OSPAC MEMBER COLLECTIVE SURVEY RESPONSES
JULY 19, 2023
OSPAC Members Present: JoAnne Arnos, Sarah Cardona, Lauren Goodmiller, Ian McDermod, Ellen Natesan, Arlene Patton, Aaron Read, and Amanda Skaggs.
Council Liaison present: Sue Beckmeyer
Staff Liaison: James Lin
1. What has OSPAC worked on that has been most valuable to the community? • Trail maintenance project valuable (visibility, making connections w/ community), good contribution of time and connecting to open spaces
• Facilitating communication b/w GGNRA and residents at Mori Point • Linked to community; mentioned when on Zoom – instrument for community to come to OSPAC with concerns; forms of communications to public; concerns about Housing Element mentioned • Bringing charter review question to Council; workdays; review of a few properties that come before OSPAC; Preservation Award; agree w/ Arnos & Natesan comments re: being a facilitator with the public, esp. Mori Point
2. In your experience as a Committee, what open space and parkland advice does the City Council need that OSPAC should be providing, but isn’t? How should OSPAC be providing this advice? • Pacifica owns open space & does not have funding for maintaining & controlling it; OSPAC assistance to finding a “home”. Mentioned Mori Point ; Cattle Hill things needed to be eligible for County Parks or other stewards of the land; City staff does not have time to research grant funding, etc. – re: disposition of land
• Acquisition of land – would like City Council and OSPAC to have more fruitful discussion & collab. around that / advice on approach from Planning / Council • Would like to be a conduit for the public as soon as application submitted for development of parcel in Open Space Task Force Report or HPD; tool to achieve consensus with thoughts on the project; when they put in proposed resolution, learned a lot about OSPAC – mentioned comments by Councilmember Boles that by the time they have a complete application by applicant, the applicant has spent so much time / money that they are not open to adjustments; OSPAC wants to get in earlier in the process; City staff has done a great job with info on development applications on website – but need to find a better venue for interpreting information
• OSPAC can develop an endorsement process for developers to approach OSPAC for feedback on consistency w/ Open Space Task Force Report; voluntary endorsement could benefit developer in the process
• Some direct way of having communication on a project before it is approved. • We want to review before they submit the complete application so there is no impinging on the process / legality
• Want to make it mandatory that applicants come to OSPAC before application is complete if project is in Open Space Task Force Report or HPD.
3. Are there specific projects OSPAC should work on, such as updating the Open Space Task Force Report, expanding the open space work days, or addressing Mori Point trailhead space issues? • All those are really important
• OSTF Report is 35 yrs old, a lot is obsolete. Property owners included in there had an option to opt out. So many property owners didn’t respond; of 52 properties looked at, 2 opted out. Have a feeling it might be different today. Maybe amend it? But it would be a lot of staff work to update.
• What would be gained by updating it?
• Experimented w/ bringing it to MidPen’s attention. Look at it from outside agency perspective – what do you want? Origin – come up with a list of properties that are desirable for saving.
What managing agency is most likely to take it? GGNRA has updated boundary studies, so more of the properties are in it; their philosophy has changed. It would be a multi-year project to update.
• Great to update, but it would be the only thing to work on & not sure of the value • Maybe an addendum to report
• Zoning has changed, some parcel numbers wrong; it could use some care and feeding • Expanding workdays? Tapped out
• Should continue but not expand
• We are at the top of what we can do with workdays
• Once a month is fine (for workdays)
• Friends of San Pedro Valley workdays; in a way we are competing • Mentioned several other agency workdays that are competing • Could we collaborate with others on workdays?
• We do avoid the days of other organization workdays
• Working with Pacifica Land Trust – borrowing tools and getting advice from Lynn Adams (Pacific Beach Coalition) has been helpful
• Explore youth corps group that comes out regularly so they can get volunteer hours to get younger folks out to workdays; expand by getting different people on existing workdays • Agree; we could do better on that end communication and outreach and have a real mailing list • Schools a good outreach and productive
• Have a docent led or talk-walk to hit a different part of the community that may not want to do physical labor
• So focused on repairing trail and dealing with invasive weeds, but it doesn’t have to be that way • Mori Point Trail head issues – could we submit a letter of support for MTC Capital project for diagonal parking at Mori Point road?
• Making progress on Mori Point issues and probably at the point of what OSPAC can do on the issue
• Should leave it on our rolling agenda (Mori Point issues) and have GGNRA reps at meetings sometimes
4. Is OSPAC’s membership size (9) appropriate and effective to accomplish its work, considering quorum and Brown Act requirements, subcommittee work, etc? • Seems like a good size;
• Agree; need a larger type committee to get some of the work done • It is tight sometimes to do all the work and we have subcommittees; have some of same people on multiple subcommittees; could discuss more
5. Are there any specific qualifications OSPAC members should have to ensure they are effective as a member?
• There is a lot of reading material – make sure to be familiar with the documents and making sure you are coming prepared; have a good diversity
• Discuss having a buddy system – someone on the committee “adopting” someone new to go over handbook and how to do things; could give different points of view, also; creates nice collaboration more comfortable asking questions one-on-one • Not sure what the charter amendment will look like yet, so hard to say what qualifications / expertise is needed, but enthusiasm goes a long way
6. What City Council strategic plan goals and strategies could OSPAC help support and how? • It would help to be more proactive on the Housing Element • Open Space & parkland fruitful role on pursuing Climate adaptation and mitigation – a natural connection; how to shape our workplan to support further research and implementation of Climate Action Plan
• #5 open forum for developers to discuss the things they want to do. #5 leads into #3. #3, 4 and 5 involved.
• Add #2 as well. Improve & steward city infrastructure, streets and facilities. Think of city facilities including trails and open space and infrastructure. • Add #1 – fiscal sustainability –having open / green space is a critical part of our economy that should not be overlooked; manage open spaces appropriately and long-term stewardship so it is not a drain on city resources; it is under appreciated at the moment • Green space is what makes Pacifica
• Moved away from Pacifica and came back. Talked about comments about Pacifica and how it changed from comments re: foggy vs. beautiful and outside views us as a jewel. • Health and well-being of community – green space is our biggest resource; public / community link she talked about today (#5)
7. What changes to OSPAC’s charter do you think should be made, if any? • Did a draft resolution and would like to tweak it more and revisit at Study Session • Should revisit resolution at Study Session and incorporate the answers from above • Biggest change is being more involved with communications with developers • We can ensure the open space to remain and stewardship of them; keeping abreast of developments and levels of stewardship and maintenance, which could direct us more to specific projects we can take on