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City View
A round-up of Palo Alto government action this week

City Council (March 8)

Compost: The council heard a presentation from staff about the city's options for future composing. A staff analysis showed that building a composting facility on private land near Embarcadero Road would be prohibitively expensive and that building one on Palo Alto Airport land would impact the airport. Staff said it could be possible to build an anaerobic digestion facility at Byxbee Park, but only if voters approve using the dedicated park land for the new facility. The discussion will continue on April 5. Action: None

Prevailing wage: The council voted to turn down a recommendation from the Policy and Services Committee to conduct a pilot study examining the impacts of prevailing wage on local capital projects. Yes: Klein, Schmid, Holman, Scharrf, Burt No: Espinosa, Yeh, Shepherd, Price

New task force: The council voted to have the city's Policy and Services Commission consider forming a new task force to evaluate the city's infrastructure backlog, currently estimated at about $500 million. Yes: Unanimous

Board of Education (March 9)

Photovoltaic project: The board authorized the installation of a photovoltaic system on the 2-year-old Science Resource Center building located between JLS Middle School and Hoover Elementary School, and the execution of an agreement with Sun Chariot Solar of San Carlos to design and install the system. Yes: Unanimous

City Council Policy and Services Committee (March 9)

Infrastructure: The committee discussed a colleague's memo urging the creation of a new task force to analyze the city's infrastructure backlog. The new task force would look at each item in the backlog, prioritize the items and consider ways to pay for them. Committee members expressed concern about the tight deadlines proposed in the colleagues' memo recommending the new task force. Action: None

City Council Utilities Advisory Commission (March 10)

Energy efficiency: The commission recommended approval of the 10-year energy-efficiency plan proposed by staff. The plan seeks to achieve a 10-year cumulative energy-efficiency saving of 7.2 percent by fiscal year 2020. Yes: Unanimous

Revenue requirements: The commission heard reports from staff about the long-term financial projections and revenue requirements for the city's water and wastewater-collection funds. Action: None

Planning and Transportation Commission (March 10)

Open space: The commission voted to recommend not setting maximum house sizes for the open space (OS) district. The commission also recommended that if the City Council chooses to impose maximum house sizes, it should consider 12,000 square feet as the possible maximum size. Yes: Garber, Tuma, Lippert, Keller No: Fineberg, Martinez

Posted by What about PTC, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, on Mar 12, 2010 at 9:30 am

No report on the meeting with the Planning and Transportation Commission?