HomeMy WebLinkAboutTC Min 2006-11-15
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TOWN COUNCIL
MINUTES
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Smith called the adjourned meeting of the Tiburon Town Council to order at 7:00 p.m.
on Wednesday, November 15, 2006, at the Bel Aire School Auditorium, 277 Karen Way,
Tiburon, California.
ROLL CALL
PRESENT: COUNCILMEMBERS:
Berger, Fredericks, Gram, Slavitz, Smith
PRESENT: EX OFFICIO:
Town Manager Curran, Town Attorney Danforth,
Director of Community Development Anderson,
Planning Manager Watrous, Planning Consultant
Lisa Newman, EIR Consultant Leonard Charles,
Director of Public Works/Town Engineer Nguyen,
Director of Administrative Services Bigall, IT
Coordinator Monterichard, Town Clerk Crane
Iacopi
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ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
None.
CONSENT CALENDAR
1. Town Council Minutes - October 18, 2006
2. Town Council Minutes -October 24,2006 (transcript of meeting)
3. Town Monthly Investment Summary - Accept Report for September 2006
4. MarinMap Program - Recommendation to transfer Management ofMarinMap Program
from Marin Telecommunications Agency to Marin General Services Agency (Town
Manager Peggy Curran)
5. Town of Tiburon v. Siciliano - Request for Authorization for Town Manager to Execute
Settlement Agreement (Town Manager Peggy Curran)
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6. Maintenance of Trees at McKegney Green/South Knoll Area - Request for Budget
Amendment to Authorize Safety Pruning and Trimming (Director of Public Works/Town
Engineer Nick Nguyen) - continued to January 2007
Town Council Minutes # 22 -2006
November 15, 2006
Page 1
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7. Storm Drain Network - Request for Budget Amendment to Televise Town Storm
Drains (Director of Public Works/Town Engineer Nick Nguyen)
8. Holiday Event on Main Street - Special Event Permit Application by Chamber of
Commerce and Request for Street Closure on December 1, 2006 (Police Chief Matt
Odetto)
MOTION:
To adopt Consent Calendar Item Nos. 1,2,3,4,5,7 and 8, as written; Item No.6
continued, as noted.
Slavitz, Berger
AYES: Unanimous
Moved:
Vote:
PUBLIC HEARING
9. Appeals of Planning Commission Decisions to Certify the Environmental Impact
Report and to Deny the Conditional Use Permit Application for Expansion of an
Existing Religious Facility and Day School - Report by Director of Community
Development Scott Anderson and Planning Consultant Lisa Newman
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Address:
Assessor Parcel No.:
Applicant! Appellant:
Appellant:
Appellant:
215 Blackfield Drive
038-351-34
Congregation Kol Shofar
Tiburon Neighborhood Coalition
Greenwood Beach Homeowners Association
The hearing was transcribed by Diane M. Gallagher, RPR, of American Reporting Services,
LLe.
ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Smith closed the public hearing
to a meeting in January, 2007.
ed the meeting at 9:08 p.m., to be continued
PAUL SMITH, MAYOR
AT7~i/)fI .
l t/V?-./ ,,>~
DIANE CRANE"'lACOPI, TOWN CLERK
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Town Council Minutes # 22 -2006
November 15, 2006
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On January 3, 2007, the Town Council adopted the transcript of the hearing as reported by
Diane M. Gallagher, CSR., American Reporting Services, LLe. Copies of the transcript are
available at Town Hall.
Town Council Minutes # 22 -2006
November 15, 2006
Page 3
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STATE OF CALIFORNIA
TOWN OF TIBURON
COFY
IN RE:
CONGREGATION KOL SHOFAR APPEAL
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PUBLIC HEARING
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Tiburon, California
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Reported by: DIANE M. GALLAGHER, RPR
CSR No. Michigan 2191
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711 Grand Avenue, Suite 120, San Rafael, CA 94901 .800-624-8688.415-482-9030 Fax: 415-482-9038
""lllericanCSR@aol.colll. www.alllericancsr.colll
PROCEEDINGS - 11/15/06
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STATE OF CALIFORNIA
TOWN OF TIBURON
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6 IN RE:
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8 CONGREGATION KOL SHOFAR APPEAL
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Proceedings taken in the above matter at the
Bel Aire Elementary School, Multi-Purpose Room,
277 Karen Way, Tiburon, California, beginning at
7:00 p.m., and ending at 9:08 p.m., on Wednesday,
November 15, 2006, and before DIANE M. GALLAGHER,
Certified Shorthand Reporter, Michigan No. 2191.
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PRESENT:
TIBURON TOWN COUNCIL
PAUL SMITH, Mayor
THOMAS GRAM, Vice Chair
JEFF SLAVITZ, Councilmember
ALICE FREDERICKS, Councilmember
MILES BERGER, Councilmember
PEGGY CURAN, Town Manager
ANN DANFORTH, Town Attorney
DIANE CRANE IACOPI, CMC, Town Clerk
DANIEL M. WATROUS, Planning Manager
SCOTT ANDERSON, Director of Community Development
LISA NEWMAN, Planning Consultant
LEONARD CHARLES, EIR Consultant
MATT ODETTO, Chief of Police
HEIDI BIGALL, Director of Administrative Services
NICK NGUYEN, Director of Public Works/Town Engineer
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APPEARANCES:
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3 For Appellant Congregation Kol Shofar:
4 RAGGHIANTI FREITAS LLP
BY: GARY T. RAGGHIANTI
5 Attorney at Law
874 Fourth Street, Suite D
6 San Rafael, CA 94901-3246
415-453-9433
7 gtraggs@rflawllp.com
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For Tiburon Neighborhood Coalition:
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LAW OFFICES OF STEPHAN C. VOLKER
BY: STEPHAN C. VOLKER
Attorney at Law
436 14th Street, Suite 1300
Oakland, CA 94612
510-496-0600
s volker@volkerlaw.com
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PUBLIC COMMENT
Kurt Kaull
Jerry Thayer
Christy Seidel
Ron Brown
Virginia Brunini
Edward Baker
Karen Nygren
Tim Metz
Brad Tardy
Charles Wisch
Susan Goldwasser
Mike Grinnell
Richard Goldwasser
Lenore Gordon
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Tiburon, California - Wednesday, November 15, 2006
7:04 p.m. - 9:08 p.m.
R E COR D
MAYOR SMITH: We are going to get the meeting
started. Before this meeting, we had a closed session
and we discussed the item on the agenda. No forma.l
action was taken.
Can we have roll call, please?
MS. IACOPI: Yes, Mr. Mayor. Councilmember
Fredericks.
COUNCILMEMBER FREDERICKS: Here.
MS. IACOPI: Councilmember Berger.
COUNCILMEMBER BERGER: Here.
MS. IACOPI: Councilmember Slavitz.
COUNCILMEMBER SLAVITZ: Here.
MS. IACOPI: Vice Mayor Gram.
VICE MAYOR GRAM: Here.
MS. IACOPI: Mayor Smith.
MAYOR SMITH: Here.
MS. IACOPI: Let the record reflect all the
Council is present.
MAYOR SMITH: Now is the time for public
comment on items that are not on tonight's agenda.
Does anyone want to comment on something that
is not on tonight's agenda?
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Seeing none, that brings us to our Consent
Calendar.
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One item on our Consent Calendar, Item 6,
4 having to do with the trees on McKegney Green has been
5 continued.
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Also, Item 2, the Town Council minutes for the
7 October 24 meeting are actually a transcript of that
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meeting.
We have received certain errata, certain
9 comments, which I think have been distributed here. So
10 the minutes will be as amended by those errata.
11 Any member of the public who would like to take
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an item off the Consent Calendar for discussion?
Any member of the Council who would like to
take an item off the Consent Calendar?
Do I hear a motion?
COUNCILMEMBER SLAVITZ: So moved.
COUNCILMEMBER BERGER: Second.
MAYOR SMITH:
All in favor say aye.
The Consent Calendar is approved. And that
brings us to our public hearing.
The sole item on tonight's agenda is the
22 continued hearing from October 24 of the appeal of the
23 Planning Commission decision regarding the Kol Shofar
24 project.
25 If you recall, those of you who were here at
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the last meeting, we closed the public comment period
with one exception, and that was to accept a public
comment on a written submission that was to be provided
to us by the Tiburon Neighborhood Coalition.
That submission has been received by the Town.
It's attached to the staff report, which should be
available to you back there.
The sole topic of public comment tonight will
be to comment on that written submission.
All other public comment was received October
24, and the public comment period is closed other than
that.
I want to give you just a brief rundown on the
procedures that will apply.
First, we will have a very brief presentation
of the staff report because essentially it simply
attaches the Tiburon Neighborhood Coalition's written
response.
We will follow that with public comment on the
TNC's written proposal.
There will be no formal presentations.
Speakers will have three minutes. We have speaker
cards, which are over here; and if you haven't filled
out a speaker card, you can go over and see Dan at the
end of the table and fill out a speaker card.
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MR. WATROUS: And they are at the back.
MAYOR SMITH: They are at the back of the room
as well.
And at the close of those comments, we will
close public comment formally, and completely, and at
that time Tom Gram will present the subcommittee's
report to the Council.
For those of you who are not aware of it, Tom
Gram and I have acted as an ad-hoc subcommittee meeting
with both sides in trying to work with both sides
through this process, and we have prepared a report and
recommendations to the Council.
Tom Gram will present the report. I will
present the recommendations.
Recommendations will come in the form of a
couple different documents, all of which will be placed
on the screen behind me, so that you will be able to
follow along. Written copies of those slides will be
made available after the presentation.
The Council will then discuss the
recommendation and any other items that any
councilmember wishes to discuss, and after which we will
take a vote.
The vote is anticipated to be in the form of a
request that staff return at a subsequent meeting with
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formal resolutions consistent with the Council's
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comments tonight.
We anticipate that there will be at least two
resolutions, that they will be drafted, and while in
draft form circulated to the Appellants in advance of
the next meeting, and we will be requesting written
comments from the Appellants on the draft resolutions.
Because of the approaching holidays, we
anticipate the final hearing on this matter will be
January 17, 2007.
The public will not have an opportunity tonight
after public comment is closed to further comment on the
discussions of Council regarding the subcommittee's
recommendation. You will have, however, the opportunity
to comment on the formal resolutions at the January 17
meeting.
So between now and January 17 what you hear
discussed and voted on tonight by the Council will be
turned into formal resolutions, and you will have an
opportunity to provide comment on those formal
resolutions.
They will be available before the meeting.
Any other questions or comments from Council?
Then I would like to proceed with the staff report.
Scott or Lisa or both? Anybody?
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1 MS. NEWMAN: Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members
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2 of the Council, members of the community.
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I really only have one thing to add to the
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procedural comments that the Mayor has already provided
and that is to just acknowledge that the Greenwood Beach
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Homeowners Association submitted a letter dated November
14th withdrawing their appeal. And that concludes the
staff presentation.
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MAYOR SMITH: Thank you. We will now take
public comment, and I would like to, quite frankly,
start with the two attorneys.
Gary, do you have a card?
MR. RAGGHIANTI: I am sorry. I didn't think I
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MAYOR SMITH: All right. How about we take
Stephan Volker first, followed by Gary Ragghianti.
