City Council Meeting May 17, 2010

0:00:00foreign welcome to the meeting of the El Cerrito City Council and we'll start with roll call please councilmember Jones here councilmember Lyman here councilmember Potter here mayor Pro tem Chang here I'm mayor Abelson here will you all join me in the pledge to

0:00:28the allegiance which is led by council member Chang the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible I'd like to announce that the council just met in closed session and gave direction to staff the next item on the agenda is oral

0:01:06Communications excuse me let's it's um any counsel and staff Communications unfortunately I've got a few so I apologize um I will do my best to keep a steady Pace here I'm going to do these chronologically so on Saturday May 22nd is the El Cerrito Bike Rodeo and that's at the St John's school

0:01:34parking lot near the Ohlone Greenway and that's from 11 to 2 I believe it is so that's Saturday on Sunday is West County winds they're celebrating their 25th anniversary their silver anniversary and they have a performance at the El Cerrito High School at three

0:01:56o'clock for more information you can go to www.westcountywinds .org um on Monday we are closing our board applications are due and we are looking for uh people to volunteer for the design review board and the financial Advisory Board which is what I'm sitting on right now

0:02:26on uh let's see Thursday May 27th and uh Tuesday June 1st there is the city of Richmond and the city of El Cerrito are currently working on closing the Gap in the Richmond Greenway project the at the Ohlone Greenway as well and this is public meetings again Thursday May 27th

0:02:507 pm to 8 30 p.m and Tuesday June 1st 7 pm to 8 30 p.m on Thursday the 27th it's at Richmond city council chambers and on Tuesday the 1st it's right here El Cerrito city council chambers seeing if there's a website on this one do not see one Sunday May 30th at 2

0:03:13o'clock another event at El Cerrito High School theater this is a Chinese arts and culture program presents a Chinese Gala and tickets are 15 the for more information and contact you can go to email Chinese art program at yahoo.com uh Sunday June 6th we have the bike the

0:03:43bridges for Special Olympics uh 25 and 50 mile cycling event hosted by the El Cerrito Police Department Hercules Police Department Martinez police department and Benicia police department and for more information you can contact our own Sergeant Sean maples at 510-215-4414 extension 26 and it's 8 30

0:04:07a.m check-in and 9 30 a.m ride for that and last but not least notice of public hearing for proposed increase in service change for stage Sanitary District and this is Thursday June 24th 7 pm at the stage Sanitary District office 7500 Schmidt Lane in El Cerrito

0:04:30and then I'd like to mention that there were a whole bunch of us went to the Ed fund dinner on May 14th council members Chang and Jones were there and at this event we had over 20 students were recognized and and given their given scholarships that ranged from 2000 to 2 500 and three

0:04:58of those were recognized from El Cerrito High uh Stephanie Wong who will be attending UC Davis next year Cynthia Fong who will be attending Brown University next year um and uh oh there's a fourth one uh Charleston van who sat with us will be attending Howard University next year

0:05:17and Jasmine or rozoko who will be attending Santa Cruz next year and then many of us attended the Contra Costa mayor's conference on May 6th and that was hosted here in El Cerrito at the Mira Vista Country Club with a presentation by Gary pokorny on white paper

0:05:44governing public pension reform thank you thank you yes thank you um so on Wednesday night last Wednesday night the Cerrito hosted a great showing of The Triplets of Belleville to celebrate Bike To Work Day and about over 70 people came out from the community and

0:06:06there was wonderful raffle prizes over 10 from The Peddler in El Sobrante and Solano Cyclery so it was great to see we had free valet bike parking from the East Bay Bike Coalition it was a great event to celebrate and see each other in the Viking community and then the next

0:06:26morning at Bike To Work Day there was over 360 people who came out in two hours from seven to nine a.m at the El Cerrito Plaza bike lockers um awesome showing 150 more people than last year and it's great to see the Viking Community grow in all ages and from um from little young kids who could

0:06:49who've been coming multiple years in a row and getting older and as well as seniors and and more and more people basically um so yeah so I just wanted to recognize that and uh thank the great El Cerrito City staff for having multiple booths to share information on all the great bike

0:07:07improvements coming from bike lockers to bike parking and bike lanes and just um where we're really making uh bicycling a viable Transportation alternative in our community um and there will also be I Mike El Cerrito t-shirts available at the Bike Rodeo for sales if you want to show your

0:07:28support for bikers and safe driving around bikers [Music] I I just had one I um sorry to see the announcement we got in our packet plus the the press release that the city had to turn over 1.7 million dollars to the state of California on their they've elected to take away that much

0:07:55money from the city of El Cerrito and other cities in in California to try to help them with their budget shortfall um the the the league of California cities sued on that lost and in court and was not successful in getting a stay so we were advised to go ahead and pay by May 10th which we did

0:08:21but the league of California cities is preparing an appeal so the issue isn't dead yet but anyway it left our coffers 1.7 million dollars on top of the uh 360 000 that uh we're not getting this year for our general fund yeah I just wanted to Echo what um councilmember Jones mentioned about the

0:08:44Redevelopment agency funds and that was a disappointment um also I appreciate Mr lyman's acknowledgment of the El Cerrito High School Scholars and I wanted to mention the collaboration with the El Cerrito police department and the El Cerrito High School Mountain Bike team and they

0:09:00finished their season on Sunday at Grass Valley and a number of the young athletes will be advancing to the national championships in July in Colorado including for the boys varsity team Chris Bennett and three of the five girls on the team Julia Molly and Riley

0:09:18all performed really well a difficult course and a great ride for the El Cerrito High School team so it was pretty exciting and always we appreciate the collaboration with the police department okay thank you I think you've all covered everything there isn't anything

0:09:36left to cover so we'll move on on the agenda the next item on the agenda is oral Communications from the public which is an opportunity for members members of the public to speak on items that are not on the agenda one speaker Al Miller he Madam mayor and council members Al

