AR 030706 Urgency Ordinance - Land uses city-wide

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CITY OF COLTON AGENDA REPORT FOR COUNCIL MEETING OF March 7, 2006 TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL FROM: CIN ATTORNEY SUBJECT: APPROVAL OF AN URGENCY ORDINANCE ENACTING A MORATORIUM ON ACCEPTING/APPROVING APPLICATIONS FOR CERTAIN LAND USES CITY-WIDE DATE: February 27, 2006 BACKGROUND: California Planning & Zoning Law requires each city to prepare and adopt a comprehensive, long- term general plan for the physical development of the City containing all of the mandatory elements required by law (California Government Code, Section 65300 et seq.). The City's General Plan is required to include, in part: "A land use element that designates the proposed general distribution and general location and extent of the uses of the land for housing, business, industry, open space, including agriculture, natural resources, recreation, and enjoyment of scenic beauty, education, public buildings and grounds, solid and liquid waste disposal facilities, and other categories of public and private uses of land. The land use element shall include a statement of the standards of population density and building intensity recommended for the various districts and other territory covered by the plan...." (California Government Code, Section 65302(a).) Each city must also periodically review, and revise, as necessary, the general plan. (California Government Code, Section 65103(a).) In May of 2004, the City Council directed its Planning Staff to undertake a comprehensive analysis and revision of the General Plan beginning with the Land Use Element. Since that time, staff and the City's General Plan consultants, P&D Consultants, have been working to gather information and prepare development scenarios for consideration by the Planning Commission and City Council. P&D and City staff are at the stage where they are analyzing data for the development of recommendations for proposed development scenarios and land uses. These development scenarios include making recommendations about proposed land uses and building intensities for proposed land use designations. At the same time, City staff continues to receive zoning inquiries and application filings for certain land uses that have intense and unusual development and operating features. Currently the City has no specific development standards for these more intense and unusual uses. If such land uses were approved, they could be incompatible with the contemplated General Plan and zoning