|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
PAC Minutes Feb 7th, 2006 6:30-8:30PM Muth Interpretive Center 2301 University Drive Draft/ subject to change 1: Chairman's Remarks: Leslie Daigle can’t be here tonight because of a council meeting. I am moving the Code enforcement report up on the agenda due to a time issue for Cass. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Muth Center for hosting our meeting tonight and the Irvine Ranch Market for the coffee and deserts. 2: Approval of Dec. 2005 minutes Greg makes the motion and Richard 2nds. /motion passes unanimously 3: 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. A/ May Ranck : She is concerned with 1572 Orchard. This property is slated for home construction and there is a wall that is not high enough currently. Kids are playing and doing things they shouldn’t be in that vacant lot. The wall needs to be higher. Ted agrees and the property owner would need a modification permit from the County. This will be passed on the Mark Esslinger. B/ Bob Hanley: In West Santa Ana Hts. Reported that Ed Hall long time resident and community activist passed away Dec. 8th. Ed was a regular fixture at PAC meetings for many years and well loved by the community. He will be missed. C/ Paulette Dunn on Orchid St. says there is still a problem with speeding and there was a speed trap on Orchard and she thinks they were on the wrong block and would like to see the speed trap and Orchid. PAC will write to the City asking for them to have a speed trap on Orchid. D/Ann Watt: she read the Joe Bell article and was concerned that no City Council people on the committee regarding John Wayne Airport and the take over of the RDA. Dave Kiff answered and said there are three City Council people on that committee. Staff & Committee Reports: 4) Projects Overview Sub Committee Report – Barbara V (5 minutes) from 1/27/06 Fire Station: Nineteen general contractor firms are prequalified to bid for the Santa Ana Heights Fire Station and Community Room. Award of construction and construction management contracts could occur as early as 3/28/6 and construction could occur as early as 5/1/6 and be completed by 7/1/7. Undergrounding: The City of Newport Beach has paid Edison the $58K. As of the end of January, basemaps are being designed (survey control, lot lines, existing utilities, etc. etc.) for the project. These are scheduled to be completed by mid-March. Once complete SCE will begin the design of the underground utilities. Mesa Birch Park: Dave Kiff reported that: Dave Pederson is starting final design work (he added on a Geotech Consultant a few weeks ago for the final grading plan). If Plans, Specs, and Engineering (PS&E) are completed by 4/28/6 and there are no impediments, award of construction contract could occur on 5/23/6. Construction would commence 7/1/6 and be completed by 10/1/6.They will go to Council on the 14th for a purchase agreement. Rick Dayton reports: Pederson was given a verbal confirmation to hire a civil engineer (not geotech consultant) to verify that all proposed walkways are accessible (per urban standard). Pederson forwarded the civil engineer's proposal to Lloyd Dalton more than a month ago, and has asked for written confirmation by the City of this change order to his contract before signing the civil engineer's proposal. As of today, there has been no written confirmation by the City. According to Dave P., all of the other plan check corrections have been addressed. Dave Kiff reported that they currently do have a working agreement with Dave Pederson. I asked him to contact me if in working with the civil engineer it became apparent that handrails and curb wheel guides looked like they would be required. We may have to revisit the proposed walkways if that is the case, as there is a good chance that PAC would not support these "improvements". The response I have been getting is that the community is interested in having an unencumbered landscaped setting there and would rather see just a landscaped park without all the pathways if having the pathways meant ramps with handrails. Dave P. agreed, and said he would contact me if it looked like handrails would be required. Orchard St. Park Davis brought us a proposal from a contractor, the design is based on the mom’s group approval. Approx.$50,000.00. Davis submitted the plan to the bldg. mgt. for approval. The County would like some sort of letter from the owner agreeing to the plan. The County would then take the lead on building the park. Dave reported that at first blush bldg mgt. had a positive reaction and has asked for some minor alterations. Kline Dr.: Where are we at with a meeting regarding Plan D with the residents and Ron Butler from SB2 Engineering? County had a meeting and an on-site presentation to the residents in Dec. 14th at 7:00 PM. It was met favorably. Harold reports residents are waiting for a letter from the County to sign and relinquish certain property and then construction phase will begin. The County has asked its public works people to look over the concept plan to see if there are any fatal flaws in the Plan and the time frame for this review is approx. 2-3 weeks. The County is also working with absentee property owners to make sure they are on board. Once the plan review is in, everything is approved, and there are no fatal flaws discovered, there will be a letter from the County to all homeowners. This letter is to make sure they do understand the project and what is expected of them. . Paul will give me a time line so that I can put that on the site and we can work with it to follow the process Acoustical program money still has not been transferred to the agency. Dave Kiff discussed this with Paul Lanning and Kathy Rosenow in mid-January. There is about $2 million in SAH RDA funds now held at the airport for the acoustical program. All of these funds should be reverted to the Bond Proceeds or Projects funds at some point soon, since the acoustical program is complete or near complete. Paul says he spoke with JWA March April time frame to return the money. Where are we on the transfer of the RDA to the City? Dave Kiff Reports: The City is about to put forth its next proposal for the transfer of the RDA to Tom Mauk, County Executive Officer. In the meantime, the City will have an item on its 2-14-06 Council agenda