§ 15.44.010. Purpose.

The people of the City of San Clemente find and declare as follows:

A.

The City has adopted a General Plan and City ordinances relating to the regulation of the residential development.

B.

The City is experiencing a period of residential development which is adversely affecting the capacity of the streets and local freeway system to meet traffic demands, the capacity of parking facilities in business, beach and other areas, the capacity of area schools to absorb children, the village by the sea character of the community, the quality of life prevalent in the City, its sphere of influence and the surrounding region, and the cost to households of some utilities and municipal services.

C.

It is the intent of the people of the City to achieve a steady, rather than a fluctuating, overly rapid, rate of residential growth each year in order that the services provided by City, school, park, utility and/or service agencies operating in the City and surrounding region can be properly and effectively staged in a manner which will not overextend existing facilities, and in order that deficient services may be brought up to required and necessary standards while minimizing, by means of long-range planning, the avoidable costs of short-sighted facility expansion.

D.

It is the intent of the people of the City to establish control over the quality, distribution and rate of growth of the City in the interest of:

1.

Preserving the character of the community;

2.

Protecting the open space of the City;

3.

Protecting the quality of life in the City;

4.

Ensuring the adequacy of City facilities, school facilities, recreation and park facilities, and services;

5.

Ensuring a balance of housing types and values in the City which will accommodate a variety of families including families of moderate income and older families on limited and/or fixed incomes;

6.

Ensuring the balanced development of the City;

7.

Preventing further significant deterioration in local air quality;

8.

Ensuring that the traffic demands do not exceed the capacity of streets that are in character with the City's semirural nature;

9.

Ensuring that the City does not grow in a pattern that places a severe strain on the local freeway system;

10.

Ensuring the adequacy of fire protection and police services;

11.

Ensuring adequate water and sanitary sewer system.

E.

It is the purpose of this chapter to augment the policies of the City as recorded in the General Plan and other City ordinances relating to the regulation of residential development.

F.

In order to accomplish this purpose, the City must be able to control the rate, distribution, quality and economic level of proposed development on a year-to-year basis. To this end, the residential development control system for the City codified in this chapter shall be in effect from and after the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter until December 31, 2006.

G.

It is further the intent of the people of the City that the award of development allocations pursuant to this chapter be accomplished, in accordance with the criteria set forth herein, fairly, impartially and without discrimination against any particular parcel of land or development project.

H.

It is the further intent of the people of the City that this chapter not affect the zoning or other land use approvals for a particular parcel of land or development project, but shall be a regulation of the timing, or rate, of development.

(Prior code § 38-1)