MINUTES
REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY AND CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
OCTOBER 9, 2007 - 6:00 p.m.
CALL TO ORDER
The regular meeting of the City Council and Redevelopment Agency of the City of Highland was called to order at 6:04 p.m. by Mayor Jones at the Donahue Council Chambers, 27215 Base Line, Highland, California.
The invocation was given by Reverend Ron Bingaman of Immanuel Baptist Church and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Councilwoman Scott.
ROLL CALL
Present: Lilburn, Scott, Timmer, Mayor Jones
Absent: McCallon
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Mayor Jones presented proclamations to Brenda Dowdy, Carl Jones and Dixie Jourdan in commemoration of the 18th Annual Black Rose Award.
Presentation
Robert Tincher of San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District gave an overview of the Integrated Regional Water Management Plan for the Upper Santa Ana River Watershed.
COMMUNITY INPUT
Chuck Beeman expressed concerns regarding lack of police response. Mr. Beeman feels more law enforcement is needed in the area of East Highland. He stated there are numerous problems with break-ins, vandalism, and cars racing down the street, and the police department does not respond to his calls. He feels the situation became worse when Browning Road was opened onto Highland Avenue. Mr. Beeman requested some means of increasing police response in his neighborhood, to alleviate the possibility of citizens resorting to taking the matter into their own hands.
Peter Michas, former owner of the restaurant now known as Jenny's, stated he had repeatedly requested better lighting at that business location, but nothing was ever done about it. He owns a house on Summertrail Place, directly across the street from Canyon Oak Park. Mr. Michas stated he has witnessed sex acts and drug dealers in the park, both selling and using the drugs. He stated when he called police dispatch, he was questioned as to how he knew what the people in the park were doing; how he could prove it. He requested to have an officer come out, with no response. He stated four hours later, the police finally called him back asking if the people were still in the park, to which he replied they were not. Mr. Michas stated that vehicles race down the streets, and there are beer cans, condoms and other paraphernalia left in the street. He feels, too, that the situation has worsened since the neighborhood was opened up to Highland Avenue. He is requesting speed limit signs, additional citizen's patrol, or something else to alleviate the problems. He is concerned about the safety of his neighborhood. After a burglary on Summertrail Court, police finally responded with both cars and helicopters, because one neighbor was home and witnessed the burglary happening. Another neighbor called the police to report someone breaking into a vacant home in the neighborhood, to which there was, again, no response. Mr. Michas stated the citizens feel they have no recourse but to protect themselves if the police will not help them.
Audulio Ricketts stated he, too, feels that the number of officers serving Highland is inadequate. He stated that promises were made to him by Lieutenant Neely that something was going to be done. He feels that the police need to be more proactive. Mr. Ricketts went to check out the aforementioned park to see for himself what was going on there. He said he, too, observed drug dealers and sex being performed, and saw the condoms and drug paraphernalia left in the street. He stated he had recently purchased a gun to protect himself. Mr. Ricketts stated he hoped the plan for such a growing city included more police to protect the citizens of this community. He is requesting a plan of action that shows something is going to be done, other than having more than just two officers in the community. He stated he realizes there is more of a need on the west side of the community, but he feels there is a need for some permanent protection of the east side as well.
Lynette McDermott stated she shares the concerns of the three previous citizens. One of the problems listed at their Neighborhood Watch meeting was zero tolerance. In other words, drug users, panhandlers, etc., should be issued citations, not just chased away. Ms. McDermott stated she knows there are major problems in other parts of the city which needs to be addressed, but she feels the criminal element has found their community. She feels there is a problem, too, with soliciting in her neighborhood, which she feels might be a means of "casing the joint" to determine whether or not people were home. She stated she wants to feel safe. Another suggestion made at the Neighborhood Watch meeting was to install video cameras in the park. She stated she knows the City Council is very proud of being as debt-free as possible, but she hopes public safety will be taken into account and more police protection provided.
Major Jones stated we have been aware of the problem for more than two months, and have increased the presence in that area attempting to address some of the issues brought up this evening. He requested Police Chief Bobby Phillips to report what the police department has been doing in this specific area over the last two months.
Police Chief Phillips stated it is true crime is increasing. It is moving eastbound. He stated we do spend a tremendous amount of time on the west side of Highland. Typically, two officers are run on day shift, three on swing shift, with an overlap shift. Calls are responded to for service by priority. During the last two months, we have placed approximately 30 extra patrols in that immediate area. We are very well aware of the problems in the park area. We are using the resources we have the best way we can right now. We are conducting special patrols. We have two motor officers, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. At schools, it is just in the mornings. All of our officers work traffic, but they are also handling robberies, car jacking, etc. Police Chief Phillips stated he recently had a meeting with City Manager Hughes regarding resources. He stated we may need to look at some alternative methods and do some brainstorming. We will have to learn to do more with less. He stated we really do understand the problems. Citizen patrols are our eyes and ears, but we really do not want citizens to become confrontational.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn inquired if we could get some COP applications. She stated it sounds like they have a new Neighborhood Watch that is pretty aggressive. Citizen patrols are a great tool for our community. Everything citizens can do deters people, and we need the community to stick together and volunteer.
