3B Public Hearing 2010 0119 Attachment

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EXCERPT OF MINUTES FOR SAN LEANDRO PLANNING COMMISSION WORK SESSION & SPECIAL MEETING December 17, 2009 item 8b: Public Hearing a). Matter of a proposed ordinance that would amend the City of San Leandro Zoning Code by creating a new water efficient landscape ordinance that will require water conservation standards for certain new and existing landscape installations. The proposed landscape ordinance would apply to all zoning districts in the City, including Planned Development Districts. The water conservation ordinance is required by state law and will help reduce overall water use on private and public properties in the City. A Negative Declaration has been prepared for this Zoning Code and General Plan Amendment. A "Notice of Public Review and Intent to Adopt a Proposed Negative Declaration was filed on October 20, 2009 and the public review period on the Negative Declaration period extended from Octob3er 20, 2009 to November 17, 2009. Senior Planner Sally Barros explained that, over the past three years, the State of California has been reviewing the State's water resources and the conservation legislation origfinally passed in the early 1990s. Every city in the State has been asked to adopt the updated State Model Ordinance by default or come forward with a similar ordinance that is at least as effective as the model. The final draft of the model was released this fall. The mode] ordinance will take effect as a default in January until the San Leandro proposal is given its second reading and is effective (February 2010). She said that San Leandro's approach has been to take the dense verbiage from the model and put it in the San Leandro Zoning Code in the most succinct way possible. Still, it takes the existing conservation ordinance from 8 to 19 pages in length, but she said staff considered it important that all steps required of projects touched by the new ordinance be spelled out. The proposed ordinance does not affect many landscape projects (whether new or rehabilitated); it is looking primarily at industrial, commercial and developer-installed residential projects that have landscape areas of 2,500 square feet or more. It would also apply to single-family homes, duplexes and other projects apart from developer projects with landscape areas of 5,000 square feet or more. The ordinance also includes language to prevent water waste in both existing and new landscaping, with provisions for the City to create penalties for wasteful water runoff. Affected projects will be required to submit a "landscape documentation package" that includes plans for the landscaping, irrigation, water management, soil management and grading. The onus on the City is to review the submitted packages. Upon approval, the City would return the package to the applicant, and once the landscaping is installed, issue a certificate of completion. Because both landscape review and certificate issuance seem beyond the scope of what current staff can handle - a situation similar to what many other communities are facing -the City will develop a fee schedule to cover the costs of bringing in landscape architects to perform these functions. As for enforcement, discussions have begun with the San Leandro Police Department's Code Compliance staff regarding issuance of penalties. The San Leandro General Plan addresses water conservation in Chapter 5, Open Space, Parks and Conservation Element, with four policies: • Mitigation of development impacts • Intergovernmental coordination • Water conservation and