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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC AG PKT 2003-04-14 #E I AGENDA REPORT DATE Apnl 14, 2003 TO Honorable Mayor and City Council FROM John B Bahorski, City Manage SUBJECT Water Committee BACKGROUND At the last Council meeting, Councilmember Antos requested the formation of a Water Committee be agendized for discussion on the Apnl 14 agenda Attached is the background information staff compiled related to this matter, including the staff report and City Council minutes of November 12, 2002 where the idea of a water committee was previously discussed Attachments 1) November 12, 2003 staff report on formation of a water committee 2) November 12, 2002 City Council minutes Agenda Item r ,. City of Seal Beach Agenda Report Date November 12, 2002 To Honorable Mayor and City Council From John B Bahorski City Manager Subject Possible Formation of a Water Quality Committee SUMMARY OF REQUEST Council Member Antos has requested City Council discuss the possibility of forming a water quality committee to address a vanety of issues facing the City, specifically, ocean and storm water quality, water reclamation and conservation, ground water, and dunking water availability in the event of drought City Council is being requested to discuss the necessity for a committee and if the determination is made that a committee is needed, staff will return in December with a resolution forming the committee BACKGROUND The City manages three types of water • Storm water • Dunking water • Wastewater Each type of water requires a different set of skills to manage and is highly regulated by State and Federal laws In addition, each of these areas has different challenges that will impact the City of Seal Beach At this time the most pressing issue is managing storm water Staff is actively working to ensure that all water issues are addressed and that Seal Beach is complying with the State and Federal regulations The City of Seal Beach Ad Hoc Water Quality Committee was formed in November 2000 to achieve the specific task of creating a storm water quality master plan This committee was disbanded in October 2001 after their work was completed on the Water Quality Master Plan Since that time the City has operated without a citizen's committee addressing the issue of water quality Council Member Antos requested this item be placed on the agenda to discuss the need to reconstitute a committee on water quality issues Attachment A is an excerpt of minutes from the October 28, 2002 City Council meeting that summarizes the discussion on this issue Although there is no citizens committee currently in place, Council Members are assigned to serve on agencies that deal with water and water quality issues For example, Council Member Doane serves on the West Orange County Water Board and Council Member Campbell is the appointee to Orange County Sanitation District Both of these appointees deal with water, water quality and water reclamation issues In addition to these Council appointees, staff is very involved in water quality issues within Seal Beach and on a regional and statewide basis An alternative to forming a full committee would be to create a City Council subcommittee for water related issues The subcommittee could then explore the issues of water quality, ground water, water reclamation and provide reports back to Council on these important topics A water subcommittee could be constituted at the December City Council meeting by appointing two City Council Members A subcommittee of Council may be more beneficial since they would bring expertise obtained from other agencies involved in this field Council may wish to consider this alternative in lieu of forming a full committee However, if City Council desires to form a new water committee with a broader scope than the Ad Hoc Water Quality Committee, staff would recommend that this be done by resolution with a defined mission statement and sunset clause A resolution could then be prepared for the December City Council meeting FISCAL IMPACT There will be a fiscal impact to forming a water committee, and the cost will be predominately in the staff time necessary to serve the committee RECOMMENDATION Provide staff with direction on how to proceed with the proposal SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS A October 28, 2002 City Council minutes (Draft) E X C E R P T F R O M C O U N C I L C O M M E N T S October 28, 2002 ANTOS Based upon the comment of Councilmember Campbell, Councilman Antos noted that in the past the City had a Water Committee and based upon things that have come up and probably will come up he would request that the Council place on one of the next agendas a discussion to reconstitute a Water Committee, but not to just deal with water runoff as in the past, there are some other issues relative to water reclamation, if that process goes into effect there are some opportunities for the City to save a tremendous amount of money by using reclaimed water in the parks, etc instead of using potable water, it is believed that the Engineering Department could save considerable in their budget from that, there are also some policies that