Whether through larger signs, direct notices to storefront tenants or some other method, Benicia City Council has told staff to develop recommendations so renters will be better informed when a city project has been proposed nearby.

That direction was given Tuesday night, when interim Community Development Director Dan Marks described the findings of research into how other communities make such notifications.

Benicia’s direct notification radius was originally 300 feet when the city received an application for a site-specific project. Earlier this year, the Council increased that to a 500-foot radius.

But those direct-mail notices are sent only to property owners, sometimes leaving tenants in the dark.

Marks sought information on how other cities and counties that extend notification to tenants recover the additional costs.

Of the 19 that replied, 11 add the costs to application fees, and others charge additional fees. Some have a different fee rate for large or controversial projects.

Benicia doesn’t tack on additional fees for notices, and its land-use application fees recover just a fraction of the costs of processing applications.

Gene Pedrotti, who owns the Ace Hardware store in Southampton Shopping Center, brought up the issue of tenant notification when the Planning Commission voted Jan. 9 on a cell tower request for that site.

He said letter-sized notices posted by city employees at the shopping center often are removed by maintenance workers, and any handouts might not be recognized as official city business. Nor were notices required to be sent to nearby apartment tenants, only to the land owners.

Pedrotti aired his concerns again June 3 and June 17 before the Council, when the panel decided to extend the notification radius, though those notices still are sent only to property owners.

Applicants must supply mailing labels with landowners’ addresses, and Community Development employees copy the notices and prepare postcards for mailing, which is handled by the Finance Department.

Marks said some cities use in-house geographic information systems (GIS) mapping software to mail the notices. But Benicia has no such costly software. Nor is there an economical alternative to obtain the addresses and send mailers.

He said Benicia relies on mailing labels provided by applicants, who often use a title company to prepare them.

But title companies can’t provide contact information for tenants of a building, only that for property owners, he wrote.

A private company, Data Pro, can provide tenant information, Marks wrote. But the cost would be three to four times more than obtaining a list of property owners.

“Staff has been unable to identify another means of providing direct notice to tenants that would not pose an exceptional cost burden on the city or the applicant,” he wrote.

Other possibilities: Saratoga requires applicants to contact personally neighbors adjacent to a project and show them a copy of the site plan and elevations.

That city also asks those neighbors to sign a form saying they’ve seen the plans, Marks wrote.

That document also provides a place for neighbors’ comments.

However, he wrote that if Benicia employees did this, it would have “a substantial impact on limited staff resources, even if applicants paid the significant staff-costs associated with undertaking this activity.”

If the applicant undertook the task, it could be difficult to confirm the work was done, he wrote. In addition, this approach also could be costly to applicants.

Requiring additional mailing labels to reach all tenants could be costly, too, Marks wrote, and city employees would be unable to determine whether the applicant has complied with the such requirements.

Benicia also could require story poles, or rough frame mockups of a project, which are required for projects in the Downtown Mixed Use Master Plan.

Story poles are effective but can be costly to secure, Marks wrote. Nor do they provide information about how neighbors can register concerns.

Another option is the city’s email lists from those who have asked for notification of Planning Commission meetings and land-use applications, though Marks wrote that few tenants have requested inclusion in those notifications.

Another option: to notify tenants only at shopping centers, and require applicants for shopping center projects provide the information.

Marks, however, is recommending the Council tell its staff to prepare an ordinance that would modify current notification procedures to eliminate letter-sized notices placed on project sites.

He suggested alternatives in his report, such as posters ranging from two feet square to four feet square or larger with large print that could be read from sidewalks or streets.

“On-site posters have been a cost effective means for communicating that a development is proposed,” he wrote.

Marks said the city could replace the letter-sized posters with larger, more visible posters, from 2-foot-square to 4-foot-square and even larger, depending on the property size.

He said a poster-sized notice placed on a proposed project site would be a cost-effective means to inform residents and businesses near the site that a land use entitlement has been requested.

Should the Council agree, the change could save the city money and time, Marks wrote.

“It is estimated that staff currently spends approximately three hours per month posting properties,” he wrote.

Vice Mayor Mark Hughes and Councilmember Alan Schwartzman suggested there were few enough storefronts in shopping centers that direct notification to those tenants could be made.

“Some businesses have a vested interest,” Hughes said, noting that some companies have been in the same site for many years. Schwartzman said informing those tenants shouldn’t be too expensive, either.

But in the case of the cell tower, Mayor Elizabeth Patterson said apartment dwellers’ views were affected, too. “They weren’t notified,” she said.

She suggested in such cases large posters for both the shopping centers and nearby apartments.

“If the poster is facing out, they’ll see it,” Schwartzman said, suggesting that out-facing, oversized notices would be seen by business owners and apartment dwellers alike.

The Council took no vote on the matter, but asked Marks to continue developing a recommendation and to meet with both the Benicia Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Benicia Alliance to hear business owners’ views.

Once the Council decides what it wants the employees to do, they would develop the details, such as poster placement, size and timing. In addition, city employees would speak with members of the Benicia Chamber of Commerce about the proposed ordinance change.

Meanwhile, Marks wrote, city employees have been trying to streamline procedures because of the city’s reduced staff and as a way to reduce costs.

Instead of a letter and envelope, he said, Benicia has been mailing postcards with the mandatory information.

This could save the city between $2,100 and $2,625 a year in direct costs and between 80 and 100 hours of staff time annually.

The City Council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday to discuss legal and personnel matters. The regular meeting will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Council Chamber of City Hall, 250 East L St.