PC addresses
growing
demand for farmer’s markets
By Joe
Naiman
The Alpine Sun
SAN DIEGO — While most of the Zoning Ordinance changes
recommended for approval by the county’s Planning Commission
were minor revisions, a more prominent change would allow a
Certified Farmer’s Market to operate by right in
appropriately-zoned areas.
The Planning Commission’s 6-0 vote Nov. 21, with
Commissioner Bryan Woods absent, sends the recommendations to
the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. The county’s
Department of Planning and Land Use intends to docket the
recommended changes for the Dec. 10 Board of Supervisors
meeting.
The proposed changes add a definition for a Certified
Farmer’s Market. Under the definition a Certified Farmer’s
Market may be either indoors or outdoors but must be a temporary
facility for the display and sale of produce or other
agricultural products such as horticulture, nuts, honey, and
eggs.
A Farmer’s Market becomes a Certified Farmer’s Market
upon issuance of a certificate by the county’s Department of
Agriculture, Weights and Measures.
If the supervisors approve the change, a Certified
Farmer’s Market will be allowed on a legal lot on parcels with
certain zoning and under specified conditions. The changes would
also exempt a Certified Farmer’s Market from a site plan.
“There’s growing demand for Farmer’s Markets,” said
Eric Larson, the executive director of the San Diego County Farm
Bureau.
At the time of the Planning Commission hearing, only
three of the 31 Certified Farmer’s Markets in San Diego County
were located in unincorporated communities. One of those is at a
school in Lakeside, although a county park has been identified
as a more preferred site.
“That attempt to put the Farmer’s Market in Lakeside is
one of the reasons the ordinance cleanup came about,” Larson
said.
“Under these regulations, we’ll be able to put that
market in what we think is a much better location in the
community,” Larson said. “It’s a more centralized location, more
visible to the community.”
Under the proposed regulations a Certified Farmer’s
Market would be allowed on public property (with permission of
the public agency) or on property with commercial C31
(Residential-Office Professional), C32 (Convenience Commercial),
C34 (General Commercial-Residential), C35 (General
Commercial/Limited Residential), C36 (General Commercial), C37
(Heavy Commercial), C40 (Rural Commercial), or C42 (Visitor
Serving Commercial) zoning.
The five commercial zones where a Certified Farmer’s
Market would not be allowed are RC (Residential-Commercial), C30
(Office-Professional), C38 (Service Commercial), C44 (Freeway
Commercial), and C46 (Medical Center).
A Certified Farmer’s Market would not be allowed within
a private road easement or on vacant or unimproved land, and the
sales area may not disrupt the flow of traffic onto and off of
the site.
Farmer’s Markets would be limited to one day per week. All
activities, including setup and preparation as well as sales and
close-up, would be limited to between 6:30 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Monday through Saturday and between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. on
Sunday.
The approval of the amendments to the Zoning Ordinance
was simplified when a proposal to allow up to five private
burial plots on owner-occupied primary residences of at least
ten acres was deferred to a future date.
“We had some outstanding legal issues,” county
Department of Planning and Land Use interim director Eric Gibson
said of the elimination of the burial plot allowance from the
proposed amendments.
“I was pleased to see that,” Planning Commissioner
Michael Beck said of the removal of the burial plot issue.
Greenhouses of any size are allowed by right in areas
with Rural Residential, Agricultural A70 and A72, and General
Rural S92 zoning, and in other residentially-zoned areas
greenhouses of up to 450 square are allowed by right while a
Minor Use Permit may increase the allowable size.
The changes would replace the Minor Use Permit
requirement with an Administrative Permit (both permits allow
for public review but a minor use permit request is
automatically heard by the county’s Zoning Administrator while a
hearing for an administrative permit takes place only if
requested by a member of the public) while increasing the
by-right size to 500 square feet.
The proposed changes would also codify compliance with
applicable setback and building code requirements for all
greenhouses while giving the building official the authority to
determine whether a building permit is required for a
greenhouse.
The recent creation of the Boutique Winery use
classification led to the proposed addition of an exemption of a
single sign of up to 12 square feet from sign regulations. An
existing exemption covers a permitted roadside sales stand which
advertises products on the premises.
A proposed change to the setback definition stipulates
that if a parcel or lot abuts a public road the front setback
will be measured from the center line of that public road.
Another proposed change allows the on-site incidental
sale by a recycling facility of products produced from recycled
material.
The proposed changes will also exempt county-undertaken
solid waste management projects on county-owned land (for
example, recycling activities at community centers) from the
Zoning Ordinance.
The manager of a recreational vehicle park is currently
permitted to reside continuously in the park, and the proposed
changes would require on-site residence either on a campground
space or in a permanent dwelling unit.
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