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02/22/2007 1 Community and Economic Development Department (A L I f O R N I A GRAND TERRACE PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING February 22,2007 The regm1ar meeting of the Grand Terrace Planning Commission was called to order at the Grand Terrace Civic Center. 22795 Barton Road. Grand Terrace. California, on February 22.2007 at 7:00 v.m.,by Chairperson Doug Wilson. PRESENT: Doug Wilson, Chairperson Matthew Addington,Vice Chairperson Tom Comstock, Commissioner Darcy McNaboe, Commissioner Brian Phelps, Commissioner Gary Koontz, Community Development Director John Lampe,Associate Planner Jerina Cordova,Planning Secretary 7:00 P.M. CONVENED SITE AND ARCHITECTURE REVIEW BOARD/ PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING • Call to Order • Pledge of Allegiance led by Vice Chair Addington • Roll Call • Public address to Commission shall be limited to three minutes unless extended by the Chairman. Should you desire to make a longer presentation,please make written request to be agendized to the Director of Community and Economic Development. Chair Wilson: Keep in mind that a portion of this is going to be an open forum. We definitely want to hear what you have to say. There are going to be several opportunities to do this over a course when it comes to the General Plan Update PUBLIC PARTICIPATION Chair Wilson: This is the time for anyone in the audience to speak on any item which is not on the agenda for this meeting. 22795 Barton Road • Grand Terrace, California 92313-5295 • 909/ 824-6621 - 1 - (' PATRICIA FARLEY ' 12513 Michigan Street I want to point out to you that there are several people in the community that have done an enormous amount of work looking into the peaker plant that is being proposed. It is a major problem. I don't particularly want the high school because of the size. This thing next to a high school and a railroad, there is stuff coming out and I met someone in our city and they are very knowledgeable,it is frightening what is being proposed there and I would Eke very much if the Commission would become very aware of what is going on. We need to fight it. Chair Wilson: We have another request to speak form RITA SCHWARK 21952 Grand Terrace Road Traffic,I use Barton Road every day and I go the speed limit. I get people passing me, honking and one gave me the finger because I was going the speed limit. It is getting out of hand. I don't see any policeman around there at the evening rush hour. I see them during the morning. The illegal truck parking on the corner of Grand Terrace Road and Barton;I believe there are seven no parking signs and the truck drivers are just laughing at us. I can not get out of ( that road. I have had one close call. The trucks are still parking there all the time. I wished that they would be ticketed or warned or fined. It is a very dangerous situation. Gary L. Koontz, Director: On the Grand Terrace Road issue,that has been brought up in front of the City Council on a couple of occasions. I believe the Sheriff is looking into it. Chair Wilson: I would like to get some kind of report on it if we could. End of Public Participation ITEMS: 1. MINUTES Planning Commission Meeting Minutes of January 18,2007 RECOMMENDATION: Approval Vice Chair Addington: I would like to note a correction on page 14, first paragraph, and second sentence. It is an acronym of S.U.S.M.P. short for Standard Urban Stormwater Mitigation Plan. I do understand that I do throw out technical acronym's every once in a while, if you need help just give me a call, I will explain what the acronym is. That was the only correction that I found. - 2- Chair Wilson: I also noted that there were a couple of opportunities in the minutes where the brilliance that Vice Chair Addington showed in his comments and they were attributed to me. Not that I wouldn't like to take credit for it but I don't think it is correct. I will have to dig back into it and double check. Gary L. Koontz,Director: Your voices sound very similar on the tape. MOTION PC-04-2007 Commissioner Comstock made a motion to approve with corrections of the minutes of January 18, 2007 Vice Chair Addington Seconded with the corrections 5-0-0-0 2. SA-06-20,E-06-16, SA-06-20/E-06-16/CUP-06-08 to construct a wireless CUP-06-08 telecommunications facility consisting of six panel antennas, one microwave antenna, and one GPS antenna mounted 52 feet high on an existing SCE transmission line tower. There will be four equipment cabinets mounted on a concrete pad at the base of the tower. APPLICANT: Royal Street Communications,LLC LOCATION: 22200 Newport Avenue (Site is located at the northeast corner of the SCE facility APN# 0275-201-02) RECOMMENDATION: Open the Public Hearing,receive testimony, and close the public hearing,and approve SA-06-20,E-06-16 and CUP-06- 08. Chair-Wilson: Do we have a staff report? Richard Garcia: Good evening. My name is Richard Garcia, I am the assistant planner for the City of Grand Terrace. The applicant, Royal Street Communications,is proposing to construct a wireless telecommunications facility at 22200 Newport Avenue, in the M2 industrial district. The project will consist of 6 panel antennas, 1 microwave antenna, and 1 GPS antenna mounted to an existing Edison transmission line tower. There will be 4 equipment cabinets mounted on a concrete pad at the base of the tower. All utilities serving the site will be located underground. OVERHEADS 1. The aerial photo shown on the screen accurately depicts the property as an existing Southern California Edison electrical transmission substation with storage, repair, and office facilities. The project site is located at the northeast corner of the property. The surrounding area is developed as City of Colton boundary to the west, 215 Freeway to the east, R2 & R3 to the south,&R1-7.2&city of Colton boundary to the north. - 3 - 2. The site plan indicates the project location. The entire property is fenced and there is existing landscaping and trees along Newport avenue and adjacent to the project site which is intended to soften the visual impact of the existing towers, transformers, and buildings. 3. The elevations show the 6 proposed panel antennas and 1 GPS antenna mounted at a height of 52 feet, 6 inches above ground level. The 2 foot microwave antenna is mounted at a height of 45 feet. The 4 equipment cabinets are mounted on a concrete pad at the base of the tower, and inside the perimeter of the tower base. The antennas and equipment will be painted a non-reflective gray color to match the existing tower. The use of an existing tower will serve to eliminate the need for a new monopole and reduce visual clutter. This project has qualified for a negative declaration under the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act. Staff recommends that the Planning Commission approve the proposed wireless communications facility under SA-06-20, CUP-06-08, & E-06-16 as called for by the Resolution of Approval. Chair Wilson: Any questions of staff before we open the public hearing? We will invite the applicant to come and speak. APPLICANT JOHN BEKE 547 Ellencino Drive Diamond Bar, California I am an employee of Metro PCS and we are the parent company of Royal Street Communication, applicant. This site was designed after a site over on the west side of the 215 Freeway and Barton Road fell apart. I believe we actually had Planning Department approval. The wireless industry does not play nice, and T-Mobile came up with some excuses on why we could not locate on that tower. So we scratched our heads and our engineers had pointed out these towers within the yard and since we work with Edison regularly; they have a whole group of people that get cell companies on their towers. We found that this site was acceptable to our engineers and it meets our coverage objectives and it is a great use of a one hundred foot poll.structure that has been there since 1950's. When the antennas are painted to match it would be very little difference to the existing view as you drive down the freeway. It is not really visible from anywhere else in the city. I can only say that Metro PCS is going to bring some competition to Los Angeles with unlimited talk plans that start at thirty dollars. I urge for your support and approval and I am also here to answer any of your questions. Chair Wilson: How does a fifteen foot high tree soften the visual impact of fifty five foot antenna? — John Bieke,Applicant: I did not make that statement, those trees already exist. Chair Wilson: I was just curious. John Beke,Applicant: If you are southbound it would. -4- Chair Wilson: It looks to me that there is not a lot of visual impact from the surrounding } areas. Staff,how far away is the nearest residential? Richard Garcia: I measured 475 ft. to the nearest resident. Vice Chair Addington: Metro PCS, I have not heard of them, is this a new cell phone service? John Beke,Applicant: Yes. We have 3 million customers in the United States. By June we are looking to launch a new