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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-02-07 City Council Summary Minutes2 9 1" 3 CITY COUEICI L Minutes ITEM CITY CJJF , PAt4�7 , ALTO Regular Meeting Monday, February -7, 1983 PAGE Oral Communications 2 9 1 1 Minutes of November 22, 1982 2 9.1 1 Item #1, Resolution ,re Nuclear War Prevention 2 9 .1 1 Month Consent Calendar Referral 2 9 12 Item 12, Dump Pass Policy at the Landfill . 2 9 1 2 2 9 1 2 Action 2 9 1 2 Water Quality 2 9 1 2 Item #3, Curbside Collection of Rubbish Program Item #b, Maintenance Building Control Plant 2 9 1 2 Item 16, Carpeting of Various City Facilities - 2 9 1 3 Rejection of Bids Agenda Changes, Additions and Deletions Item 07, Public Hearing: Planning Commission 2 9 1 3 Recommendation re Amendment to the Zoning Ordinance Changing Private. Colleges and Universities and Hospitals from Permitted to Conditional Uses in the Public Facilities (PF District) Item 18, . Public" 'Hearing: Planning Commission Recommendation re Application of Reimer Associates for a Tentative Subdivision Map at . 600 Los Trancos Road Item #9, Publ.tc Heari g.. Planning. Commission- Uinanimoos Endorsement: of . a Merehant and Owner Committee to Develop ;Performance Standards and Monitor. ..Retai1l: VI.tel i ty.:-In the Downtown Area Item 140,_ Human Relations Comnisslon re Age Dlscrinslnation in Rental':.Housing (204, --,Reading) Justice Funding Sec©a:d 'Year Clara County mortgage Revenue :'Bond, Ite #13, , Cil fforni a . Avenue -Parking- ` Assess ent "istrict Sttd, .:' l lti:zen Part -ion Plan ITEM Item #15, Request of Mayor Bechtel, Vice Mayor Fazzino and Counci)member Renxel Conservation Center re Peninsula Item #33A (did Item #4) Solar Financing Alternative Loan Terns Program Item la r em 014, Request of y of Councilmemberst Picture EYeriy Item #i5, bequest of ns ioni lmQrnber Fletcher re Southern Pacific Extension to Downtown Sri Item 01.7, Request of Mayor Bechtel Klein, Levy and Cobb re City Controller P lositiontion Adjournment P PAGE 2 9 4 1 2 9 4 6 2 9 4 7 2.9 4 7 2 9 4 8 2 9 5 I Regular Meeting Monday, February 7, 1983 The City Council of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 250 Hamilton Avenue, at 7:45 p.m. PRESENT: Bechtel. Cobb, Eyerly, Fazzino, Fletcher Klein, Levy, Renzel (Arrived at 8:58 p.m.), Witherspoon ORAL .COMMUNICATIONS None MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 22, 1982 Mayor Bechtel submitted the following correction: Pa e 2700, third paragraph from the bottom, first line, should rea owntown Palo Alto, Inc." instead of DTPA. Councilmember Klein had the following corrections: Paaee 2687, second paragraph from the _bottom, first line, insert a er e word "of": "property adjacent to..." Page 2688, sixth paragraph, second line, word "Hermann's" should be "Heymann's." Pa a 2706, first paragraph, ninth. line, word "appeared," should be Pa ea. " NOTION: Councilmember Faizino moved, seconded by Witherspoon, approval of the Minutes of November 22, 1982, as corrected. NOTION PASSED unanimously, Renzel absent. ITEM #1, RESOL€#TION RE NUCLEAR WAR PREVENTION MONTH Councilmember Eyerly said he believed :it. was unusual for staff to agendize a resolution of this kind. He asked who requested the resolution. Mayor Bechtel said the Council voted •on the item last .November. A request was made by members of the community to have that particu- lar month designated, and it was voted on at the (November 22, 1982 meeting, see page 2704 of the minutes. NOTION:. Coencil ieaber Klein moved, seconded by Ley, approval of :the Resolution RESOLUTION 509i -entitled ' ESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF TwrimPrormirno ALTO O€CLARINC NUCLEAR MAR PREVENTION MONTlh'` Ralph Cahn, 500 $o. California Avenue': said that. since November 22, 1982 when 'Council agreed toagendize- the resolution, about 22 organizations hack_. met and planned activities for the month of. Aprl i . `:.The co .unity. r z very interested in the subject of- nutier. awar, and ,April Would :be:a mart!ngfui aonth_`wtth a lot of commui'ty nparticipation. -: Some of the plans. included the -possibility of n - a interface 'religious gathering on the - afternoon of Easter unda�y, Sfi lets, guest . speakers, and- discussions throughout the .onth, and a ofair at the conclusion of the :month. He :_looked`forard_ to the.' 'month of April:; Dr., Robert Gauntt, 640-D Forest Avenue, said that if the nations of the world .were asked why. they had -nuclear weapons in the -first plate, they -would all say to secure their homelands. The issue of national securities was tied into the question of the .weapons The nations would perhaps get rid of their weapons if their secu- rities were guhranteed by another method. The United Nations General Assembly, in calling for a world disarmament campaign, emphasized -:the relationship between disarmament and international secur-i ty... fifty years -ago, Albert Ei nstei n said, - "Disarmament and security cannot be separated. Either security was guaranteed through international --arrangements or the nations would arm to the teeth." There'had been -38 'years of arms control treaties, the nations were armed to the teeth, and there had been proliferation. He suggested that the issue of .disarmament, as related: to inter- national security, be -mentioned -in the resolution. Further, 100 members of the United States Congress belonged to an organization which advocated the enforcement of world wars_as a means of pro- viding the security necessary for disarmament. Einstein said, "The only way to enforce world wars would be with:a world govern- ment." Further, 110 members of the British Parliament advocated world government, 160 members of the Japanese Parliament advocated world government, and Ghandi advocated world government. He thought that --perhaps the resolution should mention the key issues to disarmament --international security, whether world laws could be enforced, whether a world government was needed, and whether it was realistic that nations would disarm without security. The peace movement had been calling for disarmament for 50 years, and Einstein said, "It is futile to call for disarmament without deal- ing with the issue of international security." He asked whether the key issues would be discussed in April or whether it would be another exercise in futility. Counci ]member Cobb said that in the third line of the last RESOLVE clause in the resolution, the word "research" should be "search." This change was noted and incorporated. .MOTION. PASSED by a rote of 6-1-1, Witherspoon voting Hiroo," Eyerly *abstain," and Renzel absent. CONSENT CALENDAR Counci lmember Klein asked to be recorded as "abstaining, on Item 05, Maintenance Building at Water Quality Control Plant. Council - member Eyerly removed Item P4, Solar Financing Program. MOTION: Couricilmeraber Witherspoon moved, seconded by Fazzino, approval of the Consent Calendar as amended. Referral WINOMMIIWilkitleraelftaalib ITEM 12, DUMP PASS POLICY AT THE LANDFILL (CMR:138:3 REFERRAL TO ITEM p3, : CURBSIDE COLLECTION OF RUBBISH PROGRAM (CMR:137:3): — -- -- EE UALITY CONTROL PLANT Staff recommends that Council .:.authorize the Mayor- to sign the con- tract, in an amount not to exceed $73, 7FO, with Spencer- ` and Associates for the design_ of; the =maintenance buildthg at the RWQCA. Staff further recommends that- the approval "-be contingent, upon receiving written approval from the participating _agencies in the RWQCP to begin the' design . and cohstruction phases of the ,_proj- ect. RGREENi AT -� PROFESSIONAL SERVICES Simmer Associates 2 4 1 2 2/07/83 1 1 ITEM 06, CARPETING OF VARIOUS CITY FACILITIES - REJECTION OF BIOS • Staff recommends that the City. Council authorize the rejection of bias for subject work as received on December 22, 1982, and the readvertlsement of the work for new bids. MOTION! PASSED by a vote of Z-0.4, Klein "abstaining" on Item 06, Maintenance Building at Water Quality Control Plant, Renzel absent. AGENDA CHANGES, ADDITIONS AND DELETIONS City Manager Bill Zaner said that Item 14, Solar Financing Program and Alternative Loan Terms, would become Item 13-A. Mayor Bechtel said that the Gypsy Moth item would be on the City Council agenda next Monday night. ITEM 07, PUBLIC HEARING: PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION RE J UNeveirerr its Amu FITSP'1 r/LT PRIM rt_KrFJ T Planning Commissioner John Sutorius said elaborating on the item would be a little like taking coals to Newcastle inasmuch as the Council referred Counci lmerhber Klein's proposal to the Commission for review.. The minutes reflected that there was no public parti- cipation, and the conclusion was unanimous that the conditional use treatment appeared to be the sensible and legal way of resolv- ing the .underlying issue. Vice Mayor Fazzino said he believed the recommendation was a good one and he would support it. He understood that permitted uses would include all facilities owned, leased or operated and used by the City and County of Santa Clara, State of California, govern- ment of the United States, the Palo Alto Unified School District, and any other governmental agencies. It was intended that schools operated by the .Palo Alto Unified School District, in particular, be allowed to continue as permitted uses under the zone. He asked how the law Would: apply in terms of a public university or school, which was a conditional use, which was operated by, the State of California, which was a permitted use. City Attorney Diane Lee responded that it would be . a. permitted use. Vice Mayor Fazzino asked about CETA:or other training ;programs, or. any program which was not a direct program of the federal govern menu, ,but received more than 50 percent of its funds from the fed- eral government. Ms. Lee - aid . that was <'a fedesrel program and federally funded but not a federal use. A federal use would be operated by the 'federal government itself. For example, when. the City leased_ property to a private agency, that agency must comply with the. . zoning. The City's . lease 'of the property did .not, make the. use City _:func- tion. Vice Mayor Fazzino asked what would happen 'if under the new CET -A 14w, a= private industry council was formed which ''received 100 per- cent°.federal funding. Ms. .tee said c4use a :'group was funded b -y the `City, it #id not necessarily- sheake,-,it _a. City funct ten.' :. There . Were• a Tot of_-. federal p-rograms, but- that -;,did riot necessarily ._Mean the_`go'vernment wa a dti ni steri ng .them,- and those- `p ograms were not cloaked,: with- the -- Same r�esponslasi_11 #es and characteristi-cs as if a ':public agency wete doing :them, Councilmember Cobb said clearly the change would have an impact on. Stanford. Hospital, and perhaps the town and gown conflict. in terms of physician access might be given an additional tool with which to work. The change stated that, "if such uses wished to expand their fac+.lines, a conditional Use permit might be required," He was sure the hospital, other than building a new structure, did a lot of things -to change the kinds of uses they had, particularly in terms -of intensification withirLexisflrig.structures. He asked whether that would get into the use permit Process. Director of Planning and Community Environment Kenneth Schreiber said that particular issue had been discussed with the Chief Building Official Fred Herman, who made interpretations about whether a use permit --was required. His interpretation of the ordinance requirements was .that- the use permit would only be required_when physical new floor area was provided --whether it was an expansion of the structure. or the additon of a mezzanine. If it was an existing floor area approved before the requirements went into effect, that area could be modified and used in a dif- ferent manner without a use permit. Councilmember Levy hypothesized that the City decided to 'own and operate a hospital in- a .PE zone. He clarified that it would be a permitted use, and it was the question of ownership rather than the use itself that made the difference. Mr. Schreiber said yes to the extent that the City of Palo Alto and other public agencies --the county or federal government --were permitted uses. Councilmember Levy asked if the use could be engaged in regardless of what it was if it was a county property and the county itself engaged in a use which it decided was a proper county use. Ms. Lee said yes. Mayor Bechtel Jeclared the public hearing open Receiving no requests from the public to speak, she declared the public hearing closed. Councilmember Klein asked what control the City could have over the county, state or federal government. Ms. Lee said none. Councilmember Klein said his point was that it made no difference: what was put in the ordinance. If the county, state or federal government wanted toput a missile range in. Palo Alto, it could be. done. -MOTION: Vice. Mayor Fazzino moved, seconded by Witherspoon,. :Approvai of ..oa aueodtsent to the Zoning Ordi manse changing pr1 irate colleges awd r,h#.vers1t1es and Hospitals 'fro■ .permitted to coodi- tiosalr uses- -in the: Public Facilitles; (PF). District for fl'rst read- . -ORDIRA CE FOR. FIRST READING :entitled.--"QR©INARC OF THE rrell irerfiriT,' ALTO :ANt ibIMG C$APTER lit pF . j; ZON OF THE 'ON I NG• .CODE =REGARDING PERNI TTED - ND- COIID TI0 AL .USES" NOTION! PASSED by a --vote - of 7-0-1, Leval abteet. ITEM PIJBL I C ,HEARING: PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMENOAT I ON R Planning Commltsioner,.John. Sutor•ius,said the staff had prepared a co prehenstve report on the items and it was _a subject with;a:-few 1 complex nuances to it involving an area of considerable environ- mental sensitivity. The Planning Commission found the staff report to be very educational and hel pful , and the combination of staff efforts and those of the applicant team were useful in aid- ing the Commission's review and findings on the subject. In addi tion to the meeting of January 5, 1983, for which the Council had minutes, the full Comml'ssion, several staff members and the appli- cant team held a properly noticed meeting at the site prior -to the January 5 date, so that independent site visits were supple- mented by .a group visit. The Commission recommended approval of the tentative subdivision subject to a laundry list of conditions, several of which were initiated or were amendments to the staff's recommended conditions. Further, the Commission recommended ap- proval of two variance requests, the first of which excluded the private access roadway through the subdivision from the cal cul a- t ion of impervious surface coverage. Without that variance, four of the fi ve lots were virtually undevelopable. The second vari - ance accommodated the already existing impervious coverage on lot 5. That lot was proposed to be a 10 acre lot that otherwise would have to be 20.8 acres in size to allow the existing 'structure and surface coverage. He noted that the Council packet included a 1 etter from the Mid- Peninsula Regional Open Space Di strict (11PROSD) , which spoke to the possibility at some future time of a connection or an association with the Regional Trail System as far as the area denoted on the map as the "Common Area . " That notice was not before the Planning Commission, and therefore, has not been discussed. The minutes reflected the Commission discussion, and two of its conditions, treated the common area in a fashion that would enable the common area to accept passive recreation, pathways, and appropriate safety control devices in that common area. Chief Planning Official Bruce Freeland said that the emergency access was the subject of MPROSD's letter. Mayor Bechtel declared the public hearing open. David Hansen, represented the Mid -Peninsula Regional Open Space District, and specifically Herb Grench, the General Manager, who wrote the letter to the Councilmembers. He reiterated the District's request not to lose a potential regional connection through the property, in the common area for a Regional Trail System foot and bicycle trail which was shown on the City's Trails and Pathways plan. MPROSD believed that could be accommodated by the granting of a floating easement which could be implemented at the point when existing trails would be built up to the property lines themselves, and was not seen as a heavy encumbrance at ` this point. It could be a floating easement, and MPROSD would be interested in running east and west within the common area. Counci lmember Eyerly usked i f MPROSD antics pated de'vel opi ng a\ trail which :,would go :.through Foothills. Park eventually if the easement were granted. Mr._ Hansen said it had that potential but MPROSD was aware of the Park's_ current status. It was assumed in perpetuity .. that the trail would be`ctinnected for public use at some point' for use by City residents. Council ember €yerly asked- where the trail would go. Mr. Hansen said `= it eventral l y connected with the several -'existing trails shown on the Los Altos `•plan Moody Road,, Page Mill Road, and;: on lino some ',of the of stri ct's `" open= space ; preserves .to the; east--the'Foothill preserve, and Rancho San hntoni o To . the west it .-would connect with Windy and the new trail - system being built there, -as well as some ::other, trails within properties -. .to' the west 5 Councilmember Eyerly asked if there was any current connection with the horse trail that was provided in the Arastra Property and those trails in Los Altos. Mr. Hansen said there was, some potential through the Arastra Prop erty which was shown as another trail on the City's Trail and Pathway Plan. It would, however, be more north/south and not east/west, which was the District's desire at this point. Mayor Bechtel asked if MPROSD was aware of other surrounding cities requirements, and whether many cities routinely required trail easements as part of subdivision approvals. Mr. Hansen said requirements were given for tentative. floating easements based on things that might happen in the future, such as was being requested in this case. Mayor Bechtel asked which cities specifically had made those requests. Mr. Hansen sai d he believed the town of Portal a Valley required a tentative floating easement. Councilmember Witherspoon said as she remembered when she was last riding in the Arastra property, the top of the City property and the Arastra property cane into the Hewlett property in such a way as to go into Foothill Park briefly along the City road above the quarry and down into the Lee property. Mr. Hansen said that route was rather roundabout, and it was felt that the valley in the common area offered such an easy, quick and much more compatible route for trails rather than trying to wind around steep and winding hi l l s . Councilmember Witherspoon asked if some type of easement was obtained. Mr. Freeland said no. The situation with the Hewlett subdivision was that the road, which was the only place to reasonably se;ure an easement, was part of a common parcel owned by the entire sub- division. As the houses were built, no part of the road would come back to the City with the individual site and design approv- als. He was pessimistic about picking up easements through the. Hewlett subdivision at this paint in time. If there was to be a connecting • route, there were only two likely spots --the proposed one and across the Arastra property. As pointed out, they would serve somewhat different connections and purposes. Council member Witherspoon sai d that when one was on a trail ride, one was not ' necessarily trying to get there by the shortest route possible. She did not want to have the family or those who pu€- chased the lots •required to maintain a trail or accept the 1iab1. ity of a trail. It would be nice, however, to come to some under- standing if in the future a trail system was implemented. Mr. Freeland said he understood the request was to have an offer of dedication of an easement, but that there would be no active use until such time as the City decided it was appropriate to have an improvement and open it for public use. Councilmember levy asked for a.description of the City's proce- dures on the floating easement City Attorney Diane Lee :;said that the term "floating" as - "it ,. applied to easements was one with which she was not familiar. She understood the meaning of easement and easement ,for ingress; and egress, but was. not sure specifically what a "floating easement" was except that it did not relate to particular property and sort of. floated. 