The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutORD 327 2005 1116ORDINANCE NO. 327 AN INTERIM URGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MOORPARK, CALIFORNIA, MAKING FINDINGS AND EXTENDING A TEMPORARY MORATORIUM ON DECREASED DOWNTOWN PARKING REQUIREMENTS AND ON ALL PROPOSED NON - RESIDENTIAL, DISCRETIONARY LAND USE APPROVALS IN THE DOWNTOWN SPECIFIC PLAN OVERLAY ZONE. THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF MOORPARK DOES ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Findings A. The City desires to improve the public safety, health and welfare of the residents and visitors to the City of Moorpark ( "City ") . B. One means of doing so is to foster the creation of a vibrant downtown area. C. In 1998, the City created the Downtown Specific Plan Overlay Zone ( "Overlay Zone ") . This section, now codified in Municipal Code Section 17.72, no longer fully reflects the needs of the public. Since that time, the actual uses within the City have changed, and the public desires and needs have changed along with the actual changes. D. The City is currently considering revising the Overlay Zone to more fully reflect these needs. There are numerous requirements that the City will consider amending. For example, the new Overlay Zone might have substantially different design guidelines and more stringent development requirements, different parking standards, and different maps. These are just some of numerous changes that will be considered. E. If the City continues to approve additional subdivisions, use permits, variances, building permits, or any other applicable entitlement consistent with the current requirements of the Overlay Zone, each new entitlement would be granting a right to use property in a manner which does not accurately reflect the needs and wants of the public. As such, if the City fails to enact this moratorium immediately, all new entitlements granted within the Overlay Zone will create a current and immediate threat to the public health, safety and welfare. F. A second major method to foster a vibrant downtown area is to ensure the existence of a sufficient number of parking spaces. Ordinance No. 327 Page 2 G. Section 17.32.010 of the City's Municipal Code establishes the minimum parking standards for any new use and for the enlargement of any existing use. Municipal Code Section 17.32.025, however, indicates that parking in the downtown area need meet only one half of the standards required by Section 17.32.010. H. Permitting development to occur in the downtown area without sufficient parking is a current and immediate threat to the public health, safety and welfare. If there is insufficient parking, drivers will spend more time driving to look for parking. This, in turn, will create additional traffic, create more pollution, decrease emergency response times, and lessen the overall enjoyment and usability of the downtown area. If the City failed to impose this moratorium, these threats to the public health, safety and welfare will become reality. I. The City intends to study whether to and to what extent the parking requirements in the downtown area should be revised. J. Any new development in the Overlay Zone which is either residential in character or is a non - discretionary permit, will not conflict with currently contemplated amendments, because the City is not currently considering amending the Overlay Zone in that manner. However, all other proposed new or expanded uses in the Overlay Zone may be in conflict with contemplated changes to the Overlay Zone. K. Any reliance on the parking requirements within Municipal Code 17.32.025 would also conflict with the potential new regulations. L. On October 19, 2005, the City adopted a 45 day moratorium on decreased downtown parking requirements and on all proposed non - residential discretionary land use approvals in the Overlay Zone. That moratorium will expire on December 3, 2005. M. The City intends to extend the 45 day moratorium for three (3) weeks and one (1) day (until December 8, 2005). N. The City finds that this ordinance is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential Ordinance No. 327 Page 3 for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly; it prevents changes in the environment pending the completion of the contemplated municipal code review. SECTION 2. Imposition of Moratorium A. In accordance with the authority granted to the City of Moorpark by Government Code Section 65858, and pursuant to the findings stated herein, from and after the date of this ordinance, no use permit, variance, building permit, business license or other applicable entitlement shall be approved if either: 1. The application is for a discretionary, non- residential use within the Overlay Zone. "Non- residential" uses means the following six uses: Office (C -O), Old Town Commercial (C -OT), Neighborhood Commercial (C -1), Commercial Planned Development (C -PD), Institutional (I), and Industrial Park /Light Industrial (M -1); or 2. The application relies upon Municipal Code Section 17.32.025. This prohibition shall not prevent, however, an applicant from receiving an entitlement where the applicant expressly waives the standards listed within Section 17.32.025, and instead promises to comply with the requirements of City Municipal Code Section 17.32.010. B. This ordinance is an interim urgency ordinance adopted pursuant to the authority granted to the City of Moorpark by Government Code Section 65858, and is for the immediate preservation of the public health, safety, and welfare. SECTION 3. Severability If any provision of this ordinance or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of the ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this ordinance are severable. The City Council hereby declares that it would have adopted this ordinance irrespective of the invalidity of any particular portion thereof. SECTION 4. Effective Date Consistent with Government Code 65858, this ordinance shall become effective immediately upon adoption if adopted by at a least four - fifths vote of the City Council and shall be in effect Ordinance No. 327 Page 4 for three (3) weeks and one (1) day (until December 8, 2005) from the date of adoption. SECTION 5. Publication The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this ordinance and cause it, or a summary of it, to be published once in a newspaper of general circulation printed and published within the City of Moorpark. PASSED AND APPROVED t ATTEST: Deborah S. Traffenst t, City Clerk Ordinance No. 327 Page 5 STATE OF CALIFORNIA ) COUNTY OF VENTURA ) ss. CITY OF MOORPARK ) I, Deborah S. Traffenstedt, City Clerk of the City of Moorpark, California, do hereby certify under penalty of perjury that the foregoing Ordinance No. 327 was adopted by the City Council of the City of Moorpark at a regular meeting held on the 16th day of November, 2005, and that the same was adopted by the following vote: AYES: Councilmembers Harper, Mayor Pro Tempore Mikos NOES: None ABSENT: Mayor Hunter ABSTAIN: None Millhouse, Parvin, and WITNESS my hand and the official seal of said City this 18th day of November, 2005. Deborah S. TraffensteZItw, City Clerk (seal)