Councilman Timmer stated having the Neighborhood Watch meetings is a good start. A lot of activity is deterred just by being visible. One of the issues we talked about years ago as a Council with Public Works is what kind of traffic issues would be created by opening the street onto Highland Avenue. He stated we felt it was good planning, giving people two ways out of the neighborhood. Maybe we need to look at the option of shutting that thoroughfare off. We can start looking at how we can address those issues. There is another neighborhood where a crash gate was put up between areas. Perhaps Public Works can start looking at options to resolve those issues. Obviously park security is an issue at all of our parks. The big key, really, is that we need additional officers in Highland and that takes money. We're not going to borrow money to provide more officers. We need to come up with a funding source. The City of Highland tried twice in the past to have a special election for additional officers, and both times the voters turned it down. We are in the process now of looking at some additional options, maybe going back to the voters of Highland, to determine what would be a reasonable price to put on an assessment for houses and apartments, etc., for hiring additional police. In the near future, we will have some information coming about how you can get involved in helping us do that. Staff will be referring some of these issues to the different committees to look at how we can work with the citizens and come up with programs to address some of the short term issues. The long term issue is, we need more police officers in Highland, and that is going to take a concerted effort
of Highland citizens voting to assess themselves for additional police. All of the property tax and sales tax in the City of Highland does not even cover the contract we have with the Sheriff's Department. We have committed a huge percentage of our revenues to law enforcement, and that will continue because public safety is our number one priority. We all need to work together.
CITY COUNCIL/REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY CONSENT CALENDAR
City Manager Hughes requested to pull Item Numbers 7, 8 and 9.
A MOTION was made by Councilwoman Scott, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn, to approve the Items Number 1 through 6 and 10 of the Consent Calendar as submitted. Motion carried on a roll call vote, 4-0, with Councilman McCallon absent.
1. Waive the Reading of All Ordinances
Waived the reading of all Ordinances in their entirety and read by title only.
2. Minutes - September 11, 2007 City Council Regular Meeting
Approved the Minutes as submitted.
3. Minutes - September 11, 2007 RDA Regular Meeting
Approved the Minutes as submitted.
4. Warrant Register
Approved Warrant Register No. 449 for October 9, 2007, in the amount of $1,472,639.67 and Payroll of $63,049.76.
5. Treasurer's Report for August 2007
Received and filed Treasurer's Report for August 2007.
6. Easement Acceptance/9th Street - Manuel S. Esquievel
1. Accepted the Grant of Easement for Road and Drainage Purposes from Manuel S. Esquivel; and
2. Directed the City Clerk to record the Grant of Easement.
10. Award of a Professional Services Contract to LSA Associates, Inc., for Assistance in Preparing the Required Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for a Proposed Wal-Mart Superstore Center Store (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) on Approximately Nineteen (19) Acres Located on Greenspot Road East of State Route 30/210 (CUP-007-007)
Awarded a Professional Services Contract to LSA, Associates, Inc., for preparing a required EIR for the proposed Wal-Mart Super Center (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) in an amount not-to-exceed $219,000 upon review and approval by the City Attorney.
ITEMS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT CALENDAR
7. Year-End Budget Adjustments for Fiscal Year 2006/2007
Councilwoman Scott stated she had a question regarding Item Number 7. She inquired why had they not received monthly reports regarding the animal control contract due to the receipt of numerous complaints. She will reiterate the concern when they come back to this discussion.
A MOTION was made by Councilman Timmer, seconded by Councilwoman Scott, to approve the budget adjustments for fiscal year 2006/2007. Motion carried, 4-0, with Councilman McCallon absent.
8. Bid Award - Project 2004-03 "Street Improvements Northwest Corner of Victoria Avenue and Highland Avenue"
Councilwoman Scott inquired, how does the contract address overrun? Will the contract come back to us?
City Engineer Wong responded this is the award of a typical contract for any street project. The language of the contract is identical for every project. However, every project has a specification that addresses the special construction issues associated with that particular project. If there is any overrun, it will be handled. The City Council has authorized staff, including the City Manager, to approve change orders up to 10 percent of the project cost. Anything over 10 percent cumulatively would need to come back to the City Council for approval.
Councilwoman Scott stated her concern was because the bids between 1, 2 and 3 were very close. You could come in with a low bid, but then go sky-high and actually be up near bids 5 or 6 when the job is done.
City Engineer Wong stated they would pay special attention to the concern.
Councilman Timmer stated this is just a construction cost. We certainly know there will be property acquisition issues that have not been resolved at this point, so there will be additional costs to the project, but not related to the project.
A MOTION was made by Councilman Timmer, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn, to award the contract for Project 2004-03 "Street Improvements - Northwest Corner of Victoria Avenue and Highland Avenue" to Roadway Engineering and Contracting, Inc. Motion carried, 4-0, with Councilman McCallon absent.
9. Agreement with Dopp Property Services for Code Enforcement Related Property Security Services in the City of Highland
Councilwoman Scott inquired were the four people listed here the only applications that were received by the City?
City Manager Hughes responded yes.
Councilwoman Scott stated she inquired because there is a business in Highland that came into the City and stated that he wanted an application for the board-ups, and said he was given a paper and was told he needed to submit a proposal. She didn't see his name listed, and so she called him and asked if he had submitted anything. The business owner stated yes, he did. When Councilwoman Scott showed him the paperwork required, he stated he had not received anything like that. She wondered what had happened to that particular bid.
City Manager Hughes stated there was substantial notice of this and four bids were submitted. No partial bids submitted.
Councilwoman Scott stated he turned something in. If there was something missing, would the City notify him and advise him it was incomplete.
City Manager Hughes stated yes, however, we did not receive any of those types of applications.
Councilman Timmer stated when this was discussed at the Finance Subcommittee, we also talked about steel doors and windows. He inquired if this would be submitted under a separate agreement.
Community Development Director Jaquess stated it will be coming back but we are waiting for a signed contract to be received.
A MOTION was made by Councilwoman Scott, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn, to approve the agreement with Dopp Property Services. Motion carried, 4-0, with Councilman McCallon absent.
CITY COUNCIL/REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY LEGISLATIVE
11. Second Reading of Ordinance No. 316 to Pre-zone Approximately 3.62 Acres (APN: 1199-341-15) as Single-Family Residential with 20,000 Square Foot Minimum Lot Sizes [R-1 (20,000)]
City Manager Hughes stated this is a second reading of Ordinance No. 316.