0:09:59Miller [address removed] following on to it Mr Lyman and Miss Potter mentioned on the scholarships I wanted to acknowledge that one of those scholarships is from the art Norma Schroeder scholarship fund that art endowed through the Ed fund uh art for those that might not know him the

0:10:22younger people in the crowd and in the city is one of the several members of our wall of fame so he has been serving the city well while he was here and he is still serving the city well uh the main thing I wanted to mention was that in last Friday's El Cerrito

0:10:39journal and in this morning's West County Times on page A3 there was an article about the Steve sanitary District's Public hearing on June 24th at Mr Lyman mentioned uh I've been a director at stage for over 25 years now and this is the first time that an article such as this has appeared in

0:11:02either of those papers other than the required public notice laws that we have to put out in the paper about whatever that happens and I'd like to thank Mr Mead for that having said that I feel compelled to make a small correction in his article the last paragraph suggests that

0:11:22residents can file their comments of the public hearing by calling the district or emailing the staff and it gives phone numbers and addresses that's true they can make comments and they can ask questions that way but if they want their comments to count as a formal prop 218 protest against the

0:11:45possible action they must be submitted in writing or by facts because we have to come be able to compare the signature with the county records to verify that it is the actual owner of the property that is protesting uh so any questions about the forthcoming meeting or the projects that

0:12:07we're under you can call 510-524-4668 and the staff will be happy to answer one last comment uh most people know that stage has built a new office building and it's the first building you see on the right as you go up Schmidt towards the recycling center we maintain the same address that we

0:12:31used to have when we were the old ones surrounded by the city property it's still 7 500 Schmidt Lane but stiege Sanitary District is now that new orange and yellow building are old headquarters tucked back away behind us now is now proudly occupied by the city of El

0:12:52Cerrito staff thank you thank you we have one additional speaker rich bartke good evening members city council Rich bartke I'm appearing tonight as the president of the elsewhere historical society and it's a proud day to be the president of the society uh just two

0:13:16hours ago the society was honored in the Richmond city council chambers along with Tom panis for the display that he did of the Japanese American families before and after World War II and the book that he had published with the photographs of that event uh Tom is the

0:13:34treasurer of the society and the secretary of the society is going to be honored by you in just a couple of minutes that would be Joan Steck bayat um but we're here tonight to celebrate another one of our former presidents of the society that would be Sunder shoddy

0:13:53uh Sunder and Dorothy shoddy donated a bunch of money to help construct this building but it was with the condition that there'd be a history room and fulfilling that condition the city did create a history room and it's upstairs and the furniture furnished but not

0:14:14quite yet occupied by anybody the Historical Society has helped with the plans for the furniture and so forth with the expectation that we're going to be able to move our archives into it the archives have been stored for some years in the basement of the library which is

0:14:33not a good place for historic archives and this would be a much safer area for the archives plus um more accessible for students and for researchers who need to get into those valuable documents and thousands of photographs um the other part of this well two things

0:14:57one is that the society recommended some time ago that the room be named for Dorothy and Sunder shoddy for a couple of reasons one is because they donated all the money but secondly because they were so active in the community you remember the flower gardens that they

0:15:15had on their property on the Arlington and Sunder served for so many years on our Park and Recreation Commission and as I said as president of the Historical Society and the last one of the last things he did before he passed away a few years ago at the age of 101 was to have his

0:15:35trust donate the folk art the hundreds and hundreds of items that he made for the Christmas display which is still being erected by the siroptimus in the Australia Foundation the other item is also on the agenda under 5A and that is a license agreement and I was able to read the final draft just

0:16:01before I came here and it looks like we're there it looks like we now have a document that we can sign so thank you very much thank you no other speakers yes okay thank you with that we'll move on to presentations and I must say the proclamation that we're about to do gives me a great

0:16:21pleasure as I've known Joanne step by it for quite some time ever since my daughter was in kindergarten and she talked me into becoming the PTA president so um and she's continued to provide a lot of inspiration and effort in our city and I think we all recognize that but

0:16:45tonight we're here for a specific reason and that would be to approve and present a proclamation recognizing the significant contribution that both Joanne and also Karen strassel have made at the El Cerrito um Community for the El Cerrito community working on a video entitled Loma Prieta

0:17:11Revisited and what this video does is to um Advanced disaster preparedness through their participation you know in creating this film which is about a half an hour long so what I'd like to do at this point is present a plaque to the two ladies and also from our fire department a um a hat and in

0:17:39case you can't see the details of what it says it says engine El Cerrito 71 fire department truck and we do have a truck over at our fire station near here and a truck is I've learned is the kind of fire vehicle that has a ladder on it so and it goes up high for a structure

0:18:03fire so with that I'm going to ask the two recipients to come down and we will present thank you foreign so on behalf of the El Cerrito city council I would like to present both of you um with these plaques and first I want to mention to our audience that both of these ladies are El Cerrito

0:18:58residents and that Karen Grassle Grassley excuse me I'm sorry is most recognized for her role as Carolyn Ingalls the mother on the hit show Little House on the Prairie and I know growing up it was one of my favorite books to read and it was one of my favorite TV shows to watch so thank you

0:19:19for doing that and Joanne I can't possibly say enough good things about all of the work that you've done in our community including being recognized as a recent woman of the year for our community so thank you very much and Greg would you like to present the house

0:19:54[Laughter] they're not oh they they aren't we have a station 71 and uh-huh [Laughter] thank you and [Laughter] [Applause] um would you like to tell us how that people can watch this video does anyone know that will be the next step Suzanne oh Suzanne knows that

0:20:40the producer anyone interested in seeing the film Loma Prieta Revisited if you have a neighborhood group a school group or other organization you can contact the fire department they'll be happy to schedule a presentation the film is about 30 minutes and would love to

0:20:57spread the word about the cert program in El Cerrito so please go ahead and contact the fire department thank you and thank you again [Applause] [Laughter] the next item on the agenda is the adoption of the consent calendar items number 5A through 5G other is there a

