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Sunshine Ordinance <br />November 16, 2021 <br />Page 2 <br />2 <br />2 <br />4 <br />6 <br />Staff assessed each proposal to determine the feasibility of their implementation. An <br />overview of each proposal, including the budgetary aspects and benefits of the proposed <br />provisions, was presented to the City Council on July 20, 2021. Based upon feedback <br />and direction from the City Council, staff recommends proceeding with the following four <br />changes to the Sunshine Ordinance: (1) expand the number of community meetings for <br />certain development projects from one to two; (2) increase the radius of distributing <br />noticing of said community meetings from 500 feet of the subject property to 1,000 feet; <br />(3) implementing a Lobbyist Disclosure Policy; and (4) revise the timeline to publish City <br />Council meeting agendas from four days to seven days. Below is a summary of those <br />proposed changes. <br />Expand the Number of Community Meetings for Certain Development Projects from One <br />to Two <br />In its current form, the Sunshine Ordinance imposes community meeting requirements <br />for the following types of development projects: (1) City-sponsored development projects; <br />(2) new residential projects containing 25 or more units with exceptions; (3) new non- <br />residential projects of 10,000 square feet or more and which are subject to a negative <br />declaration, mitigated negative declaration or environmental impact report; and (4) <br />development projects requiring a zone change, Specific Plan amendment, or General <br />Plan amendment. The community meeting requirement relating to the number of <br />meetings is summarized as follows: the development project applicant shall hold one <br />community meeting no later than 20 days after submittal of an application for <br />administrative site plan review. <br />At the direction of the City Council, staff has prepared an ordinance amending this <br />community meetings provision to require two community meetings (as opposed to the <br />existing requirement to hold one community meeting). As proposed, the first community <br />meeting would be required to be held within 20 days of submittal of an application for <br />development project review, followed by an optional second community meeting no <br />earlier than ten days prior to the development project being resubmitted by the <br />development project applicant to the City after receipt of comments resulting from the <br />City’s development project review. Staff asserts that it is rare that applications submitted <br />for development project review are complete upon their first submittal and therefore it is <br />rare that a developer project applicant does not receive comments from City staff to <br />consider for resubmitting an application for development project review. Accordingly, it is <br />rare that a developer project applicant will not be required to hold a second community <br />meeting in conformance with the proposed changes to the Sunshine Ordinance. The <br />City’s cost associated with requiring two community meeting varies, and principally <br />includes the staff time associated with providing information and support to the <br />development project applicant so that the development project applicant may host the <br />meetings in compliance with the Sunshine Ordinance. Funding to support the staffing <br />requirements for these types of meetings are supported by existing personnel budgets