Del Mar City Council Special Meeting Agenda
Del Mar City Hall – Via Teleconference Only
1050 Camino del Mar, Del Mar, California
March 9, 2022 City Council Special Meeting
INFORMATION RECEIVED
AFTER THE COUNCIL AGENDA
WAS DISTRIBUTED
(“Red Dots”)
Dear Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Citycouncilmembers,
I am vice chair of the Sustainability Advisory Committee, and I am writing to urge you to include 4 items in your approved Goals.
1. Building electrification ordinance. The top priority of SAC is to pass a building electrification ordinance for new construction and major remodels, as our neighboring cities Encinitas and Solana Beach did in late 2021. We must stop burning fossil fuels, and buildings are the second highest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to fossil fuel usage. In addition, the indoor air pollution from burning gas inside homes, especially gas cooktops, causes a myriad of health concerns from the nitrous oxides, formaldehydes, small particulates (PM2.5), carbon monoxide, to name a few. These pollutants increase asthma incidence, as well as cardiovascular disease and other health risks.
a. The cost of such an ordinance is far less than most ordinances. SAC will draft an ordinance based largely on the one that Encinitas passed last fall. Since Encinitas has the same city attorney that Del Mar has, that ordinance has already been vetted by her firm. b. In addition, I have identified 2 free consultants. Solana Beach had a pro bono consultant, Amy Rider from the Building Decarbonization Coalition, a state-wide organization. I asked her if she was willing to consult with Del Mar for our building electrification ordinance also, and she agreed. Also, I spoke with Crysal Nejara, the Encinitas CAP Manager, and she said that they worked with Jeremy Reefe from SGD&E. They provide free consulting for reach code (ordinance) development and implementation, and Crystal said that Jeremy was very helpful.
c. We can provide free outreach. I am co-chair of the San Diego Building Electrification Coalition (SDBEC), and we have been giving educational presentations to community groups and to City Council members throughout San Diego county on the reasons why we need all-electric building ordinances and explanations of excellent electric alternatives to gas furnaces, gas water heaters and gas stoves. Councilmembers Gaasterland and Martinez have heard our SDBEC presentation, and Councilmembers Martinez and Worden suggested that we give a short educational presentation at a city council meeting, which we would be happy to do.
2. Climate Action Plan (CAP) monitoring and implementation – Civic Spark Fellow a. Clem Brown does not have enough time to do all that is necessary to monitor and implement our CAP, an essential task, with all of his other duties in the City Manager’s office. In 2019/2020, Clem was assisted by a full time Civic Spark fellow, Serena Pelka.
Her salary was half paid by the Civic Spark program. She did an excellent job, and having her work full time freed up Clem to work on other tasks. Serena worked on the monitoring of our progress on our CAP goals, and on the annual report of CAP implementation, and she helped Clem on many aspects of sustainability. With the city being short staffed, having an inexpensive yet highly trained person to help Clem seems beneficial for Clem to be able to complete all of the projects he needs to work on in the City Manager’s office.
b. The application for a Civic Spark Fellow for 2022/2023 is due by April 30. I urge you to decide today to allot the small amount of money for partial salary in return for a large amount of work to be done by the trained Fellow.
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c. CAP monitoring requires the Sustainability staff to get information from other departments, such as Planning and Public Works, to determine how we are doing on our stated goals. Having someone working with Clem who can help gather and assemble such data would be very useful.
3. CAP update
a. Del Mar’s CAP was due for an update to be adopted in 2021, but the financial constraints of the COVID pandemic has delayed that process. The strategies and measures in our CAP which was written in 2015, are far from current state of the art for CAP measures. SAC can look at other more recently updated CAPs and identify more robust measures, but we need to plan for a much-needed overall CAP update. This involves having our GHG inventory to be updated, often done by the Energy Policies Initiatives Center at the University of San Diego. Then a consultant can be recruited to update the CAP. b. In the meantime, SAC has identified several measures which we would like to discuss with the relevant department, such as our Urban Tree Canopy proposal with the Planning Department. We also ask that some money be set aside for providing greener city vehicles when they need replacement. Although the initial cost will likely be higher, that money will be recouped by savings on gas. Items such as these will require some budget and some interaction with other departments.
