|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
April 6, 2004 6:30 p.m. In attendance: Roger Summers, Peter Macdonald, Harold Klassen, Richard Moriarty, Davis Stieve, Greg Carroll, Gary Hall, Rick Dayton, Barbara Venezia, Unexcused Absences Jay Taylor, Mary Slouka, Jeff Hamilton Introduction: 5 minutes 1. Approval of February Minutes: motion to approve from Richard Moriarity. 2nd from Rick Dayton. Minutes approved. 2. Introduction of Guests: Jason Vasquez JWA 3. Chairman's Remarks: Roger does not see the newsletter before it is mailed to residents and there was a box with "Important Dates" in the last Newsletter. Some of the dates on the Newsletter were religious dates…. is that appropriate? Roger apologized if that was offensive to anyone. Roger also mentioned the survey from the City of Newport Beach regarding the Community Center and asked that everyone to fill out the survey and participate. Public Comments (Non-Agenda Items): Limited to 3 minutes each 1/ Donna Carroll, East Side Santa Ana Hts. Representing the Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends. Donna is asking the community for support on the May 1st Event, The Great Earth Walk . This will raise funds for non-profit environmental groups. The money raised will go directly to the group to preserve the bay. Donna handed out flyers that explained the walk and how we can all get involved by walking and donating to the cause. If you don't want to walk, you can sponsor Donna to walk with a donation. All donations are tax deductible. We will put this info on our web site. Staff and Committee Reports: 1. Report from JWA - Jason Vasquez (5 minutes) The OC Board of Supervisors approved construction of 4 additional security screening gates that should alleviate the morning rush hour jam. Construction is underway and should be completed by the end of June. They are going from 8 gates to 12-security check gates. Roger asked about the Fire Station at JWA. Jason reported that the construction is underway with a new contractor and the lawsuit continues with the old contractor that did not perform. 2. Report on Recovery Home - Dave S. (5 minutes) Dave had a meeting with some of the residents and by in large, the folks felt that there was not much they could do about it so they decided that they would just try and be good neighbors. Dave is trying to find out if the house on Pegasus is certified or not. He has a call into the Sheriff about that. 3. Street Sweeping Report - Roger S. (3 minutes) Roger sent a letter to Dave Kiff regarding the Street sweeping issue as per the last PAC meeting notes. The City has been through a brief operational review of how the project is working. The staff felt it should stay the same no alternate side of the street parking and moving the street sweeping from one day to two. Dave Kiff will take this back to the staff and take another look at this. The consensus from PAC is that there really needs to be two days and alternate side of the street parking. 4.West side Annexation Report - Dave Kiff (5 minutes) The City had a meeting with Supervisor Silva as well as Costa Mesa. Costa Mesa recommends that Newport Beach only annex the West Side of Santa Ana Hts. This will come back to the City Council with the new boundary lines for approval probably in May. The other islands and the Country Club could be excluded from the new boundaries. 5. Projects Review: Peter M. 10 min. Peter reviewed the projects that were approved a few years ago and passed out the web site page that has the projects updated. 1/ side walk along Mesa and property & Green belt monument needs to be addressed. Moving B projects to C list: A/ Move Bristol St. project to C list. Richard M. made the motion Peter 2nd. And Greg voted against. B/ under grounding on West Side of SA. Peter made the motion Richard 2nd. Dave voted no. This project is moved to C list. C/Move all trail projects to C list due to undergrounding. Peter made motion Richard 2nds. Motion passes. D/ move monument signage to B list. Peter made motion Gary Hall 2nds. And will champion this issue. Motion passed. New projects. Side walk on Mesa Dr. between Cypress and Rodriguez circle make this a B List project. Championed by Peter M. Property by monument sign. Make that a green belt/park. Roger said that Paul Lanning mentioned that Mr. Guity-Mehr has made an offer to buy the property. The County would like to sell the property but it will need a new appraisal. The suggestion would be that we contact the City of Newport Beach and give it to Newport Beach if they will maintain it as a park. Roger asked Mark Esslinger if we could use RA money to re-design the landscape and put sprinklers in. Roger offered to spear head this project. Move to a B list. Peter made motion Richard 2nds and motion passes. New projects suggestions from our web site. Subject: Sound wall behind commercial buildings Date: Wed Mar 10 18:50 Author: Bonnie Rogers (mbe3821@mbemail.com) I would like to see a sound wall constructed behind the commercial buildings on Bristol Street that back up to our homes. These businesses work as late as 3 or 4 a.m., using air hoses, spray painting outside (the fumes are horrible) and creating engine noise while testing? The vehicles. These buildings are in