

Peter Maurer, Calaveras County Planning Director

Tom Infusino, Facilitator, Calaveras Planning Coalition

Joyce Techel and Colleen Platt, MyValleySprings.com

Ellie Routt and Chris Wright, Mother Lode Land Trust