Call the meeting to order.

And two roll call.

Council Member.

Council Member Harrison.

President.

Council Member Start.

So you probably notice there's only four of us up here.

There's one person missing, and they're sitting in the audience.

That's Denise Cantromos.

So Denise has resigned from the council.

She's all excited about being a producer for the SRT this year.

Congratulations on your new role.

Exciting.

Gonna miss you.

Thank you for your service.

Denise was always very prepared.

Always keep.

Appreciate that.

Okay.

Um go to public comments open forum.

And I have one sub-paper for public comment, and that's from Andrew.

Turnbull.

Chair Connie and board members and uh and uh citizens and county members present.

I'm Andrew Turnbull, uh representing myself.

Um after my entire 26 years of living here, um, finally the house next door to me sold.

And instantly, because I was tracking, kind of watching closely when that escrow would close.

And we've been looking forward to having a new neighbor, and I met the new neighbors, and they seem like good people.

However, um, I didn't know the effect of what they were doing was so important.

And I've gotten two text messages from fellow Sinolians who asked me to speak tonight on the fact that demolition work was done on an old barn, and apparently um there is possibly lead-based paint contamination, and that contamination get into the air, and that contamination has no business being as close to a school, and as a neighbor, I'm certainly concerned in anybody who lives downtown.

According to our understanding is that the health department of Alameda County is given a seasoned assist.

Do not do anything more like that.

You didn't do it with a permit.

Code enforcement is involved.

A Sinolian made a video of a removing of a pickup truck, a a everyday kind of pickup truck, picking up some of that construction decree debris after the season desist, and some of it was falling off on the street, and then finally uh Alameda County building department is involved.

I'll meet a code enforcement is involved.

The separate issue with my one minute is the tree.

I will leave it to Connie to talk about the tree.

Thank you for your respect and attention.

Thank you, Andrew.

Go on to the regular calendar.

Updates from the sheriff's office.

Uh good evening, everybody.

I apologize for not being there in person tonight.

I got to do my full-time job of dad tonight, so I'm actually standing in my kitchen.

Uh since our last meeting, we've had 32 calls for service.

Um, it wasn't anything of note that I saw.

Uh the deputies have conducted 43 proactive stops in the area and 74 business checks.

Um my second motor deputy has completed motor school and is currently doing infield training.

He should be done with that shortly, so we'll be back to our full complement of motors.

I'm told in January, we will get our third uh person back on the Sunday, Monday, Tuesday shift.

So we'll be back up to full staff uh after the first of the year.

You're here.

Um I've received all the info about train of lights, and as years passed, we will have deputies in the uh now's cannon uh station parking lot for the departure of the train, greeting people and doing what we can.

The nights that I can make it, I will be there too.

Does anybody have any questions for me?

Quiet.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Is Sergeant Landers on?

No.

Okay.

We'll go on Elameda County Fire Department, Chief Terra.

Good evening, everyone.

As always a pleasure to be here.

Sorry, I tried to get on online last meeting and it did not work.

And I was texting folks, and unfortunately, that didn't work either.

So I apologize for not coming with last time's report.

This time there was been 27 calls for service.

And all of those were medical except for one.

And one was uh canceled in route UTL.

So it's been quiet, but I would expect that right now with the rain.

We are now transitioning from fire season to making sure that we don't have mud slides, trees down, and other emergencies to respond to.

So be prepared.

Um the time changes occurred, driving at night, all the rest of the stuff.

So just be really careful.

And I don't have anything else, but I think Chin Pickles has a few things for you.

Hello.

Um with Calfire Santa Clara unit, we are still fully staffed.

Um we will go down to base staffing on December 8th.

And what that means is we're gonna lay off our firefighters, and we'll be in winter preparedness mode.

Um we will have nine engines staffed in the unit instead of uh the 16 engines that we normally have.

Um so December 8th, we'll go to base staffing.

We will still have a type three on the state side at SINOL all winter long.

Uh we will also have um, like I said, total of nine engines and the copter will be staffed throughout the winter, other than that in the report, unless you have questions.

Type three, while land engine, the shorter one that that comes out and says Calfire on so yeah, at the SINOL.

Or we'll drive big wheels.

Yeah.

Want to talk about the LE 100s?

So we talked about the LE 100s in August.

And um sent me an email afterwards, and I wanted to put that in the minutes, but the clerk didn't want to put it in the minutes, so um, I'll talk about them.

Can I borrow your paper?

Sure.

Because I don't remember the numbers, even though I just looked at it.

Thank you.

So for the LE 100s this year, yeah, L E.

Um we I guess we we completed 178 defensible space inspections.

Um the problem that was on my end is when I talked to our defensible space inspectors.

I said kill care.

When we say kill care here and with my guys, it's that includes foothill, all the SRA areas.

They only did kill care road.

So I will clear that up for next year.

That's on me not being clear enough, just thinking that they knew what I was talking about.

There were three uh homes that failed.

Um two homes failed their third inspection.

Um's been uh are they both uh been referred to enforcement or uh getting a uh ticket or a fine.

Um one of the homes um is on and failed its second inspection, and I have to follow up to see if the third occurred, the third inspection occurred, and they may have passed, may not.

Um, one of the homes was um in a dilapidated state, or um, I'm sorry, there was a gentleman or somebody that owned it that passed away, and um that property has been, I guess, turf or they're turning it over to the county for further inspection or whatever happens then.

That's out of my hands.

I don't know where that's at.

But as far as the LE 100s, Kill Care Road proper was completed next year.

I'm gonna get our defensible space inspectors to do Synol.

I'm just gonna be a more broad uh direction of Synol and complete the uh SRA areas.

Yeah, um my understanding is Synol uh is um around eight by eight square miles, and so if it's defensible space and we're looking at fire safety, um there's a lot of Synol that a lot of people don't understand is Snow.

Little Valley is in Synol, and and all the residents there, all the businesses that's there.

Um there's uh Andrew, if you're gonna make a statement, I need you to fill in a form.

If you have a quick question, you can respond to that.

Well, I guess the question is thank you.

And I I just want to be illustrative, sorry, just that if you're thinking, Oh, I'm gonna add foothill or I'm gonna have Maine.

Yeah, we were really gonna go all the way.

We yes, that's my that's my expectation.

We're sorry, but that's my expectation.

When when we talk, we say kill care, because that's like the prominent road, but we know we're talking about Sunnol.

So when I give the instruction next year, it will be we're gonna I would like the defensible space inspectors to complete Synol, because this is one town out of all of Alameda County that I'm responsible for.

And um, it's not just we don't only just do Synol, we do the whole county in the SRA.

Um, but if I give them a broader area, I'm gonna say the SRA in Synol, and that incorporates all the roads that didn't get completed this year.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Thank you for sure.

Okay.

Go on to progress reports.

Item two, a fire safety work group.

And I think both Rosemary and Denise have some progress to report.

So before I left, I'm still here a little bit because before I left, I did bring up that I thought that there was a gap in our notification, particularly for the residents who live up on Kill Care Road, and they've expressed a lot of interest in um wanting to have some sort of notification that doesn't require a voluntary opt-in.

And so um I did some research, and I am working with Connie as the SAC board liaison and Rosemary on the Firewise committee, and I did some research on our um fellow um California communities like Laguna Beach, Mill Valley, Berkeley, Tuolumni, uh Temecula Paradise, etc.

etc.

to see what these communities did in order to beef up their um emergency notification and create sort of a multi-layered um notification system.

And the one thing that they all seem to be doing is adding or revamping their siren system, and it's such a very simple tool because it doesn't require anybody to have an app, but it will alert people to say, Oh, there's something going on.

Let me check my app, let me check with my neighbors.

And um the one company that kept coming up was called Genesis.

So I had a meeting um with Connie and Rosemary with Genesis with their rep, and they talked to us about their system, and they said that they could have a have let our community have a trial or a test run.

So on Saturday, December 6th, the rep from Genesis is gonna come with me up to the parking lot um in Kill Care at the Killcare clubhouse, and at 11 a.m., we will test the siren.

And so we'll see.

So the siren has the capability to be a siren and also can give messages.

So we can see like will it sound like you know, what?

Or will people actually hear it?

But it'll be a good opportunity to see like a first run, a trial run to see what do people think?

Do we think it's worthwhile?

Can they hear it?

Um we were thinking when we were talking to the rep, we're thinking maybe we need two.

Um we've also been starting to investigate funding for it.

But I think first off the bat, trying to figure out if the community thinks this might be a worthwhile system to implement.

So that will be Saturday, December 6th, 11th, 11 a.m.

We're gonna put up signs, we'll send out an informed synol, so folks know about it and they're not freaked out when there's a sound, but um it might be it might be a good solution to fill that gap.

So rosemary, you might be pushing.

Is it is it better?

If I live on Keel Care Road, is it better for me to be in the parking lot listening to the siren or be at my house wondering if I can hear it?

At home and even inside.

That's what I'm really curious to know.

Can people hear it if they're inside?

Right.

So was a siren gonna be at full strength or partial.

I think it he said just partial strength, and I don't know if we can change that.

So we're we'll be calling you to say, okay, power.

Yeah.

People cannot hear it.

But my concern, what you answered was, they don't know it's gonna go off.

People are gonna go.

I think I mean do it at full strength and don't say anything about it.

Don't announce a time, don't announce a day, just do it.

And then you can and then I did it right away.

It'll be it'll be the topic.

Wow, this time, yeah.

Just do it on a random day.

Oh, five department's gonna end up uh, you know, you notify them ahead of time that there's gonna be a test.

They're great warning.

I heard it and it reminded me of the World War II movies where you look in the sky, where are the bombers?

So you don't you want to warn people because it is a startling sound?

But sorry, people who don't know, I think it's a good idea.

We have a quick question, yeah.

Um I hope that you're is it possible that you are going to really investigate all the all the great options before you talk about funding?

Because whenever people start talking about funding, my experiences they get in the way.

So are you gonna wait to talk about funding until you've looked at all the possibilities?

Um, well, give me uh possibilities like things like alert FM or mesh test systems, something like that, or or other vendors.

Do you mean for in the form of a question?

How do I think the point of opportunity is there to fund funders?

We will take it.

No, no, it's a different question.

I think what we'll probably do is we'll probably put it on the agenda either on January or February.

But the point is that please don't let funding be the issue, please be all the possibilities of solving the problem be the.

We will not like we will not just get rid of the idea because we will we're working we're working with Senator McNerney's office, and yes, we're working with a bunch of folks.

Yes, is it asked a question?

Um, I'm just curious if it's uh you mentioned Genesis.

Is it connected to the Genesis Connect program that the county has?

Um, yeah, yeah.

Oh, cool.

Okay, it's awesome to know.

Thank you.

Yeah, I have a quick update about um grants that we've gotten to um work on Kill Care Road.

I think um Ken and um Rod were instrumental in getting a big Calfire grant.

I don't not sure when it's gonna start, it's gonna be done by crew eight of Alameda County fire department.

So that that will start.

I guess I don't know.

I'll have to keep track.

There is an a complementary um project that we managed to get money, friends at Calfire to do tree work.

Uh, this grant is for basically groundwork because it's crew eight.

They don't have buckets and they don't have climbers.

So we do have a little money to pay for climbers, bucket trucks, chippers.

So we're gonna be starting that project as soon as the money moves over, so we can pay a contract.

So stay tuned.

We're the objective is to make Kill Care Road a better road to leave if you have to evacuate for fire crews to go up.

There are a lot of trees as you know, trees tend to fall on Kill Care Road.

So we want to check for dead ones.

We want to check for branches that may fall down, and we have very good arborists who know Kill Care Road and can and we have the money to pay for that.

So what could be better?

Is any of that usable for anything that has died and uh collapsed into the creek and needs to be removed?

We cannot touch the creek.

Yeah, yeah.

That's because the grant does not fund that.

No, our are uh we have a notice of exemption from CPU, and so we cannot touch the creek.

So I promised we will not touch the creek.

Any other questions?

Denise is this is this the poster that people should look out for to get the information?

Okay, that's a very fancy post.

Flyer.

And I'll I'll hang it up around town as well and send one to Andrew.

Jim O'Laughlin for the tree item two be the tree advisory.

He said they had a very good protective day, um work day.

They planted 22 trees on the first work day and another five on the next week.

A total of 27 trees in the park at the creek edge there.

So that's that's good.

Good news.

Um, the trees.

Okay, sorry, leave.

It didn't change.

Okay, one of the trees.

That's okay, that's right.

Downtown revitalization work group, maybe finding signs.

Yeah, we got an update today.

Uh actually, the letter's been uh been approved officially by the board, so Connie and I have a meeting next Tuesday to discuss the next steps of getting the project uh um uh the next step funded.

So um happened just today, so that's that's good news.

So it's such a slow process.

We asked people to bid on it.

We were upset when they didn't go fast enough.

Quick question.

Can you give one more sentence about what kind of issue that got on stock?

There's a whole bunch.

There's it's that's that's the whole bunch of issues.

And it's been delayed a whole lot for a lot of different reasons.

Some are reasons, some other people's reasons, some of theirs there's a whole bunch.

Okay, quick question.

Will there be available signs to identify your home?

I'm looking for that right now.

So for fire, my understanding is the Sunole Business Guild is working with the same contractor, the same sign maker, and it's going to be selling those signs as a fundraiser.

Okay, great.

And I haven't seen any publicity about it or yet.

So maybe maybe after the new year.

That's very needed.

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

Council staff comments.

Um, we've got two attachments there.

One is the letter from Caltrans, um, in response to our letter where they did a study about um the impact of the bridge, where they said the bridge wasn't a problem.

It was when the Arroyo de Laguna hits Palameda Creek, um, which doesn't really match up with observations on the day of the flooding.

So what I think we'll do is send a letter back to them explaining what we saw visually on the day of the flood, and it doesn't match their modeling.

I don't know what parameters they put into it.

I don't know, retarded vectors, they don't tell us that.

Um, but uh thank them very much for for going to that effort.

Does that sound totally reasonable?

Yeah, right.

Yeah, okay.

Um, there's the town hall.

Lindsay, did you want to talk about that?

Do you guys have any other council comments?

We will.

You want to finish yours before I do all my stuff?

