City Manager to present Broadband Plan update at next meeting

ATASCADERO—The Atascadero City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 8, at 6 p.m. The hybrid meeting was held in the City Council Chambers.

The agenda for the evening passed unanimously. 

A proclamation was read by Councilmember Charles Bourbeau regarding National Adoption Month. 

“The City of Atascadero is acknowledging National Adoption Month to raise awareness about the need for adoptive homes for local children and join other organizations to celebrate adoptive families in our community,” stated Bourbeau in the proclamation.

Kambey Arellano from the County’s Social Services was in the council chambers to receive the proclamation.

“We sincerely appreciate the support of Mayor Heather Moreno and the entire City Council for helping us honor the tireless and noble work that our adoptive and resource families do for our youth,” stated Arellano. “We are very happy to announce that this year our county will have finalized 33 adoptions, and three of those families are from this community.”

Before the Consent Agenda passed, Councilmember Mark Dariz pulled item 3, Ordinances Adopting Standards for Accessory Dwelling Units and Junior Accessory Dwelling Units, and excused himself from the room when it was voted on for conflict of interest. Items 1, 2, and 4 were voted on first with all council members present and passed, and then Item 3 passed as well.

During Updates from the City Manager, City Manager Richelle Rickard asked Deputy Director of Economic & Community Development Lorelei Cappel to join her for a North County Broadband Strategy Project and Survey Update. They will return with a presentation at the Nov. 22 meeting. 

“We’re excited to announce that the CTC has awarded the cities of Atascadero and Paso Robles in a joint application for the Local Area Technical Assistance Grant for Broadband. So that will be covering the cost and reimbursing the cost of our Strategic Plan Project that we just kicked off on Oct. 7,” added Cappel.

Cappel also went on to ask the community to engage in the city’s needs assessment and the current survey that is available. The project in total will take 22 weeks, and data collection will play a pivotal role in moving forward. You can find the survey at pcbroadband.org/needsassessment.

Community Development Director Phil Dunsmore then gave some Information on Upcoming Building Code Changes. Including acknowledging shipping containers as structures and aging in place builds for the community. The code changes will be officially presented to the council at a later date.

The next Atascadero City Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 22, at 6 p.m.