| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:06.78 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:00:09.01 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Welcome, everyone. Welcome, everyone. After these regular meetings, of the Sausalito City Council for April 7, 2015. Debbie, would you take the roll, please? |
| 00:00:22.29 | Unknown | Councilmember Weiner. Present. Councilmember Pfeiffer. Here. Councilmember Withey. Here. Vice Mayor Hoffman. Present. Mayor Theodores. Present. |
| 00:00:26.30 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | here. present. May we have the Smith children lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please? |
| 00:00:35.64 | Unknown (Councilmember) | A chorus. |
| 00:00:44.58 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Thank you. Come on. |
| 00:00:50.08 | Unknown | I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. |
| 00:00:53.22 | Unknown (Councilmember) | of the United States. |
| 00:00:53.96 | Unknown | States of America. |
| 00:00:55.47 | Unknown | you and to the republic for which he stands. one nation, under God. indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:01:05.76 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you. Great job. |
| 00:01:10.84 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Okay, so we had closed session coming from item D, and we had conferences on two potential litigation matters and on a real property negotiation. Is there any public comment on the closed session items? Okay. Seeing none, we'll move on to the approval of agenda. Can we have a motion to approve the agenda? |
| 00:01:35.63 | Jill Hoffman | So moved. second. |
| 00:01:37.35 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you. All in favor? I'm not sure. |
| 00:01:39.00 | Jill Hoffman | I think. |
| 00:01:41.55 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | That's unanimous. Moving on to special presentations, and we move on to the recognition of Betsy Stroman for her work with Sausalito Village, and we'll have Tricia Smith make the presentation. |
| 00:01:56.11 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:56.84 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:57.19 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | you |
| 00:01:58.97 | Unknown | Thank you very much. I'm going to make this short because I'd like the words really to be from Betsy's lips. But I am very proud. I am very proud to be a member of Sausalito Village and part of this great organization. And Betsy was one of the founding members. There were several founding members, but she really did work hard to be the leader of that organization for the last seven, eight, nine years. It's pretty incredible. Tonight, I thank you, City Council, for taking the time to honor this incredible woman who, if she doesn't plug this herself, is going on to a new chapter of her life. She has a new book being published about the artist Jeanne Varda. I said it right. |
| 00:02:41.41 | Jeanne Fidler | Have a good day. |
| 00:02:42.37 | Unknown | Ron. which is coming out. So I hope that she'll also plug that a little bit because it's really wonderful she's going to be doing that. So we have a proclamation from the city. We can ask the mayor to do that, please. |
| 00:02:57.10 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | A proclamation of the City Council of the City of Sausalito, honoring Betsy Stroman upon her retirement as the first president of Sausalito Village. Whereas for the last seven years, Betsy Stroman dedicated her time, talent, and intellect in creating and developing Sausalito Village based on the national village model to directly serve the aging population of Sausalito and indirectly to benefit the entire city of Sausalito. And whereas Betsy Stroman, through her foresight, guidance, and tenacity, brought together a formidable group of volunteers who have worked as a team to contribute and maintain an excellent set of services and programs in keeping seniors active and participating in local community life. And whereas Betsy Stroman brought the idea of an age-friendly Sausalito to the City Council in 2013 and in turn became a vibrant task force creating a strategic plan for the city and a new transportation program for all residents 60 years of age and older that will be managed by Sausalito Village. And whereas Betsy Stroman utilized her impeccable legal skills to apply for and received from the state of California the 501c3 nonprofit status for Sausalito Village. Hence, Sausalito Village no longer needs a fiscal sponsorship. and whereas Betsy Stroman continues her dedication to serving the city of Sausalito and beyond in responding to the challenge to make old age not only acceptable but inviting. we can craft an old age that will be intellectually stimulating, socially rewarding, productive, and fun. The greatest gift we could give to future generations is to say, Here's a way to be old that you'll want to be. Now, therefore... Now, therefore, be it proclaimed on behalf of the City Council and citizens of Sausalito that I, Thomas Theodorus, as mayor, have privileged to give special recognition and honor to Betsy Stroman for her outstanding and dedicated service, and whereas the Council extends its personal best wishes upon her retirement from her leadership role in Sausalito Village and for continued success in her life's pursuits. |
| 00:05:30.56 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:05:31.39 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 00:05:32.11 | Unknown | . Thank you. you |
| 00:05:34.88 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. That's very nice. |
| 00:05:40.72 | Betsy Stroman | Well, I did write something. I typed something up on my computer, and at some point along the way, I lost it. So five minutes before I left. |
| 00:05:43.17 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 00:05:49.75 | Unknown (Councilmember) | That was not a senior moment, is that right? |
| 00:05:51.40 | Betsy Stroman | Is that right? |
| 00:05:52.03 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:05:52.72 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 00:05:53.04 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:05:53.07 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 00:05:53.09 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:05:53.21 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 00:05:53.27 | Linda Pfeiffer | But Betsy, use the microphone. |
| 00:05:55.03 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:05:55.60 | Linda Pfeiffer | Oh, |
| 00:05:55.82 | Betsy Stroman | I'm not. |
| 00:05:56.19 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:05:56.21 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 00:05:56.23 | Linda Pfeiffer | Use the microphone. Microphone. |
| 00:05:57.39 | Betsy Stroman | I'm sorry, you don't need another speech. But anyway, I just wanted to say that I have had enormous satisfaction in working on this project and that there are only two reasons that this project has been a success. And one is all of the volunteers that we have had. |
| 00:05:57.75 | Unknown | . |
| 00:06:15.35 | Betsy Stroman | And the second is all of the community support that we have had. And we have had hundreds of volunteers. And we have had significant community support, which I'll mention in a minute. I'll tell you all the names of the volunteers, but I just wanted to mention a few people because as Tricia said it's been a team effort from day one and there were some incredibly talented people in this town, most of whom I'd never met until we all got together with this project. And one, is Felicity here or is she? Felicity Kirsch is out of town. Felicity Kirsch is an incredible woman, and she has been the co-chair of the volunteer effort and really put it together and created a system that works. And it's been very impressive. And she did it with Stella Schau. And Stella has incredible background in community organization stuff and worked for foundations so that she knows what to look for that makes an organization successful. And her vision was just critical in this operation. Charlie Aronson's not here, but his wife Lou is here, and Charlie and Lois Prentice recruited 30 or more local businesses to give some kind of benefit to our members, which has been a big selling point for our program and has been very much appreciated. Jackie Cudler, who's here, has done press for us from day one. Rick Seymour has done some writing in the MarinScope particularly. And Doris Berdahl, who's no longer active with us, was very active early on in writing stuff for the newspapers. And Meg Fawcett, who's here, has been single-handedly responsible for organizing all of, we have involves us checking out We have a list of what we call preferred providers or member recommended providers. And so if you're a member and you're looking for a roofer or a doctor or a plumber or whatever you call or you check, get on the e-mail on the website. um, Meg's responsible for compiling that list, and it must have over 100 people on it by now, Meg. It's an incredible list, and she's either checked out all of these people or else has looked through member recommendations and made sure that everything is right, and she checks on them. every year to make sure they're still current. Um, And I guess Rainer Needleman I wanted to mention. She and Evie Gilbraith have been teaching chair yoga once a week Before we started, I asked Rainer if she would do it, because we needed to have something to say that we did. And we do that. And so they've been doing that every week at Christ Church at Campbell Hall. And that brings us to the organizations. Christ Church has been giving us free space for this yoga class every week for four and a half years. And Rotary has given us free space down in Rotary Senior Housing for our office. And we can use some of that space at below market rate for events if we want to do that. And Businesses, I mentioned the 30 businesses or more that give us discounts. Butler Shine, which is the largest business, or at least used to be the largest business in town, the advertising company developed our website pro bono. So we just had incredible support from the community. um, The City Council has, you know, the minute we came to them and said, you guys get more involved, they did, and we've got now the age-friendly program, and we're doing cars, which is going to give everybody free rides in Sausalito. It's terrific. It's just a real. Then this miracle happened, Tricia showed up. these old fogies, we can start stepping aside and get a younger group of people to start taking our place. And I just want to encourage everybody who's interested to check out volunteering for Sauglito Village. It's a great organization, and we have a lot of fun, and it's a good bunch of people. So thank you. |
| 00:10:47.15 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you so much. |
| 00:10:52.20 | Unknown | We need to give our way to family like a team. All right. |
| 00:10:59.24 | Unknown | Great job. |
| 00:11:05.11 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you so much. Well deserved. We appreciate it. |
| 00:11:11.91 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Okay, moving on to communications. This is the time for the city council to hear from citizens. regarding matters that are not on the agenda, except in very limited situations, state law precludes the council from taking action on or engaging in discussions concerning items of business that are not on the agenda. Would anyone like to speak on anything not on the agenda? |
| 00:11:35.35 | Neil Whitelaw | Yes. |
| 00:11:45.22 | Neil Whitelaw | Mayor and consul. I'm Neil Whitelaw. April 1st, I was a resident of Saucydo. 48 years since 1967. It's changed a bit. on I hope what I'm going to speak about It isn't going to take the seven years that it took It's also the village to get to the point it's at now. and it's almost approaching five years since I first spoke to Council. about something that I would like to have agendized. and that is doing to our crosswalks across Bridgeway that flash across the street, when a pedestrian is trying to get across like they have in Petaluma. Some of the city council people have been up there and looked at it. Start out with Herb and I talking about it. almost five years ago, said to get it done right away, As usual, nothing got done by him. Nobody else has done anything about it. I've been told by someone that's in the legal profession that because I brought it to the attention of the city council almost five years ago, that if somebody's killed, God forbid, or seriously injured. that the city will be liable for gross negligence because they know that there's an issue. again for maybe the fifth time, in almost five years, I'm pleading with you to do something about this before there's a death there. A death. not of an animal, but of a human being. I'm almost gone anyway. I've only got another dozen years, so I'm not so important, but other people are. put it on the agenda and do something about it instead of talking about it. |
| 00:13:34.59 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak to any item not on the agenda? |
| 00:13:49.35 | Unknown | The city traffic lights like When you go across, it's only like for short distance that the walk signs are on. and then it changes to the car, it's when the cars go. |
| 00:14:09.33 | Unknown | across her. |
| 00:14:10.14 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you. |
| 00:14:10.26 | Unknown | you |
| 00:14:11.32 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you. |
| 00:14:14.12 | Neil Whitelaw | you |
| 00:14:17.15 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Would anyone else like to speak to any item not on the agenda? Thank you. Seeing none, we'll close public comment and move on to item 3A, minutes of the regular City Council meeting for March 17, 2015. Do we have a motion for approval of those minutes? |
