City Council Meeting December 16, 2014

0:03:16mostly tonight and joining us we're waiting a few moments for council member lyman all right we have reached that hour and i would like to ask council member bridges to lead us in the pledge or a moment of silence i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the

0:04:00republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all are there any council or staff communications all right we're in the light holiday schedule for communication uh oral communications from the public for items not on the agenda yes mayor so

0:04:26far we have two i believe from the first is maria sahagan sahogan i'm very sorry and the second is howdy gowdy followed by al miller good evening i didn't expect to be called because i'm usually at the richmond city council meetings so it's a little different um my name is maria

0:04:50sagon and that's fine say hey again saigon doesn't matter i'm here representing d-cac which is the doctors medical center committee to to help avert the closure of the hospital and also representing the west contra costa county health care district i'm here in essence and the the

0:05:11committee was formed after so many years 15 20 years of the health care district and the community attempting to keep the hospital open we nurses and doctors came together and community members to say the hospital is incredibly important for the whole for the west county community and we

0:05:35must do something about it as a result the organization this little committee we've been able to um we were able to secure three million dollars from the state we were able to get the richmond city council to reallocate the community benefits agreement from the chevron of the 90

0:05:56million dollars and and so we're and the west county health care district now is in full force again fighting to keep this hospital open why we serve 250 000 people we are the only most importantly we are the only cardiac center between the area of vallejo and oakland and of course we act as a mini

0:06:21trauma unit within a county that has much crime in the um in west county we handle most of it so we are in need of this hospital i'm here tonight specifically to introduce and i passed out a resolution that was written in in together with the west coco county healthcare district the

0:06:48richmond city council and decact the the committee to avert the closure and i will email it to you and hope that we will that you will pass the resolution to support all of the efforts to keep our west county community hospital open essentially that's it i as you if you have any questions i'm

0:07:15here and available i will email you again and thank you very much for having me thank you very much for your comments how did your work to save the hospital howdy gowdy followed by al miller and tom and excuse me and donald hawks good evening my name is howdy gowdy i

0:07:39live at [address removed] i printed some materials for you um the letter from the water board regarding 1715 elm street and uh the newspaper article and the letter from the city responding to it i basically just wanted to bring this to your attention because you know i know you considered and voted

0:08:05to approve the project as is but i think as you'll find in reading that you know there are some details that still need to be worked out to make this you know a better project and um you know i think it's important to not just you know be satisfied we did good enough

0:08:25let's move on but actually you know this this is infrastructure that's going to be in our community for a long time and we want to get it right and there are you know significant concerns as have been um expressed by the water board and i think as you may have had a chance to

0:08:42see i you know i sent around a little uh video following the rains last week at you know how sensitive that creek is to increased rainfall it got you know closer than a foot to the top of its bank and um it really looked like there was not margin for you know more peak runoff which would be

0:09:02associated with um you know the hardscape that's going to be added to that site and and the idea of building so close to it you know less than three feet on one side just seems like it would be ill-advised it's like putting too much risk into a situation to um you know not to mention what it does to

0:09:26impede the the potential for the creek to be restored or be a better amenity to the site but it just is um you know detrimental to the built environment as well as the natural environment so i hope that you will um you know direct staff to you know seriously negotiate with the developer

0:09:47about ways to um widen the creek corridor possibly you know trading the value that he donated the house you know perhaps that could become a unit compensate for other units i mean i think there's solutions here that don't mean you know the developers out of a lot of money he already

0:10:06generously donated quite a bit of value and we could redirect that value to a part of the project that that needs attention whereas the house donation as nice as that is no one was really asking for it and we really need an improved treatment for that creek so that's my comment thank you thank you

0:10:27very much good evening mayor mark mayor friedman and it's nice to be able to say that again council members and staff i wanted to mention a few words on the sunder shoddy holiday display that is up and running again and acknowledge the efforts that our local boy scout troop and our

0:10:50firefighters are both from kensington station and the osrido station and mayor pro-tem lyman put in in setting it up and other people that were involved in that i think it's one of the truly unique and wonderful things of our city in addition to the happiness it brings

0:11:14to all of the people that come up there even in the rain to see it it's a great community building uh project and effort and we should continue to take advantage of it so the advertising is is that the shoddy display on mosher lane near where chevrolet not shovel and sea view comes

0:11:34in open every evening from 5 p.m to 10 p.m every night through and including saturday december 26th and i'd like to invite everybody especially those that have never done it before to assemble on that same site saturday morning the 27th about nine o'clock when we start to tear it down

0:11:58and put it away again for the year in a way it's like el cerrito's brigadoon only we don't have to wait a hundred years for it to appear with the significant effort of many people it appears on the mists of moshe lane once a year and i'm hoping that we're able to continue to ensure that happens

0:12:22thank you thank you very much david hawks followed by tom panis david don i'm sorry donald hawks yes thank you thank you mr mayor council members excuse me last time i was dressed like this for a formality going up come from the pool i was going to the pool and i was arrested by the el

0:12:51cerrio police over here across from the cheap hotel down down the down the street had my hands on the top of the car and very embarrassed just to go swimming uh nevertheless i apologize for the attire i'm not normally dressed this way i've just come from swimming this time

0:13:13not on the agenda but i've addressed this with the engineer on about five or six occasions different engineers each time it's the storm drain at 500 sea view avenue the storm drain is a small one and has no provision for cleaning out other than several oh i'd say they're about a six inch pipe

0:13:34that's stuck in the ground there's a natural creek coming off of the cemetery the problem is that the cemetery gathers water it's like a sponge it gathers the water up and after a few nice rains like we've had it's saturated so then you get a a cloud burst and you've got that storm drain problem

0:13:56it overflows it comes down on the residents that part of sea view is on uh mixed type construction uh founding uh it's a problem and we're gonna have a trouble with it one of these days i've seen it since 1970 probably 10 times i that's an estimate but on one fat tuesday we had people out

0:14:23we had a a fish ladder in our backyard uh washing rearranging our our yard and that was going on for quite a while our neighbor had uh more serious problems and this year we're starting we may be on cycle with el nino or el nino when we have that problem it's it's insured probably on something

0:14:53like a flood basis for 50 years or something like that it's not the actual experience is above that and at least this was from the discussions i had with the engineer so the city's going to have an insurance problem we're going to be paying out on that i thought

0:15:12maybe you might it's an appropriate time to be mentioning second another item that's not on the agenda but i've got one item longer item here that is on the agenda it's about green i'm a former naval aviator so i've done a lot of flying in the atmosphere and i know that

0:15:36predictability and unpredictably of it we used to call going to the meteorologists and those people a wag does anybody know what a wag is i'm sorry that red light is on oh was that the time i'm sorry that's a wag go ahead and finish your thoughts anyhow that was because of the the green uh

0:16:00attitude that we're taking on is one that um i believe more still have been having been in it for a long time a father god rather than mother nature uh mother nature is unpredictable father god tells how to do it now the other thing i'm sorry when i said finish up i meant

0:16:20just like another sentence or two very quickly um we're getting guides out i've been in uh on three different occasions talking to people about these guides we're doing is we're advertising our city services to other cities i personally picked 500 to 1 000 of these

0:16:39things out of the trash at berkeley at the landscape stations and it's very expensive for the city it cost items thank you very much for bringing that to our attention and thank you for coming thank you for your time yes thank you and uh final uh tom pandas followed by maria

0:17:01and again good evening mayor friedman members of the council and city staff my name is tom panos and i live at [address removed] el cerrito i just wanted to point out that upstairs we have an employee art exhibit great stuff and always shows us uh another side of our employees thanks

0:17:18very much thank you and mr miller i think december 26 is a friday okay that's it right yes thank you very much next up is a presentation from the design review board their work plan will be presented by margaret laylee uh chair of the design review board thank you so much for coming to share

0:17:47with us okay hi good evening everybody and mr kinto you're the only person i haven't met before so hello and welcome noelle has given you all a packet of information and as usual pretty thorough and covers everything in writing i'm going to go through his slides in powerpoint and i'm not going

0:18:30to read everything i'll let people see them but this is our work plan for 2015.

