1 CITY OF MILL VALLEY
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING
ACTION MINUTES
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
26 CORTE MADERA AVENUE, MILL VALLEY
May 6, 2024
5:30 P.M.
Mayor Urban Carmel – Present
Vice Mayor Stephen Burke – Present
Councilmember Max Perrey – Present
Councilmember Caroline Joachim – Present
Councilmember Jim Wickham – Present
City Staff Present: City Manager Cusimano; City Attorney Khalsa; Principal Planner Staude; Sustainability Coordinator Ledwith; and City Clerk/Management Analyst III Politzer.
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Carmel called the meeting to order at 5:30 P.M.
ACTION OUT OF CLOSED SESSION
None.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA ORDER
Agenda_240506
It was MOVED by Councilmember Wickham and SECONDED by Councilmember Joachim to approve the agenda order. The Motion was carried unanimously by a 5-0 vote.
PRESENTATIONS
None.
CONSENT CALENDAR
Mayor Carmel asked if any Councilmember or member of the public wished to pull any of Items #1-4 from the Consent Calendar. There were no requests.
It was MOVED by Councilmember Wickham and SECONDED by Councilmember Joachim to adopt the Consent Calendar, Items #1-4. The Motion was carried unanimously by a 5-0 vote. 2 1. Consideration of the March 18, 2024 Regular City Council Meeting Action Minutes Recommended Action: Approve the Action Minutes.
Item 1_Approval of Action Minutes_240506
2. Consideration of a Resolution Adopting a List of Projects for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 funded by SB 1: The Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017.
Recommended Action: Adopt Resolution No. 24-____.
Item 2_SB 1 List of Eligible Projects Resolution_240506
3. Consideration of a Resolution Accepting Measure B funds from the Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM) for Sycamore Avenue Bike and Pedestrian Safety Improvements.
Recommended Action: Adopt Resolution No. 24-____.
Item 3_Acceptance of Measure B TAM Funds Resolution_240506
4. Second Reading and Adoption of an Ordinance Amending Title 20 “Zoning” and Title 5 “Licensing and Taxation” of the Mill Valley Municipal Code (MVMC) to: 1) Incorporate Text Amendments Identified in Housing Programs 5, 6, 17, 18, 27A, 30, and 31 of the Mill Valley General Plan 2023-2031 Housing Element; 2) Add and Incorporate “Additional Development Standards” Identified in Chapter 3 of the Adopted Multi-Family Residential, Downtown Residential, and Mixed-Use Design Guidelines and Development Standards into the MVMC.
Recommended Action: Adopt Ordinance No. ____.
Item 4_Second Reading Rezoning Ordinance_240506
PUBLIC OPEN TIME
Mayor Carmel opened Public Open Time. Seeing no one who wished to speak, Mayor Carmel closed Public Open Time.
COUNCIL/STAFF ANNOUNCEMENTS AND COUNCIL LIAISON REPORTS Councilmember Wickham announced that Vice Mayor Burke would be his alternate the following Thursday at the Richardson Bay Regional Authority (RBRA) meeting as they work to improve their budget. He noted he had bought his tickets for the Mill Valley Music Festival and the Mountain Play. Lastly, he announced that he was about to become a grandfather for the 5th time.
Councilmember Joachim provided an update from the Legislative Committee, noting the draft legislation is still to be amended. She also provided an update on the Ebikes ordinance, saying there will be no statewide legislation on Ebikes. She said Assembly Bill 1778’s initial draft stated that minors under 16 would be prohibited from operating Class 2 Ebikes across California, but now the bill has been updated to only apply to Marin County as a pilot program. She recognized Police Chief Navarro’s forward thinking in getting the ordinance on the books and continuing to work with the schools and other police departments in safety education for kids. She also noted that Marin County’s Civil Grand Jury issued a report that included Ebikes, and they are looking 3 for countywide consistency with respect to regulations on Ebikes. Councilmember Joachim said that Mill Valley’s beautification group of volunteers has been working with City staff to beautify different areas of Mill Valley and recently completed Lytton Square, and one member is working on the development plan of the East Blithedale Triangle and hopes to get the plan finalized at the next meeting. Another group of volunteers has started an initiative in Mill Valley to be age and disability friendly, and is chaired by Kristi Denton Cohen, the City’s representative to the Marin County Commission on Aging. Councilmember Joachim announced that a needs assessment survey would be sent out to the community in the late spring through different channels, and the City has issued a letter of commitment to becoming age-friendly and has applied to the AARP to become a member of the Age-Friendly States and Communities.
