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SANTA ANA HEIGHTS PROJECT AREA COMMITTEE PAC Meeting April 2 6:30 to 8:30 PM Santa Ana Hts. Fire Station PAC Minutes subject to approved at June PAC meeting. PAC members in attendance: Barbara Venezia, Richard Moriarty, Rick Dayton, Gary Hall, Ted Bosley, Ted Nichols and Mary Slouka Excused: Tim Stoaks, Gary Golson, City and County Staff in attendance: Mario Mainero, Dave Kiff, George Britton Guests: Attorney Elizabeth Hull from Best Best & Krieger , Mike Sinacori, Assistant City Engineer Newport Beach, Tom Sandefur Associate Civil Engineer Newport Beach , Jeff Merckel AT&T, Ken Ethernton & Jim Swanson From Henkles McCoy, Bobby Kimbrell Southern Ca Edison 1. BV Welcomes and introduces Guests and gives Update on Post office change of address West SAH as per email from Sandra Alvarez USPS/ A letter was sent out last week to all the affected West Santa Ana Heights residents notifying them that the results of the survey were in favor of the change. Residents were also advised that we would continue to work on the ZIP Code consolidation; however, to continue using their existing ZIP code until they were notified of the official effective date of the ZIP code change. 2/Approval of minutes from Feb 2008 PAC Meeting Richard Moriarty made a motion to approve minutes, Gary Hall 2nds. Motion passes minutes approved. 3. Public Comments 3 minutes or less No comments Staff and Committee Reports 4. Mario Mainero/ George Britton/ Overview of the County run projects- Kline Dr. Orchard St. Park, Bristol St. Sidewalk, and Airport and Slope update (10mins) George Britton reported: 1 The Orchard St. park is now completed and residents are using the play equipment. BV has photos on website of completed project. 2 Kline Dr. the plans are moving forward but not as quickly as we would like. County Staff members are working on identifiying SCE easements of the over head lines. Some of those will have to be relocated as the street is re worked and widened. In the mean time, design work for the road and its drainage is moving ahead. 3 The Bristol St. widening is moving along. Work to prepare for undergrounding the utilities is complete, but project is awaiting SCE's actually moving their lines The project should be completed this summer. 4 Irvine Avenue widening project is also moving ahead. The contractor needs approval for a traffic control plan and haul routes for the trucks prior to moving forward with the next major step which is a long retaining wall. The overall project will be completed during Summer, 2009. 5 The Board of Supervisors will be conducing a mid term review of the RDA plan and its Five Year Implementation Plan at their April 29th meeting. This is an opportunity for the community to come forward and comment on the way the projects are moving ahead. 6 County staff assisted by RSG will be putting together a budget and work program that will reflect the projects listed in the Memorandum of Agreement between the County and Newport beach. As such, George does not see the process as being the same as in the past because of the agreement with Newport and the fact that the projects have all been approved. The agreement provides a solid blue print of what needs to be done and is already in place. ****** 1.Mario addressed / A pump on the golf course that is running 24 hours a day: There was a portion of the pump system that was broken. JWA wrote to the golf course and told them under the lease agreement they must repair it and according to airport staff that has been completed. 2.A West Side resident claimed that JWA is not operating "status quo" in regards to noise levels. In fact, they are generating more noise as the months and years wants to know about throttle cut back procedure and is saying commercial jets are no longer practicing this procedure and also is concerned about numerous occasions whereby commercial aircraft will do engine run up procedures at the edge of the airport property near Bristol Street which is less than 2/3 of a mile homes. Mario reported that the noise levels are monitored at several different locations and there have been no increases in noise reported. There were 47 engine run ups and of those 4 were commercial aircraft in the area allotted for that function. Note: There is a number on the PAC website you can call with noise complaints. 