Redondo Beach Municipal Code Ch. 21 News Racks

Note: Sections 4-21.01 through 4-21.03, codified from Ordinance Nos. 2094 c.s. and 2125 c.s., as amended by Ordinance No. 2210 c.s., effective July 27, 1977, amended in their entirety by Ordinance No. 2632 c.s., effective August 1, 1991.

The purpose of this chapter is to promote the public health, safety and welfare through the regulation of the placement, appearance, servicing and insuring of news racks on the public right-of-way so as to:

(a) Provide for pedestrian and driving safety and convenience;

(b) Restrict the unreasonable interference with the flow of pedestrian or vehicular traffic, including ingress into or egress from any residence or any place of business or from the street to the sidewalks by persons exiting or entering parked or standing vehicles or along public sidewalks;

(c) Provide reasonable access for the use and maintenance of poles, posts, traffic signs or signals, hydrants, and mail boxes and access to locations used for public transportation purposes;

(d) Eliminate news racks which may result in a visual blight on the public rights-of-way or which may unreasonably detract from the aesthetics of store window displays, adjacent landscaping and other improvements;

(e) Maintain and protect the values of surrounding properties;

(f) Reduce the unnecessary exposure of the City to personal injury and property damage claims; and

(g) Provide for and maintain the freedom of speech for newspapers or news periodicals using news racks for distribution purposes.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)

The provisions of this chapter are intended to be in addition to the provisions of Title 6, Chapter 1 of this Code providing for business regulations. Whenever the provisions impose a greater restriction upon persons, premises or practices than is imposed by the general business license regulations, the provisions of this Chapter shall control.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)

For the purpose of this chapter, unless otherwise apparent from the context, certain words and phrases used in this chapter are defined as follows:

"Highways"

shall mean all that area dedicated to public use for public street purposes and shall include, but not be limited to, roadways, parkways, alleys and sidewalks.

"News rack"

shall mean any self-service container installed, used or maintained for the distribution of newspapers, news periodicals, or other news publications.

"Parkway"

shall mean that area between the sidewalk and the curb of any street and, where there is no sidewalk, that area between the edge of the roadway and the property line adjacent thereto. "Parkway" shall also include any area within a roadway which is not open to vehicular travel.

"Roadway"

shall mean that portion of the street improved, designed or ordinarily used for vehicular travel.

"Sidewalk"

shall mean any surface provided for the exclusive use of pedestrians.

"Street"

shall mean all that area dedicated to public use for public street purposes and shall include, but not be limited to, roadways, parkways, alleys, and sidewalks.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)

(a) Issuance. An application for a permit for news racks shall be made within 10 (ten) business days from the placement of any news rack in the public right of way. Permits may be issued for the installation of a news rack or news racks without prior inspection of the location, but such news rack or news racks and the installation, use or maintenance thereof, shall be conditioned upon observance of the provisions of this chapter. Any permit issued shall be valid for one year and shall be renewable annually. This section shall not become effective until 90 days from the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter.

(b) Appeal from denial. Permits shall be issued within 24 hours (excluding Saturday and Sunday and legal holidays) after the application has been filed. The denial of a permit shall not prohibit the installation, use and maintenance of a news rack, pending a judicial review of the denial of said permit. The denial of a permit shall be entitled to immediate judicial review.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)

A person seeking issuance of a permit pursuant to this chapter shall file with the Department of Public Works a written application of a form supplied by the City. The application shall contain the following information:

(a) The name, address and telephone number of the applicant;

(b) The name, address and telephone number of a responsible person whom the City may notify or contact at any time concerning the applicant's news rack;

(c) The number of news racks and the exact proposed location of each shown by an eight and one-half (8 1/2″) inch by eleven (11″) inch diagram and identifying all bus benches, street poles and posts, driveways, wheelchair ramps, other news racks, fire hydrants, crosswalks, curb re-turns, fire call boxes, buildings, landscaping, bus shelters, bus stops, trash containers, mailboxes, and pull boxes within a twenty foot radius; and

(d) The names of the newspapers or periodicals to be contained in each news rack.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)

(a) At the time of making application for a newsrack permit, the applicant shall pay a nonrefundable permit fee for each newsrack in an amount established by resolution of the City Council.

