Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrdinance 1995 (Prohibition of Camping on Public Property)CLERK’S CERTIFICATE I, LINDSAY LARA, Clerk of the City of San Rafael, and Ex-Officio Clerk of the Council of said City, do hereby certify that the foregoing: ORDINANCE NO. 1995 AN URGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL, PURSUANT TO CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 36937(B), PROHIBITING CAMPING OR LODGING AT ANY TIME IN BOYD PARK AND IN CITY PARKING GARAGES is a true and correct copy of an Ordinance of said City, and was passed and adopted as an Urgency Ordinance at a REGULAR meeting of the City Council of said City, held on the 6th day of July 2021, by the following vote, to wit: AYES: COUNCILMEMBERS: Bushey, Hill, Kertz, Llorens Gulati & Mayor Kate NOES: COUNCILMEMBERS: None ABSENT:COUNCILMEMBERS: None WITNESS my hand and the official Seal of the City of San Rafael this 7th day of July 2021 Lindsay Lara, City Clerk 1 ORDINANCE NO. 1995 AN URGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL, PURSUANT TO CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 36937(B), PROHIBITING CAMPING OR LODGING AT ANY TIME IN BOYD PARK AND IN CITY PARKING GARAGES THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAN RAFAEL DOES ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS: WHEREAS, Government Code Section 36937(b) authorizes the adoption of an urgency ordinance for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety; and WHEREAS, on February 26, 2020, community transmission of a widespread, ongoing global outbreak of respiratory illness known as COVID-19 was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Bay Area; and WHEREAS, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on March 4, 2020, California Governor Newsom declared a state of emergency in the State of California; and WHEREAS, similarly on March 16, 2020, a Shelter-in-Place Order for all of Marin County was issued by the Marin County Health Officer; and WHEREAS, on March 17, 2020, the City Council ratified and confirmed the Emergency Services Director’s Proclamation of Local Emergency; and WHEREAS, widespread business closures and loss of employment arising out of the health orders and other governmental regulations imposed by the state and the County of Marin to help control the COVID-19 pandemic have led to financial hardships for many residents of the City of San Rafael and the County of Marin; and WHEREAS, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many residents to the threat of losing their homes and the potentially devastating impacts of such losses has compelled the state, the County of Marin, and the City of San Rafael to impose temporary bans on evictions of tenants who are unable to pay rent due to pandemic-related economic hardship; and WHEREAS, the impacts of the pandemic have nevertheless resulted in increased numbers of people experiencing homelessness throughout the state and in San Rafael, and an increase in the establishment of encampments on public property in the City by persons experiencing homelessness; and WHEREAS, the City Council and the San Rafael community have expressed concerns about the health and safety of the people currently living in these encampments, and the City, along with the County of Marin and community partners, has been and is undertaking extensive actions to assist these individuals to find shelter and needed services; and WHEREAS, in the 2019 case of Martin v. City of Boise (920 F.3d 584), the federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the City of Boise’s criminal enforcement of its ordinance 2 banning camping on all public property was unconstitutional when applied to individuals who had no alternative shelter available to them; and WHEREAS, in consideration of the Martin v. City of Boise decision, and the present lack of sufficient shelter for all of the persons living without shelter in San Rafael, the City has not been strictly enforcing existing limits on camping in and on some public properties; and WHEREAS, while the Martin v. City of Boise decision mandates that a city without sufficient alternative shelter may not criminalize the act of sleeping on public property, it does not require a city to allow camping/lodging on all public property, and does not prevent a city from prohibiting camping/lodging on specified public properties; and WHEREAS, the City Council recognizes and finds that there are public health and safety hazards and public nuisance activities and conditions frequently associated with homeless encampments, and that there may be certain public properties where the existence of encampments will be entirely incompatible with the necessary use of the property by the public, or where they will pose unacceptable hazards and/or costs to the City’s operations and to the public; and WHEREAS, since 2017, California has regularly experienced numerous unprecedented, fast- moving, and catastrophic wildfires which resulted in the tragic loss of dozens of lives and thousands of structures in both rural and urban areas of the state, and while so far, Marin County has been fortunate to escape these devastating fires, they have prompted both San Rafael and the County of Marin to focus intensively on expanding existing and creating new wildfire mitigation strategies, culminating in 2020 with the City’s Wildfire Prevention and Protection Action Plan and the establishment of the 17-member agency Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, funded by the voter-approved Measure C parcel tax; and WHEREAS, encampments and the cooking and warming fires and flammable materials that typically accompany them, add dangerously to the already critical risk of wildfire in the City’s open space and on some other public properties, which risk is at its peak now; and WHEREAS, for this reason, the City has continued to commit City funds and personnel to the vigorous enforcement of the San Rafael Municipal Code’s prohibition against camping/lodging in City open space, and has been taking multiple measures to protect and prevent wildfires open space areas, including employing Rangers to regularly patrol open space areas, and operating a comprehensive vegetation management