The Burlingame Voice

Thinking Sustainably

The Daily Journal is featuring out relatively new sustainability director, Sigalle Michael, in an article here.  Sigalle notes that

One of the initiatives Michael said she would like to see expanded is the Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, program which offers financing incentives to homeowners hoping to install sustainable improvements such as water conservation or renewable energy systems.

“I think there is a lot of potential in the home energy audit world, and that’s where I’m targeting my research right now,” she said.

The piece also notes that "She was hired in December, after spending eight previous years with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, also known as the company that promotes the Spare The Air Days across the region."  More recently the Air Quality Management District became known for a controversial plan to force homeowners to modify or brick over their existing fireplaces before they could be sold or rented out.  That initiative hit the press along side the chart showing a steady decline in the number of Spare The Air Days in the last 15 years and all of 33 violations in San Mateo County last year.  Sounds like the Air Quality District could use a lesson in Cost Benefit analysis. We have some Voice bloggers who know a thing or two about that.

In any case, welcome Sigalle.  I think you will find B'game receptive to things that make sense.

SFO: Noise Blowing Our Way

This afternoon is one of those days when my love-hate relationship with SFO airport swings towards the latter.  The wind is up and perhaps we have some sort of inversion layer.  Whatever the reason, the rush-hour jet departures are about as loud as they ever get in B'game.  It's the price we pay for a $20 cab ride to and fro every trip.

High-Cost Rail - Part Part 110 New CEO: Another View

Another regular Voice reader has offered to contribute on an important topic.  Local guy David Harris is a friend of mine who has spent a substantial amount of time reviewing the High-cost Rail machinations over the last few years.  Here he provides an important counterpoint to a local opinion piece:

In Monday’s edition of The Daily Journal, Columnist Sue Lempert writes about the selection of Jim Hartnett to replace Mike Scanlon as general manager of SamTrans, executive director of Caltrain and executive director of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority. Near column’s conclusion she she says:

“Then there is HSR where Hartnett’s experience and connections will come in handy. Despite the lawsuits which keep popping up, HSR is bound to happen (Hartnett called it a generational thing, meaning it make take a while for the entire system to get rolling). Before it will come Caltrain electrification, a much-needed environmental improvement which will also speed up the trains and allow for more stops. Most of the Peninsula cities are resigned with sharing Caltrain tracks with HSR, an improvement over the feared four-track system originally proposed. None of this will be easy and Hartnett has his work cut out for him.”

It depends on how you feel about HSR whether Hartnett’s experience and connections will come in handy - and hopefully it won’t be easy. He was on the High Speed Rail Authority’s board of directors when it was basically tone-deaf to the concerns of Peninsula residents when the four-track system was originally proposed. He was also on the board when the Authority’s PR--as-stakeholder-engagement strategy further alienated residents and elected officials up and down the Peninsula, leaving it with very little credibility. This is something Central Valley and southern California residents also have found out the hard way. And we better hope that most Peninsula cities, or at least their voters, are not “resigned” to Caltrain sharing the tracks with HSR. Train volume is projected to increase from 92 Caltrains per weekday in 2015 to a combined 220 Caltrain and HSR trains per day in 2030 – more than double, according to data shared by Burlingame city staff at the March 11 Broadway Grade Separation meeting at the Burlingame Rec Center.

Finally, it will not only be a “generational thing” to get the entire system rolling. It will also be a “generational thing” to come up with the estimated $55 billion needed to build the entire system, assuming of course the price tag remains at the current projected $68 billion. The next generation will be on the hook for even more money when costs inevitably increase.

If I have learned anything over the years in both business and politics it is that very few things are "inevitable" (Death and Taxes excepted, Ben Franklin).  Thanks, David for calling this out.

Spring Thinking

Spring has sprung.  The dogwoods and azaleas are in full bloom.  The Giants are headed home later this week to take the field against the A's.  And I am still pondering this note in the Friday, March 20 Daily Post's Police Blotter:

Burlingame; Wednesday

2:19 pm   Report of horses walking in the street, Trousdale Drive and Highway 35.