1 1 raised its objections :a lot earlier in the process because a lot of time had been devoted to the matter. He was concerned that it was the second time within six months that there was a last minute item from the Open Space District, which lead him to believe that e ither the City was not communicating with them, or they were not responding. Mr. Schreiber said that the staff report was sent to the MPROSD in late December, and he personally had not had any conversations with them. Mr. Freeland said the idea first came up last week. Councilmember Klein said in the future he hoped the Open Space District's input could come in at a much earlier time. He under- stood that Los Altos Hills, Woodside and Portola Valley all would have required some type of trail easement on a subdivision such as the current one. Mr. Kelley said he did not think there was such a thing as the open ended easement in Portola Valley. There were specific horse trails required in Portola Valley, but. only a limited few hiking trails which were well thought out existed and were required in Portola Valley. Those were negotiated over years with the owners of the property and were still, in some cases, being negotiated. He knew of no case where there was always a requirement of a hik- ing trail. When a need existed to get from someplace to someplace e lse to constitute a proper linkage of the existing hiking trails, that information was presented to the applicant at an early time to try and influence the dedication of such a thing. There were many subdivisions with no hiking trails. Councilmember Klein asked what his reaction would be to a require- ment for a specifically designed easement that would only become activated if and when a trail was placed across Foothills Park as well. Mr. Kelley said it would be an unfortunate cloud upon the open space and its use, and the privacy pertaining to the lots in the area. Councilmember Klein asked where the cloud was. Mr. Kelley said the cloud would be .an easement allowing the" gen- e ral public to walk or ride through their property, and which would create liabilities, maintenance and policing problems. ninety percent of the hiking trails that were created through the open space were created in dedicated land owned by the District, or which was dedicated as very large areas of open space. He knew of none where it was through a closely confined area next to resi- dential lots. For- example, his client's dedications in Windy Hill and the subsequent hiking that was made through there was a 500 acre parcel of land-na scale nearly equivalent to the park itself. Through that land, a hiking system was developed. Councilmember Klein. asked who would be responsible for nance end upkeep of the easement.' GIs. Lee said the City would be responsible,,unless it was struc- tured some other . way. The City ` could have . responsi bi,l ity . for maintenance and upkeep reposed somewhere else, but if it were pub- lic property, ultimately the City was respensible for any occur- rence of accident or injury irrespective of,who had the ' responsi- bility to maintain. Councilmember Klein clarified that if the easement was placed along than existing road, - the City - would have to maintain the road. the mannte- 1 0 Mr. Hansen said a "floating easement" basically contained no hard and fast meets and hounds of an easement at the present time, but said there could be a fixed route as, some point to the future. It left the planning options open for both the property owners and whoever was doing the planning to set the best alignment. Mr. Freeland said he believed there was only one reasonable align— ment for the trail along the existing dirt road. To the left there was a steep hill, and to the right, there was the bog back behind the dam. If there was to be a connection to the City's reversion piece and then into Foothills Park, the existing align- ment with the 30 -foot emergency access easement already shown on the map was the logical location for a future easement. Ms. Lee suggested;that if the City was going to require an exac- tion in connection with the subdivision that it be for over fixed property with a definite meets and bounds description. She was not comfortable with the "floating easement" as ah exaction in the situation. Since the City would be the grantee in the easement situation, the liability would rest with the City. To have an alignment which was "safer" would certainly be the_.. most prudent approach. Mr. Freeland said that if the easement was where the dirt road was, it might truly have to float because most of it was in water. Ryland Kelley, representing the Lee Family in their application, said his comments bore on the issue -of the easement, which was just brought to their attention. The balance of their program consisted of an explanation of the subdivision map which was the result of eight months of discussion with staff and processing through a number of public hearings properly noticed, none of which were attended or had testimony presented by the MPROSD. The issue was never brought to the attention of the applicant by staff or by the open space group at any time during the long, very coop- erative and resourceful process of cleaning up some difficult existing lot lines and problems that were inherited from many years ago with the Lee compound. He pointed out that it was through Dr. Lee's gift of. the Foothills Park that the beginnings of the entire open space program came about, and it was an expec- tation of that gift, that the privacy of the Lee compound would be respected then, and in the future. Fundamentally, the MPROSD's request was for an access not suitable for a public route unless it was a very channeled route, and the Council was prepared to ,cake a policy decision to introduce external- use of Foothills Park, in which case it would be an alternate access. He pointed out an 11.5 acre dedication in the Hewlett subdivision for trail purposes along Arastradero Creek to connect the park with the Arastra property, and said there was no need for access across the open space, which was created as a private reserve for a five lot subdivision. The City already controlled all of the areas with the Foothills, Arastra and dedications connection would be in a position to make the decision, when and if they wanted to, to open their property to public trails. The alternative of bringing it to a dead end would create pressure, irritation and a difficult situation for the City not only from a liability standpoint, but also from the standpoint of building pressure to break into the park system. The applicant would forcefully oppose the intrusion into a` `private protected nature reserve they created as a part of the 'planning which produced five very large: lots, clustered t,o allow the .? 3.5 acre common area. He believed that ' the approach of the open space group, if not flippant and last minute, was not properly -thought out and processed through the :Commission. Sooner or later everyone would have to accept the responsibilities for. the management of the routes and ; trails , ;and caution in putting them down was important. Coonci lmember Klein said he sympathized with the fact that the request came up at the last, momenta- and wished the MPROSD had 2 9 1 7 2/07/83 Mr. Hansen said a "floating easement" basically contained no hard and fast meets and bounds of an easement at the present time, but said there could be a fixed route as some point in the future. It left the planning options open for both the property owners and whoever was doing the planning to set the best alignment. Mr. Freeland said he believed there was only one reasonable align- ment for the trail along the existing dirt road. To the left there was a steep hill, and to the right, there was the bog back behind the dam. If there was to be a connection to the City's reversion piece and then into Foothills Park, the existing align- ment with the 30 -foot emergency access easement already shown on the mad; was the logical location for a future easement. Ms. Lee suggested that if the City was going to require an exac- tion in connection with the subdivision that it be for over fixed property with a definite meets and bounds description. She was not comfortable with the "floating easement" as an exaction in the situation. Since the City would be the grantee in the easement situation, the liability would rest with the City. To have an alignment which was "safer" would certainly be the most prudent approach. Mr. Freeland said that if the easement was where the dirt road was, it might truly have to float because most of it was in water. Ryland Kelley, representing the Lee Family in their application, said his comments bore on the issue of the easement, which was just breught to their attention. The balance of their program consisted of an explanation of the subdivision map which was the result of eight months of; discussion with staff and processing through a number of public hearings properly noticed, none of which were attended or had testimony presented by the MPROSD. The issue was never brought to the attention of the applicant by staff or by the open space group at any time during the long, very coop- erative and resourceful process ,of cleaning up some difficult existing lot lines and problems that were inherited from many years ago with the Lee compound. He pointed out that it was through Dr. Lee's gift of the Foothills Park that the beginnings of the entire open space program came about, and it was an expec- tation of . that gift, that the privacy of the Lee compound would be respected then and in the future. Fundamentally, the MPROSD's request was for an access not suitable for a public route unless it was a very channeled route, and the Council was prepared to make a policy decision to introduce, external use of Foothills Park, in which case it would be an alternate access. He pointed out an 11.5 acre dedication in the Hewlett subdivision for trail purposes along Arastradero Creek to connect the park with the Arastra property, and said there was no need for access across the open space, which was created as a private reserve for a five lot subdivision. The City already controlled all of the areas with the Foothills, Arastra and dedications connection would be in a position to make the decision, when and if they wanted to, to open their property to public trails.. The alternative of bringing it to a dead end would create pressure, irritation and a difficult :situation for the City not only from a liability standpoint, but also from the standpoint of building pressure to break into the park system. The applicant would forcefully oppose the intrusion into a private protected nature reserve :they created as a part,;: of the .planning which produced five very large lots, cluttered to allow the 18.5 acre common area. He -believed that the approach of the open space group, if not _'flippant and last minute, was not properly thought out and processed .through: the Commission. Sooner or later everyone would have to `"accept the responsibilities for the management of the routes and trails, and caution in putting them down was 'important. Counci lmember Klein said he sympathized with the fact that the request came up at the last moment, and wished the MPRQSD had raised its objections a lot earlier in the process because a lot of time had been devoted to the matter. He was concerned that it was the second time within six months that there was a last minute_ item from the Open Space District, which lead him to believe that either the City was not communicating with them, or they were not responding. Mr. Schreiber said that the staff report was sent to the MPROSD in late December, and he personally had not had any conversations with them. Mr. Freeland said the idea first came up last week. Councilmember Klein said in the future he hoped the Open Space District's input could come in at a much earlier time. He under- stood that Los Altos Hi l 1 s , Woodside and Portola Valley all would have required some type of, trail easement on a subdivision such as the current one. Mr. Kelley said -he did not think there was such a thing as the open ended easement in Portola Valley. There were specific horse trails required in Portola Valley, but only a limited few hiking trails which were well thought out existed and were required in Portola Valley. Those were negotiated over years with the owners of the property and were still, in some cases, being negotiated. He knew of no ,case where there was always a requirement, of a hik- ing tra i l . ._ When a need existed to get from someplace to someplace else to constitute a proper linkage of the existing hiking trails, that information was presented to the applicant at an early time to try and influence the dedication of such a thing. There were many subdivisions with no hiking trails. Councilmember Klein asked what his reaction would be to a require- ment for a specifically designed easement that would only become activated if and when a trail was placed across Foothills Park as well. Mr. Kelley said _ it would be an unfortunate cloud upon the open space and its use, and the privacy pertaining to the lots in the area. Councilmember Klein asked where the cloud was. Mr. Kelley said the cloud would be an .easement allowing the gen- eral public to walk or ride through their property, and which would create liabilities, maintenance and policing problems. Ninety percent of the hiking trails that were created through the open space were created in dedicated land owned by the District, or which was dedicated as very large areas of open space. He knew of none where it was through a closely confined area next to resi- dential lots. For example, his client's dedications in Windy Hill and the subsequent hiking that was made through there was a 500 acre parcel of land --a scale nearly equivalent to the park itself. Through that land, a hiking system was developed. Councilmember Klein asked who would be responsible for the mainte- nance and upkeep of the easement. -Ms. Lee said the. City would be responsible, unless it was struc- tured some other way. The City could have responsibility for maintenance and upkeep reposed somewhere else, but if it were pub- lic property, ultimately the City was responsible for, any occur- rence of accident or injury l rrespect' ve of who had the responsi- bility to maintain. Councilmember Klein clarified that if the easement was placed along that existing road, the City would have to maintain the_ road. \\ Ms. Lee said yes, unless the City had an agreement to the con- trary. The responsibility for maintenance was a separate issue from who was liable if it were not maintained. If someone was injured because of some condition in that area, the City was ulti- mately responsible whether or not the City contracted with someone to do that maintenance. Mr. Kelley said that at the time the City reversion was negotiated with the Lee Family, five to eight acres at the end of the so- called easement was negotiated. The discussion was lengthy and a legal agreement was entered into between the Lee's and the City. At that time, the issue of whether the access should be a common and open roadway or a very restricted access for emergency use only by the City was negotiated and concluded. The Lee's relied on that basis in their relationships with the City for a number of years. Ms. Lee said that if that was a legal concern, she clarified that the only easement the City presently had was for emergency use only. At that time, no subdivision was proposed, and the develop- er was changing the status quo by proposing the subdivision. It was perfectly appropriate and legal notwithstanding whatever was negotiated previously for the City to require the particular dedi- cation at the present time. Steve Brothers, 45 Clare Drive, San Mateo, architect and planner with Reimer Associates, said he was pleased that the staff report was strong and unanimous, and that the Planning Commission recom- mendation was unanimous. Exhibit "A" was a locational map which showed the property in respect to the other major surrounding par- cels. The parcel under consideration was unusually shaped and hilly. The common open space was at the bottom of two slopes which drained into it. There were a number of existing structures on the site, and the circulation was primarily, along Los Trancos Road. Extra time was spent trying to evaluate Lot 4, the only parcel with some kind of view considerations. The proposed build- ing site was visible to the neighboring residences --the Lee and Alcorn properties. It was also visible from the liewlett site, and as it currently stood, it was visible from the Foothills Park. It was with that in mind that they followed up with a mitigation mea- sure similar to the one used successfully in the Hewlett subdivi- sion, which was to plant a screen of trees to block its view from the Foothills Park, and the applicant proposed that nothing fur- ther be constructed on Lot 5. ` Additional ,improvements such as a fire hydrant, water line extensions and other utility extensions were proposed in the area. Mayor Bechtel declared the public hearing closed. Counci lmember Eyerly asked if the City were not to take an ease- ment on the common area at the present time, and later decided that it needed an access to . Foothills Park from that area either for a trail or a roadway, could it be condemned Ms. Lee said it could be condemned at a cost. NOTION: Ceeeci im sber Eyerly moved, seconded , by Cobb,. approval of the Planning Commission recommendation as fallings: A. The Council finds that the proposed subdirit1on project, including the design and .i mprsvesent>t "-(e. g «, 6 the street align- ments, drainage and sanitary -facilities, locatiens and size of all _rearlred rights-af..way lot size and configuration, grad- ingio and traffic access) is consistent with thei adeptad Cor preheoslire ri as and co*_pipe >''Mi th the tpbdf �r# s�i oe Nap Act atoll Title 21 of . the , Palo Alto ,Renici pat Code; that the project will not have a :.significant impact on' the shvi reesen_t ; nor be likely to result in s trioes public health pre`1eas that .the site is physically- Suitable for . the type and density of the proposed development; and _ that there are not conflicts with MOTION CONTINUED are not conflicts With pudic easements. •Approval of the- pro- posed subdivision •is _also -subject to the following condi- tfons: .1. A plan for fencing and .posting of the hazardous areas of the Common Area shall be proposed prior to the issuance of any building permit within the subdivision. This plan for fencing and posting shall be subject to minor site and design review and may be accompanied by alternative pro- posals. Prior to recordation of the final map, the devel- oper will post a bond of $50,000 or other amount accept- able to the City in order to assure implementation of the plan; 2. The Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions shall establish the responsibility for the maintenance and liability of the Common Area; 3. It shall be noted on the final map that development rights from the Common Area have been transferred to the indi- vidual lots and therefore no development will take place within the Common Area; 4. A11 utilities will be underground; 5. Access driveways shall be impervious surface; 6. The ,maximum allowable area of impervious coverage shall be noted on each lot of the final map. It shall also be noted on the map that the maximum amount of allowable cov- erage is subject to further limitations through the City's site and design review process; 7. A ten -foot public utility easement into the roadway along- side Lots 1 and 2 will be designated; 8. The developer shall extend. the proposed water main to•the southwesterly corner. of Lot. 1. The easement needed for this water main will be the 1O' -0" easement required by Light and Power°. Change 10'-fr. easement required by Light and Power. Change 1O'-0' LSiP easement to read P.O.E.; 9. The developer's engineers shall design the water main in accordance with the . IiGAS engineers' specifications; 10. The developer will be required to install a pressure reducing station; the easement for said station shall be 10'xl0' and located near the southwesterly corner of Lot 2; 11 The cost and installation of the proposed water mein and pressure reducing station shall be borne by the.'developer; 1Z.