Interim General Manager, Durrell McAdoo, will meet with City staff early next week to negotiate the conditions to be in the Well #8 permit. A public hearing and permit issuance could be as soon as December 5, according to McAdoo’s September 26 report to the Board. We contacted the assigned planner to get a more detailed timeline and quote his explanation.
The City’s ordinance, State Law, and Environmental Law have required legal noticing procedures for environmental documents and conditional use permits. The City of Camarillo goes above and beyond these requirements.
Step 1 – The City will have a Notice of Preparation of a Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) published in the Acorn Paper. A sign will be posted at the site. A notice will be mailed to all residents within 600 feet of the project property boundary lines. The notice will detail that the MND is available for viewing online (a link will be provided), at the public counter at City Hall, and at the public library. Additionally, it will state the time limits (20 days) to provide comments and where to provide those comments. [Editor’s note: The planner told us orally that if the conditions are agreed next week, the notice will be published Friday, October 6.]
Between that notice and 20 days after, the City will take comments. The City will respond to those comments in writing. The comments and responses will be included in the final draft of the MND that is presented to the Planning Commission for review. It will take approximately 10 days to respond to comments depending on how many comments come in and the workload for our environmental consultant. The environmental experts will be responding to the comments. We do not take responses to the responses to comments. If you disagree with the response then you would have to bring that up at the public hearing.
Step 2 – The City will have a Notice of Public Hearing published in the Acorn Paper for the review of the Conditional Use Permit and to consider the adoption of the Final MND. A sign will be posted at the site. A notice will be mailed to all residents within 600 feet of the project property boundary lines. The notice will include the time, date, and location of the hearing. The hearing will also be live streamed on YouTube and will play live on the City’s TV Channel which can be accessed through your local cable TV provider. This information is also included in the paper and mailed notice. At the public hearing, there will be an opportunity for any member of the public to speak on the project. Those speakers will be limited to three minutes.
The hearing could happen at the next regularly scheduled Planning Commission hearing that occurs after the 20-day comment period has expired, but Staff will need time to respond to the comments and there are no regularly scheduled meetings in November. So, currently, this is penciled in for December 5.
I hope this answers all of your questions regarding the legally required environmental and public hearing notice requirements. If the City did not follow the requirements then any decision, for or against the project, would be void and a properly noticed hearing would have to be conducted.
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