To: Board of Supervisors
From: Planning and Building Department
Agenda Section: Consent
Vote Requirement: 4/5th
SUBJECT:
title
Budget Transfer in the Amount of $50,000 to Complete the Titlow Hill General Plan Amendment (GPA), Rezone and Associated Conditional Certificates of Compliance and Environmental Impact Report (EIR) (4/5 Vote Required)
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RECOMMENDATION(S):
Recommendation
That the Board of Supervisors:
1. Approve the budget transfer (Attachment 2), transferring $50,000 from General Fund Contingencies to the Planning and Building Current Planning Division (1100-277) to complete the work on the Titlow Hill GPA, Rezone, EIR and Conditional Certificates of Compliance applications. (4/5 Vote Required)
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STRATEGIC PLAN:
This action supports the following areas of your Board’s Strategic Plan.
Area of Focus: Core Services/Other
Strategic Plan Category: 9999 - Core Services/Other
DISCUSSION:
The Board of Supervisors is being asked to provide $50,000 in matching funds to allow completion of the work to legalize parcels in the Titlow Hill Area. This request stems from the Board of Supervisors offer on Feb. 7, 2023, that the Board would allocate $50,000 for work to complete this work if the property affected owners would form a Road Maintenance Association and raise $50,000 to support this effort. The property owners have now formed a Road Maintenance Association and raised $50,000 in matching funds.
Background
The Titlow Hill project involves a 6,244-acre area south of Highway 299 and west of Titlow Hill Road. Within this larger area, a checkerboard of approximately 2,600 acres that was designated Agricultural Grazing in the County Framework Plan, as well as in the 2017 Humboldt County General Plan, was divided into a total of 62 parcels and conveyed to new owners without going through the process of creating a legal subdivision. This first came to the attention of the county in 2007.
The District Attorney’s Office filed proceedings against the subdivider, asking that the subdivider be responsible for taking the necessary steps to create legal parcels. The Court determined that there was no victim and directed the County to work on addressing the illegally created parcels. The court required the subdivider to contribute $150,000 towards the cost of taking the necessary steps to create legal parcels. This amount was never sufficient to fund an EIR and process the necessary entitlements. The county asked for compensation to complete the GPA, rezone and permitting and address the environmental damages in the amount of $2.1 million but the court did not award funding for this work. It was not clear whether the court recognized that ultimately these costs would need to be borne by somebody to complete the legalization of these parcels.
As a result, the Titlow Hill GPA project’s objective is to process the necessary entitlements to deem the parcels created outside the Subdivision Map Act as legal parcels.
In 2017 the county contacted affected property owners to determine if any would contribute to the work of preparing an EIR, modifying the General Plan, rezoning the property and preparing Conditional Certificates of Compliance. Initially 42 property owners each contributed $3,000 to fund this work. An Administrative Draft of the EIR has been prepared, but work was stymied due to the lack of an engineering design for internal road improvements. The EIR cannot be completed without some level of detail assessing the environmental effects of improving the ranch roads to comply with Fire Safe Standards. Currently the budget is expended and there are no funds to hire an engineer or biologist to complete this work.
Approximately $1,000 remains in the trust fund. In 2023 Planning and Building staff proposed to the Board that the Department would complete the Draft EIR in-house using county funds and resources, and with contractors for the engineering and the biological technical documents to support the EIR. At that time, County staff estimated the cost of staff time and contract work would be approximately $100,000. The Board was asked to fund the $100,000. At the February 7, 2023 Board meeting, after some discussion, the Board voted to provide a match of up to $50,000 provided that the Titlow Hill owners raised the match amount and created and joined a Road Maintenance Association. A Road Maintenance Association has now been formed, and through that effort the landowners have raised $50,000 to contribute to this effort.
Since February of 2023 inflation and burden rates have increased and the cost to complete the work will likely be higher than the 100,000 estimated in 2023. County staff time to complete the non-technical sections of the DEIR; formatting and publication for 45-day review; response to comments and preparation of the Final EIR; staff reports to the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors; CEQA compliance documentation and project management would likely cost up to $80,000 or more and the technical studies to complete the work could be as much as $70,000. Any costs over the $100,000 would come out of the County’s General Fund contribution to the Department.
These costs do not include the cost of implementing required mitigation measures that are expected to arise from the EIR analysis, such as road improvements.
The result of this work will be the issuance of Conditional Certificates of Compliance for the participating property owners that specify the improvements and documentation necessary to recognize the parcels as legal under the Subdivision Map Act. This will allow the properties to be legally bought and sold but will not allow the properties to have building permits issued until the conditions are complied with. The biggest condition will be improvements to the ranch roads to make them fire safe. The RMA has been meeting to develop a strategy to put them in a position to acquire grant funding for this work. Once all the conditions have been complied with, the parcels will be deemed legal parcels and the structures on site can be permitted.
SOURCE OF FUNDING:
Revenue related to this request is recommended to come from General Fund Contingencies (1100-990).
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
Expenditures associated with this request were not included in the adopted budget for FY 2026-27. This supplement budget request includes increased professional services expenditures in the amount of $50,000 for Planning & Building - Current Planning budget unit 1100-277.
Approval of the attached appropriation transfer will allow Planning & Building to fund $50,000 matching funds to allow completion of the work to legalize parcels in the Titlow Hill Area as a one-time transfer from General Fund Contingencies, 1100-990, in FY 2026-27. The FY 2026-27 General Fund Contingencies has an available fund balance of $3,357,626. If approved, this transfer would bring the balance to $3,307,626.
STAFFING IMPACT:
Existing staff
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
There are no other agencies involved in the request for funding. The Environmental Health Division and Public Works Department will be involved in preparation of the Conditions associated with preparation of the Conditional Certificates of Compliance.
ALTERNATIVES TO STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS:
The alternative action for the Board to consider is to decline funding for this request in which case work cannot progress on the effort to legalize the parcels in the Titlow Hill area unless the property owners pay for the needed work.
ATTACHMENTS:
NOTE: The attachments supporting this report have been provided to the Board of Supervisors; copies are available for review in the Clerk of the Board's Office.
Attachment 1: GPP-17-001 Titlow Hill General Plan Amendment 8.10.17
Attachment 2: Budget Transfer
Attachment 3: BOS Action Report from February 7, 2023
PREVIOUS ACTION/REFERRAL:
Meeting of: 9/15/207, 2/7/2023
File No.: 17-2308, 23-116