CITY OF
CITY OF JACKSON
City Council/Planning Commission
JACKSON Special Meeting Minutes
ALIFORNIA
Monday, February 5, 2024
Mayor and Council Members: John Georgette, City Clerk
Steve McLean, Mayor
Chad Simmons, Vice Mayor Staff Members:
Max Godde, Council Member Carl Simpson, City Manager
Bree Wilder, Public Works Superintendent
Planning Commissioners: Trevor Hoaas, Asst PW Superintendent Thornton Consolo, Chairman Carleen Kirkpatrick, Deputy City Clerk Jim Guidi, Vice Chairman
Debby Collins, Commissioner Susan Peters, Planning Consultant Sierra Grandbois, Commissioner Erin Ventura, Contract Planner/HBA Matt Ospital, Contract Engineer/WGA
ABSENT:
Connie Gonsalves, Council Member
Bob Stimpson, Council Member
Lana Vukovich, Commissioner
Mayor McLean called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG.
Mayor McLean led the Pledge of Allegiance.
1. APPROVAL OF AGENDA.
Motion to approve the City Council / Planning Commission Special Agenda dated February 5, 2024 as presented. Moved by Vice Mayor Simmons, seconded by Councilmember Godde, and carried by a 3 to O vote:
AYES: McLean, Simmons, Godde
NOES: None
ABSENT: Gonsalves, Stimpson
ABSTAIN: None
2. CONSENT CALENDAR.
Items listed on the consent calendar are considered routine and may be enacted by one motion. Any item may be removed for discussion at the request of a Council Member. a. Approval of City of Jackson's Delegated Maintenance Agreement with State of California Department of Transportation.
February 5, 2024 City Council/Planning Commission Special Meeting Minutes Motion to approve the Consent Calendar dated February 5, 2024 as presented. Moved by Councilmember Godde, seconded by Vice Mayor Simmons, and carried by a 3 to 0 vote:
AYES: McLean, Simmons, Godde
NOES: None
ABSENT: Gonsalves, Stimpson
ABSTAIN: None
3. PUBLIC MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA.
None.
4. DISCUSSION CALENDAR.
For the record: Action minutes provide the necessary documentation of City Council actions and audio recordings are retained for those desiring more detail on particular agenda item discussions. These audio recordings provide an accurate and comprehensive backup of City Council deliberations and citizen discussion.
a. Review, discuss and provide direction on the City response and comments to Amador County Unified School District's DEIR (Draft Environmental Impact Report) for School Consolidation. [Susan Peters, Planning Consultant./
Susan Peters - Thanked City staff (Public Works, Wastewater, Water, Police, Fire) for their important input which assisted with drafting the response. The purpose of the workshop today is for Council and the Planning Commission to review the draft environmental impact report in a public setting to look for deficiencies, the alternatives analysis, potential mitigation and to determine if there are additional comments to be made before the response is submitted back to the school board by the February 13, 2024 comments extension date. The process Icading up to this date is as follows:
May 2022- Amador County Unified School District (ACUSD) Board of Trustees approved a consolidation program to combine Argonaut and Amador High Schools at the Argonaut campus, lone and Jackson Junior High Schools at the Jackson campus. The decision was made without preparing an environmental impact report (EIR) in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which is required due to the size and scope of the project. The Amador County Transportation Commission (ACT) challenged the school district's decision to approve consolidation without the required CEQA documentation.
May 10, 2023 - ACUSD Board approved a contract with an environmental consulting firm, Placeworks, Inc. to complete the environmental impact report.
June 21, 2023 - ACUSD issued a Notice of Preparation (NOP) advising and seeking input from interested parties and agencies pertaining to the project and preparation of the EIR.
February 5, 2024 City Council/Planning Commission Special Meeting Minutes July 20, 2023 - City of Jackson sent a response to the NOP to the school district requesting traffic analysis for impacts resulting from increased students at Argonaut campus, including operational impacts to the key intersections (i.e. Argonaut Lane/Hoffman Street and Hwy 49/88), safety improvements to Stoney Creck Rd, potential mitigation including extending Cedar Street and Wicklow Way, traffic analysis for impacts resulting from increased students at Jackson Elementary School and operational impacts to key intersections (North Main St, Main St, Summit St, Water St, and Main St/Hwy 49/88), police protection mitigation, emergency access and evacuation from Argonaut High School and Jackson Elementary, analysis of wastewater collection capacity and proposed mitigation, water distribution and fire flow capacity, and storm drain capacity.
December 15, 2023 - ACUSD Draft EIR was released with a 45-day review period.
