City Actions and Activities in Barron Park – Page 8

Without any public announcement, AT&Ts workers and contractors swooped through the neighborhood recently installing some of their pole-topping antennas along with the cabling and power system infrastructure. These antennas are part of AT&T’s ‘Distributed Antenna System” (DAS), which was approved by the City Council for our part of Palo Alto in January after a long, sometimes contentious debate. This is good news for AT&T cell phone customers who (the company says) will have good service in Barron Park – or will be good news once the antennas are operational.

The antennas look like inverted wastebaskets on the top of an 8 or 10 foot post mounted to the top of utility poles. I’ve seen two of them this week on Barron Ave- one on the 500 block and the other on the 700 block – and a third (pictured below) on the pole on Matadero just opposite the California Native Garden at the end of Bol Park. A fourth was about to be installed on Chimalus, but the AT&T installers broke a water line near the base of the pole and the work is currently on hold pending permanent repair by the Utilities Department.

DAS antenna and equipment mounted on pole on Matadero near Bol Park

While AT&T maintained that the antenna system was needed to improve currently poor cell reception by its customers, the debate on this specific DAS system focused on three issues:

aesthetics of an antenna mounted on top of a pole, and the associated equipment mounted on the side of the pole;
noise generated by the equipment on the pole to power the antennas and emergency back up batteries 24 hours/day;
microwave radiation exposure to residents who live next to an antenna, particularly in second story residences in line of sight of an antenna.

The microwave radiation exposure issue, comparing the output and pattern of microwaves from this antenna to those from cell phone antennas on towers, is complicated and has been discussed elsewhere. Since the antennas were not yet powered, I could not evaluate the noise. In any event, noise would not be problem for this particular location except to some squirrels or birds nesting in nearby trees.

As to the aesthetics, it is in this writer’s opinion that the poles with the DAS antennas do not add significantly to the unsightly view of the poles themselves, with their multiple overhead strings of power, telephone and cable lines, jumble of insulators and transformer boxes. These antennas are not concealed or camouflaged to look like a tree, but AT&T did follow the ARB recommendations and other advice by making the equipment brown in color and so it blends in with the color of the poles themselves. When I was a kid, utility poles were called ‘telephone poles.’ With the cell phone antennas on the top, maybe that name will come back into use.

In October, I (Art Liberman) published a post on this website about the proposal by the City to create a Bicycle Boulevard on Matadero Ave.

While this was one of the “priority proposals” in Palo Alto’s new Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan, it was never really vetted within the Barron Park community. In fact, the Plan’s input came through the PABAC (the Palo Alto Bicycle Advisory Committee) that reports to the Chief Transportation Official, without any real consultation with the neighborhood groups.

In the past week, there’s been a lively discussion on the Barron Park issues email list, BPA-issues@googlegroups.com (if you are not already on the list and want to subscribe, just click on the “BPA Email Lists” navigation tab and enter your email address under the name of the list).

What precipitated the recent online discussion was an indication that the City was about to go ahead with the design of the Bike Boulevard on its own, without community outreach or soliciting its input.

The lively back and forth indicated that some people didn’t understand what was being proposed, or why this project was going forward at this time. Others chimed in and helped by providing some historical background and context. And still others came up with a number of suggestions and ideas (about striping, parking, signage on cross street, etc..) that would not have been included in a design without it coming from those who use the road frequently for riding, for walking and for driving. And especially from those who live on it.

In responding to these concerns, the Department’s Director, Curtis Williams, wrote to Lynnie Melena, BPA President:

The City of Palo Alto has not started any type of design work for the Matadero Bicycle Boulevard project and staff does not anticipate proposing bicycle lanes, as we know they wouldn’t fit on Matadero Avenue. Project elements likely to be studied will include “Share the Road” bicycle markings (Sharrows), signage to designate the bicycle boulevard, crosswalk improvements at the Bol Park Path, and traffic calming measures at the Josina intersection.

…….Based on the limited work scope, staff had hoped to design the project in-house, with staff working through a community outreach process. However, given the recent level of concern expressed, we will use one of our on-call transportation consultants to assure we can look at any and all options brought forth by the residents. Staff wants to begin and an outreach process with the Barron Park community and work through the design together.

When the consultant team is on board, probably mid- to late-April, we’ll notify residents via post card and e-mail regarding meeting schedules, and coordinate with you and the Board. We’ll do our best to try to have the meetings held at Barron School to accommodate residents.

