HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrdinances_2738_CCv0001.pdf ORDINANCE NO. 2738
AN URGENCY INTERIM. ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF REDLANDS
S
ESTABLISHING A TEMPORARY MORATORIUM ON THE APPROVAL OF
SPECIFIED ENTITLEMENTS AND PERMITS FOR THE INSTALLATION,
AUGMENTATION ANIS RELOCATION OF COMMERCIAL WIRELESS
TELECOMMUNICATIONS FACILITIES
WHEREAS, the City of Redlands ("City's) currently regulates the installation of wireless
antenna and associated telecommunication facilities (collectively, "Wireless Facilities") through
Chapter 18.178 of the Redlands Municipal Code; and
WHEREAS, Chapter 18.178 of the Redlands Municipal Code was last updated in 2000
with regard to the to comprehensive regulation of Wireless Facilities; and
WHEREAS, the City has recently experienced a,significant interest in the location of
Wireless Facilities in public rights-of-way,residential, and other zones of the City, and
WHEREAS, changes in wireless communication technology,together with the desire of
Wireless Facilities providers to increase communication services in the City and surrounding;
areae will likely produce additional applications for the installation and modification of Wireless
Facilities in the City; and
WHEREAS, the increased interest in the installation of Wireless Facilities,particularly in
the public rights-of-way, sensitive neighborhoods and residential zones of the City, was not fully
anticipated at the time the City established,its existing regulatory structure for the approval of
Wireless Facilities and,as a result, an immediate meed exists to explore regulatory options for
better managing and minimizing the safety,aesthetic, co-location, and rights-of-way
management issues implicated by the increased interest in the location of Wireless Facilities in
the City; and
WHEREAS, in Sprint Telephony PCS, L.P. v. City ofD egv(2008) 543 F.3d 571
('sprint"9, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals expressly overruled almost seven(7)prior years o
Ninth Circuit jurisprudence relating to 47 C. § 253,a key provision of Federal
Telecommunications Act that, until the ruling in Sprint, had been expansively interpreted in a
manner that severely limited local authority to regulate the installation of Wireless Facilities; and
WHEREAS, the increased interest in the location of Wireless Facilities, together with the
significant change in law created by Sprint and subsequent state and federal law, creates a need
and an opportunity for the City to review and analyze its existing ordinances and the current stmt
of the lave so that,as far as legally possible,the City may safeguard public rights-of-way,
residential areas, and other sensitive zones and areas within the City from the intrusion of
incompatible and potentially disruptive uses through the development of new ordinance
relating to the placement, construction, and modification of Wireless Facilities, and
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WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Redlands ("this City Council") desires to
provide for the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the City by exercising the police
power provided for in the California Constitution that underlies the City's zoning powers,to
provide that the installation and maintenance of Wireless Facilities in the City be conducted in
such a manner as to be safe,compatible with existing and future uses, and consistent with the
Redlands General Plan,and state and federal law; and
WHEREAS, in order that this may be accomplished, this City Council intends to impose,
on an urgency basis,a temporary moratorium on the issuance of discretionary or ministerial
entitlements and permits for the installation, augmentation or relocation of Wireless Facilities
within the City so that City staff, this City Council,and the residents of the City will have
sufficient time to consider a comprehensive ordinance lawfully regulating the installation,
augmentation, relocation and maintenance of Wireless Facilities; and
WHEREAS,there is a current and immediate threat to public health, safety and welfare
because, without this urgency interim ordinance, Wireless Facilities could be installed,
constructed or modified in and adjacent to,public rights-of-way, residential areas, and other
sensitive zones and areas of the City,without conforming to the City's full intention to minimize
disruption to neighborhoods caused by an increase of Wireless Facilities; and
WHEREAS, without this urgency interim ordinance, Wireless Facilities could adversely
affect the City as follows:
1. Create land use incompatibilities, including excessive height of poles and towers;
2. Create visual and aesthetic blight and potential safety concerns arising from excessive
size, height or lack of camouflaging of Wireless Facilities, and their associated pedestals and
meters;
3. Create visual and aesthetic blight, and potential safety concerns by failing to capitalize
on alternative technologies, eo-location opportunities, and protocols for investigating the
feasibility of alternative installation locations and configurations;
4. Create traffic and pedestrian safety hazards due to unsafe location of poles,towers,
equipment boxes or other materials or construction related to Wireless Facilities;
5. Create operational conflicts with other land uses, facilities,or utility systems
authorized or existing on the same or adjacent sites;
6. Deteriorate the quality of life in a particular neighborhood; and
WHEREAS,pursuant to state law, the City may adopt an urgency measure interim
ordinance that imposes a temporary moratorium on the approval of applications while
contemplated zoning and permitting proposals are being considered;
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THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF REDLANDS DOES ORDAIN AS
FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The above recitals are true and correct.
SECTION 2. The adoption of this urgency interim ordinance is exempt from the
California Environmental Quality Act("CEQA") pursuant to (i) State CEQA Guidelines section
15060(c)(2) because the adoption of this ordinance will not result in a direct or reasonably
foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, and(ii) State CEQA Guidelines section
15 061(b)(3)because there is no possibility that the adoption of this interim ordinance may have a
significant adverse effect on the environment. This interim ordinance establishes a moratorium to
study the laws under which the City may consider feasibility or planning studies for possible
future actions which the City has not approved, adopted or funded, and does not involve
adoption of a plan that will have a legally binding effect on later activities. A Notice of
Exemption has been completed in compliance with CEQA and the State CEQA Guidelines.
