The Burlingame Voice

Good News

From the Daily Journal:

The Burlingame Lions Club donated $1250 to CALL Primrose.

- Written by jean

Monday's Council Meeting - Something for Everyone

The City Council agenda includes: (click here for full agenda)

* Introduction of newly appointed Police Commander
* Introduction of newly appointed Public Works Superintendent
* Community Engagement Policy and Procedures
* Consider three appointments to the Civil Service Commission Appoint
* Implementation of a City of Burlingame Best Business Landscape Award Approve
* Approval of changes to Compensation and Benefit Plan for Department Head and Unrepresented Classifications - Approve
* Declaring Results of November 6, 2007 Election Approve
* Remarks of outgoing Council Member Russ Cohen
* Swearing in of new Council Member Jerry Deal
* Planning Commission vacancies
* Caltrans Planting of Trees on El Camino Real

- Written by Fiona

Library Events for December

The Burlingme Library has - as usual - come up with some fabulous holiday programs;

The Peninsula Girls Chorus Concerta singers
Tuesday, December 4
7:00 p.m.,
Lane Community Room

Musician Jim Stevens leads our annual fireside holiday sing-along
Wednesday, December 19
7:00 p.m.
Easton Branch.

Puppet Art Theater presents Little Red Riding Hood? with a holiday twist.
Saturday, December 22
11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m
Lane Community Room.
Free tickets will be available at the Children's Desk beginning December 15.

- Written by Fiona

Safeway - Keep on Trucking!

Safeway Working Group gets down to details - Truck access controversy helped quash 2004 redevelopment plans (by Mark Abramson, Daily News)

The group working to redevelop the Safeway site on Howard Avenue in Burlingame took on its first major challenge Wednesday night -- finding a way for delivery trucks to access the property without backing up traffic or interfering with pedestrians.

The site of the 33-year-old store is not very compatible with truck traffic, and being along El Camino Real, a state highway, compounds the problem. Creating a driveway along El Camino Real would require Caltrans' approval, city officials said. "I think Caltrans will look at a traffic study for the overall project," Burlingame Public Works Director Syed Murtuza said. Caltrans will likely consider how much traffic delay a truck turning into the driveway would cause, the alignment of the driveway to the street and other factors, Murtuza said.

Other options would be to put a driveway on Primrose Road or Howard Avenue. Those options would not require Caltrans approval, but were rejected by opponents who helped defeat Safeway's redevelopment plans in 2004, City Manager Jim Nantell said. "It was a very hard issue last time. Everyone pretty much agrees that (a driveway) doesn't belong on Howard or Primrose," Nantell said.

The Safeway Working Group includes representatives from Safeway, residents who live near the store, the Burlingame Chamber of Commerce and downtown property owners and merchants. The grass-roots group Citizens for a Better Burlingame, which helped defeat the earlier plan for a 62,000-square-foot grocery store, is also part of the group.

Redevelopment possibilities for the site include using it only for a Safeway, making it mixed-use commercial and residential, and building a small mall that includes a grocery store and various other retailers. A final proposal could take up to 1 1/2 years to complete and get approved, city officials have said.

"Last night is the first night we had what I call 'creative chaos,' " Candace Hathaway, the consultant the city hired to facilitate the group, said Thursday. Group members shared ideas and worked with a makeshift model to determine how putting the driveway along El Camino Real would work, Hathaway said.

The group will perform similar exercises at its December meetings to evaluate the idea of the driveway on Primrose Road and Howard Avenue. If the El Camino Real option is pursued, the driveway would be created in the southwest corner of the site, just south of Burlingame Avenue. "We want to use as little of the site as possible for trucks," Hathaway said.

Next meetings - 12/12/07 and 12/19/07.

- Written by Fiona

Public Art Courtesy of our Library

A pair of bronze lions purchased as a Centennial gift to the City by the
Library Board of Trustees will be installed Thursday and Friday of this week
on the plinths on the main library front porch.

The Lions will be a permanent installation and a lasting gift to celebrate
the Burlingame Public Library's Centennial, October 11, 2009.

The Lions will be dedicated at a later date.

- Written by Fiona

California Drive Nursing Home Project

Sky-high worries over senior home - (Examiner)

Burlingame residents such as Katie Treu who live behind a proposed senior-care facility they describe as towering? are gathering to shut down the revised plan of the building despite the city's attempts to appease the dozens of concerned homeowners.

Treu and other residents living behind a one-story building on 755 California Drive, where a 51-foot-tall residential nursing home is proposed, are amassing for a neighborhood meeting this weekend to oppose the structure and may even picket in front of the site in a few weeks. They claim the building will block sunlight, lower their property values and increase traffic. Only a fence and a small space separate the back of the lot for the proposed facility from the backyard of a home. Treu estimated that about 100 residents in the immediate vicinity behind the lot would be affected.

