Azusa Municipal Code Art. XI Regulation of Smoking, Camping, and Storage of Personal Property in Or…

City facilities, parks and recreational facilities, and other public property of the city are established for the use and enjoyment of all persons in the city. Public property within the city should be readily accessible and available to residents and the public at large. It is the city's responsibility to promote the health, peace, safety, welfare and convenience of all persons using and enjoying any city facility, park and/or recreational facility, and other city property. The use of these areas for smoking, camping purposes or storage of personal property interferes with the rights of others to use the areas for which they were intended without risk of physical harm, and is deleterious to the public peace, health, safety and welfare, in that it obstructs intended uses for the public at large, contributes to blight, causes damage to public property, and causes damage to the health of the city's residents and visitors. The purpose of this article is to maintain public property within the city accessible to the public at large, to keep such areas in a safe, clean and accessible condition, and to promote the public peace, health, safety and welfare of persons using public property.

(Ord. No. 2015-O12, § 2, 11-2-15)

Unless the particular provisions or the context otherwise requires, the definitions contained in this section shall govern the construction, meaning and application of words and phrases used in this article. To the extent conflicts exist between definitions herein and elsewhere in this Code, the definitions in this section shall control for purposes of this article:

Camp means to pitch or occupy a camp facility and/or to use camp paraphernalia on public property for one or more nights for living accommodation purposes, such as overnight sleeping activities or making preparations to sleep (including the laying down of bedding for the purpose of sleeping) overnight, or storing personal belongings overnight or during daytime hours (including but not limited to clothing, sleeping bags, bedrolls, blankets, sheets, luggage, backpacks, kitchen utensils, cookware, and similar material), or making any fire in unauthorized areas of a park or using any tents, or regularly cooking meals. These activities constitute camping when it reasonably appears, in light of all the circumstances, that a person is using public property as a living accommodation for one or more nights, with the intent to camp.

Camp facility includes, but is not limited to, tents, huts, or other temporary shelters, as well as, cots, beds, sleeping bags, hammocks or bedrolls.

Camp paraphernalia includes, but is not limited to, tarpaulins, cots, beds, sleeping bags, hammocks, or non-city designated cooking facilities and similar equipment.

Public property means any publicly owned property in the city, improved or unimproved, including, but not limited to, any of the following: public alleyways; public parking lots; public passageways; public streets; public rights-of-way; publicly owned, maintained or operated parks; publicly owned, maintained or operated landscaped areas or greenbelts; publicly owned, maintained or operated open spaces, including, but not limited to, public facilities or buildings of any kind; public sidewalks, curbs and gutters; public educational institutions; or other government owned, maintained or operated properties located within the city.

Sidewalk means that portion of a street between the curbline and the adjacent property line, or an easement or right-of-way held by the city across the front of private property, and intended for the use of pedestrians.

Smoke shall mean to engage in an act that generates gases, particles or vapors released into the air as a result of combustion, electrical ignition, or vaporization, including from a lighted pipe, a lighted hookah pipe, a lighted cigar, a lighted cigarette, or an electronic or battery operated smoking device that delivers vapors for inhalation, when the purpose of the combustion, electrical ignition, or vaporization is human inhalation of the gases, particles or vapors. To smoke does not include the combustion of material solely for olfactory purposes that does not contain any tobacco or nicotine. Smoke shall include smoking from every variation and type of electronic or battery operated smoking device that delivers vapors for inhalation whether they are manufactured, distributed, marketed or sold as an electronic cigarette, an electronic cigar, an electronic cigarillo, an electronic pipe, an electronic hookah or any other product name or descriptor.

Store means to put aside or accumulate for use when needed, to put for safekeeping, to place or leave in a location.

Street means and includes all streets, highways, avenues, boulevards, alleys, courts, places, squares or other public ways in the city which have been or may hereafter be dedicated and open to public use, or such other public property so designated in any law of the state.

(Ord. No. 2015-O12, § 2, 11-2-15)

It shall be unlawful for any person to smoke on any public property within the city, except as otherwise provided herein or mandated by applicable law or in areas designated as smoking areas by the city.

(Ord. No. 2015-O12, § 2, 11-2-15)

It shall be unlawful for any person to camp, occupy camp facilities or use camp paraphernalia on any public property within the city, except as otherwise provided herein or mandated by applicable law.

(Ord. No. 2015-O12, § 2, 11-2-15)

It shall be unlawful for any person to store personal property, including camp facilities and camp paraphernalia on any public property within the city, except as otherwise provided herein or mandated by applicable law.

(Ord. No. 2015-O12, § 2, 11-2-15)

This article shall not apply to any person smoking, camping, or storing personal property on any public property designated by the city for such purposes. The city council may, by resolution or ordinance, establish one or more specified areas of public property for any or all of such purposes, either on a temporary or permanent basis. Notwithstanding the regulations in this article, the city manager and chief of police are hereby authorized to promulgate additional rules and policies for the implementation of this article in a manner consistent with state and federal law.

(Ord. No. 2015-O12, § 2, 11-2-15)