A Solvang resident who urged the city to change its tune on backyard shed policing is not satisfied with the city’s suggested solutions so far, and neither is the Solvang Planning Commission.
Both the resident, Chris Horn, and some members of the Planning Commission expressed concerns with a recent proposal from city staff, heard during the commission’s Feb. 7 meeting.
The proposal includes revisions to Solvang’s municipal code that staff drafted with an aim to “provide people with the most flexibility to have sheds,” City Manager Xenia Bradford said. But Horn said the suggested changes are still not flexible enough to accommodate at least half of the homeowners under fire for shed violations in the Skytt Mesa neighborhood—where the ongoing dispute originated.
In July of 2021, about 20 homeowners in Skytt Mesa, including Horn, became subject to code enforcement for having sheds in their yards that violated Solvang’s setback rules. During a City Council meeting in October, Horn argued that punishing the group would be unfair and arbitrary, while claiming that hundreds of homeowners throughout Solvang are violating the current code as well.
The Solvang City Council then asked the Planning Commission to provide recommended revisions to the municipal code that would apply not only to residents of Skytt Mesa, but every neighborhood within city limits.
“We’re trying to come up with a general standard to apply across the whole city,” Assistant City Attorney Chelsea O’Sullivan said during the Feb. 7 meeting, while explaining how the proposed revisions could exempt some homeowners from enforcement action, while also putting new unexamined cases under scrutiny.
During public comment, Horn argued that homeowners should have the chance to defend their own sheds on a case-by-case basis, which Commissioner Justin Rodriguez expressed his support for. Rodriguez also criticized elements of city staff’s proposal as “pretty cookie cutter,” and admitted that, if passed, the new regulations would force him to alter his own backyard shed situation.
“It’s not like a one-size-fits-all solution.” Rodriguez said. “What about the common sense proposals that Chris asked about? That sounded reasonable to me. It doesn’t seem like a burden to the community to do so on a case-by-case basis, to see which ones are within compliance and which ones are without.”
Reiterating another suggestion from Horn, Rodriguez said he wouldn’t be opposed to excusing the original Skytt Mesa homeowners from enforcement action if they’re able to pass an inspection with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
“As far as I know, fire coming out and saying ‘OK, seems good,’ is still not consistent with the code. If there’s an inconsistency with the code, that’s the code enforcement officer’s purview, not fire,” O’Sullivan responded. “So whether it’s fire safe is a separate question from whether it’s a code violation.”
City staff did discuss the proposed code revisions with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department however, which became the subject of a separate concern from the Planning Commission.
One of the suggested design standards, drafted as a preference from the Fire Department, is to enforce that all backyard sheds remain at least 5 feet away from the home, so firefighters can have space for easy ladder access.
“It just seems illogical,” Commissioner Aaron Petersen said. “Because I can fill my 5 feet with trees and you’d never get through it, and shrubs, and everything else, and wheelbarrows, and whatever I wanted to put over there.”
Petersen asked staff if the 5 feet notion was a request or a requirement of the Fire Department, which O’Sullivan and Planning Consultant Laurie Tamura could not provide a definitive answer to.
The Planning Commission ultimately decided not to take official action on the proposal and directed staff to seek clarification from the Fire Department on its stance.
This article appears in Feb 10-17, 2022.