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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1987-03-30 City Council Summary Minutes• CITY COUNCIL MINUTES PALOALToCITYCOUNCILMEETINGSARE BROADCAST LIVE VIAKZSL-FREQUENCY9O.1 ON FM DIAL ----- Special Meeting March 30, 1987 ITEM Oral Communications Minutes of March 9, 1987 Consent Calendar 2. Project Mobility Transportation Develop- 57-28 ment Act Grant Application 3. Historic Resources Board Recom.endation .re 57-29 Placing Juana Briones House at 4155 Adobe Road on the Palo Alto Historic Building Inventory PAGE 57-28 57-28 57-28 4. California Aveilue Parking Assessment 57-29 District No. 86-1 Assessment Bonds .of 1987 ., Keystone Lot 5. Santa Clara County Transit District -- 57-30 Proposed Bus Route Changes in Palo Alto Adjournment to a Study Session re Utilities 57-38 Strategic ,Plan and Fuel Cell Demonstration Project at 8:55 p.m, Final Ad journmer.t at 10:50 p.I . 57-39 57-27 330/87 Special Meeting Monday, March 30, 1987 The City Council of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the Council Chambers, 250 Hamilton Avenue, at 7:37 p.m. PRESENT: Bechtel, Cobb, Fletcher, Klein, Levy, Patitucci, Renzel, Sutoriuse Woolley Mayor Woolley announced that Council met in Special Closed Session re Employer/Employee Relations and re Litigation to discuss Ingelore Schwarcz v. Citx of Palo Alto pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.91b) at 6:15 p.m. in the Council Conference Room. Mayor Woolley also announced that upon conclusion of the meeting, Council would adjourn to a Study Session re Utilities Strategic Plan ,;and- a Fuel Cell Demonstration Project in the Council Conference Room. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS 1. Ben Bailey, 171 Everett Street, spoke in regard to Palo Alto Police Department complaints. MINUTES OF MARCH 9t 1987 MOTION: Council Member Levy moved, seconded by . Bechtel, approval of the Minutes of March 9, 1987 as submitted. MOTION PASSED unanimously. CONSENT CALENDAR MOTION: Council Member Klein moved, seconded by Sutorius, approval of the Cons*►nt Calendar. Council Member Levy removed Item 1, Contract with Stanford Energy Systems for Installation of Passive Solar Energy System. 2. PROJECT MOBILITY TRANSPORTATION DEVELOPMENT ACT GRANT APPLlC T ON C iR: 8 z File No. RESOLUTION 6.98 entitled 'RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF TER;. CITY OF PALO ALTO AUTHORIZING THE FILING or A CLAIN . WITH THE METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION FOR ALLOCATION . :OF TRANSPORTATION DEVELOPMENT ACT FUNDS FOR FIKCAL Yet 19a7--881 CONSENT CALENDAR CONTINUED 3. HISTORIC RESOURCES BOARD RECOMMENDATION RE PLACING JUANA BRIONES HOUSE AT 4155 ADOBT,. ROAD ON THE PALO ALTO HISTORIC BUILDING INVENTORY (CMR:191:7) (File No. 263) NOTION PASSED unanimously, NOTION TO CONTINUE' Council Member Levy moved, seconded by Klein, to continue Item I, Contract .with Stanford Energy Systems for Installation of Passive Solar Energy Systems to the April 4, 1997 City .Council meeting. Council Member Levy said the motion to continue was in order to see the detail of the award of contract and the bid sheet. NOTION PASSED unanimously. 4. CALIFORNIA AVENUE PARKING ASSESSMENT DISTRICT NO. 86-1 - ASSESSMENT BONDS OF 1987 (KEYSTONE LOT) (CMR:179:7 ( File No. 1130) Council -Member Cobb wouldnot participate in the item due to a conflict of interest. Financial Planning Administrator Gordon Ford said Item 2, page 7, of the Preliminary Official Statement attached to the staff report (CMR:179:7) should be changed from, "Resi- dential development is included in the assessment formula," to The properties that are exclusively residential are exempt from the assessment formula as long as the properties beet the City's parking requirement." Bob Kavinoky, 2091 Cornell Street, said it had been an eight -year effort to stabilize and acquire more parking in the ' Caslifornia Avenue distract. He. thanked Council and staff and hoped the cooperative and professional relation -- ship of the past two years would continue. Tr : Vice Mayer Sutorins msved, seconded by Fletcher, to adopt the rese utioa. RESOWTION *$99 entitled :: 'i RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR issammu '1 ADS AND' DIRECTING LI `! or Am fn ASUSSIMITS TO P it TAR . CITY Of r LO ALTO AND 'MUM 57--29 3/30/87 Council Meiaber Levy supported the basic motion but referred to statements that needed to be updated. On page C5, under Construction, "In recent years, permit valuations for non- residential construction have