1. General Plan Consistency. This Ordinance’s amendments to Zoning Code (Title 15) of the Aliso Viejo Municipal Code are consistent with the City’s adopted General Plan for the reasons set forth below:
A. General Plan Land Use Policy LU-1.6 provides, among other things, that the City should support development of hotel land uses as a means to increase City revenues. This Ordinance regulates such uses by prohibiting operators thereof from allowing any person to register as an occupant for a period longer than 30 consecutive calendar days. Complying with this requirement will ensure that guests’ stays remain transient and do not circumvent the City’s transient occupancy tax requirements. Collectively, this is intended to maximize the availability of hotel rooms for transient visitors and ensure that the City continues to receive transient occupancy tax revenue. For these reasons, this Ordinance is consistent with General Plan Land Use Policy LU-1.6.
B. General Plan Implementation Program No. I-1, which directs the City to prepare, adopt, and implement a Zoning Ordinance consistent with State law to establish permitted densities, intensities, and uses within Aliso Viejo. This Ordinance amends the City’s Zoning Code to clarify that the only hotels, motels, and bed and breakfast inns permitted in the City are those that do not allow any person to register as an occupant for a period longer than 30 consecutive calendar days. Complying with this requirement will ensure that these lodging uses collect and remit transient occupancy tax to the City in accordance with State law (see Revenue and Taxation Code Section 7280(a).) For these reasons, this Ordinance is consistent with General Plan Implementation Program No. I-1.
2. Public Welfare. The City Council hereby finds that this Ordinance’s amendments to the Zoning Code (Title 15) will not create conditions materially detrimental to the public healt h, safety, and general welfare; the amendments simply regulate occupant registration at transitory lodgings.
SECTION 5 . Code Amendment . Section 3.06.045 is hereby added to Title 3 (Transient Occupancy Tax) of the Aliso Viejo Municipal Code and shall read in its entirety as follows:
“3.06.045 Transient Registration
It is unlawful for any operator of a hotel subject to the tax imposed by this chapter to register any person as an occupant for a period longer than 30 consecutive calendar days. Any person whose occupancy might otherwise exceed 30 consecutive calendar days shall be checked-out and re-registered by the operator every 30 days.”
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SECTION 6 . Code Amendment. Section 3.06.300 of Title 3 of the Aliso Viejo Municipal Code is hereby amended to read as follows (additions shown in underline and deletions shown in strikethrough):
“3.06.300 Violations – Misdemeanor
A. Any operator or other person who:
1. Knowingly or willfully fails or refuses to remit taxes due under this chapter to the tax administrator prior to the time of delinquency as specified in AVMC 3.06.060 through 3.06.080;
2. Who willfully fails or refuses to register as required;
3. Who willfully fails to furnish any return required to be made;
4. Who fails or refuses to furnish a supplemental return or other data required by the tax administrator; or
5. Who renders a false or fraudulent return; or or claim is guilty of a misdemeanor.
6. Who fails to check-out and re-register occupants in accordance with AVMC 3.06.045 is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by criminal fines corresponding to misdemeanor violations of this code and civil fines equal to the tax that would have applied to the occupancy in excess of 30 days.
B. Any person required to make, render, sign or verify any report or claim who does so with the intent to defeat or evade the determination of any amount due under this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor.”
SECTION 7. Code Amendment. The “Lodging Uses” rows in Table 15.18.020 of Section 15.18.020 of Title 15 (Zoning Code) of the Aliso Viejo Municipal Code are hereby amended to read as follows (additions shown in underline):
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“Table 15.18.020:
Permitted Uses in Nonresidential Districts
Land Use
CT
Town Center
Commercial
CC
Community
Commercial
CN
Neighborhood
Commercial
PO
Professional
Office
BP-1
Business
Park – 1
BP-2
Business
Park – 2
…
Lodging Uses:
Alcoholic beverage sales,
for on- or off-premises
consumption, subject to
AVMC 15.22.200
AUP AUP AUP AUP AUP AUP
Hotels and bed and
breakfast inns 1 C NP NP C C C
Motels 1 NP NP NP NP C C
1 Hotels, bed and breakfast inns, and motels that allow persons to register as occupants for periods longer than 30 consecutive calendar days are not permitted (NP) in any district.
Office, Retail and Service
Uses:
...”
SECTION 8 . Severability. If any provision of this Ordinance or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of the Ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this Ordinance are severable.
The City Council hereby declares that it would have adopted this Ordinance irrespective of the invalidity of any particular portion thereof.
SECTION 9. Effective Date . This Ordinance shall take effect 30 days after its adoption.
SECTION 10. Publication. The City Clerk shall certify as to the adoption of this Ordinance and shall cause a summary thereof to be published within 15 days of the adoption and shall post a certified copy of this Ordinance, including the vote for and against the same, in the Office of the City Clerk, in accordance with Government Code Section 36933.
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SECTION 11. Record of Proceedings. The documents and materials associated with this ordinance that constitute the record of proceedings on which these findings are based are located at Aliso Viejo City Hall, 12 Journey, Aliso Viejo, California 92656. The City Clerk is the custodian of the record of proceedings.
PASSED, APPROVED AND ADOPTEDthis ____ day of _________, 2022, by the City Council of the City of Aliso Viejo, California.
_____________________________________
Ross Chun, Mayor
APPROVED AS TO FORM: ATTEST:
_________________________ _____________________________________ Scott C. Smith, City Attorney Mitzi Ortiz, MMC, City Clerk 211
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STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF ORANGE ) ss.
CITY OF ALISO VIEJO )
I, MITZI ORTIZ, City Clerk of the City of Aliso Viejo, California, DO HEREBY CERTIFY that foregoing Ordinance No. 2022-___ was duly passed and adopted by the City Council of the City of Aliso Viejo at its regular meeting held on the ____day of _______, 2022, by the following roll call vote, to wit:
AYES:
NOES:
ABSENT:
ABSTAIN:
___________________________
MITZI ORTIZ, MMC
CITY CLERK
(SEAL)
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