Idyllwild and all of Riverside County above 4,000 feet in elevation will be exempt from the proposed modifications to section 18.18 of the land use and zoning ordinance (348) regarding detached buildings.

For much of the year, the county’s planning staff has been revising the decades-old ordinance. But limiting the proximity of garages and carports to the property lines has been a concern to local designers and real estate people.

However, the latest version, which was recommended to the board, includes language “that would exclude the proposed restrictions to properties located above 4,000 feet in elevation,” planner and author of the amendments David Mares wrote to the Planning Commission.

At several public hearings, both this summer and fall, and in correspondence to the commission, Idyllwild residents spoke out in opposition to the original changes. At the most recent session last week, the Planning Commission approved the changes to Ordinance 348 and recommended the Board of Supervisors also approve the revised ordinance.

In his memorandum to the Planning Commission before the Oct. 15 meeting, Mares explained the new language. “The proposed language would allow garages or carports to be constructed up to the front or side lot line on such properties, but only if configured to prevent a vehicle directly exiting or entering onto the adjacent roadway. Properties above an elevation of 4,000 feet would be excluded from this development standard.”

The planning staff’s latest revision to section 18.18 appears to respond to many comments similar to what Kay Jennison, Idyllwild Realtor, wrote to the commission.

“In Idyllwild, where many lots are on slopes, being able to build near the property line is the only way to have cars not parked in the street and often in the right of way,” Jennison wrote in her Sept. 29 email. “As Idyllwild is not a subdivision community, with standard-width streets with curbs and sidewalks, parking is an issue of concern. This is especially true in the winter with ice and snow on the ground.”

The California Press Foundation of the California Newspaper Publishers Association announced last week that Becky Clark, publisher of the Idyllwild Town Crier, has been chosen to receive its Justus F. Craemer Newspaper Executive of the Year award, the organization’s most prestigious honor. The award recognizes the achievement of newspaper executives who have influenced and impacted the newspaper industry and their community as a result of their journalistic efforts.

CNPA comprises more than 700 newspapers in California, including the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee and virtually all other daily and weekly papers throughout the state. The Cal Press newsletter observes that the mission of the foundation “is to be the guardian of the history and traditions of California journalism, to recognize and honor contemporary achievements, to assure the future of California journalism through encouragement of education, and to provide a social and educational forum for its members.”

The announcement by the selection committee came as a complete surprise to Clark, who at the time was chairing a meeting of the Cal Press Board of Directors during the quarterly meeting of the CNPA in Sacramento. “I was stunned,” she said later. “For a small paper in a little town in the mountains . . . I never dreamed of this.” Clark did not even know she had been nominated for the award, which will be presented at Cal Press’s 137th-annual Winter Meeting in San Francisco on Dec. 5.

What means most to her, Clark said, is that the award cites her efforts to bring open government to her community. “Clark encountered several obstacles in trying to cover the local water districts and fire districts that dot the region the Town Crier serves. Chief among the obstacles was the longstanding culture of contempt for public scrutiny held by many of the ‘good ol’ boys’ who served on the various boards,” Cal Press’ current newsletter recounts. The article notes that Clark obtained information about local special districts unaccustomed to public scrutiny, and that she organized Brown Act and California Public Records Act workshops, inviting members of the local boards and community to attend and ask questions of lawyers conducting the training. “Clark was able to transform the culture of how many of these public entities did business as well as what residents expected from their local officials,” the article states.

Much of the credit goes to the local agencies themselves, Clark says. She particularly notes that the Pine Cove Water District, an early adversary when it came to open government, eventually embraced the concept and has received an open government award from the California Special Districts Association.

“Clark and the Town Crier have undertaken dozens of battles over the years to better inform readers and positively affect the community in which she lives,” the citation went on. “She has also had a profound impact on business in Idyllwild. Like many publishers, she strongly supported the local Chamber of Commerce and served many years on its board. She continued to support its efforts even when several Chamber members sought to push the Town Crier out of the Chamber and start a competing publication.”

The article further noted that, when the local Chamber folded, the Town Crier took over its phone number and assumed operation of the town’s Visitor Center, which it cited as an example of her “unwavering commitment to serve Idyllwild and businesses in the surrounding area.”

Past winners of this award throughout nearly the last a half century include executives from the Riverside Press-Enterprise, the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Daily News, the San Francisco Examiner, the San Jose Mercury News and the Sacramento Bee.

The Mountain Communities Fire Code Committee is meeting and moving forward on possible changes to Riverside County’s fire code ordinances. The committee met again on Oct. 14 to discuss two draft ordinances to address fuel abatement on the Hill.

Sue Nash, of the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council, drafted the proposed ordinances. She stressed that a principal objective was the recognition that the whole community is responsible for reducing the potential of fire threats. That responsibility includes the understanding that if one’s neighbor has a structure, for example a house, near another’s property, the responsibility for creating the needed defensible space may fall on both property owners.

“If a neighbor has a structure, you have to abate your property,” she said.

The intention of the proposed changes, which still need committee agreement before going to the Board of Supervisors, is to establish a procedure for abatement that Riverside County Fire or the Idyllwild Fire Department could enforce.

Essentially, the intense abatement requirements within 30 feet of structures and establishment of defensible space out to 100 feet would apply to all property owners within those circles.

If abatement is not completed, fire officials would have the authority to use a contractor to perform the necessary work and the costs would be imposed on the property owner by means of a tax lien.

Throughout much of the county, fire officials already have this authority except on the Hill.

“Since the Mountain Fire, public attitudes have changed. We’re terrified,” Nash told the group. “Everybody wants to do this. When it is presented to the community, we’ll say, ‘If you want to save your structure, don’t fight us.’ We’ll need all the enforcement effort to go after absentee property owners.”

Fire officials acknowledged that stronger enforcement is the key to effective abatement compliance.

“What doesn’t work now is the lack of enforcement,” said Brandon Smith, a county fire prevention investigator. He stressed that Riverside County Fire Department conducts thousands of successful inspections, but enforcement of compliance needs more staffing. “This ordinance will need increased staffing. I think that what we’re missing in enforcement.”

Riverside County Fire Chief John Hawkins, who established the committee following an Idyllwild Town Hall meeting in June, agreed. “We’ve done a lot of inspections, but we’ll need to define a framework for actions and the intricacies of finances, including inspection staff and abatement costs for contractors.”

The committee’s next step is to decide how broadly to spread the ordinance and how it will be enforced, Hawkins told them. “People need to have a safer mountaintop. You’ll be given as much protection as possible.”

Idyllwild Fire Chief Patrick Reitz, also a member of the committee, concurred with Hawkins. “I think there is a real need for this. I’m supportive but have questions.”

He also raised the issue of the time and cost for additional inspection personnel and particularly the availability of funds to pay contractors until property owners can be assessed the cost and pay it.

Next steps include drafting a new ordinance covering parcels with structures in mountain communities only that is consistent with the current county code, with state law and with county amendments to the state fire code; and to meet with fire code enforcement people in San Bernardino County, who already have ordinances for their mountain communities, and inquire about enforcement techniques there, according to Nash.