Supervisors on the Siskiyou County Board on Oct. 7 asked Community Development and Planning staff to draft an ordinance that would create an easier administrative path for temporary uses and clarify how declared emergencies work for short-term operations.

The move followed public discussion about a recent emergency power-pole replacement in Scott Valley, where county land-use rules made temporary storage and other short-term operations difficult to approve, a supervisor said during the meeting.

Why it matters: County officials and staff said the current code is written around longer-term, permanent land uses. That means a temporary contractor yard or short-term storage tied to an emergency often requires noticed hearings and planning commission review, which can take months and delay recovery or repair contracts.

Community Development Director (unnamed) told the board the Scott Valley incident required rapid contractor action and that the county's existing review process would likely have taken "probably six months" to permit a short-term storage site. Planning Director Haley Lang said staff are already working on changes to the zoning code and general-plan implementation to give the county more flexible administrative options.

"We are looking at... ramping up the temporary use permit process and having more allowances where it would be approvable by the community development director or planning director," Lang said, adding that an administrative process could cut approval times from several months to roughly a month.

Board members and staff agreed the draft should include two separate tracks: an administrative temporary-use permit for planned, non-land-altering short-term activities (for example, contractor yards or equipment storage), and a distinct declared-emergency process for immediate health-and-safety responses.

Planning staff said the temporary-use timeline and maximum durations would be set by ordinance; examples discussed included 30 days, 60 days, one year or another locally appropriate term. Supervisor comments emphasized simplicity and avoiding creation of "another bureaucracy," asking staff to keep the new procedures streamlined.

Direction and next steps: The board indicated consensus for staff to return with a possible ordinance for formal consideration. Lang and other planning staff said they would present a draft ordinance in coming months as part of the county's broader zoning-code updates.

Context: The discussion was framed by county experience in both emergency response and long recovery periods following wildfires and other disasters, where lengthy permitting for temporary operations can hinder timely contractor mobilization. Staff also noted the county is reviewing other agencies' approaches, including Montgomery County, as models for temporary-use allowances.

The board did not take a formal vote on a specific ordinance language at the Oct. 7 meeting but gave staff direction to draft and return with a proposed ordinance for a future hearing.