The Amador County Technical Advisory Committee was called upon Wednesday afternoon to participate in the process of completing some long-awaited changes to the county general plan's housing element.

With the highly publicized conflict between vineyard owner Ken Deaver and the county planning department fresh in people's minds, some moves toward resolution of the underlying issues have been expected.

"We first need to work toward implementing the policies that have to do with farm worker housing - then the others," said county planner Heather Anderson.

The housing element was revised and changes to it were approved by the Amador County Board of Supervisors in 2005. The approved changes to the housing element were to be inserted into the county general plan, along with changes to other elements that would otherwise be rendered inconsistent with the housing element.

Implementation of these 20 pages of changes requires a considerable amount of work. It also could result in a measurable loss of revenues to the county from permit and impact fees.

Of particular importance is a provision in program D.d that allows farmworkers to live in housing located on a parcel other than where they work.

"We need to look at ways of reducing fees for these types of housing," county planning Director Susan Grijalva told the committee. "We are going to need feedback from county departments about reductions in fees."

Complications arise, though, Grijalva said, "if someone comes in with (an application for) a 36-bed unit, you get into questions of health, septic and such."

Committee chairman Mike Israel, director of the environmental health department, pointed out that more than 25 people using the same water source triggers a requirement for a public water system. Grijalva noted that the Williamson Act could come into play, in that the act prohibits reduction of the agricultural use of land. Conversion to housing, she said, could be considered a violation of that restriction.

"Studies have shown that occupants of affordable housing use parks as much if not more than the rest of the population," added Liz McLeod, representing the Amador County Recreation Agency. "While we recognize the need for affordable housing in Amador County and support its integration into the general plan's housing element, we also have concerns about reducing or eliminating its associated recreation impact fees."

Amador County Transportation Commission Executive Director Charles Field informed the committee that traffic mitigation fees are often reduced on affordable housing projects in other jurisdictions, but such reductions need to be done very carefully. There are legal challenges possible, Field said, if traffic impact fees (or reductions thereof) are based on non-traffic-related concerns, such as policy goals. Field submitted a written statement to the committee, in which he outlined the obstacles, while introducing the concept of creation of a fund paid into by developers.

"I like Charles' idea," Israel said, "that projects not providing low income housing pay into a fund."

In that the technical advisory committee is not a decision-making body, no decisions were made. Committee members agreed that further research in affected county departments was essential prior to drafting of any recommendations.

A separate agenda item requesting a use permit to allow an existing trailer as a Sunday school/meeting room for the Mt. Zion Assembly of God church near Pine Grove led to more than an hour of dialogue among the applicant, committee members and county officials.

"Every time I talk to someone, I get a different answer," said Mt. Zion Pastor Blayne Corzine. "I still haven't got an answer on what this is going to cost. It's gone from $575 to $1,300 and now more."

"When you change from a storage building to a building you are going to put people in," Grijalva explained, "you have to go through the process of meeting all the requirements of the new use."

After input from committee members, Corzine concluded, "If I had just put Sunday school classroom' on the application (rather than simply 'classroom'), I could have avoided much of this. I didn't know when I came into this that I was changing the whole dynamic."

Mt. Zion has had changes of plans and personnel since applying for and receiving permits for projects. Some of their projects have been completed, while others have not. Jim McCart, a committee member and the county fire district, pointed out the presence of a 40- by 80-foot building on a drawing for a permit approved in 2002. Corzine said that building had never been built due to a lack of sufficient funding.

McCart arose and exited the conference room, returning shortly with a sheet of paper in his hand, which he handed to Amador County Assistant Administrative Officer Kristin Bengyel. "Jim was good enough to go and retrieve a document," she said, "that shows that the church is due a refund of more than $1,900 for a payment made in 2002."