3. Lastly, why does the Bristol Street side of the airport continue not to be addresses esthetically as we have complained about for years? The property has been turned over to the airport from Caltrans, after a very long and involved process. . It will not include an 18 foot wall as it is not allowed due to runway protection reasons. Mario indicated that he was sure Airport management. would be happy to come to a future PAC meeting and bring us up to speed on the current plans. BV will contact Alan Murphy to invite him to the next PAC meeting. ******* 5/ Undergrounding: Mike Sinacori & Dave Kiff as well as representatives from Southern Ca. Edison and AT&T (20 mins) Mike gave the PAC an overall assessment of the project. Edison has been working on the design for the last couple of years with Henkles McCoy. In May AT&T should complete their portion of the design. Once that is completed Edison will put the project out to bid. Mike talked about what the county has approved on Mesa and Cypress. The only poles to be undergrounded will be in the public right of way, none on private property. There will also be some Time Warner work that will need to be done on Cypress. The cost of private hooks up will be each homeowner's responsibility. The cost could be anywhere from $0 for those already undergrounded in new construction, to $3000.00- $10,000.00 depending on the specific property. This has been a point of contention because in years past, the city claimed the RDA could pay for the private hook ups. Mario Mainero stated RDA law and has talked with County Council. The law is quite clear, there can be no gift of public funds for private use and the hookups fall under private use. Homeowners and their contractors will need city permits as they complete the hook ups. The city will assist those homeowners through the process to expedite it. BV will have contractors come to the PAC meeting who have worked on other undergrounding projects with the City of Newport and know the city's process. In the coming months we will have this on the agenda. Ground breaking on the undergrounding is anticipated in 2009 and should be a 2-3 year project. The plans include new fencing along Mesa and Cypress, re paving those streets and completion of the trail on Mesa Dr. The City will work with those folks who have financial burdens as far as the private hook ups go. We will explore those options at future PAC meetings. ***** 6. Development Committee - Rick D. 10 mins Date: 03/14/08 Javier Garcia, AICP Senior Planner, City of Newport Beach RE: PRR 2 CNB UP2007-025 20072 SW Birch Street, new medical use Dear Mr. Garcia, Barbara Venezia, PAC Chairman, and Mary Slouka, Gary Hall, and Rick Dayton from the PAC Development Committee had the opportunity to meet with the applicant, Michael Azar, at the property on Tuesday, 3/11/08. We discussed the following 3 non-compliant issues that needed to be addressed if PAC is to support this use permit for additional medical office area: 1. Rear block wall in compliance with Specific Plan detail 2. Rear setback landscaping 3. Non-view glazing for second floor windows facing the REQ properties to the rear. In the site meeting, Mr. Azar said that he did not have a problem changing the pre-existing precision block masonry wall to approved slumped block wall. However, he asked that PAC aid him with the interaction with Mr. Fettucine, his neighbor directly to the rear, who wrote a letter to Mr. Azar when the wall was originally going to be built and asked that the wall not be built. Barbara told Mr. Azar that PAC would do that. The PAC members told Mr. Azar that for the sake of consistency along this BP/REQ line, and so as not to create a precedence of non-conformance with the requirement, PAC would still require that the wall be made to conform in order for PAC to support the use permit. Regarding the required screen landscaping of trees from the landscape palette at 15’ on center, it was apparent that the trees that are providing the landscape screening are actually on the neighbor's property. There are dense shrubberies adjacent to the existing block wall on the subject property, but these do not extend above the height of the wall. The PAC members present agreed that enforcement of the screen landscaping requirement was not something that PAC would require to support the use permit. At the north and south ends of the landscape setback, trees were planted by the applicant that are greater than the 1 required 24' box size. Mr. Azar told the PAC members that he didn't have a problem adding in some additional 15 gallon trees per the landscape palette. From this site visit it could not be determined whether the existing block wall footing could be re-used for the new block wall. If this is possible, the existing shrubberies should be able to remain in place. If a new property line footing is required, then these shrubberies would have to be removed, and hopefully replaced with new plants. The PAC members would hope that the existing concrete footing is a property line L footing and sufficient for the new wall. Mr. Azar took the PAC members into the 2 second floor suites that have windows facing the REQ properties to the rear. It was evident that these windows have clear glazing. 