0:18:38um the mission statement here which is available to everybody written and that all of you are undoubtedly aware of for people in the audience it's preserving enhancing following the general plan encouraging good design essentially for all applicants these are what we consider our guiding

0:19:00principles again they're taken from the city's strategic plan so they're known to the city council in the mayor and our values mainly responsiveness to the applicants to come before us again here communication on our part as a board in open dialogue with all of the applicants

0:19:20and public that come before us and this goal which i don't think anyone would have any issue with deepening a sense of place and community identity um so these are the work plan tasks that we've laid out for the coming year we we broke them into four tasks and we'll address those during our meetings

0:19:44and in special meetings that we have when there's nothing on our agenda but we meet for work studies or discussions and the first task which is what we're going to talk about tonight and what the board has been reviewing is creating materials to give to applicants

0:20:02and property owners when they come to the front counter and they're looking for applications for either new building or improving their building or they're just starting a business so i think the second paragraph our goal is to encourage simple measures that contribute to place making

0:20:21highlighting the building frontage and strengthening the pedestrian scale of san pablo avenue is is a pretty good summation of what we're focused on as a board and then we have slides here so this is an example of the area that we will be addressing this isn't an actual site but

0:20:39it shows um the street frontage sidewalk uh seating areas and then building frontage so it gives just a it's a placeholder for what we will be looking at and then we have a series of slides we're looking at landscaping planters seating art walls those are generally the types of

0:21:02of ideas that we're trying to encourage and so the goal is to have a series of images that are simple some may be more complex or complicated but ways to encourage developers and property owners to see things visually that they may not think of themselves so these are examples from around here

0:21:21this is richmond on the left and albany on the right this is berkeley down on 4th street again 4th street this is albany so these are all just landscape ideas how to how to make your entryways better signage and then bike racks these the bike racks would be in the right-of-way so they

0:21:46would be out of outside of our purview but we would encourage anybody that wants more bike racks in front of their building to ask for them and then we would be referring them to the city standard for bike racks that are all along san pablo avenue now that's el cerrito this is these are from

0:22:04walnut creek i believe again walnut creek so pretty simple measures to highlight entrances to give some screening from windows and to make a more inviting entryway for businesses here's an example of wall treatment this would be considered a costly or complicated idea but it's just

0:22:24a something to generate ideas because it incorporates planting and it makes use of what would otherwise be a blank wall facing the street this is here at elevation 66 and then here's sidewalk seating so our goal here is to encourage people businesses to have seating on the

0:22:44sidewalk at the same time that we're going to be reminding them of ada access so nothing would be in the way of the required width of the sidewalk some of these that we'll show may be very narrow and not applicable here's a little courtyard entryway again i think

0:23:01in walnut creek there's a future city planner on the right on the left that's noelle's daughter for anybody that doesn't know and another way to have open space from your restaurant in this case onto the street with with something that still gives you a sense of separation

0:23:20from pedestrians this is the cheese board on the left um we're including this just to show what something like a simple the simple addition of a very simple bench can do to to make an inviting area for people to stay in starbucks um here's an example of sidewalk seating

0:23:38so i think this would be an example where there's it's a little too narrow really for what we would encourage but it it highlights the idea and there's another one where they're seating in the right of way [Music] and then also we'll be making schematic drawings these

0:24:01would be generalized these are just examples of what we would show people to help explain where their building frontage is where the the clear area of sidewalk has to be where ada access would be and that nothing could be impinging on those at the same time showing them where the

0:24:20spaces are that they could make improvements so this would be done on an individual basis since all the storefronts all the business fronts along san pablo would have their own individual areas of setbacks and i think that's it so that's our plan and as a board we know that

0:24:41we can do we can encourage people to do these things none of them will be required but our goal is to first put together a brochure excuse me that can be handed out to people at the counter and then something that doesn't need printing would be a pdf that would be available

0:24:57for download because everyone on the board has a lot of images of really great examples of design and so we'll be putting together a pdf that can just be looked at on someone's tablet or downloaded that again we'll just be full of examples of how people can address this area

0:25:15thank you for a great presentation are any of your fellow members of the design review board also here thank you for coming thank you for all your work is there any public comment before we take questions and comments from my colleagues not on this item there was

0:25:29just one on uh from maria sahagun on item 5b okay thanks yeah i just want to as your outgoing liaison i want to thank you for having such a proactive view of development in el cerrito that you guys are going to help accelerate the design process by getting ideas out there so that we can

0:25:51proactively guide our our developers to achieve innovative and and intriguing designs in the city so thank you to to both of you that are on the committee and please express my gratitude to the rest of the committee you're very welcome any other comments or questions

0:26:08thank you so much that was terrific i really appreciate the creative thinking and all the work that went into this and thank you noel for your work okay we're going to move on to the consent calendar although we did have somebody who wanted to comment on a consent calendar item rather than remove

0:26:26it why don't we go ahead and hear from maria [Music] well hi thank you very much for having me i'm really i was really happy to see this on the item which is the proclamation declaring to any uh december 2014 as a human rights month and i think that's really beautiful and

0:26:49in keeping with that proclamation and hopefully all of you embracing it to ensure that we as a community embrace continue to embrace freedom justice and equality for all of us i want to remind you what our west county community right now is facing again west county being the cities that are

0:27:13included between the areas of panel hercules all the way through here el cerrito we have the highest incidences of cancer within all of contra costa county and we have the cancer center there um currently our patients some of our patients are being displaced and having

0:27:32to receive treatments all the way to wanted having to travel all the way to walnut creek three times a week we have incredibly disproportionate rates of heart disease diabetes and asthma and our children diagnosed with asthma are more likely to be hospitalized relative to the

0:27:52to other children in the whole county 75 percent of violent crimes and homicides occur in west county relative to the rest of the county and so you can imagine we see a lot of that at doctors medical center and unfortunately a lot of the cases happen to be youth and in regards to the ada

0:28:14and accessibility and ensuring that our community that requires access continues to have medical access we have approximately 400 skilled nursing beds within the two mile radius of our hospital so already some of the nursing home patients and some of the patients or some of our

0:28:38clients that come in for wound care are having to go elsewhere since august when we implemented our ambulance diversion we have already seen see three deaths related to uh us not accepting ambulances one died at alta bates another one happened to be the father of our own janitor who

0:29:03had a heart attack and he had to be transformed it was transported all the way to vallejo and as we know time is muscle in regards to the heart time is brain cells and so we are cardiac center stroke center we've we're one of the top seven centers in regard in cancer in the whole country and we must

0:29:26because we house some of the poorest communities also within the whole of contra costa county we must all be not only pass the proclamation to ensure freedom and equality and justice thank you but also make it work and participate thank you very much thanks uh we now move on to item five which is

0:29:51a consent calendar items 585e i'll move to adopt items 5a through e second been moved and seconded all in favor signify by saying aye aye motion carries unanimously now we move on to two public hearings the first is about joining the marin clean energy joint powers

0:30:14authority and the second will be about approval of various zoning ordinance text amendments so i'd like to welcome maria sanders interim environmental services and i'm announcing the public hearing and introducing maria interim environmental services and operations

