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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTC Min 2018-03-02 (Staff Retreat) TOWN OF TIBURON 1505 Tiburon Boulevard Tiburon, CA 94920 1 ' 1 03 Date: March 6, 2018 To: Mayor and Members of the Town Council From: Lea Stefani, Town Clerk Subject: Summary of March 2, 2018 Council-Staff Retreat On March 2, 2018, the Town Council held a special meeting at The Ranch at Dairy Knoll for the purpose of its annual retreat with Town staff. At 8:30 a.m., Mayor Fraser called the meeting to order. Councilmembers Fredericks, Thier and Welner, Vice Mayor Kulik and Mayor Fraser were present. Staff members present were Town Manager Chanis, Town Attorney Stock, Director of Community Development Anderson, Director of Public Works/Town Engineer Barnes, Director of Administrative Services Bigall, Chief of Police Cronin, Planning Manager Watrous, Associate Engineer Lashkevich, Emergency Services Coordinator Nilsen and Town Clerk Stefani. Building Official Salzman and Management Analyst Creekmore arrived mid-morning. One member of the public (Deirdre McCrohan) attended, and was joined later by several members of the public. Mayor Fraser asked for oral communications. Lynn Fox expressed concern about fire mitigation on Town-owned open space land near her home, and suggested landscaping content coming from the Town be available in Spanish. Mayor Fraser and Town Manager Chanis reviewed the agenda. Chanis said the goal of the retreat was to review several open discussion topics in the morning, and to focus on capital project priority setting in the afternoon. He said each discussion item should be limited to approximately 30 minutes, and is a good forum for a brief discussion and direction to staff. He said last year's retreat had been in the same format and had resulted in several successful projects. The list of topics discussed, a brief summary and direction given is below: Emerl4ency Preparedness Laurie Nilsen, Emergency Services Coordinator, discussed the various resources available on the Peninsula in case of an emergency. She explained the Town has an Emergency Operations Plan, which guides local emergency response, and a joint Emergency Operations Center at the Tiburon Police Department, shared with the City of Belvedere. She said the EOC operates as a central location to coordinate response to an emergency, has necessary supplies, and is due for a laptop upgrade this year to ensure better connectivity with the County of Marin and other agencies in the event of an emergency. She said there are first aid stations on the peninsula, stocked with supplies and agreements with doctors, nurses and local vendors and shelters to call upon if necessary. Nilsen said personnel is another great asset—two cities sharing the same EOC is beneficial, and the Town can always call on reserve police, volunteer firefighters and mutual aid from other agencies. Nilsen said a frequently asked question in recent months is how the public will be notified if there is an emergency. She said there are six sirens on the peninsula that can be sounded to alert citizens to tune in to the local radio station, and AlertMarin can send out a mass-notification via text, landline, or email. Nilsen emphasized that if the recent earthquake in Alaska had triggered a tsunami warning in the San Francisco Bay, AlertMarin would have notified subscribers. Town Manager Chanis and Nilsen explained that all public employees are disaster service workers, and must be trained to understand that, in the event of an emergency, they will be working for a possibly unknown period of time. Nilsen said public employees are trained to work in the EOC, and there is an annual county-wide EOC exercise. She said there are also trainings available to the public. The Council expressed interest in leadership-specific training. Affordable Housing Director of Community Development Anderson said California is suffering a housing crisis — for both affordable units, and the overall supply of housing. He said not enough new units are being built across California, including in Tiburon. He said much of Tiburon is already built, and vacant lots are vanishing. Anderson said the State has passed many laws recently in response to the housing crisis — many of which undermine local control and require a streamlined review and/or approval of housing projects to meet a certain number of units. He said this is particularly troubling as most cities do not have ability to influence housing construction. He said one common solution has been the accessory dwelling unit, but this is not particularly popular in Tiburon. Furthermore, he said remaining undeveloped lots are not necessarily suitable for housing projects. He said the Town has money available to support affordable housing projects, but do not have any sites where the owners are willing to take on such a project. Anderson said removing obstacles for production of units is no longer enough to comply with new legislation; new units must be built. Anderson said another troubling matter is the attempts to tie unrelated funding, like street maintenance funds, to the production of housing; the end result being that cities that don't build affordable housing might lose some of those fiords. Anderson said many Marin County cities are in the same situation as Tiburon. Town staff and the Council briefly discussed one promising multi-unit site near the Police Station and Corporation Yard, and the local school district's interest in the same site for their employees. 