10 of the 11 windows that face directly to the rear of the property (not including the windows on the diagonal walls) have a horizontal dividing bar at the required height for the non-view glazing. It appeared to PAC members that the plans may have called for non-view glazing in the lower part of the window, but clear glazing was actually installed. The PAC members told Mr. Azar that making the 11 windows that face directly to the REQ properties "non-view" would be something that PAC would insist upon in order to support the use permit. So as not to be a significant inconvenience to the existing tenants, the PAC members present felt that relief from full compliance with the regulation could be granted to allow the use non-view applied film on the existing clear glass, with the condition that if the film were ever removed, it would trigger a requirement to replace the existing clear glass with non-view glass. It should be noted that the tenant that the PAC members talked with while inspecting the windows did not feel that the non-view glass requirement would negatively impact them. In conclusion, PAC supports the applicant's use permit application for a change in use of 2,000 SF of retail commercial space to medical office use, provided the applicant agrees to do the following: 1. Replace the existing rear wall with a new slumped block wall per the Specific Plan detail, height of wall to be 6 feet of highest adjacent grade. 2. Provide some additional 15 gal. trees from the Specific Plan landscape palette for screen tree landscaping in the rear 10’ landscape area. 3. Provide non-view applied film to the 11 second floor windows directly facing the REQ district to the height of 6'-6' above floor level, or to the height of the existing horizontal dividing bar, should this be different from the required 6-6'. A condition for clear glass replacement with non-view glass should be imposed if the applied film is removed. Thank you for the opportunity to review this project a second time. Sincerely, Rick Dayton PAC Development Committee Chairman Date: 02/27/08 ********* Javier Garcia, AICP Senior Planner, City of Newport Beach RE: CNB UP2008-001 2230 Bristol Street, new vehicle rental facility Dear Mr. Garcia: The PAC Development Subcommittee has reviewed the PRR for Planning Director's Use Permit No. UP2008-001 that would allow for a vehicle rental facility, Enterprise Exotic Car Collection, within the existing building formerly occupied by a vehicle repair use, the Grease Monkey. The only concern that PAC would have with the proposed use is to be sure that drivers employed at this facility would not use east SAH residential streets to loop back to the facility on Bristol Street. Luke de Kansky, the agent for Enterprise, has assured PAC that their drivers would only enter the residential neighborhood if delivering a vehicle to an address in the neighborhood. PAC recommends approval of this use permit. Thank you for the opportunity to review this project. Sincerely, Richard A. Dayton PAC Development Committee Chairman *************** 7. Discussion about how PAC evolves when RDA closes- Elizabeth Hull BBK 20 Min With the RDA sun setting after all the projects have been completed, we need to explore options as to what to morph PAC into…. community association or advisory board? There are several options as Attorney Elizabeth Hull explained in her presentation. * A Homeowners Association: a non profit corporation with CC&R's and usually is created when a tract is being built and those are recorded against your property. This option really doesn't fit Santa Ana Hts. as our neighborhoods have been in existence for many years and diversity is something that we strongly believe in. *Community Association is a more common option when you have an existing neighborhood. The downside is that this type of association is that it does not have any legal status and is formed and funded by the neighborhood. They have minimal fees and anyone can join. This is a very loose structure and the non legal status of the organization could make it less effective . *501C3 Non Profit Public Benefit Corporation includes property owners and business owners dealing mainly with planning and development issues. They have nominal fees and generally deal with a broader mission statement. This type of organization is limited to using the funding for public benefit only, thus the non profit status. Though this is very similar to the current RDA where as PAC can only use funds for public benefit. The non profit tax exempt status would limit this organization with regards to funding political campaigns and lobbying activities, but there are some exceptions. *Community Planning Groups are established much like we are with a Specific Plan; they are formally recognized by the city and have more of a structured voice. They have by laws and are adopted by the city. They too are limited on political activities such as lobbying and funding campaigns. Thos option was not favored by the PAC in discussion as we wouldn't want any organization we created to have its existence linked to the City of Newport Beach. We need to be autonomous to be effective. *Political Action Committee is regulated by FPPC and receives contributions and donates to campaigns and political issues. This model does not fit PAC at all. Elizabeth explained that whatever model we chose to follow, we would need to have funding behind it to be effective moving forward. BV commented