Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutFinal Minutes February 24MINUTES OF PATHWAY COMMITTEE MEETING on February 24, 2003 Attendees: Dubose Montgomery, Bob Stutz, Jorge Fernandes, Ken Olcott, Fred Fallah, Nancy Ewald, Charlene Geers, Ginger Summit, Mike Kamangar Absent: None Meeting called to order at 6:07 PM Minutes of January 27th meeting: JF CG. Approved unanimously. Next Pathway Meeting Monday March 24th at 6:00pm, walk at 8:30am on Saturday March 22nd OLD BUSINESS: Bowes, 12859 Normandy Lane, new residence. Mr. Bowes attended the meeting and commented on his property. Most committee members had visited his property. Mr. Bowes distributed a hand out describing his reasons for not placing a path on his property. He showed a neighborhood petition signed by 10 residents of Normandy Lane opposing the path on his property. Discussion ensued regarding the merits and difficulties of this potential off-road path route behind the property. Mr. Montgomery noted that the 1981 Master Path Map has a reference suggesting creating an off-road path on this property. Mrs. Geers described her research into the deliberations the pathway committee should consider, as described in the Pathway Element of the General Plan of Los Altos Hills, when suggesting new pathway easements on proposed Master Path Plan routes. She concluded that there are not sufficient reasons for a path on Mr. Bowes property. After full discussion, a motion was made by JF, seconded by FF, to collect a pathway impact fee. The motion passed 8 for and 1 against. Motion to ask Council for direction if they want us to use different guidelines than described in the Pathway Element in recommending pathways as it applies to the Pathways Committee. CG KO, Approved unanimously. Mrs. Geers to write draft of letter to send to Council. Motion to write a letter to ask Council to remove from future approved Master Pathway Maps this proposed off-road path route at the rear of the two properties at 12859 and 12852 Normandy Lane. FF MK. Unanimously passed. Mrs. Geers will write a letter to Council stating this unanimous request from the Pathway Committee Discussion on pathway costs. Mr. Montgomery stated that the Town Council had recently approved increasing the pathway impact fee 27% from $33 to $42 a linear foot. The linear foot calculation is the sum of the length of 1) the property lines at the front of the property plus 2) the length of the property line at the back of the property, divided by 2. Ken Olcott will discuss with the Planning Director the issue of whether pathway impact fee payment calculations could or should be made in a different fashion, such as basing it on square footage of the home. Bicycle Advisory-Mr. Kamangar stated that we need to select a paved bicycle path project so that when money is available at the County level to fund bike paths, then Los Altos Hills can request a project for approval and receive some of these matching funds. Paving one side of Fremont Road connecting Los Altos to Palo Alto through town might be a possibility. Also, paving a path along the south side of I- 280 from Magdalena to Foothill College might be another possibility. Pathway construction project: Mr. Montgomery reported the town has a budget for pathway repairs and construction. Last June Council approved $100,000 in the 2002-2003 budget for pathways. To date approximately $25,000 to $35,000 has been spent to implement several Pathway Committee recommendations. The remaining budget difference will probably not be spent since the Council must approve any pathway spending projects and the California State Budget crisis is siphoning over $500,000 from the town’s budget. However, town road crew staff can be used to repair critical path problems such as erosion and safety concerns. Mr. Montgomery also stated that pathway impact fees paid by residents, which can range between $5,000 to $20,000 per property, are placed in a segregated portion of the Town’s balance sheet and earmarked to be spent solely on new pathway construction. The account is now approximately $700,000 in size. The Council must approve spending any monies from this account. Mr. Montgomery recommended that the committee in May consider new pathway construction projects, which could be built using these funds. May is when our committee’s annual budget request is submitted to staff. Finally, when a contractor is being hired to re-surface a road in town, Mr. Montgomery has requested the City Engineer to notify the Pathway Committee so that the possibility of renovating/constructing a roadside pathway at that time can also be considered. Volunteer work force for off road pathway maintenance. Mr. Stutz discussed the limitations of having a town volunteer group work on off-road paths on other people’s properties. He agreed to investigate the possibility of having volunteers work on the maintenance of the off- road path from Frampton Court to Fern Hill Drive. He will ask the City Engineer what would be the town’s requirements to use such a volunteer force to maintain this path. Mrs. Ewald will contact Duffy Price, the Town Newsletter Editor, to place a Citizen’s Pathway Request Form into the next Town Newsletter. This form could be mailed or faxed by a resident to town staff suggesting maintenance or clean up of particular pathways in town. De Anza Trail Route – No update. Since the new Town Council rescinded approval of the 2002 Master Path Plan, the designation of a route for the De Anza Trail through town will need to await the next phase of Master Path Map planning reviews. NEW BUSINESS: Mrs. Geers requested the Committee review a draft of a letter she would send out (on behalf of herself only, not officially) to notify local realtors of the existence of the 1981 Master Path Plan Map. Mrs. Geers passed out the letter for review. The committee members thought the letter was fine and Mrs. Geers will send this letter to realtors on her behalf. Mrs. Ewald raised for discussion why the town staff was notifying property owners prior to our meeting that the Pathway Committee was considering their property. She suggested that it was awkward having property owners show up at our meeting when we discussed possible paths on their property. Mr. Montgomery responded that our meetings were open to the public by law. He felt that property owners had a clear right to attend the meeting to hear our discussion and that he valued their input prior to our recommendation discussions. Previously, property owners were not notified and would learn of our committee’s decision only after the fact. This process neglects the property owner and he felt that better communications with the property owner would improve community relations. Notification was tried as an experiment at the January 2003 pathway meeting and 5 out of 7 property owners attended and participated. There seemed to be general consensus that this was a positive experience for all. A full discussion of the pros and cons of notifying residents ensued. A motion was made to continue to request that town staff notify property owners that their properties will be reviewed at the Monday night Pathway Committee meeting and that the committee may visit their property on the previous Saturday. JF NE. Passed unanimously. Mr. Montgomery stated that on March 6th the Council would be voting to select the two newly approved additional seats on the Pathway Committee. Mr. Montgomery reported that Councilman O’Malley has formed a new Master Path committee. This committee’s objective is to create what is characterized as being an error-free pathway map. The committee is only looking at off road paths and supposedly will be legally verifying all existing easements. Mr. Stulz is part of this committee. The committee is meeting on Friday mornings and/or afternoons at Town Hall. Apparently the plan is that once this error-free map is created, it will be disseminated in some fashion to all town residents. Afterwards, the next stage would be to initiate new public hearings with the Council before adopting a new Master Path Plan. The timetable for this is uncertain. Recommendations on properties seen on Saturday: Zatparvar, 24801 Prospect Avenue, new residence and pool. Collect pathway impact fee. NE MK unanimously passed. PRESENTATIONS FROM THE FLOOR: None ADJOURNMENT AT 8:20 PM.