Council approves expedited solar permitting, funds park re-design services
– At Tuesday night’s Paso Robles City Council meeting, the council voted unanimously to adhere to state law and continue to expedite the solar permitting process for residents. It also voted to approve additional funds for downtown City Park’s re-design services.
In 2014, the state passed, AB 2188 (Expedited Solar Permitting Act), that modifies the existing Solar Rights Act and requires each city or county to adopt an ordinance that creates an expedited solar permitting process by Sept. 30, 2015.
In order to expedite processing the city must ensure the following:
- Make available standard plans and checklists for small residential rooftop solar systems.
- All documents required for submission are to be available on the city’s website.
- After the receipt of a complete submittal, the city shall issue a building permit within a reasonable period of time.
- Only one inspection shall be required.
Adopting a standardized permitting process will increase the deployment of solar distributed generation as well as assist the state in reaching its clean energy goals.
The city adopted a “Climate Action Plan” in Nov. 2013 that includes a measure which identifies improving the solar permit review process.
Staff has made changes to the permitting process and at this time is satisfying all requirements of the act.
As part to of the city’s plan check improvement program, residential solar permits are being expedited with an average plan check timeframe of three working days. The city will also accept email submittals of electronic solar permit applications and plans. This will serve as a limited pilot program for digital plan checking that hopefully can be expanded in the future.
City staff feels that implementation of the act, “dovetails nicely with the city’s ‘Climate Action Plan’ and the building division’s current plan check improvement and streamlining programs and should not present any new implementation challenges.” The council voted unanimously to pass the motion.
The council also unanimously passed a motion to fund additional design services of the City Park project. The remaining request was for $44,950 in design services, bringing the total design program budget to $246,840. The total available funding for City Park improvements, including design services, is approximately $1.45 million.
The design agency, SSA Landscape Architects, said that the, “total scope of required ADA corrections – engineering and construction – to the pathways was not revealed until design commenced and survey was complete.” Councilman John Hamon questioned if the percent increase of design fees was the same as the original estimate. The percent, about 13, remains unchanged in the new cost. Councilman Fred Strong questioned if the total design of the park was still within budget, and it was confirmed that it is. The council then unanimously passed the motion.
