HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 14514
City of Palo Alto (ID # 14514)
City Council Staff Report
Report Type: Action Items Meeting Date: 6/21/2022
City of Palo Alto Page 1
Summary Title: Firearms Dealership Emergency Ordinance
Title: Adoption of a Temporary Emergency Ordinance Requiring a Conditional
Use Permit to Establish a Firearms Dealer Retail Use. Environmental
Assessment: Exempt under CEQA Guidelines 15061(c)(3).
From: City Manager
Lead Department: Planning and Development Services
Recommendation:
Staff recommends that Council adopt a temporary emergency ordinance to require a
conditional use permit to establish a firearms dealership.
Background:
A firearms dealer is a person engaged in the business of selling, transferring, or leasing, or
advertising for, sale, transfer, or lease, or offering or exposing for sale, transfer, or lease, any
firearm. In Palo Alto, a firearms dealer is considered a retail land use and is allowed where retail
is permitted or conditionally permitted, subject to approval of a firearms permit from the Police
Chief. A firearms permit has several objective standards that if met, requires the issuance of a
permit. One criterion restricts firearm dealerships within 250 feet of zoning district where
housing is a principal use, daycare centers, schools, massage establishments and other land
uses. Based on these parameters, a firearms dealership could be established in certain areas of
the City. These locations are shown in Attachment A and includes portions of the Stanford
Research Park, which is not anticipated to be a likely location for such a land use.
Staff is bringing this policy discussion forward in part due to a recent inquiry received at the
public planning counter regarding permissible locations for a firearms dealership in the City. To
establish a firearms dealership, an individual would need to find a qualifying site (Attachment
A), identify an available building or tenant space and willing property owner to lease the
premises and obtain a firearms dealership permit from the Police department.
City of Palo Alto Page 2
In many surveyed bay area jurisdictions, a conditional use permit is required to establish a
firearms dealership. Palo Alto also requires a conditional use permit when retail is a conditional
use in a zoning district but would allow it by right where retail is a permitted land use. At
present, based on the location of various land uses highlighted above, the only available
properties that could accommodate a firearms dealership also require a conditional use permit.
However, this could change if certain land uses discontinue, such as a massage establishment,
altering the location of where a firearms dealership may be located.
Discussion:
Staff recommends that the City’s policy for firearms dealerships be consistent in requiring a
conditional use permit regardless of whether the underlying zoning would otherwise permit
retail by right.
Approval of the emergency ordinance requires four-fifths of the Council members present for
passage. If the Council supports staff’s recommendation to require a conditional use permit for
any firearms dealership and the recent public inquiry to locate such a facility in the City
warrants timely action, the City Council may adopt the subject ordinance. If adopted, the
ordinance would be initially effective for 45 days and could then be extended for a period of
time for staff to make the necessary changes to the municipal code.
Alternatively, the Council could direct staff to process an amendment through an interim
ordinance, which does not require a super majority, but does require two readings and a 30 day
referendum period before it takes effect. The Council could also determine that an amendment
is not necessary at this time.
Summary of Key Issues:
Firearms dealerships are considered retail uses in the City and are permitted by right where
retail uses are allowed or conditionally permitted where retail uses are conditionally permitted
(generally industrial/manufacturing/research districts). A variety of other requirements apply to
firearm dealerships set forth in Palo Alto Municipal Code Chapter 4.57.1
The location of where firearms dealerships may be located can change when certain land uses
are discontinued. Presently, a conditional use permit is required for firearms dealerships.
The proposed ordinance would require all firearms dealerships to obtain a conditional use
permit, even where retail is otherwise permitted.
Resource Impact:
1 https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/paloalto/latest/paloalto_ca/0-0-0-64381
City of Palo Alto Page 3
There are no significant resource impacts associated with this action.
Timeline:
If adopted, the temporary emergency ordinance will be effective for an initial period of 45 days,
after which it may be extended, in stages, for up to a total of two years. A permanent
ordinance may be adopted following a hearing before the Planning and Transportation
Commission.
Environmental Review:
Adoption of the attached ordinance is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15061(c)(3), because it can be seen with certainty
that there is no possibility of a significant adverse impact on the environment.
