Planning Commission Meeting 6/2/14

I attended the Planning Meeting last eve.  Interesting and an education in Civic affairs.  This was a two subject meeting. Part One was for the Commission to affirm that the list of projects presented were or were not consistent with the general plan.  The "List" was a list of items that the City Staff had as their mandate to get done this year.  Like--pot holes, Refurbish a neighborhood part in Bahia, work on the Dog Park, Create a bike path/ median along a street near Meadow Park, replace lights and a scoreboard & continue LED street light replacement.

There was energetic discussion about what was on the list--how it got on the list --why other projects did not get on the list--mostly to the dissatisfaction of one of the Commission members.  It seems the list is created from complaints or suggestions of the citizenry throughout the year and then filtered by staff and presented to the City Council who blesses the list and then presented to the Commission to affirm that what is planned is indeed consistent with the General Plan.  The lively discussion occurred because as a Citizen one of the Commissioners has been asking the "City" to install one or more cross walks on Ignacio and it has never made the final list of "things to do".

I volunteered to ask a few questions during the "Public Input" time. The first comment was "Why isn't the bus stop on Redwood on the list since it is a clear and present danger to the citizenry--and the money is there?"--That was never answered--I think it fell on deaf ears. Then I asked ---How do these projects come to be the responsibility of the City?--Does a developer just build a neighborhood park during his housing construction and then from that moment on the park becomes a maintenance obligation of the city forever?  Do the recipients of these amenities contribute to the maintenance cost? --Lke in Bikers?--Dog Park users? Neighborhood park users?  Soon to be Community Garden beneficiaries?--Is their a means of collecting a little money from the benificiaries?  Why are we paying for school lighting and Scoreboards?--The answer was ---yes (we inherit cost) and no (the beneficiaries don't pay)--The Taxpayer's of Novato pay. 

Item 2 on the Agenda was the Housing Element--32 slides of "update"--what it is--why it is---where it is-----culminating in --"we shouldn't have to do this for another 7 or 8 years--we arrived at 23 units per acre--we thought that was a good thing."

Part of the Housing Element was advocacy of an option to encourage second units and to create a "Junior 2nd Unit" classification--where in a bedroom say is converted to use by a renter essentially--by installing a door the exterior--a kitchernette without gas or oven--- pretty much a door, microwave and a sink in an existing room, in an existing house would be counted by the state as --affordable housing, and could be rented out. 

Discussion of commercial vs residential vs retail on Redwood was not discussed.

I again volunteered at Public Input time after one "Jr 2nd unit"' advocate and one Developer spoke--the Developer of the "Ranch" subdivision who owns the vacant lot in front of the townhouses.

I asked--"All housing being discussed needs water---Has the availability of water been coordinated with the water agency --since you the City and  the Agency are completely independent of one another--you sometimes being upset when they  ok water hookups to new County subdivisions (Rush Creek) in your sphere of influence and they might be upset if you ok a large number of homes--without coordinating with them--are you collaborating on water for housing?"--The answers was --"It is on our agenda to discuss in an upcoming meeting".

Another question was--will the creation of a Grand Central Bus Station on one end of town and a train station on the other end of town -tremendously affect the numbers that the state will require of us in the future? The answer was--"that's a long way off--we have satisfied our obligation for now and won't have to do this for another 7 or 8 years."--No elaboration on the effect of transit on the numbers.

Other questiosn were unanswered but will be eventually--Tax's on 2nd units?--Home reappraised?  Occupancy tax on home owner?--You know the fine print!--I goth the impression that the details had not been ironed out and that this was kind of a "shall we proceed down this path"--I would say yes we should.

I left the meeting and came home--and my wifey asked--or declared--"boy--you had a lot of nerve wearing that Toni Shroyer hat during the meeting!"--I said Oh, know--no wonder I got a few smiles--I thought they just liked me!--I had completely forgotten that I had attached a Toni For Supervisor sticker to my hat!!!!--Oh, I also got to meet a few "Patch People" during the meeting-- too, very nice!