| 00:14:34.71 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:14:34.73 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | I'm not sure. |
| 00:14:34.97 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 00:14:35.03 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | to approve as submitted. |
| 00:14:37.35 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Second. |
| 00:14:38.71 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | All in favor? Aye. Aye. |
| 00:14:39.77 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Hi. |
| 00:14:42.09 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Okay, now we move on to the consent calendar. |
| 00:14:48.84 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and non-controversial, require no discussion, are expected to have unanimous Council support, and may be enacted by the Council in one motion. the There will be no separate discussion of calendar items unless Council so chooses. Would anyone like to make a motion to approve our Consent calendar listed in item 4A. |
| 00:15:11.50 | Linda Pfeiffer | Mr. Mayor? |
| 00:15:12.72 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Sure. |
| 00:15:12.80 | Linda Pfeiffer | I have a question about item 4B. the Granicus agreement. I just had a couple questions about the Boards and Commissions app. |
| 00:15:17.56 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you. |
| 00:15:21.66 | Linda Pfeiffer | I don't know if you want me to ask them now or do you want to continue to be out in? |
| 00:15:24.71 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Well, would they be would they be short enough that we can answer here and and we don't have to separate all right Our city manager we have someone who can oh Debbie can okay sure |
| 00:15:29.24 | Linda Pfeiffer | so we don't have to separate. |
| 00:15:36.14 | Linda Pfeiffer | So I read the website and it looks like it's going to be a real help to the city clerk what they wrote. And my question was, I noticed that the beta started just in February of last year. Um, and they mention Stockton, Riverside, Seattle, and Lewisville. Have they tested this on a smaller scale, do you know, for a smaller town locally or something? |
| 00:16:00.98 | Unknown | you |
| 00:16:02.38 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:16:02.39 | Unknown | I cannot come up with the name of a small city right now, but yes, this is going out into many, many cities, especially in California. |
| 00:16:12.74 | Linda Pfeiffer | you |
| 00:16:13.75 | Unknown | And- |
| 00:16:14.04 | Linda Pfeiffer | And if – I noticed that we had a problem with the citizen participation, I guess, one – two postings in over 18 months. So I can see where we would want to switch – switch certainly, lose that one. But my question is. Given we started this one, the citizen participation, and it didn't work out, if the Boards and Commission app doesn't work out, is there a certain like a probationary time period we can test it out or how long is that contract? |
| 00:16:43.98 | Unknown | you I can honestly say that we are one of the cities that works a lot with Granicus. If there is any kind of a problem, I believe there's a pretty much a 30-day opt-out where we can get out of that. They have so many apps being formed right now that it's a real easy switch from one app to the next. |
| 00:17:10.03 | Linda Pfeiffer | And do you feel comfortable with that 30-day opt-out? Does that give you enough time to test it out |
| 00:17:15.79 | Unknown | I feel very confident. |
| 00:17:15.85 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yeah. |
| 00:17:17.78 | Unknown | like you say, having this on the website I think it's going to be tremendous for getting people more involved in signing up for all the different boards and commissions, definitely. Okay. Thank you. |
| 00:17:28.59 | Linda Pfeiffer | Definitely. |
| 00:17:31.78 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:17:31.80 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yeah, I'm fine. |
| 00:17:33.77 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Any other comments on items on the consent code? I do have one correction on item D, attachment two. OMED committee meetings, it listed me in one of the meetings. I am not on the Omit Committee, so I shouldn't be listed. And I believe that should be Council Member Withey substituted. Thank you. |
| 00:17:53.37 | Unknown | you |
| 00:17:55.39 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | with that. |
| 00:17:55.90 | Jill Hoffman | So I move for approval of the consent calendar items for A through H. |
| 00:18:02.88 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Second. Can we do this by consent? All in favor? Aye. Okay, that's unanimously passed. Okay, now we move on to item 6A, Butte Street Task Force Update, and that's presented by our City Attorney, Mary Wagner, and Leon Hunty, the Chair of the Committee of Task Force. |
| 00:18:06.33 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:18:06.34 | Jill Hoffman | Hi. |
| 00:18:33.09 | Mary Wagner | Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm going to start off this presentation and then hand it over to Mr. Hunting, who is the chair of the Butte Street Task Force. So first, a little bit of background. The Butte Street property is approximately 2.012 acres in size. It is – the city currently has a one-half undivided interest in the property, which it received as a gift from the estate of Ruth Perrigo back in 1995. The other owner is the trust, the Raymond L. Hunt Trust. We generally refer to it as the Hunts who own the remaining one-half undivided interest in the property. Butte Street is currently zoned R25, which allows for a maximum of one development unit per 5,000 square feet. The total number of units allowed would be 17. With a density bonus, the total number of units would be 23. We thought it was important to clarify this, as there was some concern and misunderstanding out in the community about what the actual zoning was on this site. In March 19th of 2013, the Butte Street Task Force was created. As indicated previously, the chair is Leon Hunting, whose name I did not spell correctly. correctly, which I apologize. And then the other members are listed there as well. Your council liaison is Councilmember Pfeiffer, and then the Park and Rec representative is John Lerner. On February 11th of 2014, the City Council received an update from the Butte Task Force and voted unanimously to confirm the City's intent to donate its interest in the Butte Street property and that all the terms and conditions would be brought back to the City Council for final action. The Butte Street Task Force has worked diligently to pursue options for this property, and most recently, Open Space Sausalito, or OSS, was formed. It's a third-party nonprofit corporation. It's not affiliated with or controlled by the city. OSS has negotiated an option agreement with the Hunts to acquire their interest in the Butte Street property. The Butte Street Task Force is recommending that the task force actually be disbanded because they believe that they have fulfilled the purpose for which they were created. And they would like OSS to raise the funds for the purchase of the Hunts half interest. That option period ends at the end of June of 2016. And when OSS has successfully completed their negotiations with the Hunts, they will return back to the city for further discussions on transferring the city's interest in the property to OSS. So staff recommends, after we hear from the chair of the task force, that you thank the Butte Street Task Force members for their service, formally act to disband the task force, and then we will await information from OSS on further discussion on the acquisition. And with that, I'll turn it over to Chair Hunting. |
| 00:21:52.74 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Had enough, huh? |
| 00:21:53.80 | Leon Hunting | . After two years. Mayor Theodorus, council members and city staff, As chairman of the Butte Street Task Force, I come before you this evening to request that you reaffirm the recommendation of the task force with regard to the Butte Street property and accept our request that you disband the task force this evening. This has been a very interesting and enjoyable and challenging experience. I want to tell you that we're looking at very good news, that things have been going very well. when we were initially asked to participate on the task force, it was to find out how the city could be served by the property, if at all. And we made the recommendation to the city, after exploring many different options, that open space would be the appropriate and best use for the property. We were pleased that the City Council provided support for that recommendation. Uh, The... As you know, we've had a number of task force meetings, but also members of the task force met with the city attorney, Mary, and the city's outside legal advisor for real estate issues. We met twice. We also met with the finance committee so that the city's interests could be protected and staff could be fully informed. And meanwhile, the independent third party, the proposed purchaser of the Hunts' one-half undivided interest, Open Space Sausalito, opened discussions with the Hunts and included me in their latest negotiations so that the city's interests could be protected and carried out. I'm pleased to tell you that the parties have agreed to and executed an option agreement. The document was notarized and will be recorded, and the fundraising for the purchase has begun. Because the option between the Hunts and OSS involves relying on fundraising, it's crucial that they and the donors are given reassurance that if and when the Hunts and OSS are ready to consummate the transaction, the city will join in the transaction, indeed, over its undivided one-half interest to the party, to the nonprofit OSS. The task force believes that we have completed your directive, and we request that it be disbanded. And I personally want to thank then-Mayor Herb Weiner for asking me to chair the task force, and I want to thank all the council members for your interest, your help, your input. And I especially want to point out that the task force that I had the privilege of working with was exceptional. Nina Kroener, Brian Durnian, John Lerner, Jim McKibben, Councilwoman Linda Pfeiffer, and Veronique Stemens. I really appreciate this opportunity. As we saw earlier this evening, volunteerism really is at the heart of Sausalito. So, thank you. |
| 00:25:44.43 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Well, we have more to go on this one. So before we take action, we're here for council member questions. Anyone have any questions by either our city attorney or Mr. Hunting? |
| 00:25:47.47 | Unknown | I'm not sure. |
| 00:25:57.37 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | No questions? Okay. Now we move on to public comment. Public comment on this? |
| 00:26:07.80 | Civil Boutillier | I'm inspired to say something. Since moving to Rotary Village, I've become somewhat of a night owl. and I'm very delighted that myself, and the owl that keeps me company at night from that open, soon-to-be, I hope, open space forever. I'm just thrilled with this possibility. Thank you. |
| 00:26:30.60 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Okay. Anyone else from the public like to comment on this issue? No? Seeing none, I'll close public comment. I'll move it back here to council discussion. Who would like to start? |
| 00:26:43.27 | Linda Pfeiffer | Well, I think I'd like to start since I was the liaison on this task force. And I, too, want to thank Charlie on hunting for the excellent work that he did on chairing this, as you heard, a challenging but engaging and very rewarding task force. It is a privilege to be able to be a part of the vision of open space. When we see so much open space these days, trees getting cut down, wildlife habitat being devastated for high density, here's a situation where the town came together, during the housing element and said very clearly, we value this as open space. There was one name that hasn't been mentioned, Bill who was instrumental in driving the foundation of open space, Sausalito. And I actually... have also visited the spot. It resonates the comment I heard about the owl. I've seen hawks. I've heard the owls. I've seen so many. I've seen the creek. It's just really just amazing and very exciting that we're at this point. And I just want to thank everyone on the task force for all the hard work and all of the hours that were put at this point. And I just want to thank everyone on the task force for all the hard work and all of the hours that were put into this. It was truly inspiring. |
| 00:28:19.44 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Well, just a few words. Leon, thank you very, very much. When I appointed you, I knew you were the right person for it, and you really proved it correct. So thank you very much, and pass on to the others. Thank you for a very, very successful journey so far, and hopefully with its completion. So thank you again. |
| 00:28:49.65 | Unknown (Councilmember) | I have nothing but good things to add, and thank you for your hard work and the hard work on the part of the task forces. were a successful conclusion of a very contentious issue. Who would have thought? |
| 00:29:02.41 | Jill Hoffman | Ditto. No, Leon, thank you very much, and thanks to all of the task force, and this seems to be going in the right direction. It's great. |
