Agenda Item Wording:
title
Updates to City regulations and zoning districts that allow emergency shelters, in fulfillment of General Plan Housing Element Implementation Program 5.2 and Assembly Bill 2339.
body
Prepared by:
Brandon Smith, Principal Planner, (559) 713-4636, brandon.smith@visalia.city
Paul Bernal, Planning and Community Preservation Director, (559) 713-4025, paul.bernal@visalia.city
Department Recommendation: Staff recommends that the City Council and Planning Commission consider the information provided in the staff report and provide comments and guidance as directed. Recommendations provided by the City Council will be used as a basis for a Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment to confirm one or more new zone districts where emergency shelters are permitted “by-right”.
Summary:
Assembly Bill (AB) 2339, passed in 2022 (see Attachment 1 for full text), places new requirements on the regulation of emergency shelters and requires cities to identify one or more zones allowing residential uses, including mixed uses, where emergency shelters are allowed as a permitted use without a conditional use permit (CUP) or other discretionary permit and that are suitable for residential uses.
The identified zoning designation(s) shall include “sufficient sites” meeting the requirements of having sufficient site capacity, which is assessed based upon the City’s count of persons experiencing homelessness from the most recent point-in-time count.
The bill also limits the types of standards that shelters shall be subject to, such as maximum number of beds, length of stay, parking, and provisions of security and onsite management.
When defining a zoning designation where emergency shelters are allowed by-right, a City shall identify a zone that contains:
• vacant sites zoned for residential use, or
• a zone that contains vacant sites zoned for nonresidential use that allow residential development. This latter option can only be selected if it can demonstrate that the designation is located near amenities and services, which may include:
o health care,
o transportation,
o retail,
o employment, and
o social services.
Before the passage of AB 2339, the City identified the Light Industrial (I-L) zone as the one zone that allows emergency shelters as a permitted use; however, it is not located near all the amenities and services listed above. Because Visalia’s code does not comply with this new legislation, one or more new zones must be identified.
Assembly Bill 2339 is tied to the state’s housing element legislation; in fact, the new code section (Government Code 65583(a)(4)) is tucked in with the list of required contents of a housing element. Therefore, when Visalia adopted its 6th cycle Housing Element in 2023, an implementation program (Program 5.2) was included to update the Zoning Ordinance to comply with this code section by the end of 2025.
For background purposes, emergency shelters and low barrier navigation centers are defined as follows:
"Emergency shelter" means housing with minimal supportive services for homeless persons that is limited to occupancy of six months or less by a homeless person. No individual or household may be denied emergency shelter because of an inability to pay.
"Low barrier navigation center" shall have the same meaning as that term is defined in California Government Code Section 65660, specifically a housing first, low-barrier, service-enriched shelter focused on moving people into permanent housing that provides temporary living facilities while case managers connect individuals experiencing homelessness to income, public benefits, health services, shelter, and housing. "Low barrier" means best practices to reduce barriers to entry, and may include, but is not limited to, the following.
1. The presence of partners if it is not a population-specific site, such as for survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault, women, or youth.
2. Pets.
3. The storage of possessions.
4. Privacy, such as partitions around beds in a dormitory setting or in larger rooms containing more than two beds, or private rooms.
Prior Zoning Text Update by City Council for Emergency Shelters and LBNC:
In 2021, in response to the prior 5th cycle Housing Element update, City staff processed a Zoning Text Amendment to consider additional zoning districts or locations for the permitted ‘by-right’ or conditionally allowed use of emergency shelters and low barrier navigation centers and develop performance standards for these uses.
The City Council and Planning Commission held a work session to discuss these matters and to provide direction on potential updates to the Zoning Ordinance. The Zoning Text Amendment, adopted April 18, 2022, resulted in the adoption of new performance standards for both uses; however, no new zones were selected other than retaining the I-L zone as the required zone where emergency shelters would be permitted by-right, though the Service Commercial and Commercial Mixed Use zones were added as zones where emergency shelters are subject to the CUP process.