A MOTION was made by Councilwoman Scott, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn, to conduct a second reading of Ordinance No. 316 to amend the Official Zoning Map, pursuant to Title 16 (Land Use and Development Code) of the City's Municipal Code. Motion carried, 4-0, with Councilman McCallon absent.
City Clerk Hughes introduced Ordinance No. 316:
ORDINANCE NO. 316
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF HIGHLAND, CALIFORNIA,
AMENDING THE OFFICIAL ZONING MAP AS ADOPTED BY
THE CITY OF HIGHLAND
which title was read.
12. Proposed Contract Amendment with the County of San Bernardino for Animal Care and Control Services from September 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008
Community Development Director Jaquess stated this is an annual contract update for animal care and control services from the County. This year the contract is a little different from the past in that it is a 10-month contract rather than a one-year contract because the County would like to put this on a fiscal year basis. He agrees with this as it makes our job of budgeting much more practical. This will put it on a fiscal year basis, consistent with our fiscal year.
Community Development Director Jaquess stated the amount of money that is in the contract is actually a little less than we had originally assumed and budgeted for this task, so we are within budget for this year. Next year, however may be a little different. One of the things they are proposing to start this year is the development of a joint power agreement between the East Valley cities for animal care and control. At least the goal is to include all the cities of the East Valley, including San Bernardino, Highland, Yucaipa and Redlands. San Bernardino and Redlands have their own, but they are all looking at maybe joining together into one overall agency, including Colton, Loma Linda and Grand Terrace as well.
Community Development Director Jaquess stated they do give us regular reports. He was unaware Council wanted to receive copies of these reports, and he will pass them along to Council.
Councilman Timmer stated several years ago we explored the JPA option. At that time, none of the other cities were receptive, so things must have changed.
City Manager Hughes stated the cost to provide the service has gone up dramatically because of the new regulations.
Councilwoman Scott stated in going over the year-end report, for $264,295 that was paid for last year, from 9/1/06 to 8/31/07, that was for 2,283 animals and it was for 2,700 hours. That is a big raise. We are paying for something, and she is not sure for what. She looked to see how much income was received for adoption. There were 317 animals adopted and there were charges for that. There were 106 animals returned to owners, and the owners were charged when they came to pick up their animals.
Community Development Director Jaquess stated Mr. Brian Cronin is here tonight. Mr. Cronin manages the program for the County, and he would be glad to respond to Councilwoman Scott's concerns.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated during the Public Safety Subcommittee, we were very under in some of our costs for licensing and things like that. Some of those were increased to help off-set some of our costs as well.
City Treasurer Dantuono stated we increased dog licensing fees unaltered dogs.
Councilwoman Scott stated we do the dog licenses here.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated yes, we do. There are other cities that also do a program called canvassing which also dramatically increases their revenue which helps.
Community Development Director Jaquess stated the County has talked to us about a canvassing program. It does cost us money to have them do that. The argument is that we can increase our dog license fee revenue to off-set the possible canvassing if we decide to do that. If Council so chooses, the contract can be amended to add in the canvassing program.
Councilwoman Scott stated the problem is, though, it is not the people that license their animals, it is the ones that are not licensed, and it wouldn't make any difference if the license fee was only $5. The animals will still not be licensed, and yet they run wild in the streets.
Mayor Jones requested Mr. Cronin to report on the program.
Mr. Brian Cronin stated yes, your contract does receive revenue and it is off-set by the total contract cost. The County submits to your City a quarterly report reflecting all revenue off-sets. In fact, in addition to impound fees, adoption fees, the County has billed the State for SB90 cost reimbursement for animals that are picked up in your City. The County is very pleased to share with you that last year from SB90 billing, your contract cost was reduced by $40,000 because of our billing the State. The quarterly report to the City, and your net billing does reflect all revenue off-sets. Those invoices are on file with the City. You do get credit for all revenue generated from animals impounded in the City.
The second question regarded dog licensing canvassing. In the City of Yucaipa, the County has implemented a dog license canvassing project. Many of the residents in the city are not very happy with the canvassing project because we do cite those individuals who refuse to license their dogs. It could be considered politically volatile. The City Council in Yucaipa has supported this agreement for the last three years, and last year they generated $160,000 in dog licensing revenue for their community. Mr. Cronin stated he does not know how much the City of Highland generates in dog license fees. They do not manage that program. Historically, they have offered to submit a proposal to the City of Highland to consider such a program to help off-set the animal control contract costs. The City of Highland has not adopted the County's dog licensing fee structure. In their most recent proposal offered to the City, one of the concerns is in the county areas. To license an intact dog, the County increased the dog license fees to $96 as of July 1. So, if you want to maintain a dog that is intact, that is going to breed and potentially cause a problem to the residents in the community, you would pay a higher license fee. In the county, $96 is significantly higher than your current $40 fee structure. The City of Yucaipa has adopted the County's fee structure. That is one reason as to why they generated additional revenue.
Councilwoman Scott stated just in the last month, her postal carrier had come to the door and stated there were two very aggressive dogs out, which are out quite frequently. He refused to deliver the mail to the remaining residents in the neighborhood. Councilwoman Scott called City Hall, and staff came out and took care of the problem. The next day, the carrier stated the same problem existed on a neighboring street. When the officers come out on the calls, are the people fined then, or are they just warned so they can repeat the offense?
Mr. Cronin replied in order for their department to take action when an animal control officer arrives, he or she must observe the complaint, the violation of the law occurring. In many cases, when they arrive, the animals may not be at the location. One method that is offered to resolve these issues, is that a third party citation could be offered. A third party citation simply means that when the mail carrier has witnessed someone's dogs at large, which is a violation of the law, we can then issue a citation to the owner of the dogs and the owner will then be required to appear in court or pay a fine. A third party citation is always available if we do not witness whatever violation is occurring.
Councilman Timmer inquired on the Yucaipa canvassing program, regarding the $160,000 additional revenue. What is the cost of that program to them?
Mr. Cronin replied today it is $60,000. In its original stages it was about $100,000.
Councilman Timmer stated so they are making more than they are paying for the program.
Mr. Cronin stated about three times. But it has taken three years for us to get to that point. So understand, in the first year it was somewhat revenue neutral. The program paid for itself. Their commitment to the city was that the program would not cost more than the revenue generated, and would provide a regular reporting system to the city but the key is consistency.
Councilman Timmer inquired of Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn, have you talked about looking at that as an option?
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn responded we have talked about it every year. There is a lot to it, and then with the JPA coming on board, it sounds pretty positive.
Councilman Timmer inquired how is the new State law affecting costs?
Mr. Cronin responded those are a few of the factors that resulted in a cost increase for your contract services. Our county shelter is retained in that area and under contract, and the cost for that contract is $100,000 per year. We have also had to hire full-time registered veterinary technician to meet State mandates. Some of those costs are recovered through SB90, but it is only a portion. Then your city would be proportionately credited by the percentage of usage for our shelter for those revenues received. So there is a revenue off-set when the State puts forth State mandates that are costly either at the city or county level. This year the State has indicated they are only funding SB90 reimbursements at 50% so you will only receive 50% of the revenue you received last year.
A MOTION was made by Councilman Timmer, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn, to approve the contract amendment with the County of San Bernardino for Animal Care and Control Services from September 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008, in the amount of $250,000, authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to execute the appropriate documents, and authorize staff to work with the County to establish a Joint Powers Authority for the East Valley cities for Animal Care and Control and Shelter services. Motion carried, 4-0, with Councilman McCallon absent.
13. Prohibition of Sale and Distribution of Novelty Lighters
City Manager Hughes stated Jim Rissmiller will give the staff presentation on this item.
Administrative Analyst Rissmiller stated this is dealing with a new topic called novelty lighters. The concern was first brought to our attention by the County Fire Chiefs Association where they had noticed a proliferation of what they term novelty lighters. They asked that all cities consider adopting an ordinance to prohibit the sale or distribution of these. Novelty lighters generally are designed to mimic everyday toys, cartoon characters, animals or musical instruments. Administrative Analyst Rissmiller stated that Battalion Chief Stock has some examples of some that she picked up in Highland. While some of the novelty lighters do meet the safety requirements of the 1994 Child Safety Act, many of them do not. Novelty lighters that resemble cartoon characters, animals, etc., are especially appealing to young children. Enticing children to either play with or view lighters not as a tool but as a toy, we feel sets the stage for an increase in the number of children who may be injured by fire. We sent a letter to the Chamber of Commerce on September 27 with a copy of the proposed ordinance and asked if they had any comments. As of 6:10 p.m. this evening, there have been no comments received on the proposed ordinance. We do have one correction to make, and that is to insert a new section
that would be 9.20.040 and then to renumber the current section .04050 to sequentially move those down to 50 and 60. The new section would be 9.20.040, the title would be Prohibition and that section would say "No person shall sell at retail, permit to be sold, or otherwise distribute a novelty lighter in the City of Highland." That would also be added in section 1 as section 9.20.040 the title of which would be Prohibition. We would recommend the City Council introduce the ordinance and schedule it for second reading at the appropriate time.
Councilwoman Scott inquired how would this be enforced?
Mayor Jones responded once we have an ordinance, then we have the ability to go out and stop them from being sold within the community.
Councilwoman Scott inquired would they be confiscated?
Administrative Analyst Rissmiller stated first the ordinance would need to be adopted, and then go into effect 30 days following the second reading. After that, it seems reasonable to send out notice of the new ordinance to all the stores in the City that do sell these types of items.
Councilwoman Scott inquired if an advisement letter could be sent out within the 30 days.
City Manager Hughes stated we can make all kinds of education efforts, as long as we are recognizing the ordinance is not effective until the end of that 30-day period.
A MOTION was made by John Timmer, seconded by Councilwoman Scott, to introduce Ordinance No. 317 adding Chapter 9.20 to the Highland Municipal Code as amended. Motion carried, 4-0, with Councilman McCallon absent.
City Clerk Hughes introduced Ordinance No. 317:
ORDINANCE NO. 317
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF HIGHLAND, CALIFORNIA,
AMENDING THE HIGHLAND MUNICIPAL CODE TO ADD
CHAPTER 9.20 PROHIBITING RETAIL SALE OR DISTRIBUTION OF
NOVELTY LIGHTERS, AS DEFINED
which title was read.
14. Base Line Corridor General Plan and Zoning Designation
Community Development Director Jaquess stated this is a follow-up to an item on the last agenda of the previous Council meeting, where we had a report to the Council on the status of the R2C Zone. At that meeting, there was direction from the Council to implement a change in the fee structure to reduce the fee to zero or new applications for the Conditional Use Permit process and to write a letter to all the business people advising them of this change. Subsequent to the Council meeting, the next day, we got input from two Council Members asking whether it would be possible just to rezone the property back to Commercial as it was prior to the General Plan and Zone Change process last year. What we have done is brought that item back to the Council for discussion and give the Council the opportunity to discuss that issue which did not come up at the last meeting. Because it is an agenda item, you could vote on this item tonight and provide direction to staff. If it is the direction of the Council to initiate Re-zoning of the property, that is a fairly significant task on staff's part in terms of time. It is not a simple process, so it would take some time and effort, and would most likely impact the work program that we have with the City right now.
Councilman Timmer inquired would we have to go back out to a consultant or could we do that in-house?
Community Development Director Jaquess stated it is possible to do it in-house.
Councilman Timmer stated we would have to go through the EIR and go through Design Review and Planning Commission and all the public hearings again and so forth.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn inquired why would we have to go through another EIR?
