Belmont moves to name a new councilmember

Though the four members of the council had the option of filling the seat at its Tuesday meeting, officials chose to interview Planning Commission Chair Julia Mates, Planning Commissioner Thomas McCune, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Craig Michaels and resident Amir Kaspi, four of the 10 residents who submitted applications.

Councilman Warren Lieberman joined other councilmembers in noting the high quality of the applications received before the Jan. 8 deadline and voicing a preference for interviewing the four top candidates instead of appointing someone based on how their qualifications measure up on paper.

“I’m certainly not prepared to make an appointment based on a resume,” he said. “You have to spend some time talking to the folks.”

The seat was vacated by former mayor and councilman Eric Reed when he died Dec. 8 after a battle with prostate cancer lasting several years. The candidate filling Reed’s seat is expected to serve the remaining 11 months left in his term, which ends November 2018. When councilmembers met Dec. 14 to discuss how Reed’s seat would be filled, they chose to use an application process and discuss whether to extend interviews to top candidates in a process resembling Cathy Wright’s 2014 appointment to former councilwoman Christine Wozniak’s seat after Wozniak resigned in the middle of her term.

Noting the strength all who applied for the seat, Mayor Doug Kim said many of the qualities he was looking for — among them a motivation to serve and a wide range of professional and city service experiences — could be found in the 10 applications the city received.

“We have just a wealth of diversity here,” he said. “It’s good to get all parts of the city sort of involved in the process.”

Though officials agreed to invite Mates, McCune and Michaels to interviews given their prior service with the city, they deliberated on their fourth choice, ultimately settling on Kaspi. Lieberman and Vice Mayor Davina Hurt expressed interest in interviewing more than four candidates, but Councilman Charles Stone noted the challenges of coordinating interviews with several schedules and the urgency to fill the seat before the council’s Jan. 23 meeting so the new councilmember can weigh in on intergovernmental assignments and key agenda items.

City plan implementation

Among the items councilmembers pegged for review in the coming weeks was implementation of the city’s 2035 general plan, new downtown plan and its first climate action plan aimed at reducing greenhouses gases and introduce zoning ordinances. Adopted in November some three years after the city took on a long-range planning process, officials started a discussion Tuesday on how to prioritize the range of projects that could be ushered in under the new plans.

Though Community Development Director Carlos de Melo acknowledged the months officials and residents spent drafting the new long-range plans when he introduced the discussion Tuesday, he noted the long road ahead as plan components are realized.

“The real work begins now and implementing all of these plans in certain cities and probably Belmont is going to be years in the making,” he said.

De Melo said a draft protocol outlining the community benefits developers could provide to be able to exceed the city’s limits on the height and density of proposed buildings is among the items he is hoping can spark a discussion on what’s next for the plans at the council’s priority-setting meeting next month. Community benefits are often a range of items that aim to help current residents but can include open space, recreational opportunities, wage requirements for construction, funding for community groups and affordable housing.

Hurt said she looked forward to homing in on lists of near-term and longer-term projects included in the plans to determine which projects officials can expect to complete this year and others requiring longer timelines.

“We’d love every single action to be implemented, but you have to pick and choose,” she said.

De Melo said protocol like the one defining community benefits could help streamline processes under the new plans, and that planning commissioners would be kept apprised of any changes that might affect their work in reviewing projects.

Housing laws

City Attorney Scott Rennie said some of the changes implemented under the new plans could help officials adjust to some 15 new pieces of state housing legislation expected to affect cities’ ability to regulate and process housing developments in the coming months. New requirements aimed at expediting city responses to housing development applications, monitoring the city’s production and capacity for affordable housing at a variety of income levels and making way for proposed projects conforming with all objective standards were among the changes Rennie said could affect the city’s discretion in approving housing projects.

Though Kim acknowledged the state Legislature’s impetus in accelerating the path for new housing projects, he joined other councilmembers in noting the effect it would have on the city’s ability to weigh in on new housing developments.

“I think we understand where the state is coming from on this,” he said. “They’re definitely not messing around.”

Though Rennie said the new long-range plans and changes to the city’s development applications, among other processes, would keep the city on track to comply with the new state rules, he told councilmembers to expect more bills limiting local control in the coming year. Stone suggested quarterly updates on the bills so officials could anticipate what’s to come in the future.

“You can anticipate this is going to be another active year for the state Legislature,” said Rennie.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 102