Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 1996-04-17Mayor Jack Drago Council: Joseph A. Fernekes Eugene R. Mullin lohn R. Penna Robert Yee MINUTES City Council City Council Conference Room City Hall April 17, 1996 SPECIAL MEETING CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO APRIL 17, 1996 V6L, .5'0 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, pursuant to Section 54956 of the Government Code of the State of California, that the City Council of the City of South San Francisco will hold a Special Meeting on Wednesday, the 17th day of April 1996, at 7:00 p.m. in the City Council Conference Room, City Hall, 400 Grand Avenue, South San Francisco, California. Purpose of the meeting is a study session to discuss: Report on strategy for retail recruitment and revitalization plan for the Downtown. 2. Waste Water Treatment Plant Expansion, both in capital and operations. Dated: April 12, 1996 City Clerk City of South San Francisco AGENDA CALL TO ORDER: (Cassette No. 1) ROLL CALL: Report on strategy for retail recruitment and revital- ization plan for the Downtown. 50~ ACTION TAKEN 7:03 p.m., Mayor Pro Tem Fernekes presiding. Council Present: Fernekes, Mullin and Yee. Council Absent: Penna and Drago. Deputy City Clerk Bill stated Mayor Drago was on vacation and Councilman Penna would be arriving late. City Manager Wilson gave a brief overview: with the greater downtown there have been a number of efforts staff has been taking and the two principle patterns for the downtown have been the clean-up 4/17/96 Page 1 AGENDA ACTION TAKEN ._.1.. Report on strategy for the Downtown - Continued. '.ouncilman Penna Arrived at the Meeting at 7:07 p.m. ECESS: RECALL TO ORDER: 2. Waste Water Treatment Plant Expansion, both in capital and operations. program and examination of parking; received a communication from Economic Development Sys- tem setting forth a program they have implemented in other cities; it is a two-part contract amount, the first part is data gathering and strategy and after seeing what comes out of that come back seeking authorization for the second phase for the imple- mentation is more expensive; and Mr. Beyer will give a background on this and describe its value. Coordinator of Economic & Community Develop- ment Beyer related: staff has done~ work downtown and focussed on parking and the loan and grant program for facade improvements and retrofitting of the URM buildings; they felt it was necessary to take another step to get some new retail down to add to the mixture that is there now; the question is how to entice new retailers to not only look at the area, but to fill up some of the vacant space and see about the broader need; the types of uses are limited and the community could benefit from a broader mix of retail types; the economic return on the land in the downtown is very low for most businesses are gen- erating between $25.00-$50.00 a sq. ft. Mayor Pro Tem Fernekes recessed the meeting at 7:07 p.m. Mayor Pro Tem Fernekes recalled the meeting to order at 7:11 p.m., all Council was present. City Manager Wilson stated the full scope of im- provements are in the range of $30 million over the next 1-5 years and there will be many actions brought before Council in the next 6-9 months. Council has been exposed to two or three of them with the fine bubble defusers and the chlorination systems. He stated the Director of Public Works will give a rough order of magnitude numbers for Bartle & Wells are still working on numbers that will be passed through the Subcommittee first. Director of Public Works Gibbs related: at the be- ginning of the analysis of the Plant the City hired Corollo Engineers to evaluate the Plant as it is right now; to consider which type of design alternatives, improvements that were needed to provide a cost analysis to retain a consultant for the financing end of the project, and also to review the plan opera- tion; Mr. Mike Britton, Corollo Engineers, is the Project Manager for the Project and is responsible 4/17/96 Page 2 AGENDA .,,?. Wastewater Treatment Plant - Continued. 4/17/96 Page 3 ACTION TAKEN for the numbers in the back of the handout that was given to Council tonight; the front part of the hand- out is how the loadings from our analyses breakout percentage-wide amongst the people that share the plan - San Bruno, Colma and Daly City; the purpose is tO show where the plant needs to be in the year 2015, and based upon the analysis we are going to need 11.4 MGD by the year 2015 and that is with the buildout of East of 101 and includes Colma and San Bruno's requirements; 8.3 is the maximum MGD as of January of 1996; from 1993 to the present we have had some eight major violations which has caused the IWQCP, Regular Water Quali- ty Control Board, to put the Plant on their watch list, in fact are looking to us to get back to them by the end of this year in October before the rainy season comes so they can assess what we have done already to alleviate our problems before they jump all over us again and maybe issue a cease and desist order; SSF is the only Plant on the watch list, but Half Moon Bay had a problem and took care of it; chemical additions to the vacuators increased the 8.3 to 8.7 and quickened the process, but this is an expensive way to run a Plant by adding chemicals and costs us $150,000 a year at this time, but this cost will go away as we build more capacity into the Plant; Council just passed the updates to aeration of Basin 1/7 which is a fine bubble defuser system and will bring the Plant to 9 MGD by September; most of the 2.4 required belongs to SSF, etc. City Manager Wilson stated the Council will see some of the capacity and costs are going to have different ratios depending on what they are trying to accomplish, such as future growth. Director of Public Services Gibbs stated the 9 MGD is sufficient to get us to the year 2000 and the City has spent close to a million dollars to get the 9 MGD. He stated they looked at the year 2008 and determined they had to get to 10.5 MGD and the Phase I cost is $22.2 million. Discussion followed: if the bulk of the growth is going to be in home development and East of 101 development between now and the year 2000, where do we pick up the additional needs between 2000 and 2015; East of 101 will not be fully devel- oped until the year 2015 which is consistent with the approved plan; Phase I construction costs about $4.2 million for wet weather improvements for the plant AGENDA ACTION TAKEN T Wastewater Treatment Plant - Continued. 