Our own Sequoia Union High School District will be holding a series of public meetings to discuss enrollment growth options throughout the month of May.
These meetings will discuss matters that affect our community and its students, and RSCA encourages residents to attend one of these meetings if possible — particularly recommended is the May 21st meeting at our own Carlmont High School.
Tuesday, May 7 @ 7PM: At Sequoia High School (Carrington Hall), 1201 Brewster Avenue, Redwood City
Monday, May 13 @ 7PM: At Menlo-Atherton High School (Performing Arts Center), 555 Middlefield Road, Atherton
Wednesday, May 15@ 7PM: At 1050 Myrtle Street, East Palo Alto (*This special meeting will be in Spanish)
Tuesday, May 21 @ 7PM: At Carlmont High School (Performing Arts Center), 1400 Alameda de las Pulgas, Belmont
Tuesday, May 28 @ 7PM: At the Fair Oaks Community Center, 2600 Middlefield Road, Redwood City (*This special meeting will be in Spanish)
Wednesday, May 29 @ 7PM: At Woodside High School (Performing Arts Center), 199 Churchill Avenue, Woodside
Redwood City Police Chief J.R. Gamez will be hosting his fourth Town Hall-style community meetings, each held in a different area of the City. These meetings are an opportunity for people to participate along with their neighbors to discuss issues which may be of importance to that specific area. Three previous town hall meetings with the Chief were held in May and June in other neighborhoods of Redwood City.
Meet With Redwood City Police Chief J.R. Gamez Tuesday evening, Oct. 9, 7:00pm, RWS Library (corner of Marine Pky & Bridge Pky; click HERE for a map)
“These gatherings are an important way for residents and police to create partnerships, to learn from one another, and to build trusting, cooperative relationships that are the very foundation of a strong, safe community,” says Chief Gamez.” We can only do this if we talk to each other, and that’s what these Town Hall meetings are all about.”
This meeting offers the chance for Shores residents to meet the Chief and his command staff, to create connections between the community and the Police Department, to exchange information, and to engage in small-group discussions around neighborhood issues. From these Town Hall meetings, the Chief and his staff also gain the community’s perspectives and concerns on law enforcement and related issues for each area. The meetings are facilitated by the collaborative group Redwood City 2020, working with Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center.
Join us this coming Tuesday evening, October 9th, 7:00pm.
You can find the Redwood City Police Department’s website at www.redwoodcity.org/police . Residents can learn about the Department, get burglary prevention tips, sign up for alerts and newsletters, report a minor crime online, get police reports, view Redwood City’s crime map online, chat live online with a police officer, and more.
The Redwood City Council will consider placing an advisory vote on the November ballot, to gain the voters’ perspective on the proposed Saltworks development. At its April 9th meeting, under “Matters of Council Interests” the Mayor and City Council directed the City Manager to place the item on a future agenda for further discussion. The date for that discussion has not yet been scheduled.
The 1,400-acre site, located just off Highway 101 along Seaport Boulevard, has previously been used for salt production. The project applicant, DMB Associates, had previously submitted a proposal to the City. On November 4, 2011, the applicant informed the City that it intends to conduct internal review and evaluation of its submitted proposal. A revised proposal is expected to be submitted to the City and it will require further analysis and environmental review.
“This is an opportune time to explore various options in moving forward on this unprecedented project for the community of Redwood City,” said Mayor Alicia Aguirre “Prior to re-engaging in that process, the City Council may want to consider whether the revised project is of interest to the community and worthy of further exploration and analysis.”
The Redwood Shores Annual Meeting is an important event for all residents to get an update on “The State of the Shores”. You’ll have the opportunity to meet and hear from Redwood City’s Mayor, Police Chief, City Manager, plus City Councilman, Vice-Mayor, and Shores resident Jeff Gee. Superintendent Emerita Orta-Camilleri of our Belmont-Redwood Shores School District will also have a brief update on issues facing our local schools.
Please take time to engage in this discussion of important issues that affect the home and the family of each Shores resident — your voice is important!
(RSCA will also elect its new Board of Directors.)
Please mark the date — February 8, 2011, 7:00 PM — on your calendar for this most important occasion!
A regular meeting of the School board is on the 1st Thursday of each month, at 7:00 PM. For this first February meeting on February 2, the meeting will be held in Redwood Shores’ Sandpiper Elementary. The meeting is Open Session and residents are, as usual, invited to attend.
