Torrance Municipal Code § 42.1 General

The provisions of this Chapter shall apply to all territory within the corporate limits of the City.

Except where otherwise specifically provided, it shall be the duty of the health officer to enforce all of the provisions of this Chapter.

It shall be unlawful for any person to interfere with the health officer in the performance of his duties.

Permits shall be required of the following businesses or occupations:

a) Establishments or Persons Selling, Serving, etc. Food. All establishments or persons selling or offering for sale, serving, preparing or manufacturing food in any form.

b) Poultry Markets and Slaughtering Establishments. Poultry markets and poultry slaughtering establishments.

c) Vendor of Meat, Fish, etc. Vendors of meat, fish and other food products.

d) Dairies and Dairy Products. Dairies, wholesale and retail milk distributors, milk plants, ice cream factories, cheese factories and any other establishments handling milk or dairy products.

e) Drug Distributors, Vendors or Salesmen; Exceptions. Drug distributors, vendors or salesmen; provided, however, that this subsection shall not apply to established drugstores or pharmacies operating from a permanent location, nor to salesmen dealing directly with physicians, surgeons, dentists or druggists.

f) Person Cleaning, etc. Secondhand Bottles, etc. Persons cleaning and sterilizing or dealing in secondhand bottles, glassware and crockery.

g) Swimming Pools. Public swimming pools.

h) Dumps. Public dumps.

i) Operators of Wells, Springs, etc. for Water for Public Consumption. Operators of wells, springs, reservoirs, tanks or piping from which any water is being pumped or drawn or in which water is being stored, which is being used or intended to be used for public domestic consumption.

j) Hospitals, Sanitoriums, Rest Homes, etc. Hospitals, sanitoriums, sanitariums, rest homes, convalescent homes, maternity hospitals and lying-in asylums.

k) Day Nurseries, Boarding Houses, etc. Day nurseries, boarding houses, boarding schools or other places for the reception and care of children.

l) Coil Cleaners. Beer coil cleaners.

m) Cesspool Cleaners Cesspool Cleaners.

n) Hotels, Rooming Houses, etc., Exception. Hotels, rooming houses, lodging houses or any person renting out for sleeping purposes any rooms, lodging or sleeping places; provided, however, that such permit shall not be required unless two (2) or more rooms are so rented in a given building or dwelling, except where three (3) or more persons are accommodated in any one (1) room.

o) Operators of Campgrounds, etc. Operators of campgrounds, trailer camps, auto camps or tent camp courts or spaces.

(Amended by O-1110; O-3071)

Each applicant for the permit required by the preceding Section shall file with the health officer, a written application therefor, which shall state the name and address of such applicant, the kind of business for which he is making application, also a description by street and number or other appropriate designation, of the location of such business, and such other information as may be required by the health officer.

If, after investigation and the consideration of such application and all proper matters in connection therewith, it shall appear to the health officer that the statements made in such application are true, that the premises and vehicles conform to the requirements of this Article and other laws applicable thereto, and that the applicant has complied with all laws, provisions of this Code and other ordinances of the City regulating such business, the health officer shall grant the permit applied for.

The health officer shall have the power and authority to suspend or revoke any permit granted under the provisions of the preceding Section, at his discretion upon proof to his satisfaction of any violation by the holder of any such permit of any law, provision of this Code or other ordinance of the City. Any person who operates or conducts any business in the City during the time when his permit shall have been suspended or revoked shall be guilty of a violation of the provisions of this Chapter.

No permit required by Sec. 42.1.4. shall be suspended or revoked until a hearing shall have been held by the health officer on the matter. At such hearing, the permittee may be present.

Notice of such hearing shall be given by the health officer, in writing, and served upon the holder of the permit, not less than five (5) days prior to the date of such hearing. Such notice shall state the ground of complaint against the permittee and shall also state the time when and the place where such hearing will be had. Such notice shall be served on the permittee by delivering the same to him, his manager or agent, or to any person in charge of or employed in such business, or by leaving such notice at the place of business or residence of the permittee with some person of suitable age and discretion.

If such notice for any reason shall not be served as provided for in this Section, then a copy of such notice shall be mailed, postage prepaid, addressed to the permittee at his place of business or his last known residence, not less than five (5) days prior to the date of such hearing.

The permit required by Sec. 42.1.4. shall be valid from the date thereof, until revoked or suspended as provided for in Sec. 42.1.7. or unless the holder of the permit changes the location of his place of business, or sells, or otherwise disposes of such business, or ceases for a period of thirty (30) consecutive days to carry on such business, or materially changes the character of such business. Upon the expiration of any such permit, and within seven (7) days thereafter, the person conducting or operating such business or vehicle shall apply for and secure a renewal thereof in the same manner and upon the payment of such fee, if any, as may be required by this Code or any other ordinance of the City.

Each permit granted under the provisions of the preceding Sections shall at all times be kept posted and displayed in a conspicuous place in or about such place of business, premises or vehicles.

It shall be unlawful for any person in any way or manner to engage in, conduct or operate any business named in Sec. 42.1.4. without first having applied for and received a permit in writing so to do from the health officer.

(Amended by O-3071)

No license required by Division 3 of this Code shall be issued to any person owning or operating any business which is required to have a permit under Sec. 42.1.4., unless such permit shall have first been granted by the health officer. It shall be the duty of the health officer, immediately upon the granting of such permit, to forward the same to the person making application therefor and to file with the Revenue Administrator a duplicate copy thereof.

It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, offer for sale or distribute or to cause or permit to be sold, offered for sale or distributed, in the corporate limits of the City, or for any such person, other than a carrier for hire, to bring into, or cause or permit to be brought into, or to receive in, or cause or permit to be received in, the corporate limits of the City, for the purpose of sale or distribution therein, any milk, cream or dairy product for human consumption, any portion of which milk, cream or dairy product shall have been obtained from any cow or any goat, infected or afflicted by or with tuberculosis, or reacting positively to any tuberculin test.

The abovementioned tuberculin test shall be made by any person designated by the City Council, by resolution or otherwise, or tests made by the livestock inspector of the County, or his duly authorized representative, shall be received in any court of competent Jurisdiction, and particularly in the City Court as prima facie evidence of the contents thereof and of the truth thereof. In the event the City shall make a contract with the County to enforce the health laws of the City, the officer therein designated to enforce the same shall be the person designated and authorized to make such tuberculin tests. Such tests may be made by any other competent person.