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O2250f:\atty\muni\laws\barry\construction rate program clarification City Council Meeting 2-26-08 Santa Monica, California 2250 ORDINANCE NUMBER (CCS) (City Council Series) AN INTERIM ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA CLARIFYING THE SCOPE OF THE PROHIBITION OF NEW CONSTRUCTION WITHIN A FIVE HUNDRED FOOT RADIUS OF ANOTHER CONSTRUCTION PROJECT AND DECLARING THE PRESENCE OF AN EMERGENCY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA DOES ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Findings and Purpose. The City Council finds and declares: (a) Santa Monica is a small, extremely dense, older coastal city consisting of just 8 square miles of land bordered on one side by the Pacific Ocean and on three sides by the megalopolis of Los Angeles. (b) Approximately, 90,000 people live in the City, on weekdays there are about 300,000 present in the City, and on weekends and holidays, the number of persons in the City soars to between 500,000 and 1 million. (c) Santa Monica has been fully built out for over 50 years, much of its development having occurred during, and immediately after World War II. (d) In recent years, ever-escalating land values, economic prosperity, and changes in state law have fueled 'a massive increase in development which has significantly altered the physical and social landscape of the City. 1 (e) Throughout this period of rapid development, the City Council has adopted a series of laws relating to land use and housing which were intended to strike and restrike the .balance between potentially conflicting municipal values and policies in order to best protect the health, safety and welfare of Santa Monica residents, with one of these measures being the construction rate program, detailed below. (f) The City's 1998-2003 Housing Element Update Program 7.f required that the City monitor the rate of development activity in multi-family residential districts so as to ensure that rapid development did not jeopardize the character of the neighborhoods and negatively impact the quality of life. (g) This program further provided that if the rate or pattern of development appeared to negatively affect the quality of life or character of neighborhoods, the City Council should consider enacting a construction rate program. (h) City staff monitored the rate of development activity in accordance with this program and determined that the City Council should consider a construction .rate program. (i) On March 7, 2000, the City Council adopted Ordinance Number 1966 (CCS) which established a construction rate program to avert the negative impacts of construction such as traffic circulation, noise, neighborhood aesthetics and pedestrian enjoyment of City streets and to minimize the disruptive effects of the construction process on the neighborhood by limiting the number of projects in close proximity to each other which can be constructed at any one time through regulating both the timing and distribution of construction projects through the building permit approval process. 2 Q) The constriction rate program imposed strong protections by allowing only one construction project per block and providing that this construction project must not be within a five hundred foot radius of another construction. project: (k) On April 11, 2000, the City Council adopted Ordinance Number 1969 (CCS) extending Ordinance Number 1966 (CCS) for eighteen months. (I) On or about May 17, 2000, a lawsuit was filed against the City challenging the construction rate program. Petitioners raised both constitutional and CEQA challenges. (m) The City Council assessed the suit and decided to resolve the claims through a settlement contingent upon adoption of a less restrictive .ordinance which would, in part, eliminate the requirement that one only construction project be allowed per block, but would continue the radius restriction. (n) The City Council adopted this ordinance, Ordinance Number 1984 .(CCS), which eliminated the block limitation and amended the radius restriction to provide only one construction project shall be allowed within a five hundred foot radius of another construction project. (o) On October 9, 2001, the City Council adopted Ordinance Number 2022 (CCS) extending Ordinance Number 1966 (CCS) until November 11, 2002. (p) On October 8, 2002, the City Council adopted a permanent ordinance, Ordinance Number 2053 (CCS) which mirrored the interim ordinance. (q) The basic prohibition of the construction rate program allows one project, but only one, within a 500 foot radius of an existing permitted project. Other subsections state a permit may not be issued for a project within 500 feet of an existing project and require that the project be placed on a waiting list if another building permit has been 3 issued. Consequently, there is an ambiguity as to whether only one or two projects (but not three) may exist within a 500 foot radius. (r) In recent weeks, staff has received questions about whether two particular projects conformed to the construction rate program. These complaints triggered a review of the ordinance's ambiguity addressed herein. (s) For these reasons, the City's zoning and planning regulations should be revised to clarify how they pertain to the rate of construction to ensure that development is consistent with the public health, safety, and welfare. (t) Pending completion of these permanent revisions, in order to provide clarification and otherwise protect the public health, safety, and welfare, it is necessary on an interim basis to clarify the current development standards as they relate to the rate of construction in the City's multi-family districts. (u) These interim standards will eliminate confusion and will serve to prevent any further disruption caused by increasing development- in these districts while allowing development consistent with these standards to occur. (v) As described above, there exists a current and immediate threat to the public safety, health, and welfare should the interim ordinance not be adopted and should development inconsistent with the contemplated clarification to the development standards be allowed #o occur. Allowing additional construction projects to proceed inconsistent with the following proposed interim standards would result in a threat to public health, safety, or welfare. Therefore, it is necessary to establish on an interim basis the following development standards. 