| 00:29:14.00 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | And I just add my thanks to you, Leon, and to the task force. And I agree with your statement that volunteerism is the backbone of this community, and I really appreciate all the work. that the task force did and we're going to have some open space, so we really appreciate it. So with that, would anyone like to make a motion on this? |
| 00:29:33.10 | Linda Pfeiffer | Um, |
| 00:29:40.97 | Unknown | you |
| 00:29:49.15 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | I think we can do this by Vice vote. All in favor? Aye. Thank you so much again. Thank you. |
| 00:29:52.75 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:29:52.76 | Unknown (Councilmember) | I'm not. |
| 00:29:52.83 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:29:52.90 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:29:52.91 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 00:29:53.03 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Okay. |
| 00:29:56.78 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Now you can say you've had enough. Thank you. |
| 00:29:57.47 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | you. Thank you. |
| 00:30:03.85 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Okay, our next item is item 6B, Alcatraz Ferry Embarkation Project, public comment period for draft environmental impact statement. And this will be led by our Community Development Director, Danny Castro. |
| 00:30:22.13 | Jonathon Goldman | Can we just get set up here? |
| 00:30:32.57 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. The National Park Service has completed the draft environmental impact statement for the Alcatraz Ferry Embarkation Project. This presentation introduces the project and will provide some initial comments on the project and its potential impacts to Sausalito. The draft document is open for review and comment through May 20th, 2015. The comment on the project will be used to address concerns regarding the draft document, as well as aid in completing the final document. Thank you. |
| 00:31:15.32 | Jonathon Goldman | The National Park Service is the lead federal agency of the project working with the Port of San Francisco. The draft document was prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and pursuant to the Council on Environmental Quality's Regulations. The document evaluates the impacts of the project regarding land use, transportation and circulation, air quality, noise, water, public services, and a number of other environmental |
| 00:31:48.37 | Jonathon Goldman | the The present ferry embarkation site is at Port Pier 31 1⁄2 in the northern San Francisco waterfront. The Alcatraz Ferry Embarkation Project would establish a new long-term ferry embarkation site for passenger service between the northern San Francisco waterfront and Alcatraz Island. The document analyzes three pier locations in the northern San Francisco waterfront. One of those three would be selected as the ferry embarkation sites to Aquachaz Island. The three sites are, again, the present location, Port Pier 31 1⁄2, Port Pier 41, and Fort Mason Pier 3. |
| 00:32:37.30 | Jonathon Goldman | All three alternatives include constructing a ferry berth at Fort Baker for special ferry service to Alcatraz Island that could operate for special events such as conferences, occasional excursions, and special occasional service between Fort Baker and Fort Mason. The National Park Service states that the purpose of the project is to secure a special ferry embarkation site that is consistent, identifiable, and well-functioning facility for visitors, to orient visitors to the history of Alcatraz Island, and provide cross-bury Cross Bay Ferry Service to other Golden Gate National Recreation Area Park Lands. The document states that this action is needed because the National Park Service concession for water transportation services between San Francisco and Alcatraz Island has been subject to location changes every 10 years, which has led to visitor confusion and inconsistency in visitor services. and the existing site is constrained by lease provisions. My understanding is that the concession contract at its present location at Pier 31 1⁄2 expires in 2016. with a provision to extend only three more years. So therefore, this is the reason to secure a more permanent ferry embarkation site. Here's a vicinity map that shows the three alternative pier locations and the Fort Baker site in the setting of the San Francisco Bay Area. And here's more of a close-up of the same map, which shows, again, the three peer alternative sites that the project analyzes, including the Fort Baker site. |
| 00:34:35.55 | Jonathon Goldman | As I've mentioned, the proposed Fort Baker improvements would be used for special ferry service that could operate for special events, such as conferences, occasional excursions, or special occasional service to and from Alcatraz Island and between Fort Baker and Fort Mason. The construction necessary to establish ferry service at Fort Baker would involve upgrades to the existing concrete pier. installation of a new gangway and float. Other improvements include a shuttle drop-off located west of the Bay Area Discovery Museum, a concrete pathway for pedestrians, and a covered waiting area near the fishing pier to house an interpretive exhibit. And here's a map that shows the proposed improvements |
| 00:35:23.14 | Jonathon Goldman | Here's a perspective rendering of the proposed improvements at Fort Baker, including the covered This simulated rendering was provided in the draft document The document states that the special ferry service would be intended to serve visitors already at Fort Baker, such as guests of the Cavallo Point Lodge or participants in programs at the Bay Area Discovery Museum. The document also states that parking at Fort Baker is limited and that special ferry service would not serve commuters and therefore no new parking would be provided at the site. The document finds that the project is consistent with the policy set forth in the National Park Service's Fort Baker Plan prepared in 1999. Much of those plan elements have been implemented with the construction and opening of the Cavallo Point Lodge and improvements to the Bay Area Discovery Museum. The plan also noted the potential for the fishing pier to provide water-based connections to other park sites in the future. |
| 00:36:29.29 | Jonathon Goldman | The draft document claims that it has analyzed the existing transportation and circulation conditions of the study area. which these include the travel corridors along the northern San Francisco waterfront of the three sites, including Fort Baker. The document claims that the Fort Baker Special Ferry service will create no impacts to transportation and circulation. They find that the traffic impacts would be short-term and minor because due to only special ferry service and occasional ferry service and operating at non-peak hours. |
| 00:37:12.58 | Jonathon Goldman | Staff has reviewed the draft document, and we find that the transportation and circulation section of the document does not provide any analysis of the proposed improvements at Fort Baker and little to no attention given with regard to bikeways, parking utilization, roadways, existing traffic, and transit to justify the finding that there will be no impacts. Uh, Staff also finds that the document fails to analyze the environmental consequences of new ferry service at Fort Baker. due to increased traffic at Alexander Avenue from Highway 101, the potential for increased traffic cars, buses, and shuttles on roadways connecting Fort Baker and downtown Sausalito, increased bicycle traffic on the roadways, resulting in traffic hazard and safety. The document provides no operational plan for Fort Baker in order to analyze these potential negative impacts. The city had an opportunity to comment on the proposed project before the document was circulated for the public comment period. A letter was sent from city manager Adam Pulitzer. to the National Park Service in a letter dated August 8th of last year, which provided preliminary comments. The major concern was focused on the Special Ferry Service at Fort Baker and that it should be eliminated from the project altogether, Uh, due to anticipated negative traffic impacts, the lack of parking, as I mentioned, that the investment is not warranted given that it's only for special ferry service and that the potential that if it were to be constructed there's the pressure for regular ferry operation and that should the Fort Baker plan remain as part of the plan, that a traffic study be prepared. |
| 00:39:24.49 | Jonathon Goldman | Here is the project schedule, as I mentioned. The public comment period is through May 20th, 2015. After that public comment period is over, the National Park Service, between probably about the summer of this year, will respond to the comments and incorporate that into the final document. And then late 2015, early 2016, the release of the final environmental document will be will be released, and then in 2016 would be the issuance of the record of decision. |
| 00:40:08.51 | Jonathon Goldman | The document is available for review at the National Park Service website, and I have that on the screen there. And then also a hard copy is available in the Saucido Library. |
| 00:40:13.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:40:21.95 | Jonathon Goldman | It is, so at this time, staff is seeking any further comments from the City Council. and to hear any other comments from the community. It is staff's recommendation that the City Council direct staff to prepare a formal comment letter and that we engage an expert with environmental expertise to assist with the drafting of a formal comment letter to the National Park Service. We can return to the City Council for review of the comment letter at your May 5th meeting to allow a timely submission of a comment letter to the National Park Service. We also have here today Brian Aviles. He's a representative of the National Park Service, also available for any questions you may have. And with that, that concludes my report. I'm available to answer any questions. |
| 00:41:12.94 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Are you going to have Mr. Aviles present or just be there for questions? May we ask? |
| 00:41:17.65 | Jonathon Goldman | I think he's available for any questions. I don't know if you have any. |
| 00:41:20.07 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Okay, great. So let's start there so we can direct questions. And because they have to go back and forth to the microphone, why don't we have questions to staff? or the Park Service, my guess is – so why don't we start with that? Why don't we start with staff, and anyone have questions of Danny? |
| 00:41:41.68 | Linda Pfeiffer | Well, I have a question. So the city's letter mentioned our concerns regarding the traffic impact and our concerns regarding the potential new ferry at Fort Baker and asked for a traffic study. And do we also have legal action that we can take in terms of, you know, if we're looking at the environmental impact that this would hit with Sausalito with respect to the transit hub controversy and that whole trend? |
| 00:42:19.67 | Jonathon Goldman | Let me answer this first part. In this stage of the process, we do have the ability to comment on this draft document. In terms of legal, I'm looking at Mary Wagner if you have |
| 00:42:34.60 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, in terms of a legal challenge to the project and the environmental document, you'd first need to do what we're doing right now, which is review the document and put our comments into the record. So we're covering the city's basis, if you will. |
| 00:42:51.95 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:42:54.48 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Any other questions from staff? Okay. Now questions for the Park Service? Okay. Brian, would you mind stepping up? We have questions of you. |
| 00:43:04.55 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, my general question, which I imagine I think is probably on everybody's minds, could you explain what the fundamental purpose of a special ferry is and why the Park Service thinks it's sensible to invest significant funds into upgrading something that's apparently rarely going to be used? Thank you. |
