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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-12-12 - AGENDA REPORTS - SC HOMELESS SHELTER (2)CITY OF SANTA CLARITA AGENDA REPORT City Manager Approval Item to be presented by Vince Bertoni PUBLIC HEARING DATE: December 12, 2000 SUBJECT: SANTA CLARITA HOMELESS SHELTER DEPARTMENT: Planning and Building Services RECOMMENDED ACTION City Council open public hearing, receive the staff report, and any public testimony, close the Public hearing, and adopt a Resolution approving Master Case 00-339 which consists of Conditional Use Permit No. 00-016 and adopting the Negative Declaration for the project, thereby denying the appeal and affirming the Planning Commission's approval of the project. BACKGROUND The Santa Clarita Community Development Corporation (SCCDC), which operates the Santa Clarita Homeless Shelter filed an application for a conditional use permit' with the Planning and Building Services Department on September 18, 2000. The request is to allow for a homeless shelter in an existing building. The Santa Clarita Homeless Shelter originally started in 1997 as an "El Nino Shelter" that was located in a City owned building at the City's Sport's Complex. The El Nino Shelter housed approximately 8 to 10 persons a night and reached up to 38 persons a night when the weather became more severe. When El Nino was over the shelter was renamed the Santa Clarita Homeless Shelter and operated as such during the winters of 1998-99 and 1999-2000. During these winters, nightly shelter occupancy averaged between 20-25 persons and expanded their services involving more volunteers and local businesses and service organizations. After the 1999-2000 winter season the City needed the building where the shelter was located for the new City Community Center. Thus, the Santa Clarita Homeless Shelter needed to relocate and find a new building in the City. In September of 1999 the SCCDC was awarded a two-year grant by the Los Angeles Homeless Shelter Authority (LAHSA) to help finance a new location, however, SCCDC will lose the grant if they don't receive an approval at the December 12, 2000 City Council meeting. Ag ndu Itenif In September of this year, the Santa Clarita Community Development Corporation (SCCDC) eventually found a site for the homeless shelter on the southeast corner of Sierra Highway and Sierra Cross Avenue in an existing building. However, prior to moving in, the SCCDC is required to obtain an approved conditional use permit for the homeless shelter usefrom the Planning Commission. They have stated that if they don't receive an approval at the December 12, City Council meeting, the homeless shelter will not be able to open this winter year. 2000 PLANNING COMMISSION APPROVAL The Planning Commission conducted a public hearing on November 8, 2000, and approved the conditional use permit. The approval was on a 3-1 vote with one commissioner absent, and consisted of a number of additional conditions that included a requirement that the Planning Commission review the conditional use permit within six months of the certificate of occupancy and to ensure that all the rules, policies, and conditions are being complied with. APPEAL OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION'S APPROVAL An adjacent property owner appealed the Planning Commission's decision to approve the project on November 9, 2000, stating that there is inadequate parking and septic systems on site. These issues are addressed within the parking and septic system sections of the agenda report. In addition, the appealing property owner inquired as to whether there are other shelter's that are located in a similar shopping center and if the shelter and City looked at alternative locations. Staff conducted limited research and found there are no similar situations where a shelter was located in a similar shopping center. However, with the Planning Commission's conditions and the shelter's operation procedures and off -hours, staff believes there will be no conflicts between the retail and shelter. The City worked with the Homeless Shelter for alternative locations. The City did extensive research for a location on Drayton Street, but ultimately determined that the location would cost thousands of dollars to build a shelter there. The shelter has stated that they have been extensively looking for sites the past couple of years and finally found this location. PROJECT DESCRIPTION The project site is located within the Canyon Country community of the City. The site consists of a 20,000 square foot commercial shopping center which includes one building and parking lot. The Santa Clarita Community Development Corporation is requesting to occupy 3,300 of the 20,000 square feet of building space for the Santa Clarita Homeless Shelter. The space would include a kitchen facility, bathrooms, office space, dining facilities, and approximately 38 beds for men and women. The rooms for the men and women will be separated by a wall and a door to ensure the safety and privacy of all persons in the shelter. In addition, all clients must be