that will direct the City to form a redevelopment agency (the first step towards taking aspects of the SAH RDA project area). Dave, Paul and Kathy have gone over budget numbers to help Dave better understand the RDA increment and obligations. BV Reports: Leslie checked in and said that the Council will start the ball rolling at the 14th meeting to start annexation of the West Side. She is not sure how Costa Mesa will react. Borders Committee has met twice, but my sources tell me that they are at an impass and see no reason to meet again. It seems it will now be up to LAFCO to sort this out once Newport makes an application to annex the West Side. There is another issue in the mix that has complicated the talks. Sources say that Costa Mesa wants to put in an application to annex parts of Banning Ranch and Newport feels that this area, (which is county property), should be annexed to Newport. It seems that Costa Mesa would have easily agreed to the West Side annexation if Newport had not objected to the Banning Ranch application. Now LAFCO will determine the sphere of influence as the process rolls out. I could not get anyone at either City to deny or confirm this information officially. Community Center The basic interior space plan for the project is complete and we seem to be all on board as to what this Center should contain. The architectural firm is now working on a proposal as to what the building materials would be and the cost. There are several different scenarios that are being tossed around; the most cost effective seems to be concrete tilt up construction. BV met in Jan. with the City Council Sub Committee on the Community Center and was pleased with their commitment to this project. The plan now is to finally get the land purchase complete and the YMCA agreement finalized. Dave Kiff has been having meetings with Art and Jon at the Y and they are coming along well. BV hopes that we would have some resolution by the end of Feb. and agreement in front of the City Council by beginning of March. *************** 5/ Code Enforcement of the West Side –Cass . (5 minutes) Cass has been working with the County and educating himself on the rules and current cases in the County. Cass went on a ride along with Ted Nichols to discuss the area. He feels that the area on a whole is in pretty good shape. Kline Dr. has some issues and that will be taken care of as the Kline Dr. improvement process moves along. Ted reported that it was very enlightening to ride along and he agrees that they are in pretty good shape. Mary asked how the residents have responded to Cass and he said everyone was really very nice and agreeable. Golf Ball issue from last meeting: met with Jim (Head Starter) at the location in question. He seemed receptive to the problem. However, he did ask a very good question... Why after 30yrs is this now an issue? I informed him that a few people at the last PAC meeting brought the issue up and that these individuals had lived in the area for quite a long time. Jim was concerned about the cost for the netting and quoted "tens of thousands of dollars"... That's when I realized he was thinking about the height of the driving range netting! I told him it wouldn't be necessary for that much netting. We figured about 95 feet of 8 foot high netting mounted on top of the existing 6 foot fence which would give us a total of 14 feet in height. I believe that's a fair deal. He will now take it up with the course Owners. Cass will meet with the Yellowstone people to talk about their homes in that area. 6/ Development Committee- Javier Soto & Edward Frondoso (20 minutes) discuss the Irvine Ave widening as well as Bristol St. Javier reported that back in Aug of 2005 Cal Trans relinquished the right of way to the County of Orange for the Bristol St. sidewalk. Javier showed us photos of the current condition of the Bristol St. side walk. He is planning to set up a meeting with Edison to discuss the option of Undergrounding or moving the electrical poles. As part of the project they plan to upgrade the fencing and he is in discussion with JWA as far as what the fencing will be. The Design elements will include widening for future purposes, new curbs and gutters, new 9 foot concrete sidewalk. There will also be a small section about 60 feet in length of a retaining wall for the golf course that will affect drainage. Funding: the PAC supplied Javier with a letter that was instrumental in helping him obtain funding from the federal government for $360K. He is now asking PAC for $150.00 they need a total of $510K to build this project. $67K what was approved by the BOS and PAC. Rick made a motion that PAC supports this additional funding Greg 2nds the motion, Motion passes with two abstentions 9 in favor. Rick Dayton will write a letter to Javier to support this project and funding and send a copy to Paul Lanning and Supervisor Silva. As far as time line goes, Javier see the end of March submitting the plans and funding approval by the end of Dec. Start construction March of next year and it should be 9 months until complete ion. The side walk will start at the City of Costa Mesa line and move forward along the golf course and they are talking with JWA. 7/ Interpretive Center Suggestions –Jayne Jones (10 minutes) Suggestions for alternative revenue generators at Muth Center VS parking fees Jayne and committee have made the following recommendations to the County. 