4. Join the Institute for Local Government
a. It is free
b. Provides free voluntary information on all stages of climate action planning and implementation including best practices, technical support, energy savings, educational events including webinars. There is no obligation, so no downside to signing up to be able to get information and advice from this group as needed.
As you are no doubt aware, the climate crisis has accelerated much faster than we anticipated. The report last fall, and again last week, from the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is telling us that the crisis is spiraling out of control, that we will certainly have more extensive wildfires, accelerated sea level rise, extreme weather conditions (droughts, floods, hurricanes), etc. The only question is how severe these will be, which will be determined by how quickly we stop burning fossil fuels, the source of GHG emissions which cause climate change.
The time to act is NOW, before it is too late for our planet, our children and our grandchildren. Any aspect of addressing climate change should not be in Tier 3 of Del Mar’s priorities (“non-essential items that could be deferred or eliminated”), it should be a top priority.
Sincerely,
Ann Feeney, Ph.D.
Rimini Rd.
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March 7, 2022
TO: Del Mar City Council
FROM: Joe Sullivan
President, Friends of Del Mar Parks
STREET ADDRESS: Ocean Front
SUBJ: Goal Setting 2022-2023
The City acquired the 5.3 acre Shores property in 2008 with funds raised by the Friends of Del Mar Parks and the Winston school community. The intent was and is to develop this rare open space in the middle of town as a community park. Comprehensive site planning was begun in 2015, with great progress, but went on hold in 2018 due to the dispute between Winston and the City.
Proposition Q was passed in 2016 to fund development of Shores Park, Camino del Mar streetscape, and neighborhood undergrounding. Streetscape has been completed.
Undergrounding has begun. However, it is unlikely that planning for the park will resume until the litigation between Winston and the City is resolved.
We are concerned that, as time goes by, the intent of park donors and voters who approved Prop Q will be forgotten. Therefore, we ask the Council to consider these steps to protect this exceptional property for present and future generations:
1) Begin now the process to re-zone the property from its current Public Facilities zone to Public Parkland (equivalent to Seagrove and Powerhouse parks); and 2) Adopt a policy of reserving some portion of Prop Q funds for future development of the park.
Respectfully submitted,
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1 Melinda Gould
From: Susan Wagner <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2022 7:34 AM
To: City Clerk Mail Box
Subject: Red Dot - City Priorities Workshop
Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Red Dot for City Priorities Workshop on March 9
The Torrey Pine trees planted on City property in the median of Camino Del Mar are a major concern to the residents of Del Mar. Not only have they grown so high that they are blocking the view of residences above Camino Del Mar and continue to grow every year but they are leaning over the high traffic road and buckling the street.
The City has the responsibility to maintain and trim these trees as they enforce the same conditions in the residential community. The trees have never been maintained or trimmed. The objection that trimming or lacing is harmful to the tree is inaccurate. There are many examples throughout Del Mar of Torrey Pine trees that have been trimmed and laced and are very healthy.
We have been told that there are taxpayer-paid funds in the budget available for this maintenance.
We request that the trimming and maintenance of these trees to be put high on the City priorities agenda.
In addition, we support the continued undergrounding of the telephone poles and lines as passed in Measure Q as a priority item.
Sincerely,
Susan and Karl Wagner
1854 Seaview Ave
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1 Melinda Gould
From: Carter Chappell <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2022 8:40 AM
To: City Clerk Mail Box
Cc: Dwight Worden; Tracy Martinez; David Druker; Terry Gaasterland; Dan Quirk; Ashley Jones
Subject: Red Dot Comment for March 9, 2022 City Council Meeting Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
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March 7, 2022
City of Del Mar Mayor and Council Members
C/O City of Del Mar
1050 Camino Del Mar
Del Mar, CA 92014
Re: March 9, 2022 City Council Meeting
2022 City Council Goal Setting Workshop
Dear Mayor and Council Members,
On March 9, 2022, the City Council will conduct its 2022 City Council Goal Setting Workshop where the Council will review the Fiscal Year 2021-2023 City Council Priority and Operational Special Projects Work Plan (Attachment A to the agenda). We are writing to request that the Council review and discuss the Hoska Alley Development that is included in Attachment A under the Public Works Department section, New Staffidentified Work Plan Items.
