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PAC Minutes August 8th, 2006 6:30-8:30PM John & Donna Crean Mariners Library Draft/ subject to change In Attendance: Tim Stoaks , Jayne Jones , Gary Hall, Harold Klassen, Richard Moriarty, BV, Greg Carroll, Rick Dayton Ted Nichols, Excused: Mary Slouka, Dave Stieve BV Welcome remarks: It's important to keep PAC's purpose in focus... We are an advisory committee to the Board of Supervisors and also to the City of Newport Beach. We can't make any binding decisions, only submitting recommendations to both agencies. We have been in existence since 1982. We are not a policing agency and are not a homeowners association. Our primary responsibility to make suggestions on projects to the City and Board of Supervisors as to how and where to spend the Redevelopment dollars, and monitoring those projects as they move forward. We also follow and make sure the Specific Plan is implemented. That being said I’d like to introduce guests this evening: Jack Wu running for City Council on the Peninsula, Nancy Alston from AirFair, We are currently looking for two PAC members on the West Side. I’d like to take this opportunity to say Thank you to Dave Stieve and Harold Klassen for their years of service. If you would like a PAC application, we have some tonight. Please pick one up and submit to Mark Esslinger who will then send it to the 2nd district for consideration. Mark Esslinger will talk to 2nd District and request that this issue be put on the Board of Supervisors agenda in Sept. so that we could possibly have appointment replacements by the Oct. PAC meeting. The cut off for the West Side appointments will be Sept. 1. We are going to change the agenda around a bit tonight. Jon Voget emailed this afternoon and could not be here to give us a report on the Community Center. He does write “We continue to meet with the Supervisors and there is a clear understanding of what is being requested from the RDA and it is under strong consideration at this time. We will be in a position to give an update at the end of this month.” Larry Stansifer from the County reports that the County is shifting SAH project responsibilities to RDMD/Planning, so Mark Esslinger will be the contact for projects in the future. We thank Larry for taking over from Paul Lanning and we enjoyed working with Larry Larry wrote in an email late this afternoon “For Kline Drive, RDMD will be going to the Board in early September to get approval to hire an engineering firm to perform the initial study that is needed. They are also hiring a project manager. One of OCDA's consultants will be handling the Orchard St. park improvements. I will meet with them next week to bring them up to speed, hand off information and get them going on that.” My chairman’s report will cover code enforcement, and the latest on LAFCO and the annexation of the West Side. Dave Kiff’s reports will be right after public comments as he needs to get back to the City Council meeting tonight. 1: Approval of June 2006 minutes Richard Moriarty makes a motion to approve Gary Hall 2nds. Motion passes 2: Public Comments: We ask that the public keep their comments to 3 minutes or less in as courtesy to others as we have many speakers and agenda items to cover in a timely manner. If you have a comment on anything on the agenda, please wait until that item is being addressed. Public comments can only address PAC related issues or proposed projects. We ask that you do not comment on issues PAC has no jurisdiction over. A suggestion is to prepare your comments in writing to keep you focused and within the time frame. ******************************* 1/ May Ranck: May remarked that Orchard Dr. is plagued with bees in the back of the new construction along with homeless people. Mark Esslinger will call the Waterpoint development about bees and Code enforcement for homeless issue. 3/ Dave Kiff Reports: *: Take over of the RDA - The City and the County have continued to meet – sometimes once a week – to discuss what they call “Sphere issues.” These are activities that happen within or near Newport Beach that the County does today but that could, arguably, be done differently. These include the operations of the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve, the tidelands in the Upper and Lower Bays, our RDA, and the airport. The City and County have tentative agreement on a document – called the Cooperative Agreement – that will soon go to both the City Council and the County Board of Supervisors at public meetings. If approved, the Agreement would direct that the City take on administrative responsibility for at least five projects in Santa Ana Heights (Fire Station, Community Center, two parks, horse arena, and utility undergrounding). It would still leave a certain amount of funds under the County’s jurisdiction and it would leave