experienced rapid growth." According to the table, that was the case up to 1983; but, in fact, in recent years, there hadbeen a rapid decline. On page C7, the City had six municipal libraries, not five. Page C2, under Personal Income, stated that the City's total effective buying incoiie was approximately $1 million, which he believed was an error; and under Housing, the data listing rentals for both apartments and homes might also be out of dale. City Attorney Diane Northway said those changes should be incorporated into the motion which should include the most recent data available. Council Member Bedhtel corrected the word "disposalf° on page C2 to *disposable." !MAKER AND SECONDER OF NOTION AGREED TO INCORPORATE , THE LAN- GUAGE "MOST RECENT DATA AND ACCURATE SPELLING NOTION PASSED unanimovslya Cobb not participating," 5. SANTA CLARA COUNTY TRANSIT DISTRICT - PROPOSED BUS ROUTE CHANGES IN . PALO ALTO (CMR 418188 :7) (File No. 1162) Transportation Planner Gayle Likens introduced Mike Aro, Superintendent of Service Development for the Santa Clara County Transportation Agency who was available to answer questions. Brian Bulito, 2502 Birch Street, was pleased about the recommendation of full disabled access for the 34 Line and that the County ileeded the concern ofdisabled access from Stanford Research Park on the 24 Line. Policy 3 of Palo Alto's 1980-1995 Comprehensive Plan only policy pare- transit and no mention of mainstream disabled access. Programs 9 and 10 furthered the cause : of segregated , trans- portation for disabled persons. Paratransit systems were not regularly scheduled and did not equally serve all income groups. He urged the Palo Alto Comprehensive Plan be amended to reflect a clear and aggressive commitment to accessible public transit which served everyone. Mayor Woolley asked when the. Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan would be reviewed. Director of Transportation Marvin Overway said the output from the Citywide Transportation Study in the late fail would be a good time to look at the tra^sporation sector. Mayor Woolley requested that staff keep track of Mr. Sulito's suggestion. Alice Fischgrund, 750 Torreya Court, appreciated Council's directing staff to look into the County Transit Report and commended staff's report. She disagreed with the County's ridership figures, and with the premise that Line 23 was so lengthy it was ineffective in terms of keeping with a schedule She believed almost every change meant a cut and almost every cut affected many people in Palo Alto who had no other way to get out of their homes except to ride the buses. She urged Palo Alto to look into the matter and get its own figures. Herbert Fischgrund, 750 Torreya Court, said Council needed to protect the citizenry of the Palo Alto and others who worked in Palo Alto and took the bus. Council did not want to take stews to worsen any traffic situation. The County report contained data which did not seem to be included in any published report.. Informal surveys of bus drivers reflected the numbers were understated. The major route for getting Palo Alto citizens from wherethey lived out of the City was eliminated and the number of transfers would increase. Transfers were a big deterrent to the use of pub- lic transit. Unless someone lived on El Camino i n Palo Alto, there was no direct bus to San Jose. People who rode Line 23 seemed to think it was one of the more reliable lines, yet the assertion was it was hard to maintain a schedule for Line 23. Palo Alto's tax money went to build more rapid transit lines in San Jose, yet Palo Ai tans had less service. There should be more attempts to make it easier to get around the County from Palo Alto and other places. During the public hearings, the Council Chambers were filled with senior citizens who believed they were being cut off, and now there was a proposal to have a mini- bus take seniors from where they lived to activity centers. Senior citizens, just as the disabled and every other citi- zen group, wanted reasonable mobility which meant getting to a variety of places_ not just a few defined places. The elimination of the segment of the Line. 35 north of University Avenue an Middlefield cut the senior. citizens off. ?r ►nklin Olmsted, 240 West Charleston Road, took Line 35 along Middlefield Road to Menlo Park where he worked at the U. S. Geological Survey. He urged that Line 35 be ' main- tained at its present level. The Transit Authority proposed to - discontinue the . service into Menlo Park. When cities were trying to find ways other than the automobile for get- ting people to their jobs, it was a shame to cut back on the ssrviee provided by Fine 35. 