Community Development Director Jaquess we would be required to do an environmental review. We would not necessarily have to do another EIR.
Councilwoman Scott inquired even though it would be returning to its former state?
Community Development Director Jaquess stated as far as the environmental process, yes. It is still a discretionary action on the Council's part, therefore, we must go through environmental review.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated this is a corridor that has been sitting like this for years. When we decided to do this, we had reasons. We debated it, we discussed it, we knew that we could not just say okay leave it like this and it will fix itself. Now I understand why we want to bring it back. She would like to hear the discussion as to why we, again, maybe turn our head. Have we opened a can of worms? Would it benefit the business owners down there and take a big burden off them and allow them to continue to do business? She wants to hear all the reasons and options, both sides.
Community Development Director Jaquess inquired if Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn was looking for more input from staff.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated she wants Council input because we made the decision. We need to take the responsibility. She wants to hear what their options are and why we are reconsidering.
Councilwoman Scott stated regarding staff time, if it stays as it is, and all the CUPs that have been required come in and all the paperwork involved in doing those, that is staff time also. Staff time to go back to a zone that we had really before anyone had made any changes yet, would be a lot less than the staff time of going through all the CUPs.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated she agrees.
Councilman Timmer stated just to clarify that, Councilwoman Scott used the term "CUPs required." It is not required. It is a voluntary program if they want to get their information into the City records to be grandfathered in. It is not required. It is a volunteer program. He stated there are probably a lot of businesses that will not do it. There are some that will. It is not required. When we adopted the ordinance, we specifically stated it was a voluntary process.
Councilwoman Scott stated it may not have been required but it was a case of putting the property between a rock and a hard place.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated we had rezoned some of our areas Mixed Use which is a fairly a new common as developments come in. Why didn't we look at Mixed Use which would have kept that commercial as well as residential?
City Planner Mainez stated there was definitely a lot of discussion in terms of the different tools to developing a site. One of the issues is physical constraints. As we talked, a number of times at Planning Commission level and City Council, these are difficult sites to develop. They are currently not very deep and a lot of them are not very wide. We have a unique zoning designation called Planned Development. Mixed Use is one of those categories we do have on Base Line. They do have some unique standards. If you go commercial, you have a set of standards. If you go residential, you have a set of standards. If you do both, as an incentive, we relax some of those standards so you can develop. That is somewhat the direction we went when we decided on residential. As a security, we decided what the residential standards would be. We talked about density and multi-family versus single-family. What we did was merge the two concepts and decided to bring down the 18 dwelling units down to 9 dwelling units. The reason for that, as you may recall, is because we felt the community around it would be a little bit more compatible. We also went a step further and designed single family, detached guidelines, small lot guidelines, specific to R2C. So we kept going a step further, creating these layers of standards that are maybe somewhat like the mixed use or the PD. There is some mixed use that is predominantly closer to the freeway in the Town Center here, and then another mixed use near Victoria and Base Line. That's because that is the larger area of vacant land. There is also some PD districts, if you will notice down on Sterling and Base Line, and there are a lot of small lots that we were hoping to consolidate and get either mixed use or commercial development there. So if you walk down this boulevard, you will see these commercial nodes at major intersections. We were at the point that we had these gaps. What should we do with these gaps? We talked about parks, keeping it medium density, or keeping it Base Line commercial. It got down to the physical constraints. There were questions about whether we could keep it commercial. Base Line commercial at that time allowed residential. There was a CUP that required residential development, and that is why you saw a lot of applications coming in with senior housing, apartments, and things like that. That is the spinoff. There was a derivative created from that.
Councilwoman Scott stated that is where she has confusion because if the Base Line commercial also allowed residential, then why didn't we leave our commercial alone, and if any of those commercials wanted to go residential at another time, they still had that opportunity without all of this other.
City Planner Mainez stated these are policy decisions that the General Plan is designed to put forward. There is no element that is more important in this document that we call the General Plan. You have open space, land use, circulation, we have a community design element, we have an economic development element and you are familiar with the airport element. All of these relate to each other, and as part of the economic development element, there was a policy decision made that we would consolidate our commercial zoning to more viable locations, that the City could get more revenue or visibility in the long term. This is a 20-year document.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn inquired when we were doing this General Plan, were all the business owners notified that we were working on a General Plan and that their property was going to be affected?
City Planner Mainez stated no, not all of the individual property owners. What we did was broke up the General Plan into policy areas. There is a Base Line policy area which we are talking about tonight that includes a mixed use and R2C. We generated a mailing campaign to property owners. I cannot remember whether we sent it to business owners but we had a couple of neighborhood meetings and study sessions. There was the 3rd Street, the 5th Street corridor, the Base Line policy area, the Golden Triangle policy area, and a couple of others where we had neighborhood meetings.
Councilwoman Scott stated those were just advisory meetings. They were not public meetings where minutes were taken or anything.
City Planner Mainez stated generally staff would take notes but we do not record the meetings. That is correct.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated we did have some meetings and we jotted down bullet points that they had concerns. She is glad this was brought up for discussion, because there are people in the community who think we do not care, which is incorrect, because we do care. We are just asking that you work with us, to see what we can do to fix something if it needs to be fixed. That is what City Council meetings are for. They are for discussion, of the Council, the community, not to point fingers or get mad, but hopefully we can come to a resolution here and figure out what we are going to do. We need to come up with something. That corridor looks the same as it has for many years. The people that have businesses there have problems and issues and they want to see it cleaned up, but they also want their businesses kept as businesses where they can do business and maintain their values and so we need to be sensitive to that. That is why we put in that verbiage, and grandfathered that in, but it didn't work out exactly as we thought it was going to.
