Update and Follow-Up on Harbor Seal Haul Out Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Between the City of Alameda and the Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) at Alameda Point. (Base Reuse 819099)
Update and follow up on Harbor SEAL haul out. Memorandum of Understanding between the city of Alameda and the water emergency transportation authority at alameda point. Good evening, mayor and city council members. I'm ninette mercado in the community development department. Also the base we use department. I'm going to be making a very brief presentation because you have pretty much the summary of everything that's in the written report. And I'd actually appreciate you sharing the. Highlights of it. For Issue four. So on March 17th, this city council approved the lease with the Water Emergency Transit Authority on the condition that they enter into and an MLB with us to construct harbor seal haul out to replace the existing dilapidated pier which is being used by the seals right now and spend up to $100,000 to make that happen. Can you show the diagrams as we're going through this or can someone. And that. I mean, we've got experts here. And after that, the next day, unmarked on March 18th. And the I submit it to read out the list of the specialists that were given to me and as part of my research on the harbor seals. Oui, oui, oui, oui. Went on that list down to about three candidates. Looking at their background and working with marine mammals. Also, we did some calls to see who was available to work on this project, and then we circulated it within a working group that we established. The working group consists of the members of the community who had expressed an interest in the project. So there's about seven members that we've been working with. The working group all decided and I'm kind of happy about this on our on the number one candidate, which is Dr. Jim Harvey, who is the head of the research at the Moss Landing Marine Mammal Center. And your report says on an April 24th, actually, that's the wrong date. That's the date the meeting was set up. But on May 18th, we met on site with this, members of the working group and Dr. Jim Harvey to talk about it, to look at the existing pier that's being used right now. And actually that day there are about six seals on the pier. So that was really great for him to see them. And we talked about how the best location to relocate the the hull out the community. We walked the site a little bit with Dr. Harvey. The community was okay. The members were okay with this proposed site. They actually had another site in mind which is closer to the De Pave Park area, which is all the way on the other side of the property. So we drove over there with Dr. Harvey and looked at the site and Dr. Harvey felt that that site was less desirable for a hall out. It's super far from the existing place and the water's a little bit more choppy in that area, even though some of the community members have seen SEALs in that area. He thought it would be really difficult for the SEALs to find the new hall out. So we all agreed that this proposed location would be the best location for the future hall layout. So Dr. Harvey put together a paper which I'm going to distribute to you tonight, and also I'll give to the city clerk so you can put it in the written record. And it's a summary of the meeting that we had. And also he includes sort of a drawing of what the hall out could look like. And at the meeting he talked about some strategies to ensure the success of the Harbor SEALs. And he said is that most people when you think about a SEAL, you think of the sea lions that you see at at up here, 39. And those are super social seals, sea lions that harbor seals that we're talking about. He referred to as the cats of the marine mammal world because they are very particular on where they're going to haul out. Their behavior is very difficult to predict. I mean, we could build the Cadillac version of a hollow out and they may never show up to it. So he kind of gave us that caution as well. He did give us some strategies that we will be utilizing, which is putting some floating docks out and and moving it closer to where the proposed site will be so that they can potentially get used to the location. Still, there is no guarantee and we actually own some docks that we might be able to use for that purpose. Now, after the meeting with the community, I brought Dr. Harvey back to look at those docks and he said, That's perfect, if you can put them out there that see if that works. So with that said, and with this paper written by Dr. Harvey, we has submitted the paper to Bccdc on the 30th of June and asked about the next steps. What do we need to do to get our permit in place and start moving along? And then we to has a meeting next week with Bccdc and this is one of the items to discuss. So I anticipate coming back to you when we have another milestone and I wanted you to know that we were moving this forward as fast as we could. We didn't even wait the next day. We were busy trying to move this forward because we do want to be able to have something in place before we have to demolish the existing hall up. And we have. Go ahead. I was just going to comment and thank Ms.. Mercado for that very comprehensive report. And also just to remark on what a wide variety of projects you cover, because. This is the. Woman who is in charge of all our leases at the base. So she's everything major manufacturing and reuse of these buildings and new locations for harbor seals. I you know, that's something to add to the resume and other. Duties as required. So we do have a public comment and there's clarifying questions I'd like to call. Ahmed. Yes. So can you recap who's who's on the the committee? Who's on the committee? Okay. I don't. Since we'd have contacts, all of the members, I can tell you that it is the six members who came. It's Mark Kline. Richard Bangert. Okay, Leonora. I don't know her last name. There's another woman whose email is Irene. Only Irene Dieter. Okay. Yeah. And I'm comfortable with those. Okay. Okay. Or too. I was looking for you. Said them. Okay. And then. I had a question, but it just escaped me. So if I think of it again, I'll bring it up later. Any other questions? All right, Richard Banger. He's our only public speaker. If anyone would like to speak on this, please turn in your slip. Thank you, Mayor. Members of the City Council, city staff. It's always good to spend a little time talking about our other Alameda Point Partners Wildlife. Also known as the other Dub Nation. I'd like to especially thank the Net City staff and Mike from way to who's not here tonight or really putting in a diligent effort on this and especially in securing the services and expertize of Dr. Jim Harvey. He's the right doctor for this very bypass operation. This is this is probably a first on the West Coast of the United States, as you know. That said, they may adapt to it. They may not, but it's going to be. If nothing else, a noble effort that a lot of people are watching, especially the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, who told us that their recent permit hearing for the weight of society that this has never been done before and they're hoping for the best, too. So. Thanks for all the work city staff has done on this. Counsel or my question. So the status of bccdc. There's a hearing next week to approve the permit. It's not a hearing. We informally have asked them, what are that? What are they going to require from us? And so it's a follow up meeting from the emails, sending Dr. Harvey's report and asking What are the next steps? Okay, so are we doing well? Besides that, I guess the technical or are we doing some preliminary support letter or something that says this is important to us? Well, I think that when this was submitted to the Bccdc, Dr. Harvey's report that the transmittal letter said that this was the work of members of the Alameda community, the city of Alameda and Rita. So they know that we're on board. We also know that, as Mr. Bangert said, that AC DC and they're interested in seeing the success of this project. So we're just, we just, I think because it's not been done before, they're going to have to tell us what the what's the roadmap to get it done. Okay. But so when do we expect them to like actually give the permit? And we don't know. We have a little schedule here that we've kind of put together. But if we need a full court press, we will come back to you to ask for letters of support or something like that. We just think that we need them to tell us what they think the process will be. Okay. Thank you. And this is an update. We do not vote tonight. Are there any other council comments? So and so. I also want to thank staff for proceeding with this, Dr. Harvey, the the community members that are involved. I'm I too am hopeful that this works. And I in regards to the next update, I don't know. I know you you're you don't really know when you'll be coming back. I would like at least an update. What do you think? Like monthly or quarterly, if there is no other news, just to let us know what's happening? And would it be all right if we did a written corresponded to the packet from the city manager's office. And so that we make the announcement. Yes. But then if you can share that to the public. So because. Until we have a big milestone very. Important to the public. Sure. The public can continue to communicate with staff if they have not been part of this committee, if they are interested in joining or have any questions regarding this. Absolutely. Thank you. All right. So no other comments. We're going to move on to six D. A public hearing to consider adopted a resolution approving the engineer's report, confirming a diagram and assessment and ordering the levee of assessments. Island city landscaping and lighting District 84 to all zones.