The county and a prominent winemaking family appear headed for a compromise that would iron out inconsistencies between state and county codes for building farm labor housing.

Amador County Supervisor Richard Forster suggested the compromise after Tuesday morning's discussion about waiving or discounting fees Ken and Jeanne Deaver would have to pay to erect farm labor quarters near their vineyard in Shenandoah Valley.

For the past several weeks, the Deavers and their attorney have clashed with a county ordinance requiring a conditional use permit to build the housing, which they say is inconsistent with state requirements to encourage the structures through easier permitting and lower fees. Supervisors agreed last week that county code needed updating and directed staff to work on possible ways to do so. In the meantime, staff was also asked to draft some options for reducing the Deavers' application costs, which the board considered Tuesday.

Interim Land Use Director Kristin Bengyel, the county's deputy administrative officer, presented those options, which ranged in cost from $7,768.02 to $23,341.18. The high end included the 3 percent inflation adjustment some fees would experience after the first of the year. District 5 Supervisor Brian Oneto said a planned $2,500 increase in traffic impact fees might not occur because of the state's economic downturn.

"The intent was to look at the state economy and decide whether to implement it," he said. "The way things are looking, I'm not really in support of raising that fee, I don't think."

Current application fees total $20,448.47, which the Deavers were hoping to cut by more than half to build their farm labor quarters.

The assortment of existing fees funnel money into county schools, recreation programs, traffic improvements, public safety and other areas. Some fees, like the ones that offset traffic impacts and go to the state and local schools, can't be waived. Instead, the Deavers were hoping to do away with the fees for recreation, facility upkeep, environmental health, application processing and for obtaining a use permit they say shouldn't be required.

Deaver attorney Robert Biegler maintained that the county's requirement for such a permit is in violation of sections of the California Health and Safety Code and state Government Code. The Health and Safety section, he wrote in a Nov. 17 letter to the board, "envisions" requirement of a ministerial permit for farm labor housing, which is less restrictive and costly.

"Whether we like them or not, we can't ignore state mandates," the Sacramento attorney said Tuesday.

While no fan of state mandates, Forster, chairman of the board of supervisors, wasn't in disagreement. He did, however, resist the idea of completely waiving some of the fees listed in what Biegler termed "the Deaver request."

"Even some of these farm workers, they're going to have kids. They're going to use the roads. They're going to use the schools. Occasionally, they're going to be in jail and, occasionally, they're going to come here, which is where (all these fees go)," he said. "I have a hard time completely waiving these fees, but maybe coming up with a reduced fee structure to meet the intent of the state's farm labor housing mandates."

Oneto pursued the meaning of the word "temporary" when it came to temporary farm labor housing. The potential impermanence of the structures, he suggested, should alter the way fees are levied so that a percentage of the total is collected each year rather than all at once. His colleagues felt that might be too complicated to implement and quibbled with his understanding of "temporary." The structures themselves likely wouldn't move and farm workers tend to put down roots, they pointed out.

"Farm labor workers stay on the ranch," Forster added. "We just want to have a good place for them to live."

The board chairman went on to suggest staff look at reducing fees on a percentage basis, while District 4 Supervisor Louis Boitano said other counties' policies should be reviewed. Bengyel said she could return with a modified fee structure before the end of the year.