Point San Pedro Road Coalition
The Point San Pedro Road Coalition was formed in 1999. The Coalition acts as a clearinghouse for issues and concerns in our community. That community consists of homeowner associations and residents that make up the Pt. San Pedro Road corridor in east San Rafael, California. The Coalition conducts meetings and forums for discussion and the exchange of ideas, concerns and issues affecting our community. We coordinate and shared efforts among homeowner associations and residents and provide a liaison between our community and the administrations and agencies in the City of San Rafael, the County of Marin and the State of California. See About Us for more information on our organization. Consider a tax-exempt donation to support our efforts. |
Our Mission: To promote the interests of the residents of the Point San Pedro Road Corridor by collaborating with local homeowner's associations and residents to enhance and preserve the beauty and environment of the area, ensure the health safety of the residents, and to protect the peaceful enjoyment of our residents' home. |
Community Meeting on Pt. San Pedro Road Projects
May 21, 2013
St. Luke Church
6:30pm - 8:30 pm
The Coalition is holding a Community Meeting jointly with San Rafael and the County on current and planned projects for Pt. San Pedro Road. The full details can be found on our Community Meeting Announcement. The Coalition urges you to attend to learn about the work done on the Medians and the plans for median maintenance and road repaving, among other issues. There will be ample opportunity to ask questions of the various city and county agencies that are responsible for these projects. You will also receive an update regarding potential speed limit changes for Pt. San Pedro Road that are under consideration.
Plan Bay Area
The Coalition has regular monthly meetings with the City and two other umbrella groups. Our notes on this meeting can be found under More Topics/Issues > Umbrella Group Meeting Notes each month. At the last meeting on April 24, 2013, Paul Jensen of the S.R. Planning Dept. gave an overview of the Plan Bay Area and its potential impact on S.R. At that meeting he handed out a fact sheet. Today the Planning Department issued their Staff Report intended for the public hearing before the City Council on May 6, 2013. Links to those documents can be found in our notes on the April 24th Umbrella Group meeting.
Loch Lomond Marina Status
At this point, no statements have been issued by Woodridge Capital Partners as to their intent regarding the property. They have asked for a review of the wetlands mitigation plan that was part of the final permit approvals. The conditions of approval require a final "sign-off" on the mitigation plan by City staff, in consultation with the BCDC and Fish/Game. This is standard practice and does not involve a public hearing. The purpose of the review is to ensure that all of the details that were worked out (e.g., outlook, signage, fencing, mitigation areas) have been incorporated into the plan. No changes would result from this action, merely confirmation (and/or plan correction) on what actions were required.
Loch Lomond Yacht Club Brunch
The Loch Lomond Yacht Club is having a brunch on Sunday, May 5, to acquaint those in the public about its facilities and services. View this PDF document or contact yhawkee@sbcglobal.net for more information.
Loch Lomond Marina Sold
The Loch Lomond Marina, which has been up for sale for several years along with approved zoning and permits, has been sold with excrow having closed on March 19, 2013. The purchaser is Woodridge Capital Partners.Woodridge Capital Partners (http://www.woodridge-capital.com/management_ria), headed by its CEO Michael Rosenfeld, is a Los Angeles-based real estate investment and development company with hotel, residential and commercial assets throughout the United States. Rosenfeld and his partners have numerous hotel interests including the Fairmont San Francisco Hotel, the Fairmont Orchid Resort on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii, the Colony Palms Hotel in Palm Springs, and the Hotel Californian in Santa Barbara.
Next Century Associates, the owners of the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel, is a partnership between Michael Rosenfeld's Woodridge Capital Partners and funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management L.P.
For more on Woodridge and Oaktree partnership see:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120508007524/en/Historic-Fairmont-San-Francisco-Hotel-Purchased-Oaktree
Also, see this article in the March 22, 2013 edition of the Marin IJ titled San Rafael's Loch Lomond Marina sold to Los Angeles developer by
Nels Johnson.
Medians Beautification Project Status
As the project comes to the end of the construction phase, the City will then pick up the responsibility for ongoing maintenance. The first phase of that maintenance will include analyzing what has worked and what needs to be modified in the landscaping. There will very likely be one or more public meetings to discuss these issues during 2013. A February 12, 2013 letter from the S.R. Department of Public Works describes this process. Status on the project can be found on the City of San Rafael website.
Golden Gate Bridge District - Toll Announcement
All Electronic Tolling, also known as cashless tolling, is coming to the Golden Gate Bridge --- learn all about it here www.goldengate.org/tolls/.
We wanted to let you and/or your organization know about this so you might share this information, as appropriate, to your constituents, community, members, customers, friends, or neighbors.
The more Golden Gate Bridge customers are prepared ahead of time, the smoother the final conversion will be – now targeted for the end of March. On January 30, we started testing the all electronic tolling system. With the full conversion (end of March target), cash will no longer be accepted at the Golden Gate Bridge Toll Plaza. FasTrak continues in place as it is today and three new Pay-By-Plate toll payment options which use license plate images for automated tolling are available.
