01 MINUTES REGULAR 07-15-08 - Laserfiche WebLink

do something in the future. Therefore, he did not understand why people should vote no on the citizen's initiative. He also did not see how any of the suggested titles by staff are accurate. There are many protection initiatives but there is nothing in the initiative that is protection; just preserve what we already have and we will have a potential plan in place that will preserve it. Councilmember Sullivan said this was similar to his question. This tells the Council to create a plan but it does not mean it must adopt a plan or ordinance. City Attorney Roush said this is a possibility, but again, the entire discussion concerning what the plan is going to involve is part of the findings of this particular measure. The policy that the Council would be asking the voters to re-affirm and re-adopt is in Section 3, the existing General Plan policies. Mayor Hosterman recognized there is language contained in the initiative which cannot be implemented so what the Council is trying to do is to get to the same ends in ensuring the preservation of all surrounding hillsides. She is hoping to get community support to do so in such a way with language that this Council can implement. Anne Childs said a few weeks ago, Councilmember Thorne told her that he went out to talk about the citizens' hillside initiative and heard the majority of them say they wanted something done quickly. However, the initiative being considered tonight does not look like the right response because the Council proposes 1.5 years to develop a hillside protection ordinance which is not quick action, nor will the Council establish a moratorium on hillside development in the meantime which would ease people's sense of urgency. Many people will have doubts due to Council's actions over the past 9 months. She also objects to the proposed language of the initiative and she is focusing specifically on the purpose of the initiative because she finds it imprecise and misleading. She asked the Council to clarify whether or not a protection measure will be in place immediately if the City's initiative passes. Also, the poison pill measure is not mentioned, which is the primary purpose of the initiative, and the consequences of two yes votes should be stated upfront so voters know the relationship between the two initiatives. Dick Quigley saluted the Council for seeing the shortcomings of the citizen's initiative, urged the Council to move forward and approve the City-developed initiative ordinance to protect the ridgelines, hillsides and open space for the community and region. He applauded the action and discussion at the June 26 meeting and other open public forums. He said EBRPD has a $500 million bond measure for acquisition to parkland in two counties, private hillsides and view sheds are not the property of near neighbors or neighborhoods and we should not have neighborhoods fighting amongst each other with the Council being the navigator. Kay Ayala said she does not think this is the right thing for the Council to do, thinks the Council should let the citizen's initiative move forward and if the Council does not like it, get everyone to vote no on it. She said the initiative shall take effect if a majority of the votes cast on the initiative are in favor of its adoption. If the majority of the votes cast are in favor of adopting this, and the citizen's initiative also gets a majority vote, and the City gets one more vote than the citizen's, the poison pill would take effect. She said if an ordinance is done, an EIR will need to be done, there will be controversy still in 2010, and the process will be very drawn out. She also wants to make sure that the public understands that the previous Council did not put an ordinance in place, never in her 8 years on the Council did a hillside project come forward, and all of the protections existed within the General Plan to stop a project such as Oak Grove. Councilmember Sullivan confirmed that if both initiatives pass and the citizen's initiative obtain more votes, those general plan policies would be changed, and at the same time, the plan to create a plan would move forward. City Council Minutes 10 July 15, 2008