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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1978-04-18; City Council; 3069-8; Calavera Hills proposed sewage treatment facilityCITY OF CARLSBAD AGENDA BILL NO. 3069-SuPplement 8 Initial: Dept , Hd DATE : April 18, 1978 DEPARTMENT: City Attorney C. Mgr, w Subject: PROCESSING OF CALAVERA HILLS PROPOSED SEWAGE TREATMENT FACILITY Statement of the Matter At youradjourned meeting of March 28, 1978 the City Council ' considered reports from the Planning Director, the Public Works Administrator and the City Attorney regarding the proper manner 'to process the above-referenced request. considering the reports, the City Council determined that they wished to give further consideration to the development of satellite plants. The City Council determined further that they were only willing to consider such plants in the context of various drainage basins within the City. The staff was instructed to return with specific recommendations on how to proceed. Attached is a report from the City Attorney, outlining an appropriate procedure for processing a satellite plant for the Calavera Hills drainage basin. The report includes input from the Public Works Administrator and the Planning Director. After Y One of the recommended\s,teps is the preparation of a Project Report,a Financial Plan and an Environmental Impact Report on the satellite plant for the drainage basin. Also attached is a memorandum from the Public Works Administrator containing his recommendations of the contents of such a report. The City Manager has recommended that the City fund the report. His memorandum, explaining the basis for that recommendation, is also attached. Exhibits Report from City Attorney, dated April 12, 1978. Report from Public Works Administrator, dated April 11, 1978 Memo from City Manager dated April 14, 1978 Recommendation If the City Council concurs, your action is to authorize the City Manager to proceed as outlined in the recommendations contained in the City Attorney's report, dated April 12, 1978. AGENDA BILL NO. 3069 - Supplement #8 April 18, 1979 4-18-78 The City Manager was authorized to proceed as outlined in the recommendations contained in the City Attorney's report dated Ap-il 12, 1978, with the understanding that the staff would proceed utilizing as many reports as possible prepared by the Developer. ..- MEMORANDUM DATE : TO : FROM : SUBJECT : The City April 12, 1978 Mayor and City Councilmembers City Attorney RECOMMENDATIONS RE PROCEDURE FOR PROCESSING SATELLITE TREATMENT FACILITY FOR THE LAKE CALAVERA HILLS DRAINAGE BASIN Council, at your March 28, 1978 adjourned meeting, consideGed a series of staff reports regarding a proposal for construction of a satellite sewage treatment plant in connection with the Calavera Hills Development. After considering the reports the Council indicated their willingness to consider the matter further provided the proposal was viewed in the context of the entire drainage basin. The Council directed the staff to return with a specific series of recommendations on how to proceed. The City Manager, City Attorney, Public Works Administrator and Planning Director have discussed the matter at length. Since the majority of the procedural steps depend on interpretations of our existing ordinances, the City Manager has asked that I prepare this report. It includes his recommendations and those of the Public Works Administrator and the Planning Director. PROJECT REPORT, FINANCIAL REPORT AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT : The Public Works Administrator is of the opinion that in order to give further consideration to the development of a satellite treatment facility in the Lake Calavera Hills drainage basin, that it is necessary to commission the preparation of a Project Report, Financial Report and Environmental Impact Report. The Council will recall that a similar procedure was utilized in considering the approval of the Phase I11 expansion of the Encina Plant. The Public Works Administrator has prepared a memorandum outlining the matters to be covered in those reports. The City Manager is of the opinion that the reports should be funded by the City. His memorandum discussing the basis for that recommendation and the Public Works Administrator's memorandum have been furnished to the Council. If the City Council concurs, your action is as follows: Recommendation No.1: Direct the City Manager to take the steps necessary to cause the preparation of a Project Report, a Financial Report and an EIR for a satellite ,- Mayor and City Councilmembers -2- April 12, 1978 treatment plant to serve the drainage basin in which the Calavera Hills Project is located as outlined in the City Manager's and Public Works Administrator's memoranda. GENERAL PLAN AMENDMENTS : As outlined in the City Attorney's memorandum of March 23, 1978, the first step in processing the revised Calavera Hills Master Plan is a General Plan amendment to revise the land use element. In view of the Planning Moratorium, it will be necessary for the City Council to take action to initiate the amendment. The amendment