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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 1997-10-01 Mayor Joseph A. Fernekes Council: James L. Datzman Eugene R. Mullin ---qohn R. Penna Robert Yee "d MINUTES City Council Municipal Services Building Community Room October 1, 1997 SPECIAL MEETING CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO OCTOBER 1, 1997 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 1st day of October 1997, at 6:00 p.m. in the Municipal Services Building, Community Room, 33 Arroyo Drive, South San Francisco, California. Purpose of the meeting joint session with Planning Commission to discuss: Wireless communications. General Plan Update. 3. Design Charette. City Clerk City of South San Francisco Dated: August 29, 1997 AGENDA ACTION TAKEN CALL TO ORDER: (Cassette No. 1) 6:05 p.m. Mayor Fernekes presiding. ROLL CALL: Council Present: Council Absent: Datzman, Mullin, Yee and Fernekes. Penna. Planning Commissioners Present: Baldocchi, Barnett, Honan, Masuda, Sim, Teglia and Romero. Wireless communications. Planning Commissioners Absent: None. Mayor Fernekes stated Council set direction to try to keep the meeting to two hours and only go to 8:00 p.m. 10/1/97 Page 1 AGENDA ACTION TAKEN Wireless - Continued. :ouncilman Penna Arrived At 6:07 p.m. 10/1/97 Page 2 Chief Planner Harnish stated there are three items all related to activities of the Planning Commission and proceeded to introduce the staff and cite their responsibilities: Senior Planners Steve Carlson and Susie Kalkin; Consulting Planner Allison Knapp will deal with Terrabay processing; and Consulting Planner Michael Lappen handles the front counter, business licenses and special planning projects. He stated the wireless is an issue that has been kicking around for some time and an ordinance was drafted some months ago and the Planning Com- mission raised concerns about the policies and regu- lations and the issues in the City. There is a special subcommittee with representatives from Council and the Commission and we discussed direction on how to proceed with this issue and we have a draft ordi- nance in front of you, plus samples of ordinances from other jurisdictions, so you will have a range of possibilities. Staff has attempted to address this issue in a straight forward way and it can be com- plex dealing with some aspects and we felt the best way is a simple approach, so this has fairly direct provisions that he will summarize. He related: first there are certain things permitted by right which allows it to exist without discretion- ary or administrative review; antenna placed on existing structures other than towers in excess of 50' tall and antenna is limited to 15' tall; if someone wants to put one on a cellular, that would be permit- ted by right as long as the antenna is 15' or less; as regards existing towers that are constructed for antennas and other towers that fall under the defini- tion and are not greater than 15' and does not re- quire equipment and that is by right and requires a building permit; under the ordinance those two categories are permitted by right and the second is permitted through administrative review and the applicant makes an application to the Planning Dept. and we have 30 days to approve or deny and add an additional layer of reviews; antennas 15' or less added to structures less than 50' tall, for the lower the building the more apparent the antenna and being observed by the people or a billboard that someone wants to add an antenna, then we look at it in terms of color; the second category included in the administration are additional antennas on existing antennas and new equipment; all other facilities that fall outside that are being reviewed by the Planning Commission for approval; all city property is ex- AGENDA ACTION TAKEN Wireless - Continued. 10/1/97 Page 3 empted from the regulations of the ordinance; if an antenna was proposed on the Corporation Yard there would be negotiation by staff and it would be re- viewed by the City Council, but not go through the normal permit process; there is a requirement if there are any problems they would be pulled out and removed; ordinances adopted in other jurisdictions are a lot more detailed, but he believes the approach is the same and provides the public review for those facilities that raise public concern and the approval process; there are representatives in the audience available to answer questions; he had asked the providers to nominate one of their number to make one presentation, but the person nominated is not yet present. Mayor Fernekes opened it up to discussion and stated he would rotate back and forth between Coun- cil and the Commission. Vice Mayor Mullin stated the first question deals with the siting of their equipment by right, and he read the staff report, but was not sure that Daly City and Petaluma have the same provision of 50' tall with a building permit. He stated that Kaiser is seen from his front window, they have a lot of equipment and could ask for another pole which Kaiser could permit and then he would see a forest of antennas. So, if it is not a standard, how did we come up with that, what is the origin. The problem he sees, if you have a large building with a large roof area and if everybody gets into the market and slowly they get absorbed - he would feel more