a tax increment stream going to the County from the JWA property. As of this time, the County has not told the City or PAC exactly what it intends to use that increment stream or fund balance for. Dave Kiff said that he hopes that this Agreement will be approved sometime in September 2006. The JWA increment would be split in half. They are talking about keeping 20 million dollars to the County and 20 million to the City for projects. This is still under negotiation. The County will continue to move forward with Kline Dr. project. *Mesa Birch Park – Dave Rudat from the County reported several weeks ago that the County will be transferring to the City 0.669 acres of surplus property for $1.00, for use as a park, to be built out by the City. It appeared on the August 1, 2006 agenda for the Board's action. It was turned down at the Board of Supervisor. Supervisor Silva and Wilson supported this, Supervisor g Campbell abstained from the vote, and Supervisors Norby and Corea felt that the land was worth more than a dollar. BV commented that over the past 10 years the County has taken at least 5 million dollars from the RDA fund for “administrative costs”. As far as she is concerned, we have paid for the park. Dave Kiff suggested that BV be in on the next series of meetings. BV will place those Supervisors email addresses on the website so that the neighborhood can let them know what they think. • Mesa Dr -Birch St. renaming Dave reported that there is disagreement among city staffers about the right way to fix this problem – either by making the entire Birch Street bend “Birch” all the way to Irvine Boulevard, or by possibly re-naming the portion of Mesa Drive that comes off of Birch. Mesa Lane might be an alternative. Richard Moriarty makes a motion to make Birch St. start at Irvine Ave and go through to Bristol and Mesa Dr at Birch changes stays Mesa Dr. Harold Klassen 2nds. Motion passes. Dave Kiff will take it from here. 4/ BV Reports: LAFCO On July 12th we had a presence at the LAFCO hearing regarding the West Side annexation to Newport Beach. Along with BV were fellow PAC members Harold Klassen and Tim Stoaks. Also in attendance were residents from the West Side of Santa Ana Hts., The City of Newport Beach (Dave Kiff, Homer Bludau, & Don Webb) and the City of Costa Mesa (Allan Roeder & Katrina Foley, Eric Beaver). All who by the way agreed that the West Side of Santa Ana Hts. should be annexed by the City of Newport Beach. After much discussion and comments from the public, myself, both cities, the LAFCO staff , and commissioners, the bottom line is that our annexation completion target date of July 2007 was persevered by the LAFCO board. However, they decided not to vote on the annexation of the West Side even though all parties involved acknowledged that there is absolutely no opposition to this annexation. Supervisor Wilson and Supervisor Campbell were our champions in making a motion to have the LAFCO board approve the West Side Annexation on the spot and have both cities continue talks about Banning Ranch. They were unsuccessful in this attempt. What LAFCO did vote to do was to continue this until November. Even with a November date, we can still make our deadline of July 2007. This softened the disappointment a bit, but not much. The direction given by LAFCO was that LAFCO commissioners Jim Silva and Arlene Schaefer were to take the lead in continuing Border Committee talks with both cities to solve the annexation issue of Banning Ranch. You are probably asking yourself the question, “what the heck does Banning Ranch have to do with the Redevelopment Agency or the West Side Annexation”? Absolutely nothing…. and that was our point of contention repeatedly. Our community is literally being held hostage so that these two cities will be forced to sit down and talk about another annexation issue that has nothing to do with us or the RDA. This is a direct result of the negative blow back from the ill fated Boarders Committee meetings of last year. At our August PAC meeting I will ask the PAC Board to recommend that the Cities of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa get together with the LAFCO representatives and get some positive working dialog going regarding Banning Ranch. I would also strongly suggest that each city reevaluate their own Borders Committee make-up so that personalities do not hijack this process once again. Come November we would hope that the LAFCO board stands true to its promise to move forward with our West Side annexation regardless of ANY OTHER ISSUES!!!! PAC will continue to keep close track of developments posting them on the web site and emailing updates. August 3rd I was included in the Borders Committee meeting at the County I was delighted that Joyce Croswaith at LAFCO permitted my attendance to look out for our West Side Annexation interests. Also