0:21:45motion or comments from the council I'll make a motion to adopt all the items A through five a through 5G second it okay all in favor please say aye aye any opposition or abstention motion carries unanimously so we've adopted item a which is about creating the historical room at El Cerrito city hall

0:22:09right here V is approving the minutes C is confirming reduce summer 2010 Schedule D is a solid waste ordinance update and E is officer of the year and we will be um recognizing detective John Tracy warlick uh as a our officer of the year for El Cerrito at the Exchange Club of Albany El Cerrito

0:22:47on May the 26th of this year and we do appreciate the great service that he has provided to our city and we will be presenting him with a plaque at that time and we will we are also reviewing the quarterly investment report and rescheduling the Landscaping Landscape

0:23:11and Lighting assessment District public hearing from May the 17th to June the 21st of this year thank you with that we're going to move on to item 6A which is the master fee schedule good evening Madam mayor and members of the council I'm Mary Dodge the administrative Services director and I'm

0:23:35here tonight to discuss the proposed Master Fee schedule um we do this every year as part of the budget process go through and assess the fees determine what ones need to be adjusted what new ones need to be presented and and this year we've a revised document was sent out was given

0:23:52to you earlier today because we did receive some really good comments on the structure and wanted to try to get them incorporated into this year's report um these it's only a structural change there was only one fee that was adjusted at all and that was in section 10 page

0:24:10four where we had proposed to increase by the percentage Factor the um residential housing inspection fees but it was determined that it would be more appropriate if we kept them at that same fee so that all housing units could be done at the same rate so the report also details the changes

0:24:31proposed and when it's approved the report will be posted on the website and available at the counter and it will then show only the actual fees or the structure you have in front of you highlights the changes in general the increases range from three to five percent with higher or

0:24:49lower changes presented depending on whether they have a market rate component or is there some change in the requirements or in the case of some planning fees we had basically a staggered implementation of the fees because they were um too large to change in one time this is

0:25:07part of the Maximus fee study from a few years ago there are only a few new fees this year in Recreation they have once again done a market evaluation and have taken their fees to the park and rec and got approval and the new fees that they have added are in regards to the highly

0:25:24anticipated new Splash Park the police department the police department added two new categories of fees and they're The False Alarm response fees and curfew violation fees and both of those have been presented to council at previous meetings in Community Development new fees and

0:25:44some wording has been added that addressed issues regarding assessing appropriate fees for small projects a couple of situations where in our fee structure we had a fee for only a relatively large type of activity right now if somebody wanted to come in and just have a new sync installed the fee

0:26:05could be up to a thousand dollars so we decided it was time to break these down farther and to allow for some word wording that would make it so individual fees could be assessed and if there was something that was inappropriate with them they could upon approval be changed

0:26:21so all of the changes are in bold and if you have any business license fees were increased by 0.9 percent and that's in compliance with that part of the ordinance it says it has to use a base Year from 1998 and all these fees will be incorporated into the budget

0:26:41that will be presented to you on June 7th if you have any questions any questions from Council okay this is a public hearing and so at this point I would like to open the public hearing and hear comments from the public each speaker has three minutes to present comments although you

0:27:02don't have to use all of those three minutes with the clerk please call the names mayor I have no speaker slips okay um I move we close a public hearing second okay um all in favor aye aye okay carries um now we're ready for discussion or motion she had a couple comments

0:27:30um I just wanted to remind people that this is uh the the master fee schedule follows the Nexus methodology for fees that we had set up had a study and therefore uh accepted the formulas and the methods by which we would study fees and increase them so there it isn't just uh people sitting

0:27:53down and saying Jesus looks good if we do five dollars here or two dollars here or fifty dollars there it it follows a methodology that um takes in a lot of things but basically the market the market conditions and the actual costs uh the city has to go forward with this

0:28:11and I think the the director Finance director um didn't point out a couple things one is several items have no change in them several of them and there's also uh quite a few that just went up a dollar or two one percent or less so I think there's a conscientious effort on the

0:28:31part of uh the staff to meet the spirit and and the letter of the Nexus methodology and keep things reasonable during the economic Times thank you thank you other than can I ask uh I did have a question I'm sorry Recreation would they base the splash park fees on

0:28:55there is a reason for you to come and Water World they're based on the recreation swim fees so they're comparable and if they choose to do the splash park and the um The Swim Center is a dollar more so they can have a wristband and go back and forth oh great that sounds good look

0:29:17forward to it yeah thank you Mr motion I'm sorry let's see yes we're ready for a motion well actually before the motion I'd like a couple of comments um I you know I noticed that there were two fees that I feel that the changes we're proposing for fiscal year 2011 are are fine but

0:29:40they do raise um some policy questions for us to maybe wrestle up on at some point in the future one is the parking fees the the parking permits and how we're potentially administering parking permits and the other is uh bicycle registration we are currently um we we have bicycle registration as a

0:30:05service to uh to our residents however we have an ordinance that actually stipulates that we're supposed to have our bicycles registered we just currently don't enforce that ordinance some potential that ordinance needs to be updated so those are two fees that I found that I

0:30:24think we should be potentially looking at some of the underlying um policy of those two fees but certainly the minor changes that we're proposing tonight are are well within the guidance that we gave is there a motion I can move to adopt a resolution approving a revised Master's fee

0:30:52schedule for fiscal year 2010 2011.

