Planning Commission unanimously approves amendment allowing 2,000‑sq‑ft residential expansion at 5001 County Park Road

The Mariposa County Planning Commission on Aug. 8 approved an amendment to the conditions of approval for a conditional use permit that will allow a 2,000‑square‑foot expansion of the residential use at 5001 County Park Road.

Planning Director Steven presented slides and a staff recommendation, saying the parcel is a 0.7‑acre lot in the Mariposa Town planning area and that the existing residence is about 2,650 square feet. Steven said staff proposed amending “condition number 1” to permit an additional 2,000 square feet for residential amenities and accessory structures such as a concrete patio, pergola, turf area, hot tub and retaining wall. He said public sewer and water were available and that the site’s slope where the improvements would be made is about 6 percent.

Steven told the commission the change had to come before the body because the proposed expansion exceeded the 10 percent administrative expansion allowance and therefore could not be handled at staff level. He said the project is exempt from environmental review under CEQA guidelines as a minor addition to an existing facility and that staff circulated requests for comment and received no agency objections. A notice of exemption was included in the staff findings.

Commissioners asked whether the code should be changed to permit larger accessory expansions without coming to the commission; Steven said there is latitude to adopt a different percentage in future CUP conditions and that the restrictive original condition created the present situation. After public comment (none at the hearing) a commissioner moved and another seconded the resolution to adopt amended conditions for application DIS2020‑5‑00022 (conditional use permit #231). The motion passed unanimously.

The commission’s action amends the condition of approval to allow the described residential additions on the parcel. No subsequent implementation deadline or additional permits were specified in the record; usual permitting steps such as building permits and any required grading or utility permits remain necessary before construction.

For the record, staff said the parcel is in the general commercial zone but used as single‑family residential under the prior CUP, and that the original CUP had restricted expansions by specific square footage. The adopted amendment removes that specific restriction and authorizes the described 2,000‑square‑foot allowance, subject to the findings in the resolution and normal building permit review.

The commission did not adopt any county‑level change to the administrative percent expansion allowance on the wider code; members discussed that as a possible future code update but made no formal change at the Aug. 8 hearing.