MR. VOLKER:
Good evening, Mayor Smith and
honorable Council members.
It's an honor and a
privilege to appear before you again.
As we have been saying from the outset of these
21 proceedings, this is a dispute that has the potential to
22 tear apart a community. This is a dispute that calls
23 out for reconciliation and compromise.
24. To that end, TNC has prepared a detailed
25 proposal in the hopes that that will strike the
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appropriate balance between the conflicting positions
here.
We realize that there are a number of twists
and turns in this process. We are prepared to meet
with the Kol Shofar representatives and with the Town's
representatives for as long as it takes to strike that
proper balance.
We are here tonight in an effort to reach out
to all members of the community to confirm our humanity
and our desire to solve this problem the way it should
be.
As you know, land use disputes often wind up in
the courts and there they languish for years. It's
very hard to predict at the outset what the result of
litigation will be.
In my 32 years experience, I can tell you there
are so many issues here that it is unlikely that any
decision by the city will be resolved quickly by the
courts, and that would serve no one.
So I urge all parties to continue to work in
good faith. If we cannot reach resolution tonight, we
should redouble our efforts to do so as soon as
possible.
I want to thank the Council for your tremendous
support during the last two weeks of mediation. I have
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1 heard from my clients appreciation for the effort. This
2 is truly extraordinary for a Council to make the extra
3 effort to strike that balance, that elusive balance, and
4 I want to thank you for that.
5 And I want to tell you that if tonight's vote
6 does not seem to resolve the issues, we would ask you to
7 reserve a final ruling until we can reach that balance,
8 and not to force the parties into unnecessary
9 litigation.
10 Once the swords are drawn and the dogs of
11 litigation are unleashed, it may be years before this
12 could be resolved by the courts and a court resolution
13 is not what we are about here.
14 So thank you very much, and I look forward to
15 working with you to get this resolved properly.
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MAYOR SMITH:
Thank you.
I would just like
to point one thing out, that a decision rendered
tonight, because there are so many issues involved here,
19 you can't really expect staff to have some
20 pre-established resolution that would address everything
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that we might talk about.
So my anticipation is that we would be
23 directing staff to come back with resolutions consistent
24 with what we decide, and that means that there is some
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time frame between this meeting and the formal adoption
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of resolutions, which I think is the triggering point
that you are mentioning; and so just recognize there's a
little bit of time left there that, if you guys want to
talk, you guys can talk, and you can tell us what you
guys are able to find, if there is common ground, and we
certainly can consider that in the final formal
resolutions. So with that, Gary.
MR. RAGGHIANTI: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and
members of the Council.
I want to start by thanking staff, with whom we
have had many conversations. I want to thank the
Council, all of the members of the Council, and I want
to, in particular, thank the committee for the hours and
hours of work and for your patience.
I can tell you, for those who didn't
participate, that there were times when things got a
little testy and aggressive and frank and candid, but I
very much appreciate the time and the effort that both
Paul and Tom spent, the hundreds of hours devoted to
this.
I want to thank Mr. Putterman, a gentleman I
have never met -- I don't know if he is in the room
on behalf of the Greenwood Beach Property Owners
Association for his professionalism and for his
cordiality, and for his willingness to engage us in
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discussion so that we might resolve one of the appeals
that were pending before you this evening.
I want to end my remarks, because I have no
intention of responding to what I consider to be a
threat of litigation if you don't do what the TNC wants
you to, by quoting from one passage of the TNC's letter
that I think is representative of the fairness which we
hope and we know will be demonstrated by the Council in
connection with this land use application; and, let me
say that in my 36 years of practicing law, I don't
consider this to be that difficult or complicated land
use application. You have seen many far more complex
than this.
Be that as it may, I quote, as I end my
remarks, with a remark early in the submittal of
November 9th by the TNC with which we 100 percent agree.
"The TNC does not intend that any limitations
suggested herein be more onerous than restrictions
currently applied to similar activities and events in
residential areas and that any suggested term or
condition herein that does not conform to this
overriding intention should be modified or sure that it
is not discriminatory.
We have a very detailed letter that I would
place in the record this evening and ask to be made a
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part of it responding to the 30-page submittal of the
TNC, I shall not burden you with that.
I don't think I need to. I think all that
needs to be said has already been said. But I just
point out to you that there is a chart attached to the
last page and distributed to you that's comparative in
terms of all of the other religious and non-religious
institutions that possess use permits and are located in
residential areas.
Once again, on behalf of the Congregation Kol
Shofar, I wish to thank staff and the Council for their
time, and particularly their patience. We appreciate
it. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
MAYOR SMITH: Thank you. All right. We will
take the following four people, if you can come up when
you hear your name and line up behind the podium so we
can keep this moving along.
Kurt Kaull, Jerry Thayer, Christy Seidel and
Ron Brown. Starting with Kurt.
The rest of you, if you can come up and get
ready for your moment.
KURT KAULL: Good evening. Thanks. My
comments are going to revolve around our proposal and in
relation to the General Plan.
We have been asked, what do the neighbors want,
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1 and we want the feel and character of our neighborhood
2 to remain largely unchanged.
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The better question, I think, to frame this for
4 us is, what do we not want?
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We have thought long and hard about that over
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many months. Very simple. We don't want a lot of large
late-night events, a lot of large late-night events.
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We want to keep the number down. We want to
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keep the size down. We would like them to end at a
10 correct hour.
i1 Our views are all supported by the Town General
12 Plan. The Planning Commission, we think, relied on that
13 thinking and we ask you to do the same this evening.
14 A quick review of the words of the General Plan
15 are, I think, are instructive. It helped me as I
16 thought about tonight.
17 Town Council's job is to protect, preserve the
18 existing character and identity of the neighborhood and
19 those are important words: protect and preserve the
20 identity of the neighborhood.
21 Secondly, supposed to limit type and amount of
22 land use that's compatible with the nature, character,
23 image of a small residential community.
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Some more words there are helpful: limit land
25 use so it's compatible, I emphasize, small residential
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community that's what we live in.
This project is supposed to be in harmony with
adjacent neighborhoods. It needs to fit into the
neighborhood, it needs to be consistent; and finally,
you are supposed to maintain all of the existing
residential streets with consideration to our safety as
citizens and residents and protect our quality of life.
Please uphold these important tenets of the
General Plan tonight, and our view, consistent with what
we submitted is please further cut back the size and
scope and intensity of the project beyond what staff
recently suggested.
We have worked very hard over the months to
tangibly express our concerns throughout this process.
We have now gone further and expressed to you
with real specifics and logic and support, done our best
to express what we can live with.
Please listen to what we have said and rule at
least in line with what we have said.
Four things, really: the size of the
multi-purpose room, it's a critical lightning rod aspect
of this project.
We fear the room and its size is an enabler to
violate some of these tenets we have talked about that
change the character and feel of our neighborhood.
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Hours at night all must be, when the hours of
the night when the activities would be done and quiet,
that's important to us.
The frequency of the events that are allowed to
occur, and, finally, how large those are, the number of
people that translate into numbers of cars in our
neighborhood and parking and safety.
MAYOR SMITH: That's your time.
KURT KAULL: That's part of this.
The last thing you can do, all we have
suggested without violating the RLUIPA Act because the
outcome we have suggested is supported by t~e general
land use plan and General Plan's policies we feel you
are charged to uphold.
We ask you to do that and not let RLUIPA trump
or run oveL these policies.
MAYOR SMITH: Thank you. Jerry Thayer. Next
is Christy Seidel and then Ron Brown. Your comments
should be limited directly to the Tiburon Neighborhood
Coalition's written presentation attached to the staff
report.
JERRY THAYER:
Thank you. My name is Jerry
Thayer. I live at 158 Blackfield Drive and have lived
there some 23 years.
TNC has presented some solutions which we feel
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were not addressed until these solutions were presented.
For instance, the proposed project and the
impacts of that project in our neighborhood have never
been discussed. They don't appear in the EIR, in the
FEIR, they aren't part of the record at the Planning
Commission. It's as if Bel Aire didn't exist.
The impacts on our neighborhood are very
obvious. Kurt has already mentioned the traffic,
parking, late night hours, the noise. The bedrooms all
face out on the street in Bel Air. They are all
identical. There are a few wings with the bedrooms in
the back, but for the most part they are on the front of
the street.
The noise and the traffic going by late at
night will certainly unreasonably interfere with the
rest of the people in those bedrooms, we submit.
The parking problems are substantial.
The TNC proposal goes through a very elaborate
discussion of that, but thinks safety, children trying
to cross the street when cars are trying to make
T-turns, turning around looking for limited parking
space in Bel Aire, on days when they overflow from the
main parking lot at the synagogue.
These are serious problems for us and also
deprives us of reasonable use of curb space near our
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homes for our own needs and requirements.
So the TNC proposal is to bar overflow parking
in Bel Aire, we support that.
We think it's appropriate that reasonable
off-site locations should be established, and the
Applicant should be held to that off-site location and
not de facto inundate our neighborhood.
The TNC has been very detailed in how they
discussed that matter.
Finally, we would urge you to at least address
the absence in the FEIR of these impacts on Bel Aire and
not to finalize it until those impacts have been
addressed and mitigation measures appropriately are in
place along the lines with what the TNC suggested.
Thank you.
MAYOR SMITH: Thank you. Christy Seidel.
CHRISTY SEIDEL: Good evening. My name is
Christy Seidel. I live at 30 Reedland Woods Way, across
the street from Kol Shofar.
I am a member of the TNC, which is the Tiburon
Neighborhood Coalition. I will speak tonight about the
hours and the size of events that we proposed to the
Town Council.
The TNC has spent much time and effort to
develop a reasonable set of hours and the number of
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people attending the proposed events at Kol Shofar.
The overarching concern of the neighbors is
that the proposed intensified use of the site and the
extended hours through the week and weekends leaves the
neighbors very little time to enjoy the piece and quiet
of our own homes.
We welcome the presence of Kol Shofar in our
neighborhood, and we welcome, I'm sorry, and the TNC
supports the religious use of the site for worship and
its important spiritual element in our community.
However, the proposed extended hours of use will
irreversibly alter the quiet residential character.
The night-time noise and disruption, light
glare and traffic is more than an inconvenience. It
will affect our sleep, well-being and performance at
work and at school.
27 nights with crowds up to 250 people is too
much, especially when combined with the increased use of
the school in the day and the increased activities and
events during the weekday evenings.
The twelve annual religious holidays listed by
Kol Shofar, some of which go into the evening hours,
would, of course, be exempt from the agreed-upon regular
schedule of a activities and events.
We request that all events, including Friday
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and Saturday nights, end by 9:00 p.m., including cleanup
so that the negative impacts occur at a more reasonable
hour.
The size of the events should also be reduced.
Exclusive invitation only parties or guest
speakers and lectures where tickets must be used should
be limited to 100 or 125 people.
If a member chooses to have more attendees or
want later hours, the events can be held off site as
they have done in the last 22 years.
Another approach would be to encourage
afternoon member-sponsored events. This use during the
day-time hours would allow for parties and avoid the
night-time disruptions.
Celebratory events on Sunday nights when
families are preparing for the work week and school week
are clearly inappropriate.
We should have at least one night on the
weekend for quiet and rest from all of Kol Shofar's
various functions.
