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HomeMy WebLinkAbout923 - Ordinances - EXTENDING INTERIM ORDINANCE 919 ORDINANCE NO. 923 AN INTERIM ZONING ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA, EXTENDING INTERIM ORDINANCE NO. 919 FOR AN ADDITIONAL 10 MONTHS AND 15 DAYS REQUIRING A CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HOTELS OR THE EXPANSION OF EXISTING HOTELS AND DECLARING THE URGENCY THEREOF A. Recitals. (i) The City is responsible for adopting and implementing land use regulations within its boundaries. The Rancho Cucamonga Municipal Code ("Code") generally regulates the entitlement, establishment and operation of Hotels within the City. (ii) Hotels are facilities with guest rooms or suites, provided with or without kitchen facilities, rented to the general public for transient lodging. Hotels typically include a variety of services in addition to lodging,for example, restaurants, meeting facilities,swimming pools,tennis courts, indoor athletic facilities and personal services. (iii) Hotels can become a convenient location for certain types of criminal activity. The manufacture of methamphetamine and other types of illegal drugs has occurred in Hotels, damaging property and endangering other Hotel guests. Hotels are also a convenient destination for prostitution and sex trafficking. (iv) Evidence from jurisdictions throughout the country demonstrates that Hotels often attract or are the source of criminal activity: 1. In 2014, a man was arrested at a Hotel in Braintree, MA after threatening an 18-year old girl because "she wasn't working" as a prostitute; 2. In 2015, the City of Dallas, TX filed suit against the owners of a Hotel after more than 40 drug-related arrests, in addition to four prostitution busts and numerous other crimes took place there in the preceding years; 3. In 2014, three people were arrested for conspiracy and loitering with intent to commit prostitution outside of a Hotel in National City, CA; 4. "Meth labs" have been discovered in Hotels in places such as Springfield, MO, Rockdale County, FL, DeKalb County, GA, and Lone Tree, CO, among others. (v) The City has recently experienced an increase in calls for service from Hotels within the City. There are currently nine Hotels in the City that have generated a total of 1,214 calls for service in the last 20 months. (vi) Hotels are often used as semi-permanent housing solutions for individuals unable to afford permanent housing, which leads to the creation of unauthorized residential uses on commercial properties. Some Hotels have been known to actively market their units as an alternative to student housing for college and trade school students. (vii) The proliferation of new Hotels throughout the City without due consideration through the approval of a conditional use permit presents an immediate threat to public health, safety or welfare. If new Hotels are established, or existing uses are expanded without appropriate review and regulation, it could lead to an increase in drug and prostitution-related Ordinance No. 923— Page 1 of 4 crime. New or expanded Hotels could also have potential adverse secondary effects on neighborhoods and result in significant irreversible change to neighborhood and community character. (viii) There are currently no regulations in effect pertaining to security, traffic, safety or other impacts at Hotels or the services that these Hotels offer to guests, nor has the City undertaken a comprehensive analysis of the suitability of Hotels within the City's various zoning districts. (ix) The City intends to study the issues associated with Hotels in order to determine which locations are most appropriate for them, and what requirements, if any, should be imposed on their operation. After undertaking this study, the City intends to enact permanent regulations specific to Hotels. The City intends to undertake the required study within a reasonable time. In the interim, the City Council finds it necessary to enact a conditional use permit requirement for Hotels to prevent the establishment or expansion of Hotels that may conflict with the contemplated new policies or regulations or otherwise present impacts that would go unaddressed absent a conditional use permit process. (x) Absent of the passage of this Interim Ordinance, continued approval of entitlements for Hotels without approval of conditional use permits poses a current and immediate threat to the public health, safety or general welfare. If this Interim Ordinance does not become effective immediately, but instead becomes effective thirty (30) days after a second reading, there is a risk that further harm will be done to prevent the orderly development of Hotels in the City. There is therefore an urgent necessity for the City to adopt a conditional use permit requirement for the establishment and expansion of Hotels to take effect immediately. This requirement is intended to provide the City with an opportunity to evaluate and modify its zoning provisions in order to promote the appropriate development of Hotels in the City. (xi) Due to the foregoing circumstances, the City Council finds and determines that the immediate preservation of the public health, safety, and welfare requires that this Interim Ordinance be enacted pursuant to