Supervisors Consider Ordinance Changes

Tuolumne County Supervisors will revisit in two weeks a county ordinance amendment that would require re-subdivisions of five or more parcels to provide for parks or recreational areas.

County planning director Bev Shane says state regulations have been in effect since 1987, and that the recreation provision in the county General Plan was changed in 1996 to lower the requirement from 100 parcels down to five.

Supervisors voiced concern that extra costs incurred by developers would be passed on to homebuyers in the form of higher home prices.

Supervisor Mark Thornton says he’s concerned that the requirement would have the unintentional affect of forcing larger projects on the county.

“If we´re making it more costly to subdivide,” Thornton said Tuesday morning, “we may be directing ourselves to where all the subdivision proposals we have in the future are going to be Mountain Springs in size because they have to cover a threshold of critical mass before it´s cost effective to do it.”

Shane said the amended ordinance would not raise costs. She noted the three options a developer would have.

“Any project qualifying for a subdivision map under our county regulations will now have to provide either recreation facilities on site, dedicate land to the county for such facilities, or pay a fee in lieu of that dedication or provision of facilities,” Shane said.

The change would bring the ordinance into line with a change made in 1996 in the county General Plan. It will be discussed again in two weeks.