57-31 3/30/87 Council Member Fletcher asked Mr. Olmsted about his observa- tion of the number of riders on Line 35. Mr. Olmsted believed the figures were understated in the reports, and observed that ridership fluctuated consider- ably. Many people rode regularly and a significant number of people did not ride everyday. John Robey, 1893 Woodland, East Palo Alto, referred to his letter to Council, dated March 10, 1987 (on file in the City Clerk's office). He was concerned about the so-called "survey." He wanted to see the figuresand when they were taken because he did not believe they were accurate. He used Line 35 for six years and worked with someone who took it most of the time. The believed SamTrans 68 would incur a possible $21 extra expense per_ month and if one paid $20 to Santa Clara and $21 to SamTrans, it right be cheaper to buy gas and have a car on the road. Mayor Woolley queried the accuracy of the surveys. Mr. Aro referred to a current program whereby traffic checkers rode the system and captured ridership data on every trip in the system once a year, which was the primary data utilized for the analysis of service in Palo Alto. Twenty buses were equipped with infra -red sensors which cap- tured ridership data by stop and the information received was incorporated into the ridership analysis. For purposes of the report, ridership checkers were used to record the information at stop levels and the times buses went through particular time points and that information was processed through the computer system. Council Member Fletcher was frustrated about dealing with the issue At that time because none of . the Council members were privy to the community meeting held in the Chambers in February. The entire Chambers were filled with people pro- testing the changes. Another community meeting . was scheduled in Palo Alto on April 1. If Council Members based their decisions on testimony heard that evening, it was but a fraction of the concern in the community. The Dumbarton Bridge/Transbay policy was :instituted as tranebay service only with no local passengers. The Santa. Clara County Transit. and. SamTrans were both requested to take local passengers --Santa Clara County Transit agreed to, but SamTrana did not. She referred to an excerpt from an, EIR regarding the San Antonio/West Bayshore Study and the policy adopted, and said page 5-'8-52 talked about the area served by Line 23 in the Ford Aerospace area = *Mandatory trip reduction program be, required of developers of new projects of building additions for busanessee totaling , 40 or more 57--32 3/30/87 employees in the City area. The trip reduction program to have an ultimate goal of achieving a 45 percent reduction in employee commute perios `vehicle trips compared to the number of trips generated if all employee trips were made in single occupant automobiles. The trip reduction program to be staged over a 5 -year period with increased trip reduction each year and achievement of a 45 percent reduction after five years. The program was not yet instituted so the cur- rent ridership was not indicative of what employers would be mandated to aim for. If convenient service to the area was not available, there was little hope to achieve the goal. With the proposed changes, there would be no direct service between either of the Caltrain stations in Palo Alto and the Ford Aerospace area. The Line 35 now serving the U. S. Geological Survey and SRI, Menlo Park was working on developing a TOM program so the ridership there wouldalso be increased with the institution of the program, but it would. not happen without direct service. MOTION: Council Member Fletcher moved. seconded by Bechtel, to hold any major changes for thisyear and to give TDM programs a chance to develop in Palo Alto and Menlo Park and to examine improvements to the services in Palo Alto. Also, to pursue the northern loop of Em arcadero to East Baysiture and the feasibility wf direct express services from Palo Alto to the San Jose Airport and downtown San Jose. Further: approve staff recommendation to direct the Mayor to write a letter to the County Transportation Commission and Transit District Board communicating the following comments oa the proposed bus route modifications* 1, (2) Palo Alto endorse the proposed changes on Lino 24; and 2. (3b) Line 35 will operate as a fully . life -.quipped, wheelchair accessible; and (3d) Comity Trans will work with