that the only reason PAC has been successful is due to the RDA dollars behind it. Thus we would need a plan to perpetuate on going funding. The discussion included a suggestion of $100.00 per property per year. That would net $90,000.00 to cover meeting and mgt. fees, mailing newsletter, incorporation fees etc. The next step in exploring options will be to continue this discussion by creating a web page on our site and putting a questionnaire in the next newsletter to see what kind of resident participation we could expect. Ted Bosley would put it in his newsletter as well and help organize West Side Residents. Obviously discussions on this will be included on all agendas as move through this year. 8. Trails/ Arena Subcommittee - Jayne J., Mary S., and Dave K. (10 min) Richard Moriarty recused himself and left the meeting as per the Brown Act since he is part of this issue directly. Jayne Jones and the Back Bay Equestrians sent the following letter to the County: Re: 2100 Mesa Dr. Carla Brockman property – Parcel 102. Assessor parcel no. 439-061-03 driveway improvements Dear Ms.Velasquez, The equestrian community is in favor of the access trail improvements made by Richard Moriarty to the Brockman easement. We ask that you and your staff work with Mr. Moriarty and allow him to complete the trail and driveway project currently under construction at 2100 Mesa Dr. This trail has been in existence for many years yet, there have never been any improvements made to this area that benefit the safety of the community. The material Mr. Moriarty is currently using to build the trail is already a great improvement to the hard rocky and steeply sloped surface that existed before. Our community, as a whole, is in support of Mr. Moriarty’s efforts to make these improvements and we value his generosity and commitment to beautify our neighborhood. We applaud him for being proactive in making this area safer for the citizens that use it. Please be assured that this project is welcome and acceptable to equestrians and pedestrians that use this area. It would be a tragedy to spend any of the county's time effort and money to remove something that is clearly a benefit, visually and functionally, to residents and visitors. We ask that you provide Mr. Moriarty with the necessary permits to complete this project. We thank you for your immediate attention to resolve this matter. Back Bay Equestrians ******* There was some discussion about this paving and several equestrians commented on how much safer the pathway that Richard created is for riders. Mario is working with OC Parks to try and resolve this issue and hopefully this will be solved in the next 6 months without pulling out the work that has already been completed. Mark Denny, Director of OC Parks, will be coming to the June 4 PAC meeting to address questions concerning the Moriarty/Brockman issue, the Conservancy land, etc. The arena update: Jayne reported: Dave Kiff should be receiving the revised RMP this week from BonTerra that responds to our comments on the draft that was submitted. Unfortunately, Rosalinh will be out of the office for two weeks due to a death in her family. During that time, he will be working on revisions to the IS/MND that address the RMP. In addition, the City will be looking at implementation issues associated with the RMP (e.g., long-term maintenance, etc.). Therefore, it doesn't look like we would meet until Rosalinh returns **** To bring some clarity to some of this Dave Kiff supplied this follow up email: RMP - Resource Management Plan (That is the plan developed by BonTerra in responses to the resources agencies' requirement to address the habitat issues related to the Nature Reserve because a portion of the site is located with that reserve). IS/MND - Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (This is the environmental clearance document that is required that evaluates the potential environmental consequences resulting from implementation of the proposed equestrian facilities and identifies mitigation measures, if necessary or appropriate, to minimize the impacts identified in the analysis). MOU - Memorandum of Understanding (This document or, as an alternative, an Agreement, will be executed between the County of Orange Flood Control District and the City to utilize the easement area that is currently controlled by the Flood Control District for access/maintenance associated with the adjacent Santa Ana-Delhi channel. The MOU will be one of the discretionary actions ultimately approved by the City.) ********************** County notes: The Performance auditor looks at the performance in various departments and former Supervisor Moorlach staffer Ian Rudge is now working with that office. April Rudge has now replaced Ian at Supervisor Moorlach’s office. John Collins is moving on to another position and leaving as well. Brad Angle will be serving in interim. ################## 8:00 PM Gary Hall made a motion to adjourn meeting / |
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