comfortable by starting off to have administrative referral rather than the right to place them. He testified on more microwave disks and his was a lonely voice, but it can impact visual impacts based on the location, but he guesses they don't want staff time devoted to this. Was consideration given to Daly City's ap- proach to have certain amounts of distance in the permitted construction of the facilities. Senior Planner Carlson stated the cities all have different standards. Chief Planner Harnish stated this was based on a model SAMCAT ordinance. There are a number of antenna facilities that were permitted by right and we removed many of those and whittled it down to a reasonable approach to allow some and it was really a policy statement. This is a fine line of by right AGENDA ACTION TAKEN Wireless - Continued. 10/1/97 Page 4 and administrative review and staff will look at the antennas that are under the by right category through the building issues, but we shift that over to the administrative review and develop a standard to deal with the proliferation. Daly City's requirement is 1,000' between the poles. The industry says it could create hardship and Daly City has the ability to lessen that if it is a hardship. Staff didn't see that as a major issue and didn't go into that, but maybe the industry could cover that. Planning Commissioner Teglia stated right now basi- cally everything requires a use permit and comes before the Commission and through that process we have the opportunity to sometimes improve that situation through screening, and depending on the application whatever changes are appropriate. The permit process allows us to review it later. Chief Planner Harnish stated the key is whether or not we develop standards that the two bodies are satisfied with to take care of every situation and that is the key to remove these from the discretionary review process. Planning Commissioner Teglia stated these tend to be unique to each site depending on how the antenna is mounted on the building. Chief Planner Harnish stated staff is trying to nar- row a group of antennas applications as a class that are innocuous and we could be able to develop standard administration, and hand out a flyer on the particular standards to the applicants. We could address all of those issues so the Commission and Council are satisfied that they are adequate and don't need to look at it, but if we could keep on the process of a use permit for everything it is a bit more time consuming for the applicant to go through. Councilman Penna stated he visited Lockheed with Cablevision and the first question is, aren't the antennas getting shorter and smaller. Ms. Jennifer McCook, Cellular One, stated it de- pends on each carrier, and she could not speak for the other carriers, but generally the antennas are shorter and smaller and it depends on the topogra- phy. Cellular One is using long antennas and one antenna has three incorporated into the one. AGENDA AC!!Q~ !A~N Wireless - Continued. 10/I/97 Page 5 Councilman Penna stated what Ms. McCook is talking about is instead of having one you are going to be getting four or five and it will be larger be- cause there are more. Ms. McCook replied, not necessarily, it is hard to explain as the technology expands and if the tech- nology does change in two or three years we reduce the site. Councilman Penna stated he knows that a bill was passed prohibiting home owner associations from controlling satellites on each unit and now State law has granted that, and under the Freedom of Speech Act antennas can be restrictive. Discussion followed: the antennas covered by this are to implement the zoning controls; on the matter of newspaper racks, can Council use the same theo- ry regarding the amount of newspaper racks; City Attorney Mattas stated local governments do have authority to place restrictions; Commissioner Masuda asked if staff should recommend a limit on the size of towers, say they come up and say they want to put up a 100' tower so we should have a maximum so there is no argument; that can be done, but some may have a strong need to have a particular height in excess of 65' and there may be some areas where we do have some heights greater than that and the 65' is the height limit in the in- dustrial area; that is why staff has not included it in the draft ordinance, but you could by policy deter- mine 65' was the limit as the height limit; Commis- sioner Teglia stated, aren't we trying to discourage 65' poles; yes, staff recommends a maximum height of 45'; PG&E and California Water are not exempt with their towers; true, they are not opposed in the ordinance; staff talked about the School District; in the current wording it would have to be controlled by the City if the land was for joint use, however, the School District would be exempt; pictures were circulated of currently proposed antennas by Cellular One, many are smaller, lower, less noticeable and a lot depends on the wireless devise used; Vice Chair Barnett asked shouldn't we, based on the actual fiscal location and electrical restrictions, try to en- courage the antennas so all are of the same covering with the minimum amount of antennas; staff asks that the applicant give a list of proposed sites and we encourage them, where their sites are close to existing facilities, put them on those sites; are AGENDA ACTION TAKEN Wireless - Continued. 