Is the Nevada County Planning Commission Violating Property Rights?

On March 28, 2024, despite satisfying all of the requirements of the Event Ordinance and a recommended approval by the Planning Department and receiving unanimous support from the Penn Valley Area Municipal Advisory Council, the Nevada County Planning Commission failed to approve a use permit allowing local resident, John Conger, to build an event center in Penn Valley off Mooney Flat Road but within a mile of Lake Wildwood. The Event Ordinance was enacted by the County supervisors on October 13, 2020, in order to provide consistency and guidance to applicants and the public in connection with large event centers.

After commissioner member Mike Mastrodonato informed Conger and the planning staff during the hearing that an up or down vote would happen after the hearing, the commission voted to table the vote when a mob of residents from Lake Wildwood who organized on NextDoor to oppose the event project, crowded the supervisors’ chamber opposing the use permit for reasons outside the scope of the Event Ordinance. Specifically, Laura Duncan and Mike Mastrodonato, who are representatives on the planning commission appointed by Ed Scofield and Sue Hoek respectively, declined to advance Conger’s application and opted for a continuation of the hearing after the mob appeared. Rather than spending additional thousands of dollars for attorneys, civil engineers, and other experts to a continued hearing on top of the over $10,000 Conger paid to the County during the permitting process, Conger withdrew his permit application and has decided to conduct the maximum number of events allowable with a use permit and with no control by the public.

The completely ill-informed mob, composed primarily of old, retired people from Lake Wildwood, descended upon the chamber opposing the use permit complained and shouted about many things including items which were completely unrelated to the application. They screamed about the risk of fire, loud noise, traffic and parking, and drunk driving despite all experts concluding that the mob was wrong.

Because the mob was completely ill-informed, they likely did not know the extent to which Conger went to obtain proper approval of the event permit in accordance with the County’s ordinance. First and related to fire risks, Scott Eckman from Cal Fire and Clayton Thomas from Penn Valley Fire signed off on the project. Indeed, if there was a fire at the proposed event center, Penn Valley Fire would be the responding agency. Luke Saxelby, a noise consultant from Roseville who is often used by planning commissioner Jo Garst who voted to approve the project and uses Saxelby for her own projects, informed the Commission that, after his evaluation, Conger’s project complied with the limits established by the Event Ordinance. W-Trans, a California traffic engineering consultant, provided a report to the Commission concluding that traffic and parking related to the project had less than a significant impact on the neighboring community. The mob complained about the potential for drinking and driving. The City of Grass Valley had no problem allowing the local Democrat Party to host an event at Condon Park where Supervisor Heidi Hall was cited with drunk driving in the parking lot after the conclusion of Little League games and while children were in the very same parking lot. Regardless of the genuine information presented to the mob, the mob did not care.

The planning commission has one job - determine whether applicants have followed the ordinances. That’s it. It is true that the County has substantial authority to regulate land use and a county ordinance that merely restricts land use in a way “reasonably necessary to the effectuation of a substantial government purpose” is permissible.”  See Penn Central Transp. Co. v. New York City, 438 U.S. 104, 123, 127. However, when the County makes application decisions outside the scope of its own ordinances or at the behest of a crazy mob, the County led by the mob advocates from anarchy and violates the legal rights of its own citizens. The County enacted its event ordinance in order to provide consistency and predictability to event planners and the public. If an applicant satisfies all the requirements of the event ordinance, the applicant is entitled to the use permit and denial of the permit for reasons outside the ordinance is a violation of the applicant’s rights. Such circumstances are as before us now.

County residents through their elected supervisors enact ordinances that are reasonably necessary to the effectuation of substantial government purposes. The enacted ordinances are known to the applicants, the County planning department, and the planning commissioners. The ordinances provide consistency and predictability to all parties which is necessary for the development of local business. Indeed, the rule of law has provided consistency and predictability since our founding which led to an explosion of economic development unseen prior to the founding of the United States. When our County government acts in a lawless manner and violates the rights of its citizens, whether caving to the anarchy of a mob or not, all our citizens are harmed.

Because Laura Duncan and Mike Mastrodonato listened to this ill-informed mob organized on NextDoor in order to inflame public opinion and did not follow the county’s own legally enacted ordinance, our local residents lost out on job creation and economic development. First, Conger will not be hosting 25 events a year as permitted by the event ordinance. Conger will not be providing income opportunities for DJ’s, local photographers, wedding planners, caterers, and tens of other vendors who struggle to make their living here in Nevada County. Second, and more importantly, if the County cannot stand up to the mob and act within their own dictates in a predictable manner, job creators will seek to go to more predictable places that act within the rule of law. Instead of paying tens of thousands of dollars to experts and to the County for permitting, economic developers will not risk the unpredictability in the permitting process and will leave Nevada County for greener pastures and take the economic opportunities of our local residents with them. Simply put, anarchy is bad for business.

The fact of the matter is that, if our planning commissioners appointed by our supervisors cannot stand up to a mob of old retirees and follow the laws enacted by the supervisors, they need to go do something else, because they are harming our lovely county. Thankfully in January of 2025, Ed Scofield’s appointee on the planning commission, Laura Duncan, will be removed from the commission. Now the question for Sue Hoek, who is the supervisor from Penn Valley – the area within which these jobs would have been created, is whether she supports the rule of law or whether she supports the anarchy advocated by her planning commissioner, Mike Mastrodonato. 

Ed Scofield has been worthless for nearly his entire term as supervisor. This sentiment is obviously shared by his constituents who overwhelmingly voted against his chosen heir-apparent in the most recent election to fill his seat which he is finally vacating. Similar to Scofield, Sue Hoek has continually disappointed her Penn Valley constituents with her inability to have a backbone and stand up to anyone. Hoek is not a leader and her appointment of Mastrodonato to the planning commission is further evidence that Sue Hoek needs to go as well. The County should be run according to the rule of law and not the volume and intensity of the mob.