I'm trying to understand the mind of the person who saw some horses being ridden on Trousdale (let's assume they had riders since there has not been a wild Mustang in B'game in forever) and decided they should call the cops.  Earlier today Fred asserted that the Voice  "is mainly an anti-growth website" and that "Burlingame is our playground" should be the website motto.  I can agree with the second part.  And I can even see how he got to the first assertion although I would call my perspective more in line with "smart growth" when it meant adaptive reuse and before it was hijacked by TOD and the high-density concubines.  But back to the horses.  I've never owned a horse.  I doubt I ever will.  But I prefer to live in a city where a couple of horses walking on the side of the road with the bicyclists generates a smile instead of a call to the BPD.

Update:  How is this for luck.  A reader sent me this photo of horses on Douglas Ave. today.  I think they should be in the street!  :-)

Drought: A Finger in the Hole in the Dike

Unlike the little Dutch boy who saved his community from flooding with his finger, the latest maneuvering by the State will do little to resolve the long-term drought concerns.  Per the Mercury News/Times the actions include

Specifically, the rules adopted Tuesday:

• Ban all restaurants, bars and hotels from serving water unless customers ask for it. 
• Require all hotels and motels to provide signs in rooms telling guests that they have the option of choosing not to have towels and linens washed daily. 
• Ban Californians from watering lawns and landscaping with potable water within 48 hours after measurable rainfall. 
• Require cities, counties, water districts and private companies to limit lawn watering to two days a week if they aren't already limiting lawn and landscape watering to a certain number of days a week. The rule applies to all 411 water providers with more than 3,000 customers in California, covering more than 95 percent of the state's population. But there is a loophole: If water providers are already limiting days of the week, even if it is to three or more days, they can continue with those rules and not restrict watering to two days a week.

All of these new rules ignore the thirsty elephant in the room - continued massive, high-density, over-development.  It will take a lot of glasses of water, reused hotel towels,  and brown lawns to begin to cover the incremental thousands of new housing units already approved or on the dockets in the Bay Area.  One wonders where ABAG is on this issue???

Broadway: Grade Separation Dialog

I was out late last night for work, but Voice correspondent Betsy McGinn went to the big Broadway grade separation meeting and has filed this roving report and photo.  A big thank you, Betsy.

Last night’s Broadway Grade Separation meeting at the Burlingame Rec Center was better attended than the planners predicted.  With 80 or more community members plus all Council members, the consulting team and several city department heads attending, it was SRO.  There were lots of new faces, which is always a good thing for community involvement.

There was skepticism and concern by many, on topics ranging from “why is the city spending money to study to do a study?” (they are not - the city received $1 million for the study) to “Is this going to mean construction for countless years at this interchange given the current 101 project?” (good question!).  Several residents expressed concern about a grade separation promoting more traffic in the Broadway corridor and opening the door for high-speed Rail.  There was universal concern about the safety issues confronted by pedestrians and cyclists, not to mention what seems to be an increasingly common occurrence on the Peninsula – drivers unwisely stopping on the tracks with sometimes fatal consequences.

After an initial presentation by the consulting team from Apex Strategies and Burlingame Transportation Engineering Programs Manager Augustine Chou, groups were formed around tables covered with area maps, to come up with a list of issues and concerns.  The group then tried to come up with solutions to those issues.  There was universal agreement on the desire for underground or a trench for Cal Train. There was a wide variety of issues that demonstrated that we cannot look at this project in a vacuum as is it will have many impacts throughout Burlingame.

Regardless of our personal feelings about this issue, the fact remains that traffic will continue to increase from an already extreme 27,000 vehicles per day at this crossing and the number or trains is projected to increase from 98 today to 120 per day by 2020.  And if high-speed rail comes our way the number is projected to increase to 340 trains by 2030.

There is no easy solution but this was a first step in opening the conversation about this tough topic.  The next meeting will take place in May and a final meeting is expected in November in order for City Council to approve a plan by early 2016.

Developer Fees: The School District Ups the Ante

I'm a little behind, so here are some thoughts on the Daily Journal piece from two days ago that broke the story:

In an effort to offset escalating costs caused by projected enrollment hikes, officials in the Burlingame Elementary School District are considering increasing the fees charged to developers building new homes and office space in the area.