Attachments:
Attachment A: Firearms Dealerships Allowed Locations (June 2022) (PDF)
Attachment B: Ordinance Adopting a Requirement that Firearms Retail Service Uses Obtain a
Conditional Use Permit (PDF)
Alma Street
El Ca
mino Real
S and Hill R oad
Page Mill Road
Arastra d ero R o a d
San Antonio Road
Lytton Avenue
Hillview
A
ve
n
ue
Hamilton Avenue E m b arcad ero R o ad
Charleston Road
Arboretum Road
Quarry Road
Page Mill Road
Oregon Expressway
F
o
othill E
x
p
r
e
s
s
w
a
y
Foothill Expressway
Foothill Expressway
Stanford
Los Altos
Los Altos Hills
Mountain View
Stanford University
Menlo Park
East Palo Alto
Atherton
Portola Valley
This map is a product of City of Palo Alto GIS
[
0 0.850.425Miles
Firearms Business SitingMunicipal Code AnalysisScenario 2: Flexible Residential
Los Altos HillsPortola Valley
Los Altos
StanfordWoodside
Legend
Firearm Sales Permitted with CUP
Excluded Areas
Assessor Parcels
City Limit
£¤101
§¨¦280
§¨¦280
Rev: June 9, 2022
*NOT YET APPROVED*
0160079_20220609_ay16 1
Ordinance No. _____
Ordinance of the Council of the City of Palo Alto Adopting a Requirement that
Firearms Retail Service Uses Obtain a Conditional Use Permit
The Council of the City of Palo Alto ORDAINS as follows:
SECTION 1. Findings and Declarations. The City Council finds and declares as
follows:
A. Firearm injuries have a significant adverse impact on public health and
safety nationally, in the State of California, and locally.
B. Each year more than twenty-three thousand (23,000) United States
residents die by firearm suicide, fourteen thousand (14,000) die by firearm homicide,
and nearly five hundred (500) die from unintentional firearm injuries. In California,
between 2005 and 2015, nearly four thousand (4,000) children and teenagers were
killed or injured with firearms, and five hundred thirty-three (533) children and
teenagers committed suicide with firearms, according to data from the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention. Between 2010 and 2014 in Santa Clara County, thirty-
one percent (31%) of emergency department visits and sixteen percent (16%) of
hospitalizations from firearm injuries were due to unintentional shootings.
C. Between 2002 and 2015, over 350,000 firearms were sold in Santa Clara
County. Total gun sales have increased nationally since then. In 2020, the number of
firearm sales across the United States exceeded the previous year by nearly 64%.
D. Access to firearms has a significant impact on public peace, health and
safety. A 2014 review in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that access to firearms
within the home doubles the risk that family members will become a victim of homicide,
and triples the risk of suicide. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2020
found that handgun ownership is associated with eight (8) times greater likelihood for
firearm suicide among men, and thirty-five (35) times greater likelihood of firearm
suicide among women.
E. Firearm retailers provide a valuable service to individuals who wish to
legally purchase and possess firearms. At the same time, a firearm retailer increases
access to firearms around their retail location.
*NOT YET APPROVED*
0160079_20220609_ay16 2
F. Because increased access to firearms is associated with great risk to
public peace, health and safety, the City should carefully consider the impacts of any
firearm retail use. Requiring a firearm retailer to acquire a Conditional Use Permit, as
defined in Section 18.17.010 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code (Conditional Use Permit),
would allow the City to analyze the possible effect a firearm retail use may have on
public facilities or surrounding uses.
G. The City Council declares that this emergency ordinance is necessary as
an emergency measure to preserve the public peace, health and safety in order to
ensure that the City can thoroughly evaluate the effect that a new firearm retail service
land use would have on the public peace, health or safety in surrounding areas.
H. Through this Ordinance, the City Council desires to require entities
wishing to provide firearm retail services in the City of Palo Alto to obtain a Conditional
Use Permit.
SECTION 2. City Manager Authorization
The City Manager or his or her designee(s) may promulgate guidelines and implement
regulations regarding permits described in this Ordinance as long as such regulations do not
conflict with this Ordinance or the Palo Alto Municipal Code.
SECTION 3. Conditional Use Permits for Firearm Retail Service Uses
A. In addition to a Firearms Dealer permit pursuant to Chapter 4.57 of the
Palo Alto Municipal Code (Firearms Dealers), a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) is required
for the establishment or modification of any firearm retail service use in the City of Palo
Alto. Proposals to change the nature of a use to include firearm retail service shall be
subject to issuance of a CUP.
B. Section 18.17.010 (Conditional Use Permit (CUP)) and Chapter 18.76
(Processing of Permits and Approvals) shall govern the application process for CUPs
sought pursuant to this Ordinance.
SECTION 4. If any section, subsection, clause or phrase of this Ordinance is for
any reason held to be invalid, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portion
or sections of the Ordinance. The Council hereby declares that it should have adopted the
Ordinance and each section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase thereof irrespective of the
*NOT YET APPROVED*
0160079_20220609_ay16 3
fact that any one or more sections, subsections, sentences, clauses or phrases be declared
invalid.
SECTION 5. The Council finds that this project is exempt from the provisions
of the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”), pursuant to Section 15061 of the CEQA
Guidelines, because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the ordinance
will have a significant effect on the environment.
SECTION 6. This ordinance shall be effective immediately upon adoption by a
four-fifths vote of the City Council and shall expire on the 45th day after its adoption unless
extended by the City Council.
SECTION 7. This Ordinance shall not be codified.
INTRODUCED:
PASSED:
AYES:
NOES:
ABSENT:
ABSTENTIONS:
ATTEST:
____________________________ ____________________________
City Clerk Mayor
APPROVED AS TO FORM: APPROVED:
____________________________ ____________________________
Assistant City Attorney City Manager
____________________________
Director of Planning and
Development Services