SR-03-12-2013-7CCity Council Meeting: March 12, 2013
Agenda Item: 7-4C,
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Dean Kubani, Director, Office of Sustainability and the Environment
Subject: Introduction and First Reading of an Ordinance Establishing Sustainability
Rights
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council introduce for first reading the attached
ordinance establishing sustainability rights for Santa Monica residents and the natural
environment.
Executive Summary
Following previous direction by Council staff has prepared an ordinance that codifies the
commitments made in the Sustainable City Plan and asserts the fundamental rights of
all Santa Monica residents regarding sustainability. The ordinance also establishes the
rights of natural communities and ecosystems to exist and flourish in Santa Monica and
asserts the rights of residents to enforce those rights on behalf of the environment. The
ordinance establishes that corporate entities do not possess special privileges or
powers under the law that subordinate the community's rights. The ordinance requires
City staff to prepare a biennial written report for presentation to Council at a public
hearing on the state of the local environment and the City's progress in implementing
and enforcing the Sustainable City Plan and the provisions of the ordinance. There are
no immediate financial impacts or budget actions associated with the adoption of this
ordinance establishing sustainability rights.
Background
Santa Monica takes pride in its long- standing commitment to environmental leadership.
The City adopted its Sustainable City Plan (SCP) in September of 1994 and updated it
in 2003 and 2006. The SCP recognizes that a healthy environment is integral to the
City's long -term societal and economic interests and that collective decisions made by
the City must allow the economy and community members to thrive without destroying
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the natural environment upon which they depend. Therefore, the SCP commits the City
to protecting, preserving and restoring the natural environment. It also recognizes that
local environmental, economic and social issues cannot be separated from their larger
context and therefore commits the City to development programs and policies that will
serve as models for other communities.
In the years since the SCP was adopted, the City has created and funded a wide range
of successful environmental programs. And, the City has successfully utilized
environmental protection laws to hold polluters accountable for damage done to its
natural resources
Nonetheless, environmental crises including: global climate change; habitat destruction
and species extinction; soil, air and water pollution; and resource depletion continue to
grow throughout the world. In response, Santa Monica's local environmental community
and national environmental leaders have urged consideration of a new approach being
taken in other cities and countries — an approach that would recognize the rights of both
humans and the natural environment to exist and flourish. This natural rights movement
is based on the belief that Earth is a community whose members are humans, other
animals, plants, rivers, streams end eco- systems and that all members of the
community must have rights to ensure the sustainability of the whole. The movement
seeks a paradigm shift away from the current economic and legal systems' classification
of nature as "property" and towards a more holistic view that would place the interest of
natural communities and long -term sustainability ahead of short- range, individual and
corporate economic goals.
On March 21, 2011 the City's Task Force on the Environment created a subcommittee
to explore the creation of a Sustainability Bill of Rights (SBoR) for Santa Monica. That
subcommittee drafted a proposed framework for the SBoR which would:
1. Recognize the rights of people, natural communities and ecosystems to exist,
regenerate and flourish;
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2. Authorize individuals to sue to effectuate the rights of the natural world;
3. Subordinate corporate rights insofar as those rights threaten sustainability; and
4. Commit the City to meeting specified environmental goals by specified dates
and taking other specified actions to fulfill the commitments made in the
Sustainable City Plan.
On June 20, 2011 after discussion of this framework the Task Force adopted the
following motion by a 4 to 1 vote:
The Santa Monica Task Force on the Environment recommends Council direct staff to
develop a City of Santa Monica "Sustainability Bill of Rights"
On January 24, 2012 Council adopted a resolution declaring the City's Commitment to
Sustainable Rights. This resolution was developed by staff based on the work of the
Task Force on the Environment and represents a formal recognition by the City of the
rights of Santa Monica residents to:
• clean, affordable and accessible water from sustainable water sources;
• a sustainable energy future based on renewable energy sources;
• a sustainable natural climate system unaltered by fossil fuel emissions;
• sustainable, comprehensive waste disposal systems that do not degrade the
environment;
• clean indoor and outdoor air, clean water and clean soil that pose a negligible
health risk to the public; and
• a sustainable food system that provides healthy, locally grown food to the
community.
The resolution also recognizes the fundamental rights of natural communities and
ecosystems to exist, thrive and evolve; and it supports effectuating these rights by
modifying local law and policy as needed to better protect and sustain the natural
environment for current and future generations.
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With adoption of the resolution Council directed staff to return with proposals for policy,
process and legal changes that would protect the rights of people and natural
communities consistent with the resolution. The attached ordinance has been prepared
to address this request.
Discussion
The attached ordinance codifies the commitments made in the Sustainable City Plan to:
1. Restoring, protecting and preserving our natural environment and all of its
components and communities;
2. Creating and promoting sustainable systems of food production and distribution,
transportation, waste disposal, and water supply;
3. To the full extent legally possible, subordinating the short term, private financial
interests of corporations and others to the common, long -term interest of
achieving environmental and economic sustainability.