| 00:43:32.09 | Brian Aviles | The core interest has been about how this facility in San Francisco can be of most use to the visitors and to the Park Service's objectives of driving more non-vehicular, non-personal vehicle use of the park – of roadways in accessing the park, and in doing a better job at connecting other park sites around the Bay, We were evaluating this facility in San Francisco and anticipating being able to accommodate some growth in the service to Alcatraz. We also have a lot of visitors who come to that facility are unable to get a ticket to Alcatraz. And we investigated at the beginning the question of, whether some of those visitors who come to that facility would be well served by being able to take an excursion to places like Angel Island, Rosie the Riveter, Fort Baker. At the beginning, we even thought about whether there would be appropriate service to downtown The park does have an affirmative responsibility to preserve the historic pier at Fort Baker. And as part of that, we were evaluating what it would take, what kind of investments would be required to do that. And we felt it prudent to evaluate the idea of installing a ramp and a float to make that a serviceable facility. There are additional benefits. There are two very vibrant programs at Fort Baker now, the Retreat and Conference Center, Cavallo Point, Also, the Bay Area Discovery Museum, and we've had interest expressed by the public and those two institutions as well, that having the ability to host waterborne excursions, whether they land anywhere or whether they're just educational programs. These are a couple of things that we're interested in. I'd offer that in our analysis of the potential to connect to downtown Sausalito and utilize that terminal. We have found that it's not really feasible, nor is it desirable. We heard from the town or the city when we had our scoping meetings back in 2012, and if you look at the document, we formally dismissed that from further consideration. I'd also clarify that the intent is not to provide service directly from Fort Baker to Alcatraz Island. This was something that we had considered, and we've done our best to try to make that change. I believe that we discussed that with the city manager and mayor this summer and have done our best to address that in the document. There are numbers of places in these documents where we explain the proposal and maybe something slipped through. But that's not our intent. The intent is really to complement the programs that are at Fort Baker and also to perhaps allow for people to visit Fort Baker without having to drive to Fort Baker. I just also offer that we did an extensive traffic analysis. It's probably about half the thickness of the EIS itself, but it is online, and I can deliver a hard copy of that to the city if you would like. We did – if you look at the summary document, We do state that there would be no traffic impacts. It's a bit of a summary. If you look further back in the full EIS, there's a little bit more analysis of impacts to transit, impacts to bicycles. I'm very welcome to hear your comments on the adequacy of that analysis. I'm not saying that it's completely adequate, but we did look at that, and if we have to do more work on that, we're glad to do that. That's the purpose of having the draft. |
| 00:47:59.41 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Brian, on that subject, because we looked at your summary, which says no impact. When was that traffic analysis done? |
| 00:48:07.83 | Brian Aviles | The traffic analysis was done based on data collected in 2012 and 2013. |
| 00:48:12.88 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | And was it specifically for the ferry coming into Fort Baker and Horseshoe Cove, or was it for the Fort Baker redevelopment project? |
| 00:48:23.16 | Brian Aviles | Oh, it was directly for this proposal. Now, granted, the majority of the analysis is based on traffic in San Francisco and associated with where that site would be located, but we did do some work to try to understand traffic impacts in Sausalito and around Fort Baker. |
| 00:48:25.65 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | this person. |
| 00:48:38.87 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Okay, thank you. |
| 00:48:46.38 | Unknown (Councilmember) | So you're saying that you would take people from San Francisco over to Fort Baker? Is that in the proposal also? |
| 00:48:55.98 | Brian Aviles | That's correct. It would function to link the main Alcatraz embarkation site on the San Francisco waterfront to Fort Baker. This would be part of that occasional unscheduled service. |
| 00:49:12.24 | Unknown (Councilmember) | because right now, usually the summertime, to my knowledge, that's pretty well sold out for the whole summer. |
| 00:49:20.18 | Brian Aviles | The service to Alcatraz? That's correct. And that's one of the reasons why we're looking at having capacity to offer other connections from that site. We turn away a lot of people. Actually, right now, I think if you go there, you'll see it's sold out for the next two weeks. So we're trying to find a way to connect to other recreational sites around the bay. |
| 00:49:36.36 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:49:36.63 | Unknown (Councilmember) | I'm not sure. |
| 00:49:43.45 | Unknown (Councilmember) | If the demand was so great, which it is for Alcatraz, why not go in the direction of adding more ferries from the city to Alcatraz? |
| 00:49:55.61 | Brian Aviles | That's a good question. We have capacity limitations on the island itself. We manage very closely the number of people that we allow on each vessel. Each vessel is really never packed to capacity. Part of it's how we manage the flow of people through the buildings on Alcatraz, in particular, the cell house. So we are kind of bumping up against those ceilings there and don't really have additional capacity there. |
| 00:50:31.22 | Unknown (Councilmember) | What vessel, what are they, what's the vessel? City something, I have it here. |
| 00:50:37.43 | Brian Aviles | It's operated by Alcatraz Cruises and they're a subsidiary of Hornblower. you |
| 00:50:42.39 | Unknown (Councilmember) | I'm going to blow it. |
| 00:50:42.97 | Brian Aviles | Okay. |
| 00:50:46.12 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yeah, Tom. So regarding the Fort Baker shuttle that I see mentioned here, how does that link with the Muir Woods shuttle? |
| 00:50:46.44 | Brian Aviles | Thank you. |
| 00:50:57.34 | Brian Aviles | The Fort Baker shuttle was a pilot that we ran, I believe it was just one season, to see if there was interest in that, and we have discontinued that and have no more plans to do that. I think we – I can't speak to directly for that project, but I believe that it's with the involvement of the city. You didn't wish to see that continued, and we didn't have very strong ridership. So there would be no connection anticipated, at least through this project. |
| 00:51:33.74 | Linda Pfeiffer | And I seem to recall seeing a population count for Alcatraz at, I think it was 5,640. Was that per day or per month or what? |
| 00:51:45.22 | Brian Aviles | I think that may be the highest daily visitation. Somewhere, 5,000 is the number that I kind of carry around as maximum daily visitation Alcatraz. |
| 00:52:00.69 | Linda Pfeiffer | And then Muir Woods, it looked like it was up to 6,000. or 7,000? |
| 00:52:05.30 | Brian Aviles | We have had that level of visitation at Muir Woods and you're – we have similar concerns about capacity at Muir Woods and you're probably familiar with that. |
| 00:52:15.03 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | with some of that. |
| 00:52:15.79 | Brian Aviles | Thank you. |
| 00:52:18.76 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Brian, my understanding is you clarified that the proposed Fort Baker landing, the ferries would not go from Alcatraz to Fort Baker. They would go from the San Francisco embarkation site wherever it ends up being to Fort Baker. Are there any other embarkation sites you contemplate at this point to go into Fort Baker? |
| 00:52:28.32 | Unknown | They would go. |
| 00:52:40.18 | Brian Aviles | We are also looking at a similar idea at Fort Mason Center, which is also called Lower Fort Mason, or it's where we have Pier 3. And that's another facility. We have three large wharfs, and it has a history of being a port of embarkation for the U.S. Army from the Philippine War all the way through to World War II. And we have no ability at this point really to welcome vessels there. And so we are anticipating putting in a similar ramp and float to support a vessel that would complement services or the programs that are at Fort Mason Center. That's an arts and cultural center. And also to do some transportation demand management for events at Fort Mason Center where arrival by ferry could help alleviate transportation in the area. So we are anticipating that along. It's another action that would be common to whichever site we select in San Francisco. So yes, that – there could be occasional ferry service as well from Fort Mason to Fort Baker. We've had requests along those lines in the past for educational programs that have been hosted by Cavallo Point, whether there might be an opportunity to run a boat from Cavallo Point over to Fort Mason to participate in educational conferences or similar small events like |
| 00:54:15.08 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | You had a rendering of the ferry landing there. Now, one question is, you have a rendering. Do you have detailed plans? Have you hired a construction, I mean, an engineering firm to put those plans, or is that just your general idea? |
| 00:54:30.91 | Brian Aviles | It's our general concept. We did do an analysis of the environmental conditions around the pier. So we did – we looked at the bathymetry in the area. We looked at the condition of that pier and did that with maritime engineers as part of our consultant team. And – but it's really a concept sketch. We know – you know, we wanted to have sort of, you know, some general random – or just |
| 00:55:02.03 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | order of magnitude costs for that. And how big a ferry would there be? I mean, if you set a size of that a ferry that could hold X number of people would be acceptable, or have you gotten that far in the detail? |
| 00:55:14.91 | Brian Aviles | We really haven't – we show, you know, in that rendering that it could be a similar size vessel that might operate currently between San Francisco and Alcatraz, but we haven't established a size limitation. That could be something that we could explore in the future. but there is no scheduled service at this point, or is there a plan to identify service as part of the core contract that would establish service between San Francisco and Alcatraz Island? |
| 00:55:58.43 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yeah. I seem to remember seeing, and I think it was the DEIS summary, that it was the ferry was you were looking at a capacity of 200 or something like this and three times a week. That's what I recall seeing |
| 00:56:16.50 | Brian Aviles | We did look at – I'm not familiar with that. What we did as part of our analysis, just consider the level of trying to put occasional some parameters on what occasional might be, and looking at the frequency of service, which would be something less than multiple times a day. Some of that would depend on, so we may have discussed in the draft some ferry service, some vessel sizes and capacities. I think we would be interested in trying to run these at off-peak times. We'd have the ability to control that. I think that's also expressed in the draft EIS. |
| 00:57:08.00 | Unknown (Councilmember) | question. Hi, Brian. Right now, if there is a private group that wants to do you know, some sort of they have an event, I mean they can hire a private vessel, correct, to service them? |
| 00:57:23.70 | Brian Aviles | to service Fort Baker. |
| 00:57:25.89 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Wherever. If you're saying you might have a private group or a special event that you want to have. to have movement between the two facilities. I mean, if you're a private group, they have the ability to hire a private vessel now or the Park Service, right? |
| 00:57:38.90 | Brian Aviles | Yes, but we have really no facility to welcome those vessels. So it would be – it's really very limited. They'd have to start – yeah, it's – there really are no facilities to support that, at least in the park. |
| 00:57:44.06 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Thank you. |
| 00:57:44.08 | Unknown | you |
| 00:57:57.80 | Unknown (Councilmember) | So I'm looking at the map here, Figure 14, and this is the old pier, right, the existing that were on Figure 14, which is the map. And then the pier next to that, is that the Coast Guard pier? |
| 00:58:12.14 | Brian Aviles | Yes, that's correct. |
| 00:58:12.23 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Yes, that's correct. So that's a working pier and the Coast Guard vessel is going in and out of that pier? |
| 00:58:16.72 | Brian Aviles | That's correct. |
| 00:58:17.70 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Have you ever – has the Park Service ever approached the Coast Guard with doing an MOU with them about using their peer? |
| 00:58:24.73 | Brian Aviles | No, we haven't. We haven't approached the Coast Guard about that. |
| 00:58:34.33 | Unknown (Councilmember) | How often do they put the bids out for Alcatraz Ferry service? Every 10 years. When was the last time? |
| 00:58:44.78 | Brian Aviles | Thank you. 2006. That's when the facility moved from Pier 41, where it had been for about 25 years, to Pier |
| 00:58:54.03 | Unknown (Councilmember) | 31. |
| 00:58:54.47 | Brian Aviles | Thank you. |
| 00:58:54.60 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Because I notice if you move to, or you go to Pier 41, Blue and Gold goes out of 41. That's correct. Is that set up to handle other facilities there? |
| 00:59:07.61 | Brian Aviles | You – yes, through the Water Emergency Transportation Agency, they have service. I believe it goes to Tiburon and maybe connects even to Sausalito. There is increased use of that facility. Right now, it's Blue and Gold Fleet leases that from the port. |
| 00:59:27.49 | Unknown (Councilmember) | He said it from the port. |
| 00:59:28.72 | Brian Aviles | Thank you. |
| 00:59:28.74 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Yeah, thank you. |
| 00:59:32.05 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Any other? I'll follow on. Can you walk us through the process? I know Danny did, but we have comments coming up on May 20th. But what's likely to happen from there? And then included that, whether this is one of the |
| 00:59:32.42 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Thank you. |
| 00:59:45.70 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Park Service projects where it's going to be in a plan for a while until you get funding, or whether this is something that you intend to you know, in, in the near future. |
