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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/14/19701 1 Pledge Roll Call Present City Staff MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE CITY - COUNCIL CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO,_CALI.FORNIA. December 14, 1970 - 7:30 P. M. City Hall Emmons Blake, Myron Graham, Donald Q. Miller, Arthur F. Spring, Kenneth E. Schwartz Present: R. D. Young, Planning Director; J. H. Fitzpatrick, City Clerk; L. Wilson, Parks Foreman; H. Johnson, City Attorney; R. D. Miller, Administrative Officer; D. F. Romero, City Engineer; E. L. Rodgers, Police Chief. 1. On motion of Councilman Miller, seconded by Councilman Graham, the following resolution was introduced. RESOLUTION NO. 2135, a resolution authorizing the City of San Luis Obispo to enter into a cooperative purchasing agreement with the County of San Luis Obispo for petroleum products. Passed and adopted on the following roll call vote: AYES: Emmons Blake, Myron Graham, Donald Q. Miller, Arthur F. Spring, Kenneth E. Schwartz NOES: None ABSENT: None 2. Bulletin from the League of California Cities dated December 2, 1970, regarding League participation in the P. U. C. study of landscaping of railroad rights of way in urban areas. The bulletin continued that the P. U. C. had been informally studying the matter of requiring that railroads landscape their rights of way in urban areas and had asked for cooperation of the League and all other.cities interested in this proposal. They were asking cities to submit suggested guide- lines or opinions concerning procedures for the railroads to landscape their right of way. On motion of Mayor Schwartz, seconded by Councilman Graham, the following resolution was introduced. RESOLUTION NO. 2136, a resolution requesting the Public Utilities Commission to investigate ways and means of landscaping railroad rights of way. Passed and adopted on the following roll call vote: AYES: Emmons Blake, Myron Graham, Donald Q. Miller, Arthur F. Spring, Kenneth E. Schwartz NOES: None ABSENT: None 3. John Evans, Chairman of the Planning Commission, presented for the Council's consideration the recommendation of the Planning Commission on work to be assigned to the planning consultant proposed to be retained by the City in order to get some basic planning accomplished. The following list of priorities was recommended by the Planning Commission: City Council Minutes December 14, 1970 Page 2 A. Update the land use element of.the General Plan. B. Revise the population density in the General Plan. C. Prepare the housing element of the General Plan. D. Rewrite the zoning ordinance. E. Update circulation element of the General Plan. F. Preparation of the public utility element of the General Plan. G. Update park, recreation and open space element of the General Plan. H. Develop a text of goals, standards and objectives for the City of San Luis Obispo General Plan. I. Update the central business district plan. J. Prepare a civic center plan. John Evans continued that items "I" and "J" could be considered in a second phase study. He stated he wished the Council to approve these priorities and to authorize the City staff to procure proposals from various planning con- sultants so that a presentation of these priorities could be undertaken in the spring. Councilman Spring felt the City should move ahead and retain a planning consultant to prepare the necessary studies but he hoped that the City would hire someone who had never worked for the City before. Councilman Blake felt the City should proceed with retaining a planning con- sultant but also felt that the Planning Commission had asked too much for a one -year program and suggested this could be phased over a period of years. He also felt that the City should have a consultant for planning on a continuing basis. Councilman Miller felt that the program listed by John Evans was too all encompassing and could not be done with the funds budgeted. He continued that possibly the answer would be to add staff to the Planning Department in order to get on with the job and solve the major problems facing the City. He felt the City Council should take the lead in planning and work with the Planning Commission and direct them in the areas the Council considered had work to be done. He felt the work of revising the various planning elements in the General Plan could be accomplished locally. He stated that at this time he would oppose the hiring of a consultant. Councilman Graham felt a consultant would be an asset to the Planning Commission so that some of those necessary programs could be completed and further the Planning Commission could benefit from the experience of the consultant in other areas. He also felt that there was a wealth of planning talent available at the college and that they should be considered for the assignment. Councilman Blake felt that a consultant would be an asset to the City in making the necessary studies and presenting a plan to the Planning Commission. Mayor Schwartz stated that except for the zoning ordinance and the housing element, all other items listed by John Evans were part and parcel of the General Plan and should be considered as one assignment for comprehensive review of the plan. He felt that a consultant could proceed with rewriting of the zoning ordinance and preparing of the housing element without becoming involved in rewriting the General Plan. The City Council then discussed with John Evans the work that the consultant should accomplish under the proposal. City Council Minutes. December 14, 1970 Page 3 On motion of Councilman Graham, seconded by Councilman Blake, the matter was referred to a committee composed of 'Mayor Schwartz, John Evans, Administrative Officer.R.D. Miller and Planning Director R. Young!to call for proposals and select a planning consultant for employment by the. City Council. Motion carried with Councilman Miller voting no. 4. Communication from Assemblyman William Ketchum regarding the upcoming 1971 legislative session and asking the City Council to present him with any pro- posals or suggestions for legislation. The City Clerk was asked to contact Mr. Ketchum's office to set up a meeting with the City Council at the convenience of Mr. Ketchum. Each Councilman was to prepare a list of items for discussion with the Assemblyman. 