Seven years after the county council decided San Juan County’s Code Enforcement Ordinance needed streamlining, the planning commission presented a new draft enforcement ordinance applicable to the Unified Development Code on April 8.

The council decided to move forward with the draft, scheduling a “Second Touch” hearing on April 23, and a Public Hearing and possible final passage for May 7, the final scheduled meeting of the six-person council.

The regulations carry out enforcement and appeals procedures, and penalties, for laws contained in the county’s Unified Development Code, which includes county laws on land development, remodeling, shoreline protection and the Critical Areas Ordinances. Enforcement of the county’s building and construction codes are also affected by the Code Enforcement Ordinance.

Code enforcement procedures have been a source of complaints and dissatisfaction in the building community since the current enforcement ordinance was passed in 1998.

According to Rene Beliveau, director of the Department of Community Development and Planning, builders and developers told him and the planning commission that notice of violation procedures were unclear, penalty provisions excessive, and correction and remediation methods unwieldy. All of these problems have been addressed in the proposal, Beliveau said.

A $2,300 up-front filing fee for appeals of land use decisions, originally designed to discourage frivolous appeals, has been a particular sore spot for builders and developers. The council is expected to reduce that fee as part of enacting the new code enforcement law.

Prohibiting third parties from intervening directly in appeals was one suggestion approved by the planning commission, but carrying out that suggestion has been left to the rules of procedure of the hearing examiner.

The proposed ordinance reduces penalties for violations, and provides for time to cure or correct violations before penalties or additional penalties are imposed. Double penalties are imposed for repeat violations, and triple penalties are imposed for Shoreline Master Program regulation violations.

Stop work orders, emergency orders, liens, suspension or revocation of permits and divisions of land are several areas of concern that are rewritten by the ordinance. The Planning Commission, which has been working on the draft for two years, approved the final version with only one “no” vote on one section of the proposed ordinance.

That kind of near-unanimity, after all the contentiousness of the CAO review, should result in final passage by the council on May 7.