Chapter 32A — RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT CONTROL

Footnotes: --- (1) ---

Editor's note— The city council added Ch. 32A, §§ 32A.1—32A.9, "Coordination of Residential Development and Neighborhood Planning," by Ord. No. 87-04, § 1, adopted Jan. 28, 1987. The ordinance was submitted to the electorate Apr. 21, 1987, and did not pass. A citizens' initiative received approval at the same election. Therefore, § 1 of Ord. No. 87-22, adopted May 13, 1987, repealed former Ch. 32A; and § 2 added the citizens' initiative proposal as a new Ch. 32A, §§ 32A.1—32A.13.

The people of the City of Oceanside, hereinafter called "city," hereby find and declare as follows:

(a)

The city has adopted a general plan and city ordinances relating to the regulation of residential development.

(b)

The city is experiencing a period of intense residential development which is adversely affecting the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of Oceanside. This intense development has affected the capacity of the streets and local freeway system to satisfactorily meet traffic demands; the capacity of appropriate schools to absorb children without expensive school busing; the character of some of the neighborhoods of the community which have been identified as semirural, rustic, or agricultural in nature; the quality of life prevalent in the city and its sphere of influence; and the cost to households of some utilities and municipal services.

(c)

It is the intent of the people of the city to achieve a steady, rather than a fluctuating, overly-rapid, rate of residential growth each year in order that the services provided by city, school, park, utility and/or service agencies operating in the city can be properly and effectively staged in a manner which will not overextend existing facilities, and in order that deficient services may be brought up to required and necessary standards while minimizing, by means of long-range planning, the avoidable costs of shortsighted facility expansion. In order to accomplish this, fees collected for drainage, schools, streets, utilities, parks and recreation facilities shall be utilized in a timely manner to ensure that new residents who pay impact fees will benefit directly from those facilities that are built within a reasonable time after they move in.

(d)

It is the intent of the people of the city to establish control over the quality, distribution and rate of growth of the city in the interest of:

(1)

Preserving the character of the community;

(2)

Protecting the open space of the city; protecting the quality of life in the city;

(3)

Ensuring the adequacy of city facilities, school facilities, recreation and park facilities and services;

(4)

Ensuring a balance of housing types and values in the city which will accommodate a variety of families, including families of moderate income and older families on limited and/or fixed incomes;

(5)

Ensuring the balanced development of the city;

(6)

Preventing further significant deterioration in the local air quality;

(7)

Ensuring that the traffic demands do not exceed the capacity of streets;

(8)

Ensuring that the character of the city's semirural or rustic neighborhoods is preserved;

(9)

Ensuring that the city does not grow in a pattern that places a severe strain on the local freeway system;

(10)

Ensuring the adequacy of fire protection; and

(11)

Ensuring adequate water and sanitary sewer systems.

(e)

It is the purpose of this chapter to augment the policies of the city as recorded in the general plan and city ordinances relating to the regulation of residential development.

(f)

In order to accomplish this purpose, the city must be able to control the rate, distribution, quality and economic level of proposed development on a year-to-year basis. To this end, the following residential development control system, hereinafter called "RDCS," for the city shall be in effect from and after its effective date until December 31, 1999.

(Ord. No. 87-22, § 2, 5-13-87)

The provisions of the RDCS shall apply from the effective date to all residential development, including mobile homes, in the City of Oceanside with the exception of the following:

(a)

Projects of not more than four (4) residential dwellings, limited to only one such project per developer per calendar year.

(b)

Fourplexes or less numbered multiple dwellings on a single existing lot.

(c)

Single-family residential units on a single existing lot.

(d)

Rehabilitation or remodeling of an existing dwelling, or conversion of apartments to condominiums, so long as no additional dwelling units are created.

(e)

Units within the legally designated redevelopment project area.

(f)

Those specific units which are formally dedicated for occupancy by low-income persons or senior citizens pursuant to the provisions of applicable federal, state, or local laws or programs provided these types of units are spread equitably throughout the city and not concentrated in one neighborhood. For the purposes of this section, a project is funded or subsidized pursuant to applicable federal, state or local laws or programs if it receives a loan, grant or continuing financial subsidy for the purpose of developing low- income or senior citizen housing units. This section does not exempt low-income or senior citizen projects built with density bonuses or other development considerations under any program.

