Village Association March Meeting Minutes

POINT REYES STATION VILLAGE ASSOCIATION MARCH MINUTES
Mar. 14, 2019

6:38 Call to Order- Ken Levin Minutes approval without objection

Treasurer Report:

1. REVIEW OF TOWN HALL MEETING - Laura Arndt: Good turnout, Jennifer Blackman did a good job, Village Assn’s have worked together for 2 years, established connections, good thing that’s been established. Going to continue. Light article was pretty accurate.
Comment: Recommendations on website for review. Kudos to all the people on the Alliance, for their collaboration. Need to broaden scope of who participates. Open to new members. Comment: Communication has been established between PRSVA, the villages, and agencies. People addressed issue of traffic. Green Bridge-more of a priority now than 2 years ago? Comment: Workforce housing and climate change more important than Green Bridge. Problems delineated by first town hall meeting: Housing, Sea Level Rise—needs to be covered by county with coastal commission.
Comment: Add Fire Prevention to list.
Need clearly defined process to deal with these issues. Alliance will be involved. EAC is main group here birddogging sea level rise, enormously complicated. Many counties have advisory committees. County already incorporating consideration of sea level rise.
Comment: Main Street Moms commented at supervisor’s meeting asking county to expedite Coast Guard purchase.
2. SPECIAL DISTRICT MEETING REPORT- Ken Levin: Special district = group of people have been invited by Dennis (guests welcome), what would represent citizens of Point Reyes area to potentially address things that are needed out here and types of special districts to pay for changes. May become tax districts, need for more visitor servicing.
3.PROPOSAL TO COUNTY—FORM SUB COMMITTEE WITH DOWNTOWN BUSINESSES- Ken Levin, Pam Bridges, Mike McClaskey
Proposal—that 2.0 acres of county owned land on Mesa Road be used for designated
visitor serving services be used for bathrooms/ parking/ small picnic area. Comment: Great idea. Approach businesses in town, to get more people involved and supportive in it. Collaborate between village association and Chamber. County purposed the land to serve tourist needs: trash, bathroom, parking. Funding mechanism will be discussed. The process is to decide whether to form a subcommittee. Discussion about outreach.
Lorene Jackson meeting re water systems is important meeting and may address this need, among others.
4. GREEN BRIDGE UPDATE- FOLLOW UP FROM TOWN HALL MEETING QUESTIONS/ CONCERNS
Comments: Green Bridge Update Lagunitas Bridge – CalTrans moving ahead. They’ve chosen alternative 3A—3 span concrete bridge with accelerated construction, they will be building it
off-site (not sure if Vet office will be affected). They said they would build the thing and present bridge will remain open and then closed for 3 weeks. Pending the outcome of the lawsuit that is going on right now. Not adequately addressing retro option.
Cannot do anything on ground until lawsuit if resolved.
Comment: Shouldn’t we as a community be supporting the vet office? Is the Village Association going to take any action to the plan they are deciding on? asking for them to redo assessment and do environmental reports. Discussion re how association members feel about bridge alternatives.
5 WEST MARIN COLLABORATIVE REPORT- Peggy Day
Issues of marginally housed, mental illness, health and safety. Peggy to attend Homelessness meeting at West Marin Collaborative.
6. C STREET PARKING/ MARGINALLY HOUSED - UPDATE /DISCUSSION- Ken Levin
Problem is ubiquitous. Exists in other towns. Non-profits dealing with “create your own alternative housing.” There is a certain degree of lawlessness in that community. We were made aware by neighbors that there’s one geographical location in town that seems to be where folks who cause those problems were living. Sheriff said hands were tied and recommended “no parking signs” to give them a way to deal with potential issues there. There’s some moving testimony that was given by 5-6 people in front of county specifying things that happened these past few years. Signs should go up soon.
Hopefully, things will get better and that people who live in vehicles will participate as community members.
Comment: Was there also discussion about people camping in wetlands? County posted new signs now. Dawn to dusk not open. Been part of county regs. The most sheriffs we have is 3-4 sheriffs for all of West Marin.
Comment: 1/3 of homeless are mentally disabled – in SF. H&HS said “it’s so hard to get them help unless they are open to it. They all have different issues. One thing is to ask them how this happened to them.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Caltrans meeting April 2, on long-range plan proposed capital improvements and maintenance effort from 5 Brooks beyond PRS, to Doughty Ranch and north of Tomales -proposed plan to preserve and extend life of existing pavement and include improvements to ramps and signage in PRS.
Rodoni, April 26 noon to 2 pm for face-to-face with supervisor
Comment: We need a focus group for age-friendly Marin. Is anyone aware of plans to improve the accessibility of navigating Point Reyes? Don’t want overlapping resources.
Move to adjourn 7:56