Atascadero postpones burn season

ATASCADERO — The Atascadero City Council met for its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 14, at 6 p.m. At the top of the meeting, City Manager Jim Lewis addressed the community during his Updates from the City Manager on the fact that burn season has been put on hold due to current conditions.

“Let me first start by saying, as far as burn season goes, we’re obviously holding until the winds and weather permit. We did initiate burn days, but they are on hold until weather permits, which is understood,” stated Lewis.

He went on to say that permissive burn days are strictly monitored and only allowed when conditions permit. He pointed residents to the city’s website or to call (805) 461-5070, ext. 8, to see when burn season has been reinstated.

Community Development Director Phil Dunsmore then addressed the council on the first public hearing of the evening, an ADU (Accessory Dwelling Units) Ordinance Update. Dunsmore went on to say that usually, there is ample time to prepare code amendments and do a thorough evaluation of their merits before bringing them forward to the council, but that was not the case here.

“This is one that’s, I’ll just say it, just being kind of forced upon us by the State of California to be able to accommodate some mandatory changes to Accessory Dwelling Unit law,” Dunsmore said. “Potentially, they’re good changes. However, they honestly have not been vetted, and they are required to be put into our code beginning Jan.1 of this year.”

In 2024, the state adopted two sets of ADU laws. The first is SB 1211, which requires cities to allow a greater number ofADUs on multifamily developments and does not require parking places removed for the ADUs to be replaced. On upcoming new projects, it would go from one to two ADUs, and it would go up to eight on existing projects. The existing projects would have to have eight or more units already existing on that project site.

“Our local ordinance is null and void unless we incorporate these changes,” added Dunsmore.

The second ADU law, SB 477, makes minor changes to the code section referencing relating to ADUs. 

“But we also took this opportunity to just fix some minor things in our code at the same time. It’s always a good opportunity to have,” Dunsmore said.

Mayor Charles Bourbeau asked for a motion on the item, which passed unanimously to keep Atascadero’s local ADU ordinance in compliance with state law.

The next Atascadero City Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 6 p.m.