That's this is just the about the uh permit town hall meeting.

Yeah, I've got all that.

Oh, you don't want to do it now?

No, I'm saying council, finish your comments.

Then staff will do our comments.

Okay.

Okay.

I'm going by the attachments.

Okay.

So in August.

We reviewed the conditional use permit for the Sunol superstop station.

And we were told that they had addressed their water supply issue, their leech field issue, and their septic tank issue.

And that was the letter in their staff report said that it was going to be done by August 29th.

Our meeting was in the middle of August.

And lo and behold, when I followed up on that, they had not done it.

And I re I went back and listened to the recording, and they said it was done.

I specifically repeated that we would recommend approval because it was done, and it wasn't.

And they've got requested superstop has requested an extension until November 13th.

For the class week.

Oh, 26.

I'm sorry.

That you meant the 26th day.

Yeah.

They want a year.

Um, it seemed like complicated when it was in one of the zone.

Six?

Yes.

Yes.

That doesn't make a so I'm really disappointed because we we trust the staff, we trust the staff letters, the recommendations, trust the discussions we're having, and I and for them to I really feel like we were misleaded, misled.

But who has led us?

The super stop or whoever signed the letters.

Yes.

Well, the owner of the superstop is sitting right there.

I asked if he wanted to say anything, and he said nope, he just looked uncomfortable.

Yeah.

No, so maybe you could take a message back to your office, both of you, saying that we really want to be able to trust those staff reports that we get from CDA, and it's really disappointing when we get misled.

Wow.

Yes.

Is it possible that you could um write a letter from the system advisory council specifically to the two heads of planning to be very very clear about this?

Because I think this is very serious, what you just said, and rather than asking two individual contributors to represent this, I'm asking if you would be kind enough to put it in writing, send it officially from this group, uh, and make it clear this is not the way we're gonna tolerate uh a behavior from the county.

I think that's an excellent suggestion.

Thank you.

Do you have anybody any comments?

I only comment I would make is ask them what's causing the delay, so we at least know you know why they want the time.

That would be nice if it's we could say I understand now, then there's less of a thing about being misled.

So I think specifically what's the delay.

No, I think we also should revisit it because I I don't recall it clearly, but I think I remember it clearly that we approved it.

Not based on the fact that they did these things, okay.

That's approved.

I I think the language was we we did this provided these things had been done.

Yes.

If they had not been that had not been done, then in my way of thinking, and that negates our approval of for um, you know, or our suggestion, our suggestion, our recommendation for approval.

Because it was we had said, I think it was actually have to look at the minutes, but it was a motion provided these things had indeed been done, then we would recommend an approval.

These things have not been done, so that would mean we don't approve, but um, that would probably be somebody else's area, but I think it should be looked at for sure.

Thank you.

Um I just wanted to mention that Rodrigo or Dunya is listening in on the call.

So he's hearing everything that you're saying, and you can also feel free to.

Because you want to call it okay.

So then we have given it to him.

Good.

Okay.

And um, so Andrew talked about the barn being torn down, but there are there were two big huge heritage oak trees on that property.

I don't know if you've noticed that that were also cut down, and the the rounds from the trees are sitting in the front yard and they're not hollow, they're not diseased, gorgeous trees.

We're about this.

Yes, that is at least eight feet diameter.

Um, you know, we've talked in the past about a tree ordinance, and because the county ordinance just has to do with the street trees that they plant on county right away.

Um we've looked at in the past, we looked at tree ordinances for other cities, and we sort of let it slide.

We went on to other business, but I'm thinking in the near future we should look at that again.

So, if it's not diseased, why was it taken down?

Yeah, it was nobody looked at it beforehand.

Okay.

Yes, I just brief question.

What does that mean?

I'm about to send a crew up to do tree work.

So, do I have to what do I have to do?

There is not a county permit required.

No, no, there is not.

The ordinance for trees just talks about county-owned trees on county rightway.

This is the work is going to be done on right away.

I'll talk okay.

So you'll have to follow up the public works.

I can I can send you the ordinance.

Do you understand how many people were infuriated?

The people of the town, the talk of the street.

So many people came and said how infuriated they were that a beautiful tree was cut down.

Do you understand?

Are you asking me to repeat that?

I have to put it.

I have to put in the form of a question.

So I okay.

Anyway, those are all my comments.

So Lindsay, you're on.

All right, couple of things tonight.

Most of which have flyers over here.

We have an upcoming town hall gathering on OWTS on-site wastewater treatment systems.

Most of you probably have one of those on your private property or on your business's property.

Think Leechfield.

Um, many homes and businesses in this area are required to have permitted on site wastewater treatment systems.

So come to this town hall to learn more about the process to obtain or renew the necessary OWTS and building permits.

Those often go hand in hand, and those departments in our county work together.

Those county staff representatives will provide an overview of their agency's permitting processes and the interagency coordination required.

Specific projects will not be discussed, but there will be opportunity for QA.

That is Thursday, December 4th here.

Same location as we're having this meeting from 6 to 7:30.

Did want to remind everybody of all the sandbags.

If you've driven up Kill Care Road recently, there are hundreds of sandbags right at the beginning of Killcare on the right hand side at that sandbagging station that's always there.

We had a over a dozen wonderful scouts come out this past Sunday and work with our office, Alameda County Supervisor David Halbert, to create those sandbags for you can grab and take them with you.

No limit to how many you take to help protect your property this holiday season and this winter.

Speaking of the holiday season, Alameda County Supervisor David Halbert's annual holiday toy and food drive celebration, where we ask everyone who is invited to come.

It is a free event, to bring with them a donated uh toy or food for our office to help distribute to community members in need, like those children in our foster care system.

That is on December 11th from six to eight at the farmhouse, which is where our office is basically right inside of the Pleasanton fairgrounds.

Okay, and the last thing I have is a new pilots program that we are doing in partnership with Citizer.

So Citiser came out with our office about six weeks ago, maybe two months ago now, did our first ever senior wellness resource fair at Casabella, and from there we learned that some of the SNOL seniors who do currently receive services from CityServe and who don't receive services are seeking to receive the support of transportation from the town to the Pleasanton Senior Center.

And currently that is not a service that is funded elsewhere.

So we are doing a pilot program where our office is funded, three months of service.

The first month will be a uh Thursday morning session.

So three Synol seniors will be able to register and get transportation, pardon me, on Thursday afternoons.

Sorry, Thursday morning into the afternoon, and that includes free lunch at the Pleasanton Senior Center.

And that will happen in February.

And then the second cohort in March will happen on Wednesday lunch into the afternoon.

And then if neither of those two work for you, April will be a flexible call in advance, request that service kind of as needed, so that everybody can experience that.

And if it's something that really works well for the town, we can look at it becoming an ongoing opportunity.

CityServe is also looking for volunteer drivers.

So riders ride for free.

It's a free service funded through our office.

CityServe will also take you right now to the grocery store, medical apartments, the pharmacy, and to like social services buildings.

But the Sennol Senior Center is not, I'm sorry, the Pleasanton Senior Center is not one of their current stops.

So they do need drivers.

So obviously Sinoleans supporting Sinnolians and helping our senior population here get to the senior service center in Pleasanton and back home would be amazing.

The flyer has both those opportunities on it.

Thank you.

I'll take an IR, I'll take another.

Okay, so we're on to item four.

Downtown on site wastewater treatment system project alternatives.

So you may recall 10 years ago, we had a work group just doing septic um information and looking into septic issues as we were working working on a county was working on a larger plan.

And we did the phase one feasibility study to look at what was possible for all of Sinnol.

And then this last year in 2024, we decided to um continue that study and look focused just on the downtown area is as part of our revitalization effort because businesses are limited when they want to start up or sign a lease for buildings in the downtown area.

And so we've invited post-engineering to this meeting.

I think Lilia is going to be giving the present first part of the presentation, then Norm, the second part of, and this is for memo three, the third memo of five that they will be doing for the final report.

And this is just to give you an update as to where they are in the rock rush.

It is just to talk about the alternatives.

I know everybody's eager to find out how much it would cost them to connect to a community system, but we're just talking about what are the alternatives that we need to talk about.

We need to discuss.

Oh, they are.

Two more.

You have it.

Yeah, we have one.

I've got one.

I've got one.

Probably not too.

Great.

I'm Lilia.

This is Norm.

We're from Questa Engineering, and we've been working on this phase two feasibility study.

Questa also completed the first phase, which was back in 2015-2016.

So as Connie said, we're just going to talk about what are the main options we've identified as possible alternatives for Synol for a community wastewater system or better management of wastewater in the area.

Thank you.

So this is the studied area.

So the red outline is everything that we with everything that's within that we looked at in our research.

So it's sort of south of Elliston Winery on Kilkare and east of Tyler Ranch on Foothill, and then includes all of the downtown commercial area, the school, and a bit up to the sort of Bond Street and the intersection with Foothill as well.

The parcels that are highlighted in yellow are ones where we're discussing the possibility of some kind of shared public amenity or infrastructure going into one of those locations.

I wanted to highlight those.

The long skinny one is the Niles Canyon rail station parcel, the large one in the center is Depot Gardens, and then the one to the right of that is the Bond Street parcel, which is currently a public works space.

All right.

Yeah, I don't know if it works.

Should I tell you if I'm advancing?

Okay.

So we talked a bit or uh Lindy talked a bit about OWTS, so that's another term for septic systems.

Um it's one that the county uses more.

Um there's an illustration there of kind of a standard septic system.

Again, almost every parcel in Sinol and every one that we looked at in that study area has some type of system like this, where there's a septic tank and a leech field that serve an individual building or parcel.

And go ahead to the next one.

So just for context, we took a look at all the parcels in the study area and assess kind of what their current status is in terms of their septic system.

Um, and we found that about 18% of them have a system that is up to code or pretty close to being up to code.

Um, there wouldn't be significant work to get up to the county code from where they're at now.

For about 35%, there's the system that's in place now is not up to code, or the parcel has too many restrictions in terms of um space or setbacks to be able to put in an up-to-code system.

And then for 47% of the parcels in that study area, there was no documentation of the system that's currently working on site.

So for those ones, we can't really say how much work they might have ahead of them if they needed to get up to code from there.

Um, so again, that's kind of providing some context on where we're at now.

Uh next slide, please.

And one of the, so one of the things that we're trying to exploring with this is a community wastewater management system.

So instead of each uh building or house or parcel having their own septic system, there'd be some collaboration on bringing that wastewater together and treating that wastewater in a central location and then having a shared leech field that would dispose of that wastewater.

Um so there's an illustration there that sort of shows that that process.

Next slide, please.

So we excuse me, we've identified about seven options that we're looking at.

We're calling them the alternatives.

Um, some of these rely on those existing systems, and then some of them move away from them towards more of a shared infrastructure.

So this is an overview.

Um, it's a bit small to read on there, but hopefully you can look at your handout as well.

Um, and we'll go into each of these with more detail.

But the first two continue to use those on-site septic systems at each partial each building.

The three and four build upon that by adding some additional shared infrastructure, including some public bathrooms in the downtown area.

And then options five through seven are all more widespread community wastewater system.

So that would be moving towards more shared infrastructure in downtown Synol.

Can we have the next slide, please?

So we'll start with one and two.

Next slide again.

So alternative one is just no project.

So if the community does not decide to move forward with any of the alternatives we've listed below, that's option one, no project.

Status quo continues as it is.

Every individual parcel or business owner is responsible for maintaining their own septic systems.

Alternative two, there would be a wastewater management program.

So that would mean that there was a special district set up for this study area, and there'd be some facilitation of improvements to systems that fall within that zone.

So there'd be some coordinated support for bringing some of those systems up in terms of their functionality, updating them, bringing them up to code, and there wouldn't be any built shared infrastructure, but there would be a collaboration across the area.

All right.

Next slide, please.

So we're moving on to alternatives three and four.

Next slide again.

So these two are options that would allow for some downtown Sunnole public restrooms, which we know is a big need in the community.

Our current placement of those bathrooms is one at the Niles Canyon parcel, and then one at the depot gardens location.

And both of these alternatives would take the wastewater from those public bathrooms and it would be directed to the existing leech field in depot gardens that currently is partially utilized by the Snall Town Center building.

But it's not maxed out its capacity.

So there's available leech leech field capacity that can be directed to this public bathroom usage.

Alternative three just directly connects those new bathrooms into that existing leech field.

Alternative four also connects to that leech field, but does some upgrading of that leech field so that it has larger capacity.

So we would rebuild the trenches to have a deeper effective depth, and that would allow a little bit of growth of that capacity.

And there could be a little wiggle room there as well in case there's businesses in downtown Synol that are generating more wastewater due to their expanded business or revitalization of downtown, they could potentially direct some of their wastewater to that leech field as well.

These options can stand as like an interim step towards a larger system, or they could be standalone on their own as well.

Um if they're standalone, they would also involve uh you know the development of a wastewater management uh program as well as the option two.

So there would be the same coordination across the area to facilitate improvements of everyone's septic systems within that zone.

All right, let's move on to the next slide.

This is showing you the footprint of um we're gonna hold questions till the end, but then we'll come forward.

Yeah, so three is um just connect collecting directly to the leech field, and four is connecting to the leech field but building the trenches to be a bit larger to have more capacity.

So this is what that would look like.

There's uh you'll see it a little bit easier on your handouts, but there's two locations for those public bathrooms, and then the existing bleach field um location, and you'll see that some of those trenches, the edge of them are in red.

That's just an indicator that those are actually too close to the creek.

So if we were to rebuild those trenches, we'd probably cut off the ends that are closest to the creek to reduce any chance of contamination to the creek.

Um, and that blue line is the creek on that map as well.

So you're looking at depot gardens, centered in the frame, creek running through, and then Niles Canyon and Depot Gardens with their public bathrooms.

All right, next slide, please.

So this shows those two trenches.

So um the existing trenches are on the left, and you can see that that red outline shows um kind of how much uh absorption area the trench has for wastewater at this time.

If we were to rebuild them as we would in alternative four, it would create a larger depth and a larger area of absorption and so uh that's the option on the right and in the long term that would also allow for parking to be done on top of that depot gardens leach field but only if you decided to move forward with a treatment system a shared treatment system so um something to consider because it would definitely increase capacity short term and long term allow for parking as well.