Additionally, events and activities for groups
with larger than 50 people should be finished by seven
o'clock on the week nights. Groups of less than 50
people should be finished by nine at night.
We want to be sensitive to the needs of the
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congregation to fulfill their mission
MAYOR SMITH: That's your time.
CHRISTY SEIDEL: And other evening activities
while trying to strike a balance with the neighbors'
need for peace and quiet and children's bedtimes.
Thank you very much.
MAYOR SMITH: That's your time. Ron.
RON BROWN: I would like to begin on behalf of
Kol Shofar by joining Gary in thanking all of you for
many, many hours you have spent on the project, the
hours you have spent on the pile of paper in front of
Miles here. It's really daunting looking at it and, of
course, Paul and Tom, in particular, for the many hours
spent in the subcommittee.
Gary read before a very nice statement that
comes from the TNC proposal. Unfortunately, all of the
points in that proposal violate that statement.
There are all more onerous than other
institutions in Tiburon in the equivalent areas.
While I appreciate the tenor of Mr. Volker's
presentation and the call to deal together, that
proposal leaves us no basis on which to have a
discussion.
We have asked only for space and for usage,
particularly with regard to the multi-purpose room that
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are needed for critically existing religious and
educational activities, and I will not take remotely
close to the three minutes I have, but we count on you
to take that into account.
MAYOR SMITH: Thank you. Virginia Brunini,
Edward Baker, Karen Nygren, and Debra Salant.
VIRGINIA BRUNINI: Thank you.
I don't think
it will take three minutes to tell you what I have been
telling you and every other appearance before this
group.
Bel Aire got omitted in the EIR. Bel Aire's
only concern, they have been very appreciative of Kol
Shofar, but their concern is that they not become the
extra parking lot that should have been and must be
provided for on site by Kol Shofar.
There are 183 homes, and it looks as though 120
plus cars would be roaming around looking for a place to
park.
It's not safe. It's not good. It's not
desirable. It isn't a good community building and it
needs to be corrected.
Thank you.
MAYOR SMITH: Thank you. Edward Baker.
EDWARD BAKER: Thank you. I am Ed Baker, a
member of the TNC.
In all TNC's suggestions we ask
that a distinction be made between activities, events
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and religious holidays.
This is a distinction that Kol Shofar made in
its original April 2004 expansion application but was
very vague about it.
We want clarity about what is an activity and
what is an event.
We would like staff to work with Kol Shofar and
TNC to have an agreed definition of each of these and
agreed list of what activities currently occur at Kol
Shofar and separately what events currently occur so
that these can be used as a baseline for future use.
We see activities as regularly occurring
functions which because of their religious aspect
associated with them have always taken place at the
synagogue site in the past and will continue to do so.
Attendance at these has been and will be drawn
from an open tour member of the congregation.
Events, on the other hand, we see as functions
that mayor may not always take place at the Kol Shofar
facility.
The religious requirement for many of these
events, there may be no requirement for them to occur at
synagogue or specific time or date or specific number of
people.
Examples of events will be the celebratory
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parties occurring after. bar mitzvahs and after weddings.
Events will typically for the benefit of an individual
family or group, will be held by invitation of the
family and would most likely involve attendance of
people from within and outside Kol Shofar.
Events could also include non-religious
functions, such as hosting meetings with groups as well
as lectures or forums.
The point we are trying to make here is that we
have the experience of another synagogue which agreed to
have its events limited, but then went on to not to
define what was an event and what was an activity; and
in holding events that went beyond the limited number of
events claimed, these were activities and not events.
We would like that distinction made.
Any questions?
MAYOR SMITH: Thank you.
Karen Nygren.
KAREN NYGREN: Good evening. Karen Nygren.
The Tiburon Neighborhood Coalition has submitted a list
of conditions to be included in the Congregation Kol
Shofar Conditional Use Permit application to the Town
Council, and the Council should be now aware of these
conditions since they were previously submitted to the
Town by the TNC and are included in your packet.
Kol Shofar's proposal is much larger than any
other religious facility in our community, and due to
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its size -- the proposal, not the current size -- due to
its size, the conditions are required to insure the
community's health, safety and welfare.
The list of the conditions was carefully
deliberated by a large group of TNC members, and a
consensus was reached they should all be as submitted to
the Town.
The TNC strongly believes all of these
conditions should be included in Kol Shofar's CUP
application.
Some of these conditions will give direction
from the Town Council to the DRB as to the sentiment of
the Town Council regarding this application.
Their inclusion in the Conditional Use Permit
will prevent any future misunderstanding when the
expansion proposal is reviewed by the DRB.
The TNC strongly believes the inclusion of
these conditions is essential in order to limit the
significant impacts of the proposed project on our quiet
residential neighborhood and will assist in keeping the
proposed project in harmony and compatible with the
surrounding residential neighborhood.
These conditions are not arbitrary. They are
based on the Town's General Plan, zoning codes, site and
architectural plan guidelines and other Town
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1
regulations.
2
3
The list of conditions are ones which have been
previously used in one form or another for other
4 residential and commercial projects in the Town.
5 I am aware of that, since I was on the Planning
6 Commission and on the Council, and I am very familiar
7 with many of the conditions that were submitted. They
8 have been used before.
9 Councilmember Gram requested at the October
10 24th meeting, what does the neighborhood want?
11 Thus the TNC responded --
12
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MAYOR SMITH: 30 seconds.
KAREN NYGREN: to Councilmember Gram's
14 request. We asked the Town Council to carefully examine
15 the TNC's submission and include all of them in a CUP
16 that may ultimately be proposed by the Town Council.
17
Thank you for your careful evaluation of the
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the community that you were elected to protect.
proposed project and your concern for the residents of
If you have any questions about those
conditional use permits or conditions, I would be more
22 than happy to help answer those. Thank you.
23
MAYOR SMITH: Thank you. Debra Salant,
24 followed by Tim Metz. Brad Tardy, Charles Wisch, and
25 Susan Goldwasser.
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TIM METZ: Debra is not here, so I am up.
Thank you. I'm Tim Metz, 50 Reedland Woods Way.
I'd like to talk a little bit about the size of the
building proposed in the proposal TNC made.
Take a look at the room we are in right now.
We measured the room from the wall there -- pretend the
stage is not there -- the other side of the wall and up
this room is 3168 square feet.
So this room is two-thirds of the size of what
Kol Shofar has proposed for their 4500 square foot
multi-purpose room, not the wing, but the room itself.
That room itself they have proposed is one
and-a-half times the size of this room we are sitting in
right here tonight.
This room is less than one-third of the size of
the proposed multi-purpose wing, including the kitchen,
the lobby, the room itself, everything.
So that room, the multi-purpose wing that has
been proposed, is three times the size of the room we
are sitting in tonight. It's a pretty big space.
The TNC's proposed multi-purpose room is 2250
square feet. That's a bit lirger than two-thirds the
size of this room.
So if you look behind the gentlemen here at the
end of the table, there's a plug on the wall, two-thirds
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of this room goes about where the plug on the wall is.
That's the size of the proposal that TNC has made.
So, in addition, the TNC's proposed
multi-purpose wing, the entire wing of the multi-purpose
room is 4867 square feet, that's about one and-a-half
times the size of this room. That's a pretty ample
space if you think about it. That's not exactly a small
facility.
In addition, I just want to remind everybody,
because there's the annex on the current Kol Shofar
property. We have always talked about this. The Kol
Shofar annex building is 2271 square feet. Again,
that's about two-thirds of the size of this multi-use
room we are in tonight.
In that annex there's a usable assembly space
of 1454 square feet, about half of the size of this room
we are in tonight.
Whenever we ask the question of Kol Shofar,
What do you plan to do with the annex, the answer has
always been "We don't know.
Maybe we are going to fix
the roof, maybe we are going to paint it a bit, but we
don't really know."
The TNC contends that this is a grossly
underutilized space within the Kol Shofar facility today
and should be considered in consideration of this
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proposed project.
So in combination with the existing Kol S~ofar
annex, the multi-purpose room that TNC is proposing, we
have provided for 3704 square feet of assembly space,
not gross space, net square footage assembly space, 17
percent bigger than the room we are sitting in tonight
assembly space.
Also, on the parking comparisons, Kol Shofar
stated they will frequently use the main sanctuary in
combination with the proposed multi-purpose room.
Per Town zoning ordinance, there is one parking
space required per 4 people capacity, or one parking
space required per 40 square feet of assembly area,
whichever is greater.
With a 550 person capacity in the main
sanctuary and a 321 person capacity in the TNC's
proposed 2250 square foot multi-purpose room, 218
parking spaces are required for the expanded facility.
To put a reality check on this, Kol Shofar's
own Harrison traffic studies indicate a parking rate of
1 parking space per 2 people of occupancy for a 400
person service.
That means that in the real world, 200 parking
spaces would be utilized for a 400 person service.
Thank you very much. And I will make sure
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everybody has a copy here.
MAYOR SMITH:
Thank you. Brad Tardy.
BRAD TARDY: Brad Tardy. I live at 257 Karen
Way with my two children, Austin and Morgan. I am an
architect and a general contractor and I'm also a member
of the TNC.
I am a supporter and firm believer in
development in accordance with codes, rules,
regulations, and our General Plan.
The Town of Tiburon has worked very hard over
many decades to implement zoning and planning processes
and criteria that are thorough and they are just.
We the people of the Town of Tiburon have put
into script how we want growth to occur here.
We have spent untold and uncounted hours
setting forth these zoning and planning criteria.
We must stick to our principals and request
that projects conform to our established requirements.
We should not and cannot yield to any or every
applicant that threatens to sue us if their project is
not approved.
I do not see, and Kol Shofar has not provided,
a logical, viable or realistic reason why they should be
granted a special exception to the zoning and planning
code other than they are a religious organization.
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Clearly, there's no discrimination in asking
this Applicant, like any other applicant, to provide a
project that complies with our codes, rules and
regulations.
I speak here tonight to thank and support the
TNC for spending hundreds of hours in drafting a
compromised solution to the massively overreaching Kol
Shofar project plan.
The TNC is comprised of a very large group of
loving, dedicated, concerned family-oriented neighbors
who believe in preserving the character of our
neighborhood.
I live in the Bel Aire neighborhood, and that
is peaceful and quiet almost all of the time.
Now, Rabbi Derby and Kol Shofar's
expansionistic plans want to change my neighborhood.
They have cast their will upon us to defend our
way of life where we live.
Rabbi Derby is quoted yesterday in the IJ as
saying "I am not prepared to let people tell me we can't
do it."
We all need to love thy neighbor, and, in doing
so, we should not cast, we should not cast, I am sorry,
and, in doing so, you should not cast your project upon
them without listening to and mitigating their concerns:
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Park on your property. Don't keep me or my
2 children up at night. Don't change our neighborhood by
3 turning it into your community center. Stop saying we
4 are persecuting your right to practice religion, and
5
6
propose a project scaled down in size that we can all
agree upon.
7
I implore the Town Council to join your
constituents and me and deny this project, or, at the
very most, implement the request of the TNC.
Thank you all very much.
MAYOR SMITH: Thank you. Charles Wisch and
12 Suzan Goldwasser next.
13
CHARLES WISCH: Charles Wisch. Mr. Mayor,
14 members of the Council. I am a member of Kol Shofar,
15 have been a member over 20 years. I am also a lawyer.
