HomeMy WebLinkAboutMin - CC - 2007.06.04BURLINGAME CITY COUNCIL
Approved Minutes
Regular Meeting of June 4,2007
JOINT COUNCIL AND PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING
Burlingame City Council met with the Parks & Recreation Commission. Agenda items discussed were New
Recreation Center - CIP Plan, Bayside Fields 3 and 4 Fundraiser update, and School Board/City relationship
I. CALL TO ORDER
A duly noticed regular meeting of the Burlingame City Council was held on the above date in the City Hall
Council Chambers. Mayor TerryNagel called the meeting to order at7:02p.m.
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Led by Mary Hunt.
3. ROLL CALL
_ COUNCILMEMBERS PRESENT:
COUNCILMEMBERS ABSENT :
Baylock, Cohen, Keighran, Nagel, O'Mahony
None
4. MINUTES
Two corrections were made to the minutes of the May 21,2006 regular Council meeting: Add to Item 8.b.:
Vice Mayor O'Mahony asked during the discussion that the G.O. bond financing mechanism be retained for
like considerations since it is less burdensom e ot 59o/o of the residential homeowners according to the 2005
study. Correct Item 9. to read: Councilman Cohen requested removal of Items b. and d. from the Consent
Calendar...
Vice Mayor O'Mahony made a motion to approve the amended minutes of the May 21,2007 regular Council
meeting; seconded by Councilwoman Baylock. The motion was approved unanimously by voice vote, 5-0.
BEST OF BURLINGAME AWARI)
Mayor Nagel presented Martha Rosman May with the Best of Burlingame award. During the past 35 years,
Martha May has devoted thousands of hours to Burlingame's archives, and she still works at least 10 hours a
week on them. ln appreciation of her effbrts, the Burlingame Lions Club named her "Citizen of the Year" in
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1983. She has said that "...the friendships, experiences and teamwork here have given me greater rewards
than I ever expected."
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5.
a.
PRESENTATIONS
b. RECOGNITION OF CENTENNIAL PARADE CHAIR, MIKE McOUEEN
Mayor Nagel presented a proclamation honoring Mike McQueen for a successful Centennial Parade held on
Saturday, June 2nd. The parade was the biggest ever held in Burlingame and kicked off the start of a year-
long Centennial celebration.
c. CITIZEN LIFE.SAVING AWARI)
COP Van Etten honored two local citizens who performed a life-saving feat by jointly rescuing the driver of
a car submerged in San Francisco Bay near Airport Boulevard in April. Becky Reynoso and Lawrence
Rensch each received a Certificate of Commendation and a Life Saving Medal. Council members thanked
the two local heroes for preventing a tragedy.
d. AT&T LIGHT SPEED PROJECT
Tedi Vriheas, Director of AT&T Extemal Affairs Department, made a presentation on their plans for
Burlingame to upgrade broadband for services provided through the telephone line.
6. STAFF REPORTS AND COMMUNICATIONS
a.UPDATE ON PLANS FOR BURLINGAME'S CENTENNIAL PLAZA
P&RD Schwartz reviewed the staff report providing Council with an update on the plans for the Centennial
Plaza and asked Council to consider the proposal of an historical timeline ribbon plan and to direct the
Traffic, Safety and Parking Commission to consider reduction or elimination of the parking in front of the
Burlingame Train Station.
P&RD Schwartz introduced Jennifer Pfaff and Jean Silveira who presented their proposal of a self-
supporting project to develop a list of 100 significant moments in Burlingame history to be inscribed on
pavers forming a timeline ribbon which would encircle the plaza. Each inscribed paver would be engtaved
with the donor's name. Council supported the inclusion of the Burlingame history timeline ribbon project.
After Council discussion, Council had consensus to direct the Traffrc, Safety and Parking Commission to
consider reduction or elimination of parking spaces in front of the Burlingame Train Station.
PUBLIC ARINGS
PUBLIC HEARING ACTION ON AN ENVIRONMENTAL ACT REPORT AND
PROPOSED PROJECT FOR THE PENINSULA HUMANE SOCIETY & SPCA AT 1450
ROLLINS ROAD/2o EDWARDS COURT
CP Monroe reviewed the June 4,2007 staff report with attachments, including 224 e-mails in support and
one in opposition and the desk items placed this evening. She noted that Council should hold a public
hearing on the Final Environmental Impact Report and project; and then take action first to certify the Final
EIR and then on the project including the conditional use permits for animal shelter use and a structure over
35 feet in height, the determination for the parking ratio; and the design review for compliance with the
applicable design guidelines in the North Burlingame/Rollins Road Specific Plan. There were no questions
of staff.