- The E. needed for.thin development 'East be recorded en the final sap; 13. Determination as to the suitability o water. _:.frost: eaistl g well for domestic use :aria l' ` be eade'_ prl:br to - filing of the final sap.`' Approee the variances,- _to extl ado the \= pri vote roadwra,y from ia� er yi_oaes ;coverage calculations and :;to al lew an iaperr1oaas.. :coverage on Lot 5 equal.. to --that 01 existing :structures"on this--: parce1. find:itag.,that: 2 9 2 0 2/07/83 1 MOTION CONTINUED 1. There are exceptional or extraordinary circumstances or con- ditions applicable to the property involved that do not apply generally to property in the same district in that the exist- ing roadway to be exempted from the impervious surface calcu- lations serves not only the proposed subdivision but also several other parcels off -site; ;.2. The granting of the application is necessary for the preser- vation and enjoyment of a substantial property right of the applicant, and to prevent unreasonable property loss or unreasonable hardship in that inclusion of the roadway in the impervious lot calculations would essentially ;•ender four of the proposed lots unbuildable; 3. The granting of the application will not be detrimental or injurious to property or improvements in the vicinity and will not be detrimental to the public health* safety, general welfare,- or convenience in that the variance will yield allowable site coverage comparable to that available to own- ers of similarly sized parcels in. the OS District. The pro- posed building sites are not visible or will be screened from neighboring public uses. Council approves the variances subject to the following conditions: 1. That site coverage from lots 1 through 4 will be reduced and redistributed in order to compensate for the existing cover- age on Lot 5 as follows: i Lot 1 p 12,820 square feet Lot 2 2. 12,000 square feet Lot 3 - 13,060 square feet Lot 4 8,000 square feet Lot 5 . 31,720 square feet These coverages as indicated are the maximum allowable and subject to further limitations through site and design review. Mayor Bechtel asked if there was a cost involved in the Council's requiring a trail easement since the applicant, as part of the sub- division process, was asking for various variances. Ms. Lee said no. Mayor Bechtel clarified that there would be costs involved at a later date because no ° subdivision would be involved. Ms. Lee said. yes -.-straight condemnation. AMENDMENT: Councilmember Fletcher moved;. seconded by Levy, that an easement be required to be dedicated for any possible wse of a trail over the existing access route and only to be opened to public use if an easement through Foothills Park has also opened at the same time and only after review ' by the Planning Commission* Architectural Review Beard and Council. Council-rember Witherspoon asked for reassurances regarding the emer- gency access to the property that in the event of a fire in the foot- hills, if Lot 5 and Lot 3 were cut off from the common area access they could get out through the Hewlett property or through Foothills Park. Mr. Freeland said he was not .:personel ly, familiar with what was at the Hewlett end of the road, but understood that an emergency access was located out that direction so -that if one was cut off going towards Los Trancos, one could go.out toward the Hewlett subdivision. 2 9`2 1' 2/0.7/83 1 1 Councilmember Eyerly was opposed to the amendment. The easement was premature at this point because Council first needed to wrestle with the major policy decision of the possible public usage of trails in the Foothills Park area. If Council decided to open the common area through Los Trancos, it could be done, but it behooved the Council not to take an easement at this time because it might bring pressure to open the Foothills Park, which still required in depth -debate. Councilmember Klein clarified that part` of the motion was not to activate the easement as long as access to Foothills Park was not open to the general public. Councilmember Fletcher said yes. She agreed with Councilmember Klein and clarified that before any such public use access was made, the process would go through the Planning Commission and City Council. Ms. Lee said that if Councilmember Fletcher's motion included the activation of the easement at a later date, then it should be ex- pressly part of the motion in order for staff to incorporate the con- ditions for the subdivision. Councilmember Fletcher said she did not want .the easement to be acti- vated without proper planning and a thorough examination. AMENDMENT RESTATED: Councilmember Fletcher moved, seconded by Levy, that as easement be required to be dedicated for any possible use of a trail over the existing access route and t.nly to be opened to public if an easement through Foothills Park is.also opened at the same time, and only after review by the Planning Commission, Archi- tectural Review Board and City Council. Councilmember Witherspoon said she was sympathetic to the Lee fam- ily's wanting to resolve the matter. She asked if it would be possi- ble to say that if the City did not exercise its prerogative to open up the Foothills Park end of the trail and go through the Planning process within a period of time, that the easement would lapse. Ms. Lee said that the City could agree to quitclaim any interest other than emergency access over theproperty back to the Lees.. AMENDMENT TO AMENDMENT: Councilmember Witherspoon moved, seconded by Cobb, that if the City did not go forward with its option to have a continuation trail through Foothills Park within 15 years, the trail easement will be quitclaimed back by the City to the Lee Family. Councilmember Witherspoon believed that was.a good compromise between the Lees desire to know whether an easement would be imposed and the City's desire to keep its options open in terms of a continuation trail through Foothills Park. Ms. Lee said the reversion would not be activated until 1996. Mayor Bechtel clarified that the. City would not have access to the other portion until 1996, which would make it difficult to have some- thing within eight years. Councilmember Levy asked if everyone was .comfortable about where the easement was located. Mr. Freeland said he was,entirely comfortable. ,The only route that connected from Los Trancos Road to the . City. reversion parcel that made any sense was the location of the existing dirt road. On one side there was a steep hill, another. side, was into a .bog or on a dam, or into a steep ravine ; i n front of a dam, = anvil the other portions of the common area did not physically connect ::to the City . revision. 2 9 2 2 2/07/83' Councilmember Levy -clarified that the space between the access road and where the actual individual parcels would be was not an area that could be easily traversed from the access road. Mr. Freeland said that was correct. There was a dam, and the large area behind the dam consisted of a pond and a bog, and the bog went right out to the base of the dirt road which was the access. 1 Councilmember Levy was comfortable with the basic amendment, and believed there would be difficulty with an eight year limitation since the reversion would not take effect until 1996. He believed the Council was reserving an ability to have integrated paths in the Foothills area at some time in the future, and he did not want to see that ability limited. If the easement was not implemented for a con- siderable time, that was fine, but if the City had the opportunity to develop integrated trails in the future, that ability should not be lost. He believed the intrusion into the privacy of the occupants would be very small, but the public benefits could be substantial. CouncilMember Witherspoon said that since the City would not get the "RN" of the trail for 13 more years, she suggested a limit of 15 years for the easement. Vice Mayor Fazzino said the item was unsettling for a number of rea- sons. First, it came to the Council late, and he wished the Council had more time to discuss it particularly given the long discussions on the actual su-bdivision before the Planning Commission. At the same time, even though it would be easy to dismiss the pcbposal which came to the Council so late, he was concerned that it was the only way to preserve a trails option during the next few years. He,was inclined to side with the position that the option should be kept. open, but thought it was extremely important, however, to move ahead quickly and make a decision on the long term use of the entire area including Foothills Park. The issue of residency versus nonresidency use of Foothills Park was fought in the courts a number of times over the past 20 years, and the. City's legal argument of an ironclad guar- antee to preserve it for resident use only primarily based upon the ecology of the park, was successful because the park had been re- tained for the`;,exclusive use of residents. He was concerned that if the ..City began to open part of the park for nonresidents, the entire nonresident strategy could be opened to legal challenge. Even though reversion was not scheduled for 13 years, he hoped'the Council would not wait until then to move forward, but rather would move forward in the next couple of years to •make a decision with respect to a long- term trail system in the area, and whether to open Foothills Park to nonresident Use. He preferred the original amendment despite the reversion issue, but would support the: amendment' to amendment as a compromise. He encouraged the Open Space District to get its ideas and comments regarding proposals to the Council much sooner than two orthree days before the City Council meeting itself. Councilmember Fletcher echoed -Vice Mayor Fazzino's comments that it .would have been 'more appropriate to study the matter in depth at the Planning Commission level - -rather than at the City -Council meeting. She did not think that whether to open Foothills Park was the only - ;question and she would be amenable to discussion of opening the park to people who came in by foot from. the trails. She opined that . peo- pie on foot, would not overburden the park with multitudes of people and would not impact the automobile situation in --the park. Hikers - were generally` considerate of the wild .life and the open space sur-- roundirigs, . If the amendment to amendment did not pass, future prop- erty owners or. occupants of_the particular land could still ask. a future Council to cancel the = particular easement, and could discuss the situation as it- would be done. ,:She- did, not believe the present Council l shaul d p1_a_n that -far i n ad'ence on,' such .an item. Councilmember Klein said that with all due respect to the amount of time being spent on the item, he submitted that it was much ado about nothing. On one hand, he did not see the present Council vot- ing to open Foothills Park to nonresidents, and did not think the easement would be activated in the near future. However, he did not like tying the hands of future City Councils who might see things differently. Perhaps a court or higher governmental agency would ultimately rule against the City and require it to open Foothills Park to nonresidents. If that happened, the trail might well be a reasonable alternative. For the foreseeable future, he did not see the easement being activated, and it did not mean that much to Palo Alto right now. On the other hand, it would not harm the residents. Even if it became activlated, he did not see how it could be particu- larly harmful to the people on the lot when looking at the configura- tion of the property and how far away they were, and also considering that it would be on the existing road. He would support Council - member Fletcher's amendment and would oppose Councilmember Wi.therspoon's. He said the Council could impose a time limit when- ever it wanted, or could give up the easement at any time it so desired, and it made no ;sense to set a time limit so far in the future that in all likelihood people would forget about it. Mayor Bechtel said she would not support the amendment to amendment to set a time limit, and would support the original amendment by Councilmember Fletcher. AMENDMENT TO AMENDMENT FAILED by a vote of 4-4, Eyerly, Fazzi no, Witherspoon, Cobb voting Faye,. Renzel absent. AMENDr4EMT PASSED by a vote of 7-1, Eyerly voting "no," Renzel absent. MOTION AS AMENDMENT PASSED unanimously, Renzel absent. ITEM #9, PLANNING COMMISSION UNANIMOUSLY ENDORSES A MERCHANT AND U�1\LI• �U11lfj'�4L [V V4.l LL.VI ] 9a1\1 \Fi\Iiflf♦VL ViFilliJl\i VN 11 VITALITY In -'TAE 'T Tl v10 Planning. Commissioner John Sutarius said the recommendation was one in a series of actions taken by the Commission under the umbrella subject of the Downtown Retail Study. Various recommendations or endorsements were previously submitted to the Council by the Commis- sion including a food market in the downtown, the downtown assessment district, and mixed use concepts in the downtown that included a retail commercial food market and parking structure. The Commission had taken additional actions on items ,such as the concepts of extend- ing the pedestrian district zone in the downtown area, endorsing the concept of upgrading alleys and walkways to highlight and promote the pedestrian use of the downtown area, and further meeting and discus- sions with the ARB and appropriate downtown interests on the entire concept of how to find furtherways to provide for enhancement of the downtown area, its retail orientation, and consideration of the pos- sibility of amenity incentives, but those items had not yet found there way to the Council, because further work was still required. The recommendation before the Council tonight was to endorse the con- cept of a committee approach _ to monitoring the health and vigor of the downtown area, and to develop some performance standards . against which that health could;: be measured. The recommendation was the out- growth of a long effort by a group of citizens acting under the label of the "Coordinating Committee : for the Downtown," who involved them- selves with merchants and property owners and other interested citi- zens who were concerned about the downtown area._ -The committee appeared before the Planning Commission at an ;earlier meeting during the course of the "discussions: on . the' Downtown Retail -Study and during the, specific discussions regarding whether any kind" Of _control needed to be exercised on the ground level uses in the downtown area. The Coordinating Committee proposed that the ComM1ss i on continue the matter to give further opportunity for the results of their early efforts to "come to some _resolve -and to appear before the Commission. at a subsequent time, which they did in November. Members of the Merchants Association and the downtown property owners proposed the committee function to the Planning Commission. While the Commission could not forecast what might evolve in terms of Council action on the downtown improvement association- with absolute certainty at the time, they saw that the purposes ,of the committee as proposed were constructive and positive and worthy of being carried out. The Com- mission approved the_ recommendation of the concept to the Council with the understanding that before it was actually before the Council that some of the particulars in the proposal itself would be flushed out. He understood that staff, members of the merchants and property owners group, and the Coordinating Committee met further and that staff could speak to any of the changes in the manner` in which that Committee would function. Councilmember Witherspo_'n said. she was confused .by the staff recom- mendation and how it jibed with Mr. Sutorius' comments. She asked for clarification that the proposed committee would be under the umbrella of the new Downtown Improvement Association, .or whether it would be continued as sort of a quasi -City sponsorship until such time as the Planning Commission was provided with a report and fur- ther opportunity to review the subject. Mr. Sutorius said his reference to the Downtown Improvement Associa- tion was only to say that while the Commission previously took action to endorse the organization to the Council, at the time the Commis- sion was meeting, the Council had not yet acted formally. The Com- mission did not know for certain whether the committee would exist. He hoped that the six months proposed for a committee to look at the development of standards and monitoring the ongoing process, might find that some kind of an ongoing process involving the Downtown Improvement Assocation would continue to be appropriate, and that the Commission could so recommend. Councilmember Cobb said he thought there was an overlap between the recommended committee and the Downtown Improvement District. He asked for comments about what kind of overlap would be seen, and whether the duplication of efforts was good or bad. COUNC I LMEMBER RENZEL ARRIVED AT 8:58 p.m. Chief Planning Official Bruce Freeland said the idea was. one that .., came up privately to the City. Since it was not a creature of the City, he believed it was fair for the proponents of the committee to comment about their relationship with the Assessment District. David Jury, 305 Lytton Avenue, spoke for the downtown property owners group which represented approximately 30 percent of the property values in the University Avenue Parking Assessment District. The proposal was made together with the merchants committee and coordi- nating committee in an effort to get some of the discussions out of the Council Chambers and over tables and among themselves to try and settle differences. The issues were discussed quietly and calmly and it was a good experience for everyone. He .did not know whether, there would be a duplication of efforts. The six month period would deter- mine whether the committee should be under the umbrella or should stand alone. One reason for the six month period was for the •commit- tee to formulate its own plan of action. Councilmember Cobb said the staff report indicated that this. Committee hoped to accomplish preserving existing and encouraging new retail uses, and other erases to' work toward a balanced mix of uses. ,, Those wereobviously things the Council would like to see happen. Mr,_ Jury said they hoped to have an ongoing dialogue between the mer- chants group and various property owners. They hoped to identify prop¢_ rties when they were becoming available and; see what could be done t")utilize that property in a way that would help the downtown area as` a whole. 