Chapter 17.900 — General

The purpose of this article is to implement the provisions of Senate Bill 9 and any other land use procedure that state law mandates on the City but that would otherwise be inconsistent with the City's land use and development policies, procedures or regulations. The purpose of this article is to implement all City land use and development policies, procedures or regulations to the maximum extent allowed under state law. (Ord. 24-13, 10/1/2024)

This chapter shall only apply to the extent that the City is required to ministerially approve applications for development actions under state law provisions. This article shall not be construed to allow any greater rights to approval of a development application than the City is required to grant under state law. To the extent any state-mandated procedure in this article is repealed, determined to be unlawful or is otherwise not mandatory upon the City, then this article shall not allow for approval of any such applications. This provisions of this article shall continue to apply to any development applications previously approved hereunder.

Specifically, this article shall apply to:

• A. Urban lot splits under Government Code section 66411.7 .

• B. Two unit projects under Government Code section 65852.21 .

• (Ord. 24-13, 10/1/2024)

Terms defined in Article 8 (Definitions) of this Development Code shall have the same meanings in this article. The following terms used in this article shall be defined as follows:

A. "Individual property owner"

means a natural person holding fee title individually or jointly in the person's own name or a beneficiary of a trust that holds fee title. "Individual property owner" does not include any corporation or corporate person of any kind (partnership, LP, LLC, C corp, S corp, etc.) except for a community land trust [as defined by Revenue and Taxation Code Section 402.1(a)(11)(C)(ii) ] or a qualified nonprofit corporation (as defined by Revenue and Taxation Code Section 214.15 ).

B. "MSHCP"

means the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan, as implemented by City Council through Resolution No. 2479 and all related actions and obligations incorporated thereunder.

C. "MSHCP Area"

means the land that is identified by the MSHCP for conservation, including reserve assembly, has the potential for on-site biological resources outlined in the MSHCP, or is subject a HANS or JPR process. Terms used in this subsection shall have the meanings utilized by the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority in its implementation of the MSHCP.

D. "Specific adverse impact"

• has the same meaning as in Government Code Section 65589.5(d)(2) , which is a significant, quantifiable, direct, and unavoidable impact, based on objective, identified written public health or safety standards, policies, or conditions as they existed on the date the application was deemed complete, and does not include 1) inconsistency with the Zoning Ordinance or General Plan land use designation or 2) the eligibility to claim a welfare exemption under Revenue and Taxation Code Section 214(g) .

• E. "Two-unit project"

means the development of two primary dwelling units or, if there is already a primary dwelling unit on the lot, the development of a second primary dwelling unit on a legally subdivided lot in accordance with the requirements of this section.

• F. "Urban lot split"

means the subdivision of an existing, legally subdivided lot into two lots in accordance with the requirements of Government Code Section 66411.7 and this chapter pursuant to a ministerial approval process.

(Ord. 24-13, 10/1/2024)

• A. Director. The Director shall have authority to approve or deny all applications that are subject to ministerial approval in accordance with this article.

• B. Appeal. The applicant may appeal a decision of the Director under this article in accordance with Chapter 17.715 (Appeals). Review on appeal shall be ministerial and shall be limited to a determination as to whether the application meets all requirements for approval. The applicant shall have the burden of showing in all respects that the City must ministerially approve the application as presented.

  1. Specific adverse impacts. If the applicant contends that specific adverse impacts of the proposed project can be satisfactorily mitigated or avoided, then the appeal must set forth in detail how the applicant will mitigate or avoid such specific adverse impacts. If the applicant contends that there are no specific adverse impacts, the applicant shall submit all information to rebut the Director's finding with the appeal.

• (Ord. 24-13, 10/1/2024)