We plan on keeping you and/or your organization informed about the status of the new tolling program at the Golden Gate Bridge as we move closer to the full conversion a the end of March. To this end, we would like to continue sending email updates over the next few months.
The website address www.goldengate.org/tolls/ tells you EVERYTHING about the new Toll Payment options (the site is being redesigned right now to be more users friendly and will be ready soon). Feel free to download a FREE 1:40 animation (mp4 format) that provides an overview of the new tolling options.
Thanks for anything you can do to assist in spreading this important information about this new technology.
Mary Currie, Public Affairs Director, Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, MCurrie@goldengate.org
All Electronic Tolling is Coming to the GGB: www.goldengate.org/tolls
Follow us on Twitter @GGBridge
Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/goldengatebridge
Coastal Wetlands
A document from the EPA about coastal wetlands including a definition, why they are important, coastal wetlands loss and how we as individuals can help protect these wetlands on a daily basis. A copy of the document can be found in our Library and the original document can be found on the EPA website.
Telephone Emergency Notification System (TENS) Update
Several neighbors have contact us with a problem in registering for the cell phone alert capability recently added to the TENS system. Specifically, the online registration form fails to recognize the address entered. We contacted the TENS office and received the following reply:
In the event you are having difficulty registering on AlertMarin.org, here are a few things to try:
1.) Use Internet Explorer, this is the internet browser recommended by our software vendor. Firefox does not work well with TENS.
2.) You must have the latest version of the "Java" plug-in enabled in your browser to see your address on the map. See the link below for the latest "Java" plug-in.
3.) Clear your browser history, cache, close and re-open your browser.
4.) Re-enter your address.
5.) After you re-enter your address and click on the first cell phone data field, a red pin will show up on the map next to your address.
6.) If the pin is in the wrong place right click on it and drag it to the correct location.
7.) Your username is ALWAYS your email address. The username field is filled in automatically when you enter your email. The username field cannot be changed manually.
8.) Complete your registration.
Here is a link to the latest version of Internet Explorer and Java:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/download-ie
http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp
[NOTE: A neighbor has stated that you may also want to check the zip code field. It appears that if the extended zip code is used (94901 vs. 94901-xxxx), the user will get an error code about not being able to find the address. Other neighbors have been successful using the Chrome browser on Macs and PCs.]
We find this response unacceptable as it excludes all residents who own Mac computers instead of PC from registering unless they go to the library or Internet cafe to do so (see NOTE above). It also excludes several of the most popular browsers such as Firefox and Safari even if they are on a PC. We have responded to the TENS staff accordingly and you might do the same. Their email is tenssrpalert@marinsheriff.org. You definitely should contact them if you are experiencing this problem.
WATER QUALITY CONTROL POLICY
for Wetland Area Protection and Dredged or fill Permitting
Traditionally, California relied heavily on the federal regulatory program under section 404 of the 40 Clean Water Act (CWA) to protect wetlands. This CWA program regulates the discharge of 41 dredged or fill material into federal waters, including wetlands. United States Supreme Court 42 decisions in 2001 and again in 2006 limited what is recognized as a “water of the United 43 States.” As a result, there is a need to clarify the California Water Board’s authority over 44 wetlands in order to fully protect these aquatic resources. Pursuant to California Water Code §13050, this policy applies to all waters of the state include wetlands.
This document is a preliminary draft from the State Water Resources Control Board, dated January 28, 2013. It is available here in PDF form.
Summary of our Annual Community Meeting
After a long delay, we have finally created a summary of our Community Meeting held on September 15, 2012. If you were not able to attend, we hope this summary will provide some information on what was a very successful gathering.
Our special guest speakers included County Supervisor Susan Adams, San Rafael Mayor Gary Phillips, San Rafael City Manager Nancy Mackle, S.R. Public Works Dept. Director Nader Manourian, and Director of Resilient Neighborhoods Tamra Peters. They covered subjects such as Marin County and the City of San Rafael, China Camp, Loch Lomond Marina, San Rafael Rock Quarry, Pt San Pedro Road Medians, Road Repaving and the Resilient Neighborhoods program.
Sandy Mahoney from The Madison Company Realtors hosted our continental breakfast.
EPA's Action Plan for the S.F. Bay and Delta
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed the Water Quality Challenges in the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta EstuaryAction Plan after assessing the effectiveness of current regulatory mechanisms designed to protect water quality in the San Francisco Bay Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Bay Delta Estuary) and its tributaries. EPA’s assessment concludes that Clean Water Act (CWA) programs currently are not adequately protecting aquatic resources of the Bay Delta Estuary. In this document, EPA recommends actions to restore water quality for aquatic species protection using existing EPA authorities and resources, as well as actions EPA believes are important and appropriate for the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board).