City of Grass Valley City Council and Redevelopment Agency Agenda Action Sheet

Transcription

1 City of Grass Valley City Council and Redevelopment Agency Agenda Action Sheet Council Meeting Date: May 12, 2009 Date Prepared: April 30, 2009 Prepared by: Tony Clarabut, Fire Chief Title: Approval of an Ordinance Prohibiting the Possession, Use and/or Sale of Fireworks within the City of Grass Valley. Agenda: Public Hearing Recommended Action: That the City Council: 1) review the proposed ordinance repealing all sections of Title 8, Chapter 8.44 Fireworks and adding a new Section Fireworks- Prohibition; 2) conduct a public hearing; 3) waive the reading in its entirety and read by title only (requires unanimous voice vote); 3) introduce an ordinance amending Title 8, Chapter 8.44 Fireworks, adding Section Fireworks - Prohibition Background Information: See Attached Staff Report Funds Available: N/A Account #: Reviewed by: City Administrator Action: Approved Approved with Modifications Denied Other Attachments: Staff Report Re: Fireworks - Prohibition Draft Ordinance Municipal Code Proposed for Repeal

2 City of Grass Valley Memo To: Mayor Swarthout and Members of the Council From: Tony Clarabut, Fire Chief Date: April 30, 2009 Re: Staff Report Fireworks Sales Summary For many years the City of Grass Valley municipal code has allowed the sale and discharge of safe and sane fireworks within the city limits during the July 4 th holiday period. The City of Nevada City has similarly allowed the sale and use of fireworks. Since 1977 the County of Nevada however has prohibited the possession, use, and sale of fireworks. The only other municipality within the county, Truckee, also prohibits their use. The Nevada County and Truckee prohibitions are based upon the potential for wildand fires to be caused by the careless use of fireworks. Sales records indicate that over two-thirds of the fireworks sold by Grass Valley vendors are sold to non-residents and one half of those are purchased by residents of unincorporated Nevada County. The discharge of fireworks within the unincorporated portions of the County historically has been a source of significant public concern, the cause of significant public expense incurred by fire and law enforcement agencies responding to complaints and fires and the source of 12 fires for the five years ending in Background The manufacture, classification and, in part, sales of safe and sane fireworks are regulated by the California State Fire Marshal under Health and Safety Code (H&SC) et. seq. While the Code allows for the sale of safe and sane fireworks throughout California, it also allows local jurisdictions to prohibit or otherwise regulate the sale based upon local conditions. It is under section H&SC that the County of Nevada has chosen to prohibit the use of fireworks and that the City of Grass Valley has chosen to regulate how they are sold, the hours of use, and to restrict locations where they may be used. Like Nevada County, all surrounding foothill counties, except Yuba, have chosen to ban the use of safe and sane fireworks. Those counties are Plumas, Butte, Sierra, Placer, Alpine, El Dorado, and Amador. And within this seven county region, only five cities within their foothill or mountain portions still allow the sale and use of fireworks. Those are Grass Valley and Nevada City in Nevada County and Ione, Jackson and Sutter Creek in Amador County.

