Penalty Relief extended at Sonoma County Permit & Resource Management Dept

I know there is a lot of fear and loathing around the PRMD - sometimes for good reason! I just wanted to put it out there for folks who have projects done on the weekend without permit, that now is the time if you want to get those projects legitimately permitted. The County has implemented a program (in effect until August of 2011) where you can come down and find out what would be required to legalize that unpermitted work WITHOUT FEAR OF REPRISAL. This is not to say that all work done without permit CAN be permitted as done. If you are already in Code Enforcement with a violation in the system, it is too late for penalty relief. If you installed a cesspool next to the creek - we cannot issue a permit for that. But, if the work can be permitted - we will issue the permit WITHOUT PENALTY FEES. If you want to find out whether or not your project can be permitted, come on down and find out.

We are dealing with a perfect storm situation with the county on our unpermitted granny unit , an extortionist tenant and their preditory lawyer, and the expensive lawyers and the laws that allow and even encourage abuse of the landlord tenant and dissuade attorneys to censor their own kind in these actions. We , the homeowner offering an affordable rental unit in good condition are criminalized for so doing if we cannot afford to legalize our rental unit. Since the fees to legalize such units are near impossible to afford on top of the septic requirements and building costs. many of us rent on faith we have fair minded tenants.Assuming you have a rental in good condition and do not have deficiencies of habitability as landlords you are still vulnerable to a raud and greed, minded tenant who can become an extortionist with the help of an attorney. We are collecting like stories as ours and starting an initiative to change county permit fees to enable homeowners to comply - legalize these units and related building construction . . Let those who can afford to pay the going rates, but for the rest of us in this economy trying to hold on and get some rent to help with our costs and to offer affordable housing here ,we need relief now... If the amnesty and compliance process are made affordable enough by a reduced fee mandate based on income status, many more will come forward for permits , and the county will get their monies and compliant rental units .Come join the Alliance for Homeowners RIghts and the Alliance for Affordable Green Building Options. If you need your privacy should you have an illegal unit, let us know , and only use your first name and no adress or phone number in sharing your situation . The more case history stories of abuse by the PRMD, and perfect storm situations as ours we have documented enough, the more political strength we have in our numbers for approaching the supervisors to push for reforms here with the PRMD and landlord tenant laws to give fairness to the homeowner. . Please contact me at [email protected] Thanks

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Posted in reply to the post by ecoearthyacht:

We are dealing with a perfect storm situation with the county on our unpermitted granny unit , an extortionist tenant and their preditory lawyer, and the expensive lawyers and the laws that allow and even encourage abuse of the landlord tenant and dissuade attorneys to censor their own kind in these actions. We , the homeowner offering an affordable rental unit in good condition are criminalized for so doing if we cannot afford to legalize our rental unit. Since the fees to legalize such units are near impossible to afford on top of the septic requirements and building costs. many of us rent on faith we have fair minded tenants.Assuming you have a rental in good condition and do not have deficiencies of habitability as landlords you are still vulnerable to a raud and greed, minded tenant who can become an extortionist with the help of an attorney. We are collecting like stories as ours and starting an initiative to change county permit fees to enable homeowners to comply - legalize these units and related building construction . . Let those who can afford to pay the going rates, but for the rest of us in this economy trying to hold on and get some rent to help with our costs and to offer affordable housing here ,we need relief now... If the amnesty and compliance process are made affordable enough by a reduced fee mandate based on income status, many more will come forward for permits , and the county will get their monies and compliant rental units .Come join the Alliance for Homeowners RIghts and the Alliance for Affordable Green Building Options. If you need your privacy should you have an illegal unit, let us know , and only use your first name and no adress or phone number in sharing your situation . The more case history stories of abuse by the PRMD, and perfect storm situations as ours we have documented enough, the more political strength we have in our numbers for approaching the supervisors to push for reforms here with the PRMD and landlord tenant laws to give fairness to the homeowner. . Please contact me at [email protected] Thanks

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Hello--
I read your WACCO post with interest. I have suffered abuse in regard to my septic system, and have a long history of wrangling with PRMD over it. When my partner and I bought this creekside property in Occidental 16 years ago, a lot of remodeling was necessary and it put us in a category that required an absolutely insane, Rube Goldberg-contraption sort of system that we simply couldn't stomach, especially since testing proved that our old cesspool was not polluting the creek or doing any other environmental harm. When we refused to ruin our property with this monstrosity and in any case could not afford the $20,000 involved, PRMD put a lein on our property. PRMD would not consider any sort of composting toilet or any other solution no matter how I researched and lobbied them on it, saying in the end that State regulations would not allow any lesser solution. This may be basically true, yet I know they had some wiggle room, because when a new man took over the position of whatever they call the functionary that goes to the site and determines what needs to be done, he decided that the last guy had based his determination on an excessive amount of water usage for only two occupants, and downgraded the requirements somewhat. But the plan remained preposterously overblown, and PRMD refused to take responsibility and refund the $2000 we had paid them for the first plan.
Recently, however, I actually got the Division Manager, Randy Leach (!), to relent a little and look into the possibility of downgrading us into the next lowest category, which would require only a concrete septic tank and leach field. We'll see where that goes...