Councilmember Perrey said he and Mayor Carmel had a great Community Chat the previous Monday that was very well attended, and they discussed a broad range of topics, and they also attended Earth Day. MCE Energy voted to expand the rebate discount people can get for FERA and the CARES programs. He also said he had a great meeting with Al Grumet, Vice Chair of the Mill Valley Climate Action Plan Task Force, in anticipation of the Mill Valley Climate Action Plan implementation.
Vice Mayor Burke attended the annual Sewage Agency of Southern Marin (SASM) planning and strategy session with City Manager Cusimano and Trevor Atashkarian from the Finance Department. He noted the agency is functioning very well and pointed out that voters approved a $32 million bond measure in 2017 to update and upgrade the agency, and this public investment has been handled as well as any taxpayer could wish, and that gives him great confidence. Earlier in the day, Vice Mayor Burke represented Mill Valley on the Finance Committee for the Marin Wildfire Prevention Agency to review the 2025 budget, which will allocate almost $22 million from Measure C to a groundbreaking and nationwide leading effort to address and mitigate the threat of wildfire in Marin County. He was encouraged by how well run the MWPA agency is at only three years old, and noted two popular programs: the Chipper Program and the Home Hardening and Grants Program. Vice Mayor Burke announced that the executive director of the MWPA has produced three videos to educate residents on home hardening and proper evacuation behavior. He also announced that he meets quarterly with Mayor Carmel, City Manager Cusimano, and Chief Navarro to review statistics and activities of the Mill Valley Police Department, and was pleased to say the first quarter of the year had been remarkably peaceful.
Efforts to hire a countywide RIPA analyst are nearing completion, with five highly qualified candidates for the position to be filled by mid-year.
Mayor Carmel said arrests were down in the first quarter, traffic citations were down, accidents were down, zero homicides, zero rapes, 1 hate crime, 1 domestic violence, zero auto theft, grand theft was down, petty theft was down, and RIPA stops were down. EBike citations are up to 74 issued.
Vice Mayor Burke announced that last week, four police chiefs from around Marin, including Mill Valley, Central Marin, Fairfax, and Ross, issued a letter to parents in the Tam High School districts outlining concerns and challenges associated with a certain class of Ebikes that are illegal motorcycles being operated by underaged riders. He noted that last year, Mill Valley began sponsoring educational classes in conjunction with the Marin County Bike Coalition, which is now 4 running out of funds to support the classes, with the last class scheduled for June, and they are seeking ways to continue those classes. One challenge is that owners of illegal Ebikes cannot receive this education because they cannot be insured in the classes. They are also in the process of determining what risk parents take by providing these bikes to underage youth in terms of whether they have insurance or liability coverage should their child injure someone or themselves.
Mayor Carmel attended a six-hour meeting of the Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM), where they worked on a 25-year vision for transportation in Marin, and discussed crossing guards.
Mayor Carmel confirmed that the number of cross guards in Marin County will stay constant at 96, and although funding for the program is constrained, in two years the allocations in Measures AA and Measure B will be redone, at which time they hope to make it solvent going forward. The Sequoia Cinema theater will reopen on May 17th. On May 8th, Jim Derich, retiring 16-year president of the Friends of the Library, will be honored at Old Mill Park at 5:30 pm. Safe Routes to School for Mill Valley will meet on May 9th. The Mill Valley Music Festival will be held on May 11-12, with a fantastic weather forecast. New Eagle Scouts will be coming to the City Council’s June 3rd meeting. Mayor Carmel announced he has spoken with Hunter Moore, CEO of the Redwood retirement community, regarding having the City Council’s June or July agefriendly meeting at the Redwoods. The Redwoods will also be hosting a memory care fundraising gala on May 16th. As noted by Councilmember Perrey, the Community Chat they hosted the previous week had been well attended, and they will do an Infrastructure Chats in June and September where people can ask questions about the City’s infrastructure plan. The City has been working with the Kelly Brush Foundation, which empowers people with spinal cord injuries, to bring the foundation to Mill Valley for a fundraiser on October 19th.
CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
City Manager Cusimano gave a report/update on the following topics:
• On May 1st, the Public Works and Police teams completed the contraflow drill on East Blithedale, identifying several areas for improvement for faster and more efficient evacuation. A second drill for Hamilton Drive will occur later in the summer, and the City’s education plan will begin in the coming months, updating the community on the Google Evacuation Study and disaster evacuations in general.
• The City is focusing on vegetation management from a fire safety perspective, but also the center medians from a beautification perspective. Crews will be on Miller Avenue over the next two weeks to clear up vegetation, with a longer-term beautification strategy to come. • An article in the Marin IJ from Parks and Rec summarized synthetic fields but was not staff or City Council-driven. A follow-up of a report from “our team” two years ago is a highlevel discussion at the request of Parks and Rec to discuss the pros and cons and costs of these fields in light of rising water costs.