16 I have been practicing --
17
18
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: We can't hear you.
CHARLES WISCH: Sorry. I am a member of Kol
19 Shofar and have been a member over 20 years. I am a
20 lawyer practicing more than 30 years. I practice issues
21 of religious discrimination among other things. I also
22 have a background in urban studies and planning with a
23 degree in that field so I understand the planning
24 process.
25 I have read in detail the TNC's proposal, and I
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found it very troubling, both from my perspective as a
lawyer and my background in planning as well that it
seems to be an effort to engage the Town of Tiburon in
the business of deciding what is a religious activity
and then regulating that religious activity.
And I am very specific in this because I want
to point the Council's attention to pages 9 and 10 of
the proposal, which I am sure you have all read, and in
that area, TNC's proposal creates an artificial
categorization of what it likes to call "events", and
tries to distinguish those from religious observance.
Now, under our constitution, and under all of
the principals that Americans understand regarding
religious liberty, governments are not in the business
and should not be in the business of deciding what
constitutes legitimate religious observance and what
does not.
We recognize that people have different
beliefs, different understandings, different
backgrounds, different needs; but our government is
specifically restricted from doing that and should not
be doing that and the TNC's proposal invites this
Council, through its planning powers, to engage in just
that kind of activity.
And I would ask you, please, don't do that.
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That's not what government is supposed to do.
It's up to individuals to make religious
choices, not governments.
Thank you.
MAYOR SMITH: Thank you. Susan Goldwasser, and
coming up will be Mike Grinnell and Richard Goldwasser.
SUSAN GOLDWASSER:
The TNC proposal supports
the religious and educational mission of Kol Shofar
while respecting the neighbors' rights to be protected
from noise, traffic and safety hazards posed by frequent
late-night parties, with an adequate on-site parking.
Events, I have just been reminded, was a term
that Kol Shofar used.
We heard there's a religious duty to celebrate,
but that doesn't mean it must be done at night or on
s~te.
It's a potential safety hazard in our
neighborhood to 1500 people looking for parking places
on high holidays if there's a single service.
It's a safety hazard of 250 people arriving and
departing each weekend for seven months a year looking
for parking places.
That's common sense. You have heard this from
the Tiburon Planning Commission, the Town staff and the
neighbors.
The General Plan and zoning laws exist to
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protect the citizens of Tiburon.
You are our elected officials. Your job is to
uphold these laws.
As a physician, I am seeing more and more of
the "is there an exception for me" mentality. None of
us is above the law. Laws exist for the protection of
all.
Kol Shofar should have to abide by the same
zoning laws as everyone else in our community.
I am so glad to live in a democracy where there
is separation of church and state, and we can elect
leaders who have their constituents' best interests at
heart.
Thank you.
MAYOR SMITH: Thank you. Mike Grinnell and
then Richard Goldwasser.
MIKE GRINNELL: Good evening, ladies and
gentlemen. My name is Mike Grinnell. I am a resident
of 15 Paseo Mirasol, and, you know, my concern and
desire to speak is one of observation of the
disagreement between neighbors, people who were using
that facility, who want to use a facility, continue to
use it, neighbors who are concerned about how that
impacts them, and, frankly, you know, both sides have a
viewpoint; and, you know, I think that what I have begun
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to hear tonight is, you know, If we don't get our way,
your ass is in trouble, and you know what, that's one
way to resolve things.
And, you know, it certainly can
go- that way.
I don't have a solution other than to say that
I feel as a resident of the Town that the proper answer
to what should be done, really, is common sense, and it
seems to me that the neighborhood association is just
trying to protect what they have.
The temple is trying to protect what they have.
You know, the neighborhood association doesn't
want the temple to have additional rights, you know, to
do this, and to interfere with our ability to enjoy the
quiet of our neighborhood; and in all of this, then
people say, you know, You're anti-Semitic. I have heard
all kinds of things, and, really, the bottom line is
people have needs and people desire to do things that
they want to do.
And I think that, you know, when you look at
the activities of another facility like St. Bilary's,
which, for example, has been mentioned, I coached some
baseball, some basketball activities over there after
the gym was put in, and you know it was really quiet,
you can't bounce the basketballs, you're out of here,
the lights are down, we are closing the front shades on
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the thing, you know, we don't want the neighbors to be
upset.
So you do try to make sure that you don't get
yourself in trouble where somebody goes and complains to
the city and they change the conditional use permit.
MAYOR SMITH: 30 seconds.
MIKE GRINNELL: What seems to be happening is
that it just doesn't seem to be common-sense based.
And, in my viewpoint, if something doesn't fit
and doesn't work, then it has to be made to fit if it's
going to work, and if it can't fit, then I don't think
it works. So that's it.
MAYOR SMITH: Richard Goldwasser, Dr. Lenore
Gordon, and has Debra Salant gone?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yes.
MAYOR SMITH: Okay. That means we have
Richard Goldwasser and Dr. Lenore Gordon, and that's it.
RICHARD GOLDWASSER: My name is Richard
Goldwasser. I live at 38 Paseo Mirasol.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: We can't hear you.
RICHARD GOLDWASSER: My name is Richard
Goldwasser. Can you hear me now? I live at 38 Paseo
Mirasol.
The TNC has offered an earnest compromise
proposal that is both fair and balanced.
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It provides more than enough extra space and
time to satisfy Kol Shofar's legitimate educational and
religious needs.
All existing religious and educational events
and activities will be allowed to continue without undue
restraints and burdens.
We agree with Town staff to continue with the
split high holiday services, as has been Kol Shofar's
practice for many years.
Even though conservative Judaism issues no
religious mandate for night-time parties at the
synagogue, the TNC has extended an olive branch allowing
some as long as the CUP and building design adequately
address issues of reasonable hours, adequate parking,
light, sound and order control from the dual kosher
kitchen.
The TNC proposal holds Kol Shofar to abide by
the same laws in the Tiburon General Plan and parking
code that everybody else has to follow.
It does not, the TNC proposal does not place
religious practice at a higher value than the health and
safety of neighbors and children.
As a neighbor, a Jew, and now a former member
of Kol Shofar, I feel very strongly that it is wrong to
preach loving thy neighbor, then to try to evade and
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then to go and try to evade the health and safety laws
of the community.
Even yesterday's IJ, juxtaposed, "pedestrians
still at risk in Marin," next to the Rabbi's
explanation of the project.
We can all live with the TNC proposal, which
places health and safety and religious practice on par
with one another. This is how it ought to be.
MAYOR SMITH: Thank you. That brings us to
Dr. Lenore Gordon as our final speaker.
LENORE GORDON: Well, it's good to be a final,
the final person to speak.
I want to start this with a saying that
everybody in this room knows well, United we stand.
Divided we fall.
And I have two problems: I'm a former
professor in communication, conflict resolution being my
area of research,. I have had a love affair with Tiburon
for many years.
I was a member of the Tiburon/Belvedere Rotary,
an active member for 12 years, and I think the air is
better in Tiburon. I am so biased in favor of it.
I appreciate your concern. I appreciate the
neighborhood's concern. I am a member of Kol Shofar,
and I am a mother and now a grandmother of children who
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are going to religious school.
It would be nice in life if this many people
would turn out to vote in a national election. I hope
so.
I see very kind faces in the audience. I see
men, women, younger people, older people all concerned.
The word neighborhood connotatively, and by
definition, means different things to different people.
I am probably the oldest speaker you have had
tonight. I will be 80 on my next birthday. My friend,
Virginia, may be older, I am not sure.
It's interesting that something of this nature
brings up so much in different individuals, and now you
have a coalition, and now you have the Town of Tiburon,
many of your former mayors and members were close
friends of mine. I wish they were still in office.
Someone spoke of an olive branch, and several
of your speakers have talked about conflict, two sides.
I would say, I would ask, I would share with
the audience, and with you, don't take this further.
Don't make more and more out of it.
You ask your parents and your grandparents,
when I was in a neighborhood, when I was raising
children, neighbors, neighborhood had a different
connotation.
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And in a country where we are losing people in
every religion yearly, when people are falling away and
everyone says, Americanism, family, togetherness is the
most important thing.
Please consider, United we stand as Americans
and human beings, and divided we fall, and everyone
loses. Thank you.
MAYOR SMITH: Thank you. It's times like
these that we would like to have other people in office
too.
Okay. That ends public comment. I will
formally close public comment on this item, and that
brings us to the subcommittee's report to the council,
and Tom Gram will provide that.
COUNCILMEMBER GRAM: Good evening. I thought
I would start with what have we been doing since the
Planning Commission meeting on May 31?
Will you turn the lights on so I can see? I
would like them on 100 percent. All on.
So what we have been doing since May 31 when
the Planning Commission made their decision:
The Council appointed a subcommittee consisting
of Paul and myself, similar to what we did in the St.
Hilary's approach. I believe that approach worked.
Initially in that matter I don't think either
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side was happy with the Council's decision, which
entailed compromise, but over time both sides have
worked together and are now living together and even
supporting each other.
At a recent request by St. Hilary's for
modification of its CUP entailing more extensive use of
the gym, the neighbors even appeared and supported their
request.
In this situation, there has been a long
relationship between Kol Shofar and its neighbors and
the Town.
Kol Shofar is an important and vital member of
our community, as are our other religious institutions.
Over the years all parties, Kol Shofar, the
neighbors, and the Town have cooperated to solve
problems.
The CUP process in this case has been ongoing
for over 20 years. The initial CUP was granted in 1985,
and there have been two modifications since.
Yes. The congregation has grown and the CUP
has been modified, but it has always been through a
cooperative process, with one exception, where both
sides have had input.
In 1996, the annual reviews commenced and there
have been nine since then.
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This application by Kol Shofar is a
continuation of that process.
The requested expansion of Kol Shofar's
facility and the intensification of its uses will create
additional traffic impacts, noise impacts, lighting and
glare impacts and parking impacts on the surrounding
neighborhood.
Our job as a Council is to control the
intensity of those impacts on the neighbors while at the
same time giving Kol Shofar as much as pos.sible so its
community can continue to thrive.
We don't have an infinite discretion here. We
have to balance the interests of both sides and obey the
laws by which we are governed.
Initially our subcommittee's intent was to
meet with the two sides to attempt to understand the
actual facts and issues.
Surprising to me was how much misinformation
and misunderstanding there actually was. So our initial
mission became clarifying the facts and issues with each
side so that we were all on the same page.
We also had to determine which areas the
parties were in agreement on, and there were several,
and, finally, whether we, as a subcommittee, could craft
a compromise which we felt takes into account the
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1
concerns and interests of both sides.
2
We have met five times, four times separately
3
with each side, and one with both sides present.
Each
4 meeting lasted one and-a-half to two hours.
5 The discussions were straight forward, and I
6 believe each side was trying in good faith to make
7 progress towards a resolution of the disputed issues.
8 From those meetings with the neighbors, let me
9 say, and let me emphasize, there was absolutely no
10 indication whatsoever of anti-Semitism on the part of
11 the neighbors.
12 There was overwhelming support for Kol Shofar
)
13 and its service to the community.
14
There were no demands for Kol Shofar to
15 relocate somewhere else.
