The City of Royal Oak hereby finds and declares:
A. The City of Royal Oak has a substantial interest in promoting the public health, safety, and welfare of its citizens and visitors by ensuring that public streets, sidewalks and rights-of-way are not unreasonably obstructed by newsracks, that newsracks are properly maintained, and that newsracks do not create a visual blight in the City, especially within downtown Royal Oak.
B. In recent years, the proliferation of newsracks on downtown streets, and particularly poorly maintained or abandoned freestanding newsracks, has contributed to the congestion of City sidewalks, impeded the flow of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, interfered with the use of streets, sidewalks and public rights-of-way, presented hazards to persons and property, resulted in visual blight, and hindered the ability of public services such as sidewalk and street cleaning. Certain newsracks have been placed in inappropriate locations, have been abandoned, are poorly maintained, and have been used as trash receptacles, causing unsightly and unsanitary clutter and litter.
C. The City of Royal Oak has a substantial interest in preserving and protecting its unique visual and aesthetic qualities as identified in the City of Royal Oak Master Plan. To that end, and consistent with the Downtown Development Authority's Wayfinding Recommendations Program Document, and the objectives of the Downtown Development Authority and Main Street Royal Oak, it is in the best interest of the City to take steps to solve and reduce the negative effects of this problem.
D. After conducting an extensive study and inquiry into this problem, as documented in the Downtown Development Authority's Wayfinding Recommendations Program Document, it has become clear that an effective way to remedy this problem is to require that all newspapers and other publications desiring to be sold or provided in newspaper racks on downtown sidewalks or other public property or rights-of-way be placed in and sold from modular units which are provided by the City at locations commensurate with the locations at which newspapers and other publications are currently being sold or provided.
E. The purpose of this article is therefore to accomplish the following:
(1) Provide for increased pedestrian and vehicular safety and convenience;
(2) Ensure that there is no unreasonable interference with the free flow of pedestrian or vehicular traffic, including ingress into, or egress from, any residence, place of business or public facility, or any legally parked or stopped vehicles;
(3) Ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and improve passage for persons with disabilities by reducing impediments to passage caused by poorly located newsracks;
(4) Provide reasonable access for the safe and efficient use and maintenance of sidewalks, street lamps, traffic signs or signals, hydrants, mailboxes, police or fire call boxes, sidewalk elevators, delivery areas, loading zones, transit shelters, benches, waste receptacles, street trees, planters and plant boxes, curb ramps, parking meters, and locations used for public transportation services;
(5) Reduce visual blight, clutter and litter problems associated with poorly maintained, improperly located or abandoned newsracks;
(6) Protect the unique aesthetic and historical attributes of the City and its downtown;
(7) Advance the economic interests of the City's businesses and residents, including the interests of those involved in the publication or distribution of newspapers and news periodicals through newsracks; and
(8) Prevent newsracks from unduly interfering with City sidewalk and street cleaners as well as other public services, especially within the downtown area.
F. In adopting this article, the City of Royal Oak is mindful that regulation of newsracks implicates rights protected by the Constitutions of both the United States and the State of Michigan. To that end, this article was drafted and shall be applied and enforced in a manner consistent with these constitutional rights. The content or viewpoint of the material to be distributed through modular newsrack units shall not be considered in administering or enforcing this article.
G. Given the limited space available and the increasing congestion on certain public sidewalks, streets and rights-of-way within the downtown area, the City has a substantial interest in devising a systematic approach to newsrack placement in those locales to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of newspapers. This objective may be achieved by providing modular newsrack units in certain locations in the City as identified in the Downtown Development Authority's Wayfinding Recommendations Program Document. Utilizing newsrack units and prohibiting freestanding newsracks will promote the City's interest in promoting public safety, reducing visual blight and clutter, protecting the unique aesthetic and historical attributes of the City and its downtown, and advancing the economic interests of the City's businesses and residents by improving the appearance of the area and resulting in better use of space and reduced congestion.
H. A reasonable accommodation of these competing interests can be achieved by adoption of this article, which reasonably regulates the placement of newsracks in specified areas.
As used in this article, the following words shall be defined as follows:
ABANDONED NEWSRACK BOX Any newsrack box which either remains empty for more than 30 business days or contains only outdated issues based on frequency of publication as set forth in the registration application. In case of a labor strike or a temporary and extraordinary interruption of distribution of publications of the newspaper or other periodical sold or dispensed from that newsrack box, the publication shall notify the Director in writing in order to avoid having the newsrack box deemed abandoned.
FREESTANDING NEWSRACK Any self-service or coin-operated box, container, storage unit or other dispenser installed, used for, or maintained for the display and sale or the distribution without charge of newspapers, news periodicals or other publications, and which is not a modular newsrack unit authorized under this article.
MODULAR NEWSRACK UNIT A newsrack which is provided by the City for the placement of publications to be sold or distributed in the City on public streets, sidewalks and rights-of-way.
NEWSRACK A newsrack box, a freestanding newsrack, or a modular newsrack unit.
NEWSRACK BOX The individual space within a modular newsrack unit that dispenses one newspaper or other periodical, including the door, coin return mechanism and associated hardware, not including any freestanding newsrack.
PUBLICATION Any morning, evening, special or other editions of a publication, as well as any editions published jointly with another publisher.
REGISTERED PUBLICATION A publication which has registered with the City to locate its publications in one or more modular newsrack units.
The requirements of this article shall apply to all newsracks located on public property or public streets, sidewalks or rights-of-way within the downtown development area as defined in the DDA's Downtown Development and Tax Increment Financing Plan. The Director is authorized to establish guidelines for implementation of this article in certain areas or locations within the downtown development area and to establish dates by which modular newsrack units will be in place and all freestanding newsracks must be removed and in compliance with this article, in each area or location. The deadlines for compliance with this article and the Director's guidelines shall be mailed by first-class mail to each affected publication at least 30 days prior to the implementation date in each location. These deadlines shall also be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the City at least 30 days prior to the implementation date in each location.