Government Code sections 36934, 36937 and 65858, and that it take effect immediately upon adoption, and its urgency is hereby declared. B. Ordinance NOW, THEREFORE, the City Council hereby ordains as follows: Section 1. Legislative Findings. The City Council finds that the facts set forth in the Recitals, Part A, of this Ordinance are true and correct and, based on such facts and the entirety of the record before it, further finds as follows: a. The establishment and operation of any new Hotels or the expansion of any existing Hotel within the City without due consideration through the approval of a conditional use permit and before the City has a chance to study current impacts and potential regulation would result in adverse impacts, constitute a nuisance, and present a risk to the public health, safety, and welfare. b. Requiring a conditional use permit for new or expanded Hotels in any zone or overlay in which Hotels are permitted is necessary to protect the public safety, health, and welfare. Section 2. Conditional Use Permit Requirement Established. The City Council hereby establishes an interim zoning ordinance imposing a conditional use permit requirement on Ordinance No. 923— Page 2 of 4 new Hotels and expansions of existing Hotels in all zones of the City where Hotels are permitted. During the term of this Interim Ordinance, no Hotel shall be allowed, nor shall any entitlement or permit be issued for a Hotel, unless a conditional use permit is approved for the proposed use in accordance with the Rancho Cucamonga Development Code. For purposes of this Interim Ordinance, the term "Hotel' shall mean a hotel, motel, or inn containing ten or more sleeping rooms, which is used for temporary occupancy of transients. The "establishment" of a Hotel includes both the development and operation of an entirely new structure for a Hotel, and the conversion of an existing apartment building, or other structure into a Hotel. The "expansion" of a Hotel includes any increase in the hours of operation, size of the building, or any other increase in the intensity of use of the Hotel. Section 3. Ordinance is Supplemental. This Interim Ordinance is additional to and supplemental to, and shall not affect, except as specifically provided herein, any provision of the Rancho Cucamonga Development Code, which shall be operative and remain in full force and effect without limitation. Section 4. Term. This Interim Ordinance shall take effect concurrent with the expiration of Urgency Ordinance No. 919 at midnight on November 18, 2017, and shall remain in effect for a period of ten (10) months, fifteen (15) days from the date of publication in accordance with California Government Code Section 65858. Section 5. CEQA. The City Council hereby finds that it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the adoption of this Ordinance, and the zoning provisions established hereby, may have a significant effect on the environment, because the Ordinance will impose greater limitations on development in the City, and will thereby serve to eliminate potentially significant adverse environmental impacts. It is therefore not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act review pursuant to Title 14, Chapter 3, Section 15061(b)(3) of the California Code of Regulations. Section 6. Penalty. Violation of any provision of this Ordinance shall constitute a misdemeanor and shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment for a period not to exceed six (6) months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Each and every day such a violation exists shall constitute a separate and distinct violation of this Ordinance. Section 7. Civil Remedies. The violation of any of the provisions of this Ordinance hereby adopted shall constitute a nuisance and may be abated by the City through civil process by means of restraining order, preliminary or permanent injunction, or in any other manner provided by law for the abatement of such nuisances. Section 8. Severability. The City Council declares that, should any provision, section, paragraph, sentence, or word of this Ordinance be rendered or declared invalid by any final court action in a court of competent jurisdiction, or by reason of any preemptive legislation, the remaining provisions, sections, paragraphs, sentences and words of this Ordinance shall remain in full force and effect. Section 9. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this Ordinance. Ordinance No. 923— Page 3 of 4 PASSED, APPROVED, AND ADOPTED this 15th day of November, 2017. r 'ennis Micha , Mayo ATTEST: GW C rt ice C. Reynolds, Cit Jerk STATE OF CALIFORNIA ) COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO ) ss CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA ) I, Janice C. Reynolds, City Clerk of the City of Rancho Cucamonga, do hereby certify that the foregoing Urgency Ordinance was passed and adopted by a 4/5 vote at a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Rancho Cucamonga held on the 15th day of November, 2017, by the following vote: AYES: Alexander, Kennedy, Michael, Spagnolo, Williams NOES: None ABSENT: None ABSTAINED: None Executed this 16th day of November 2017, at Rancho Cucamonga, California. QXA�iL 1---, A� anice C. Reynolds, City &Ierk Ordinance No. 923— Page 4 of 4