§ 5.44.070. Number of licenses issued.

A.

The chief of police shall fix a limit for the number of licenses to be issued under this chapter, which limit shall be based upon the number of licenses then issued and outstanding but shall not be in excess of seventy-five, and the chief may from time to time, after reasonable notice and hearing, decrease the limit so fixed, but in no event to a number less than fifty. If an applicant is refused a license under the provisions of this chapter by reason of the fact that the maximum number of licenses limited under this chapter has been issued, the city council, on petition of such applicant, may, after a hearing, determine that public convenience and necessity require a higher limit than that fixed by the chief of police, or previously established by the city council, and shall establish the limit so required, in which case the limit set by the council shall be considered final until again changed as provided in this section.

B.

This chapter shall not affect, in any way, the rights of any existing licensee to any annual renewal of that license under the provisions of this chapter. Until further notice or action by the chief of police, licenses may be granted to the number established before the effective date of the ordinance from which this chapter derives; except, that no further original license shall be granted until the number of the taxicab licenses outstanding has been reduced to less than fifty by cancellation or revocation or the failure of holders of licenses to apply for renewals, and thereafter taxicab licenses may be granted only up to a total set by the chief of police as instructed under this chapter or to future limits set by the city council.

(Prior revision § 18-7)