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7.
a.
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Mayor Nagel reviewed the procedure for the public hearing and asked the applicant to present the project.
The applicant was represented by Ken White, President of the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA, and
Pablo Daroux of Wilson, Ihrig and Associates, noise consultant. Issues noted were: PHS & SPCA mission,
services not to be provided and provided at the project site; submitted petitions and post cards in support of
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the project including a map showing 50 businesses in support of the project in the vicinity of the project;
supporting Final EIR, economic study and other documents prepared; issues addressed included noise, odor,
wastewater; escorting animals to cars; not want to be under-parked, bad for customers glad to do parking
studies and identify solutions if needed; agree to all conditions, Commission added number 44, support
buses, like to modify language to remove 'on-site' would still provide prearranged parking; suggested
programming for local residents. Council questions addressed: service area; drop off of stray animals;
disposal of waste; noise from multiple barking dogs; on-site deliveries; and plans to expand.
Speaking in opposition were Kevin Guibara, 1400 Rollins Road, Albert Guibara, 1400 Rollins Road, and Jim
Knapp, Citizens for Accountability, consultant to Albert Guibara. Submitted letter and documents addressing
issues; also noted project is too big, building is too tall, parking calculation is inaccurate, parking not
consistent with Municipal Code; altematives; inconsistent with subdivision CCandR's; adoption rate
misrepresented; status of PHS/SPCA contract with the County; and unions.
Mayor Nagel opened the public hearing. The following members of the public spoke: William Nack, 1153
Chess Drive, Foster City; Dan Andersen, 728 Vernon Way; Debbie Fischer, 361 Half Moon Bay Lane, Daly
City; Gene Condon, 1308 Mills Avenue; Mike Swanson, l519 Rollins Road; Charles Yoltz,725 Vernon
Way; Marillm Porto, 76 Woodridge Road, Hillsborough; Rebecca Allen, 2I7 Arkansas Street, San Francisco;
Ross Bruce, 500 Almer Road; Bruce Thompson, 1600 Granada Drive; William St. Lawrence, DVM, 832
Morrell Avenue; Karen Key,1499 Oak Grove Avenue; and Stephen Hamilton, 105 Crescent Avenue.
Comments included: support project; not impact Rollins Road, agreed to abide by all conditions; asked
supporters to stand, for record Mayor noted about 90-95% of capacity-filled room stood; office across from
- animal hospital is a good neighbor; valuable public service; project will 'build community' in Burlingame;
not a pound; help wildlife; right type of facility; similar facilities located in San Francisco have no problems
in more sensitive residential and retail neighborhoods; and project use is appropriate in the context of
commercial recreation uses allowed in the immediate area. There were no further public comments.
Mayor Nagel asked the opponents to the project if they would like to respond. Jim Knapp, Citizens for
Accountability; and Ramona Martinez,709 Walnut, spoke. Questioned project altematives, project violates
subdivision CCandR's and common interests. Concern about barking caused by noise from sirens from fire
and ambulance facilities in the Rollins Road area, will affect people in area; asked if this was the best place
for this use, not like the location. There were no further comments.
Mayor Nagel asked the project sponsors if they would like to respond. Tim Tosta, attorney of Luce, Forward,
Hamilton and Scripps, spoke. Net new square footage proposed without aviary is less than is presently on
the site; fewer people will be employed on the site than presently employed there; logic no significant impact
but decided to take to Final EIR document so have a higher standing in court; alternatives are a grosser
instrument for analysis and have less precision than conditions, particularly when there are no significant
issues to address, the question is were there sufficient alternatives to satisfy decision makers' questions about
the project; and law suits.
Council asked questions of applicant regarding: ADA accessible parking, walking dogs in neighborhood;
requiring neutering of male dogs; LEEDS objectives; frequency of follow-up parking studies; location of
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staff parking; enforcement of limitation on source of animals from outside the county; when rolling roof is
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open; managing odor from stored waste; location for deliveries; floor area ratio; height. There were no
further comments, and the public hearing was closed.