4/17/96 Page 4 only for wet weather capabilities; when we have a storm and there is flooding water comes into the Plant it bypasses the primary, goes to the secondary is diluted with eh fresh water and then goes into the creek; there is a limit on how much the Plant can pump through the outfall; the discharge permit says that is not allowable, but that has been going on for a long time; there is a need to provide more pump- ing capacity; there are several users to the outfall - the Airport, Millbrae, Burlingame in that outfall and will have to pay their fair share on the benefit; staff is in the process of compromising with the Regional Board on the discharge permit requirements, because it is not cost effective to provide cold treatment and then get all of the flow into the outfall and a new outfall would be $20 million; the improvements to the Plant come to $9.7 million, which is for the pumps and there is a listing of improvements and expansion; built half of the expansion costs in each Phase; Water Quality likes cities to have an on- going plan and you are always prepared to expand if you need to and there has been modest growth in the East of 101 area; before the Council goes into Phase II they will have to reevaluate to see if that is still what you want, because there may be a Phase III; what would happen if there is another Genentech coming into town; until after the year 2000 they would not have capacity; Genentech is generating a million gallons now; it is possible to do Phase I and II at the same time and have them on-line for the year 2000; 90% of the cost will come from industry; there is a Council policy to expand on our industri- al/commercial properties and staff must tell Council what is it going to take in infrastructure to meet the different types of expansion; the real question being asked, is the Council willing to look at what staff recommends on the blue line or should it be in- creased to 11.4 MGDs now - not tomorrow; the original plan was to have 11.4 MGDs by the year 2000 and staff looked at it and said maybe we don't need to spend $30 million, let's look at what the estimated gross is going to be and see when we need this money; Councilman Penna feels the bio-science industry is going to require a lot of infra- structure, including sewers and the City should have a better handle of what the bio-science expan- sion needs are; the study had a forecast of the square footage needs and staff will share that infor- mation with Councilman Penna; Genentech is typi- cally in the wet lab as opposed to the one who just made the press on imaging which is more like a '~ Wastewater Treatment Plant - Continued. 4/17/96 Page 5 machine shop; staff's fear was that this became very economically driven also for there are fundamentally two ways to fund money - borrow it or pay as you go; one theory is to pay it off and lay it off on development fees, on new people who come in and need capacity must pay their fair share, but if you borrow money the purchasers have a fixed program saying they are going to get paid every six months and there is a principle and interest payment; if you went out and borrowed $22 million or $32 million, the debt service is a whole lot, so the City Manager felt you don't want to spend that capital to create debt which somebody has to pay for until you have a need, because certain improvements come in big chunks; staff would like to recommend that the design gets started because it should be done and ready; spiking points so staff doesn't have to wait until the year 2000; if the Project was all done at once it would take two years to be at 11.4; the Plant is laid out to be easily expanded; the second phase will affect Tillo who is saving the City $300,000 a year in costs; mulching is becoming a very popular way of disposing of backyard green waste, and the more glut is put on the market and the more glut on the market the more pressure it is going to put on the Tillo product; the City has to pursue an alterna- tive to Tillo and determine how long the life of that product is going to be viable; the other extreme is a very expensive hauling to the dump, so there needs to be a third option; etc. Further discussion ensued: Mr. Mike Britton ex- plained how the sewers come into the plant; the need to replace primary clarifiers and add a fourth one which would take the Plant beyond the 11.4; Shell had a pipe blow up at one time and there are contaminates in the area that are being burned at the Airport; Mayor Pro Tern Fernekes remembers Shell paying rent to the City when he worked for Finance; probably a pipeline lease agreement; probably there was a blowout of a value and the pipeline leaked contaminating the property with jet fuel; recommendations from Corollo Engineers; some areas are shale, while others are solid mud and will drive up the costs by $5 million if that land is used; the dewatering process; they