network here in Los Angeles. Currently we are in Dallas, Detroit, San Francisco, Sacramento,Bay Area,Miami&Atlanta. To give you an example of an unlimited thirty dollar a month plan is; in Miami after being on air for only two years, we are the number two carrier out of five companies competing for customers. It is a word of mouth and the money savings is real especially if you have children. Vice Chair Addington: Does this only carry cell service or other services? John Beke,Applicant: Whatever is coming in the future that cell phones can do. Commissioner McNaboe: The way you are configuring antennas,will there be coverage for Grand Terrace? John Beke, Applicant: This is not our only site in the area, I am not sure that we have more than one in the City of Grand Terrace, but north and south on the 215 freeway we have them. Like all cell companies, we are going to launch our system in June and we will have coverage not in every city park and every inch of ever city, but that is our goal to have an operational system by June and keep working on it like all the other companies do. Further, we are doing something a little different; you may notice a subtle difference, most companies take six antennas and shoot two in three different directions. We have actually angled our six antennas in six different directions. I would assume that around a mile and one half of this site we are going to have real good coverage in the City of Grand Terrace. Chair Wilson: We have a request to speak form. REQUEST TO SPEAK RITA SCHWARK 21952 Grand Terrace Road Why the Westside? We have got enough. We have the big power plant. You are going to fry me over there. There are higher places in Grand Terrace. There is Blue Mountain, why are you doing it on the west side. Anything industrial and those things that don't look good _ go on the west side. I don't want any more airwaves over there. I don't want interference. I have enough of these big electrical things. I don't need them. I don't want them. What are they for? - 5 - Vice Chair Addington: I will move for approval of SA-06-20,E-06-16 &CUP-06-08. Chair Wilson: I will Seconded,with some discussion. I would like to see in the future in any kind of these circumstances, I would like to see an outside EIR. I think that would be advisable. In this particular case I don't see any challengeable, but I would really like to do that. It doesn't make a difference one way or the other,because money is the same,people pay the fee and then it goes away. Commissioner Comstock: I like the idea of using existing towers and not putting up a new tower and I think we need to do more of that. Utilize what we currently have. There are structures that are not normally part of the landscaping. Chair Wilson: I have one more question for staff. How many towers do we have on Blue Mountain? John Lampe, Associate Planner: I have not been up there in about five years but I believe it is about three or four. Chair Wilson: Last time it burned I think we were counting how many there were, so it is not just on the west side. MOTION PC-05-2007 Vice Chair Addington made a motion to approve Chair Wilson Seconded 5-0-0-0 ADJOURN SITE AND ARCHITECTURE REVIEW BOARD/PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING CONVENE PUBLIC WORKSHOP SESSION • Information to Commissioners 1. APPLICANTS: City of Grand Terrace-Department of Community Development SUBJECT: General Plan Update Workshop #2 LOCATION: City-Wide RECOMMENDATION: Review the current policies and staffs recommended changes, open a public discussion to provide staff with direction in developing the goals and policies section of the various elements and close public discussion.. - 6 - Gary L. Koontz, Director: We would like to get right into our General Plan Workshop #2. As you recall we had our first workshop back in January. This will be a second of a very long series of additional workshops. Items we would like to talk about tonight, first I would like to call Strengths and Weaknesses and that may not be the best term for it. What I am looking for is, we are writing an introductory section on this, and I want to talk about the positive things and some of the issues that are constraining; things that we could not do in the General Plan. After that we have submitted a first draft of recommended Goals and Policies and as a part of that we gave you a list of all the existing Goals and Policies from the Original General Plan so that you can compare the two. We would like to talk about those, get input and as a part of that get input from the general public as well. I have three elements done: Land Use, Circulation and Open Space. I would like to go through one element at a time to get input on each of the policies and Goals from the Commission and then open up that element to the general public for additional comments and then move on to the next one. In terms of Strengths, I am looking for additional input and things that I need to change, things that are positive in the community that we need to look at. The_community has a certain character and we need to describe, discuss and preserve it. We have established neighborhoods. We have good solid residential neighborhoods and we need to preserve those neighborhoods. We have the fine commercial areas. We have some along the freeway and along Barton Road. That is not going to change very much. We have areas where we know that the commercial is along major streets and we also have a defined street system which could be go or bad and we will get into that later. We have Blue Mountain which is a natural resource in regards to Open Space and we need to discuss Blue Mountain as a resource to the City. Finally, we have Public Services and we will need to talk about how we are going to maintain them and enhance them. On the other side, and they may not be weaknesses but in doing a new General Plan it is an issue we have to deal with. 1) We have a city that is predominately built out. We don't have a lot of vacant land that we can look out at determine a different type of land use. We have established development patterns. We have a circulation system that is established. The streets are where they are and we are not going to pick up and drop an arterial somewhere else connecting different areas. It is there and it is something that we have to work with. There aren't a lot of developable parcels left. The ones that are left are there because they are constrained and there are issues to deal with and they have'not been developed in the past. As a part of that we need to look at redevelopment if there is going to be additional development in the community; once the vacant parcels are done it's the under utilized parcels that we need to look at and make sure that we have addressed those accordingly in the plan 2) Money. There is not a lot of money to go out there and do wondrous things and change things so we need to look at what we can do with what we have and what we expect to have in the future as well as new sources of funding to preserve the public services that the community demands. (! With that, I would like to open it up for discussion on either the Strengths or Weaknesses. Is there anything that needs to be added or subtracted? I would like your input. - 7 Chair Wilson: I would like to pinpoint that because we are a "mostly built out city" and because we are going to be looking in the future towards redevelopment circumstances, the original General Plan had the foresight to assume some Specific Plan areas and the use of those Specific Plan areas are key. The guidelines and specific plan areas might take precedence over the overall General Plan circumstance. We found in the recent past that when we ignore what is set up in those Specific Plan areas we get ourselves in trouble with in a whole bunch of different directions. If they are in error and that is why we have a public hearing to determine if they are; then we should look at it with a fine tooth comb and try to further define what we want out of the Specific Plan areas. I understand that the City Council has a revenue burden from that stand point as well as everyone here and everyone outside has that same burden to deal with. But we won't be able to exchange quality of life to be able to undermine the quality of life by trading it off on revenue sources,it is a very delicate balance. Are there any other questions or comments from the Commissioners? Vice Chair Addington: In reviewing this, and I did review it all, I would like to compliment the staff regarding the Open Space Element. I did like everything that was put in regarding landscaping, Open Space and what you wrote in there. I do have a question on the Open Space and if this is the appropriate time if not I can wait? Gary L. Koontz, Director: I would like to go element by element after we get through this. We are going to go through the Goals and Policies and I would like your input at that time. Chair Wilson: Any other comments? i Gary L. Koontz, Director: In response to your comment, I want to have a workshop, next month, specifically