HomeMy WebLinkAboutORD 385 2010 0421ORDINANCE NO. 385
AN INTERIM URGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF
MOORPARK, CALIFORNIA, MAKING FINDINGS AND
ESTABLISHING A TEMPORARY MORATORIUM ON
PERMITTING NEW MASSAGE ESTABLISHMENTS
WITHIN THE CITY OF MOORPARK
WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Moorpark does ordain as follows:
SECTION 1. Findings
A. The City desires to provide for the public safety, health and welfare of the
residents and visitors to the City of Moorpark ( "City ").
B. One means of doing so is by regulating businesses that provide services
that may create additional public safety, health and welfare impacts within the City.
These businesses include massage establishments, which are currently regulated by
Municipal Code Chapter 5.48 (Massage Establishments and Therapists) and Title 17
(Zoning).
C. Recent changes in State law (SB 731, approved September 27, 2008)
have affected the ability for the City to regulate massage establishments under its
current Municipal Code regulations, creating an inconsistency with State law.
D. The City finds that without examining its current regulations in light of
these changes to the State law, public welfare will be harmed by the inconsistency
between local regulations of massage establishments and State law. The public
welfare will additionally be harmed if massage establishments are initially allowed in
certain zones, but then later prohibited or further regulated in those zones, creating
non - conforming uses and an unnecessarily more complex regulatory environment.
E. If the City continues to approve new massage establishments, each new
entitlement would be granting a right to use the property in a manner which does not
necessarily reflect the needs and wants of the public. Furthermore, it will not
adequately protect the public's health, safety and welfare. As such, if the City fails to
enact this moratorium immediately, all new entitlements for massage establishments
will create a current and immediate threat to the public health, safety and welfare.
F. The City Council intends to study how the application process and
entitlement granting process for new massage establishments should be revised to be
both consistent with State law, and protect the public health, safety, and welfare.
Ordinance No. 385
Page 2
G. The City Council 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 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 the enactment of this ordinance, no use permit, variance, building
permit, zoning clearance, business registration or other applicable entitlement shall be
approved under Municipal Code Chapter 5.48 and Title 17 for a new "massage
establishment" as defined in Municipal Code section 5.48.20.
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 least a four -fifths vote of the City Council
and shall be in effect for forty-five (45) days from the date of adoption unless extended
by the City Council as provided for in the Government Code.
Ordinance No. 385
Page 3
SECTION 5. Publication
The City Clerk shall certify to the passage and adoption of this ordinance; shall
enter the same in the book or original ordinances of said City; shall make a minute of
the passage and adoption thereof in the records of the proceedings of the City Council
at which the same is passed and adopted; and shall, within fifteen (15) days after the
passage and adoption thereof, cause the same to be published once in the Moorpark
Star, a newspaper of general circulation, as defined in Section 6008 of the Government
Code, for the City of Moorpark, and which is hereby designated for that purpose.
PASSED AND ADOPTED this 21 st day of April, 2010.
ATTEST:
Mani S. Parvin, Mayor
01 , S. 1
Deborah S. Traffenstedt, Clerk