AC Transit and SamTrans to establish a rec:iprecal transfer agreement and local fare policy for the BB 1 ino; and 3. .:(4) Palo Alto OPposes the proposed reduction in service boor* on Lame Sf; and 4. (5) Palo Alto opposes the reduction in service beers on Line $61and (7) Palo Alto endorses the rerouting of Line SS; _ and (S) Palo Alto opposes the iropeled changes in Sa turda y service en Line SS 57-33 3/30/4/ Council Member Fletcher did not believe the proposed changes were improvements on balance. She said there waspresently a lot of express service into Palo Alto in the mornings, but there was none in the reverse Commute direction. She rode Line 23 often and always saw five to eight passengers in the off peak hours. The scheduling was pretty good; however, she had never ridden the bus during peak hours. She imag- ined the connection to be coordinated with Route 35 at the Showers Drive Transfer Center would be unreliable because there would be four commuters coming in at the peak hour -and "kt =:was a long route from San Jose through Santa Clara and Cupertino on major thoroughfares. If the scheduling was off, the employees at Ford Aerospace could easily miss the connection and be one-half hour late for work on a fairly regular basis. Such a transfer was not workable. It was not that much further to run the bus along San Antonio through that employment area. She referred to a comment from County staff that Lines 23 and 35 duplicated service on Middlefield;.; She pointed out Line 35 only ran during peak hours and she believed Middlefield Road was a busy enough corridor to sustain two bus routes. She hoped they would be staggered. With the proposed rerouting of Route 86, :. if the plan were implemented, it would eliminate the only direct service between Stevenson House and the Senior Center. If Line 23 were eliminated in Palo. Alto, it changed Route 86 and 35. Council Member Klein was concerned about the disparity in numbers of the survey since many policy decisions seemed to be driven by the surveys of ridership. He clarified 20 buses, had automatic sensing devises and queried whether a comparison was done between the results achieved by the automatic sensing devices and the other means of .surveying. Mr. Aro said the accuracy of the automatic passenger coun- ters was validated by actual counts taken on a similar : bus and believed they were within plus or minus five percent. Council Member Klein believed the policy was important. The TDM prograua, would likely have a variety of goals to be met bya certain time period. It would be a manda.ury reporting .system, but a voluntary program with a clear statement that _if the goals were not met by the times in question, they would have to move toward a mandatory TDM program threeighout the Gojden Triangle if not the entire County.: A main ele- ment of concern expressed by businessleaders was if local government. imposed TDM cequit� tints . on businesses, then local government,: had to live ui; to its promises that the system would not work if the: bus system was not available, if light rail was not on -lane on taxwet, and if various road improvements were not comp1et on eime. He believed it was important to continue e f f or t a, to .,:reduce the reliance on single -occupant cars and a bus system was one part of the strategy. To reduce bus service into one of the major employment areas of the community seemed to be a step backward. He supported the motion. Council Member Patitucci said the existing bus route seemed to have some rationale, and he assumed the County's proposal had .some internal logic to it. Most people responded that it was•.a netreduction of service. The staff recommendation tried 'to improve on the logic inherent in the County proposal and Council Member Fletcher's proposed tried to incrementally improve on that. He asked whether the motion undermined the continuity of the plan staff endorsed. He believed the motion was basically an endorsement of the proposal with a few modifications. Mayor Woolley believed some of the modifications were major because two of the major lines which would change signifi- cantly were left out of the motion. Ms. Likens believed the County's proposal, had its own logic. They took existing routes and tried to eliminate duplication of service. They stopped one route in Mountain View and developed a new route that served Palo Alto, but not Menlo Park. Short of re-evaluating the entire system, it would be difficult to accept the County's proposal. The two logics could not be carried forward without changes