SLO County orders cleanup, relocation of residents at Sunny Acres sober-living ranch
San Luis Obispo County has ordered the owner of the Sunny Acres sober-living facility to clean up his property and create a plan to relocate the dozens of vulnerable tenants living in unpermitted structures at the site.
County code enforcement officials on Thursday issued a notice of violation to Dan DeVaul, the owner of the 72-acre ranch on Los Osos Valley Road that’s long served as a makeshift home for residents struggling with addiction, mental health issues and other challenges.
The violation follows inspectors’ June visit to the property, which occurred after they obtained a civil warrant to look into health and safety violations at the ranch.
It says that 50 to 75 residents are living in variety of substandard housing units on the ranch. The violation also says a “substantial amount of unpermitted improvements has been installed in and throughout various structures on the property.”
In addition, Sunny Acres is being used as a massive outdoor storage site in violation of a previous court agreement, and a large amount of grading and fill has taken place at the ranch.
The Tribune has reached out to DeVaul for a comment on the notice of violation but has not yet heard back.
Sunny Acres required to follow 2013 court agreement
DeVaul has been running sober-living operations at the ranch for decades, and he’s been at odds with county officials for much of that time.
Many of the ranch’s residents likely would have no other place to live. They pay DeVaul as much as they can or perform work at the ranch to live there and participate in programming.
However, the housing at Sunny Acres is not up to code, lacks good-quality running water and is powered by electrical systems that are unpermitted and pose fire risks.
A county Superior Court judge in 2012 appointed a receiver to oversee a cleanup of Sunny Acres. DeVaul and the county reached a legal agreement in 2013 that allowed him to start building a permitted sober-living home.
Substandard housing, hundreds of vehicles and illegal grading
The recent inspection showed conditions at Sunny Acres have not improved during the past eight years. The court agreement stipulated residents could not live in unpermitted structures, but that activity has since resumed.
The notice of violation says residents are staying in “buildings and structures which are not designed, constructed or permitted for permanent human occupancy,” including barn apartments, RVs and sheds.
Some tenants are also living in the 14-bedroom residence that DeVaul obtained a permit to build. However, the county never issued a certificate of occupancy because the property doesn’t have a water source that meets minimum quality requirements.
“Unfortunately, and despite various court orders to the contrary, you continue to house individuals (and take rent) in substandard housing,” the violation said. “The common theme in your actions over the many years is that you can ignore building code, fire code and other health and safety codes to provide transitional and permanent ‘housing’ to those in need. While the county does not dispute the bona fides of your good intentions and motivations, the county cannot allow you to house individuals in substandard conditions.”
The 2013 agreement also prohibited DeVaul from adding to the outdoor storage on the property, but that, too, has increased.
The June inspection showed the Sunny Acres property currently contains 56 trucks, 24 cars, 13 RVs, 26 trailers, four boats, four water tenders, 49 tractors and three golf carts.
The ranch also has “various piles of scrap metal, parts, pieces of equipment and other similar items strewn throughout the property,” the violation said.
In addition, the filling and grading activity that’s taken place on the property during the past two decades — and especially from 2016 until now — has “significantly altered the floodplain of this area in violation of county and federal law.”
SLO County orders relocations, significant cleanup
County code enforcement officials have given DeVaul 30 days to develop a “demolition, removal and housing relocation plan” for tenants living in the 14-bedroom home, RVs, sheds and barn apartments, the violation said.
“At a minimum, the plan must identify a time frame, not to exceed three months from the date of this letter, when those tenants will be relocated to permitted housing,” the violation said.
DeVaul must also demolish the structures and the unpermitted electrical, plumbing and sewer hook-ups.
County officials also expressed a desire to “revisit with (DeVaul) what options are available regarding the 14-bedroom residence.” They said they’d like to talk to DeVaul about wells, a nitrate removal facility and obtaining a domestic public water system permit and would like to “further explore any available options to allow you to utilize this structure once a certificate of occupancy is issued.”
The violation letter also orders DeVaul to begin to remove outdoor storage within 60 days, and he must retain an engineering firm to develop a remediation plan for the floodplain damaged by grading and filling.
If DeVaul does not comply with the notice of violation, the county will again pursue a receiver for the property.
“We understand many of your tenants are directly impacted by these actions,” the violation said. “If a receiver is appointed, we would recommend to the court that the receiver develop a plan to relocate your tenants.”
This story was originally published July 24, 2021 at 11:43 AM.