plain view of our homes and are not pretty. A nice sound wall would be wonderful. Mar 18 14:20: Linda Wooters (lwooters@adelphia.net) I think we can improve the look and feel of this area if we landscape the stretch of Bristol between the golf course. Right now there are metal road bumpers and chain link fence with an over growth of weeds. No where else in Newport Beach would you see such blight. In addition, The look of Cypress Street would improve if there was one kind of vine growing along the entire fencing on the horse trail. This was shown in the original conceptual drawings but never planted because the county did not have the means of maintaining them. The city does have the landscaping crews and water supplies to keep these up; as is apparent through out the city of Newport Beach. I believe that with these improvements in the Newport public areas, we will see greater improvement and increased property value in the residential areas. This means more property tax back to the city. The committee talked about both of these emails. Linda Wooter's issue of tumble weeds on Mesa and Birch. Roger will talk with Dave Niederhaus about that. Roger will have the City come out and look at that. Roger will spearhead this issue and report back at next meeting. Bonnie's issue of sound wall is a private property issue and we have not jurisdiction over that. Horse trail issues. Roger makes the motion, that amends this B list project that combines sidewalk with the trail expansion on the southwest side to 2100 Mesa Dr. from Birch Circle. Dave 2nds. Motion passed. Jayne Jones had volunteered to work with the city on the liability issue. The other project would be the trail from Cypress to the park change verbiage on list and it is a D list. 6. Dog Kennel Report - Roger S. (3 minutes) May Renck brought pictures of dog kennel with beehives in it, the bees are located in the roof area in the back of the building at Sherry's Poodle. BZY kennels is the most offensive in the area. Dogs barking constantly. They have sent emails to the owners and he keeps giving them excuses. She also passed out an article about dog aggression. They have called animal control and they do nothing to solve the issue. Randy sent an email to Roger at his request to help with the issue. Roger forwarded the email to the kennels. Randy said it was basically ineffective. Peter said that Roger got involved as best he could by opening lines of communication, but that has not worked. We recommended that May talk to Supervisor Silva. She says she has done that. The problem is that PAC is an advisory board for the RA fund on projects to improve the neighborhood and really has no jurisdiction over that. 7. Report on Community Center - Rick D. (10 minutes) 1. Last PAC meeting BV reported that the Y had spent $35,000 for an independent survey by Balducci and Assoc. The results of that survey, which also included a feasibility analysis, was so positive that the Y is very excited about keeping the Central Orange Coast branch open. They have spent $100,000 in recent months in order to bolster membership, which by the way continues to grow and on maintenance items. They spent approximately $60,000 on new fitness equipment, and another $40,000 on a new central boiler, a pool heater, and other maintenance items. 2. On 2/18/04, City Manager Homer Bludau wrote a letter to Art Wannlund, the President/CEO of YMCA Orange County, offering to purchase the Y property for $4 million, but only offered the Y an operating term of 2 years beyond the completion of renovation and construction. 3. On 3/23/04, the Mr. Wannlund and Jon Voget, the Y director, met with Homer Bludau, Councilman Gary Adams, and Marie Knight, the CNB Recreation Director. The Y presented the City with an extensive operations package that included the Balducci survey results and countered the City offer with a 25 year, nominal cost term of operations. The Y stated that to sell the property for $4 million would mean a loss of approximately $800,000 to $1 million when compared with what the property would sell for in today's market. The Y has also agreed to spend $300,000 in FF&E upgrades in the new facility. There is no way to amortize that sort of investment in the new community center in a 2 year lease. 4. Mr. Bludau told the Y that he would consider their offer and respond to it within 3 weeks (approximately the middle of April). Mr. Bludau is out of the country and there is the upcoming Easter holiday. 5. The PAC community center committee has told Mr. Bludau that from the time the project was presented to and approved by the Board of Supervisors (approximately one year ago) PAC has wanted the YMCA to be the operator of the community center. PAC support for the Y has not changed. The committee feels that as long as operational safeguards are built into the operational agreement, a short-term lease is not necessary. In fact, the committee finds the City stipulation for a short-term lease quite puzzling. 