3 Since the inception of the fireworks ban in unincorporated Nevada County it has been the belief of fire officials that fireworks sold in Grass Valley and Nevada City have been the source of the persistent fireworks law violations in the county. This belief has been verified though the collection of purchaser information. These sales records indicate while 34% of the fireworks sold in Grass Valley are to Grass Valley residents, and 8% are to Nevada City residents, fully 36% are sold to unincorporated Nevada County residents. (The remaining 22% are sold to individuals with addresses outside of the county.) Many of the purchasers from outside the city do return to the city to use their fireworks during approved times and in approved locations, but the problem of the fireworks being used in the high fire risk areas within the county still persists. Acknowledging the adverse impacts of fireworks sold in the cities and used in the county, in 2004/2005 an ad hoc committee of council members from both Grass Valley and Nevada City was established to prepare an Analysis of Potentially Banning Fireworks. In Grass Valley this effort did not result in a complete prohibition but did result in further limitations being placed on the number of days fireworks could be sold, additional restrictions on when and where, in the city, that fireworks could be used, and a requirement that vendors log the address of each purchaser. In 2008, with the observation that the code changes of 2005 did not result in any appreciable changes in the problem of fireworks sold in Grass Valley being used in the unincorporated county area, the City Council directed the fire chief to conduct a fireworks policy review. Options presented at the conclusion of the review included; continue under the current set of codes, ban the use of safe and sane fireworks completely, or continue to initially approve the sale and use of fireworks, but make them subject to cancellation based on fire conditions closer to July 4 th. The fire chief s final recommendation was to sell fireworks only to residents of the city. Ultimately the City council chose not to restrict sales, but to impose further requirements on vendors generally having to greater education of the purchaser. In late June of 2008 the City Council endorsed an action by the fire chief that placed a one time ban on the sale and use of fireworks based on the fire conditions at the time. The sale of fire works within the city is regulated by the municipal code which requires vendors to have non-profit status and limits the total number of vendors to nine. In the most recent past vendor groups have included youth music boosters, church youth groups and a 4-H club. While some of these organizations have found other funding sources to replace funds lost in last years temporary ban, others have not. Total proceeds from sales in 2007 were estimated at $68,000. Problem Statement The City of Grass Valley of Grass Valley is surrounded by forest and brush covered lands that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has designated to be in a very high fire hazard severity zone. This means that each summer, environmental factors, such as vegetative fuel loading, weather and topography combine to create a setting that is conducive to a catastrophic wildland fire. Compounding the problem is the fact that within these lands are thousands of homes in which tens of thousands of people live. Given the extent that both the homes and people are at risk, fire agencies expend significant effort on fire prevention attempting to prevent that one fire that may become a major fire. While statistics show that irresponsible use of fireworks does not cause a high percentage of the wildland fires, we know they do cause fires (12 in the five year period from 2003 to 2007) and there is no assurance that

4 the next fire, from whatever source, will not exceed the capabilities of the fire services and reach catastrophic proportions. In spite of efforts in 2005 to contain the use of fireworks to the City of Grass Valley through code changes, there is still persistent possession and use of fireworks in the unincorporated Nevada County. The temporary ban imposed in 2008 confirms that Grass Valley is in large part the source of illegal fireworks used in the unincorporated area of the county, as indicated by statistics which show that the average number of fireworks complaints were down from an average of 26.5 complaints per year in Consolidated Fire District to seven complaints in 2008, the year of the temporary ban. Recommendation Because of the risk of catastrophic fire resulting from the irresponsible and reckless use of fireworks in the unincorporated areas of Nevada County and the knowledge that the primary source of fireworks used in the County are the vendors in the City of Grass Valley as well as that reasonable prior attempts have failed to educate all purchasers that the possession and use of fireworks in the county area is illegal and risky, it is recommended that the City Council approve the proposed ordinance prohibiting the possession, sale and use of fireworks within the City of Grass Valley.

5 ORDINANCE NO. AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GRASS VALLEY AMENDING TITLE 8, CHAPTER 8.44 PERTANING TO FIREWORKS. BE IT ORDAINED BY the City Council of the City of Grass Valley as follows: Section 1. All existing sections of Title 8, Chapter 8.44 Fireworks, of the Grass Valley Municipal Code are repealed. Section 2. Title 8 Chapter 8.44 Fireworks, of the Grass Valley Municipal Code is added to read as follows: Title 8 Chapter 8.44 Fireworks Sections: Fireworks Prohibition Section Fireworks Prohibition. Every person, firm, or corporation is prohibited from using, selling, discharging, or possessing any fireworks as defined in Section of the Health and Safety Code of the State of California within the territory of the City of Grass Valley. This provision shall not apply to Pyrotechnic Operators licensed by the State of California engaged in the preparations for or performance of a public fireworks display, providing that the Operator possess any applicable city permits regulating the use, discharge or possession of fireworks, nor shall it apply to the use of exempt fireworks, as defined by Section of the Health and Safety Code of the Sate of California, when authorized by a permit(s) granted by the city. Section 3. Severability. 1. If any section, subsection, clause, phrase, or portion of this ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by the decision of any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance. 2. The City Council may adopt such additional rules and regulations governing fireworks as deemed appropriate. Section 4. Effective Date. This Ordinance shall become effective thirty (30) days after its adoption.

6 INTRODUCED and first read on the day of May, FINAL PASSAGE AND ADOPTION by the City Council of the City of Grass Valley was at a meeting thereof held on the day of May by the following vote: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTAIN: