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Mr. Weinstein visited were actually bees from Fairlands School in Pleasanton that were relocated to unincorporated San Ramon by Mr. Browne. THE PUBLIC HEARING WAS OPENED. Gary Monzo stated that he was at the meeting when Mr. Browne made his presentation before the Commission and that he is very much in support of the idea of residential beekeeping. He indicated that this is an excellent idea and is very impressed with staff's report. He noted that he has to license his dogs and pay renewal fees every three years and suggested that it be the same for beekeeping. Owen Browne, speaking on behalf of his father, David Browne, who is on a business trip and could not attend the meeting, stated that over the summer he did a lot of beekeeping with his father. He indicated that it was a pretty interesting activity and something that not a lot of people get to experience. Mr. Browne stated that beekeeping in the United States dates back to the colonial days when honey bees were brought over from Europe by early colonists who kept hives of bees. He noted that the Pleasanton Municipal Code allows for the growing of vegetables and fruit, and these require pollinators, which is done mainly by honey bees. He added that it is important to have residential beekeeping with the decline of wild honey bees. Mr. Browne stated that the City's public relations could benefit from residential beekeeping by using this as an example of how Pleasanton supports local backyard gardening and sustainable gardening. He noted that urban agriculture is a really growing trend, including beekeeping, and some cities such as New York, Denver, Milwaukee, Santa Monica, and Fremont have legalized it. He added that these cities have huge populations, and there have been no major problems with beekeeping. Commissioner O'Connor asked Mr. Browne how large his father's lot is. Mr. Browne replied that he believes it is a half -acre lot. Commissioner O'Connor stated that from the pictures submitted by David Browne, it looks like he had about ten hives. Mr. Browne explained that they had a lot of high boxes, but that does not necessarily mean that that is the number of hives they had. He stated that hives are kept in stacks so the bees can travel between the boxes, and each hive consists of about four boxes. He indicated that they probably had three hives at one time in their backyard. Commissioner O'Connor stated that he has not heard from the City that there have been a lot of complaints about bees and assumes that this one Code Enforcement Officer complaint was the first and only complaint. PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, January 28, 2015 Page 7 of 17