5. Communication from the Economic Opportunity Commission of San Luis Obispo County, Inc. requesting the reappointment of a representative from the City of San Luis Obispo to the commission. After discussion by the City Council, Councilman Graham was to continue as the City's representative with Councilman Blake as alternate.' 6. Councilman Miller brought to the Council's attention the matter of groups of interested citizens who would like to look into the program of recycling newsprint. He continued that newsprint was a valuable item and could be resold if it were collected., packaged and shipped to the metropolitan areas. He continued that the group interested in this problem felt that.a great tonnage of paper was being place in the city.dump and taking up valuable space when it could be salvaged and recycled. Councilman Blake asked if the group had looked into the high cost of shipping used newsprint to a recycling plant in San Francisco or.Los Angeles. Leo Blickley,.Cal Poly Ecology Club, stated there was a need for cheap newsprint for recycling as this paper could be used over and over again and he felt that with the financial support of the City the.program could start and help the ecology of the entire area. He.also felt this program could be used by organizations to raise funds for their treasuries by collecting paper. Mayor Schwartz felt the City Council would and could support the concept of recycling newsprint but he wondered about the plan of operation. Who would get the funds derived from the project? How would it work? Who would pay for the equipment? etc. Pat Mate.icek stated that it was her understanding that the recycling center would. pay $20 per ton for baled paper and that it cost $8 per ton to ship the paper by rail so she felt there was some area for-benefit in this program. She continued the problem was picking up the paper within the City and delivering it to a central point for bailing and.shipping.and the unknown costs were pick -up, baling and buying the paper from the users. Councilman Graham stated that it was his feeling that this was a good program and that a committee of the Council, interested citizens and representatives of the garbage company should look into the matter to see if it were feasible to ship newsprint from the community. ' The City Council asked that Councilman Miller head the committee to look into the feasibility of a recycling program for San Luis Obispo. 7. R. Young, Planning Director, presented the. following report on questionaires and interviews with property owners in the Los Osos Valley area on the proposed annexation and formation of a water and sewer assessment district to serve the area. He stated that eighty -eight .(88) inquiries were mailed out and 22% were in favor of annexation and 34% opposed it and 46% made no reply to the questionaire or to personal contact. He continued that it was the staff recommendation that the City drop any consideration of annexation of this area at this time. City Council Minutes December 14, 1970 Page 4 L..Morganti, property owner in Los Osos Valley, stated he was sure that many of the large property owners wished to annex to the.City..in order to get sewer and water service. He continued that he did not send in his feelings on the matter as he thought he was being represented by a realtor but that he would favor annexation. Based on the information presented by L. Morganti, it was the general opinion of the City Council that-the staff should again contact all major property owners who had not returned their opinions for or against.the annexation. 8. D. F. Romero, City Engineer, again presented to the City Council his letter of April 23, 1970, in which he reported on a meeting hel.d by City and County officials dealing with restrictive building development on flood plains. He continued that Mr. Hunter of the County Planning Department reported that the County did not feel this was a matter of critical nature and the County was.not pressuring for flood plan regulations at that time. D. F. Romero continued that Mr. Drahn, County hydraulic engineer, outlined four ways by which building development could be controlled in flood plain areas: 1. Flood.plain zone. 2. Subdivision controls. 3. Creek set back lines. 4. Purchase of property by governmental agencies. He continued that Mr. Drahn had serious reservations regarding legality of flood plain zones since this was to some extent a taking of the property without compensation. It was mutually agreed at the staff level.that neither the City nor the County was interested in purchasing property for flood control, and it was also agreed that there were sufficient controls in City and County sub- division regulations to prevent flooding in new developments. Finally, it was the staff feeling that the City and County had different flood control problems and that the City had sufficient controls to restrict development of property subject to flooding. Mr. Romero presented a photograph of the Laguna Lake area, showing the area now subject to flooding. Councilman Miller felt the benefit of flood plain zoning would be to.force land to stay i.n its natural state and would stop all building within the flood plain zone. He felt that.existing ordinances were inadequate to protect the citizens and the City should adopt flood plain zonings. The matter was continued for future discussion. 