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Belvedere E-Newsletter
January 28, 2016
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In this Issue
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Please join us at the 37th Annual Town Meeting
February 1, 2016, 7:00 PM
Belvedere Community Center
Monday evening, February 1st, the City Council will honor 2015 Citizen of the Year, Dr. Thomas Cromwell, and 2015 Citizen Emeritus, William Kuhns. Both honorees have provided countless hours of service to our community and now join an impressive list of past recipients of the Citizen of the Year and Citizen Emeritus awards. Come and celebrate Dr. Cromwell and Mr. Kuhns!
There will also be a brief presentation from the Mayor, City Manager, and Chief of Police on City projects and issues of the past year as well as what we are looking forward to in the coming year. There will be time for questions from the community. Invite your neighbors, we hope to see you all there!
Sincerely,
Mayor Claire McAuliffe &
City Manager Mary Neilan
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Temporary suspension of Blue & Gold Fleet Tiburon ferry service starting February 16th
The City has received notice that Tiburon ferry service will be temporarily suspended in February to allow for important inspection, maintenance, and repairs to the floating dock in Tiburon. The maintenance and repair process is estimated to take two weeks. Commuter weekday ferry service will be replaced with a bus bridge, departing on the same morning and evening commute schedules, from downtown Tiburon and the Ferry Building. “Reverse commute" bus departures (Ferry Building/Tiburon a.m., Tiburon/Ferry Building p.m.) will be 10 to 15 minutes later than usual. A customer service representative will be on-site to assist and update passengers. The bus fare is $5 each way; commute ferry tickets will be accepted on the bus. Mid-day and weekend service will be suspended. This in no way affects, nor is it related to, Blue and Gold’s application to the California Public Utilities Commission to transfer ferry service to the Golden Gate Bridge District’s Golden Gate ferry service.
The inspection, maintenance, and repairs of the Tiburon floating dock are part of Blue & Gold Fleet’s long-term capital investment program to ensure that ferry service to and from Tiburon is safe, reliable, and able to accommodate ferries in the near- and long-term. It has been more than 20 years since the float was removed from the Bay for maintenance and repair work. Blue & Gold previously has completed inspection, maintenance and repair on its docking facilities at Pier 39 and Pier 41 in San Francisco. During this routine maintenance program, the float must be removed from the water, in order to examine its underside, and enable technicians to make necessary repairs.
Commute Tiburon ferry tickets will be accepted on the Larkspur and Sausalito ferries during the temporary suspension of the Tiburon ferry service. Please visit goldengateferry.org/schedules for schedule information.
For more information on Blue & Gold Fleet, please visit their website at blueandgoldfleet.com.
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Tiburon Ferry Service Suspension
MMWD New Water
Conserving
Landscape Requirements
Marin Master Gardeners Talks
The Ranch's Father-Daughter Valentines Dance
Richardson Bay Audubon Society Waterbird Festival
Rotary Carnaval Fundraiser
PACE Financing Programs
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Upcoming Meetings
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City Council
February 8,
6:30 PM
Planning Commission
February 16,
6:30 PM
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Stay up to date on meeting times and cancellations and view agenda packets on the City's Website.
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Quick Links
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City's Website
Website Calendar
Get Ready 94920
Bel-Tib Library
The Ranch (Recreation)
Reed Union
School District
Tiburon Peninsula Chamber of Commerce
County of Marin, 3rd District
Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society
Belvedere Community Foundation
Marin Transit Rte 219 Shuttle
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MMWD Adopts New Water Conservation Reqs. to Meet Stringent State Standards
In response to new state regulations, the Marin Municipal Water District's Board of Directors recently updated the district's water conservation code, setting new, more stringent standards for water efficient landscapes, landscape plan review requirements, and bathroom and kitchen faucets.
The code applies to water use in all new construction, certain remodels, and certain landscape rehabilitations. The new ordinance is triggered when a city, town, or the county requires a construction permit, plan check, or design review for a residential, commercial, industrial, or institutional project.
Outdoors, the key components of the ordinance include the following:
- New landscapes: The square foot threshold for all new landscapes required to complete a plan review has been reduced from 1,000 sq. ft. to 500 sq. ft., meaning landscapes that are 500 sq. ft. or larger are now required to go through MMWD’s landscape plan review process.
