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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-06-25_Special_CC_Meeting_Agenda City of Arcadia Office of the City Clerk 240 W. Huntington Drive Post Office Box 60021 Arcadia, CA 91066-6021 (626)574-5455 (626)447-7524 Fax www.ArcadiaCA.gov NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING As authorized by California Government Code Section 54956 and Arcadia City Charter Section 408, a Special Meeting of the Arcadia City Council is hereby called to be held on Thursday, June 25, 2020, at 4:00 p.m. At this Special Meeting, the following matters will be discussed. OPEN SESSION TO THE PUBLIC a.Proclamation of the Emergency Services Director suspending certain land use requirements related to outdoor seating to provide flexibility for businesses during the local emergency and beyond. Recommended Action: Ratify Proclamation CLOSED SESSION a.Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.6 to confer with labor negotiators. City Negotiators: City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto, Assistant City Manager/Development Services Director Jason Kruckeberg, and Administrative Services Director Hue Quach Employee Organizations: Arcadia Public Works Employees Association, Arcadia City Employees Association, Arcadia Police Civilian Employees Association, Arcadia Police Officers’ Association, Arcadia Firefighters’ Association, and unrepresented employees: Department Heads, Division Managers, Supervisors, and part-time employees COVID-19 NOTICE As part of the City of Arcadia’s COVID-19 transmission mitigation efforts, this meeting of the City Council will be conducted virtually. Per the Brown Act, the public will still be provided the ability to make public comments. For members of the public who would like to participate virtually, the meeting will be held via teleconference. A conference line has been established to enable the public to observe the meeting via teleconference; however, public comment will only be accepted via email. Conference Line: (669) 224-3412 Access Code: 604-838-893# How to Submit Public Comment: Please submit your comments via email to cityclerk@ArcadiaCA.gov Comments must be received at least 30 minutes prior to the posted meeting time. Your email must be 300 words or less. 1 b.Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9(d)(2) to confer with legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation: five (5) cases. There will be time reserved for those who wish to address the City Council regarding the above items. No other business than the above will be considered at this meeting. Dated: June 24, 2020 Mayor of the City of Arcadia 2 DATE: June 25, 2020 TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council FROM: Jason Kruckeberg, Assistant City Manager/Development Services Director SUBJECT: PROCLAMATION OF THE EMERGENCY SERVICES DIRECTOR SUSPENDING CERTAIN LAND USE REQUIREMENTS RELATED TO OUTDOOR SEATING TO PROVIDE FLEXIBILITY FOR BUSINESSES DURING THE LOCAL EMERGENCY AND BEYOND Recommendation: Ratify Proclamation SUMMARY To be in compliance with the safety protocols put in place by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, many businesses cannot achieve full occupancies and customer loads. As a result, the City is providing flexibility for these businesses to be able to more easily utilize both public and private property to create new seating or staging areas to boost occupancies and allow more customers. The City Manager, acting as the Emergency Services Director, signed a proclamation on June 19, 2020, suspending certain land use processes and waiving specific fees to make these processes less onerous for businesses. It is recommended that the City Council ratify this proclamation. BACKGROUND In response to the threats to public health that emerged as a result of COVID-19, the State of California and Los Angeles County issued emergency declarations on March 4, 2020. On March 17, 2020, the City Council ratified a local emergency declaration by the City Manager/Emergency Services Director. Just two days later, on March 19, Governor Newsom issued Executive Order N-33-20, which was the “Safer at Home” order. This order had the effect of closing many businesses to protect individuals from the spread of COVID-19. In the months that have followed, the majority of businesses in the City have been significantly impacted. Unemployment is at record levels, and there is a great deal of uncertainty as to what the future holds for certain business types. Even as various sectors of the business community have been allowed to open back up, strict social distancing and safety protocols prevent these businesses from getting back to a point of 3 full occupancy or “business as usual.” Specifically, restaurants are subject to strict protocols that significantly limit the number of customers that can safely be in a facility at any one time. As a result of these rules, the City is developing strategies for certain businesses to be able to utilize outdoor spaces to attract additional customers and make up for some of the built-in shortcomings created by social distancing and safety protocols. To effectuate this, the City Manager/Emergency Services Director signed a proclamation on June 19, 2020, that eases certain land use regulations, waives fees, and provides flexibility for businesses hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. DISCUSSION The Development Services Department has standard processes for allowing outdoor dining and seating in both the sidewalk/right-of-way and private property. For sidewalk dining or use of the public right-of-way, the City has a Sidewalk Dining Permit and Encroachment Permit process. For use of private property, the City uses either a Temporary Use Permit process (for temporary uses) or a Conditional Use Permit or Minor Use Permit for “permanent” seating options. These processes provide all relevant Departments an opportunity to review the safety and security of a proposal, to ensure all relevant insurance is in place, and to evaluate if the proposal will impact neighboring businesses or residents. The signed proclamation does not eliminate these processes. For proposals for seating or dining on private or public property, an application and Departmental review will still take place. However, to make the process more business-friendly, the proclamation waives all fees associated with these processes, and waives the need to go through any discretionary action (such as a Conditional Use Permit or Minor Use Permit). These actions make it more expedient to apply and be approved for these types of outdoor seating or staging options. The revised process will still require insurance, and City staff will still review applications to ensure safety protocols are observed, Fire Department regulations are met, Americans with Disabilities regulations are met. It is important to note that the proclamation has been structured to continue until such time as it is specifically canceled by the City Manager/Emergency Services Director. This means that it could extend beyond the time that the City’s emergency declaration is in place. The reason for this clause is that impacts to restaurants and other businesses will likely extend well beyond the time of the emergency declaration as social distancing protocols may become standard practice in many locations. Ultimately, however, the proclamation will be canceled at such time that restrictions have been lifted and businesses can go back to full occupancies internally. The proclamation applies not only to restaurants, but also to other businesses that might have occupancy issues and not be able to serve their entire customer base. An example is a medical office with a waiting room that cannot occupy all required 4 customers. We have received questions about the possibility of extending seating areas/waiting areas outside to assist in this effort by such businesses. FISCAL IMPACT There will be a minor impact on revenue generation as a result of this proclamation in the form of waived application fees. The cost of an application for outdoor dining in the public right-of-way or sidewalk area is approximately $340 ($220 for the Outdoor Dining Permit and $120 for the Encroachment Permit). For public property, a Temporary Use Permit costs $180. If a proposal on public property needed a Minor Use Permit, the cost of this process is $1,400. Assuming a total of 20 businesses take advantage of the process for sidewalk/right of way dining, the City could be foregoing $6,800 in revenue. If another 10 businesses avoid the TUP fee, this would result in $1,800 in revenue not collected. Finally, if we estimate that three businesses avoid the Minor Use Permit fee, this would result in $4,200 in uncollected application fees. Therefore, under a “worst case” scenario, the proclamation could result in up to $12,800 not being collected by the City. However, it is anticipated that the benefits of keeping these businesses open in terms of sales tax, business license fees, and job retention would far exceed the value of the waived fees. ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS The proposed action does not constitute a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”), based on Section 15061(b)(3) of the CEQA Guidelines, as it can be seen with certainty that it will have no impact on the environment. Thus, this matter is exempt under CEQA. RECOMMENDATION It is recommended that the City Council ratify the proclamation of the Emergency Services Director suspending certain land use requirements related to outdoor seating to provide flexibility for businesses during the local emergency and beyond. Attachment: June 19 Proclamation of the City Manager/Emergency Services Director 5 6 7