SECTION 3. Notwithstanding any provision of the Redlands Municipal Code, including
Title 18 thereof, or any other ordinance of the City of Redlands,this urgency interim ordinance
shall apply to all applications for the installation and/or augmentation of Wireless Facilities
within all areas of the City. Because this ordinance is necessary to protect the public health and
safety, it shall operate retroactively as to all pending and active encroachment pen-nits issued for
the installation or augmentation of Wireless Facilities within the City,provided that the rights to
construct such Wireless Facilities have not vested pursuant to Avco Community Developers, Inc.
v. South Coast Regional Com. (1976) 17 Cal. 3d 785.
SECTION 4. There shall be a temporary moratorium in effect,commencing on the
effective date of this ordinance, applicable to all property within the City,prohibiting the
approval of zone changes,variances,conditional use permits,encroachment permits, special use
permits,building permits,electrical,mechanical. or plumbing permits, or use and occupancy
permits for any installation,augmentation or relocation of any Wireless Facilities, except those
described in Section 6 of this ordinance, notwithstanding other existing provisions of the
Redlands Municipal Code or regulations of the City.
SECTION 5. Except to the extent otherwise prohibited by law, this temporary
moratorium is not intended to, and does not, atTect the acceptance and/or processing of permit
applications for Wireless Facilities; rather, it is intended to, and does, prohibit only the issuance
of approvals and permits for such Wireless Facilities. City staff shall continue to accept
applications for Wireless Facility approvals,augmentations and relocations received after the
effective date of this ordinance. At a Wireless Facility applicant's written request, during the term
of this moratorium the City shall continue to process applications for permits or approvals
relating to Wireless Facilities; however, any new standards for such Wireless Facilities and the
permitting thereof which are adopted during the moratorium and are effective at the expiration of
the moratorium shall nevertheless apply to such applications. Any time limits or mandatory
approval time frames relative to the processing and/or action upon permit applications for any
and all Wireless Facilities are tolled during the term of this moratorium.
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SECTION b. The provisions of this urgency interim ordinance shall not apply to
A. Privately owned and operated noncommercial communications facilities attendant to
a residential use, including but not limited to television reception antennas,satellite dish
antennas no greater than two (7) meters in diameter or amateur "ham" radio facilities.
13, Existing government owned and operated communications facilities and/or existing`
emergency medical care provider owned and operated communications facilities, or new
facilities in the same location as such existing government or emergency medical care provider
facilities,which are rewired to repair, replace, maintain or enhance such existing facilities,
provided such new facilities are used,primarily to protect public health, safety and welfare.
C. Any antenna facilities exempted from this ordinance by federal law.
SECTION 7. This ordinance is an interim zoning ordinance, adopted as an urgency
measure,pursuant to Government Code section 65858 to protect the public safety, health and
welfare by prohibiting land uses which may; in the absence of reasonable, lawful,regulation, be
in conflict with the City's General flan, the Redlands Municipal Code,or the environmental and
aesthetic welfare of the City and its residents. Specifically, this ordinance is necessitated by the
filing of applications for Wireless Facilities within.the City coupled with the additional enhanced
regulatory opportunities created by the Sprint decision and other recent state and federal law.
The City Council hereby finds that the facts, circumstances,and opportunities described in the
recitals for this ordinance,as adopted'herein, demonstrate a current and immediate threat to the
public health, safety and welfare because the existing regulatory structure for Wireless Facilities
is not sufficient to adequately protect the City and its residents from the qty, aesthetic and
other rights-of-way management-related considerations implicated by the installation of Wireless
Facilities within the City.. Based on the foregoing,and based on the judicial guidance provided
by the Sprint decision and other state and federal law,this City Council finds and declares that
the City must proceed thoughtfully and deliberately in the wireless communications area so that
the installation and maintenance of Wireless Facilities in the City are conducted in such a
manner as to lawfWly balance the legal rights of applicants under the Federal
Telecommunications Act and the California Public Utilities Code while,at the sane time,
protecting to the full extent feasible against the aforementioned safety and land use concerns.
The preparation of such an ordinance,together with the necessary public outreach, legal
research,and City processes for consideration of such enactments will require,at a minimum,
forty-five(4 5) days. In the interim,a moratorium as described in Section 4 of this ordinance i
required to protect the public from threats to the public health, safety and welfare discussed
above..
SECTION 8. The determinations contained in the City Council staff report dated
September 7, 2010, are hereby adopted and incorporated by reference as though fully set forth
herein.
SECTION 9. This ordinance shall take effect immediately upon its passage. It shall be
of no further force or effect forty-five(45)days from the date of adoption unless extended
following a public hearing, as provided in Government Cade section 65858.
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SECTION 10. This ordinance is adopted under the authority of state law. If any section,,
subsection, clause or phrase is declared invalid or otherwise void by a court of competent
jurisdiction, it shall not affect any remaining provision hereof In this regard,this City Council
finds and declares that it would have adopted this ordinance notwithstanding any partial
invalidity hereof.
SECTION 11. City staff is directed and ordered to prepare and submit for City Council
adoption,at least ten (1 0)days prior to the expiration of this ordinance, or any extension hereof,
a written report describing the measures taken to alleviate the conditions which led to the
adoption of this ordinance.
Mayor of the City of Redlands
ATTEST:
City Clerk
I, Sam Irwin, City Clerk of the City of Redlands, hereby certify that the foregoing Urgency
Ordinance No. 2738 was duly introduced and adopted by the City Council of the City of
Redlands at a regular meeting held on September 7, 2010, by the following vote:
AYES: Councilmembers Bean, Harrison, Gallagher, Aguilar•; Mayor Gilbreath
NOES: None
ABSENT: None
ABSTAIN: None
Sam Irwin, City Clerk
Redlands, California
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