All right next slide please so these are two kind of example bathrooms that could be considered for those two locations um they don't have to look like this but this is kind of a rough picture of the scale and the type that you might be considering.

Connie mentioned that there's a desire for potentially exploring ones that maybe fit into the town character a little bit more as well so this is not a set in stone thing but there'd be probably two bathrooms around this size um okay next slide please I'm gonna hand off to Norm and he's going to talk about those larger systems that would be developing a community wastewater system for the whole study yeah.

Thank you Lillia yeah Norm Hanchi I'm the principal with Quest Engineering and have been to many meetings here over the years with the uh with the community and uh worked on the phase one um wastewater feasibility study that preceded this and that phase one study was involved a lot sampling of um uh the Sinbad Creek uh as well as investigating kind of the conditions the constraints for for on site wastewater systems and identifying some potential areas for developing a community uh wastewater system and um you utilizing county owned parcels uh next slide so we have we have three that we've uh developed uh for uh to serve the the downtown area and that's the study area that that Lillia showed on the first slide but what a community wastewater system consists of uh you have so it's a shared system and it's like a so it's like a small municipal sewer system but it's for a small community and and more rural in nature but you have have your collection uh component you have your treatment component and you have your disposal component so the collection uh that's basically the sewer system uh and we looked at different ways that sewers could be uh constructed in Synol um to bring wastewater to a central location and and the central location is the Bond Street uh county's Bond Street parcel uh the two methods and we have we have a diagram of them but one is a conventional sewer like you'd have in most most cities with manholes and pipelines and a lateral connection right from your plumbing uh an effluent sewer system is one that where you retain the septic tank and you and you you uh continue to use that or you have a new septic tank and only the effluent is collected in the sewer system.

We'll look at a diagram of that treatment um you could have a different type of treatment system depending upon whether you have a conventional gravity conventional raw sewage uh collection system or an effluent system where some of the treatments occurred on the parcel so the simple a little simpler system if you have an effluent collection system uh but there are a range of treatment uh type treatment systems that could be uh utilized in Sonol we have a few uh pictures uh what they might look like and then final disposal after you've treated the water and for community system here you would have to treat it to a level higher than septic tank effluent and that's because you have a limited capacity for leaching.

If you take it to a secondary or a tertiary level of treatment, that's just more treatment.

So you have clearer water going into the leach field.

You can get more capacity out of the same amount of area or the same amount of trench.

Last thing we uh would note for a community wastewater system, someone has to own and maintain that system, the system of collection pipes, the treatment system, and the disposal system.

And that would be most common for an area about the size of Synol, and using these technologies, would be a district, probably an independent or a dependent district, in other words, dependent is it's under the board of supervisors.

So they're the board of directors for uh we call it an on-site wastewater treatment uh management district or zone, and there's a laws in the uh state laws that allow for the formation of that so that they have the ability to either work with septic systems or work with collecting collection and and common treatment systems.

Um next slide.

So we'll look at quickly at the uh this this is detail on each of the the uh three community uh alternatives, and I'm not gonna try to go through what's on there, but it's in your packet to package uh to look at.

But what distinguishes between the three different alternatives was one we looked at uh we talked about the effluent sewer system where we retain septic tanks and just collect the effluent.

So that's one alternative.

Then we looked at what if we put in uh conventional sewers for the whole area, all the septic tanks get abandoned and you just have sewers as you would have in a municipal system.

And then the third, uh, some areas of Synol, we felt were more uh compatible with an effluent collection system going out uh Kilcare Road and maybe west on foothill, those areas might be better suited for the effluent sewer and then the downtown area and some areas on the north, I guess northeast side of the depot gardens would be probably more suited for conventional sewer.

So those are the three different so the three different collection systems more or less defined the three different uh community alternatives.

They would all end up with a treatment uh system located on the bond parcel, and I'll show you some, like I said, some photos of what those might look like.

And the wastewater disposal would be on uh primarily on depot gardens with some overflow area or reserve area on the Bond Street parcel.

Uh next slide.

So, since the sewer collection system is a pretty important part of a community wastewater system, this is what a tip and you right now you just have tanks and leech fields.

This is what a conventional sewer is where your house plumbing is connected to a main line in the street, that's the sewer main, that's usually put deeper than all the other utilities, the water lines and so forth in the street.

So it's probably generally uh going to be about uh five feet deep, in some places more, and your lateral from the house to that sewer is usually a four-inch sewer.

The the main and the street is an eight-inch sewer, and you have manholes at intersections, you have manholes, usually every two to four hundred feet.

That's where you the those maintaining the sewer system have access to to flush the system to inspect it and clean it, so forth.

Next slide.

So this is um maybe not as clear to see here, but what we're uh what's depicted here is an effluent sewer system where you have the house here on the left, and then I think there's one in the background also that has a septic tank.

Okay, so you retain the septic tank, or if if you're in an area where you're putting in an effluent sewer, maybe the septic tank is upgraded or replaced to be part of the system that provides a settling of solids and only the effluent goes into the collection main.

The collection main is smaller in diameter of like a four-inch diameter collection main instead of an eight-inch gravity conventional sewer.

And the lateral, if it requires a pump, it can be pumped into it with a small pump in the septic tank and a uh small diameter, one or two-inch line from the tank to the main line.

Um, and in we looked at Synol, and the vast majority of properties could uh would not require a pump.

They would just go from the septic tank and the effle instead of going to the leach field, would collect in this network of four-inch pipes that would be your effluent collection system.

So that's that's how an effluent collection systems works, either with pumps or by gravity.

Just smaller pipes, but we use septic tanks to do some of the treatment.

Okay, next slide.

Okay.

This uh shows pictures of some uh small treatment systems that we would consider the upper one is what's called a package plant.

Um, MBR is the terminology membrane bioreactor.

It's an advanced treatment system.

It takes up a fairly small footprint for a synol, it would be 50 to 60 feet long, 10 to 15 feet wide, and that's about eight to 10 feet tall.

Okay, but it it's a mechanical system, okay.

Um it produces very high quality water and remain removes a lot of the toxic uh chemicals that are being that uh where there's concerns now about being in uh wastewater and draining into the groundwater.

The lower uh photo uh is what's called an advantex treatment system.

It's that's more compatible with an effluent sewer system where this solids are removed in the septic tanks, and what those would look like, say you would probably have one or two of these containers, which are fiberglass units.

They're probably the length of this building here, about 35 to 42 feet long, eight feet wide and eight feet high, but half of it's below ground, half of it's above, and they have access almost like a trunk, but it's uh and they the those are shown are kind of a sand color, but they some are green, and you can paint them.

But uh it's less um less obtrusive, I would say, than the package plant up above, uh, and it's mostly suited for use with uh effluent sewers, but it uh with with some additional tankage, it can be used, however, the collection system is is constructed for Synol.

Next uh slide.

So this is the the last slide I have, which just shows where things would go in Cinnol in the on the county owned properties on the right-hand side in the uh pinkish color, that's the location for the treatment system.

So it's on the Bond Street parcel, but I'd say from Bond Street looking in, it's behind where the maybe some of the equipment are stored or where there's a I think a station for or the uh school bus uh but that that's where it would be tucked.

So that would be about the footprint of the treatment system, regardless, either of the two that we talked about.

And then you have in uh kind of an orange-ish color, that's the primary leach field.

Uh, mostly it's what's the existing system on depot gardens, and then some additional area that would be added.

And so you would typically put in a hundred percent system using that existing leach field, but giving it more capacity with the treatment, and then in light blue there, uh, those are designated reserve areas for uh there's you have a primary system which takes your sewage flow, and you have a backup or reserve area that you wouldn't necessarily construct.

And some of that would be probably using drip uh subsurface drip dispersal of the treated water, and some of it would be leaching trenches.

So, that uh quick run through on the alternatives, but we have three different ways to configure.

We did look at also in our study, which is still is ongoing now.

We're doing the analysis, but we're looking at a system that could serve um in a range from all of the houses, 100% of the residences, plus all the commercial area.

We're looking at existing uses, and we're looking at some projected future uses that might include uh additional dwelling units or perhaps uh more uh business activity, commercial activity of the tab.

Uh and then we're also looking at uh a smaller project that would still have all the commercial area um uh in the system and maybe only half of the residential systems to get an idea of the range of costs and facilities that would be involved in in those two, and some and probably ultimately the projects are built and might be in between those two limits.

So okay, just right now.

Cool.

Andrew a question, yeah.

Um, on the treatment options, the MBR plant and the advantage.

I heard you say on the MBR that the water is high quality coming out.

Is there a difference in quality that comes out of the advantage?

Yes, so so the advantage uh the advantage will produce secondary quality, okay.

So uh and it's suitable uh for dispersal to leech fields.

It removes some, for instance, some of the nitrogen uh which is important in the in the the uh the this area and the groundwater uh areas that are affected.

The MBR plant uh can produce uh a higher level of uh nitrogen removal down to the drinking water standard, and it's really considered a tertiary uh system.

Uh so it it could actually, if it's if if you add disinfection, it could be used for recycled as recycled water.

So it does meet standards for recycled water.

So that's tertiary level.

Advantage is advanced is secondary, which is quite suitable for dispersal in in the uh in leach fields and in uh drip systems.

The other thing that the um MBR system does, it you may have heard or read about PFOS, the the TEFL, the chemical, the forever chemicals, it has to be built because it's a membrane that pulls the uh water through.

It removes those from the water, they end up in the solids, but they're not in the final stream that goes out for disposal.

So they're they're um that that's another aspect of their higher treatment.

Which the text does not do that last feature.

It does not, right?

Thank you.

What time frame are we talking about?

I have a house in that area that I was thinking about putting a new septic system because the one is unknown, it's probably a picklebarrel.

So is it worth waiting for a community system, or should I go ahead?

It would be a conventional just a lot of room for leech fields.

So you're wondering time frame.

Um, well, uh that's um it's a good question, and that's one of the reasons the scale of the different alternatives go from really doing the status quo kind of everything as is, to some first level of uh infrastructure, which which uh Lillia talked about, that being using the leech field and maybe improving the leech field for some uh some public restrooms in the in the in the town, which is you know, I think a known uh area of interest and desire.

Um, the to develop the full project and the collection system, it's probably no less than five years.

Um it could, but uh the average for projects like this, but uh and this is probably as because of this the size of the community is probably on the um less than the average is about 10 years from the start to finish.

But uh in your case, some of that work was done in phase one.

So I'm not sure where we are in that.

Uh but I would say five years to probably the the um the most optimistic time frame to have uh a community full community system uh built.

You have to go through an environmental review, of course.

There's the design, there's uh the financing of it and an assessment district, and uh ultimately the community would have to vote to for an assessment district to raise the money to fund the project.

So those things would be what building it would probably be you know less than a year to build it, but all the planning and approvals uh would have to uh uh take place before then.

Norm, if she wanted to hedge your bets, would she be smart to just install a septic tank that would meet the standards to pump into connect to any system?

Um yeah, so if if you your septic system if your septic tank now needs replacement, that would yeah that would be unknown 47 percent that no one can.

Okay, yeah, but yeah, that would yeah, that would make sense.

And and I think that so the alternatives we looked at with the combination, could very well be that the that some properties are just better suited with a septic tank and the affluent collection system.

That's initially in the phase one work.

We thought that's probably gonna be the best, but then we looked closer and said we could do conventional system, so that probably is a good yeah, uh first step on on your part.

So quick question, yeah.

Um, when we talked about this picture here, which is the area, and then later you referred to 100%.

Was it 100% of only this area?

Yeah, okay.

That assumes every parcel within the red line would be participating, which is unlikely, but we use it as our high end estimate.

It might be out of the scope of this, but when we go back up kill care and we're talking about kill care homes that still have the problem of $70,000 systems that they have to put in.

Is there any can is there any discussion inside of this scope where they might have some level of service?

No, no, got it.

And we only funded for the downtown area.

That's the only place we're talking about now.

Maybe in the future we might do that, but right now it's just the downtown area.

So it sounds like you have a lot of information on this.

I'm guessing that by the time we get upgrades if needed on personal property that each property is looking at a couple hundred thousand dollars over time for this.

And do you mean if we did build a community system or if we did not?

Didn't because you're gonna need to redo your settlement.

Let's hold let's hold the cost questions until next year.

I know you're eager.

I'm sorry, but it would be my opinion that the cost has a lot to do with our slant on this.

If it's free, okay, go at it.

If I want to pay the extra money to sign up, fine.

If it's not free, you know the cost, I'm just asking the cost.

Early next year, we'll have some cost to I think right early next year.

It's a memo four.

Yeah, yeah, we're working on that, yeah.

That now is and we would be comparing kind of what the cost might be if an individual needs to upgrade their system without a community system, and then comparing that as well to what the cost would be per parcel in a community system.

We're not gonna make any decisions without knowing the cost.

Well, the participation also.

Yeah, the participation is the scope.

There's still a lot of decisions to be made, but at least we have something to define that we can compare.

Okay, thank you very much.

Appreciate you coming all this way from Richmond to uh explain all that to us.

Okay, go on to item five.

Is a variance to allow a 10-foot encroachment into the required 30-foot yard setback, and they're we will need to recommend or not recommend approval.

Yes, morale.

Are you gonna share that?

Okay.

Um may I start?

Please do.

Okay.

Yeah.

Andrew, can you take that conversation outside?

Or over okay, so we can hear the speaker.

Um good evening, and my name is Maral Esmaili.

I'm planner with Alameda County, um, and tonight I'm presenting a variance case with PLN number 2025 00117, located at 621 Kilker Road.

This request um involves an overview of the project site, the proposed improvements, relevant general plan and zoning consideration, and a staff analysis.

Next slide, please.

Uh yeah.

The applicant is requesting approval of a 10-foot encroachment um into the required 30-foot front yard setback, resulting in a 20-foot setback.

Um, this reduction is needed to accommodate a proposed remodel in addition to the existing single-family residence.

The applicant, James uh Woodard, um, is attending online and will be available to answer any questions after the presentation.

The parcel is designated as low and medium density residential uh in Eden Area General Plan and zone as single family residential with a minimum required building size area of five acres.

The zoning allows for a rural nature residential development uh and the project is categorically exempt from CQA under Article 19, section 15301, class 5, which applies to minor alternation in land use limitation.

Next slide.

Uh the subject property is an uh irregularly shaped parcel of approximately 42,689 square feet.

The lot is relatively level but um constrained by the alignment of Kilka Road, which uh baskets the property and influences the home's placement.

Although the site appears open, the natural topography and lot uh geometry substantially limits buildable area for uh the expansion.

So constructing the addition elsewhere on the parcel would be a significant, we would need a significant grading uh in on the back or removing the existing landscape.

Next slide, please.

Uh this slide shows uh 2023 street view images from both side east and west direction uh along to Kilka Road.

Um, these images illustrate the existing structures position near the roadway and demonstrate how the um home's orientation and the presence of the porch uh influence a visible buildable space.

Uh the proposed front edition will remain under the current porch roof line, helping maintaining a consistent um streetscape appearance.

Next slide, please.

So there are variances needed to allow again a 10-foot encroachment into the required 30-foot front setback, leaving a 20-foot setback.

Uh so the project aims to expand the residence while avoiding uh disturbance to the existing green green areas, and um the proposal includes a 220 square foot front edition that relocates the entryway and um a kitchen expansion to the right side of the structure.

Um the variance is also required under um Alameda County uh municipal codes, uh 17.54.080.

Because of the site topography and the presence of the valuable green spaces, staff recommend uh that the Sunol Citizen Advisory Council um recommend for approval to the East County Board of Zoning Adjustment.

Next slide, please.

This slide uh shows the existing condition and the proposed site plan, uh where the new addition uh is highlighted that you can see 20 foot front setback clearly noted and the addition place uh beneath the roof line at the front of the house.

Um also the placement avoids extending the building uh into undisturbed area and does not alter the orientation of the home toward the Kilkill Road.

Next slide, please.

Um the uh proposed floor plan shows the addition and the relocation of the front entry, the kitchen extension to the right, um, and then the addition support a more functional and open interiors layout, uh allowing uh dining and living and kitchen space to be integrated.

Next slide, please.

Um, so as you can see uh on the elevation shows the project involves no changes to the overall building massing beyond the modest expansion already described.

And next slide uh is also showing the uh rest of the elevation window and door placement remains largely unchanged, and there are no alteration to the building's height.

Next slide, please.

So the staff is designated rural density residential uh under uh this land use designation.

Uh the density is less than one unit per acre parcel, must be at least five acre.

Uh if newly created developments um must remain within two acre uh continuous uh envelope, which which it is, and maximum allowable residential floor area is 12,000 square feet.

Um and Sunol is considered as a rural community outside the urban growth boundary.

So this project is consistent with um peace county area plan goal for residential uses, providing um diverse housing and uh geographical limits for sprawling development.

So based on policy 21, uh which recognize and support existing rural residential area in Sunol, um the this project fit fits uh with the intended rural residential development uh pattern.

Next slide, please.

Um, so in this slide, I will summarize the zoning and various findings.

Uh the property zoned R1 um LBE, which requires 30 uh front setback, 20 foot rear setback, 10 foot side uh side yard setback.

The proposed design maintain the existing front building line under the porch roof line, minimize the visual and uh spatial impact on the street scape and preserve the natural elements on the site.

So staff conclude that all variance findings can be made, and the request uh represents the least intrusive and most reasonable uh solution.

Next slide, please.

So as of today, no public comments were received uh after publication of the neighborhood courtesy notice and the hearing notice.

Next slide.

Um, so staff recommend uh to the Sonol Citizen Advisory Council approval of the variants, um, and recommended to East County Board of Zoning Adjustment for proposed residential addition.

Next slide that concludes um my presentation.

Uh, if you have any questions, questions are like one on page six there of the presentation.

There's a red line that says 20 foot setback.

Yes, that goes is that going to the existing home?

Um, yes, because that side of the uh home is already the existing structure, the addition is just to the right.

I understand.

So the current zone is 30 feet from the road.

Yes.

So that the existing instructors already not.

Actually, this this is a proposed site plan.

So they're not showing the existing uh site um setback, it's just the proposed.

Can you can we call that appropriate?

Yeah, the house is already out.

The house has already passed the 30 feet.

Okay.

So we're all we're already technically outside of the 30 feet.

Okay, yeah.

So this is uh James Wood, I'm the design principal for Sego Designs.

The uh the dwelling is existing not conforming with uh the existing uh dwelling being at 20 feet already.

So I I guess so the we're not going from 30 to 20, we're going from 20 to 20 to 10.

Is that what it is what it is?

No, no, we're continuing the 20.

So we're just extending along that same front line.

So right here, I understand, I understand.

I understand, but the red the red lines is the 20-foot setback to the corner.

Legally built, um, we couldn't find anything like on our record.

So it was really legally built before, but right now, based on the ordinance that the setback requirement has been changed to 30.

I get all that.

I'm just maybe I'm looking at this wrong.

There's a red line here that says 20 foot setback, and that goes to the existing property or the existing corner of the house, and the addition comes out even further than that.

Um, I think the addition doesn't come any further towards the front setback.

Okay, perfect.

So the green the green dotted lines don't come down.

That's just showing.

That's correct.

Got it, perfect.

Now I understand.

What year was the house built?

Uh give me a second, I'll give it that information to you.

I have it all here.

So it built in 1949.

Okay, it's a problem.

And this house is a historic house.

Obviously, because we had an historic moment happen in this house, and this is where the capitalis live.

Yeah, and they organized the referendum to overturn the board of supervisors' decision to develop the whole bridge in that condo project.

Got it.

So every morning, every Saturday morning and every Sunday morning, the town people came into the dining room with this house to pick up their assignment and their petition papers, and then we went out and came back at the end of the day.

Same owners.

No, yeah, she passed away.

Yeah, after that.

But yeah, so I'm real happy to see that you're preserving the house and keeping it looking good.

Andrew, yes.

Am I allowed to ask a question or may I make a comment?

Okay, should we get a quick comment?

No, no, I just want to know.

Seriously.

It should be just a question, unless you fill out a card and then you can make a comment for two minutes.

Really?

I just want to make a comment.

Thank you, Andrew.

Appreciate it.

Okay, so um, I I heard Benjamin's question, and so I do have a question first, and that's that.

Um, I understand that that green line what page is this green line on?

Six.

We're looking at six, and it talks about an addition.

Okay, you look at the wrong one.

And the thing was is extra cover here.

Page six of the presentation.

No, just thank you.

My time is being sucked up.

Um, so the issue is the it looks to me like it is a few feet before that, which is the drawing itself, and and we got confused around whether green or not.

I think that it's a few feet.

By the way, I am speaking in favor of approving, but I'm I would like to get a little bit of guidance from the county as to why setbacks matter, because um what I'm learning the more and more is that there is a reason for setbacks, and and if we're gonna give a variance to a setback, what are we giving up, right?

But I certainly have had to my house variances.

I appreciate that nearly if everybody in Snoll should have the opportunity for variance.

I just want to know why do we have a 30-foot setback?

What is the benefit?

Um, I have uh Rodrigo Orderna, the uh planning director at Sistant on call, so he would definitely respond to your question more efficiently.

Yes, good evening.

Can everybody hear me?

Yes.

Yes, thank you for uh acknowledging and uh and letting me speak.

Yeah.

So basically, in uh depending on community desires, um, the bigger the setback, the more distance between buildings.

In this case, this is a rural residential setting, such that um the broader setbacks from the road, a 30-foot front yard setback from the road, uh, allows for a more rural bucolic, if you will, feel it allows for more privacy on the residents of uh this uh this area, uh, as having their home constructed further away from a road.

So it's access to uh basically sunlight, air, and privacy.

And the more urban a development, the closer it is to the street, the closer the neighbors are to each other, the less open space there is between buildings, the less opportunity for landscaping, uh, and therefore the more of an urban setting.

Opposite that you get more setbacks, more opportunities for landscaping, more opportunities for privacy, more opportunities for open space, uh, and enjoyment of individual land.

So the community standards at the time of the uh development of the zoning district, R1LB with uh with a uh five-acre minimum building center, I think it is uh morale.

Yeah, the idea is to allow for more open space and distance between between the roadway in this case and the building.

So uh Rodrigo, it's is it fair to say then there is no safety issue here, and there's no necessarily any impact issue other than uh the look and feel of the community.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Thank you.

Uh with that, I fully support the uh the proposal.

Okay, Andrew.

Any further discussion?

Well, I'm I move that we support approval of the project, recommend approval of the project.

I'll second that.

Approve.

Councilman, Councilman, sir.

Chair DeGrange, recommend approval.

That is unanimous.

Does the homeowner want to say anything?

No, I I didn't know if it wasn't.

So much easier than I was gonna say that's why you don't want to question this is the house.

It's much clearer than that.

We're drawing by it all the time.

Thank you all.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Morel.

Okay.

We'll go on to the general plan amendments open space element.

It's item number six.

And this is continuation of a long conversation we've been having.

So it's a good decision.

I have two items on this agenda.

So this is uh one of those two items.

Uh I'm Allie Avers with the planning department.

Um, I wanted to also compliment your new space here.

This is beautiful.

Isn't it nice?

Yeah, I don't know when this happened, but I can smell the new paint.

It looks gorgeous.

The hall.

Lovely.

Probably notice we changed the name on the agenda.

It's not the cafeteria.

It's a multi-purpose room.

I love it.

Um, so I'm here uh with two items today.

So the first of those two items is proposed amendments to the open space element of the Alameda County General Plan.

I apologize, I did not print my slides for you, but it very closely follows the staff memo.

So hopefully that'll help.

Um next slide, please.

So uh a bit about the requirements of SD 1425.

I'm sorry for the small text.

Um, so this was a law that was passed in 2022, requiring local jurisdictions to review and update the open space elements of their general plans by January 1st of 2026, so in just uh a little over a month to address um equitable access to open space for all residents, and that is or can coincide with uh policies in the general plans environmental justice element, um, climate resilience and other co uh co-benefits of open space correlated with the safety element, and rewilding opportunities, which would be correlated with the land use element.

So the next slide talks a little bit about what rewilding opportunities are because that's kind of a vague term.

And it's actually a pretty broad definition.

So this could include, but it's not limited to opportunities to preserve, enhance, and expand an integrated network of open space to support beneficial uses like habitat, recreation, natural resources, historic and tribal resources, water management and aesthetics, and two establishing natural community a natural communities conservation plan to provide for coordinated mitigation of the new of the impact of new development.

So it's quite a broad definition.

Next slide, please.

So the state, like I said, this law is fairly recent, and the state published guidance for local jurisdictions to help us comply with this new law only about a month and a half ago.

So early October, we got the draft guidance.

And the guidance essentially outlines this path to compliance.

So the first path, of course, is for us to understand what we have to do.

So understand the legislation and the definitions.

The next is to get together all of the different plans that exist within the county and take a look at them.

So we actually only looked at the general plan, and I'll talk a little bit more about that.

So we're looking at the general plan.

Step three is to take a look at those plans and see if they comply with the law.

And then we're also step four is looking for gaps.

So do they comply?

If they don't comply, where are those gaps?

And then step five is to integrate into the general plan by reference.

So next slide, please.

So that's step five A, according to the guidance that the state published, can actually act as the final step if the local jurisdiction finds that we already comply with SP 1425 with policies in our existing plans.

And in that case, what we do is we uh we create references to those plans, we ensure that they're internally consistent, we summarize our compliance, and then it goes to the governing body, which is the Board of Supervisors for adoption.

So essentially that's looking at our general plan.

If we comply, we create a document that says how we comply, and the court adopts that.

So that is that's it.

Next slide.

Um, okay, here we go.

Sorry.

So what we did following that guidance is we conducted a comprehensive review of the general plan to identify those gaps and any additional opportunities for compliance.

Um, and following that review, we've determined that SP 1425 uh policy or requirements are already satisfied through existing general plan policies and implementation measures.

And proposed appendix B, which is uh you do have a copy of there.

Um, what that does is it documents the compliance by incorporating relevant policies that already exist in the general plan into the open space element by reference.

Um, and just a note that so this is you'll you'll look through this document, it's referencing policies from the Castor Valley General Plan, from the East County area plan, from the safety element, from the community climate action plan.

So referencing policies from all over the general plan.

And as you know, these policies and these plans are updated from time to time.

So as the county goes through the process of updating updating those from time to time, this appendix will also be updated in tandem.

Uh so next slide.

There we go, perfect.

Um, so there are this is in your packet as well.

There's a chart in your packet.

So if you'd like to reference that, uh, we have in our general plan in total, 38 policies uh that respond to that first requirement of SB 1425, which is equitable access to open space.

We have 24 policies that respond to climate resilience and other co-benefits, and we have 48 policies that respond to rewilding opportunities.

And just to note, not every chapter of the general plan contains all three of those, but as taken as a whole, we staff uh concludes that we do already meet the requirements of SB 1425.

Oh, next slide, please.

Um you may or may not already be familiar with the resource conservation open space and agriculture element of the general plan, which is a proposed project that began more than 10 years ago to update the open space element, the current open space element, which was first adopted in the 70s, and the resource conservation element and an agriculture element into a single document.

So that plan has been on hold for a number of years because of other competing priorities, state mandates, et cetera, that we've had to work with.

And we do hope to continue that work at some point in the near future.

And when we do, it will offer opportunity to more closely consider other opportunities for 1425 compliance.

So outside of what we've already got.

Next slide.

So this project is not subject to CEQA, and we are seeking an exemption because it wouldn't uh result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment and pursuant to the common sense exemption.

Next slide, please.

So we are doing the full uh county roadshow for this.

Um we've gone to the Ag Advisory Committee and the Eden area MAC already.

Both of those uh bodies uh voted to forward it to the planning commission with a recommendation for approval or with you this evening.

Uh we'll be at Fairview in early December, um, Castor Valley Mac in early December, and if all goes well, the planning commission December 15th, followed by a couple of board committees and the Board of Supervisors in March.

That's our trajectory.

Um, next slide, please.

Project documents are all online on the planning department's website.

I think there's an extra space in that URL, it should just be SB 1425 at the end.

