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SANTA ANA HEIGHTS PROJECT ADVISORY COMMITTEE PAC minutes June 6th, 2006 6:30-8:30PM The New John & Donna Crean Mariners Library In attendance: BV, Greg Carroll, Mary Slouka, Ted Nichols Jayne Jones, Gary Hall, Harold Klassen, Rick Dayton Richard Moriarty Excused: Davis Stieve & Tim Stoaks Guests: Fire Chief Riley 1: Chairman's Remarks: Annexation of the West Side report Annexation application: The City of Newport Beach’s application to LAFCO to annex West Santa Ana Heights should be finished in the next two weeks then LAFO reviews 6 to 8 months. UPDATE 5/19-LAFCO is scheduled to consider a proposed sphere of influence change and concurrent annexation of the unincorporated West Santa Ana Heights area to the City of Newport Beach on Wednesday, July 12, 2006. The application was initiated by the City of Newport Beach. The LAFCO meeting will begin at 9 AM in the County's Hall of Administration Planning Commission Hearing Room, 10 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA. Staff reports can be reviewed and downloaded via LAFCO's website one week prior to the hearing. 2: Approval of April 2006 minutes – Richard makes the motion to approve the minutes. Greg 2nds motions/ motion passes 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. Bob Hanley: Has a communication from LAFCO asking for a signature from him as a representative of the West Side of Santa Ana Hts. now that former PAC member Jay Taylor is no longer involved. Bob gave Mary the copy. Staff & Committee Reports: 4) Projects Overview Sub Committee Report – Barbara V (5 minutes) this report will give an overall progress report on projects and issues discussed with the County CEO’s office and the City during the past two months... Undergrounding: At our last sub committee meeting Dave Kiff reported that there was another invoice from Edison for $30,000.00 for continued design process and preliminary engineering. This amount has been paid by the City and they are still waiting to be reimbursed by the County. Orchard St. Park: The County reported via email that their legal counsel is working on the agreement with the property owner, and they are working on the scope of work and specifications. Kline Dr: There was no update from Larry regarding this. 5/ Community Center- BV/ Jon Voget 15 minutes BV reports: Community Center: At this point in time, the City Council Sub committee has met with the YMCA and we had asked the City repeatedly via Dave Kiff, to have Rick be the PAC representative at this meeting. That request was refused. Dave reported that the City is looking at alternatives such as, a small community center with no fitness component just community rooms, or a small center with fitness and no community rooms. They want to hire another architect to review the plans from JZMK. Jon Voget spoke about the plan to have the YMCA take a loan from the RDA and that loan would then be paid back in maintenance and running the facility over the term of an operation agreement. This would enable them to deal directly with the County, retain ownership of the land, and control of the scope of the project. The YMCA has a task force working on this to make an all out effort to work with the City and the County on this counter proposal. The Y has had meetings with the Supervisors as well as Supervisor Silva. Silva said he needs at least 2 weeks to review this and get back to the Y. The big question is how much money is there and what can you build with the money. We currently have 14.5 million dollars in approval by the Board of Supervisors. Rick has been working with the Y to get costing on different scenarios that would fit within the budget. Jon says from the feedback they are getting, a 30,000 square foot building can be built within this budget. Jon showed the audience plans for this concept. The Basketball court is an outside court not an indoor gymnasium and has no 2nd floor. There is a balance between the fitness aspect and the community aspect with meeting rooms. 6/ Fire Station – Dave Kiff 10 minutes On Tuesday May 9th the Newport Beach City Council voted to award a construction contract in the amount of 6.4 million dollars for the fire station. That means we are one step closer to seeing this project move towards completion. There was much concern and discussion among the City Council members before approving this contract. The big question, where is this money coming from? The City of Newport Beach is looking to the Redevelopment Agency for the funding, but is there enough money to pay this additional cost for the fire station and not hinder the other PAC projects in the works? That is the question. With the City moving to take over the RDA from the County, and those negotiations still ongoing, how much of the RDA funds will actually move over to the City and when? To re cap: The County and the RDA approved $4.1 million for this project initially. $2.5 million of that was to the purchase the land. Because the land cost almost $4.2 million, the City funded the $1.7 million difference. The County and RDA also approved spending $1.6 million for construction. Design costs and incidentals were about $400,000. The City says that construction is estimated to be $6.4 million plus a $640,000.00 contingency (10% -- it may not be spent) + an additional $227,000.00 in Construction Management = about $7.4 million dollars. Therefore the parts of the project NOT funded by the RDA right now are $7.4 million less the $1.6 million but plus the $1.7 million land purchase shortfall. That's about $7.8 million and that is the number the City is looking to the RDA for. Dave then passed out this information:   Holly Jarvis suggested that the part of the RDA that is held for JWA should pay for some of this. Demolition of the existing structure should start around June 19th and July 17th should be ground breaking but that is still open. Construction should be completed in one year. June of 07. Mary made a motion that we write a letter of recommendation to the County that this additional money requested for the Fire Station be taken out of the portion they are planning to withhold including ( JWA tax increment) when the RDA transfer to the City of Newport Beach. We feel this is warranted due to the fact that this fire station is the 2nd response to the airport terminal and ancillary buildings in addition to any unincorporated in surrounding areas. . Richard Moriatry 2nds. Vote favor motion passes. Rick Dayton will write this letter as sub committee chairman of the Fire Station. Here is the letter: SANTA ANA HEIGHTS PROJECT ADVISORY COMMITTEE 06/09/06 Supervisor James Silva Supervisor, 2nd District Orange County Board of Supervisors 300 N. Flower Street Santa Ana, CA 92702 RE: Additional funding for the SAH Fire Station Dear Supervisor Silva: As you know, on Tuesday, 5/9/06, the Newport Beach City Council voted to award a construction contract in the amount of $6.4 million for the SAH fire station. The County has approved a spending of $4.1 million of RDA funds for the project. $2.5 million of this approved budget was allotted for the land purchase. The actual land cost was approximately $4.2 million. The City of Newport Beach funded the $1.7 million difference in order to secure the land. The County approved spending $1.6 million of RDA funds for the fire station construction. The current construction budget is approximately $6.4 million, plus a 10% contingency of $640,000, plus an additional $227,000 for construction management, for a total of approximately $7.3 million. Thus, the construction budget shortfall is $5.7 million. The combined shortfall for land purchase and construction is approximately $7.4 million. The City is looking for increased RDA spending to cover this entire shortfall. PAC continues to support the fire station project and is encouraged to see that this project is one step closer to being constructed. The big question is what funding will be used to cover the shortfall in the project budget. PAC recommends that the shortfall funding be taken out of those funds that are likely to be retained by the County if the transfer of some or all of the Santa Ana Heights RDA project area to the City takes place. Specifically, a portion of the JWA tax increment should be earmarked for the fire station funding. This is warranted due to the fact that the proposed fire station will be the second response to the airport terminal and ancillary buildings, and will service the business district adjacent to the airport, as well as any remaining unincorporated areas (such as West Santa Ana Heights and the area “South of Mesa Drive”). PAC encourages the Board of Supervisors to approve the additional RDA funding necessary for the fire station project. PAC further requests that this funding be structured to preserve the financial ability to complete the many projects that PAC has worked hard to implement, and the community still anticipates will be completed. Sincerely, Barbara Venezia, PAC Chairwoman Rick Dayton, PAC Fire Station Subcommittee Chairman cc. Orange County Board of Supervisors John Moorlach, elected Supervisor, 2nd District Tim Riley, NB Fire Chief Dave Kiff, NB Assistant City Manager Mark Esslinger, County Liaison PAC recipients 7/ Budget Review/ take over of the RDA – Dave & Greg (10 minutes) Education revenue education fund dates back to Gov. Wilson days. ERAF 1 and ERAF 2 occurred for 2 years by the current governor. Greg asked Dave if the County has given any reason to hold back the JWA money. They have. They can use that money to retire debt or for affordable housing. 8/ Mesa Birch Park - Rick (5 minutes) Mesa Birch Park: The plans for the park are complete and are now at to bid. Possibly breaking ground in a couple of months. These plans are in final plan check. The agreement between the City and the County is drafted and will be reviewed by the City. Dave Kiff reported that the city accepted title of the property and the existing easement can stay. Plans are now in final plan check and will go to bid in June. Development Committee Rick (5 minutes) Date: 05/22/06 Jim Swanek Site Planning and Consistency Section Planning and Development Services Department County of Orange P.O. Box 4048 Santa Ana, CA 92702-4048 (714) 796-0140 fax: (714) 834-3522 RE: PA 050063: Use Permit to Planning Commission for PC Fairway Villas Condominium Conversion 20162 Santa Ana Avenue Costa Mesa, CA Dear Mr. Swanek: The PAC Development Subcommittee has reviewed the proposal to convert an existing 32 unit apartment complex to condominium ownership. The application includes an off-street parking modification to allow 47 standard