• The City recently hired a full-time code enforcement officer, and over the next two months will educate the community on the One Stop Shop. Any issues in the community that need code enforcement or problem-solving come through this position. The code enforcement officer will coordinate with the appropriate departments and will save $35 million a year. • The budget is being worked on and should come to the City Council as a two-meeting process in June.
• The Mill Valley Library applied for and was awarded a grant for a $15,000 privacy booth. 5 NEW BUSINESS
5. Consideration of a Resolution Revising the Mill Valley 2040 General Plan to Adopt the Climate Action Element Update, Approving the 2030 Climate Action Update, and Certifying the Addendum to the Mill Valley 2040 General Plan Update and Subsequent Environmental Impact Report for the 2023-2031 Housing Element Update.
Recommended Action: Adopt Resolution No. 24-____.
Item 5_Climate Action Plan Update Resolution_240506
Principal Planner Staude provided a presentation and introduced the sustainably team that has worked on sustainability items for Marin County: Christine Roark, consultant and sustainability coordinator for Marin Clean Energy Partnership (MCEP), who works on greenhouse gas emissions and sustainably for the county; and Grace Ledwith, Mill Valley Sustainability Coordinator. She provided background on Mill Valley’s Climate Action Plan and recommended separating the Climate Action Plan from the Mill Valley 2040 Climate Element, and approving those amendments based on the work conducted and the CEQA analysis.
Christine Roark provided a presentation, with topics including the CAP update process; guiding principles; CAP components; greenhouse gas emissions inventory; GHG forecast and goal; CAP structure; and top local actions.
Senior Planner Staude resumed her presentation regarding the Climate Action Plan. Topics of discussion included recent implementation and next steps. She recommended City Council pass the resolution to approve the General Plan amendment and the Climate Action Plan.
Mayor Carmel spoke about the Climate Action Plan Task Force, of which he is a member, its creation, and composition. He revealed that Mill Valley had the second-largest greenhouse gas reduction in the first cycle. EV sales figures show 38% of new car sales in Marin County are now EVs, and the task force had targeted 35%. He said the second goal was the built environment, and Mill Valley has a long history of following the county, which is awesome at doing reach codes.
He said the last part is composting, and that is state law. He said the Climate Action Plan is very solid in terms of its foundation, which was not aspirational. He also noted that they had focused on consistency of rules between Mill Valley and other jurisdictions.
Mayor Carmel opened public comment.
Speakers: Al Grumet, Earl Hagstrom, Marilyn Price
Communications (via eComment): None.
Mayor Carmel closed public comment.
Councilmember Joachim thanked Principal Planner Staude, Christine O’Rourke, and the Climate Action Plan Task Force for producing a very robust plan, and said having a designated individual focused on helping Mill Valley implement the policies and programs would be the most 6 effective in terms of implementation. She also said the chart is super helpful and would help people move forward to form good habits. Councilmember Joachim was very supportive of the update.
Councilmember Perrey also thanked Senior Planner Staude, Christine O’Rourke, and the Climate Action Plan Task Force for their great work over the last two years, saying the Climate Action Plan is the gold standard for CAPs in Marin County. He was excited to work on updating Mill Valley’s EV-ready green building codes to align with the county’s. Councilmember Perrey said the use of green cement is very important to him, which builds off a county-adopted ordinance that he hoped the City would adopt in the coming months.
Vice Mayor Burke echoed the comments of his fellow councilmembers.
Mayor Carmel said he, Councilmember Perrey, and City Manager Cusimano met with Mill Valley Sustainability Coordinator Grace Ledwith the previous week to talk through the Climate Action Plan (CAP) and also discussed having Grace give the City Council a quarterly update. He said how they communicate the CAP to not just Mill Valley, but the entirety of Marin County, is what they are trying to accomplish through simple messages, and Sustainable Mill Valley would have a huge role in getting the message out. Mayor Carmel also said green cement is awesome.
It was MOVED by Councilmember Perrey and SECONDED by Vice Mayor Burke to adopt the Resolution to certify the addendum to the 2020 General Plan Environmental Impact Report, adopt the 2030 Climate Action Plan, and amend the Climate Action Element of the 2040 General Plan. The Motion was carried unanimously by a 5-0 vote.
COUNCIL REQUESTS AND IDEAS FOR DISCUSSION
None.
ADJOURNMENT - The Council ADJOURNED at 7:14 p.m. to the next Regular City Council meeting to be held on Monday, May 20, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. in the Mill Valley City Council Chambers.
APPROVED AND ADOPTED BY THE MILL
VALLEY CITY COUNCIL ON DECEMBER 8, 2025
___________________________
Stephen Burke, Mayor
ATTEST:
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Risa De Ferrari, City Clerk