Last week, the Mendocino County Planning Commission tackled a controversial proposal to amend zoning regulations related to camping. Local fire chiefs, residents, and neighbors of
existing campgrounds currently operating without a permit in residential areas said the amended rules are at best a work in progress and should not be passed. Commissioner Marie Jones labeled the proposal "a rotten idea and rotten planning." The rules were amended after last week’s meeting, and the public will have another chance to comment on August 15, when the commission meets again.
The planning department proposed two significant sets of changes to the existing camping ordinance. The first would allow temporary camping, explicitly permitting up to 10 tents, RVs, trailer coaches, and/or vehicles for up to 14 days in a six-month period in rural residential areas (R-R), as well as upland residential areas (U-R), agriculture areas (A-G), rangeland (R-L), Forestland (F-L) and timberland product (T-P). The second set of changes focused on new regulations for smaller commercial campgrounds, such as those affiliated with Hipcamp in San Francisco, versus requiring them to follow existing regulations that govern traditional RV parks and campgrounds.
These changes would legalize existing camps in residential areas that do not comply with the current code. The revised regulations would offer a more relaxed approach, requiring fewer facilities and less stringent fire protection measures. Unlike RV parks and campgrounds, which must provide comprehensive sanitation and fire safety plans, these smaller campgrounds in residential zones would need to provide only basic sanitation facilities and a fire extinguisher.
The proposal did not contain any provisions for enforcement or any penalties for campground owners who did not follow the rules.
Local fire chiefs acknowledged the need to address existing unpermitted campgrounds but said the proposed rules need more work. Bob Matson, fire chief in Elk, said he has responded to both fires and medical calls at camps. While there are currently no hipcamps operating in Elk (as of early August), there are nine hipcamps in nearby Albion. Of those, five offer lodging and are more akin to traditional vacation rentals (no camping). An additional four listings offer a combination of spots for tents and RVs.
In an interview, Matson described responding to a fire at a hipcamp where the campers had put so much wood into a firepit that flames had jumped the pit.
"Over the past 5+ years, our fire district has responded to numerous incidents and complaints at "Hip Camp" locations within our fire district," Albion Fire Chief Michael Rees said in a statement. "Although we support the need for some kind of regulation of these occupancies, at this time, we would like to request a delay of approval of this item until local Fire and EMS agencies can fully weigh in on the impacts and issues that have and may arise with these campsites."
"My neighbor has campers regularly on his property in a dry open field, and the campers start fires, and I am always worrying they are going to start a fire and burn the neighborhood down," Shelli McCarthy wrote in a statement opposing the zoning changes. She said the campers "are also noisy and disrespectful with loud music and partying."
On the Hipcamp site, a camper at the Bigfoot Coastal Hideway in Fort Bragg wrote in a review on July 21: "We had a great time camping here! My son's favorite part was having a campfire. There was plenty of room for our tent, a nice fire pit, and a table."
Throughout Mendocino County, all residential and open outdoor burning requires a burn permit. Campfires are prohibited. Heather B., the Bigfoot Coast Hideaway campground host, posts rules that prohibit fires but apparently was not enforcing them that week.
In addition to the heightened fire risk, proposed changes to the zoning ordinance have alarmed residents concerned about increased insurance premiums, potential groundwater contamination, disruption of sensitive habitats, and the nuisance caused by late-night visitors and traffic on private roads.
Residents argued that the changes amount to a covert conversion of residential zones to commercial zones, contrary to the county's general plan. According to the ordinance, smaller commercial campgrounds could operate in residential areas by merely obtaining a business license, with minimal oversight and enforcement options.
Lee Howard, a local farmer in the Ukiah area, recounted his struggles with an unregulated hipcamp site nearby. He described frequent disturbances, heavy traffic on the private road where the campground is located, and a continual lack of assistance from county code enforcement dating back several decades.
In defense of the proposal, Hipcamp owners like Glenn Stewart from Comptche shared their positive experiences and celebrated the income that their camps have provided. Stewart said his guests, often affluent Bay Area residents, understand fire safety and have been respectful of the environment. Stewart said he supports a suggestion from Commissioner Jones that coastal hipcamps be regulated differently than inland hipcamps.
Kyle and Victoria Rodrigues, who host the Foxfern Forest Hipcamp in Mendocino, repeated the talking points provided to them by the Hipcamp communications team. "Please vote today to support a low intensity camping policy that creates reasonable permitting options for local landowners who want to offer a small number of campsites," they wrote in a statement. This exact wording was repeated in at least three other statements from hipcamp owners.
There are about 70 Mendocino destinations found on Hipcamp — 47% offer lodging + camping/RV parking and 21% offer only lodging (no camping) with the remainder offering just tent camping, RV parking or a tent/RV combination. Hipcamp said there are additional 10 destinations in Mendocino, however, these are not currently active.
More than half of the Mendocino destinations on Hipcamp are more than 10 acres.
In the entire county, there are just ten destinations that offer camping and/or RV parking on lots smaller than five acres and just six destinations that are three acres or less. (Hipcamp has a two-acre minimum, but local hosts who own more than one parcel side-by-side have been known to comply with this requirement by offering camping on their "spare" acre. This can lead to complaints from campers and friction with neighbors.)
Seven of the sub-five-acre lots had been operating for two years or less. There was just one five-acre destination, the Baby Banana Slug Farm, with a longer track record. Incidentally, this hipcamp, which offers lodging, one tent site, and one combo RV/tent site in Albion allows campfires, despite the county ban.
Including smaller and larger hipcamps, the turnover rate for hipcamps in Mendocino County since 2021 approaches fifty percent. The high churn rate could indicate that people try out hipcamps as a way of generating extra income and become disenchanted. An owner of a new one-acre hip camp on a residential street of one-acre parcels who submitted a statement in support of the changes confided that she felt overwhelmed by the need to be on-call 24/7 to respond to new bookings and to take care of the needs of her campers.
According to material provided by Hipcamp, campground owners make an average of $7,500 in supplemental income a year. These camping fees translate into $750 in transient occupancy taxes (TOT) per campground or $60,000 for all the Mendocino listings on Hipcamp. (This is based on the 2021 figures that Hipcamp provided to the Board of Supervisors. On Friday, Hipcamp provided updated figures to KZYX. Hipcamp says camping in Mendocino has decreased to 10,500.)
In addition to TOT, Hipcamp claims that campers spend $1.5 million a year beyond their campsite fees or $144 per camper (roughly $200 w/campsite fee included). According to data provided by the Mendocino County Tourism Commission, this compares to $240 per average Mendocino visitor (including hip campers). Based on the Hipcamp data, hip campers currently make up .5 percent of visitors
Despite the small number of hipcamps, the limited economic impact of hip camping, and strong opposition from neighbors, residents, and local fire chiefs, the planning commissioners indicated they would move ahead with the proposed changes with minor modifications. They adopted Hipcamp's preferred terminology, referring to the smaller commercial campgrounds as "low-intensity camping."
While the commissioners acknowledged that additional traffic, especially heavy RVs and trailers, could cause significant wear and tear to private roads, their response to that concern was to require campground owners to notify neighbors that their campers will be using the road. The commissioners did not give road owners the ability to decline the new commercial use via any mechanism in the ordinance, and they did not discuss a mechanism by which campground owners would be obliged to compensate the road owners for the increased wear and tear on the road that would result from conducting a commercial business in a residential zone.
Road maintenance costs, even for a small road, are likely to far outstrip the revenue earned by the campground owners.
The debate will continue at the next Planning Commission meeting on August 15, when further discussions and potential revisions to the ordinance will be considered.
