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City council meeting highlights for Oct. 16 meeting 

Below are highlights from the City Council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 16, as submitted by the City of Paso Robles:

Bank of America Easement–accepted the Grant of Easement for Pedestrian Sidewalk Public Access by Bank of America, National Association, and authorized the City Manager to sign and record the Grant of Easement.

Speed Survey and Limits Adjustments–accepted the completed a speed zone survey and authorized the update and enforcement of posted speeds accordingly. The study recommends increasing the speed limit on one segment of road and the decrease of speed limits on 9 segments of roads. The changes are summarized at the bottom of this message in Table 2 from the staff report.

Citywide Parking Ordinance Amendments–approved amendments to Titles 5 and 12 as revised by the City Council Downtown Parking Ad Hoc Committee. These amendments were developed in consultation with the Downtown Parking Steering Committee, the Downtown Paso Robles Main St. Association and individual downtown merchants. The ordinance amendments enable the city to develop programs like the Employee Parking Permit Program, updates antiquated aspects of the ordinances (i.e. the 1956 paid parking of “1 US cent per 12 minutes”) and allows for modern/future needs such as rideshare drop off zones and electric vehicle parking. Any future programs like a parking benefit district, paid parking or time limits would require future City Council approval before being implemented.

Employee Parking Permit Pilot Program–approved a 6-month pilot program designating reserved parking areas in five downtown parking lots for employees who purchase parking permits for $5/month. The program will utilize license plate recognition technology and an online portal for employees to conveniently manage their use of the program. The goal of this program is to free up close proximity downtown street parking for customers visiting downtown by incenting employees to park in lots outside of the downtown core. Due to the early interest in the program, the City Council increased the amount of possible spaces to allow the city to be responsive to demand. In addition, staff will report back to council monthly. (Note: Downtown businesses or employees may reserve a parking permit by calling the City Manager’s Office at (805) 237-3888.)

Employee Retirement Contract Amendments–approved a resolution with requisite certifications to amend the City’s CalPERS contract. The contract amendment will allow for MGMT “police safety” and “fire safety” employees to begin contributing an additional three percent towards retirement contract costs as authorized by Government Code section 20516, Employee Cost Sharing.

Ramada Road Paving Partnership–directed the City Manager and City Attorney to finalize an improvement/reimbursement agreement with Firestone Walker, Inc., utilizing funds already approved for this project to reimburse Firestone Walker for those amounts not being invested by Firestone Walker and other businesses along Ramada Drive for up to $379,000 of total project costs. The poor condition of Ramada Drive and Vendels Circle is demonstrably hurting businesses in the area, by discouraging visitors and presenting poorly. Unfortunately, even given its low PCI rating, Ramada Drive is still not able to be scheduled for a complete reconstruction over the next 6 years, due to lack of funds. Adam Firestone, co-director of Firestone Walker, has proposed a unique public-private partnership approach to repairing sections of Ramada Drive and Vendels Circle. This approach has the potential to significantly reduce the city’s costs and accelerate work on street segments badly needing repair.

This represents just a subset of the total actions by the council. The full agenda and supporting documentation and staff reports can be found at http://www.prcity.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_10162018-76

The minutes will be available as part of the packet for the City Council’s next regular meeting, on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

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About the author: News Staff

The news staff of the Paso Robles Daily News wrote or edited this story from local contributors and press releases. The news staff can be reached at info@pasoroblesdailynews.com.