TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Mark Danaj, City Manager
FROM:
Marisa Lundstedt, Community Development Director
Quinn Barrow, City Attorney
SUBJECT:Title
Conduct Public Hearing to Consider a One-year Extension of the Interim Zoning Ordinance (IZO) Prohibiting the Conversion of Any Commercial Use to a Different Commercial Use Classification in the Downtown Area of the City (Community Development Director Lundstedt).
CONDUCT PUBLIC HEARING AND ADOPT ORD-U 15-0017 EXTENDING THE IZO FOR ONE YEAR
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council conduct the public hearing and adopt Ordinance No. ORD-U 15-0017 approving a one-year extension of the Interim Zoning Ordinance (IZO) prohibiting the conversion of any commercial use to a different commercial use classification in the Downtown area of the City. (Attachment 1) The IZO expires on July 15, 2015 and this action would extend the IZO for one year. This will maintain the status quo on uses in the Downtown.
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FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
No impact.
BACKGROUND:
On July 15, 2014, the City Council adopted a 45-day Interim Zoning Ordinance (IZO) ORD U 14-0011 prohibiting the conversion of any commercial use to a different commercial use classification in the downtown area of the City. On August 19, 2014, the City Council adopted IZO ORD U 14-0016 (Attachment 2), extending the IZO for an additional 10 months and 15 days. The current IZO is set to expire on July 15, 2015. On June 16, 2015 the City Council issued a written report pursuant to Government Code Section 65858, required at least ten days before the expiration of an interim ordinance, describing the measures taken to alleviate the condition which led to the adoption of the IZO. At that meeting the City Council also directed staff to schedule a public hearing for the tonight's meeting to consider an extension of the IZO. The IZO may be extended for up to one additional year. If the City Council chooses not to extend the IZO, it will expire on July 15, 2015.
DISCUSSION:
Over the course of several years, the community has expressed concerns that the unique small-town beach character and pedestrian-orientation of the Downtown is changing and small local retail and service businesses are being lost. In response to the community's concerns, the City is currently working with all community stakeholders to develop a Downtown Specific Plan to provide additional clarity for Downtown development. Interim regulations are one method in which to enacted to call a "timeout" when a contemplated general plan, specific plan or zoning proposal which the city intends, or plans to study within a reasonable prior of time is being evaluated. Since the timeline for the development of the Downtown Specific Plan is anticipated to continue for approximately 12-16 months, staff feels there is a need to extend the Interim Zoning Ordinance.
Regulatory Context
Government Code Section 65858 permits an initial moratorium or interim regulations for 45 days, with a 4/5th vote of the City Council. Interim Ordinances take effect immediately. Subsequently the regulations may be extended for an additional 10 months and 15 days, for a total of one year, after a noticed public hearing. The Government Code has an option of extending the Ordinance up another year after the initial 10 month and 15 days, with another public hearing. In any case, an Interim Ordinance would be valid for a maximum of 2 years.
Draft Interim Zoning Ordinance
The draft Interim Zoning Ordinance (IZO) (Attachment 1) proposes to simply extend the existing IZO which prohibits the conversion of any commercial use to a different commercial use classification in the Downtown, essentially maintaining the status quo in the Downtown. The Ordinance does not affect any residential development, only commercial.
The draft Ordinance also continues to address projects that are in the pipeline, prohibiting the issuance of entitlements to all projects except those projects that have been processed and have received valid building permits. Applicants who have submitted applications, or have a project that is in plan check, or have not yet been submitted to plan check but have Planning approval, such as a Coastal Permit, will be subject to the new ordinance and cannot proceed with processing. If a Use Permit has already been approved for a different use it is exempt.
The Ordinance also continues to provide a hardship exemption. The IZO has a provision where the City Council could approve a hardship if denial of the exemption and enforcement of this Ordinance against an applicant's property would result in the applicant being deprived of all economically viable use of the property. The City Council may consider other factors in order to determine hardship. The business or property owner or tenant would need to provide evidence to support the exemption request. During this past year two hardship exemptions have been requested and one was approved.
The hardship exemption is not meant to be an onerous process, there are criteria but no State mandated findings as required through a Use Permit, the application is free and the decision is made directly by the City Council in a very quick time frame. The public has an opportunity to provide input at the City Council public meeting. If a proposed change in use requires a Use Permit, the applicant would then be required to proceed through that process and if the proposed use is a permitted use then permits and a business license are all that is required.
The current IZO requires that the hardship exemption be placed on the next Council agenda if it is received at least 10 days prior to the agenda date. Since the agenda packet generally goes out about 6 days prior to the agenda date, 10 days is not adequate time to process a request. The new IZO would require a 30-day time frame, which is still a very quick turn-around time for a decision, but allows time for staff to review and analyze the information.
Alternative 1
Another option would be to not extend the IZO. This would allow any permitted use to occupy any space in the Downtown without any discretionary review.
Pros:
The benefit of this option is that any permitted use in the district could occupy any space in the Downtown without requesting a hardship exemption.
Cons:
May lead to conflicts with the community goals identified through the ULI Report, as well as future regulations and guidelines that are being developed through the Specific Plan process. For instance, a use could be established that could turn out to be inconsistent with future regulations and guidelines.
Alternative 2
A second option would be to modify the IZO to require a Use Permit for any change of use in the Downtown.
Pros:
The benefit of this option is that the public would have an opportunity to provide input at a noticed public hearing before the Planning Commission, to the City Council on appeal and to the California Coastal Commission on appeal for certain projects.
Cons:
The use permit process tends to be more costly and time consuming.
By Contrast, the hardship exemption process goes directly to the City Council at no cost to the Applicant, and the Applicant can obtain an exemption without incurring professional and processing costs.
PUBLIC OUTREACH/INTEREST:
A notice (1/4 page ad) of tonight's meeting was published in the Beach Reporter on June 25, 2015. A copy of the notice was mailed to all property owners and occupants in the Downtown Commercial District (CD) Zone of the City, as well as the Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Business Professional (DBPA), Downtown Business and Improvement District (BID), and the Manhattan Beach Commercial Property Owners Association (MBCPOA).
CONCLUSION:
Staff recommends that the City Council conduct the public hearing and adopt the extension of the Interim Zoning Ordinance to temporarily prohibit the conversion of any commercial use to a new commercial use classification in the Downtown area. If the Interim Zoning Ordinance is extended tonight it will be effective immediately and be in effect until July 15, 2016.
Attachments:
1. Urgency Ordinance No. 15-0017
2. IZO-ORD-U 14-0016- Current IZO - August 19, 2014