2 9 2 5 2/07/83 Councilmember Fletcher asked how the committee would get retail to relocate on various properties. Mr. Jury said that was part of what the committee needed to work on for its plan of action. David Florian, 530 Emerson, said the committee might be able to come up with some answers and some way of bringing two diversified and polarized factions together. He reiterated that they did not have all the answers, but were willing to see if they could core up with some recommendations at the end of the six month period. NOTION: Councilmember Klein moved, seconded by Cobb, to adopt the staff recommendation as follows: 1. No action be taken at this time in considering additional ground floor use regulations for the retail core of Downtown Palo Alto; and 2. The Planning Commission and City Council shall review, within six months, the joint sponsor committee's performance standards on what constitutes retail vitality in Downtown Palo Alto during this six month period. Councilmember Fletcher said she was strongly opposed to taking the motion, which was actually a nonaction. The monitoring, study and evaluation was done by an expensive study, and she, quoted from the results that, "If no new policy is introduced, the downtown will con- tinue to evolve from a neighborhood serving retail area to a regional office financial specialty center." Further, "ground floor offices also serve as barriers to customer movement, and they draw few retail customers to the downtown. Offices could more easily locate in up- stairs locations." She reminded the Council that the issue had been debated since 1980 when the concern was voiced that offices were dis- placing retail merchants in the downtown. That trend resulted in the study which confirmed that it was a valid concern and that now was the time to take action. Since the. Council's first discussions, num erous statements were made that confirmed that the City was losing the type of retail activity which served the residents of the City. The Council had been talking and talking, and now were going to give another six months before anything was done. In the meantime, Imperial Savings had. taken over retail space downtown, Union Bank had taken over retail space, Crocker National Bank would have a large frontage on University Avenue ground floor, Wells Fargo was •planning another bank on Hamilton and waverley, and University National Bank was planning to take over Norm's Starlight Super, and one grocery store had already been lost on Waveriey. She said she was advised that banks paid no property taxes, and no sales tax. Numerous state- ments_..were made in the study that the frontage of banks detracted from the attractiveness to pedestrians, and she believed the City was working at cross purposes. The study pointed out that office and financial uses of ground floor retail spaces could afford to pay higher rents and raised the rents for all ground floor properties downtown, which explained why the City was losing the grocery store and hardware store type activities downtown. The study pointed out that if ground floor uses were limited to retail, the rents would stabilize and the City would stop losing those types of stores. She did nct see any purpose in putting off action and referring the mat- ter to a committee which would have no ability.to_implement any poli- cies, and putting the item off until more and more retail space was lost. Councilmember Eyerly said he believed the idea of a joint committee for discussion on the problems downtown should be explored. The peo- ple appointed to the committee might have information geed abilities not yet made use of in the problems of the downtown area. He hoped that the committee might be far caching in trying to attract some types of business not already in the downtown area, or look at some of the City's restrictions. in the _ downtown area in terms ,of joining. buildings that prohibited larger users from coming into the downtown 2 9. 2 6 2/07/83 1 1 8 area. He thought it might be feasible to bring some sort of a subsidy to the types of businesses the Council wanted to see remain. downtown. Regardless of all the things to study, the Council must be aware of the economic problems downtown. The ground value had risen to the point where certain types of businesses could not pay the type of rent the ground floor values dictated. He. wondered whether the property should be subsidized by the property owner with a lower rent than he would get from someone else, or should it be the assessment district that might want to compliment a support of some type of business. within the district, or should it be the general taxpayer of the City. He believed the thrust for the curtailment of office space and bank usage, etc. had been directed toward the property owner as being the subsidizing agent,, and he did not know whether that was reasonable or right. He hoped that the committee could come up with some method to accomplish something everyone wanted that no one else had been able to do. Mayor Bechtel said she shared Councilmember Fletcher's concern about the loss of some retail establishments and desired as much vitality and the continuation of as much retail activity as possible. She believed it was to the advantage of the people who were retail merchants to attract and keep as much other retail as possible. She would support the motion .to form such a committee, but was equally concerned that so far the ordinances established in Menlo Park and Los Altos to prohibit banking establishments on the main shopping street had been avoided. The City might come to that if the current retails could not be preserved. Councilmember Renzel said she concurred with the expressions of con- cern by Councilmembers Fletcher, Eyerly and Bechtel with regard to the loss of retail space. She believed the Council should purss-te the matter in the interest of public health, safety and welfare and do something about preserving ground floor retail use through a zoning amendment. She was concerned about the first part of the motion to take no action at this time. She realized that no action could be taken tonight, but hoped it was not interpreted to mean not to pursue some action. She had no objection to a joint committee evaluating some of the problems, but believed the City should pursue zoning changes sooner than six months because once lost, the uses would not change again. Councilmember Cobb believed themost important new item coming out of the motion and the committee to be formed was the . possibility of getting the merchants and property owners together to see., if they could come up with some solutions since none had been forthcoming any other way. Getting the property owners involved in the process along with the merchants was an important :step and worth __-the short experiment the motion would involve. He did not believe anyone would suggest waiting forever to do something, and six months was a short period of time. If that would serve to get both groups together, it would be time well spent in his opinion. Councilmember Fletcher commented that the only solution was to have ground floor restrictions in terms of use. NOTION PASSED by a vote of 7-2. Fletcher, iRenzel voting "rim. ITEM 110 HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION RE AGE DISCRIMINATION IN RENTAL City Attorney Diane Lee pointed out a correction on. Page 2, Item 3(A) of the Report from City Attorney. The second line should say ..."a limit. of 2 natural persons." Councilmember Cobb asked if there was any reason why the City's ordinance could not combine two of the three alternatives before the Council. Ms. Lee said it would require some redrafting in order to do so. Councilmember Cobb said he believed that the limitations ° dealt with different aspects of the problem, and cumulatively might deal with the entire problem. He asked if it was possible to combine the two. Ms.. Lee said yes. Councilmember Klein asked for clarification that a landlord would still be free to make the tests suggested in Sections 1(g) or 2(g) if Council did not adopt either paragraph since the ordinance would then be silent on that issue. Ms. Lee said it was preferable for any concerns to be dealt with in the ordinance because otherwise it left open an area that might be misconstrued at a later time. The more precise an ordinance, the better the potential for eliminating problems in terms of clarity for what was attempting to be accomplished. Councilmember Klein asked for comments regarding the Tri-County Asso- ciation's remarks that they had some concerns regarding the legality of 2(g). Ms. Lee said that whenever she saw something where someone had con- cerns about the legalities without expressing those concerns, or the foundation, she was not able to respond. She thought it was a neu- tral standard because not every person over a certain age could obtain a driver's license, and staff was trying to get at the fact that if one did not have a driver's license, one would not have a car. If one did not have a car, one could not create a parking prob- lem. She did not see any equal protection problem with the section, and could not zero in on what the precise "illegality" was. Councilmember Eyerly said that the ordinance was titled "Discrimina- tion Against Families with Minor Children in Housing," and he be- lieved that if the Council wanted to restrict the rental of housing to families without too many cars, then it would be more appropriate to address that concern in:a separate ordinance rather than attaching the parking to the children's housing ordinance. He thought it would be more clear cut and out front, and staff would not be digging in a housing discrimination ordinance for parking restrictions. Ms. Lee said she was not sure that was as much a' legal question as much as it was a policy decision for the Council to address. Councilmember Eyerly asked how_ someone would find out the answers to parking questions in the City. Ms. Lee said that one would look in the Index in the Palo Alto Muni- cipal Code which referenced parking. Dick Roe, 720 Kendall Avenue, said regarding the importance of the ordinance, the Mid -Peninsula . Citizens for Fair Housing (MCFH) exper- ienced that in 50 percent of the complaints received, occupancy lim- itations were the basis for denial of rental housing for families with children, which was the moet important aspect of the ordinance. It was important for the ordinance to be clear and strong, but not fuzzy and open to interpretation. Therefore: MCFH was pleased with the ordinance as it now stood, and believed that the statement that *there shall be no limitation more severe than two persons per bed- room" was fair, clear, easlly understood and applied. MCFH strongly encouraged the Council to adopt the ordinance as it .now stood. He agreed with Councilmember Eyerly that there were two ,different issues --one was discrimination in housing, and one was a parking matter, and they should not be dealt Zvi, h in the same ordinance. If the Council must .-add something to the ordinance, he. suggested that,:it be section 1(g), and that paragraph 3 not be adopted at all. 2 9 2 8 2/07/83 1 A 1 Fred Becker, Executive Vice ➢resid-ent of Tri -County Apartment Asso- ciation, said that'Tri-County worked out the three formulas and that he personally did not see a legal problem with Item 2 despite the fact that his name appeared on .the letter. . •Tri-County did net wish to discriminate against children, and were prohibited from using the word""children" in any ordinance. Therefore, if a husband and wife, or two people with one or two small children came in a two bedroom apartment might be totally adequate, but because they could not dis- tinguish between toddlers or teenagers -with cars, it was .difficult to contemplate a three bedroom apartment with six adults in it and each owning a car. The Stanford Villa had no parking on Alma Street and no legal parking in the Supermarket. Tri-County could foresee -- an enormous problem with some of the apartment buildings becoming dorma- tori es. Those kinds of buildings were built at , a time when only one parking space was required per unit, and the Council.. did not need to be reminded of the problems that parking sometimes brought to popu- lated areas,where property owners had a hard time parking in front of their' own. homes. Tri-County appreciated the three alternatives that were worked out, but did not think they were perfect. A,perfect ord- inance would allow the property owner to let a woman and. her children in, but not allow a woman and two men. . Tri- County did not believe those problems could be- fully and adequately addressed, but believed they made an honest attempt to find some kind of way to serve every- one. He believed that the limitation of one bedroom units to two persons _through.the four bedroom limit of seven persons was more than most -apartments could stand anyway. He hoped the Council would look at a combination o"r the three alternatives as a good solution. Councilmember Eyerly said that the Tri-County Apartment Association's concern on the parking surprised him. He understood that the state preempted the City's ability some years ago to limit the number of unrelated people that could live in a rented house. The only limit was now the state's uniform Housing Code which spoke to how many square feet were required per person. He said it was always possible for the rentals to impact the streets with too many cars,'. etc. , and Tri-County was never concerned. Now, the children's ordinance was before the Council, which apparently alerted Tri-County to the fact that there might be a problem with cars. Mr. Becker said that heretofore Tri-County had not had an ordinance proposed which would precisely say how many ,.people must be let into an apartment. Most owners used a reasonable approach to the accessi- bility to parking spaces all along. When the apartments were built, apparently there were not as many adult people living together or not as many vehicles were owned. The -problem existed, but now they were talking about a formula that permitted so many people per apartment that a solution to the problem was removed from the discretion of the property owner. Councilmember Eyerly said the lack of discretion was already there because the state previously preempted that limitation. He asked if Tr•°i-County would be interested in writing a letter requesting the Council to pursue some type of an ordinance addressing the parking concerns and some type of control sepa=rately. Mr, Becker said Tri-County represented three counties, and parking needs were different in every community. It was up to -the Council to find an adequate formula to take care of the parking problems. He did not know whether Tri-County would want to do that for Palo Alto, and would bow to the Council's wisdom and what was good for Palo Alto, Tri -County Association was comprised of property owners, and a good reason for having the parking included in the child discrimina- tion ordinance was that Tri-County did not see that anything proposed would, do anything but make :it_pos-slble, for families ,with -children to:. tent- those apartments under the . law, and to find property owners in contempt for noncompliance. Tri -County understood that while child- ren needed to live somewhere, some reason must exist for not _renting a three bedroom apartment to six related or unrelated adults, each 2 9.2 9 2/07/83 with their own vehicle and friends and visitors. There was a big difference between that and a father or mother with four children. . MOTION: Mayor Bechtel moved, seconded by Renzel, approval of the ordinance and to include reference to 503(b) of Uniform Housing Code. ORDINANCE 3411 entitled 'ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE *LITT OF PALO ALTO ADDING CHAPTER 9.70 TO THE PALO ALTO MUNICIPAL CODE PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST FAMILIES WITH MINOR CHILDREN IN THE RENTAL OR LEASING OF CERTAIN RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY" (1st Reading 1/17/83, PASSED 7-0, Levy, Witherspoon absent) Mayor Bechtel did not believe the Council should include any of the proposed alternatives because the ordinance was strong and clear as it stood. Parking restrictions were not addressed at any other apartment buildings, and it was only when discussing the age discrim- ination ordinance where the possibilities of parking restrictions arose. Ms. Lee suggested that the Council include the reference to Section 503(b) of the Uniform Housing Code. That was omitted in the original draft, and it would be a good idea to include it in the ordinance as adopted. MAYOR BECHTEL AND COUNCILMEMBER REiIZEL AGREED TO INCLUDE THE REFER- ENCE TO SECTION 503(b) OF THE UNIFORM HOUSING CODE IN THE MOTION. Councilrnember Renzel asked for clarification that since the ordinance prohibited discrimination against families with minor children, the minimure occupancy limits set forth would not necessarily apply to adults who might wish to rent jointly. Ms. Lee said she thought the title of the ordinance was somewhat mis- leading because the preamble stated that occupancy limits could not be established that exceeded a certain number. It was not character- -,ized on the basis of whether it applied to children or adults, and was done in that fashion because the City did not want to be charged with reverse discrimination. Councilmember Levy said he endorsed the comments made by both Mr. Roe and $r. Becker that the City needed the ordinance. The question was whether some protection was needed against the kind of overuse of property that was not contemplated i .e. , forcing the rental to a num- ber of adults which would put heavy demands on the property not only in terms of automobile usage, but other uses as well. That concern was valid although there Were some technical protections if the ordi- nance was not amended. Nonetheless, there were questions, and he believed the Council should be specific in the ordinance if possible. Further, he believed the three alternative paragraphs offered as amendments to the ordinance added that specificity, but that replac- ing.(g) with 1(g), as contained in the memo, spoke specifically to the number of cars to be maintained on site by -,the prospective tenants, was simple and direct, and spoke to his specific concerns about the proliferation of automobiles in town. It still allowed families with minor children to rent the apartments, and would allow a number of students who were within walking and bicycling distance` of their destinations to rent the apartments. It would not allow having a number of adults all with automobiles which would have to be parked on the City's streets and would add to the congestion. ANEN$NENT: Coencilme.ber Levy Honed, seconded by Fazz1no, to replace paragraph 9.70.03O(g) with the paragraph 1(g) as proposed by the City Attorney is her memo dated January 26. 1983. 2 9 3 0_ 2/07/83 1 1 Councilmember Witherspoon said she shared the same concern as Councilmember Levy. If alternative 1(g) :was included in the ordi- nance, the policy of the City not to impact parking in the neighbor- hood would be clear. She would support the amendment. Councilmember Renzel said she .would oppose the amendment. She originally believed that the amendment might be reasonable, but it did not require that the landlord limit or restrict automobiles. That meant the landlord could rent half of the apartments to a bunch of students, and the remaining apartments would not be rented because there was not enough parking spaces, which referred to the basis of available on -site parking. Once the landlord had rented to enough people with cars, the remaining units would be left without spaces which would be a legitimate basis for rejecting a family with children. She believed the Council was better advised to leave the ordinance with the specific language proposed in the main motion which would be clear. The cases where groups of people might be rejected by a landlord because of parking problems that might be created would have a hard time making a case for themselves, and the Council should worry about families with children. Councilmember Cobb said he supported the amendment because he did not believe the Council could ignore the parking problem. Councilmember Eyerly had made a salient point, and if the amendment did not pass, he would ask his colleagues to join him in agendizing•a new item to deal explicitly with the parking issue. He commented that the Council continually tended to ignore parking problems which was why Palo Alto had so many places where. people could not park. He believed the current example was one the Council could not ignore which should be dealt with. Councilmember Eyerly urged his colleagues to support the ordinance as presented without any amendments. Parking was a problem in the City which no one had chosen to address, and had been for some time. He believed it was grossly unfair to attach the parking restrictions to an ordinance prohibiting discrimination against families_ with minor children in housing. It would be much cleaner to do it in a separate ordinance when the Council decided to do so. AMENDMENT FAILED BY A TOTE OF 4-5, Fazzi no, Witherspoon, Levy, Cobb voting "aye.` Councilmember Fletcher expressed her gratitude to Tri-County Apartment Association for their cooperation and support for the ordi- nance. She was impressed considering the history of the proposed legislation. MOTION PASSED unanimously. ITEM #11, CRIMINAL JUSTICE FUNDING - SECOND YEAR (CMR:I32:3) MOTION:. Councilmember Witherspoon moved, seconded by Klein, approval of the resolution accepting grant funds and the ordinance amending the budget for fiscal year 1982-83 RESOLUTION 6093 entitled "RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF i't L1 ti d) PALO, ALTO ACCEPTING GRANT FUNDS MADE AVAIL- ABLE THROUGH STATE GENERAL FUNDS .FOR THE 'PALO ALTO CAREER CRIMINAL APPREHENSION PROGRAMS ORDINANCE 3412 eetitled 'ORDINANCE Of THE COUNCIL OF THE ari"t? tit PALO ALTO .AMENDING : THE BUDGET FOR TIE FISCAL YEAR 193243 TO PROVIDE AN ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATION FOR THE CRIME PREVENTION ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES AND TO PROVIDE FOR RECEIPT OF GRANT FUNDS FROM THE OFFICE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE PLANNINGn Councilmember Levy` asked why,'a budget -amendment was needed if funds were available. Police Chief Jim Zurcher responded that the City was required to accept the funds that the Office of Criminal Justice. Planning gave. Councilmember Levy said he realized that, but understood that $16,666 of City funds would also be contributed. He asked whether those funds were already contained in the Police Department budget, or whether they were new. Chief Zurcher said some funds were in the budget and would be moved.. to accommodate the grant, and some would be transferred from the Contingency Fund. Councilmember Cobb asked if the City had seen any direct operational benefits from the Phase I effort. Chief Zurcher said some benefits had been seen within the organiza- tion which would lead down the road to a more effective delivery of police services. The first year grant planned for analysis which would lead to some computer aided data that would be handled at the management level, and which would ultimately benefit those in the field who were making decisions about where to direct their activi- ties. He expected that the third year was when the City would see some direct changes in the field to reduce the crime and better direct resources. Councilmember Cobb asked if for some reason the City did not proceed with Phase III, whether Phases I and II would provide some benefit. Chief Zurcher said that Phases I and I1 would help the City manage its current resources more effectively. MOTION PASSED unanimously. ITEM #12, SANTA CLARA COUNTY MORTGAGE REVENUE BOND PROGRAM MOTION: Councilmember Cobb moved, seconded by Witherspoon, approval of the amendment to agreement and resolution. FIRST AMENDMENT TO DEVELOPER AGREEMENT Palo Alto Housing Corporation and County of Santa Clara RESOLUTION 6094 entitled 'RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF iHt Cllr tf PALO ALTO AFFIRMING THE CITY'S CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN THE SANTA CLARA COUNTY HOE MORTGAGE FINANCE PROGRAM' Councilmember Fletcher asked whether the motion could be tied to the revenue bond financing for rental housing. City Planner Glenn Miller responded that the. Revenue Bond Financing for Rental Housing report contained in the packet and the Santa Clara County Home Mortgage Financing Program were two separate issues. The report regarding the rental program was included in the Council packet for informational ° purposes because he anticipated- that over the next several weeks, the County would request an action from the Council about whether the City. desired to participate in a rental program as well as a single family program., Staff's request was that Council act on the County Home Mortgage Finance Program, but he was prepared to answer questions on both issues. Councilmember Fletcher clarified that it would be a different bond issue. Mr. Miller said yes. Councilmember Renzel before the Counci 1 e in was adopted. said . she r•ecal led' _ that when the matter was the past, that a limitation on resale premium 2 9 3 2 2/07/8.3 Mr. Miller responded that the City's ordinance controlling the resale price of all units financed under the Home Ownership Program was still in effect. The matter before. the Council involved a second issue under the same program, the same Bond Advisory Committee, and the County was still the lead .agency. . The City's resale ordinance was fairly complicated, and some adjustments might be needed, but all units would have a resale price control. 1 1 1 Councilmember Levy' -ommented that under the program, the maximum income for a qualifying \household was raised to _$55,000, which really meant "middle income housing.' Mayor Bechtel said she accompanied County underwriters and staff mem- bers to New York last week to meet with its rating agency, Standard and Poors, and determine the rating for the second bond issue. She hoped the people at Standard and Poors were favorably impressed with the comments regarding the tremendous need for housing and the resul- tant pressure on the current housing. The prices were going up, and the middle income persons were the ones being squeezed out of the situation. MOTION PASSED unanimously, Eyerly absent. RECESS FROM 9:50 p.m. TD -10:10 p.m. ITEM #13, CALIFORNIA AVENUE PARKING ASSESSMENT DISTRICT STUDY: 1 Director of Planning and Community Environment Ken Schreiber said the recommended citizen involvement process was a follow up to pre- vious Council actions which initiated studies regarding the impacts in the California Avenue/Evergreen Park areas plus the residential area between Oregon •Expressway, Page Mill Road, and the California Avenue commercial area. The studies included complex land use traf- fic and parking issues, and seven Council assignments made up the eight major issues. A number of organizations and individuals expressed a desire to be involved in the evaluation and discussion of the issues. The citizen involvement process was designed to be a flexible mechanism to give people the opportunity to participate in the review of a few issues or the total study. The 'second aspect of the citizen involvement -"process was the Assessment District Commit- tee. Work with that committee was approved by the City Council lust year in the scope of services with the consulting firm of Angus McDonald & Associates. The committee would work with staff and the consultant on specific concerns related to the future functioning of the assessment district. Vice Mayor Fa zz i no said he was somewhat overwhelmed by the complexity of the proposed committee structure. In his opinion, the structure went beyond anything the Council had ever done. He asked for com- ments regarding the rationale for the establishment of three separate committees --particularly, the decision to include members of the ARB, Planning Comm s s i on, and Council on one of the committees with a num- ber of generally staff related responsibilities. Mr. Schreiber said the process started, by attempting to identify all the different issues involved in the study, with the various groups and individuals who contacted staff with an interest in being in- volved in the review of information, development of alternatives, and discussions of the various aspects of the issues. Staff was faced with __a long list of issues, and a longer list of individuals and organizations. _ Some individuals and organizations expressed interest in the entire study, and many focused on one_ -area or another. He believed that, given the range of issues, the situation was` under- standable. The *sounding bo-ard" was designed to be a flexible mecha- nism allowing people to enter the process for one or two -issues, or. to be entered for the entire study. Staff looked at the option of the City's appointing a citizens committee of some sort, but so many different groups and individuals.: had contacted staff and expressed interest, that it would not be feasible to get that group down in 1 • size to an appointed citizens' committee. He said the Assessment District Committee would focus more precisely on. the Assessment District. The consultant's recommendation to the City which became part of the approved contract, indicated that it was important to involve major property owners and tenants with the district who would be affected by the assessment district. The Core Committee had three major functions: 1) to facilitate public participation; 2) to provide a liaison to the Council, Planning Commission, and ARB; and 3) to monitor the progress of the study. Those functions were derived from staff's analysis of other recent citizen involvement efforts. Actual and potential conflicts were discovered between the clearly identified staff roles of managing the technical elements of the study, developing the recommendation for the Commission and Council, managing the citizen involvement process --setting up the process,and inviting people --and conducting open and impartial public meetings. The "recommendation" role of staff was sometimes perceived as having a vested interested in the outcome of the study. The involvement of a Councilmember, Planning Commissioner or ARB member would help to separate staff from managing the citizen involvement process, and allow them to focus on their technical and recommendation ro?es. Staff was occasionally asked to interpret reasons for Council policies and actions and give an assessment of the likelihood of the Council's changing a particular position. Those questions were legitimate, but having staff as the resource for answers could put staff in a position perceived as being political, which staff believed undermined their technical role. The proposal was an effort to keep staff's focus on the technical and recommendation roles and separate them from the lead role in terms of managing the citizen process, involving people having that responsibility, and conducting the meetings. Staff found that when those roles started crossing over, there tended to be a certain level of friction. Vice Mayor Fazzino asked if the proposal was seen as a prototype for future studies and difficult issues where staff initially asked a member of the Council and other City bodies to act as an ad hoc deci- sion making and leadership group on major issues. In the past, staff and members of the community with different positions were used. Mr. Schreiber responded that the proposal was not seen as a proto- type. The proposed model was something that staff and Council might want to go back to in future situations, but was not seen as a com- mitment on anyone's part to use it in the future. Staff might find that it was not the optimum, and that there were alternatives that would function better. He preferred to think of the proposal as an experiment in terms of working the citizen involvement process more effectively than had been done in the past. Vice Mayor Fazzino clarified that the bureaucratic -sounding name Or the "sounding board' meant "the community." Mr. Schreiber said"that was correct, and the term "sounding board" was chosen consistent with the nonrecommendation role that staff pro= posed to give to that body. It was not a recommending or advisory committee. One of staff's concerns with a formal advisory committee was that the subject study, with all of its issues and divergent viewpoints, could pit one community interest against another. Staff wanted to avoid that by having the "sounding board," where people could participate, and make recommendations as individuals and as members of the group. Councilmember Cobb commented that typically the Planning Commission was the public's sounding board for the types of issues being con- sidered. He asked ,, if the Core Committee as _ a sibMittee of the Planning Commission was considered. Mr. Schreiber said the model could be used. Another possibility would be to have one or more Planning Commissioners and ARB members become the Core Committee. Having a Councilmember on the Core Com- mittee was the preferred approach, but a Commissioner or Board member would also work. Councilmember Cobb said his main concern was to try and find a way to simplify the whole process as: much as possible. Councilmember Witherspoon said she took her hat off to staff for a very ingenious new solution to the age old problem of very complex issues, and the divergent views of people on how they should be solved. It would take an incredible: amount of someone's .time on three different committees to hear everyone's point of view, and yet no-one was charged with making•a recommendation or pulling the diver- gent views together. Mr. Schreiber said th_at many individuals and groups would make recom- mendations, and the Assessment District Committee would also make recommendations, but they hoped that staff would come out of the pro- cess and go into the Planning Commission and City Council process with a clear sense of what the community wanted to do on some of the issues. He believed that divergent viewpoints would .ultimately be before the. Planning Commission and City Council, to be weighed by the various recommendations and interests-. Councilmember Witherspoon asked if the City would benefit by the pro- cess. Except for major issue Nos. 7 and 8, the Assessment District had the most at stake, and it was appropriate for people involved with the Assessment District to take the -lead in a discussion of the policies and issues involved. The other two major issues were plan- ning items and the age old land use problems that Council coped with all the time. She believed that a special study session with the Planning Commission and ARB would be more to the point, and the min- utes could be available for the Councilmenbers. Having the same points of view expressed by theiEvergreen Park Neighborhood Associa- tion, for example, at three, four or five different meetings, would not shorten the process. She preferred to see an Assessment District Committee because it was important for the Assessment District to receive its input formally in order to hear the concerns of their neighbors --those who, owned property in the Assessment District. She did not see the need for a Core Committee, however. She could see a joint planning session with the City Council and the Planning Commis- sion if the issues were distilled down to one, two or three alterna- tive points of view. She could not see having people say the same thing to four different committees and then going to the Planning Commission for a fifth and the Council to a sixth. City Manager 8i11 Zaner said staff did not anticipate four or five different committees all hearing the same data. Rather, the process would be ongoing with people flowing in and out of the sounding board. Some people had no interest in parts of the process and had great interest in others, and would come in and out as they wished. Members of the Assessment District would probably be very interested Committee. entire- process and would stay with it together with the Core C ommittee. Issues would be heard together, but the roles Would be somewhat different. The Core Committee would see that the process moved along, and would manage the meetings and relieve staff of that obligation in order' for them to: be more of a resource and technical expert in the process. Mr. Schreiber said that 'while many of the issues focused on the spe- cifics of the Assessment District, staff found :that: people outside the district had a : keen interest in the resolution of those' issues. Those issues were perceived as influencing the amount of traffic, _ parking, future development, and . traffic generation which 'impacted surrounding areas. Hopefully, the sounding board process would pro- vide an understanding of the data :.and its. validity 'at : this stage rather than later in front of : the Commission and Council. Mayor Bechtel asked who was envisioned as chairing the meetings. Mr. Schreiber said staff envisioned that a member of the Core Commit- tee would run the meetings with someone,else there to facilitate tak- ing notes and making sure that people were not cut off. Mayor Bechtel was_"'concerned that having a paid. facilitator in atten- dance at the meetings in addition to the Chair from the Core Commit- tee, might make the volunteer committee member feel superfluous or vice versa. Mr. Schreiber said that the City staff member/facilitator might not stay with the process. Between the Planning staff and the Core Com- mittee, a decision would need to be made, about whether that person was needed beyond the first part, of the study,. In the early stages of the study, there was likely Ao be varying degrees of animosity between some of the individuals and groups. That