Permit fees

County now says it won't waive fire victims' rebuilding fees

By Joel Reese County officials this week clarified earlier statements that some West Marin residents had taken to mean that the county would waive permit fees for fire victims seeking to rebuild.

Only coastal and design-review permits will be waived. The news surprised some residents who attended a county meeting at the Dance Palace Oct. 8.

Point Reyes Station attorney John Burroughs, who lost his house in the blaze, said he was certain that county officials said fees would be dropped.

When told what officials said this week, Burroughs exclaimed incredulously, "What? Are you serious? They said flat out they were going to waive permit fees for people who are going to rebuild."

Contradicts officials Another Inverness Park resident who lost his home, Richard Blair, also said he too had understood that building fees were to be waived.

"We were told by various county officials that they were going to waive fees for people wanting to rebuild," he insisted. Blair and his wife had been staying parttime in a small studio cabin on their property as they prepared to build a house.

Chief Building Inspector Steve Jensen said fees for electrical permits, Building Department inspections, and plumbing permits typically cost up to $4,000.

Jensen acknowledged there was some discussion of waiving fees at the Oct. 8 meeting but said officials never stated all permit fees would be dropped.

"My impression was that we said what fees could be waived would be waived," he said, noting it would take a four-fifths vote by the board of supervisors to waive permit fees.

County's position Community Development Director Mark Riesenfeld agreed, "There was a discussion of a waiver of permit fees, but I know ... that it didn't include any and all fees. We were focusing on waiving coastal and design-review fees."

Disaster victims do not have to pay for coastal permits or design reviews if they don't enlarge the footprint of their former house by more than 10 percent, county officials explained this week.

A provision to allow this was put on county books after the 1982 storm.

Jensen added he looked at how other local governments dealt with previous disasters, such as a forest fire in Calaveras County, and found the fees were not waived.

Waivers would aid insurers "The only thing waiving the fees would do," he said, "would be to give the insurance companies a break, and I didn't think anyone wanted to do that."

It should be noted that, while some residents got the impression that fees were going to be dismissed, other residents did not.

"I never was under the conception they were going to waive the fees," said weekend resident Igor Sazevich, who lost his Paradise Ranch Estates home. "I never even gave it a second thought."

Michael Scriven, who also lost his home, agreed: "There was no suggestion they were going to waive [all fees]."

How could this confusion arise?

"The fee issue probably wasn't as clear as it should have been," Jensen said.

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