| 00:59:55.79 | Brian Aviles | That's a good question. So there are sort of – there is an urgency to making the decision about where the facility is in San Francisco. Your question about when these contracts come up, the current contract is expiring in 2016, and our intent is to be able to describe for this next concessionaire the location where they would operate from. So we need a couple of years to go through the prospectus development process, compete, and award that next contract. So there is urgency associated with identifying a site in San Francisco. That said, there is no funding stream identified for the improvements either at Fort Mason Center, where we would have a ramp and float, or at Fort Baker, where we would plan to rehab that historic pier and add the ramp and float. The process – so we're anticipating moving forward with the EIS. It's likely that we will be in – we'll continue to have negotiations with the Port of San Francisco about the business terms, and hopefully we'll be wrapping that up sometime this year so that we can fold in that decision into the prospectus. There'll be public communications associated with that if we are in discussions with the port. If we get that far, the port has their commission hearings, and that'll be an open process. I think you saw that we're trying to wrap this process up probably with the final environmental impact statement in about a year. we would sometime between now and then we will likely final environmental impact statement in about a year. We would – sometime between now and then, we will likely provide some sort of newsletter updates about where we are in our discussions with the port, about which way we're anticipating closing this – wrapping up this study. And then the normal process for wrapping up an EIS is with a record of decision, which we would provide you with a final EIS, and then about 30 days until the selected alternative is identified. That's a little, I hate the idea of, you know, the sort of terminology of draft preferred and selected and identified, but it's about a year before we would hope to be able to wrap up the process. |
| 01:02:43.14 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Yeah, when you say approximately 5,000 people go over there, Is that usually updated over the years? Has it been updated, the amount that you're allowing in there? |
| 01:02:55.80 | Brian Aviles | It has grown – it's been fairly steady for the last, let's say, for terms of this last contract. There's a lot of demand, and we turn away quite a few visitors. So it hasn't grown a whole lot. We figured out ways to spread visitation a little bit around the island, and so we've been able to increase it just a little bit here and there, but it's pretty stable. |
| 01:03:23.74 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Okay, thank you. |
| 01:03:26.54 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Any other questions? Okay, let's move to public comment. Anyone from the public like to comment? Thank you for the opportunity to answer your questions. And thank you for coming. And we still have more of this process, so we may have further questions if you don't mind. Certainly. |
| 01:03:34.20 | Brian Aviles | Thank you for the opportunity to answer your questions. |
| 01:03:43.43 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | At this point, would anyone from the public like to comment on this item? |
| 01:03:51.50 | Russ | I don't really have a comment. I just had a question. I wanted to clarify your answer to the council's questions about Alcatraz is maxed out. Is that basically what the case is? |
| 01:04:06.67 | Russ | So the alternative would be, okay, you want to go to Alcatraz, you can't go to Alcatraz, but you could go to Fort Baker. |
| 01:04:12.32 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. Mr. Mayor, if we could have the full public comment, we'll keep the questions, and if there's a need to have staff or the representative respond, we can do that separately, and I'll restart the time. Thank you. |
| 01:04:17.39 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah. So... Yeah, you want to start your comments? And then we're going to take the questions and we can ask them rather than have that dialogue. |
| 01:04:30.43 | Russ | Yeah, okay. So it's not a question. It's not a comment. It's a question. I was trying to understand the full purpose of the ferry terminal there, because it sounded like it wasn't really to go to Alcatraz. It's to take overflow for Alcatraz and take them to Fort Baker. I just wanted to clarify that. |
| 01:04:47.00 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Okay, I didn't think over – well, and – Let's hold that question and let's proceed with anybody else on public comment on this item. |
| 01:04:58.48 | Wendy Richards | Wendy Richards. First of all, I just want to say the – Channel 27, the voiceover went out. I told staff when I came in, which is why I came down here, because I was listening and was unable to hear all of the comments from the gentleman who just spoke. So if I say something that he already answered, I apologize for that, but the TV cut out. Given what we're facing with the Golden Gate Bridge District and those ferry issues, I would strongly encourage the council to get this issue out to public comment as quickly as possible. The 20th is going to come up quickly, that deadline. There's a lot of complex issues here. We're already dealing with overflow of people, people we can't deal with. The chamber's coming in later. It's clearly a problem. This could be a potential solution. Or it could be exacerbating the problem or both. And I think it's important that we understand what the implications of this could be, and if it could be an escape valve for some of the traffic now, or is it going to add more traffic? Because I think that's a problem we all face, not only here in Sausalito. I drove over the Golden Gate Bridge on Saturday, Easter weekend. The bridge was absolutely not moving, coming the other direction out because of the visitor loop backing up the whole bridge. And you all know that. So I really urge you to get public comment and to sit down and have meetings with these different agencies because we're all working at odds with each other. And what I did hear the gentleman say is they want to serve more people. And I keep hearing more, more, more, and we cannot sustain more, more, more. |
| 01:06:19.95 | Unknown | See you. |
| 01:06:42.98 | Wendy Richards | We have in the backcountry, if you want to go for a hike, you need to get a permit. You don't get more, more, more. And we do that in our parks in a lot of places in this country. And if that's what we need to do here, then let's start now and let's try and solve this in a holistic manner. Thank you. |
| 01:07:07.67 | Jeanne Fidler | Mr. Mayor, Council Members, I'm Jeanne Fidler and I live at 501 Ulima. I came to live in Sausalito in 1972 and I lived at number one Alexander Avenue. And so, Fort Baker to me was somewhere I went with my friends all the time. |
| 01:07:08.26 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:07:27.45 | Jeanne Fidler | walking the dogs and looking at the fishermen down there and the birds and all that sort of thing. And then it changed. You know, it changed. With the Discovery Museum, it changed with the Coast Guard and it changed with Cavallo Point. It's a totally different place. It's just like a suburb of Sausalito in comparison to what it was like in 1972. But one of the things I wanted to tell you was that um My bedroom overlooked Alexander Avenue. And regularly at night, cars would go into the restraining wall opposite. You'd have all the police and all the red lights all over my ceiling. And that was in 1972. on Alexander Avenue. And so I feel that anything that could come into Fort Baker on the water... Because after all, it's the absolute beauty of the views that people come to see more than anything else, I think. Thank you. |
| 01:08:33.89 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you. Anyone else like to comment? Okay, with that, I'll close public comment. I think we should address Russ's question. And Brian, would you like to do that? |
| 01:08:51.11 | Brian Aviles | I've been here at Golden Gate for about eight years and came in when there was a lot of excitement I think about how Fort Baker was shaping up. And I think I came at an opportune time because I know that the road to get there was rocky. And I just say that we continue to sort of understand the limitations at Fort Baker and are really not intent on driving more people or, you know, taking overflow visitation artificially and sort of suggesting that, hey, why don't you go to Fort Baker and, you know, because we have extra capacity there. It's really about providing something that would complement the programs that are at Fort Baker now and providing perhaps a way for people who want to go to Fort Baker or know about Fort Baker to get there without driving. So I just want to say that we loved – you've got great ideas, and I know you're going to give us a solid letter back with comments on this. We look forward to working with you on this. We don't have it all wired now. It is a draft, but we are definitely sensitive to the limitations that you face. We see that as well. We help to manage the connection all the way from really Fisherman's Wharf through the the park across the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito and then on to Muir Woods as your councilmember mentioned. So we're very concerned that, you know, about how we manage visitors. And trust me, we do not see Fort Baker as the safety valve for visitation in San Francisco. We'll continue to work with you on that, but I look forward to your comments. Thank you. |
| 01:10:41.58 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | I'm not sure. Did that address your question, Russ? Okay. Okay. Thank you. |
| 01:10:50.30 | Brian Aviles | Thank you. |
| 01:10:50.96 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | All right, thank you. So now we'll bring it back here for a council discussion. Who would like to start? |
| 01:11:00.48 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yeah, I'll start. I think that my concern on this is that it's a foot in the door. What's being proposed today, in my opinion, is not what this will grow into over time. I'm concerned with the link to Alcatraz, the 5,000 people a day. Just today I got stuck behind a Muir Woods shuttle. Going to Sausalito, the National Park Service is expanding and it's all about money. It's all about the dollar sign. I'm very concerned also with the National Park Service using a Muir Woods shuttle to come downtown Sausalito. I think that needs to stop immediately. With regards to this, the ferry service, you know, you don't, it's pretty obvious what the strategic goal here is. It's to, they've got capacity at Muir Woods. They're maxing that out with the new online reservation system to smooth things out over the week. They've got the online system linked with Alcatraz. And the intent is to create new venues, like Fort Baker, like downtown Sausalito, and to route people through there. And I am just very concerned. In terms of staging bikes at Fort Baker or, you know, somewhat, you know, until we get a strategy in place to regulate bikes in downtown Sausalito, I don't see how anything is really going to help us until we get a handle on how we're going to really put a cap on the chaos we have right now because it's just unsustainable. And that's why I'm concerned right now with what I'm seeing proposed at the And I think that we need to get ahead of this process and get very engaged and, you know, you know, really let the National Park Service know that we don't – I mean, I can just see you know, over time, They will be. you know, directing the overflow to Fort Baker, building up a destination point there for tourists and bikes and more bikes. And then everybody will be coming They'll be shifting those folks to downtown Sausalito. They'll have the Muirwood shuttles there. They're already lined up. They initially, the Muirwood shuttles were supposed to be 44 days a year. Now they've expanded last year to 63 days a year. We didn't have any notice. I just found out about this yesterday. You know, this is untenable, and it all seems to be happening without the knowledge of the people of Sausalito. including this council member in terms of the expansion And I have taken a strong stance against the Mirwood shuttle from the get-go. So I'm really concerned about this. |
| 01:14:15.44 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Well, actually, to have a ferry from Fort Baker to San Francisco taking bikes is not a bad idea. But it still opens the door to... If you matched out now, I really can't see you putting that kind of an investment. just for a very small number. and not see down the road that if you do not get more ridership, then that would be a very, very costly. And I don't see the Park Service getting into something where they're going to lose a lot So. I think we'll just have to wait and see what the next proposals are like. But it's pretty tough when you're working with a – when you're maxed out. |
| 01:15:21.35 | Unknown (Councilmember) | I have to echo the same comments. We and Sausalito are struggling with our congestion that's we haven't been particularly effective, I don't think, in managing it up to this point. And I agree with Wendy. I think we need to, in one of the comments from the citizens, we need to work. to look at a holistic plan with all the players, with the bike companies, with the ferry companies, with the park service. And limiting the that we can in town. And so, you know, that's my perspective on any further direction of people to this area, for what it's worth. |