on Land Use and designations and looking at the map. To see if there is anything we want to do to it. As part of that what I am going to throw out is the possibility of having a Specific Plan Overlay,where we can identify certain areas that we believe need a Specific Plan. A lot of big General Plans have other planning areas that have very fine guidelines. We can use, for example, a Specific Plan Overlay in the redevelopment area near the freeway. That area is definitely eligible for a Specific Plan Overlay. You can define under that specific design with guidelines that you want to see if and when it comes in. Chair Wilson: I guess that comes in with permitable as well as conditional use permits situations and so on. What we don't want to do is re-work the whole situation by somebody coming in with something completely off base and then everyone gets in an uproar (understandably) and does not understand why the system does not work. We are trying to make the system work. I would like to invite the public. We have described these things up here on the wall and we have talked about strengths, community character, established residential neighborhoods, defined commercial areas, Blue Mountain as a natural resource and high level of public services. I know that there are some concerns for dog parks and parks in general and so I would say that is a strength, for us from the stand point that we can further define how we can integrate some of those things. It is a going to be a creative force to make it work. Weaknesses include the built out circumstance, circulation patterns that are already established, the few remaining developable parcels, limited public funds,new sources of revenues are needed and redevelopment. - 8 - What else have we got? Now is the time. We have been thinking an awful amount of folks have been involved. We just had an election and we have had a lot of opportunity to think about our priorities are and we also know what our neighborhoods are about. I think it is worth while to take the opportunity to step up and say "we need to be considering this". Not just what is in my neighborhood,but also other concerns in general. I would like to invite you to come up at any time during this program as well as get a little continuity flowing,but please feel free to,add your piece so that we may logically proceed with this. CYNTIHIA BIDNEY 12219 Pascal I am concerned as to .the definitions of "preserving our neighborhoods". We are combining our commercial areas with our neighborhood which is not protecting our families, children or our life style. I don't fee that we have enough parks in our area. They are going to take away Pico Park for the high school. I am concerned how we are going to replace all of that. My biggest concern is that we don't have enough for our children from 12-19 yrs old. There are a lot of kids and children are staying home by themselves because children have to work. We don't have anything developed. We have a child care facility put on by the city and that is a money making venture for the city. It is an opportunity to expand and open up a Recreation.Department. I would like to see a Kids Club in the city for all of these kids. I really think we can get the parents to participate. I know that I can help raise funds. Some people have already approached me about this if we can get you behind us. -1 Chair Wilson: Thank you. Good suggestion. JEFF McCONNELL 21758 Walnut I have a quick question that might be on the minds of other people here. Gary said he was going to ask for your feed back after every item,will the public be able to speak after that? Chair Wilson: Yes. It is an open forum. PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street I need clarification as far as how many times we are able to speak and if we are limited. I have comments and I don't know if I am supposed to wait and then do it? Chair Wilson: In this particular case we are going to try and make it monuments as much as possible. Patricia Farley: Make it what? Chair Wilson: Monuments. Basically at this point we are looking for comments in relation to the Strengths and Weaknesses. - 9 - Patricia Farley: Grand Terrace has always been a nice Residential Community, close to commuting to people's jobs. I think it is incredibly important not to pull the rug out from underneath everyone. To make us a City and then really damage the areas where people have established is really inappropriate. I believe that there are a couple ways that you can have mixed development, but I have not felt encouraged that people were looking at all of those things. I am very concerned about Blue Mountain and it looking nice and not having big ugly buildings and stuff. It is a great resource for our community for hiking. The things that you look like in planning is if it sounds good but the things are not compatable. We have huge trucks barreling down residential streets. I would not want a child riding their bike along there. If you look at Loma Linda,what a huge center,it has really damaged some of the housing there; but a lot of people live here and work there and I think that this needs to be kept a little more residential. I think it is very disturbing that we have a home and then put huge buildings with noise and traffic. Our city has not been planned well. I think that we need to make money off a real nice attractive hiking, views and restraints down below the mountain, rather than how we can make a fast buck. Everything is focused on making money and really damaging the residential community. I think that the things such as Land Use, it is okay to have some things mixed but it's also very important not to have the city to come in and slap and overlay over someone's property. They make it no longer nice for the people that have lived there a long time. I think we need to put controls on the r Redevelopment Agency in that respect. I would like to see things like a major library rather than servicing a high school for people that don't live here. We don't have room for all of these pieces of things. It needs to be much better coordinated. Chair Wilson: Any other questions? LAND USE ELEMENT Gary L. Koontz, Director: As we go through the elements I have marked on the handouts the entire Goals and Policies section. At the end of each I have identified whether it is an existing, modified or brand new. You will notice that there are a lot of Goals and Policies that are the original and I don't suggest on changing it. They are good policies and they still apply. If you went through the old Goals and Policies it is a real "Mishmash". Depending on when the element was written, you have Goals & Policies; Goals, Objectives & Policies; Goals, Objectives, & Implementation Measures. We are not going to get into implementation measures,but there is a lot of the detail that based upon the policies, implementing the elements we can have very detailed implementation plans that address specific issues. Goals are very generalized; this is how we want to see it thirty years from now. Policies basically explain how we are going to get there. Implementation measures implement the policy programs. Goal 2.1. Provide for balanced growth which seeks to provide a wide range of employment and housing opportunities and maintenance of a healthy, diversified community. (Modified LU Goal) - 10 - -- Gary L. Koontz, Director: This is the land use goal of the existing general plan and I re worded it a little for semantics but other than that it is the existing goal. As we go through the goals you will notice that most of the Land Use Goals you will find in the existing Land Use Element. The first policy is as follows: Policy 2.1.1: Implementation of general plan goals shall be reviewed annually. This will include assessment of the relationship between general plan land use designations and existing land use at the time of the review. (Land Use Policy 1) Gary L. Koontz, Director: This is a standard implementation or policy program that we can implement once we have a new General Plan in place. Policy 2.1.2: The City will establish a formal liaison with adjacent jurisdictions, (i.e. Riverside and San Bernardino Counties and the Cities of San Bernardino and Colton, for the purpose of evaluating the effects of each jurisdiction's land use planning activities on contiguous areas. (Land Use Policy 2) Gary L. Koontz, Director: This is already in effect and has been for a long time. We have had very close relationships with the surrounding jurisdictions. We get proposals transmitted to us. We do respond and comment on them. One example was the Iron Horse project to the east of us; we spent a lot of time working with the developer and working with the city staff to make sure that it was a decent and compatible project to the Honey Hills area. Are there any comments on these three items? Commissioner Comstock: I have a questions/comment on Policy 2.1.1. We are talking about an annual review. Who is the one doing the reviewing? Gary L. Koontz, Director: That would be the staff. They would put together