City Council Meeting: September 24, 2024 Santa Monica, California ORDINANCE NUMBER _________ (CCS)
(City Council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA AMENDING MUNICIPAL CODE SECTION 4.08.095 PROHIBITION AGAINST
CAMPING IN PUBLIC PLACES
WHEREAS, in 2022, the City of Santa Monica amended Municipal Code Section
4.08.095 to comply with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Johnson v. City of Grants Pass, which required public entities to allow the homeless to sleep on public property, with certain conditions and exceptions; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Supreme Court recently reversed the Ninth Circuit ruling, and held that regulation of sleeping/camping in public should largely be deferred to local jurisdictions; and
WHEREAS, the Council desires to amend the Municipal Code to repeal the amendments made in 2022.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 4.08.095 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code is hereby amended as follows:
4.08.095 Prohibition against camping in public places.
(a) No person shall camp in a prohibited public place.
(b) For the purpose of this Section:
(1) “Camp” means to erect, maintain, or occupy a camp facility for the purpose of living accommodations.
(2) “Camp facility” means the use of, settling, fixing in place, setting up, locating, or leaving behind in a prohibited public place any or a combination of the following: tents, huts, other temporary physical shelters, cots, beds, sleeping bags, hammocks, or bedrolls.
(3) “Prohibited public place” means any of the following: the public parks listed in Section 4.55.020, public beaches, the Santa Monica Municipal Pier, public streets, public alleyways, public parking lots, public passageways, public rights-of-way, publicly-owned landscaped areas or greenbelts, public educational institutions including properties owned by the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District or Santa Monica College, or other government-owned properties located within the City of Santa Monica.
(c) The City Council may, by majority vote, establish one or more specified camping areas. Such camping areas, if any, may be located in prohibited public places, except that such camping areas shall not be located within public parks.
SECTION 2. Any provision of the Santa Monica Municipal Code or appendices thereto inconsistent with the provisions of this Ordinance, to the extent of such inconsistencies and no further, are hereby repealed or modified to that extent necessary to effect the provisions of this Ordinance.
SECTION 3. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed this Ordinance and each and every section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase not
declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any portion of the ordinance would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional.
SECTION 4. The Mayor shall sign and the City Clerk shall attest to the passage of this Ordinance. The City Clerk shall cause the same to be published once in the official newspaper within 15 days after its adoption. This Ordinance shall become effective 30 days from its adoption.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
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Douglas Sloan, City Attorney