Planning Commission Wants to Know Where It Stands

The Planning Commission wants to know if Mayor Dean Barbieri and other City Council members have their backs.

Planning Commission Chairwoman Melanie Robertson on Thursday made public a letter signed by the full commission to Barbieri and the rest of the council. The letter expresses dismay at the mayor and other council members remaining mute after public criticism of the relevance of Planning Commission recommendations by Councilman Jeff Wieler at a March 21-22 council meeting on the community’s most divisive issue in years — the Moraga Canyon sports fields proposal at Blair Park.

“As disturbing as Mr. Wieler’s comments were, equally disappointing was that the majority of the Council members remained mute in response to those comments,” wrote the planning commissioners. “We hope that these actions do not reflect the City Council's opinion.”

The full text of the March 31 letter from Robertson and the Planning Commission appears at the bottom of this article.

Councilwoman Margaret Fujioka on Thursday expressed her appreciation for the Planning Commission.

"I respect the decision of the Planning Commission and I appreciate the many hours they devoted to evaluating the plans, listening to public testimony and reviewing the voluminous documents," Fujioka wrote in an email. "The Planning Commission, like the Park and Recreation Commissions, was asked to hold public hearings and make recommendations to the council ...

"We can agree or disagree with those recommendations but we need to do so respectfully. I hope that we as a community can dial down the rhetoric and treat each other as we would like to be treated."

with dozens of public comments on both sides of the Blair Park plan (and a few other sides, including compromise alternatives). Toward the end of the evening, the council was discussing the Planning Commission’s Feb. 24 rejection of the ambitious canyonside development forwarded by the Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization.

Wieler said, “This is completely out of their area of responsibility. They’re not traffic engineers. They’re not geotechnical engineers … I reject the Planning Commission decision … I don’t think their conclusions have any validity.”

There were a couple of gasps from the crowd in the City Council chambers. Someone said, “That’s incredible.”

Several Patch readers were critical of Wieler’s remarks about the Planning Commission in comments appended to a March 22 Patch article about the council session.

At the time, one council member spoke up for the Planning Commission. “They all have credentials to address elements of the design,” said Garrett Keating. The commission, Keating said, applied the design principles of city code and the city's general plan to the Blair Park application.

A little while later, at 2:45 a.m. March 22, Keating was the lone dissenter when the council approved the PRFO plan for Blair Park, including a multi-sport field with a retaining wall, parking, a paved walkway and steps.

That vote was contingent upon the PRFO filing, and the city analyzing, more traffic safety alternatives than the PRFO plan’s provision for a pedestrian-activated, flashing-light crosswalk across Moraga Avenue. The council plans to review those traffic safety alternatives at an as-yet-unscheduled meeting.

, with members commenting that the 300-by-150-foot artificial turf field is too big for the site.

Robertson noted on Thursday that no council members addressed the Planning Commission letter during an April 4 council meeting at which the sports field proposal was not on the agenda. “We believe a public discussion of the comments is in order,” Robertson wrote in an email.

THE TEXT OF THE MARCH 31 LETTER:

The Planning Commission sent the following letter to the City Council on March 31, 2011, signed by each of the five members of the Commission:

Dear Mayor Barbieri and City Council Members:

We are writing in response to comments made by Council Member Jeff Wieler during the City Council meeting of March 21, 2011, when he publicly called into question the professional qualifications of the Planning Commission to review the Blair Park project and stated that because of an apparent lack of such qualifications, he “rejected” our recommendations as being irrelevant. As disturbing as Mr. Wieler’s comments were, equally disappointing was that the majority of the Council members remained mute in response to those comments. We hope that these actions do not reflect the City Council's opinion.

The Planning Commission reviewed the Blair Park project at the direction of the Council and because it is within our purview to provide recommendations to the City Council on capital improvement projects. Each of us dedicated considerable time and effort and applied professional expertise to study, analyze, and comment on the extensive documentation regarding that project, which makes Mr. Wieler’s comments especially perplexing. We believe it is appropriate that you publicly address his remarks and what may be a misrepresentation of the City Council’s position regarding the qualifications of those who serve on this Commission at the next City Council meeting. Thank you.

Sincerely,

 THE PIEDMONT PLANNING COMMISSION