0:30:30division manager thank you good evening mayor friedman and members of the council i um as mayor freeman mentioned my name is maria sanders and i'd also like to introduce don weiss who's the executive officer of marine clean energy so she's here as well tonight is the culmination of the city's

0:30:52process to consider joining mce and to implement a community choice aggregation program in el cerrito and we're holding this public hearing and asking you to consider two actions one to adopt the resolution requesting membership in the mce joint powers authority and two to

0:31:11adopt an ordinance authorizing the implementation of a community choice aggregation program and approving the mce jpa agreement and authorizing the city manager to execute the agreement community choice aggregation programs have been allowed to operate in california under

0:31:33ab-117 this enables local governments and groups of local governments to procure electricity and set generation rates that meet desired goals but pg e still gets to deliver the electricity and is still responsible for billing repair and other essentials under a cca

0:31:51so this means that mce customers are also pg e customers and are entitled to all the pg e programs and services from a customer perspective the unique thing about ccas is that there are opt-out programs so this means that customers in a cca jurisdiction are automatically enrolled in

0:32:11the cca unless they opt out to stay with pg e in our case mce would if we join mce would engage a robust community outreach process to give customers ample and frequent notice of their options during an enrollment process mce was the first community choice aggregation program in california

0:32:36it started providing electricity and calif to customers in 2010 since then they're been providing electricity to over 145 account holders in marin county and the city of richmond this upcoming year they will also be providing services to unincorporated napa county

0:32:55and the cities of san pablo and benicia and mce is a local government non-profit joint powers authority whose board of directors consists of the elected officials from each of the jurisdictions that participate the city of el cerrito has been studying uh the concept of implementing a cca and

0:33:17joining mce since about 2012.

0:33:22we've done so because the cap has identified that the ccas are a significant and cost effective way to achieve our greenhouse gas reduction goals and as a part of that process the environmental quality committee spent numerous meetings considering the various options available to the city

0:33:42which culminated in a recommendation to council to to request that mce conduct a membership analysis for el cerrito council has heard several presentations from mce including most recently the city council study session that was conducted on november 18th and during that time there was detailed

0:34:03presentation on what cca is who mce is and the services that it offers the process for joining mce the results of the membership analysis which were positive and the benefits and the potential risks of joining mce and i invite any of those who are in the audience who

0:34:26want more detail on these issues to review the study session on the through the city website and as a result of that study session city council directed staff to continue pursuing membership um and uh to bring account an ordinance back um an ordinance joining mce and implementing

0:34:45the cca in el cerrito back for your consideration during that time this last month we held a public process to gain community input on this decision and over the past month in advance of this public hearing we've advertised on the prospective action in the papers the garbage bill newsletter

0:35:08had a community meeting on december 3rd which had very good participation we solicited comments also through the open el cerrito online form and and those are those are all there for everybody to view and we had about 50 to 70 people participate in all these different

0:35:26arenas and the public public comments were overwhelmingly positive about joining mce we did get a couple questions about the role of renewable energy certificates or wrecks in mce supply portfolio so we've included that in a discussion of that in your council packet

0:35:47and um in your supplemental we've also provided the results of the online form so with that i conclude my presentation and and invite questions thank you thank you very much questions from council yeah there's a article or one of the comments in the supplemental was about the

0:36:11difference between a leasing program for home solar and owning your home solar and also that same commenter wanted to make sure that the environmental quality committee had an opportunity to participate in the public outreach so i was just wondering if you could respond

0:36:26to those two comments quickly yes um so my understanding and don can chime in uh whenever um uh it's more appropriate for her to do so um that it wouldn't really change any of the relationships that you have with the leasing agreement it's a it's a contract between the owner and the lessor i mean

0:36:45the the solar company so my understanding is that it wouldn't change any of the terms there um you'd still get your net energy this however it's done now under a pg e net energy metering system it would be the same way um and um yes i'm looking forward to working with the eqc quite a bit on the

0:37:04outreach process thank you um there were some comments made i think at some of the public forums about the shell energy north america contract and i know that um in our study session that was due to expire around 2017 would it be anticipated that that would be renewed do we know i will leave that

0:37:23part good done yeah thank you for the question um we have about 17 different supply contracts in our portfolio right now the contract we have with shell energy north america is set to expire in the time frame you mentioned um and we're looking at rolling in other supply contracts to fill that gap

0:37:46so but i'm happy to say more if you if you want more information on that no that's adequate um the other thing is is um the local stall that's coming on in nova nevada um i think that you had mentioned in the study session there were quite a few jobs that were going to be associated

0:38:01with that um for the bay area and i think you may have mentioned in passing that some of those were going to be union jobs could you just explore that a little bit absolutely just had a very big meeting yesterday with the laborers union and we're also working with

0:38:16representatives from the ibew 1245 on the coulee quarry project and the construction is expected to begin in march and the commercial operations date is scheduled to be in the june time frame but yes we do expect there will be union jobs and local jobs created through that

0:38:35program as well as some apprenticeship jobs as well and opportunities for training and i had a question about if if a person is obviously opting in and they're going to go with light green can you switch from light green to dark green and back to light green without penalty or time

0:38:53frame is there time frames associated with that there's actually no penalty for switching and they're the only time frame constraints is that the switch has to happen on your meter read date during the course of a month so we may not be able to switch you tomorrow but at your

0:39:07next meetery date the switch would happen thank you uh other questions please um if i could ask uh the same question about if one was switched either to or from pg e because i thought there was a penalty there right there is a constraint if you um switch back to pg e

0:39:30you will be required to stay with pg e for 12 months minimum before you can leave pg e we don't have any um stay requirements with mce you can opt out anytime but no financial no if you if you choose to opt out of mce after the six-month enrollment period there will be a one-time

0:39:52administrative charge that's five dollars for a residential account and twenty five dollars for a commercial account thank you any additional questions okay now i will open the public hearing and call for speakers mayor freeman we have nine speakers al miller followed by mark

0:40:14miner and tom panis good evening mayor council members i'm al miller live at [address removed] first i would like to support and be associated with the written comments the excellent written comments submitted in your e-packet by uh howdy gowdy uh one thing i'd like to add that

0:40:40uh page marked three in the agenda packet the e packet anyway in the last paragraph the first bullet under risks of joining mce the first sentence under there addresses a risk the second sentence is while this provision significantly limits risks of liability to members it

0:41:08does not isolate them from all risk before voting up or down it would be interesting i think to hear you discuss the type of risks or what these risks are that el cerrito would not be isolated from thank you thank you mark miner followed by tom panis mayor friedman council members staff my

0:41:37name is mark miner and i reside at [address removed] i am also chair of the environmental quality committee the eqc has been following community choice since probably before mce went live in 2010 so we started out following it then studying it and ultimately we've been

0:41:56endorsing it and advocating for the idea it has a lot of benefits that have been discussed before but it really will be the linchpin in el cerrito achieving our climate action plan is the single largest item it provides choice to the consumers competition in the marketplace

0:42:15innovation in energy efficiency programs and new ideas to reach hard hard to reach markets like multi-family and really the inclusive decision-making process i think will help us move from where we are today to where we want to be five ten years into the future

0:42:33one of the real keys to making this a success the jobs the energy circulating in our economy local resiliency is really building out local renewable resources and mc's gotten a great start with that with their local soap prog and others and i anticipate that continuing in the future

0:42:52we've taken a good hard look at the use of unbundled wrecks in their light green product and i'm convinced that the product is um better than the alternative with pg e but perhaps not the 50 versus the 22 percent if you just look at those pure numbers of the renewable content