in Lines 23 and 35 so in essence re-evaluating the County's plan was needed. Council Member Patitucci asked how staff interpreted the motion; the Council's authority in the process; and about the staff recommendations. Ms Likens interpreted the . motion to be no change at the present time on the main routes being proposed for market changes under the County's plan. En terms of process, the Council provided recommendations. There would be a public hearing on Wednesday before the Operations Committee of the Transportation Commission at Lucie Stern, whose recommenda- tions would go to the full Transportation Commission in about a month, and the Transportation Commission's recommen- dation would go on ° to the .. Transit District Board of Supervisors. Some of the staff modifications were minor and others were more substantial in that they dealt with the type-. of system they were proposing to introduce into Palo Alto, the . elimination of the frequency of service on many routes and., the hours of operation. In general, the County proposal provided less service than was currently ; avail- able. Council " Member Renzel supported the motion because it was important to rotate' transit service to achieve trip reduc- tions in the major employment areas. The ABAG Regional Planning Committee was also looking at the possibilities of a model uniform transportation systems management ordinance throughout all the jurisdictions to require trip reductions with any new development. There was a region -wide concern with trip reductions which went beyond the Golden Triangle, and it was premature to reduce bus service particularly to employment centers. She supported retaining existing ser- vice and while some of the route coverage was duplicated, schedules were not. Her own transit decisions considered whether there were two or three different buses she could catch and whether her headway: were ten or fifteen .- minutes instead of an hour, and it _made a. big difference in terns of whether she took transit. It was important, particularly along the major routes, that there were overlaps of systems because it improved ridership for each system when there was. flexibility for at least a portion of the route to use a different bus. Council. Member Levy said the report stated: The recommen- dations address the need to make the existing transit system more efficient and effective and to accommodate future needs prompted by regional growth and the implementation of the light rail system beginning in late. i987." Efficiency almost seemed tobe at odds with effectiveness, and .he did not have a basis to evaluate what was going on because he did not grasp the objectives. He askedwhether the objec- tives of the changes were more than to make the system run more efficiently and save some money. Mr. Aro said making the system more efficient and saving money were key objectives. Improvements or expansions were rapidly madein the system over the past ten years, and the Countyhad not had the opportunity to go back and look at the big picture. The route network was somewhat confusing and circuitous and they were directed to .look at methods to streamline the system to make it more efficient and attrac- tive to future riders. The project started in the Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Mountain View area over the past year, and in other areas on a smaller scale. In San Jose, improvements on three routes resulted in a 14 percent sav- ings on theirequipment requirements for those three routes and ten percent of the annual miles operated without signi- ficantly impacting ridership. They were asked to expand the process to the entire Countyusing the same approach. Council Member Levy queried whether the changes were consid- ered to be fundamental and whether the County believed the same areas were baing served as efficiently as before.. Mr. Aro said any changes had to .provide a balance between. convenience and efficiency. Some of the routes in Palo Alto existed for seven years and there was established ridership. Some people would be impacted, but the major emphasis was to try to make some streamlining changes without significantly impacting ridership. The major impacts would be in trans- fers. The County believed the changes provided improved efficiency in the system. Council Member Levy asked about the cost of providing the Palo Alto service and how much money would be saved. Mr. Aro said $400,000 to $500,000 per year would be saved. He did the cost of providing service to Palo Alto was not computed. Vice Mayor