photographed and signed in to be allowed into the shelter. The shelter would operate all year and open each night at 6:00 p.m. and close each morning at 8:30 a.m. All clients of the shelter would be required to leave the shelter no later than 8:00 a.m, every morning. All overnight clients must be at least 18 years old. No one under the age of 18 may spend the night in the shelter as a client. Clients may bring their children to spend the night with them, but these children must be under close supervision of the parent and must be at least 15 years old. The opening work crew would arrive at the shelter at 5:45 p.m. and consist of one staff member and two volunteers. All overnight crew members would consist of at least one man and one woman as a result of the shelter open to both men and women. ALY UI Land Use The proposed project site is in the Community Commercial zone that permits a variety of retail and service uses of a community wide nature. The zone also permits numerous other uses with discretionary permits. A homeless shelter use is one of the uses that are required to obtain an approved conditional use permit in the CC zone because of potential compatibility issues with commercial or residential surrounding property owners and tenants. The shopping center's tenants consist of an auto parts store, a pet store, a horse specialty store, an art gallery, and restaurant/bar. The hours of operation of the tenants are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. with the exception of the pet store's grooming hours, art gallery and trail restaurant/bar store's grooming hours start at 7 a.m. in the morning. The art gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 7 P.m. . The pet Monday thru Friday and 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The restaurant/bar is open from 11:00 a.m. to 2 a.m. everyday. The Shelter's hours are from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. which results in a one hour overlap in the morning with the pet store's grooming hours, a one hour overlap with the art gallery and a six hour overlap with restaurant/bar in the evening. Thus, the hours of operation will not conflict with the retail hours or create any conflicts with the restaurant/bar with the incorporated conditions of approval. The Shelter will also be required to comply with the "Operations Procedures" which addresses any concerns the adjacent businesses have regarding loitering or panhandling. The Shelter would be r s parki required to have two volunteer members to observe the parking lot and the neighbong lot to the south to ensure none of the homeless clients are loitering or panhandling. The volunteers will watch the area from 6:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. and from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. to ensure this type of activity does not occur. This program was in place at the previous shelter location and worked very well according to the Sheriffs Department. Parking The 20,000 square foot shopping center consists of 63 parking spaces. The center was built under Los Angeles County that required a parking ratio of 1 parking space for every 400 square feet of retail/office space which results in 50 required parking spaces for this center. Thus, the center has an overflow of 13 parking spaces. The homeless shelter is required to be parked at 1 parking space for every 2 beds for a total Parking requirement of 19 spaces. The 3,300 square foot space includes 8 parking spaces, thus the Homeless Shelter would be allocated 11 of the 13 overflow spaces. The remaining two overflow parking spaces would be allocated to the restaurant/bar. Staff believes parking will not be an issue as a result of the shelter open when all the retail business will be closed with the exception of the one hour overlap with the art gallery. The adjacent property owner that appealed the Planning Commission's decision stated in his letter that the shopping center is not a stand alone 20,000 square foot shopping center and is divided into separate lots, thus the homeless shelter would not meet the parking requirements. Even in this case the shelter would still meet the requirements of the code. The shopping center is divided into six separate lots with 3 different owners that share three different driveways within the entire shopping center. The project site is located within the three northern lots of the shopping center which are owned by one property owner. The remaining southern lots of the center are owned by two different property owners. The three northern lots consist of 9,720 square feet of building which is required to provide 24 Parking spaces. The three lots provide a total of 35 parking spaces (11 of the 36 are overflow parking) that would allow the shelter's 38 person occupancy level. There is additional parallel parking on the three lots between the roadway and angled spaces that are not counted in rhos. totals. Notification Staff noticed all property owners within 500' of the project site for both the Planning Commission and City Council meetings. A sign was posted on the property facing