0:30:55including no increase for the house rental housing inspection fees as referenced in section 10 page 4 of the revised schedule second can you please say aye aye I think that first was it unanimous okay thank you then now we'll move on to item 6B on the agenda which is another public hearing and the

0:31:20purpose of this public hearing is to confirm the method of collecting the storm drain reconstruction fees good evening again um married doctor administrative Services director and I'm here to present the strong Green annual report and to discuss and approve the

0:31:40collection of the fees on the property tax rolls in 1993 the voters approved 6.3 million in revenue bonds and the city council adopted an ordinance providing for the collection of storm drain fees at 58 dollars for single-family residents and other fees for the various land use codes and uh to

0:32:00be utilized to pay the debt service and they determined that utilizing the property tax rolls was the best method of collection the ordinance they established also said that an annual public hearing must be held to review the method and the annual report and that a publication the two

0:32:17Publications done once a week for two successive weeks need to be done and these Publications were done on April 16th and April 22nd so this hearing is for the purpose of discussing the amount not the amount of the fee but the determining the collection and whether a majority

0:32:33protest has been filed so the use of the property tax will be done for The Debt Service and it's estimated that 697 thousand dollars will be collected and it will be in the 2010-11 budget thank you are there any questions from the council before we open the public

0:32:53hearing foreign okay thank you during comment okay so at this time I'd like to open the public hearing and hear comments from the public no slip submitted for this item okay thank you I move closing the public hearing seconds all in favor aye do we have a um we would we'd like to do

0:33:28more discussion yes I I just want to point out that we all received um in our package this last week a Citizens petition about storm drain improvements in the uh the 23 homes that signed uh petitions in the 300 block of Carmel and Ramona basically about storm drain

0:33:44improvements and I just wanted to sort of make sure that this is something that the city is aware of and that we are going to be addressing um it seems fitting to make this comment during this this item since it was just recently received thank you any other comments well I have

0:34:03uh just one or two one is I I did check with staff they are on top of it so uh I think that we're well on our way looking into that yeah I said I just wanted to make sure that the public knew that we had received the comments and then we were addressing it thanks great thanks

0:34:18the other thing is I just wanted to point out real quickly for those who don't have a copy of the agenda is that these fee is staying at 58 which is the same that's been charged well for a while now so uh the fee is not going up on that it's just uh um a yearly renewal

0:34:36of the same fee other comments promotion yeah I move approval of the resolution adopting the annual report and directing that storm drain fees for fiscal year 2010 and 11 be collected through the property tax rolls second all in favor aye opposed no no that was a yes

0:35:04okay yes okay then the vote is unanimous motion carries with that um just a second here we are moving on to which is the policy matter the Wireless Communications urgency ordinance so is this a gonna have a staff report yes I'll be delivering the staff report this evening thank you madam mayor

0:35:34um before you tonight is a proposal for a 45-day moratorium on the approval and issuance of new conditional use permits for wireless telecommunications facilities as those are defined in the municipal code currently the moratorium would apply to applications that have already been

0:35:51submitted and to conditional use permits that have been approved but for which vesting rights have not been yet obtained under existing case law during the moratorium period the city would continue to accept and process applications but would not schedule them for hearing with one exception which

0:36:09would be based on an applicant subbing information specifying that they believe that the application of the moratorium to their project would result in a violation of the 1996 Telecommunications Act the more terms in front of you tonight because staff reached a conclusion

0:36:25recently um that it would be an appropriate time to review the city's existing policies for wireless telecommunications facilities to include retaining a consultant to exist to assist with an examination of those regulations to look at several issues um for one we wanted to look at whether

0:36:43or not the existing regulations um are providing the maximum protection for public health safety and Welfare since the time that the council last adopted these regulations um there have been some changes in case law clarifying the areas in which um local government agencies can adopt

0:36:58regulations so we wanted to make sure that we were um that the city's existing laws are doing the most if they can to to protect the public health safety and Welfare balancing that against the recognized right of Wireless Communications companies to provide services and

0:37:14maintain competitiveness so so we wanted to review the existing regulations for that purpose we also wanted to look at whether or not there were opportunities to encourage the implementation of newer technologies that would potentially decrease the proliferation of of what we

0:37:30consider the common facilities of monopoles and Towers um that that are known to have um you know potentially have negative impacts on health safety and Welfare finally um as most of you are aware and as discussed in more detail in the in the staff report federal law prohibits local

0:37:50government agencies from considering radio frequency transmissions and the potential health effects of those in making its regulatory decisions however um there may be some additional indirect regulations that the city could impose to at least ensure that the facilities

0:38:06that are installed are meeting federal guidelines um and um potentially um doing more to provide public information about this about the issue so we wanted to look at whether or not there were some changes that could be made to the existing regulations to look at those issues without doing a foul of

0:38:23the federal law on prohibition on actually basing decisions on that issue what I hope is clear from the staff report is is that a significant issue for us that we kept coming back to as we were examining this issue was whether um it was really that even to non-experts like us it was immediately

0:38:42apparent that since since the existing regulations on the books were adopted there's been a rapid increase in the uptake of Wireless Services usage by the public there's been an explosion in the use of smartphones which has put a significantly greater Demand on the

0:38:58wireless infrastructure because of the data services that are being used mobile broadband devices are being increasingly used which is putting the same kind of pressure on the existing infrastructure and basically Broadband wireless service at home is doing the same

0:39:16um additionally even we were aware that many wireless companies have committed to rolling out what are typically referred to as fourth generation Wireless services within a couple of years and at this point it's uncertain what that's going to mean in terms of changes in the actual physical equipment

0:39:30that's going to be required as a result of that we just and and since we just kept coming back to that as an issue we decided that now would be an opportune time to re-examine the existing regulations to determine whether or not there are opportunities to accelerate the implementation of new

0:39:44technologies in El Cerrito bypassing some of the problems that other communities have experienced with the proliferation of Wireless facilities um if I could put that a different way we really wanted to explore whether or not we could develop a comprehensive Wireless plan for the city that would

0:40:00encourage new technology and eliminate or reduce the need for piecemeal development of traditional towers and monopoles balancing that against the desires of the community for wireless services and the needs of Wireless customers and companies um our intent is to contract quickly

0:40:16with an appropriate Consultants to undertake the study of those issues and bring back regulations or a plan for Council consideration as soon as possible the initial period of the moratorium is 45 days which is the maximum allowed under state law so we'd have to report back in that time and we

0:40:31fully expect not to have completed our review within that period state law allows for the council to at that point approve a 10 month and 15-day extension to take up to a year but we do anticipate completing the process of the the study and coming back to the council