0:43:11and it would be nice to have people really realize how important it would be to move to the dark green to spend that other painting a kilowatt in order to really achieve and not be so happy and feeling comfortable with the 50 like green that they're doing really really

0:43:29really really great it's just really great so thanks and i think this is a very happy day thank you very much tom panas followed by dave mccord and dave weinstein tom i i think if you want to help global warming just give us one copy of your written comments each time and we'll

0:43:53pass them along good evening mayor friedman members of the council and city staff my name is tom panis and i live at [address removed] and el cerrito i'd like to thank the staff of both el cerrito and we're in clean energy for working so hard to get materials put together for the council so our

0:44:08residents can take advantage of this terrific community choice aggregation option the fact that we're coming at the very last minute hasn't made anyone's life easier and i sincerely appreciate the efforts of all those involved this wouldn't have happened without the

0:44:21hard work of the eqc and i'd certainly like to thank the council for directing staff to move forward aggressively to take advantage of this opportunity i urge the council to adopt this resolution and direct our city manager to enter the proposed joint powers agreement marine clean energy i'm also

0:44:36looking forward to being a part of the program and supplying energy from my solar panels into the jpa one last thought my understanding is that by entering this jpa we'll be essentially heating our climate action plan goals for greenhouse gas reduction several years early do we need to update

0:44:51the climate action plan goals so we have a new goal to which we expire or else cerrito and we can do it thanks thank you very much i met david mccord and i'm at [address removed] in at apartment one here in el cerrito and i'm really excited to be about to enroll in a deep green

0:45:25in may and looking forward to that we've got some big rooftops on our shopping centers so where i'd love to see solar put in as part of mce as soon as possible and i've seen the results of the survey that was in the packet overwhelmingly for mcc mce and 80 percent for a deep queen

0:46:02thank you very much dave weinstein followed by howdy gowdy and steve barton uh mayor and council yeah thanks a lot to let me speak i'm a member of the eqc when i joined the eqc there was a real sense of crisis about you know the climate crisis and we really wanted to

0:46:18get something going like this right away it's been frustrating that's taking this long but i'm really glad to see that it's happening next thing of course is to get something going with a pace program too because this i think i mean the eqc has done a lot of really

0:46:33good work in the however many years that i've been on i think this is probably i would say undoubtedly the most significant thing we've done in terms of reducing uh greenhouse gases and i'm really looking forward to it and thank you very much thank you so good evening mayor and city council

0:46:58members my name is howdy gaudi i live at [address removed] um i did submit written comments which you've probably already seen so you know i'm wildly in favor of this action of joining the cca with mca mce and i think it's just important to reiterate that this is you know offering

0:47:19our citizens you know a democratic choice a way to express their values in their purchase of electrical power and i think you know that's very important not only to improve our greenhouse gas emissions but just to to give people options and to increase choice in the community so

0:47:45um i am also a member of eqc and i look forward to um participating in the the outreach and i hope that el cerrito will be able to meet the goal of you know meeting richmond's very impressive enrollment and and opt up statistics so we will do our best to try to get as many uh residents to opt up so

0:48:09thanks bye thank you very much mr barton followed by robin mitchell and bill coolman hi i'm steve barton i live up on king drive and i just want to say that i'm really thrilled that you're going ahead with this and providing people the public option in the energy field that

0:48:29we are not getting in our new health insurance system and i think it's really wonderful and thank you very much thank you i'm robin mitchell and i live at [address removed] and i just wanted to add my support um for joining mce and becoming part of the cca community

0:48:52and i do think that one of the most important things about it is the democratization of how we get our energy and i also think that we probably can't meet our greenhouse gas goals if we rely just on an investor owned utility it's just not in their best interest to do all the things that they

0:49:09need to do in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly so i support your voting for this thanks thank you very much good evening council members my name is bill coleman and i live at [address removed] in el cerrito and i'm here tonight to encourage you to adopt

0:49:31this resolution and move forward with the joint powers agreement i believe that there is a significant portion of our population el cerrito that are looking for the opportunity to vote with their wallets for sustainable clean energy and i recommend that we give them

0:49:48that choice thank you thank you very much that was the last speaker okay i will entertain a motion to close the public hearing close the public go ahead and close the public clearing second moved in second in it all in favor say aye aye carries unanimously now we will consider the motion to

0:50:08approve the ordinance uh any comments before we do that yeah please um so you know when we had our study session our city attorney gave quite a dialogue about how jpas by virtue of what they are and help protect us legally um we were given a link to look at i don't

0:50:32know what the liability that they covered i actually couldn't dig that out i don't know if any of you did but um as far as what the jpa covers but there was a lot of discussion about limits of negligence piercing the corporate veil the alter ego and if maybe you could

0:50:49just expand upon that again so before we vote as one of the speakers suggested if you could just kind of give a little sense about that sure i can do it try to do a shorter version of it this time i think any kind of version is fine i didn't mean to say that it was too

0:51:06long so the general structure of a joint powers authority can be set up to separate the liabilities and debts and obligations of the jpa from the member agencies and it's that's authorized under state law and it's fairly typical that a jpa does that the the jpa for marine clean energy

0:51:34includes such a provision and specifically indemnifies the member agencies for a host of potential claims by third parties there is however a provision of state law that allows for that places a limit on the ability of the jpa to separate its liabilities and obligations from

0:52:00those of the member agencies and so in the event of some narrow types of cases um a third party could attempt to come after the members of the jpa including the city of el cerrito and but in order to do that they would have to essentially demonstrate that the [Music]

0:52:30the jpa and the city or other member agencies were in fact alter egos they were the same essential entity um and that therefore um that's that separation of corporate identity should not be a shield against um um forcing the individual members of the jpa to share in the liability that is

0:52:51alleged um it's a fairly high standard um but i but the caution that i had about it in the previous staff report was that in some circumstances third parties attempting to cover significant financial losses might in fact have an incentive to make those kinds of arguments to try to

0:53:16find as many pockets as possible to cover their financial losses so the structure of the jpa itself under state law provides some protection and the mce jpa not only provides that protection but also indemnifies the member agencies for losses and would and would attempt to

0:53:36provide a defense there are however because of the nature of state law some circumstances under which a third party seeking to find parties with money to pay for damages could attempt to allege that el cerrito should in fact be held liable despite those protections

0:53:55do you know if there's been any test cases where jpas have actually where there's been issues with that the lawsuits um there are no reported cases as of the last time i looked at this i'm when um i believe that the discussions at the time that um mcu was set up there was

0:54:12some review of whether or not there were any trial court cases out there and i believe i would have remembered if it had come up and i don't remember any cases so this is the the case law that the alter ego theory is based upon would apply equally to the jpa structure

0:54:30as it would to corporate entities but i don't believe that there are any reported cases as to jpas thank you you're welcome thanks for that clarification other comments i'd be happy to make a motion yeah please okay i'd like to move an ordinance of the city council of the

0:54:48city of el cerrito authorizing the implementation of a community choice aggregation program approving the marin clean energy joint powers agreement and authorizing the city manager to execute the joint powers agreement with marine marine clean energy i consider this the most

0:55:08important piece of thing that we have done to on our climate action plan second okay okay okay no problem it's been moved in second and all in favor signify by saying hi hi it's unanimous i just want to add my comments of how glad i am and happy of all the work that the

0:55:33eqc did and thank you for all the members who came working with staff and with marin clean energy and it wasn't mentioned tonight but the last time it was mentioned we're getting in under the wire before they close to new members so that makes it uh all the more