10/1/97 Page 6 residential sites not allowed to have antennas; that is all subject to use permits; Vice Chairman Barnett stated one of the first presentations said your police and paramedics can have these phones and in the case of a real disaster has added assistance; he brought up the question of security, why allow them, for they can be tampered with and be insecure and he is not seeing anything that relates to that; staff feels they are reasonably secure, but not sure how they can enforce it in the ordinance; there is a document in the packet that discussed the broad issues of the wireless and what the officials should be looking at; these are facilities that will be made use of in the community and staff's challenge is to make them less conspicuous; the Chief Planner is assuming that the providers have done everything they can to make it secure from a safety viewpoint; Ms. McCook stated they were very secure in their radio and telephone equipment which is in cabinets or in shelters that are tamper proof and bullet proof with silent alarms in each switch, however, if they are tampered with ---; Councilman Penna stated where he was today he was told within 30 days they are going into operations and they will go into satel- lites, so in the future why will we need antennas; the providers will need them in the next six months to a year, due to expense and reliability the satellite may not be mature enough and won't be ready for the ev- eryday user; Councilman Datzman asked the logis- tics of 65'; Cellular One has micro-seals and large macros that are 65' or higher to increase clarity, security and the number of users; Commissioner Baldocchi stated, going back to the by right, Vice Mayor Mullin had a concern of the ones at Kaiser being 50' or above what would the carrier suggest say we want to put some standards in the ordinance; what would they suggest, can we paint them a cer- tain color or box them in to make those antennas on a 50' building pleasing; it is a condition to grant- ing a permit and as long as they meet construction standards then they get a permit; there is some opportunity to include the standards, but the Chief Planner thinks the better way is to move them to the administrative process with the review guidelines and say we can reduce them into categories and they require screening or other kinds of decisions; Mr. Mike Vernetti, Nextel, stated they are on the receiv- ing end and do whatever the jurisdiction requires, such as shielding so you can not see the shelters; the antennas are 10 or 15' on the building, but you can sometimes mount the antenna on the side and AGENDA ACTION TAKEN Wireless - Continued. 10/1/97 Page 7 are facade mounts; they make every effort for the antennas not to be intrusive as long as it gives us freedom to use our imagination; every situation is different and Mr. Vernetti wants to point out the sites are unique generally, so the Council certainly can impose guidelines, but you could make them as flexible as possible; Commissioner Teglia stated the last few applications received by the Commission have not had options, like the Basque facade mount- ing; a facade mounting can be buried beneath the stucco and that can be in the ordinance; there is a difference in putting an antenna on an existing build- ing rather than on a new one, but that can be ex- plored by staff in the standard of guidelines; Vice Mayor Mullin stated the County placed an antenna, a mono pole, in Country Club above Alida and he had trouble finding it for it was on private property and was painted green; the reason he had problems finding it was because all of the utilities were above ground, and the fact he could not find it showed efforts to reduce the intrusion; while on the Subcom- mittee he recalls some of the mono poles had branches on them to look like trees; we have to make decisions on what we will allow underground or above ground and it seems to the Vice Mayor we can do more if everything is above ground and the mono pole at fire station number 5 is ugly; he does not have a handle on how much this is going to proliferate and the staff report of the various provid- ers can't provide their plans or where they are going to go, he guesses for competitive reasons and our reason is that the community is not impacted by this type of device; he wants to see the providers' two or five year plan, so we will know that the community will not be impacted at the end of that time; the Sunnyvale ordinance went on and on about the benefits to the city and we have talked about the earthquakes and one of these poles may be standing but what are we getting by allowing the on-rush of technology before we are ready to handle it; the Chief Planner stated the broader issue is the service they provide to the community as a whole, and this is just the change in wireless communication and the wireless modem; we are dealing with a temporary technology and he believes in the future the antenna will become small and obscure and will be unnotice- able or we will have satellites; Vice Mayor Mullin asked, when the facility becomes obsolete are they required to remove it and are they bonded; Senior Planner Carlson stated the owner is obligated to see the facility removed, and we could require a AGENDA ACTION TAKEN Wireless - Continued. 