§ 9-659. Findings.

The board of county commissioners makes the following findings in connection with the adoption of this article:

(1)

Experts in vehicle-into-building crashes have estimated that each day in the United States there are up to sixty (60) vehicle-into-building crashes.

(2)

As many as five hundred (500) people die each year as victims of vehicle-into-building crashes.

(3)

On April 9, 2014, Lily Quintus was killed and several other children were seriously injured in Orange County when a vehicle-into-child care center crash occurred.

(4)

Experts in vehicle-into-building crashes indicate that parking lot wheel stops, curbs, and raised sidewalks are not sufficient, by themselves, to stop the force of a vehicle in such accidents, and that other design standards and devices are needed to better protect children, workers, pedestrians and others.

(5)

Building codes have design standards to protect gas meters, fire hydrants, electrical switching equipment, trash enclosures, and other equipment from vehicle crashes but have yet to establish and impose appropriate standards for protection of child care centers and other establishments.

(6)

Injuries and deaths at child care centers are preventable if child care centers are designed or retrofitted with vehicle impact safety devices to prevent vehicles from driving into exposed areas.

(7)

No one design, device, requirement or standard is appropriate for all child care centers and all conditions. Therefore, property owners, architects, engineers, and business owners should be given the flexibility to utilize and choose from a variety of design elements and devices to protect exposed areas at child care centers.

(8)

The goal of this article is to establish performance-based requirements and standards for the design of vehicle impact protective devices that achieve an appropriate level of safety at child care centers, but not require unnecessarily expensive or aesthetically inappropriate structures.

(9)

The board desires to establish development requirements and standards for areas adjacent to child care centers that balance: (1) the public interest in protecting child care centers from vehicle-into-exposed area crashes; (2) the financial burden on owners and operators of child care centers of providing appropriate protective designs and devices; and (3) the goal of encouraging innovation, variety and aesthetic variation so as to give owners and operators flexibility depending on the conditions specific to each location.

(Ord. No. 2016-09 , § 1, 5-24-16)