District officials are recommending the Board of Trustees approve hiking the fees for developing residential property to $3.36 per square foot and commercial or office space to 54 cents per square foot, at the meeting Tuesday, March 10.

I'll do the math for you since Austin Walsh didn't--that's 13% on residential and 15% on office/commercial.  Since I cannot recall these ever being raised, this doesn't seem usurious.  But the real interesting bit was this

Over the next five years, the district expects 125 units of housing will be built in Burlingame, which should bring 50 elementary school students and 13 middle school students to the district, according to the report.

That has to be a miscalculation.  Half-a-kid per "unit" some of which will be McMansions seems low to me.  What do you all think?  If half of the development Russ predicts happens in the next five years, the 125 unit estimate will be low....and water will get REALLY EXPENSIVE if EssEff continues to agree to sell it to us at all.

New SamTrans CEO Coming

The Daily Post has an above-the-fold piece on Mike Scanlon's replacement at SamTrans.  We won't find out who or how much until the Board approves the offer and (I assume) the candidate accepts it.  That's fair enough since whoever it is wouldn't want his or her current employer knowing of their job search.

The question is will the offer be higher or lower than Mr. Scanlon's $419,492 per year which the Post notes is "more than twice the $165,288 Gov. Jerry Brown is paid"?  Given how crucial the SamTrans chief exec is to High-cost Rail since he or she also runs Caltrain and the SM County Transportation Authority, Jerry may actually think that is OK!

CC-HSR put out this upbeat e-mail yesterday:

The Atherton Environmental Lawsuit

The Town of Atherton, also a long time opponent of the destructive High-Speed Rail project proposed for the Peninsula, has filed a formal challenge to the EIR certified by Caltrain in January. The proposed Caltrain project is a stalking horse for High-Speed Rail, and violates the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, the state's most important environmental law. CC-HSR has joined Atherton in this lawsuit. All we are trying to do is make sure that Caltrain complies with the law so that residents of the Peninsula are adequately protected. This is an important weapon in our effort to keep a destructive HSR project OFF the Peninsula. 

Upcoming Peninsula Proposition 1A Lawsuit 

Within a matter of weeks, we anticipate the filing of a major lawsuit against the Authority for its violation of Proposition 1A with respect to the Peninsula project. CC-HSR is planning to be a party to that lawsuit, and we expect others to join with us. Multiple new violations of Proposition 1A exist, and this lawsuit will be a powerful weapon to ensure that the strict requirements of Proposition 1A are observed, and that High-Speed Rail does not violate the integrity of our lovely residential districts, and our vibrant business centers.

Good luck and Godspeed. 

Post Office - Part 1 Adding Security

There has been some commentary on the last Post Office thread, but the number of people I an running into who don't appreciate the security fencing around the "old Post Office" is a bit overwhelming.  The most common question is "Can't they get a guard, a dog, an alarm system or all three?"

It could look like this for a long time--and I say that from the perspective of following the Safeway project which you can remind yourself of here!

Update:  I have changed the title to reflect this being Part 1 even though it's more like Part 5 or 6.  For purposes of tracking the redevelopment of the building, this is Part 1.

Bayfront Idea$ and $nag$

Adding park land and perhaps even more sports facilities on the bay front has been a long-term B'game dream of may past councils.  This one is no different this piece from today's DJ tells us

Burlingame is pushing ahead with an interest to develop a new park on a large slice of Bayfront property, despite uncertainty regarding the design of the public space and potential difficulties with seasonal wetlands on the site.

Parks and Recreation Director Margaret Glomstad will continue working toward turning the 8.81 acres of land on two parcels around 450 Airport Blvd. into park land, under direction given by City Council at the Monday, March 2 meeting.

The city would need to enter into a long-term lease with the California State Lands Commission with intent to construct a park on the land, that is currently a vacant, overgrown lot, abutting the Bayshore, near Kincaid’s Restaurant and the former drive-in theater site.

Click through to read up on the regulatory snag the puddles are creating!  There are some great quotes there!  It does make me wonder where the Rec Center went as a "top priority"?