to the land use element would place those changes necessary to accommodate the proposed revised Master Plan before the Council for a decision. That matter would be heard in conjunction with the hearing on an Environmental Impact Report. The bulk of the staff work has already been done in connection with work on the revised Master Plan. A General Plan amendment in regards to the satellite plant would klso be required. site the plant but rather provide in the General Plan authority for the Council to locate a satellite plant within a particular drainage basin and outline the procedure for accomplishing a specific siting of such a plant which could include Master Plan approvals or Specific Plans. conjunction with the hearing on the land use amendments and the EIR could cover both matters. It will be necessary to expand the draft EIR prepared for the revised Master Plan to consider the effects of the satellite plant throughout the drainage basin. It is anticipated the staff will undertake that obligation. the City Council concurs, you should proceed as follows: It is contemplated that we would not specifically This amendment could be heard in If Recommendation No. 2: By motion the City Council should initiate a General Plan amendment to revise the land use element in the Calavera Hills area and to provide for the siting of satellite treatment plants.and instruct staff to prepare an EIR on the amendments. ZONE CODE AMENDMENTS: As outlined in the City Attorney's memorandum of March 23, 1978, the P-U Zone is considered the appropriate vehicle for develop- ment of a satellite sewage treatment plant. It will be necessary to revise the P-U Zone to make sewage treatment plants a permitted use in the zone. At the same time it has been suggested by the Mayor and City Councilmembers -3- April 12, 1978 Planning Director that the permitted uses in the 0-S and E-A Zones be revised slightly to clarify that the utility uses provided for therein are limited to accessory uses. If the Council concurs your action is as follows: Recommendation No.3: By motion instruct staff to initiate hearings at the Planning Commission to revise the P-U, 0-S and E-A Zones as necessary to accommodate satellite sewage treatment plants and clarify the permitted utility uses. MASTER PLAN AP4€CNDl!4ENT : The same time work is progressing on Recommendations 1, 2 and 3, staff contemplates continuing to work on the Calavera Hills Master Plan amendment. It would not be possible to bring that amendment forward for hearing until after the EIR was certified and the General Plan amendments were approved. However, the hearings could occur within two weeks of such approval. The Project Report, Financial Report and EIR on the plant should be heard before the Master Plan amendment. That would allow the specific site and other matters regarding the plant to be included in the Master Plan. This may not be possible due to the AB-884 time limits or political considerations. In that event, provisions will need to be included in the Master Plan to accommodate a range of possibilities for the plant. The amendment would contain authority for locating a public utility area within the community should the Project Report indicate that was the appropriate location for the satellite plant. This would obviate the need for subsequent rezonings or Master Plan amendments. Appropriate conditions would be attached to the Master Plan to assure that no further development or building would occur until the matter of sewer service had been finally resolved. The Master Plan would provide further that the plant would be specifically sited by approval of a Precise Plan for development under the procedures of the P-U Zone. If the plant is to be located outside the Lake Calavera Hills boundaries, a more complicated series of conditions would be required as well as some additional actions as discussed below. If the City Council concurs your action is as follows: Recommendation No. 4: Council should authorize the Planning Department to continue work on the Calavera Hills Master Plan to include provisions for accommodat- ing a satellite sewage treatment plant. Mayor and City Councilmembers -4- April 12, 1978 SITING OF SATELLITE SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT: Staff contemplates that a decision on siting of the satellite sewage treatment plant would not occur until after approval of the EIR, Financial Report and Project Report. If the reports indicate that the plant should be located within the boundaries of Calavera Hills Master Plan, staff will proceed to work out the various arrangements necessary to accomplish the construction of the plant. Those will be outlined and developed more fully as part of the Project Report and Financial Plan. As indicated above, the procedure to site the plant would be accomplished through the processing of a Precise Plan Development under the procedures of the P-U Zone. If the report indicates that the site should be outside the boundaries of the Calavera Hills Development, then there are some additional steps which must be taken. It would be necessary for the Council to initiate rezoning of the site to P-U. Arrangements would also have to be made to acquire the site through purchase or condemnation. It would also be necessary to acquire those properties or easements over properties in the vicinity of the plant that could be adversely effected since it is now established that the City can be liahle in inverse condemnation if a plant has an adverse effect on the surrounding properties. Once arrangements have been made for acquisition of the necessary site, and the rezoning, staff would proceed to process the specifics of the plant using the Precise Plan process in the P-U Zone. No City Council action is necessary at this time and details of this recommendation will be more fully developed in the context of the development and the Project Report. ASSEMBLY BILL 884: As the Council knows, AB-884 requires all development approvals in connection with a project to be accomplished within one year or the development is automatically approved. The City Manager and the City Attorney contemplate meeting with the developer of Calavera Hills in the near future in an attempt to reach an agreement on the status of the Calavera Hills project vis-a-vis AB-884. No Council action is required at this time but it is anticipated that we will be bringing a further report on this matter to the Council in the future. Mayor and City Councilmembers -5- April 12, 1978 ALTERNATIVE PROCESSES: The procedural steps outlined above are based on the Citv's existing ordinances and General Plan. There may be alternatives. The developer has suggested, for instance, that the plant should be sited utilizing a Specific Plan. The Specific Plan would contain ordinance provisions for processing and siting the sewer plant. This alternative was not recommended for a number of reasons, including: 1. The recommended process is in keeping with established practice in the City of Carlsbad and utilizes existing ordinances. 2. The essential steps in the processing: that is, the General Plan amendments, the EIR's, Project Report, construction agreements, site acquisition, etc. are the same irrespective of the procedural steps which would be substantially the same in any case. The option of siting a sewer plant by Specific Plan could be included in the General Plan and Master Plan amendments. If it is later determined to be desirable, it could be used in place of the P-U Zone process without changing the substance of these recommendations. 3. If the City Council wishes to consider alternative means of pro- cessing, it is recommended that they direct the City Manager and the City Attorney to report further in detail on those alternatives. CONCLUSION: The recommendations contained in this report are in an attempt to summarize those recommendations contained in the City Attorney's report of March 23, 1978 and the reports from the City Manager, Planning Director and Public Works Administrator. The Council should keep in mind that this proposal is a complex matter and that these recommendations are subject to refinement in the future. VFB/mla VINCENT F. BIONDO, JR. City Attorney MEMORANDUM TO : City Manager FROM: Public Works Administrator DATE : April 11, 1978 SUBJECT: Satellite Plants In order to bring the Lake Calavera Hills proposal into con- formance with the satellite plant concept accepted by the City Council, it will be necessary to urepare a project report, a financial report and an environmental impact report. These reports should be prepared by the City or by consultants under contract to the City. While there is much data available, con- siderable additional effort will be required to complete the project. Estimated cost to complete reports is $25,000. The project, financial and environmental reports, while using existing data, should be expanded to cover the following issues Project Report What area should be served? Should we provide for extension of service into adjoining agencies' service areas? If so, what are the physical, political, financial and environmental impacts? Would it be of any advantage to combine several, or parts of several, drainage areas into one larger service area? Should we pro- vide for service to all development within the defined ser- vice area or just new development? If all development. what is the impact on uresent sewer plant and service program? What are the potential reclamation needs (present or future) in the proposed service area? What is the maximum volume of sewage from proposed service areas? ___ Total development? New development only? Other agencies' service areas? __- What are the physical and chemical characteristics of the sewage to be generated in service area? Will these characteristics affect potential for reclamation? Should any unique treatment needs be anticipated? _-- What is the proposed treatment technology? What alternatives were considered? ___ What are the capital costs and the operations and maintenance costs anticipated for each alternative? ___ .. City Manager -2- April 11, 1978 What technology Is proposed? Will effluent be of sufficient quality to dispose of in the ground? In the ocean? Will the proposed technology be suitable on a City-wide basis? Will it minimize City- wide operations and maintenance costs? How will solids be disposed? How will brine be disposed? Will it be necessary to expand treatment and/or handling facilities elsewhere in the City because of this project or any phase of it? What are maximum land area needs for ultimate service area system? What is capacity of available percolation sites? What maximum capacity will be needed in a fail-safe to the ocean outfall? --- --- Where can fail-safe line be located? Alternatives? --- What is optimum site for project? What alternative sites may be used? Pros and cons of each a1 ternative? What project phasing is proposed? What alternate phasing was considered? What are the impacts of the proposed phasing on operations and maintenance costs? --- What capacity allocation programs should be considered for each project phase? Who gets capacity? When is capacity made available? What is impact on moratorium? What is capital cost of project? --- Of each phase? --- What is impact of need to provide public facilities to each area allowed to develop with each phase? How can provision of public facilities be coordinated and fi- nanced? Financial Report How are capital funds for project to be provided? Entire project? Phase by phase? Impact on serving present development? --- How will operations and maintenance costs be funded? Basin by basin? City-wide service fees? How will they vary with phasing? What will they be? City Manager -3- April 11, 1978 Will any of proposed capitalization or operations and maintenance funding programs result in inducement to develop? Give details. --- What connection fees will be necessary to capitalize project & expanded ocean outfall capacity? Will any unique financial arrangements be necessary? Environmental Impact Report What are short-term impacts of project? What are the primary long-range impacts of the project? --- Will land use controls in vicinity of plant be necessary if plant is to be a good neighbor? What will be impact if plant failure is experienced? What is impact of future reclamation uses? What City-wide impact will project have? --- What are secondary impacts of project? Will it induce growth? Will it accommodate growth? What are impacts of growth? What are impacts on adjoining agencies? What are impacts on Regional Water Quality Control Board goals? What is impact on agricultural and open space lands that could use reclaimed water? What mitigation measures will be necessary? --- Will growth management controls be necessary? Will land use controls be necessary? Will the C.I.P. need to be modified? What mitigation measures would have to be taken by adjoining service agencies? What actions would we have to take if ad- joining agencies took no mitigating measures? T-d Rx,!DA-- Rdnald A. Beckman, P.E. /- \d-d A: LA-- Rdnald A. Beckman, P.E. Public Works Administrator RAB : veb DATE : APRIL 14, 1978 TO : CITY COUNCIL FROM: City Manager SUBJECT: CALAVERA HILLS SEWER PROJECT REPORT FINANCING At the March 28, 1978 meeting, City Council approved in concept the development of a satellite sewage treatment plant for Calavera Hills. The City Attorney by memo dated April 12, 1978, has outlined what will be required as part of the sewer pro j ec t report . Up to this point the Council has required that the developer finance all reports necessary to make the determinations that Council has made. The developer has seen this as his responsi- bility in the past and continues to see this as his responsibility for the project report and EIR supplement. The Council may wish to consider the preparation of the project report and its funding as a City responsibility. Consideration of this is suggested for several reasons. As the City allows the developer to expend more funds, Council may find it more difficult to not approve or to modify sig- nificantly the findings of such reports. Additionally, the proposed plant will be designed for the potential of serving a drainage basin rather than a single development. The solution to such community problems has generally been accepted as a community responsibility. An example of this is the City's direct participation in the funding of the planning of the Encina plant. City responsibility for preparation of the reports provides for greater control over their content. Even if prepared by the con- sultant, the City would have to retain a consultant to review and check the work since staff does not have the time or probably the expertise for this kind of work. Mr. Ward has expressed concern that such an approach would create time delays and the City staff, I believe, understands those concerns. However, much of the data has already been developed by the developer and where the information proves valid, we would incorporate it into the City's report without doing all the research necessary to produce such information. The Public Works Administrator has estimated that this effort should not exceed $25,000. If the Council concurs with this approach they should authorize the staff to solicit proposals from qualified firms to prepare the project report. PAUM. BUSSEY City Manager PDB: ldg