| 01:16:09.12 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I generally agree with everything that's been said. This occasional or this special ferry just doesn't make any sense to me. It just doesn't make sense economically. So the only way it can make economic sense is if it grows into something bigger. So for that reason, I support this preparing another formal comment letter. And let's get that done. |
| 01:16:45.89 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | And I agree with our council members. I mean, just to put it in perspective, this council has opposed it. And in the presentation, we've sent out a letter in August of 2014. And in conversations with the Park Service and with Brian, we've been very consistent about opposing it, and mainly because we don't know what the ramifications are. And they're likely to have impact that are beyond what we might anticipate. I think one of the things that we have to be careful about, because it's very attractive to think about it as a way to take our bikes. First of all, that's not in the Park Service's plan. They have it as a special events shuttle for their own. It's certainly their property, and they can do what they would like. We asked about the timeline and knowing how fast Fort Baker, we're going to hopefully have our bicycle problem under control before the Park Service is going to build this in the 10 or 15 years it may take. But regardless, I think the thing is in terms of what our next step is, there's a comment period on May 20th, and we don't have time to negotiate anything different. I think what we need to do is oppose this particular plan, and then if there's further discussions, and frankly, I think marrying the federal government, San Francisco to Alcatraz provision and adding this in is separate. We should be looking at this separately. I recommend that we continue our opposition to having this be in the plan, ask the Park Service and take whatever actions to take it out, be firm in that. And in the future, if there are any other possibilities of using that place as a place of you know, either bringing visitors in or taking bikes out, we can work on that. But I think it's a danger to try to allow this to be built at this time in some hopes that there may be some opportunity to take the bike. So I would say, you know, we continue our – Thank you. opposition to it. I would probably, I would say, give staff the opportunity to engage an expert. I'm not sure that we want to expend the funds at this time. I think there might be more efficient ways to oppose this project. I would add and allow counsel or staff to take other actions consistent with the comments in our previous letter so that if we were to contact other officials and such to help us in this process. So anyway, those are my comments. |
| 01:19:15.17 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. Mr. Mayor. Yeah. I think that, you know, we're now in a very formal um, process versus the informal discussions that we've had over the years with the Park Service, be it bringing ferry service from Fort Baker to Sausalito or this new draft that's before you tonight. Staff feels that we actually do want to bring in some expertise so that our formal letter that gets to – that comes back to the council for your review and public – continued public opportunity to participate is very well drafted and written and makes a very strong statement to the Park Service on all of the areas that Danny pointed out questions of. Now, Brian said earlier that Some of those have been addressed in some of the other reports that were noted. or summarize, but to have someone actually go through that with expertise and take a strong position for the city, I think, at this moment in time, is what we're asking Thank you. |
| 01:20:31.06 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you. Thank you. So are we, any other comments? Ready for a motion? Would anyone like to make a motion on this? |
| 01:20:42.36 | Linda Pfeiffer | Well, I would like to move that we, let's see, |
| 01:20:53.72 | Linda Pfeiffer | I move to prepare a formal comment letter Engage an expert with environmental expertise, CEQA, to assist with the drafting of a formal comment letter to NPS and return to the City Council for a review of the comment letter at the May 5, 2015 meeting. |
| 01:21:08.08 | Jill Hoffman | Second. |
| 01:21:11.37 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | My voice, all in favor. Aye. That's unanimous. Okay. Thank you all. Thank you, Danny. Thank you, Brian, for coming down tonight and taking the time this evening. We appreciate it. |
| 01:21:13.31 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 01:21:21.77 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Okay, we'll move on to Item 6C, General Plan 101. And once again, our Community Development Director, Danny Castro. |
| 01:21:30.73 | Jonathon Goldman | Let me sit up here. |
| 01:21:55.48 | Jonathon Goldman | So welcome to General Plan 101 class. Thank you. this general Oh, sure. |
| 01:22:05.61 | Adam Politzer | As Ms. Richards pointed out earlier, she reported that we had some sound audio problems. We have checked with our IT manager and with Channel 27, at least from what we've got report both web streaming and what's being broadcast on Channel 27 is working from where we've tested it from. So it may be we have had some issues locally with Comcast, as the mayor is aware, from one of our business owners pointing it out. So it may be localized, but at this point we've at least got confirmation that it's recording on our website, fine, and it should be recording now on 27th line. |
| 01:22:49.50 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. So this is a General Plan 101 discussion, and this follows the Marinship's Steering Committee's recommendation at the February 10th City Council meeting, which was to update the Marinship specific plan in conjunction with the General Plan beginning in the next budget cycle. Following that meeting, the City Council at the February 24th meeting appointed a working group comprised of Vice Mayor Hoffman, Council Member Withy, and Commissioner Bill Werner, and Board Member John McCoy to develop a timeline, next steps, and preliminary budget, and make a present to the City Council. This discussion focuses on the general plan and provides an overview of the Sausalito general |
| 01:23:39.52 | Jonathon Goldman | what is a general plan, and I'll go through the basics of what a general plan is. The work program and the scope that's involved if we were to embark in a general plan update. What is a specific plan and how does that relate to a general plan? What is zoning and how does that relate to a general plan? We will conclude with a recommendation and questions and discussion. The Sausalito General Plan was adopted in 1995 and it updated the 1974 General Plan. The process began in 1989 with the appointment of a 15-member steering committee. Public participation included several community surveys, two town meetings, 50 public meetings, field trips and planning commission and city council public hearings. A special feature or unique feature I found was included in the introductory chapter, which were statements written by several committee members, which helped guide the formulation of the goals and the objectives and policies under each of the categories and topics of the general plan. |
| 01:25:00.52 | Jonathon Goldman | The introductory chapter concluded with overall community goals, and I don't know, I won't read all of them, but there are a total of 10 goals that were provided, and Upon my reading, I felt that these were very valid today. However, that remains to be seen if we were to review them, but I thought they were very valid for today. So that's six through 10 of those goals. you Thank you. And I'm happy to go back to them. |
| 01:25:36.76 | Jonathon Goldman | THE The general plan included six chapters following the introductory chapter, and the topics were land use and growth management, housing. community design and historic preservation. circulation and parking, environmental quality, and health and safety. Each chapter included main objectives followed by policies under each of these to carry out those objectives and the specific programs to take action. |
| 01:26:10.53 | Jonathon Goldman | So what is a general plan? and, The general plan is a long-range planning document that provides the city a framework for action and the direction in which to focus that action. I found that there were a number of other definitions of a general plan that I thought is relevant and helps frame what a general plan is. It's a long-term problem. policy document that policy document that guides the city in managing physical, social, and economic resources Thank you. It's a community-based document that identifies our shared vision for the future. It's a technical document that identifies goals, policies, and implementation measures. And it's a blueprint that sets the basis for future decisions regarding land use. In terms of state requirements, every city and county in California is required to have a general plan. The general plans are updated approximately every 20 years. General plans are regulated by the Governor's Office of Planning and Research. It's important to note that general plans do not expire and is not required to have a specific timeframe. State law requires that a general plan be updated periodically so that it remains a true reflection of the community's values and goals. The update process allows the city to reflect on challenges of the past years and use these experiences to shape new policies. There are seven required elements of a general plan, land use, circulation, housing, conservation, open space, noise, and safety. Sausalito's general plan is organized under its own chapter titles. General plans can be tailored to address community issues in a format that addresses relevant or important topics of the city so long as these seven elements, state-mandered elements, are included in the body of this format. As you all are aware, the housing element is a component of the general plan, and while the general plan does not have a specific timeframe, the housing element previously was on a time period of every five years to be updated and now every eight years. |
| 01:28:36.13 | Jonathon Goldman | Land use is really a significant element of the general plan. And my experience in having done one in another city, it's the – which takes most of the focus and attention because it's a very important part of the plan. The land use designates the type, intensity, and general distribution of land for housing, business, industry, open space, education, public, waste disposal, and other uses. Circulation, another significant element of the general plan, identifies location and extent of existing and proposed thoroughfares, transportation routes, and other public utilities and facilities. Housing is a comprehensive assessment of current and projected housing needs for all economic segments of the community. policies for providing adequate housing and action programs, conservation. Another element addresses conservation development and use of natural resources. which includes water. Open space, plans for long-range preservation and conservation of open space, lands, outdoor recreation, parks, and public health and safety. Noise identifies and appraises noise problems within this community and forms basis for the distribution of land. Safety is the seventh required element. It establishes policies and programs to protect the community from risks associated with seismic, geologic, flood, and. the seventh required element. It establishes policies and programs to protect the community from risks associated with seismic, geologic, flood, and wildflower hazards. The components of a general plan from a basic, basically is made up of text describing goals and objectives, principles and standards, as well as a set of maps and diagrams. General plan must be internally consistent. No conflicts should exist between chapters, either contextual or diagrammatic, between, again, between elements and between components of the general plan. And if there are different policies, they must be balanced within the plan and reconciled within the plan. How a general plan can and should be used, it's a long-term outlook. It provides a basis for decision-making by city council and appointed commissions and boards. It informs the community members, developers, and others of the ground rules that guide development within our town. general plans, Actions must be consistent with a general plan, such as design review permits, CUPs, conditional use permits, variances, all discretionary zoning permits, boards such as our historic landmarks board and their decision making, capital improvements, CIPs, and then I have in yellow here, because I'll go into more detail, specific plans, zoning and zoning code, any changes to the zoning code. |