Based on the resolution adopted by Council on January 24, 2012, the ordinance asserts
the fundamental rights of all Santa Monica residents to clean water from sustainable
sources, clean air, a sustainable food system, a sustainable natural climate,
comprehensive waste disposal systems that do not degrade the environment, and a
sustainable energy future based on renewable energy sources. The ordinance
recognizes the rights of natural communities and ecosystems to exist and flourish in the
city of Santa Monica and asserts the rights of residents to enforce those rights on behalf
of the environment. The ordinance also recognizes that corporate entities and their
directors and managers do not possess special privileges or powers under the law that
subordinate the community's rights to their private interests.
The ordinance establishes a requirement that every two years City staff shall prepare a
written report on the state of the local environment and the City's progress in
implementing and enforcing the Sustainable City Plan and the provisions of the
ordinance. The report must include recommendations for advancing and ensuring
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compliance with the Sustainable City Plan and must be reviewed at a biennial public
hearing by City Council for Council comment and direction.
In order to further highlight sustainable rights as a priority for the City of Santa Monica,
staff is creating a new article to the Santa Monica Municipal Code which will house
and /or reference all current and future code sections related to the environment and
sustainability policy and regulation, including the attached ordinance. As this will be a
substantial effort to complete, staff will present this new SMMC article to Council for
adoption later this calendar year.
Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
There are no immediate financial impacts or budget actions associated with the
adoption of this ordinance.
Prepared by: Dean Kubani, Director
Approved:
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Dean Kubani
Director, Office of Sustainability and the
Environment
Attachments:
Forwarded to Council:
Rod Gould
City Manager
1) Ordinance Establishing Sustainability Rights
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Council Meeting: March 12, 2013 Santa Monica, California
ORDINANCE NUMBER (CCS)
(City Council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
ESTABLISHING SUSTAINABILITY RIGHTS
WHEREAS, as declared in Santa Monica's Sustainable City Plan, a healthy
environment is integral to the City's long -term economic and societal interests and,
accordingly, the City's decision- making is guided by the mandate to maximize
environmental benefits and reduce or eliminate negative environmental impacts; and
WHEREAS, as further declared in the Sustainable City Plan, local environmental
issues cannot be separated from their broader context; and therefore the City's
programs and policies should be developed as models that can be emulated by other
communities; and
WHEREAS, in furtherance of these commitments and goals, the City must
regularly evaluate whether its plans, laws, and programs are sufficient to meet the
growing environmental crisis and must explore all means of addressing the growing
environmental crisis; and
WHEREAS, in the last fifty years, national and state governments have
attempted to address the crisis by adopting specific environmental protection laws, such
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as the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act and California
Environmental Quality Act, that limit pollution and resource consumption; but those laws
also have proven inadequate to provide long -term protection of our rights to clean air,
water, and soil, and sustainable food systems, and the rights of natural ecosystems;
and
WHEREAS, the inadequacy of these laws results, in part, from the underlying
legal assumption that the natural world is "property ", which may be used by its owners
-- be they individuals, corporations, or other entities -- for their own, private, short -term
economic benefit, generally with minimal regard for the health of the environment; and
WHEREAS, numerous specific examples show that this underlying assumption
has proven destructive to the environment upon which all living things ultimately
depend;and
WHEREAS, in response to the evils of treating the natural world as mere
property, the world -wide, national and local environmental communities are urging
governments to adopt a new paradigm based upon recognition that both individual
human beings and natural communities or ecosystems have fundamental environmental
rights which should be recognized by the law, that the health of the world's populations
and ecosystems depends on the full protection of these rights, and that asserted
corporate rights can no longer be allowed to take precedence over these rights to
human and environmental health and well- being; and
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WHEREAS, there are numerous examples of policy statements and laws based
on this new paradigm that recognize the rights of the natural world to exist, thrive and
evolve; and
WHEREAS, Ecuador amended its constitution to include the rights of nature in
2008, with the first successful case applying that right concluding in March 2011; and
WHEREAS, in December 2010, the City of Pittsburgh became the first major city
in the United States to adopt a Community Bill of Rights that bans corporations from
drilling natural gas within its city limits and elevates the rights of people, the community,
and nature over corporate rights; and
WHEREAS, other municipalities in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maine, Maryland, New
Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, and New York have adopted similar measures
recognizing the rights of people and natural communities and including language that
would subordinate the rights of corporations to local sustainability efforts; and
WHEREAS, Santa Monica's own Task Force on the Environment has studied
this growing movement and recommended that the City support it as a means of
effectuating the commitments and goals already established by the Sustainable City
Plan, and of recognizing the inherent rights of the people and natural communities of
the City of Santa Monica; and
WHEREAS, on January 24, 2012 the Santa Monica City Council adopted a
resolution declaring the City's Commitment to Sustainable Rights; and
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WHEREAS, the City is committed to fully implementing its Sustainable City Plan
to further effectuate inherent rights of the people and natural communities of the City of
Santa Monica.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Chapter 4.75 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code is hereby
created to read as follows:
Chapter 4.75 GENERAL PROVISIONS
4.75.010 Title
This chapter shall be known as the City of Santa Monica Sustainability Rights
Ordinance.
