City of San Antonio - File #: 14-1557

• File #: 14-1557
• Type: City Code Amendments
• In control: City Council A Session
• On agenda: 8/14/2014
• Posting Language: An Ordinance amending Chapter 34 and Chapter 35 (UDC) of the City Code to establish the process for the recognition of permit rights by the City of San Antonio for projects; and removing the requirement of the Fair Notice Form. [Erik Walsh, Deputy City Manager; Roderick Sanchez, Director, Development Services]

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result
8/14/2014	1	City Council A Session	adopted	Pass

DEPARTMENT: Development Services


DEPARTMENT HEAD: Roderick Sanchez, AICP, CBO


COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: All


SUBJECT:

Fair Notice as related to Rights Recognition


SUMMARY:

The Courts recently ruled that certain City Code amendments adopted by San Antonio in 2006 are invalid, and voided the ordinance adopting them. To rectify, Chapter 34 (Water and Sewers) and Chapter 35 (Unified Development Code) changes are proposed for City Council consideration that would replace the 2006 code amendments with requirements consistent with court interpretation of state statute.


BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

In 2005, state law was modified requiring that for recognition of statutory rights "fair notice" of a project is to be provided to the municipality. At the time, the Development Services Department was working with a "Vested Rights Stakeholder Taskforce" on the rights determination process. After adoption of the state law, San Antonio created a "Fair Notice Form" that was required to be submitted as part of the rights determination process, and amended the City Code accordingly.

Later in 2006, a lawsuit was filed against San Antonio regarding the requirement for the submission of the Fair Notice Form. After an initial, partial judgment in 2012, San Antonio changed the process and made submission of the Fair Notice Form optional. The trial court found in the plaintiff's favor; San Antonio appealed, however the courts ultimately ruled that the 2006 code amendments were invalid.

The Development Services Department has prepared amendments to the City Code that will remove the Fair Notice Form and, thereby, ensure consistency with the courts' rulings.


ISSUE:

The 2006 ordinance that adopted the code amendments included more than just the specific addition of the Fair Notice Form. By voiding the 2006 ordinance, the courts removed this other code language, which included not only language in the Unified Development Code (Chapter 3...