(b) At the time of each annual renewal of the permit, the permittee shall pay a renewal and inspection fee for each newsrack in an amount established by resolution of the City Council.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991, as amended by § 1, Ord. 2667 c.s., eff. August 6, 1992)

(a) Liability insurance. As a condition of approval of the permit, the permittee must file with the Director of Public Works an insurance certificate establishing that the applicant has in force public liability and property damage insurance in the amount of One Million and no/100ths ($1,000,000.00) Dollars to indemnify the City for damage to City property arising out of the permittee's activities. The City, each of its officials, officers, employees, agents and representatives shall be named as additional insureds. The policy shall contain language to the effect that: (1) the insurer waives the right of subrogation against City and City's elected officials, officers, employees, agents and representatives; (2) the policies are primary noncontributing with any insurance that may be carried by City; and (3) they cannot be canceled or materially changed except after 30 days' notice by the insurer to City by certified mail. The permittee shall furnish City with copies of all such policies promptly upon receipt of them, or certificate evidencing the insurance. The permittee may effect for its own account insurance not required under this section. The permittee must maintain such insurance for as long as the permittee maintains a news rack in the public right-of-way.

(b) Indemnification. Every person operating or maintaining a news rack upon or within the public property, rightsof-way, or public easement adjacent to streets of this City shall agree, prior to the granting of a news rack permit, to indemnify and hold harmless the City, its officials, officers, employees, agents and representatives from any loss, liability, damage, or cost sustained by any person or property, arising from the installation, operation, or use of such news rack; provided, however, that such obligation to indemnify and hold harmless the City, its officials, officers, employees, agents and representatives shall not extend to any loss, liability damage, or cost resulting from the acts or property of another.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)

Upon a showing that the fees and/or insurance requirements are so financially burdensome that they would constitute an unreasonable burden on First Amendment rights by virtue of the financial circumstances of the applicant, the Director of Public Works may waive or decrease the fees and/or insurance requirements as necessary.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)

No person shall install, use, or maintain any news rack or other structure which projects onto, into, or over any part, upon, along, or over any portion of the roadway of any public street or which rests, wholly or in part, upon, along, or over any portion of the roadway of any public street.

No person shall install, use, or maintain any news rack, which in whole or in part, rests upon, in or over any public sidewalk or parkway when such installation, use, or maintenance endangers the safety of persons or property, or when such site or location is used for public transportation purposes, or other governmental use, or when such news rack unreasonably interferes with or impedes the flow of pedestrian or vehicular traffic, including any legally parked or stopped vehicle, the ingress into or egress from any residence or place of business, or the use of poles, posts, traffic signs or signals, hydrants, mailboxes, or other objects permitted at or near such location, or when such news rack interferes with the cleaning of any sidewalk by the use of mechanical sidewalk cleaning machinery.

Any news rack of a city shall be located so as to maximize public convenience, health, safety and welfare, both as to accessibility to the news racks and the use of the public right-of-way as a thoroughfare, and the aesthetic appearance of the area.

Any news rack which, in whole or in part, rests upon, in, or over any public sidewalk or parkway shall comply with the following standards:

(a) News racks shall only be placed near a curb or preferably adjacent to the wall of a building. News racks placed near the curb shall be placed twenty-four (24″) inches from the edge of the curb where there is no parking at the curb and thirty-six (36″) inches where parking is allowed. News racks shall only be placed at the curb when in the opinion of the Director of Public Works, it is not practical to place a news rack at the back of the sidewalk or adjacent to the building.

News racks placed adjacent to the wall of a building shall be placed parallel to such wall and not more than six (6″) inches from the wall. No news rack shall be placed or maintained on the sidewalk or parkway opposite a newsstand or another news rack.

(b) No news rack shall be chained, bolted, or otherwise attached to any property not owned by the owner of the news rack or to any permanently fixed object, except, that a news rack may be bolted to any sidewalk.

(c) No news rack or group of attached news racks attached pursuant to the provisions of Section 4-21.10 shall weigh, in the aggregate, in excess of 125 pounds when empty.

(d) No news rack shall be placed, installed, used, or maintained:

(1) Within three (3′) feet of any marked crosswalk;

(2) Within five (5′) feet of the curb return of any unmarked crosswalk;

(3) Within six (6′) feet of any fire hydrant, fire call box, or other emergency facility;

(4) Within three (3′) feet of any driveway;

(5) Within three (3′) feet ahead of and twenty-five (25′) feet to the rear of any sign marking designated bus stop;

(6) Within six (6′) feet of any bus bench;

(7) At any location whereby the clear space for the passageway of pedestrians is reduced to less than six (6′) feet;

(8) Within three (3′) feet of any area improved with lawns, flowers, shrubs, or trees, or within three (3′) feet of any display window of any building abutting the sidewalk or parkway or in such a manner as to impede or interfere with the reasonable use of such window for display purposes;

(9) Within ten (10′) feet of any bus shelter.