16 In fact, there was overwhelming agreement that
17 Kol Sho.far should remain in and a part of the
18 neighborhood.
19 There was overwhelming support for allowing Kol
20 Shofar to remodel the existing facility into a
21 first-class religious institution and facility.
22 From those meetings with Kol Shofar, let me say
23 they were cooperative in answering questions and
24 providing information. If they didn't have it, they got
25
it when requested.
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They had their architects there in two meetings
so we could clarify what the plans were and why and what
might be done going forward.
They were genuinely interested' in trying to
lessen the impacts of their proposal.
We have received literally hundreds of e-mails
and letters, one half of it saying that if we grant Ko1
Shofar's request, we are idiots; the other saying if we
don't grant their request, we are idiots.
So either way we lose tonight.
But from all of our meetings and e-mails one
thing is clear: the two sides are far apart.
We spent considerable time understanding how
RLUIPA, which is the Religious Land Use and
Institutionalized Persons Act, fortunately, we are not
dealing with the Institutionalized Persons Act tonight,
although Paul and I have considered maybe committing
ourselves.
So we have received extensive opinion letters
from Kol Shofar's attorneys and a New York law professor
specializing in constitutional and religious law who
represents the neighbors.
Also, we have been advised by our own
attorneys. It may not surprise you that each side has
taken somewhat opposite positions on how RLUIPA applies
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to this project.
Our decision tonight, our recommendations
tonight and our ultimate decision will take into account
the requirements of that Act.
In reaching our conclusions, Paul and I agree,
and we made it clear to both sides that we do not
believe in tying the hands of future councils.
Councils are elected by you to deal with issues
currently affecting the Town and each Council should
have the flexibility to deal with those issues taking
into account changed circumstances and then current
facts.
For example, if the restrictions in the CUP are
not working, or being abused, future Councils must have
the right to modify and restrict the uses.
On the other hand, if the restrictions are too
tight, the impacts are not as severe as predicted,
future Councils should have the right to loosen those
restrictions.
That actually happened, as I mentioned earlier,
recently with the St. Hilary's when the Council voted
unanimously with the support of neighbors to allow more
extensive and intensive athletic uses in the gym.
This approach has engendered fears of what has
been termed CUP Creep. We strongly believe future
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Council's with input from the neighbors should deal with
these issues.
What follows is our attempt to balance the
issues of both sides.
Ko1 Shofar desperately needs to upgrade its
dilapidated facilities in order to serve its current
needs without exacerbating the existing problems of
traffic, noise, lighting and glare and insufficient
parking.
The neighbors have endured these problems for
years. Both sides have agreed for years that they must
work together to solve them.
We found one of the prima+y causes of the
problems we face is a lack of ongoing communication.
Kol Shofar has proposed a solution which both
sides and we have endorsed. The Town should not be on
the front line of resolving these problems, but rather
the two sides should be communicating on a regular basis
and solving the problems themselves. If they cannot,
then the Town should get involved.
Paul will describe this mechanism further in a
couple minutes.
We are proposing a series of restrictions and
controls on Kol Shofar, which we believe address the
neighbors' concerns.
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1
Most have been proposed by the neighbors and
2 Kol Shofar themselves.
3 If they work, we have all succeeded.
4 If they have to be tweaked, there's a mechanism
5
for that.
6
If they have to be drastically modified because
7 of abuses, there's a mechanism to deal with that too.
8 The tough issue before us as a Council is
9 crafting as best we can a resolution that takes into
10 account the wishes and concerns of both sides.
11 We recognize that we probably cannot make both
12 sides happy. In fact, I think our popularity is at the
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,
13 high point it's going to be right now.
14
15
Please listen to the entire presentation before
reaching any conclusions.
The controls are in the
16 restrictions. The balancing act is achieved in the
17 restrictions, and with that I turn it over to Paul.
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MAYOR SMITH: I just have a few comments.
Chad, I will let you know when we are ready to do that.
The question has been asked whether this is an
21 issue of local land use control or religious freedom.
22 It's clearly in my opinion both.
23 It's why finding a solution has been
24
complicated.
We have had to balance several important
25 community interests. I wish the solution could be
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simple, but the issues at stake are not and so neither
is the proposed solution.
That's why Tom asked you to bear with us.
Listen to the whole thing. It will take just a little
while, but it's worth it.
You elected us to make these kinds of decisions
and that's what we are going to do tonight and we are
going to let the chips fall where they may.
I have been positive as I can be about this
process, and overall I am very satisfied with how this
application has been handled by all parties, including
the Town, but I have two comments that could be
considered criticisms, if you like.
One is Kol Shofar chose to retain the Becket
Fund. The Becket Fund's approach in my personal opinion
was unnecessarily threatening and divisive, and it
opened a wound in this community and with this Council
that will take some time to heal.
The subcommittee chose not to be intimidated
and it instead makes its recommendation based on the
record, not the rhetoric.
Two, the TNC waited too long to present a
consistent message of concrete alternatives acceptable
to the neighbors. This made the subcommittee's job more
difficult .
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Much time and energy has been spent focusing on
the burdens that might arise d~e to this project.
That's a legitimate neighborhood concern.
But it's also my opinion that not enough time
and energy has been focused on the benefits that Kol
Shofar provides to this community as a whole.
The whole location of schools and churches in
residential neighbors is a common practice throughout
this country.
That's because schools and churches generally
provide a positive service and influence on the
communities they serve. No matter what your religious
belief, whether you choose to be a member of a
particular church congregation, you and all of us
benefit from the positive influences of our community
religious institutions.
Accordingly, while it's important to mitigate
impacts on a particular neighborhood, we must also
recognize that some burdens have to be tolerated in the
best interests of a community as a whole.
I can't help but notice that we are sitting in
a brand new gymnasium at Bel Aire School.
Recently the citizens of this Town
overwhelmingly voted to pass school bonds to renovate
and expand our public schools.
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By doing so, we recognize that these facilities
were inadequate for current needs.
The facilities now occupied by Kol Shofar are
former public school facilities exactly like those we
just determined were inadequate for our public school
children.
Isn't it reasonable to expect that Kol Shofar
should also need to renovate and expand its facilities
to meet its current needs.
Within reasonable limits, surrounding neighbors
must anticipate the logical progression of development
of existing facilities to meet changing needs.
Hello! I think it died. Have you got another
one? Here comes another microphone.
However, neighbors also have a right to expect
that their neighborhood will be protected from
unreasonable impacts caused by such changes.
That's the balance that this subcommittee
sought to strike in making the following recommendations
to Council.
I would like to present those recommendations
now, and so, Chad, this is your time in the sun.
The Town Council Ad-Hoc Subcommittee's
recommendations are to deny the Kol Shofar appeal of the
certification of the Final Environmental Impact Report;
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1
to also deny the Tiburon Neighborhood Coalition's appeal
of the certification of the Final Environmental Impact
2
3 Report, and to partially grant Kol Shofar's appeal of
4 the denial of its Conditional Use Permit application, as
5 I will discuss in just a minute.
6 The Greenwood Beach Homeowners Association
7
appeal was withdrawn, and, again, these slides will be
8
9
provided in written copies when we get done with the
presentation.
Next slide. The next list is a summary of the
subcommittee's recommended framework for approval.
12 What we tried to do is to come up with
13 essentially the basics of what we will sooner or later
14 turn into conditions of approval in a Conditional Use
15 permit, but we have put them in summary form and we
16 tried to categorize them in a way that is reasonably
17 easy to follow.
18 In terms of the multi-purpose building and, by
19 the way, some of the key issues that you will be
20 interested in, we will put the table up in just a
21 minute, but I want to go through these items first.
22
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The multi-purpose building lobby will not be
used for seating except for high holy days.
There will be no non-member use. No
non-member, member-sponsored use.
The multi-purpose
v
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building, sponsoring members need to be present at the
event.
No organized uses in the courtyard without a
Special Event Permit, again, except for high holy days
and graduation.
No drinks or food served in the courtyard,
again, except for high holy days and graduation, unless
you get a Special Use Permit.
The ClassrOoms can be rented to an approved
private tenant, right now that's Ring Mountain, up to
100 students on weekdays.
An additional 50 students can attend the Ko1
Shofar day school as they requested .on weekdays.
There are no restrictions on the number of
students for Sunday school.
For the Kol Shofar day school, we want to have
15 minutes start and end time intervals between the
Mountain School and Kol Shofar school and Bel Aire to
again try to mitigate the traffic impacts on pickup and
dropoff.
The sanctuary remodel as proposed and use at
CKS' discretion.
The rental of facilities -- this is all of the
facilities -- to non-members is prohibited.
The uses, generally, uses, events and
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1 activities are as set forth on what will be a revised
2 Table 1 to the EIR. Table 1 to the EIR, I believe, was
3 originally provided by Ko1 Shofar, and it shows various
4' existing events and activities.
5 The biggest issue that Tom and I and the rest
6 of the groups that we met with, the most difficult issue
7 had to do with traffic and parking management.
8 We have tried to figure out how can you get
9 more spaces on the site. There are probably ways to do
10 that. We have some idea of what we reasonably thought
11 could be done. So we started to try and figure out how
12 we could address some of the concerns of the
)
13 neighborhood but also be consistent with what Kol Shofar
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had suggested as viable in terms of the number of
parking spaces.
16 Conceptually, what we tried to achieve here was
17 we want to minimize the amount of traffic that goes
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through this neighborhood.
Specifically, people who are looking for
parking spaces along the streets or who can't get into
Kol Shofar's parking lot because there are no spaces
left.
So we have put in a recommendation a series of
mitigation measures to set in motion a system that has
the cars come in on Blackfield, turn up Via Los Altos,
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go into the parking lot, when the events are over, they
leave the parking lot through the exit, turn right on
Blackfield and they exit the neighborhood; and I will go
through some of the items that we specifically are
proposing to encourage that that be the circulation
method and that people not be roaming around the
neighborhood doing U-turns, T-turns, and otherwise
trying to find parking spaces.
So what we have suggested obviously is that,
first, the lower parking lot be modified to optimize
circulation and maximize spaces.
We want to get as many spaces as possible on
site within the constraints of the site.
We want to have a lighted directional sign
placed at Blackfield Drive and Via Los Altos that would
direct people up to the Via Los Altos entrance to the
lower parking lot.
We suggest painting red "no parking" curbs
along what is the vast majority, if not all, of Kol
Shofar's street frontage, and this was something we
debated for quite some time, but we recognized that by
leaving those spaces open we were encouraging people to
go past Via Los Altos and to pull a U-turn and park in
those various spaces along the frontage. And we arl=,
again, trying to minimize that kind of traffic problem
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for the neighborhood.
2
So we have suggested that both sides of Via Los
3 Altos from Blackfield, roughly up above the curve, above
4
the service entrance to Kol Shofar, be red on both
5
sides.
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Also, on Blackfield Drive, which is the Kol
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Shofar side, between Via Los Altos and Reedland Woods
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Way and also on Reedland Woods Way on basically both
sides up to the beginning of the first residences.
By doing that, people will know, will learn
over time that there is no parking. It's not there.
So there's no reason to go down there, and
there's no reason to think that there will be as many
people making U-turns, T-turnsand driving through the
neighborhood.