was-to be expected, and the facilitator would be able to use that animosity in a positive manner, which skill members of the Planning staff did not have. Over a period of time, a facilitator might not be eeeded. Councilmember Fletcher said she was unclear about the role of Angus McDonald & Associates. Chief Planning Official Bruce Freeland said there were two separate, but related, sets of issues. The overall planning issue for the California Avenue area was a Comprehensive Plan level of study for the area, and dependent upon the policies for overall growth and development in the area, the Assessment District would have a larger or smaller job in terms of making the parking supply grow to keep pace with growth aad . demand for parking as growth took place in the area. Staff envisioned presenting a number of scenarios regarding the future development of California Avenue, and Angus McDonald & Associates was currently developing a ten year economic forecast based upon their analysis of the market and how much additional development they believed would take place under present policies. Staff was also looking at the total amount of development possible under the present zoring as opposed to a ten year forecast. Future growth of the area was being reviewed from a number of different per- spectives. Technical analysis would help to determine the capacity of the area to absorb growth on one hand, and the likely growth on the other. The City could then see the impacts on neighborhood streets in terms -of traffic, and impacts on the Assessment District in terms of growth and demand for parking spaces. The Assessment District would have to work within policies on overall growth in the area, and if those policies and trends indicated a high level of effort needed for parking improvements, the District would have to be prepared for the challenge. Angus McDonald & Associates secondary job was to help develop a new Assessment District formula for California Avenue-- specifically for application if the City decided to buy the Keystone lot. A new formula could also be the basis for a more active future development program of lots in the area. The major portion of Angus McDonald & Associates' work would be the development of the new assessment formula. During that process, a number of other staff .assignments would be reviewed, i.e., "buy-in" charges for new developments in the Assessment District, and what role the residential uses in the Assessment District -should have should they benefit by the parking. Those subset issues would be studied by the consultant in relation to the Assessment : District formula >The structure appeared complicated because there was a distinct job for the Assessment District Committee, which needed to primarily involve the peoplewho would` be: paying. The larger job had to do with the Comprehensive Plan ;,level of issues, which . was where the larger sounding board activity was seen. The Core Committee would act as the convener and organizer of the meetings ensuring that ,taff's analysis could- be transmitted in a respected form. 2 9 3 6 2/07/83 i MOTION: Councilmember Eyerly moved, seconded by Renzel, approval of the staff recommendation as follows: 1. Approve the staff -proposed plan for citizen participation; 2. Direct the chairpersons of the Planning Commission and Architec- tural Review Board to name members to serve on the Core Committee (two Planning Commissioners and one Architectural Review Board member); 3. Authorize staff to organize the Assessment District Committee; and 4. Direct staff to notify all groups and individuals with potential interest in the California Avenue Community Sounding Board of the first public meeting of the Core Committee, and to publicly notice all subsequent meetings. Anne Ercolani, 2040 Ash, Palo Alto, said she was concerned with the program's complexity. They were talking about an overall plan for the entire area, and she was surprised to see the three separate com- mittees, and believed that an overall plan should include discussion by all parties. She was concerned that, if adopted, the Sounding Board could be more effective and have more continuity if it were composed of a certain group of people. She was unclear about whether the Sounding Board would make recommendations, and whether the Sound- ing Board would review what staff saw as the "sense" before it was conveyed to the Planning Commission and City Council. Councilmember Klein said he would give the plan a try primarily because at the outset the Terman Working Group did not look much better, and it succeeded in his opinion. The area was a particularly sensitive one in the community, and a lot of different citizens were interested in providing input. The City needed to try various mean- ingful ways of getting that citizen input in order for people to feel a part of the process. It was also important for people to under- stand that being a part of the process did not necessarily mean they would get their way. He was most concerned about having a member of the City Council on the. Core Committee because the committee process was to sift through the item and leave the Council with general policy guideline,. Further, that Councilmember would be unable to stand back and review the input, and would become too much a part of the process and ultimately be at a disadvantage. From the other side, he was concerned that although the City Council as a whole would realize `that the particular Councilmember would not speak on behalf of the full Council there was a significant risk` that the Committee members and public would perceive the opposite. AMENDMENT: Councilmember Klein moved, --seconded by Cobb, to delete Item g2, Page 4, of the staff recommendation, and insert that the Chair of the' Planning Commission appoint two srembers,, to the Core Com- mittee, and that the Chair of the Architectural Review Board appoint ore. COUNCILME#lnERS EYURLY AND RENZEL AGREED TO INCORPORATE AMENDMENT INTO MAIN MOTION. Councilmember Witherspoon said she was concerned that there . be one focal group to . hear virtually all of the different points of view, and with the help of the facilitator and City staff, structure the process so that the end would provide a recommendation for the Plan- ning Commission or City Council to react t;. She was concerned that with all the different circles and different points of view ` being emphasized: at one meeting, dependent upon who was in attendance, the whole process would be more than anyone could deal with, The Terman Group at least had one, focused goal : and a : deadl nine, but the proposed plan did not. She was not prepared to make an amendment because ' she did not know how to restructure the three parts of the staff recdm- mendati on to accommodate a committee - that would represent the kinds of people the Council would want to make recommendations,. The 2.9 _3 7 2/07/83 Assessment District should be well represented because the issues involved it, . but she opined that it would impose upon the Planning Commission to ask for attendance at a few extra meetings a week or month even though its input, as well as that of the ARB, would be helpful. She preferred that the committee be comprised of individ- uals from the community, as was done with the Terman Group. The pro- cess was a little clumsy, and she could not support the motion. She asked how much money had been committed so far. Mr. Zaner said that regarding the Core Committee, it was often diffi- cult to be the City Council's staff because .when working with a large community group, staff ceased being technical experts because the group expected something else. The group could not understand that staff's responsibility was to listen and make the best recommenda- tion, based upon their professional judgment, to the City Council. The group expected staff to make a recommendation which reflected the group's consensus --not necessarily staff's best professional posi- tion. Staff had no problem with incorporating the citizen group com- ments, but needed the opportunity to simultaneously tell the Council its professional opinion. Those roles were often mixed, and one was completely submerged in the Terman Group. Staff found themselves in the position of negotiating with the citizen's group, on behalf of the Council, to find a solution to a community problem, without any authority to do so. Staff needed to find a way out of that .box to remain the Council's professional staff, and the proposal offered a way to do so. City Planner Vicci Rudin said that, the approved contract with Angus McDonald & Associates was for $20,000, and its purpose was to prepare the forecast as described by Mr. Freeland. The consultant would work with the Assessment District Committee, and staff's time would prob- ably represent $30,000 to $35,000. Mayor Bechtel said she favored the Core Committee. She understood staff's point and the concerns of some of the Councilmembers. Basi- cally they were talking about two committees ---an Assessment District Committee to look at the problems of changing some Assessment Dis- trict policies, and a broader community sounding hoard to look at the broader issues of land use, zoning and development in the California Avenue area. Input from the ARB and Planning Commission was essen- tial not only with respect to the organization and chairing of the meetings, but also to provide the political sensitivity and advice in terms of the direction to go. She hoped that if the motion passed and a Counciimember was not included, staff would work to keep the Council informed as to the progress of the meetings. She supported the main motion and hoped the plan could be implemented as quickly as possible. Councilmenber Renzel said she supported the proposal, and believed, as staff pointed out.: that there were a number of issues and a number of neighborhoods affected by what happened at California Avenue. While all the diagrams looked complex, the Council was basically talking about a way for staff and the consultant to get information on the consensus -elf one existed --from the community or to provide a way for the various segments of the community to understand the prob- lems of the other segments ,in a context somewhat free .of a .specific issue. Although there would be issues, they would not be at an immediate decision point, so people would have the opportunity.t0 discuss issues freely and exchange ideas. She believed. that was important and valuable in that complex area. She did not believe the plan precluded any hearings which . would be required if Council were to change the zoning, Comprehensive 'Plan, or the Assessment District mechanisms. Those actions all required hearings, and the public would be invited . to attend and express themselves again. By having broad citizen input at the early stages, staff's technical expertise was likely to be enhanced , and . be more valuable to the Council. She agreed -with Mayor Bechtel about the value -of having a core group con- duct the meetings in order to keep staff in its technical: role: as opposed to the more political role of assembiine all of the citizen input - 1 1 Vice Mayor Fazzino said that in fighting the issue, he lost his enthusiasm. He appreciated staff's need to guarantee citizen parti- cipation, but had serious doubts about the staff proposal because he believed it could be achieved through a much simpler process. The Council and community had tackled many complex issues in the past through straightforward, public, standing committees, which included :representatives with differing positions and strong components for public involvement. He believed staff's proposal weighed too heavily towards the establishment of a process and inclusion of various char- acters such as the City facilitator rather than towards the real need for adoption of recommendations, citizen participation, and data col- lection on a fast and efficient basis. He believed the Core Commit- tee would be totally superfluous because the committee's representa- tives would speak solely for themselves, and forthe most part, would not provide any additional political expertise or Council policy direction that could not be provided by staff. He was not ready to. consign City staff exclusively to a technocratic role, and believed that all the responsibilities listed in the program, for the Core Com- mittee were clearly ongoing staff functions. He believed the text- book approach created a situation where the same process to obtain citizen input and data collection would be repeated time and time again, and that Council would sit through hours of the same conversa- tions before finally reaching a decision. He urged the. Council - members to put on their "common sense" hats and move ahead with a much simpler approach. He did not want to spend more' time deciding on a process than would be spent by letting the process point itself out. He opposed the motion, but would support staff's working through to a solution of the problem. Councilmember levy sympathized with what staff was trying to accom- plish, but did not agree with the proposal. He also believed the proposal was too complex, and when something was tnat complex, his reaction was to back off somewhat. If Council adopted a complex pro- cedure, it should be the only way to do it. The Core Committee was superfluous in his opinion, and he would propose an amendment to delete it. He could see the value of the sounding board and the Assessment District Committee which would speak specifically to assessment district issues. He agreed with all the problems of the Core Committee as, mentioned by Councilmember Klein, and believed those problems would continue, although possibly to a lesser degree, with or without the presence of a Councilmember. The Planning Com- missioner and ARB member _.could not represent the Planning Commission or the Architectural Review Board, and could only be an individual member who may or may not possess the capability to conduct meetings well in the public arena. He believed that person would be looked upon to do things they were not in a position to do because of the way in which the community would look at their two hats. In his opinion, it was clear that on. one hand staff's role was to communi- cate the consensus _ of the community to the Council and on the other hand, to present their professional opinion. If, in the past, staff found themselves unable to do one or the other, his suggestion would be to do their best not to forego one of the functions, but to. realize that Council needed both. He believed:. the Council could con- tinue the study by replacing the Core Committee with - some kind of facilitator who would chair and coordinate the committees, and who would make reports from time to time to keep the Council, Planning Commission and ARB informed. Staff could provide all of the func- tions. APIENNIENT: : Coonci l member Levy moved,. seconded by Fazzi no,. to delete the Core Costal ttee ail together. Councilmember Cobb : said he had some of the same problems as Council - miembers Levy and Fazzi no, and agreed that the two Planning Commis- sioners and ,ARB member would have the same problems as any Council - member sitting there in some kind of an official capacity. The Coun- cil had to be careful that the item would not go on forever because it had _ the potential to be : open ended and never completed. He pointed out that even after the committee process- was concluded, there was still the process of the -public hearings, the Planning Commission, and the City Council. That could go on for a long time which would not serve the interests of the Assessment District, the people in Evergreen Park, or those in the other California Avenue area neigh- borhoods. MOTION TO CONTINUE: Councilmember Cobb moved, seconded by Witherspoon, that the ratter be continued in order for staff to prepare and return to Council with the following: I. A simplified structure; 2. A specific agenda of topics to be covered at the proposed meet- ings;' and 3. A clear time limit as to when that effort could .be completed in order to get on with the rest of the formal process. Counci l ineinber Cobb pointed out that some of the issues involved" were of tremendous importance, and he wanted to know the agenda in advance because he planned to attend some of the meetings as an observer. Mayor Bechtel said she opposed the motion to continue. Staff spent_a lot of time trying to work out the proposed reasonable process. She believed Council snould support the propoSed experiment and that there was value in having liaisons from the Planning Commission and ARB. Counci member Renzel agreed with Mayor Bechtel and opposed the con- tinuance. Further, she believed that a Core Committee without a. Counci lrnerr+ber was much different than one with h a Counci lmember because the Planning Commission and ARB were not final decision mak- ing bodies, ar;d alwaye :made recommendations to the City Council. Councilri}ember Fletcher said it was not necessary to rove a continu- ance: in order to, obtain an agenda, which was a good idea. Further, she was concerned that setting a termination date for such a complex study would be a useless exercise because dates were repeatedly set and broken" 'in the Terman study, and the targets set for the Compre- hensive Plan process were atso never met. She suggested that it would oe a yood idea to obtain a target date, but nothing to which Council would want to..hola staff because perhaps the process would not fit in -with the time frame as the process proceeded. Mayor Bechtel said she believed it would be difficult to ask for specific ayendes more than a meeting or two in advance, and also that the responsibilities of each committee was described in fairly good detail in the staff report. She believed the responses to Council-., member Cobb'.5 request.- wou i d put staff through some meaningless gyro- tians. NOTION .TO " CONTINUE FAILED by a v4te of 4-5, Cobb, Fazzino, Levy, Witherspoon voting :aye.' Councilmember Levy said that the function of the Cone Committee was to be 4 faci l itator. He believed' it was very complicated to have a committee serve as a facilitator. A c,omrnittee's. job : was to aid in theedecision making process by discussing the issues, and coming to a t`oncl us on. That function was' not needed by the Core Committee, _ and raised all sorts of questions in the minds of the participating pub- lic, For those reasons, he, believed it was best to,delete the Core Committee and have that function served by, a 'member of the 'staff"' or by a community facilitator who was trained,, to_.develop the consensus on those i_ssr►eS. Counci lmember Klein said he believed any proc ss needed a focus, which would be provided by the Core Committee." `' People needed to ,have the feeling ..t.lhey were addressing someone with some "degree of say in the City government process, and the Planning Commissioner and ARB member could provide that. He would oppose the amendment. AMENDMENT FAILED by a vote of 3-6, Fazzino, Levy, Witherspoon vot- ing "aye." Councilmentber Levy said there was a saying in politics, to wit: "When in doubt, form a committee; and when really In doubt, form two committees." In his opinion, Palo Alto had raised that to a new high and broken new ground. MAIN MOTION PASSED) by a vote of 7-2, Fazzino, Witherspoon voting "no.* MAYOR BECHTEL RE ITEM #15 RE PENINSULA CONSERVATION CENTER AHEAD OF Ct RCTLI "' fi CTUR E S MOTION: Mayor Bechtel moved, seconded by Fazzino, to bring forward item 115, re the Peninsula Conservation Center ahead of Item #14, re Display of Councilmembers' pictures. 