will be in- creasing the pumping capacity; Battle & Wells is doing a financing analysis; staff will come back to Council with a recommendation for hookup costs and the possibility of issuing bonds for this; there are heavy minerals in the soil and in some A~ENDA ._2. Wastewater Treatment Plant - Continued 4/17/96 Page 6 ACTION TAKEN cities these are mined; there are three ratios - 1) for the cost associated with the wet weather and who is contributing wetness to this process and how much it is going to take to correct it, 2) the improvements are taking what we currently have predicated on what our current shares are and 3) on the expansion, who is buying capacity for the future and SSF is going to have the lions share of that cost; City Manager' Wilson is going to be coming back to Council suggesting an interim development fee to be imposed for connections and there will be discus- sions on the threshold of scaring people away; etc. Director of Public Works Gibbs spoke of his orga- nizational chart for the Treatment Plant; the Plant right now is a very disenfranchised organization, in his opinion, there is a very real need for an Assis- tant Superintendent because there is no real supervi- sion of the supervisors in all of the categories shown; Dave is a very, very competent gentleman, but he takes on too much and the day to day operations of the Plant are left mostly to his line supervisors and that causes real problems; in the next two or three years, according to what he has been told, Dave will be retiring, so the Assistant Superintendent in that case will move up to Plant Superintendent; he is suggesting that the Assis- tant Superintendent be a sanitary engineer with the necessary management skills to run a plant with a $6-7 million budget and get rid of the Operations Superintendent for he is just an operator who has stepped up to that position; his recommendation is to cancel or eliminate the Stop Program Manager in Storm Water Management and put a Source Con- trol Inspector/Coordinator in at the Treatment Plant; this person will be in charge of the source inspec- tors and in charge of the Stop Program also because the two are together; as it is now the functions overlap and San Mateo County will go out and do these inspections free and that will cut down on the City's necessary staff; tied into the Source Control Inspector is the Development Review Coordinator - this person works under engineering and would tie in with the Treatment Plant inspections in the plan review aspect of the job; the rest is how the plant is running at this time - there is a need for another chemist; now we have a Senior Technician, Richard Harmon, and he is suggesting eliminating that posi- tion and making Richard a Development Review Coordinator for Engineering which is the proper name for what he does at this time; etc. AGENDA ACTION TAKEN __2,. Wastewater Treatment Plant - Continued. RECESS: RECALL TO ORDER: 1. Report on strategy for retail recruitment and revitalization plan for the Downtown. 4/17/96 Page 7 Discussion followed: Councilman Mullin wants to see prior organizational charts when one is going to be changed; staff will show primary duties coming and going for they will have to be recommending some compensation for the positions; next step is a joint meeting with San Bruno; the capacity is related to dollars and cents and Councilman Yee wants a so- called cut off point in MGD and say what relates to expansion of up to 11.4, then the question in San Bruno is what is their percentage; he feels it should be on actual capacity used and earmark the MGD, rather than a first come, first serve and pay accord- ingly on the expansion; Daly City contracted with Westborough to treat their sewage. Mayor Pro Tern Fernekes declared a recess at 8:20 p.m. Mayor Pro Tern Fernekes recalled the meeting to order at 8:23 p.m., all Council was present. Councilman Penna announced he had a conflict of interest on the item, would not participate and stepped down from the podium and did not return to the meeting. Coordinator of Economic & Community Develop- ment Beyer related: the plans are to develop a data base on the downtown area and provide data for recruitment of business and that data can be used and is a benefit to get the kind of retailers in we want. The next phase is the retail recruitment where the consultant will go out and talk to retailers and start nurturing the process to get them into SSF. He stated these would be in concert with the downtown merchants, homeowners, tenants, Chamber of Com- merce, the City and any brokers and property own- ers to cover that area. Councilman Yee stated SSF is not going to get those major tenants, even like Starbuck's, they are not coming to Grand Avenue. He questioned, do we really have those kinds of open spaces in the down- town and are we really going to be successful in getting firms that are on this list. We have to do whatever the market dictates, we have a lot of Mexi- can restaurants - it's that kind of atmosphere and he is not sure that if you spend thousands of dollars -- there is no guaranty things are going to change and they get paid regardless - just like attorneys. AGENDA ACTION TAKEN __L Report on strategy - Continued. 