a review and submit it to Commission for approval. Commissioner Comstock: How long do we anticipate the review to be? Gary L. Koontz,Director: I am not expecting it to take very long,being that not a lot of things are going to be changing year to year. Commissioner Comstock: We may want to make that every other year, rather than every year. The business that I am in and I have to do annual review. I can take up to two months doing annual reviews on the things that I am supposed to review annually. I am wondering if every year, a review of the whole General Plan, is going to be something that we are going to be able tot do in a timely manner? Gary L. Koontz, Director: The state requires us to review it every five years. I have no problem doing it every other year. Chair Wilson: Let me shed a little bit of light on this, how often are we allowed under the current - ordinance to revise the General Plan? - 11 - Gary L. Koontz, Director: State law allows up to four amendments a year. That can be multiple pieces of land changing designations or changes to the text of the plan. We can take four actions per year. Chair Wilson: Chances are that 99% of the time you are not going to meet your allowable. You are talking about four General Plan revisions and most people try to avoid them if they can. Commissioner Comstock: I am guess I am not seeing the point of what... Chair Wilson: What I am saying is that you are allowed four General Plan revisions per year so if you want to look at our work over the year. That is what they are talking about. The staff will introduce it in a staff summary. Commissioner Comstock: Maybe I should clarify for my own understanding. This says that we can review it annually?Not that we have to review it annually? Gary L. Koontz,Director: This says "shall". Shall is a very definite word. It says: Implementation of general plan goals shall be reviewed. Vice Chair Addington: Is this in the General Plan currently or proposed? Gary L. Koontz,Director: This is the current Land Use policy number 1. Vice Chair Addington: I would tend to agree with Commissioner Comstock, we should extend the time out. Gary L. Koontz, Director: Pick a number Chair Wilson: Can we get a consensus. Commissioner McNaboe: Is there a way to stagger the elements? Does it make sense to do them all at one time? Is there a way to do some of them one year and some of them another year? Gary L. Koontz, Director: The problem is that they are so interrelated that if you change one you may have to change another. It is best to look at them all in one cohesive package. If you want to do them every 2-3 years that is fine because in year 5 it needs to be done according to the state. Commissioner McNaboe: What is the reason it hasn't been done annually? Gary L. Koontz,Director: I cannot give you one. Commissioner Comstock: When was the last one done? Gary L. Koontz, Director: Before I got here. Chair Wilson: Probably the General Plan Task Force. - 12- Commissioner Comstock: No more than every other year. I believe that we are going to be creating a lot of extra work. Things do change I realize that but I don't want to extend it so far out that we don't have the ability to be able to foresee changes that are currently happening and to update the General Plan as update. However if our only goal is to update it and it takes us a month or two, it can really be cumbersome. Gary L. Koontz, Director: It is not really an update, it's a review. We can look at it and say that every thing applies and there is no need to change anything. If there is something that has changed, one,we will now it because some one would have proposed a project that would have to throw it out. Once this new plan is established, the need to go out and change it would... we should have it pretty well done the first time. The City is pretty well established so there are not a lot of things that we can do that would make a significant difference. Commissioner Comstock: Maybe I should ask another question. When we talk about reviewing the plan, are we talking about looking to see if current procedures that we are now doing meet up with what we should be doing? If we find that what we are doing currently does not meet up with what we should be doing, how then are we going to change what needs to be changed in order to mitigate the difference? Gary L. Koontz, Director: If there is something that really needs to be changed, the only thing I can think of is if there is new state legislation is changed and we would need to update to reflect the latest state legislations. We can use one of the General Plan amendments and update it to reflect whatever new law. I see that this review would be what has been.going on in the last two years or has there been a change in development patterns. The odds are that not very much because everything is pretty much built out. We would look at new legislation to see if there is anything that we are missing that the state wants us to do and write a report providing the state of the General Plan and the state of current legislation (if any) and here is our recommendation. Then it would be up to you to tell us to implement a General Plan amendment to reflect whatever is going on. Chair Wilson: It is a city sponsored amendment. It is what it is. Commissioner Phelps: I would like to see how we do after the first year a review and then see what we would do with it and then after that I would be fine with a bi-annual review. Gary L. Koontz, Director: That is fine. Chair Wilson: Do we have a consensus? Vice Chair Addington: I would go with the two years. I know this takes a lot of the staff's time. You are busy as it is and you don't need more stuff thrown on you. I would be inclined to stick to 2- 2 '/z years. This would be one review in between the five. Chair Wilson: Okay well then let's make it a mid year term so make it 2 '/z years. Gary L. Koontz, Director: We can rewrite it to acknowledge a five year state review and another city midterm review. If you want to review it once the thing gets approved originally,I don't think we - 13 have to write that in here but it is a direction that we would understand and you can direct staff - ` through a Commission action and bring it back. Commissioner Phelps: I would like to make sure that we do not get any potential law suits. It is our ultimate goal to make sure that everything goes through smoothly. PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street One of my frustrations is that when you go to City Hall and you ask to see the General Plan; there are additions and parts and it keeps getting changed. There is no consistency and it is not being followed. That has been one of the problems. Over the years I have asked and I think it is a huge problem. People here want and need established plans that are not getting changed every time you turn around. It is very frustrating to try and keep up with it. Please consider that. RITA SCHWARK 21952 Grand Terrace Road I want to refer to Policy 2.1.2 in regards to the City of Colton. I have asked for many months what is going into the old Stater Bros warehouse. I live next door to that and I am a Grand Terrace resident. The west side is where it is located. We are concerned with the Highgrove area and the Loma Linda area I want to know what is going on. Why can't we find out? Can some one answer me so that I can (' keep quite about this? Chair Wilson: The policy says that we can establish a form of liaison, with adjacent jurisdictions. We can probably come up with an answer if there is one in place. Staff? Gary L. Koontz, Director: I have asked that question on a regular basis to my counterpart in Colton and they don't know. At least they are telling me that they don't know. Chair Wilson: At this point there does not appear to be any public knowledge. I have Jack Brown's phone number maybe we can ask him. . Rita Schwark: I think we did one time but Mr. Schwab said that he was told by Mr. Brown that there would be offices and condominiums. Which is totally out of line and I knew that wasn't true, but that is what they told him. Who would have the job;the Council or the Planning Commission? Chair Wilson: I would guess since there hasn't been anything submitted to the jurisdiction that is over it at this point, I would guess that Stater Bros is waiting until they get done with their new hub, before they move into a new step in any direction. Rita Schwark: Will the City Council or Grand Terrace residents have a say in this? Chair Wilson: I believe that it will be a public meeting so you will have an opportunity to speak up. Gary L. Koontz, Director: The City of Grand Terrace will be a reviewing agency since we are adjacent. - 14- {" Chair Wilson: Definitely traffic impacts. Policy 2.1.3: Grand Terrace's potential role within the regional market area will be reviewed annually as an integral part of the General Plan. (Land Use Policy 3) Policy 2.1.4: The supply of vacant land and underutilized lands within the City shall be annually reviewed to consider change of zoning in support of General