75A - PH - AMEND ZONING ORD RELATED TO EMERGENCY SHELTER

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Zoning Ordinance Amendment No. 2013-01 July 22, 2013 Page 2 where emergency shelters would be allowed as a permitted use without a conditional use permit. The zoning that is identified is to be of a sufficient amount of acreage and sites to accommodate the unmet needs of local homeless persons. However, the statute gave local jurisdictions the ability to establish certain operational and development standards for emergency shelters. In addition, SB2 requires that transitional housing and supportive housing be considered a residential use in City codes, and subject only to those restrictions that apply to other residential dwellings in the same zone. The City's General Plan Housing Element was adopted in 2009, and included Policy Program No. 47 to "create an overlay zone in the M-1 Light Industrial zone and select commercial zones that encompass underutilized sites, with adequate access to transit, public services, and support services". Over a period of several months staff has researched and reviewed other adopted SB2 ordinances by a range of cities in Orange County and surrounding communities, held workshops and conducted interviews with emergency shelter providers, as well as toured a number of emergency shelters and transitional housing facilities. Staff also held three Homeless Service Provider Stakeholder meetings, as well as Industrial Property Stakeholder forum to discuss the draft ordinance and understand public concerns. Working with the service providers and touring existing facilities helped to further refine the site location criteria. Factors such as proximity to transit, distance from sensitive uses, and the availability of land and suitable facilities pointed to industrially-zoned properties as the most suitable areas to allow for the introduction of emergency shelters. Project Analysis The proposed amendment to the Zoning Code will bring the City into compliance with State Law outlined in SB2, as well as allow Santa Ana to quality for expedited review of the City's new Housing Element. City staff is in the process of updating the Housing Element, which is due to the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) by the end of October 2013. Prior to adoption of the Housing Element Update, the City must demonstrate compliance with SB2 requirements as included in the amended Sections 65582, 65583, and 65589.5 of the Government Code. This code amendment is one of the actions that must be completed for the City to quality for an expedited review process and an eight-year review cycle rather than four years. The proposed amendment to the Zoning Code is in response to the provisions of SB2, which requires local jurisdictions to identify one or more zones that allow emergency shelters as a permitted use. The zoning that is identified must include a sufficient amount of acreage and sites to accommodate the unmet need for the shelter of homeless people in Santa Ana. One key source of information for Orange County's homeless population is the biennial Point-in-Time Count and Survey. Every other January, communities across the United States conduct comprehensive counts of their homeless population. The County of Orange conducted its most recent homeless census in January 2013, though results are not yet available. The study used for the purposes of estimating 75A-4