Um, but I'd be happy to give you that URL after the meeting if you have any questions about that.

Next slide, please.

So my final slide here, um, staff recommendation is that your council vote to forward the proposed open space element amendments and the notice of exemption from CEQA to the planning commission with a recommendation that the amendments be adopted by the Board of Supervisors.

That's it for that presentation.

Thank you.

I was looking at your staff report for the safety element.

Oh no.

It's a lot from me this evening.

Sorry about that.

I got switched around.

Do you have any questions, comments?

Did you get a chance to look at it?

If you are an Excel nerd, my favorite way to talk about this is like a pivot table for the gentle plan.

So we're just taking a bunch of things from different parts of the general plan that already exist and putting them together into one chart to show that we comply.

Anyone want to make a motion?

You should ask for public comments.

Did anybody there's nobody has filled out a form for public comments?

Oh, make a motion to approve it.

Does anybody want to make a public comment?

Sorry, Andrew.

I have no problem with that.

I think as long as I understand the process, true process.

Oh jeez.

Um thank you very much.

So my public question is.

Um, why does the uh why are you required to actually do this?

Because um, you know, this is the second time I've heard it having heard of AG advisory, and um nobody nobody objects.

Um, why when something is just so slam dunk?

Are you required to do this?

So, like I mentioned, the state just published guidance for this a couple months ago.

Um, and it doesn't, it addresses what you would do if you have uh a number of policies throughout plans outside of the general plan and how you might incorporate those into the general plan.

It doesn't specifically address if your general plan already has all of these things what you do.

Um it's a bit of a belt and suspenders approach.

So we just want to make sure that everybody is clear that the state is clear and that the board of supervisors is clear that we are already addressing these things in our general plan, and this is a clean way to do it.

Thank you.

Yeah.

All right.

So he made a motion.

We forward this proposed amendments to the planning commission.

All right, and I'll second the motion.

Okay.

Councilmember Clinton approved.

Councilmember Harrison.

Council Member Starr.

Chair DeGrange.

Recommend forwarding approval.

Thank you.

Okay.

Go on item 7, flood control.

And I know Lindsay put together a document of 183 pages.

To 220, 220 now, but you promise not to do that to us tonight.

No, I never intended to.

Never ever, ever.

Shortened it to 26 pages.

Something like that.

I'll be quick, I promise.

Okay, we're here to talk about waterways and flooding in and around Synol, a topic we've been talking about, a theme of 2025, that our office has been heavily involved in the efforts dating back to the beginning of this year and leading up to a few town halls that we've hosted.

And this is a little bit of what we've gathered, condensed into 26 slides and 15 minutes of your time.

So I'll be swift.

Next slide.

Why we're here?

You all experienced a major flood.

There was an unprecedented storm on New Year's Eve of 2022 into the new year.

And the Arroyo de la Laguna Creek reached levels that resulted in flooding of the Sonol Glen School, surrounding homes and other properties.

Sidbat Creek rose to levels that impacted homes along Killcare.

Roads were impacted.

Yes, it was all around very devastating, and I believe total damage exceeds two million dollars.

Next slide.

So our office has over the last 11 months been holding meetings and having communication with a variety of agencies, some of whom are here tonight, Alameda County Community Development Agency, our planning department zone seven, Caltrans, County Flood Control, Public Works, Office of Emergency Services, full list is there, but it has been a very extensive extensive and collaborative process.

Next slide.

Zone seven is both a territory of land based on these maps and the name of an agency that is responsible for flood control and water conservation and water supply for residents and the land within its boundaries.

These maps show you those boundaries.

In green is zone seven.

In yellow is Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District.

The handouts of this presentation with Pat which have these maps, but it's not a walk up are here.

If you'd like to uh utilize those for better vision and also to take with you tonight.

For flood control and protection purposes, Alameda County is divided into 10 zones.

You see those there.

And those roughly correspond with major watershed boundaries.

Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, a dependent special district of Alameda County Board of Supervisors, provides flood protections for zones to two A, 3A, etc.

in western Alameda County, and Zone 7 Water Agency provides that in eastern Alameda County flood control and water conservation district happened in 1949 with the creation of the California State Legislature by the by it was created by the California State Legislature Legislature when it passed Act 205 of the California Uncodified Water Code.

Act 205, Chapter 55 defines Alameda County's role and our district's role in controlling and conserving flood and storm water.

The primary purpose of the district is to build flood control infrastructure across the county, except for in zone seven details coming.

The Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation provides flood protection for Western Alameda County residents and businesses.

They do a variety of things, and overall they manage over 500 miles of natural creeks, channels, underground pipes in western Alameda County.

The reason that that matters is you do want to know what's going on in your neighboring communities so that you have something to compare it to.

And where that also plays a factor is in what is kind of convoluted with County Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District and Alameda County Public Works.

So Alameda County Public Works is under the county and does serve the entire unincorporated area in our county.

People often mistake these two entities.

They frequently overlap.

Where they overlap, the director of Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District is the director of public works, Daniel Wildesumbett.

The staff employed by Alameda County Public Works are the staff that execute the services of Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District.

They are separate legal entities, and the count and Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District is a special dependent district, whereas County Public Works is not.

County Public Works is part of Alameda County government.

Next slide, please.

So Alameda County Public Works does have a role in emergencies and water related matters in Synol when it comes to providing sandbagging stations like the one on Killcare Road, providing a little bit of public education around preparedness and information on their website, culverts, culverts along your roadways to make sure that water can drain through them, that they're not clogged, that they are maintained in good working order, and your roads, keeping them safe, keeping them open, maintained and free of debris.

Next slide, please.

A little bit of history on how Alameda County Flood Control Water Conservation District and Zone 7 were created.

Act 205 was passed by Alameda County residents.

The Act created a flood control district to be called Alameda County and Flood Control and Water Conservation District.

Two do a variety of things.

Provide for the control and conservation of flood and storm waters, the protection of water courses, watersheds, harbors, life property from damage and destruction of such waters, obtain, retain, reclaim, drainage, storm and flood waters, save and conserve water for the beneficial use, authorize the incurring of indebtedness, sale of bonds, all the fun stuff around how do we fund these things and provide for the government management and operation of said district, etc.

And define the powers of said districts and its officers.

So the Alameda County Board of Supervisors shall be and he is hereby designated and empowered to act as the board of Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District.

So if you were to live in any of the other zones, the board of the agency responsible for flood control would be the County Board of Supervisors.

So let's talk about that.

Next slide, please.

Did we already go to the next slide?

Okay.

I can't actually see.

Long before Zone 7 was created, the critical issues of water supply, water quality, and flood protection shaped this region's ability to prosper.

There was flooding across the region historically, and so the creation of the Zone 7 Water Agency meant local control over water resource planning to find solutions for the valley's pressing issues around water and flood protection challenges.

So Zone 7 Water Agency was officially born June 18, 1957, when voters in the Tri-Vally approved the creation of the agency, which is responsible for water resource management and flood protection in the area.

As it relates to flood control, Zone 7 operates independently of Alameda County flood control and water conservation district and is governed by its own elected board.

Just like cities and other special districts like East Bay Regional Parks District, the County Board of Supervisors is not the board of Zone 7.

It has its own board of seven elected officials chosen by the vote of residents in its zone.

You are all residents in its zone.

You could be on its board, and you help elect its members.

Residents were involved in electing the seven member board of directors, and financial support from the agency was set to come from local property taxes.

The creation of Zone 7 came three years after the Valley voters rejected a proposal for a county-run water management that would lump them together with the Fremont area.

Of the county's 10 active zones that you saw on the previous maps, only Zone 7 has its own elected board of directors.

Next slide, please.

So what does this all mean?

Well, in Act 205, there is a section 55-36, zones in the Pleasanton and Murray Township, aka Zone 7, which encompasses Pleasanton, Livermore, Dublin, Synol, and the unincorporated East County.

So the following shall apply with respect to the establishment, government, operation, and financing of any zone lying in whole or in part in Pleasanton or Murray Townships.

Talks about the board of directors in this zone, which directors have been elected as provided in this act, shall have the power to make and enforce all needful rules and regulations for the administration and the government of the zone.

So yes, Zone 7 has staff.

Those staff report to their board of directors.

The zone board may appoint a chairperson, a secretary, other officers and agents, employees in its judgment, etc., etc.

It basically, this is the code.

It's not really super fun, but it's very technical, and yes, I did read the whole thing.

Some of those are uh appointed under the uh pursuance of being civil service members.

So the civil service rules and regulations of the county of Alameda do apply to them.

Other people, however, the zone may appoint without reference to a classified civil service list.

Notwithstanding any provisions in this act, and I'm happy to share the entire act with anybody, it is public, the zone board elected pursuant to this section shall govern and control in accordance with this act and without further action by the district board.

That would be Alan County Flood Control and Water Conservation District Board, aka the Board of Supervisors for the County.

So without all matters that relate only to the zone established pursuant to this section.

That's right, I know.

So since its formation, next slide, uh Zone 7 has undertaken and completed several major projects.

They own and maintain, they own and maintain a third of the Livermore Amador Valley's channels and creeks, totaling 37 miles of flood protection channels.

The valley's flood protection system routes stormwater through ground underground pipelines and into creeks, man-made channels that feed into the Arroyo Mocho, Arroyo Las Pasitas, Arroyo Del Val.

These larger channels come to the west, converge with the Arroyo de la Laguna, which comes down through Sennol and then spits out to the San Francisco Bay through Alameda Creek.

In addition to those 37 miles, basically concrete, earthen, and natural flood channels, Zone 7 owns and operates an inventory of other stormwater assets.

They're listed here.

Zone 7's most recent project did happen after the 2022 23 storms.

It happened this past fiscal year.

They spent $3 million for a camp parks detention basin, so a upstream detention basin from here in Camp Parks in Dublin, which is 20.3 acre feet.

And I Googled that, and what that means is that it can store 6.6 million gallons of water, which is basically enough water to fill 15 football fields at one feet deep.

A reminder that none of Zone 7's flood channels or assets are located in Sinnol.

Next.

So how is Zone 7 funded?

For the purpose of their roles and responsibilities of flood channels and flood preparedness and mitigation, they are funded through a portion of Alameda County's 1% property tax and through developer fees.

Property in Sinnol gets taxed by Alameda County via the 1% property tax and is a source of funding for Zone 7.

An average, and I say an average because in Synol there are actually like nine different tax rate areas, TRAs, and they averaged out to a 1.68% of your 1% property tax collected by the county.

That is what goes to fund zone 7.

1% of 1%.

1.68% of 1%.

Yes.

So shy of 2% of 1%, that's right, which in the last couple of years equated to about 100,000 a year.

The county serves as the pass-through entity by where it collects the taxes and fees that belong to jurisdictions, Zone 7, East Bay Regional Parks, passes the money on to them.

The county does not have any contracts or agreements with Zone 7.

Zone 7 collects development fees from development projects across its entire zone, and those fees go towards Zone 7's new projects to address water runoff issues caused by development heartscape.

One important thing to note the line item on your county property tax bill that the flood zone FLDZN 7, state water, is for the California State Water Project.

Just like how the county collects the 1% and then passes it on.

Zone 7 is collecting that and passing it on.

They collect the fee, which is about 0.0243% of your property tax, and that's an additional fee, not included in the 1%.

And it has to be used only for the California State Water Project, which is about clean water supply.

And the agency is California Department of Water Resources.

They're the ones who oversee this project.

So Zone 7 gives the money to them, and the program keeps groundwater sustainable and clean because about 70% of our local water supply comes from Northern California.

So they make sure that it gets to you safely.

And if you live in Sinnol and you get your water not from SFPUC but from Pleasanton City, you're actually getting it from Zone 7.

Where Alameda County does have some jurisdiction is in their water course protection ordinance.

Alameda County flood control and water conservation district does care about the natural environment and through public outreach and enforcement.

They do things like pollution control regulation that govern our waterways.

So Board of Supervisors of Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, aka the Board of Supervisors for the County, does ordain the responsibility of the director of public works to enforce the provisions of the water course protection ordinance.

Every person owning property through which a water course passes, or said person's lessee or tenant, shall keep and maintain that part of the water course within said property reasonably free of trash, debris, excessive vegetation, and other obstacles, which would pollute, contaminate, or significantly retard the flow of water through the water course, shall maintain existing privately owned structures within or adjacent to the water course so that such structures will not pose a hazard, function or physical integrity of the water course.

Shall not remove healthy bank vegetation beyond that actually necessary for me said maintenance and other maintenance specified in another section of this chapter, nor remove said vegetation in a manner to increase the vulnerability of the water course to erosion.

You're only halfway through your slides, and it's already been 20 minutes.

Is there a way you could maybe highlight every minute of it?

No, I'm absolutely serious.

This everything in here is something I want to hear.

I'll stay after a year if that's what you get.

But yeah, I could speed it up.

Um, so funny, I ran through this whole thing earlier and did not take longer than 20 minutes.

So we have a little mini grant program because in order to do work on your property, you have to have a permit, or you might have to have a permit.

And in order to submit the paperwork to see if you'll need a permit, you need to submit $751.75 with it.

And that's just a lot of money that I don't think necessarily is like, oh, sure, let me just go ahead and hand that over and see what happens.

So our office can work with you to go ahead and cover that cost.

And then if it basically is not required that you don't need a permit, then problem solved, nobody pays anything.

So grab a flyer with more information on that on your way out.

That takes care of 515.

16.

We're on to Caltrans and your bridge.

So there has been historical and continual challenges and concerns about SILK, silt, as well as blockages, limiting the space under the bridge and impeding the flow of water of the Arroyo de la Laguna.

And so Caltrans recently released a letter to the Sunol CAC and their report detailing the findings of their modeling.

Uh, and Connie has provided uh copies of that.

So, what's the plan moving forward?

The Highway 84 bridge over the Arroyo does need to be replaced, and Caltrans has planned to replace this bridge and completed its environmental impact report December of 2021.

There's been a lot of discussion about when it will start.

However, Caltrans has had to prioritize other projects and get the necessary permitting, which they now have, and I have verified that and gotten strong confirmation that the project will begin in summer of 26.

It's a three summer long project.

County OES also has a hand in things.

That's your Office of Emergency Services.

