Warriors letter 9.12

							On Sep 12, 2012, at 1:42 PM, "Camas Steinmetz"wrote:



Mr. Barisone,

As stated in my letter, the Beach Hill Neighbors Association is not
opposed to the stadium per se, they are opposed to its legal
deficiencies with regard to noticing of the public hearing, its
environmental review under CEQA, and its compliance with the applicable
Municipal Code, General Plan and Local Coastal Plan policies and
regulations.

That said, and without waiving any of the legal grounds raised in the
letter or any of its rights, the Association appreciates your
invitation to request conditions of approval to mitigate the Project’s
effects on the neighborhood. The Association plans to convene this
Sunday to discuss your response and identify the specific conditions of
approval it would like imposed on the Project if and when it is
ultimately approved.

Meanwhile, in the interest of time and in light of the fact that the
Council will be discussing this matter in closed session today, the
Association has expressed desire that additional conditions of approval
be imposed on the Project to help mitigate the Project’s impacts with
respect to parking, traffic and noise. Such conditions could include
the following:

·         Improve the Permit Parking Program currently in effect on
Beach Hill by removing the 101 parking meters associated with the
residential portion of the hill (that are identified in the petition
signed and submitted by over 120 Beach Hill residents) and extend it as
a year-round program

·         Secure and provide 30% of the Project’s 1,140 required off-
street parking through exclusive use of private off-street parking lots
in the Lower Pacific Area and the Downtown Area (i.e. the Boomerang
Site and the Depot Lots identified in the parking analysis) during
stadium events via license agreements entered into between the
applicant and the owners of these private parking lots

·         Discourage use of the Boardwalk Area parking lots (owned by
the Project site owner) for stadium visitor parking; however, if these
lots are ultimately used, the applicant shall institute an effective
system to shuttle patrons to and from the arena without using Laurel
Street Extension

·         Prohibit stadium arena events on the Fridays, Saturdays, and
Sundays from Memorial Day till Labor Day (which are known traffic
nightmare days for Santa Cruz residents)

·         Keep the Beach Hill residents’ main vehicular entrance,
Laurel Street Ext., open at all times for Beach Hill residents and
their guests with a valid parking permit
·         Repair and reopen the pedestrian entrance to Beach Hill from
the Pacific/Front intersection (the “Front Street ramp”), that was
closed off years ago.

·         Prohibit mechanical noisemakers, like blow horns, clappers,
cowbells, inflatable spirit sticks etc., from use in stadium arena

·         Locate entry doors so that there is not a direct sound path
through the doors and surrounding environment (this is listed as an “if
possible” condition of approval; it should be a firm condition of
approval)

·         Direct sound leaving the arena into solid walls to minimize
the increase in noise level on the surrounding community and the site
(this is listed as a “critical to avoid unexpected inversion driven
acoustical impacts” in the noise analysis, p. 9)

·         Construct an airtight high mass wall behind the speakers to
reduce the transmitted noise level outside (see noise analysis, p. 11)

·         Require that door and hardware elements be from one of the
acceptable list of manufacturers listed in the noise analysis on p. 11-
12.

·         Construct vestibules at each exit location to mitigate the
regular opening and closing of exit doors (see noise analysis, p. 12)

Please forward this tentative list of conditions on to the Mayor and
City Council members for their review and consideration at today’s
closed session.

Finally, and on a personal note, I would like to add that while this
law firm is “out of town” as you stated, in that its offices are not
located in Santa Cruz, I myself am a former UCSC student and Beach Hill
resident.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Camas J. Steinmetz, Esq.
Aaronson, Dickerson, Cohn & Lanzone
939 Laurel Street, Suite D
San Carlos, CA 94070
Telephone: (650) 593-3117 x225
Fax: (650) 637-1401