TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: David Chantarangsu, Development Services Director
PREPARED BY: Carl Stiehl, City Planner
SUBJECT: Reinstating Urgency Ordinance Adopting Multi-Family Objective
Design Standards
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RECOMMENDATION
recommendation
1) Waive full reading and adopt, by a four-fifths vote, Urgency Ordinance No. U-596-23
entitled: An Urgency Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Murrieta, California,
Reinstating Urgency Ordinance No. U-590-23, Amending Title 16 of the Murrieta
Municipal Code to Revise the City’s Development Code, to Implement Multi-Family
Residential and Mixed-Use Residential Objective Design Standards;
2) Find that said actions are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA) as this item meets the required actions of CEQA Guidelines Section 15183,
Projects Consistent with a Community Plan or Zoning, because the Urgency
Ordinance directs staff to adopt and implement design standards which will not
cause a significant environmental impact and implements a uniformly applied
development policy or standard that is consistent with the General Plan draft
Housing Element policy to further regulate multi-family residential development; and
3) Direct City staff to prepare, execute, and file with the Riverside County Clerk a notice
of exemption within five (5) working days of the adoption of this Ordinance.
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PRIOR ACTION/VOTE
On June 16, 2020, the City Council authorized an application for and receipt of Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) Support Grant Funds from the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to fund, in part, the preparation of design standards to facilitate multi-family residential development in the City of Murrieta. HCD awarded the full $500,000 grant in January 2021 (Vote: 5-0).
On April 19, 2022, the City Council approved an agreement with PlaceWorks, Inc. to prepare the City’s multi-family design and mixed-use residential objective design standards (Vote: 5-0).
On May 2, 2023, the City Council approved Urgency Ordinance No. 590-23 to enact the proposed Development Code Amendment on an interim basis while staff completed and then workshopped the permanent standards through public hearings with Planning Commission and City Council (Vote: 5-0).
On September 5, 2023, after conducting a properly noticed public hearing, the City Council of the City of Murrieta approved the first reading to introduce Ordinance No. 595-23 to codify the permanent update to the Murrieta Development Code (Vote: 5-0).
CITY COUNCIL GOAL
Aggressively pursue economic development.
BACKGROUND
In recent years, the State has passed the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act Assembly Bill 2011 (AB 2011) and Senate Bill 35 (SB 35) aimed to provide more housing. The new laws are requiring local governments to approve affordable housing development with a ministerial by-right permit process (“over-the-counter”) without discretionary review, a public hearing, or a requirement for a rezone if the project satisfies specified objective planning standards. Staff has been working on addressing AB 2011 and SB 35, in part by preparing Multi-Family Residential Objective Design Standards starting in 2022. Staff is recommending the City Council adopt an urgency ordinance (Attachment 1) reinstating Urgency Ordinance No. 590-23 which temporarily and immediately amended the Development Code to implement the City’s Multi-Family Residential and Mixed-Use Residential Objective Design Standards (Attachment 2) in conformance with AB 2011 and SB 35 while imposing certain restrictions that allow for greater local control through objective standards on these types of projects. Without these local control measures, the approval of Multi-Family Residential and Mixed-Use Residential projects would occur based solely on the default standards in the Development Code, without sufficient regulations governing project design, site planning, building massing, height, setback, landscape, building type, architectural review, and similar criteria, which would threaten the character of existing neighborhoods and negatively impact property values, personal privacy, and fire safety. These potential threats to the public safety, health, and welfare of the community justify the adoption of this ordinance as an urgency ordinance, to be effective immediately.
Out of an abundance of caution, as the expiration date of Urgency Ordinance No. 590-23 was unclear, the proposed urgency ordinance is intended to express the City Council’s intention that Urgency Ordinance No. 590-23, enacting objective design standards for certain residential and mixed-use projects within the City of Murrieta, remains in full force and effect until it is rescinded or December 31, 2023, whichever occurs first. Meanwhile, City Council is concurrently considering the second reading of Ordinance No. 595-23 tonight, to allow the City Council to adopt the permanent revisions to the Murrieta Development Code.
