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Select one of the goals below to read an annotated version of the existing Safety Element and provide your ideas and comments.
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GOALS
Goal N-6 Hazardous Materials: An Environment Free of the Damaging Effects of Biological and Chemical Hazardous Materials.
Goal N-7 Solid Waste: Reduced Volumes of Solid Waste; Solid Waste Disposed in an Environmentally Safe, Efficient, Manner.
Goal N-10 Natural Hazards: Protection of Life and Property from Natural Hazards, including Earthquake, Landslide, Flooding and Fire.
New Goal Community Safety And Emergency Management: Develop And Coordinate A Plan For Fire, Police Protection And Effective Emergency Preparedness And Response.
New Goal Infrastructure: Infrastructure That Is Prudently Managed And Maintained To Protect Public Health, Resident Safety And The Natural Environment.
ABOUT THIS ELEMENT
The Safety Element fulfills State requirements for the required Safety Element. The State requires this Element to identify hazards and hazard abatement provisions to guide local land use decisions as it relates to natural and material risks; include general hazard and risk reduction strategies complementary with those of the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, including from exposure to natural hazards like earthquakes and fires, and policies pertaining to hazardous materials and emergency response priorities, as well as avoiding hazards associated with potential new development and reducing risk in the urban, developed areas of Palo Alto. This Element will describe these topics through a list of goals, policies, and programs, in addition to maps and figures that help describe these topics visually.
A significant focus of the Safety Element is to translate the city’s values and vision for the future into a document that provides for the protection of life and property from natural hazards, an inventory and plan for minimizing risks from these hazards, recognizes the guidelines established by the California Geological Survey of the Department of Conservation, and the Office of Emergency Services. In Palo Alto, the existing Element supports the community’s objectives for protection from natural hazards and hazardous materials through the following main policy themes. These themes will be carried forward to guide future land use decisions, including:
- Maintaining an Environment Free of the Damaging Effects of Biological and Chemical Hazardous Materials.
- Reducing the amount of Solid Waste, and in an Environmentally Safe, Efficient, Manner.
- Protecting Palo Altoans from Natural Hazards, including Earthquake, Landslide, Flooding and Fire.
Click here to view the current Natural Environment Element.
Click here to view the Planning and Transportation Commission’s recommended changes.
Existing conditions reports related to the Safety Element can be viewed using these links:
Geology, Soils, and Seismicity
Hazardous Materials
Utilities and Service Systems
What follows is a digital, annotated version of the existing Natural Environment Element as it pertains to the new Safety Element, with questions intended to highlight potential changes that the Citizens Advisory Committee will consider.
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
Residents of any urbanized area encounter various potentially hazardous materials each day, ranging from common household substances to highly regulated fuels and industrial compounds. What can Palo Alto do to ensure that the risk from these materials is reduced and their impacts limited?
GOAL N-6: An Environment Free of the Damaging Effects of Biological and Chemical Hazardous Materials
POLICY N-30: Minimize the use of toxic and hazardous materials. Encourage the use of alternative materials and practices that are environmentally benign.
PROGRAM N-46: Provide information to all user groups about:
Commonly used hazardous materials;
environmentally friendly alternatives; and
safe recycling and disposal methods.
PROGRAM N-47: Continue City permitting procedures for commercial and industrial storage, use, and handling of hazardous materials.
PROGRAM N-48: Continue sponsoring a regular household hazardous waste collection event.
PROGRAM N-49: Study the relative costs, advantages, and disadvantages of joining the regional household hazardous waste program operated by the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health.
PROGRAM N-50: Continue the program that allows small quantity generators to dispose of hazardous waste at cost.
POLICY N-31: Continue working with appropriate agencies to clean up hazardous waste sites and contaminated groundwater.
POLICY N-32: Support public agency policies, regulations, legislation, and programs that implement the Santa Clara County Hazardous Waste Management Plan.
POLICY N-33: Protect City authority for the approval or denial of proposed commercial hazardous waste treatment, storage, or disposal facilities in the City. Continue to support the concept of “fair share” agreements between counties in the siting of such facilities
Solid waste is produced by all sectors of the community, and Palo Alto has historically been a leader at reducing, reusing, and recycling. Are there specific programs or initiatives that Palo Alto should pursue to ensure that residents, businesses and the City itself reduce the amount of solid waste produced, and enforce responsible waste disposal?