0:40:46with the results of that and proposed regulations or a plan for the city within that within that one year time period and in fact we'll Target bringing it back as soon as possible um this ordinance is exempt from sqa for reasons that are explained in more detail in the written staff report

0:41:02and I did want to clarify that um as the basis for the urgency there's a great deal of detail in section four of the ordinance for the basis of that but also if this were processed as a normal ordinance it would take two readings it would not go into effect for 30 days

0:41:18which would provide a window of opportunity for new applications to be submitted um and depending on the timelines potentially make their way all the way to a hearing we wanted to ensure um that that the moratorium would go into effect immediately and prevent that

0:41:31situation from arising um based on all that staff recommends that the council approved by title way of further reading and adopt the attached ordinance on an urgency basis in Reliance on the findings contained in the staff report and the ordinance because it is an urgency ordinance under

0:41:45state law forfeits vote of the council is required for approval and I'm happy to take any questions that the council has the questions um what what is the planning commission's most recent action on this matter on any Wireless telecommunications facility or on the on the moratorium

0:42:04ordinance uh I guess on recent Wireless facilities I'd have to turn that over to Jennifer Carmen planning manager to discuss that um recently uh a couple months ago actually three months ago the Planning Commission held a public hearing over a T-Mobile application at Camp Herms the

0:42:29applicant was asked for a number of additional informational items and they have since delayed their application while they do additional work to gather more data to answer the Planning Commission questions thank you and I'd like to follow up on that by saying that

0:42:43that um you know there's no point in saying that that that that particular application didn't bring these issues to us to begin considering it but this is not a moratorium that's targeted a particular application or a particular site as we began thinking about that

0:42:57application and really considering the future of Wireless implementation throughout the city we we came to the conclusion that proposing the moratorium to the council would be the best approach um it does it is true that that will apply to the application that Ms Carmen

0:43:11just mentioned but it's certainly not targeted that this is a moratorium that will apply for for all telecommunications companies similarly and throughout the city as long as it's in effect wanted to make a comment that um having served on the Planning Commission

0:43:27almost a decade ago that we have reviewed numerous applications for cell phone towers and other facilities in El Cerrito and it's occurred over a period of time where the industry has evolved quite a bit as people may note from the way that we communicate with one another

0:43:43and the phones and the texting and everything else and that I think the staff report clearly indicated that there's been some pivotal legal decisions in the last two years since we last updated the Telecommunications ordinance that have significant effects for all

0:44:05the applications that come before us and so I just want to kind of give a little bit of background and perspective that um this is a whole industry it's a lifestyle um and quality of life aspect both in the facilities and the way we use our phones that requires the city to have a really

0:44:25well thought out approach to and that the recent legal decisions have rendered our existing ordinance to be perhaps not um doing as much as they can to allow us to fully consider the environmental and health effects of these facilities so I just thought I'd put out there a little

0:44:47bit of the background in terms of planning and the existing ordinance I've got comments okay any other questions um with that I'd like to uh is this a public hearing or it's not a public hearing but I think it would be appropriate to take public comment on the item okay right now okay okay are

0:45:09there any public comments I have eight speaker slips and the first speaker is Jeff Peters and I wanted to let people here know that for that are here for the first time that that cancels a lot of three minutes per speaker hello my name is Jeff Peters and I live

0:45:27at [address removed] in El Cerrito I am for the moratorium one of the things I feel is that Albany and Richmond have recently redone theirs in in the um and without El Cerrito redoing theirs we're going to end up with a city of towers because we have the weakest laws

0:45:51so I think that by strengthening our zoning on this it would be a great benefit to the city thank you very much thank you Gilda Puente Peters hello good evening Peters the residence of El Cerrito and an architect and a planner and I really want to thank you the city of El Cerrito

0:46:19for listening to the community concerns and I upload this action if it gets approved to consider this moratorium and revisit the city ordinance to strengthen regarding the proper siding of cell phone towers planning Asia is always an ongoing thing it we always technology

0:46:40advanced things change and therefore we have the obligation to respond to those actual changes by keeping our policies procedures and organizing in in tune with the ongoing changes I believe that there's a lot of criteria that needs to be looked at like the distance from any residences like in

0:47:04Europe they're doing 1300 feet to 500 the feet as a criteria or also the location the least performance is the least appropriate location is close to parks and to schools or where children frequent look at the alternative Technologies you know like underground fiber optics that will avoid these

0:47:26antennas and basically to look for all the current technology and working with the consultant at the city mentions to come up with a good answer that will be preventing any health hazardous conditions Public Safety and improve the welfare and the well-being of the

0:47:46community because we all care about the city I know you all do and thank you so much for considering this Pam Bennett foreign hi I'm Pam Bennett uh assistant a citizen of El Cerrito I support the moratorium to look at the wireless ordinance in El Cerrito the industry is

0:48:15changing very quickly and we are already outdated more cities have updated their Wireless zoning more studies are out there on health concerns and impact a wild wildlife in the environment and the question of EMF radiation from cell towers cell phones and smart meters is

0:48:31out there the industry is changing rapidly and cities are taking action 10 cities as I mentioned before including San Francisco have asked the FCC to update their standards and to repeal that Telecommunications Act of 1996. I support our city taking action we want a green City yet Wireless can

0:48:51ask for permits on non-residential land under conditional permit and all the zoning can be Exempted 66 feet 300 feet away from residents SQL requirements in all zoning um can be including utility properties Parks and Rec um can all then be Exempted because they're

0:49:14not on residential property such as the boy scout camp that was on Parks and Rec also right away is an issue because they're not on residential property so all our zoning don't um don't apply individuals can try and protect themselves um and have to when these things come

0:49:32out because they're not notified ahead of time or last minute they have to come up to speed on everything that's going on in the industry and try and look at um you know what are the what are the zoning what are the issues and so I think the city taking action and looking