Plan goals. (Land Use Policy 4) Policy 2.1.5: Enhancement of the City's image shall be undertaken by the establishment of City entrances and development of unified streetscapes. (Land Use Policy 5) As you can see, all three are existing Land Use Policies, we are open to change the word annually if you notice it comes up a couple times. If you would like to make it mid term that is fine with us. We can do it all at one time. Commissioner Comstock: I think that makes sense. Vice Chair Addington: I concur. Gary L. Koontz, Director: Any other comments? Chair Wilson: Where do we pick up and because it is so important to us, and I know we have a Council representative,where do we pick up our interest in Regional Circulation situations? Gary L. Koontz, Director: Regional Circulation is in the Circulation Element. We talked about coordination with SANBAG, SCAG, Caltrans etc. We talked about the freeway system. I am trying to compartmentalize the General Plan. If you go through the existing stuff you will notice that you are bouncing all over the place. You will see open space policies that are really land use policies and I am trying to consolidate so it is all in one place. The goal for this entire thing is to create one uniform document that has everything in it. I totally agree that we have a real problem. We have a stack of documents that are all over the place. I even have problems deciphering them sometimes. The goal is to go through it. When I sat down with the original policies I actually typed out every existing policy and put it on this list. I got educated real fast and kind of confused at the same time. Our goal is to take care of that. Chair Wilson: Let's continue then. Policy 2.1.6: Mixed use development which can demonstrate superior use of land, more efficient utilitization of public facilities, and more effective conservation of natural resources shall be strongly encouraged by the City of Grand Terrace. (Land Use Policy 6) So we have had a policy since 1988 regarding mixed use development which is becoming more and more an issue to deal with. - 15 - Vice Chair Addington: Mixed use like commercial on bottom residential on top like they are _ } doing in various areas in Los Angeles and Orange County? Gary L. Koontz, Director: There is a variety of ways you can do it. You can do it under a Specific Plan where you have a commercial course surrounded by a residential all in one cohesive project. You have the PAD type development and the more urban mixed use which would have the residential on top and the commercial on bottom. That is getting more and more common in California. Vice Chair Addington: I know this is only a General Plan. Gary L. Koontz,Director: Only a General Plan? Vice Chair Addington: I know we are not getting into any specifics or projects but I don't see any land left where we could actually mix it any more. We only have a few parcels of land left. Gary L. Koontz, Director: At that point and I believe Chair Wilson would agree that we are going back to Redevelopment. We will take under utilized parcels and doing other things with them. Bear in mind that the plan we are dealing with is a Thirty year plan. We are going out to 2035. The character of Southern California in 2035 is anybodies guess other than it is probably going to be a huge metropolitan area, way bigger than it is now and more congested regardless of what we do here because of the style of other developments that are occurring in the entire region. Chair Wilson: I would like to make a comment in regards to this mixed use development issue. The first thing we do is visualize either some space version that we saw created by Disneyland at a point or we think of some monstrous thing that we couldn't tolerate if we were ever going to be living near it. Over the weekend I spent some time in Solvang and they had several mixed used situations where they had a Hotel over commercial uses and it worked very well. It depends on how smart you can design things. That is the reason why this body is here is to try and determine that. This is a General Plan application, so it does give us the opportunity to be flexible. Gary L. Koontz, Director: We can have implementation programs that focus more and more as what qualifies as a mixed use development,where they should be,what should the guidelines be,what kind of buffers should be around? There are a lot of things that we can get into down the line in terms of implementation. Policy 2.1.7: The City shall continually refine population growth forecasts to insure adequate planning for anticipated increased levels of sewerage, water and other necessary community services. (Population Policy 1) We have the regular growth forecast from SCAG and SANBAG we have Regional Housing Needs Analysis RHNA that we have to deal with. There is a lot of that already going on. This is one of those things where it is going to happen, one way or another. We can leave it in there as a policy and - , acknowledging that we are going to do it anyway or we take it out. Whatever you feel comfortable with. - 16- Chair Wilson: I think that we should continue to use Population Growth Forecast. I'm not sure that we have to refine anything but I believe we utilize that data. I think it is probably what we are doing. Does the public have any comments? PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street I am very familiar with some of the mixed use that is going on in Orange County. The thing that is disappointing is that you need to protect the rights of people. If you are in a residential area and you don't want that area mixed up because once you mix it up, then people that have residences there don't have control over what happens around them anymore. One of the things that has happened in Santa Ana is they used to have some very interesting old homes that were quite nice and they had some businesses on Main Street that Artist and people decided to use those as studios and apparently that has been successful. The thing that is interesting there is the interesting buildings and they have been done stylishly. If you look near the railroad station they took out whole blocks of homes and they put great big"Gaudy"weird looking things. It does not have a flow where people can go eat and shop and that is what you need. You have to be very careful on how you do it. Commissioner Comstock: Do we have certain sections that are set out for mixed use and some that are not? Gary L. Koontz, Director: That is something that we can definitely talk about throughout this process. There is nothing established now. If you want to establish certain land use categories, locations, policies and procedures and implementation on how we handle mixed use, we are wide open for that. This policy basically says that we are open to considering mixed use. It doesn't say that if someone walks in with a mixed use project that we have to approve it. It has to go through the standard review process, public hearing, and environmental analysis and if it is not a good project it will not be approved. However, it does say "yes" that mixed use is something that is a development tool these days and we are open to considering it. Commissioner Comstock: Maybe I should pose the question to the rest of the Commission. Do you feel that we have certain areas that we want to keep specifically residential and other areas that we would consider opening up for mixed use? Chair Wilson: In that realm that we are trying to recognize the community character et al and then create the overlay zones in that circumstance which was eluted to earlier so far as Ag Zones that were recently overlays and the next thing you know it becomes something other than it was. - Gary L. Koontz, Director: This direction of conversation I would like to hold off until next week _ when we talk about Land Uses. We can talk about geography at that point. Where is a good place, or is there a good place for mixed use? Should we limit it over here or there? Next week we can look at anything you want in terms of that. - 17 - Commissioner Comstock: You are referring to next month right? Chair Wilson: Interactive process that is what we want. Goal 2.2 Preserve and enhance the quality and character of the City's residential neighborhoods. (New) Gary L. Koontz, Director: We have heard loud and clearly that we want to protect the residential neighborhoods, so now we have a goal to provide for that. Policy 2.2.1: Any development occurring within the Hillside residential designation shall be clustered and will be required to prepare a specific plan. (New) Gary L. Koontz, Director: This relates to Blue Mountain,we have a requirement and if you dig deep enough through the different goals and policies in the existing plan. I wanted to define that very clearly that Blue Mountain is an area of concern. We don't want whatever happens up there to impact the residential communities at the foot of the mountain. Everything has to be cohesive and compatible. Policy 2.2.2: All residential developments shall comply with the goals and policies of