(10) In a grouping of more than four, with a minimum of three (3′) feet between groupings.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)

(a) News rack specifications. Except as provided in subsection (b) all news racks installed, used or maintained on a public sidewalk or parkway, or portion thereof, shall be equivalent to K-Jack Engineering Company of Gardena, California, model numbers K-100 or KJ-150 mounted on a pedestal system known as "handi-mount," also constructed by K-Jack Engineering Company. The pedestal height for the KJ-100 series shall be 16 inches and the pedestal height for the EJ-150 series shall be seven (7″) inches. The Director of Public Works shall review all requests for models and styles equivalent to the above models. All news racks shall have woodgrained panels. The mounts shall be painted gloss black.

(b) At locations designated by resolution, news vendors are required to use stacker units as manufactured by KJack Engineering Company or an equivalent model approved by the Director of Public Works. The City shall build and maintain these enclosures at its expense.

(c) News rack enclosures. The City may, at its option, construct enclosures to house news racks, in lieu of or in addition to existing news rack structures or new or replacement structures required by subsection (a) of this section.

(d) Existing owners. Subsection (a) shall not become effective until 12 months after the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter. Such further time as may be reasonably needed to comply with subsection (a) may be provided by the City Council upon request.

(e) Identifying information. Each news rack installed, used or maintained pursuant to this chapter shall be identified with the name, address, telephone number of the owner in a manner so as to be clearly visible.

(f) Use for advertising is prohibited. Use of news racks for advertising is prohibited. No news rack shall be used for commercial advertising, signs or publicity purposes, other than to state the name of the newspaper or periodical on the dispensing side of the news rack.

(g) Working condition. Each news rack shall be maintained in good operating condition by its owner and shall be maintained so as not to become mechanically inoperable or have cracked or broken coverings or casings. Each machine shall be painted or covered with a protective coating so as to keep it free from rust.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)

(a) Number permitted. No more than eight news racks shall be located on any public right-of-way within a space of 200 feet in any direction within the same block of the same street. No more than sixteen news racks shall be allowed on any one block. As used herein, "block" shall mean one side of a street between two consecutive intersecting streets.

The number of news racks permitted on any public right-of-way within a space of 200 feet in any direction within the same block of the same street may be increased to twelve and the number of news racks allowed in any one block may be increased to 24 by resolution of the Mayor and City Council upon a finding that the increase is necessary because of the high demand for newspapers at the specified location.

In determining which news racks shall be permitted to remain, the Director of Public Works shall be guided solely by the following criteria set forth in subsection (b). In the event there are eight or more news racks located on the public right-of-way within a space of 200 feet in any direction within the same block of the same street in the aforementioned locations on the effective date of this chapter, no additional news racks shall be approved until such time when there are fewer than eight news racks within a space of 200 feet in any direction within the same block of the same street at such location. The applicant, upon request, may be placed on a waiting list for such location. The waiting list shall be administered on a first come, first serve basis.

(b) Priority System. In determining which news racks shall be permitted to remain, the Director of Public works shall be guided solely by the following criteria:

(1) First priority. First priority shall be given to news racks used for the sale of publications which have been adjudicated to be newspapers of general circulation for Los Angeles County, pursuant to the procedure set forth in Division 7, Article 2 of the California Government Code.

(2) Second priority. Second priority shall be given to news racks used for the sale of daily publications (those published on five or more days in a calendar week) which have not been adjudicated to be newspapers of general circulation of Los Angeles County.

(3) Third priority. Third priority shall be given to news racks used for the sale of weekly publications (those published on at least one but less than five days in a calendar week) which have not been adjudicated to be newspapers of general circulation for Los Angeles County.

(4) Conflict within priority categories. As between newspapers included within any single category of priority above, the Director of Public works shall also be guided by the following criteria of priorities whenever more than eight news racks are proposed for any one site or more than 16 news racks are proposed for any one block:

(A) First priority shall be daily publications (published five or more days per week).

(B) Second priority shall be publications published two to four days per week.

(C) Third priority shall be publications published one day per week.

(D) In the event that there is a conflict between newspapers within the same priority seeking the same location, and there are insufficient news rack spaces remaining to accommodate the competing newspapers after first filling as many spaces as possible by utilizing the criteria set forth above, then the Director of Public Works shall assign the space or spaces at random by placing the names of all applicants for the remaining spaces at a location into a container from which the names shall be drawn, one at a time until the particular spaces remaining of unfilled news racks have been filled. Such drawing shall be open to the public at a time and date designated by the Director of Public Works.