Councilman Timmer stated if we go down this road and explore protecting or reversing and continuing to allow the commercial to stay where it was, there are a lot of areas that were Base Line commercial that are vacant, not very deep lots. We don't want to encourage some of that stuff to do commercial, because many of them are mid-block, and are not really viable commercial. He inquired if we could look at where the existing businesses are today that are currently operating, working, not an old boarded up building that hasn't been used for years, but existing businesses that are functioning today, still allow them as we described in our scenario that they can expand. They can do those things, maintain them as Base Line commercial, or commercial or however we want to term that, and then look at the areas that are basically undeveloped and say, we are going to look at those as some kind of residential product, because they are not at the corners or in a viable area to be commercial, we get into residential, low density single family. One of the things we as a Council feel very strongly about is, we do not want any more apartments. We do not want any more duplexes or fourplexes and those things. We do not normally like to have residential, single family projects abutting Base Line because of traffic issues and such, but we have done some projects that have turned out relatively nice. They are smaller lot subdivisions. There are certain things we can and cannot do when we talk about if we protect the existing business, allow them to expand into vacant lots and so forth, and look at going to low density, single family kinds of projects in the vacant lands, or if people want to consolidate lots. He stated the scattering of the commercial would probably be close to spot zoning. Does that create issues for us, just to come up with findings to do what we want to do? Is that an option?
Community Development Director Jaquess responded that issue really needs some in-depth looking at, as far as how you could group some of those commercial properties into small groups to avoid the zoning of lot by lot type of approach. It is no longer necessarily appropriate to go back just to make it all commercial again, because you are reinforcing the inefficient use of the land that we are having to wrestle with today. We need to look at it very carefully. We do know exactly where they are. We know exactly which ones are operating as businesses. We have an inventory and a detailed survey of all of that.
Councilwoman Scott stated one of the things mentioned is the corners. An area of contention is the area of Base Line which is a street light corner intersection and the northwest corner of three lots used to be real estate. Next to it was where Jo Ann had a little cottage thing. It is now Stafford's Paint, a very clean, very good business. So that particular area right in there should go back to commercial.
Councilman Timmer stated staff needs some clear direction on what to look at and how to do it. He does not want a bunch of time spent giving direction. He wants to delineate what we expect or what we would like to see happen. The Planning Commission can certainly make sure their recommendations and change those things, but he wants to make we are doing something that can legally be done and justify and create the findings to make sure we are on legal ground to continue. For example, the same intersection Councilwoman Scott mentioned, there is a building on the southeast corner that is a boarded up building. You cannot say that should be commercial. It has not been used as commercial but it was commercial use for years.
Councilwoman Scott stated that particular building was going to be used as teen center, which would have been commercial use.
Councilman Timmer inquired where they would park.
Councilwoman Scott responded in the living quarters in the back.
Councilman Timmer stated that is where we are going to run into the issues. There are some legitimate concerns.
Mayor Jones stated the important thing we need to address here is, we have a number of issues we have discussed for a long time. He stated it is not in the best interest of Highland, nor in the best interest of those businesses there, to just return it to the commercial zone that was there before, because it is going to be the same when we grew up here and walked those streets. Nothing is going to happen to this area until we, in fact, make a plan and address each issue. Even if we have to get involved from a redevelopment standpoint and start dividing and buying land to fix it. That is the only way it is going to be fixed. That is the direction we need go, to address the issues of the businesses that are there, and how we can get the highest and best use out of this entire area and return it to an economic development within the community. Let's not feed back into the already dilapidated, boarded up buildings. He doesn't want to see those anymore; to see run down businesses, even though they are surviving, barely. That is not in the best interest of this community. It is not even in the best interest of that business. We need to take a broader look at this and say what can we do here. What are the issues we need to address and then starting pointing in that direction?
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated there are vacant lots that current businesses can expand into and thrive even better. We are very lucky that we do have some thriving businesses that have a lot of potential. She does not want to punish those which can move forward, thrive, and purchase some of these to expand. She inquired whether it would be easier for the commercial businesses to pull a CUP or is it easier to go back to commercial and make the residential pull a CUP or zone change or land use. Could we look at mixed use?
Mayor Jones stated we have to look at the highest and best use. It is not a matter of picking and choosing.
Councilman Timmer stated highest and best use is a strange term, because the highest and best use could be 10 story apartment buildings. He wants to make sure if we are going to allow mixed use that it be generally lower density, single family. There is a big need for that in our community. He knows apartments are easy to build and we can put a lot of them in the square footage. That creates long-term problems for law enforcement and other issues. We debated this and had lengthy discussions for three years, and it wasn't an easy solution we came up with. We tried to say how can we protect them, so we put the special verbiage in there. Maybe the issue is to protect the commercials there, allow them to grow and expand if they can or choose to. Maybe we could look at lot by lot, where can we have residential along Base Line that is going to work, because it will never develop as commercial. Those lots are just not suited to be commercial in today's environment.
Community Development Director Jaquess stated any approach that we take at this point should be really a lot by lot evaluation. It deserves that level of scrutiny and thought process to bring forth product that meets all the different thoughts that we have around this table. That is not a small undertaking and will take some effort and time on staff's part to accomplish that.
City Attorney Steele stated spot zoning is only illegal if it is done for a bad reason. If it is done to discriminate against a particular property owner or to keep something or someone out of a community, then spot zoning is illegal. There may be planning issues that make it a bad idea in certain cases, or a good idea in certain cases, but it is only illegal if we do it for a bad reason. If the Council chooses to use this type of process, and we adopt some very specific policy statements that go into the General Plan and say here is how we accomplished this lot by lot evaluation if that is what is necessary, then we have a legal basis for making those decisions. A policy document that says exactly what you all have been talking about this evening. We are on sound legal ground at that point, even if it turns out that this lot is commercial and the lot next door is residential. There is a policy reason for it, a justification for it, and we will be on supportable legal ground at that point.
