Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-05-09 City Council Summary Minutes1 1 CITY COUNCIL MINUTEs Regular Meeting Monday, May 9, 1983 CITY or Ml. 0 ALT() ITEM PAGE Ural Communications Consent Calendar Referral Action Item #1, Improvement to the City of Palo Alto Theatre Facilities Project 82-11 Item #2, Technical Modifications, .Management and Confidential Employee Compensation Plans Item #3, Ordinance re Zoning Map Amendment - Alma/ Lytton (2nd Reading) 3 2 4 2 3 2 4 2 3 2 4 2 3 2 4 3 3 2 4 3 3 2 4 3 3 2 4 3 Item #4, Ordinance re Parking Lot Q (2nd Reading) 3 2 4 3 Item #5, Effect' of State Handicapped `Access 3 2 4 4 Requirements (Continued from 4/18Y83) Item #6, PUBLIC HEARING: Planning Commission 3- 2 4 4. Recornmedation re Application of the Architectural Design Group for a Zone Change to Develop a Life Care Residency Project for the Elderly at 401-419 Webster Street and 602-608 Lytton Avenue (Continued from 4/18./83) Item #7, PUBLIC HEARING: Planning Commission 3 2:4 9 Recommendation re Application of Carrasco & Smith for a Change of Zoning to -PC for Property Located at, 4145-4161 El Camino Way (Continued fro► .4/1.8/83) item #r8, Planning. Commission_,Recommendation that ifhe. 3 2 6 3 City Council Direct Staff: to Pursue with the South Peninsula Veterinary Emer9ency- Clinic- the Possible Use of the City Land Adjacent to the City -Animal Services Facility. .'item #9, i binning Commtssion Re,coumendation re Application of the : ':.South Peninsula Veterinary Emery,ency CI inic : for a Comprehensive Plan --Land .Use Map Amendment for Property -Located at 423433' Page Mil 1 Road Item _# .U, .-Finance and .>-PUl lic: .Works Commission Recommendation re Lot J Parking Garage Item '13, Residential Parking Program in; the Vacinity of. Park boulevard and El Camino Real - Evaluation of Trial;. 3 2 7 3 3 2 4.0 5/9/83 1TIM P. A G L item 11, Final Report from the Ad -. Hoc Committee On 3 2 7 4 the City's Financial Structure Item #12, Recreation Facility Renovation - Mitchell Park Tot Lot 3 2 8 0 item #140 Request of Mayor Bechtel re Double 3.2 8 0 Containment Legislation (S8 1071) ltem #15, Request of Counci innernbers Cob and Fazzino -- 3 2 8 U re Continuation of Community Ice Skating Adjournment 3 2 8 0 3 2 4 .1"-' 5'/9/83 Regular Meeting Monday, May 9, 1983 The City Council of the City,of Palo Alto met on this day in the Council Chambers at City FlalN, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo. Alto, at 7:35 p.m. 1 PRESENT: Bechtel, Cobb (arri v:A . 8:00 p.m.) , Eyerly, Fletcher, Klein, Levy, Fenzel, Witherspoon ABSENT: Fazzino ORAL COMMUNICATIONS Bob Moss, 4010 Orme, said' that with regard to the concerns about the rousing at Terman, he was pleased with the staff's excellent response to the questions he recently raised. He gave particular thanks to city Planner Glenn Miller and Director of Planning and Community Environment Ken Schreiber for their quick and thorough, responses-. He hoped that after people knew the facts, a more rational job of evaluating: the situation could be done, After he was provided with the facts, he wrote a letter to the Palo Alto Weekly, a copy of whiff h is on file in the City Clerk's office, which requested that Council take three specific actions. He pointed out that problems existed with the Palo Alto Housing Cor- poration's (PAHC) proposal because during the four years in which he, Joe Hirsch, and the Terman Working Group neighbors in general, negotiated on the Terman Plan, a requirement for very low income housing was never mentioned. The only comments were for low/ moderate income housing and always referred to the Comprehensive Plan definition, except for one sentence which referred to HUD definitions, The proposal met the Letter of the Terman agreements and specific plan, but he was concerned about its spirit because the group believed that the requirement was for 30 percent of the people to earn no more than 80 percent of the average. median income. On April 25, 1983, the Group learned that the HUD .and City of Palo Alto definitions differed, and that the requirement was for 30 percent of the people on the site to earn no more than - 50 percent of the average median income. The Terman neighbors proposed --and the PAHC agreed in principal --that the 30 percent be limited- to seniors and handicapped. The Planning Commission approves a subdivision map on May 4, 1983, and he suggested that. the housing portion of the site be further subdivided into two sections, one to be about 1.3 acres anti identified -as purchased with CHUG money, and the balance to be identified as purchased with City money. . The same thing was done by the PAHC for Birch Court. The PAHC would: not be precluded from going forward. with the Section 8 'units or any other possible income levels. on the site, but would remove the restrictions and requirements imposed by the federal government on the entire site and be ' limited only to the area covered by the one subdivision. Council would have the opportunity to discuss the subdivision and ordinance, and he suggested that the staff, report which changed the schedule and funding for development of the7 Terman site. be Considered carefully and positively. He Also urged favorable acceleration .01 complete development under the type of schedule -proposed- by staff. CONSENT CALENDAR MQThUM: .Codncileeeher Witherspoon tiered, seconded by :Klein, approval of_`the Consent Calendar: None Referral 3 2 4 2 5/09/83 Action ITLM #1, IMPRUVLMENT TO THE CITY OF PALO ALTO THEATRE FACILITIES U C Staff recommends that Council-: 1. Autltorize _ the Mayor, to execute the agreement- with J.andry & bogan Theatre Consultants for $83,400 for the design services of Phase II and -Phase 411 improvements to - the City of Palo Alto Theater Facilities; and 2. Authorize staff to execute change orders to the design agree-, m�e/nit up to fifteen (15) percent --or $13,000 --of the agreement amount. AGREEMENT PROFESSIONAL SERVICES - PALO ALTO THEATRES PHASES II AND 111 - PROJECT Fit -11 Landry and Bogan Theatre Consultants ITirM Z TECHNICAL MODIFICATIONS MANAGEMENT AND CONFIDENTIAL EM [TPENSATIUN 'LANs (CMA: 27tf :3 Staff recommends approval of the Compensation Plan for Management and Council Appointees and the Compensation Plan for Confidential Employees which incorporate the technical changes necessary for implementation of the plan approved by Council in June, 1982. RESOLUTION 6113 entitled "RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALO ALTO AMENDING .THE COMPENSATION PLAN FOR MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL ADOPTED BY RESOLUTION NO. 6060 TO PROVIDE FOR TECHNICAL MODIFICATIONS" RESOLUTION 6114 entitled "RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALO ALTO AMENDING THE COMPENSATION PLAN FOR CONFIDENTIAL PERSONNEL ADOPTED BY RESOLUTION NO. 6055 TO PROVIDE FOR TECHNICAL MODIFICATIONS" ITEM #3 ORDINANCE RE ZONING MAP AMENDMENT ALMA TON (2nd Reading LYT ORDINANCE 3428 entitled "ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALS? :ALTO AMENDING SECTION 18.08.040 OF THE PALO ALTO MUNICIPAL CODE ITHE ZONING MAP) TO CHANGE THE CLASSIFICATION OF PROPERTIES LOCATED ALONG- OR NEAR ALMA BETWEEN LYTTON AND ..HAMILTON BY EXTENDING THE (P) PEDESTRIAN SHOPPING COMBINING DISTRICT AND APPLYING THE DISTRICT'S REGULATIONS IN COMBINATION WITH EXISTING CC (COMMUNITY COMMERCIAL) REGULATIONS TO THESE PROPERTIES' (1st Reading 4/25/83, PASSED 7-0, Eyerly, Renzel absent) ITEM_ #4, ORt}_INANt E RE PARKING LOT t_(2nd Readital ORDINANCE -3429 3429 entitled, 'ORDINANCE -0F . THE -:COUNCIL OF THE ..CITY OF °PALO --ALTO AMENi)IN6 SECTION 18.0.8.040 OF THE PALO ALTO MUNICIPAL CODE (THE ,ZONING, MAP) TO - CHANGE THE CLASSIFICATION OF .PROPERTY KNOWN AS DOWN- TOWN PARKING ASSESSMENT DISTRICT PARKING LOT Q FROM PF:. (PUBLIC' FACILITIES) TO- PC•` (PLANNED ,:COMMUNITY)" (1st Reading 4/25/83, PASSED 6-1,:Levy 'no," Eyerly, Ren-zel absent) MOTION fASSED.-Ainaitialeusly, with Countil.esber Levy - voting- "no," on Item g4,:Ordinance re Parking Lot Q, Cobb and Fazzino absent. 3 2 4 3 5/09/83 • e ITEM #5, EFFECT OF STATE NtNDICAPPED ACCESS REQUIREMENTS (Contin- MOTION: Councilwewber. Klein moved, seconded by Witherspoon, that staff be directed to prepare an adequate and timely test claim for Palo Alto's costs with regard to the mandated costs under the State Handicapped Access regulations for the present year and that staff develop additional documentation showing the relationship between the State regulations and the costs incurred. MOTION, PASSED unanimously, Cobb, Fazlno absent. ITEM 16, PUBLIC HEARING: PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION RE 'P'VTitAT10'W OF THE ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN GROUP FOR A ZONE CHAWit R1 Zoning Administrator Bob Brown commented that Condition 15 "related to the BMR program. Page 3 of the ordinance attached to CMR:266:3 stated that "satisfaction of the BMR program shall be through one of two following alternatives: (a)...(b).,.(c).'.." He suggested that Article (C) be made Condition 5.6, and existing Condition 16 would become Condition 17. He clarified that Article (C) related to the fact Council only was required to review changes to the BMR proposal. Counci1member Witherspoon said she was concerned about the amount of parking required and that the letter from Hare, Brewer and Kelley pointed out that the Channing House garage was yet to be fully occupied. She asked how many spaces were allocated per unit at Channing House in order to make a comparison. Mr. Brown said Channing House contained 254 dwelling units, and 115 parking spaces --strictly for the residential component of the project --and the ratio was one space per 2.2 dwelling units. Webster House would have 37 dwelling units and 20 parking spaces, or one parking space per 1.185 dwelling units, which ratio was more favorable. Cour1cilmember Witherspoon said she was concerned because her parents resided at The Sequoias. The Sequoias had a lot of park- ing, but people there were fairly well-to-do and each had two cars. There was never enough parking and she was concerned that it could be a potential problem with Webster House. However, the tenants were completely diff:;-.rent than those in Lytton Gardens. Mr. Brown said that was true and that the units were more market rate. He clarified that the comparison with Channing House indi- cated the proposal was a better solution. Councilnember Renzel asked when the convalescent hospital on the corner of University and Webster would be open. Director of Planning and Community Environment Ken Schreiber said Lytton Gardens was planning an open house reception within the next couple of weeks and he believed the opening would follow shortly thereafter. Councilmember Renzel asked how many employees were anticipated for the proposed Webster House. Mr. Brown said he believed the applicant indicated 12 employees. would be the maximum number at one time, and that the maximum staffing would be 24 over a 24 -hour period. Councilmember Eyerly said the Planning Commission minutes of February 23, 1983, " indicated that Mr. Kelley volunteered a valet - type parking service if an -overload were created in the futures and he asked for clarification. 3 2 4 4 5/09/83 Hr. Br;uwr said that was suggested by Mr. Kelley, but was not in- cluded in 'the Planning Commission recommendation. Mayor Bechtel declared the public hearing open. Ryland Kelley, a partner with the real estate firm of Hare, Brewer & Kelley, Inc., 305 Lytton Avenue, Palo Alto, represented the applicant, Architectural Design Group, and advised that the number of employees at Webster House could be as many as 12, but not more than five or six were anticipated : to be on the premises at any one time, and a heavy impact was not anticipated from employee parking. The Architectural Design Group was confident . that by providing a far better ratio of parking than other existing. retirement homes, Webster House would experience an even better situation. The present retirement homes existing in areas of pedestrian accessibility which were served well by public transit, such as the proposed location, were without adverse parking impacts. Webster House was willing to condition approvals, should future inexplicable traffic congestion arise, On providing a sys- tem of attendant parking to greatly multiply the efficiency of parking spaces. This usually created about a 50 percent increase in the usability of parking. That condition, coupled with a requirement imposed by the Commission that a van system be operated in conjunction with the facility, should alleviate any problems. The resident community was anticipated to be elderly, with a higher than average age group of 62 and over, and the applicant was confident that those people would rarely if ever have an automobile, and would never have two. Mayor Bechtel asked what income levels were anticipated to qualify for residency in those units. Mr. Kelley responded that the concept was a combination of owner- ship right of residency and fully prepaid health care. It would require a large initial investment, and commensurate requirements for relatively high monthly costs to provide the full service which included the option of food service. The exact dollar for- mulas were not yet formalized, but the occupants would have to be well-to-do in order to qualify, Councilmember Fletcher said she understood from the Planning Com- mission minutes, in the arguments about why more parking was not required, that residents would have access to all Lytton Gardens' recreational, social and educational facilities. Mr. Abler's let- ter addressed to Mr. Brown indicated the development would contain community rooms for parties, entertainment, social activity and recreational' uses including a lap -size swimming pool. :She asked whether those would be open to Lytton Gardens' residents as a reciprocal gesture. Mr. Kelley ,said Webster House and Lytton Gardens were attempting to develop a reciprocal arrangement. He clarified that Webster House could not bind .Lytton Gardens' Board to anything other than what was agreed upon when they spoke out in favor of the project at the Planning Commission, _ but that a close cooperative program was anticipated. Councilmember Renzel asked if the facility would be tax exempt Mr. Kelley said the facility would not be tax exempt. It would be a "not for profit" organization, and would be administered by a board responsible for the - maintenance of the contracts for : life care and life usage, but would be required to pay, taxes. Councilmember genie] asked for clarification that since the facil- ity was intended. to be ijetime care, a nursing facility would be in the building. Mr. Kelley said no nursing ..facllities would be in the - building other _ than to the = extent that such care might' occasionally take place in, a person's residency unit. 1 Councilmember Renzei asked if a nurse would be on duty. Mr. Kelley said a nurse would not be on duty, but there would be a close relationship with the Lytton Gardens nursiny facility, which was riyht next door, if the need arose. The facility was not intended to be an in-house nursing program. Councilmember Menzel asked if the lifetime care fee included fees that would have to be paid for convalescent care. - Mr. Kelley clarified that- the fee included amounts required for convalescent care,. whether it be in ,Lytton Gardens' convalescent facility or others, hospital care, and all medical costs of any kind throuyhout one's life. Councilmember 4tenzel said staff advised there would be -no more than 12 employees on site at any one time nor more than 24 over a 24 -hour, period, and Mr. Kelley's figures represented about half. She asked for clarification. Mr. Kelley responded that the number of employees for Webster House was estimated at 12 total , of which a maximum of five to six would be present on any one shift. He clarified that the figure included maid and food service personnel.' Councilmember Renzei asked if it was expected to have the food prepared off site and delivered. Mr. Kelley responded that the food would be prepared on site, and that there would be 37 units and about 50 people. 11.ounci member Cobb- arrived at 8:0U p.m.) Denny Petrosian, 443 Ventura Avenue, opposed the PC zone change application. She did not like to speak against projects for the elderly, but believed the proposed project was not primarily a project for the elderly, but a luxury housing project. There were many choices for lifetime care available to those elderly people wealthy enouyh to buy one of the proposed units at` Webster House. She questioned whether the public benefit to be gained by the zone chanye '`warranted approval. She believed the proposed project could be bui i t without a PC zone change and accomplish the same objectives with fewer units, perhaps, and somewhat higher prices. She suggested the more appropriate use of a PC zone would be for a. decently -priced mixed -`incom .housing project to ac6.ommodate more than one age generation of the sane family so that `lower income elderly could be close to the Palo Alto Medical Clinic. That would better serve the needs of Palo Alto, and she urged that the PC zone change application be denied. Ken Abler, President of Architectural Design Group, the architects for the Lytton Gardens black, showed color renderings which better clarified the appearance of the project,. Receiving no further requests , from the public to speak, Mayor Bechtel declared the public hearing closed. MUTIUP4 Councilmember Eyerly moved, seconded by Witherspoon, to adopt the Planning Commission recommendation to approve, with con- ditions, the application of Architectural Design Group for a zone change from RM-b :(Nigh Density Multiple Family Residential) to PC (Planned Community) in order to develop a life care residency project for the elderly at 401-419 Webster Street and 602-608 Lytton Avenue with the requirements: ., 1. That project residents be at least 62 years of ages That m sbiittle bus be provided by the applicant for residents; 3 2 4 6 5/09/83 Jr MOTION CONTINUED 3. That project drainage meet specific requirements; 4. That a construction coordination plan be approved prior to issuance of a building permit; and add a further condition, 5. That applicant provide attendant parking. Further that the Council approve the PC zone change based on land use and Comprehensive Plan policy considerations and the follow- ing findings: 1. -The site is so situated, and -the use or uses proposed for the site are of such characteristics, that the application of general districts or combining districts will not provide sufficient flexibility to allow the proposed development in that the basis for the project is to provide housing for the elderly including:lifelong medical care. The increased den - 'will allow smaller units to be constructed of `a size suitable to predominantly single elderly residents and will permit a project of an adequate size to obtain.a group med- ical care package; 2. Development of the site under the provisions of the PC planned community district mill result in public benefits not otherwise attainable by application of the regulations of general districts or combining districts in .that housing for the elderly, including oiedical care, is a public.need con- sidering Palo Alto's sizable elderly population (13.4% of the total population as of- 1980, a 28% increase from 1970 to 1980) ; 3. The use or uses permitted and the site development regula- tions applicable within the district shall .be consistent with the Palo Alto Comprehensive Plan, and shall be compatible with existing and potential uses on adjoining sites or within the general vicinity in that the project will -have minimal traffic or noise impacts on the surrounding neighborhood and is of.a size compatible with the scale of the Lytton Gardens complex; and 4. Further, that the proposed project will not have a detri- mental impact ,on the environment; and approve the following ordinance with the change made by Bob Brown; ORDINANCE -:FOR FIRST .REAL G en.titTed "ORDINANCE. OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALO ALTO -AMENDING SECTION 18.08.040 0F THE PALO ALTO MUNICIPAL CODE (THE ZONING MAP) TO CHANGE THE CLASSIFICATION OF PROPERTY KNOWN AS 401-419 WEBSTER STREET AND 602.608 LYTTON AVENUE FROM Rt4-a TO PC" Counci lmember Fletcher said she was concerned about the loss of the 10 low -cost -:rental units- on the site and that the EIR did not adequately address the situation. She asked whether BMR units or in -lieu funds, were -requited as part of approval. Mr. Schreiber responded- ,that .the BMR agreement.. proposed that either two off -site °BMR units or an in -lieu fee be provided. It was agreed that the first choice was off -site units ' because a way in which to provide on -site :units could not be found due to the health care component of the project. Councilaember Fletcher said it Was .diffiCult. for her 'to approve the environmental assessment because she was dissatisfied about' the way in which it -addressed the loss of -the rental units. 1 TimmimmmommommilmmommEmmomm Counci lmember Menzel said she would oppose the motion because in her opinion the proposal represented a business of housing rich old people. She bet ieved _there was a place. for the proposed hous- iny, .but. that Palo Alto s,sould not create bonuses in its zoning for that type of intense activity particularly on a narrow street like Webster which already had several Iarye projects not fully occupied. The convalescent hospital at the corner of University and Webster could potentially be more intense than anticipated, and the proposed project was.laryer in size and density, had a tremendous . parking variance in a location with virtually no on - street parking already, :would house people who by definition were not employed in Palo Alto, and would employ at least 12 people who. could not be housed in Palo Alto. She believed that through the City's zoning, the project could create a situation with no sig- nificant benefit to Palo Alto. Councilmember Eyerly said his motion included the findings as well as the change in the ordinance rnentioned by Mr. Brown. Reyardiny the attendant and volunteer method of pu'rking me-ntioned by Mr. Kelley, he asked -whether those items 'could be included in the bui ]ding permit requirements. Mr. Schreiber _responded that if the Council wished to include the attendant parking as ,a condition, it was appropriate to be includ- ed within the PC zone and would be an amendment to the ordinance. 1 1 1 Councilrnember Eyerly said he believed the Council was only con- cerned about whether the parking situation was adequately ad- dressed in the proposed project, and since Mr. Kelley had spoken to the issue both at the Planning Commission and Council hearings, he believed it was proper to add as a condition that same type of attendant parking be discussed for application at some future date, in the event congestion was created. Mr. Schreiber said if.the ordinance. passed, staff would include specific wording to cover the attendant parking condition when the ordinance was returned for second reading. The language would be modeled on a. landscape reserve. concept where if a congestion prob- lem occurred, the attendant parking amendment could be triggered. -rONUIT1ON FOR ATTENDAN. PARKING INCORPORATED INTO MAIN MOTION Counci'mnember Eyerly .said it .was easy for those who followed the housing situation in. Palo Atto;to become concerned about theproj- ect nut being for low -.or moderate income persons, but a lot of peopl-e in the City. Were approaching- the elderly bracket and look- ing for facilities in Palo Alto. - Those needs in Palo Alto were not addressed, and Webster House offered a living situation and health care for those elderly, people in Palo Alto who could afford to pa" the prices. - It was, easy to say that other accommodations were available, but. a Channing' House,. appl icant could be on'a wait- i ny list for two :yea_rs or more. He 'believed the need existed in Palo Alto and urged that Council support; the motion. E:ounci imember Cobb., clarified that if . the..requi red -.parking :for, the six staff members --._and normal visitor parking were subtracted, less than 20 spaces would remain: for the total development-, or less tnan 1i3: spaces: for: the -total number_: of residents. Given the type of. residency°-'conteniplated he asked whether „there were enough spaces for the residents who still 'had cars. Mr. Kelley. said he did not expect that all employees would drive automobiles because . the appl scant was hot obligated to provide for their automobile_ parking. Accessibility and convenience to transportation was a key factor in the location, and the ,funda- mental principle was based on the actual experience of every other similar retirement_ _.co *unity surveyed.`- Webster House com- pared with other urban locations, every' other., 'Pala. Alto facility, 1 1 1 and ail other Bay Area faci I ities, and its parking ratio per unit was better than any of them. None, of the other facilities encoun- tered parking problems, which fact was relied: upon and was -the basis of staff's recommendation and the Planning Commission's unanimous approval Councilrnember Henze] said she was still concerned that eldery people -at Chann?ng House often parked along ethe streets because they preferred not to go in a parking structure. The surface parking at ' Channi ny House was often ful 1 , and .oven though Webster House was smaller and its ratio was greater-, the potential for disaster was greater in the proposed neighborhood. Lytton Gar- dens was built with less parking because the statistics indicated it was unlikely that the people who lived in Lytton Gardens wo ld be able to afford to drive. She pointed out that her parents were both over 62 years old and both drove, as did ,her 89 -year -Old neighbor. Elderly pe.ople_continued to drive, eancLshe did not believe the small project could have the same abi l ity to absorb a parking differential if one occurred. Webster Street could not absorb, the parking, Byron Street could not, and she did not be- lieve parking was permitted on Lytton. She did not want to see the success of Lytton Gardens marred by an intense project with the potential to cause tremendous -problems in the vicinity. There, was a potential for 74 people,, possibly with cars,,to live in 'the` housing -development, and the Council should not add to the parking problem by increasing the zoning capacity in that area. Mr.- Abler said fears had been expressed by Cocrncilmembers since 19b9 reyarding parking on that block and occasionally parking had been increased at the request of the .Council for projects like Lytton Gardens I and II. Further, Mr Horace Neely, Administra- tive Director for Community Housing, Inc., stated at the Planning Commission hearings that empty -spaces existed in those garages. the Counci lmeinbers' fears appeared to be based on gut feelings and not technical knowl edge. Nevertheless, parking was always in- creased and parking .problems were yet .to arise --and were not expected --at the Lytton Gardens Convalescent Care facility. Counci imernber Fletcher said basically she favored the project, but neither the two BMR units, nor their equivalents, would take the place of the ten rentals that would be ,last. -She -would hot parti- cipate An the -voting. .MUTIUW PASSE by a _ vote of 6-1-1,. Renzei voting 'no,' Fletcher "abstained,' Fazzino absent. ITEM #7 PUBLIC HEARING: PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION RE A U N NG U OR •i i _ E MIND WAY Continued from 4 1$3 _83 CMR: 285: 3 Mayor Bechtel declare! the public hearing open..` Augustin Rosas Maxemin represented ARMAX =Corporation, and. sad it' w..as ,hard for him to. present` an alternative to sat i sfy- the ` Council and make a feasible project. He -was more confused now than when he., started about what the Council. desired _to° achieve' by.. providing housing in Palo Alto. An article headline which appeared' i.n the .San, Jose Mercury on August 17, 1t82, stated. "C_ ouncil ralf0Ws more hobsing units i.r: Palo Alto."' Comments in:the article said, "ref hopi.nq. to attract le -s5 expensive housing . to .:Palo Al tp, the - -Gi ty. Council voted Monday night to allow_ devel-ope s to -ba?d .condomin- sums... 1,'2U0 square feet units are now priced beyond the =-reach of -. the - middle income households.... The article, also .stated that . Coun.ci lmember Levy -_-believed the ncl Cou i. Was mislea`dthg 'themselves, the evel-opers.-',and -the community, beca.u.s.e i n< order - #or middl e income housing projects .to oe :pr.ofitable for de.velopers-, density would _ have. to be increased -b a 40: percent to_,104 _ percent. - 'rl<nother 1 comment was that the change was needed because Palo Alto had done nothing for its middle income sector in terms of housing; Palo Alto had about three times more jobs .than residents and had tried for several years to boost housing construction, particularly for middle income households. lie be.l ieved he- had tried to provide for and follow the Council guidelines, but the Council did not seem to know its objectives in meeting •the needs of Palo Alto. Last year, he had worked, hard with the Palo Alto _Housing Corporation to try to design a project with a more creative approach to development. In January, the Planning Commission unanimously approved a project where 30 percent of the units were affordable or BMR. The devel- oper followed the guidelines provided by. the Palo Alto Housing Corporation for affordable units and was required to go back before the Architectural Review Board, where changes were made and compromises began. Now he was completely confused. It was not easy to give a _green light to a proposition the Council could not understand and, once it was understood, to hare the Council change its mind and decide that affordability -and more housing were not that big a priority, that density was new more important because the neighbors had a lot to say. They went from side to side, and when they presented an alternative to the Council three weeks ago, it was deemed to be incorrect, but he d.id not know why. The devel oper worked on the alternatives, met with the neighbors, and tried to present a project that would keep the units affordable and retain the possibility of financing. The project made a 1dU-degree turn toward density, but -affordability might be another way to .go. He believed the proposed Stanford Plaza on El Camino Way, its design marketability and concept, would enhance Palo Alto. If Council approved the ,project .tonight in concept, it would provide tne opportunity for him to proceed with potential bank financing and with other approvals. -ie had discussed with Mayor Bechtel the elternative of keeping 65 units --9 BMR, zero affordable, 1a;000 square feet of commercial with 2,100 square feet for retail. He understood the proposal was not within the guidelines of Program 7-A, but commented that it was within the yui del ices of a company which wanted to work toward the Council 's objectives. Councilmember Renzel asked for clarification that the total of nonresidential square footage was 15,000, of which 2,100 square feet, would be retail. . Mr. Maxemin clarified that 15,000 square feet was the total commercial and retail, and that 2,100 square feet. would be for retai I. There would be nine, BIR units, which he requested be priced on the upper limits of BMR. Counci member Fletcher asked whether the third floor was deleted from one or more of the commercial buildings. Mr. Maxemin responded that the third floor on the office building would be taken off. Counci'member Cobb asked how many BMR units would_ be obtained if a project were Dui it within existing zoning.. He was concerned about the incremental number of BMR units by going from existing zoning to ter::. Mir. _ Schreiber said in terms of BMR, the answer was two-part. Existing zoning would allow 54 maximum units on the s fte, but the developer of another approved; development plan for the site could literally :apply:. for : a building permit tomorrow; That project contained 4B market units and six BM 's,. in addition to 12,500 square feet of office with, a =:little retail. One part of the answer would say six BMR's were permitted. If a developer we i ked into the office and did- not want to exercise that approval and negotiations started regarding a 54 -unit development, those nego- tiations may or may not yield five or six BMR's. -he made that point because 'recent experience indicated that, in multiple -story developments with underground parking and elevators where the cost 3 2 5 0 5/09/83_ per square foot was way beyond the BMR range for :the actual costs of construction and financing; there were any number of precedents for taking less than 10 percent BMR units. Councilmember Cobb clarified that _the net gain in BMR's was oo- the order of three or four units maximum in accordance with the dif- ferential provided by the proposal. Mr. Schreiber said it was a gain of three over the previously approved plans. Councilmember Cobb asked how many jobs the potential, square foot - aye of commercial office could bring in compared to the number -of living units, and Whether a parking multiplex --extra parking for the residential units --had to serve a commercial purpose during the day. Mr. Schreiber said Mr. Brown calculated the number of jobs on the 15,000 square foot figure, and in terms of parking, undoubtedly some of the parking would have to be double used. He did not believe that would be a major problem in a development the size of the one proposed, because the _City could regulate the parking for the units as well as the mixed use parking. - Mr. Brown said the revised proposal included 12,900 square feet of office space and 2,100 square feet of retail space and —the poten- tial for 10-73 jobs. Councilmember Levy asked what the permitted maximum practical Dui Id out potential was for the site under present zoning. He understood it was 54 units of residential and he asked how much office and retail space. Mr. Brown responded that the maximum development of the site would probably not include the full complement of residential units and would be approximately 49,500 square feet of commercial develop- ment and approximately 20 residential units. Ur. Herbert Leman, 464 W. Charleston Road, President of the Charleston Meadows Neighborhood Association, said the Associa- tion's board of directors met recently to discuss the proposed plans and believed the idea of having 65 units, nine of which would be #Mk, was a good one and that the larger number of BMR units --rather than affordable units --would supply more housing for the City. The applicant's willingness to reduce the density of commercial development was applauded, because the main problem with a development was always believed to be the amount of commercial development. However, the Association was concerned that more jobs than housing would be produced and believed that a somewhat reduced commercial development- something on the .order of 12,800 square feet --would be better. The amount of - retail was important because the site was originally a neighborhood commercial zone, and since the City's study; on,_the neighborhood commercial zone was not yet complete, it would be valuable to retain as much neighbor- hood commercial as possible; A 3a percent guaranteed retail would definitely maintain the neighborhood corumerci_al e character to -a greater extent., Further, the'20 percent .parking reduction, which was very experimental, could cause a -lot of problems in the neigh- borhood.. The Association suggested going back to a 13 percent reduction as indicated in the original -plan because it would make. the experiment a little .moreconservative with a greater chance of success. It would also improve the chances of .the retail develop= pent being, successful and make the housing more desirable. Since the aJO.unt ` )f conunerc is i development would be reduced, it should be easier- to. meet stricter parking' requirements than:, would have been possible with a much .1ar9er commercial, development. 1 Bob Moss, 4010.Urme, said when the proposal was before the Council last rnontb, the applicant proposed and lobbied for Policy 7-A of the Comprehensive Plan and created his own___ probi erns. If the applicant could not live with Program 7-A, something was wrong because the staff report noted that the other proposal contained in the packet did not -meet the criteria for Program 7-A. The delays caused in reviewing and approving the project were caused primarily by the applicant. Two differing views of one Elevation were presented by the applicant at the ARB meeting, and no view Was presented of another elevation. The plans and elevations did not agree and, as was pointed out at that time, the -plane and elevations were for a PC, where the zone must be correct and must be consistent. - Regarding whether project approval had taken an excessive amount of time, it had been four months from the time . the project first appeared -before the Planning Commission until the. CouncilCounciF saw it - last month and asked for a •continuance. -By comparison, the rezoning of the Century Liquor Stores to PC, ,which included an existing. structure and a relatively minor modificatiop. as compared to a new project, also took four months. Delay. was cau - sed because the applicants _ had note completed their homework before making the application. The staff, Planning 'Commission and Alai made every effort to move' the project forward at_ what he. considered to be express train speed. At one- point the ARB :cone sidered having a special meeting on a Tuesday morning, after a failed Thursday morning meeting when the plans were incorrect, in hopes of getting the plans approved in time to -go to the Planning Commission the following day. That turned out to be illegal because of public notice requirements. He. said. he met with the applicants and tried to explain soMe of the problems with the project and its lack of consistency with the Comprehensive Plan, but failed because the applicant was still uncertain about the requirements for meeting the City's goals and objectives as stated in its documents. .if the proposed project were submitted under the City's new demolition ordinance, it would not be allowed because of its failure to meet the requirements for replacing existing housing. Without actually seeing the proposal, he could not say whether he was in favor or opposed, but pointed out that Iegelly the Council could not adopt the proposal. The only issue before the Council was the plans for a PC zone which were reviewed and formally approved by the ARB and Planning Commission. It was impossible to approve a PC zone without actually having documents, and he did not see what other options .the Council had. Regarding whether offices were really that valid an economic use, Ken Rosen, Chairman of the Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, was quoted in the "Financial Section" of the May 9, 1983, San Jose Mercu!y as saying in a national estate finance conference that -'despite a surge in_real estate, hotels, office buildings and condominiums looked like lousy investments practically. eve,rywhere," and ended --by saying he anticipated a national 'offi_ce-, vacancy rate to exceed the present 10.8 percent. e For comparison, the_ office vacancy rate in Palo Alto, according to the Mercury, was 20 percent in March, up`' from 18 percent Ap February. He asked- that the Council adhere to its Comprehensive..Plen-and zoning ordinance and reject the project as presently..proposed. if the applicant was willing to return with a revised plan --because it got'better each time- -he would be willing, to consider.it at that point. Sam-Sparck, 4099 :aguna, - spoke . as Chairman of the` Barron Park Association, and- said the. Ass.ociatian's board was= disappointed at the new apphcat•ion., because , changes were not, found. to be surstan- tial and its ---basic character; was un►Changed. 0n April 22, 1983, the Board -had wry tten --a . i titter. to the Counci 1 stati ng its obj ec. tions. based on the e1itaination..of the CM Zoning and the neighbor flood ,ameniEties. the Toning provided. The applicant was nonrespon- sive to-commun.i'ty - input and stated that - he :was .confused. The appi Kant should .not: be confused; because neighborhood. association rembe,rs Met with him and informed him of --the. object.ives..and -objet tionsand ghat characteristics: would make- -for an.,::acceptable plan. The present development still did'not comply with the Comprehen- 3 2 5 2. ,5/09/83 sive•Plan. He found the statement in. the staff report that non- -compliance with 7-A could be ignored, because PC zoning did not require -such compliance, astounding. Following that logic, any amount of noncompliance with any particular zone -could be ignored if tne zoniny were changed to PC. He respectfully suggested that such a recommendation threw zoning ordinances and their protec- tions into the trash C ra , He asked the Council to pay attention to and defend its Comprehensive Plan, and deny the application, and to instruct the appl-scant to mitigate the density on the site, be compliant with the requirements Of the CN zone, and especially provide adequate off-street parking. He said he would-be happy to see a better plan and provide judgment on i t . Council -member Renzel sald Mr. Sparck's remarks appeared to, address the proposed plan contained in the packet, and Council was pre- sented with considerable reduction in office space as well as a change in the nature of the affordable units to BMR tonight by'the applicant. She asked whether Mr. Sparck's comnients took those facts into consideration. Mr. .Sparck said his comments related to. the fact that the plan still required a pC zoning rather: than CM, and he considered the. less of CN zoning, particularly in light of the uncompleted study., to oe.objectionable. . Tim Berry, 4217 McKellar Lane, Apt. 7, said. tonight represented the second time he had spoken to. the Council on the subject. - He totally supported Stanford Plaza because he saw it as his only way to live in the community. The alternatives included the possi- bility to build another less appealing structure which could contribute to the so-called traffic problem that .would be caused by any residential construction. He .ventured that the costs of new condominiums would be the same if not more than the ones proposed to the Council A commercial structure could also be constructed and prove to be totally unappealing for the neighbor- hood. He believed the proposed project was aesthetically pleasing and said he walked throuyh the site. It was incredibly rue down and invited vagrants and vandals. The Stanford Plaza proposal could not only_; enhance the appearance of the area, but should increase the value of the surrounding properAiese He lived two blocks from the proposed site end welcomed the chance to stay in the neighborhood. At this point, the Council's wisdom would determine whether to approve the construction so that many people could. have a chance to stay in Palo Alto. Al ice. Wi l l iams, 454 Tennessee Lane, said regarding Councilmember Levy`s question about the maximum development potential on the site, and as stated by Mr. Brown, it was possible to build 49,590 square feet of commercial space with an additional 20 residential units. However, the .expense required to provide necessary parking for that tarok 4: -commercial area was not addressed. That issue eras discussed at one of the ARB meetings and it was agreed that the cost of providing a multi -level " underground parking garage would be unworkable and uneconomical on the site.. , The Charleston Meadows residents did not believe that issue had to be dealt with; the issue was the project presented by Mr. Maxemint In response to Mr. Maze rain's remarks, it was -.true the developer met with the residents to discuss the matter,, but he met with Charleston Meadows after his changes, were made. In response to :the- appli- cant's confusion she had attended all the Planning Commission and Altid meetings --and believed the tnstructiOnseWere spelled out quite well and that it was Mr, Maxemin's lack OV response to the re- quests of the Planning Commission,. and ARO which slowed down the entire process.- For "examp.le, -when the ARO sen:t-.the' proposal back Ito -.the ,PlamAing Commission -With its general approval , it was done with a strong recommendation .that- the :entire ground floor .of . tte ---two commercial buildings be devoted to seta T- and neighborhood services. The developer did not respond- to.` those recommendations when he presented his, plans to the planning Commission. further,, 3 2 53 5/09/83 .: 1 1 1 after the last City Council meeting, the Charleston Meadows Asso- ciation were told -that the.Piannlog staff instructed the developer to remove 13,000 square 'feet from the development in order to make it more acceptable, which was not clone, She believed the fore- yoiny showed twa examples of the applicant' -s failure to respond to the clear remarks made along the way. Regarding the proposal made tonight, she believed the response on behalf -of the neighbors reyardiny the. IIMR units he was willing to provide was extremely positive. Everyone was happy that rnore-BMR units would be avail- able. in Palo Alto, and she was proud of her fellow neighbors th terms of their response. The neighbors _wanted 30 percent guaran- teed retail space in the commercial component of the project, as was included in th_e Cox project.. The developer had not demonstra- ted that retail would not work, and to the best:of her knowledge, no independent market study had been made of the project. If.such a study existed, she .asked to see it- as proof .of the developer`s information. The developer had demonstrated only_ that it was easier to get a .bank loan for office space, but had not demon strated that retail would not work. With regard to parking, the neighbors requested,a 13 percent reduction in.,parking, not the 20 percent currently being considered. Mr. Cox was allowed that amount and ARMAX Should be given the .Same "amount. As pointed out by Counci lmerber Witherspoon during the discussion Of the previous Webster Street project, owners. -of market rate units were going to own two cars. There were 54 market rate units proposed for the project, and parking needs were not met in the existing plans. Mark Chandler, 1333 Wi 1 i lams Street, was active with several com- munity organizations concerned, with issues of housing and commu- nity environment,'but spoke on his own behalf. No issue was more important to Palo Alto than limiting the growth of jobs iri the community. More jobs added': traffic, changed the nature of the retail areas, and pushed housing prices out of reach of families. Ultimately, the local authority over important -laid use decisions, including open space, could be threatened. . Job growth was a difficult issue because it generally affected ev.er•yone indirectly and individuals were not always as mobilized as they might be even if the cumulative impact was great. As a result, it was difficult to' develop the community ° involvement to change overall zoning patterns to substantially reduce overall job growth, and such chances in zoning were not made. Until ethAt. time, the private sector and the proposed project represented substantially --by a factor of two to three --fewer jobs. and commercial growth than could occur under present -zoning,_ The neighbors' concerns were understandable and -he realized the Council worked hard to encour age a satisfactory resolution of the disagreements. The neighbor=s were instrumental in reducing the commercial component of the project which was good. He hoped _the Council would permit contin- ued exploration of the proposal- -so the opportunity would not be totally lost to substantially limit job development on the parcel from what current zoning permitted. Brian Cilker, 1656 Goldfinch Way, Sunnyvale, said he was from Sunnyvale, but was born in Palo Alto and lived in Sunnyvale _be- cause the rents were more affordable. He saw the project as a way in which to mare Pain Alto more Affordable for younger people. The project only represented ane increase of 11 units over what current zoning called for, and he did ._not believe that: -would hurt anyone in terms of increased traffic. A building like City. Hall was built on considerably higher density ewith an eye to _the future, and the'praposea project also -looked with an eye to --the future When land values would be even: higher. He believed thee. inclusion of some commercial development- with the residential- was a good way to reduce-- the overall cost of the project, - using the commercial to help -subsidize pr'offset .the cost of the residen- tial. That phi iosphy was .seen_ in_ Mountain View inn the Two `Worlds projects, wliicn,'worked well. The 'proposed - project; and ones like i_t wouta- do a,_yrea_t deal, towards ai lowingyo.ung people to get into the cornnluni ty _ Carlos A. Santacruz, .2553 Emerson .Street,- said he liked the proj- ect aesthetically, and as an- independent investment Advisor, he cherished the opportunity to work close to home in a small commer- cial area. He had two boys and believed the new proposal was more conducive to children, which was not often seen in Palo Alto. Millie Davis, 344 Tennessee Lane, believed it was important to reduce or eliminate the office. space in the project and was glad the developer had proceeded along those lines. She said i..f too many jobs were created by the project, the housing units to be provided would be cancelled out and the result would be that no .net housing units were provided at any price. She was glad to see additional retail space added, but was concerned that the -devel- oper wanted to reserve the right to convert the retail into office space if the retail areas could not be rented, because that might cause ttie entire commercial area to end up with high job -creating land use offices. Job intensification could also' increase the number of employees, which would also result in no net housing beiny provided. She believed the proposal reflected the need to finish the neighborhood commercial zone study as soon as --possible. She recoynized tnat staff had many other things to work on, but suyyested that the neighborhoods zoned neighborhood commercial --- Barron Park, Ventura, Charleston Meadows and ,Midtown --were inter- ested in the subject and would help in any way to bring the study to completion in order for the regulations of a neighborhood com- mercial zone to be determined as soon as possible. Douglas Ross, 2315 Ramona Street, said .he had a similar project called "The Redwoods," and although he was spared tonight's ordeal by the convenience of the zoning ordinance, people focused on a previously approved project and not the proposed commercial proj- ect which could be built out considerably. He did not believe a second layer of parking would cause the project to stop, and pointed out that the same was done on his project and others as well. The alternative was viable, and it was not realistic to say that no one could build commercial of 49,500 square feet. The proposes project was beautifully -designed and more or less a blend of tne previously approved project and what could happen. Regard - ley affordability and density,. his project was an unproven entity, but its prices were similar. He did not believe it was realistic, whether neighbors lived in their homes for five or -30 30 years, to say that $170,000 homes 'were not affordable in: _Palo Alto. A lot of people were •willing to 1i -.e in Palo Alto for that price, in a smaller Unit. Density was directly related to affordability, and if any more density or commercial were cut, the project would not be Viable. Virginia C. Smith, 390 Maclane Street, in the Ventura neighbor- hood, believed they were in the same place as in 1969. The Coune cil had impacted her neighborhood with. traffic, but probably never gent 'to the corner of El Camino Way: and Meadow. . Weekends and mornings saw nothing but traffic, and the other end at El Camino Way and El Camino Real also had a' poor situation even with the traffic light. -She asked where the new traffic woila be dumped, and said it was too bad it could not be put back in -Crescent Park. They real ized :-the present project was delayed and extended,-: but they now faced a proposal to- change a Comprehensive Plan designs ton from single family residential to multiple family, residen- tial., She was bitter -because low income and; moderate income people needed housing, but the people were tied to cars -and the cars were killing them. .Kirk-- Hansom,, 18b University Avenue, Los Al to.f, was a faculty mem- ber of the —Stanford _Business Schr_ol and worked with ARMAX, the developer of the project. The developer began trying t:o achieve objectfves-- which the Council and other members of the'-- 1 1 1 couthiUni_ty thought were important and encouraged more housing for the City, .affordable housing, mixed use facilities through the P,C zone, and the creation of housing near El -Camino where_ individuals could take advantage of public transit, thereby reducing the need for automobiles. Specfic instructions were -given to the.applicant at ttie last meeting, which he believed. directly responded .to the initial proposal. The removal of the third floor on one of the two office buildings reduced the density by more ,than 3,.000 square feet. The addition of more retail, and an offer to work with the community to try to identify high priority 4etail facilities, clearly indicated the developer's eagerness to de as much as possible to respond to the--Clty'.s concerns. The- proposal, as written, added positive housing of approximately 97.5 worker/ residents to the jobs/housing imbalance and created about 92 jobs. The reduction in commercial space, as discussed tonight in the oral proposal made -by the developer, made that figure more favor- able and created approximately 73 jobs and housing -for approx- imately 9.1 worker/r°esidents. The developer, in discussions with the City recently, was eager to find the combination which would meet the lriority needs of the Council and community. He offered td build a combination of below-market,.rate and affordable units, or all below -market -rate units as. the subsidized portion of the project_.. Jverall,- the housing represented smaller, more afford- ab l e units (even the market rate units) and attempted to achieve those objectives the Council believed were important. The price of almost'all the market rate units would be under $200,000, which was an important objective; and, as discussed, the new proposal created an even more favorable housing to jobs balance. The building site density and square footage came close to the maximum allowed under existing zoning, although not in total conformance, lie believed there was no comparison between the requested -variance and the objectives to be achieved through more below -market -rate units and. the creation of affordable market rate and BMR housing throughout the entire project. The total square footage of the project was seven or eight percent over what would be permitted by existing zoning. The existing guideline for site coverage was .45. Site coverage for the proposed project was .46, and traffic and parking impacts were minimized through a good design. The aeveloper requested approval in concept of the revised, plan as presented orally, and he opined that it behooved everyone to encourage the -kind of creativity and goodwill shown by the devel- oper in reworking the proposed project in an attempt to meet the objectives of the City.` If Council -provided approval in concept, the developer could attempt to secure funding, which was uncertain since the commercial, which was to be used to cross -subsidize -much of -the BMR. housing, .had been cut. He urged Council to provide the developer with conceptual approval to_see if the project could be financed. The proposed project was close to existing guidelines and zoning and achieved a number of other objectives which every- one considered to be important.. Receiving no further requests from the public to speak, Mayor Bechtel declared the public hearing closed. Mayor -:Bechtel said the applicant and his spokesperson asked that the project be approved in concept Since -the Council did not have'actual plans and documentation, she would like to know what approval process would be used if the project were granted ap- proval in concept. -Mr. Schreiber responded' that the most appropriate alternative would be to adopt' -an ordinance for first reading tonight, and have the revised plans an ' material returned to Council for the .second read and 'material That would_provide the app}icant :0th a clear picture of the Council's desire with-- regard to the basic components- of the project and allow the designs: to be worked out. Another alternative would be to provide some sort of conceptual approval and hold over the first reading of the ordinance for a couple of weeks to allow the plane to come, back prior to first reading. Anthony -Bennetti, Senior Assistant City Attorney, -said either alternative was appropriate. Mayor Bechtel said an earlier -speaker indicated that the proposal would not be in compliance with the new demolition -ordinance, and she asked staff to comment. Mr, brown said when the developer took over the project, the unit -s had already been demolished by the previous owner of the property to make way for the approved Cox project. If those units still existed, the project would be close to the Planning Commission's concept of replacement. Approximately 30 units were demolished, the Planning "Commission recommended a 1UU percent gain, and any- thiny over that would constitute sufficient replacement. The proposed project anticipated more than 60 units --approximately b5 ---and would probably comply with the new demolition ordinance. Mayer Bechtel said accurdlny to the staff report, the revised prej ect created a total floor area of 88,192 square feet, while the existing zoning allowed approximately 78,000. With the 5,000 square foot reduction, there was a difference of approximately 4,000 square feet. Mr. Brown said that was approximately correct. They might achieve a floor area reduction down to a .1,500 square foot difference between existing zoning and the possibilities if some of the "affordable" units" were reduced in size commensurate with the proposed BMR's. Mayor Bechtel asked how many parking spaces were to be provided and how many were to be shared. Further, a speaker was concerned about a notice regarding a Comprehensive Plan revision from R-1 to multiple family, and she asked about that situation. Chief Planning Official Bruce Freeland said the Comprehensive Plan revisipe was an upcoming matter before the Planning Commission on May 18-, 1983. The location was the property known as "The Cat- tery," near the intersection of E1 Camino Way and El Camino Real. The .consideration was privately requested and the Commission had not yet taken any action. 1t' eras related to the proposed project only because it was in the same -geographic area, which he believed was the point of the speaker. Mr. Brown said regarding parking, the proposal contemplated a total of 168 spaces which included the revised plans contained in the Council's packet. He did not. have the exact splits, but said that when the project consisted of 174 spaces, 74 spaces were assigrned to the residential component, 60 spaces were assigned to the commercial component, and 37 were shared-. ° The new ratio .would be approximately the same. Add.itional-comments were made- regard-i ng the percentage reduction, and a request. _for 4.--20i percent reduction in the project -was received: by Council in their -.packets. Quick calculations of the revisions as proposed by the applicant indicated a 13 percent reduction would not_ be difficult to achieve, and parking would be significantly reduced because of the loss Of commercial office spate. Mr. Schreiber said the applicant's modificiation to the project, did not intricate any changes.", to parking.- He asked the applicant to clarify his :intent with regard to the revised commercial space, and whether_ the -parking would be �;-reduced or -if i t would be the same as --.proposed last:week'. i 1 Mr. Maxemin said if the same amount of space had to be dug for parking, the cost of the project would be further increased. Una - less the point was vital, he suggested it be:kept at 20 percent. Councilmember Levy thanked Mayor Bechtel for her questions of clarification. He believed the Council was in a position to dis- cuss a concept and not a specific PC plan. MOTION: Councilmember Levy moved, seconded by Witherspoon, ap- proval in concept of a PC'zone change to include 65 total units of which nine would be 6NR, and 15,000 square feet of commercial space of which 30 percent or 4,500 square feet would be for retail use. The reduction in parking would be 20 percent because of shared parking use. Councilmember Renzel asked for clarification that "30 percent re- tail" meant 30 percent of the commercial space would be restricted to retail. Councilmember Levy said that was correct. He commended the devel- oper for moving in the direction of additional BIIR units, but was concerned about the so-called affordable units, because he calcu- lated that those units would only be affordable to individuals in the upper 30 percent income bracket in Palo Alto. That price range would not be a positive benefit to. the City, but below - market -rate units werea plus, and he applauded that there would be nine i n the development. He believed the City would be better served by a higher component of retail use as requested 'by the neighbors and that the 30 percent retail component should be required. Councilmember Witherspoon said she believed the proposed project was potentially one of the best in Palo Alto and understood the neighbors' concern. The site was difficult and the developer had come a long way to at -tempt to meet those concerns. He had devel- oped a creative and beautifully designed project, if it proceeded along the same lines as the concept presented last week. She was concerned that marketability was one of the problems with requir- ing retail space, and having been in the retail game, she realized the store owners were dependent upon low rents to make or break it. Therefore., store owners would shop in: and around Palo Alto to get a break in rent, Currently, retail space was not economically viable and she hated to tie the project to it, However, according to staff's figures, retail traffic was four times that generated by office use, and those neighbors concerned about traffic created a. dichotomy by asking for retail. space. .She felt less strong about ` the retail, but believed 30 percent was a good target if it could be achieved, Councilmember Klein asked if the motion intended to restrict the total floor area. Councilmember Levy said no, because he believed that would be dis- cussed in the PC ordinance and would be in line with the actual plans. Councilmember Klein said he assumed there would be a reduction in the total floor area. He did not want to restrict, the floor area now, but remained concerned because it exceeded current applicable zoning by a considerable amount. Councilmember Renzel - said she was concerned about the 20 percent reduction die to shared parking. She realized the same fi 5ur`e was used in other projects, but was not awarethat any of those proj- ects were fully on line and was concerned that the City had no experience with how it worked. For retail to be truly sucCesslui, parking must be available 1 AMENDMENT: Councilmember Renzel moved to limit the shared park- ing reduction to 13 percent rather than 20 percent. AMENDMENT FAILED for lack of second. Councilmember Renzel was pleased with the changes presented by the developer which somewhat allayed her concerns about the substan- tial commercial space differential between the previously approved and the proposed project. She was delighted to see BMR units rather than affordable units because they addressed' a more serious housing' need in the community. She recognized the movement on the part of the developer and that one of the biggest problems was the established zoning, and :that Council should move quickly to deter- mine whether the City's zoning was appropriate. She was sorry there was no second to her amendment and hoped it was not regret- ted. She would support the concept. Councilmember Cobb was not comfortable with a process that sup- ported something in concept with such specific numbers. The developer should be complimented for the excellent design and the movement in the right direction, but when the Council approved something in concept with such specific numbers, a reasonable commitment was being made to move ahead. He believed 'the Council needed to go through the process again to make sure about the impacts. He reiterated that the difference in BMR units, if the City did nothing and if it went with a PC, was approximately three. He was still skeptical about the issue of shared parking. As pointed out by Councilmember Renzel, similar projects were going on line, but none had yet, and its efficiency was still unknown. If the retail worked, he believed it was unrealistic to think parking would change in nature at 5:00 p.m. from commercial to personal, because retail parking uses would go on into the evening. He did not believe all of the neighborhood problems had been addressed and did not know whether they were by the motion. Concept approval of the project with such specific numbers, in effect, told the developer that the City would go ahead except for some minor details, and he was not comfortable with the motion in that form. Councilmember Fletcher said she was far less concerned about the parking situation because the reduction in the commercial and office use would result in less employees per square foot in the retail. The customers of retail establishments did not park all day, and the bigger turnover in parking provided less need for all day parking. She had faith that the shared parking concept would work. Further, few projects had 10 -minute bus service practically in front of the door. El Camino Real had the best and most exten- sive bus service in the County, which ran from Menlo Park to San Jose and hooked up with almost every other bus line irk the County. It had the best fare box return of all bus lines and showed a hefty profit which helped to subsidize the rest of the lines. Many families and employees would take advantage of the bus ser- vice, thereby avoiding the necessity of on -site cars or tiro-ca'r ownership. She shared the concerns of Councilmember Cobb that the motion only addressedthe project in < concept, whereas a more or less specific proposal was made by the applicant tonight setting out square footage and how it would be divided. She eereferred to approve the ordinance for first reading with the instructions that the ordinance for second:reading spell out the revised concepts in detail. That would expedite the procedure, and since the Council's agendas were very full for the next few weeks, it might be to the Council's' advantage to: see the project one 'less She applauded the developer for his ef forts in cooperating with the City and reducing the impacts of the project on the neighbor- hood. Mayor Bechtel clarified that Councilmember F letcher's proposal essentially: agreed _ with-- Councilmemoer Levy's, except that the project. would only be .discussed at one more Coun-CH meeting be- cause the ordinance would be approved tonight by the Council and would contain Instructions for staff to amend the plans and Ordi- nance and_return it for second reading_ in the appropriate form. 1 1 Counci lsnember Levy said he was. not comfortable with approving the Ordinance for first reading because concept approval was so dif- ferent from the proposed ordinance. He' believed the Council should approve the concept tonight, and not approve -an ordinance until one was received which reflected the approved concept. Mayor Bechtel pointed out that page 1 of a new ordinance would essentially be identical to the proposed ordinance, and that page 2 would plug in the relevant change of figures, delete the section on "affordable" units, change the figure on the number of BMR units, and the square tootages and prices of the units would have to be worked out 5y staff. She could go either way, and asked staff to comment. -Mr. Schreiber indicated staff would be comfortable with .either approach. Councilmenber Witherspoon said she was comfortable with either approach. Counci lmesaber Eyerly 'said he wanted to preclude ,the necessity . for a third ;meeting, and believed a motion such as Councilmerber F 1 etcher proposed, to approve the PC for first. reading with the- chanyes rentioned tonight, including the findings:and conditions mentioned by staff in CMR:2i35:3, would take care of the scatter. SUBSTITUTE MOTION: Councilmember Eyerly moved,. seconded by Fletcher, approval of the ordinance for first reading, and that Council approve a PC zone to include 55 total units, 9 PAIR units (prices to be determined) and zero (0) affordable units, to in- clude 15,000 square feet of commercial space of which 30% (4,500 square feet) to be retail, and reduction in , park,ing could be 20% because of shared parking. uses, with- the following findings and conditions: Findings 1. The site is so situated, a►id the use or uses proposed for the site are of such characteristics, that the application. of gen- eral districts or combining districts will not provide suffi- cient flexibility to allow the proposed development in that the ,basis for the proposed project is to provide more dwelling units than would otherwise be permitted under the existing zoning, the purpose being to provide the additional units at prices affordable to middle income households; 2. Development of the site under the provisions of the PC planned, community district will result in publiC benefits not other- wise attainable by application of the regulations o4;. general districts or combining districts in that an increase in resi- dential density, floor area ratio and site coverage permit development of residential units affordable to middle income families which are otherwise limited in pwrckasing housing in Palo Altos 1 3. The use or uses permitted and the site development . regulations appl itable within the district_, shat 1 be. consistent with the Palo Alto Comprehensive Plan, and shall be compatible with existing and -potential uses on edJoinikg sites -`or within-, the general vicinity in that- : the commercial office uses are con- fined to the El Casino Way frontage or are adjacent to other MOTION CONTINUED commercial uses and are buffered from adjacent residential uses to the rear of the site by the residential_ portion of the project. The residential buildings adjacent to the existing apartment building and .single family rn!idences are suffi- ciently set back, designed and landscaped to have minimal adverse impacts; 4. The proposed rezoning will not have significant adverse pacts on the physical environment. Conditions 1. Uses shall be limited as follows: 65 residential dwelling units and a maximum total of 15,000 square feet (gross) of commercial space to be occupied by medical, professional or general business offices, retail services, personal services or eating and drinking services. A minimum of 4500 square feet shall be occupied by retail , personal or eating 'and drinking services; 2. Permitted office uses shall not exceed 2,500 square feet per individual use or business establishment or exceed 5,000 square feet for any combination of office establishments in a single suite of offices served by common entries, utilities, reception areas, or other services; 3. Parking requirements for the commercial space utilization shall be in compliance with the parking standards established in Chapter 113.83 of the zoning ordinance; 4. The pricing structure for the nine BMR units shall be as follows: Number of Units Square Feet Price. 9 to be determined` 5. Amendment to the affordable or BMR .component of the project (i.e., number or price of units) shall be subject to review only by the City Council; b. Construction shall begin within six months from the date of Council approval of -the zone change and shall be. completed within 24 months of the start of=construction; 1. The developer shall construct an oversized storm sewer line along Tennessee Lane as required by the City Engineer. ORDINANCE FOR FIRST READING=entitled "ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF OAL© ALTO AMENDING SECTION 18.08.040 OF THE PALO ALTO MUNICIPAL CODE (THE ZONING MAP) TO CHANGE THE CLASSIFICATION ,OF PROPERTY KNOWN AS 4x45-4161 EL CAMINO NAY FROM CM, gm -5, AND RM-2 TO PC` Mr. aennetti -commented that if Council. moved in that direction, the previously mentioned figures became definite and the flexi- bility for another proposal" eras :precluded. The motion essentially. meant that the proposed project itself was being voted: On, and changing -the plans to conformthe numbers in time for second read- iny- was a ministerial act. ,:,Then, if .the proposed ordinance was a proved ,tonight any furtber changes to the plans would an ordinance amendment- tounci lmember`'Eyerly said he'.real i jed,._that Wherr.he.made_ the motion and believed the, project had been debated -enough. The developer and staff spent a considerable amount of. time on its -there were considerable public meetings, -and it was time to move on.' 1 Mayor Bechtel said the prices for the BMR units were the only thinys not yet nailed down. The leveloper requested that those prices be set at the higher end of the BMR range, approximately between 455,000 and $73,000, and she asked if those prices had to be nailed down for first reading. Mr. bennetti- said he ,believed the prices could be left open within a range to be approved by the Director of Planning and Community_ Environment. 1 1 1 Councilmember Klein asked about the status of the project with regard to ARLI and Planning Commission review. Mr. Schreiber responded that the review processes were completed. Councilmember Klein said he was concerned that the plans before the Council were significantly different from those reviewed by the ARB and Planning Commission. He realized the -process had been lony and drawn out, but he bel ieved the ARB process -Was useful and the project before the Council was not the one approved by the ARB. Mr. Schreiber said modifications would occur, but abou"t three weeks ago, the Council decided against sending the project back through the Planning Commission and ARB process and to keep it at the Council level. It was the Council's prerogative to send some- thing back, but the design concept was pretty clearly set forth and the changes to the revised plans would be consistent with the basic design concept. Mr. bennetti agreed with Mr. Schreiber. The Council was free to refer the matter back or amend the recommendation it received from the ARB and Planning Commission. Councilmember Renzel supported Councilmember Eyerly's motion for first reading because she believed tonight's changes --reductions in the amount of floor area, heights of the buildings or increased open space --represented deviations from the previously studied plans that Council deemed unnecessary. for further ARB and Planning Commission review. She did not see how there could be an adverse e%fect with a reduction in floor area of:5,000 square feet and a change in the sale from 11 affordable and 4 BMR units to 9 BMR units. If the Council approved the project in concept, adequate protections were provided by a second reading and the requirement to provide appropriate docu4entation, to verify those changes". The process had been long, and the Council had a long set of agendas ahead. She did not wish to bypass any normal_ processes, but believed adquate protections were built._ into second reading and the ordinance could be rejected it if it .did not conform_to the Council's expectations and the facts given- tonight. Mayor Bechtel said, she would also support the motion, and com mended the developer for reducing the office space and .i ncreas i ng the.BM$ units. The developer stated he was not positive.the, proj ect could be financed,- but would" work to make it work.- She-: corm- mended the neighborhood for ° its support of affordable housing' in Palo_ Alto, and''said the Council was concerned about the neighbor hood's ..deli re for 30 percent retail use, and that it would make thi nys more -difficult for the developer. NUT1ON PAW') by a vote of b-2, jevysi Cobb v0tin9 "no;". Faz #ne._.__. absent. ltkC1SS F1tUl1 10;00 ITEM #8 PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION THAT THE CITY COUNCIL 0R C I • H GATE ON`i1F -TWE 6LNCY OLIN (CMRr2b9:3) Planning Commission Chairperson`Jean.McCown prefaced that her com- ments would relate to both items tI and 9. She Said the Planning Commission's analysis and discussion focused on two separate issues. First, the Commission focused -on the request for a Com- prehensive Plan Land Use Change for the parcels on Page Mill Road from the current R-1 zone and related uses to commercial uses, either a CS or CN zone. The Commission recoynized that it was not. in a position to depend on the retention of the proposed site as an emergency veterinary clinic because there were no guarantees for either- a CS or Cif zone. Similarly, the size of the proposed building. the veterinary clinic would like to construct on the parcels could ' not be limited if the properties were zoned for CN or CS and could be`developed more fully than the limited use proposed_by the clinic. The Commission concluded that the pro- posed change was not consistent with important Comprehensive Plan policies in terms of preserving residential uses over possible commercials uses, and there was a potential domino effect en the remai ni n9 R-1 parcels of the biotic frontage. The second signifi- cant focus of the Commission's discussions related to the nature of the veterinary use. a Extensive public testimony was received and there was a great showing of public support for the emergency clinic, which triggered the discussion of possible alternative sites for the clinic. The question was raised about the possibil- ity ..of having a facility located adjacent to the City's Animal Services facility on the Bayshore frontage. Staff supported the concept, and the Planning Commission agreed to discuss it. The Commission strongly supported consideration of the Bayshore site and in public testimony, it was indicated that about 40 percent of the clinic's users were from Palo Alto, and the remaining 60 per- cent were from the area between Campbell and San Mateo, the next co Munities to the South and North with similar facilities. It was believed that a Bayshore site would be central and useful to those who wanted to use the clinic. The Commission continued the item to a second meeting, at which time it became clear the Clinic was not interested in pursuing the Nayshore site and was most attracted to the Page Mill Road site from both a cost and location standpoint. _As a result of the -Planning Commission's discussion, an examination of the -entire blockface on Page Mill Road was instituted dS a part of the upcoming Comprehensive Plan review. The Commission was concerned about the piecemeal approach that would be presented by approving the requested change, and -about the exact land_ use patterns on_ that blockface and whether better overall planning could be found for the area. a She said the Com- mission would review the rnatter, but whatever was decided Would be affected by the Council's decision tonight. Counci lmernber Levy asked if all .the parcels on. Page Mill Road were goiny to be considered as part of the upcoming Comprehensive Plan rev-iew.. Ms.;Fic,own said all :R-1 was covered and included all `parcels which faced on ,Faye Mill Road. Everything on the blockface was included with the. exception of Fully & Jake's, which faced,on.El Camino., Mayor Bechtel said. the Council received letters ill support of- the_ etrreryency veterinary al i;ni'e- from J. Karst, �-Susan and David Cole, and Christina Peck., Mayor Bechte i `declared the public heating -0 1 Robert. Lawrence, 2124 Wasatch, Mountain View, was a planning con- sultant who represented the South Peninsula Veterinary Emergency Clinic.- He introduced the manager of the Clinic to speak about the Clinic`s recent endeavors. Donald Dooley, 3045 Middlefield Road, said he had managed the South Peninsula Veterinary Emergency Clinic since it opened. The Cl inic was different from any of the other veterinary hospitals in Palo Alto because it only provided emergency, care. The hours of operation were from 6:00 p.m. weeknights until 8:00 a.m. the next morning, all, weekends and all holidays. It was not open during normal business hours; its services were different, and, there- fore, not a duplication:of any service available in the City. The clinic was not new and it was not adding jobs to the City. The Cl inic had been, located in Pa Io . Ai to for 8-1/2 years and had treated about 30,000 cases. It currently treated about 5,000 cases a year, approximately 40 percent of which were from Palo Alto. In addition, the animals for which the City of Palo Alto was responsible were treated in the evenings and on the weekends. The closest similar services were located in San Mateo and Campbell. It was ironic that the proposed location was exactly halfway between the other two locations; that was why the location was so desirable. The location on Page Mill Road was researched fur 1.1/2 years, and the Cl inic was pleased with it. There were residences to the rear of the location, but he pointed out that an emergency clinic had proven itself to be a yaod neighbor to resi- dential properties. The San Mateo faci i ity backed up to apartment buildings, as did those in Concord and Fresno. That was not done intentionally, but indicated that a number of emergency clinics were adjacent to residential properties and their locations had not resulted in problems. Mr. Lawrence pointed out that the applications resulted from the CIinic's current location being amortized out under the City's zoniny ordinance. He reiterated that the application was for a Comprehensive Plan amendment and for a rezoning of the property located at 423.433 Page Mill Road. Regarding the Comprehensive Plan amendment, en examination of the lot arrangement in the area showed no relationship to the lands behind them in terms of resi- dential communications. The external effects of the area were such that the area was not suited for the policy of single-family residential. The houses on the lands were built in another era ,when Paye Mi 1 l Road was a quaint country lane. Page Mil 1 Road was one of the highest volume traffic movers in the entire city, car- rying about 31,000 cars per day, and was only exceeded by traffic volumes on the freeways through the city and on some portions of El Camino Real. The Comprehensive Plan anticipated some expansion by 1990, but .the tremendous volume of traffic made the area un- suitable, particularly when the dwellings were built as cottages on a country road. He said he first thought perhaps those lands should be redeveloped as single family residential, but the costs of building new single family dwellings capable of dealing with the noise, air pollution, etc., would probably exceed $200,000 per unit. Rents, even with a good downpayment, would probably be around $1,500-$1,bO0 or more per month. The nolse level of the location was three times higher than the Comprehensive Plan; st.en- dard for residential areas and_ waa -fundamentally too -noisy for decent residential. He said the Comprehensive Plan called for the preservation of residential, but he believed there were a lot of statements in the Plan about ,the qualityof residential: neighbor- hoods and the kinds of things expected in.. Palo Alto. He bel ieved the Comprehensive = Plan was in error on, the point and was not economi{ally sound. The area was not a healthy . one for single family residences, and the Plan should ,be .changed. He recognized the City's jobs/housing imbalances but said there : were .other ele- ments of the Comprehensive Plan which also needed to tie. balanced. The The land use and zoning provided for general service commercial a long Page Mill Road and general industrial across Page Mil l Road. He believed the the •extension of the commercial --neither neighborhood commercial or the' CS commercial ---to include the proposed location' was perfectly logical in connection with the uses on the site. He presented an area map which showed the area's constraints -the ,-poise level at 19 dba, the acceleration out o.f;the tunnel, and the stop siyn at El Camino Real where everyone started and stopped. He said ,the CS. or CN zone was requested, .although the interest in other zones existed for the area being studied ley the --Planning Commission. The applicant requested a decision be made tonight 'by the Council. Ur. N. L. Col 1inson, 2460 El Camino Real, Mountain -Vier, President of the Board of Directors of the Emergency Clinic, thanked- the Council for allowing the presentation. About ten years ago, the veterinary medical profession decided pet- owners in Palo Alto and the surrounding area werenot being serviced as well as possible. A group of veterinarians invested in the project and about S-1/2 years ayo put together the corporate deal which had been carried out on Middlefield Road for the entire time. Mr,. Dooley was the most outstanding manager in the country; over the past several years he had started and managed 42 emergency clinics from Hono- lulu, Hawaii to Cincinnati, Ohio-. Anyone in the area who had experience with the Emergency Cl inic could attest to its good management. The idea was to employ veterinarians and ancillary people to assist pet owners at night, and on weekends with fine medical and surgical care. It was known that -- the current location would be lost, and about 2-1/2 years ago, the directors started looking for a new spot . After working for about eight months, the directors realized it was not something they could handle properly and employed Mr. Lawrence to assist. From the time Mr. Lawrence started ''until the present-, he or the board of directors physically looked at 65 different pieces of property. It had been a long and expensive trek. The directors did their best to find a place, and found one which turned out to be, too noisy. The proposed location had three times the acceptable residential neighborhood noise level, and it was not. safe for a child to wal k out on the street. The directors did their best to find a location central to Palo Al tans and the surrounding area, , He was reminded of a childhood experience when he and his father were near Chugwater, Wyoming, where they used to drive cattle on long treks. He always got very tired, but knew that the end of the trail would bring a place called "The Last Chance Saloon" where he would get a good beef- steak. The audience in the Council Chambers represented the 12,500 people served in the 'last eight years and contingent veter- inarians who were committed to the Clinic. No One ,who invested in the Clinic had ever taken a cent from it, and it was all a public service. Those people looked to the Council because tonight was the "last chance,' and the censideretioer was appreciated. Councilmenber Witherspoon asked Ur. Collinson for a recap of how the 'group proposed to develop the site. She :understood that the Emergency Cl inic, parking, and an office or two were requested. - Ur. Col 1 insok; replied that there would be apprnximately 2,500 square feet for the emergency clinic. To remain within the con- fines or restrictions of the zoning, there would also be approx- i#nately 2.UUU additional square feet of commercial -,_building. The proposed development was necessary; to` make an economically soued project, which was the intent of the Clinic. Counci hnewber Cobb said he gathered that the applicant absolutely and irrevocably rejected the idea of bein.g out on the frontage road. Ur.` Co11 inson said ,that was correct. Caunci ;member asked what the fate , of the clinic would be if tuniyrt's appl 'cation were not positively acted: upon. Ur. Col l inson said the CI inic would' have to find: a place it could build, and if that necessitated leaving:: the confines of Palo Alto, so be it. 1 t 1 1 Jean Keeley, 1945 Sandra, has lived ' i n Palo Alto for 25 years, She first lived near the proposed location for the ;linic--a block from the corner of El Camino and Page Mill Road --and at that time the underpass was not yet there. Even then the location was net a good place to live because at. 4:00 p.m. the smog was so thick '1t - could be cut. She did not live there. -now but believed the smog must be 10 times worse. She did not believe it was a place for people and small children to live and felt it was better suited to commercial. She was in favor of having .the South Peninsula Veter- inary 'Lmeryency Clinic at that location since it could not stay at its present location. She -had experience with the Emergency Clinic and said the lives of her animals had been saved by the GI inic, for which she was grateful. ' The Clinic should be located in a relatively "safe" area so that a woman could wrap -her animal up and, rush it there at all hours. She did not believe the area close to the animal shelter was a safe place to be late at night_ and would not wish to take her animal and drive out there alone. She wanted the clinic to remain in Palo Alto and believed the service was very valuable, Virginia Kolence, 3591 Louis Road, said she had seen a .let of cnanyes in Palo Rlto since she first arrived in 1964. The fact that the Emergency. Veterinary Clinic was being pushed out of Palo Alto because of zoning changes was not good. The Clinic affected all ages and economic levels. Palo Alto prided Atself on pro- viding full services with its own animal shelter, humane society: and wildlife rescue, all of which depended on the Use of the Emer- yency Veterinary Cl inic. She had used the Clinic many times and uryed that the Council not push it out of Paco Alto. Mary Wood, 1415 Alma Street., said she believed it was ludicrous to consider the proposed location on Page Mill Road for residential property, but it was perfect for an emergency clinic. Of the people who currently lived in the houses in the area, only one woman was ayainst the clinic. Regarding the staff at the emergen- cy cl inic, they were very special and had also saved her anirai s on numerous occasions. Siie could not speak highly enough of Or. Thaien, and said he was excellent, conscientious and. a specialist in exotic animal s, which worked well with the City's wi ldl ife rescue center. She believed it was admirable that Randy Hemple had' the moral integrity to butt heads with Stanford .University on the treatment of the animals. People of that caliber were needed in Palo. Alto and she sincerely hoped the Council would consider the rezoning of the Page Mill Road location. Li se Gi raud, 22UU Byron Street, spoke as a member of -the Citizens, Advisory Committee to the City of Palo Alto Animal Services. A letter from William A. Sanderson, the Committee Chair, was written to the Council and the Peninsula Times Tribune expressing unani- mous support for the Clinic's proposed location on Page Mill Road.. The Committee had collaborated with the Animal Services staff and had numerous. conversations with the .Animal Control -Officers--the people who picked up the animals, to be brought to the Clinic. She realized it- was improper for City employees to express opinions on such issues but believed she spoke on behalf of the majority of Animal: ControL Officers when she said the Page Mill Road locat .Qn was the pronouced: preference mover the Animal Shelter_ location She was al so a ;member of the Board of Directors of them Palo Alto Humane Society, its employee, Ms. Carolyn Charles,.. drove the animal . ar:ibulance, which- was., under the auspices of e` Humane. Soci-=. ety Out under 'contract with: :the City of Palo Alto, and picked, up aniva.ls durinyenergency hours She also expressed a preference. for the Page Mill Road ,location and said it made a'lbig difference to her whether. she - could bring an -animal to an easily accessible_. location- rather than driviriy_ out'.to the East Bayshore location.. The.` ownersli_lp and iena.gemen,t= of- the_, C1 ni c had the# r _.own reasons tor-:, rejecting the East Bayshore location, but -to the public, =the location was. h.i.ghiy- undesirable. It' was. not a scenic locatiob during th-e day and_, was" iii smai- at ni g.ht. The"Committee met at -the-- :An►rnal .-Shelter. on -.ock'Asion and she assured the``Couhc.il -that a more cheerless location could probably not be found within the • confines of Palo .Attu, even without a critically .sick or injured animal in the car. The South Peninsula Veterinary Emergency Clinic was staffed by excellent personnel and rendered first-rate, service. to a 1 I residents of. Pa 1 o Al to. It was a precious civic resource and everything possible should be done to keep it in Palo Alto. Jan Kase, 159 Ramona Road, Porto la Val ley, }aid she was a longtime area resident and dnirnal owner. She was a member_ of the Board of 1)1 rectors of "Pets in Need," a. 16 -year -old nonprofit animal rescue oryanization based in. Menlo Park and serving San- Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. With her years of animal work, she was frequently required to rush an animal to the emergency pet hospital on week -- ends, during the night and on holidays. The service was excel lent and absolutely vital to the welfare of the animals and their owners, and essential to a community with _an enormous number. of pets. Anyone with the unfortunate need to rush to the emergency clinic understood the need. The proposed location on Page ,Mill Road was in the middle of commercial properties, and although the area was now zoned residential., it seemed appropriate to rezone the 423.433 property to 'al low the Cl inic to continue. She urged the Council to support the community's needs and allow the clinic to relocate to the Pace Mill Road location. Tommy Simpson, 3 drove 'Court, Portola Valley, said over the past few years having bad six dogs and eleven cats, she had a vested interest in emergency_ veeteri nary care. She uryed the Council to rezone the proposed location of the South Peninsula Emergency Vet- erinary Gi inic at 423-4;i3 Page Mi 1 1 Road to commercial . There was a great need for the clinic to be in a safe, central and Highly visible location --especially at night. J. Karst was cal led, but had had to leave by 9:45 p.m. Leynep Hakirnoylu, 31b Escuela, Mountain View, opined that a Planning Commission which would uphold the tract of property as single --family residential would fail a freshman course in civil enyineeriny, and would find the location al:solutely contrary to !ivies conditions. If not for the benefit of the Emergency Veterinary Cl inic, then for the benefit e of the members of the community, the Council should amend the zoning to its proper position, which was not residential. Christina Peck, 1429 Alma, said she had sent letters to the Coun- cil stating her positi-on, but added that the` proposal to study whether the animals sheiild be located adjacent to the facility on East dayshore attempted to placate the public and avoided the issue at hand. The issue was the site on Page Mill Road, and this was her reason for attendance at the City Council meeting. There was no question about the need for the Clinic, and voting, down the proposal solely on the basis of worst possible scenario calcula- tions was ridiculous. It was ,time to question the Comprehensive Plan. The issue could not be decided with a pencil and paper in a board room or by environmental impacts,<` sbecause she believed the need was more imperative and pressing that the need for two resi- dential units. Sne urged the Councilmembers that an opportunity existed to show compassion and enlightenment as .a ` community, and asked that the petitions, letters and tonight's attendance not be disregarded and that the Council support the zone change.... Pearl Hanna was the founder and past president of the Peninsula Animal Welfare Society. She believed the focus should be on people, not animals per se. People with pets needed ' emergency facilities nearby just as badly: as people needed housi>rtg. 'If no emergency clinic existed in Pa1o.`.Alto,- people would` have to drive several. miles __under stress :on busy highways-." which could be ',dan- gerous to both the .:pet .Owner > andinnocent, peopl a :; on ' the highway. A ca r4 crash could be disastrous, She urged :the ':Counci l: to don- 4i der and take ..pi ty = on those people with pets they loved and considered to be members of the family., She urged that _the prop- erty be zoned for the benefit of the pet owners. Al icia ltakifnoglu, '234 Escuela Avenue, Mountain View, said she -knew now important it was for the clinic to have a central location and Page Mi 1 l -Road seemed perfect. When under the stress of an 11.1 and very loved an i rrra l , One was not' ready to travel near dayshore. She only represented .one statistic, but said there were thousands i n the area who needed to take care of= thei r anima 1 s. She did not know about the zoning -laws, but real zed .the importance of emer- yency animal care. Receiving no further requests from the public to speak, Mayor Bechtel closed the public hearing. Councilmember Witherspoon said there *as . no question than the Counci l wanted to keep the facility in Palo Alto, and that the Clinic had completed years of marvelous service:. She attempted to explain to the applicants and the public the underlying concern of the staff and Planning Commission in changing the zoning in the area. She could not. say that a residential zone had never been changed to commercial, because it had been done at the corner of Loma Verde and Middlefield, but pointed out that the lot was very large and the potential intensification by rezoning was the con- cern of the Planning Commission and City Council. The proposal was to use only 2:,5UO square feet of space for the Clinic and approximately 20.100 more square feet for office space the group would use. if the entire property were zoned with the tiny amount of use contemplated, a situation was being created that could be quite a threat in the future to the neighborhood behind the loca- tion. She suggested the best way to solve the problem was to address it head on and, propose either that the applicant buy only one of the two lots or that the application be for a PC, which would limit the Clinic to the amount of ,:development on the site. She did not know of any other way to address the concern unless the Council waited for the Planning Commission to have its land use study of the area, which could take six months. Chief Panning -Official- Bruce Freeland said the °public hearing for the land use study° was scheduled for May 1;, and staff was doing a quick analysis of the alternatives. Councilmember Witherspoon asked for a preview of the staff recom- mendation. - Mr. Freeland said the staff would recommend a combination of multi -family and possibly some neighborhood. commercial for the properties presently zoned service commercial. Councilmember Witherspoon clarified that, at most, multi -family would be the recommendation and that was not compatible with the Clinic. Mr. Freeland said . that was correct. (ounci lmember Witherspoon said she believed- the 's:treet,was ghastly for residential, but. shared;,the ron er:n. of the staff and, Planning Commission for a large site to have such a tiny amount of use. She did not know how to address- -the problem except to ask :. the veterinary group to consider a PC ---and :whether that was discussed with the planning. staff. She did not think anyone wanted to rezone the entire site --with the_ potential= of 13,UUU: square feet of coinmee cial use under _the GM zone. Mr Lawrence said the PC_possibility was discussed at the outset, but the veterinary group did : not -feel like entrepreneurs and were only .interested in the one use. It did not have the capability to take the risks involved with a PC and buying the land; with the possibility of not being -able to use it for ail the uses to sus- tain the operation. ,The .veterinarians did not wish- to. become 3 2 _v 8 5/09/83 involved with a PC zone. A letter addressed to- :the Council indi- cated' the Clinic would have to add -additional commercial space in order to make the project financially viable, but that would only be enough to make the project work. The Clinic was not in the business of building offices or other things, and would only do it because it was necessary to.rnake the C1 inic work. Councilmember Cobb said on page 3 of the April 6 Planning Commis-- sion ,minutes, Mr. Lawrence referred to some kind of contract. to provide for the Clinic under the neighborhood commercial zone. That concept was-. fa i rly new, and, State law provided for some type of contract agreements 3 He asked . for staff comment about a rneche anism within the neighborhood commercial zone to restrict the use much like a PC. Mr-. Freeland said the reference was to a development agreement, a relatively new tool_ which State law enabled cities to -use. Development ayreenients were typically- used; in complex projects where there was a need eto nail down a number' of assurances between a city and an applicant over issues such as phasing and timing, agreeing that the zoning not be changed while the project was being developed. Development agreements had been used in some ' circumstances to limit the availability of a zoning district in such a manner as was being discussed. The problem was that the development agreements were typically time limited, and it was unusual for them to be longer than 10 or 15 years. In terms of a permanent vehicle to restrict the use of the site to one use- out of those available in a Cti or CS district, it was probably rot a good tool. It could be used to limit use for a period of time, but not permanently. Councilmember Cobb said during his three years on the Planning Commission and more than one year on ,the City Council, he was continually concerned that in situations such as the one proposed, the city was faced with- the fact that zoning ran with the land, not with the use. Therefore-, if a zone change was made, and if fur any reason the emergency clinic moved on, the City would then have a commercial zone which allowed all kinds of other uses which most Councilmembers probably would not approve even though the clinic had been approved. The PC provided the City with the opportunity to focus on a particular kind of use and freeze that in time. the other mechanism had a time limit, but the PC would lock_ the use in perpetraity--not necessarily for just a clinic, but for a clinic and perhaps some other supporting use. . Earlier com- ments seemed to have ruled out a PC on the grounds that it was too risky, but he believed it might be the: least .risky in terms of perpetuating the service.. It was the least risky for the Council in tends of knowing what it was approving, and he hoped the appli- cant would consider the PC idea again, because he believed it was the way some Councilmembers could obtain a resolution. Mr. Lawrence said he believed the Clinic's board had thoroughly discussed the PC. They feared they might buy the property, not be able to. make the - project iriork, and then' have placed the entire operation in jeopardy, The Boards planned on- a veterinary clinic -and some additional Square footage up-- to as much as 2,000 square feet, and should be trusted to act -accordingly. Counci lnrember. Ff etcher said Counci lmember Cobb had raised concerns about potential usage once the:. land waseel'ezoned _For those who were not -at the Planning ;Commission hearjng, she -explained that the ; area was zoned residential _= beause it' had been . used as resi dential. City .pol icy. was to not eliminate , residential where it existed. The Loma - Yerde/Mi ddl efiel-d s,.i_te wa's not_ comparabl a be- cause cosimercial use exfsteci p�r.i:_ylna :ly, ,She was sympathetic: to the,._ Cl inl`c' And was to :e�rte tale a PC aPi'i at .an. From -wha.t.:. she- understood, a PC pp1 icat-ion : would be looked upon favor- ably by- socr,e -Coun`cilmembers,- including Kesel f,;. and she `be]leved it --was the only way to go. 5ha hoped the applicants' would con, another a pp l i ca't-i on:i n the form"'o f_ -a PC. 1 MOTION: Councllmeober Levy -moved. seconded. by Bechtel, to sup- port the Planning -Commission -recommendations- to -deny -the applica- tion with 'the following findings: a. The -proposed land use and zoning, designations conflict with the housing policies .of Comprehensive Plan which call for the. preservation and enhancement of residential neighborhoods, in that the change in land use would displace existing single family, land:uses on the site and -would negatively impact an already heavfly impacted residential neighborhood with added traffic and a further reduction in the -size; of the -residential area itself; and b. The proposed land use designation .and zone change conflict with-- the Comprehensive Plan intention- to.improve-- the - jobs/ housing imbalance and to -reduce employment growth, in that the .proposal would add jobs while leading to a reduction of the existing housing stock. -Further, that -the Board" of -Directors-of..South Peninsula Veterinary Emergency- Clinic be urged- to -•reconsider submitting a PC applica- tion. Councilmember Klein said he agreed with the remarks of his col-, leagues and the Clinic's board, of directors. He did not see any risks involved with a PC application, and predicted it would receive a .favorable reaction from the City Council. The future potential of the property was crucial --and not at all assured by the proposed zone change --and the Council did not want eo add to the City's jobs/housing imbalance. He believed the issue was the landowner's asking price of the property, and hoped the message was clear that the Council would not substantially upzone the property to allow any significant development. Any proposed building would have to be drawn carefully and be consistent with the Emergency Clinic's use and not expand the number of jobs or amount of commerce in the area. He hoped a PC application would be made soon. Counci lmember Renzel said she had served on the Planning Commis- sion at the time the Pepper/Olive neighborhoods were rezoned. At the -time, the Commission was not only concerned about street faces, but also what happened over the back fence because that could be crucial to the viability of a neighborhood. The partic- ular neighborhood had seen considerable encroachment over time, and the Planning Commission recognized the importance_ of the fate of those parcels facing on Page Mill Road, as did the Council. A number of parcels were vacant along El Camino Real and were zoned commercial. She believed that while the Council encouraged the applicant to come in with a PC, the applicant was not discouraged from looking at some of the vacant parcels along El Camino, which was also a readily accessible street. If a PC application were made, everyone would have to make sure that the major factor --the protection of the R-1 along Pepper --was paramount in such a PC zone. She would make no commitments about how she would respond to such a zone and was concerned about converting any residential use to a nonresidential use. On the other hand, the particular nonresidential use provided a service to residents and was a very low intensity use and did - have some aspects.. which might be com- patible with the single family uses in close proximity. She sup- ported the Planning Commission recommendation. Couno;1lmember Eyerly- said he believed one of problems was timing. He 'could not help.:but believe the Emergency Clinic's board 'was pressured by the eXpiratioh of the amortization period •.at their presents location' on Middlefield Road, for . whi;ch: the City Attor- ney -'s office would not recommend an extension as indicated in the Planning, Commission minutes.. He suggested that perhaps the_, Clinic's search :was not -really completed, but that the proposed location was the best so far-. Further, he could not believe that the Clinic's -current use of the property on Middlefield Road could not. _be continued for some period: He could not imagine that, staff 3 2 7-0 5/09/83 s Corrected 8/15/83 would become too pushy about the end of the amortization period Af the Clinic were trying to find another location. He did not like what he heard from either the Council or staff that the area along Page Mill Road was proper for housing. He was concerned that dependent upon Council's action tonight, the Planning Commission's study of the land uses on Page Mill Road could be pre-empted. Council and staff needed to be more realistic because the land values in Palo Alto had reached the point where the services the community wished to prerierve were being pushed out. It was easy to say that other area existed, but the dollar value of those properties dictated whether certain services could stay in town. The Clinic's board of directors were able to strike a bargain with the property owners on Page Mil Road and that might bewhere they should be allowed to settle. He saw no alternative but to support the motion on the floor, and to be realistic about what could occur with the requested zone change on Page Mill Road. Property values of that area might be low enough for the special types of services a PC zone would support, and other PC type businesses could be located there i f the land value was low enough. Director of Planning and Comrhunity Environment Ken Schreiber noted for the record that Council was aware a number of nonconforming uses in Palo Alto had terminated, including the Emergency Veter- inary Clinic site on Middlefield. Many of., the subject sites had reached the legal endpoint, and staff would start to bring about a cessation of those activities and would make inspections and follow up on those uses which continued in operation. However, prior to the May 1 termination date, staff received an application for three sites on Middlefield --the Shell service station, the Emergency Veterinary Clinic and the Chinese Community Center --for a nonconforming use amortization combining district which was basically used in the Loma Verde/Middlefield area in 1968 to com- bine the termination dates for a variety of parcels within the area. The application requested that the termination date for the parcels be the same as the adjacent Arco site --1992. That appli- cation would go before the Planning Commission in early June and be combined with the Council assignment to investigate those same sites on Middlefield Road as well as the Ballet Arts Center. Since a formal application was pending and Council would receive a recommendation from the Planning Commission, staff would not pur- sue the cessation of the nonconforming uses on the sites. After action was taken on the application, and if termination was still appropriate, staff would pursue it with each property owner. Councilmember Witherspoon asked for clarification that because of a pending application, the veterinary clinic could stay at its present location for at least another month or so while the appli- cation went through the City processes. Mr. Schreiber said realistically, the Clinic could stay through the end of June. Councilmember Witherspoon clarified that if the application was successful at the Council level, the veterinary clinic would be ", amortized over another 10 -year period. Mr, Schreiber said that was :correct. Councilmember Witherspoon hoped that one way or another, with all the advice \ received by Council, the Clinic's location would be worked out. Councilmember Cobb said he would not want to live in that area and hoped Mr. Northway's comments as set forth in the Planning Commis- sion minutes, regarding the problems .of putting housing on that site, would receive future consideration, ,He had heard \a lot of 1 1 positive support on behalf ,of the Council for a PC application, which lea him to believe that, if properly done -by the applicant; such an application could - yo through reasonably expeditiously. He - asked flow long the PC process would take if the Middlefield Road applications were not approved and if a PC application was made for the Page Mill site based on the positive comments made tonight by the Council. i Mr. Schreiber said the Planned Community zone process —given -the various public hearings by the Ath, Planning: Commission and City Council --took a minimum of three to four months. It would be difficult to dolt any. faster,` but if the Page Mill site came -in under the PC none, staff would process:it it as expeditiously as possible and be -available to work with the applicant to explain the process and make it as smooth as possible. Counci lrnernber Cobb asked if there wa's any way to preserve the - Clinic's continuity of service i-f such 'a process were entered into. Mr. Schreiber deferred to the City Attorney for response. Mr. Bennetti said the City Attorney's office was generally .inter- ested in uniform enforcement and not treating one property differ- ently from another. If the application to extend the period were approved, it could be extended for 10 years or some other period of, time, hut would apply to all properties s_imilarly'situated in the subject of the application. The City Attorney's office was also interested in the enforcement of existing ordinances. On the other hand, if an application was pending for something else, they were not interested in pursuing what would amount to a futile act. Mayor Bechtel thanked Mr. Bennetti and suggested that at some later date, staff and the City Attorney make a more complete report. Some Councilmembers did not see the area as''being at all suitable for housing, and she pointed out that the zoning right across the street was multi -family housing. She believed if d,esiened correctly with access on Pepper and not Page Mill Road, the site could be very suitable for housing. She encouraged the applicant to come back with a PC ,and to consider combining more -with a residential component-, which would be more acceptable to her.. - PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION AND ENCOURAGING THE APPLICANT TO CONSIDER A PC APPLICATION TO DE VOTED ON SEPARATELY FIRST PART OF MOTION TO UPHOLD THE PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMENDA- TION TO DE1Y. THE APPLICATION WITH FINDINGS PASSED UNANIMOUSLY, Fazzino absent. Counci 1 aember tyerly ested why a second part of the motion was to encourage the applicant to come, back with a PC application. The Council was not in -a position to encourage anyone on anythiii'g and was supposed to set a policy after an item was before it. Mayor Bechtel.agreed.: Counci imember Levy -said ,he believed .Council could set a pol icy: o.f encouragement - to vari ous members of the community to <;du c.erta.in things MOTION TO TABLE: Counci lmember Klein coved, seconded by= Reniel, to table the Second part:of the lotion. MUT.IUN TO: TABLE PASSER `bar a tote of .b 2, Levy .and Cobb voting._ :!'fo," Fitzis*o absant. Moyer. Bechtel said the- 4pp,l scant. Mas still 40p1 ication. ITEM # IU , F 1 NANCE AHU PUBLIC WORKS -COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION RE LOT K NG City Manager Bi l l Zaner said some- renegotiation was necessary with a second bidder since the first bidder turned out to have a con- flict. The item wa-s in its present form because -it required a budget amendment, which could .only be done by the Council. MOTION:. - Coenci member Witherspoon for the Finance and Public Works Committee revved that Councii do the following: I. Approve the selection of Conrad Associates as the project design consultant; 2. Authorize staff to negotiate a. -contract with Conrad Associates IOC professional design and construction supervision services in accordance wito the. !Scope of Work" in the Request for Proposal, and 3. Authorize staff to negotiate with the second -ranked firm of Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade & Douglas, Inc. ORDINANCE 3430 entitled "ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALO ALTO AMENDING THE BUDGET FOR THE FIS- CAl. YEAR 1982-53 TO ESTABLISH AND PROVIDE FUNDS FOR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT NO. 82-33 'LOT J PARKING GARAGE'" AGREEMENT -.PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING CONSULTING SERVICES Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade & Douglas, Inc. Councilmember Levy asked about the total expected cost for the garage and if the percentage of the expenditure for design and supervision .was represented by the Agreement before the Council. Mr. Zaner responded that the anticipated contract_.costs were about $4.3 million. The agreement for design would cast about $500,000, or about I2 percent. Councilmember Levy suggested that $500,000 was high for design and supervision of a project. City Supervising Engineer Edgar Ugarte said the. cost represented an averaye,in the industry and included the..contin€9ency allocation for both the construction phase and design services. - eouncilraernber. Eyerly clarified that .$142,000 of the contract rep- resented construction supervision. Mr. Ugarte said that was correct. Mr. caner said Ed Ugarte was a supervising engineer for the City and was working on the project with Lynnie Melena. Councilmember Eyerly's comment was correct that the $500,000 included design work and supervision once the project was being constructed, plus an additional amount of money for contingencies. MOTION PASSED _unanimously, Fazzino absent, MAY JI( BECHTEL RE WHICH ITEMS TO DISCUSS AFTER 300 P.M. Councilmember Cobb said the next two items before. the Couhci1 would take a considerable amount of _time,- and the ice skating issue, which he _a endized, `.would be heard after those items,. He reralized'those p opla Who-wanted.,,te speak. to :the issue tonight .tend_ waited a long time, but feared the -wait could be:. much longer..:. He suggested the ice skating issue be conttnued for another weekwith the apprd'vaf "of those in, the audience waiting to speak to the matter. 1 1 Jack Morton, Trustee for the Trust for Coinrnunity Skating, said the Trust wanted to -wait and have the matter heard, because time con- straints were such that the matter. Should be heard tonight. Mayor Bechtel preferred to have the matter continued if possible. Counci lmember Eyerly pointed out that one .of the Councilmembers who agend ized the item. was .absent -and his vote represented one the Trust -would not have tonight. Mr. Morton sensed that Council strongly suggested the group wait. He said Mr. Perry and Mr. Williams both gave deadlines of May 15. He would request an extension, but could not guarantee its ap- proval Councilmember Cobb said he preferred that Mr, Williams. and Mr. Perry grant an extension, but; --since that was not guaranteed he did not want to take the chance and would not make a motion to con- tinue the item. Counci lmember Klein said he was concerned about the agenda, espe- cially since Council had been meeting since 6:00 p.m. Items #11 and #11 had to be heard toni yht, but the Worst that would happen by continuing Item #13, would be a gap in the ordinance. ITEM #13 CONTINUED ONE WEEK MOTION; Councilerember Klein moved, seconded by Levy, that Item #13, Residential Parking Program in the Vicinity of Park Boulevard and El Camino Real Evaluation of Trial, be continued for one week. NOTION TO CONTINUE ITEM #13 PASSED by a vote of 7-1, Renzel voting *no," Fazzino absent. ITEM #11, FINAL REPORT FROM THE AO HOC COMMITTEE ON THE CITY'S FINANCIAL STRUCTURE Mayor Bechtel commended the outstanding ad hoc committee which met once and sometimes twice a week for two months, and introduced its members: S, George Abbott Dudley Andersen Owen Goldfarb l_a rry Hootni ck Eugene O'Sullivan Lanie Wheeler Frank Patitucci She thanked the- Committee for its efforts and hoped the experience was enjoyable as weI1 as educational. Frank Patitucci , Chairperson of the Ad Hoc Committee on the City's Financial Structure, said Dudley Andersen, Larry Hootnick and Lanie Wheeler were also in attendance tonight to answer any ques- tions. . The Council had provided an excellent committee which had -- worked diligently and, even though there were eight.. meetings, each one was completed almost on time. The;Committee's recommendation would require a - change in the City's Charter and in the long- standing structure of the .Palo Alto City. government. The Commit- tee recommended that the position now known as City Controller. be renamed and Techa racteri zed in the City Charter to a position _called . City Auditor, with . the overall responsibility to ensure that the City,'s financial • practices and procedures complied with statutory requirements and 'accounting standards. The -City 'Auditor would plan and ° conduct : internal audits, coo'dinate the -City'.s:. annual external audit, and provide : other financial analyses as, requested by the Council. The day-to-day functions of the present Controller's, Of Tice . not related to auditing -,data ,;processing accounting, financial reporting and like functions-- should be transferred to the supervision of the City Manager and coordinated with the other operating departments in the City. The City Auditor should be appointed by the City Council and remain independent of other Council -appointed positions. The consulting tirm of PMC Associates worked with the Committee and analyzed the functions of other city governments. It was found that the current Controller position performed functions which were integrated into' the day-to-day management of other city •gov- ernrnents. Most other. city governments had an internal general services or Director of Finance type function, which combined the day-to-day activities with the other operating departments of the city. Many administrative functions, which historically were retained under the title of a controller, were integrated into the operations of the rest of the city government for practical rea- sons. - Given that finding, the Committee recommended that the responsibilities of the rositions now called "Controller" and "City Manager" be modified to integrate the day-to-day activities under the City Manager and be better integrated with the other operating departments. Internal auditing was an ongoing .process conducted in businesses and government to ensure that cash was handled properly, information oval lathe within the, system was accurate, and inventories were properly maintained. A variety of problems could occur if those functions were not managed properly. The internal audit function :was currently spread between; the Con- troller -'s office and a number of other departments, and no regular plan for internal audits existed. The internal audit function was an identified activity to those in private industry and the posi- tion of Internal Auditor often reported directly to a board of directors or the chief executive officer and had prescribed proce- dures and spot audits on'an annual basis. It was important to maintain an independent internal .auditor even though none of the utier cities studied had an inter=nal auditor as an independent position. The Committee concluded that the capacity of the City Auditor should be strengthened within the City's structure by cen- tralioiny internal audit functions currently within the position now called City Controller by changing the title to 'City Auditor. Further, specific requirements should be set forth in the City Charter to continue to; carry out internal audits and with respect to the external audit. This process included hiring a certified public accounting firm to perform an almost exclusive financial audit and to accompany that audit with a management letter to advise the City (or entity being audited) on a variety of manage- ment and operational improvements related to financial management. That activity was the responsibility of the Controller and was conducted externally. The Committee concluded that the practice should continue and be coordinates under the activities of the new City Auditor position, which recommendation would change the City Charter in two ways. First, the r,ecgrnmendation would :change the name and. identify .the position of City Auditor. Further, there was a recommendation that the specific requirement for an annual audit and the process cif performing internal audits be identified. The Committee at- tempted to modify and edit those sections iri the; City Charter. affected by the recommendations, this was attached to the report. Those . cnanges incluaed chancing the name "City Control ler" to "city Auditor', adding a job description that the City Auditor's responsibility would De to ensure that the City's financial prac- tices and procedures comply with statutory requirements and accounting standards,_. to plan and conduct internal audits, coor- dinate the annual external a+edits, _`'and provide other fi'nanciai analysis as requested by the City Council. The other recommended change was_ to add a section to the City Charter to call for and specify audits. The:.:. audit function was 'not currently ident "iffed or covered: in the Charter, and the Coramittee proposed that Section I3' "Audits" be . added within Article. i ,: that = the City ..Councll shall engage an independent certified - publ-lc accounting firm- to conduct an annual external aUdt--which was already done --and that the City Auditor shall 'conduct internal audits in accordance with 3.2 1 5 5/09/83 a schedule apl,roved by the City Council, the results of which shall- be reported in writing to the Council. The Committee be- lieved the Internal Auditor should view the job as an ongoing one which required rigorous pursuit of the discipline of auditing, and to make and provide written reports to the City Council. The language tended to discourage an idea discussed by the Committee that the person would be a' source of continuous independent finan- cial advice to the City Council. That was possible, but the Committee believed the language made it more formalized than just being someone to turn to for advice that the numbers were believ- able. That idea was characterized as a staff analyst or a minor- ity Council job, and the intent Was for an independent source of verification of financial data by a rigorous schedule of internal audits. The -Committee also attached its initial attempt to produce a job description for the position, which would add a dimension to the rather limited and stark language of the Charter, and some idea of how the committee characterized the duties of the City Auditor -and perhaps a small staff. .He emphasized that the Committee recommendation was unanimous, an'i thanked City Con- troller Al Mitchell, City Manager Bill Zaner, City -staff and the consultant for their cooperation, The Committee enjoyed the job and appreciated the opportunity to serve the City. Mayor Bechtel said the City Council was fortunate to have a.Com- mittee with such experienced members. Councilmember Klein said he also believed the. Committee did a tremendous job and thanked them for doing a fine job for the City in the best Palo Alto tradition of volunteers _giving of their time and expertise freely. Regarding Exhibit 8, the principal duties and responsibilities of the City Auditor, the first line of para- graph one said, "... to prepare annually for approval by the City Council a schedule of internal audits ,to be performed." He was concerned about the word "schedule" because he believed internal audits were sometimes best done on a surprise basis. Mr. Patitucci said both scheduled and unscheduled audits were intended. One could have Within one's schedule some surprise audits. It was anticipated there would be an annual schedule, of audits which were predictable and necessary that people should be prepared for, but this did riot preclude surprise audits. Councilmember _Klein. -asked :if surprise audits .would be in the auditor's sole discretion. Patitucci deferred to Larry Hootni ck for response. Mr. Huotnick said the basic rationale behind scheduled audits .was to ensure that those things which should be, reviewed on a periodic basis were : done. The issue :of unscheduled audits. was not dis- cussed at yreat..length, but .normally any good audit function would include a certain amount of unscheduled audits with the approval of the manager or City Council.. Councilmember Levy agreed with all the comments praising the work of the Committee. He asked for clarification .regarding the finan- cial planning function. As he understood the recommendation, financial planning would be under the aegis of the City 'Manager, while the function of the Auditor' would be td analyze the finances of the City, to review the accounting, to set up the accounting procedures and to do the audits. He asked for clarification that if the City was planning a capital financing project, it would be within the purview of the City Manager to determine the most appropriate method of financing. for recommendation to the City Council, not the City Auditor. Mr. :Patitucci said that was correct. Councilmember Levy -asked it ° the Auditor would comment on the rami- fications of whatever financing method'wa% recommended. , Mr. Patitucci said it was possible to have the Auditor comment on any possible ramification's to the City. He believed it would be more appropriate to say the Auditor would be able to verify that the kinds of numbers used were fact -based, that the data came from the accounting system and was verifiable, and that once the proj- ect started, it could be audited and controlled in a reasonable fashion, as opposed to whether it was a good idea.. It was more tied to verifiability and an independent source of whether the information being used was appropriate for the purpose it was being used. Councilmember Levy said other nonfinancial data was used by the City .Council in evaluating the operations of the City, e.g.', the number of fire safety inspections that were done or the average response time of the police or the number_of trees planted in a given year, and he asked whether it would be appropriate for the - Auditor to also audit that kind of nonfinancial data. Mr. Patitucci said definitely yes. The Internal Auditor related to operational audits and kinds of data that might come forward. Councilmember Eyerly said the job description of the Internal Auditor was prepared in, such a fashion that --an Internal ;.Auditor, supported by .the Council and in turn by the community, would present a budget at budget hearings to include money for the scheduled -annual activities. The activities might not be spelled out meticulously because the Auditor might come forward during the year and request Council approval of a project.. This would not be considered a budget amendment because money -would be approved in the budget and it would only take five votes to activate a proj- ect, rather than the six votes required for a budget amendnment. He appreciated Mr. Patitucci's chairmanship and the recommendation of the Committee. MOTION: Councilmember Eyerly moved, seconded by Renzel, approval of the Ad Hoc Committee's recommendation that the position of City Controller be renamed and recharacterized in the City Charter as the City Auditor with the overall responsibility to ensure that the City's financial practices and procedures comply with statu- tory requirements and accounting standards. The City Auditor will plan and conduct internal audits, coordinate the annual external audit, and shall provide other financial analyses as requested by the City Council. The day-to-day functions of the present Con- troller's Office that are not related to audit (data processing, accounting; and financial reporting, etc.) should be transferred to the supervision of the City Manager. The position of City Auditor should be an appointment of the City Council, independent from other Council Appointed Officers. Further, the City Attor- ney's office shall shall prepare appropriate documentation for the ballot and report back to the City Council regarding their obser- vations. Hero Borock, 3401 Ross Road, said the recommendations to amend the City Charter included changes to Article III, Section. 20, the assignment of officers' duties. That section prohibited the combination of the City Manager and -.Controller offices. or City Manager and Auditor, as amended,and the combination of any offi- cer appointed by the City Manager .:with an officer appointed by the. City Council He believed it was a good idea to prohibit combin- ing Council Appointed Officers, but that the prohibition should not be limited just -to the two offices currently listed in the Charter, and should be expanded to prohibit the combination of any two of those offices. As he read the second < ,prohibition, the .combination of the -City Manager with an officer appointed by the, -City Manager, such es the Director of Utilities, was prohibited. He was not sure whether. his interpretation was correpct, and he 'did not want to prohibit the City Manager's office from being combined: on a temporary basis with one of the officers reporting directly to' him, such. as was currently the case with Mr. Zaner serving as i Acting Director of Utilities, but agreed that It was inappropriate to combine one of the other Council Appointed Officers with one of the officers appointed by the City Manager. He suggested that it miyht be necessary to indicate the current situation_an exception in order to make it clear that it was possible to have the kind of combination currently existing with the City Manager and one of the officers appointed by him. Mayor Bechtel said Mr. Borock's comments were good,- She did not want -to draft language now, but hoped Mr. Bennetti could draft lanyuaye to incorporate those concerns. Mr. Zaner said if Council wanted Mr. Bennetti to draft language incorporating Mr. Borock's concerns, he wanted to note that he disagreed with Mr. 13orock's points. It -was important at times, on a temporary basis, to be able to_combine positions. He pointed out that the City Clerk acted as the City Manager during the _ transition between him and Mr. Sipel. He added that -the City Clerk and City Manager were the same person in many cities, and that the combination of City Manager and City Attorney had oc- curred in other cities. He said there was another -:section of the City Charter which specifically authorized the City Manager to assume the directorship of any department he would otherwise appoint, so that the authority to assume directorship of the Utilities Department did exist and was subject to concurrence of the City Counci l . Mayor Bechtel said Mr. Zaner explained the situation well, and she believed the motion only spoke to the Charter section .concerning the Auditor and it should be kept at that. Counctlmember Eyerly said the motion contained a loose end in terms of the Internal Auditor's job description. The Council would have to include d job description in the Administrative Code and he suspected that the recommendations of the Ad Hoe Committee should be studied in more detail by staff with a report to, and an in-depth discussion by, the City Council. Mr. Zaner said: the Committee proposed amendments to the Charter which, if approved by the: -electorate, would have to be followed:by Municipal Code changes, which would include spe_i l ing out the duties of the Internal Auditor. Mr. Bennetti concurred with Mr. Zaner that_code sections would have- to be amended, and said the preparation of the job descrip- tion was basically a recruiting function to fit the qualifications of the position as set forth •ln the Charter and Municipal Code.. Mr. Patitucci concurred that. there was no particular .pride of authorship in 1xhibit B and that it -.was merely the Committee's attempt to circumscribe .the kind of job it had in -mind. Exhibit:A represented the Committee's attempt at drafting Charter language. Revisions consistent with that language were expected, and ft was hoped that the Council would eventually adopt a job description somewhere within the genera1 theme.- Councilmember Fletcher asked City. Controller Al Mitchell for his comments. Mr. Mi tc kel l said he -found the recommendations to be . a good ap- proach to the .situation. Palo Alto had an unusual amount of cash resources --far more than the usual city of its size --and a good audit procedure was very much indicated for Palo Alto. Having been the City Controller for 22 years, the independent nature of a City Auditor appealed to him. He believed the recommendation was good as a„ businessi ike approach to cash and financial management. He compl imemted: the Ad Hoc Committee for its work. Regarding the concern of Councilmember Eyerl', there were many Changes in the Code that would have to follow a change in . the Charter. For instance there was a ;secondary effect on the other financial 3 2 7 8 5/U9/83 otticers in the City described in the Administrative Code where the City Manager might see fit to make changes in those duties. He. believed the Committee had drone a good. job, and it was up to the voters to concur. Councilmember Renzel believed the Charter provisions were the most time -dependent. All of the other material could be dealt with by the Council in a more leisurely fashion in order to conform with the Charter. .She believed the Council had the benefit of profes- siona% thinking in the excellent Committee .and that it was only a matter of Council determining whether the language was -consistent with its desires. :Stile complimented. the Committee, and said she_ had attended a couple of its meetings and was very impressed with its hard work and dynamics. Counciliaember Levy said he realized time constraints existed with having a Charter amendment prepared for the November ballot, .but asked if it was=_possible to bring the amendment back through the .F.inance and Public Works (F&PW) Committee first. He did not fore- see any era.ve concerns, but found that bringing items back to a smaller committee was: sometimes worthwhile in making- sure every base was covered before actually _ ubmitting it to the voters as a Charter amendment. Mr. -Bennetti responded that with the time constraints of the November election, it did not appear. feasible to bring the item back through the F$PW. Committee. He clarified that the motion inc.-laded bringing a draft of the Charter amendment back to the Council directly. Councilmember Levy suggested the wording be changed slightly to. incorporate the concept about operating data. For example, under Article IV, Section 12, the suggested amendment indicated that `:the City Auditor shall provide other financial analyses," and he .thought it might be clearer to say "shall provide other analyses of financial and operating data as requested 'by the City Council." He believed that concept would clarify the functions. AMENDMENT: Counci lmember Levy moved that the Charter stipulate that the responsibility of the City Auditor should be "to provide analyses Of financial and Operating data as requested by the City Council.." Councilrnernber Eyerly said he did not believe the amendment was necessary. The philosophy was fine, but the. City Attorney •would have to •return the material and there would be some reworking of the lariguaye then. Councilnember Levy's point was well taken. AMENDMENT DIED FOR LACK OF A SECOND, MUTIUN.PASSEU unanimously, Fazzino absent. Mayor Bechtel saio-in putting a Charter change on the ballot, it was a. good -idea to have several people -sign the bat tot arguments in favor-, which might well be Councilmembers -as well as a .repre- sentative of the Committee, Cou.ncilmember Eyerly said he had never figured out exactly how to thank speciai Council comnnttees. They could not- be paid with money or gifts, yet they served diligently and did -a, good job. In view of the Cosahritte0 s . . : good worlt and ethe Council ' s providing resolutions of apprecation-tp others, it was fitting for 'a,.resa- 1 ution of appreciation' to- be "prepared for. -the Ad Hoc Committee on the City's Financial Streu'cture.. MQTIOM: CowMcilmee ier, Eyer,ly. NeVite seconded by` :.!Clain. . that staff be `1iretted to prepare' a hresolution of •ppreofatioa for the Ad hoc Committee on toe City's -.. inaacial` Sttrecture` MOTION PASSED unanimously, Fazzino absent. Mayor Bechtel asked Mr. bennettt if the Council might expect receive the documentation in two or three weeks. Mr. Bennetti said that amount of time would be sufficient. ITEM #11, RECREATION :FACILITY RENOVATION - MITCHELL PARK TOT LOT • 1 1 City Manager Bill Liner said unless Council had questions, the staff report could stand on its : -awn. Mr. Harrington', the City Engineer, was present to answer any questions. MOTION: Counciloaeraber Cobb moved, seconded by Renzel, approval of the resolution, budget: amendment ordinance, and the award of contract. RESOLUTION 6115 entitled `RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE COY OF PALO ALTO APPROVING AN APPLICATION FOR GRANT FUNDS UNDER THE _ ROBERTI-Z'BERG URBAN SPACE AND RECREATION PROGRAM'_ ORDINANCE 3431 entitled 'ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALO ALTO AMENDING THE BUDGET FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 1982-83 TO PROVIDE, ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT 82-08 'MITCHELL PARK TOT LOT' AND TO PROVIDE FOR THE RECEIPT OF GRANT FUNDS FROM THE RUBERTI-Z'BERG URBAN OPEN SPACE AND RECREATION PROGRAM' AWARD OF CONTRACT John Shooter, Inc. MOTION PASSED unanimously, Fazzino absent. ITEM 14 RE UEST OF MAYOR BECHTEL RE DOUBLE CONTAINMENT LL iISLA ION SB 10 Mayor Bechtel said the hazardous materials ordinance should be on the Council agenda for May 16, but meanwhile a Senate Bill was introduced in Sacramento to pronibit local agencies from requiring secondary.containment of hazardous materials --specifically petro- leum products--which-would be heard on May 11 by the Senate Indus- trial Relations Committee. MOTION: Mayor Bechtel moved, seconded by Renzel, that the .Mayor be authorized to send a.comaunication to the appropriate legiSia- tors and the Senate. Industrial. Relations Committee re SB 1071 MOTION PASSED unanimously, Fazzino absent. UEST OF COUNCILMEMBERS COBB AND FAllINO RE _CONTINUA- 1 Y ICE SKA N Councilmember Cobb believed the memo coauthored by him and Vice Mayor Fazzino was .self-explanatory,- The last few weeks had -seen a reMarkab' a effort by the, Trust for Community ice Skating, result inn in the raising of -a substantial amount of money -and in meeting the kinds of conditions -requested by the Council_ in o_rder to show tanyible City. support: He understood=frog conversations with mem- bers -;o"f the Trust that -they. were facing a. firm deadline by which ,.to have some tangible evidence of support from the city in order for - he -process to -continue. He -believed -the activity was very important. to a lot of people in the community, ant. -if it co ld not be kept ; going in the nears term, its chances for survival Hin, the iong :tern . were virtually _zero. He believed ,the Counci must nuw smoke --s a :kind of li.0 Ited'near-term 'commitment with -4 clear cei1- ing. He intended to -make a motion. for a :atching grant proposal - with -a every t4pec1fic lie to limit the City -'s commitment. The purpose was,basically to permit ice skating to Continue in Palo Alto._ -in the 'near'' term and ,to ..give people an opportunity to con-. -- tinue taei'r hard work .to, provide for some: --long-term program. 3 2 8 0 5/09/83 Marilyn Laton, b9U Hermosa Way, Menlo Park, thanked the Council for hearing the matter and agreed that the lateness of the hour made decisions more difficult-, but said the Trust must make its commitment final before next Monday night's meeting. She pointed out that many interested members of the community had attended tonlyht's meeting, but due to the placement of the item on the agenda, they were told to yo home after --signing their names. The Trustees believed community support for outdoor ice skating An Palo 'Alto was tremendous as. indicated. by individual contributions totaling $15,000; however, they were still short the necessary capital to proceed with readying the Winter Club facility for another season :in the fall. In order to open, a minimum of $50,000 was needed for repairs and the facility's expenses which must be taken .on immediately, It was useless to pay bi l 1 s with the contributions if in reality there was no community support. The decision about whether to proceed must be made, and future fund raising efforts depended on a City' commitment to the :-preser- vation of the: ice skating program. _ She said it was clear- that a short-term solution: only made sense in the. context of a long-range program and there were several long-term solutions to be. consid- ered.- detause long-term solutions were involved and necessitated t►iorough consideration by staff, the City should Took at the proposed matching grant in terms of a study to find . sol uti ons to. -the problems. e She believed $25,000 was a small amount of money compared with funds spent for other studies recently approved by the City, and urged the City Council to vote- in favor of the proposal. Outdoor ice skating could continue without interruption and would provide a working model for the City to study, but it was impassible to study an operation that did not exist. Jack Morton, Trustee for the Trust for Community Ice Skating, 2243 Webster Street, said in response to Councilmember Klein's `motion of April 18 for the Trust to work with staff to provide an Ace skating proposal in the short term, this week's Council packet included that proposal with the necessary elements for a short- term solution, a portion of which involved a financial commitment from the City of Palo Alto. Since the inception of the Trust on April 4, its primary goal had been to develop a short-term mech- anism by which to provide the time :necessary for an analysis of the`. a l ternati ves for a long-term „sol uti on, but they never doubted the siynificance of City invoiverlient to both the short-term and tone -term solutions. He said the initial fund raising effort was undertaken in response to a City Council suggestion and was con- tingent on City involvement. Further, the $12,000 already raised was in trust and dependent on that :i,nvol vement. ._ He could elot speak for the 'Friendship Pavilion, Irrc`., but the Trustees under- stood that the pledges received by. them were also contingent on City involvement, and transferability was similarly restricted. The packet material included an offer for a `one-year lease from Mr. Perry and agreements to transfer responsibility for demolition and :ownership of the equipment to the . Trust on the part o f Mr. Wi 1 1 iai�s Subject to certain specific working capital require-, merits and pending, satisfaction of .the conditions necessary for transfer of the equipment, the Trust would approach. the YMCA for a decision on managing the program. As_:_correspondence_;fromethe "Y" -_indicated, its ' involvement would ebe contingent on satisfactory funding- of the.: required capital improvemen.ts -.: and: the cost of equipment acquisition. He -planned to meet A.ater in the week with representatives of the ,:" '" task force to, discuss -the issues. The Trustees undertook a__: second phase of fund raising, which now totaled $15,000,. -and would -raise ha-i f -, the' money ;r•equi red : to get through the summer,` but heeded the City to considertOnsidere what it could eipe to ensure that ice skating :would continue in Palo Alto- next y_ear•. Delay meant a `daily :erosion of the contribution base by incurring possibly futile' operating expenses -and the Trust . must know whether to go_.on and sign' the agreements with the indvidual s inVolved-or arr.anle-jor dgmoliti.,... 1 1 hian Bell, 2125 Emerson, said he .bel ieved substantial public sup- port nad been demonstrated for outdoor ice skating in Palo Alto, and that many people attended tonight's meeting but did not speak. The current facility provided many positive activities for the. community, particularly for the children of Palo Alto. Not having an ice skating rink would force those people into other activities because people would not go the distances required to find ice 'skating at other rinks. The facility was heavily used by Palo Alto residents and several efforts to save the outdoor ice skating had been submitted to the Council in the past. Council's verbal continents supported the concept, but always mentioned various prerequisites which the Trust believed were satisfied. These included a lease option, which was received from Mr. Perry and for which the Trustees submitted a financial plan, and solid community support, which was indicated by the amount of contributions received to date. The trustees had sorted through the many inter- locking constraints to develop a viable path to solve the dilemma. The proposal would allow the continuation of ice skating in- Palo Alto and was much more modest than some of the previous sugges- tions. He asked that the matching fund request be granted in order to allow the continuation of ice skating.in Palo Alto. Mark Yost, 1031 Crestview, Mountain View, has worked for Syntex for the past 11 years and felt very much a part of Palo Alto. He believed that if the inanhours of those who worked on the matter were totaled, the Council would be astounded. He had reached the burnout stage about a week ago and several others were at the point of quitting, but somehow they pul led together as a group and provided Council with the opportunity to continue public ice skating in Palo Alto. His children started skating at the ages of two and four, and he did not see how he could explain to them why there was no more skating at the linter Club. To his children and dozens of others, winter was the Winter Club. Most of the indi- viduals put forth the effort because something had to be done to preserve ice skating in Palo MO. He expressed his appreciation to those members of the City Council who were supportive, and far those still with questions, he said a $25,000 cap for the possible retention of ice skating in Palo Alto was dirt cheap when consid- ering the possibility of $2.5 mil to bui id a new rink. Mr. Zaner was concerned the Council was being put in a position of taking the responsibility for the continuation of the facility and for not having shown support. Almost one and one-half years ago, the Council proposed to provide a piece of City 'rand under option and at no cost to the group trying to put. the ice rink back to- gether, but the group was unsuccessful. .The Council considered the possibility of a $175,000 loan, and the next proposal was a grant for $40,000 --or a $1 per skater subsidy. The latest group made a proposal which included three requests, none of which involved the consideration of providing a sum of matching money. The first, request was to rezone the gas station; the second was to consider the future of ice skating in Palo Alto; and the third said the Trust would appreciate any type of financial assistance the Council might provide. The report showed an operating state- ment without City contributions, and on page 13 of that report, the operating statement showed a $130,000 annual operating expense without any City contributions. Further, Kr. Williams and , Mr Lee, who made the original attempt at preserving the Winter Club, reported that extensive repairs were necessary to the facility, and Mr. Wi I i ianis estimates that it would cost in the neighborhood of $175,00U —the basis for the original loan request. Now, appar- ently those repairs would not be done :,and the $40,000 (part-, of which the "City would match) would be used for capital improvements of some lesser nature. While he was sympathetic to the notion of continued ice skating at the facility, _ he believed. the `Council, was . .. being put in the awkward position of- being the- last .resort to provide financing for a facility,- which the Friends of the .Winter Club had been unable to do over the past two -.year period.. Counclliueniber Witherspoon said _.gin looking at the list of items proposed for the $50,000 expenditure, she assumed that things like the purchase of skates, equipment and the retail inventory had a real values -in terms of rentals or sales. She asked if there was - any chance the City would get its money back. Mr. Morton said the inventory items were not included in the sum mer "fundines because they were turnover items on which the Trust had a delayed purchase contract. The rental skates would have. to be purchased, as would the equipment and additional furniture, fixtures and small tools.. Regarding whether the City would pet its money back, the_ initial security provided to Mr. Williams included the equipment, and since his note delayed payment, the equipment would not be available to the City as security,. Councilmernber Witherspoon said she understood Mr. _Williams was the one puttiny the pressure on the Trust for the $25,000 matching greet, but was not sure why. She under_ stood Mr._, Williams was worried about cash flow problemtj and was trying to ensure his payment for the equipment. Mr. Morton said Mr. Wi l i iams deferred all of -his payments anti l next June, and opined that it would be imprudent for the Trust, as good -spirited and yoodwi l l ed citizens, to undertake the use of public contributions in an endeavor that lacked sound financing. The working capital limitation was imposed not only fur the -bene- fit of Mr. Wi i l ianls, but because he believed the Trust had a good -faith obligation to its contributors.- The Trust had to agree with the philosophy, but would have liked it better without the time constraints. Counci lrember Witherspoon asked how the $25,000, which was needed in seven days, would be spent. Mr. Morton said if the facility were to be demolished in a year, the .Trust could sell the equipment and skates for whatever amount, and the remaining proceeds could coo back to the City. The Trust hoped the facility would not be demolished in a year, and that the skates and equipment would be transferred to another facility. Regarding the $25,000, the Trust was committed to operating ex-. penses through the summer (rent, utilities, insurance, salaries), and if the -facility opened in the fall, there were advertising expenses, as well as the repair program which was being tinder-_ taken. an response to Mr. Zaner'-s comments reyardiny repairs, the Trustees were also epprehensive_and during the_ course.ef the:last- three weeks, an engineer was engaged to look at the pipeeae. The original proposal included an assumption that a good portion of the pipes would have to be replaced, but another study instituted by the Trustees indicated the pipes were in good condition.: it Was believed the potential risks involved- were discounted -2by the additional study, and a $75,000 replacement Item:_was not nec.es- sary. Counci )member Witherspoon asked why, in the event Mr. Morton'- s figures were correct, `$25,000 was needed up front when the orig- final proposal had the cash -flow ,worked out :oveeea period of time without the need for a sudden infusion. Mr. Morton said the original proposal included -a $50,000 total package as necessary start-up costs, 'and the items were detailed in part on page 26. Councilmember Witherspoon clarified that the schedule had been accelerated to the point where the Trustees could not < realisti- cally raise $60,000 in the amount of -'time given. Mr. Morton said that was correct,. Fund-raising efforts were at complete stand -still until the, questions of City support were 1 1 Mr. Laner said he and Mr. Morton had spent a ,lot of hours on the phone trying_to make the project work, and he wanted Council ,to understand that in references to the capital projects planned in the proposal of a week or so ago, the amount was $25,000 to do the roof, new ice cover, minor repairs, and $8,000 for start-up costs over the summer. Mr. Bennetti said he did not know to what extent Ms. Lee reviewed the matter, but tonight's proposal was new, and the City Attor- ney's office wanted to ree:erve the right, once Council decided its direction, to provide input and comments regarding.the identifica- tion of the public purpose for which the City'.s funds would be spent. He_was not hearing that the City was in.a secure position or in any way assured that there would be a public benefit propor, tionate-to the amount of money being requested. The rules about a public purpose for the expenditure of money with only an inciden- tal private benefit were clear and he was hearing that the City would pay off a lot of operating expenses. He did not know if the City would see the operation go on long enough to achieve a public benefit to the City. Mr. Laner said if Council chose to grant the request, he was con- fident that a public purpose could be shown, and that a contract could be written with the Trust along the :same lines as those contracts the City had with other community organizations to pro- vide services to the community. That, however, was separate and apart from whether the Council should provide the money. Councilmernber Levy said he was concerned about the tong -range commitment by the City. At the bottom of page two in the letter from Perry/Arrillaga to the City Council, it stated that Perry would provide a one-year lease with the hope that during that period some decisions could be made as to where another ice skat- ing facility could be constructed, or as a viable alternative, if the City could possibly exchange one of its unimproved properties of similar value for Mr. Perry's family's property on +iiddlefield Road. He. asked if the long-term viability of the project implied that the City would provide another facility oreproperty. Fur- ther, on page 2 of the letter from Mr. Morton to he City',; Council, the statement was made that "furthermore, we feel futuree large scale fund raising is dependent on a demonstration of City commit- ment to the long-term preservation of the_ skating program." He clarified that tonight'.s request was for. a short-term commitment, and he asked for an explanation of the City's commitment to the long-term preservation of the skating program,. Another comment was Meade tonight to the effect that the `Trust's fund raising efforts were at a standstill because people were waiting for the City to act. He doubted, that people were waiting for a small, short-term commitment by the City, but in fact were waiting for the City to make a commitment to the long-term , health of the skating program. Mr. Morton said he understood Mr. Perry's statement to mean that the reason for granting the one-year period was to provide time i.n which to. do an analysis of the various long-term solutions. One of the longs -term soiutions might be the amortizat€on request which would be before the -Council and which eras referred to in the item concerning the _Eseeryertcy Veterinary Chink. Most of thee long-term solutions needed some ,dey.ree of City staff .-input and `were techni- cal ly complex issues. The long-term City -commitment might ;have-' already -teen taken- at Inee April 18 meeting because one Motion_ asked the Policy and Procedures.. (PAP) Comntiittee tv ;:look at 'the-: ,viability of -.including ice skating, in the` City--.recrea-tion de-parte ment. The Trust beltevedea long-term commitment was already -on the City's agenda -at some pol nt s but was concerned, aboutese.tting a time frame .so that ever.:yone had ; a sense of. direCtton ar*d the pro- cedu res involved. Because 'of the compl ex i ty: of , the.. ,i s su-es- the Trust needed that time and _,staff Input. Counci 1uember Levy asked if the issue would be dead if the Council decided not to incorporate ice skating into the City's recreation program or whether there were other alternatives which did not require making ice skating a City -program. Mr. Morton believed all of the long-term alternatives involved some type of City involvement perhaps comparable to the original Gene Road arrangement. The difficulties with ice skating as a. coinmercla,i enterprise were the land costs and utilities. There were possibilities that woul-d involve a long --term study, and he suggested that the City might interest a commercial enterprise in providing_ a' facility at no cost to the City. He could not see a similar thing corning from the land point of view unless 'an anony- mous donor suddenly provided land for the facility. Councilmember Cobb commented that he did not perceive tonight's action as making any specific promise in the long term, but rather as leaving the option open. Aionaction would almost guarantee that - the option would be closed forever. For 'the past many months, Winter Club supporters had indicated that if some tangible expres- sion of City support was forthcoming, the level of public support wiuld grow rapidly. He believed that would occur, and that the supporters could climb a higher and. steeper mountain if they only had the tools. MOTION: Councilmember Cobb moved, seconded by Klein, that the City provide a matching grant of $1 for every $1 raised and placed in trust by community supporters of the ice skating program, to a limit of $25,000 and that the money be raised within six months from the date of the action, with the understanding that the pledge of the grant did not promise any further City financial support. Mr. Morton said he believed the -City's pledge would be overwhelm- ing and that the Trust could handle the matter from that point. Councilmember Klein said Section 2-E of Mr. Morton's letter to the Council indicated that Mr. Williams reserved the right to nullify all sales agreements unless the Trust was able to negotiate a two-year lease for the facility. Mr. Morton said Mr. Williams reserved that right and firmly com- mented that if the Trust filled most of the conditions, he would be forced to recognize that -fact. The "Y" shared Mr. Wi.l i rams concern about the oneyear lease, and Mr. Perry replied that Mr. Wi l i lams had .not yet .been thrown off the property and he was not about to do:; so.. Mr. Perry wanted to be sure the commitment would not be open-ended and also --wanted a time limit. Councilmember Klein asked if Councilmember Cobb intended that the money be a grant or a loan secured by whatever could be obtained. Councilmember, Cobb said :- he would accept whatever ,approach colleagues deemed appropriate, but the i:mportant.thing was some tangible evidence on the table that:the Trustees could Use to'. further its efforts. Councilmember Klein said he personnally preferred that the money be a loan with the understanding that it -. was risky and that the City was in the second, third_or fourth position_on it. -Councilmember Cobb supposed that almost-. made the money a. grant. Mr. Morton said the primary- se .urity would be _.given: to ikr. Wil- 1 iams "sin.ce the equipment belonged to him-. Subject to_ the:.101- : fi-1_tmerit of the ubi i'gatlara_ to nr. fi`l 1,iaals, the;. equipment, could be provided to the City as= security, there there was nothing else to _offer.. 1 3 2 8.5 5/09/83 denraetti said the transaction could be structured so that the City could lawfully make a grant, provided it had the contract mentioned by Mr. Laner assuring_a certain public purpose. He did not believe the City Attorney's office would be any more or less comfortable with the situation by making the money a loan as -opposed to a grant. He asked for clarification whether Council - member Cobb -meant-, anything more forma by "receive the money in trust" other than to say the Trustees themselves would see the money was spent for the purposes for which it was collected. Councilmember Klein said he was comfortable with the grant idea. He asked if Councilmurnber Cobb intended -to give credit for the funds which had already. been raised or if the City was only talk- iny about matching new money. Councilmember Cobb said he intended that the motion would give credit for the funds already collected. Mayor t3echtel asked-- for --clarification that part of the motion 'wou l d be A. contract to be Worked, out along the lines specified by Mr. Laner. Counci lmentber. Cobb said that was correct and would include the language with respect to public benefit, which he agreed could. easily be'found. MOTION TO INCLUDE CREDIT FOR FUNDS ALREADY COLLECTED AND THAT A CONTRACT AND BUDGET AMENDMENT OL9INANCE 8E RETURNED TO COUNCIL FOR APPROVAL Mr. Laner said the City would also need to retain the right to audit to determine that (the rnoriey was placed in trust. . Counci lmersrber Renzel said many Counci lmembers had not made any. - financial commitments from the long-term perspective, and it was important for the record to reflect that the grant was seed money, not option money Regarding the Trustees' fund raising efforts, it should be clear that the City expected the public, who so strongly supported the activity, to come forth with the neces- sary operating expenses. She was willing to approve the grant in order to continue the option and allow sufficient time, and hoped the previous problens associated with fund-ra.isir g efforts did not _occur and future efforts would be -More successful. Counci lrnember Fletcher :asked where the .City would get the funds.. Mr. Laner responded that the funds would =come from the City's reserves. The money, -.was not appropriated, and -the action would:. require a budget amendment ordinance,- which staff-wauld provide. - The contract and budget amendment ordinance would be brought back to the Council at the same time. Counci imember Witherspoon said she was concerned about the short- term nature, of the' solution 'and asked where. the City'would be in a year. TheCommittee would, spend a year trying to keep the program ,going by providing skating under contract -at the : Winter~ Club for one:year, but at the end of that time, Mr. Perry would either. want more rent, a 'rezon i rig,' or. -something,. -and she asked who would have the energy, time andmoney to look at the long-term plans. She.: :was not interested in providing skating for one ;r year if there would be no skating after -that period.. She preferred that the concentration be on a long«term solution to -the problem, which' would require YMCA involvement: on a Tong -term basis and probably `finding a site where a 'facil:ity could. be:A built and: -some type -of limited partnership .that --would be willing to .put up the money. There` were .a : lot of imp;drtant and time-consuming long-term plan- i eg items to be _done, - which "wod.!-d not get done by scrambling around for a -.year trying ;to determirne how to pay for. the skates. .: She : tho ught--..the, proposal made no sense, and .:the, $25,000 --whether Eli not it was a- grant--wou1 d never be seen again. 3 2 8 6 5/09/83 Mr. Lanen Said the Gouncil made an assignment to staff a couple of weeks ago to do a Tong -range analysis on the implications for ice skating An Palo Alto, and_to return with a report and recommenda- tions as to whether it could be worked into the City's recreation program. That assignment was to be in conjunction with the' -Trust, but he heard Councilmember Witherspoon- saying the assignment snouid be expanded Councilmember Witherspoon said she did not believe it >was the City's responsibility to find out who should build the building or where it should be, The Trust had to undertake all of that workv but that could not be done if the Trust was scrambling around for a year trying to find money to, pay off the rental skates. Trying to keep Messrs. Perry and Williams happy was not the way to arrive at a lony-term solution to the problem. Councilmember Levy said he. was one of those who provided strong verbal support for the Winter Club and the concept of ice-skating in Palo Alto. He was not alone if( his support and believed there had been a tremendous outpouring of verbal support in the commu- nity. That support was not matched by financial support, which concerned him. He would reluctantly support. the motion to offer $25,000 of City funds so the Winter Club would not die on May 10, because everything he read indicated the City was being asked for far more than $25,000. Everyone expected future large-scale dem- onstrations of City commitment, which implied that people either wanted dollars from the City or for. the City to take over the program. He .was not committed in that direction whatsoever, and pointed_ out that so far this year, the City's deficit was -$5.75 million. -0n that basis, the City was not in a position to take over an ice skating program which had proven that it could be run profitably by the private sector for a number of years. He hoped it was clear that the $25,00 he supported was to make sure the proyraiat did not die tomorrow. If it was not to die in a year, it would mean that the private sector in the community, which indi- cated its support in large numbers, would have to find a way to do so financially. Councilmember Eyerly said he previously had made a motion which addressed having staff prepare a capital. improvement project for the Council to study in terms of ice skating. That motion was not accepted, and he was not -sure the motion on the floor properly addressed the staff assignment. He ,understood from Mr. Morton that his group believed with staff's help, they could determine whether the present facility could be preserved and be operational for another 20 years. He believed that fell under the portion of the staff assignment to help analyze those things, but asked for clarification. Mr. loner said the assignment was for staff to look at the long- range implications of ice skating in Palo Alto, to return to the Council during budget hearings next year and to inform the Council as to the manner in which the City could include ice skating as part of the City's recreation --programs,- if possible... Councilmember Eyerly said from -what he was hearing tonight and the Council's reluctance to .be drawn `into any-- lon.g-tenor Commitments its terms of expenses=, the grouvasking for the immediate loan to pre-- st:rve ice skating- in the short-term needed to be realistic about what the Council world, support. He was not_willibg- to support anything more than what was:;' proposed" tonight; t,o give the Trust an ,opportunity to have Ongoitigilee skating4, and _he expected with that help and in conjunction with staff , the Trust would come /Up with realistic: figures as to whether current- ;p.reservation Gould-, be surmounted, He did. not see -any. way:. -the City would preserve ice skating in a new`-facili,ty to the tune:of -1.25 million, whicll,ras _tire figure discussed in the past. He Old_ not Want anyone drea.ming about his .positi-on. 1 Couricitmember Cobb said he had tried to draw a carefully ,worded motion with specific limits With respect to .Councilmember Witn- erspoon's comments, he heard from the people most interested that if the program died now, it would be dead forever, and that keep- ing the door open was critical at this point. He realized private efforts were being made. He hoped they would come to fruition because that could be the ultimate answer__to everyone's satisfac- tion. If the options were not kept alive, the private efforts were guaranteed to fail. He urged Council support and told the Trustees that their road would still be very tough, but at 'least there was a chance. 1 MJTIUN PASSED by a vote of 7-1, Witherspoon voting "no," FazzIno absent. ADJOURNMENT Council adjourned at 1:00 a.m. ATTEST: APPROVED: