pages: CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-07-25.pdf, 3
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CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2017-07-25 | 3 | ITEM 2-B COMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES MEETING MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING ON Tuesday, July 25, 2017 6:30 p.m. this same ordinance. So that I can report to the city council that this ordinance is supported by the City of Alameda Planning Board and the City of Alameda Commission on Disability Issues. If things go well tonight I hope to have this on the agenda for September 20, I believe it's the second meeting in September. I believe it's September 29th or 24th. We'll let you know, but it'll be the second city council meeting in September. If we get there and things go well tonight, and we get there on September, I'd hope that some of you might think about coming to that meeting and help push this forward. This is an important ordinance and there's just a few things I'd like to highlight about this ordinance. So that if people ask you about this ordinance, and there will be people who'll start to ask as it tees up to council, it'll get more and more attention. Andrew Thomas: It is a unique ordinance. It is unlike any ordinance that I know of that any other city in California has adopted. It sets a very high standard. What I have been telling people, and telling people in the business industry and elsewhere in California, because that worries people, they are like, "Oh my goodness, Alameda is setting a new standard." Some people look at that as a very positive thing. Other people in some industries will be like, "Oh gosh, we don't want a new standard that other cities will reflect." And what I have said to people is, "This is a very unique ordinance and it's unique to Alameda, and Alameda is a unique place." And it's not just all of you and the kinds of people who live in Alameda, our physical geography makes a lot of the things in this ordinance possible. Andrew Thomas: City of Berkley couldn't adopt this ordinance, it's just too much topography. The city of San Francisco couldn't adopt this ordinance. We have the benefit of having geography, a flat island with not a lot of topography that makes a lot of this possible, allows us here in Alameda to set a high standard. It does set a high standard, and that makes some people nervous and the way I describe it is Since 2012 your Planning Board, and this commission, and this community, has demanded that with every single project we discuss, negotiate, twist arms to try to get Universal Design into every project. And thanks to your Planning Commission you have. Each project's a little different, each negotiation goes a little bit differently, but the Planning Board here in Alameda has negotiated Universal Design elements into every single housing project that's been approved since July of 2012. Andrew Thomas: What this ordinance does, it sets a new standard. And those conversations have always started at zero. The developer comes in, "What are your requirements?" And we give them all the city requirements and then we say, "Oh, and by the way." This is me downstairs at the permit center, "Oh, by the way there's one more thing we need to tell you about, Universal Design." And they're like, "Oh, where's the ordinance? What's the standards?". "Well, let's talk about that." And that's kind of how the conversation goes. City staff we push a certain amount of Universal Design into the project through various negotiation tactics and arm wrestling and threats. And then they get to the Planning Board and the Planning Board always makes it a little bit better. What we're doing with this ordinance is we're saying we're setting. Rather than starting at zero on every conversation, when you come in with a housing project in Alameda, we've set a standard, it's this high. Now you know what our standard is. If you can meet that standard, if you look at our standard and you say, "You know what I can do that in my project." That conversation's over, we're done! We don't have to debate it, you as a developer you don't have to have the uncertainty of not knowing. October 11, 2017 Page 3 of 13 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-07-25.pdf |