0:49:47at what we need to put in place to make sure that we have updated um zoning is great Glendale is a good example there right now have a moratorium and they're looking at these um you know the the same things that I was talking about the non-residential areas they're looking at making sure the

0:50:05Public's informed um and knowledgeable Albany and Richmond have updated um zoning as well and there's a lot of people in the public membership now that have not voluntarily but become knowledgeable in the area other cities and zonings and I would suggest that some of us would like to help with

0:50:25Consulting on this because we know more than we really want to at this point one of the individuals from Richmond actually rewrote their Zoning for them and we've been working with her as well we have a green City we want El Cerrito to remain green and move towards more

0:50:41green EMF potentially impacts our environment and we should look at Alternatives such as fiber optics which is out there in the industry and being mentioned the tower at Camp Herms um by an engineering studies one of the most powerful sites can reach out 60 to 75 feet is is high power and it doesn't

0:51:01help reception in El Cerrito we've tested that we had to as a public go out and test as a wireless industry did so proving that there's a need was there proof that there was a need I don't know I applaud the city and the city council for taking action I hope we take strong

0:51:17action we want to work together and we want to put together a plan in El Cerrito El Cerrito is a target it's got It's a Hill City other places around as mentioned have stronger Wireless and so this is critical so thank you very much Rochelle Silverman thank you I live at [address removed] and I

0:51:45knew nothing about cell towers before I became involved in this issue and I also started reviewing our uh these El Cerrito Wireless telecommunications zoning ordinance and really going through it with a fine-tooth comb and trying to understand what the ordinance

0:52:01is about and I just wanted to read some things as stated in the ordinance in 19.28010 under purpose quote the regulations are intended to provide for the appropriate development of Wireless telecommunications facility with a city to meet the needs of residents business

0:52:20owners and visitors while protecting public health and safety and preventing visual blight and degradation of the community's aesthetic character and Scenic Vistas also under additional standards chapter 19.28040 location and sighting all facilities shall be designed and cited

0:52:40to minimize their visibility Dent visual clutter and reduce conflicts with surrounding land uses as used in this chapter readily visible means that a person with normal vision can see the facility and distinguish it as an antenna or other component of a wireless

0:52:54telecommunications facility and looking at these monopoles these trees I actually did go out to see one out in San Pablo Dam Road it's cited against a Chinese restaurant took lots of photos and it is it is just so fake looking also number three within the same chapter no facility shall be cited where

0:53:15it will be silhouetted against the skies viewed from a public park and again I'm referencing the the cell tower proposal campers um and it goes on it's so I I really applaud you for for presenting the possibility of this moratorium because I I could go on and and read many things that are in the

0:53:36wireless Telecommunications also from the planning excuse my notes the planning staff report dated January 20th um it states the the proposed under function the proposed monopine would be 77 feet above grade to the top of the foliage the facility would have a maximum of 12 antennas mounted at a

0:53:57height of 70 feet the proposed height exceeds the heights allowed in residential zones in El Cerrito however the proposed project is in the park and rec Zone which allows a Planning Commission to establish all development standards with a conditional use permit

0:54:12and my question was can't the Planning Commission not Grant a conditional use permit based on other findings or doesn't where it doesn't meet the other residential zoning requirements I also believe in living in a green City but Green's just not about recycling it's

0:54:28really about making smart choices for the health of the community and thank you for considering this Marina ratlio uh hi I'm Marina Ratner and I live on Source Barrel just across from the site where the cell tower came here through you know it's going to want to be erected I started very

0:54:59carefully with the ordinances of Berkeley Albany enrichment and I saw that there are much more Progressive than LCD to Ordnance and actually El Cerrito ordinance seems to me rather outdated for example all those three ordinances say that um this so the cell Telecom telecommunication facilities

0:55:22should be placed in the in a in the order of preference of which schools daycare centers parks are the least preferable and only if the company the company has an evidence that a tower is needed there that they should present uh unquestionable clear evidence that that

0:55:51that particular location is needed for the city um also uh some European countries set the established a setback from cell towers some thirteen hundred feet some 1500 feet there is nothing like this in LCD to ordinance also the ordinances of this neighboring cities have a provision

0:56:18requiring a regular uh monitoring and verification of emission levels of towers there is nothing like this in El Cerita ordinance um also has already been mentioned many cities and and in both Albany Berkeley and Richmond have sent requests to FCC to update the data about health risks

0:56:46and also to allow cities more flexibility in choosing the placement of those Towers San Francisco passed this this request about months ago and opening Berkeley did it several years ago but El Cerita didn't you know has not yet done this so uh [Music] I hope very much that you know I really

0:57:15wish to thank you for looking at this issue and I hope very much that I support the moratorium and I hope pretty much during this 45 days you will be able to update the El Cerrito ordinance and make it you know make it as Progressive as other cities have it so thank you very much

0:57:40Rosanna Craig good evening my name is Rosanna liba [address removed] and I'm also here to support the moratorium and also to um say that this Tower is not really needed now I personally did a survey in um the same way as the telecommunication companies do driving stationary and

0:58:12inside the homes and based on the map that T-Mobile submitted to you whether they say there were Pockets that there was no coverage at all or any at all and in all the areas that they show in the map that there was no coverage actually there was excellent coverage

0:58:33you know there are three ways I mean driving station in the car and also inside the homes and so I also I mean I think that this is not really needed no the coverage is excellent and I don't see any need for this Tower and I'm also I really appreciate you um thinking

0:58:53um thoroughly you know before you make the decision about this Tower thank you Diane Brenner good evening I'm Diane Brenner I live at [address removed] and I'm also here to express my support for this moratorium and thank you for your responsiveness to our concerns

0:59:21as the wireless technology advances and changes and as more scientific studies are appearing that raise concerns about the health hazard associated with some of this Wireless technology it's entirely appropriate for our city to establish a moratorium on permits for new towers while you

0:59:39reevaluate the available information please make sure you base any new rules on up-to-date information um I hope that the new ordinance or guidelines or rules whatever it's going to be that result will keep these installations at a safe internationally recognized distance