the Housing Element of the General Plan. (Modified Residential Policy 1) Gary L. Koontz, Director: We are eventually going to get back in the housing element. I am holding off on that until we get our new RHNA numbers,which should be within the next few months. I have some draft numbers to start with but I'd rather get the last version. SCAG& SANBAG and a lot of other cities are very upset with their allocations. I think we have our pretty well established and they are whole lot lower than what we started with. We have about 4,500 units in town and the first numbers that SCAG came up with was by the year 2035,we are going to have another 2,016 houses in town. I didn't know where they were going. We spent a lot of time with these guys looking at the aerial photo on my wall and asked them to show me where they were going? By the time we got done we got cut way,way down. They cut us down lower than what I had estimated for them. We are going to eventually get into the housing element,goals and policies but it will be a few months from now. We will defiantly be looking at that. Goal 2.3 Provide a wide range of retail and service commercial opportunities designed to meet the needs of the City's residents, businesses, and visitors while also providing employment opportunities. (New) Gary L. Koontz,Director: Basically what it is saying is let us look at the retail and service commercial that we need for the City and how we are going to deal with that. Policy 2.3.1: Commercially designated freeway frontage shall be master planned to ensure a comprehensive commercial development pattern that will serve as a scenic entry into the City. (New) - 18- Gary L. Koontz, Director: This relates to the redevelopment are next to the freeway. It definitely needs to be master planned regardless of what is proposed and how it happens. Policy 2.3.2: Maintenance and continued development of Grand Terrace's established commercial areas, as encouragement of new commercial development. Commercial Goal) Gary L. Koontz, Director: I have to look at that one. I am not sure why I wrote it that way. It is basically encouraging new development by maintaining the existing commercial development and giving it an attractive atmosphere where people would want to come in and do additional commercial such as opening up shops when someone leaves. Policy 2.3.3: Additional freeway service-oriented commercial uses shall be encouraged. (Commercial Policy 2) Gary L. Koontz, Director: Most of the land that we have that is commercially oriented we need to capitalize on that view from the freeway. However,we are looking to protecting the residential areas adjacent to it and the downtown area itself. Are there any comments? Chair Wilson: Let me make sure that I am not bypassing any "Request to Speak" forms. I know that Janet Ridge requested to speak along with Janise Marchinaff. Feel free to come up to speak as Patricia Farley has during this procedure. Are there any comments? Vice Chair Addington: I have a question. Going back to 2.3.1 with the word "shall be clustered"? When I hear that on a hillside, I have either visions of apartments or condos. Do you think it is a good idea to use "clustered"? I'd rather we use it a little more open for whatever development that wants to go in there? Gary L. Koontz, Director: The intent of it was that you are not going to mass grade the entire side of Blue Mountain. If there is a proposal for residential development and single family basically they would be looking for hillside grading requirements where you would cluster pads where they most logically make sense instead of just bulldozing a side of the mountain. Vice Chair Addington: I like that because I have always been against mass grading that mountain side. I understand where you are going with it now. Gary L. Koontz, Director: We can get rid of cluster and just put in the Specific Plan which under the Specific Plan we wouldn't require the clustering anyway. Chair Wilson: So your preservation of as much open space kind of thing? Are there any other comments? Policy 2.3.4: Commercial areas along Barton Road shall be designated in a manner that prevent "strip commercial" type development. (Commercial Policy 3) Gary L. Koontz, Director: We have always had that in there to try and avoid any kind of strip commercial along that area. Chair Wilson: You are kidding right? We have strip commercial all the way up and down. - 19 - Gary L. Koontz, Director: When I say commercial a lot of it is relatively old type commercial. If someone were to come in now and take a couple of lots and try to do a strip center they probably wouldn't be able to get it through the Commission anyway. Chair Wilson: One thing we have a tendency to forget is even though a bunch of us have been on this commission and involved with the City and have lived her for a long time twenty five years ago or so, it was the County of San Bernardino. We could blame a lot of what took place before that on the county. Granted there have been a lot of things that have been done that we can't blame on the county but in relation to some of the planning mismatches there was a little different intent with the county. Gary L. Koontz, Director: That is one of the issues here, you have play catch up from problems that the county created decades ago and you have-to work around those situations. Policy 2.3.5: Measures to reduce potential land use incompatibility between commercially designated areas and all other plan areas will be given special consideration. Specific features could include increased setbacks,walls, berms, and landscaping. (Commercial Policy 4) Gary L. Koontz, Director: I believe this is still a valid policy. Barton Road Specific Plan talks about buffering between some of the adjacent residential and commercial. Chair Wilson: Policy 2.3.4 I don't know if we have a challengeable situation there. I would say commercial areas along Barton Road should be designated in a matter that discourages strip commercial. I don't think we can say prevent. Anything will be under the Specific Plan the way we are now. The Specific Plan rules the circumstance and further defines this policy. I think we are in safe territory I just think"discourages" makes more sense. Gary L. Koontz, Director: That word "prevents" has been in there since 1988, but I am willing to change it. Commissioner Phelps: I would like to see if can add an additional policy that would discourage "stand-alone" fast food restaurants like Jack-in-the-box or Carl's Jr. I believe that the residents here in Grand Terrace don't want to see those down Barton Road. Commissioner Comstock: How do you define fast food? Commissioner McNaboe: How do you define stand alone? Vice Chair Addington: My question is that is currently allowed in the Barton Road Specific Plan and we have recently went through a Specific Plan Amendment to allow drive-thrus' which were prevented in the Barton Road Specific Plan for almost twenty years. That would be a big reverse in direction of where the City was going. We already have one going in. Mind you, it looks like a stand alone however it is part of an over all plan and there may or may not have others coming in. I'm not sure I agree with your statements on that. -20 - Commissioner Phelps: I am not sure how to word it. I think Miguel's is more upscale than a ^ Jack-in-the-Box as the way they designed it and it's also a sit down restaurant. Gary L. Koontz, Director: Depending on the jurisdiction that you go to, I have seen very upscale Mc Donald's and Jack-in-the-Box. It's because of the standards of the city. So if a Jack-in-the-Box comes in and says that we are going to drop a store somewhere doesn't mean that you are going to approve it. Again, with discouraging stand-alone fast foods, I would really like to talk to the City Attorney about the legality of that. Commissioner Phelps: That is why it is an open forum. PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street That is why so many of us have been so upset with what is going on this City because our understanding was that Barton Road was not going to be a bunch of Jack-in-the-Box's and one of the things that was going to prevent that was the "drive-thru's" not only that but the "drive-thru's" should not be the main thing in front of the building. That is very specific and no body is following it. That is why we complained and it keeps getting passed. We are getting ignored and it is out of compliance with the intent of the General Plan and everybody is ignoring it. Mr. Koontz thinks that you are going to ignore me again. Prove me wrong! Vice Chair Addington: On the "drive-thrus"Doug, and correct me if I am wrong, but I recall that this changed the Specific Plan predated Gary and was done in the last Twelve months that Patrizia Materossi. Chair Wilson: I think that is correct. Vice Chair Addington: So it has been a standing policy in the City for about 3-4 years? How long have you been here Gary? Gary L. Koontz,Director: It is going on 5 years. Vice Chair Addington: So it has been a standing policy in