1 i MOTION PASSED unanimously. ITEM #15 REQUEST OF MAYOR BECHTEL VICE MAYOR FAllINO AND Mayor Bechtel said the Councilmerribers had received correspondence on .the item for the past yearee The Conservation Center provided envi- ronmental education, Wednesday noon brown bag lunches on a variety of subjects, an environmental -education-library and innumerable organi- zations in the Conservation Center itself which provided valuable services. The Conservation Center was paarticularly concerned by the ;fact that its facility, which was in fairly bad condition when the lease was signed, was going to need some additional improvements. It was difficult for tine Center to justify making major improvements to the roof and the building itself with the current lease terms. MOTION: Mayor Bechtel moved, seconded by Fazzino, that the con- tract between the City and the Peninsula Conservation Center be rene- gotiated to reflect a five year lease with an option for a five year extension, Courrcilmember Witherspoon said that the supporting material for the agenda item did not include the letter from Mr. Diaz back to the Cone servation Center which presented' staff's reasons for not encouraging the contract renegotiation. She suggested that Mr. Diaz state his reasons. Real Property Administrtor Jean Diaz pointed out that even though he did nut support the recomrienOation, he believed the Peninsula Conser- vation Center (PCC) did a lot_ of good for the -City, which was - re- flected in the initial April 1 1980 lease -which was negotiated inee response to a proposal the PCC made to the City. The Council agreed. to a two year fixed `-term with an annual ;extension thereafter, which was a compro€nise between the: PCC-'S -request -for a much longer term and staff's :recommendation-. tor- a . shorter tenon -to retain flexibility. Staff's perspective had always been that 'thy: use was not long -term,' but -rather ari interim use of the particular facility. ..The initial rent of -460U per month as proposed -by the-PCC was $400 below the mar- ket rent -at the time, ,and. today's market rent of about $750 per3 month was 4 /OU to -$1,2O0 -per- Wont h -below racket tent, eHe believed, the most tel l in,g economic atguirrent wase that ethe true value --the property's highest and best useeewas not with the old fire station improvement., but with some ultimate development consistent With the zoning of the property. In today -!_s -market, that _would indicate a value 0'1412. to $10 :per square ' foot -n r about $3000000 to $600,000. eThe property surrounding the. parcel Has -under development, which would also increase the value of ethe site. A five year term with- -a ; five year option. would place -a . significant encumbrance on- that very valuable asset. - Those were the -key reasons why staff did :not- support the FCC's request. Councilmeinber Cobb said there was some talk about putting a cap on the percentage of annual: increase, and he asked -what that cap would be. Further, assuming that the lease extension was granted, he asked if the PCC .would have, aSt part of the lease extension, the full financial responsibility to maintain the building and grounds. Mr. Uiaz responded that the current lease provided that the City had no obl iyation to maintain the building or structure, and that it was the _PLC's responsibility. If there was any major structural damage, the City would have the option to take a look at whether it wanted to do any. work, but had no obligation to do so. Councilmember Levy said he understood that originally when the lease was neyotiated, it was tor roughly two-thirds of ,the market refl. Mr. Uiaz said the market rent at the time the lease was entered into was approximately $1,000 per month. The rental rate proposed to the Council by the PCC and accepted was $600 per month. Councilrnernber Levy clarified that today's rent had dropped to some- thiny like 30 or 5U percent of the market rent. Mr. Uiaz said that proportionately, that was staff's belief. The market rates in the area had yone up at,a rate exceeding the Consumer Price Index, which was the adjustment factor for .the PCC rental rate. Tony Carrasco, 4216 Darlington Court, Palo Alto, was a board member of the Peninsula Conservation Center (PCC) and asked that.the City Council approve their request for an extension to a tern of tern years so that the PCC could rake the needed improvements to the property and feel more secure about its home in Palo Alto. Further, he asked that the PCC's rent not be increased each year. Their rent had increased by Zb percent in the first two years, which was more than the other increased rents in the area. He did not believe.the ques- tion of whether market rents were appropriate in the area made sense. because the rent was $600, and `in a normal market situation, the landlord would fix up the building which was not the case in their situation. With respect to the subsidy, the PCC .had,-- since the nego- tiation of the first -lease, made significant public contributions in the form -' of programs. The Center had contributed by administering programs which'inereased the quality of living in Palo Alto. The PCC asked that the piece of property not be looked at in terms of obtain- ing the maximum income, but rather as .the small community conserva- tion center it had become in the last two - ears. The -PCC hoped it could do a lot more in the next ten_ years. Counci lmember Klein asked whether the length of the lease or the cap on the rent was more important to tie_ PCC. Mr. Carrasco responded that they were both important. Kingsford F. 'Jones', President of the Peninsula' Conservation Center, 2'253 Park Boulevard, Palo Alto, responded -that there was a delicate interplay between the length of the lease and cap on the rent a 1 though the val ue o► ea:h addressed a slightly different problem. - The cap on the rent =had to do with the vitality and -continued pre- sence of the tenant organization as much :as.: anything. The length_ of the lease._ had to. do: with -.the extent. to whlch the PCC was able.. to maintain and improve the premises, and_ conduct its . businesses --not in the spirit of perpetuity, but. i,n' a healthy continuing 'existence: The question of which was more -important :was a.' question of who the PCC was looking to. and ,whose interests . were most important..* He believed the_ continued- presence of, fits tenants were first.•= _ 4Wi:th:. than ideal in- mind, the PCC.'s continued ex ;stence 'would 'be dependent on: a long-term' lease. However, .Vet: -.':'S ab. l-ity to remain at` its : present location was _based upon -rent at' a reasonable l-evel considering the nonprofit nature of its enterprise acid `-tne enterprise : of ;its tenants. If,- he had to .pick one or the outer, he was 'afraid that`'with ofe` and without the, other, the rationale ,for picking the .cap- melted tandtAefeated itself. He believed that the long-term lease made the most sense because he- wanted to ,see the PCC in its present location and a viable part of -Palo Alto's conirrunity. It was difficult to be before the City Council without making it explicitly -clear how grateful the Con- servation .Center wd5 for the opportunity to.- make its headquarters on the property. It was easy for the PCC to think about the kinds of hardships the lease caused in a time when nonprofit organizations did not have as much money to spend or as much volunteer help. Those thoughts came to mind easily ,without renemberi ng what generosity and yoodwill the City showed at the outset, when the PCC was faced with the prospect of not finding an appropriate home somewhere in ,Palo Alto. He reminded the Council that the PCC appreciated the City's view of the environmental and conservation consciousness in PPaEo Alto, and the initial permission to negotiate the original lease. He hoped the period of adjustment was over and that the Council could see the Center in a more permanent setting.- The PCC had proven its ability to operate well at the premises, and were good caretakers of the City's investment He hoped the Council recognized that the issue was not merely a judgment of real estate return on investment, but one which was complicated by a policy issue of what Palo Alto thought about the conservation effort and the role of the conserva- tion center as an information, education and general environmental headquarters of the City. It was important for its tenants, and for a growing number of people in the community immediately surrounding the center. It_was interesting to note that in the past one and one - halt years, the people who lived in the California Avenue and Park Boulevard area particularly used the Center's libraries and facili- ties, and the PCC was open to the community as a whole. Councilmemher Eyerly asked Mr. Jones to expand on' the shortage of volunteer help he mentioned. Mr. Jones responded that the shortage had to do with staffing of non- profit organizations everywhere. He suspected it, had to do with some demographic and economic trends where women in their 20's and 30's used to be involved in volunteer activities on a regular basis, but were not as available as before. Councilmember Eyerly asked if the repairs done to date had been done on a voluntary basis or were contractors paid to do the work. Mr. Jones said all the labor had been done on a volunteer basis, but. the materials were purchased at reduced prices. Carpeting and parti- tions were obtained and installed by the PCC. Jeanne Mcuonnel l , 1509 Portol a Avenue, was the Director of Nature Explorations, which was a-- tenant or -dni zation of the PCC. The PCC was an incomparable resource, and Na'l.Gre Explorations could not exist without it. .Palo Alto was an unusual place, And one thing which made it- s:o was the PCC 'arid its tenant organizations like Nature Explora- tions. Some of the businesses which supported Nature Explorations by. -donations included Ampex, Intel, Xerox,. IBM Hewlett Packard,. Addison-Wessl'ey, Syntex, and Loc.kheed.- She believed those companies donated to -Nature Explorations partly because they`. recognized a bar- gain robeti they saw one. Councflmember Witherspoon said she found the issue difficult because it seemed that if the Council did not agree 100,percent With' the PCC's request', .it was construed as being somehow anti -conservational She observed that the Courici l_ had another hat to_ wear. as well, anci: pointed Out that in ' some sense, the lease to the _PCC was a_ gift of pool is funds. The City was probably a little, more generous than the other large landlord in town --the School District. She<;slid pot think t9ie PCC _would:. get the ame lclnd f° -rent break if it were rent-ing., u -- a _s rplus school. She,believed the rent was fairs and., under_; the: pre -1 sent clause, and based upon the ,cost of :living index, there .would he no _rent= increase this year. -She did not- sense the urgency- for but ,.syirpathized with the JCC'S desire for. - a longer lease. .As ,far as - she . knew, the City. had no intentions, at the Moment, of -doing any- - thing with the site, and would be .wi l i ing to 'extend the --lease for a 2 9 4 3_ 2/07/B3- year or two more with a year's notice to vacate if that became neces- sary. She preferred extending the lease for a year or two than to put a cap on the rent or reduce it in any way. Mayor Bechtel said the motion before the Council was only with re- spect to the extension of the lease. The ,cap issue Was mentioned in the memo, but was not included in the 'motion. SUBSTITUTE NOTION: Cauncilmember Witherspoon moved, seconded by Levy,that the contract between the City and the Peninsula Conserva- tion Center be renegotiated to reflect a two year lease with a one year's notice to terminate if the City did not wish to extend the lease further. eouncilMember Klein said the issue gave him a lot of trouble since he strongly supported the Peninsula Conservation Center. The City's subsidy of the PCC was being done in, a roundabout way, and was not right in his opinion. He did not believe the matter- would be handled as it was presently if it was done during the normal budgetary pro- cess. Market rate rents should be cha rged, and i f` the City wanted to support the programs, it should be done as a budget item during the noE mai,bodget review in order to see what was actually being bought. He believed there were a lot of organizations who would leap at the opportunity to ipay tine Pee's rents. Two years was too short an extension in his opinion, but ten years was far too long. He would not support the substitute motion, and if it failed, he would offer an amendment to grant a five year lease with no options to extend. Further, the proposal to grant even more generous rent was uncalled for and he would oppose any efforts to put a cap on the inflation rate. Vice Mayor Fazzino said that Mayor Bechtel expressed most of his feel inys. He believed the Pee was an outstanding community resource who was forced to move from another bui ldiny- a couple of years ago, and who came to the City with an exciting proposal for the use of its property, where .no other viable alternative existed. The building was improved to a great degree, and if the PCC was given' the satis- factiun of a five year lease as proposed by Councilmemoer Klein, the City was likely to see even snore improvements and additional mainte- nance on the site, which would benefit both the PCC and the City as a whole. Given that kind of commitment to the structure, it was appro- priate at the very least to offer a five year lease. He did not believe the rent issue was a major concern given the Consumer Price [ndex'this year, but it might beea concern in the future. He had a little more problem with changing the situation on that, although he believed that if the City was talking about .a 12 to 15_ percent infla- tion, some consiiderations could -be brought into play, given the one going improvements and maintenance of the structure provided by PCC, which were not offered by other tenants in City structures throughout the City, Those intangible benefits offered to the City by the PCC should be recognized through the 'five year lease. He preferred an option, but was willing to support a clear cut five year lease With, no options, lhat_ would guarantee that the PCC would be located in the .structure tor some time, and would give the Council the -,continu- ing benefit and amenities of are outstanding program. Gounci_1member' kyerly _said he believed that -the PCC's rent was quite reasonable and that it should ,not - have. a cap. Regarding the term of. th`e-lease, he bet ieved:five years was - too long. Two years was the term in his .mind before Counci linember Wi.therspoon's made her amend, meat. The City' -s options roust be kept open ine case. some major use, for that eproperty _cane along that the City wanted to pursue. if something like that did not happen, he did not see the City Council's moving tn_e PC.0 out. The Pee shoul-d- be able to live ' with -that= arranges ent-: especially_ in view o_f the fact -that :its maintenance" -and the work done on the bui Tding: were-- volunteer, efforts. i;ouncilmembe-r Levy also found.: the issue to be difficult because he strongly 'supported...the PCC -die noted tha t ne perSonal-ly was -.a member of at .least four of the tenant organs zati_ tins plus the PCC itself. He agreed with Councilmewber .Klein that' the ".procedure was incorrect. 2 9 4 4 2/07/83. 1 1 Market rents should be charged, and subvention should be explicitly provided ;to the PCC. The property was considered surplus at a time when the City was short of floor space, and had approved a bond issue. which would amount to $2.5 million for the acquisition of additional floor space. The property was valued at $500,000 which must be taken into consideration when ascertaining the annual impact of the property. One reason the lease was entered into on its present basis a couple of years ago was because the Council wanted to hold the property a little longer, but not for a period of five or ten years. The City was searching for funds to do various things --such as acquire school sites --and five years from now, or possibly sooner, the School District intended to close a 20 -acre middle school which would -require a substantial amount of money to purchase. The City looked to those things in the future, and it was an improper use of the City's mechanisms to handle the matter without thorough and explicit review as part of the budget process. He supported the sub- stitute motion, which committed the City for three years and believed it was reasonable as he saw the City's future financial needs. The term was somewhat shorter than wha-t any tenant would like, but those were the factors of the situation. It would be irresponsible for the City, at the same time when it was going to raise money through bond issues and planned to go to the citizenry for a tax increase, to not take a close look at every single City asset. He supported the three year commitment. Councilmember Witherspoon clarified that the intent of her motion was to compromise between the five years and the two years. At the end of the lease, the City would have to provide a year's notice if it were not going to provide another two year lease. She did not intend to provide a two year option. Mr. Diaz clarified that the substitute motion was for a two year lease beginning in March at the expiration of the current one year period, and at the end of that period, the lease would be on an annual basis with a one year's notice to terminate. Councilmember Witherspoon said that was correct. Councilmember Fletcher said she agreed\ with Councilmember. Klein. Five years would provide adequate security for the tenants to make any improvements. Councilmember Renzel opposed the substitute motion and concurred with the five year lease proposal. She disagreed with Councilmembers Klein and Levy that the City should set a market rent and direct a subsidy. Not too long ago, a policy was established for leasing City property, and an option was made for the Winter Club to lease a con- siderable amount of acreage in the Baylands for $1 given the possible public benefit to be derived. Public benefit was the quid -pro -quo for less than market rent because it served a valuable public service to the community. She saw those same public services with the sub- ject lease, and had not heard any talk about selling off properties at this point. She appreciated that staff might wish to keep options open, but di,d not believe a five year lease would unduly tie the City's hands. She would oppose the substitue:.motiOn and support a five year lease. Mayor Bechtel said she would oppose the substitute motion, and would encourage Council support of the main motion. SUBSTITUTE , NOTION failed by a vote of 3-6, Eyerly, Levy, Witherspoon voting, "aye." ANENDMEt T f :Cosec# 1 aersber Klein moved, seconded, by Fazzi eo, ,to delete the option extending the leash for a further -five year period, Councilmember Renzel asked for clarification about whether the lease would be Year : to year thereafter subject to a year's notice in: the event of termination. Councilmember Klein said he deli5er;ately moved a five year lease because he wanted the question re-examined in 1987 to ascertain the City's desires. There would be no automatic extension. ,AMENDMENT TO AMENDMENT: Councilmember Renzel moved, seconded by Bechtel, that tenancy become year-to-year following the initial five year extension, subject -to the City's giving six months r+otice to terminate, in accordance with the present conditions. Councilmember Renzel clarified that at the end.. of four and one-half years, the City could give notice and terminate the lease in accordance with. Councilmember Klein's amendment, but would still provide the ability to continue the arrangement on a year to year basis as long as it was mutually agreeable. Councilmember Klein was opposed to the amendment to amendment because it was important for the Council to analyze what should be done with that valuable asset in 1987. In 1987, the Cox project will have been finalized for two or three years, and the California Avenue study would almost be concluded. Mayor Bechtel supported the amendment to amendment. She did not believe the. PCC would be any more uncomfortable than they were now with the five year period, and the City still had the option, at the end of four and one-half years, to terminate the lease. She encour- aged Council support of the amendment to amendment. AMENDMENT TO AMENDMENT FAILED by a vote of 4-5, Fletcher, Renzel, Fazzlno, Bechtel voting "aye.' AMENDMENT PASSED by a vote of 7-2, Eyerly, Witherspoon voting "no.' Councilmember Renzel asked Mr. Diaz at what point the City would evaluate whether it wanted to lease to an existing tenant in a subse- quent year. Mr. Diaz said the process would begin early in the fourth lease year in order to have adequate time to consider the alternative uses of the valuable asset. Councilmember Renzel said she understood that if the City wanted to dispose __of, or use. the site in some other way, it would- need to plan Jo advance. She asked whether the PCC should assume that they would vacate after five years no matter what; or, whether there was a mechanism by which the PCC could stay if the City was not ready for them to vacate, and if they wanted to stay. Mr. Diaz said. that if the PCC wanted to stay, it would have to ask for a change in the Council direction. Staff would be looking for alternative uses of the property early in the fourth year. MAIN MOTION PASSED by a vote of 7,-2, Eyerly, Witherspoon voting `no," MOTION: Mayor Bechtel edited, that staff renegotiate the PCC lease to put a cap of five percent on any annual" increases in rent MOTION FAILED FOR LACK OF A SECOMD. ITEM 113-A. OLD /TEM 14), SOLAR FINANCING PROGRAM ALTERNATIVE LOAM I'RM - REFEIOIAL, TO fifIANCE. AND PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE (C! (:1bT: i f Councilmember Eyerly said that the use of the word "defunct, in . the staff report, in ; terms of projects and other': renewable resources in the City`s •long-range power planning, railed the hair on the back of his, neck. The money from the Cameron Ridge Wind". Project" would_ go back into the City=s Electric Utility;; Reserve at the end of year, and be used as, it had previously.