Agenda Item Wording:
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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.
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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 ...
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