need to be discussed relative to putting in lines to accept that water when tearing up the alleys in the event that reclaimed water becomes available in Southern California, there is cleanup now of some hazardous materials that are near and getting nearer the ground water Councilman Antos expressed his opinion that all of those things need to be looked at, as well as water quality, therefore he would request concurrence of the Council to place this matter on an upcoming agenda for discussion of reconstituting the Water Committee but with broader objectives Page Eleven - City Council Minutes - November 12 2002 .TEM U - COUNCIL POLICY - PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS �3 Gi en the knowledge that there are some persons in the co nity that generate the majority of requests for pub is reco •s, Councilman Yost asked if those requests would .lso be con- dered a public record, as it takes considera. e City resources to generate such documents, would it •e public kn• ledge if the policy is abused The Ci Attorney re .onded that the public records reque•.t form would be a p .lic record and available to anyo.- requesting same It was .onfirmed that this Policy is compliance with the Califo .ia Public Records Act Co. cilmember Campbell noted th.t some documents are no available to the general public such as personnel files onfidential documents so marked - garding litigati• , etc , she mentions this in that here was an i :ividual who was familiar with the works ;s of citie-• that came to City Hall for documents which was i' turn u- -d against the City She mentioned that the Request .rov .es for either review or copies of records, it may be w% thwhile to obtain something, such as car keys drivers license, from the person requesting review to ass• e that a file is returned in tact inasmuch as for t.- most •art people would be reviewing documents at e table o.tside the office of the City Clerk The Mayor emended that under the Political Reform Act one can n. even require a ame Councilman Antos noted that th- City Clerk, as an :lected official is responsible for t - records of the City, .e would assume the Clerk would 'o whatever is felt necess. y with or without a Coun. 1 policy as far as document .ecurity measures Councilmember Campbell offered tha. this would be an acros- the board Policy applicable to all rather than discretio -ry, thus removing the ability for cha enge Yost m.•ed second by Doane to approve the Council •olicy relat.ng public records requests as presented A 'S Antos Campbell, Doane, Larson Yost .•ES None Motion carries WATER QUALITY COMMITTEE Councilman Antos said it was he who requested that this matter be placed on the agenda he is aware that the City did have a water committee in recent past that dealt primarily with water runoff, however there are some things that he feels the City would be better served by having a committee look at bring them to the Council, and then the Council could either adopt the policies or send appropriate letters this would include such things as desalination, which Long Beach and other areas are looking at there are some technologies being looked at with regard to cleaning the water from the Sanitation District and perhaps making that available in the future for use in parks and common areas, he was uncertain if anyone has asked the Sanitation District if that is in their plans for future years Councilmember Campbell stated that the Sanitation District voted in favor of the reclamat_on project at their last meeting Councilman Antos said he also believed that the City needs to adopt a policy dealing with installing lines for such things when streets and alleys are torn up also with the lack or rain he is aware of a problem with not enough ground water there is not much being done about Page Twelve - City Council Minutes - November 12, 2002 water conservation citywide, and from time to time there are reports of contaminants and ground water intrusion on private and public property Councilman Antos stated from his point of view it would be well if a citizens committee were appointed to look at some of these issues, the committee may have a fair amount of work or it could be for a short period of time, his feeling is that the Council would benefit from getting the information and then pass it along to the general public Councilman Yost noted that he placed a similar matter on the agenda about four years ago but it was not approved, he still thinks it is a good idea, the beach is the community s livelihood, yet he is not in favor of adding more bureaucracy a beach committee in the past ran into some problems in that they were recommending things that the Council did not want to do, but he would support this proposal Councilmember Campbell noted that when the Outfall Group was working to stop the waiver they came to this Council and in turn this was the first city to vote to stop the waiver that was so important, the outfall is four and a half miles off of Huntington Beach it is one hundred twenty inches wide At the last Sanitation District the board voted to join with the Orange County Water District for the reclamation project this too was important yet there was really no one there from