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AYES: Councilmembers Brown, Narum, Olson, Pentin, Mayor Thorne NOES: None ABSENT: None 9. Public Hearing: P14-1276, City of Pleasanton — Consider introduction of an ordinance to amend Title 18 (Zoning) of the Pleasanton Municipal Code to establish a permit process and performance standards for beekeeping Planning Manager Weinstein presented the staff report, introducing the proposed ordinance that would allow beekeeping in Pleasanton. The current proposal originated from a resident who learned from a code enforcement officer that his existing hives were not a permitted use in his residential neighborhood. Beekeeping has been prohibited in Pleasanton since 1926. While the prohibition is not part of the Municipal Code, the code allows beekeeping in agricultural districts only and not in any other districts as either a permitted or conditionally permitted use. At the request of the City Council, staff undertook research and evaluation of the potential merits and risks of legalizing beekeeping in Pleasanton. This effort included speaking with agencies with adopted regulations regarding beekeeping, reviewing literature on the subject, and visits to an apiary in unincorporated Contra Costa County. While admittedly skeptical at the outset, Mr. Weinstein said that his research concluded with the sense that beekeeping could be safely conducted on detached single- family residential sites and in agricultural zones, particularly with implementation of carefully developed performance measures. The proposed ordinance is founded on the experience of many cities throughout the country that have had a generally positive experience with regulated beekeeping. Mr. Weinstein shared several photos of both the European honeybee and the common yellow jacket, the former of which is the subject of the ordinance. He explained that whereas the yellow jacket is a predatory wasp responsible for many of the stings the public has encountered, the European honeybee is domesticated and non-aggressive insect that is well adapted to honey production. While both are currently present in Pleasanton, yellow jackets would not be permitted to colonize hives as part of the proposed ordinance. He briefly reviewed several examples of beekeeping equipment, clarifying that a single tower of stacked boxes makes up one hive. He reviewed the benefits of beekeeping, which center largely around the pollination that enhances the productivity of agricultural crops and gardens but also includes the production of useful substances like honey and beeswax. Urban and suburban beekeeping is also widely considered to be a means of increasing resilience to colony collapse through increased bee populations and enhancing genetic diversity. Risks center primarily on stings with roughly 2% of the population possessing what is considered a hypersensitivity to bees. Not underestimating that risk, he reminded the Council and public that domestic bees have been domesticated over many years and are considered docile and not a major culprit of stings. It is also worth noting that bees currently live in Pleasanton and will continue to do so regardless of the outcome of this ordinance. Swarming, which is the most likely situation in which multiple stings would occur, typically results when hives are in need of additional forage or seeking a new queen. Therefore, measure can be incorporated into beekeeping operations to prevent or minimize the likelihood of swarming. It also worth noting that Africanized bees, which have been the subject of many fictional and real incidents, are not present and do not survive well in areas with frosts and freezes and are not present in the Bay Area. Mr. Weinstein explained that several local communities including Livermore, Fremont and San Ramon have existing beekeeping regulations, some of which have been in place for several decades. In general, many cities regulate bees by lot size but impose relatively few requirements on how the hives are operated. Staff elected to employ the approach used in Santa Monica, which focuses more on the design of beekeeping operations and the incorporation of performance standards as opposed to lot size as a more focused and effective way to ensure that bees do not become a nuisance. Another option which is employed in San Francisco and several other notable cities is to allow beekeeping to occur City Council Minutes Page 6 of 12 February 17, 2015