9. Councilman Miller asked why were not the buildings within the City of . San Luis Obispo which were below standard brought up to the building code of the City as he�.felt.:a promise was made to the federal government tht the City's building code would be enforced when the low.rent housing program was started. R. Young, Planning Director, stated that the City Building Department only operated upon complaint of violations to the building codes of substandard construction as it-was the feeling of.the Bu.ilding Department that if they were to strictly enforce all aspects of the building code, many of the existing dwellings would be shut down and the people would be forced to move and there are no places for them to move into where they could afford the rent. He also stated that without additional staff to.make door to door inspections for violations of the building code, his present organization could not take on this program as the present staff was busy on current construction inspection although when time was available the existing staff did make -inspections of substandard improvements. it r fl City Council Minutes December 14, J970 Page 5 Councilman Blake stated he felt the staff.was.doing an adequate job of inspecting substandard improvements but wished the Council to remember that when the staff did bring buildings to the attention of the Council to abate violations of the . City codes, the Council's action was normally to grant the property owner additional time to comply with the code. As an example he cited the Delmartini building on South Broad Street which was brought to the Councils attention for abatement and was still standing in a deplorable condition. He also felt that many of the sub- standard buildings in the community were owned by the poor or retired citizen who could not afford to make the necessary improvements to bring the building up to standard. The Council agreed to postpone a decision or'further discussion on this matter . until adequate housing was available for the citizens now living in substandard homes. 10. R. Young, Planning Director, at the request of Councilman Miller again presented the recommendation of the Planning Commission to add a "T" zone for mobile home parks to the zoning ordinance. He briefed for the City Council the standard recommendation by the Planning Commission for incorporation in the zoning ordinance. The City Council then discussed the possibility of developers building mobile home parks under the Planned Development Section of the Municipal Code. Consideration of adoption of a "T'.1 zone was delayed for referral to the planning consultant who will be rewriting the zoning ordinance. 11. At the request of Councilman Miller, the City Council discussed the possibility of a moratorium on the future development of service stations within the City of San Luis Obispo. It was.the feeling of the Council after discussion, that .there was.,no way that one specific business or industry could be legislated against in future development. ' Mayor Schwartz felt that service stations could be controlled through the provisions of the zoning ordinance by not rezoning properties for service station operation or by increasing the standards for service stations in area landscaping, parking, etc. The City Attorney was asked by the City Council to see what the City could do to have the old Gulf service station on South Broad Street that is now in disrepair removed from the property. 12. Councilman Miller asked the City Council to discuss increasing the members of the Citizens' Advisory Board from 13 members to 19 members in order to get more representation. R. Young, staff coordinator for the Citizens' Advisory Committee, stated that this matter had already been discussed by the Committee and they had rejected the suggestion and had asked the City Council not to increase the number of members on the committee as it would become very difficult to hold meetings. 13. Councilman Miller brought to the Council's attention the possibility of the City and County participating in a prepaid health insurance program in cooperation with the County hospitals and Medical Association in a program similar to that of Kaiser - Permanente. He continued that private health insurance programs and public hospital plans were not adequate due to the increased hospital and medical fees that were being charged and that the suggested county -wide program had been looked upon as a possible solution for 1 the citizens of San Luis Obispo to receive adequate medical help. Councilman Miller asked that this suggestion be brought before as many people as possible in order to make a census of possible cooperation by the Medical Association, hospitals, cities and county. He asked that the Mayor; if possible, bring this matter before the next Mayors' Association meeting for discussion. City Council Minutes December 14, 1970 Page 6 14. Communication from the Division of Highways announcing a public hearing to be held at the Veterans' Memorial Building on January 21, 1971, on "Des.ign Features of Route #1 between Marsh Street, San Luis Obispo, and Baywood.Park overcrossinq near Morro Bay." The matter was continued to the January 11, 1971 Council study session. 15. Request from the Central Coast Criminal Justice Regional Advisory Board that the City Council consider amending its resolution supporting Region 8 South in this program and opposing any consolidation with Region 8 North consisting of Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties. It was the consensus of the City Council that no change be made in the original resolution. 16. The City Council adjourned to executive session to discuss personnel matters and.property.acquisition involving possible litigation. 17. On motion of Councilman Graham, seconded by Councilman Miller, the meeting adjourned.. � a zpatrick, City Clerk APPROVED: January 18, 1971 1