County starts reorganizing Planning, Building Division County starts reorganizing Planning, Building Division (September 28, 2005)

By Marion Softky

Almanac Staff Writer

In response to two scathing reports last spring, San Mateo County has started to overhaul its troubled Planning and Building Division so that it can process planning and building permits more promptly and efficiently.

Already it has hired Lise Grote as community development director to run a division that has not had a director since Planning Director David Hale left in 1986.

The county has hired contract planners to trim the backlog of applications and reduce the workload in the Current Planning department to 30 or 40 cases per planner. Planners had been handling 80 or more cases, creating problems for staff, applicants and the public.

On September 20, the county's Board of Supervisors approved the first of three phases, responding to recommendations by the Grand Jury and the Planning and Building Task Force. The next report is due in December.

Ms. Grote recommended hiring a new senior planner to help supervise contract planners and move projects, and a new permit coordinator to help track building permits and manage more than 14,000 visits to the permit desk each year.

Other recommendations included allowing more decisions to be made administratively, subject to appeal; staffing adjustments; hiring a paid intern; and more training.

Ms. Grote plans to offer a more comprehensive package of recommendations in December.

While some of the $740,000 cost of the changes will come out of division reserves, the rest will come to the supervisors for approval this week when they fine-tune the county's $1.4 billion budget.

"That department was drowning under an avalanche of cases," said Supervisor Adrienne Tissier, co-chair of the county task force. "I support administrative decisions."

Kathryn Slater-Carter of the Mid-Coast Community Council stressed the importance of community review. A permit to cut down a tree can change a neighborhood, she warned. "We're losing the character of the Coastside," she said. "It's like a patchwork.

Ms. Slater-Carter also asked for clearer and stronger rules requiring that neighbors be notified of projects near them, and that the costs of an appeal be reviewed.

"It is very important to have community review," she said. "We were left out of the task force. Please don't leave us out of the process."

The supervisors asked for more review of the requirements for notifying neighbors, and for another look at costs of appeals.

"We want to be sure we notify people adequately," said Supervisor Jerry Hill.

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