0:55:49important that we take this action tonight so thanks everyone that was involved we you want me to make the motion on the ordinance yeah okay i'd like to move an ordinance of the city council of the city of el cerrito authorizing the implementation of a community choice

0:56:07aggregation program approving the marin clean energy joint powers agreement and authorizing the city manager to execute the joint powers agreement with marin clean energy second all in favor aye aye motion carries unanimously thank you all right we're moving on to our next

0:56:28public hearing which is approval of various zoning ordinance text amendments and the staff presentation will be made by margaret kavanagh lynch our developmental services manager good evening mayor members of the city council i am margaret cavanaugh lynch development services manager

0:56:45a very brief presentation this evening i know that these definitions are all in your staff report the purpose of this evening's report is to introduce three text amendments to the el cerrito municipal code the first two come from our current housing element the housing policy

0:57:01program section uh mandated that the city change its definition for transitional and supportive housing to match the government code and i know that both the current and the proposed definitions are in your staff report but to read into the record the proposed definition for transitional

0:57:19housing buildings configured as rental housing developments but operated under program requirements that require the termination of assistance and recirculating of the assisted unit to another eligible program recipient at a predetermined future point in time that

0:57:33shall be no more than six months from the beginning of assistance and the new definition for supportive housing to be housing with no limit on length of stay that is occupied by the target population and that is linked to an on-site or off-site service that assists the supportive housing resident

0:57:51in retaining the housing improving his or her health status and maximizing his or her rights or excuse me ability to live and where possible work in the community this will complete the program section of our current housing element and as you know our new housing

0:58:08element is right on our heels so this is just doing our last minute uh dotting our eyes and crossing rts the third text amendment is really um the ability of the zoning administrator to have a little um latitude when we have an unusual lot configuration our current zoning ordinance is very

0:58:28specific about how it defines lot lines and it does not allow for any consideration of an irregular lot or a spot where a road actually ends at a proposed at a existing property so the staff humbly recommends that you adopt the following addition to the definition

0:58:50of lot line in case of unusual circumstances the zoning administrator may use their discretion to reassign front side and rear lot line types in a way that best serves the spirit and intent of the zoning ordinance that's to give us a more of an ability to um look at what the best definition

0:59:07would be for that particular lot and and set setbacks and fence heights accordingly so it's a very quick staff report i'm glad to answer any questions you might have thank you very much thank you questions no there are no questions all right we will now open the public hearing and

0:59:24call for speakers i have no request to speak mayor all right we're going to close the public hearing move to close second and moved in second and all in favor say aye aye the public hearing is closed unanimously now we will consider a motion to approve the ordinance unless there's further

0:59:44comments or questions i'm going to move it but i'm going to make a quick comment there was an npr article on this last weekend about the importance of housing in with regards to health and doctors hospital has been talked about this evening and in the article the news article essentially

1:00:04would say that if we can provide a house to a homeless person their visits to the emergency room would drop by an order of magnitude and so it housing is something that's going to be very important and we'll take it up in our next item with that i would prove a a

1:00:23move emotion an ordinance of the city council actually is it a motion or is it just a motion it's an ordinance it's an ordinance okay i'm moving i'm proposing an ordinance of the city council of the city of el cerrito to amend title 19 of the el carito municipal code to amend

1:00:39definitions relating to supportive housing transitional housing and lot line types second moved in seconded all in favor signify by saying aye aye motion carries unanimously thank you very much we will now move on to policy matters the first is the draft 2015 2023 housing element update

1:01:10thank you good evening evening mayor friedman and council members i am hildy mile your housing program manager and i am here this morning to give you this this evening to give you a presentation on the draft housing element update for 2015-2023 the suggested agenda tonight is i'm going to

1:01:43give you a very brief overview of what's in the housing element it's a very uh there's a lot in the document so i'm going to move quickly and then move through these proposed housing policy programs and then turn it back to you for any discussion myself and margaret cavanaugh lynch have

1:02:00been the leads on working on this project with consultant mintier harnish as you are familiar with the general plan is the city's guiding policy document for development the housing element is one of those seven elements of the general plan it's unique in that it gets reviewed by the

1:02:22california department of housing and community development every eight years so it must be compliant with state law it is a plan to meet the existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments of our community it is acknowledged that the city does not

1:02:37build housing but we need to demonstrate that we can plan for it so what is new in this current cycle is the eight year time frame we are getting in sync with sb 375 climate change goals the regional housing needs allocation which is the state's allocation to each

1:02:59community of its fair share of housing need that is also tied to the sustainable community strategy and there is a new component to plan for housing for persons with developmental disabilities in addition to other special needs there are some consequences if we do not

1:03:17comply and adopt a certified housing element the city would become ineligible to receive measure j return to source funds which is approximately four hundred thousand dollars per year the city would become ineligible to receive certain state funding and we would be required to carry over

1:03:34any unmet regional housing needs allocation to the next period so this is a fairly minor update changes are highlighted in the draft document largely a lot of new demographic and market data evaluation of how we've met the last period implementation incorporating our recent

1:03:53planning elements which is the climate action plan and the san pablo avenue specific plan and then updating local programs as needed this proposed schedule would ensure that we stay in compliance with state time frames the latest we can adopt and still be compliant would be may

1:04:112015.

1:04:15so these uh five goals are not new they're in the existing housing element and there are some minor tweaks to them but what i would suggest we focus on is the programs that follow under these goals so i will go through these quickly the new these are largely existing that we

1:04:35continue to carry over such as code enforcement as an important activity to protect our existing housing supply but new suggested programs are outlined in green and for example eviction for good cause is being suggested to help stabilize our renter households in a period of

1:04:54increasing rents to reflect the adoption of this specific plan we are focusing on the development potential in our plan area with the redevelopment elimination and housing set aside elimination we you know it is important more than ever to leverage limited local funding

1:05:14and along with the elimination of that funding source to look at potential financing sources to develop affordable housing part of the new focus by the state is to focus on developmental disabilities and acknowledging part of affordable housing is supportive housing and housing that meets

1:05:34special needs and solutions for our aging population again focusing on the need for planning for persons with disabilities and in terms of goal five these are new goals but they are the near-term objectives contained in the climate action plan that relate to residential energy

1:05:58efficiency programs and paces included in here and so i will turn it back over to the council with the frame of while this is a state mandated document it's our opportunity to look at our local priorities around housing thank you thank you very much for a very good

1:06:17presentation we'll take questions from council and then hear from the public before we move on any questions i can start i know jan probably has some in a goal h 3.7 which is the new one for disabilities what's the definition of disabilities does it include you know

1:06:43mental disability as well as physical or as just physical the state definition of developmental disabilities relates to disabilities that begin when you are a minor i believe so it includes a huge gamut of range of disability so it is it is it can include mental health issues it can

1:07:06include physical disabilities it's it's really quite expansive the calendar says that you're going to start a secret document essentially tonight what type of secret document are you guys anticipating um we are anticipating a neg deck a negative declaration as the

1:07:21um we have a draft initial study that we are reviewing and the housing element itself is not proposing to change any zoning any densities et cetera and it's consistent with both the 1999 general plan eir and the specific plan eir that was just adopted this year

1:07:42and then finally the program h 1.5 which is the eviction for good cause ordinance how was that received at your public outreach i know you had several public outreach events over the last several months how was that uh addressed or how was that received at the public outreach

1:08:00events and and how were landlords informed of that program um so what is being it's proposed as a program to consider so we i think would need to do additional outreach but in it came up at the two community workshops as there were amongst the audience tenants who were

1:08:21experiencing significant rent increases and had a lot of concerns some other members of the community that felt that it was a more appropriate solution than than rent stabilization or what is called rent control for a community of our size i have heard more recently at the

