Among the items discussed at last week’s Crescent City Council meeting:

Landscape standards: Three councilors approved new parameters dictating the amount of open space housing developers need to provide their residents. 

Councilors Jason Greenough and Kelly Schellong Feola dissented, saying the requirement for developers to set aside 20 percent of their property for usable open space if their project has six or more housing units was too burdensome.

Under the new standards, multi-family developments with six or more units must include one amenity such as a community garden, a picnic or barbecue area or an exercise area, City Attorney Martha Rice said. A portion of it must also be landscaped. For developments with 10 or more units, the usable open space must have one of the amenities listed above plus a play area with a picnic table, Rice said.

Housing developments that are within 1,000 feet of a school or park can have that usable open space requirement waived, the city attorney said.

The landscape standards also contained requirements for trees. Under the new ordinance, any tree planted within 5 feet of a street, sidewalk, paved trail, parking area or walkway must be a deep-rooted species or must be separated from those facilities by a root barrier to prevent damage.

Funding for CCPD Radio, Intercom Upgrades: Councilors authorized the police chief to accept roughly $100,000 in Carestar Foundation grant dollars to pay for dispatch costs and upgrade radio equipment at the police station and in patrol vehicles.

Crescent City police will retire the 25-watt radios it currently uses and deploy new Kenwood 50 watt radios, Chief Richard Griffin said. He said he’s also obtaining quotes to replace the intercom system at the police station. There’s only one unit in the station currently and it’s difficult to hear it in other parts of the building, he said.

“The building was made with cinderblocks so our handheld radios sometimes work [and] sometimes don’t,” Griffin said. “This would upgrade that system with a brand new radio base that has more wattage and [we’ll] also put eight intercom bases, so there would be one in each office and most likely in the locker rooms.”

Sutter Coast Hospital received a total of $775,000 from the Carestar Foundation. The hospital is using this three-year grant to improve community response to mental health crises locally. Sutter Coast allocated $100,000 of that grant to CCPD to improve emergency response.

Wastewater Treatment Plant repairs: City councilors reallocated $200,000 in the sewer fund’s capital improvement project dollars to replace two SpiraLift screening units at the wastewater treatment plant. According to City Manager Eric Wier, these units were installed in 2013 and screen out gravel and other debris that flow into the sewer plant. 

In August, a spiral auger on one of the units snapped and while the other works — the unit can filter 7.8 million gallons of wastewater per day — staff declared that both have reached the end-of-life and need to be replaced, according to the staff report.

The $200,000 in CIP dollars will cover the new units, which come from Franklin MIller Inc., and includes renting a crane as well as a 20 percent contingency, Wier said. The city’s capital improvement plan for the wastewater treatment plant had called for replacing the two SpiraLift screening units in 2026-27, he said. 

According to Wier, roughly $500,000 in capital improvement program dollars had been earmarked for projects that are currently on hold while the city is pursuing a State Water Resources Control Board grant. 

At the end of this fiscal year, the sewer fund is projected to have about $2.9 million, according to Wier. Noting that the city has a policy to maintain a 25 percent operating reserve, the sewer fund should have a minimum balance of $1.7 million by the end of the fiscal year, according to the city manager. 

There are “a lot of capital projects,” that need to be completed at the wastewater treatment plant, Wier said. He added that Crescent City will be pursuing a rate study soon since they haven’t raised sewer prices for residents since 2015.