RULES COMMITTEE: 6/1/2022
Item: B.1
File ID: ROGC 22-249
TO: Honorable Mayor & FROM: Toni J. Taber, CMC
City Council City Clerk
SUBJECT: The Public Record DATE: June 1, 2022
May 19, 2022 to May 26, 2022
ITEMS FILED FOR THE PUBLIC RECORD
Letters from Boards, Commissions, and Committees
Letters from the Public
1. Letter from Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency dated May 18, 2022 regarding May 12, 2022 Letter to BAWSCA Board of Directors.
2. Letter from Malek Jelassi dated May 26, 2022 regarding Approve San José's Parking and TDM Policy in June.
____________________________
Toni J. Taber, CMC
City Clerk
TJT/tt
155Bovet Road, Suite 650, San Mateo,CA 94402 ph 650349 3000 fx 650349 8395 www.bawsca.org May 18, 2022
Letter Recipients – Sent Via Email
Molly Culton
Sierra Club California
Lauren Weston
Acterra
John McManus
Golden State Salmon Association
Ashley Overhouse
Friends of the River
Peter Drekmeier
Tuolumne River Trust
Barbara Barrigan-Parilla
Restore the Delta
Ryan Henson
California Wilderness Coalition
Chris Shutes
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
Regina Chichizola
Save California Salmon
Cindy Charles
Golden West Women Flyfishers
Shani Kleinhaus
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society
Mike Conroy
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s
Associations; Institute for Fisheries Research
Konrad Fisher
Water Climate Trust
Bill Uyeki
Peninsula Fly Fishers
Elizabeth Dougherty
Wholly H2O
Larry Collins
San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association
John Hooper
Protect Our Water
Kristina Pappas
San Francisco League of Conservation Voters
Jeff Miller
Alameda Creek Alliance
Bill Martin
Sierra Club Bay Chapter, Water Committee
Trish Mulvey
CLEAN South Bay
Laura Allen
Greywater Action
Stuart Gross
San Francisco Herring Association
Mark Rockwell
Northern California Council, Fly Fishers International
Jonas Minton
Planning and Conservation League
Deirdre Des Jardin
California Water Research
RE: May 12, 2022 Letter to BAWSCA Board of Directors
Dear Signatories of the Letter about the BAWSCA Lawsuit and the Bay Delta Plan, On behalf of the BAWSCA Board of Directors, we thank you for your letter dated May 12, 2022 regarding the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan. The Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (BAWSCA) will not withdraw its intervention in the Bay-Delta Plan litigation at PUBLIC RECORD: 1
May 12, 2022
Chair Gustav Larsson, Vice Chair Tom Chambers and Board of Directors Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency
Via Email
Re: BAWSCA’s lawsuit over the Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan.
Dear BAWSCA Directors:
We write to encourage you to drop BAWSCA’s lawsuit over the State Water Board’s Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan.
The San Francisco Bay-Delta – the largest estuary on the west coast of the Americas – is on the brink of ecological collapse. Six fish species are listed as threatened or endangered, and once-bountiful wild salmon populations are on the verge of extinction.
Toxic algae blooms caused by low freshwater flows threaten people and wildlife. The commercial salmon fishing industry is struggling to survive. Salmon runs that are central to tribal culture and spirituality are in danger of being lost forever. Action to restore the Bay-Delta and rivers that feed it is long overdue.
2 Your constituents strongly support environmental protections and restoration. In 2016, more than 70% of Bay Area voters supported Measure AA, agreeing to tax themselves to restore the Bay’s wetlands. Public opinion surveys consistently demonstrate that Bay Area residents care deeply about the environment, and that providing environment benefits is the number one motivator for people to conserve water.
Your ratepayers do not want to fund anti-environmental lawsuits.
In 2010, the State Water Board released a flow criteria report that determined unimpaired flow on the San Joaquin River and its tributaries, including the Tuolumne, would need to increase to 60% to fully protect fish and other biological resources. The State Water Board compromised, and in 2018 adopted a 40% flow requirement. An honest assessment of the facts clearly demonstrates that the SFPUC could meet its obligation to instream flows without compromising water supply.