2(TF C�()l \( II_ S I ;Il L;\lSl_"�1\92 0I 4 The Council also discussed the potential impacts of upcoming legislation on the Town, and the concern of losing transportation funding from the State of California over this matter. Councilmember Thier suggested educating Tiburon residents further on accessory dwelling units, and Director Anderson explained that while these units might not officially be designated as "affordable housing units", the Town is usually able to ascertain that the units are rented at an affordable rate, and it counts toward the Town's unit requirement. Richardson Bay Sanitation District Town Manager Chanis said the Richardson Bay Sanitation District property on Blackie's Pasture had been the subject of some discussion lately, and the question has been raised about the future of the property. Chanis explained the existing use of the property — he said it is a functioning sanitation district with offices, a pump station, and a corporation yard onsite, but no longer treats sewage at this facility. He pointed out the three ponds on their property were used for recycling water, and the Town is currently their only customer for recycled water. Chanis explained that the Town will likely stop purchasing recycled water from the district soon, and given that the Town is their only customer. there may be no need for them to maintain this part of their property. Chanis said the manager has expressed interest in working with the Town to determine the best future for this real estate. He said the sanitation district is its own government entity, so anything will have to be reviewed and approved through their board. Councilmember Fredericks inquired if there would ever be a need for the Town to use recycled water again, and wondered how the Richardson Bay Sanitation District board felt about the proposed use of their ponds. Chanis said the board's specific thoughts are still unknown at this time, and it will be up to the district to decide what to do with this land when the district no longer has recycled water customers. Chanis said the Town would gladly use recycled water, if it were cleaner. He said this water may not be able to be used on a public area in the future. Councilmember Thier thought the potential of finding a public use for this land was an excellent opportunity for Tiburon residents that should be discussed soon. She said it is in an ideal location for recreational use, and would like the Council to study potential uses for this area, and see if the district board has any interest in moving forward with a proposal for acquisition of the land. Mayor Fraser said some members of the Parks, Open Space and Trails Commission are also currently studying possible improvements in the Blackie's Pasture area. He said that group should be reporting their findings to the Council soon. He suggested linking the two initiatives together and discussing both at the same Council meeting, which would also allow for public input from the community on the big picture. \'L\il cI-1 3,201 0 w'\Cl l 5 1 \ri Ri ii,] A( Sl_'-dl I,AIzv It,<„C 3 of S Thier expressed concern about grouping a longer-term initiative of a larger scale with this short- term opportunity, and the Council agreed that it was important to consider the improvements of this area in a larger context. Mayor Fraser suggested Councilmember Thier continue to work with the Town Manager on specific discussions with the sanitation district, and recommended the Parks, Open Space and Trails Commission bring forward their findings or proposals to the Council as soon as possible. EV CharlZing Stations Director of Public Works/Town Engineer Barnes said the Town must now comply with ADA regulations when installing electric vehicle charging stations. He said staff had previously identified the Lyford parking lot to be the best public lot for a station, but with the new ADA compliance regulations, five existing parking spaces would be lost. He said staff did not recommend proceeding with that location for that reason. Barnes and the Council had a brief discussion about the rates charged at the stations, and Barnes concluded the Town would not likely recoup its costs. The Council discussed potential locations for charging stations. Planning Manager Watrous said the owner of a private lot downtown will be installing a station, and Councilmember Thier wondered if a charging station closer to the 101 freeway would be more useful. Building Official Salzman suggested asking Tesla to install a charging station. Staff and the Council discussed the merits of this suggestion. Councilmember Welner wondered if the demand for a charging station was high at that specific lot—he supposed Tiburon residents charged their vehicles at their homes, and visitors would not likely visit that lot to charge. Barnes said staff had looked at a number of locations in Town for a charging station, and explained the complications. He said it is difficult to put a charger curbside due to the ADA regulations, lack of curbside space, and the fact that electric vehicles have a variety of different plug in locations on the actual vehicle. Barnes explained another obstacle is to find an private parking lot owner willing to install a station. He said one owner is planning to install a station, but staff would have to work with the others to see if they are agreeable to installation at perhaps more advantageous locations. Councilmember Thier suggested asking the library to install charging stations during their expansion. Chanis agreed, and said they are just beginning design development. Mayor Fraser asked how other cities are approaching this issue. Barnes said other entities have built them into their