Since the new law under AB 2339 limits the types of standards that emergency shelters (which by definition includes navigation centers) shall be subject to, certain standards from the 2022 Zoning Text Amendment must be revised or removed.
Current Allowed Locations of Emergency Shelters and Navigation Centers:
The current allowed locations for both uses are as follows:
| Permitted | Conditionally Allowed
Emergency Shelters | - Light Industrial | - Service Commercial
| | - Commercial Mixed Use
| | - Quasi-Public
Low Barrier | - Downtown Mixed Use | - All other Commercial,
Navigation Centers | - Commercial Mixed Use| - Office, and Industrial Zones
| | - Quasi-Public
Zoning and Capacity Analysis of Emergency Shelters:
a) Sufficient Sites Capacity. Government Code Sections 65583(a)(4)(I) and (a)(4)(J)(7) state that the zoning designation where emergency shelters are allowed as a permitted use shall have sufficient sites, assessed based on the capacity necessary to accommodate the most recent homeless point-in-time count conducted before the start of the planning period.
Visalia had a point-in-time count of 434 persons in 2023 (reference: Kings Tulare Homeless Alliance 2023 P.I.T. count report, page 47. Accessed at https://www.kthomelessalliance.org/pit).
State law further states that the number of persons that can be accommodated on any site shall be demonstrated by dividing the square footage of the site by a minimum of 200 square feet per person. This would translate to a site or combined sites having a minimum area of 86,800 square feet (434 * 200), or 1.99 acres. For reference, Visalia Navigation Center (3525 N. Court Street) accommodates 100 persons within a 19,883 square foot building on a 2.91-acre site.
As shown in the table below, most of Visalia’s non-residential zones have more than ample vacant land (i.e. 40 or more acres). The Downtown Mixed Use (D-MU) zone only has 3 acres of undeveloped land, which is one acre above the minimum area. The Office Conversion (O-C zone) has no vacant land.
|
|
C-N |
C-R |
C-S |
C-MU |
D-MU |
O-PA |
O-C |
BRP |
I-L |
I |
QP |
|
# Acres Vacant Land |
40 |
114 |
97 |
237 |
3 |
42 |
0 |
87 |
88 |
1370 |
90 |
|
Scores |
0-none |
1-low |
2-med |
3-high |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Source: City Council Item Transmittal: Update on Remaining Acreage in Tier 1. 4/6/2020.Tables 2, 2-2, 3, and 4; |
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GIS layer “Parcels_Dev_Undev_2020” (for QP zone) |
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b) Zoning Analysis. Government Code Sections 65583(a)(4)(H) states that the zone designation(s) where emergency shelters are allowed by-right shall contain vacant sites zoned for residential use, or vacant sites zoned for nonresidential use that allow residential development that can demonstrate that the designation is located near certain types of amenities and services. The following is a brief analysis of Visalia’s zones for residential and nonresidential use for exploring which zones could comply with state law.
Visalia’s three residential zones, R-1-5, R-M-2, and R-M-3, all have more than ample vacant land and are therefore eligible for being zones where emergency shelters may be allowed by-right. While the residential zones are viable in the city and meet state law requirement, the sites’ proximity to existing residents have the potential to impact the most people and could lead to impacts upon established neighborhoods if an emergency shelter is not properly managed.
Regarding Visalia’s non-residential zones, staff has analyzed the availability of amenities and services in each zone. It should be noted that state law says the zoning designation “may include” these five types of amenities and services, or that “the local government will provide free transportation to services or offer services onsite”. The table below illustrates the suitability of each amenity / service in each zone, scored on a level of 0 to 3, and provides a grand total, with 15 being the highest possible score for a zone. Attachment 2 contains references and listings of providers that were the basis of the rankings.
