Administrative
decisions and hearing body decisions on applications including conditions of
approval may be appealed.
Initial public hearings on
applications are assigned to either the Zoning Administrator or to the
appropriate Planning Commission. Some
decisions are rendered administratively without going to public hearing.
The Zoning Administrator
conducts initial hearings and renders decisions on minor subdivisions and
related variances, major subdivisions of less than 100 lots, development plans,
conditional use permits, special permits and variance permits.
The Planning Commission
conducts initial hearings and makes recommendations to the Board of Supervisors
on General Plan amendments, specific plans and regulations, zoning ordinance
amendments and rezonings. The
Planning Commission also hears and decides on major subdivisions of 100 lots or
more, and any major subdivision or development plan accompanied by a rezoning.
Any decision of the Zoning
Administrator on an application may be appealed to the Planning Commission, and
any decision of the Planning Commission may be appealed to the Board of
Supervisors. The person making the
appeal must show grounds for the appeal. For
a subdivision appeal, either the subdivider or a person adversely affected may
appeal any decision regarding the tentative map or the required improvements.
For conditional use, variance,
development plan or special permit appeal, the grounds for appeal may be that
code requirements were not satisfied by the evidence presented at the hearing,
or that the conditions imposed were unreasonable, or that conditions recommended
during the hearing process should have been imposed but were not.
In all other matters, any
person may appeal if the person’s property rights or property value are
adversely affected and the decision does not comply with the General Plan, or if
the findings of the hearing body are not supported by evidence.
The appeal period is ten
calendar days from the date of the decision of the hearing body. All appeals of decisions of hearing bodies must be submitted to the
Community Development Department counter staff at the Application and Permit
Center, 651 Pine Street, Second Floor, North Wing, Martinez, prior to 5:00
p.m. on the last day of the appeal period. If the tenth day falls on a holiday, Saturday or Sunday, the next working
day will be treated as the final day of the appeal period.
The appeal must include:
1.
A letter stating reason(s) for the appeal.
2.
A filing fee of $125. (Irrespective
of who files the appeal, the applicant, will be required to pay actual staff
time and materials costs in excess of the $125 appeal fee).
Anyone deciding to file an
appeal, is strongly encouraged to personally file the appeal in the office of
the Community Development Department, and is cautioned against mailing the
appeal or otherwise using a third party delivery system.
An appeal and the $125.00 filing fee must be received by the Community
Development Department by the close of the appeal period in order for the appeal
to be valid.
Building permits may not be
issued for any approved project until the 10 day appeal period has passed.
If pertinent information was
not brought to the attention of the hearing body, a motion for reconsideration
may be filed. A reconsideration is
a request that the matter be returned to the hearing body which made the
decision. Like an appeal, the
request for reconsideration must be in writing, be accompanied by a $125.00
filing fee and be filed with the Community Development Department by the close
of the appeal period. Any request
for a reconsideration will be placed on the next available agenda of the hearing
body. At that time, the hearing
body will decide whether to grant or to deny the reconsideration request.
If the hearing body grants the
reconsideration, a public hearing date will be set.
If the hearing body declines to reconsider their decision, you may still
file an appeal. However, you must be cautioned, that the time in which an appeal
may be filed is limited to the number of days remaining from the date the
reconsideration request was filed to the end of that appeal period.
The staff of the Community Development Department is available to assist
you to ensure that you understand the process and timing of appeals.
An
administrative decision made by a County Officer pursuant to the Contra Costa
County Ordinance Code may be appealed directly to the Board of Supervisors.
The appellant shall, within thirty days of the action appealed from,
If
you have questions about how to file an appeal, contact the project planner
assigned to the application you are appealing.
Project planners are located in the Current Planning Division of the
Community Development Department and may be reached by calling (925) 335-1210.
You may also direct questions on appeals to the Community Development
Department staff at the Application and Permit Center, 651 Pine Street, Second
Floor, North Wing, Martinez, CA., 94553, (925) 335-1381.
Please see County Code Article
26-2.24 for the complete text related to appeals and reconsiderations, and see
County Code Chapter 14-4 for the complete text related to administrative
appeals.
The staff of the Community Development Department is available to assist you. Please feel free to contact the planning staff if you have further questions.