Sutorius said the County was familiar with some of the concerns raised through the public meeting process and through the coordination with City staff. If the County believed the' City staff_ response .and the action contained in the motion were appropriate and the Line 84 frequency was not changed, he queried whether the County would` undertake., any type of route change review. Mr. •Aro said Line 84 had been substandard for a long time, and the evaluation process considered whether theroute pro- ductivity could be improved. The Sunday and evening ser- vices were substandard so hours of service were reduced and the Sunday service was eliminated. The route still operated a t a substandard level so the next step was to meet with City staff and try to determine whether a.route change might improve ridership on the particular route. The route pri- marily operated on Waverley and there was no way for riders to get to some of the activity centers --primarily in the Midtown area The City and County explored the possibility of rerouting= to serve Midtown where seniors could frequent the shopping center and route productivity could be improved. The route still operated at a . substandard level --they tried a route change, trimmed back the service, but did not want to abandon the route. The route provided service coverage and would- leave a large gap in the Palo Alto area. They were about 200 plus seniors or riders who used the service on a daily basis. The peak hour service was underutilized as Oompared to the mid --day service which currently operated hourly* The next step was to cut -.back the peak hour service and try ,to accomplish some savings. Vice mayor Sutoriut clarified that .regardless of Palo Alto's recommendation, the. County believed it tried many things and the reduction in peak period was the only Sensible answer. 57-37 3/30/87 Mr. Aro said the recommendation sounded to him like trading the current Line 84 for some type of new service activity center loop in the Palo Alto area. He did not understand where an extension of the route would, go. Minor route changes were tried to improve productivity. Vice Mayor Sutorius supported the motion. He would not be disappointed if route 84 was carefully evaluated for re- routing. He could personally attest to the fact that when Line 84 paused his house, the bus was empty most of the time. Council Member Klein wanted to see data comparing the crite- ria in the Palo Alto area to other areas in the County. Everyone subsidized the system and he expected the subsidy should be spread fairly evenly throughout the County. Council did not have that data and he hoped to have it in six months to a year. NOTION P ASS RED unanimously. ADJOURNMENT Council adjourned to a Study Session re Utilities Strategic Plan and Fuel Cell Demonstration Project held in the Council Conference Room at 8:55 p.m. STUDY SESSION RE UTILITIES STRATEGIC PLAN AND FUEL CELL DEMONSTRATION PROJECT .� Assistant Director of Utilities Ken Deflario and Chief Engineer Ron Helval introduced the possibility of Palo Alto acting as host site for a commercialization demonstration, project for an 11 MW fuel cell. The Strategic Plan presentation was characterized as a plan- ning process leading to strategies and tactics designed to specifically accomplish the objectives identified in the plan. The Fuel Cell presentation described . the development of the technology and Palo Alto's involvement with several outside agencies, such as the Fuel Ce11 [User's Group, American Public Peer Association, Electric Power Research Institute and International Fuel Cell, Corporation. The concept was to construct four, demonstration 11 FEW fuel cell plants, one of which was to be done by a group of Public. Power partici- pants. The project was estimated to cost $40 million, of whichthe host utility would furnish $15 million. Others would contribute from $500,000 to $5 million to make up the project commitment. Mr* Naval p►dnted out the good envi- ronmental qualities and savings to be generated while pro- viding a power sourcefrom an emerging technology. Council discussed the financial risk, sources of funding, physical parameters of acreage required and height dimensions, emissions, ownership, downside risk, removal on failure, potential sites not being in the baylands, and the need to develop the technology. Staff proposed to return to Council on April 27, 1987 with a proposed letter of intent and draft business plan. FINAL ADJOURNMENT Final adjournment at\10:50 p.m. ATTEST: APPROVED: \4)0110511 - Mayor 57x-39 3/30/87'