HomeMy WebLinkAbout04 SR42B on Extension of DR Urgency Ordinance (10-5-05)
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SARATOGA CITY COUNCIL
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY NO. _____ AGENDA ITEM _________________
MEETING DATE: October 5, 2005 CITY MANAGER: _______________
ORIGINATING DEPT: City Attorney/ PREPARED BY: City Attorney
Community Development
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SUBJECT: Extension of Interim Moratorium on Uses Inconsistent with Prior
Design Review Approval
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RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Accept public testimony, consider and adopt the extension to the Interim Urgency
Ordinance. The ordinance prohibits uses that are inconsistent with prior design review
approvals and currently expires on November 22, 2005. The ordinance would extend the
term to November 20, 2006.
STAFF REPORT:
This item is a follow up to the City Council's actions on November 22, 2004 and
January 5, 2005 to adopt and then extend Ordinance 233. That ordinance requires
compliance with prior design review conditions for all properties in the City with a
structure that was the subject of design review and that received final approval after
January 1, 2004. Projects that deviate from approved design review conditions are
allowed by Ordinance 233, but only upon approval by the entity that issued the design
review approval. Thus, projects on property that have an administrative design review
approval are reviewed by the Community Development Director and projects that on
property that has been the subject of Planning Commission design review approval
require approval by the Planning Commission.
Staff is still the process of reviewing possible amendments to the zoning code to
address the issues that led to adoption of the interim ordinance. Because that review is
not yet complete, staff recommends adopting the attached ordinance to extend the term of
the interim ordinance for one year. No further extensions are allowed under state law.
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FISCAL IMPACTS:
There are several costs associated with the ordinance. The first is the cost of
checking over the counter permit requests to determine if the property is subject to the
ordinance. Thus far, checking for ordinance compliance has remained at roughly 15
minutes of staff time per application. The second cost associated with the ordinance is
the cost of administering the supplemental design review process for proposed changes.
The Community Development Department operates on a cost recovery basis. Therefore
these increased costs will be borne by project applicants. This will affect the applicant’s
cost of project review. It will not affect overall costs of City operations.
The third cost is associated with code enforcement. These costs are difficult to
predict. Because many of the changes to property that would be prohibited by the
ordinance do not require a permit, it is possible that some residents could complete the
work without knowledge of the ordinance’s restrictions. This could lead to requests for
code enforcement. Thus far there have been relatively few code enforcement requests
under the ordinance. The likely extent of such complaints in the future is unknown.
ADVERTISING, NOTICING AND PUBLIC CONTACT:
Notice for this meeting. A notice of public hearing was also published in the
Saratoga News.
CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ACTING ON RECOMMENDED MOTION(S):
The interim urgency ordinance would expire on January 6, 2005.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Ordinance Extending Ordinance 233