the general public, once there is a reclamation project then the District can stop pumping through the outfall pipe, before you can cleanup the ocean you first have to stop polluting it in her opinion a desalinization plant is out of this City s league, the most this City could do is read 1 the articles as to how the Long Beach project is going Councilman Doane mentioned that studies are being done on desalinization Councilman Yost noted that the plant in Long Beach is at the tank farm, they would discharge a highly concentrated brine into the San Gabriel River as a result, that would be fought with every means possible Councilman Doane said that is one of the reasons it is not going anywhere He offered his belief that when the Ad Hoc Committee was formed Councilman Yost was very active in the San Gabriel River project, then there were two persons who pointed out some things in this community that could possibly be polluting those persons were then appointed to the Committee because of their interest he believes that the Committee served its purpose and provided good input, Campbell is on the Sanitation District, Yost continues to be involved in the Conservancy, he sits on the West Orange County Water Board his opinion is that a citizens committee is really not needed to also become involved committees cost money, they take staff time and attendance given this time of budget concerns he did not feel another committee needs to be formed Councilmember Campbell noted that she also serves on the Sanitation District Runoff Committee and the Planning Design and Construction Committee With regard to reclamation Councilman Doane confirmed that it does require separate pipes however they are not available at this time the landscaped areas along the freeways are being watered with reclaimed water, it would mean bringing an extension of those pipes into this City if the desire was to use reclaimed water for the golf courses, greenbelt, etc Councilman Yost mentioned that the main facility for Long Beach production of reclaimed water is on the confluence of Coyote Creek and the San Page Thirteen - City Council Minutes - November 12 2002 + Y✓ Gabriel River at present they are producing in excess at about half the cost of tap water, in fact a meeting was held a couple of years ago with the Long Beach water group including the City Manager and officials to look at the financial aspects, at this time it is not financially viable even though it should be kept in mind for the future Councilman Antos said it seems that the technology is now coming into being however until the City has some idea as to when this water is going to be available it seems that the Council and City Engineer should come together on policy if there is desire to ever use reclaimed water, a number of opportunities have been missed, Seal Beach Boulevard was just recently torn up as have been other streets and alleys, a perfect opportunity to drop in pipe, otherwise should water become available from the freeway pipeline it would be necessary to tear up Seal Beach Boulevard very costly, so it would seem realistic to look into the future, maybe twenty years, otherwise the City will be using potable water for the landscaped areas, there could be a significant savings at half the cost for the golf course and open areas in Leisure World if the pipes were in place again at this time there is no policy to put the infrastructure in place when streets and alleys are torn up It was mentioned that it also depends on which side of the street is torn up one side is sewer, the other is water Councilman Yost asked that staff take another look at this because there is an easy access to Seal Beach which is down the San Gabriel River given that the plant is on the River, this was looked at about two years ago and suggested that contact be made with the water person in the City of Long Beach, at that time it was not financially viable, it may have changed some by now, it is about half the cost and facilities would likely pay for themselves Antos moved second by Yost to proceed to form a Water Quality Committee AYES Antos, Yost NOES Campbell, Doane Larson Motion fail-- - .PANSION OF NONCONFORMING USES - PROPOSED URGENCY ORD ANCE The As .crate Planner noted that a request wa received from Cou . lman Antos to prepare a draft ur - - -ncy ordinance to address - editions to legal nonconform g residential structures, pr .cipally located in th= Old Town area The Planner mentione• hat there are a umber of reasons why a structure may be non.•nforming, ensity, there could be too many units =or what th- .rope- y is zoned, parking is an issue, setbacks the Code - eviously allowed detached garages to ne close to • ope lines that is no longer allowed He stated at Sectio- 28 -2407 sets forth the provisions under w- ch one can ad. to those types of properties the ype of nonconformit• basically determ_nes what one can •o, the Code in general sp' is the enlargeme• s into what is defined as mino - iterations and enlarg- • -ents and mayor alterations and enlar. z ents he exp ned that a minor enlargement is a Consent alendar i{ m at the planning Comm_ssion level with dirzere criteria for what _s allowable under those provisions,