So Alameda County doesn't have an official director of emergency services under our county's emergency ordinance.

The sheriff serves as the director of emergency services during a disaster.

And basically, each district, like Zone 7, has a communications team that should help develop the ability to notify customers in their areas of responsibility.

The county doesn't actively hire staff to monitor or analyze weather data, which is why they recommend residents sign up for various notifications, like the National Weather Service and other free services.

But not all modeling is perfect, and the National Weather Service did not anticipate the flood conditions that were present on December 31st.

So their warning systems stopped going out at about 4 30 p.m.

that day.

But as you all know, the conditions continue through the night.

There are some great resources that County OES provided me to give to the school, and I've done so that they can uh prepare themselves because they need to have their own uh hazard mitigation plan.

So there's a bunch of great information here about the different resources that are available, the different apps, weather radios, local media, the messaging is that there's no one silver bullet when it comes to notifications.

There are several systems and uh different uh message originators that play a role, but we need residents to be aware, and if you see something, call 911.

Okay, cool, cool, cool.

I'm gonna keep going through this.

Let's talk about hazard mitigation plans.

Slide 19.

Yes, ways for you guys to participate.

So getting your voice heard uh in the different ways that these flood plans come to fruition.

Zone seven is updating their flood management plan.

Process began back in 2022.

It's continuing now into the next phase.

The uh community outreach in this area.

I know there's a strong desire for them to come here, but they do serve the entire region.

So a lot of their open house, their board meetings happen in Livermore, Dublin.

So I'll make sure that you guys are aware of all of those opportunities.

But here's a little bit of information on what that plan will do, and certainly one of their goals is to foster proactive public engagement.

So go to their flood planning meetings.

They're going to be having some town halls in January, and I should know those dates very soon.

And their board meetings are the third Wednesday night of each month in Livermore, and they're live broadcasted and recorded as well.

Hazard mitigation plans occur both in zone seven and the county.

And yes, the county hazard mitigation plan does cover all of unincorporated Alameda County.

It was last updated in 2021, has to be updated every five years, which means it's coming up.

So starting in January, the local hazard mitigation plan manager will complete some things and then start reaching out to the community.

Great news, his name is DJ, and he gets his hair cut at Mary's.

So he knows your community.

You seem to really care, and he made some some really encouraging um commitments to include you guys.

And that's about a six-month project, uh process.

So plan to be engaged when that opportunity comes.

And lastly, never hurts to be prepared.

There are storm tracking um organizations, there are gauges along your rivers and your waterways, streams, rather, that help predict these things.

Say your waterway at 10 feet high is okay, that's gonna be all right, but it's rising, and so keep an eye out.

Oh my gosh, flooding happens at 12 feet.

That's not a lot of warning.

So these do in smaller waterways, these things do creep up fairly fast.

I feel like I'm constantly texting Connie, and I should just figure out how to read these things myself.

But like, what is the stream gauge at Verona Bridge doing?

Uh, it was uh kind of your alert back in December of 2022 that things were coming, and then they and then it happened very fast.

But Zone 7 has a new website, a new tracker, uh, County Public Works has some great resources, and here all in all gives you a good sense of what you can and can't do and how you can better prepare for the future.

And then the next four are just maps about who owns the property around here, being that we have private property ownership in Synol along all these waterways, working with these private property owners, uh being, you know, collaborative neighbors and finding ways that we can get into these waterways that are on private property and uh support each other and getting the needed permits and needed equipment and making sure that we're all working to keep these waterways healthy and for water to be able to quickly and safely go through them.

So that's a very short condensed version of a 200-page report, which I am hoping to complete by next Wednesday and release to everybody.

And from that point forward, any additional questions or concerns can be sent to my email, and I do believe we will probably have a follow-up town hall in February, give or take.

Yes, of course, Ken.

Did you have a comment?

Yes.

Um, or question?

Thank you, and considering how you're feeling.

That was great.

Thanks.

But uh I'm I remain very frustrated with zone seven.

We pay taxes to zone seven.

Did you want to sorry?

Did you say it was a question or a comment?

You got two minutes.

You need to fill out a form.

You didn't before the meeting started.

Before the meeting started.

Perfect.

You can manage the meeting.

I just, I don't think the clerk, we weren't aware that the clock started.

We pay zone seven.

We continually pay zone seven.

You just outline that.

You go to the zone seven meetings, you show them the map, which you have in here, and they say, we don't cover SNOL.

We do nothing in SNOL.

That's not really true.

That is true.

That's not exactly what they say.

But oh yeah, yeah, no, I thought we were having we were having a back.

Are we having a I'll all but we are trying to go fast.

You have your speaker.

Um seven in their meetings say they do not cover Synol.

It's all private property.

A couple of problems I'm having is we are paying them.

They're telling us they don't cover anything here.

And the problem in Sinnol is one of volume flow and rate that is tremendously enhanced by zone seven and Contra Costa County, to be fair, but I'm dealing with zone seven here.

And uh the bridge here, I'm sorry, the bottom of the level of the creek has dropped 12 feet in the last 30, 40, 50 years.

So volume there is tremendous, and that's evidenced by San Francisco Waters Pike being dead and feet down, and now it's two feet exposed.

Um I don't know if zone seven is immune from either being repaying for damages that they cause by excess water coming down, hitting the sides of the arroyo all the way, dislodging dirt, dislodging rocks, disroc, dislodging trees, and they end up somewhere else causing more damage.

Um that would be the water course.

I've covered the sill, zone seven, no plan for Synol, which we've seen in there.

Um property ownership for not going a lot off of what you said.

Property ownership versus what I would call water dumping from them.

I'll let you take it.

My two minutes is up.

We all had a good time with that discussion.

Zone seven does not do what they say.

We should go to Alameda County Water Department.

We're not department, but blood control.

Litigate and mitigate.

No, no.

Agreed, unfortunately.

I don't know if they're immune from prosecution for doing that, but if any of us in this room flooded our neighbor, we believe the culpable for that act, they're not.

Yeah, you first of all, um, thank you for everything you just said.

Um, I apologize for interrupting you.

I have been attending and speaking on behalf of SNOL for the last couple of meetings, um, asking the community for advice and reporting what the community is saying.

The board of directors is not confused that Sonol is part of this.

I think the staff might be, and the behavior of what I've heard from uh the um the leader of that function seems to believe that Verona Bridge is the end of the line, and then I don't know if the lawyers are involved or who's involved, but uh there's a mute button that goes on the minute that particular general manager walks across the line here, unless seated next to a state senator.

I want to applaud you for excellent work.

I know it took a lot of time and we don't have a lot of time.

Um, I'm absolutely interested in everything about this because I've sort of stepped up because Synol is the steer in the steak and eggs breakfast.

It is really clear to me so far that the behavior of uh the general manager at least and even comments that have made while I was there indicate a lack of interest or possibly a passive uh response to Synol.

Uh I was fearing that your comments would be, well, it's your problem now because you have to deal with zone seven.

I didn't hear that.

I heard that the county is still in.

I've heard words that our state senator is in.

I think that we're gonna need to continue to put a lot of pressure on this, but you have set us up for stepping forward and success.

I appreciate your work on behalf of the town of Snow.

It's actually been a pleasure.

It's really one of the craziest things I've ever worked on, and I really hope that it can move things forward.

Do we want to allow for questions so that I can address any concerns or questions that remain, or do we?

Oh, yeah, of course.

Yeah.

One second, the interpreter, can we get that door closed?

It's really cold and it's starting to hurt my hands.

It's okay.

Oh, it's like we're almost done, but no.

Yeah.

Yes.

So thank you.

I think what I'm hearing is there's a term called dependent uh district and independent district that was actually referred to earlier tonight during the uh out discussion.

And I think what I'm hearing is this is absolutely an independent district because there's no other than pass-through money, there's no funding that goes back and forth.

Is that fair to say?

It's not unfortunately.

It is a dependent district at the moment.

It has sought to become independent through LAFCO back in like 2012 or something, and it did not come to fruition.

Uh, but what that means dependent means basically two things.

It's dependent on y'all's money through the taxes, and it is dependent on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors when it comes to their budget.

So they do depend, they do depend on the board when it comes to how they get their money, not how they spend their money, Andrew.

How they get it.

Of course, the money is coming from the taxpayers.

So, of course, the Board of Supervisors has a say in that.

The Act 205 puts that out.

You can't exceed this, you can't levy this more than that many times a year.

You can do this, you can't create this for that.

But once they have the money, understood, and the projects that they do have to be on property that they can get ownership of, and there is nobody to my knowledge, willing to give away their property in zone seven with the financial ability to also then help zone seven maintain that property.

So even if somebody were to say, here's zone seven, take my property, zone seven's like, where would we get the money to maintain that property?

So right now, zone seven does not own or operate anything in Sinnol.

That doesn't mean Synol is not part of their responsibility.

It is clearly in their district, and the things that they do upstream have a big impact on SNOL.

I'm gonna see if anybody else has a question before I circle back.

We'll straight on that before you go away.

I feel like Ken has a and then I know we'll at some point get cut off because we'll have to move on because there's so much on the agenda.

I don't know how much way the supervisors have over them, and obviously they're a money-making entity.

So none, to be clear, the board of supervisors cannot tell zone seven what to do.

Okay.

Um, and I and I was almost silently applauding the 23 acre feet or whatever it was.

Why, why can we not or have zone seven?

I shouldn't say we at state.

They should, like many other communities up and down the state and in other states, building huge voids to fill with runoff water, does two things replenishes groundwater all over all the stuff you sp you spoke on tonight.

That I think they would be in favor of that, especially because they are also the water supplier, so being able to retain water that they could then make a profit off of is a win-win.

We're looking, they're looking at kind of what works as a win-win that's valuable in the next few years within X budget, what is a long-term plan, and that's all part of phase two.

Phase one was kind of like, why is this a problem?

Phase two is how do we address that problem?

Phase two is I guess at part A and part B.

And so part A is what this town hall is gonna happen in January and February.

Part A is kind of like they said a collaborative process, not a report, and then in the entire part A and B, and however many phase two, the final report will be complete by the end of next year, and that's going to have how do we do this?

How do we fund this?

How do we prioritize which projects come now, come later?

Not that I want to do coercion, but is there anything that I want to say we, the county, the supervisors could do to entice them to be a better neighbor?

And I've I've been to their meetings too, and they flat out deny Synol.

Although in thinking about it in hearing, secondarily, they supply some little water from Pleasant to areas of the community.

I think we've done just that.

I think these town halls have exactly been a great example of how that can happen, inviting them into the community, inviting them to come back to an SEAC meeting, and then also going and meeting them where they are, participating in their board meetings, etc.

So kind of leading by that example and then inviting them to continue to come here.

Um, but even in that last meeting, Valerie did clearly state you are in our jurisdiction, we are your flood control agency.

So that is headway that the director has clearly stated the truth.

Thank you.

That's an about face because she's been here in the community numerous times and I did it, including the one you were at up on top of uh Bosco's there.

That's the one I'm referring to, though.

The very first meeting, I don't recall, I don't recall denying, but maybe rather staying silent instead of fully owning that.

Whereas the second one, it was fully owned, and clearly public.

Are we are going to go ahead and question that?

You've made a reference to um zone seven not owning land in Synol, but I think that zone seven owns land in unincorporated Pleasanton south of the Verona Bridge or right in that area.

I believe just north of the Verona Bridge, and it's a very big the maps here, the map uh don't make me find the page.

So we're gonna ask a question.

Does it matter that they don't own land in Sinnol?

Is that I feel like it does because I feel like people want them to be doing projects in Sonol from what I gathered, come do work in our community, and they can't.

Because they don't have jurisdiction over anything.

Correct.

So they can't just go on private property and do whatever they want.

Thank you.

They can't they can't enter enter Andrew's backyard or SFPUC land.

Get it, but but but now we're talking about SFQC or or anybody else.

Yeah, they can't go into Caltrans property and do whatever they want.

Caltrans is responsible for Caltrans, you're responsible for you.

Yeah, we're not gonna I don't want to debate it further, but I but we will be addressing that specific issue.

Okay.

Hey, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, let's go on to item eight.

Update on the status of general plan amendments and the safety element.

I'm back.

Allie.

It's back.

It is cold in here.

I'd like to be the air conditioner.

It is opening.

Yeah.

Um so I'm back.

Uh so this is an item that yeah, we have talked about several times.

Um, and I'm happy to be back here.

And so much of what has, you know, come up in this meeting, even what you know, what Chief Terra was talking about, has applied to, you know, to some of what we're talking about tonight.

So it's uh all really helpful information.

I've been taking a lot of notes.

Um just some general info, you can go ahead and go to the next slide.

Um, for the record, I'm Ally Abers from the planning department here to present about the safety element amendments.

Um, so we presented um to your committee on um February 21st of 2024 about this item.

So we presented a draft of the safety element.

Um, two drafts ago at this point, January 2024, um, and your council voted to, along with all of the other MACs, for the MACs and the Agricultural Advisory Committee to forward um that draft to the planning commission uh with a recommendation for adoption.

Um, and you had a few additional recommendations, so just to jog your memory on that, those were to insert language into the safety element to address concerns related to the definition and recognition of creeks in the public works agency's waterforce protection ordinance and the corresponding protection that that recognition affords to those impacted waterways.

Um the second was to include public works in a progress report, an annual progress report on the implementation of the safety element.

Um, and then the third was to um edit a policy in the safety element, policy P10, that's on chapter one, section four of the safety element, to include large public property owners, for example, East Bay Regional Parks and SFPUC, um, in that policy, and that policy states that the county shall work with Alameda County Flood Control District and Zone 7 and your uh recommending the addition of more uh more agencies to provide for development of adequate storm drainage and flood control systems to serve existing and future development.

So that's just a reminder of the action that you took at your previous meeting.

Um, so I'll move on to some general additional general information.

So Castor Valley Mac, Eden Area MAC, Fairview MAC, and the Agricultural Advisory Committee also voted to recommend approval.

Um staff then presented uh that draft to the planning commission on um May 20th of 2024 and December 2nd of 2024.

And I did mention that there have been a couple of drafts in between.

So the third draft is or third revised draft is before you today.