parking spaces and 17 non-standard parking spaces to satisfy the parking requirement of 80 parking spaces based on Zoning Code bedroom count formula for required on-site parking. The units are in (9) one-story and two-story buildings. The exterior of the buildings appears to have been upgraded somewhat with new paint and shutters. The composition shingle roofing appears to be in good condition. Windows and acoustical/thermal insulation have been upgraded through the RDA acoustical program. PAC strongly urges that the Zoning Code parking requirements be enforced. To convert to condominium ownership, the development should provide the required parking with standard parking spaces, including accessible parking spaces, as applicable. Non-compliant parking spaces should not be counted. PAC would also like to see the types of amenities and upgrades normally associated with condominium conversion incorporated into this project. Landscaping percentage and open space ratio appear to be low for this project. On the application site plan, the largest existing landscape area would be converted to nine (9) parking spaces. From the site plan, it appears there is one existing swimming pool. However, there are apparently no other outdoor amenities such as tot lot, sport court, or barbecue area. Unless the required parking can be provided, and unless amenities normally associated with condominium conversion can be provided, PAC recommends denial of this Use Permit. If these requirements can be met, the buildings should receive structural, accessibility, and other upgrades as applicable to comply with current California Building Code requirements for structures with multi-family residential occupancy. PAC also asks that Planning staff verify that the project complies with all applicable criteria from the SAH Specific Plan. Thank you for the opportunity to review this project. Would you please send PAC a copy of the final staff report and the date for the Planning Commission hearing? Sincerely, Richard A. Dayton PAC Development Committee Chairman (949) 645-1717 fax: (949) 645-4243 ********************************************* 10/ Undergrounding – BV 5 minutes We need to start to develop new undergrounding projects on the East and the West Side of Santa Ana Hts. In order to do this we need volunteers to map out areas, count poles, and talk to neighbors to see if they would be on board for this. We are looking for block and area captains to take charge of this. Ted Bosley will work on the West Side and Greg will champion Irvine Ave and Bristol. 11/ Arena & Trails Sub Committee- Tim Stoaks & Jayne Jones (15 minutes) (Mesa Dr/ golf course landscape ideas Tim will report on this at the next PAC meeting). Arena: The city of Newport awarded the Environmental Services contract at the last city council meeting on May 9th to Keeton Kreitzer Consulting. This process should take approximately 3 to 4 months. Once the contract is completed we will have addressed the requests the Costal Commission gave us in order to move forward with the application process and schedule a hearing with them. The construction of the arenas will be scheduled after that Costal commission hearing. Trail Update: Many thanks go out to all who attended the city council meeting with us on May 9th. Since that time your PAC trail sub-committee members have been meeting with mesa drive residences and trail groups to resolve issues residence might have towards the completion of the trail. Although some home owners are opposed to the trail railing, scheduled to be installed once the udergrounding project is completed, they are not opposed to horse riders and other trail users accessing the bay from that end of Mesa Dr. Some mesa drive homeowners are asking that the trail be taken off the Specific Plan. This is not the wish of PAC and steps are being taken to make sure the County Board of Supervisors and Newport City Council Members understand the importance of this trail. The material for the fence railing has been selected. You can look at it at Designer Concrete they have some really beautiful material. This design will continue throughout the neighborhood, and will be used at the passive park, the fire station and along the trail near the arena. Jayne is working with the folks on Mesa Dr. about the railing and will continue to work towards a compromise. 12/ Code Enforcement Shannon Swafford (5 minutes) Introduced herself to the community. One of the major things they are working on is boarding houses. The issue with multiple units on one particular street and has moved on to the City attorneys office. Boarding houses have not been defined by the city and those codes need to be changed. Greg asked if this was a violation of our Specific plan with multiple family dwellings. The question is raised, what is a single family unit? Then Shannon says you can not define a family by blood or marriage according to the City. There are 4 properties in question. 2 cases are closed. We were also informed that Leslie Daigle has asked for a census on the horses. BV and Mary will take a ride along with Shannon around the East Side side 13/ 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. Formally ask the City and the County to change the name to Mesa Dr. Meeting adjourns 8:20. |
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