Board Packet 01 18 06 - Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit - Home Page

V Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items
Chair Jehn asked for public comment on items not appearing on the agenda. David
Schonbrunn asked the Board to reconsider support of the proposed Caulfiled Lane
crossing in Petaluma due to the availability of new information recently reviewed by the
CPUC. He felt the Board and Real Estate Committee made a recommendation absent
important information. Following discussion on this issue, Chair Jehn asked the Board for
support for staff to revisit this information at a future Real Estate Committee meeting. Staff
was directed to review the new data and report back to the committee.
Anne Hutchins, Santa Rosa, expressed her support for the SMART project and thanked
staff and the Board for their hard work and efforts to bring rail to the North Bay.
VI SMART General Manager Report
Ms. Hames noted that staff was continuing to send out DEIR documents. An additional
100 cd’s were ordered. To date approximately 500 cd’s, 150 hard copies and 270 letters
of notice had been distributed.
VII Real Estate Committee Report
Lucrecia Milla summarized the December 7th Real Estate meeting. She summarized a
presentation to the committee by the Novato Chamber of Commerce regarding the Novato
Depot Freight Building removal and an offering of a non-interest loan from Novato
Chamber to support the removal of the building. The Real Estate Committee had
supported this proposal and an agreement to proceed with the work will be brought back
to the Board next month. The Cal Park Tunnel public meeting was summarized for the
Board. Chair Jehn asked what has been the hold up with the NWP transfer. Ms. Hames
stated that the documents were currently being signed by the Marin County Transit
District. Director Eklund asked what the status was on the Lalanne negotiation. Ms. Milla
stated it would be discussed today during closed session.
VIII Santa Rosa Railroad Square Developer RFP
John Nemeth gave an overview of the draft Railroad Square RFP and the comments that
had been received at the Real Estate Committee. He noted that last month staff brought a
draft RFP to the Board for review. Since then Staff had received input from the Santa
Rosa City Council, the Real Estate Committee and SMART’s new legal counsel, Hanson-
Bridgett. One piece of input specifically mentioned was a letter from the City Manager of
Santa Rosa expressing some concerns surrounding the financial feasibility of the Railroad
Square project. Staff consequently requested Strategic Economics to look into the
financial feasibility of the project.
Dena Belzer, from Strategic Economics, was present and asked to speak to the issue of
project feasibility. Focusing on the City Manager’s letter, she considered the fiscal impact
of three provisions in the RFP: affordable housing, green building techniques and
prevailing wage. Ms. Belzer reiterated there are tradeoffs the Board would be making in
regards to what is requested and what revenues are likely to be generated by the project.
It was her recommendation that the RFP be structured in a way that would give the
developers flexibility in incorporating elements considered desirable by the Board, as
opposed to threshold requirements.
Page 2