(g)

Single-family dwelling unit projects with lots an average of which are ten thousand (10,000) square feet or better, which can achieve a minimum of seventy (70) percent or better, of the maximum awardable points using the residential development evaluation system are exempt.

(Ord. No. 87-22, § 2, 5-13-87)

In order to administer the system set forth herein, and especially to make the valuations set forth in section 32A.6 below, a residential development evaluation board (hereinafter called the "board") is hereby established, consisting of the duly appointed members of the planning commission of the city.

The procedures and bylaws of the board shall be developed by the board subject to the approval of the City Council of Oceanside (hereinafter called the "city council"). The planning department of the City of Oceanside shall serve as the staff of the board.

(Ord. No. 87-22, § 2, 5-13-87)

Cross reference— Planning commission, § 2.37 et seq.

The number of dwelling units hereinafter to be constructed each year in the city (except for dwelling units exempted in accordance with the provisions of section 32A.2) shall be as follows:

(a)

Calendar year 1987: A maximum of one thousand (1,000) units; and

(b)

Calendar year 1988 and all years thereafter through December 31, 1999: A maximum of eight hundred (800) dwelling units.

The annual allotment may be modified by the city council to an amount not greater than ten (10) percent more or less for any given year, provided that the annual allotment for the next succeeding year shall be set higher or lower, as the case may be, in order to redress any excess or deficit. The annual allotment shall be continuously applicable to the city's jurisdictional boundaries and shall not be modified by reason of annexation or additional territory. This allotment shall conform to the public facilities management element, projected growth as established by Resolution Number 79-27 of the City Council of Oceanside.

(Ord. No. 87-22, § 2, 5-13-87)

No building permit of nonexempted projects may be issued unless a development allotment for such project has been granted. At the time prior to obtaining a building permit, the developer of proposed projects not exempted from application for a development allotment pursuant to the provisions of section 32A.2 shall apply for a development allotment as set forth herein.

(Ord. No. 87-22, § 2, 5-13-87)

The board shall consider all applications properly submitted and shall make recommendations to the city council based on the criteria set forth below:

(a)

Availability of public facilities and services. The board shall examine each application for its relations to, or impact upon, local public facilities and services, and shall rate each development by assignment of from zero (0) to ten (10) points (0 indicating very poor and 10 indicating excellent) on each of the following attributes:

(i)

The capacity of the water system to provide for the needs of the proposed development without system expansions or extensions beyond those normally installed by the developer.

(ii)

The capacity of the sanitary sewers to dispose of the wastes of the proposed development without system expansions or extensions beyond those normally installed by the developer.

(iii)

The capacity of the drainage facilities to adequately dispose of the surface runoff of the proposed development without system extension beyond those normally installed by the developer.

(iv)

The ability of the fire department to provide fire protection according to the established response standards of the city without the necessity of establishing a new station or requiring addition of major equipment or housing facilities to an existing station.

(v)

The capacity of the appropriate school to absorb the children expected to inhabit a proposed development without necessitating or adding to double sessions or other unusual scheduling or classroom overcrowding or adding to expensive school busing.

(vi)

The capacity of major street linkage to provide for the needs of the proposed development without substantially altering existing traffic patterns or overloading the existing street system, and the availability of other public facilities (such as parks, playgrounds, etc.) to meet the additional demands for vital public services without extension of services beyond those provided by the developer.

(vii)

The capacity of Highway 76 within the city limits to provide for the needs of the proposed development.

(b)

The board shall examine each application which has not been withdrawn by the applicant for failure to meet subsection (a), and shall rate each development by the assignment of from zero (0) to ten (10) points (0 indicating very poor, 10 indicating excellent) on each of the following attributes:

(i)

Site and architectural design quality which may be indicated by the harmony of the proposed buildings in terms of size, height, color and location with existing neighboring development.