0:59:57from residences playgrounds day care centers senior centers and that the technology ultimately used will be the best safest available we all want Telecom to continue providing services but it must be the best available safest technology not just what's cheapest for them

1:00:15thank you the last speaker Andrew Newman I'm Andrew Newman from [address removed] El Cerrito and I want to thank you for putting forward its moratorium and I definitely do support it thank you comment at this time are there any comments or questions from the council

1:00:44I just wanted to um restate that this item today is not about a particular application or a cell phone tower and I also want to take a moment to go over the three important court cases that have occurred since El Cerrito last went over and drafted their ordinance in 2008 so

1:01:06there was this Sprint Technologies versus the county of San Diego which address the relationship of local ordinances to federal law also Sprint PCS assets versus the city of Palos Verdes estate which talked about aesthetic reasons for citing cell phone towers and that was in 2009 and again in

1:01:302009 a T-Mobile case um that looked at the different Alternatives and this issue of coverage and need for these facilities so these are the kinds of cases that are emerging that have emerged in the last two years and they are the part of the impetus for us to take a re-look and to

1:01:53redraft our ordinance and I appreciate all the comments that we've heard tonight and clearly there's a lot of support for undertaking review and revision to our ordinance thanks yeah try to be brief here the uh telecommunications is Ever Changing As We Know and it seems like there's technology and

1:02:16legal precedent being developed and clarified on a monthly basis still in 2010 the courts are considering and deciding and clarifying presidential precedent of Law and their impact is still being analyzed by the public and the industry case however we have to recognize that

1:02:37case law is becoming clear on the limitations for local governments that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the recent state laws in my personal opinion are a burden on a local agency in some cases counterproductive to community quality of life issues and and com customer

1:03:01service we're a governing board of a local agency and we're to be honest we're strapped by following current federal and state laws for an individual City such as El Cerrito to challenge would require resource levels that the city of El Cerrito cannot come close to affording

1:03:21I think we have a good basic current ordinance developed in 2008 and it's time to look at that and make the adjustments and update or ordinance uh where need be I just want to remind though the council and people out there then in 2008 staff and and the city council

1:03:44researched the issue and includes analysis from several ordinances of other cities including our neighboring cities and legal analysis by the league of California cities on the subject to telecommunication and there were public hearings conducted both in front of the Planning Commission

1:04:04and the city council in my opinion it's a good basic ordinance that follows the required federal law it's not padded with political fluff and by that I mean um there's things and ordinances of other cities in my opinion that uh puts in requirements that look good to

1:04:28Advocates but in all likelihood couldn't stand up to Legal challenges um however again we must take a look and be continued continually reviewing our ordinance as it relates to technical consumer products and legal changes in the field and I I favor the moratorium

1:04:50as stated by the impacts in in the ordinance in particular impacts 2 3 6 and 7.

1:04:59um that involve visual aesthetic issues and the study and implementation of new technologies and customer service we need to we need to do this because we need to assess what the future demand for services is do in part to the proliferation of new customer products

1:05:21as well as services and on as an example it just came across some information that there are handheld devices being manufactured now that will allow us to show and from handheld show in live broadcast the person you're talking to and we can do that on a laptop or a

1:05:45desktop computer but this will be handheld and I think you can see the next step in this which is broadcasting from your head held to different places all this takes a tremendous amount of bandwidth um and therefore I think we need to explore and put the pressure on the industry to

1:06:08provide new methods to address Transmissions of radio frequency do not that do not require numerous Tower constructions as stated here several times the current issue up at Arlington Park will be handled in due course and time my main concern and the reason for the support the mature

1:06:29moratorium are for all areas and neighborhoods in the impacts utility facilities place on our city our community like others already hosts numerous utility facilities on private property and in our public easements and right-of-ways these include utility lines and poles

1:06:50telephone posts cable utility boxes in our right-of-way and thank God I don't have one in front of my house but I know numerous people do and water hydrants a more telecommunication poles and Towers will only add to the decrease in the aesthetic quality of our community

1:07:09and again I I think we need to put the pressure on and keep the pressure on to improve the methods of delivery if we're to improve this quality of life issue and therefore I I was going to ask about the 45 days being enough but it was answered although I would like to say we

1:07:28we should have a full um research of of the issues and Analysis and public comment but I would like it as soon as possible um it isn't in anybody's interest to just drag this out and if if we're talking about a moratorium I think we're also saying it's a priority and we

1:07:49should address it in that regard and then lastly um oh well one thing is as we all know we cannot make any of these decisions that involve the health and of radio frequency transmission that's in the federal law it's been said over and over however I do for for those interested no matter

1:08:13what side of the the fence anybody's on this the World Health Organization came just came out announced today um their study it's a 10-year study it involves 13 000 people and the effects of mobile phone use and brain cancer risk and there's a lot of good information here this was a study

1:08:35conducted worldwide if you look back on the people in the organizations that commented on this and part of this we're talking worldwide Denmark Italy Mexico Canada United States several others there's there's four pages of credits on this thing and so um it's well worth reading I read the

1:08:58summary I glanced through the report uh it's going to take a while to get through the whole report but for those interested please look at it the World Health Organization is a third party organization recognized worldwide although not everybody agrees with their

1:09:17findings but anyway they're they're recognized worldwide as a authoritative organization on health thank you I support Mr Jones comments and I appreciate the time and effort that you put into making your comments um I do support the moratorium as an opportunity for us to gather more

1:09:43information so that we can come up with a plan for implementation of a service that many of our constituents are are using and require and demand for business and personal use so we we do need to have an organized approach to the to this uh to this a solution in the moratorium will

1:10:02provide us some of the time to do that action to go it's always necessary over time I think to update any kind of ordinance and in an industry that's as fast-paced and fast moving as a telecommunications industry where things are constantly changing and by that I

