Planning Commission recommends changes to Subdivision Ordinance

The county’s Planning Commission has recommended various amendments to the county’s Subdivision Ordinance.

The county’s Department of Planning and Land Use (DPLU) expects to docket the recommended changes for the January 27 meeting of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, who must approve any ordinance amendments. The Planning Commission recommendation vote December 18 was by a 4-2 margin with Leon Brooks, David Pallinger, John Riess and Bryan Woods in favor, Michael Beck and Peder Norby opposed, and Adam Day not present.

The two points of contention involved lot line angles and responsibility for sewer capacity. The proposed changes include requiring that a side lot line be approximately at right angles or radial to a road for a minimum one-third of the lot depth, requiring that a lot shall have a depth of at least 90 feet while prohibiting the unencumbered lot depth from exceeding three times the lot width, and requiring supplemental sewer and flood control improvements when they facilitate future connections and benefit the public.

Some of the less substantive changes drew the concern of Valle de Oro Community Planning Group chair Jack Phillips.

“So much of the change was syntax change that really didn’t change the meaning, but it made it very difficult to follow the meaning,” Phillips said.

The document now makes references to state codes rather than using specific standards.

“There seems to be an assumption that people are sitting around with the state code right in their hand,” Phillips said.

The proposed changes also prohibit a lot from being divided by a road, require a road ending on a subdivision boundary to serve a through street to an existing or proposed subdivision where feasible, allow processing of an on-site wastewater system for a minor subdivision to be processed in conjunction with the tentative parcel map application, establish procedures for voluntary mergers of parcels and eliminate provisions which currently allow an extension of an expired map for all subdivisions.

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