1:08:38planning commission meeting from a small landlord that would be a small owns a small number of units and is considered concerned about it being a difficult requirement to comply with so i think we want to certainly be mindful of that and look at it but think we also

1:08:56need to look at protecting and stabilizing our renter households thank you very much councilmember bridges i just had one question about that actually most my questions were answered on email so i sort of got a lot of clarification and and thank you for that um

1:09:13so like over four years our rents have gone up about like 40 or something like that 41 over between 2010 and 2014. the neighboring cities let's compare ourselves maybe to albany they have a lot more multi-family than we do do they rent control albany does not have rent control

1:09:32um i think the nearest city that does would be berkeley yeah thank you any additional questions thank you let's hear from the public we have four requests to speak so we'll start with howdy gowdy followed by tom panis steve barton and bill coleman good evening mayor and city council

1:09:58members my name is howdy gowdy [address removed] so i want to compliment staff on a very sound plan um i guess my comments are you know just partly around the process and where this goes from here i haven't really been a close uh paid close attention to how this process

1:10:22works in the past but it sort of strikes me that this is a great document sort of the backbone of you know planning what we do but and i understand it has this state you know requirement and it looks like it you know meets all that just great i guess what i'm thinking of is more um

1:10:40how we're going to use it locally and how we go from you know taking this framework and and fleshing out details into policies that move forward so i you know expect it probably is beyond the scope of what people want to consider tonight to like delve into more detailed ideas about what some of

1:11:03these policies might lead to but i do feel like that's a discussion that needs to happen and i'm just kind of curious where that's going to happen and how it progresses i mean this is an eight-year cycle and obviously there's a lot of time to to get things done but it it

1:11:19does feel like we need to have that you know you know public process and and get you know you the council and planning commissions opportunities to um you know introduce and discuss and and debate these um important uh measures that we might be considering and get

1:11:38more ideas out there so i i was going to come in saying you know this is a study session i would expect that you know there would be some of that interchange of of bringing new ideas but i i suppose what's more realistic is you know asking you to reflect on how we

1:11:57would you know guide this good framework into um new policies and as examples of things that i think should get discussion and attention not saying that anything that would go into a plan at this point would be binding it's just you know trying to introduce good ideas

1:12:19because of the sb 375 emphasis in the housing element i think it's important that we focus on embodied greenhouse gases in new construction because you know we are putting a good deal of our cap eggs in the um you know a land use change basket and in order for that to really pay off we need to

1:12:42limit you know the emissions that we put into making it happen other examples would be um i mean i'm fully in sport of um a development impact fee for affordable housing and i think that's really important but i think it's also important to introduce the the voluntary idea that

1:13:03you know developments could invest in conservation easements both agriculture and open space to you know make these um surrounding communities work better together so thanks thank you very much good evening mayor freeman members of the council and city staff my name is

1:13:34tom panis and i live at [address removed] in el cerrido i sincerely appreciate the staff's efforts and outreach on the housing element i'd like to comment on the housing element of people with developmental disabilities almost by definition people with developmental

1:13:47disabilities are low income but the housing requirements for these two demographic groups are vastly different while the housing element sets clear targets for housing requirements at various income levels i see very little similar specificity regarding people with developmental disabilities

1:14:03goal h3 relates to special needs housing i was very happy to see implementation programs h 3.7 and h 3.8 added to the housing element additionally i'd like to see the housing elements say that el cerrido will strive to provide as many housing units for people with developmental disabilities

1:14:18as our local and regional bodies suggest are living in el cerrito thank you for your time this evening thank you very much hi i'm steve barton i live up on king drive i i first want to say that i really appreciate the excellent work that the staff has done on the housing

1:14:46element and i appreciate evidently the good values that you as the council have been instilling or working with city staff on i want to make a few comments on just generally why this housing element is so important and i want to start with that this the san francisco bay area

1:15:09generally in el cerrito where we are is an extremely high rent area and that's not because the housing is so much better than every place else in the united states or so much more expensive to operate it's because of an incredible imbalance between supply and demand so that our rents are

1:15:26virtually double what the u.s average is and that has been something that's developed over a long period of time the result when you get to page four of my handout is that low income tenants have been hit incredibly hard if you compare the state of a low income

1:15:46tenant today with low income tenant back in 1980 their income is down as a result of the increasing income inequality in the united states that's developed over the past 35 years and their rent is way up with the result that their real available income after they've paid the

1:16:04rent is down by a third from 1980 in other words things have been going backwards for low-income people for a long time this is deeply unfair we all renters and homeowners alike contribute to the quality of life here in the bay area and in el cerrito and as a homeowner my contribution helps raise my

1:16:25property values renters contributions to the quality of the community raise their landlord's property values and they raise their rents so it's absolutely essential that we do all that we can to develop additional long-term affordable housing and i really think that the good cause for

1:16:47eviction measure is just a small first step but a very important one in creating some balance between landlords and tenants in a situation in which tenants are easily displaced and we know that displacement in rental housing is associated with mental and physical

1:17:08health difficulties and with especially school difficulties when it leads to children being forced to change schools in the middle of the school year thank you very much thank you the final speaker is bill coleman thank you council members again my name is bill coleman and i live at [address removed]

1:17:37lagunitas avenue in el cerrito and i have the pleasure and honor of serving the city as one of the commissioners on your planning commission and at our last meeting we considered this draft report and we unanimous unanimously approved a recommendation to you that

1:17:57you forward this draft element onto the state for review and comment and move forward with the process as part of our deliberation we took input from the public and i want to highlight five issues that were brought to us because they concern the policies in our

1:18:18housing element and i believe that matters of policy should be directed by the city council so i wanted to highlight these issues for you so that you're aware of them and can consider them for the future the first one was as i'm sure you're aware about one-third of

1:18:39the city's inventory of affordable housing is at risk of conversion to market rate housing in about 2019-2020 and this is clearly described in appendix b of the report and i credit commissioner modiyama for highlighting this issue and the deeply personal impact it can have if you

1:19:02happen to be one of the 58 units that would all of a sudden become not available as affordable housing because they were part of two long-standing long-term development agreements that expire in 2019-2020 now i know that the city staff is very well aware of this

1:19:25and is going to be engaging the owners of these properties proactively to see what we can do to preserve this inventory of affordable housing but it's something that we need to pay close attention to and and develop creative solutions because it does represent a significant

1:19:43portion of what we claim is affordable housing the second thing i want to highlight to you is that the policy proposal to adopt an eviction for cause ordinance has great potential for misunderstanding and hyperbole and i think it's important that we take up this issue and we adopt

1:20:06the appropriate ordinance it's clear that we have a lot of people in el cerrito who are both advocates for tenant rights and experienced and knowledgeable landlords and it's important that we engage these people in crafting the best ordinance for our city the third issue that we heard from the

1:20:28public was that the policy to encourage and facilitate the construction of secondary accessory units really represents low-hanging fruit for the city it's a great opportunity to expand the inventory of available affordable housing and we should do everything we can

1:20:53to promote this policy and move it forward aggressively i i just want to say your time is up but since you're presenting you know testimony from people who aren't here tonight please go ahead i appreciate that i'll just need about two more minutes um the next issue was the

1:21:12was about policy 1.1 encouraging neighborhood preservation we heard from a resident advocating for a policy to promote residential design standards in our review process because she believes that this is a great way to promote the distinct architectural and design features that

1:21:31contribute to defining the character of our neighborhoods now i am by no means an expert in this issue but it is something that was raised in our meeting and it's something that's that's worth some consideration and finally most importantly the new policies aimed at providing solutions