The second revised draft, the only difference were a few additional um changes that we made in response to comments from Calfire, so uh nothing to do with flooding in that change.

Um so on both of those dates in uh 2024, the planning commission voted to continue the item.

Um, and their reasoning was uh was that they cited concerns that the draft didn't clearly address jurisdictional responsibility for flood control and flood response in Synol.

And they also recognize uh requested that we add language that would emphasize the need for a redundant emergency notification system for rural areas.

I don't have anything, like not even your slide.

I don't have my slides.

Do you want to no, that's fine.

We can sit together, you can look at them whenever you want.

You want to go it's a nobody can see them, huh?

Yeah, nobody can see them.

I am except for what's on there.

Is that okay?

Okay, you don't have to go ahead.

Just to hear.

Sorry about that.

Um, so what I'll be talking about tonight um are changes that we've made to the safety element um since your last meeting um in response to those comments from the planning commission.

So this is the November 2025 draft safety element, and I think there is a printed copy of the safety element back there.

Um so the staff recommendation next to please, thanks.

Just you know, as we dive into this, um, is that you review the 2025 November 2025 draft safety element amendments, take public testimony, provide some comments, consider any revisions that you'd like to make to your motion in February of 2024, and vote to forward the current draft, November 2025 draft safety element, um, and the CEQA notice of exemption to the Planning commission with a recommendation for approval to the Board of Supervisors.

Um that's teeing us up for a review.

Next slide of what is the safety element?

So the safety element, uh safety element 101, it's a required element of the Alameda County General Plan.

Its purpose is to identify hazards, those are natural and human-made hazards, and to establish goals and policies to reduce risks to life and property.

The last time the Board of Supervisors adopted a comprehensive update of the safety element was in 2013.

And it has been amended a few times since, and it was most recently amended in 2022 to incorporate the 2021 local hazard mitigation plan.

So state law requires that local jurisdictions update their safety elements every eight years consistent with the housing element cycle, which, as you may recall, just happened.

So the Board of Supervisors adopted the updated housing element in late 2024.

And so we're required to update the safety element for consistency with a number of laws here.

They're listed on the page, but I'll just briefly say that they have to do with climate adaptation, identifying residential developments in hazard areas that have only one egress or one evacuation route, identifying locations and evacuation routes, I'm sorry, evacuation locations and evacuation routes, and how well those routes will do under a variety of emergency scenarios.

And it also requires a safety element to address extreme heat as a hazard.

So a bit about the amendment process.

This project, as you might recall, was initially combined with an update to the climate action plan, but those are now following separate tracks to adoption.

So climate action plan will be back with you in the future, but not today.

We began our technical analysis for this project in 2022.

We circulated our first draft in 2023, and we've uh put out two additional drafts since then.

So one draft in January of 2024, and then another draft in April of 2024 with Calfire's comments.

And then the third revised draft is the one that's before you tonight, and that is tentatively scheduled for board presentation in early 2026.

So a bit about navigating this draft.

So if you've got the draft on the table there, if you're looking at it online, like I said, it is an amendment to the existing document.

So it's not brand new.

And the way you can tell what's changing, if it's an underline, it's new.

If it's been crossed out, it's something that we're proposing to remove.

So underline stuff new, crossed out, going away.

There are some of those hard tracks that are highlighted in yellow.

Those are the hard tracks that were recommended by Calfire in 2020 or May of 2024.

The hard tracks that are highlighted in blue are the ones that we've added since, oh I'm sorry, this is since the planning commission's December 2nd meeting on this topic.

So the blue highlighted items are the ones I'm really going to be talking about today.

So these are super tiny.

So I'm just gonna, I'm gonna read them out loud, and I apologize for the teeny tiny words.

So this is November 2025 changes.

So we included an introduction in the document that describes this amendment process, all of our public engagement, and a number of paragraphs that describe specifically the community engagement process that's happened here in Synol, and your concerns about flooding and how those concerns in turn helped us develop the document.

There's also a section in chapter one that includes an expanded discussion of the flood control district.

So what Lindsay was just talking about, uh Alameda County Flood Control and Zone 7, their jurisdictional boundaries, how they're managed, their governance, etc.

So a very small version of what Lindsay was just saying is also captured, and it points to the document, that 200 page document that Lindsay is going to deliver to the planning commission in a couple of weeks.

It also includes a map that very clearly shows the boundaries of the flood control district.

So there's a map in the draft document that shows zone seven, Alameda County Flood Control, and very clearly shows that Synol is in Zone 7.

There's also a number of policies that we have added, and I'll go through those in a second.

So we'll just skip to the next slide and I can.

Oh, here.

So description of the flood control agencies.

I might just skip to do you want me to read this or would you like?

So I have, I actually have the changes here, and I could read them if you want to hear them, or I know it's late.

It's up to you.

Oh well, still looking at it.

Yeah, okay.

So flood control.

So let's read the description of the flood control agencies.

So this is the new description.

So for flood control and protection purposes, Alameda County is divided into 10 zones that roughly correspond to major watershed boundaries.

The Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, a dependent special district of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, provides flood protection for zones two, 2A, 3A, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 12.

Oh, and 13.

In Western Alameda County.

And that includes the urban unincorporated communities of Ashland, Castro Valley, Cherryland, Fairview, Hayward Acres, and San Lorenzo.

That flood control district was created in 1949 when the state legislature passed Act 205 of the California Uncodified Water Code.

Act 205 defines the flood control district's role in providing for the control and conservation of flood and storm waters.

Under Act 205, the flood control district is authorized to protect all waterways, watersheds, harbors, and public highway, in addition to lives and property from damage or destruction caused by flood and storm waters throughout its jurisdiction.

Through the Alameda County Public Works Agency, the flood control district administers flood control programs and services, including the planning and delivery of projects and maintenance and operations of more than 500 miles of flood control facilities in western Alameda County.

And then we talk about zone seven.

We have one copy, right?

I save television copy of this.

So maybe you could give it to Lon.

Absolutely.

And point out the page numbers.

Yes.

So front.

Oh wait.

No, but does she need to read it?

Well, that I can I can go on to the policies if that's helpful, but I I could I would also be happy to show this to them after the meeting if that's helpful.

Um what do you prefer?

That's up to you.

Okay.

Yeah, let's just keep going because time is okay.

You got it.

But here, if you'd like to look at that.

Um, all right, so uh it does go on to describe zone seven.

It's very consistent with what you heard from Lindsay previously.

Um so these descriptions are both in there.

It talks about zone seven as a also a dependent special district that has its own board of directors.

Um, and it largely quotes both of these, these sections, so about Alameda County flood control and zone seven, it quotes their own documents about how they run themselves.

Um so I encourage you to take a look at that section if you'd like to read more.

Next is the map.

So here's the map.

Very clearly shows the green on the right is zone seven.

Synol is that black outlined polygon fully within zone seven.

So clearly shows you are definitely within zone seven, uh, and then the location of the other unincorporated communities in the flood control district uh on the west side.

Next slide.

So these are the flood-related policy additions.

These are in the draft safety element.

So these are on, I don't know what page they are on.

Uh I can help you find them.

You want me to find them for you?

Oh, you're you're in there.

So it's in chapter three.

Um, in the flood control section.

So the first is the county shall seek opportunities to empower property owners in flood-prone areas with information about flood risk and with tools to identify mitigation, adaptation, and resilient strategies that property owners can take to better protect their homes and businesses from the impact of future flooding.

So that's the first policy that's policy 24.

Policy 25, the county shall continue efforts that began in 2025 through the Office of the District One Supervisor to collaborate with relevant public agencies to discuss and address flood mitigation and response in the community of Sinol.

Policy 26.

So this goes to the local hazard mitigation plan that Lindsay was just talking about.

When updating the local hazard mitigation plan in 2026 and in subsequent update cycles, the county shall actively seek input from the community of Sinnol, the flood control agency in which it is located, and other relevant agencies, including the Alameda County Office of Emergency Services to ensure at minimum that the local hazard mitigation plan one accurately reflects past flood events and future flood risk in SINOL.

Two documents the existing authorities, policies, programs, and resources available for flood mitigation and response in SINOL.

And three, within the scope of the county's authority and in partnership with the relevant flood control agency, presents goals to reduce and avoid long-term flood vulnerabilities in Synol, a range of specific mitigation actions to reduce the effects of floods in Sinnol, and an action plan that describes how the county will work with relevant agencies to prioritize, implement, and administer those actions.

It's a really long one.

So policy 27, the county shall urge the Zone 7 Water Agency to engage Synol residents in the development of and subsequent updates to Zone 7's comprehensive flood management plan and support Zone 7 in its engagement efforts with a goal of ensuring that Synol's interests are embedded in the zone in Zone 7's efforts to optimize flood management and flood protection within its jurisdiction.

And 28, so this is the final flood-related item.

When mining operations and reclamation activities cease at the chain of lakes quarries, the county shall support the transfer of the site to the Zone 7 Water Agency, enabling Zone 7 to begin implementation of its long-term plan to acquire and utilize the chain of lakes for seasonal water storage and conveyance and flood water detention and conveyance.

That's quite a lot.

And there are more changes, so we'll go on to those.

So these are other changes.

Yeah, here.

My policies only go down to number 11.

This is my copy then.

So they are in.

Chapter 1 flood hazards.

So they're on page 50.

Here we go.

So 54 and 55 is the description of the flood control districts.

And the new map is on page 61.

Okay.

And policies are on page 68.

And one on the top of 69.

Yeah.

So those are all the new policies.

Yeah.

Oh.

So additional changes, and I'm not gonna go too into depth on these.

We did add some language to indicate that with this update, we're also achieving some compliance with some additional laws.

So that's great.

We're excited about that.

Um, there is also a new map or a set of new maps to reflect.

You may know from from Chief Terra that Calfire released new local hazards or sorry, uh local responsibility area maps, and uh Alameda County adopted those.

So the maps have been updated to reflect the new Calfire maps.

So just some changes to the fire hazard zone maps to reflect new information.

Um we also made some edits to reflect that the county's Office of Emergency Services have has adopted a new emergency operations plan.

That was uh in 2025.

We also incorporated the emergency operations plan mass care and shelter plan by reference into the document.

And as you might recall, uh the planning commission asked for some uh some policies to recognize the importance of redundant uh emergency notification system.

So there's also a policy in chapter three, section 1.4, it's policy four.

The county shall prioritize development of redundant emergency notification systems in known hazard areas without adequate communication methods.

So, and they're all highlighted in blue.

I've noticed that the blue is very hard to read in your printed version.

It's easier to see online, so I apologize for that.

Um next slide about environmental reviews.

So this is a bit about CEQA.

We have prepared a draft notice of exemption, and this is um uh not subject to CEQA because just like the last item, it would not result in a directly or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment and uh pursuant to the common sense exemption.

Next slide, please.

So this is something I'm actually really excited to share with you.

You may recall a few months ago, um, your council voted to send a letter to the board of supervisors recommending nomination of uh the Synol Area Creeks, as it was called as a priority conservation area, and that was in order to position Synol to apply for funding to support flood adaptation efforts.

So, with your recommendation, the board made that nomination and the association of Bay Area governments uh adopted the Sinnal Area Creeks as a priority conservation area in September.

Then on November 4th, or sorry, I guess it was the or late October.

They released a call for grant proposals for projects within designated priority conservation areas, and the creeks that converge upon Synol are now priority conservation areas and eligible uh to apply for that grant funding.

Um, so eligible applicants would include local governments, special districts, tribes, nonprofits, or other community-based organizations.

So quite a broad group of um potential applicants.

Letters of interest are due uh on the 19th of December, and full applications are due on March 20th.

And there's more information in a QR code if anybody's interested in checking that out, or you can contact me directly.

I'd be happy to direct you to that.

That application is open now.

Um next slide, please.

Teeny tiny conclusion.

So in conclusion, um, uh staff requests that your council review that November 2025 draft, take public testimony, provide us with comments, consider any revisions that you'd like to make to your February 21st um vote on this matter, and and then vote to forward this November 2025 draft of the safety element and that CEPA notice of exemption to the planning commission with a recommendation for adoption by the board.

Um, so prior to voting, you may wish to discuss and propose additional changes that you'd like to recommend to the board.

Um and as I mentioned, we're scheduled to return to the board.

We're hoping in March, we'll be going to the planning commission on December 1st, and any uh comments that you make, um, questions that you have, uh recommendations that you have uh for the planning commission and the board, we will bring to them at that time.

Um thank you so much.

I know it's really late.

I'm done.

Thank you.

Well, I'm just done in this island.

Yeah.

I don't know how those policies are going to be implemented.

The notification system.

Nobody seems to respond to that when we bring that up.

Everybody seems to find it.

Okay.

Andrew, you have a comment.

Well, yeah, I went over and had a little side comment with this gentleman.

And I said, holy crap, they're listening to us.

There's a lot of really pro synol.

Um content in this that makes me the optimist feel great.

And the one thing he said was, yeah, but show me the show me the results, right?

Um however what Ali can control and what you guys can control as your response to uh do we have any edits, right?

The other thing is that when this goes to the Board of Supervisors, and I believe that does it go back to the planning commission first?

And then if the planning commission forwards it, it'll go.

Okay.

So tonight, I'm gonna encourage you, unless you have edits, to forward this as that you prove it because there's two other opportunities for the public to weigh in.

Um you can go to the planning to the planning commission, we were represented by this gentleman over here.

By the way, anything that you did that influenced that good for you because obviously, so then somebody's been listening for us.

The other one is we have the opportunity at the Board of Supervisors meeting to comment in public comment.

So, given that that there's still more opportunity, uh, if somebody could think of something, because that's a pretty damn big up document that you didn't you couldn't even hand it out, right?

I get it.

However, I want to apply and I want to apply the order of things tonight because it seems like there was a real logical flow that in the end uh we got to some news about what's going on with them, and then we have some news that the county seems to be taking very seriously.

Um, and it would be unfair to finish without saying, yes, we love what you're saying, but we want to see it done.

I don't disagree.

Yeah.

Do you think that they the changes that were made to the safety element document adequately respond to our concerns?

Yes, but I it's actually it's this is great.

Get 70 pages, that's great.

Now, what do we see in the next two years?

I mean, the fact that zone seven is now acknowledging that we exist, that's that's step one.

