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Board finds Sandoval ADU application incomplete, denies appeal after dispute over checklists and statutory timelines
Summary
In a contested hearing the Board denied an appeal by an applicant who argued the ADU application was approved by operation of law. Planning staff said required fire and flood control materials were missing; the board found the application incomplete and denied the appeal.
The Board of Supervisors on July 7 denied an appeal of an incompleteness determination for an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) application submitted by Diana Sandoval.
Planning staff told the board the application lacked four specific items required to verify health and safety: confirmation whether the primary residence has fire sprinklers, a scaled fire‑truck turnaround on site plans, identification of the closest fire hydrant along access routes, and survey‑quality delineation of nearby flood hazard areas. Willow Brown of the Planning and Development Department said those items were necessary for the Carpinteria‑Summerland Fire Protection District and County Flood Control to determine whether the ADU would meet basic safety standards.
The appellant, represented by counsel, argued the application had been submitted and fees paid on February 28 and that state ADU law produces ministerial approval by operation of law if the county fails to act within statutory deadlines. The appellant asserted the county changed the checklist requirements during processing and therefore had effectively denied ministerial ADU approval.
After public comment and extensive questions from supervisors about whether specific checklist items exist in county records and whether state ’amnesty’ provisions applied, the board concluded staff had authority to request the missing health‑and‑safety documentation and voted unanimously to find the application incomplete and deny the appeal. Chair Nelson and other supervisors emphasized that applicants may work with staff to cure checklist items and that incompleteness findings are a standard part of the ADU intake process.
What happens next: The applicant may provide the missing documentation, after which Planning will proceed to determine compliance with the checklists and applicable state requirements. The board noted the complexity of ADU timelines and asked staff to clarify how completion dates are computed in such appeals.