- Some of that money was used for solar _financing, but he believe it was improper to call` it "defunct: honey" and that it was up for grabs. 2 9 4 6 2/07/83 As Corrected 5/16/83 MOTION: Councilmember Eyerly moved seconded by Cobb, that the Solar Financing Program be referred to the Finance and Public Works (F8PW) Committee, but staff to provide a report on the Electric Reserve Fund to include an accounting and the use of that fund to date. 1 1 Councilmember Eyerly said he wanted the staff report to be added to the referral so the F&PW Committee could look at the usn of that reserve fund and what it had been used for, and make sure that too much solar moneys. had not been taken out. The fund had been in existence since the City won a rate adjustment from the Western Area. Power Administration about five years ago. It started out at about $1.5 million and had gathered interest. He believed the Council should receive an accounting of that fund, and that it might wish to set some policies on its future use. City Manager Bill Zaner said he understood the motion. He suggested that Council review the Controller's latest report which contained those figures. As a matter of record, he advised that none of the $212,500 had been spent for the Cameron Ridge Wind Project. MOTION PASSED unanimously. ITEM #14, REQUEST OF COUNCILMEMBER EYERLY RE DISPLAY OF COUNCIL- Councilmember Eyerly said it was common practice for some of the _.ities in Northern California to display pictures of their City Coun- cilmembers. for identification and recognition -purposes and he believed it would be proper for the City of Palo Alto to do the same. MOTION: Councilmember Eyerly moved, seconded by Fletcher, for staff to include in the Budget for fiscal year 1983-84, an identifi- able cost figure to provide for display of Councilmember's pictures coitmencing January 1, 1984. Councilmember Levy said Palo Alto had always been known for its artistic excellence, and that its reputation would be lost by the display of Councilmembers' pictures. He opposed the motion because ne opined that it accomplished nothing towards making Palo Alto a better city. Councilmember Cobb commented that if the Council wanted to create Rogue's Gallery in the Council Chambers, the - pictures should be hung at a Councilmember's own expense. In a time of. budget tightening, tax money should not be spent to help assuage egos. . He would not support the motion. Councilmember Renzel commented that official pictures were taken of the Councilmembers anyway, and they were talking about buying nine picture frames and nine picture holders, which would not amount to a. significant amount of money. MOTION PASSED by a vote of 5-4, Bechtel, Klein, Levy, Cobb voting ITEM #16, REQUEST OF COUNCILMEMBER FLETCHER RE SOUTHERN PACIFIC sn . Councilmember Fletcher said that Cal Trans; had planned to extend the III Southern Pacific commute service to downtown San Francisco next year. There had been some delays as a result of a change in administration, and the new administration temporarily halted the extension plans while re-evaluating their policy. Cal Trans had, planned the extension as a means of attracting new passengers. Passenger loads had 'always been fight, - and hae dropped as People' got used to higher gas Prices. Studies had shown that If the service were extended, that 1,200 new passengers daily would be gained. It wat feared. that . the State might`< not continue to subsidize the service if the extension were not granted and if ridership did not pick up. That would result in a termination of the service._ 1 MOTION: Councilmember.Fletcher moved, seconded by Renzel, that the Mayor be directed to write letters to Kirk West, Secretary for Busi- ness and Transportation, and CalTrans Acting Director, John Kozak, the Acting District Director of CalTrans, Burch: Bechtold, urging implementation of the Embarcadero Extension of the Southern Pacific Commute Service.. Councilrember Witherspoon said when she first ran for the City Coun- cil in 1.973, a rally was held in Menlo Park on the same subject, which she attended. She opined that the matter involved more playing politics than the Council was aware of. She supported the motion and said it was ridiculous' that. one could not connect to BART and the rest of the transit district at the end of the SP lines. MOTION PASSED unanimously. ITEM 117, REQUEST OF MAYOR BECHTEL, COUNCILMEMBERS KLEIN, LEVY AND MOTION: Councilmember Klein moved, seconded by Cobb, to approve the following 1) The Mayor appoint an ad hoc committee of seven citi- zens (primarily people in the fields of accounting, administration and management) to review the Controller's position under the Charter and to advise the Council_ as to whether any changes would be advis- able or necessary; 2) The ad hoc committee to report its findings to the F&PW committee within 60 days of its creation; 3) At or above the same time the ad hoc committee is created that the Council retain the services of a CPA firm or management consulting firm to provide the ad hoc committee and, ultimately, the Council, a comparative study of what other cities of comparable size in California are doing with regard to the position of City Controller/Chief Financial Offi- cer, etc. The study would also provide the Council with a brief overview of the professional views on this subject. The Council anticipates this study to be of short duration and at comparatively low cost. As a starting point we would assume a fee of about $2,500. This report should be made to the ad hoc committee within 30 days for use as part of its deliberations; 4) If the time schedule outlined above is followed, the matter should be in the hands of the City Council by approximately June, which would be sufficient time for the Council to place on the November ballot anything that was deemed to be appropriate. If no changes in the Charter were necessary, the June date would still be sufficient time for the Council_ to commence the search to find a replacement for Al Mitchell by the time he left his position; and 5) Until the Council has received and acted upon the ad hoc committee's report, the City should take no action to fill the controllership position. Counciimember Levy agreed with the concept however, the ad hoc com- mittee should consist of people who were in the private sector, pri- marily in accounting administration and management positions with a diversity of types of companies, both manufacturing and service, and also some who were in private practice as 001. He wanted a new look at what the b:os i Hess world was thinking about what the functions of the controller's position should be. The Council itself would have ample opportunity as we/1. once that ihpi.it was gathered. The second change involved recommendation 12: The main focus of the study was .a` comparative study of what other cities of comparable size were doing in California and while that was of interest, given the new financial positions that cities were finding themselves in.. the more important elements represented the overview of how the profession. --views the subject. He was more concerned ' with hearing that than% receiving a statistical analysis of how cities happened to be organized at the present time. AMENDMENT: Counci oember Levy moved to amend recommendation #2 to 'overt afttr the >wording ....the CPA firm:: or management consulting firm to provide the ad hoc committee' and, utll.ately, the Council," tied following, Man_ .overview of professional views on this subject taletber with a comparative` -study of what other cities of comparable size in California are -doing,; Councilmembor Levy said that the added language was repeated in a separate sentence and would be deleted there which would allow both of those elements to be on an equal par. AMENDMENT FAILED: The amendment failed for lack of a second. Councilmember Witherspoon said that it was a very interesting concept but she was not interested in going with an outside committee because she felt that the position should remain a Council appointed posi- tion. Stie referred Councilmembers to the description in the Palo Alto Menicipal Code, which was very broad in terms of what the Controller did. If there was a need to refine that or to change the direction, then the existing code sections allowed that to happen and she pre- ferred that the Council have a study session to discuss what they expected from the Controller that was different than what they had expected up until now. She peeferred to keep the matter in Council and either have a study session on it or have one of the standing committees discuss it rather than go to an ad hoc committee. The City function was a very different kind of situation than that of a normal board of directors of a publicly owned company. It would be inter- esting to hear what the Committee had to say but she was not sure it would be relevant. 1 Councilmember Eyerly felt that the approach was wrong for a number of reasons. First, when the ad hoc committee was appointed there would be people who were not involved An city government or the City of Palo Alto making the decision, and they would indicate that the Con- troller's and auditor's positions in most of other cities job descriptions were in the hands of the Chief Executive Officer who was the City Manager. That was true of a lot of the common law cities in the State of California. The City of Palo Alto was a Charter City and the charter was set up for four council appointed officers, to pro- vide something of a balance and it behooved them to keep the set-up as it was so that the Council would have separate financial advice from the City Manager's department, which had the control of a large number of employees and presented the budget, etc. The procedure should be to establish a policy that addressed whether the Council wanted separate advice or whether they wanted to do away with the Council Appointed Officer's position, as spelled out in the charter and to put all of that type of work in the City Manager's hands. He would not feel badly if the City Manager did do quite a bit more of the work than ,the City Controller now did, . but he would still want a position that gave the Council separate financial advice. That was a position that was different from a financial controller or auditor. As Councilmember Witherspoon pointed out, both in the Charter and: the administrative code, that, advice could'be had from the Controller's position. He felt that the Council should refer the description of the Controller's position, _.both in the the administrative code and Charter to the- Policy and Procedures Committee for discussion and recommendation back to the 'Council for a dec,1sion on that initial policy as to whether they wanted to change the job description or to go more the route that the motion stated. REFERRAL MOTION: Councilmember Eyerly moved, seconded by Witherspoon, that the Charter and the administrative code descrip- tions of the Controller be'referred to the Policy and Procedures Com- mittee for recommendations and is changes. Councilmember Renzel basically concurred with the remarks of Council - members Witherspoon and Eyerly. There should be separate financial advice coming to the City Council and the Council needed to determine' exactly what changes if any they wanted to make, and to have those coming,, from an .outside committee was not appropriate. Councilmember- Fazzino said.. that the Council was stuck on process=, and that was not necessary. The recommendZtions before the Council were sound ones. It, could, be argued whether, the . item' Should go _ to 'the Finance and Public Works (F$PW) Committee or the Policy and Proce- dures Committee. It would probably end up in '; F&PW because even though it was a policy .item: the policy centered around finance. : The recommendations did not preclude the possibility or probability of a separate controller's or auditor's position being continued. He shared the concerns and feelings of a number of his colleagues who spoke about the need for independent control and he wanted some mechanism for that to continue. However, at the same time he recalled the creation of the controller's position in 1950 and that the auditor's position had been on the books since 1909 and was elim- inated. They needed to pull themselves away from the financial cli- mate of 1950 and seriously analyze what the organization's needs were 32 years later. They needed to move beyond the Council's structures and bring in some very talented and bright people who were located in the community, particularly in industry, to get their advice about. the way in which the controller and treasurer's positions had evolved during the past years. That type of data could be incorporated into the material that was received from the CPA firm which could look specifically at the issue of how public institutions in other ,juris- dictions handled this function and the Finance Committee could then come to a sound decision. He thought that was very reasonable data collection and did not think they should fear that was setting the Council up for a process which was different from the way things were handled today. It was clearly timely to discuss the position and how it fit in the organization. The City had not had that kind of seri- ous discussion since 1950 and it was certainly not handled in the Booz Allen and Hamilton organization evaluation of 1969--a report that still sat on the City Manager's shelf. That was the reason he felt they should move ahead with the sound recommendations. Counciirnember Fletcher said that if they were to go outside the Coun- cil for advice, she thought the type of advice they would need would be from people who had worked in cities and with cities and not from industry where the structure was completely different and the focus was different. Mayor Bechtel urged them to vote against the amendment for referral to the Policy and Procedures Committee because by doing that they would preclude even the possibility of a Charter amendment for the November ballot, if that decision should be made at some later date, because- they would run out of time by then. The main motion did not bind the Council in any way as to the policy decision as to whether or not to put something on the ballot. ti REFERRAL MOTION FAILED: The referral motion failed on a vote of 5-4, Fazzino, Bechtel, Klein, Levy and Cobb opposed. AMENDMENT: Mayor Bechtel moved, seconded by Cobb, that 1) The Ad Hoc Committee be called an Ad Hoc Committee on 'City Financial Struc- ture; and t) Council authorize the Mayor and the Chair of the Finance and Public Works Committee to approve the consultant, with the con- tract to be arranged by the City Manager, and the Consultant who would be selected would be approved by the Mayor and the Chair. Mayor Bechtel said than the reason for doing that rather than coming back to:the Council was that it.saved time for a decision. The.City Clerk .had informed the Coun.Ci l that the date of June 1 for a oeci - s.ion,-allowing staff to prepare for the -election in November, might, in filet, be moved up even `sooner-. Courrci loember Renzel asked :if " the a $2,500 contract needed Council approval or was it simply that they wanted to have-- the discretion to make sure they were getting independent -advice. Mayor Bechtel said that the contract did not need Council approval, -it was just a courtesy. MAIM MOTION' AS AMENDED PASSED: The main motion passed as ,amended;' (amendment i ecorporated) by a vote of 6-3 with Coonci l members yerl y, Rentaland Witherspoon eaten' "oe." 1 1 ITIiM #18 REQUEST OF CQUNC1LMEMtfER RENZEL RE CONDEMNATION OF Codnci lmember Henzel said .she was disturbed by news reports the past week about the possible condemnation of the City's dedicated park- lands in the Faber and Laumeister tracts for a new location for Marine World. She was sympathetic to the need for jobs.and a tax base in East Palo Alto, but believed the particular proposal raised serious policy questions regarding the propriety of one jurisdiction acquiring "cheap" land for commercial uses by_ condemning parklands of another jurisdiction. She intended to agendize the matter for next week's meeting. City Manager Bill Zaner said the City was contacted about a year ago with reyard to the -sae matter. Staff advised the County that they could not conceive of the Council allowing that property to be used for that use, Staff saw the same newspaper article and made some inquiries, but had no confirmation at this point that the position was _official. ADJOURNMENT Council adjourned at 12:15 a.m. ATTEST: APPROVED: 2 9 5 1 2/07/83