Major gas main and services replacement work next year will impact Barron Park, but not before late February. Construction on this project, which would replace existing gas mains using the “Aldyl-A” material that is no longer considered acceptable for prolonged service underground, had been scheduled for 2012, but has been delayed until early 2013.
According to Utilities Communication Manager Debra Katz, “That project has just finished the contractor selection phase (the contractor will be Daleo, Inc. and they have worked with us before and done a very good job). The next step will be a pre-construction meeting later in January and that is where it will be determined when the contractor will work where. What I can say for almost 100% certain is that no work will start anywhere before late February.”

More information about this project can be found here. We will post information on our website when the details become available.

Barron Park neighbors – The City Council is going to act next Monday (Dec 17th) on a recommendation by Public Works Staff to eliminate pickups of black garbage carts. Not yet for everybody, just for folks in some as-yet-unidentified area. It’s to be a one year, pilot study in which all wastes would be placed in either the green or blue carts, eliminating entirely the collection from black garbage carts.

The idea is that kitchen wastes now disposed of in the black garbage carts would instead be deposited by those residents in the pilot study area into the green ‘compostable’ carts . These materials would be recovered by the workers after collection, and instead of ending up in landfills, they will be sent to some composting facility. Some of the other the smelly stuff – including dirty diapers and bags of doggy poop – along with other ‘garbage’ materials would go into the blue ‘recycling’ carts, and be separated by workers at another site. The one year pilot would start in March 2013, and data collected would determine feasibility of applying this change to residential collections citywide.

You can read the staff report here:

http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/32395

What do you think about this ? A discussion has started on BPA-issues email list.

Lynnie Melena, BPA President
Art Liberman, BPA Vice-President

We have just received the following information from Curtis Williams, Planning Director of the City of Palo Alto, regarding the status of the Buena Vista mobile home park. The application for closure from the owner was received by the City several weeks ago and the City’s Planning Department staff (led by Jason Nortz) is following the procedures outlined in applicable City Ordinances to insure compliance by the owner.

1. Notices to residents: Early next week, staff expects to send a notice (bilingual) to residents that the closure application has been submitted. Staff also has someone who can translate documents into Spanish for those residents who prefer. If others don’t understand English or Spanish, staff will retain other translation services.

2. Group Meetings with residents: The owner expects to schedule meetings with the residents as a whole, or in groups, likely the week of December 10^th. The relocation specialist will be introduced at this meeting and staff will attend to be sure information is accurate and City processes are understood. Staff is encouraging the owner to retain either the Palo Alto Mediation Services or the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center to facilitate the meeting, but that is ultimately their call.

3. Selection of Relocation Specialist: Key criteria for selecting a Relocation Specialist will be bilingual capabilities, sensitivity to resident concerns, and confidentiality, as well as their technical competence. Staff interviewed two “relocation specialist” firms, and has recommended one to the owner; staff was very impressed by their sensitivity to the mobile home residents and think they will provide considerable assistance to the residents. Staff also checked with cities where they had worked before and found they were highly regarded and had gained a strong level of trust with residents. The preferred firm further indicated that, if there were persons who are trusted by a resident, they may be included in the individual meetings.

4. Resident Questionnaires: Staff will be sending out the Resident Questionnaires to residents shortly following the group meetings. The relocation specialist will meet individually with each resident/family to help complete the questionnaire and prepare information for the relocation assessment. Staff anticipates that the individual meetings between residents and the relocation specialist will begin in January.

5. Appraising the mobile home properties: Staff is awaiting word from the Administrative Services Department regarding the proposed appraiser, but expect that the owner’s recommendation will be satisfactory.

6. Relocation Impact Report (RIR): The Relocation Impact Report must be prepared by the relocation specialist and owner and submitted with an appraisal for each unit to the City. Staff anticipates a RIR being submitted sometime in the Spring. The City has 30 days to determine if the information is “complete,” and may then request additional information until completeness is determined.

7. Final Determination: Not later than 60 days following completeness, a hearing must be conducted on the adequacy of the RIR and appraisal and relocation approach. The City has not yet determined who that person will be, but Staff will work with the City Attorney’s office to identify someone. Any resident(s) who wish to challenge the adequacy of the decision may appeal the decision to the City Council, which would then make the final determination. Once a final action is taken, a minimum of 6 months is allowed for relocation. The entire process is likely to take a year, at least.

The Barron Park Association

The Barron Park Association

AT&T’s Distributed Antennas – Better than a tree?

Update on the Matadero Bicycle Boulevard

Gas Line replacement work – not before next February

No More Black Garbage Cans … Really?

Update: City Process on BV Closure Application