|
|
C-N |
C-R |
C-S |
C-MU |
D-MU |
O-PA |
O-C |
BRP |
I-L |
I |
QP |
|
Health Care |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
Transportation |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
Retail |
2 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Employment |
1 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
|
Social Services |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
TOTAL |
5 |
9 |
3 |
12 |
13 |
9 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
6 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scores: |
0=none |
1=low |
2=med |
3=high |
|
|
|
|
|
|
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As illustrated above, the Commercial Mixed Use (C-MU) and Downtown Mixed Use (D-MU) zones rank among the highest and are the only zones which contain all types of amenities and services. As previously noted, the D-MU zone only scarcely meets the vacant land requirement. The Regional Commercial (C-R) and Office Professional / Administrative (O-PA) zones rank the next highest. While these zones respectively do not offer social services or retail, the City could make the case that these zones include a strong presence of all but one of the listed amenities and services, and that all have transportation which can be used to access the balance of the services.
The following zones would not be suitable for the reasons described:
• Neighborhood Commercial: Does not contain or is within proximity of any health care or social services, and is in proximity to only a limited number of businesses/employment centers, including Walmart and Save Mart.
• Service Commercial: Does not contain or is within proximity of any health care, retail, or social services, and has no transit service east of Ben Maddox Way.
• Office Conversion: Has no available vacant land; does not contain or is within proximity of any health care, retail, employment, or social services.
• Business Research Park: Does not contain or is within proximity of any health care, retail, or social services.
• Light Industrial & Industrial: Does not contain or is within proximity of any health care, retail, or social services, and has limited transit services within the industrial park.
• Quasi-Public: Does not contain or is within proximity of any retail, and has limited access to employment and social services.
Recommend Changes to Performance Standards:
Housing Element Implementation Program 5.2 list out the specific revision which need to be made to the City’s regulations pertaining to Emergency Shelters in order to become compliant with Government Code section 65583(a)(4), as amended by AB 2339. These are listed below together with the specific changes that will be made to the Municipal Code in a forthcoming Zoning Text Amendment. Changes to City of Visalia Municipal Code, as specified by underline & italics for additions and strikeout for deletions.
• Amend the Zoning Code to allow emergency shelters by-right (without conditional or other discretionary permit) with appropriate development standards in a zone that allows residential uses, is in proximity to transportation and services, and contains sufficient capacity to meet the need identified in the annual PIT count; provide capacity analysis compliant with State law. (Compliance with GC §65583(a)(4)(C) and §65583(a)(7))
See the Zoning and Capacity Analysis.
• Amend the Zoning Code to expand the definition of emergency shelter to include interim interventions, including but not limited to, navigation centers, bridge housing, and respite or recuperative care. (Compliance with GC §65583(a)(4)(C))
Changes are recommended to Chapter 17.04 Definitions as follows:
"Emergency shelter" means housing with minimal supportive services for homeless persons that is limited to occupancy of six months or less by a homeless person. No individual or household may be denied emergency shelter because of an inability to pay. For purposes of this definition, “emergency shelter” shall include other interim interventions, including, but not limited to, a navigation center, bridge housing, and respite or recuperative care.
• Amend parking standards to require only the number of spaces sufficient for all staff working in the facility and no more than what is required of residential and commercial uses in the same zone. (Compliance with GC §65583(a)(4)(B)(ii))
Changes are recommended to Section 17.32.130(D)(2) as follows. The code would be changed to require one (1) vehicle parking space per employee. Bicycle parking provisions would remain unchanged.
D. Standards for permitted by-right uses. The standards in this subsection must apply to any emergency shelter that is a use permitted by-right. These standards shall be used as guidelines for any emergency shelter that is a use conditionally allowed in other zones, wherein a deviation from any such standard may be requested and considered as part of an application for conditional use permit.
1. Beds. The maximum number of beds for an emergency shelter as a use permitted by-right is one hundred (100).
2. Parking. One (1) vehicle parking space shall be provided per ten (10) beds and one (1) parking space shall be provided per employee. Up to five (5) visitor spaces shall be provided for service providers based on the actual need as determined by the city. The City Planner has the authority to require an extra one (1) vehicle parking space per ten (10) beds for emergency shelters established in response to a natural or man-made disaster. A covered and secured area for bicycle parking shall be provided for use by staff and clients; commensurate with demonstrated need, but no less than a minimum of eight (8) bike parking spaces.
