Fremont City Council Meeting: 12/17/24 07:00 PM
3300 Capitol Avenue Div/Dept: City Manager's Office
Fremont, CA 94538 Category: Code Adoptions & Amendments
SCHEDULED
Sponsors:
COUNCIL STAFF REPORT (ID # 5308) DOC ID: 5308
Updated: 12/13/2024 8:47 AM by Dina Lewis Page 1
CITYWIDE CAMPING BAN ON PUBLIC PROPERTY ORDINANCE - Introduce an Ordinance Adding Chapter 8.90 to the Fremont Municipal Code Banning Camping on Public Property and find that the adoption of the ordinance is exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) per CEQA Guidelines Sections 15304, 15307, 15308, 15061, and 15183.
Contact Persons:
Name: Allen DeMers Sean Washington
Title: Deputy City Manager Police Chief
Div/Dept: City Manager's Office Police Department
Phone: 510-494-4651 510-790-6969
E-Mail: [email protected] [email protected]
Executive Summary: This staff report presents changes to the Fremont Municipal Code intended to implement a general camping ban in the City of Fremont. The draft language would ban camping and storage of personal belongings on public land and on private land without the consent of the property owner. The new municipal code language would provide City staff with additional authority to disband individual encampments.
BACKGROUND: On April 2, 2024, the City Council directed staff to prioritize large vehicle parking enforcement near schools (where Safe Routes to Schools have been established) in an effort to reduce or eliminate negative impacts generated in part by vehicle encampments in such areas. Staff have since implemented those restrictions in Safe Route corridors near Hirsch Elementary and Horner Middle schools.
On May 21, 2024, the Fremont City Council adopted the City’s first Homelessness Response Plan (HRP) which guides the development of policies, investments, and actions over the next five years to address homelessness in Fremont. The plan focuses on investing in prevention programs and scaling up housing resources to address the root causes of homelessness and reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness. The HRP acknowledges that enforcement, in and of itself, does not resolve individual instances of homelessness. Mitigation strategies in the HRP include a commitment to refining encampment response, inclusive of pairing service options with any additional regulations .
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the City of Grants Pass case, issued on June 28, 2024, centered around a local jurisdiction’s ability to enforce a ban on public camping when sufficient shelter for unhoused individuals is not available. The ruling reversed a Ninth Circuit decision that prohibited local restrictions on public camping as unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment, unless the person was provided access to adequate temporary shelter. This ruling allows local jurisdictions greater latitude to enforce anti-camping rules even when alternative shelter is not offered to the unhoused individual.
On July 25, 2024, the State of California’s Governor issued an executive order to State agencies regarding encampment removal that, while not directive or binding to local agencies, provides further guidance and models for assessing where and when encampment Council Staff Report (ID # 5308) Meeting of December 17, 2024 Updated: 12/13/2024 8:47 AM by Dina Lewis Page 2
intervention should be prioritized and implemented. The executive order’s guidance is extremely high level, but generally encourages a high level of intervention across the State of California in high priority areas.
On November 12, 2024, the City Council adopted language revising two parking regulation codes intended to make enforcement of existing rules prohibiting long term street parking more effective and to prohibit the parking of large vehicles in residential areas under most circumstances. The new parking enforcement rules will go into effect in mid-December 2024.
DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS: This staff report presents municipal code language responsive to the City Council’s request to consider a general camping ban in the City of Fremont.
The City of Fremont currently prohibits camping on certain types of City-owned properties, such as in City parks. The proposed ordinance is attached to this staff report in its entirety.
The most significant elements of the proposed code amendments are summarized as follows:
• Prohibits camping and storage of personal property on public land, including any street, sidewalk, City building, park, open space, waterway, or banks of a waterway. • Creates explicit enforcement authority for abatement of personal property left on public property for 24 hours.
Staff will seek voluntary compliance with the new code sections in a manner consistent with our approach to similar related violations (such as in the case of violations of camping ordinances now in place in City of Fremont Parks). Violations of this code that cannot be resolved via warning and voluntary compliance would be treated as a misdemeanor.
Immediate Prioritization and Service Delivery
In the absence of sufficient resources to address all known encampments and public complaints, staff will seek to prioritize enforcement at locations that most substantially violate the City of Fremont’s encampment condition guidelines. This is the same strategy that staff will employ to implement recently approved municipal code revisions regarding parking enforcement in which demand for enforcement will exceed capacity in the immediate future.
