LAKEPORT – Putting a stop to zoning ordinance violations that result from resort properties being rented out on a permanent basis will be up for discussion at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.

In a discussion scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. in the board chambers at the Lake County Courthouse on N. Forbes, the board will take up the issue of resort properties – specifically, RV parks – that allow long-term residents.

The board will discuss and consider establishing a county Code Enforcement policy to respond to concerns about such properties allowing for ongoing residency without the proper zoning.

The issue arose recently during an April 21 discussion on the county's zoning ordinance.

“That's something we really need to tackle,” Supervisor Jeff Smith said at the April 21 meeting.

He said some of the parks have become blighted. “We've talked about it for years and years, how it's illegal.”

County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox told the board at the time that allowing RV parks to rent on a longterm basis results in lost revenue for the county in the form of transient occupancy tax and property tax.

Community Development Director Rick Coel said there are challenges with enforcing such codes on resorts. It crosses into the jurisdiction of the state Housing and Community Development Department, which overseas mobile homes and manufactured housing. Coel said the agency won't act on a violation unless it's caught within two years.

At that meeting, Board Chair Denise Rushing said long-term residents at RV parks is a huge issue, especially in District 3, which includes the Northshore towns of Nice, Lucerne and Clearlake Oaks.

Many of the people who live in the parks have made their trailers their full-time homes, and have been there a long time. “To go in now, I think, requires a full program.”

She said the county also needs to be sensitive to the economic times and not put the enforcement issue on the backs of those who can least afford it.

Replied Smith, “As far as I'm concerned, we're going after the owners of those parks.”

Cox told Lake County News that earlier in this fiscal year Code Enforcement made some efforts to try to bring such resort properties into compliance because of the zoning ordinance violations, but county staff needs clarification on how to proceed.

Besides loss of significant transient occupancy tax, the county is looking at health and safety issues in some of those long-term residency situations. “They weren't constructed to be permanent housing.”

Cox said he thinks Code Enforcement and Environmental Health should take the lead in dealing with such parks.

He said he expects additional discussions will take place, and complaints to be lodged by park owners. “You just don't go out and do this overnight.”

Cox said property owners who allow for long-term residency in violation of the zoning ordinance are breaking the law. “Something has to be done.”

He said there are housing alternatives, including the affordable housing apartment complex for seniors currently under construction by Eskaton in Clearlake Oaks, which he said doesn't have a full waiting list. There also is housing available in Lucerne and Clearlake.

When the county purchased Clark's Island in Clearlake Oaks, it had to relocate all of the residents. Cox said he thinks that everyone who left the island is now in a better situation, adding that the island's blighted condition was a good example of what happens when an RV park is let go to become permanent housing.

He said he doesn't know if the RV park owners will become liable for relocating their long-term renters, as they would be if they owned mobile home parks that are converting to another use.

Cox said the owners can apply for a zoning change if they want to change their use permits and keep long-term renters.

But, if they don't, they're violating their use permits. “The county has an obligation to enforce those permits. That's the point,” he said.

Rushing told Lake County News that she put the item on the May 5 agenda to give the board a chance to fully consider all of its implications.

“I think that there are some questions that we need to ask about how this is going to be done, and some of those questions involve the responsibility for tenants that have been longtime residents of these parks,” she said.

“Code enforcement is one of the most significant powers we have, and we have responsibility to exercise it very carefully,” she said, adding that just because the government can do something, doesn't mean that it should.

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