Orinda News Questions for Candidates, October Issue

By Dean Orr

Response The Housing Element is one of several sections of Orinda's General Plan. The City of Orinda is mandated by the State of California to have a Housing Element that is updated on a regular schedule and certified by the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

Without this certification the city is exposed to litigation that we have seen throughout the state to cost local jurisdictions hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and time. We also risk losing transportation and planning dollars that are only made available to cities with certified elements that have been adopted by their City Council.

In Orinda, we are proceeding with the Ivy Drive Pavement Rehabilitation Project. The project will include: repair of localized base failures, repaving, new curbs and gutters, safety striping and ADA accessibility upgrades. These are major improvements to one of our heavily travelled roadways and supports our commitment to provide safe routes to schools. This project would not have been possible without grant funding in excess of $500,000. Given our extremely constrained budget for road and infrastructure repair and the condition of our local roads, I believe we must do everything possible to seek grant funding opportunities such as this and a certified Housing Element is one of the mandatory criteria that these grants carry.

Preparation of the 5th cycle Housing Element is now underway and our planning staff has published a schedule that includes public workshops and numerous open meetings with both the Planning Commission and City Council. We have a dedicated link on our city website that posts all draft documents and correspondence received by the city.

In addition to the opportunity to comment and participate in the process through workshops, regular meetings and on-line submissions, the 5th cycle will also include a complete Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Before the EIR is adopted, a draft of the document will be circulated to all local agencies and made available for public comment. Our consultants and staff will document and respond to all comments in the final draft.

The 5th cycle Housing Element will only be successful if we have robust public participation. I strongly believe that we can develop a document that reflects the consensus of the community and enforces and supports the vision and goals of our original General Plan.

2. The changing face of Orinda's downtown continues to be a source of concern for many. What are your views on building height and density issues?

Response Our current maximum building height for the Downtown Commercial District (DC) is 35' and 2 ½ stories. I believe that the current regulations as outlined in Chapter 17 of the Orinda Municipal Code have served our community well for many years. I do however also believe that planning is not stagnant and that building in any environment, whether it be rural, semi-rural or urban should not be conceived under a one-size-fits-all zoning code.

Orinda, like most communities has a planning code with regulations that vary based on the zoning of the particular property. In addition to varying our zoning by property type and location our current code also contains specific rules and regulations for granting variances and exceptions to various parts of the code.

Certain site conditions or other constraints on properties may require such amendments in order for projects to be realized or properties to be developed. Whenever such a request is made by a homeowner or developer our Planning staff and Commission looks critically and very closely at each proposal for any impacts or other issues that the requested exception may create. It is only after very careful study and review that any variance or exception is even considered.

3. How would you rank, in order of importance, three areas of need in Orinda?

Response Budget-Our first priority must remain working under a balanced operating budget while maintaining our emergency reserve policy. One of our biggest liabilities is our deteriorating roads and storm drains. The Tarabrook Storm Drain failure resulted in a one-time fix that exceeded 1.4M. These emergency repairs are costly and prove our need to maintain the levels of our reserve policy that the council has established.

Roads-We have new funding for our roads thanks to the passing of Measure L & J. But these two measures alone will not fix all of Orinda's roads and storm drains. We need to continue searching for additional funding sources, working with our partner agencies like EBMUD, PG&E and Central Sanitary to leverage our dollars in joint projects and look to new means and methods for bidding and constructing our repairs.

Communication-The city has come along ways in improving communications with our residents. We need to do more. Enhancing and increasing our communication efforts through streaming meetings, informative webpages, increased social media, and emailed weekly reports can do much to keep our community informed and engaged in our current issues. All of these tools will also become important conduits of information for our emergency alert system, a key component in disaster preparedness.

4. What leadership/management skills/experience do you possess that will make you an effective city councilmember?

Response Working with my colleagues on the council, the many volunteers that serve on our commissions and committees, and the citizens of Orinda has been a truly rewarding experience. With the communities support we have passed two funding measures to rebuild our roads and storm drains, opened new sports fields and outdoor recreation facilities, completed long-term infrastructure projects like the Manzanita Bridge replacement and most importantly, maintained a balanced city budget and emergency reserve fund.

I have witnessed the success of working in a collaborative and open manner and understanding that the process is as important as the outcome. I welcome the opportunity of working through tough issues and finding the moments of consensus so that we can move the business of the city forward.

In my first term on the council we have approved and managed two balanced budget cycles and negotiated two contracts with our employees. We have made tough decisions along the way in order to maintain fiscal stability while retaining the service levels that are expected by our community. I believe that this experience, during a much more difficult economic time, has been an invaluable experience. As revenues begin to rise, the perspective of the last four years will prove important as we move forward.