Council Discussion and actions:
Final EIR: Councilwoman O'Mahony moved to certify the Final EIR finding that the document was
adequate for the reasons stated by the City Council and Planning Commission. The motion was seconded by
Councilwoman Baylock. The motion was approved unanimously by voice vote, 5-0.
Council findings regarding the adequacy of the Final EIR included the many comments made by the
opposition did a service and ensured that all the issues raised by the project were addressed particularly odor,
noise, waste disposal, traffic and parkingl and the 90-plus conditions ensure that the project will incorporate
the necessary elements to address the environmental issues raised; site drains to Easton Creek not Mills
Creek, and the on-site drainage improvements will provide benefit to the ecology of the Creek not offered by
the current development on the site, City has experience at other locations that such filters built into the
parking lot drainage benefit the Red Legged Frog and its habitat; for traffic and parking have enough
information to evaluate the issue, do not know if parking will be sufficient in the long term since this is a
new use, so condition for required studies over time and implementation of solutions including
programmatic changes, parking lifts, or other solutions which may emerge adequately address the concern;
studies of trip generation document that this project will effect no change on the existing level of service at
either the Broadway or Millbrae interchanges serving the Rollins Road area which is the objective in the
Specific Plan for this area; concerned about the safety of pedestrians in this area, but the requirement to
provide a stop light at Edwards Court and Rollins Road, should the warrants emerge, should address this.
Council noted that a reasonable range of alternatives has been considered; felt that common sense should be
applied since there were no significant unavoidable impacts, believe that the number and range of
alternatives was effective and do not need more; would have been different if the EIR studies had identified
any significant unavoidable impacts, would want an altemative which reduced the unavoidable impacts, but
there were no impacts which could not be reduced to an acceptable level, so the alternatives presented did
what they needed to do. Council had consensus that no additional issues needed to be studied; that the report
was very thorough, done with great care; that the document did rrot need to be recirculated and that the
document disclosed all the potentially significant issues and included mitigations to reduce them to less than
significant.
Council then discussed the project including the hours that the rolling roof should be open in the dog
exercise area. There were four actions required for the project.
Parking Determination: Councilwoman Keighran moved to support the Planning Commission
recommendation including their findings to adopt a parking ratio for animal shelter/rescue use of 1.6 parking
spaces per 1000 SF (1:625 SF) and to adopt the ratio of 1:5000 SF for outdoor habitat/aviary space. Motion
was seconded by Councilwoman Baylock. In making the second she noted that there is a wide range of
standards used by others for parking for outdoor space, the proposed 1:5000 is supported by standards for
similar types of outdoor activity used in more urban San Francisco and by the parking studies done for this
project's EIR. The motion was approved unanimously by voice vote, 5-0. It was noted that these ratios will
become the city's parking standard for animal shelter/rescue uses'
Height. Councilwoman Keighran moved to approve the conditional use permit to exceed 35 feet in height,
noting that this is not a variance but opportunity to review the height in relation to other buildings in the area,
that the design guidelines allow a maximum of 60 feet in height and the 42 feet of this building is consistent
with other buildings in the area and well below the maximum in the specific plan for this area so will not be
detrimental, particularly since the intention of the plan was to encourage some increase in density in the
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Rollins Road area and including the findings for the height in the Planning Commission's action. The motion
was seconded by Councilwoman Baylock. The motion was approved unanimously by voice vote, 5-0.
Animal Shelter Use. Mayor Nagel made a motion to approve the animal rescue/shelter use, the Center for
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Compassion project; at 1450 Rollins Road/20 Edwards Court, including the findings of the Planning
Commission, with the conditions of approval recommended by the Planning Commission as amended by the
City Council. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman Keighran. The motion was approved
unanimously by voice vote, 5-0.
In their discussion of the motion the Council noted the following amendments to the proposed conditions of
approval each accepted by consensus:. Condition 45, change period for longitudinal parking studies from the end of the first and second
year,to at the end of the first, third and fifth years after occupancy.. Condition 44, delete the words 'on-site'.. Condition 64, increase the frequency of picking up cat litter containers from once a week to twice a
week or as frequently as needed to control odor.
Design Guidelines: Councilwoman Keighran moved that the proposed design complies with the design
guidelines for the Rollins Road area as set out in the North BurlingamelRollins Road Specific Plan, including
the findings for consistency with the design guidelines made by the Planning Commission. The motion was
seconded by Councilwoman O'Mahony. The motion was approved unanimously by voice vote, 5-0.
