Bay
Area Stream Buffers: Recent Regulatory Efforts and Next Steps
Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005 afternoon session of
Conversations About Watersheds
Jan. 13-16, Building R. Merritt College, Oakland
Program Video recording Archived - Berkeley Citizen
An
occasion for those who have a stake in the health of our watersheds
and our communities to discuss obstacles and opportunities for Volunteer
Stewardship in the East Bay and beyond. An invitation to anyone with
an interest in local creeks and watersheds. This includes Creek and
Watershed Organizations, Educators, Agency Staff, Scientists, Engineers,
Developers, Neighborhood Organizations, Elected Officials, Corporate
and Business Professionals, Design Professionals, Students, Community
Organizers, Environmentalists, Community Gardeners, Landscapers, Fire
Vegetation Managers, Naturalists, Planners, and others curious about
creek-and watershed-related issues.
Sponsors
The East Bay Watershed Center and the David R. Brower, Ronald V. Dellums
Institute for Sustainable Policy Studies at Merritt College, and the
Watershed Project, Friends of Five Creeks, Friends of the Estuary,San
Francisco Bay Joint Venture
This
is the 3rd in a series of watershed gatherings initiated by the Joint
Meeting of Bay Area Watershed Groups in 2002. This conference is an
effort to close infrastructure and network gaps within the watershed
community. The interactive format will prioritize time for conversation
so that individuals, groups and agencies can talk to each other about
their experiences and to work towards creating solutions.
This Video includes..
Welcome:
Robin Freeman, of East Bay Watershed Center, Bill
Kier, of Kier Associates,
and President Evelyn Wesley,
of Merritt College, Oakland.
What Setbacks Can and Cannot Do - Research Findings
Kenneth Schwarz, Jones &
Stokes
Buffers and the Law: Ellison
Folk, Shute, Mihaly, & Weinberger
The Portland, Oregon Experience: Two Steps Forward
and One Back?
Jim Labbe, Audubon Society of Portland
Rocky Roads to Buffer Regulation:
Leslie Estes, City of Oakland Environmental Services; Craig
Breon, Santa Clara Valley Audubon; Austin
McInerny, Center for Collaborative Policy
Next Steps:
Roger Leventhal, Far West Engineering; Emmanuel Ursu, Planning Director, City
of Orinda;
Mike Houlihan, Santa Clara Valley
landowner; Juliana Rebagliati, Principal
Planner, City of Santa Cruz.
Facilitated Discussion of Panel and Roundtable.
Moderator: Mary Selkirk, Center for
Collaborative Policy
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BIOGRAPHIES AND CONTACT
INFORMATION FOR CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS
Craig Breon, Executive Director
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society
McClellan Ranch Park, 22221 McClellan Road, Cupertino, CA 95014
Craig K. Breon is the Executive Director of the Santa Clara Valley
Audubon Society, where his work focuses on preservation of creeks,
wetlands, open spaces, and habitats for rare fish and wildlife species.
In addition, Mr. Breon teaches Environmental Law at Santa Clara University,
hosts a public radio program focusing on local conservation issues,
and chairs the Planning Commission in the town of Portola Valley.
Previously, Mr. Breon has worked for the Environmental Defense Center
in Santa Barbara, the California Coastal Conservancy, and the California
Environmental Protection Agency. He led the conservation community
in passing the San Jose Riparian Corridor Policy in 1994
Mike Houlihan, Families for Fair Government
FFG 325M Sharon Park Drive #701, Menlo Park, CA 94028
Mike Houlihan, a former corporate finance professional and CFO, lives
on San Francisquito Creek and represents Families for Fair Government
(FFG) in the Water Resources Collaborative, a stakeholder group formed
following attempts to increase setbacks in San Mateo County. FFG seeks
to alert Bay Area residents whenever proposed unnecessary and harmful
laws and regulations would takeaway home owners’ use and enjoyment
of their property.
Ellison Folk,
Partner
Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP
396 Hayes Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Ellison Folk joined Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger in 1990 and is
a partner with the firm. She received her law degree from Boalt Hall
School of Law, and also holds a Masters in City and Regional Planning
from the University of California Berkeley. Ms. Folk represents community
groups, public agencies, and environmental organizations on a wide
range of environmental and land use issues, including CEQA, the California
Coastal Act, NEPA, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and general
plan and zoning law. Ms. Folk also advises and defends public agencies
in litigation raising takings and related constitutional challenges
to land use and environmental regulations.
Bill Kier, Principal Kier Associates
207 Second St., Suite B Sausalito CA 94965
Bill Kier has been committed to stream protection work for nearly 50
years, beginning as a California Department of Fish & Game fisheries
biologist and later environmental services chief. He was Assistant
Secretary of the California Resources Agency and principal environmental
protection advisor to the California State Senate for 17 years. He
now heads Kier Associates, Fisheries and Watershed Professionals,
and is senior science advisor to the non-profit Institute for Fisheries
Resources.