The cities of Jackson, Sutter Creek, lone, and ACT requested (in light of the holidays, the complex nature of the DEIR, and transition of Jackson's new City Manager) the review period to be extended 30 days.
January 17, 2024 - ACUSD Board approved a 15-day extension instead of the requested 30- day, and comments on the DEIR are due February 13, 2024.
The agenda packet includes the draft response from the City of Jackson to the ACUSD Board, with some of the highlights including:
Chapter 3 - Project Description/ DEIR. There is no narrative describing the proposed changes and improvements to the existing Jackson Junior High School to convert it to a preschool, specifically regarding the lower capacity and use of vacant space. How will water/wastewater capacity needs and traffic be impacted by the changed use? Ingress and Egress from Argonaut High School has not been adequately described. Figure 3-5 does not show the necessary encroachment improvements to Argonaut Lane and Stoney Creek Road in order to do an appropriate evaluation of the improvements. Parking needs or additions at Argonaut High School have not been described. Table 3-1 shows Jackson Elementary School will increase with the addition of 6'h grade students and there lacks a narrative describing why no improvements need to be made to the site.
Transportation - The DEIR does not address potential safety impacts on our citizens. The analysis is based upon VMT (vehicle miles traveled) versus level of service, which is legal though does not excuse them from using the level of service analysis to determine impacts resulting from queuing safety impacts. The City of Jackson and Caltrans (in response to the Notice of Preparation) both requested this analysis and it was not completed. Caltrans has already submitted their response and asked for the analysis to be incorporated into the DEIR again. The intersection at Hwy 49/88 and Argonaut Lan is already bad and will be exacerbated by the increase of students. Something needs to be done there, whether it be extending Wicklow Way or extending Sutter Street to relieve some traffic. Caltrans also submitted comments in their letter stating the intersection at Hwy 49/88 and Hoffman would meet signal warrant requirements with this project, which also needs to be reviewed. All of these impacts create costly mitigations. Ideally, the evaluation would be done in advance of deciding on consolidation so the Board could make an informed decision on cost efficiency and the most environmentally superior alternatives.
February 5, 2021 City Council/Planning Commission Special Meeting Minutes Mayor McLean - Advised he has gained information on queuing, shooting the gap, and VMT issues over the last couple of months. He inquired about the Sutter Street Extension project.
Susan Peters - Advised the Sutter Street Extension has been on the regional list of projects (as well as just the City of Jackson's list) for 20 years and is pending development funds. The point of the project is to get the traffic leaving the Junior High and High School onto the highway on a better roadway at a signalized intersection to reduce traffic collisions. The design and environmental is complete and is pending regional money. Vice Mayor Simmons inquired on the timeline for this project? The project is development driven, though sometimes shop/stip monies can come in, and you have to go through ACT to become a prioritized project, which the school consolidation could impact. Simmons inquired if Wicklow Way could become a higher priority? In her professional opinion, Wicklow Way should not be done without Sutter Street because it will push the through traffic onto Hoffman, which cannot handle the increase due to the steep grade and blind intersection.
Returning to Response Letter Workshop:
Hoffman Street is incorrectly described as extending to Calaveras County (which needs to be corrected). There is not enough information about the valet and bussing programs to consider it to be adequate mitigation. ACUSD is proposing to have a person monitoring the release of students but does not address resolution of the queuing and safety issues. There is no analysis of the potential impacts associated with queuing at the ingress on Argonaut Lane and egress on Stoney Creek Road. Councilmember Godde inquired about the definition of "queuing"? Queuing refers to cars lining up/getting in line to enter/exit the school.
Section 2 - Senate Bill 743 allows for the replacement of level of service analysis with vehicle miles driven, though does not relieve a public agency of the requirements to analyze a project's potentially significant transportation impact related to air quality, noise, safety, or any other impact associated with transportation, Public Resources Code Section 21099(b)3.
The operations analysis that was performed and not included in the DEIR or appendices, and there were no mitigations associated with that. Those safely impacts and proposed mitigations should be included in the DEIR for the document to be approved as adequate for decision making purposes.
Section 515(4) - Mitigation to develop and implement a transportation demand management plan is (according to CEQA) Section 151264(a) 1(b) is not adequate. Future studies cannot be utilized as mitigation because it may not actually take care of the problem, which you would not know until the project is complete.