Developer Dale Meyer said in September that he was working to possibly lower the back height or increase landscaping for the $8 million project to ease residents' worries. A revised plan submitted Oct. 18 does feature a shift in square footage away from the neighborhood on the top two floors of the four-story building, planner Ruben Hurin said.

The residents say numerous letters to planning commissioners, the City Council and Meyer have gone unreturned, and that the new plan is not any better than the old one. We were totally neglected just slapped in the face,? said Treu, who lives on Neuchatel Avenue, the street behind the lot. A project like this should never even get this far,? added Brian McGinn, who lives behind the lot on Palm Drive. This is outlandish what they're tying to put in.?

But the city is setting aside time at its Dec. 10 Planning Commission meeting to weigh the concerns of the residents as well as Meyer's desire for the project, just as it did earlier in the year, Community Development Director Bill Meeker said. At some point, the commission needs to approve a permit for the site, which is zoned for commercial purposes.

Businesses have also complained that street parking would fill up, although Meyer said in September that an underground parking facility for employees would be sufficient. He did not return calls for comment Wednesday.

Residents are also worried that the building's approval would create a precedent for larger construction in the area, which contains mostly small shops.

- Written by Fiona

Beautification Meeting on December 6

Agenda for the Beautification Meeting on December 6 at 5:30 pm includes the following:

Arbor Day 2008 Planning - Discussion
(a) Tree Planting at Local Elementary and Junior High Schools - Supt. Richmond
(b) Centennial Tree Planting on Canon Island in March 2008

1. Easton Drive Tree Assessment Report & Sudden Oak Death Report Kevin Kielty, Kielty Arborist Services
2. El Camino Real Elm Tree Planting Project Update Director Schwartz
3. Replacement of Female Gingko Trees on Donnelly Avenue General Discussion

- Written by Fiona

BESD - Budget Woes are Not Going Away

Burlingame schools look at list of cuts - District needs to trim $525,000 from budget (by Mark Abramson, Daily News)

Burlingame School District Trustees voted unanimously during a special study session Tuesday night to cut spending this year and to approve a process for reducing next year's budget by $525,000. Superintendent Sonny Da Marto said the decision to make $445,000 in immediate spending cuts in the district's administration office would not impact the classrooms.

The trustees' vote on a process for reducing the 2008-09 fiscal year budget, which takes effect on July 1, calls for the district to conduct surveys in February and hold forums in early 2008 to get public input on what cuts should be made. The final findings are scheduled to be presented in May, and the budget is expected to be adopted in June.

The 2007-08 budget is about $19 million. The 2008-09 budget has not been set yet. "It is our hope that we could do this with as little pain as possible, but we have to tighten our belts," Superintendent Sonny Da Marto said before the meeting. "There are not a whole lot of options (for generating money)."

Board members have a seven-page list of potential cuts to choose from that totals $1.7 million. The district made $750,000 in cuts last school year. The potential cost-cutting measures on the list include eliminating a teacher position at McKinley Elementary School to save $63,000; cutting library staff to save $113,000; and removing a bilingual aid to save $25,500. Maintenance operations and the district's summer school could also see cuts. "The 2008-09 process will be more difficult," Board President Dave Pine said. "We need lots of input and lots of discussion. It's a very complicated process."

One of the reasons that the district faces a shortfall is because McKinley Elementary School had 31 fewer students enrolled than expected this year, which cost the district about $225,000 in state funding, Da Marto said.

Trustee Marc Friedman pointed out that the district does not have to cut as much as it anticipated because the costs of benefits and other expenses are less than expected.

Board Vice President Michael Barber said other districts are facing budget woes as well. "This is an ongoing issue in California. It's not going away," he said.

- Written by Fiona

New Restaurant in Burlingame

Does anyone have any information on the new restaurant that is opening on California Drive off Burlingame Ave. It is called YaYa and says it is billed as "NOMAD" food.
I am intrigued but cautious.

- Written by coachezwife

Safeway Working Group Meeting Tomorrow - November 28

The agenda for the next Burlingame Safeway Working Group on November 28 at City Hall includes the following:

7:05 7:20 p.m. Public Comment - - Maximum time for each speaker is three minutes. If there are more than five speakers, the maximum time will be fifteen minutes divided by the number of speakers

Information on CalTrans requirements
Information on the site culvert
Problem solving: loading dock location

8:30 - 8:45 p.m. Public comment - - Timing as above

The next regular Burlingame Safeway Working Group meetings are planned for
12/12/07 and 12/19/07.

- Written by Fiona