| 01:31:49.89 | Jonathon Goldman | So what is a specific plan and how does it relate to a general plan? A specific plan is a tool for the systematic implementation of the general plan. It is a link between implementing the policies of a general plan and individual development proposals in a defined area. It can include broad policy concepts as well as very detailed specific type, location, and intensity of uses. It can provide design guidelines and the capacity within an area. It also can include the resources that actually are used to finance any public improvements. A plan can encompass an area as large or even larger than the marineship or as small as a single acre. A plan must be consistent with the general plan. In turn, all other development, including public works projects and zoning regulations, must be consistent with a specific plan. What is zoning and how does that relate? Zoning is really the primary instrument for implementing the general plan. It includes very detailed standards and requirements for various land use districts. It's what, in my department, we use every day when we work with people at the counter and we carry out what the rules are. It includes what the minimum lot size is, building height, setback limits, lot coverage, FAR, you hear that a lot, fence heights and parking. And state law requires that zoning be amended to be consistent with the adopted general plan within a reasonable time period. And zoning can be included or incorporated in a specific plan. And what makes a general plan legally adequate, that it's geographically complete, that it covers all areas of concern, it's consistent with state law and the statutes, the data is accurate and current, and it provides clear implementation measures. In terms of recent legislation, the Attorney General says general plans must contain elements that reduce greenhouse gas consumption. You all heard of AB 32, which is the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, as well as SB 375 that links land use with transportation planning. Another recent legislation is Complete Streets. It's AB 1358, which is a comprehensive, whenever you do any comprehensive changes to a circulation element, it requires that planning for a multimodal transportation network and policies for all users be provided in a circulation element, which is also tied to transportation funding. |
| 01:34:48.41 | Jonathon Goldman | Community outreach is a very important component of a general plan. You must, like we do in our public hearings, but especially when it's regarding to a general plan and when we're looking at visioning for 10 to 20 years in the future, it's important to have as much community outreach when you're formulating goals, policies, and objectives. That can take a number of ways of doing that, focus groups, surveys, visioning exercises, community fairs, and neighborhood workshops. |
| 01:35:25.72 | Jonathon Goldman | the if you were to do a comprehensive general plan update. Um, The work program is one of the first tasks that is important to do because it ensures the clarity and certainty that the end product will be what was envisioned. It also clearly defines the primary responsibilities of a committee. When you involve large numbers of folks, it's really important to understand what city staff's role is, what the consultant's role is, and the budget, and what that end product would be from each of these responsible members. what What's important also in terms of deciding to do a work program is really to review and assess your current general plan What does remain consistent is the question we would want to ask. What is old and outdated? What needs to comply with state law? And what needs to be updated? |
| 01:36:38.25 | Jonathon Goldman | The use of a general plan consultant is beneficial. It can help expedite the process. It helps to relieve the burden on city staff. Environmental review is fundamental to the process. The concurrent CEQA documentation is important so that it's not something you do after you've done it, but that it's done concurrently. It helps with the timing. And you do need these technical studies to support the objectives, policies, and programs. |
| 01:37:17.35 | Jonathon Goldman | In your information and your packets, I did include the California Governor's Office of Planning and Research, which provided some general plan guidelines. They are looking at updating that, but what's available today and applicable is the 2003 guidelines. With that, staff recommends that in looking at following the Marinship Specific Plan Committee's recommendations that you assign that same working group that was established for the Marinship Specific Plan to first review and assess the current general plan before any decision is made to amend portions of the general plan or to conduct a comprehensive general plan update. This working group can later draft an overall work program, schedule, and budget. So essentially what this does is would be adding an initial task to that same working group to determine the extent and scope of work relating to either amending or updating the general plan. That concludes my general plan 101. |
| 01:38:31.31 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you, Danny. Thank you. Okay, now it's time for council questions. Who would like to start? |
| 01:38:38.78 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Hi, Danny. I saw in your presentation that, you know, a general plan doesn't have to be updated. It can be gone, you know, forever. My question is, have there been identified certain portions of the general plan that have become outdated or are unwieldy or are no longer relevant? |
| 01:39:00.50 | Jonathon Goldman | You know, that is a good question and a question to assess should we wish to assess the current general plan. Certainly if you were to do an update, there is recent legislation that requires that we make it conform or comply, and there are particular ones I've mentioned, the AB 32, which is a climate change, a sustainability element focused on some policies regarding that, as well as complete streets. This is the AB 1358, which also should you do a comprehensive circulation element update that requires it to comply. |
| 01:39:42.47 | Unknown (Councilmember) | IF WE UPDATE IT, BUT IS THERE ANY, I GUESS IS THERE ANY SPECIFIC IMPETUS FOR US LOOKING AT OUR GENERAL PLAN RIGHT NOW OTHER THAN IT'S JUST WE'RE COMING UP ON 20 YEARS AND, YOU |
| 01:39:53.83 | Jonathon Goldman | Really, this follows the Marineship-specific plans committee's recommendations that in doing an update to the Marineship-specific plan, that that be coupled with an update to the general plan, given the type of studies that would involve updating the Marineship-specific plan. |
| 01:40:14.30 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Okay, I got it. So there's no individual thing that like, oh my goodness, section 45 has been a problem. |
| 01:40:20.37 | Jonathon Goldman | Not that I'm aware of particularly. |
| 01:40:21.50 | Unknown (Councilmember) | For example. I don't know about Section 45, but like for example, |
| 01:40:25.65 | Jonathon Goldman | Not that I'm aware of particularly, no. |
| 01:40:27.46 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Okay, thanks. |
| 01:40:33.33 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Well, I know the committee will be looking at this, but in general, if someone were to do a comprehensive revision of their general plan, What is the general ballpark for a city our size of the cost and the time to do that? |
| 01:40:46.11 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. That really depends on the scope and the extent of doing a general plan. If you were to do a comprehensive general plan and build in the type of community outreach that may be necessary, If I were to give some ballpark numbers, it could be 750,000 to up to $1 million in costs, and that could be spread out a number of years. The city I worked for previously embarked on a general plan update. It took approximately five years, but, you know, they were steady in that, but, you know, in some cases they felt it took too long, but that was just depending on the priorities of the city. And in that, but, you know, in some cases they felt it took too long, but that was just depending on the priorities of the city in doing that. Thank you. |
| 01:41:45.86 | Linda Pfeiffer | Tom, yeah. So the Marinship Specific Plan, who, again, was it Ray and Tom? Were Ray and Tom on that committee? |
| 01:41:54.32 | Jonathon Goldman | Do you have that? |
| 01:41:55.09 | Linda Pfeiffer | The Senate committee. |
| 01:41:57.44 | Jonathon Goldman | It was... |
| 01:42:02.11 | Jonathon Goldman | It was Vice Mayor Hoffman. Oh, I'm sorry. |
| 01:42:09.28 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you. |
| 01:42:09.30 | Linda Pfeiffer | We have the next. |
| 01:42:09.67 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thanks. |
| 01:42:10.90 | Linda Pfeiffer | Right. I just meant council representation. |
| 01:42:11.16 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 01:42:11.17 | Adam Politzer | Right. Bye. Yeah, Councilmember Withey and Mayor Theodores were the two council members. |
| 01:42:21.22 | Linda Pfeiffer | So is the proposal to use the same to council members then for the for this the general plan I mean the |
| 01:42:33.10 | Adam Politzer | Danny, if I can respond. I think what Danny suggested at the beginning of the meeting or the beginning of his presentation was that at the February 24th council meeting when we made the subcommittee proposal. |
| 01:42:33.95 | Linda Pfeiffer | Respond. Reviews. |
| 01:42:47.19 | Adam Politzer | decision to work on the specific plan which was specifically to look at budget, time, and process. What Danny is suggesting tonight is you use that same committee which is now Vice Mayor Hoffman and Council Member Withey and Commissioner Bill Warner and HLB member John McCoy to take on this new task to go through |
| 01:43:08.18 | Unknown | John McCoy. |
| 01:43:14.03 | Adam Politzer | the general plan and make an assessment on how to move it forward in conjunction with a specific plan. |
| 01:43:21.91 | Linda Pfeiffer | Oh, okay. All right. Thanks for the clarification. Thank you. |
| 01:43:27.62 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, could I just clarify one thing? I think, Linda, this marineship-specific plan committee was nothing to do with the one that made the original recommendation. Right. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. |
| 01:43:39.23 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Yeah. Thank you. and um how often would it be i mean we have the seven elements of the of a general plan and um and I, I think it may be good to initially start with a review and assessment of our current plan to see what we need. Let's say, Is it often done that that you need to do it comprehensively or can you say, well, first of all, we've just done the housing element, so we've done one element. I would imagine that looking at our circulation plan maybe with our current problems, maybe the next thing that we do. Is that something we can do is do it element by element or is it usually more recommended that we do the entire plan at one time to the degree possible? |
| 01:44:22.14 | Jonathon Goldman | You, You can do it either way. I mean, you can decide that there are specific portions that you'd like updated. One of the things that by law you cannot do is amend a general plan more than four times in one year. I think we did an amendment for Valhalla. I'm not sure if that wasn't here. |
| 01:44:44.85 | Mary Wagner | That was last year. Last year. But we did the housing element this year. |
| 01:44:45.92 | Jonathon Goldman | Last year. Housing element, so that counts as one. So you know, again, I think that's why it's important to assess, you know, to what extent The question remains, too, is when you start digging into the elements, I mean, clearly, if you review the general plan now, there's some background information that was written in 1995 that those portions would need to be updated clearly. Again, you don't have to update the general plan. But if you feel that it's necessary to move forward in envisioning for the next 10 to 20 years, that's something, again, that's a question. |
| 01:45:27.04 | Linda Pfeiffer | I have a follow-up question. So if we assess the general plan and identify came back and identified some sections, would an environmental impact report then be done on the general plan? Because I know the 95 did have one. |
| 01:45:48.46 | Jonathon Goldman | Not necessarily a full environmental impact report. However, again, depending on the extent, especially involving land use and circulation, when it comes to transportation issues, I have seen that to create a defensible plan, it's likely that an environmental impact report would be necessary to have a full study. |
| 01:46:20.50 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Danny, if we did, when you went back and said after 20 years, if you did nothing, do we leave ourselves open for any liabilities? |
| 01:46:32.96 | Jonathon Goldman | If the current general plan in its review, if we find that it still retains the main goals, objectives, and policies that we can continue to then translate into our zoning then that should remain consistent, and I don't find that that would be, you know, that we would be liable. There's always, you know, issues of development concerns that should they look at it from a fine-tooth comb and find objectives that they feel meet their objectives and, you know, We feel from our reading of our specific plans or zoning that it's not in fact consistent. I mean, that's a level of potential liability. |
| 01:47:25.52 | Unknown (Councilmember) | Thank you. |
| 01:47:28.32 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 01:47:28.34 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Okay. So let's open it up to public comment. Would anyone from the public like to comment on this issue? |