4 SECTION 2. Construction Rate Program. (a) For projects involving the new construction or substantial remodel of two or more dwelling units in all multi-family residential districts in the City for which a development application was deemed complete on or after March 7, 2000, only one such construction project shall be allowed within a five hundred foot radius. Except as provided in subsection (c) of this Section; this restriction shall apply for fifteen months after issuance of a building permit, after which time another project may begin construction in the defined area. The multi-family residential districts in the City are: R2R, R2, R3, R4, RVC, RMH, OP-Duplex, OP2, OP3, OP4, NW-Overlay, BR Boulevard Residential R3 Overlay, R26, and R3R. (b) Building permits shall be provided on a first-come first- served basis in accordance with the terms of this Section. No building permit shall be issued by the Building and Safety Division unless the requirements of subsections (c) and (d) of this Section have been satisfied. (c) During the plan-check process, the Building and Safety Division shall determine the status of other building permits for projects in the area. A building permit shall not be issued when the Building Officer determines that a building. permit has been issued in the previous fifteen months for any other project within a five hundred foot radius of the subject property unless the owner of the previously permitted project has 5 formally relinquished the building permit for that project or obtained a certificate of occupancy for the project. (d) If the Building Officer determines that another building permit has been issued less than fifteen months prior to the date on-which the building permit has received all plan-check approvals and the exceptions specified in subsections (c) and (e) do not apply, the Building Officer shall place the project on awaiting list in order of the date and time of day that the permit application received all plan-check approvals. The life of other City approvals or permits necessary to commence the project shall be automatically extended by the amount of time that a project remains on the waiting list. The Building Officer shall approve the project in accordance with the Uniform Technical Code in effect at the time of the plan-check. (e) The following projects shall be exempt from this Section: (1) Affordable housing projects in which one hundred percent of the units will be deed-restricted for very low, low,. middle, and/or moderate income housing. (2) Structures identified by the Building and Safety Division as unreinforced masonry construction and subject to City-mandated seismic upgrading. (3) Projects to be developed on a site that is vacant. (4) Projects to be developed on a site in which either: (i) the structures on the site are uninhabitable, not as a result of the owner's failure to maintain the structure, or the property of which the structure is a part, in good repair, and the structures cannot be rendered habitable in an economically feasible manner or (ii) the current use of the property is not otherwise economically viable. The City shall prepare an exemption application form which delineates all submission requirements. An owner shall not be required to file a project application with the exemption application. City staff shall make a final determination whether a project meets the requirements of this subdivision within ninety days after the owner's exemption application for the project is deemed complete. (5) Projects that include the retention and preservation of a designated landmark building or contributing structure to an adopted Historic District. (6) Projects that have received final building permits prior to the effective date of this Ordinance. (f) The Planning and Community Development Department may develop administrative guidelines implementing this Section. SECTION 3. This Ordinance is declared to be an urgency measure adopted pursuant to the provisions of Section 615 of the Santa Monica City Charter. As set forth in the findings above, this Ordinance is necessary for preserving the public peace, 7 health, safety, and' welfare. As an urgency measure, this Ordinance is effective immediately upon adoption. SECTION 4. This Ordinance shall be of no further force or effect sixty days after its effective date unless prior to that date, after a public hearing,. noticed pursuant to Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 9.04.20.22.050, the City Council, by majority vote, extends this interim ordinance. SECTION 5. Any provision of the Santa Monica Municipal Code or appendices thereto inconsistent with the provisions of .this Ordinance, to the extent of such inconsistencies and no further, is hereby repealed or modified to that extent necessary to effect the provisions of this Ordinance. SECTION 6. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any court of .competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of .the remaining portions of this Ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed this Ordinance and each and every section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase not declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any portion of the ordinance would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional. SECTION 7. The Mayor shall sign and the City Clerk shall attest to the passage of this Ordinance. The City Clerk shall cause the same to be published once 8 in the official newspaper within 15 days after its adoption. This Ordinance shall become effective upon its adoption. APPROVED AS TO FORM: M SHA,dO ES MO TRIE Cit Attor 9 Approved and adopted this 26th day of February, 2008. Herb Katz, Mayor State of California County of Los Angeles) ss. City of Santa Monica ) I, Maria M. Stewart, City Clerk of the City of Santa Monica, do hereby certify that the foregoing Ordinance No. 2250 (CCS) had its introduction and adoption at the Santa Monica City Council meeting held on February 26, 2008, by the following vote: Ayes: Council members: Genser, Holbrook, McKeown, O'Connor, Mayor Pro Tem Bloom Noes: Council members: Shriver Mayor Katz Abstain: Council members: None Absent: Council members: None ATTEST: ~4 ~ ~L~~ Maria M. StewartlCity Clerk A summary of Ordinance No. 2250 (CCS) was duly published pursuant to California Government Code Section 40806.