Planning commission forwards Mid Pines Community Plan, recommends negative declaration with edits

The Mariposa County Planning Commission voted to forward to the Board of Supervisors a recommendation to adopt the Mid Pines Community Plan (General Plan Amendment No. 2024‑113) together with a proposed negative declaration under CEQA, subject to the edits and clarifications discussed by the commission.

Planning Director Steve Engford summarized the plan as a community‑level policy document developed over many years by the Mid Pines Planning Advisory Committee. He described the plan area as approximately 14,544 acres (about 22.7 square miles) and said the plan includes land‑use categories such as Mid Pines Residential, Mid Pines Rural Economic Resort/Commercial, Plan Development Area, Ag Working Landscape, Natural Resources, and Public Sites. Engford emphasized the policy nature of the plan: it does not itself rezone property or authorize physical development; zoning measures to implement the plan would follow adoption.

The commission and members of the public spent considerable time on implementation concerns: consistency with the recently drafted county development code (titles 15/17), workforce housing allowances, dark‑sky standards and scenic‑highway overlay areas, watershed overlays and parcel‑size limits, and fire safety and noise policy. Engford said the plan supports development of a countywide noise ordinance and identifies Mid Pines‑specific considerations to be addressed when zoning and regulations are drafted.

Members of the Mid Pines advisory committee and long‑term residents recounted an extensive public process and defended the plan’s boundaries and guiding principles. Angela Heise, a long‑time committee member, invoked fire risk as part of the rationale behind more restrictive community commercial choices: “One of those fires was a telegraph fire that had been started by a bullet that hit a rock,” she said, explaining why the committee had cautioned about some visible uses along the highway corridor.

Commissioners asked staff to ensure the plan’s language aligns with recently adopted development code provisions for workforce housing and dark‑sky standards, and to verify map boundaries where the watershed overlay might conflict with proposed land‑use designations. Staff agreed to add a specific insertion referencing the low‑density owner‑built dwelling provisions from title 15 and to reconcile dark‑sky wording with the county development code.

The commission also discussed and ultimately removed an explicit sentence that would have listed gunsmithing and firearm sales as incompatible with the community commercial subclassification; the committee members said the intent was to discourage a visible retail gun shop in the scenic corridor rather than to broadly prohibit firearms or home‑based uses.

A motion was made to forward the Mid Pines Community Plan and the proposed negative declaration to the Board of Supervisors with the edits outlined by staff (including Title 15 reference, verifying watershed boundaries, updated dark‑sky language and consistency checks with the county development code) and to remove the specific prohibition on firearm sales in the community‑commercial description. The motion was seconded and carried.