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HomeMy WebLinkAbout27-83 BEFORE THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF DANVILLE In the Matter of: ) ) Adopting as an Urgency Measure ) ORDINANCE NO. 27-84 an Interim Ordinance to Suspend ) Development Along Ridgeline Areas ) ) The City Council of the City of Danville DOES ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Findings and Declaration of Intent. The City of Danville incorporated on July 1, 1982. One of the principal reasons that the City incorporated was to control on a local level the decisions affecting the appearance, improvements, development and growth of the City. A Gencral Plan for the City of Danville was adopted by the Danville City Council on October 18, 1982. The General Plan emphasizes protection and preservation of the hilltops and ridges and suggests adoption of policies or ordinances to protect the major ridgelines (e.g. pages 12, 14, 23, 31, 32, 33, 49 and 52). At the direction of the City Council the planning staff is currently reviewing the development policies applied in ridgeline areas to insure adequate future protection of ridgeline views. The City Council intends to study and to have its Planning Commission and Planning Department study and recommend within a reasonable time policies for ridgeline development. It is likely that a comprehensive ordinance designed to protect hilltops and ridges in the City will be proposed for adoption. Until the Council adopts ridgeline development policies the staff has no basis to deny specific requests for permits in areas which are critical to the protection of ridgeline areas. One of the difficulties facing the planning staff is that before the City created its own planning agency to carry out the planning services then being provided by the County to the City, some entitlements to development, e.g. minor subdivisions and building permits were issued in these ridgeline areas. The Council finds that there is a current and immediate threat to the public health, safety and welfare, and that the approval of additional subdivisions, rezonings, land use permits, variances, building permits and other applicable entitlements for use would result in a threat to public health, --1-- safety and welfare because any such development would undermine and frustrate the ridgeline development policies which the City may adopt. In order to avoid granting approvals for a project which may frustrate or conflict with ridgeline development guidelines and regulations which the City may adopt in the near future, the Council finds that it is necessary to adopt the regulations set forth in this ordinance. SECTION 2. Purpose. The purpose of this ordinance is to place a moratorium on: 1) the issuance of a permit or other approval for a building or development within a ridgeline area described in Section 3; and 2) the acceptance of an application for a building or development within the ridgeline area described in Section 3. SECTION 3. Moratorium on Application and Approvals Within the Ridgeline Area. During the period this ordinance is in effect, the City may not grant a permit or other approval and may not accept a development application for a building or development within a ridgeline area in the city of Danville. For the purpose of this ordinance, the ridgeline area is all land designated on Exhibit A, attached to this ordinance. The City Staff is directed to refuse to issue a permit for development after January 16, 1984, in the ridgeline area. SECTION 4. Exceptions. This ordinance does not apply to: 1) a permit for maintenance or repair of land or a building when it is determined by the Planning Director to be necessary to protect the integrity of an existing structure or necessary to repair or prevent landslide or to stabilize an existing ground condition. 2) a building permit issued or for which an application was on file with the City on January 16, 1984. SECTION 5. Declaration of Intent to Supersede Provisions of the Municipal Code. To the extent that this ordinance changes previously adopted provisions of the Danville Municipal Code, this ordinance supercedes those provisions. SECTION 6. Duration. This interim ordinance is adopted under the authority of Government Code section 65858 and shall remain in effect for 45 days from the date of adoption and is then repealed, unless a subsequent ordinance extends the date. --2-- SECTION 7. Urgency and Taking Effect. This ordinance is an urgency ordinance and is for the immediate preservation of the public health, safety and welfare. The facts constituting the urgency are these: the City of Danville incorporated on July 1, 1982. One year later it established its own Planning Department. The planning staff is currently reviewing the development policies concerning ridgeline areas in light of the goals and policies of the City's General Plan. The adoption of the ordinance is necessary in order to prevent ridgeline development which may be in conflict with a contemplated zoning proposal which the City Council, Planning Commission and Planning Department are studying or intend to study within a reasonable time. If during the time the proposed regulations are being studied and proposed for adoption, persons could undertake development which would conflict with those regulations, the purpose of the regulations, and the goals of the General Plan sought to be implemented by them would be undermined and frustrated. It is possible and in some instances likely that development may not conform to the regulations or the requirements imposed by the City under those regulations, thereby destroying the usefulness of the regulations. This ordinance is adopted under Government Code section 65858. This ordinance takes effect immediately. SECTION 7. Publication. The City Clerk shall have this ordinance published once within 15 days after adoption in a newspaper of general circulation. The foregoing ordinance was introduced, adopted and ordered published at a meeting of the City Council of the City of Danville held on January 16, 1984, by the following vote: AYES; Lane, May, Mc Noely, Offenhartz, Schlendorf NOES: None ABSENT: None ABSTAIN: None ATTEST .~ ,~' ? / i % ClTY j, L K -3-