That's great.

Now what are we gonna do?

So we don't have our 100-year flood again in five years, two years.

And that's where to be clear, the results are not something that we have any control over.

Right.

And yeah, I mean, I if I can just address that a little bit.

What we are trying to do in this long-range policy document to the extent we're able is to tee up additional opportunities, additional areas where the public is going to be able to engage on this and additional areas where uh you know, like for example, the local hazard mitigation plan, that is a county document.

So that is another place where you will be able to engage specifically and they will come.

DJ will come get his haircut and then come and hang out in Snoll um and engage specifically on flood control concerns, and uh while we don't have control over zone seven and their flood management plan, uh, we can urge and prevent present as many opportunities as possible for them to bring that plan to you for engagement.

Um so trying to tee up as many opportunities as we can.

And I know that that's I wish that I could fix I wish that I could fix this in this document.

I wish that we could, it's it's unfortunately outside of the yeah, what the the safety element can do.

Okay.

Um so I move that we support this document.

Not just no, not just accept it, but support the changes that you made, think they were responsive to our concerns, and that it goes on to the planning commission with our recommendation to approve it.

I'll second that.

Sound good.

May I just ask a clarifying question?

Um, so about your motion last time.

There were some specific items that you wanted to see.

Do you still want to see those changes that you proposed in your in your previous motion?

Do those still stand?

Yes.

Okay.

So with those changes, those changes that you recommended before.

And okay, that's helpful.

Thank you.

I'll second the motion.

Councilmember Conan.

Approve.

Council Member Harrison.

Approved.

Councilman.

Council Member Stark?

Chair DeGrange?

Approved.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good work, Alec.

Thank you.

You have a little as usual.

Like a bunch of holes in the plug.

Yeah, yeah, just any of them.

Well, the next thing is the 2026 meeting schedule.

That's there's a handout there in your packet.

There's no meeting in August or December.

Because a couple of us have several of us have conflicts during that period of time, and we just wanted to plan for that.

I also think that on a month to month basis, we might want to talk about whether we want to shift our meeting so that we could go to the zone seven meetings when they have their when they are discussing the plan, the management plan.

Does that sound?

I mean, we we meet this day because of tradition because of what how do we why do we meet on this particular site?

Is it written somewhere that we must?

It is written in our policies and proceed rules and procedures.

It also requires coordination because the clerk is here, right?

And they also support all the other advisory councils.

So we need to fit in with that schedule.

Got it.

So if we do change the date of our meeting on a month that we want to go to the zone seven meeting, we'll have to coordinate with clerk schedule with the school schedule, everything else.

Okay, it's not an easy thing to do, but but it might be worth doing.

I don't know.

Yeah, I don't have an issue with that.

But there's seven people on that board, and uh, you know, I know she says they're dependent, but these guys are making the decisions, you know, and and we need to get involved maybe in some of this stuff.

I'm like Jenny, I you know, specifically and we get something done.

I mean, I believe that you know it's when I said the mitigation factor, we're doing okay, but if something that they make a decision on cause of damage or problems for us, is there some way we can get involved in that and and ask them to re-guide the waters?

This redo this and that thing, I think it's a preventative prophylactic type of stuff, so maybe it's a good idea, you know.

I don't know that we'll get anywhere, frankly.

But it's worth a shot.

You know, so this schedule as it's laid out is good to go for 2026.

Yep, anybody want to make a motion?

Uh make a motion that we approve the 2026 schedule, meeting schedule.

Council member Conan?

Approve.

Council member Harrison, Council Member Start, Chair Greens.

Approved.

Okay.

So um item 10, the December meeting.

So we traditionally do not have a December meeting.

A lot of us spend time volunteering, working.

Yeah.

Um December is an incredibly busy month for a lot of people.

Um right now we have Lindsay has set up two meetings, the town hall on the OWTS and permits, and all of a meeting on the 17th for the Brown Act.

And then there's also the budget meeting on 12 3 on third.

Can you go to the budget meetings?

I cannot have conflicts.

I have a conflict too.

How about you?

Doing the Brown meeting, but I don't know.

I can do Brown and that's it.

I could do the Brownwood.

Yeah, but one of the other meetings.

Instead of responding to me by email saying you can't and can't come, I'll take it as none of you can make it to the meeting on the unincorporated budget.

Okay, sounds good.

I'll let them know.

Yeah, December.

Any other comments, thoughts?

Did you have a comment on item 10, the December meeting?

Yeah, I I don't understand why we would have that meeting.

Um I don't think unless somebody says something different.

I don't know of any urgency to do that.

And so my personal opinion is that we don't have we shouldn't have that meeting.

Thank you.

Would I be able to respond?

Go for it.

There are changes to the Brown Act, changes that literally just took place.

Some of them are going into effect in January.

And so you guys will actually be getting the very first most up-to-date training that then will have to go to all the other meetings, the other Mac meetings.

So those changes are what caused this meeting, unfortunately, not great timing, but important because all the other Macs received a Brown Act training already this year.

Unfortunately, that training is not the latest and greatest because these new things just happened.

So that is why we are having it.

So the question then is what is the urgency of this Brown Act training December 31st?

Because somebody told you or told the county that, or the lawyers, or is this that the training needs to be in place before the January meeting?

Well, none of the other advisory councils are gonna get the training until 2026.

So literally, there's no urgency.

So there's no urgency.

Can you address the urgency?

I guess it's not so much a matter of why versus why not.

We are we have it on the books.

Okay.

So our why not is that we don't want to do it.

I'll let them know.

Thank you.

That's my opinion.

I'm sorry.

That was just my opinion.

You guys make the decision.

That already made that very clear that I was not a big fan of it in December.

I did too.

Uh do you guys make a motion to decline the meeting or something?

Sounds like Lindsay can reschedule it for January.

I can let county council know of your desire.

It's okay with me.

It is not my meeting, thus it is not my decision to reschedule it.

It is, it is, it's really incredibly busy.

Yeah, well, there'll be nobody at a meeting that they choose to call.

I mean, I have received confirmation that some of the individuals on the board on the council will be there.

So maybe those individuals now intend not to be.

One of them's got an injury excuse.

Well, then it is the do you guys need to make a motion and and vote on this?

Because if if she's if there really is an underlying thing where some of the people are willing to go, I think that needs to come on the record because no leader.

We made a motion to have a December meeting.

We never change the schedule.

Okay.

Well, I'm just asking.

Yeah.

So do you guys have any discussion on this amongst you guys?

Because there's is there somebody amongst us who wants this?

I just I just Lindsay and I've had a couple of conversations on the telephone, and um I didn't see at the time what this huge rush was to have a meeting in December for the Brown Act.

Um, and um, you know, can I clear my schedule in December 17th?

Yes, is it gonna work for I mean, is it a good time for me?

No, professionally, no, um, so pretty busy.

I tend to be pretty busy in the month of December, yeah.

Um, so you know if we want to need to go on record and make a motion that says we do not want this meeting, we don't have to, though, right?

You wouldn't be able to take a vote on something because it's not labeled as an action item, but I can certainly pass the law.

Okay, humanly, okay.

I didn't hear what it is we disagree on, but county council has informed me that you can't take an action on something not listed as an action item, but I can go ahead and take your feedback that you would prefer it become part of your January regular.

I mean you said strongly prefer that would be a pretty accurate statement.

Is the preference that it would be on your January regular meeting?

Special meeting, we could have a special meeting in January.

We do not want a special meeting in December.

I will pass that along and see what they say.

The public suggests that you vote.

They cannot.

She's saying, but the public is just asked for a vote.

Does that mean that she can tell me we can't have a vote?

No, but I can inform you what county council has advised.

I don't give a care what they're advising.

I care that in this meeting, I would like to have a vote.

Can I ask for that?

Is that a legal?

Is that legal for me to request a vote?

Vote.

And if it's true, the county council says we can't.

Then they can nullify it.

True, but I move that we vote.

You can't move, make a motion.

That would be no.

Okay, but from the public, this is the public comment.

Upward.

Up vote.

Okay.

I'll move that we do not have a meeting on December 17th.

I'm uh, I'll take it.

Second it, I'll second that.

All right.

Council member Conan.

Approved.

Council member Harrison.

Abstain.

Councilmember Stark.

Chair DeGrange.

Agreed.

Thank you.

I can't be there anyway.

I have a scheduling conflict.

So I don't have a I don't have a horse in the fight.

Okay.

So we go on to item 11.

Approved minutes.

We have two sets of minutes.

Okay.

So first one is to the August minutes.

Shabon, is there any way we can get back to a faster schedule and get these sooner?

This is an important ads though.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is the one that talks about what we talked about tonight.

But the super stop.

Yes.

Yeah.

It also was the meeting where you spay regional parks came too.

And um, in that meeting, they talked about I went back and I listened to the minutes.

And um Celini Sanchez mentioned that the emergency routes are not suitable for most passenger cars.

In addition, the main water line for Pleasanton water customers is exposed and vulnerable at some damage drainage areas.

They're working with Lesnon Water to come to agreement to maintain their infrastructure.

And we told the audience that that would be in the minutes.

But the clerk's office is saying because it was she meant she said that in response to a question from the public that it does not go in the minutes.

So we don't have it in our minutes.

So can we not approve the minutes?

Yeah.

Well, if we can ask to have a foot in.

It's the item, we are on item 11, approved minutes.

Oh my.

I think that's a problem because this is something that was so important to KillCare Woods.

We've had several meetings on it.

They came here, they apologized for the problem.

They laid out what needs to be done to make evacuation happen through the canyon to um through the park.

And people said, were you gonna send us a letter?

You're gonna send that in writing, and we said it will be in the minutes.

So I think it needs to be in the minutes.

So I don't know if you have any other comments on the thing, you weren't there okay.

I'm not there.

You have any other comments on the you can vote to send a letter the next month.

I'm not writing a letter, it's in the minutes.

Um I have a motion that we approve the minutes with the addition of that paragraph.

I can then public comments.

Yeah, so I'm just saying we have a motion, is it second?

No, yeah, second.

Okay, okay.

Now we'll have a discussion.

I assume I have to abstain since I was not present.

Okay, that was good.

August meeting.

I couldn't hear you.

I'm abstained because I was not present at the August meeting.

Okay, then we'll have public comments, Andrew.

Okay.

What I just heard is that public testimony that is said in this meeting, there may be a policy to not list it in the minutes.

I have a real problem with that.

This meeting, if you think that it serves the county, and this is on the county's benefit, that's fine.

But we in Synol believe it serves the citizens, and when it serves the citizens and the citizens speak, and then other things and anything is said, that ought to be in the minutes.

Let's start to treat this MAC with the with or or Sunol Citizens Advisory Council with the seriousness that it deserves.

Thank you.

Just to be clear, somebody speaks, they do say the person is speaking, but this was East Bay Regional Parks replying and participating in the discussion about what it would take to evacuate through the park.

Under the circumstances, I stand even stronger that that is absolutely something that should be in the minutes on the public's behalf.

Okay, call for a vote.

Today, council member approved council member, to Grange, approved.

Okay, patch one eleven B is the September minutes.

We have a comment there too.

Make it.

Was from Irene Martin asking if somebody could reimburse Wayne Camp Campiati for his transportation to Sinnol.

And um after the meeting, I found a sponsor for Wayne so that he could continue to do the plant maintenance on Main Street.

And I so um I just wanted to say that I I had put in that sentence in there.

I know it was subsequent to the meeting, but it just closes the loop that we have been following up.

I suppose I could put that in the next meeting, which was a special meeting, as a comment.

October, yeah.

Is it relevant?

That's why I said I can pass on it too.

Yeah, but I think it's very relevant, regardless of showing responsiveness to the so he was working till the end, right?

About that, till the end.

Is that you asked a question as to whether it was appropriate to change the minutes tonight or wait?

Is that what you said?

Um, is there another way that we can show our responsiveness to the public without getting into this conversation with the clerk's office?

I think the clerk's office needs to serve us.

Where did this come from?

How can you take away what this what the people of Sennol and the and this group?

How can you take away things that from the minutes?

I find that unconscionable.

It is a policy that they don't take, they don't they don't they try to describe what is actionable, the actionable items of the agenda of the meeting, not necessarily all the dialogue because they have the the recording.

Is the recording always released to the public?

Yes, yeah, the medial.

Is it released to the public timely?

Oh.

So in this case, we're talking some timeliness.

Can we tolerate editing of the minutes?

In my opinion.

How do we want to show responsiveness?

Is literally what it's working what I'm talking about.

Do we wait until the next month and talk about it?

Or do I put it or do we put in a note in the minute saying this is how this was the follow-up?

If it's for short sentence, an addendum essentially to the well, the fact is you're doing exactly what you're supposed to do and saying why is this in here?

Then we need to get a solution to make sure it gets put in even if it's late.

Right.

This is the reason you said anybody got a comment on this, and you do, we need to rectify it.

And so, you know, let's make the um some sort of motion to make sure it's in the next minutes as an addendum.

Well, we have to read it back to the um to make sure that it's in the September minutes.

Well, you can't make it a September minutes because we've gone by them already.

So we'll put an agenda to the September minutes.

We're talking about the September means, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So you're not gonna September's gone.

So if you want to get this in print someplace, it's got to be done after the fact in the next month.

Yes.

Which would be October or toward this one.

Okay.

That's because you just got the.

Well, the clerks allow us, office allow us to add a comment under staff and council comments, even though I'm making them right now.

Uh, check, but you can edit the, you can make the motion to edit.

I have to double check.

Motion to edit the minutes, edit the comment if you want to add the comment to the September minutes.

Oh, so we can make a motion to add the comment to the September minutes of what she said.

Correct.

Okay.

And do that.

Make the motion.

There you go.

I move that um under the public comments, we include the um note that we followed up.

We found a sponsor for Wayne, and then Wayne passed away.

September.

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

No, no, no, no, you were gone.

I think you were gone.

Sorry, I'm reading the wrong line.

Okay.

Is that seconded?

Yes.

I'll second that.

Council member Conan?

Councilmember Harrison?

Approved.

Councilmember Stark?

Chair DeGrinch?

Approved.

Okay.

We're on item number 12.

We are adjourned.

Awesome.