GOAL N-7: Reduced Volumes of Solid Waste; Solid Waste Disposed in an Environmentally Safe, Efficient, Manner.
POLICY N-34: Reduce the amount of solid waste disposed in the City’s landfill by reducing the amount of waste generated and promoting the cost-effective reuse of materials that would otherwise be placed in a landfill.
PROGRAM N-51: Regularly review the landfill fee structure to ensure that it encourages a reduction in solid waste disposal.
PROGRAM N-52: Improve City composting practices and continue promoting the household composting program.
PROGRAM N-53: Continue to develop cost-effective source separation programs for recyclable solid waste materials for residential and commercial customers.
PROGRAM N-54: Continue to develop long-term solid waste management programs that include safe and environmentally sound disposal methods such as the SMaRT Station©.
POLICY N-35: Reduce solid waste generation through salvage and reuse of building materials, including architecturally and historically significant materials.
PROGRAM N-55: Maintain and expand the use of the Recycling Center at the City’s refuse disposal area.
POLICY N-36: Encourage the use of reusable, returnable, recyclable, and repairable goods through incentives, educational displays and activities, and City purchasing policies and practices.
POLICY N-37: Ensure the environmentally sound disposal of solid waste.
POLICY N-38: Support state and federal legislation encouraging the use of recyclable goods
Given its location, Palo Alto is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and flooding, both from existing conditions and from future sea level rise. Other natural hazards like fire and drought are also concerns. What City policies and programs should be prioritized to reduce the threat of these hazards?
GOAL N-10: Protection of Life and Property From Natural Hazards, Including Earthquake, Landslide, Flooding, and Fire.
General Safety Measures
POLICY N-49: Focus efforts to reduce exposure to natural hazards on those areas where the greatest risks exist.
POLICY N-50: Implement public safety improvements, such as access roads and other infrastructure, in a manner that is sensitive to the environment.
Seismic and Other Geologic Hazards
POLICY N-51: Minimize exposure to geologic hazards, including slope stability, subsidence, and expansive soils, and to seismic hazards including groundshaking, fault rupture, liquefaction, and landsliding.
PROGRAM N-69: Strictly enforce Uniform Building Code seismic safety restrictions.
PROGRAM N-70: Continue to provide incentives for seismic retrofits of structures in the University Avenue/ Downtown area.
PROGRAM N-71: Allow development rights achieved through seismic upgrading of specified sites to be transferred to designated eligible receiver sites.
PROGRAM N-72: Revise the Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances to recognize seismic, geologic, and soil related hazards.
PROGRAM N-73: Require preparation of a report from an engineering geologist that reviews geologic, soils, and engineering reports for developments in hazard areas. Establish appropriate fees to cover the cost of this review.
PROGRAM N-74: Review and update, as appropriate, City code requirements for excavation, grading, and filling to ensure that they conform to currently accepted standards. Recover the cost of this work through grading permit fees.
Flood Hazards
POLICY N-52: Minimize exposure to flood hazards by adequately reviewing proposed development in flood prone areas.
PROGRAM N-75: Establish a standardized process for evaluating the impacts of development on the storm drainage system.
PROGRAM N-76: Implement the requirements of FEMA relating to construction in Special Flood Hazard Areas as illustrated on the Flood Insurance Rate Maps.
Fire Hazards
POLICY N-53: Minimize exposure to wildland and urban fire hazards through rapid emergency response, proactive code enforcement, public education programs, use of modern fire prevention measures, and adequate emergency management preparation.
PROGRAM N-77: Regularly review and update the Palo Alto Foothills Fire Management Plan and the fire emergency evacuation provisions in the City’s Emergency Management Plan.
PROGRAM N-78: Provide public education on fire safety, including evacuation routes and guide- lines for clearance of landscaping and other hazards around structures.
PROGRAM N-79: Minimize fire hazards by implementing low density zoning in wildland fire hazard areas.
POLICY N-54: Provide emergency fire and medical services consistent with the response time standards set forth in the Fire Department’s annual budget.
PROGRAM N-80: Evaluate measures for consolidation of services with other jurisdictions and automatic or mutual aid agreements with other jurisdictions to improve efficiencies.