1/ The center should charge a small fee ($1.00 to $3.00) to get into the Building instead of the parking lot. 2/ Create a map for self guided tours and charge a small fee, make them Available at the center and in the parking lot. 3/ Give guided tours (plant identification, bird watching, etc.) of the area for a small fee. 4/ Set up a parking lot sale once a quarter of items for sale in the center to generate sales to people that don't go into the center but use the parking lot. 5/ offer bird watching tours to equestrian and bicyclist groups and charge a small fee for staging in the parking lot. 6/ Have fund raisers 7/ charge a small fee to groups that want to have their own fund raisers there. Here is Kevin’s response to Jayne -- Original Message ----- From: Kevin Thomas To: cakenpie@earthlink.net Cc: Parker Hancock; Mark Carlson; Leslie Ray Sent: 1/27/2006 5:53:27 PM Subject: RE: suggestions for back bay fees Well, those are all very good suggestions... However, I would experientially be surprised if they generated the kind of resources (tens if not hundreds of thousands) that our parking revenues generate each year where we have them. I would be glad to share the costs of operating and maintaining the Muth Center with you so you could see the order of magnitude of which we speak. Regardless, I do think that the proposals you make have some potential to contribute to the bottom line, but I would additionally suggest another... The City government has on numerous occasions stated that the City has considerable fiscal resources that they are anxious to apply at UNBRP. Great! It is not necessary to change ownership or command structure in order to apply those resources. HBP has numerous partners with well defined and closely monitored programs in many of our facilities. If the City or its citizens they represent want to apply additional resources to do specific projects or simply generally apply them to current programs, HBP welcomes the opportunity to partner with the City to achieve those mutually beneficial outcomes. Let’s work together to identify the project or projects. The City could even be the project manager for which the County could review the plans and specs, give the City “no-cost” permits, and then those resources that the City is so avidly seeking to apply to Upper Newport Bay Regional Park could be realized with perfect transparency and accountability, and the people of Newport would enjoy those improvements. The County wants to be responsive to user demands. If that means applying City resources to achieve that which are essentially City demands for projects, great! Such partnering whereby the finds the City has said it wants to apply to the park could supplant the necessity for fee parking. The net result is that the County is certainly willing to forego charging fees for parking if the City is willing to annually supplant that potential with funding from the City...I look forward to working with you all. Best regards, Kevin Gary Hall made the suggestion of donation meters like they have at the dog park in Costa Mesa. Jayne will add that to her list. It is our understanding that no decision would be made until we can meet again. Jayne attended a County study session and informed us that Harbors Beaches and Parks were getting money from the County right now. BV will get Jayne involved with the County CEO’s office to discuss this further. 8/ 5 Year Plan and Budget review (Greg Carroll 20 minutes) Greg gave an overall look at the document and says it is pretty much the same as the last 5 year plan except the budget page. Greg said that the working budget sent to us is outdated already and that you need to go to the County website to get the most updated information. We were sent the Budget for fiscal year 2004-2005. Greg feels that this still raises questions. He will keep looking into this and try and meet with the controller’s office. 9/ Equestrian report (5 minutes) Update on the arena and we’ll call for volunteers for the opening celebration Arena: The PAC Riding Arena subcommittee, which includes Back Bay Equestrians, City Staff and contractor Gary Clapp of G & F Barns are in the process of submitting additional information and plans to the California coastal Commission (CCC), per their request. The application (# 5-05-476) was submitted, and accepted, last November. I (Jayne Jones) spoke with Anne Blemker at the CCC this week to get an update of permit approval . Anne stated the application is moving along "at a normal pace for the CCC". She also mentioned the CCC is approximately "two months out" on reviewing any information given to them in order to finalize a project. The CCC meets to approve applications approximately the middle of each calendar month. These public meetings take place in different coastal cities throughout California . The commission prefers to approve projects at public meetings that are close to the proposed site. If we can get the requested information and plans submitted to Anne at the CCC in the next week or so, she will do her best to get the project on the agenda for the March meeting scheduled in Santa Barbara. If the CCC doesn't have enough time to review the information the project will be held over for the April meeting that will take place in Los Angeles. For more information about the Costal Commission Meetings and the application process go to http://www.coastal.ca.gov/ A side note to the project: A regular meeting was held by the Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends (NBNF) www.newportbay.org on January 12th and was an "all hands" membership meeting of the NBNF. The subject of the meeting was to discuss a potentially larger role for the City of Newport Beach in administering the UNB Nature Preserve and the UNB Ecological Reserve. The subject of building a small equestrian arena next to the Delhi channel came up and the group asked to review the CCC application and possibly be involved in the process of the arena plan. Dave Kiff has encouraged the NBNF and the BBE to discuss the project. Dave believes any suggestions and concerns can be addressed easily, given the small scope of the project. A NBNF subcommittee has been formed to work with the City, PAC and BBE on these issues. The BBE and the PAC Arena subcommittee welcome this opportunity to work with their neighboring NBNF organization, and any other organizations that strive to preserve the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve. There is a meeting set Feb. 9th at Dave Kiff’s office. Jayne is answering all questions that CCC has raised. 11/ New Business……an agenda item for PAC members & the public to put new projects and issues out there and add them to the next agenda. BV will also follow up in this section with last month’s requests and answers. 1/ Holly Jarvis is suggesting making all of Birch St. one name instead of changing to Mesa Dr. Richard makes a motion, Gary 2nds and the motion passes unanimously . PAC will write a letter to the city to ask for the name change. 2/ Anniversary tract survey about ramps BV and Rick will work on that. 3/ PAC should write a letter to Leslie Daigle that she include trail maintenance in the yearly city budget. Fall & Spring maintenance. Meeting adjourned at 8:00 PM Next PAC meeting April 4th 2006 |
|
||