8. Report on Fire Station - Dave Kiff (4 minutes) The city has brought eminent domain proceedings against the Davis Property. Steadfast is in escrow with the Davis' at $45 per square foot. We can't pay that nor match that. We are attempting to condemn the property and Council took action on 3/9/04 and voted to move ahead. But if Davis and Steadfast successfully enter and close escrow, there is a possibility that a judge might see $45/sf as fair market value for the parcel - again, we can't pay that. So even eminent domain might not be feasible if the $45 price holds - if a judge determines that a lower price is appropriate, we'd be OK. We have met with Steadfast to consider taking a part of the Davis' property after Steadfast buys it, but it significantly limits the size of the fire station. Could be 60 to 90 days before resolution. 9. Report on Old Kline Drive - Harold K. (5 minutes) Paul Lanning said that the County is not giving up on the street and will continue to keep in contact with the residents on the block to try and change some of their minds about giving property to the street improvement. Paul reported that they did get 100% of all the surveys back and a few folks were opposed to the new changes. They need 100% compliance to move forward so those are the people they will continue to talk with. Paul will put together meetings with neighbors to start talking about the options. 10. Report on Budget & Projects - Barbara V. (15 minutes) addressed at the March 18th meeting of the Budget and Project Subcommittee: In attendance: Supervisor Silva, Michelle Grettenberg, Paul Lanning, Davis Stieve, Greg Carroll, Barbara Venezia, Tina Taverner *1/ Undergrounding of Mesa and Cypress: Tina Taverner will be at meeting to report on the status of this. City of Newport Beach is holding up the process as we are waiting for the City Council to create the Underground Utilities District. Dave Kiff reports: Respectfully, "holding up the process" actually means that we don't have staff assigned to the Project yet. We have a number of UUDs that we do each year - they are time consuming. City staff is attempting to incorporate this one into our workload - Homer has asked the Director of Public Works to look at it and to get back to him. BV: Supervisor Silva spoke with Homer on the phone during the meeting. Homer agreed to hire a project Mgr. for the undergrounding and would do that with RA dollars. Supervisor Silva instructed Paul Lanning to follow up with a letter to the City on this instructing the City to move forward on this project as soon as possible. The Supervisor feels that the longer this project waits the more expensive it becomes. He also instructed Michelle to set up another meeting with all of us for the next couple of weeks. This meeting will include the City and Homer in particular. Tina will also work with us on this and have conversations with So.. Ca. Edison to move this project on to it's "to do" list and see where we fall in the back log. She will also be at the next meeting. Dave also reported that he Homer has spoken to a consultant who would be a good candidate for this project and is moving forward. *Code Enforcement 2/ code enforcement for the West Side of SAH. What has happened since our last meeting? Has the Supervisor toured the area? What options are open? Can we still explore the City of Newport Beach's offer to help with a ½ position? BV: The Supervisor is still not entertaining Newport's offer for Code Enforcement. He is determined to fix this within the County system. Cynthia Coad is now on board to re vamp the labor force and make it more efficient. This issue goes back before the BOS end of April. *2/ Bristol Street Sidewalk & Bristol Slope issues We need an update on what we can do to get on the Caltrans list of "to do" project for the sidewalk. Both Dave Kiff and Supervisor Silva were going to talk to Gary Adams about this issue. We need an update. Also why was this not included in the Irvine Ave widening project? before relinquishing). BV: Paul Lanning reported that the agreement has now come back from Cal Trans and should be in front of the BOS in the next couple of months. Once the County owns the property, we can address the slope and other issues. *3/ Park Improvements on Orchard At our last meeting we agreed to separate this two-part project: trail expansion and park equipment. What is happening with the park equipment? The Villaraigosa-Keely Act is a law whereby playground equipment is Being upgraded/replaced through funds generated by the 2000 Parks Bond Act. Can funds to improve the park on Orchard Drive could come from this fund and not PAC moneys. Have the moms in the area met with the County yet? BV: Paul Lanning reported that he has spoken to the owner of the property and according to the original agreement, they are responsible for the park equipment and maintenance. They have 90 days to come back to Paul with some sort of plan of action. The act we asked about, The Villaraigosa-Keely , is also know as prop 12 and Paul checked on this and all the prop 12 money has already been allocated. *4/Water systems on Riverside Drive Project Dave Kiff was going to call the IRWD and sort through the mess. We need an update here. Dave reported:IRWD showed me evidence that the RDA agreed to pay for the full project, if the project was necessary. It hasn't yet been determined that the Project is necessary - I think the PAC should place this item on the "B" list. BV: Paul Lanning has different information here. He says that in his talks