United Stand (Building Code Confrontation, California Style)

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United Stand even spelled out county rights under state law by soliciting an Attorney General's Opinion which reaffirmed local jurisdictional right to make code changes on the basis of "local topography, geography, or general condition". But, unhappily, only the district attorney was doing his job . . . 145 outlaw builders had been cited, with the first tagees already en route to court. Donald Uhr unwittingly offered a helpful suggestion. He told US to go to the State Department of Housing and Community Development (the state-level guardians of the codes) since their concerns were a question of state law.

United Stand had made contact with the state government on one occasion. It had journeyed to Sacramento to describe its problems to Assemblyman Barry Keene and to Senator Peter Behr, both representing Mendocino County. Each legislator was sympathetic and helpful. Keene offered to introduce a spot bill if legislation proved necessary, but US was dedicated to local control. It avoided state intervention until it was certain that the county was going to continue to pass the buck.

Despite its leanings toward local self-determination, US sounded out candidates for state office on the issues it was raising. On October 12, 1974, US met in Ukiah with Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown, who was on the campaign trail to the governor's office. Brown was asked for his views on housing and uniformity. He answered that urban housing had to follow the guidelines of economics, ecology, and energy, but that "the cabin up in the hills" should not come under state-mandated uniformity. US informed him that the UBC precluded the cabin in the hills. Brown couldn't understand this, but asked to be kept informed of US activities.

On April 2, 1975, just three months after his inauguration as Governor of the state of California, Jerry Brown was to hear the United Stand story in full. As the first defendants were about to go to trial in Mendocino for the heinous crime of building their homes without a permit, US was granted a latenight interview with the governor. The slide show was presented and their problems defined for him. He urged US to submit a bill which he said he would sign, provided the bill was no longer than one page. "This administration doesn't read anything longer than one page," the governor said, taking a poke at the notorious California bureaucracy. United Stand was dumbfounded . . . seemingly it had finally arrived at the place where the buck stopped passing.

United Stand did not author a bill, because a tactical decision was reached to seek administrative remedies on the state level. With a willing governor, there was no problem establishing the remedial procedure.

A pilot project was begun to study the situation of rural owner-builders and to recommend a new and less restrictive article to the state housing law. The committee to conduct the study was called the Class K Steering Committee . . . "Class K" coming from a US proposal to add a new classification to the UBC's existing A-J categories of structures.

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