TITLE
Recommendation to declare ordinance amending Long Beach Municipal Code Chapter 5.71 related to Publicly Accessible Exterior Pay Telephones, read and adopted as read. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
Chapter 5.71 of the Long Beach Municipal Code regulates the location and operation of exterior pay telephones ("PATS") in the City. On May 3, 2011, the City Council adopted a minute order declaring a one-year moratorium precluding the issuance of any new permits for the installation of publicly accessible exterior pay telephones. This action was taken to allow City staff to review Chapter 5.71 to determine whether an amendment to the Municipal Code would be appropriate to address various nuisance conditions/behaviors reported at exterior pay telephone locations in the City.
City staff from the Departments of Development Services, Police, City Attorney and Financial Management met to discuss the challenges associated with pay telephone locations and potential remedies. After a review of Chapter 5.71, and after meeting with involved stakeholders from the public and the pay phone industry, it was determined that the current regulations contained in Chapter 5.71 are not an effective tool when dealing with complaints of nuisance conditions and behavior issues associated with pay telephone locations.
Based on this information, City staff is recommending significant changes to the current pay telephone regulations in order to better equip the City and City staff with the tools needed to effectively regulate exterior pay telephone locations City-wide. If adopted, the revised regulations would:
1) improve the current application process to better insure that new PATS are installed and maintained in a manner that will be more compatible with surrounding neighborhoods; and
2) provide the City Manager with more flexibility to impose various operational conditions to insure neighborhood compatibility and reduce the risk of nuisance related activity. Such conditions could include requiring the installation of so called "smart phones" that can be remotely controlled by the adjacent property owner, limiting the phone's ability to receive incoming calls, requiring volume controls, limiting hours of operation if necessary, requiring adjacent trash receptacles, requiring an aesthetically pleasing and safe telephone surround, and also requiring that the PAT be located so that it is clearly visible to the adjacent business (to prevent loitering and other inappropriate behavior).
In addition to imposing operating conditions, the revised regulations would require that all existing PATS be brought into compliance with the new regulations within one year of adoption (for "good cause" the City Manager could extend this period for an additional year). The new regulations would prevent PATS from being installed at locations where "hard liquor" is sold, would require the issuance of electrical permits (if necessary), would prohibit a PAT from being installed in such a manner that it encroached on public property or in public right of ways, would require proof from the property owner that he or she has consented to the installation of the PAT, would prevent installation of the PAT in designated landscape areas, and would likewise prevent installation of a PAT in close proximity to bus shelters, crosswalks, fire hydrants, and the like.
If adopted, the new regulations also provide procedures for the required removal of a PAT if the City Manager determines that the PAT is causing a nuisance in the community. Likewise, the regulations would permit the City to issue an administrative citation in accordance with Chapter 9.65 of the Municipal Code if the PAT operator fails to abide by the newly adopted regulations or otherwise allows the PAT to become a nuisance.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Approve recommendation.
Respectfully Submitted,
ROBERT E. SHANNON
CITY ATTORNEY
Michael J. Mais
Assistant City Attorney
BODY
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LONG BEACH AMENDING LONG BEACH MUNICIPAL CODE SECTION 5.71, RELATING TO PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE EXTERIOR PAY TELEPHONES.