the City for about 6 years. Commissioner Comstock: Commissioner Addington, are you saying that the General Plan that Ms. Farley was talking about has been changed as.far as allowing? Vice Chair Addington: No the Barton Road Specific Plan has been changed to allow "drive- thru's" and the big push on that one was Rite Aid which is now CVS. That was the first drive-thru in town. Commissioner Comstock: In looking at this is what we are trying to do is bring uniformity between the Barton Road Specific Plan and the fragmented General Plan? -21 - Gary L. Koontz, Director: The General Plan takes precedence over the Specific Plan. If you change the General Plan then we would go back and change the Specific Plan to reflect compliance with the General Plan. Commissioner Comstock: Okay I am confused. The Barton Road Specific Plan was updated to include drive-thru's and... Vice Chair Addington: So that means it was allowed under the current General Plan. I don't think we should change the current General Plan to disallow drive-thurs. Commissioner Comstock: Oh, so it is part of the current General Plan. Vice Chair Addington: It wasn't specifically prohibited under the current General Plan. Commissioner Mc Naboe: Was it discouraged? Vice Chair Addington: Not that I recall. Gary L. Koontz, Director: You have in front of you, every current goal and policy of the existing General Plan. Feel free to go through there and tell me what you want. Staff will go through it also. This is just the beginning we will identify this as an issue. I will need to go back and talk to the City attorney and see what the legal issues are and we will go back through the existing General Plan policies in general and see if there is anything in there. We can try and track down history as to how things happen and I will get back to you in the next couple workshops. Vice Chair Addington: I disagree with your statement of where you would like to see the General Plan go. It is a free country and we can all have our own opinions. Chair Wilson: Do we have any other consensus in relation to or any other added or subtracted policies. PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street I think because this was not honored, we now have the problem where we have an established shopping area where Stater Bro's is that is being undermined along with people's homes. I have a problem with the redevelopment finding under utilized lands and using there power to undermine the people that own those properties. That is what has happened on Barton Road and it also does not go well with the idea that you want people to bike here to UCR and to other businesses and stuff. You want this to be community stuff and not a strip mall and yet to me that is a giant strip mall. I would rather have little interesting things that people come to because they are unique and then the big shopping centers that look the same and that are interesting put them along the freeway and do some nice landscaping. I feel that this General Plan and the intent of it has been violated right and left in the last few years. -22- CYNTHIA BIDNEY 12219 PASCAL I have a concern about 2.3.4 Commercial areas along Barton Road shall be designated in a manner that prevent"strip commercial". I would like to know the definition of strip commercial. Chair Wilson: Try the one behind Grand Terrace Realty to the east? That may be considered. Vice Chair Addington: I would rephrase it differently, in that it would be a project presented to the Planning Commission and then the Planning Commission and the Public decide if it's a strip type project that they want or don't want. Cynthia Bidney: I would like to suggest that we go back to the "Village Walk" instead of a strip mall or a box store and we get back to the idea of a village town square, a place where people can walk and be in an area that is aesthetically appealing like Solvang, Santa Barbara or Downtown Redlands. I would like to get back to a place people feel comfortable going to. Gary L. Koontz, Director: Examples of strip malls,locally,would be something like what is down on Washington Street in Colton. As you are going up the hill on Barton Road there are a whole serious of small shopping centers. Those are real classic strip malls. Chair Wilson: Okay Commissioner Comstock: I don't' know if I would be comfortable in commenting on Mrs. Bidney's comments. I don't know if I would be comfortable in so narrowly focusing on what goes in the along the Barton Road Corridor, that we would essentially keep most of the businesses that would be potential tenants in that section, out. I am familiar with the Redlands Orange Street Corridor and I have worked down there and I have friends that own businesses along there. There are a lot of small shops and they often have a lot of failed businesses that set up shop for a month or two and then they are out. It is a continual turnover the atmosphere of the businesses that come and go change the entire atmosphere of the area. I find that to be detrimental. There was a hardware store that I used to purchase hardware parts from and now they are changing it into a restaurant. That was two years ago that they were starting that project and it still has not been completed. I think the restaurant owner has had some difficulty in coming up with some things. There was a coffee shop down there that used to have an open microphone night and now that whole scenario is not there and it has changed the entire complexities of that area. Vice Chair Addington: I would like to comment on that. I think Policy 2.3.4 sums up the Barton Road Specific Plan. It discourages development of the individual parcels and encourages development of multiple parcels together. It may not be something as big as the Town Center project that has come before the Planning Commission/City Council meeting. I think this policy is consistent with the Barton Road Specific Plan and I am not sure that we should change this one. The Barton Road Specific Plan really does define what is going to happen on the north and south side of the streets for approximately a mile long. - 23 - Commissioner Comstock: That is the point I was trying to make. I don't think we should narrowly focus and change the plan to say we can only have the small individual businesses in here and that we can't allow room for medium or even larger businesses. Cynthia Bidney: I am not suggesting that you narrow it to small businesses; you don't even have to emulate the examples that I gave you. I wonder if you can give me any successful examples that didn't have any changing businesses. I don't know of any. Commissioner Comstock: There will always be change and there will always be turnover, but our desire is to minimize that as much as possible. Cynthia Bidney: I agree. I am afraid that it is leaning towards the big box store rather than several areas of interest for our citizens. Chair Wilson: We are able to review each case by case basis. From that stand point we have authority over what is going to go in. Cynthia Bidney: A strip mall is that suggesting a one anchor store and several smaller stores or is it suggesting several stores owned by one person? I can't get my hands around what a strip commercial would be? Would that suggest more vacancies or more turnovers? Chair Wilson: Let us get a better definition and we will bring it back at the next meeting. Commissioner Comstock: I am not in favor of seeing a long corridor of tilt up or block buildings that are all one line along,with store front windows. I would like to see variety go in there as well. Gary L. Koontz, Director: Throughout this process we are talking about a thirty year time frame for this General Plan. There is what is happening today and what we are trying to plan for thirty years from now. The goals and policies should reflect our desire of what this place should look like thirty years from now. Typically a commercial area reinvents itself every 10-15 years. Trends change and the market changes. You are going to continually see any type of shopping area change its character at least twice during this 30 year period. Chair Wilson: If you talk over the general economy, but the very first ring of the tree was Los Angeles and then the next ring (even though San Bernardino existed in that circumstance) then you started to see it go out to Pasadena and West Covina to Pomona then Ontario and then to our Area. In the last thirty five years that I have been involved in development I have seen those rings happen about every seventeen years. It is an interesting watch because it's pretty much based on each generation. Each generation moves out in to each one of those rings. It's not unusual for those evolutions to take place. What happens is that the overall economy changes it just by the nature of the animal. You will start off with residential, commercial will follow and then industrial will end up the last one and then it moves again and you end up in a redevelopment type of cycle and it goes through it again. Over a period of one hundred years you will see that