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Volume 171 • Issue 34 | 75¢
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Monday, March 21, 2022
EDHCSD OKs fees for ADUs Sel Richard Staff writer
Residents who have considered building a guest house or granny unit on their property, take note. The El Dorado Hills Community Services District Board of Directors recently voted to collect a park impact fee for accessory dwelling units. An ADU is defined as a secondary house or apartment that shares the building lot of a larger, primary home. The CSD allows ADUs in all zones that permit single-unit residential development and, up until this point, has not charged a park impact fee during the permitting process. Park impact fees pay for new public parks and facilities in El Dorado Hills and are assessed on each new residential unit built within the CSD’s service boundary. The adopted proposal requires an exemption for ADUs smaller than 750 square feet from paying impact fees and states that fees be proportional to the floor area of the primary dwelling unit. For the last three years, a total of 83 ADUs were permitted in El Dorado County, six of which were approved within the EDHCSD boundary. Two permits were for dwellings just over 1,150 square feet, three around 500 square feet and one was missing data. Only the two permits over the 750 square feet threshold would have been assessed an impact fee. “The proposed ADU fee will help to reduce the district’s general fund impact to meet anticipated goals and projects identified in the district’s master plan,” said Principal Planner Tauni Fessler. “The addition of ADUs will certainly add population to the community, therefore putting a strain on the district’s current parks and facility inventory.” “It’s going to change the landscape of our community drastically,” said CSD Board Vice President Noelle Mattock, warning against the unknown impact of future ADU growth and the leniency of
Mountain Democrat photo by Eric Jaramishian
Apple Bistro owner Jennette Waldow sits with her legal counsel Ronda Kennedy in El Dorado County Superior Court Department 9 in Cameron Park March 14.
Apple Bistro eviction comes but no pandemic connection Eric Jaramishian & Krysten Kellum Mountain Democrat staff El Dorado County sheriff ’s deputies evicted Apple Bistro from its Placerville hilltop Thursday morning but it wasn’t for the restaurant operating since July 2020 without a health permit. The county filed a lawsuit against Apple Bistro Nov. 8, 2021, regarding permitting issues and on Feb. 18 the eatery was hit with an El Dorado County Superior Court-ordered injunction to cease operations as noncompliance continued amid COVID-19 restrictions. Apple Bistro continued to welcome diners despite the injunction. In posts to social media management stated they planned to stay open. The restaurant owes more than
$1.3 million in penalties, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s violation summary. Apple Bistro’s eviction this week has to do with a well that wasn’t permitted to be used as the restaurant’s water supply. According to spokeswoman for the county Carla Hass, Apple Bistro paid a fine in the amount of about $2,400 and submitted an application for a new health permit. The county turned that March 7 payment down as the restaurant didn’t have a permit for the well used for its water supply, Hass said. Hass explained that then the restaurant’s landlord arranged to have Apple Bistro evicted. Sheriff ’s officials reported they conducted a “lawful eviction of the location pursuant to a valid El
Dorado County court order.” Days before, Apple Bistro owner Janette Waldow appeared in El Dorado County Superior Court regarding the injunction. Judge Dylan Sullivan set a case management conference for April 11. Representing Waldow is attorney Ronda Kennedy, a Burbank-based attorney who recently gained media attention in a case where residents filed lawsuits against Ventura County for closing gun stores for 48 days in 2020 during statewide shutdowns. A Jan. 20 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling found the extended closures unconstitutional since gun stores are considered an essential business, overruling lower court decisions. n
See apple bistro, page A7
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See ADUs, page A3
Four candidates vie for District 5 Supervisor’s seat Tahoe Daily Tribune The race for El Dorado County’s fifth PLACE ADDRESS LABEL HERE
supervisorial district seat is off and running after the filing period closed March 16. The seat is currently held by Sue Novasel, who has termed out and will not be running again. Novasel was elected in 2014 and has served since. The El Dorado County Charter states, “No person elected supervisor may serve as such for more than two successive fouryear terms.” Novasel could take four years off, then run again, but she said she has, “no plans of doing that.” With no incumbent in the race, four
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candidates will be vying to represent large portions of Tahoe including South Lake Tahoe, Meyers and north to Tahoma, plus residents outside of the Tahoe Basin down to Pollock Pines. Brooke Laine, Tamara Wallace, Kenny Curtzweiler and Jeffrey Spencer have all thrown their names in the hat. While the district does represent residents down the hill, all four candidates come from the Tahoe Basin. Laine is a former mayor of South Lake Tahoe and opted not to run for her city council seat in 2020.
Wallace, who was the first person to file for candidacy, is currently serving on the South Lake Tahoe City Council. Spencer, a longtime transportation planner, has been active in helping address the traffic issues in Meyers and pushed for the turn restrictions that will be piloted this summer, and the program may be used elsewhere in the county. Curtzweiler, owner of K & K Services and Lake Tahoe Ski Bum, was the second person to join the race and has run twice before, both times falling to
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The only other county elected positions with more than one candidate is the District 4 Supervisors seat where incumbent Lori Parlin is challenged by Bogdan Amboriewicz and county assessor where voters will have to choose between Jon DeVille and Danielle Yandow. Several city of South Lake Tahoe offices are up for reelection, however, those positions will only appear on the General Election ballot. Ballots for the primary will be mailed out May 9 and voting centers will open May 28.
Novasel, but gaining ground in the last election. The primary election will be held June 7. The top two votegetters will advance to the General Election in November. County voters will also be asked to vote for sheriff, auditor, controller, superintendent of schools, surveyor and tax collector. Each of those offices only has one candidate running. If that candidate wins the majority, they win the office but if they don’t have a majority, they will need to be voted on again in the general election.
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