4.75.020 Findings
The City Council finds and declares:
(a) With the exponential growth in human population and its increasing per capita
resource consumption, the planet cannot sustain our current way of life, which is
destructive to the natural elements upon which all species depend -- the air, water,
climate, soil and other fundamental elements of the world;
(b) Like all other communities, Santa Monica's welfare is inextricably bound to
the welfare of the natural environment; and the City has therefore long been committed
to protecting, preserving and restoring the natural environment and providing a model of
environmental sustainability for other communities to utilize; and
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(c) The City Council of Santa Monica has expressed this commitment through a
multitude of enactments and actions, including recognizing both the rights of natural
communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica to exist, thrive and evolve and the
rights of the individual human beings that make up the City of Santa Monica to a clean,
healthy and sustainable environment. The peoples' rights include, but are not limited to:
the right to affordable and accessible water from sustainable water sources for human
consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes, as referenced in Calif. AB 685 (2012);
the right to a sustainable energy future based on sustainable renewable energy
sources; the right to a sustainable natural climate unaltered by fossil fuel emissions; the
right to sustainable, comprehensive waste disposal systems that do not degrade the
environment; the right to clean indoor and outdoor air, clean water and clean soil that
pose a negligible health risk to the public; and the right to a sustainable food system
that provides healthy, locally grown food to the community; and
(d) These rights are not sufficiently safeguarded by the existing body of local,
national and international environmental policies and laws, which are grossly
inadequate to avert the mounting environmental crisis; and
(e) The inadequacy of the current framework of state, national and international
policies and laws necessitates re- examination of the underlying societal and legal
assumptions about our relationships with the environment and a renewed focus on
effectuating these rights.
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4.75.030 Purpose
This Chapter is created and exists for the purpose of codifying Santa Monica's
commitment to achieving sustainability by among other things: (1) restoring, protecting
and preserving our natural environment and all of its components and communities
including, but not limited to the air, water, soil, and climate upon which all living things
depend; (2) creating and promoting sustainable systems of food production and
distribution, energy production and distribution, transportation, waste disposal, and
water supply; and (3) to the full extent legally possible, subordinating the short term,
private, financial interests of corporations and others to the common, long -term interest .
of achieving environmental and economic sustainability.
4.75.040 Rights of Santa Monica Residents and The Natural Environment
(a) All residents of Santa Monica possess fundamental and inalienable rights
to: clean water from sustainable sources; marine waters safe for active and passive
recreation; clean indoor and outdoor air; a sustainable food system that provides
healthy, locally grown food; a sustainable climate that supports thriving human life and a
flourishing biodiverse environment; comprehensive waste disposal systems that do not
degrade the environment; and a sustainable energy future based on renewable energy
sources.
(b) Natural communities and ecosystems possess fundamental and
inalienable rights to exist and flourish in the City Of Santa Monica. To effectuate those
rights on behalf of the environment, residents of the City may bring actions to protect
groundwater aquifers, atmospheric systems, marine waters, and native species within
the boundaries of the City.
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(c) All residents of Santa Monica possess the right to self - governance and to
a municipal government which recognizes that all power is inherent in the people, that
all free governments are founded on the people's authority and consent, and that
corporate entities, and their directors and managers, do not enjoy special privileges or
powers under the law that subordinate the community's rights to their private interests.
4.75.050 Biennial Report
At least once during every 24 month period, City staff shall prepare a written
report to the community on the state of the local environment, the realization of the
rights recognized in Chapter 4.75, and the City's progress in effectuating and enforcing
the Sustainable City Plan and the policies and provisions of this Chapter. The report
shall include recommendations for advancing and ensuring compliance with the
Sustainable City Plan.
4.75.060 Biennial Hearing
The City Council will bi- annually review the report, conduct a public hearing,
assess the City's progress in effectuating and enforcing both the Sustainable City Plan
and the policies and provisions of this Chapter, and provide direction to staff to ensure
compliance with the Plan's provisions and with the inherent rights of the people and
natural communities of the City of Santa Monica described herein.
4.75.070 Compliance Assurance
The City or any City resident may bring an action to enforce any provision of the
Santa Monica Municipal Code that advances the goals identified as enforceable in the
Sustainable City Plan.
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Section 2. 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 3. 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 4. 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:
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