(ii)

The amount and character of open space and slope landscaping.

(iii)

Site and architectural design quality which may be indicated by the arrangement of the site for efficiency of circulation, on- and off-site traffic safety, privacy, etc.

(iv)

The provision of public and/or private usable open space.

(v)

Contributions to and extensions of existing system of foot or bicycle paths, equestrian trails and facilities and/or greenbelts.

(vi)

The provision of needed public facilities such as critical linkages in the major street system, school rooms, functional parks or other vital public facilities.

(vii)

Site and architectural design quality which may be indicated by the amount and character of modification of the topography, including quality of grading, extent of natural slopes cut and/or filled and impact on ridgelands.

(viii)

Absence of deleterious impact on trees and archeological sites.

(ix)

The provision of water conservation features.

(x)

The provision of energy generation and conservation features, such as additional insulation, house siting and design, solar techniques and other innovative techniques.

(xi)

Absence of deleterious impact on the physical and/or aesthetical environment.

(c)

After having studied each application in accordance with subsections (a) and (b), in regard to each of the criteria, and having assigned evaluation points on a scale of 0 to 10 in accordance with their findings, the board shall prepare two (2) lists, one documenting points awarded from subsection (a) and the other from subsection (b), arranging the greatest total number of evaluation points to that receiving the lowest number. In addition to listing the number of actual points awarded in each subcategory of both parts, each part will be totaled and the total shall then be expressed as a percentage of the maximum number of points awardable. The maximum number of points awardable shall not include those elements of the criteria found to not be applicable.

(Ord. No. 87-22, § 2, 5-13-87; Ord. No. 87-33, § 1, 7-22-87)

(a)

The city council shall consider at a public hearing the recommendations and rankings of the proposed developments on each of the two (2) lists described in section 32A.6, along with any action taken by the

board concerning appealed decisions, and shall compile one list ranking each of the proposed developments, and shall award from that list development allotments.

(b)

Minimum point requirements. The city council shall eliminate from consideration any development which has not been assigned a minimum of fifty-one (51) percentage points under section 32A.6, subsection (a), or a minimum of seventy (70) percentage points under section 32A.6, subsection (b). If in any given year the highest ranking development does not at least meet both of the minimum point requirements, the city council shall make no development allotment for that year. The number of units will then be added, as the only allowed exception to the ten (10) percent rule in section 32A.4 to the allotment for the ensuing year.

(c)

Should a developer fail to initiate construction within twenty-four (24) months after award of the development allotment, the city council, after a hearing, must rescind all or part of the development allotment.

(d)

The city council shall develop such policies and ordinances as necessary to implement the ordinance within thirty (30) days of passage.

(Ord. No. 87-22, § 2, 5-13-87)

Should the arrangement of projects as provided in section 32A.7, subsection (a), produce the situation in which two (2) projects have equal evaluation scores, but only one project can be permitted within the quota, the city council may offer those applications a pro rata share of the number of units available within the quota, or may dispose of such a tie in any other manner deemed equitable by the city.

(Ord. No. 87-22, § 2, 5-13-87)

Any legal action to challenge a decision or denial of the board, or any other government body performing a function under this chapter, must be filed in a court of competent jurisdiction within thirty (30) days immediately following the action challenged.

(Ord. No. 87-22, § 2, 5-13-87)

Any legal action to challenge any provision of this chapter or to challenge the intent of this chapter must be vigorously defended by the city.

(Ord. No. 87-22, § 2, 5-13-87)

The city council may, after a public hearing, by a unanimous vote, change any part of this RDCS by amendment, providing the amendment is consistent with the intent of this chapter.

(Ord. No. 87-22, § 2, 5-13-87)

If any provision of this chapter, or the application thereof, to any person or circumstance is held invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the validity of the remainder of this chapter and the application of such provisions to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

(Ord. No. 87-22, § 2, 5-13-87)

This RDCS shall be considered as adopted upon the date that the vote is certified by the city clerk, and shall go into effect immediately thereafter.

(Ord. No. 87-22, § 2, 5-13-87)