1:21:47for special needs housing deserve all the creative energy we can muster to find solutions um in an environment where the number of levers we can pull as a city to drive this kind of development are getting harder and harder to pull and lastly i think we should recognize that our

1:22:08city has done an excellent job of providing solutions for affordable housing when you drive through our city we don't just have a plan we're moving dirt and we're hanging steel and we're delivering on our promise and that's great thank you thank you very much no other speakers one more

1:22:32no problem please go ahead i just wanted to add um just a little bit about the just cause eviction because i know lots of tenants in el cerrito that are basically being blackmailed by their landlords because they threaten them with eviction if they you know they're in substandard

1:22:51situations or the landlord won't fix things and you know the the threat is well i'll just kick you out and i can get somebody else in and i can raise the rent and it'll be fine for me so i think it actually is really important to have um and to let people know that they have

1:23:07some um you know recourse other than just being held hostage by their landlord thank you for your comments um comments yeah i have some but i'm helping it's it's uh the eviction for clause is on page i read it but i lost it yeah i have it i have it flagged by me

1:23:33yeah on pages i read it but i didn't i didn't put a little sticky on it oh wait i did it's on page 110. 110.

1:23:41nevermind thank you got it and it's part of my comments um you know i'm going to start out with an overview of this because i and and it's straight out of our packet this this housing element is is responding to the statewide dissolution of the redevelopment agencies

1:23:59high residential land prices and the specific avenue specific plan and and this update is taking is taking into consideration all those things and proposes programs and policies that reflect these changes and addresses the impacts these changes have caused on the

1:24:15city so you know that for that reason i definitely support moving forward um but as some of our public have said some of the things i want to highlight page 21 30 percent of our uh households earn between less than 50 000 so this is a you know based on data that's out there and on page 23

1:24:42a third of our households are in extremely low very low or low income brackets so so we've got a a number of very vulnerable residents in our city that that need some levels of of considerations and protections on page 43 this was alluded to a few minutes ago in response to questions

1:25:07rents in el cerrito have gone up tremendously in in a short period of time less than uh eight years and on page 46 our housing prices are are rebounding to pre-2006 uh rates so so again there's a lot of pressure on on housing in the in this area so for that reason i i do um support and

1:25:35and why i had it flagged and could answer answer councilmember bridges uh question of where the rental cause was um i do think that we should move forward with this new program the eviction for a good cause i'd like to actually make it a little stronger just to make sure that people

1:25:56know that we want to work with the public and the landlords to make this a stronger policy i would suggest that we consider this the city shell vet and consider adopting something that is much more active with regards to trying to seek input from the public so that

1:26:13would be one proposal i would make to this to this document and then to respond to one of our public speakers and because we didn't highlight it during the questions there's a whole new goal goal h5 which is all about energy conservation and and we didn't highlight it during the

1:26:32questions i just want to make sure that everybody is aware that we are taking greenhouse gases and our climate action plan very seriously and it has infused its way into this program one other change that i would recommend or would request in appendix a i think it is

1:26:55it shows up on pages 1 26 and 128 hillside natural area is shown as project 67 and project 67 is not detailed in in appendix a table a four and and it would be just nice if people understood that y67 is not on the in the table and potentially on the map and i understand you don't want to change the

1:27:24graphics but if you could please put six line 67 back into the table and explain that the this is no longer a potential project because it's been acquired for open space um that would be my request on that matter and then it there was uh page 167 and 168 which is uh appendix d

1:27:49there's a series of questions that were asked and this goes to one of the public speakers question 10 was you know el cerrito must be prepared to add approximately 400 housing units throughout the city um what would your primary approach be and the answers were across the board so

1:28:11whether it's a secondary living units or housing near bart or focus on single families it's across the board and question 11 what would be the best improvement to housing within el cerrito almost 30 percent said more housing near el cerrito plaza bart and del norte so

1:28:32those are those are just things that i wanted to highlight that popped out at me as i went through this document and two changes that i would like to propose for this document thank you i'd like to um also reiterate that i think that we should probably do the change on on page

1:28:50110 for the eviction for cause and if if vetting is a good word to use and that would be i would like to see that too um and then i had a question about the public outreach um there was a was there a discussion was it brought up about secondary housing at all um in any of the public forums

1:29:08either online or in person and i had emailed you a question about that i know that there's pretty much restrictions and lot lines and percentage of the property and all that is pretty well spelled out but i wondered and and you reiterated that if new secondary housing were to go in that

1:29:30it would be subject to neighborhood input the perfect planning answer is it depends i'm sorry okay um if uh if somebody can that we have a development standard if they can do it exactly as it's discussed in the zoning ordinance it is by right if they need to have a parking space in the setback if

1:29:56they need to go do other things that would step away from the development standards then we need to bring them forward for a use permit so maybe one of the things we could do is look at the development standards and make sure those are in line with the goals of the city of el cerrito

1:30:09encouraging second units and actually now that i think about i think my question was if it's over 15 feet i think it it it would be subject i think that's how i worded it yeah if if you have a the ideal second unit as it's described now in a zoning ordinance is one that's

1:30:26invisible from the street so it literally would double the density of that lot at the same time it wouldn't be something you would physically see if you have a detached unit there's a height limit and it's subsidiary and to the rear of the new of the existing home

1:30:40um but so that's where the 15 feet might be coming in yeah thank you what about the parking is there a parking requirement for the that unit or i mean because it seems like that's a thing that's not always so easy to accommodate so if we uh reduce the reparking requirement and

1:30:59or said there wasn't even one you know a car if any could just be on the street for example absolutely that could um would be easy that would make it a lot more a lot easier to accomplish that second unit is that viable it is viable i think um we could do something um i know we were looking

1:31:22at parking standards in general maybe if you're within 500 feet of the bart station a second unit would not require a parking space could be something we could bring forward or um if i could just having it be true anywhere in the city of el cerrito absolutely what i could uh what what comes to mind

1:31:40instantly is we could bring forward the development standards four second units to the planning commission with some recommendations on ways we can make this easier for more folks to achieve i think there is a balance in our single-family neighborhoods but i think

1:31:54we could definitely re-look at our development standards i know that when i was on the planning commission it seemed like accommodating the garage was the biggest problem in making any anything work that was an addition it is a big challenge um and so if we could get you know

1:32:13and i'm thinking you know in line with what we're trying to do around the bart stations which is to reduce the the parking requirements if we could reduce it for that second unit elsewhere that would be really helpful and i think in line with what we're trying to do

1:32:31excellent thank you any other comments i i have one before you yeah well i'm not going to make a motion i just want to make sure we we in whoever makes the motion we do not need to make motion for the uh corrections that you guys have gave us at the last minute correct these

1:32:46uh changes on pages are the planning commission recommended some i'll call them technical revisions and those were included as attachment three so quite casually so whatever motion we make needs to adopt attachment three as well yes yes thank you thank you my comments are i

1:33:04really appreciate all the work that went into this and i thought the you know in general the comments we get from the public are always insightful and helpful but tonight i thought they were especially so raising several very good points and i appreciate the research that you did mr

1:33:22barton on rental and i would like to see when we talk about an eviction for good cause ordinance that we also consider rent control which i know has been controversial in other cities there's nine bay area cities that have rent control ordinances including four in the east bay

1:33:41so uh you know i think we have very good landlords in el cerrito i don't want a punitive measure but i think the statistics that you showed and that are in this element are pretty shocking and we value our economic and uh racial diversity in el cerrito and that's threatened by rising

