|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Danville Town Council is set to vote this week on repealing a decades-old ordinance prohibiting cruising in the downtown area in order to align with changes in state law preventing regulation or prohibition of cruising by local municipalities.
Councilmembers are set to hold a public hearing and vote at their next regular meeting on repealing a section of the town’s municipal code that was first put into place as an urgency order in 1985 prohibiting cruising in the Downtown Business District, and later adopted as an ordinance in 1990.
Cruising refers to a procession of vehicles slowly and leisurely driving through an area, typically to showcase custom or classic cars. It’s a longstanding tradition throughout California popularized by lowrider car culture. However, for many years the social activity held a negative reputation for backing up traffic, roadway clogging and concern over having connections to gangs.
The 1985 adoption of the urgency ordinance in Danville initially sought to deter a single cruising event that year from making its way through downtown, with town staff noting that it had rarely been enforced in the years since. In addition, an assembly bill adopted last year means that local municipalities are no longer allowed to regulate or prohibit cruising.Â
“While this change in state law in and of itself is reason to repeal Municipal Code Section 8-6, the Town has not enforced the law nor maintained the required signage in many years,” City Attorney Robert Ewing wrote in a staff report prepared for the meeting. “Repeal of the ordinance will remove any potential for confusion.”
When Danville’s cruising prohibition was put into place as a permanent ordinance in 1990, the town’s municipal code was also changed to prevent U-turns on Blemer Road in front of Los Cerros Middle School, with town staff recommending that prohibition also be removed.
“With the opening of Weber Lane several years ago, this regulation is no longer necessary,” Ewing wrote. “As with the cruising ordinance, the Town at some time in the past removed the necessary signs required to allow enforcement of the ordinance. The Town’s transportation staff recommends repealing the ordinance to eliminate any potential confusion.”
The Danville Town Council is set to discuss the item at its upcoming regular meeting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday (May 7). The agenda is available here.
In other business
*Councilmembers are poised to vote on an ordinance prohibiting short-term rentals in single and two-family residential zoning districts in the town. The prohibition had originally been put in place in 2016, but was unintentionally omitted during rewrites of the zoning ordinances last year.
*The council is set to consider changing the name of the Bicycle Advisory Committee to the Bicycle Advisory Board, having determined that the latter title would better describe the recently formed body that came as part of the 2021 Bicycle Master Plan, with the term committee generally reserved for subcommittees of the council.Â
*The council is set to consider amending the town’s municipal code on stormwater management and discharge control in order to align with changes to regional requirements.