Project Status
Staff and the consultant team kicked off the project with the Planning Commission at a workshop on June 22, 2022. Following the initial Planning Commission workshop staff made a presentation to the Development Advisory Group (DAG) in August 2022. From November 2022 to February 2023, a community survey was circulated for input on the project. In March 2023, a public review draft of the design standards was prepared and placed on public review. Staff returned to the DAG in late March 2023 and returned to the Planning Commission for a workshop on April 12, 2023, while the public review process for the design standards began.
On May 2, 2023, after discussing the proposal and limiting the use of modern designs in certain areas of the City, the City Council approved Urgency Ordinance No. 590-23 to enact the proposed Development Code Amendment on an interim basis as described above. Then, after receiving a recommendation from the Planning Commission and conducting its own public hearing, on September 5, 2023, the City Council approved the first reading to introduce Ordinance No. 595-23 to codify the permanent update to Murrieta Development Code. If the second reading of Ordinance No. 595-23 is approved tonight, as a separate agenda item, it will be effective in 30 days, at which time Urgency Ordinance U-590-23 will be superseded.
Urgency Ordinance
Typically, ordinances take effect 30 days after their final passage (approval of second reading). However, California law authorizes municipalities to adopt “urgency” ordinances that become effective immediately in certain circumstances. Specifically, California Government Code Section 36937 identifies the five types of ordinances which are eligible to take effect immediately. One of the five types is an ordinance needed “for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety, containing a declaration of the facts constituting the urgency” when the ordinance is passed by a four-fifths vote of the City Council (Gov. Code Section 36937(b)).
Hence, adoption of an interim ordinance requires a 4/5ths vote of the City Council. If one member of the City Council is absent from the City Council meeting, a unanimous vote in favor of the adoption of the Ordinance by the remaining four members is required to adopt the Ordinance.
Staff is tracking many current multi-family projects in process which constitute thousands of future apartments that will likely be developed in the next few years. Prior to the changes in State law, staff and applicants would typically negotiate over building design and site planning as part of the discretionary process when reviewing these projects. Now, without sufficient detail, architectural design and site planning techniques used by cities to encourage good design standards can be disregarded by applicants unless they are objective and mandatory, which creates a threat to the public’s health, safety, and welfare. Hence, the adoption of objective design standards provides a clear expectation for the developer, neighboring community, and the City in planning, approval, and construction of a housing development. Projects that do not meet the objective design standards can be denied by the City.
The City Council adopted Urgency Ordinance No. 590-23 as an urgency ordinance to implement the Multi-Family Residential and Mixed-Use Objective Design Standards on an interim basis with the understanding that staff will continue to workshop these Design Standards through the traditional public process to allow input from the Planning Commission, community and developers, although it is anticipated that such process will likely yield Design Standards substantially similar to what is before the City Council at this time. As the expirations date of Urgency Ordinance No. 590-23 was unclear, out of an abundance of caution, staff is recommending that the City Council adoption Urgency Ordinance No. 596-23 to clarify the City Council’s intent that Urgency Ordinance No. 590-23 remains in full force and effect until it is rescinded by the effective date of Ordinance No. 596-23 of December 31, 2023, whichever occurs first.
Environmental
The proposed action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), as this meets the required actions of CEQA Guidelines Section 15183, Projects Consistent with a Community Plan or Zoning, because it involves direction to staff to adopt and implement Design Standards, which will not cause significant environmental impacts and implements a uniformly applied development policy or standard that is consistent with the General Plan Housing Element policy to further regulate multi-family residential development. This determination is predicated on Section 15004 of the guidelines, which provides direction to lead agencies on the appropriate timing for environmental review. The project(s) for which the Design Standards are utilized or are intended may require the preparation of an environmental document as part of their project(s) review in accordance with State CEQA Guidelines.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact associated with adopting the Objective Design Standards. A total of $180,000 was budgeted for Planning Division consultant services consistent with the LEAP Grant Award from State HCD and is available in the Planning Division operating budget for Contract Services for the project. Funds continue to be reimbursed by the State HCD over the project timeline, therefore there will be full cost recovery utilizing the LEAP Grant for the cost to the City to prepare the Design Standards. There is no additional cost to staff to begin implementation of the Design Standards.
ATTACHMENTS
1) Urgency Ordinance No. U-596-23 - Reinstating Urgency Ordinance No. U-590-23
2) Urgency Ordinance No. U-590-23 - Adopted May 2, 2023
3) CEQA Notice of Exemption