Housing drop hits Yuba

Six people are expected to lose their jobs and funding to 25 others cut back as the impact of the housing slump hits home in Yuba County.

The Community Development and Services Agency Director Kevin Mallen said he had anticipated the slump and began closing positions when vacancies occurred in order to absorb the effects, but not all employees were safe.

"This is directly tied to the volume of work. Building permits are off," Mallen said.

Mallen said the six employees have already been given notice and will be granted hiring priority in other county departments.

Brent McLean, chief building official, said it's necessary to streamline the building department.

"We were geared up to be one of the fastest-growing areas in the state," McLean said. "This gives us the opportunity to focus more and have a better process."

The layoffs and workload in the entire department was discussed Tuesday during the second budget workshop with Yuba County supervisors. Workshops are designed as informal meetings before the draft budget is released in June.

The Community Development and Services Agency is one of the larger county departments, with 149 employees in seven different areas including building, planning, housing and public works.

In 2006, during the housing boom, the building department was issuing 1,200 permits; about 30 permits have been issued each month for the last six months.

Mallen said that in the next fiscal year, which begins in July, the department projects only 300 permits will be issued.

"That's conservative," he said. "It does have the potential to be lower."

The building department will see the largest personnel cut in the Community Development and Services Agency. It will go from 32 employees to 16 and include five layoffs. The other layoff will be from the surveyor's department, Mallen said.

Ed Palmeri, assistant planning director, said the housing slowdown has actually given the planning department the opportunity to work on larger projects such as the county's general plan update.

Six of the planning department's 15 full-time positions will not be filled, Palmeri said.

Public works will eliminate three vacant positions, but the department remains busy, director Mike Lee said.

"We've had a tremendous amount of road projects," he said.

Lee said there is an increase in capital improvement projects, but land development and new development has slowed with the housing market.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Andrea Koskey at 749-4709 or akoskey@appealdemocrat.com