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Avila Valley Advisory Council Minutes of July 11, 2005 Meeting Revised with Corrections 08-01-05 Call to Order B. Pusanik called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members Present: B. Pusanik, K. Argano, J. Salisbury, A. Brown, J. Scott, J. Taylor, K. Bittner, S. Gooding, D. Palaia, L. Walter, T. Ivarie, B. Tickell, J. Schug, L. Newton Members Absent, N. Matlin, M. Gooden, J. Biesek Approval of minutes: Motion by Lynn Walter to approve minutes of June 13, 2005, motion seconded and passed with two corrections. 1.0 TREASURER’S REPORT L. Newton Lisa not present at time of this report, no report 2.0 COUNTY REPORTS 2.1Sheriff’s Department Deputy Scott 4th of July weekend was lighter than expected, only one drunken arrest. They were mostly focused on Cayucos, Avila quiet without fireworks display. VM/message phone 788-6611 with any questions for increased communications between Avila community. Deputy Scott now on graveyards, increased traffic on Port san Luis beach, still looking to cut down on alcohol use and monitor trash and what they are burning in the fire pits. 2.2 2.2 County Supervisor, District 3 Jerry Lenthall Jerry is on vacation, Mary is filling in. Sheriff’s dept has started the bike patrol and were present at Farmer’s Mkt on Friday night, extra patrols on Sat & Sun by the CHP. This Sat Jerry will be at the Avila community center. Audience asked about an incident in the Bob Jones Trail pking lot, Deputy Scott will do some extra patrol in that area. 2.3 2.3 County Planning Staff Ryan Hostetter No new permit applications, fairly quiet. On 7/1 the Avila beach subcommittee had a meeting, James attending to talk about parking issues. There will be a tenant leasing the grocery store to open a deli. There were questions about roofing materials for the Martin hotel and the grocery store. Email James with any specific questions about his projects, Lynn requested that James email us and cc Tom for clarification on height issue on Martin Hotel project. May be height exception due to elevator shaft mechanics. 3.0 3.0 OLD BUSINESS 3.1 3.1 Code Enforcement- Avila Oaks/Art Trinidade Avila Oaks project; initially called in to look at a large oak tree that had been taken down. This was a condition with the developer that this tree was required for screening of the project, really significant oak tree. Wes Connor was the arborist on the project, and was hired to develop a landscape plan. Hard to tell what the shape of the tree was above the stump line…which was all that was left when Art arrived. When they developed the parking lot, the excavation cut out a big chunk of the root system, in the rainy season, another oak tree fell over and this one, the root ball was “heaving” and therefore made this tree in danger of falling, a safety issue. The developer has been fined. Art is part of the Cambria forest committee which uses the best science available to deal with the tree issues up there and determines what is hazardous regarding a tree for removal. To mitigate for this, he has planted many native oaks and many other trees including elderberry and toyon, which will grow to provide understory coverage and the oak trees with provide the overstory. The best viability is really from acorns and local seed, the box trees don’t do as well and they are very slow growing, 2-6 feet per year. They wrote a contract with the property owner and the landscaper to take care of the trees for at least three years. They are on drip irrigation and they are being fertilized to facilitate growth. We will end up with about 30 new trees, and he believes it will be a better landscape project than they had in the past. Sherry mentioned that she was interested in prevention for future mistakes like this…could a more pervious surface been used instead of asphalt? Bob Martin commented that the oak tree fell down because of the drainage…the tree did not die. The other tree that was cut down later, there was no indication that there was anything wrong with it. Should have never been cut, no screening, too much taken off. Bob suggested they replace that tree with a similar tree. He feels that they should put in a big tree.15 gallon is too small. That area is covered by the specific plan which states that the canopy is supposed to be preserved so that other people won’t try to do this again. They were fined $500 for not getting an inspection before they cut it down, which is the maximum fine they are able to assign. Karla commented that AVAC did not get to review this project unfortunately and brought to light that there is an affordable housing project which will be built in a heavily wooded area. There may be asphalt on top of drip lines in that project. There are trees in distress in the San Luis Bay Estates area and the county is having some entomologists look at these, lots of woodpecker holes and some where the bark is actually black and starting to rot. Rich Little, the county entomologist is going to take some samples and send them for testing. This stress can be from development or moisture, probably 200 year old oak trees. Oak trees in CA are under a lot of stress, mainly because of size. Oak trees in Heron Crest: there were trees that were poisoned and killed. Large investigation of that which involved the DA and they couldn’t get enough evidence to get a conviction. All of the violations were on open space, not private property. These land use violations don’t go with the people, they go with the land. There will be a tremendous amount of mitigation for someone to develop that lot. Another complaint that someone was stressing an oak tree, it was actually as a result of the paving over of the oak tree roots and incorrect drainage of water. There was a property that they looked at and prosecuted, trees were taken down to improve his view and the DA is working on this and this individual will be heavily penalized. Hard to enforce in agricultural areas vs. rural areas. Oak trees are well protected within urban reserve lines currently. We need to hold the developer to task. Bob asks the council if we want to pursue an amendment to the last meeting, to the planning dept potentially for an oak tree ordinance in the coastal zone specifically. Art suggested that we gear this to hardwoods, not just oak trees, native hardwoods specifically. Lynn makes a motion to amend our letter to Jerry Lenthall to focus on coastal native hardwoods, Karla seconded the motion. 