1:34:01rents and housing shortages in job centers like san francisco oakland silicon valley so i i would like us to take a comprehensive look at renters in our community in the context of the good cause and also the possibility of rent control also i would like to see when the motion

1:34:24is made that we add the language that mr panos suggested on people with developmental disabilities do you see any problem with his language would you like me to read it either of you um i'll respond i think it was the same comments that he submitted at planning commission on december 4th

1:34:45so i've had a chance to look at them what i would respectfully subject suggest through the mayor is that that be the goal related trying to find the goal in the in the appendix but the goal related to supporting develop housing with developmental disabilities be amended to

1:35:03add that we we strive to meet that [Music] that we we plan for those housing units there's [Music] a lot of as as councilmember lyman referred to developmental disabilities can be a lot of different things so what is the appropriate housing type can mean a lot of different things

1:35:27but it tends to overlap with affordable housing and supportive housing so if we can if we can look at it through that lens that was would be my respectful suggestion so the the actual goal is on page 106 if you guys want to get there and i'm looking for mr panis's

1:35:50uh additionally any houses or gold local body original bodies um so it's h 3.5 on page 106 and and what we're looking for would be text to add to that goal is that correct ld uh yes sorry i'm reading tom's language as you speak so the goal is looking for the program number again and

1:36:21and so it would be encouraged the development of housing accessible to people with disabilities to match the goals required by regional bodies including developmental disabilities yes i think that would be a workable goal if that i think that achieves the purpose and can be reflected as a

1:36:51program that essentially these programs come back to you annually and we report on them so that would be a measurable way to look at it okay can you read that again yeah i will uh so h 3.5 would be modified to read encourage the development of housing accessibility accessible

1:37:11housings accessible to people with disabilities to meet match to match our local and [Music] to match the number required by local and regional bodies including developmental and disa developmental disabilities great council member uh one of the problems with stating it that way is that it

1:37:40doesn't necessarily do any good for people who have those disabilities and um i we have a good example of that in the um i think it's called civic center the gray i think i think it's gray housing development just north of city hall yeah right they have a number of units that are

1:38:02wheelchair accessible but the problem is they aren't occupied by people who need them and one time i was out going door to door for some reason and somebody invited me in to show me their accessibility and they were kind of joking about it because they weren't just disabled

1:38:22so um the only way this really works stated the way it was just stated is if those units need to be are required to be occupied by people with those disabilities and i don't know that that's what we want to do but i just want to point out that having the units doesn't

1:38:42actually do anything it's re restricting the units to people who need them in some form is the only way that actually works and then there's another component which is the stoop issue where um people build units and then they put a stairs on the front which is really common and then the

1:39:11whole thing is not accessible to people who visit and that's a huge thing for example the uh project at um the richmond bart station the the origin phase one if you know what i'm talking about uh was a hundred percent inaccessible because of that um i know because i was invited to

1:39:35to the open house and was unable to attend because they couldn't find any unit that i could get into the front door of so i think the issue of accessibility is a little bigger than this statement um and i'm talking about even minimal accessibility if if i can offer

1:40:00um uh potentially a frame for this there is an accessibility conversation around ada issues and what is required in the building code and design review when we look at new developments or modifications to developments and how they are handicap accessible and i and then i think there's a

1:40:23slightly different conversation about providing housing for persons with developmental disabilities who that can mean a range of things and often it's housing with supportive services which may also [Music] need to be adapted physically and it's designed to accommodate that and those types of

1:40:47housing situations are usually owned operated and developed developed by mission-based non-profits who are specifically developing those developments to serve that population so there might be a slight difference in how we want to frame that i i think that the suggested changes to program 3.7 could

1:41:13help the city in working with developers who are seeking to um provide housing for persons with developmental disabilities that specialize in that suggestion i think those are excellent points you raised council member abelson and certainly your personal experience

1:41:34is extremely important to inform all of us and all the people in the community that also have accessibility issues so i would suggest that we look at the more general language suggested by mr lyman based on mr panos's comments and that when we take up the issue of good cause eviction and

1:41:55perhaps rent control we also look specifically at the needs of folks with disabilities as part of our ongoing sort of deeper dive into the implementation of this plan or translation of this plan into policy as pointed out quite well by mr gowdy so i guess i have a question for hildy

1:42:18is are you was that change recommended in goal 3.5 or program 3.7 and i have to admit i'm i'm flipping through pages so fast that i wasn't clear on where you went so it's either it's either goal 3.5 on page 106 or in your most recent suggestion you were suggesting text to program 3.7 on page

1:42:44118 i think it's appropriate where you suggested it as goal h 3.5 right we're ready for emotion i'll i'd be delighted to make a motion um i'd like to move that we that we give guidance to staff to submit a revised draft 2015-2023 housing element update with the following essentially five

1:43:13changes one of the changes on page 106 would be to modify goal 3.5 to incorporate language to match the numbers established by local and regional entities and on page one 12 well sorry still the wrong one on page 110 to uh with to incorporate vet and consider adopting

1:43:50good cause for eviction ordinance in table a4 reinstate line 67 and explain that that property has been purchased for open space and also incorporate the changes that the planning commission recommends which were in our attachment 3 which there's changes to on pages 13 and 14 to

1:44:12section 1 point e point 2 housing needs survey and they also recommended changes on pages 15 to 17 section 2 b a historical existing and forecast growth and those changes were provided to us as attachment 3 as red line so with those essentially five changes i would remove that we

1:44:37move ask stat direct staff to submit the draft 2015-2023 housing element second i have a question oh sorry uh the question i have is uh the comment i made about the um requirement for parking on secondary units is that included in that that is not because i thought we

1:44:59were going to address that with some others but i if if it's apt to move it now i would gladly put that in uh in i wasn't sure from staff's responses from staff's response i thought it was something we would address at a later date the general approach that staff was

1:45:16taking was the affordable um the second unit discussion and the residential design guidelines would move on a separate track but equally important and would be uh follow up it would be covered without our doing anything further absolutely i i definitely heard you that's fine okay thank you been

1:45:35moved in seconded all in favor signify by saying aye aye motion passes unanimously thank you very much all right next up is the annual council liaison reorganization in appointments i'm not going to read them all they're on this sheet anybody who wants them we will be needing to make one modification

1:46:00because there is a conflict council member abelson had with one of her she's double booked with commitments on behalf of this city so we will change that and maybe swap you out for something else okay and we'll uh we'll do that before the next council meeting but other than that uh

1:46:21uh any questions or comments on this no no thank you all very much and any council local and regional liaison assignment reports i i have one i went to the i went to the abac meeting last thursday as an alternate i'm as part of my um responsibilities for the contra costa

1:46:49mayor's association i'm an alternate to dave hudson on abag and i went and i can say that they are actively starting the revision to plan bay area and we will begin seeing items come out of that in plan bay area coming up and they're going to actually is they're actively thinking that they're

1:47:19going to make in a much more the league's presence in contra costa a much more active role where our delegate and and it's apt that we have it in front of us are our delegate to abag is is mark that they would start having county meetings for all of the delegates from

1:47:42the 19 cities in uh in the county uh to start getting our input on that and they actually want to be very much more proactive in coming to council meetings and presenting uh information about abag and the services that abag provides and also information about planned bay

1:48:04area so i wanted to at least alert you that we probably before their staff gets worn out from all their trips that we may want to be early in that process of asking them to come to talk about the services that apac provides and also their their thoughts and their plans on um the next update uh

1:48:25which is um sorry i apologize i'm doing this from memory i believe 2017 is when they have to adopt the next update to plan bay area so great suggestion thank you seen no other reports we are adjourned thank you very much