Sierra Highway advertising the Shelter for both of the meetings. In addition, staff notified by mail all the surrounding businesses including the auto repair shop across the street and noticed in writing all of the citizens who spoke and left their address on the Planning Commission speaker slips. Staff has received 8 letters and a petition with 253 signatures in opposition of the homeless shelter and a few phone calls that expressed their concerns for the shelter. The letters and petition are in the City Council reading file. In addition, staff has received 1,215 form letters in favor of the homeless shelter. One of the form letters is included in your packet. Septic System The applicant hired Mark Peterson of Myers Pumping to research the septic system. The septic report concluded that there are two septic systems located in front of the auto parts store and the space south of the project site. Each are located approximately 12 feet in front of the building and in the parking lot. The report also stated that the parking lot asphalt will need to be removed in order to clean and pump the septic tanks. In addition, the applicant will be required to comply with all of the Los Angeles County Health Department requirements. The applicant will need to comply with all of the Health Department requirements that may include constructing a pump line to the septic tanks that would enable the tanks to be pumped without removing the asphalt. Staff contacted a representative at the Los Angeles County Health Department which stated they would not issue any permits until the Homeless Shelter complies with all of the health codes. Sheriffs Department Staff contacted the Sheriffs Department to ensure that the shelter's location was reasonable. The Sheriffs Department stated that the location is well within their patrol limits of the City. In addition, they stated that SCCDC runs an efficient shelter and that there was no major incidents at the shelter's previous location which was next to the Sports Complex and skateboard park. They went further to say that prior to the City having a homeless shelter, the officer's would have to bring the homeless to the Sheriff station's waiting area because there was no where to take the men, women, and children who need a place to stay overnight. The Sheriffs Department kept track of any crimes or arrests related to the operation of the Homeless Shelter next to the City's Sports Complex when it was in operation from December 1999 to March 2000. The log that was kept during this period showed that not a single crime was reported at the Homeless Shelter location itself with the exception of one crime in the neighboring Parking lot that involved a drunk driving arrest. After being arrested and let out the man did not have a vehicle to drive home in resulting in him staying at the homeless shelter for a night. In addition, two people were cited for those alcohol related violations that stated they were on their way to the homeless shelter. Included in the log, the Sheriffs Department kept a list (included in your packet) of anyone arrested or suspected in a crime, during the time span in which the Homeless Shelter was operating, who stated they either were or had been a guest at the shelter. The Sheriffs Department stated in the letter which is included in your packet that there is no way to prove the majority of these crimes occurred in Santa Clarita as a result of the shelter's existence, nor that the crimes would not have happened anyway. Some of the people arrested were already known to the Sheriffs Department from prior contacts. FISCAL IMPACT No fiscal impact with this item. However, the SCCDC has not provided staff with information concerning on going funding for a year-round shelter as proposed. The funding of homeless shelters is traditionally a County responsibility. Greater needs in other County areas limits the availability of grant opportunities for the Santa Clarita Valley. ALTERNATIVE ACTION 1. Direct staff to return to the City Council with a resolution denying Master Case 00-339 which consists of Conditional Use Permit No. 00-016 and the Negative Declaration for the project. 2. Deny Master Case No. 00-339 which consists of Conditional Use Permit No. 00-016 and direct staff to work with the applicant regarding "transitional housing' needs as identified in the City's 2000-2003 CDBG Consolidated Plan and augment the existing homeless voucher program to meet Winter shelter needs. 3. Other action as determined by the Council. ATTACHMENTS City Council Resolution (Conditions of Approval) Shelter Operations Procedures Site Plan/Floor Plan/Vicinity Map/Aerial Map Appeal Letter Memo from Sheriffs Department (includes crimes that have occurred in City) Planning Commission Resolution (reading file) Planning Commission Staff Report (reading file) Planning Commission Minutes (reading file) (253) Signed Opposition Petition and S Opposition letters (reading file) Example of (1,215 Submitted) Form letters in favor of the Homeless Shelter (reading file) Negative Declaration and Initial (reading file) pbs\current\1997\97143\arhomeless