Councilman Timmer stated he knows that staff has been buried in projects. We thought we had a project completed, and we are opening that door again. Would it be a better process, rather than have staff be front loaded, is we get a member of the Council involved on a committee, and maybe a Planning Commissioner and a staff member to look at that as a task and come back with some general guidelines, and then staff could look at putting that together in appropriate language for a General Plan to go through the normal environmental review process and Planning Commission review.
Community Development Director Jaquess stated he feels it would be very helpful to have that kind of input. Clearly there would be staff support time required outside those meetings, but we would be more than happy to have an on-going working relationship with a subcommittee, the City Council, and as you suggest the Planning Commission, to try to bring something back that is agreeable as much as possible to as many people as possible.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated we need to do something. All these residents need a CUP. That is a lot of work also. There is a lot of work that is going to go into this.
Councilman Timmer stated this is an issue that we have talked about, the Base Line commercial corridor, that used to go all the way to Boulder at one time. We need to set some very specific parameters of what we are going to be addressing. He does not want to open up the whole General Plan for every land use issue in the City of Highland. He wants to make sure it is very clear what the charge of that committee would be so we don't basically redo the General Plan.
Councilwoman Scott stated Del Rosa to Cole is the area. If you look at the general commercial, this side of the community needs places where you can walk to the store instead of having to drive. City plans have changed, and they think everything needs to be in one central location like a mall, and malls kill downtowns.
Councilman Timmer stated the reason we are looking at this is because we want to look at how can we make this work for our City. Create the potential to upgrade our businesses and protect the existing businesses, as well as try to some economic activity that is going to develop some of these vacant lots that we know is not going to be commercial. We have to have another alternative that is palatable to this Council that will provide a use, whether it is residential or some other use. If we don't do something to get this going, Base Line is going to look the same after we are all gone.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn inquired didn't we have a separate zone for Base Line commercial?
City Planner Mainez responded pretty much everything on Base Line.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn inquired did we eliminate that completely?
City Planner Mainez responded yes.
Councilman Timmer stated some of them we now call general commercial, neighborhood commercial, etc.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated it sounds like our options are 1) leave, 2) go back or 3) look at these lot by lot with some invested time with other solutions.
Councilwoman Scott stated going back lot by lot is the only fair way to go.
City Manager Hughes stated if you look at the option that Councilman Timmer brought up, with having a member of the City Council, member of the City Planning Commission work with staff and our City Attorney would have some ideas as well, if we could get that committee put together and come back with some recommendations, that would be a good way of going.
Councilman Timmer stated we have to be careful, though, of how we load that because we could be preempting the public hearing process on how we do all that.
Community Development Director Jaquess stated we need to dial in some feedback to the Council and create opportunities for community input as we go along.
Councilman Timmer stated if we come back with a recommendation, and the Council all says yes, then you have just preempted the public hearing process.
City Manager Hughes stated then you need to come back with alternatives and then you'd have to go through that process.
Councilwoman Scott states the Planning Commissioner and the Council Member would do the legwork, getting the information, so staff would not have to do that.
Councilman Timmer stated it needs to be a joint effort. He would volunteer if someone is looking for that.
Mayor Jones stated he agrees, but he does not want to fix it the way it used to be. He wants to make it a better community. He wants to bring to this area some improvements that are going to allow these businesses to grow and develop into prosperous businesses, not just surviving day by day. And, of course, improve the neighborhood and improve the lifestyle so that, in fact, we could encourage the ability to walk and be safe to do so. As it currently is, there are not many people who feel it is safe to do so.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated we have a manageable group of business owners that need to be notified that we are having this so they have the opportunity to participate. Instead of bad-mouthing us, they can come and help us, and instead of saying we didn't hear about it, they can say they participated. They have to have the opportunity. They are the businesses. It needs to be an effort among all of us. Some of them, lot by lot, might even be a potential expansion for a business that we don't know about.
Mayor Jones stated he could create a committee that would consist of a Council Member, a Planning Commission member, and even possibly one from Design Review Board, that can look at this with staff and come back to the Council and to the Planning Commission with recommendations of things that can be done, and some avenues that could help accomplish this focus.
City Planner Mainez inquired if that would just be purely advisory. On the table would be the existing development code provision that allows a special permit for existing business, correct? There are 38 businesses out there now that we have identified that might have interest in having some type of protection.
Mayor Jones stated all that needs to be taken into consideration. If they see a bigger plan that we are developing toward, maybe some of them will say if we could buy these two pieces of land, we could expand our business on that and move right across the street and accomplish what we want to as a business. They might not be in the same position they are, but when they see an opportunity where that can take place, they can be a part of that.
Councilman Timmer stated when he suggested that option, one of the things he intended was to still be able to protect the businesses that are there and have the ability expand. Even though it may be a vacant lot, rather than saying that should be residential, we need to look at each particular case and say if it is a good size lot and it is compatible, maybe that vacant lot should be part of the commercial or mixed use so both options could be looked at depending on who wants to develop first and so forth. But there are going to be some lots that are in mid-block that had an old building that burned down or was bulldozed that has no practical use because of size, that we shouldn't come back with some other residential use as a part.
City Manager Hughes stated also it would be appropriate to define the area, what the boundaries are.
Mayor Jones stated let's go clear to Del Rosa, Cole to Del Rosa.
Community Development Director Jaquess you're looking at the area that is currently zoned R2C.
Councilman Timmer stated maybe some of the general commercial should be a little larger.
Community Development Director Jaquess stated in terms of defining the boundaries, you could use the R2C, for example how deep do you want to go. Do you want to go just the lots fronting on Base Line, which is what the R2C did?
City Manager Hughes stated just for clarification, we are basically looking at Cole to Del Rosa Drive on Base Line.
Mayor Jones stated we would look to the committee for recommendations if, in fact, we need to go deeper in some areas where those lots are very shallow. We may need to look at something else to make it work.