10/1/97 Page 8 bond to remove it; Chief Planner Harnish stated bonds are relatively difficult to enforce, we could require one, but it is difficult to get the bond compa- ny to pay off; we have other mechanisms under the use permit and the City will have some facilities; staff requires that the providers provide an inventory of the existing facilities, but don't address the future because the plans are short range and most compa- nies only know'plans for a couple of years; Mr. Vernetti stated their plans only go to the next two or three years, for the user population is 17% and if others want the device, then we have to build anoth- er antenna and that is why we cannot predict, but we have no objections to telling you what we have on the drawing board; we have to make an estimate of what share of the market we will get; Chairman Romero stated the Commission always asks an appli- cant for existing and future sites, so they can tell what to anticipate; Councilman Datzman asked if the ordinance had been shared with the providers and was there opposition; Mr. Mark Fuller, GTE, stated he just received a copy yesterday, so he is not saying he has a problem, but wants to take a look at it; Councilman Datzman feels it gives good guide- lines for staff for the situations and wants to move ahead; Vice Mayor Mullin stated he would praise efforts to diminish intrusion; City Attorney Mattas stated the ordinance has the effect of eliminating visual intrusions and that is just an implication of general esthetics, so you can start to look at the architecture and if you want to be more precise then direct staff to look at that; Mayor Fernekes stated direction is, by right, it is to be placed under ad- ministration review, the second is to determine a maximum height limit between 50' and 65', encour- age co-location, there is an issue of security and Cellular One addressed their boxes or alarms are contained by their own company, flexibility to stealth antenna, visual intrusions - that every effort should be made to go with the areas in underground and above ground utilities and look at the future plans of the carriers and try to get from them what the future brings so both boards are kept abreast; Commissioner Baldocchi asked if the City can work with the carriers to co-locate, so it is one location where we can pick key central areas to put their equipment and if in that area there is City property we can encourage their putting it on City property and we get more revenue; Commissioner Teglia stated that was one part and the other major part of Subcommittee discussions was policies and an AGENDA ACTION TAKEN 1. Wireless - Continued. RECESS: RECALL TO ORDER: 2. General Plan Update. 10/1/97 Page 9 aggressive approach to have a location to increase revenue like the Basque Cultural moving the antenna back to the City property, but the City was not interested for that requires planning and cooperation of the Manager's Office; when an application comes in then the City Manager looks at it to see if it is in or near City property; Chairman Romero stated the City has to monitor whether the towers are going to continue to be used or are abandoned; Vice Mayor Mullin asked if there are health risks, for there was something about notification if someone was work- ing near it; the Chief Planner thought it was still unknown. Mayor Fernekes declared a recess at 7:05 p.m. Mayor Fernekes recalled the meeting to order at 7:18 p.m., members of both Boards were present. Chief Planner Harnish explained: we are at a mile- stone in the general plan; we have finished the basic data and the boards received a summary yesterday; staff is looking for comments from Council and the Commission on the details, particularly when they prepare the environmental report; the purpose of tonight's meeting is for consultants to summarize the documents and identify major issues based on direc- tion at the last workshop; the project manager and traffic consultant will address the two bodies and summarize and discuss with you the next steps; this will be different from the first workshop and staff is not looking for a lot of direction, that will come forward at the next stage, however, he is encourag- ing a question and answer session. Vice Mayor Mullin wanted a step by step process, we have already had a study session, now take me through where we started and through each step. Chief Planner Harnish stated we got to the point now where we have gathered the basic information and the plans, we have identified your issues and concerns you want addressed. The next step is to prepare alternative plans and take a look at potential alternatives or approaches to develop the land use plan and policies and look at economic strategies and the infrastructures of the city. We will look at alternatives or options and we will focus on specific areas and some areas are set. Everything is subject to discussion and the consultants will be focusing on those and the implications - what kind of policies AGENDA ACTION TAKEN General Plan - Continued. 