Yea!  We have moved forward a teensy bit in the permitting process! We finally got ahold of Heidi-our new county liaison.  She put in writing, IN WRITING PEOPLE, what she was going to do for us and how much we’d need to pay and how long things would take.  AMAZING.  It’s taken more than a year, but we’ve now been promised that the Site Plan Permit is what we need and that we won’t have to dish out anymore cash.  Halleluia.

So a year after starting the permit process and turning in our original site plan permit, we are now back to the site plan permit but with a written promise that it’s the correct one.  Just a tip for any other farmers or business people.  If they don’t put it in writing, don’t even bother.  That means they don’t know whether it is the correct permit or not and it will likely be pulled out from under you like what happened to us about 4 times.  First we were told a site plan permit.  Then we were told no permit necessary at all (which we were really happy about).  Then we were told we needed a rental permit.  Then we needed a short term rental permit.  Then we were told we needed a minor use permit.  Ok, that’s 5 times.  But now we have it in writing, so make sure you don’t bother starting anything until you have it in writing too.  If they won’t give it to you in writing, go to someone above them or above them or above them until you find someone who understands what you need and will write it down for you.

Anyhow, the site plan permit will take 2-3 weeks for county to process, be sent out to other departments which will likely be another month and then 2-3 weeks to be processed again.  I hope we can decrease the time considering that we’ve already been at this for over a year now, but I’m not getting my hopes up.  I’m just happy that we will finally be permitted to expand our agritourism operations and do everything we’ve been dreaming about doing.  And best of all, any other farm operation in san bernardino county who wants to follow in our footsteps now has a smooth path…or at least a smoothish one lol.  More updates to follow!