Upfront
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News Digest Hotel-tax hike recommended in Palo Alto Seeking to tap into the riches generated by the city’s flourishing hotel scene, a Palo Alto City Council committee on Wednesday recommended asking voters to raise the hotel-tax rate by 3 percent, which would make the city’s rate one of the highest in the state. If the full council approves the recommendation from the Infrastructure Committee, the city’s rate would rise from 12 to 15 percent. Most neighboring cities currently have tax rates ranging from 10 percent (Mountain View, San Jose) to 12 percent (Menlo Park, East Palo Alto). San Francisco and Oakland each have a rate of 14 percent, while Anaheim is the only city listed in staff’s analysis with a rate of 15 percent. The committee was charged by the council with charting the city’s path toward a November ballot measure, with a goal to raise money for funding a backlog of infrastructure projects. According to staff estimates, increasing the hotel-tax rate by 3 percent would bring in proceeds that would be leveraged to obtain $46.2 million in funding. The list of projects that the hotel-tax increase would fund includes additional garages; restoration at Byxbee Park; road improvements on Charleston and Arastradero; and replacement of obsolete fire stations near Rinconada and Mitchell parks. The full council is scheduled to discuss the committee’s recommendation on Feb. 24. N — Gennady Sheyner
Planned Matadero bike route wins key vote
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Palo Alto’s ambitious quest to become the nation’s top biking city received a boost Wednesday night when the city’s planning commission green-lighted the creation of a new bike boulevard on Matadero Avenue. The new bike route, extending east-to-west along Matadero and Margarita avenues, would be part of a greater network of existing and planned bike paths, including ones on Park Boulevard and Maybell Avenue. The new boulevard is listed as a priority project in the Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan the city adopted in 2012. If the City Council goes along with the recommendation, construction of the bike boulevard would begin this summer and would include five new speed humps along Matadero, between Laguna Avenue and Whitsell Avenue; a new speed table at the intersection of Matadero and Tippawingo Street that will also function as a raised crosswalk table for pedestrians; and berms on Josina Avenue that will create walking space for pedestrians. “The consistent message of every bicycle project we’ve worked on is that bicycle projects are not just about bicycles, they’re equally important toward pedestrians,� Chief Transportation Official Jaime Rodriguez told the commission. “We made a strong effort with Matadero-Margarita to provide equal weight to pedestrian opportunities.� N — Gennady Sheyner
Plan to treat city’s waste takes aim at sewage Palo Alto may still be years away from building a state-of-the-art facility to process local food waste and yard trimmings, but officials are preparing to pick up the pace when it comes to dealing with sewage sludge, the third stream in the city’s complex waste flow. On Monday, Palo Alto City Council members heard a presentation on three plans the city received in response to its request for proposals. The idea to develop a waste-to-energy plant was prompted by the 2011 closure of the landfill in the Baylands, which also eliminated the city’s composting facility. In November 2011, proponents of building a local facility won a battle when voters approved Measure E, which made 10 acres of Byxbee Park in the Baylands available for a possible composting facility. A citizens task force that studied the subject recommended as its preferred technology “wet anaerobic digestion,� which uses bacteria in an oxygen-deprived atmosphere to process organic waste and release methane, which is then converted to biogas. The facility would accept food scraps, yard trimmings and the sewage sludge, also called “biosolids.� City staff is urging the council to press ahead as soon as possible with a solution for the lattermost waste stream. The tentative proposal from staff is to first pursue a Biosolids Facility Plan and build a dewatering and truck off-load facility at the sewage-plant site. The next priority on the list would be to pursue a wet anaerobic digester of the sort recommended by proponents of Measure E. The city is also considering operating its own plant. The council didn’t take any votes on Monday, and the issue will return in March. Council members did ask staff to consider various models of plant ownership by the city before moving too far with any decisions. N — Gennady Sheyner