As you may recall, at the September 7, 2021 City Council meeting, the Council reviewed and discussed the status of the Hoska Alley. Two major development items were identified, the need to pave the alley and the need to fix the alley’s drainage outlet that currently discharges into the backyard of a residence located on 8th Street. The Council was unanimous in telling City staff that fixing the drainage and getting the alley paved are Tier 1 priorities. The Council also stated the alley work won’t slip between the cracks.
We are asking that the Council confirm to City staff that the Hoska Alley Development Work (i.e., the alley paving and drainage work) be included in the Fiscal Year 2021-2023 City Council Priority and Operational Special Projects Work Plan as a Tier 1 priority. We are also requesting that the City Council direct City staff to immediately proceed with work on the Hoska Alley Development as set forth below. 3 March 9, 2022 Item 01
2 We understand that City staff may have limited resources/time and the City’s finances have been impacted by the Covid epidemic. In consideration of these conditions and in an effort to move the Hoska Alley Development forward, we suggest the City immediately hire an outside engineering firm (potentially the same firm that designs the City’s sewer, water and storm drainage improvement projects) to evaluate and design a solution to the alley’s drainage problem. As a minimum, the engineering firm would be tasked with evaluating existing conditions, investigating drainage options, completing the drainage design and design drawings and preparing a final budget estimate.
Utilizing the above approach will minimize City staff resources necessary to move the Hoska Alley Development forward. Since an outside engineering firm will be used to complete the engineering work, City staff time will only be required to select and manage the consultant. Additionally, hiring an outside engineering firm to complete this work will require a modest financial expenditure by the City. The engineering costs will be a small fraction of the overall project budget identified by City staff. Since the City’s financial outlook continues to improve, this is a reasonable expenditure.
The paving of the Hoska Alley was approved by the City Council at their October 15, 2018 council meeting. Paving of the Hoska Alley requires that drainage repair work needs to be coordinated with and conducted simultaneously with the alley paving. This makes the alley’s drainage design work critical.
We ask that the Council take the following actions:
- Include the Hoska Alley Development Work in the Fiscal Year 2021-2023 City Council Priority and Operational Special Projects Work Plan as a Tier 1 priority. -Direct City staff to immediately proceed with the Hoska Alley drainage engineering work and report back to the Council on the estimated timeframe for completing this work.
Thank you for your consideration,
Kathy and Carter Chappell
601 Hoska Drive
Jill Ellis and Judd Westover
442 8th Street
Phyllis and Ed Mirsky
605 Hoska Drive
Liz and Wayne Dernetz
421 9th Street
Jamie and Henrik Jensen
434 8th Street
4 March 9, 2022 Item 01
1 Melinda Gould
From: Kc Vafiadis <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2022 1:52 PM
To: City Clerk Mail Box
Cc: Dwight Worden; Tracy Martinez; David Druker; Terry Gaasterland; Dan Quirk Subject: Goal Setting Meeting 3-9-22
Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Honorable Mayor and Distinguished Council Members,
I was happy to hear the City's mid-year report and the more favorable financial position that the City is in. I realize many projects were delayed over the past year.
As Economic Development Chair for the DMVA, I appreciate the staff's ability to work with us to help the downtown businesses as they recover from the pandemic. The increased TOT taxes and stabilized sales tax have not come without a lot of effort from the City, the DMVA, The County and the businesses themselves. With worldwide events being so unstable, I would hope that our Council will keep the downtown as a top priority so we are prepared to handle whatever comes our way.
Thank you for all you do.
Sincerely,
KC Vafiadis
DMVA Economic Development Chair
Stratford Square Del Mar
cell:619-889-2888
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