(E) Existing owners. This section shall not become effective until 90 days after the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)

Publications offered for sale from news racks placed or maintained on the public right-of-way shall not be displayed or exhibited in a manner which exposes to public view from the public right-of-way any of the following:

(a) Any statements or words describing explicit sexual acts, sexual organs, or excrement where such statements or words have their purpose or effect sexual arousal, gratification or affront;

(b) Any picture or illustration of genitals, pubic hair, perineum, anuses or anal regions of any person where such picture or illustration has as its purpose or effect sexual arousal, gratification or affront; and

(c) Any picture or illustration depicting explicit sexual acts where such picture or illustration has as its purpose or effect sexual, arousal, gratification or affront.

"Explicit sexual act" as used in this section, means depictions of sexual intercourse, oral copulation, anal intercourse, oral-anal copulation, bestiality, sadism, masochism, or lewd exhibition of genitals, whether any of the above conduct is depicted or described as being performed above or between members of the same or opposite sex or between humans and animals, or other act of sexual arousal, involving any physical contact with a person's genital, pubic region, pubic hair, perineum, anus or anal region.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)

(a) No person shall knowingly display or cause to be displayed, in any public place where minors are not excluded, any harmful matter as defined in Section 313 of the Penal Code unless such matter is displayed in news racks equipped with devices commonly known as blinder racks affixed in such a manner that the lower 2/3 of the matter is not exposed to view.

(b) This section shall not apply to news racks that are placed or projected upon public highways and which are subject to the provisions of Section 4-21.12.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)

In the event any news rack installed pursuant to this chapter does not contain the publication specified in the application within a period of 30 days for a daily or weekly periodical or other periodical issued at some other time interval and 60 days for a monthly periodical after the release of the current issue, or if no publication is in the news rack for a period of more than 30 consecutive days for a daily or weekly periodical, or other periodical issued at some other time interval and 60 days for a monthly periodical, the Director of the Department of Public Works may deem the news rack abandoned and may remove the news rack from the public right-of way in accordance with the procedures set forth in Section 4-21.15.

In the event a permittee of a news rack, owned by the permittee, desires voluntarily to abandon a news rack location, such permittee shall completely remove the news rack and mount and restore the public right-of-way to a safe condition, leaving no hole or projection in the pavement.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)

(a) Any news rack installed, used or maintained in violation of the provisions of this chapter may be subject to the removal and storage by the Director of Public Works or his designee. Such officer shall take steps to notify the owner thereof and request compliance within 30 calendar days prior to removal. At any time within said 30 day period, an administrative hearing to challenge the existence of a violation may be requested by the owner. Failure to request the hearing shall result in removal and storage of the news rack by the Director of Public Works or his designee at any time after the expiration of the thirty day period.

(b) If the owner requests a hearing as provided in paragraph (a) above, said hearing shall be scheduled within five days of the request, and shall be administered by the Director of Public Works or his designee. The owner shall have 30 days to comply with the provisions specified in the ruling. If after 30 days from the date of decision the owner has failed to comply with the provisions of this chapter cited in the decision, the subject news racks shall be removed and stored by the Director of Public Works or his designee.

(c) Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, in the case of violations of this chapter, relative to restrictions upon attachments of news racks to property other than that owned by the owner of the news rack to fixed objects, or to each other, and upon location of news racks, the Director of Public Works or his designee may, as an alternative to the provisions set forth in subsections (a) and (b) of this section, move, realign, remove such attachment, or otherwise move such news rack or news racks to restore them to a legal condition.

(d) Any news rack in violation of the provisions of this chapter which creates an immediate danger to the health, safety or welfare of the public, which violation cannot be corrected by moving or otherwise repositioning the news rack may be summarily removed and stored in a convenient location so as to eliminate the danger to the health, safety and welfare of the public. The Director of

Public Works or his designee shall inform the news rack owner of the date the news rack was removed, the reasons therefor, the location and procedure for claiming the news rack, and the procedure for obtaining a post-removal hearing before the Director of Public Works, if desired. Any such news rack removed and stored pursuant to this subsection shall be released to the owner thereof if claimed within forty-five days (45) after the mailing of written notice of removal and upon the payment of reasonable charges of removal and storage or upon a determination in a post-removal hearing that the news rack complies with all of the provisions of this chapter.

(e) The Director of Public Works or the Director's designee may, after a hearing in accordance with this chapter order the news rack returned upon payment of costs of storage and/or removal; or, without cost to the news rack owner if no violation of this Chapter is found.

(f) The cost of removal and storage by the Director of Public Works or his designee of any news rack subject to this chapter shall be chargeable as a civil debt to the owner thereof, and may be collected by the city in the same manner as it collects any other civil debt or obligation. In addition, the news racks in question shall be deemed to be unclaimed property, and may be disposed of accordingly.

(§ 1, Ord. 2632 c.s., eff. August 1, 1991)