10/1/97 Page 10 that will be subjected, and there will be town hall meetings for feedback and comment. Once that has been developed, the alternative scenarios goes out for comment needs, outside the city family, and those will be made available to whoever wants it. An outreach will be conducted, a series of meetings scheduled and presentations for various Boards and Commissions' input for inclusion. Some of that has already been gathered and will continue on and then the next step beyond that process it will be refined, the general plan, and go through the formal public hearing process. The EIR will be attached to the general plan, whatever preferred alternative. Mr. Rajeev Bhatia stated it is an interactive process and when you review the EIR it discusses alterna- tives which is what we are doing, however, the EIR is a separate document and will be a formal state- ment of all the information and analysis. He stated the last few pages of the document respond to the issues of the two bodies. Based on their research we identified other issues and proceeded to explain: information is organized into topical land use; each chapter has a summary and we realize not every- body would be interested in all of it, so look at the text; some areas have alternatives to resolve the issues of the policies; we have had to go out and . collect a lot of information for the general plan, like preparing land use information; the object is to give the city a comprehensive plan for other projects where you want to analyze the plan; there are many people living outside the city who work here and vice versa; with the extension of BART to the Air- port you will be part of this as to how we direct the marketing forces, for that is the key to the general plan that we can use for community benefit, because land is scarce in San Mateo County; he showed population growth in S.S.F., as well as in San Mateo County itself; he showed the historic shore- line with the original homes and the industries to the east in 1916; the first war growth period; a lot of the bay had been filled and the growth between 1916 and 1977; there are unincorporated pockets in the city, but other than that there is no land that is vacant or what is there is currently proposed for development; residential continues to be the primary land use, but freight forwarding uses are not far behind; how far do we want to go to reuse a site; what criteria should be used; access from 101 and use around the BART station; there are several neighborhoods that do not have good access for AGENDA ACTION TAKEN General Plan - Continued. 10/1/97 Page 11 shopping like for groceries; they are looking at the different neighborhoods with constraints; much of the areas have conservation plans, like Sign Hill and San Bruno Mountain, so maybe the City wants to look at creating wet lands, but at the same time make sure that the development does not bother the conservation; the City is built out; 65 CNEL areas current and those in the future that will change with the new plan; we are looking for questions on how this is organized; if you have any burning ideas that you want us to consider let us know, so we can focus for it is not the last opportunity for we will be coming back. Ms. Jan Barsted briefly went through the transpor- tation issues: the mode people use to travel through the City and the automobile and carpool; they have looked at percentages of people using different modes of travel; looked at commute patterns and there is a big correlation of people that reside in S.S.F. and work else where and we are trying to connect them; we have looked at agencies that oper- ate, that regulate the City and agencies that regulate the funding for transportation; one of the largest modes of transportation is the automobile and we have that figure; we have looked at the interchanges and Chestnut and El Camino; traffic projections are going to increase and we will see more and more on the freeways; there are few planned improvements, but there are discussions of auxiliary roads - one will be the BART extension, a new station at Hickey with a projected use of 8,000 daily riders; that is going to be people that would otherwise be in auto- mobiles; the other is Caltrain which currently has 100,000 daily riders and because it is restrained and the Samtrans buses cannot find access to change the Caltrain Station to increase access; possibly shuttle bus services could be used for alternative transporta- tion for now there is no Samtrans service; there are three shuttle buses that are provided by the compan- ies and public agencies that fund 75% of the service that accommodates 700 riders a day; we will look at trying to manage the demands and encourage car- pools and bicycle facilities to help people find an alternative mode; we are addressing the big issues like trucks parking in some areas where there is no where to unload and they block the roadways; etc. Mr. Rajeev Bhatia spoke of the vast material given the two bodies and wanted to go through the meth- odology without going through a great deal of detail. AGENDA A~TION TAKEN General Plan - Continued. 