REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Introduce an Ordinance to Repeal Chapter 9.54 (Human Habitation of Vehicles) of Title 9 (Public Health, Safety and Welfare) and Amend Section 10.16.140 (Parking for Certain Purposes Prohibited) of Chapter 10.16 (Parking Regulations) of Title 10 (Vehicles and Traffic) of the Sunnyvale Municipal Code
Report
BACKGROUND
To align the Sunnyvale Municipal Code (SMC) with case law addressing certain constitutional issues, staff recommends that Council introduce an ordinance to repeal SMC Chapter 9.54, related to human habitation of vehicles, and amend SMC section 10.16.140 to remove the prohibition on parking on roadways for the purpose of displaying a vehicle for sale.
Chapter 9.54- Human Habitation of Vehicles
SMC Chapter 9.54 was adopted in 1994 and prohibits the use or occupancy of any vehicle for human habitation on or in any street, park, alley, public parking lot or other public way. On June 19, 2014, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a Los Angeles ordinance prohibiting the use of vehicles as "living quarters" (Desertrain v City of Los Angeles (9th Cir. 2014) 754 F.3d 1147). The court declared the ordinance constitutionally void for vagueness because it did not define the phrase "living quarters." For example, the Court pointed out that one could not determine whether keeping even a sleeping bag in a car might convert the vehicle into living quarters. The Court also ruled that the ordinance promoted arbitrary enforcement that targets the homeless because it gave no limits on the discretion an officer might use to determine whether a car was being used as living quarters.
SMC Chapter 9.54 contains a similarly broad definition, prohibiting "human habitation" of vehicles, defined as "the use of a vehicle for a dwelling place." This definition appears susceptible to the same sort of vagueness challenge that Los Angeles faced in the Desertrain case.
SMC Section 10.16.140- Display of Vehicles for Sale
SMC Section 1...
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