Effective emergency management requires both a responsive public sector and resident preparedness. What can the City do to ensure that both the City and its residents are fully prepared for emergency events?
NEW GOAL: Develop And Coordinate A Plan For Fire, Police Protection And Effective Emergency Preparedness And Response.
POLICY N-55: Minimize exposure to all hazards through emergency management planning.
PROGRAM N-81: Regularly update and distribute the City of Palo Alto Emergency Management Plan, including the earthquake, flood, and fire emergency evacuation plans. Consult with the Palo Alto Unified School District in updating the Plan.
PROGRAM N-82: Initiate public education programs that strongly encourage that each house- hold in the City is prepared to be self-sufficient for 72 hours after a major earthquake. Update and distribute the City’s earthquake preparedness guide, “Living with Our Faults."
Public infrastructure in Palo Alto tends to represent streets, pedestrian and bike paths, and buildings such as fire stations. However, much of the City’s vital infrastructure systems, including the pipes that carry our water, sewage, and storm water, is hidden from view. These vital systems have received increased attention recently as the need for maintenance and upgrades becomes more pressing. The existing Comp Plan doesn’t address this topic in detail, so the Comp Plan Update seeks to establish an overall vision for the long term safety and reliability of all City infrastructure. Can you suggest an overarching policy for inclusion in the Update? What specific issues are most crucial to address?
NEW GOAL: Infrastructure that is prudently managed and maintained to protect public health, resident safety and the natural environment.
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Residents of any urbanized area encounter various potentially hazardous materials each day, ranging from common household substances to highly regulated fuels and industrial compounds. What can Palo Alto do to ensure that the risk from these materials is reduced and their impacts limited?
Hazardous Materials
Residents of any urbanized area encounter various potentially hazardous materials each day, ranging from common household substances to highly regulated fuels and industrial compounds. What can Palo Alto do to ensure that the risk from these materials is reduced and their impacts limited?
Solid waste is produced by all sectors of the community, and Palo Alto has historically been a leader at reducing, reusing, and recycling. Are there specific programs or initiatives that Palo Alto should pursue to ensure that residents, businesses and the City itself reduce the amount of solid waste produced, and enforce responsible waste disposal?
Solid Waste
Solid waste is produced by all sectors of the community, and Palo Alto has historically been a leader at reducing, reusing, and recycling. Are there specific programs or initiatives that Palo Alto should pursue to ensure that residents, businesses and the City itself reduce the amount of solid waste produced, and enforce responsible waste disposal?
Given its location, Palo Alto is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and flooding, both from existing conditions and from future sea level rise. Other natural hazards like fire and drought are also concerns. What City policies and programs should be prioritized to reduce the threat of these hazards?
Natural Hazards
Given its location, Palo Alto is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and flooding, both from existing conditions and from future sea level rise. Other natural hazards like fire and drought are also concerns. What City policies and programs should be prioritized to reduce the threat of these hazards?
Effective emergency management requires both a responsive public sector and resident preparedness. What can the City do to ensure that both the City and its residents are fully prepared for emergency events?
Community Safety and Emergency Management
Effective emergency management requires both a responsive public sector and resident preparedness. What can the City do to ensure that both the City and its residents are fully prepared for emergency events?
Public infrastructure in Palo Alto tends to represent streets, pedestrian and bike paths, and buildings such as fire stations. However, much of the City’s vital infrastructure systems, including the pipes that carry our water, sewage, and storm water, is hidden from view. These vital systems have received increased attention recently as the need for maintenance and upgrades becomes more pressing. The existing Comp Plan doesn’t address this topic in detail, so the Comp Plan Update seeks to establish an overall vision for the long term safety and reliability of all City infrastructure. Can you suggest an overarching policy for inclusion in the Update? What specific issues are most crucial to address?
Infrastructure
Public infrastructure in Palo Alto tends to represent streets, pedestrian and bike paths, and buildings such as fire stations. However, much of the City’s vital infrastructure systems, including the pipes that carry our water, sewage, and storm water, is hidden from view. These vital systems have received increased attention recently as the need for maintenance and upgrades becomes more pressing. The existing Comp Plan doesn’t address this topic in detail, so the Comp Plan Update seeks to establish an overall vision for the long term safety and reliability of all City infrastructure. Can you suggest an overarching policy for inclusion in the Update? What specific issues are most crucial to address?
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