own facilities, and the City of San Rafael has installed them in their paid parking garage and charges users. He said charging stations can also end up in developments 3,'1011 Coy WWI S vI 11.E 1 R)_AI `7t `I\iR' Pagc 4 of 5 (like shopping centers) because the municipality required them as a condition of approval, but they often go unused. Welner suggested doing some market research to determine where the charging stations would be most useful and needed. Chanis said the most likely successful scenario of EV charging station installation would be for staff to work with the private landowners to see if there is a way that they will locate them in their paid lots. Mayor Fraser suggested Town staff continue to work with private property owners to see if there can be an agreement, and report back to the Council at a later date. Library Expansion Town Manager Chanis said the library expansion project is moving into a different phase. He said the Library Foundation is acting as the fundraising arm of the library for this project, and they have recently obtained a bridge loan. He said they can now begin the design development phase of the project. He showed an architectural rendering of what the library could look like after completion of the expansion. Director of Community Development Anderson summarized that there will be a significant change to the Mar West intersection, as the parking lot would be accessed from Mar West Street as opposed to Tiburon Boulevard. He also noted the library will need to secure a flood zone variance from the Town Council to build their proposed project, as the FEMA flood maps changed after project approval. He said another outstanding issue is a permit from CalTrans to reconfigure Tiburon Boulevard in front of Town Hall and the library and extend the left turn pocket on Tiburon Boulevard for cars headed to Mar West Street. Anderson said staff is in frequent communication with the library project manager as the project moves forward. Councilmember Thier wondered if the library had asked for a monetary contribution from the Town. Chanis explained that while there has been no official request for a monetary contribution, he anticipates the library will soon make a request due to the creation of a `civic center'-like improvement to the area between Town Hall and the library. Chanis added that construction is anticipated to begin in about one year. Technology Town Manager Chanis said the Town has implemented and is actively integrating several new software programs in use day-to-day at Town Hall, including Trak-it for building and planning permit tracking, Facility Dude for Public Works daily task management, Granicus for public meeting management, and a new financial management software. Chanis and the Council discussed Granicus' capability to video stream meetings. Chanis explained the Town would need to install cameras and other hardware, and the Council thought 2017 COQ\Cl]_-S r-\FF RI T Rl \[ til \11 Vi,,(1 ' I'aac 5 of S this would be a great addition to the Town's public meetings. Chanis also explained the Council could consider implementing OpenGov, a financial transparency tool now utilized by local governments for budgeting purposes. He said staff could return to the Council at a later meeting with a demonstration. Councilmember Welner reiterating the benefits of adding video to public meetings, and suggested staff and the Council decide if other boards and commissions should be video streamed as well. He also suggested adding board and commission member biographies and photos to the Town's website for the public's benefit. Welner said there are several other improvements that could be made to the Town's website for the public's benefit —he said some people have had difficulty finding agendas, and it would also be beneficial to make some of the building permit process online. Welner also believed it was important to follow best legal practices and for the Council to utilize Town-owned email addresses for official business. He said the one major obstacle for successful implementation of this would be the limitations of the current webmail platform. He suggested forming a technology ad-hoc subcommittee to study these issues and general technology usage. Traffic on Tiburon Boulevard Director of Public Works/Town Engineer Barnes informed the Council that several local crossing guards may be lost due to lack of funding, and showed a chart outlining the results of a risk study to determine which lower-risk intersections will lose the crossing guards. The Council discussed the importance of having crossing guards near schools, even if those intersections did not score high for risk in the study. Councilmember Thier emphasized the importance of teaching kids to cross roads safely, and Mayor Fraser suggested involving the Reed Union School district leadership in the conversation. Chief of Police Cronin pointed out that the intersection at Blackfield Drive and Tiburon Boulevard may also lose their crossing guard. He said that while this is a controlled intersection, there is still a perception that it is unsafe. Chanis added that no changes will be made this calendar year, and depending on funding. the Town may still have the same number of crossing guards, but at different intersections as a result of the study. Chanis clarified that the Town could n-tove the crossing guards, and Director Barnes said the Transportation Authority of Marin will ask the Council to understand that an official traffic study has determined which intersections should have crossing guards, and the Council is choosing to move them. Mayor Fraser said the Council needs to figure out a way to cover intersections that aren't covered. Vice Mayor Kulik asked if the data was only specific to young children. Director Barnes confirmed the study only counted children between ages 5-14. N L\i Cci i �,2011 Cm X(-1 l_-` I.v1=1= IZl I Ill-.