Community Development Director Jaquess stated this process, as I stated earlier, will take awhile, and there may be some businesses out there for some reason or other want to do something immediately for economic reasons or whatever. They should be aware that they can do that under the current process, so we are not stopping that.
Councilman Timmer stated once the committee is formed, when they are looking at certain areas, will be contacting the local businesses, where appropriate, to talk about getting some input about what their expectations are, what their future endeavors may be, so that would be helpful in delineating some of these lots, or trying to combine some of these lots as the case may be.
City Manager Hughes stated as far as the appointment on the committee, he believes Councilman Timmer has volunteered for that, so we would need to get a vote or have the Mayor appoint him to that. You also mentioned the DRB. Did you want them to appoint a committee member from within their group?
Mayor Jones stated he felt it would be helpful for the input.
Mayor Jones appointed John Timmer to serve on that committee. We will go to the Planning Commission and Design Review Board and have them also recommend someone or appoint someone from each of those to be on the committee.
15. Consideration of a Resolution of the Highland Redevelopment Agency Authorizing Staff to Begin Activities to Amend the Redevelopment Plan for the Highland Redevelopment Project Area and Establishing Basic Eminent Domain Policies for Said Amendment
Community Development Director Jaquess stated this is an item that relates to a process we started some time back in the Work Program when we directed to reinitiate the ability of the City Redevelopment Agency to exercise Eminent Domain powers or authority in its tool box of RDA processes. We have hired a consultant. Adopting this resolution would kick off the process formally. We are in the process of gearing up to hold a community meeting in November, and there will be a newsletter going out to the community as well if you adopt this resolution. This resolution reinforces the process of the fact that there is an exemption built into our Eminent Domain powers, that we would not use it to acquire legally occupied residential structures. We do have a consultant in the audience, Ernie Glover, if you have questions or if you would like any input from him.
A MOTION was made by Vice Chairwoman Lilburn, seconded by Agency Member Timmer, to approve Resolution RDA2007-006 authorizing staff to begin activities to amend the Redevelopment Plan for the Highland Redevelopment Project Area and establishing basic Eminent Domain policies for said Amendment and to authorize transmittal of the notice of intent to prepare the proposed Amendment. Motion carried 4-0, with Agency Member McCallon absent.
RESOLUTION NO. RDA2007-006
A RESOLUTION OF THE HIGHLAND REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY AUTHORIZING STAFF TO BEGIN ACTIVITIES TO AMEND THE REDEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR THE HIGHLAND REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT AREA AND ESTABLISHING BASIC EMINENT DOMAIN POLICIES FOR SAID AMENDMENT
16. Update on SANBAG, SCAG, Omnitrans, Work Program and Regional/Legislative Issues/Development Issues/Subcommittees/AB 1234 Updates
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated at the last meeting there was one agenda item. They went through several votes, and came up with some priorities to start requesting some of that money.
City Manager Hughes stated the process will be coming forward shortly on how to actually get the money. We will be bringing forward to the Council our priority list for the Highland funding.
City Engineer Wong stated at this time, the procedure is we will go to the next Public Works Subcommittee meeting, get their input, and then come to the Council to amend the budget and the CIP. The dollar amount is seven hundred and some thousand for the first go-round and then we will have some in the future.
City Manager Hughes stated he thinks the total is $1.6 million that the City will receive, but we will only receive half in the first go-round.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated as you know, we have been in negotiation with the union on the Omnitrans coach operators only. As of our last meeting, we did not have a contract. We did not have an agreement. We met with them the Tuesday prior to the Omnitrans meeting, and then we met with them the day of our meeting. It sounds like we have an agreement, so it sounds like there will not be a strike. We are looking to ratify the contract at the next Omnitrans meeting. It sounds like both sides came together.
17. San Bernardino International Airport Authority and IVDA
Mayor Jones stated the IVDA meeting was canceled.
City Manager Hughes stated with regard to SBIAA, we did send the letter regarding comments made regarding their latest environmental process. You should have copies. We are also working with SBIAA regarding the letter to the FAA. That is a hot issue right now. They had a 60-day window to get that done, and we are working toward accomplishing that.
Mayor Jones stated one of the things many people do not understand is the EIR process and the CEQA Process that is necessary. He thanked City Attorney Steele for the comment letter which addressed those simple issues that Highland needs to continue to keep their feet to the fire with regard to their noise, environmental pollution caused by the bringing of these projects to the area, and what mitigation they are proposing to address those. These are very deep concerns, and he thanked City Attorney Steele for spending the time and fulfilling our responsibilities there.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Councilman Timmer stated he will not be at the next Council meeting.
CLOSED SESSION
At 8:30 p.m., City Council and the Redevelopment Agency convened into closed session regarding the following:
CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL - EXISTING LITIGATION 54956.9(a)
City of Highland v. McCarty, et al.
San Bernardino Superior Court Case No. SCISS130282
CONFERENCE WITH REAL PROPERTY NEGOTIATOR
Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8 regarding the following property:
Property: APN 1201-341-08, 09
Negotiating parties: Joseph Hughes, City of Highland
San Bernardino County Flood Control District
Under negotiation: Instruction to City's negotiator concerning price and terms of payment.
CONFERENCE WITH REAL PROPERTY NEGOTIATOR
Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8 regarding the following property:
Property: APN 1201-331-01
Negotiating parties: Joseph Hughes, City of Highland
San Bernardino County Flood Control District
Under negotiation: Instruction to City's negotiator concerning price and terms of payment.
At 8:51 p.m., the City Council and Redevelopment Agency convened into open session, with Councilman McCallon absent, making no announcements.
ADJOURN
There being no further business, Mayor Jones adjourned the meeting at 8:53 p.m.
Submitted By: Approved By:
___________________________ ________________________________
Betty Hughes, CMC City Clerk Ross B. Jones, Mayor