16 To further that, we intend to place "No U-turn"
17 signs along Blackfield Drive and lower Via Los Altos,
18 and the police will be authorized to enforce that.
19 Without "No U:turn" signs, police can't ticket.
20 Once those signs go in place, they can.
21 All member-sponsored events of 200 persons or
22 more will require two monitors for parking and noise
23 control.
24 We had initially thought that those people
25 would be placed at Via Los Altos and Blackfield Drive to
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again stop people from going past Via Los Altos
unnecessarily. Potentially another at the entrance to
the parking lot on Via Los Altos.
We have also thought about the potential for
someone down further at Karen Way to prevent people from
unnecessarily going into the Bel Aire neighborhood.
But currently we are proposing two monitors.
There will be three unannounced traffic and
parking monitoring times per year.
That means that at Kol Shofar's expense a
traffic monitor, unannounced, will monitor what's going
on at various events. They will be there three times a
year to determine whether or not Kol Shofar is in
compliance with the conditional use permit requirements
and they will report back to the Town.
The following additional constraints will apply
to events and activities with cumulative attendance
greater than 359, with the exception of Sunday school.
Sunday school is pretty much dropoff and
pickup, not as big of a parking issue.
Let me explain the 359 number.
In the current Conditional Use Permit, these
various requirements are triggered when there are events
of 400 or more.
We took a parking number, which you will see in
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the chart in a minute, which Kol Shofar suggests is the
2 maximum number that they can get on the site, which is
3 156 spaces, including handicapped spaces.
4
We multiplied that number by 2.3.
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The Environmental Impact Report used the number
of two persons per vehicle. We increased that number to
2.3 to account for the fact that some people live in the
8 neighborhood and walk to Kol Shofar and others obviously
9 have children, and so we put a factor in there to
10 account for that.
11 If you multiply 2.3 times 156, that's how you
12 get the 359 number.
13
What we are, in essence, saying is that when
14 you end up with more than 359 people on site, you are
15
now out of parking.
You have met the limit of the
16 existing parking lot.
17 It's our suggestion, quite frankly, that if Kol
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Shofar has any suggestions or mechanisms or desire to
find more parking on site, that same formula will apply
and the number of 359 can go up to recognize the fact
that there's more parking on site, and that would limit
22 the number of times that these additional mitigation
23 measures would have to go in place.
24 You will recognize most of these because on
25 high holy days all of these are pretty much in place,
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the bulk of them.
So the additional mitigation measures which
occur when the cumulative attendance is over 359 are the
"Resident traffic only" signs, the same ones currently
on Reedland Woods Way.
No parking temporary signs placed on the other
side of Blackfield Drive, that's the side with the
houses on it, to again give no reason for people to go
past Via Los Altos because there's no parking at those
bigger events.
There needs to be a professional traffic
control provided to the satisfaction of the Tiburon
Police Department.
A Shuttle service will be required to get
people to and from the off-site parking facility, which
usually is Westminster, but, you know, it's up to Ko1
Shofar, quite frankly, to find alternative parking
sites.
Adequate off-site parking will be provided and
verified in advance in writing.
It doesn't mean some formal written contract.
It means a written commitment that you have got a place
to go and you have got a shuttle service that's going to
operate.
Adequate means 2.3 people per car. So the
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number of spaces off-site, the same formula as on-site.
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So if you have got, however many people you have got in
3
excess of 359, use the formula, and that will dictate
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how many off-site spaces that you will need for a
5
particular event.
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Parking spaces are to be pre-assigned to
attendees prior to the events and activities, and those
8
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parking assignments are to be placed in the windshields
of the cars.
10 The reason for this is, and this is part of
11 what I started with in the beginning of trying to
12 minimize the neighborhood traffic situation.
13 There should be no cars coming to the lower
14 parking lot that don't have a pass. They have a
15 designated space. They know they can park there.
16 When they go to that lot, they get in, they park in the
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space.
If they don't have that pass, that means they
are going to be having a pass in Westminster or
elsewhere, but it will minimize the number of people who
are roaming around the neighborhood trying to find
parking spaces because everybody is going to know in
advance where they are going to park.
Notice is to be provided to the Police
25 Department in advance of these events, cumulative events
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in excess of 359.
We talked a great deal about what it means to
say cumulative attendance on site. You know, the issue
is you have got limited parking.
Once you reach a number, based on our formula
at 359, you have run out of parking, and so sometimes,
if you have a wedding or a bar mitzvah, and you have
RSVPs, you are going to know exactly how many people are
coming to that event.
I know you have a lot of other events that are
harder to estimate, but I think you have got a history
of use and you have got a pretty good idea, and I think
if you know that you are bumping up against these kinds
of numbers, you ought to be thinking about these kinds
of mitigation measures.
For the high holy day services, the following
shall apply in addition to those above:
There should be a courtesy mailer to the Vista
Tiburon Subdivision at least 10 days before the high
holy days services.
Carpool shuttle parking permits and maps
distributed to members at least 21 days before high holy
days. You know that these are your largest events of
the year. You know when they are coming. You have
advanced warning. You have got the ability to take the
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appropriate mitigation measures and to notify the
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neighborhood.
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Kol Shofar should conduct a multi-part
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educational program concerning traffic control and
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parking.
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That means constantly reminding the
congregation of what the rules are, what the
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requirements are, where you can park, where you can't
park, why you shouldn't go past Via Los Altos because
there's nowhere to park and nowhere to go, and that
there will be a mechanism in advance to know where you
are going to park, and this is, again, for events for
cumulative attendance on the site that exceed 359.
Kol Shofar is to maintain an up-to-date
database of its members to facilitate carpooling. That
16 database is to be maintained by Kol Shofar and need not
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be provided to anybody else.
They need to keep a log of all events and
activities of 150 attendees, including the duration from
start and end times, and the number attending.
The log will be made available to the
Neighborhood Advisory Committee, which I will tell you
23 about in a minute, and Town staff upon 24 hours notice.
24 Parking lot lighting and landscaping.
25 The parking lot lighting will be on timers at
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all times, will turn off in accordance with permitted
hours of use.
Landscaping will be maximized to reduce noise,
light, and glare.
The Eucalyptus trees below 32 Via Los Altos
will be inspected annually by a licensed arborist for
safety purposes.
All skylights shall have blackout blinds and be
closed at sunset whenever the facility is in use.
The noise controls. Again, you will see
shortly that we have established times, the ending times
of events.
There was a great deal of discussion about
cleanup time. Do we include cleanup time? Do we add an
extra amount of time for cleanup time?
How do we deal with the fact that once an event
ends, there's a certain amount of time that it takes to
clean up the facility and get out.
We decided that the best way to address that
was to have a fully-enclosed soundproof area within Kol
Shofar where catering trucks, the cleanup vehicles can
be inside that structure and the doors closed and they
can complete the cleanup completely indoors, and thereby
eliminate the noise concern.
So we elected to propose that mitigation
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measure and thereby establish event times for,
2
particularly for the weekend events that will end at
3 certain deadlines. The deadlines you will see in a
4 minute will be the end of the event time. The cleanup
5 will occur afterwards in an enclosed area, and that's
6
7
how we will deal with the noise concerns about cleanup.
There will be no exterior amplified sound.
8
It's now allowed once a year, and it will
9
continue to be allowed once a year.
Other than that,
it would require a Special Event Permit.
Doors and windows of the multi-purpose building
12 will be in a closed position during large events, 100
13 plus people or amplified-sound events.
14 The heating ventilation air conditioning units
15 in the multi-purpose building, sanctuary and other
1
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17
structures, including the classrooms, will be baffled to
reduce noise to the surrounding residents.
18 They will be not operated after the facility is
19 closed each day.
20
In terms of Conditional Use Permit review, the
21 CUP will be reviewed by the Planning Commission every
22
six months.
After completion of the multi-purpose
23 building, that means a certificate of occupancy is
24 issued for the multi-purpose building that will trigger
25 the time frames for six months of review for three years
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and annually thereafter.
During the first four years, no Planning
Commission -- or the Planning Commission will not have
the authority to relax the restrictions of the
Conditional Use Permit.
Kol Shofar will educate its tenant Ring
Mountain concerning restrictions of the Conditional Use
Permit and will be held responsible for the activities
of its tenant's violation of the Conditional Use Permit.
Any significant expansion or intensification of
uses or operations shall require a CUP amendment.
Kol Shofar will document conformance with the
CUP.conditions prior to each review, pay the costs
thereof and have that submitted to the Town for the
Planning Commission's review.
Under the heading Miscellaneous, we are
proposing a Neighborhood Advisory Committee.
This was something that Kol Shofar actually
suggested. I had seen it in other projects here in
Marin County, and I thought it was a very good idea and
so we took them up on it.
Neighborhood Advisory Committee: First of all,
Kol Shofar will support the formation and operation of
it.
It would be a committee formed: Kol Shofar
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executive director, board member, a congregation member,
and three neighborhood representatives selected by the
surrounding neighborhoods. Two co-chairs which are
responsible for the agendas or communicating with the
Town.
It will meet periodically. Initially once a
month, not less than twice a year. It will be advisory
in nature.
Its purpose is discussing CUP compliance
issues, 'traffic management, special events, so on and so
forth. Its advisory in that it is not empowered to
determine whether there is a violation of the CUP.
Violation of the CUP will be determined by the
Town, but its meetings should be held where the public
can observe.
Neighbors who request to be notified will
be notified of the meetings.
Kol Shofar will provide space for the meetings
and relevant documents and limited notes afterwards.
The co-chairs will report on activities to the
Town's Community Development director annually, or as
deemed necessary by the committee, and the committee
shall be advised at least two weeks in advance of events
or activities that will exceed 359 cumulative attendees
except, again, the Sunday school program.
Meetings will not count towards your limited
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number of meetings.
Kol Shofar, again, this is a suggestion of Kol
Shofar, Kol Shofar will maintain a Web site to provide
information on events, activities, parking and traffic.
That Web site will be available to neighbors to
be able to get information on a regular basis and be
available to Kol Shofar congregates to get information
about parking and traffic constraints and just further
communication between the neighborhood and Kol Shofar.
Otherwise will carryover the existing CUP
conditions that are applicable and consistent with this
approval.
The ErR mitigation measures that are still
applicable will be modified as necessary to be
consistent with this approval.
Now I will show you a table. This is
essentially the table from the October 24 staff report.
It shows the original Kol Shofar project. It
shows the Alternative 7 proposal, the staff's
recommendation, the Tiburon Neighborhood Coalition's
recommendation and the subcommittee's recommendation on
the key topics that everybody seems to be concerned
about.
In new member sponsored weekend events
annually, the subcommittee has recommended on Fridays
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there be 5 events, the same as the staff's
recommendation, the same as TNC's.
On Saturday we have recommended 10 events.
TNC was 5, staff was 12, Kol Shofar was 12, and
Alternative 7, so we reduced that by two.
The subcommittee's recommendation on Sunday
events, Sunday events are more controversial, more
difficult to deal with. So we reduced that number to 7,
that's 2 less than the staff recommended, 8 less than
Alternative 7, and 7 more than the TNC recommended.