Yet BAWSCA does not support science-based flow improvements for the Tuolumne River and the Bay-Delta. BAWSCA is on record supporting the Tuolumne River Voluntary Agreement (TRVA). Not a single environmental or fishing organization supports this approach, simply because the lack of adequate flows would destine the TRVA to failure.
A peer review commissioned by the National Marine Fisheries Service confirmed that the TRVA is not supported by credible science. The State Secretaries of the Environmental Protection Agency and Natural Resources Agency also confirmed this in a letter on October 20, 2021, and halted negotiations on the TRVA. Simply put, the TRVA has no scientific foundation. BAWSCA should abandon this anti-environmental, antiscience position.
It is also important to note that the Tuolumne River has among the worst environmental flows of any Central Valley river, particularly in dry years. It is not a surprise that over the past 30 years, mismanagement by the SFPUC and Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts have produced the worst salmon recovery record of any major river in the Central Valley.
We appreciate that BAWSCA is committed to ensuring a reliable water supply. We share that commitment. Many of our organizations have deep experience working in partnership with urban agencies on water supply issues. We are confident the BAWSCA agencies can maintain highly reliable water supplies while taking needed steps to protect the Tuolumne River and Bay-Delta. We believe a comprehensive water supply reliability strategy could include such tools as water use efficiency, alternative supplies, such as water transfers, Central Valley groundwater storage and water recycling, improved demand projections, adjusting the current design drought and other tailored drought strategies
Again, we strongly encourage you to drop your lawsuit over the Bay Delta Plan and support science-based, improved flow standards for the Tuolumne River and Bay-Delta.
[External Email]
You don't often get email from . Learn why this is important FW: Approve San José's Parking and TDM Policy in June
City Clerk <[email protected]>
Thu 5/26/2022 2:39 PM
To: Agendadesk <[email protected]>
From: Malek Jelassi
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2022 10:43 AM
To: City Clerk <[email protected]>
Subject: Approve San José's Parking and TDM Policy in June City Clerk Toni Taber,
Dear members of the City of San José’s Planning Commission and City Council, I am a resident of San José and I am reaching out to you today, in advance of the upcoming Planning Commission and City Council meetings in June, about the parking standards and transportation demand management ordinance.
I urge you to adopt the staff recommendation to prepare an ordinance that removes mandatory minimum parking limits, updates the City’s Transportation Demand Management (TDM) requirements to apply to all projects meeting a certain size threshold, and develops a program for ongoing monitoring and compliance for the citywide TDM program.
The City of San José has adopted an ambitious plan to become carbon neutral by 2030 but with 50% of greenhouse gas emissions coming from private vehicles in the City, updating parking standards as well as new transportation demand management (TDM) requirements needs to be a clear part of this plan citywide.
I want a San José that is:
- More affordable: by reducing the overbearing costs of producing parking—which is passed on to residents—and, in turn, having more land and resources to make housing more affordable to residents.
- More sustainable: by allowing the community to determine how much parking is appropriate, you can prevent the oversupply of parking and promote a better quality urban environment. This policy reform can reduce reliance on cars and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, while also incentivizing more sustainable modes and options of mobility.
PUBLIC RECORD: 2
This message is from outside the City email system Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources - More equitable: minimum parking requirements mean that even car-free households end up paying for parking they don’t use and end up driving up housing costs. The Transportation Demand Management (TDM) policies are a critical way to increase access to transportation and reduce the reliance on cars, allowing people to have more affordable transportation options.
San José has been a climate leader and I hope you continue to lead in this direction by taking bold action to disincentivize single-occupancy car trips, reduce GHG emissions, and increase affordable housing. The laws you have put in place requiring all-electric energy in new construction, and electric vehicle charging stations at residential buildings might not have the intended impact if the legislation is still incentivizing driving through the requirement of minimum parking. I am counting on you to vote in support of this policy! Sincerely,
Malek Jelassi
Oakland, California 94601