10/1/97 Page 12 He stated the regional content is very important and they did a market study analysis and reviewed data and a forecast. The fiscal analysis is important to look at the land use and the costs and benefits to help direct a balanced economy for the City of S.S.F. They compared the cost of doing business in S.S.F., new business and on-going business, com- pared to all of the other cities in the County and S.S.F. is better. S.S.F. continues to be the engine of the County's industry base and is 45% of the County's inventory. He continued at great length: increasing rental rates while there continues to be a strong market; need to look at policies for the future industrial expansion and the City has taken care of the freight forwarding land use issue due to the expansion of the Airport; there are a number of key industries that are con- tracting regionally in food production that have been growing in the last five years, and if the Council wants it, he will be looking to protect that and other industries; there is more pressure for office develop- ment; they have looked at the hotel market which is strong because of the expansion of the Airport and the growth of R&D and financing is available that was not available during the recession; the City will capture one full service hotel; residential housing will continue to rise and there is pressure to look at the commercial for residential because of the demand for housing of all types and prices; and an employee survey of the 101. Discussion followed: Commissioner Masuda spoke of the free shuttle service to businesses east of 101 and questioned why it only has 700 riders; the con- sultants just reported the facts, but did not do re- search as to the why, however, they will look at it because the roadway is constrained and will be contacting TSM; Commissioner Honan asked if a ferry line into the City had been looked at; yes, but it was determined to not be economic, but with increased employment it might; with the BART situation how many more people are using the ferry service; flights over S.S.F. out the gap; height limitation for airplanes; Councilman Penna wants further information on the noise issue; to exceed the limitations they have to get permission from the Airport Land Commission; they only have control over land use; Councilman Penna had asked the consultants to look at surplus SP lines to try to preserve them as transportation and this is not AGENDA ACTION TAKEN General Plan - Continued. 10/1/97 Page 13 in the report; the consultants are not recommending any policies; Councilman Penna wants the consultant to recommend a policy that would prevent the own- ers from using other than corridor transportation; Commissioner Teglia stated it appears the 8,000 ridership a day of BART will heavily impact our City and he does not see a benefit unless there is a bus station to the industrial area; the Hickey Station is two miles away and the San Bruno Station is one mile away; single event aircraft noise in neighbor- hoods; the County believes that land use should solve congestion; City allocations for housing from the County; that should be addressed in the general plan, as well as potential job elements; there is little land left and we should look at other issues like shuttles and getting the autos off the road; how can we encourage people who work here to live here; making housing affordable; suggestion of going up in housing, since we can't go sideways, to make affordable housing; staff is working with BART to make the BART right-of-way for a bicycle path for we need to make a plan to entice people to commute to BART using that pathway; Councilman Yee suggested having a workshop and narrow it down to one or two items, because they were not going to get too much out of this for the document is very important and time is important; this will bind the City for 25 years and from here on timing is the most critical with the Airport expansion; Planning Commission Chairman Romero was concerned on the lack of shopping centers, because it is more difficult to go to the store and we are losing the grocery stores and are unable to get dog food and milk so, it is important to revitalize the centers and attract businesses to service the community for if we have more people in the next twenty years we need to service their needs; more aircraft noise in what were quiet neighborhoods, such as Old Town, that are below 65 CNEL, yet should have a higher noise factor; Councilman Penna feels that the noise moni- toring is not being measured properly; Commission- er Baldocchi spoke to representatives of Fibergen that are encouraging their employees to ride their bike to the train, take the train with their bikes; she wanted this document to be done right and not have it be that we missed key opportunities; she was concerned about the amount of parking spaces in the proposed BART Station; there will be 1,300 parking spaces; we are already anticipating an overflow into the neighborhoods and Commissioner Baldocchi wants that looked at if possible; Chief Planner will AGENDA ACTION TAKEN 2,._~ General Plan - Continued. 3. Design Charette. 