there was Paul Watkins representing the Country Club and the area south of Mesa. In addition there was Supervisor Silva and both cities as well as Peter Herzog a LAFCO member. The County has hired a facilitator, Sharon Browning to bring these issues to some sort of resolution. There are three more meetings planned and be assured I will be at every one of them looking out for us. At this first meeting the facilitator just outlined her goals and how she is going to approach this mediation. It was very impressive. She will meet with all the parties before the next meeting. I met with Sharon Browning on Monday Aug. 7th. Gave her background for the annexation of the West Side and actually drove her around and showed her the areas that are in question. We are meeting again Aug 18th, Aug 31 and Sept. 15th. We look for resolution then so that LAFCO can move ahead with the West Side Annexation by Nov. as promised to meet our deadline date of completion by July 2007. My personal feelings is that both cities should shuffle their decks and bring new faces to this negotiation. Code Enforcement: May I begin by saying that after much research on this subject of the multi residential dwelling issue, it becomes apparent that city codes and ordinances need to be modified and updated to address these concerns. BV TO GIVE REPORT FROM SHANNON SAH CODE ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITY 7/31/2006 On June 12, I accompanied Mary Slouka and Barbara Venezia on a ride along through the East SAH residential area. More than twenty alleged violations were reported, recorded, and investigated. The majority of these violations consisted of nuisance abatement concerning weeds, overgrown vegetation, and inoperable vehicles. All letters and Notices of Violations issued were addressed and improvements were made on these properties resulting in closure of the case or improved communication with Code Enforcement to bring these properties into compliance. Some cases remain open as there is work in progress to remedy these violations. Great progress has been made in general. At this point in time I am mindful of continued complaints regarding the “look” of certain properties. I must remind the PAC that the City does not have an aesthetics code. I continue to collect information regarding the alleged illegal dwelling units on Orchid Street. As a reminder there are four properties that have been alleged as such. Two of these homes were previously inspected and no violations of the Newport Beach Municipal Code were found. Those cases have been closed and new cases, if applicable, will not be opened until one year after the last inspection. One house is under construction and no one lives in it. That case is closed. There is one house that has applications and a pending permit with the Building Department. Once that permit has been finalized by the Inspector another inspection will be performed by Code Enforcement. When this inspection is performed measurements of the exterior shed and setbacks will be taken. Should any violations exist at that time administrative action will be taken, otherwise the case will be closed. A second ride along with PAC members on July 25 yielded four complaints regarding alleged violations. This is a tremendous improvement from our last ride. Upon review three of these complaints are valid and will be investigated. Parking along/upon front yards and public right of ways is a violation of the Newport Beach Municipal Code Section 10.50.020F and will be actively enforced. Vehicles must be legally parked parallel to the curb face or properly on private property. The property owner, whether or not he/she is the vehicle owner, is the responsible party. He or she will first be given a Notice of Violation. Should parking upon front yards and public right of way continue then Administrative Citations will be issued to the property owner. The exception to this rule is for those days allocated to street sweeping. I will continue to update you on the progress being made in the East Santa Ana Heights area. I am very appreciative of the willingness of the community to comply with the NBMC and the timely responses to the City’s requests. 