3.2 Friday Night Clean-up Avila Beach/John Salisbury John is following up from last week. Customs House will have personnel monitor and watch the trash from the market all night on Friday’s during the market and will network with the business association for more support. Jerry Lenthall volunteered a pressure washer. Per Julie, they are paying an individual to clean up during the event and continuously clean up trash. There is a contracted service every 6 weeks to do a major cleanup now and we would like to have that more regularly. Teri was going to contact anyone in Avila Beach that offered cleanup services. Parks and Rec have donated trash liners and gloves for the helper on Friday night. John is going to ask Parks & Rec to look into the benches in front of Custom House. Anne complimented Julie for her efforts to help with clean-up; it is much improved since the issue was brought up. Lisa commented that the beach has been really trashed lately, this morning there was a lot of trash, especially during the summertime. Bob commented about a grease spot from the BBQ, Julie and John will look into this. 4.0 NEW BUSINESS 4.1 Re-licensing of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant/Jane Swanson Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, Jane is requesting as a resident of Squire Canyon and a member of the Alliance and is asking AVAC to consider adopting her submitted resolution or incorporating parts of it into a letter to be sent to the County Board of Supervisors. See Resolution in email, cut and paste. Jane brought a few letters from neighbors, specialists who supported her quest to stop the dry cask storage at Diablo. Karla recapped what AVAC had done in the past and how much time and energy was spent on this research. Ted commented that safety is always the primary concern. Discussion went through the panel about various opinions both personal and about whether or not AVAC is the appropriate party to the venue for this. Anne proposed a letter to express that we are very concerned about the reliscensing and the dry cask storage, and will follow this issue closely. Plant is licensed until 2025. Jane spoke and her resolution is really about not issuing re-licensing…which would mean another 20 years of production. Missy Hobson from PG&E was in the audience and said that have not applied for relicensing yet, they have to do a feasilibility study that would take a couple of years. Celebrating 20 years of safety. She felt that this is premature at this time. Motion on the table to this discussion for now by Karla, seconded by Lynn. Voted, ayes won, 7 to 5. 5.0 5.0 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE/COMMUNICATIONS Communications & AVAC Calendar Karla recommended we purchase a copy of the Avila book for our archives. Temporary events: memo from John Euphrat that this has been “grandfathered”. Sherry stated that the letter didn’t make sense to her, she asked Ryan for clarification. Until new ordinance is in effect, these existing events will go on as in the past. They are working on drafting this new ordinance and Sherry Gooding is our representative on this ad hoc committee with the county. Bob is asking for a clarification from Bob Euphrat and there is a ten day period to appeal this process. Donna from the Avila Beach Resort commented about the ordinance and felt that the events they were talking about were for events over 3000, for non-profit events there is no permits required. There is a criterion for non-profit events. All the rules are still followed when non profit events are put on. 6.0 STANDING & AD HOC COMMITTEE REPORTS land use committee: use for pool is for inn guests only, concern about loud noise decibel level for residents, recommendations that came out of that committee meeting: Pool approval for lot connected to Avila Valley Inn. 6.1 Avila Beach Committee (Lisa Newton/John Salisbury) subcommittee met on 7/1, two more important items, oaks and grocery store, has new tenant, applied to make this into a condominium with grocery store on bottom. The roof that he wants to put on this property, it’s a corrugated roof, historian involved said that is what he should put on the property, the Avila beach specific plan states that you can’t have a roof that is reflective, conflict with the plan and the committee asks that they change the roof. Matakavich project: The architect was there, one lot with three units, large oak tree that they want to conserve, space issues, setbacks were discussed. Architect is going to try and do a 10ft setback. Lisa motions, Anne seconded recommendations of subcommittee. Martin hotel project also had reflective roof material, the county is going to contact them, per Ryan letters have been sent to both parties. John Hand was present at the subcommittee meeting to speak about Avila’s ongoing parking issues and there was no resolution from that meeting. 6.2 Avila Valley Committee (Jan Taylor) no report 6.3 San Luis Bay Estates (Sheri Gooding) no report 6.4 See Canyon (Bill Tickell) no report 6.5 Squire Canyon (Karin Argano) no report 6.6 Traffic Circulation (Jan Taylor/Sherri Gooding) no report 6.7 6.7 Community Liaisons Port San Luis (Karla Bittner) no report Flood Zone 9 – no report 6.8 6.8 Diablo Report (Dusty Palaia) no report 7.0 7.0 PUBLIC COMMENT Book signing at the Avila Beach Community Beach Foundation, 5:00pm 19th july at schoolhouse, next Tuesday. No meeting next August 8.0 8.0 ADJOURNMENT Meeting was adjourned at 9:00 PM. Respectfully submitted, Karin Argano, Secretary |