| 01:47:43.34 | Wendy Richards | Wendy Richards, thanks to Channel 27, I'm here. I have a process comment that applies here, and it came up in a separate issue at Planning Commission. But from a process point of view, I'd like to comment here. This is a very important set of issues that are in the primary responsibility of one of our. this is a very important set of issues that are in the primary responsibility of one of our newest staff members. So one of the good things, I'm a manager, I manage big teams. And one of the great things about bringing in a new person to a job is they bring in a lot of expertise and best practices from their prior jobs. The flip side is that it's very important to allow a new person time to familiarize themselves with the historical elements of what's gone on. And as our legal counsel and our community development director remember, there was a really tricky issue that came before the Planning Commission a couple of meetings ago. I was attending, it was my neighbor's project. I was attending because of a roof issue. was not my project. but because of some unclarity in the language, our brand new community development director read the language in a certain way which was different than the predecessor in that job. And it was a legitimate... reading of this language could go either way. But what had occurred was that the language had, the project had proceeded down the path with assurances of the city based on a certain reading. And we had a new person come in. and, I read it differently. And this had to come to the Planning Commission to be clarified, but in fact, we, this was an ADA issue, I mean, ADU issue, And we had been through weeks and months of hearings and public comment and all that kind of stuff Around it and so for someone who had been here all along it was it would not that would not have been able to Misinterpret the language because they had the benefit of history and I think in this same way, I urge you to go slowly to give the new person time to get the benefit of history. because without it, it caused tremendous upset, strain, and potentially huge cost to the project owner in my neighborhood. Which was luckily resolved but at the same time as citizens We spend a lot of time going through a lot of contentious issues in these things and you know there's a lot of people not me who have spent a hours on marineship issues and all these things down here. And I think we don't need to stumble over things we've already solved. And I just would like you to urge to give the staff the time they need to get familiar with these issues and how we've come to our legislation and not just attempt to make up solutions without that benefit. Thank you. |
| 01:50:49.57 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you. Anyone else from the public like to speak? |
| 01:50:57.89 | Civil Boutillier | Civil Boutillier, Commissioner on Aging and representing a friendly task force. As you know, we're working on a strategic plan and we have a small fund that we've gotten from the Board of Supervisors and Marin Community Foundation to hire somebody to help us to develop the strategic plan that is owed by the city to |
| 01:50:57.98 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you. We'll be telling you. |
| 01:51:26.24 | Civil Boutillier | us to the community, but also to the World Health Organization as part of our participation in the global network of age-friendly communities. And that needs to be done by next March. And so we have this small fund of $15,000, and we've started to pull together a list of people that the city will eventually select to help us work with us to select someone who will write up the plan. So my question is, it's a small plan, but it's a concept, a policy concept of age-friendliness for the city of Sausalito. So what I'm suggesting is if you do decide to update portions of the general plan to consider whether or not it's appropriate to include the age-friendly plan into that general plan, possibly under the health and safety element or at least to have some sort of a policy concept written into the plan that this is a desire of the city going forward to include all age friendliness as you work on your general plan. |
| 01:52:55.73 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you. |
| 01:53:05.13 | Neil Whitelaw | Neil Whitelaw again. I'd like to add a little comment on what was just said. I've been dwelling on this for about a year, thinking when was the appropriate time to bring it up. But... A couple of years ago, I overheard Mike Stone the owner of Molly Stone's Markets, speaking to Carol, former councilwoman, her last name escapes me at the moment, And he said, and he didn't know who I was, I was sitting in North Point, coffee company with some old clothes on. He didn't take much notice of me, but I was right there almost in the conversation. like a little fly on the wall. He said, as long as I have the influence I have in Saus Lido, I will not allow the Sally bus to be taking seniors around all over the place. He was very emphatic on that. I notice we don't have the Sally Bus anymore. I'm not quite sure why. I haven't followed the developments of that. It looks like perhaps this new committee will ensure that we have a ride service. But how can one man who is not a resident of Sausalito has not been on any committees, has not been mayor, been on city council. The only thing he has in town is he has one supermarket, sounding like he had Incredible influence over this town. And I want to make sure that that isn't so. If it is, it should be halted and we should not have something like one person saying what goes on in town. It's not only for seniors that good transportation is needed, but for the whole green effect. And not having cellies is causing a lot more pollution and smog in our town. a lot more inconvenience to people. I don't know why He was against it. It brought people to his supermarket. But... People should be aware of that, what this little fly on the wall heard. Three years ago. Thank you. |
| 01:55:09.90 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Thank you. Anyone else from the public? They see no others. Close public comment. Bring it up here for council discussion. Who would like to start? |
| 01:55:32.35 | Jill Hoffman | Um, Thank you. I think planning is... really, really important. It's, in my view, a cane to capital investment. If you don't do it, then things are going to start degrading and eroding. And you also need to plan to plan, meaning you shouldn't just be randomly planning. You should have some sort of framework around which you're planning. And that's what the general plan is. And in part, as we're looking at all of the issues that we need to look at over the next number of years, if we are simultaneously working on, you know, chipping away at the planning that needs to get done to redo the general plan, we're actually starting to plan and talk about all these issues in a coherent way. So that's why I'm in favor of at least looking at the general plan to ask the question, what's out of date, what needs updating? I bet you that there's no mention in the general plan of sea level rise. I bet you there's very little mention in the general plan about greenhouse gases emissions. fact I can guarantee you there really isn't. whereas the crafters of the general plan in 1995 certainly took, on the environment and conservation really Um, importantly, and actually did a good job, I think, in writing what they did, things have moved on. There's been a lot of changes in the last 20 years. One of the most important things the mayor alluded to is transportation. I think what we have in our general plan around transportation really does need to have a good look. Russ Irwin up at the ferry meeting on April 1st I think very eloquently made the point that you know it's time to have a whole look at our transportation plan again especially in light of what we were talking about that night so there's nothing What we need to do is, I think, go slowly. We need to analyze the scope. And we need to figure out that this is going to be a multi-year process that we budget for over multiple years. So that's my view. Finally in my last 16 seconds up here in the last two and a half years I've heard countless times that we can't do this project and we can't do that project because the city needs to do a full EIR on because of that project being triggered. Well now is the chance to eventually do that. |
| 01:58:42.06 | Linda Pfeiffer | Okay. So I guess first of all I guess my thought is of course my preference is, you know, for the whole council to review this, you know, and kind of work as a team in reviewing the general plan. But I know that there are some, you know, positive aspects in terms of doing a subcommittee, you know, first and then bringing that back for general discussion. As long as It'd be subject to the Brown Act and the public could be invited. I think it's really good that Vice Mayor Hoffman's on the team, you know, to have a fresh pair of eyes from the council. I think that's good. I also would add that one of the things, one of the cautions to use as we look at this is legislative new legislation and some of the things that are buried in this legislation like SB 375. I believe one of the aspects is if you're like one-half mile of a ferry landing development has streamlined CEQA and you, you know, the ramifications for some of this legislation, you know, as you're looking at general plans and you're looking at new, you know, that new lens needs to be very carefully weighed because it could have serious ramifications on our residential neighborhoods who border our commercial areas. So anyway, so that's my comment, and I look forward to hearing back from this subcommittee to hear what they've learned and to weigh in with public review. before we move forward. And I agree with the public comment about giving staff plenty of time to, you know, come up to speed on the culture of Sausalito and our emphasis on small town scale. Thanks. |
| 02:00:55.15 | Unknown (Councilmember) | You know, I think it's a good idea to look at the general plan and see if it needs updating. You know, the comments about letting someone get up to speed are well taken, and I'm probably one of those people that needs to get up to speed on the history of, although I'm very familiar with the Maroonship-specific plan, but also the city's general plan. to be updated and specific areas that don't and to take a very close look at the scope and as that affects the budget. So I think that's, you know, when I see something like this over multiple years I see the dollar signs just whizzing by me and the use of consultants for work that may or may not have been, you know, warranted under the law. what the city actually needs. And so I think that's a really important balance, but, you know, I think it's good to get started So. |
| 02:01:56.81 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | I think, well, one thing just to put in perspective, this grew out of the partnership specific plan and it was pretty clear. that we needed to update the Marinship Pacific Plan and the task force, then decided that it would be more efficient to also include it in the context of general plan. And we need to do our general plan as well. I think one of the things to bear in mind the concerns this this is going to be a long process that's both good and bad news there's going to be Uh, this task force, the planning commission, going back to council, staff, there are going to be, public's going to be involved in all of this, so there'll be plenty of time. And one of the benefits of this is the education staff and this is going to be one way, talk about a way to get involved in our culture. It's really the best way in terms of doing the general plan and there will be plenty of people to give input into this so there's not any danger of staff going off on their own because each one of them will have either task force or planning commission council and a lot of public input each step of the way. I think it's a great exercise for the public to go through in terms of, first of all, understanding what our general plan does and what it, because we are subject to it in everything we do and the opportunities for updated. I do think we have to be careful of the cost, the time, and new legislation as well as we do that. But I think that's where I think we, I think the task force, the thing to do would be before we hired consultants or did anything further that we. Take a look. We review and assess the current general plan. and take a look at it. See... what may need to be done. I think it's very important that we take a look at whether an environmental impact report needs to be done. I agree that maybe it's probably time to do it anyway, but I certainly want to do it in time that I wouldn't want to have it stale for the general plan. We'd want to do it certainly in a timely way to do the environmental impact report and then do the plan as well. But I think we should give it a task force to do that. They're just going to be exploring it. It will be open to the public, and they'll come back to council before we. make any commitments or spend any money on anything. So that's what I'd recommend. We have a motion on this. |
| 02:04:13.01 | Unknown | I know that we, you know, |
| 02:04:16.03 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | about the |
| 02:04:16.79 | Unknown | you Thank you. |
| 02:04:17.80 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | What are we calling them? The working group that we have pointed on Just with the church. |
| 02:04:21.80 | Unknown | to the church. Thank you. |
| 02:04:22.85 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | Well, the same group, the same working group that was established in the Regents and the Senate plan to first review and assess the current general plan. 40 positions. Thank you. you |
| 02:04:39.17 | Unknown (Mayor/Chair) | And by that, I think that this group is the four that we had mentioned, was the task force. And that is Councilmember Withey, Vice Mayor Hoffman, Planning Commissioner Bill Werner, and HLB member John McCoy. Okay? That's my motion. Second. Can we do this by voice? Aye. Okay, it's unanimous. Thank you. Let's take a five-minute break. |
| 02:05:01.74 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:05:01.90 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 02:05:33.79 | Unknown | . |
| 02:05:34.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
Unknown — Neutral: Briefly commented on short walk signal timing at city traffic lights before signals change for vehicles. ▶ 📄