Jim Labbe, Urban Conservationist
Audubon Society of Portland
5151 NW Cornell Road, Portland OR 97210
Jim Labbe is a native of Portland with over 15 years of experience
in environmental and natural resource planning in Oregon as a student,
citizen, environmental consultant, watershed council coordinator, and
general Oregon enthusiast. For the past two and half years he has
worked on local and regional natural-resource planning as Urban Conservationist
at the Audubon of Society of Portland (ASofP). With roughly 10,000
members and over a 100-year history in the region, ASofP is one of
the largest and oldest local Audubon chapters in the country, known
for its pioneering work in urban wildlife conservation policy, education,
and stewardship.
Roger Leventhal, P.E., Principal
Engineer
FarWest Restoration Engineering
538 Santa Clara Ave., Alameda, CA 94501
Roger Leventhal is an independent hydraulic engineer and fluvial geomorphologist
specializing in creek and wetlands restoration. He has almost 20 years
of consulting experience and has designed and built many restoration
projects, including several located in the East Bay such as the Martin
Luther King, Jr. Wetlands Project in Oakland, the Oro Loma Marsh in
Hayward, and the Codornices Creek Restoration Project in Berkeley.
He is currently working for the City of Oakland to revise their creek
ordinance standards and guidelines for creekside developments.
Austin McInerny, AICP
Center for Collaborative Policy
P.O. Box 2363
Berkeley, California 94702
Austin McInerny, Associate Mediator with the Center for Collaborative
Policy, has managed a number of CEQA and NEPA compliance processes
and has been a facilitator and process designer for a wide variety
of development and environmental-restoration projects including habitat
restoration/wetland construction in San Pablo Bay, flood control projects
in south San Francisco Bay, expansion of the Bay Area Rapid Transit
system, habitat conservation planning along the northern California
coast, management strategy development for the Agua Fria National
Monument in Arizona, and the ongoing Upper Klamath Basin Working Group
Restoration Planning Project. Working as a consultant to Napa County,
McInerny assisted with the proposed stream setback ordinance development
and review process that is the subject matter of his presentation.
Juliana Rebagliati,
Principal Planner, City of Santa Cruz
Department of Planning and Community Development
809 Center Street, Room 206, Santa Cruz, California 95060
Juliana Rebagliati, AICP, is a Principal Planner with the City of
Santa Cruz, serving as the Environmental Coordinator for the City.
With a background in biology and urban planning, her focus has been
on coastal land use planning and policy. For the past 15 years she
has worked for Monterey Area coastal jurisdictions.
Kenneth Schwarz, Ph.D., Associate
Principal
Jones & Stokes Associates
268 Grand Ave., Oakland CA 94610
Ken Schwarz is a senior project director at Jones & Stokes Associates
specializing in California hydrology, geomorphology, and watershed
management issues. For over thirteen years he has directed complex
watershed projects that often involve competing flood management,
land-use planning, erosion control, habitat conservation, and restoration
concerns. He oversees technical analyses and modeling studies, coordinates
watershed stakeholders and client managers, and works with regulatory
agencies on project permitting. Ken is an active participant on the
Science Advisory Panel for the Southern California Wetlands Recovery
Project. Formerly, he was the Director of Southern California consulting
operations for Philip Williams & Associates and a lecturer at
UCLA where he completed his dissertation on watershed and estuarine
processes.
Susan Schwartz (principal session organizer)
Friends of Five Creeks
1236 Oxford St., Berkeley, CA 94709
f5creeks@aol.com
Susan Schwartz is president of Friends of Five Creeks, a volunteer
watershed-restoration group active in North Berkeley, Albany, Kensington,
and south El Cerrito and Richmond. In addition to leading work parties,
walks, and public meetings; publishing an email newsletter; and advocating
for watersheds in the group’s area, she has organized regional
efforts such as past joint meetings of Bay Area creek groups. She
is a former journalist, editor, and teacher of scientific writing,
and is active in Berkeley Path Wanderers Association, where she initiated
volunteer hands-on opening of undeveloped trail rights-of-way.
Mary Selkirk, Senior Mediator
Center for Collaborative Policy
1303 J St., Suite 250, Sacramento, CA 95814
Mary Selkirk, Senior Mediator with the Center for Collaborative Policy,
is the lead CCP facilitator in support of the South San Francisco
Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project and is working through the State
Coastal Conservancy on a related Alameda Creek project. As a special
consultant to the Executive Director of the CALFED Bay-Delta program
from 1997-2000, Ms. Selkirk coordinated policy issues, agenda development,
stakeholder outreach, facilitation of formal and informal stakeholder
advisory groups, and strategic planning. She has developed and facilitated
workshops and trainings on collaborative processes and currently co-teaches
a course on Community Participation and Dispute Resolution at UC Davis
extension.
Emmanuel Ursu, Planning Director
City of Orinda
PO Box 2000, Orinda, CA 94563
Emmanuel Ursu has been Director of the Orinda Planning Department
since November 2000. During his tenure, the department implemented
and refined creek setback regulations. Because of Orinda’s steep
and varied terrain and numerous watercourses, the City is currently
further refining these standards to simplify the process and balance
appropriate development with protection of riparian resources. Previously,
Mr. Ursu worked as a contract planner for 11 years in the Los Angeles
region with Willdan, a municipal consulting firm, providing contract-planning
services on a variety of development projects for cities including
Rancho Palos Verdes, El Segundo, Culver City, Malibu, Santa Monica,
Calabasas and La Habra Heights.
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