4/17/96 Page 8 Coordinator of Economic & Community Develop- ment Beyer stated the consultant is being paid to provide a service to bring a retailer to an owner or broker to make the deal so that is part of the ser- vice. Right now there are 14 vacancies downtown and we are going to get two more taquerias and another Chinese restaurant. There is a neighbor- hood service that those types of facilities serve in terms of Old Town and the immediate area, but if you look at the broader area there are three or four or five mile radius of the downtown where down- town is not serving a population of maybe 300,000 people in that radius and if it is going to provide additional services it needs to provide a broader mix. Staff realizes we are not going to create an- other Burlingame or Pasadena, but to look at what is here now and in some cases it might mean we only start the process of upgrading the kind of retail we have now; and when the leaser is up then you start this by bringing these people together. Councilman Yee stated he knows the downtown and there have been a lot of changes and if we are going to spend this money for people out of town -- he wonders if the City is going to get anything out of it. City Manager Wilson stated he sees a transition and it is not for the best, more and more we are getting yet another Chinese or Mexican restaurant, and yet another little food market - a continuum of what we have got. So, the thought was, and it is a bit of risk taking, whatever we are doing now doesn't seem to be helping as far as attracting a new client and there are concerns on what we are going to bring in here. Staff has this theory that So. City is always going to be So. City and will not look like the south, at best it may look like something from S.F. If we can create that clean environment for the market place, by providing parking, maybe we can attract an anchor business or even a funky little store that has its own business to turn the corner. If you follow what these people did - they are on a short track of time and if successful their contract is renewed. He stated, we are trying to do something, we are trying a quick start and create a surcharge and if we can get one or two new types moving maybe that is what we need. We are bringing in ArtRise, a differ- ent concept, putting in big bucks to get physical property - there is going to be some money lost even __1.. Report on strategy - Continued. 4/17/96 Page 9 in upgrading the buildings, so it is a risk taking, but we hope for the amount of time we may get a profit. Director of Economic & Community Devdopment Van Dyun related: he had met with the Chamber of Commerce on efforts by Genentech days and the dollars given employees to spend downtown for there is not much to motivate them to come down- town other than restaurants; he did not envision people coming from businesses East of 101 and going to the downtown; things that would make a difference in the downtown are a decent bookstore, a good coffee shop, maybe a couple of different varieties of restaurants and they would like to see an expansion of titles and tapes at the Libraries; we can avoid the competition starting across the freeway by having the bookstore and coffee shop and other uses coming into the downtown; the Chamber is not concerned if the new ventures are not successful, because then they will know why they are not sue- cessful and make solid judgments from there. Councilman Yee stated no one would oppose any good business coming into the downtown. It is easy for the Chamber to say, sure do the study, but they are not paying $40,000 for it. So, his question is are we going to get anything back after we spend the $40,000. The other problem is that we don't own these properties and we are at the mercy of the landlord, whoever that is, so you may get a Starbuck's in that can't go with the conditions of the landlord - which is another factor that we have no control over. Director of Economic & Community Development VanDyne related: the consultant crunches the num- bers, they put together comparison dollars as to what the tenant is paying in that particular building now, what the lease terms are, what the return is on the investment the property owner is getting now; pretty much does a performa on the history of the site; if we bring in this user and we can show you that we can bring a five year lease in under these terms with this kind of revenue - does this look like a deal you could live with; it's not going to take much in the way of a more aggressive user, one level up user, to make a big difference in what the margins are that some of our property owners are drawing down on leases; we have been asked if there interest from Bronstein's to sell records and tapes, because there is a market for those and they AGENDA ACTION TAKEN 1. Report on strategy - Continued draw clientele from all over the Bay Area; they said no, they know what their business is, but that tells the consultant that a companion use to Bronstein's could open a music and tape outlet - it might work even if it is a mom and pop operation if there is a demand; these are Redevelopment Agency funds that are intended to be reinvested in encouraging devel- opment in the downtown. Discussion followed: Councilman Mullin was at Starbuck's and Noah's Saturday night on Clement Street and that is like Grand Avenue, and he be- lieves there is a market for those two businesses in SSF; he is also distressed by the slide, all Council is, and does not believe it is getting better; he has never heard of putting a Starbuck's and a Target together. M/S Yee/Mullin - To adjourn the meeting. Carried by unanimous voice vote. ADJOURNMENT: Time of adjournment was 8:45 p.m. ESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, APPROVED. Barbara A. Battaya, City~ ~, Jack Drago, Mayor7 ' City of South San Francisco // // City of South San Francisco Time of adjournment was 8:47 p.m. Ihe en l L the City Council to/} dispose of an item. Oral communications, arguments and comments are recorded on tape. jThe tape and documents related to the items are on file in the Office of the City Clerk and are available for inspectiOn, review and copying. 4/17/96 Page 10