New County Program (LAPP) Helps Non-Permitted Construction Become Legal

By Zach Friend, County Supervisor 2nd District

Throughout Santa Cruz County are hiding, some in plain sight, numerous buildings with illegal or substandard additions and modifications. For various reasons, residents past and present chose to forgo the county permit process and have constructed amendments to their homes without establishing the county required safeguards. In other situations residents have purchased homes unaware a deck, closet or wall was built without County permits. Realtors have often told me they have trouble when listing homes because the numbers cannot reflect the actual square footage of a property when an addition has been completed without the proper paperwork. This can cause issues in financing and also reduces the home’s value.

It seems unreasonable to simply approach this issue from an enforcement standpoint. I have heard from many residents that have expressed concerns about the County’s permitting process and while many strides have been made in recent years to improve this process, the County wanted to find new ways to partner with property owners to encourage obtainment of the proper permits and confirm construction is in compliance with County code. At the direction of the Board of Supervisors the Santa Cruz County Planning Department has designed the Legalization Assistance Permit Program (LAPP) to offer property owners the opportunity to legalize construction performed without required permits and in doing so, the program offers a number of benefits.

Benefits of the program:

• Obtain legalization of your improvements.
• Save money: the County’s normal penalty fees for unpermitted work are waived for most properties.
• Be assured that the improvements are safe and comply with minimum building code requirements.
• Enjoy the full legal value of your improvements when financing or selling
• Eliminate concern that your insurance company won’t cover loss affecting unpermitted improvements.

LAPP provides an opportunity to bring buildings of various types into compliance with County code. It applies to the construction, alteration or remodel of single-family dwellings, multi-family, commercial, industrial and agricultural structures.

We want to ensure all residents of Santa Cruz County live and work in buildings that are not a danger to its occupants or neighboring structures. And we wanted to create an innovative program that made it easy to come into compliance. Permitted construction helps assure that all improvements comply with minimum building codes to best protect the health, life and safety of the occupants who live and work in these structures.

Penalty fees are waived and residents will obtain legalization of improvements, which allows them to enjoy the full legal value of improvements while financing or selling.

Want to learn more? The Santa Cruz County Planning Department will hold a community meeting in Aptos on Monday, November 17 at the Church of St. John the Baptist, Café Facility, 125 Canterbury Drive from 7 to 9 p.m. This informational meeting will describe the LAPP process and potential benefits the program has to offer to property owners that may have developed or purchased a property without required building permits.

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Additional information regarding the LAPP and the November 17 meeting may be obtained from the County’s Planning Department website or by calling them at 454-2580. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to call me at 454-2200.