5/ Air Fair – Nancy Alston Air Fair: Guest speaker (10 minutes) Nancy has been talking to groups all over Orange County. The group was stated 3-4 years ago when the new settlement agreement was reached with JWA. The message, no expansion at JWA. She talked about who the group is and what their efforts are all about. Nancy passed out business cards and asked people who would like to be on email list or mailing list for AirFair to keep up to date. AirFair talks to homeowners associations and PACs to get their support. Santa Ana, Villa Park, and Costa Mesa all have signed resolutions for no more expansion at JWA. 10.8 shut the gate. She went on to explain what that means. In 2015 there is no agreement except for curfew that lasts for 2020. We are pushing towards 10.3 million passengers. In 5 more years they can go to 10.8 passengers annually. Private aviation leaves when you have more commercial aviation, it is important to keep private aviation. Private jets are up 27%. There are no regulations for private jets the only regulation is that they can not go over 100 decibels. If they go over 100 decibels they are sent a warning letter, 2nd time a stronger letter, 3rd time they are ban from JWA for 3 years. There are about 360 jet operations per day, half leaving and half arriving. Anything below 86 decibels is considered an exempt flight. The question was raised regarding a customs office in the next phase of JWA and the County is buying property around the airport. Nancy answered that the customs office will let planes go to Mexico and Canada. The question was raised about exhaust not a lot being done about that. Nancy indicated that Europe had done much more research than we have. BV read the resolution from Air Fair and Tim made a motion that the SAHPAC to join with Airfare in this resolution Richards 2nds. Motion passes and resolution was signed. 6/ Fire Station – BV (5 minutes) July 14th was a red letter day for our community and the Santa Ana Hts. Redevelopment Agency. We finally witnessed one of our projects break ground. With the exception of the widening of Birch and Mesa, (which was not a project we spearheaded), this is the first project since the RDA has been in existence that we have helped get off the ground. The Back Bay Equestrians, PAC members and residents were out to support this momentous event. What a glorious day it was. The sun was shining and the sky was as blue as could be. PAC sub committee Chairman Rick Dayton, led a great team of Tim Stoaks, Mary Slouka, Gary Hall, Harold Klassen, Dave Stieve, and Greg Carroll. This team did an outstanding job of working with the City of Newport Beach and Fire Chief Riley to make this a project one we could all be proud of and feel a part of. PAC member Richard Moriarty and Ted Nichols were also on hand for the day. PAC and the BBE came up with the idea of giving the Chief a special gift to commemorate this event. I was delighted to have the honor of presenting him with this cowboy hat. The hat was black felt with a tan hat band. Very smart looking on him. The hat band was embroidered with the date of this event, the Chief’s name, Santa Ana Hts. Fire Station #7, as well as the name of the PAC and the BBE. Chief Riley was beaming and seemed to love his hat. I think we all walked away excited that this was just the first of many other projects we hope will break ground this year. 7: Undergrounding – Greg Carroll, Tim Stoaks, Ted Bosley No one had a report on this. Greg said he would start the ball rolling here for a report next PAC meeting 8: Trails Sub Committee- Tim Stoaks Arena / Jayne Jones- - (10 minutes) Update from George Berger, City of Newport Project manager I am Including his contact info below the email he sent me. On 7-18-2006 George writes: Jayne: At this time, the City is anticipating receiving the final documents for execution of a separate contract with Fuscoe Engineering for surveying, topographic mapping production, conceptual grading plans, and other engineering services in support of its existing contract with Keeton Kreitzer Consulting for CEQA and California Coastal Commission documentation. The contract with Fuscoe also includes landscape architectural services to be provided by Dave Pederson, ASLA, for both the arena area (owned by the OCFD) AND for a revegetation plan to return the "upper" ring within State of California property to a natural state. I believe that the slight delay in firming up the contractual scopes will allow us to make up time on the back end of the environmental documentation process, as it allows us to have a smoother transition between engineering, entitlement (at all levels), and construction. I anticipate that the contract between the City and Fuscoe Engineering will be executed by the end of July, and they will be underway with surveying on the site. Although Keeton has been proceeding with documentation, per his contract, that can be done without benefit of topographic information and a grading plan, I will let him add his thoughts about the schedule. George A. Berger, AICP Program Manager Community & Economic Development Planning Department City of Newport Beach 3300 Newport Blvd., Bldg. C P.O. Box 1768 Newport Beach, California 92658 Phone: (949) 644-3207 Fax: (949) 644-3229 E-mail: gaberger@city.newport-beach.ca.us Web: www.city.newport-beach.ca.us . --------------------------------------- 9/ New Business : Landscape median of Birch between Bristol and Irvine Ave Meeting adjourns 8:00. |
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