February 2, 2012
7PM at Sandpiper Elementary
801 Redwood Shores Parkway
This special Sandpiper Elementary meeting will cover a regular agenda, and is being held here in Redwood Shores on this occasion to help residents who have not been able to make it to a standard session attend. Several times per year, meetings are held at various school sites in the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District. The regular meeting of the School board is on the 1st Thursday of each month, at 7:00 pm and held at the District Office building: 2960 Hallmark Dr., Belmont, CA 94002 [map and directions]. If a second meeting is needed during the month, it is generally held on the 3rd Thursday at the same time and place.
Early next year, the City Council of Redwood City will be considering a 7.81% increase in the residential and commercial rates for garbage and recycling collection within Redwood City. For the great majority of Redwood City households (most of which have a 32-gallon cart), this would be an additional $1.93 per month/per cart (for those with 20-gallon carts the proposed increase is 81¢ per month/per cart). Corresponding increases would be effective for larger carts and for commercial service.
To help ensure residents and businesses have a full understanding of the services provided and the need for an increase in these rates, the City will hold a community information meeting on Thursday, December 15, 2011, starting at 7 pm, in the Community Room of the Downtown Library, 1044 Middlefield Road. The community is invited to join staff from Redwood City, Recology (the collection company), and the South Bayside Waste Management Authority (SBWMA) for this update on garbage and recycling services (including a proposed new Household Hazardous Waste collection service), and the latest information on the proposed 2012 rate increase. SBWMA is the joint powers authority representing the various cities and agencies that contract with Recology. The required public hearing on the proposed increase is scheduled for January 9, 2012, at 7 pm at City Hall.
The rate increase is due to higher costs and lower revenues than originally anticipated, during Recology’s first year of service and projected for service to be provided in 2012. Additionally, a new service is being considered – Household Hazardous Waste curbside collection – which contributes a small percentage to the proposed increase. The rates charged to customers must reflect Recology’s actual cost of providing service, and take into account the contractually-agreed upon revenues – in other words, Recology is guaranteed a specified amount of revenue, which was negotiated as part of the franchise agreement. This type of arrangement is typical in the garbage/recycling collection industry.
Other cities are also considering rate increases. Due to Redwood City’s ongoing deliberate, conservative fiscal management, we’ve been able to keep the proposed increase to a moderate level, and avoid the more significant increases being proposed by some cities.
If the proposed rates are approved by the City Council at the public hearing on January 9, the rate increase would be effective the following day, January 10, 2012. Notices of the proposed increase have been sent to all garbage/recycling service customers in Redwood City. Customers have the opportunity to protest the proposed rate increase in advance of the public hearing by writing to the City. Details of the protest procedure were included in the mailing, and are also available online, along with more information on the proposed rates, at www.redwoodcity.org/garbagerates .
Each year an analysis is done of the expenses and revenues from the prior year, along with projected expenses and revenues for the following year. A recommendation is made by the SBWMA concerning the following year’s rates, which is then considered by the City Council. The proposed 2012 rate increase is based on a financial evaluation of 2011 actual operating costs and revenues, and projected operating costs and revenues for 2012. Based on that analysis, the proposed 7.81% rate increase is comprised of these elements:
2.9% to cover cost increases that occurred in 2011
2.3% to cover anticipated cost increases for 2012
0.61% to cover the proposed Household Hazardous Waste Collection service
2.0% to cover anticipated revenue shortfall in 2012 due to cart-size reductions (customers choosing to move to a smaller cart, at a lower cost)
In the interest of keeping community members fully informed, it’s important to note that in spring of 2012 the City will need to propose increases in water and sewer rates, due to continually escalating costs in those services. The City understands that these increases are a challenge for many residents, and continues to work to keep necessary increases at a moderate level.
The Redwood Shores Community Association is hosting a meeting with our Redwood City Police. Please come and and find out how to keep the Shores a safe place to live and work. We will be discussing how to set up Neighborhood Watch on your street, and what to be aware of as good safety habits.
Saturday, April 9th at 2:00 pm Marlin Park – Main Playground Area
The play features at Marlin Park are being replaced after many years of service. The project is part of the City’s Play Equipment Replacement Program, and it is time to renovate Marlin Park’s playgrounds.
If you have any questions, please contact the Redwood City Parks, Recreation and Community Services at 780-7250.
A few weeks ago, RSCA hosted our Annual Meeting at the Redwood Shores Library. This is one of our most important regular events as it brings leaders and staff from Redwood City and the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District to the Shores to speak about issues that matter to us.
This year, about 100 community members attended and heard presentations from Mayor Jeff Ira and Council Member Jeff Gee on the state of the City and Redwood Shores and from Dr. Emerita Orta-Camilleri on the School District budget and developments at our Elementary and Middle schools. We also heard from Interim City Manager Bob Bell and Acting Police Chief Ed Hernandez. Their messages were similar — money is tight, and the city and schools will need to approach problems a bit more creatively than in the past. For example, Interim City Manager Bob Bell described how Redwood City is looking into performing some city functions with the help of a corps of volunteers (the Shores’ own Carole Wong is helping to launch this initiative).
While RSCA appreciates that the City needs to live within its budget, we also continue to advocate for basic City services in the Shores, which are our due. For example, we have been concerned for a while about the time needed by Police in Redwood City to respond to incidents in the Shores. Even though the Police Department has had some layoffs, we do not accept that this means that we should accept even slower response times. To the contrary, RSCA is going to continue to press for improved Police response times and coverage in the Shores, as would any City neighborhood. Similarly, we have over the past few months asked the City to replace the many burned-out street lights in the Shores and to smooth the rough spots on our Parkways that wreak havoc on our cars’ suspensions. I am happy to report that the City has recently embarked on a program to address both of these issues — which we appreciate.
Redwood Shores Elementary Matching Funds
Despite the prevailing financial mess, there was one good piece of news – from the School District. As you may have read in our local papers, and as reported by Dr. Orta-Camilleri at our Annual Meeting, it appears that the School District will be awarded $8.75M in matching funds from the State to be used on building projects at Redwood Shores Elementary School.
As a new school with state-of-the-art facilities, Redwood Shores Elementary certainly does not have $8.75 in needs to address. Accordingly, RSCA expects the District to use these funds prudently and transparently, and we specifically want the District to use a substantial portion of these matching funds to pay off some of the $25M in Measure C Bonds that we passed and are paying for with our property taxes. Further, if for some legal reason the District can’t use these funds to pay off Measure C bonds, we want to have a say — before the fact — in how the funds will be spent, to ensure that at least some of the projects will benefit the entire Shores community.
Welcome to the New Officers of RSCA
I have been honored to be President of RSCA for the past two years. It has been a busy and successful two years for RSCA and much of this success is due to your membership support and the outstanding RSCA Board I’ve been privileged to work with. At our February meeting the RSCA Board elected a new slate of officers who will continue to provide strong leadership of RSCA and advocacy for the Shores. Please join me in welcoming our new officers: Harris Rogers (President), Sue Nix (Vice President), Lynn Adams (Secretary) and Ian Gunderman (Treasurer). Godspeed!
As part of Redwood City’s commitment to an open and transparent review of the proposed Saltworks Project, the City invites you to participate in two upcoming Open House EIR (Environmental Impact Report) Scoping Meetings in 2011, on January 29th and February 23rd. We also want to thank all of you who have attended and participated thus far in the first two Open House EIR Scoping Meetings on Land Use (Nov. 6th) and Water (Nov. 30th). The purpose of the scoping process is to gain public input on the scope and content of the EIR, the range of alternatives, environmental issues, methods of assessment, and mitigation measures to be analyzed in the EIR. So thank you very much for participating, so far!
During these next Open House EIR Scoping Meetings members of the public can speak directly to City representatives, the project applicant (DMB) and experts in specific subject areas. As a reminder, due to the informal “open house” nature of these workshops, oral comments are appreciated but it is not feasible for them to be recorded – instead, community members are encouraged to submit written scoping comments to be considered by the City in preparing the Environmental Impact Report (EIR). FYI, the comment period for the Scoping Process will close on March 31, 2011.
The next two Open House EIR Scoping Meetings will focus on:
Natural Resources – Saturday, January 29, 2011
Community Activities Building, 1400 Roosevelt Ave., Redwood City.From 9 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
At this meeting, City consultants and natural resource experts will be on hand with information about the City’s natural resources, such as biology, geology, and cultural resources that may be affected. The project applicant will have a station with information describing the natural resource components within the Saltworks Project proposal.
Transportation – Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Veterans Memorial Senior Center, 1455 Madison Ave., Redwood City.6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
At this meeting, City representatives will be on hand with information about the City’s transportation resources, including traffic, public transit, bicycles, and pedestrian connections. Experts will also be available to discuss air quality, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and noise issues. The project applicant will have a station with information regarding the transportation approach described in the Saltworks Project application.
Please note: the Scoping Comment Period closes on March 31, 2011
The comment period for the Scoping Process will close on March 31, 2011. Submit your written comments, via email (), or mail to: Attn: Blake Lyon, Planning Services, City of Redwood City, P.O. Box 391, Redwood City, CA 94064-0391
The City will not make a decision regarding the Saltworks Project application until the EIR process has been completed and the EIR has been certified. For more information about the proposed Saltworks project, visit: www.redwoodcity.org/saltworks .