program, which has been greatly expanded in recent months with funding provided by the Measure C Wildfire Prevention Tax; and WHEREAS, to protect against the year-round risk of catastrophic wildfires, the City Council finds that it is also necessary to strictly prohibit camping/lodging in Boyd Park, which is situated directly adjacent to the very high fire-risk, and highly-populated and central San Rafael Hill area. There are numerous encampments in Boyd Park at present and it is imperative that they be removed/relocated to mitigate the fire risk; and WHEREAS, the City Council recognizes that the encampments have also generated other nuisance conditions and activities that are interfering with the proper use of the City’s parking garages and generating numerous public safety calls to douse fires, stop gushing water from 3 tampered-with fire suppression equipment, and clean up debris and hazardous solid wastes in stairwells and in parking areas; and WHEREAS, the City Council desires to clarify where the protection of the public health, safety and welfare requires a strict prohibition of camping or lodging on public property; and WHEREAS, for the reasons set forth herein, there is currently an urgent and imminent threat necessitating the immediate need to impose a camping/lodging prohibition in Boyd Park and in the City’s parking garages; and WHEREAS, pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) Guidelines § 15378 and California Public Resources Code § 21065, the Council finds that pursuant to CEQA Guidelines § 15061(b)(3), there is no possibility that this ordinance will have a significant impact on the physical environment; and WHEREAS, for all the foregoing reasons, the City Council finds and declares that adoption of this Ordinance is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety and welfare and its urgency is hereby declared; NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAN RAFAEL DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS: SECTION I. Declaration of Threat to Public Health, Safety, and Welfare Necessitating Urgency Ordinance. The City Council of the City of San Rafael hereby finds and declares that there is a current and immediate threat to the public health, safety and welfare and a need for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety and welfare that warrants this urgency ordinance, which finding and declaration is based upon the facts, findings, and declarations stated in the recitals of this Ordinance, and all oral and written testimony presented at the July 6, 2021 San Rafael City Council meeting. SECTION II. Prohibition of Camping on Certain Public Property. 1. Boyd Park. Notwithstanding the decision of the federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the 2019 case of Martin v. City of Boise (920 F.3d 584), no person shall camp or lodge at any time in any fashion, including in a tent, on the ground, in a motor home or in another vehicle, or use or store camp facilities or camp paraphernalia, as defined in the San Rafael Municipal Code, in Boyd Park or in any portion thereof. 2. City Parking Garages. Notwithstanding the decision of the federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the 2019 case of Martin v. City of Boise (920 F.3d 584), no person shall camp or lodge at any time in any fashion, including in a tent, on the ground, in a motor home or in another vehicle, or use or store camp facilities or camp paraphernalia, as defined in the San Rafael Municipal Code, in or on the premises of any parking garage owned or operated by the City of San Rafael. 4 3. Other Specified Public Property as Determined by the City Manager. The City Council hereby delegates to the City Manager the authority to order the strict prohibition of camping or lodging at any time in any fashion, including in a tent, on the ground, in a motor home or in another vehicle, or using or storing camp facilities or camp paraphernalia, as defined in the San Rafael Municipal Code, in or on the premises of any specific City-owned or controlled public property, when the City Manager determines, after consulting with City staff and other stakeholders, that such closure is necessary to eliminate or mitigate a substantial risk or risks to the public health, safety and welfare of the City’s residents, businesses, visitors and/or property, and that such prohibition is permissible under applicable law. SECTION III. Implementation. The City Manager shall have the authority to approve the posting of signs and/or take any other actions deemed appropriate to implement the prohibitions authorized in this ordinance. SECTION IV. Severability. If any provision of this Ordinance or the application of any such provision to any person or circumstance, shall be held invalid, the remainder of this Ordinance, to the extent it can be given effect, or the application of those provisions to persons or circumstances other than those to which it is held invalid, shall not be affected thereby, and to this end the provisions of this Ordinance are severable. SECTION V. Effective Date of Ordinance. This Ordinance is hereby declared to be an urgency measure and shall become effective immediately upon adoption by at least a four-fifths (4/5) vote of the City Council pursuant to Government Code section 36937(b) and shall remain in effect unless and until repealed by the City Council or superseded by codifying amendments to the San Rafael Municipal Code. The City Clerk is directed to publish forthwith a copy of this Ordinance, together with the names of those Councilmembers voting for or against same, in a newspaper of general circulation published and circulated in the City of San Rafael, County of Marin, State of California. Kate Colin, Mayor ATTEST: LINDSAY LARA, City Clerk 5 I, LINDSAY LARA, City Clerk of the City of San Rafael, certify that the foregoing Ordinance was passed by the City Council of the City of San Rafael, California, by a vote of at least four-fifths (4/5) of the members thereof, at a regular meeting held on Tuesday, the 6th day of July 2021, by the following vote, to wit: AYES: COUNCILMEMBERS: Bushey, Hill, Kertz, Llorens Gulati & Mayor Kate NOES: COUNCILMEMBERS: None ABSENT: COUNCILMEMBERS: None LINDSAY LARA, City Clerk