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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMin - CC - 1989.12.06450 CITY OF BURLINGAME CITY COUNC]L STUDY MEETING wednesday, December 6, 1989, 7:30 PM City HaI1 council Chambers Mayor Don Lembi convened the study session of the Burlingame ci Council on the above date in the Council Chambers of Burlingame Ci HaII at 7:32 PM. PRESENT: COUNCILMEMBERS BARTON, HARRISON, TEMBI , OTMAHONY, PAGTIARO STAFF PRESENT: ARGYRES, COLEMAN, KIRKUP, MONROE, QUADRI , SEfSMIC CONSULTANT JIM RUSSELL 1. I,NREINFORCED MASONRY STRUCTURES/STATE REOUIREMENTS Public works Director reviewed the process the city had undertaken so far to meet the state required unreinforced masonry building Iaw. He introduced Jim Russe11, the cityrs seismic consuLtant, who reviewed with council the types of damage that unreinforced masonry buildings experience during earthquakes and the role soil conditions play. councilman Harrison asked how the 65 buildings were identified. Mr Russell stated he reviewed cj-ty records and did field inspections toidentify the tentative Iist. The Pub1ic works Director summarized the building owner comments from the November L4 informational meet-ing the city conducted. He then reviewed a range of programatic op- tj-ons open to the city. These were identified in the staff reportfor council consideration. only the first step, one which requiresnotification of the property owners and submittal of the list ofbuildings with unreinforced masonry construction to the Calj-fornia Seismic safety Conmj-ssion, is required at this time. Council began a discussion of the next steps which it felt city should undertake. Mayor Lembi felt that the owners of the buildingshave major investments which they need to protect. Councilman Pagliaro felt that responsible owners should study and retrofittheir buildings for both their own and the public good. He thought they may need to be pushed. Council-woman Barton felt that the citymust develop a time table for addressing this issue. Council-man Harrison thought the key question was what would be the level ofstructural retrofit required to be removed from the list. The citywill establish this standard. The Council asked if there vrere any comments from the building owners in the audience. Joe Karp questioned whether there was suf-ficient experience that retrofj-tted buildings survived earthquakesbetter, and rras the evidence good enough to justify the cost in-volved. He agreed that the city should record the fact that thebuilding contains unreinforced masonry construction with the titlefor each property. He also suggested that maybe there needed to bea sign posted on each unreinforced building that this buildlng may be hazardous during an earthquake. Councifman Pagliaro felt that the city needed to undertake phases one and two and discuss what aspects of the UBC standards retrofitted buildings needed to meet. Mayor Lembi suggested t e form a co[unittee to review this technical issue. councilwoman orMahony Iiked the idea of recording with the title on the identified properties that the structures had been identified as unreinforced masonry and thought that posslble retrofit on sale should be ex-plored. Councilwoman Barton agreed that a committee approach mightbe desirable and asked that the suggested structural retrofit stan- dards from the state be reviewed. Joe Karp suggested that we needed to be careful about recording items with properties since it may cloud the title on the property, unless we have a clear procedure for how to remove the property from the list after any retrofitting work. It was the council consensus that the city should proceed and file the preliminary list r^rith the California Seismic Safety Commission and that a committee comprised of Joe Karp representj-ng the property owners, Joe Harvey represent- ing the construction industry, Publ-ic Works Director Ralph Kirkup, tt Y v 451 2. BEAUTIFICATION COMM]SSION PROPOSED NEWSRACK ORDINANCE City Manager reviewed the newsrack ordinance that had been preparedby the Beautification Commission. This ordinance developed in cooperation with the City Attorney goes about as far as IegaI]y pos-sible in terms of regulating newsracks. It requires a permit, iden-tification on the nevrsrack, and establishes location standards. It does not reduce the number of newsracks, although it does attempt to encourage modular installations. city Manager stated he is con- cerned that if adopted, we should not expect too much j.n terms of improvement given the 1ega1 limitations on regulating newsracks. Jeannie Gil-more of the Beautification Commission stated she thoughtit would help and encourage more modular racks. She felt that theBeautification Commission would be the watch dog for enforcement. Councilman Pagliaro suggested that the ordinance be amended so thatstreet addresses be required to be shown on the racks and not postoffice boxes, and he thought the requirements for noticing non-complying newsracks could be simplified. The Council thanked theBeautification Commission and felt that they had done an excellentjob in terms of trying to deal with this problem, Council directedthat the ordinance be introduced at the January 3 council meeting. 3. FURTHER STUDY REZONING 14 PARCELS EDGEHILL/CALIFORNIA City Planner reviehred the staff report and history of the propertiesinvolved. At the October 1989 study session, Council had proposed a number of criteria for mixed use district in the Edgehi lllcaliforniaarea. For implementation staff has prepared a new proposed mixeduse zoning district which includes an overlay zone forEdqehill/california with various fimitations and a general plan amendment adding a long use designation for mixed use. Council dj-s-cussed the various options and conditions and indicated that they wished to proceed with the mixed use option as outl-ined. Councilalso agreed that it r"rished to exclude l-ot 15, the northernmost Iot which had frontage only on California Drive. Council directed that the proposed mixed use zone with overlay andgeneral pLan amendment be referred back to the Planning Corrunissionfor action and that staff prepare the environmental reviehr necessaryif the proposal is to be implemented. 4. CLARIFICATION TERMS ZONfNG ORDfNANCE COMMERCIAL USE city Planner reviewed the proposed clarification of terms and feltthat litt1e policy was involved but that 'rhouse keeping" was neces-sary to clarify our intent and procedures to applicants. She sun-marized each of the items suggested. Council felt that insuranceoffice uses should continue to be defined as general office. Coun-cilman Pagliaro suggested that the word "small't be dropped from oneof the definitions. Council discussed and concurred that a class would be defined as three or more people. Council approved submit-tal of the clarifications to a regular meeting for adoption. 5. LEAF BLOWERS City Attorney reviewed his staff report. Councilwoman Barton feltthat the city should adopt regulations similar to Hillsborough andrequire a noise meter. Mayor Lembi felt that this was not desirableand, although he dislj.ked leaf blowers, did not \"rant to see moreregulation. After discussion, Councilmembers Harrison, Paqliaro, and orMahony felt that the starting time for leaf blowers should beadjusted so that they may not start any earlier than 8:00 a.m.Staff was directed to prepare this change in the city code for coun-ci1 consideration at a future meeting. COUNCIL COMMENT Councilwoman Barton felt that the city Christmas tree at the Burlin- game Avenue train station was sick and needed help. She had dis-cussed the matter with the executive director of the chamber of Com- and city consultant Jim Russell review the state model ordinance andsuggest a possible program and next action for the study session in February 1990. 452 merce and proposed that red ribbons be attached to the tree for decoration. There was a general discussion of the tree and possible future improvements, including replacing the flag pole with a real tree. Council directed that staff work with the Chamber of Corunerce to attach red ribbons for this year. FROM THE FLOOR There were no comments from the floor. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 9:32 PM. Judith A. Malfat city clerk vmY