Mendocino County Municipal Code Ch. 19.04 Voter Approval of General Plan or Coastal Plan Amendments for Onshore…

The purpose of the ordinance codified in this Chapter is to provide that proposed amendments to Mendocino County's General Plan, including its Certified Local Coastal Land Use Plan, for the development, construction, or installation of onshore facilities for or intended to support offshore oil and gas exploration or development will be approved by the County only after a vote of the people of Mendocino County.

(Ord. adopted by referendum election, November 8, 1988.)

It is hereby found and determined as follows:

(A) Agricultural and other lands located within Mendocino County needed for oil processing, treatment and transportation facilities, or for supply bases for offshore oil and gas development, potentially would be transformed into the industrial staging area for offshore oil and gas developments.

(B) Land on the coastal bluffs, as well as land throughout the County, which constitutes potential sites for onshore facilities, is exposed to seismic risk, which prevented the construction of a nuclear power plant due to the proposed site's proximity to the San Andreas and numerous other faults, and due to the instability of coastal bluffs.

(C) Onshore facilities and use of local harbors, ports and airports as staging areas for offshore oil and gas development would require substantial modifications to existing facilities, including breakwaters, reconstruction, expansion and lengthening of existing facilities. These facilities were conceived and constructed as public-use facilities and their use as onshore facilities or in support of onshore facilities would have the effect of preempting use of these facilities by the general public.

(D) The County is served by several State Highways (including 1, 20, 101, 128 and 253) and numerous County roads which are almost entirely two-lane, narrow, twisting and curving roads making them totally unsuitable for the addition of the intensity and type of vehicular and truck traffic that would be generated by heavy oil and gas industrial uses.

(E) The Mendocino County coastline is made up of bluffs and coves which are not suitable for siting oil and gas support facilities.

(F) The development of onshore facilities would have detrimental impacts on water quality and availability, road congestion and wear, air quality, and public services.

(Ord. adopted by referendum election, November 8, 1988.)

For the purposes of this Chapter, "Onshore facilities" means:

(A) Pipelines and pipeline facilities: Pipelines, pipeline landfalls and other related methods by which crude oil and gas are transported to crude oil and gas processing and support facilities;

(B) Storage facilities: Facilities for the purpose of storing crude oil and gas, including tank farms, or storing chemicals, drilling muds, cuttings, produced waters and other toxic materials used in the production of oil and gas products;

(C) Staging areas: Facilities, yards and other areas designated for the purpose of transporting equipment to be used in, or personnel employed in, the construction or operation of oil drilling facilities;

(D) Waste disposal facilities: Facilities for the purpose of disposing of chemicals, drilling muds, cuttings, produced waters and other toxic materials generated in the course of drilling oil and gas wells, or in the production of oil and gas, or oil and gas products, and permanent facilities designed for waste generated by accidents and spills during any phase of offshore oil and gas development.

(Ord. adopted by referendum election, November 8, 1988.)

(A) When any person proposes to undertake the development within Mendocino County of any onshore facility relating to the exploration or development of offshore oil or gas resources, and requests an amendment of the County's General Plan or its Certified Local Coastal Land Use Plan to facilitate such development, a determination by the Board of Supervisors that the proposed amendment is in conformity with the policies of the County's General Plan and the Certified Local Coastal Land Use Plan, and that they should be amended to incorporate such development, shall not be effective unless a majority of the electors of Mendocino County, in a general or special election, approve the proposed amendment.

(B) The Board of Supervisors of Mendocino County is hereby authorized and directed to enact any further ordinances or regulations necessary to give effect to this Section, and specifically to require that the person seeking any such amendment to the County's General Plan or Certified Local Coastal Land Use Plan pay, to the extent permitted by law, all costs associated with the special or general election required herein.

(C) The referendum provided for by this Section is intended for only those legislative acts which may be validly exercised by the Board of Supervisors of Mendocino County in connection with the amendment of the County's General Plan or Certified Local Coastal Land Use Plan to provide for the development of onshore facilities to support offshore oil and gas exploration and development. Neither this Section nor this subsection is intended, and shall not be construed, to apply to any activity or program which is regulated by Federal or State law to the extent that such application of this Section or subsection would conflict with such law or would unduly interfere with the achievement of Federal or State regulatory activities. It is the intention of the Board of Supervisors and the People of Mendocino County that the ordinance codified in this Chapter shall be interpreted to be compatible with Federal and State enactments and in furtherance of the public purposes which those enactments express.

(Ord. adopted by referendum election, November 8, 1988.)

(A) Nothing shall prevent the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors from recodifying the substantive provisions of the ordinance codified in this Chapter from time to time to incorporate the provisions of said ordinance into the County Code in the most appropriate locations.

(B) No substantive provision of this Chapter shall be amended or repealed without a vote of the People of Mendocino County.

(Ord. adopted by referendum election, November 8, 1988.)

If any section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase of this Chapter is for any reason held to be unconstitutional and invalid, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Chapter. The People of Mendocino County hereby declare that they would have passed the ordinance codified in this Chapter and every section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, sentences, clauses or phrases be declared unconstitutional or invalid.

(Ord. adopted by referendum election, November 8, 1988.)

The ordinance codified in this Chapter shall become effective thirty (30) days from the date of final passage.

(Ord. adopted by referendum election, November 8, 1988.)