A fact-checked look at Ordinance 3340, Fullerton Municipal Code § 15.42.050, and the state laws behind them

The Fullerton City Council adopted Ordinance No. 3340 at the March 18, 2025 City Council meeting under application RP2024-10, a rewrite of the parts of Title 15 (Zoning) that govern shelter and interim housing. The new rules took effect April 1, 2025. They replaced language that had gone roughly a decade without a substantive update, and they brought the city’s definitions into line with two state laws: AB 2339 (2022), which redefined “emergency shelter,” and AB 101 (2019), which made Low Barrier Navigation Centers a by-right use.

The printed code books were not updated immediately. In June 2026, the City Clerk’s Office circulated replacement pages to the City Manager’s Office, Community and Economic Development, the library reference desk, the Police Chief, and Public Works divisions, covering twenty ordinances numbered 3333 through 3352. The online supplement hosted by American Legal Publishing is now marked current through Ordinance 3352.

According to the city, the prior code was built around a single, narrow idea of what a “shelter” is, while the actual service landscape had diversified into overnight emergency beds, navigation centers, bridge housing, and medical care for people discharged from hospitals with nowhere to go.

What § 15.42.050 requires

The Emergency Shelter Overlay Zone designates specific areas where shelters and multi-service centers may operate without needing a discretionary permit, provided they meet the established objective standards. This overlay zone imposes additional requirements on top of the existing base zone regulations; it does not replace them.

Standard Requirements:

• – Beds: Shelters can accommodate up to 50 beds nightly by right; any capacity exceeding 50 requires a conditional use permit under Chapter 15.70. The maximum capacity is capped at 150 beds.
• – Waiting/Intake Area: A minimum of 10 square feet per bed is required. This area must be screened from the public right-of-way by a solid, opaque wall or fence at least 6 feet high, and there should be no queuing outside.
• – Length of Stay: Individuals may stay no more than 6 months within any 12-month period; the days do not need to be consecutive.
• – Separation: There must be a minimum distance of 250 feet between shelter properties, measured from property line to property line.
• – Management Plan: A management plan is required, which will be reviewed by the Community Development Director and the Chief of Police. The plan must be available for public inspection during operating hours.
• – Airport Overlay: Facilities located in the Runway Protection Zone (RPZ) or Approach Protection Zone (APZ) must comply with the Airport Environs Land Use Plan (AELUP). Facilities within the 65 dB CNEL contour must coordinate with the Orange County Airport Land Use Commission to ensure that indoor noise levels are maintained at or below 45 dB CNEL.

Required On-Site Support Areas:

• – Food preparation and dining
• – Indoor and outdoor recreational or open spaces
• – Laundry facilities
• – Secured storage out of public view
• – Restrooms and showers, compliant with Building and Plumbing Code (Does not mention ADA compliance)
• – Private space for referral services

The management plan must cover objective standards:

1. Operating hours (shelters open for more than 12 hours a day must provide support services)
2. Staff-to-client ratio
3. Separation of sleeping areas for males, females, and family units
4. Litter removal on-site and in the surrounding area
5. A communication plan for neighbors
6. Procedures for turning away clients who cannot be accommodated
7. A security plan for operating and non-operating hours
8. Provisions for offering services to veterans

These guidelines aim to ensure that shelters operate effectively while also addressing community concerns.

§ 15.42.060 The review process is now straightforward and will happen when applying for a building permit or a business license, whichever comes first. Shelters will not have to go through extra reviews.

One discrepancy readers should know about

Parking. The version of § 15.42.050 circulating in advocacy materials states off-street parking at one space for every employee on the largest shift. That matches what state law now permits: Government Code § 65583(a)(4)(B)(ii) allows a city to require only “sufficient parking to accommodate all staff working in the emergency shelter,” and bars requiring more parking than other residential or commercial uses in the same zone.

But other sources still display the older standard — one space per five beds, plus a covered, secured area for at least eight bicycles. Those sources are American Legal Publishing’s page for § 15.42.050.

The state law underneath

AB 2339 (Ch. 654, Stats. 2022; effective January 1, 2023) amended Government Code § 65583(a)(4). Per HCD’s implementation memo, it expanded the definition of “emergency shelter” to include other interim interventions — navigation centers, bridge housing, and respite or recuperative care. Fullerton’s § 15.04.040 definition tracks this language closely.

AB 2339 also narrowed what cities may impose. Under § 65583(a)(4)(B), emergency shelters may be subject only to these written, objective standards:

1. Maximum beds or persons served nightly
2. Sufficient parking for all staff (not more than comparable uses in the zone)
3. Size and location of exterior and interior waiting and intake areas
4. Provision of on-site management
5. Proximity to other shelters — shelters may not be required to be more than 300 feet apart
6. Length of stay
7. Lighting
8. Security during operating hours

Fullerton’s 250-foot buffer sits inside that 300-foot limit. The statute also provides that standards applied under this paragraph are not discretionary acts for CEQA purposes.

One provision worth flagging: AB 2339 specified that a city’s obligation to identify zoning where shelters are permitted ministerially cannot be satisfied through an overlay zone. Fullerton’s Chapter 15.42 is titled “Emergency Shelter Overlay Zone.” Ordinance 3340 also amended base-zone sections (15.17.020, 15.17.030, 15.30.030, 15.30.040), which is where compliance would have to rest. Whether the city’s Housing Element satisfies HCD on this point is a question for HCD’sreview record, not something resolvable from the ordinance text alone.