Comments on the motion included: that the project complies with the requirements of the M-1 zoning
district and with the intent of the design guidelines for the Rollins Road area identified in the North
BurlingamelRollins Road Specific Plan, and the design is compatible with the area; Planning Commission
did a thorough deliberation and complete review of the design review criteria as a part of the Specific Plan
- and determined what the City wants for this area, no housing, no office parks, in Burlingame this area is light
industrial uses only, the proposed design and use are appropriate in the area and reflect the values of the
community.
Staff advised that they would return to the June 18,2007 meeting with the conditions revised as directed and
a resolution for action regarding the Council's actions tonight. Mayor Nagel confirmed that the public
hearing on the Final EIR and project are complete. There will be no public hearing on the resolution at the
June 18,2007 meeting.
The Mayor called for a break at 10:35 p.m. The Council reconvened at 10:40 p.m.
b. ADOPT ORDINANCE NO. I8O9 CLARIFYING CLAIM FILING REOUIREMENTS
CA Anderson reviewed the staff report and requested Council hold a public hearing on the adoption of
Ordinance No. 1809 clarifying the application and process of claim filing requirements for claims not
encompassed by the Tort Claims Act.
Mayor Nagel opened the public hearing. There were no comments from the floor, and the hearing was
closed.
Councilwoman Baylock made a motion to approve adoption of Ordinance No. 1809 amending Section
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4.15.010 of the Municipal Code to clarify claim requirements; seconded by Councilwoman Keighran.
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9.
a.
The motion was approved unanimously by voice vote, 5-0. Mayor Nagel directed CC Mortensen to publish a
summary of the ordinance within 15 days of adoption.
8. PUBLIC COMMENTS
Pat Giorni, 1445 Balboa Avenue, spoke on various subjects. Charles Voltz, 725 Vernon Way, spoke on the
Centennial Plaza. Stephen Hamilton, 105 Crescent Avenue, spoke on the Centennial Parade. Gene Condon,
1308 Mills Avenue, spoke on various subjects and Centennial events. There were no further comments from
the floor.
CONSENT CALENDAR
APPROVAL TO ENTER INTO A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH
SPANGLE ASSOCIATES FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT SERVICES RELATIVE TO
THE PREPARATION OF THE DOWNTOWN SPECIFIC PLAN
CDD Meeker requested Council authorize the City Manager to enter into a professional services agreement
with Spangle Associates for project management services related to the preparation of the Downtown
Burlingame Specifi c Plan.
Councilwoman Baylock made a motion to approve the Consent Calendar; seconded by Councilwoman
Keighran. The motion was approved unanimously by voice vote, 5-0.
10. COUNCIL COMMITTEE REPORTS
Council reported on various events and committee meetings each of them attended on behalf of the City
11. PUBLIC COMMENTS
Pat Giorni, 1445 Balboa Avenue, spoke on Agenda Item No. 12.a. There were no further comments from the
floor.
12. OLD BUSINESS
a. COUNCIL FEEDBACK ON PROPOSAL TO PUT COUNCIL REPORTS ON CITY WEBSITE
After Council discussion, Council had consensus to leave the Council Reports process as it exists.
13. NEW BUSINESS
There was no new business.
14. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
a.Commission Minutes: Library, March 20 & April 17,2007; Planning, May 29,2007
b. Department Reports: Police, April2007
c. Letter from Comcast concerning programming adjustments
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d. June 1, 2007 Memo from City Attorney
Mayor Nagel requested the City Attorney to discuss the essence of his June l't memo. CA Anderson stated
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that the memo described where the case law and the Brown Act stand with regard to written communications
between staff and among Council members. CA Anderson recommended that the suggested guidelines in the
memo be used as guidance for future communications.
15. ADJOURNMENT TO CLOSED SESSION
Mayor Nagel adjourned to Closed Session at I l:13 p.m. in memory of the following long-time Burlingame
residents: Bud Worrall, Aaron Chilcoat and Burlingame's first City Manager, Chuck Schwalm.
CLOSED SESSION:
CA Anderson advised that Council met in closed session and directed staff regarding the following:
Threatened Litigation (Government Code $ 54956.9(bX1), (3)(C)): Claim of Georgia Novo
16. ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Nagel adjourned the meeting at 11:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
-F__L32r+-,* F ._,
Doris
City Clerk
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June 4,2007