- Landscape rehabilitations: Landscape rehabilitation projects of any size are required to complete a plan review, with a streamlined "prescriptive" review process for projects of less than 1,000 sq. ft.
- Reductions in turf and other high-water-use plants: The area that can be planted with turf grass and other high-water-use plants has been reduced in both new and rehabilitated landscapes.
- Alternate water sources: The code encourages irrigation with non-potable water sources such as recycled water, graywater, and harvested rainwater.
- Large landscapes: Large landscapes (5,000 sq. ft. or greater) are required to have flow sensors and automatic irrigation shutoff valves.
Indoors, the ordinance reduces the flow rates for faucets:
- Bathrooms: The flow rate for bathroom faucets is now 1.0 gallons per minute (gpm), reduced from 1.5 gpm.
- Kitchens: The flow rate for kitchen faucets is now 1.8 gpm, reduced from 2.5 gpm, though faucets may be designed to allow temporary flows up to 2.2 gpm.
"Our goal with the plan review process is to help our customers install landscapes that save water, are good for the environment, and are beautiful and enjoyable for people," said Dan Carney, MMWD Water Conservation Manager. "The new requirements help guide customers toward choosing the right plants for our climate, building healthy soil, irrigating more efficiently, and making the most of alternatives such as rainwater catchment and graywater reuse."
Even where no permit is required, MMWD stands ready to assist customers looking to transition to low-water-use gardens. The district offers free on-site water-use consultations, Bay-Friendly gardening resources, and rebates on mulch, rain barrels, and other water-saving items.
"Even if you're just sheet mulching part of your lawn or giving your flower bed a makeover, we want to help you do it right," said Dan Carney. "Call us, ask questions, schedule a water-use consultation. We're here to help."
The new standards were adopted in response to Governor Brown's Drought Executive Order of April 1, 2015, which called for updates to the state's Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance and Green Building Code. Local agencies including MMWD were required to adopt the new state requirements or equivalent water-saving measures by the end of last year.
For more information visit marinwater.org/conserve or call 415-945-1520.
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Marin Master Gardener Talks
10:00 AM - February 3, March 2, and April 6
Landmarks Art & Garden Center, 841 Tiburon Blvd.
Marin Master Gardeners will sponsor three talks at the Landmarks Art & Garden Center, 841 Tiburon Boulevard, on the first Wednesday of the month: February 3rd, March 2nd, and April 6th. Each one-hour talk starts at 10:00 AM, and admission is free.
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February 3rd: Marin Master Gardener Nena Hart will offer tips on rose pruning. In addition to sharing techniques for achieving bountiful blooms and shapelier plants, she will discuss protective clothing and tool care.
Hart is an experienced gardener, who has been a Master Gardener since 2000. She was instrumental in the redesign and replanting of the Art & Garden Center gardens around 15 years ago. She serves on the Belvedere Planning Commission.
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March 2nd: Marin Master Gardener Diane Lynch will discuss "Mini Succulent Gardens." Succulents are attractive easy-care, low-water plants that come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Lynch will demonstrate how to incorporate these versatile plants into mini gardens, using common household objects like teacups and cookie tins as containers.
Lynch has been a Master Gardener in Marin since 1999 and previously was one in Texas. She has been writing a gardening column for The Ark newspaper on the Tiburon Peninsula since 2002 and has been a long-time contributor to the weekly Master Gardener column in the Marin Independent Journal.
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April 6th: Marin Master Gardener Lois Stevens will discuss "Getting to the Root of the Matter: Deep Watering for Healthy Plants." In a time of water restrictions, it's important to know how to water our landscapes most effectively. This talk will provide home gardeners with an overview of why deep infrequent watering is recommended for maintaining healthy plants. Stevens will focus on root depths and their uptake of water and nutrients. She will explain efficient watering practices for Marin's climate and soil conditions.
Stevens has been a Marin Master Gardener since 2008 and has been gardening for nearly 50 years. She chairs the Master Gardener Help Desk service in Novato and has trained new Master Gardeners in diagnosing plant problems.In her professional life, Stevens was a civil engineer and project manager on highway and transportation projects for 30 years.
