City Manager’s Update
Brian Dossey, City Manager
With the Holidays right around the corner, it’s important to beat the crowds and get your shopping done early. As you know Colma has some great opportunities for gifts for families, friends and loved ones. Please remember to be safe and wear your mask when visiting Auto Row, the Serra Center, 280 Metro and Kohl’s for great gifts this Holiday season.
At the October 28th City Council meeting the Council accepted staff’s report on our Climate Action Plan update 2030. As you may know the Town of Colma continues to be vigilant in the battle against climate change. For more information read City Planner’s article below or visit the Sustainability page: https://www.colma.ca.gov/ departments/sustainability
Recently with the planned power shut off’s being conducted by PG&E we cannot stress the importance of SMC Alerts. SMC Alerts a valuable tool for emergency preparedness for residents in San Mateo County. SMC Alerts is an alert notification system used to immediately contact you during urgent or emergency situations. You can set alerts to send emergency and non-emergency text and voice messages to your email accounts, cell phones, smartphones, tablets, or voice messages to landline phones. SMC ALERT is a free service offered through the San Mateo County Office of Emergency Services. You can sign up here: http://hsd.smcsheriff.com/smcalert. In emergencies when seconds count and can save lives, SMC ALERT can provide you with crucial emergency alerts to help keep you and your family safe.
Planning Department Update
Michael Laughlin, City Planner
The Planning Department would like to let you know about some current projects and initiatives within the Town. As always, please feel free to contact the Planning Department at (650)757-8888 if you have any questions.
New Businesses! Residents can look forward to Panda Express, Wingstop and Philz Coffee in the Serra Center in early 2021. All will be located in the former Aaron Brother’s building. Tesla is now operating a new dealership at 1500 Collins Avenue, and Infinity will open as a companion dealership on the Nissan site on auto row soon. Cadillac is currently developing a dealership at the location of the former Babies R Us store that will open in 2021. Apex Barbershop has opened at 7745 El Camino Real, across from the Colma BART station.
El Camino Real Bicycle and Pedestrian Study. Please visit the dedicated website at: https://colmaelcamino.org/ to see the concept plans and a video simulation. The consultants are in the process or preparing the final plan which will be posted on the Town’s website in early January and presented to the City Council in January of 2021.
Climate Action Plan Update
The Town of Colma adopted a Climate Action Plan (CAP) in 2013. Since then, the Town has been successful in working with residents and businesses to reduce vehicle trips, water and energy use and increase waste diversion through recycling and composting. The Town has retrofitted its existing buildings to be more energy efficient and cost effective. The Town has met its greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals for 2020 and the Town has won awards for its efforts. To comply with more recent state legislation, an update to the 2013 CAP has been prepared which includes policies and programs to help the Town reach a more ambitious state goal to reduce GHG emissions by 49% below 2005 GHG levels.
A copy of the plan can be found on the Sustainability webpage: https://www.colma.ca.gov/departments/sustainability
General Plan Update
At the end of this year or early next year, the Town will be releasing draft sections of the General Plan. There will also be study sessions with the City Council. Please check out our webpage periodically for any updates. You may also be interested in looking at the “Existing Conditions Report” or “Urban Design Study” posted on the website: https://www.colma.ca.gov/general-plan-update/