Member-sponsored weekend events hours: This
applies to all member-sponsored events, not new member-
sponsored events, but all member-sponsored events, on
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we have taken the time
frames that the staff recommended, 9:00 on Friday, 10:00
o'clock on Saturday, 8:00 o'clock on Sunday; again, not
including cleanup and the reason we are not including
cleanup is because we will be requiring a complete
soundproof enclosure that will allow for cleanup to
occur indoors.
New-member sponsored weekend events: the
maximum number of people on Friday nights, the maximum 5
events at 100.
Saturday, 5 events at 150, and 4 at 200, 1
event at 250.
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Sunday, 4 events at 100, 2 events at 150, and 1
event at 200.
These are new-member sponsored events.
On-site parking: the staff recommended 161
spaces (plus handicapped). The Alternative 7 provided
for 139 spaces. I believe there's 81 spaces there now.
TNC requested 218 spaces.
We have recommended 156 spaces, (including
handicapped) based on our two things, our analysis of
what is viable, and on the formula that we have created
for requiring off-site parking and traffic mitigation
measures.
Size and capacity of the multi-purpose room:
We took staff up on the 15 percent reduction. This is
a 15 percent reduction on the multi-purpose building
footprint. We are not talking about how to configure
that building.
So it's up to Kol Shofar to decide how it wants
to configure the building itself, but we are proposing a
15 percent reduction in the overall square footage to
8,273 square feet.
The one constraint about the multi-purpose room
is that it cannot be enlarged from the multi-purpose
room that was proposed previously.
So to the extent that Kol Shofar can figure out
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how to configure this building and keep the
multi-purpose room the same size, more power to them.
It just can't be enlarged.
The multi-purpose room will be pulled back from
the slope. Right now it goes over the edge of the
slope, it requires a retaining wall and then the
building itself, and it is somewhat imposing in the mass
and bulk of that structure, and we felt that was
unnecessary, and so we are requiring that it be pulled
back from the hill and landscaped in front of it so that
it will mitigate that impact.
The classrooms, classroom enrollment: we
basically have taken up staff's recommendations
consistent with Alternative 7, and also consistent with
the TNC recommendation in that we are saying that 50
additional Kol Shofar day school students will be
allowed.
Four new classrooms at the size requested
will be allowed. The total will not exceed the 150
total students between Kol Shofar School and what is
currently now Ring Mountain.
High holy days, at the option of Ko1 Shofar
they can have split or combined services. We are not
going to regulate that issue.
There was a mitigation measure in the EIR that
would potentially require the expansion of the left-turn
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lane from Tiburon Boulevard onto Blackfield Drive.
We recommend that that is not necessary at this
time.
We believe that the combination of the changes
that are proposed here, the reductions in the events,
times, number of people and the parking and traffic
mitigation measures will make that unnecessary at this
time.
They also have new traffic counts that seem to
indicate that some of the prior traffic calculations may
have been overstated.
So our intention is to not require that at this
time.
With that, I would like to open up the
discussion for the rest of the Council, and what I would
like to do, actually, is to maybe go back to the
framework for approval and see if any Council members
would like to discuss specific items.
Anybody want to start with something?
COUNCILMEMBER BERGER: Thanks, Mr. Mayor, and I
want to thank both you and Tom for the terrific effort
you have done and the comprehensive way you put together
the thoughts of the community and the thoughts of the
Council. It's just a great job. Thank you very much.
Also, I'd like to thank everybody in Town, all
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of the good will and hard work on the part of everyone
involved.
These kinds of things are very difficult and
there's been a lot of good thinking, good will and
flexibility that has been shown by everybody involved.
I just have a very few actual notions to bring
up about the list, and they are just as follows:
One very small addition, and these will find
their way into the notes that are written up by staff,
one is that it says all skylights shall have blackout
blinds closed at sunset.
The way that that might be added to in the
notes would be that is done that they are mechanical
because they are so high up and they should be hooked up
to a solar cell and that way that takes care of itself,
when the sun goes down, the blinds get closed so nobody
has to go around and do it. That's an excellent way of
doing it.
The other thing, I took the liberty of calling
our, as an architect we work often with sound
consultants, acoustic consultants, and just so that we
could get some numbers on both the baffling of the noise
and the HVAC noise, I would like to suggest that we add
the number, that those be baffled down so that they are
no louder than 60 decibels at the property line.
I have been told that this is a very easy,
...
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meetable number. It doesn't call for heroic measures,
but it does mean that at the property line that it will
be barely audible, if at all.
That really is just about all of my comments on
the specifics, and I can just make a couple of other
small comments to at least let you know where I am
coming from in terms of my willingness to support the
subcommittee's findings with those little modifications
that I made.
First of all, as an architect, I don't know how
many times I have had people when we were doing projects
or working on things where they say, Oh, my gosh, here
we go, we have to have an EIR.
And what I've told my clients, and what I have
told everybody in the process is that an EIR is a
wonderful thing. It's a design tool.
It provides the project's sponsor and
architects an unbiased and expert authority to look at
the impacts that arrive from the project as originally
designed so that you can come back in and mitigate the
problems that it might cause.
Kol Shofar, frankly, in getting down to Option
7 did an excellent job and used the EIR for all of its
positive reasons in terms of coming up with methods that
mitigate everything down to the mitigatable or
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diminimous impacts.
At that point, however, I can certainly
understand that Kol Shofar would say, all right, we have
mitigated it down to this point.
Now at that point we
should be given quite a bit of leeway with our permit.
I think the Planning Commission very rightly
looked at the parking and traffic impacts, and I think
between the subcommittee and all of the other discussion
that has gone forward there's an extensive group of
mitigations that have been proposed.
From my friends in the neighborhood we have
spoken at length about this, read e-mails, had
discussion here where the neighborhood has said, Once
you build this large a facility, if those elaborate
mitigation measures don't work, we are sunk.
You built the facility, and there's no way out
from the difficulties that might arise from it except
draconian reduction in number of people using the
facilities.
As an architect, architects always believe that
they can design their way out of every problem and
sometimes we can't.
However, in this case, I took it upon myself to
take a quick look at how you could add 50 extra cars to
the Kol Shofar site, not without cost, not without
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impact, but there's a way to build the scheme that Kol
Shofar wants to build and should the mitigations simply
not work, the best efforts of everybody involved just
are not enough to keep the traffic out of the
neighborhoods or make it unsafe, there's a way in which
Kol Shofar could add additional parking spaces to their
site without tearing down buildings and doing all of
that stuff, utilizing the rise of the street -- there's
a number of ways to do it -- but there's a very
straight-forward way I am convinced myself that it could
be done.
And I took the liberty of scribbling this up,
and I can make it available to anybody, but the point is
what we understand is that Kol Shofar with the 156
spaces that have been requested by the subcommittee has
enough parking for most uses and they shouldn't be asked
to build at this time the additional parking to be
adequate for all uses.
Assuming the mitigation measures work and that
they have -- and no one would want to do this more than
Kol Shofar -- they don't want a facility where it's
very, very difficult and unpleasant to come to because
they can't park.
So for these larger events, they can get the
parking off site, so they want it to succeed.
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But if it doesn't succeed in future years,
there is a non-draconian kind of a solution that could
be added and should be considered, and I think it should
be understood by the community, neighbors and Kol
Shofar, I think it is understood by the Council, that if
the mitigation measures do not work, and they are proven
to be unsuccessful, there's a way to ask for a minor
second deck to be added at a certain area, additional
parking provided on site that can be done and would be
done under those conditions.
The other thing was, that was discussed about
the cleanup area, which I am very much in favor of. I
want to explain it at one level further.
Hotels often have banquets. Lots of banquets
are held in hotels, but these hotels also have people
who are paying a lot of money to sleep upstairs above
those banquet rooms.
How do those people go to sleep at night
quietly when there's cleanup and other things going on?
They do just what's been suggested, they
enclose the cleanup area.
It's been suggested in this proposal, and it's
been done, it's been talked about by members of Kol
Shofar. It looks like it's a doable thing. This space
does not have to be carpeted, gilded with chandeliers.
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This is industrial easy space.
I want to assure the neighbors that is the
reason why this proposal very wisely says, include the
cleanup time. Don't set aside the cleanup time as a
separate time when people have to be out. Allow the
cleanup to go on after the event is finished. I think
this is a very excellent suggestion, and this is a
mitigation that can solve it.
And one last thing that I wanted to make clear
too about this suggestion was that, unlike many other
types of uses, religious services and religious
activities, I would be almost certain that at everyone
of these activities there will be more than enough
people in attendance who would have a handicapped car or
sticker in their car, and these suggestions that Paul
and Tom have done take that into consideration and have
eliminated the need for a parking cap with handicapped
spaces added in addition to that.
Instead, it's been folded into the overall
number, making it easier for Kol Shofar to achieve a
higher counted number of parking spaces. So I think
it's excellent on that basis.
And those are all of my comments.
I want to thank you, again. I would be
completely happy to support a resolution if it were
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1 made.
2
COUNCILMEMBER FREDERICKS: You know Tom gave
3 you a description of our process with St. Hilary's,
4 although most of us were not on the Council at the time,
5 the majority of us were indeed on the Planning
6 Commission where it's a little more difficult to
7 negotiate these things.
8 I want to put in the record some of the
9 information about the original Kol Shofar application
just so you can see St. Hilary's application, just so
you can see that even when your expectations are scaled
12 back, you cannot only get the use you want, but you can
13 also get a neighborhood that's welcoming and with whom
14 you are not always in an adversarial position.
15 This was the first application from St.
16 Hilary's. You can see that the big white building
17 disappeared, a lot of the use got folded back in the
18 buildings in the back.
19 There was a great modification to this
1
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particular project, and it worked out for the neighbors
and it worked for St. Hilary's, and they have done a
great job of making it work out.
23 This is just a close-up of the parish center
24 that was substituted for a building that actually worked
25 and folded back so that it was no longer a concern to
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the neighbors and parking could be provided.
I think that when you think of what the Council
is offering and what the subcommittee has carefully
thought out as mitigations to make your use work, you
will find that it will work out for you too.
I want to also comment that I think that the
proposed mitigations and the conditional use permit
conditions will work with the good will of everyone.
I know that the neighbors are very anxious that
the Town Council control size because to them that's the
way to make things work and the only way it will work.
But, in fact, this is a more sophisticated
scheme that than that. It offers incentives,
opportunities for review, and consequences for
non-compliance that are really designed not to punish,
but to find more solutions for the problem.
I think Miles offered an even greater,
far-reaching solution, and with any cooperation, even
though 650 more cars will be coming to bring people to
Kol Shofar, you may never have to consider building a
garage.
I think the Neighborhood Advisory Committee and
the Planning Commission review provides an opportunity
to fine-tune all of the needs for on-site parking; and
when I talk to you about parking, it's not that I am
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1
concerned where you park.
2 I think the Council, I reflect the feeling of
3 the Council that the parking problems are a traffic
4 safety problem, and I think this is a scheme that will
5 not only help solve this problem but will help solve it
6 a collegial way that will let you be a congregation that
7 is proud of what you have accomplished.
8
MAYOR SMITH: Thank you. I just wanted to say
9 one thing that I forgot to say earlier.
10 You know, Tom and I spent a lot of time trying
11 to figure out this parking mitigation issue, which drove
12
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this whole thing, and I am confident, and this is kind
of thing that comes back to you later when you run for
election, I am confident that if these mitigation
15 measures are implemented, and once Kol Shofar's
16 congregation understands how it works and where there's
17 parking and where there isn't, that the parking and
18 traffic situation in the neighborhood will be better
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when this project is completed than it is today.