10/1/97 Page 14 look at that; Mayor Fernekes stated there will be Kiss and Ride; it is the responsibility of BART to supply the parking; Mayor Fernekes liked Council- man Yee's suggestion of a workshop to concentrate on one or two issues. Chief Planner Harnish stated the City was ap- proached by the AIA on whether we thought it appropriate to put on a charette. These are put on once a year with the cooperation of a City and a group of dedicated professionals on issues important to the community. We involve people from the community to hear the charette and what it will do for the City. If the Council has interest in sponsor- ing the charette and what areas do you want cov- ered. Also give us direction if you feel it is appro- priate for a formal proposal and provide $7,500. After the presentation is made by the members of the AIA and if you think it is appropriate for the City to sponsor and direct me to come back for formal action to authorize the expenditures. Mr. Jim Griffith, Director of American Institute of Architects, described the various urban design charettes they had put on. He stated other members of AIA were present who have been coordinators of past charettes. Mr. Tom Gillman, AIA, stated a charette is a brief and intense period of time where we look at a spe- cific problem and people from the outside have a view, take a look at things with a fresh way and provide a catalyst. He provided a slide show show- ing examples of charettes in other cities: they spread out into teams; they pull up drawings and do program reviews and there is input from the various teams; the community is encouraged to participate; most of the charettes are located in vacant buildings; they were located in the old library of City Hall and that charette came together at the instigation of the Planning Commission for the revitalization of the downtown as the study area; five years after the fact, Redwood City still talks about their charette; they also serve as facilitator and have celebrations with the community; in Redwood City they made presentations to the Chamber of Commerce and they donated wine for the community celebration; etc. Discussion followed: Vice Mayor Mullin suggested the charette focus on Grand Avenue/Airport/the AGENDA ACTION TAKEN 3. Design Charette - Continued. 10/1/97 Page 15 Caltrain intersection intermodel; he also asked how many teams were put together; they conceptually monitor every one else, so at the end of the day they all are on the same team; they did one in San Carlos and each team took one or two blocks of Laurel Avenue; so, they are all looking at the landscaping and looking at the buildings; they worked in Half Moon Bay; only two or three students are involved; Commissioner Sim stated this is a good opportunity for a charette due to the work on the general plan and asked if more high school students could be involved; he questioned follow-up after the charette was made, for he wanted some of the ideas to be used; the time factor is three months or maybe a shorter timetable, for it depends upon the areas and the research; there is work the architects expect staff to do on site plans and City maps and photos of buildings; usually student participation is welcomed, but they use them for menial tasks because there is a minimal time frame with little time to teach people; Councilman Penna feels housing for people to live and work here, and if we are going to do anything, concentrate on the downtown, the R-3 area, with high quality housing and improve and expand on the area; Commissioner Teglia stated the Caltrain station could be the focus, but as a sidelight, how big can you stretch it with the housing ideas; maybe look at it as a corridor, maybe look at crossing 101 as we did at one time with the Shearwater Project; one team can look at a broader area, and another team can look at a specific project, so teams can look at different levels and you can get a variety of designs; they did one in Burlingame that was too spread out, all along the east side, and what happened was that nothing developed that was concrete; Councilman Yee stated what was needed in the transit center is how to integrate 101 to where the people work, the train station and west of 101 with the businesses downtown; we can't go over 101, so the only way is to go under it so that is something the team can look at; Commissioner Baldocchi stated, if we stay fo- cused in that area we can go to arteries or up to Grand Avenue, but we can apply those ideas to other parts of town; Councilman Datzman stated he has seen Grand Avenue go backwards, and different things have occurred and people come up at a meet- ing and say, how come nothing is happening they they want to see money spent and something hap- pen; he still thinks we should do something differ- ent, for when you look at Fashion Island where they created an indoor mall and looked at Sacramento AGENDA ACTION TAKEN 3. Design Charette - Continued. ADJOURNMENT: ESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Barbara A. Battaya, City Clerk City of South San Francisco and the old town area; he has learned a lot in the last seven or eight months about the word consen- sus; he is interested in the charette on the transpor- tation center and the downtown; Chairman Romero agreed and said there is a hub for accessing 101 in both directions, and it is causing a problem to the east of 101 patrons that service the areas and the restaurants; he encouraged the Council to go for- ward with this; Mayor Fernekes stated he was hear- ing consensus, generally, that the transportation center and Grand Avenue. M/S Teglia/Masuda - To adjourn the Planning Com- mission meeting. Carried by unanimous voice vote. M/S Mullin/Datzman - To adjourn the City Council meeting. Carried by unanimous voice vote. Time of adjournment was 9:00 p.m. APPROVED. Jos~h'A. ~ernek~MayO"/~ Ci~ of Sot~th San- Francisco The entries of this Council meeting show the action taken by the City Council to dispose of an item. Oral communica- tions, arguments and comments are recorded on tape. The 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. 10/1/97 Page 16