Fore more information, please email Faith Brown.
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3rd Annual Waterbird Festival
Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary
Saturday, February 6, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
The Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary is hoping
to attract more people than ever to the 3rd Annual Waterbird Festival,
which celebrates the migratory waterbirds of San Francisco Bay.
On February 6, from 10am-4pm, the Bay Area public is invited
to join the free celebration of these fascinating birds and the
habitats they depend on. The Center will host naturalist-led bird walks,
exclusive field trips (both at the Center and off-site), and fun
bird-themed activities including an exhibit of the 2015 Audubon
Photography Awards top-rated photographs. Visitors can wander the site,
join a tour, or use our spotting scopes to see the waterbirds that call
Richardson Bay home. There will also be expert speakers, including
filmmaker Judy Irving (The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill) and Audubon’s
Director of Bird Conservation, John Takekawa. Food trucks will be
available onsite as well.
For full schedule and registration, see:
http://richardsonbay.audubon.org/waterbird-festival-2016
Award-Winning Photographs on Display at
Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary
Grand Prize Winner Melissa Groo, "Great Egret"
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Visit the Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary
during the Waterbird Festival on February 6, 2016 to walk among the
winning bird photographs from this year’s Audubon Photography Awards and
learn more about local birdlife. Reproductions of the winning photos
will be available for sale. Selected from over 9,000 entries—submitted from all 50
states, DC, and Canada—the winning photos were published in the May-June
2015 issue of Audubon magazine. A panel of five judges graded the
images based on technical quality, originality and artistic merit. Read
more about the rest of the 2015 Audubon Photography Awards below.
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Rotary Club of Tiburon-Belvedere
Carnaval Fundraiser
Saturday, February 6, 5:30 PM – 9:00 PM
St. Stephen’s Parish Hall, 3 Bayview Avenue
The Rotary Club of Tiburon-Belvedere is celebrating
Carnaval, taking inspiration from Brazil’s festival of Samba contests,
street parties, and high-spirited fun in the countdown to Mardi Gras.
The fundraising event will feature live music, an eclectic buffet, a
costume contest, and a Mardi Gras bead game for a cash prize.
Fine wines and spirits will be up for bid in the silent
auction, and offerings in the live auction will include a romantic
getaway in West Marin, lunches with local notables and Fund a Need,
which will kick off a special project to fund a Rotary garden at the new
community plaza planned for the area between the Belvedere-Tiburon
Library and Town Hall.
Everyone is invited to join the fun. Tickets are $80 per
person at the door and $70 in advance. Please send checks to the Rotary
Club of Tiburon-Belvedere, P.O. Box 220, Tiburon, CA 94920. For more
information, please go to www.telli.com/carnaval.
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Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Programs Available to Residents
Property assessed clean energy, or PACE, is an innovative
way to finance energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water upgrades
to residential and commercial buildings. Property owners can finance up
to 100% of the project, for up to 30 years, as a tax assessment on their
property bill. The assessment obligation may be assumed by the new
owner upon property sale, and under most leases, can be shared with
tenants.
By providing low-cost long-term financing and making it easy
for building owners to transfer repayment obligations upon sale, PACE
aims to spur greater energy efficiency in existing buildings.
PACE financing provides a way to improve the efficiency of
your home or business with little or no money down. In addition,
repayment may be amortized for a period of up to 30 years, which can
keep monthly payments low enough such that utility savings may exceed
payments (net positive cash flow). Another benefit is that the interest
may be tax deductible. MCE recommends consulting with a tax professional
to understand if tax benefits apply to you. Finally, in some cases, the
loan may transfer upon sale or refinancing, so you’re not paying for
upgrades for a home or business you no longer occupy.
All PACE providers are authorized to operate in Belvedere,
as well as unincorporated Marin County, Fairfax, Larkspur, Mill Valley,
Novato, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Sausalito, and Tiburon.
For more information, Marin Clean Energy has published
PACE Financing FAQs as well as a Finance Finder Tool. Lastly,
Pacenation.us/ provides helpful national information on PACE
programs.
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