Geometric Design Features/Issues - The project does not indicate whether there will be additional parking at Argonaut High School with the increase in student population as anticipated. There will be additional cars for extra-curricular activities and events like football games, which could lead to people parking on the street, exacerbating already hazardous situations (particularly on Stoney Creek Road where there are no shoulders or places to park). The project description does not indicate any improvements to Stoney Creek Road or Argonaut Lane, both of which are narrow with minimal or no shoulders. Necessary improvements should be evaluated for potential impacts. Emergency services getting to the site with traffic present, because of traffic metering or everyone caving at once in the event of an evacuation, presents serious concerns on whether we can get emergency vehicles and February 5, 2024 City Council/Planning Commission Special Meeting Minutes first responders to the site in the event of an emergency. Mitigation measures should be developed, to include in the DEIR, to ensure first responders can access the site and event participants can evacuate safely in the event of an emergency.
Utilities & Services - The analysis that was performed was not site specific, and they are treating the elementary school, junior high and high school as using the same amounts of water per student and generating the same amount of affluent per student when the uses at the schools are different. Elementary students are not taking showers in the locker room and there are not as many ball fields using water, so they cannot be compared the same way and needs to be rectified in the EIR. The wastewater and water generation numbers are based on generation from the Amador Regional Sanitation Authority's master plan update, which does not relate to the city of Jackson's wastewater and water use so that needs to be updated and corrected in the draft environmental impact report. The EIR provides mitigation, which includes a detailed analysis of peak weather flows and volume over time to determine the potential surcharge conditions, and it also requires the preparation of a detailed analysis of wastewater generation. Again, they have used future studies as mitigation and we need to know what the impacts are and produce mitigation now as part of the EIR rather than later.
The same goes for the water supply and distribution system. The EIR provides mitigation measures that include evaluation of existing domestic and fire water service meters, mains and anticipated water demands. Those should be done and incorporated into the DEIR.
The number of changes that need to be made to the DEIR will create substantial potential changes to the document and it really should be recirculated for the responsible agencies, interested parties, and those impacted to review. All comment letters go to the consultants who wrote the DEIR to respond and prepare a Final Environmental Impact Report, which may or may not include additional studies, and would be recirculated for a much shorter period of time and a decision is made. The substantial changes being requested should trigger CEQA section 15088.5(a), requiring recirculation and the City should request such.
Additional comments will be included following today's meeting and brought back to Council at the regular meeting on February 12, 2024 to provide direction to the Mayor to execute the letter and get it submitted to the school board the next day, which is the due date of February 13, 2024.
Vice Mayor Simmons inquired if the requests made in July 2023 to the school board by the City and/or ACTC have changed, and Peters replied no. The amendments to the DEIR are expected to be substantial enough that it should be recirculated rather than simply released with the amendments incorporated.
Peters advised that all documents related to this project can be viewed at CEQA.NET, including the Notice of Preparation, draft documents, comment letters, etc.
The Mayor asked for public comment.
Planning Commission Chair Thornton Consolo provided comment concerning potential City liability concerns related to the consolidation. Peters made a note to include concerns regarding Kearney Street by the elementary school and consideration of an alternate school site analysis to be prepared.
Debby Collins agreed with incorporation of alternative site analysis.
February 5, 2024 City Council/Planning Commission Special Meeting Minutes Steve Oneto - He agreed with Council's concerns on the letter and suggested Argonaut Drive traffic and the lack of curb/gutter concerns be addressed at the blind corner.
Mayor McLean provided direction to Susan Peters to incorporate the changes discussed this evening and return to the regular City Council meeting on February 12, 2024 for approval and direction to submit the letter to the school board by the due date of February 13, 2024. b. Receive and discuss engineer's response to the request for a crosswalk at Teresa's Place [Matt Ospital, City Engineer].
Council reviewed the details of the engineering report included in the Council packet.
Matt Ospital / WGA - Stated he does not believe it would be a good idea for the City to open itself up to potential liability by installing a crosswalk or signage at this location. If Council wishes to proceed with either, there should be a study done because there is no stop sign there and someone could be hit by a car. It was confirmed that northbound traffic does not stop at that intersection.
Mayor McLean asked for public comments and received none. Mayor requests a motion.
Motion to deny the request for a crosswalk to be installed at Teresa's Place dated February 5, 2024 as presented. Moved by Vice Mayor Simmons, seconded by Councilmember Godde, and carried by a 3 to 0 vote:
AYES: McLean, Simmons, Godde
NOES: None
ABSENT: Gonsalves, Stimpson
ABSTAIN: None
5. ADJOURNMENT.
Mayor McLean adjourned the meeting at 1:49 p.m.
ATTEST:
Leor Die Ap2/a 424
John Georgette, City Clerk