IRWD agreed to take the $250,000.00 that RA allocated for the project and would pay whatever additional costs out of their funds. He also said that IRWD had determined the project is necessary especially for the fire flow. Paul will contact IRWD and fund the money and move forward. Also Paul reported that the plans have come in for the Riverside Dr. Drainage project and it will take 1-2 months for them to go before the BOS and then the project will begin. *5/ Financial report. Greg Carroll has been gathering information and has questions for Paul Lanning that he as sent on ahead and should be answered here. BV: Paul asked for Greg's questions again and will address them at the next meeting. Paul also reported that the State took $936k out of our fund last year, not the estimated 600k we thought they did. They are planning to take out at least the same as last year if not more, and the plan is to do that every year. Needless to say no one was happy to hear that news. *6/ Horse Arena What discussions have taken place with the City of Newport to begin this project? Dave reported: I would like to see a letter from OCFD that tells us that the Project will have a life of at least 7-10 years before OCFD decides to re-do the flood control channel at the Santa Ana Delhi Channel so that we can go ahead and build the Arena. Secondly, I still haven't heard from County Counsel as to whether or not they are willing to let their blanket liability policy cover the Arena (and trails). If the County will cover the liability, I think the City can safely commit to the maintenance of the Arena. 7/ Fire Station BV: Supervisor Silva reported that he did have a meeting with Homer and Homer explored the possibility of getting more money from the RA. Supervisor Silva basically told him that wouldn't be prudent. As far as PAC is concerned, we DO not support any more money funded towards this project. We started out by wanting to contribute 50%of the cost and finally agreed to pay for 100% and it was tied to getting the Community Center approved and purchased. We feel we have approved enough to this project. The City needs to figure out how to work with the funds they have or add to it from their own budget. 8: DG will be going down on the trail in the next month now that rainy season is over. Dave Kiff is working with Jeff Dickman on this. 11. Report on Code Enforcement Issues - Barbara V. (Eastside) & Dave S. (Westside) (10 minutes) East Side : BV & Greg Carroll rode along on March 19th with Cass and the neighborhood is greatly improved. The trees are now all planted along the Spruce Street property by the office building and will be maintained by that property manager. We felt that the City has a good handle on the community and the whole neighborhood is improved. March 4th ride along report from Dave Stieve. Supervisor Silva, his assistant Michelle, a member of the sheriff's Dept., and Francisco Alonso,Assistant Director of Planning, who also wears the code enforcement hat. The Supervisor was interested in the history of Kline Dr. and wanted to see for himself what it looked like. He asked some questions at different points in our walk and then he questioned Mr. Alonso as to what may be done. I spent most of my time speaking with Mr. Alonso as he had various questions regarding structures and operations on Kline Dr. He did not specifically point out violations but he mentioned that he saw quite a few code and building violations. Mr. Alonso left me with the interpretation that he would be targeting the major offenders first (such as the business at Lloyds and the gardening business behind the Golsens) with the hopes that the resident property owners would get the hint. I don't think that he will hesitate with the property owners if he sees a serious enough violation. Mr. Alonso is also going to look into a program that would help homeowners with roofing. I believe that these would be grants. I will be contacting him and will find out more about this at a later time. I will only be able to judge the commitment of the county through further discussions. One of my fears is that the county is waiting for the annexation and wanting to pass thing off to Newport Beach. From talking to the Supervisor and Francisco Alonso I get the feeling that action will be taken. But as I said, I need to have further contact to really see the level of commitment. BV: Mr. Alsonso is planning to have some meetings in the community to try and get folks to comply with certain standards. Roger brought up the question of PAC membership which now allows up to 12 members. In a meeting with the Supervisor, Roger indicated a suggestion to reduce the membership to 11 members to eliminate potential tie votes. It was also discussed that missing three consecutive regularly scheduled meetings excused or unexcused, would result in termination of your PAC membership. The Supervisor indicated he could support a by-laws change to include both of these recommendations. Richard makes motion to change the bylaws for the 11 members and Rick 2nds it and the motion passes 9 to 0. Gary makes motion to change bylaws about missing 3 meetings Rick 2nd and motion passes 9 to 0. Adjournment: The next meeting is scheduled for June 1, 2004 / 6:30 p.m. |
|
||