AB 101 (Ch. 159, Stats. 2019; effective July 31, 2019) created Government Code §§ 65660–65668, requiring that a qualifying Low Barrier Navigation Center be a use by right in mixed-use zones and nonresidential zones permitting multifamily uses. It sets the 30-day completeness determination and the 60-day action deadline that Fullerton’s § 15.55.020(G) repeats. The five approval criteria in the city’s ordinance — services plan with staffing, link to a coordinated entry system, Housing First per Welfare and Institutions Code § 8255, HMIS data entry, and compliance with § 15.42.050 — mirror the statute.

SB 1395 (Becker), signed September 19, 2024, changed two things worth knowing:

• It repealed Government Code § 65668, the provision that would have sunset the entire Low Barrier Navigation Center article on January 1, 2027. The by-right mandate is now open-ended. Model ordinances and city codes written before late 2024 — including several still online — carry a January 1, 2027 self-repeal clause that is no longer required.
• It amended § 65660 to specify that a Low Barrier Navigation Center may be non-congregate and relocatable. Fullerton’s § 15.04.040 definition, as circulated, does not contain that language.

The facility on Commonwealth

Fullerton has one facility that fits these categories: the Fullerton Navigation Center and Recuperative Care at 3535 W. Commonwealth Ave., operated by Illumination Foundation, now branded Illumination Health + Home.

Documented timeline:

• December 11, 2019 — The Planning Commission voted 4–1 (Commissioner Carvalho dissenting) to approve Conditional Use Permit (CUP) Zone 2019-0131 for 60 recuperative care beds and 90 navigation center beds, 150 total, in an existing industrial building. Public outreach included community meetings on November 1 at the Fullerton Public Library and November 4 at Valencia Elementary School. The Commission added conditions requiring regular meetings between the operator and surrounding businesses and neighbors.
• December 2020 — Initially opened as a COVID-only site, it underwent a brief closure and re-opening in 2021 due to a lack of ongoing operational funding and changes in COVID-19 safety measures.
• April 2021 — Grand re-opening and ribbon cutting after a temporary closure.
• October 2021 — Navigation Center residents were relocated to shelters in Buena Park, Placentia, and Anaheim as operating funds ran out; 19 had Fullerton ties. The 60-bed recuperative side continued operating, sustained by hospital placements.
• Late 2021 — The city received a $4 million state grant identified at the time as being for potential purchase of the building.
• March 1, 2022 — Council voted 4–1 to extend its funding agreement with Illumination Foundation and to use remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds to reimburse the Foundation for prior-quarter services. The Daily Titan reported the city was then paying a third-party owner over $543,000 to use the building, and was seeking to buy it to cut costs.
• July 7, 2023 — A Notice of Exemption was posted to CEQAnet (SCH 2023070090) for a Finding of General Plan Conformity on the acquisition. Government Code § 65402 requires the Planning Commission to report on a purchase’s conformity with the General Plan before the city acquires property. Parcel 030-040-15, 0.766 acres. The city stated it did not intend to change the property’s use upon acquisition.
• March 5, 2024 — At the City Council meeting, City Manager Eric Levitt reported that the Council had approved purchase of the building using a state legislative earmark of roughly $9.5 million — a separate and larger sum from the earlier $4 million grant. He described a companion operating agreement with Illumination Foundation under which the city would pay for 40 beds at $80 per bed, about $1.19 million a year, offset by roughly $390,000 in annual rent from the Foundation, netting near $800,000 a year.
• Spring 2024 — The Planning Commission adopted Resolution No. PC-2024-07, modifying CUP Zone 2019-0131 to 110 recuperative care beds and 40 navigation beds, within the same 150-bed limit. The motion carried 5–0 as reported in The Fullerton Observer.

The building is a former commercial structure of about 15,700 square feet near Fullerton Municipal Airport. Access is by referral only. Client intake and departure occur at the rear of the property; the Commonwealth Avenue frontage was improved as a condition of the original CUP. Illumination Foundation Medical Group operates a primary care clinic on the second floor. The facility is listed with Kaiser Permanente’s directory as a Recuperative Care (Medical Respite) provider, NPI 1073863056.

Note the sequencing: the 150-bed CUP predates Ordinance 3340 by more than five years. The ordinance’s 150-bed ceiling and the facility’s 150-bed CUP match, but the CUP came first.

Public contact for housing: Illumination Health + Home lists (714) 507-2490 for Orange County families needing housing and (714) 507-2459 for individuals.

How to verify any of this yourself

• The ordinance itself: Fullerton City Clerk’s Office, City Hall, 303 W. Commonwealth Ave. Ordinances not yet codified are posted through the city’s Laserfiche portal, linked from the code library overview page: codelibrary.amlegal.com, Fullerton, Title 15, Chapter 15.42.
• State law: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov for Government Code §§ 65583, 65660–65668, and for the text of AB 101, AB 2339, and SB 1395.
• HCD guidance: hcd.ca.gov publishes a memo on AB 2339 emergency shelter requirements dated January 4, 2023, and a Low Barrier Navigation Centers fact sheet and model ordinance.
• Council record: the March 18, 2025 Fullerton City Council meeting, item RP2024-10.