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SR-417-005 (43) . .- J City of Santa Monica'" City Council Report City Council Meeting: March 13, 2007 Agenda Item: 7B To: Mayor and City Council From: Eileen Fogarty, Director, Planning and Community Development Subject: Ordinance Amending Section 3.16.120 of the Municipal Code to Exempt from Parking Meter Fees Vehicles with Specified Veterans License Plates and ZEV parking decals Recommended Action Staff recommends that City Council introduce the attached ordinance for first reading. This ordinance exempts from parking meter fees vehicles displaying the following honorific license plates: Congressional Medal of Honor, Legion of Valor, Purple Heart, American Prisoner of War, and Pearl Harbor Survivor. In addition, the amendment expands the definition of low-emission vehicles exempt from the requirement of paying parking meter fees to include zero-emissions vehicles (2;EV) displaying ZEV parking decals. Executive Summary At its meeting on October 3, 2006, Council directed staff to evaluate possible revenue implications and return with an ordinance exempting from parking meter fees vehicles displaying honorific license plates such as Congressional Medal of Honor, Legion of Valor, Purple Heart, American Prisoner of War, and Pearl Harbor Survivor. No expenditures are required to implement this ordinance. Based upon the data gathered 1 and analyzed, loss of revenue will be less than one percent of total on-street meter revenue. The accompanying proposed ordinance is being presented to the Council in response to its request. The lEV portion of the amendment updates the ordinance to include this type of electric vehicle that displays a zero-emissions parking decal. Discussion The proposed ordinance exempts vehicles displaying the aforementioned military honoring license plates or the zero-emission vehicle decal from the requirement of paying parking meter fees. Drivers of these vehicles must, however, comply with parking restrictions such as the maximum parking time limit for the metered parking. The military license plate portion of the exemption applies to automobiles, trucks, motorcycles or other motor-driven forms of transportation not in excess of 6,000 pounds gross weight, which display such a special interest license plate issued by the DMV or any other state issuing plates of a similar status. This portion of the exemption is modeled after policies now in effect in Culver City and Fresno. The zero-emissions portion of the amendment is in response to the original intent of section 3.16.120 to include such vehicles within the clear-air vehicle category, but the state did not have an identifying method for lEV's until 2003 - a year after the Council approved the clear-air vehicle decal amendment. If the Council wishes to make this change on a trial basis, a sunset clause can be added to that portion of the ordinance. 2 Data Analysis October 2006 California vehicle registration statistics obtained from the California Energy Commission CEC (Attachment A) indicate that 28 million, 7 million, and 72,603 vehicles are registered within the state, county, and City of Santa Monica respectively and also illustrates the number of vehicles with the aforementioned license plates within each of those categories. The resulting percentage of the state's, county's, and city's registered vehicles 1 with the aforementioned license plates is estimated as follows: License Plate Type %inCA % in LA County % in Santa Monica American POW < 1% < 1% < 1% Congressional < 1% None None MOH Legion of Valor < 1% < 1% None Pearl < 1% < 1% < 1% Harbor Survivor Purple Heart < 1% < 1% < 1% Data indicates that each type of license plate composes less than 1 % of those license plates on all registered vehicles within the state, county, and city. To estimate the revenue that vehicles with these military plates contribute to the City's annual on-street meter revenue, vehicles within Los Angeles County can serve as a liberal model. Assuming only vehicles registered in Los Angeles County contributed to all of the $7.1 M2 of on-street meter revenue, proportionally, vehicles with the 1 Vehicles defined as cars, trucks, motorcycles, and off highway 2 According to FY06-07 Adopted Budget revenue summary 3 aforementioned military license plates contributed $1,229.93 (far less than 1 %3) of total on-street meter revenue. According to the California Air Resources Board, less than 1,000 ZEV's are registered throughout the state (less than 1 % of the total number of vehicles registered in the state4). The number registered in Los Angeles County and the City of Santa Monica was not available. Applying the same proportional analysis as above and making the broad assumption that all ZEV's are registered in Los Angeles County, ZEV's contributed approximately $800 of total on-street meter revenue. Public Outreach If adopted, a press release will be issued by the Planning and Community Development Department. In addition, the Transportation Management Division will communicate this policy to its personnel to aid in the dissemination of this information to its walk-in and telephone customers and to the all necessary city departments. BudgeUFinancial Impact According to the data analysis, with the adoption of the attached ordinance, parking revenues are conservatively estimated to decline by less than 1 % which is not budgetarily significant. This projected revenue loss of approximately $2,000 utilizes very liberal assumptions since the City does not monitor the type of vehicles using on- street meters. 3 Actual figure: Two hundredths of one percent 4 Actual figure: Four-thousandths of one percent 4 Prepared by: Carlos Collard, Administrative Analyst Approved: Forwarded to Council: Attachment A: Military License Plate Data Attachment B: Military License Plate Ordinance 5 Attachment A CALIFORNIA LICENSE PLATE DATA AMERICAN POW CARlTRUCK 1,037 143 1 CONGRESSIONAL MOH CARlTRUCK 15 LEGION OF VALOR CARlTRUCK 93 7 PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR CARlTRUCK 958 90 1 PURPLE HEART CARlTRUCK 6,203 937 8 PURPLE HEART MOTORCYCLE 246 36 OTHER (all remaining) CARlTRUCK 26,605,292 6,781,476 70,376 OTHER (all remaining) MOTORCYCLE 659,968 120,211 1,761 OTHER (all remaining) OFF HIGHWAY 988,662 138,819 456 TOTAL REGISTERED VEHICLES 28,262,474 7,041,719 72,603 City Council Meeting 3-13-07 Santa Monica, California ORDINANCE NUMBER (City Council Series) AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA AMENDING SECTION 3.16.120 OF THE SANTA MONICA MUNICIPAL CODE TO EXEMPT FROM PARKING METER FEES VEHICLES WITH SPECIFIED VETERANS LICENSE PLATES. THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 3.16.120 is hereby amended to read as follows: Section 3.16.120 Operation of parking meters. When any vehicle shall be parked in any metered parking space, the operator immediately shall deposit the required coin in the manner prescribed on the parking meter unless the parking meter indicates an unexpired portion remains of the period for which coins had been deposited previously, or the operator immediately has placed into operation an in-vehicle parking regulator in compliance with rules and regulations approved by the City Council or in a period of emergency determined by an officer of the Fire or Police Department, or in compliance with the directions of a police officer or traffic control sign or signal. In no event shall it be lawful to park a vehicle in a designated metered parking space in excess of the maximum parking time limit set by the Parking and Traffic Engineer. Operators of vehicles displavinq the followinq shall not be reQuired to deposit monev in parking meters: Clean Air Vehicle Decal Zero-Emissions Vehicle Parking Decal ConQressional Medal of Honor license plate Leaion of Valor license plate Purple Heart license plate American Prisoner of War license plate Pearl Harbor Survivor license plate SECTION 3. 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 4. 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 5. 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 in the official newspaper within 15 days after its adoption. This Ordinance shall become effective 30 days from its adoption. APPROVED AS TO FORM: