Saratoga will not accept or approve any application to open an immigration detention or processing facility in the city through Dec. 19, after the City Council adopted a temporary moratorium Wednesday night.
The council approved the interim urgency ordinance unanimously on Nov. 4, the Mercury News reported. Under state law an urgency measure of this kind needs four votes on the five-member council, and it took effect as soon as it passed, according to the staff report prepared by Cindy McCormick, the city's acting community development director.
What the ban covers
For 45 days, the city will not take in, review or grant building permits, occupancy certificates, business licenses or any similar approval for what the ordinance calls a covered use.
That includes any property used to hold people in custody under government authority, from jails and detention centers to civil or immigration holding sites, and any site used mainly to book, fingerprint, screen, stage, transfer or release people who are in custody, even when no one stays overnight.
The staff report says such a facility cannot be relabeled as a government office, an institutional use or another broad category to get around the ban. City code never defined these facilities, and while its zoning generally prohibits anything not listed, staff wrote that the gap left room for a proposal to be argued into an existing category before the city writes permanent rules.
Why now
Staff pointed to the federal effort to add detention capacity in California, including a planned facility on about 25 acres near Gilroy. The state and Santa Clara County sued over that site in June, and a federal judge paused construction on Sept. 11.
Rep. Sam Liccardo has urged Bay Area cities to adopt interim zoning controls, and a state law signed in September that limits new detention uses is not in force until Jan. 1, 2027, the Mercury News reported. Los Gatos passed its own 45-day ban on Nov. 2.