If the Council determines that it will move forward with an anti-camping ordinance, staff would seek to reallocate and/or enhance associated services required to successfully implement the camping ban over time, including allocation of resources as described in the HRP intended to prevent and reduce homelessness. An initial review of potential expense s and unmet needs that would be generated by implementing a citywide camping ban indicates that the City would need to consider allocating in excess of one million dollars in ongoing funding to address:
• Law enforcement via the addition or reassignment of community service officers and police officers to respond to encampment complaints.
• Waste management via the allocation of funding to supplement existing waste mitigation and encampment clean-up activities.
Council Staff Report (ID # 5308) Meeting of December 17, 2024 Updated: 12/13/2024 8:47 AM by Dina Lewis Page 3
• Outreach and engagement services in the form of additional Human Services staff and non-sworn MET Team funding (as recommended by the City’s Homelessness Response Plan).
Coordination with City of Fremont Homelessness Response Plan Subject matter experts advise that enforcement activity (such as a camping ban) will not in and of itself reduce the overall number of homeless people in the City of Fremont.
Encampments that are disbanded without an offer of alternative shelter will likely cause unhoused individuals to relocate nearby, potentially resolving concerns in one area of the City while generating new concerns at the relocation destination.
The City of Fremont’s Homelessness Response Plan details the inverse relationship between costs associated with homelessness resolution and prevention and those associated with mitigation. The adoption of a camping ordinance would provide the City’s enforcement staff with additional authority to respond to specific encampment complaints but is not expected to reduce overall homelessness in the City of Fremont without corresponding investment as outlined within the City Council’s adopted Homelessness Response five-year plan.
Encampment interventions that are accompanied by an offer of alternative shelter will be more effective and will lead to better community outcomes than encampment interventions that are not accompanied by the offer of alternative shelter.
FISCAL IMPACT: There is no immediate corresponding cost to this municipal code revision.
Intermediate and long-term expenses required to enhance encampment enforcement as described by this staff report will be considered in association with the conventional budgeting process and, as with costs associated with the Homelessness Response Plan, will be likely be implemented over the course of several fiscal years.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: This project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), without limitation, each on a separate and independent basis, pursuant to the following sections of Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations and no further environmental review is required: (1) the California Environmental Quality Act ( CEQA) Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3), in that the ordinance does not have the potential to cause a significant effect on the environment, and is not subject to CEQA review; (2) CEQA Guidelines 15183, Projects Consistent with a Community Plan or Zoning, as the ordinance is consistent with the land use envisioned for the site as established by the General Plan for which an Environmental Impact Report (SCH#2010082060) was previously prepared and certified, and CEQA Guidelines Sections 15162 and 15163, as none of the circumstances requiring preparation of a subsequent or supplemental EIR have occurred; (3) CEQA Guidelines Sections 15304 as this ordinance is an action by the City that may result in a minor alteration to land, water, and/or vegetation; and (4) CEQA Guidelines Sections 15307 and 15308 as this ordinance is an action by the City for the protection of birds and other wildlife and the environment in City public lands, parks and waterways.
ATTACHMENTS:
• 2024.12.17 - Draft Ordinance, Camping Prohibition (Final)
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Waive the first reading and introduce the attached ordinance adding Chapter 8.90 to the Fremont Municipal Code.
Council Staff Report (ID # 5308) Meeting of December 17, 2024 Updated: 12/13/2024 8:47 AM by Dina Lewis Page 4
2. Direct the City Attorney to draft an ordinance summary and the City Clerk to post and publish the ordinance summary in accordance with Government Code Section 36933(c)(1).
3. Find that adoption of the ordinance is exempt from and not subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because, without limitation, it is not a “project” as defined in CEQA Guidelines Section 15378(b)(2) and/or 15378(b)(5) as it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity may have a significant effect on the environment per CEQA Guidelines Section 15601(b)(3). Find that the project is exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), each as a separate and independent basis, per Section 15304 as this ordinance is an action by the City that may result in a minor alteration to land, water, and/or vegetation; Section 15307 and 15308 as this ordinance is an action by the City for the protection of birds and other wildlife and the environment in City parks and waterways; and Section 15183, as the ordinance is consistent with the land use envisioned for the site as established by the General Plan, each as a separate and independent basis for CEQA compliance.