• Amend the Zoning Code to reduce the minimum proximity to other emergency shelters, schools, or low barrier navigation centers to 300 feet. (Compliance with GC §65583(a)(4)(B)(v))
Changes are recommended to Section 17.32.130(C)(1) and (C)(2) as follows. This results in the distance being reduced from the current regulation of a 1,000-foot separation. The site development standard regarding distances from a front property line of any existing dwelling unit has also been removed.
C. Site development standards. The following standards are applicable to any permitted by right or conditionally allowed emergency shelter.
1. An emergency shelter may not be located closer than one thousand (1,000) three hundred (300) feet to a school (a school is herein defined as an existing or planned public or parochial elementary school, middle school, high school, or licensed day care facility) or another emergency shelter or low barrier navigation center.
2. An emergency shelter may not be located closer than twenty-five (25) feet to the front property line of any existing dwelling unit.
• Amend the Zoning Code to remove the requirement that shelters incorporate a seven-foot perimeter wall on any sides abutting residential uses. (Compliance with GC §65583(a)(4)(B), since this requirement is not on the list of allowable objective standards that local governments can impose.)
Changes are recommended to Section 17.32.130(C)(3) as follows. The entire section will be removed.
3. An emergency shelter shall incorporate a seven (7) foot height perimeter wall constructed of concrete block, brick or stucco if the shelter is adjacent to any dwelling units. The perimeter wall is only required on sides abutting residential uses.
Required Update to Navigation Centers:
In 2019, Assembly Bill (AB) 101 became law in California and specifically mandated low barrier navigation centers (LBNCs; generally speaking, a service-oriented shelter) to be permitted-by-right in mixed use zones and in non-residential zones permitting multi-family housing. Thus, under state law, two mixed zone districts in Visalia permit LBNCs by-right: Downtown Mixed Use and Commercial Mixed Use.
Staff interpreted in the 2021 ZTA that since the City allows multi-family residential uses in any non-residential zone with a CUP, LBNCs by extension would be conditionally permitted in these zones (i.e. all Commercial, Office, and Industrial zones). However, upon review of the current Housing Element, it was determined that LBNCs must be allowed “by-right” in these zones as well. Therefore, the current Housing Element includes Implementation Program No. 5.8 to amend all nonresidential zones to allow LBNCs by-right.
An alternative path toward compliance with State law with regard to LNBCs would be to amend the Zoning Ordinance’s Zone Use Table to change one or more non-residential zones from allowing multi-family residential uses with a CUP to not allowed. This type of approach may have some impact on City practice since in the last 20+ years there have been a few requests (e.g. once every two years) for multi-family residential uses in non-residential zones. Zone districts that have the recipient of CUPs for multi-family uses have been the Downtown Mixed Use zone, Commercial Mixed Use zone, Regional Commercial zone, Neighborhood Commercial zone, and Office Professional/Administrative zone. By comparison, there has historically only been one request to allow a LBNC in the City (i.e. Visalia Navigation Center, which located in the Commercial Mixed Use where by State law must be a permitted use. It should be further noted that three non-commercial zones - Downtown Mixed Use, Commercial Mixed Use, and Regional Commercial - contain sites on the Housing Element “RHNA” site inventory.
Next Steps:
Recommendations and direction provided to staff will be used as a basis for a Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment to revise the zone district(s) where emergency shelters and low barrier navigation centers will be permitted by-right and/or conditionally allowed will be formally noticed and heard as a public hearing item before the Planning Commission and City Council.
Recommended Motion (and Alternative Motions if expected):
recommendation
I recommend that staff proceed with initiating a Zone Text Amendment that would allow emergency shelters to be permitted by-right in the (per Council Direction) zone.
Attachments:
1. Full text of Assembly Bill 2339
2. Reference sheet containing listings of providers and sources of information