1:10:28mean there are a lot of improvements um you know I have an iPhone um you know those were unknown a couple of years ago and all of the technology that goes with that but along with that we have to think about how to handle that in our own community and so the ordinances that we've written

1:10:49and reviewed a few even a few years ago can easily become out of date so I appreciate this opportunity to step back and look at the ordinance and see how we might need to update it to more current times make it correctly reflect the needs of our community and our World At Large and across our whole

1:11:16city not just one particular application but all applications because as I think was mentioned by one of our speakers you know if you if you have something in one city but you don't have it in the next one well that City just becomes the place where something will happen and that will

1:11:36happen with any kind of thing so it's necessary I think to for all cities to look at their ordinances and create up-to-date ordinances that correctly reflect the requirements of government at the state and National level as well as our local requirements and so I welcome this opportunity and I

1:11:59look forward to a moratorium where we will have the ability to look at those different issues I do have one question I think about process and that question has to do with how will this um study be done well this who will be doing this and format will that take

1:12:22I think that the initial 45-day period is going to be an opportunity for us to more thoroughly assess how we're actually going to going to approach this how we want to structure the study and who we need to retain in terms of Consultants to actually assist staff

1:12:35with undertaking what we want to do because this isn't just a review of other ordinances that exist and try to figure out how to to adopt the approaches that we think are appropriate from other communities it's additionally an opportunity to look at the industry

1:12:49as a whole in the direction in which it's headed and try to figure out how we can um you know put El Cerrito into a position of comprehensively addressing the need for the development of Wireless facilities throughout the city so that's probably more than anybody on the staff is really

1:13:06in a position to do but we will and we also need to get some assistance to actually figure out how we structure that review so I expected our first 45-day period will involve initially that and I'll report back to you at that time we'll sort of give you a better

1:13:18understanding of where we're headed and as soon as I don't think there's any way this can be completed in 45 days so we'd report back at that time and give the council an opportunity to extend the moratorium for another 10 months and 15 days which is how state law has the

1:13:32whole thing structured I will say that if it if at any point we complete this and report back to the council with a complete package there's no reason the moratorium has to last 10 months and 15 days the council can cut it short at the time that it's satisfied that you've

1:13:45been provided with and had an opportunity to review and adopt a plan that addresses the needs of the community thank you are there any final comments from Council I just have a question on the procedural stuff so that means that after the results of the study are

1:14:03reported back then we also have a process to draft a new ordinance and approve that under our regulation is that all have to take place in the total of the 12 months or does the if the moratorium were to run out before we have implemented a new ordinance we would have a there is an opportunity to

1:14:20extend it for a second year so that though it's staggered the way state law has it staggered is 15 45 days 10 months and 15 days and then 12 months so there would be an opportunity to extend it beyond that if you weren't quite satisfied with what you had seen or we

1:14:37hadn't had an opportunity to fully address all the issues that we're hoping to address but we are very hopeful getting this done within the year or less I mean we'd like to get it done sooner than that thank you any last comments okay this is an urgency ordinance so it requires a

1:14:55four-fifths vote by the council is there a motion all right let's see I moved to adopt My Title Wave any further readings of emergency ordinance of the city of El Cerrito making findings establishing a city-wide moratorium on the issuance of conditional use permits for wireless

1:15:17telecommunication facilities pending a review of existing regulations of such facilities and study of opportunities to encourage the use of new technology that would eliminate or reduce the need for such facilities second all those in favor any abstention motion carries

1:15:42unanimously thank you that will go on to the last item on our agenda which is Council assignments in liaison reports and I think that some of my items have already been covered so I won't duplicate that but I will say that the Environmental Quality committee met

1:16:04and had a very [Music] um active session complete with a lot of audience participation on the chicken ordinance excuse me the animal ordinance I said that wrong most most of the people there were in fact expressing their feelings about chickens so it was a really good forum and it was

1:16:31one that made me quite happy that we in fact had an Environmental Quality committee because it was less formal than the formal council setting enabled people to talk and there was a bit of back and forth that went on in a positive way so I think it's provided a good form for

1:16:49issues like that and I hope to see that kind of a format repeated in on other issues may I ask something is this the one that had the singing and dancing and everything singing and dancing um not dancing but singing I don't think so but there were a few things oh okay there were three there

1:17:12were a few things I just heard from a person that there was uh singing and everything I well it's kind of an interesting meeting there were things that there were um it was not your usual meeting [Laughter] thank you okay uh soon uh which is briefly on the arts and

1:17:28culture commission I wanted to report that last week there was a public meeting to get input on I design ideas for the San Pablo Avenue streetscape public art project and that preliminary design efforts are ongoing for that project and also I wanted to invite everybody to visit our upstairs

1:17:46Second Floor Gallery space we have a new show up it's pastels from Pam fingato and they'll be up through June there isn't going to be an artist reception this round but they're beautiful drawings and I think everyone will enjoy checking them out thank you yes I just wanted to report that uh

1:18:07the Integrated Waste Management board or authority I should say we've been meeting it looks like June will be the time where we formalize the contract [Music] and we'll be going the the fees will be put in also uh the board herd testimony that El Cerrito and Richmond are well on

1:18:28their way to implementing their food scrap program and it looks like uh who is it uh San Pablo is also going to join the food scrap program for everybody else is considering it I I think within a year we'll have everybody on board for that as a regular service um

1:18:55and I will report we have a Planning Commission meeting this Wednesday and I will report our the moratorium results to them at that time thank you I have no updates the financial Advisory Board met last week and began reviewing some of the assumptions in the annual budget with no

1:19:21actions that we move we move very sad in memory of Robert Whittaker who grew up in El Cerrito and served in the El Cerrito Police Department for 34 years including police chief from 1974 until his retirement in 1980 and um he he one of the things that I I think is

1:19:54noteworthy um in a addition to being an excellent chief he brought us our current uh Chief by hiring uh Scott Kirkland um and um so I hope that you will join me in a moment of silence as we recognize the memory of Robert Whitaker thank you meetings adjourned I are in the seventh