=vI SL',1\I \IZl' hake 6 0l ti On another note, Chief Cronin spoke briefly to traffic light signal timing on Tiburon Boulevard. He said changing the signal timing cannot be done on Tiburon Boulevard because the gaps between the lights are too far apart. He said staff has successfully gotten CalTrans to steadily extend and shorten times for cars coming off of the side streets, which has generally added some improvement to the traffic. Speeding in Neighborhoods Town Manager Chanis said staff receives regular complaints from residents that cars and speeding in their neighborhoods. Director of Public Works/Town Engineer Barnes said staff has been putting up speed signals in these neighborhoods to collect speed data. He said the data shows the average car is going the posted speed limit, but some cars are going a little faster. Barnes explained that the results of a traffic study would not likely lower the posted speed limit, but could raise it, which is not the solution Tiburon residents are looking for to feel safer. Barnes said residents often ask for speed bumps or speed dots, but ultimately neither are solutions for Tiburon. He said speed dots are loud and do not effectively reduce speed, and speed bumps are difficult to install due to the basic regulations of where they are permitted. Barnes said he has also received requests for adding in stop signs. He said if a stop sign is unwarranted in a specific location, drivers will tend to not stop at the sign. Chief Cronin said the data shows that most drivers are not actually violating the posted speed limit, and residents likely feel unsafe next to cars driving at that speed on a narrow road with no sidewalk. He explained that the only way to lower the speed limit on the roads with the most complaints is to conduct a speed study by a traffic engineer, and if the traffic engineer's results are to instead raise the speed limit, the Town will have no choice but to raise the speed limit. He said the only way to lower a speed limit is for the drivers to actually drive slower on the street. Cronin said the only solution is increased enforcement, but it is difficult to place a police car on some of the small streets to do effective enforcement. He said the police department is also not staffed for sustained periods of enforcement. Mayor Fraser suggested an increase in visibility of police on some of these problem streets. Cronin agreed, and said the police strategically place themselves at various parts of Town in between calls. He said a police presence helps residents feel safer. Capital Improvement Program and Review of Budget Reserves Town Manager Chanis offered a broad view of large upcoming projects in Town. He said the Town is at a high peak of projects over the next several years, including: storm drain pipe repairs, McKegney Green, the Streets Overlay Project, Rule 20A undergrounding along Tiburon Boulevard, solar on the police station, the Hawthorne and Virginia Undergrounding Districts, Beach Road drainage, and the ferry dock pile repair. MARC ! 3,?O17 Coo A(-.II.-SI-AIT R TRI v(St.y1y!_yRY Page 7 of S A discussion of the impact of the Hawthorne Undergrounding District construction followed. Town Attorney Stock advised that building permits in this area could not be limited during the undergrounding construction, and Director of Public Works/Town Engineer Barnes said certain conditions to building permits will be needed, like limiting parking or debris containers, to give the contractor room to work and access to the road. Chanis then summarized the Town's overall financial strategy and reviewed various figures of the budget reserves maintained by the Town, and the reserves the Town uses to fund capital projects like these. He also summarized the various policy-directed, discretionary set-asides, unallocated and restricted funds the Town maintains. Capital Project Priority Setting Town Manager Chanis gave an overview of the capital project priority setting process, and showed a list of 31 projects in the current portfolio. Ile said the 31 projects were ranked by staff members in different departments, and explained the projects were weighted differently, with the heaviest weight given to those projects that reduced health and safety threats, those required by legal mandate and the cost of deferred maintenance. Chanis said the results of the ranking exercise resulted in a three-tiered (not individually ranked) project list that guides the Council and staff in future budgeting decisions. He said another useful tool in the priority setting process is the individual project data sheet made for each capital project. He said each sheet now includes an indicator for if the project will be impacted by sea level rise. Chanis and Director Bigall explained that the best time for the Council to make comments or changes to the portfolio and rankings is during the annual budget process, when the Capital Improvement Program is presented in depth to the budget committee. Mayor Fraser suggested that, given three new council members, staff bring the CIP back to the Council as an individual item for a more robust review as part of the budget:process. The meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m. .TIM F MAYOR ATTEST: LEA STEFANI, TOWN CLERK M1,yIzc l] >,2017 Col�xcll t -,rl RI-1 lu ,v r 5t"v1y;-\1n' Page 8 of-S