HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998ORDINANCE NO. 1998
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA, AMENDING SECTION
8.04.340 OF THE PALM SPRINGS MUNICIPAL CODE,
RELATING TO THE CITY'S BUILDING CODE APPEALS
BOARD
City Attorney's Summary
This Ordinance amends Section 8.04.340 of the City's
Municipal Code to eliminate the City's Building Code Appeals
Board and designate the City Council as the local appeals and
housing appeals board.
WHEREAS, Chapter 8.04 of the Palm Springs Municipal Code has adopted by
reference, subject to certain amendments, the 2016 California Building Code; and
WHEREAS, section 1.8.8.1 of the 2016 California Building Code, entitled "Appeals
Board," provides that cities shall establish a process to hear and decide appeals of orders,
decisions, and determinations made by the City relative to the application and
interpretation of the Building Code and other regulations governing construction, use,
maintenance, and change of occupancy; and
WHEREAS, Building Code section 1.8.8.1 provides that the governing body of a
City may establish a local appeals board and a housing appeals board (as they are
defined in the State Housing Law, California Health and Safety Code Sections 17920.5
and 17920.6) to serve this purpose, but if no such appeals boards have been established,
the governing body of a city shall serve as the local appeals board or housing appeals
board; and
WHEREAS, a California court of appeals in 2017 held that, based on the language
in the Building Code, a city could not delegate the authority of these boards to a hearing
officer but confirmed that the governing body of the City may serve as the local appeals
board or housing appeals board (Lippman v. City of Oakland (2017) 19 Cal.App.5th 750);
and
WHEREAS, Section 8.04.340 of the Palm Springs Municipal Code established the
City's Building Code Appeals Board, which was tasked with determining the suitability of
alternate materials and methods of construction, providing for reasonable interpretations
of the provisions of Title 8 of the Palm Springs Municipal Code, and hearing appeals of
any decisions or actions of the City's director of building and safety; and
WHEREAS, the City Council wishes to eliminate its existing, separate Building
Code Appeals Board and re -assign the authority of the board to the City Council, so that
the City Council serves as the City's local appeals board and housing appeals board.
Ordinance No. 1998
Page 2
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS
DOES ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Incorporation of Recitals. The above recitals are true and correct
and are incorporated herein by this reference as material findings in support of this
Ordinance.
SECTION 2. Dissolution of Building Code Appeals Board. Section 8.04.340 of
Article IV of Chapter 8.04 of Title 8 of the Palm Springs Municipal Code, is hereby
amended to read as follows:
"8.04.340 Local Appeals Board and Housing Appeals Board.
(a) The City Council shall serve as the Local Appeals Board and
the Housing Appeals Board, and the City Council's authority to hear appeals
shall be the same as cited in each of the uniform codes adopted under
Chapter 8.04 and as referenced in Section 8.04.005 of this code, and
California Health and Safety Code Sections 17920.5 and 17920.6.
(b) Any person aggrieved of any decision of the director of
building and safety services, or any decision of any designee of the director,
including but not limited to the issuance of a notice of violation or the
initiation of any enforcement action pursuant to the provisions of the uniform
codes adopted under Chapter 8.04, and as referenced Section 8.04.010 of
this code, shall within ten days following the action file a written notice of
appeal with the city clerk. The appeal shall set forth the appellant's full
name and mailing address, the specific action appealed from, the grounds
for the appeal and the relief sought, and shall include the payment of the
appeal fee as established or amended from time to time by resolution of the
city council."
SECTION 3. Any reference to the "Building Code Appeals Board" contained in the
Palm Springs Municipal Code, any uncodified ordinance, any resolution or any regulation,
shall, upon the effective date of this ordinance, shall be removed.
SECTION 4. CEQA. Based upon the whole of the administrative record before it,
the City Council hereby finds that the dissolution of the Building Code Appeals Board is
exempt from environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act
("CEQA") (Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.) pursuant to State CEQA Guidelines
(Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, § 15000 et seq.) sections 15061(b)(3), 15320, and 15378(b)(5).
Adoption of this Ordinance is an organizational and administrative activity of the City,
does not have the potential to result in either a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect
physical change in the environment, and is therefore not a project for purposes of CEQA.
(State CEQA Guidelines, §§ 15061(b)(3); 15378(b)(5).) Staff is hereby directed to
prepare, execute and file with the Riverside County Clerk a CEQA Notice of Exemption
within five (5) working days of the adoption of this Ordinance.
Ordinance No. 1998
Page 3
SECTION 5. Severability. If any section or provision of this Ordinance is for any
reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction, or
contravened by reason of any preemptive legislation, the remaining sections and/or
provisions of this ordinance shall remain valid. The city council hereby declares that it
would have adopted this Ordinance, and each section or provision thereof, regardless of
the fact that any one or more section(s) or provision(s) may be declared invalid or
unconstitutional or contravened via legislation.
SECTION 6. Effective Date. This Ordinance shall become effective thirty (30)
days following its adoption.
SECTION 7. Publication. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this
Ordinance and shall cause a summary of the same to be published in the official
newspaper of the City of Palm Springs within fifteen (15) days following its adoption.
PASSED, APPROVED AND ADOPTED BY THE PALM SPRINGS CITY
COUNCIL THIS 24TH DAY OF JULY, 2019.
O
ROBER MOON
MAYOR
ST:
ANTHONYIJ. MEJI , M
CITY CLERK-
Ordinance No. 1998
Page 4
CERTIFICATION
STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE) ss.
CITY OF PALM SPRINGS)
I, ANTHONY J. MEJIA, City Clerk of the City of Palm Springs, do hereby certify
that Ordinance No. 1998 is a full, true, and correct copy, and was introduced by the City
Council at a regular meeting held on the 10T" day of July, 2019, and adopted at a regular
meeting of the City Council held on the 24th day of July, 2019, by the following vote:
AYES:
Councilmembers Holstege,
Mayor Moon
NOES:
None
ABSENT:
None
ABSTAIN:
None
Middleton, Roberts, Mayor Pro Tern Kors, and
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the
City of Palm Springs, California, this S i 5} day of � 2019.
ANTHONY MEJI
CITY CLE K