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Ross Council reintroduces municipal cleanup ordinance, adopts fire zone map and approves a series of permits and contracts
Summary
At its May 8 meeting the Ross Town Council reintroduced ordinance cleanup edits, adopted a local fire hazard severity zone map, approved multiple planning permits and contracts including a $131,000 cybersecurity agreement, and ratified committee appointments after a contentious debate.
The Ross Town Council on May 8 reintroduced changes to the Ross Municipal Code, adopted a local fire-hazard severity zone map, approved several planning permits and other routine items, and authorized a cybersecurity services agreement.
The council reintroduced Ordinance No. 728 — housekeeping amendments to the Ross Municipal Code — after staff removed proposed edits to the tree-planting chapter (the so-called "zone 0" language) pending final state guidance. Mayor McMillan said staff consulted the town attorney and recommended reintroduction without the zone-0 changes; the council voted 5-0 to reintroduce the ordinance and schedule adoption for a future meeting.
The council also adopted Ordinance No. 729, which designates fire hazard severity zones in the Ross Local Responsibility Area. Rob Bastian of the Ross Valley Fire Department answered questions at the meeting, telling the council that approving the map does not itself impose landscaping or construction restrictions; future implementing guidelines would be considered separately. The ordinance passed 5-0.
Several planning and design-review items were decided: the council adopted Resolution No. 25-17 (51 Loma Linda; design review and demolition permit) by a roll call recorded as 3 yes, 0 no, with two council members recused; Resolution No. 25-18 (313 Upper Toyon; hillside-lot permit and variance for a parking deck) passed 3-2 amid a pointed debate about precedent for parking decks on steep lots; Resolution No. 25-19 (117 Laurel Grove; fence and gate design review) passed 5-0; and Resolution No. 25-21 (78 Shady Lane; landscaping, pool and related variances) passed 4-1 after discussion about lot coverage and ADUs.
The council approved a contract with Marin IT for cybersecurity implementation and related IT services in the amount of $131,000. Town Manager Krista Johnson explained the increase covers higher hourly support, a workstation-replacement project (about $21,000), a password-manager program (about $4,000), and an infrastructure refresh (about $13,600) to improve wired/wireless networking and on-site backup. The motion passed 5-0.
The council added a new town goal to "provide effective and timely communication with residents," and adopted an updated safety element of the general plan with two textual edits requested by council members: two instances of the word "shall" were changed to "should" and the phrase "other natural disasters" was added to clarify post-disaster recovery language. That vote was 5-0.
Council members also ratified committee and JPA liaison assignments after a contentious discussion earlier in the meeting (see separate article). The ratification motion passed 3-2.
Ending note: many of the planning items included design-review recommendations from the town's advisory review group and some votes included recusals where council members lived within the statutory distance of a project.