COUNCILMEMBER SLAVITZ:
Thanks.
I too want
to thank everybody that's been involved in this,
especially the Planning Commission for all of the hours
they took, all of the meetings they went through to get
us to Alternative 7, and the subcommittee that has taken
us to the present day. You guys have put in a lot of
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great effort, a lot of hours, and it shows with what's
happened.
This has clearly been a difficult process
because we have had to balance the rights of a synagogue
to practice their faith and the rights of the
neighborhood to enjoy the quiet safe area that they now
live in.
To me, the biggest problem has been the traffic
and the parking issues, and I think we have addressed
them in this proposal. I think that to the extent that
Kol Shofar can provide more on-site parking helps you
raise the bar when you need to kick in the off-site
parking solutions.
But I think that you need to be just as
creative as you were. Last meeting you really thought
out of the box, you brought people here in buses, and I
was really impressed with that and you thought of the
organizational problems of getting people here and
parking here.
It occurred to me when I was speaking with some
of the members from Kol Shofar that the vast majority of
your members when they come to the high holy day
services do not live in Tiburon. They live outside of
Tiburon. They come down the freeway, just like the
people that came to the meeting last month. And it
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occurred to me, if you could use that same
organizational talent to have these people, perhaps,
meet in the Strawberry parking lot, bus them in, and
completely avoid the nightmare of directing cars to the
off-site parking place or the on-site parking place
would benefit you as well as the neighbors.
I think that the Conditional Use Permit process
allows the Council to use that as a throttle to allow
the restrictions to be modified as reality dictates that
they should be.
If there is chaos in parking, if there's noise
at the events, that will not be tolerated. The CUP
conditions will be adjusted to minimize and eliminate
those issues.
So I think it needs to be clear in mind by both
parties that the throttle that the Conditional Use
Permit provides will ensure that the concerns that
everybody has, and they are valid concerns, if they do
come to fruition will be eliminated.
I had a couple questions on this, your
proposal, I just wanted to ask you about.
Under traffic and parking management, you have
the new red "no parking" curbs will be painted as
follows:
And I take that to mean that not only will
not Kol Shofar members be able to park there, but
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neither will the residents of the surrounding
neighborhood?
MAYOR SMITH: That's right. Interestingly
enough, that was something that was requested by the
neighbors.
COUNCILMEMBER SLAVITZ: Likewise, where the
"residents traffic only" signs and "no parking
temporary" signs are placed during the greater than 359
member events, will residents be able to park in those
areas or will those also be literally or virtually red?
MAYOR SMITH: Those measures are the same
measures that have already gone on for quite some time.
Kol Shofar does this all of the time for right
now for events over 400, and so along Reedland Woods
Way, those signs are placed to try and prevent traffic
going down there.
The "no parking temporary" signs are on the
southeast side of Blackfield Drive are actually new, and
those signs -- you know, you raise a good point.
Generally speaking, the residents ought to be
able to park on their side of the street.
The problem is identifying what's a Kol Shofar
car, what's a resident's car, and so our intention was
to place those "no parking temporary" signs along that
side of the street, have the neighbors park in their
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driveways or in their garages. To the extent that that
doesn't work, we need to find out a way to accommodate
that very question.
We tried to steer away from putting, you know,
you can put resident parking permits on people's cars,
and it started to get complex that way. So this doesn't
happen that often, and we want to try this this way, at
first, and if it becomes a problem for the neighbors, we
will have to address that.
COUNCILMEMBER SLAVITZ:
Right. As you say,
there are more draconian approaches that can be taken to
make sure that the members do not park on the street but
would still allow residents to do so.
Under the CUP review, it says the Planning
Commission will not have the authority to relax
restrictions of the CUP within the first four years, but
they can tighten the restrictions at any of those
meetings before the four years.
MAYOR SMITH: Absolutely.
In fact, this was specifically done to try to
address the neighbor concerns. You know, the neighbors
from the outset saying, we really don't trust
conditional use permits. We want you to control this by
controlling the physical facility.
This was a mechanism we wanted to put in place
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to make the neighborhood more comfortable, that these
are the restrictions and they will be in place. They
will not be reduced during some, you know, short period
of time.
We are going to put this in place. We are
going to see how it works. There will be no reduction
in these mitigation measures; however, the Planning
Commission will have authority from day one to further
restrict the uses to the extent that they need to be
based on how this all functions.
And there will be a break-in period where we
will learn what works and what doesn't work; and to the
extent that things need to be modified to further
restrict operations because there are traffic, parking
and noise problems, the Planning Commission will have
the authority to do that from day one.
COUNCILMEMBER SLAVITZ: And then the
Neighborhood Advisory Committee, I thought that was a
great idea. I thought that would allow the neighborhood
groups to continue to dialogue with Kol Shofar, and
hopefully as the relationship warms again, it will
encourage movement in the right direction.
I notice that you have three board members,
three neighborhood representatives selected by the
surrounding neighborhoods. I assume, maybe not, one
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representative would come from Reedland Woods Way and
one from Bel Aire, and one from Greenwood Beach; or is
that not necessarily true?
MAYOR SMITH: We didn't try to drive that.
We tried basically to say let the neighborhoods
come up with their representative.
If it turns out that that's a problem, that
someone comes up and says, excuse me, we want
representation on this committee and we can't get
representation, maybe we'll have to address that issue.
We figure that the neighbors would get
together, they have basically similar interests, and
divide up their representation on this in some fair,
reasonable way.
This committee was actually intended to be, the
first line of defense, sort of the buffer, if you want,
ini tially.
Hopefully, this will allow for co~~unication
between Kol Shofar and the neighborhood on a regular
basis, so that when problems occur, everyone will know
about it and they will have an opportunity to discuss it
and they will have an opportunity to resolve it early.
And, if that doesn't work, the next step is to come to
the Town and talk about the Conditional Use Permit and
whether changes need to be made to that.
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This is an effort to mitigate the problem that
arises when people don't talk, and when these things
kind of fester over time and get worse.
So we are hopeful that this would be effective,
and we appreciate, actually, Kol Shofar's suggestion of
it.
COUNCILMEMBER SLAVITZ:
Great.
Couple
questions on the Table.
So Table 1 shows that there will be on Friday 5
new events; and as we discussed last meeting, there's 25
existing, so the total on Friday would be 30, and,
likewise, with Saturday the 10 new plus 5 existing, for
a total of 15 and on Sunday the total would be 7 events,
right?
MAYOR SMITH: That is correct.
COUNCILMEMBER SLAVITZ: If I look down, two
rows down where it shows me the new-member sponsored
weekend events maximum people, it says 5 events maximum
100. We know there will a total of 30 because 25 are
existing, so are those other 25 considered at 100, or is
there some different limitation for those and likewise
on Saturday?
MAYOR SMITH: The Table that you will see
addresses new-member sponsored events, 5 at a maximum of
100. We have found over, you know, our dealings with
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Kol Shofar that this doesn't seem to be a significant
issue, that the number of people at their events on
Friday nights regularly are 50 to 100. That's why
there's 50 to 100 in these columns in the past, so we
didn't consider that to be a concern that 100 as the
maximum seemed to be plenty to meet its current needs.
There are some interesting complications that I
think will have to be ironed out over time, and that is
that there are what are called member-sponsored events,
there are other activities that go on at Kol Shofar on a
regular basis. You know, what's a member-sponsored
event, what's a cultural event, what's a congregation
event, what's a religious event, what's an educational
activity? You know, all of these things have their own
different definitions and their own different
constraints, and what we have tried to do is to focus on
those things that seem to be potentially the most
problematic to the neighborhood.
It's interesting we have discovered during this
process that, first of all, Kol Shofar holds all sorts
of activities and events all during the week and various
different times, and we found that the neighborhood,
generally speaking, wasn't even aware of a lot of those
events, and that suggested to us that many of the kinds
of things: a book reading, somebody coming to discuss
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political issues involving Israel, or some such thing,
they just generally aren't a problem. They are quiet.
They end at a reasonable time. They don't take too
long.
So we focused our time on what was really those
things that are most likely to be problematic, and
that's weddings and bar mitvahs and bat mitvahs and
these celebratory events that tend to have a lot of
people, they tend to have a lot of noise, they tend to
go on at night, and that's why the Table focused on
those events, as opposed to the ones, quite frankly, we
found over the years just aren't an issue.
COUNCILMEMBER SLAVITZ: Thank you.
of my questions.
VICE MAYOR GRAM: I am finished. I resign.
MAYOR SMITH: All right. Scott, have you
taken notes on the comments that you heard from Miles?
MR. ANDERSON: Yes, we have.
COUNCILMEMBER FREDERICKS: Is this the end of
That's all
the Council's opportunity to comment on the conditions
that are offered?
MAYOR SMITH: Well, let me say, you are free to
comment again right now if you would like to.
Let me tell you what happens next. Assuming
that we have a Councilmember who wants to make a motion,
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1
and we second that motion, we vote.
We will vote on
2 the subcommittee's recommendations as amended by the
3 various comments that I heard. I think I heard from
4
Miles and Jeff.
5
6
And the motion would be to direct staff to
prepare resolutions consistent with our decision
7
tonight.
8
Staff will go away and prepare those
resolutions. Those will be brought back to us, and
we will have an opportunity to discuss anything we want
9
to once we get what will be much more detailed than what
you have right here.
This is the summary. This is what we give to
staff to say, you know, put this in the format of a
formal Conditional Use Permit resolution and the
resolution having to do with the denial of the other
appeals.
COUNCILMEMBER FREDERICKS: So it sounds like
you answered my question, Will there be another
opportunity? Yes.
MAYOR SMITH: Yes. I could have just said
that and we would be out of here. Yes.
COUNCILMEMBER BERGER: I would like to move
that the Council vote to have staff put together a
resolution in the form of a CUP with the conditions made
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this evening, just as Paul suggested, and brought back
for public review and for Council comments.
COUNCILMEMBER FREDERICKS: Second.
MAYOR SMITH: All in favor?
(All ayes.)
MAYOR SMITH: It's unanimous, 5/0 vote.
Thank you very much. This meeting is
adjourned.
(Meeting adjourned at 9:08 p.m.)
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STATE OF CALIFORNIA
: ss
COUNTY OF MARIN
I, the undersigned, a Certified Shorthand
Reporter of the State of Michigan, and Notary Public of
the State of California, do hereby certify:
That the foregoing proceedings were taken
before me at the time and place herein set forth; that a
verbatim record of the proceedings was made by me using
machine shorthand which was thereafter transcribed under
my direction; further, that the foregoing is an accurate
transcription thereof.
I further certify that I am neither financially
interested in the action nor a relative or employee of
any attorney of any of the parties.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have this date subscribed
my name.
Dated: ~ <f I 260~
~m,~
DIANE M. GALLAGHER, RPR
CSR (Mich) No. 2191
Notary Public No. 1419258 County of Marin
State of California
My commission expires: 5-20-2007
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~ PAGE LINE
NO. NO. CHANGES and/or CORRECTIONS
(~ufo t.vr rX 1/ 2000
/
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DATE:
SIGNATURE:
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