Schmid

BACKGROUND

I. Sonoma County Code section 7-7 (section 7-7) allows property owners “[a]t [their] option” to seek an exemption from local building permit requirements for certain agricultural structures.1 (See § 7-7.) With some enumerated exceptions not at issue here, it applies to “buildings, or repairs, alterations, additions, or remodels to buildings designed and constructed for use in housing farm machinery, animals, supplies or products that are harvested from or utilized on a parcel of land.” (Id., subd. (a).) Section 7-7 states an applicant wishing to obtain the exemption “shall obtain an exemption permit” (§ 7-7, subd. (a)) and requires the applicant to file a written application for the exemption “[p]rior to the erection, construction, conversion, enlargement or major alteration of any building or structure situated on agricultural land . . . .” (Id., subd. (b), italics added). The ordinance specifies the mandatory contents of an application, including “such further information as the chief building official may require.”2 (Ibid.) It does not state how an application must be processed, but states that “[t]he chief building official must record a notice of agricultural…