kind of evolution take place. Because we are in California we have seen a lot of it kind of spread out, like some one throwing a boulder in a lake; especially in the twenty five ears. That is what we have to deal with. P Y tY Y - 24- PATRICIA FARLEY ( 12513 Michigan Street This is what I am concerned with. The example of the hardware store in Redlands is a good example. Our redevelopment agency is basically supporting undermining small businesses and putting in the big Home Depot's and Lowe's. When you do that there are areas such as Anaheim Hills, they had markets in different places that were the center and then they go out of business and then you get some cheap garbagey thing that spoils the whole mall. If you didn't allow the big company, (look at Sav-On they got bought out) they could disappear and you need to use our money to undermine the small businesses and then put a big store in there that might be empty and now we have a junky place. The other thing I would like to suggest is if we are going to go out and buy land with redevelopment money and support our city (we got rid of homes on the other side of La Cadena) why can't we buy out Stater Bro's,which is really important to Grand Terrace, and have control there? How come that wasn't included in all this wheeling and dealing? Grand Terrace is at risk it is too small. Vice Chair Addington: Stater Bro's in Colton? Chair Wilson: Yes. Let's go with goal 2.4 Goal 2.4: Provide for a mix of attractive industrial land uses designed to generate employment opportunities. (New) Policy 2.4.1: The City shall promote the development of labor intensive,light,non-polluting industry with the present land use pattern. (Industrial Goal) Policy 2.4.2: The City shall promote the development of light non-polluting industrial uses within the City. (Modified Industrial Policy 1) Policy 2.4.3: Whenever feasible,industrially designated areas shall be master planned to provide an "industrial park" character. (Industrial Policy 2) Gary L. Koontz, Director: We have created a new goal by taking the old goal and making it into a policy and reiterated the other two policies. Are there any comments? JEFF McCONNELL 21758 Walnut With Global Warming being in the news all the time these days, maybe you will want to insert some words in there along the lines of energy efficiency in addition to non-pollution. If you look over at Loma Linda, the parking structures are putting up solar panels on carport as well as in Riverside. We need to consider that and we need to incorporate that every where possible. Chair Wilson: I would like to add traffic sharing. I believe that we are covered under our code at this point. Gary L. Koontz, Director: We can write another Policy concerning "Encouragement of Energy Efficient Uses". -25 - = Chair Wilson: Good idea. i Gary L. Koontz, Director: Actually what we have talked about is Jeffery made a presentation at the City Council last week. I approached Jeffery regarding the whole Green Environment/Energy Efficiency and I challenged him to write a series of Goals and Objectives relative to recycling and energy efficiency. PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street I have a huge problem with 2.4.1 "labor intensive" that is what Highgrove has. We need a place where the resident's can live comfortably and we don't have to have those labor intensive businesses in the middle of our small Grand Terrace. We can bike right over to Highgove and work at those businesses. I don't like this. I have a problem with bringing this kind of business here. Chair Wilson: You can help me with this one, but I believe that the idea of the labor intensive situation, although qualified by non-polluting, is the idea that we are trying to keep some of our jobs "in house". Gary L. Koontz, Director: Throughout this one way or another we have to address the issue of jobs to housing balance. We are a bedroom community right now and the State requires as part of the - General Plan to assess having jobs close to the residences so that there is a job housing balance. Right now since we are a bedroom community we are way out of whack on that. We have certain jobs such as Wilden Pump, which is a major labor intensive industrial use and has been here forever. There is a need to address it some how. Chair Wilson: When I was a lad in Ontario. I worked for a company called Hooker Headers. It was labor intensive. I don't think every circumstance in industrial necessarily had to be a welding rod in one hand and a hammer in the other. I think there are other industrial situations that don't create those circumstances. I think that there is room in here for that. Vice Chair Addington: Would it be appropriate instead of using the word labor intensive with job creating or something like that? Gary L. Koontz, Director: This is the existing wording of the General Plan but we can change anything you want. Commissioner McNaboe: It sounds as if labor intensive would be low wage jobs when you say that. I am not sure that I'm using the correct adjective. JEFF McCONNELL ._� 21758 Walnut I would like to discourage warehousing which is not a creativity jobs per square foot so to speak. -26 - Commissioner Phelps: Is there anyway we can reword it to include it with indoor manufacturing 1 with limited noise, such as Wilden Pump? That is a big manufacturer but it's very compatible with the area that it is in. It doesn't make a lot of noise it doesn't' create a lot of problems whereas the Man Hole Builders would have created a large noise. Gary L. Koontz, Director: Actually,Wilden Pump can generate a lot of noise. If you are looking at Policy 2, you are talking about light non-polluting industrial uses. Wilden Pump doesn't pollute noise wise because it's inside a building. You can have a dirty operation but as long as it is enclosed and you have air quality taken care of you may not even know that it is there. Commissioner Phelps: That is what I was after. Even though it is noisy you can put it inside. Gary L. Koontz, Director: Let me take a look at beefing some of these up to address that. There are some ways that we can do that with additional work and verbiage. I am sure that there are a couple of other things I can put in there that will get it across. Policy 2.4.4: Buffering to prevent potential land use incompatibilities between industrial areas and other areas shall be given special consideration. Specific features could include increased setbacks, walls, berms, and landscaping. (Modified Industrial Policy 3) Policy 2.4.5: The City's Redevelopment Agency shall assist in the consolidation and assemblage of properties to assure adequate sized quality development with areas designated as light industrial. (Industrial Policy 4) - Vice Chair Addington: In all of our Policies or Zoning and in everything here is talking about light industrial did or do we have any medium or heavy industrial in the town or any zoning for it? Are we strictly light industrial? Gary L. Koontz, Director: We have Commercial Manufacturing,Restricted Manufacturing. John Lampe,Associate Planner: We have Light Restricted Industrial plus General Industrial. Vice Chair Addington: So they are light in one form or another? Gary L. Koontz, Director: The General is a little more questionable in terms of that. The intent is to keep it as light as possible. You will get a huge manufacturing plant like Old Griffin Wheel. Vice Chair Addington: So that will be something that we will review at the next meeting for Land Use? Gary L. Koontz, Director: Yes. Chair Wilson: Incorporate in our goals here especially for industrial so far as integration with other agencies. Gary L. Koontz,Director: We have that Original Land Use Policy that we talked about in the beginning about insert Land Use issues during the coordination on that which would affect residential, commercial,industrial, open space it really doesn't matter and any other land use issue within adjacent jurisdiction it would be covered under that. - 27 - Chair Wilson: I think in this particular case we should probably look at the idea of highlighting a policy and how we handle other jurisdiction negotiation with industrial uses. They really impact a neighborhood. Vice Chair Addington: Any possibility of Colton making a move for the jurisdiction over the Stater Bro's property? Gary L. Koontz, Director: Can you elaborate on that? Vice Chair Addington: Is there any possibility that the City of Grand Terrace could make a move to take the Stater Bro's property from Colton and into our city. We can then assist the citizens in that area? Gary L. Koontz, Director: We would have to go to LAFCO and petition for a reorganization of the city limits. I think Colton would probably oppose it. Vice Chair Addington: So it would be a long drawn out process? Gary L. Koontz,Director: Extremely. Chair Wilson: Impossible tax base more than likely. It might make sense geographically. Let's go with goal 2.5 -- Goal 2.5 Provide for the preservation of natural resources and open space. (Modified Open Space Objective 2) Gary L. Koontz,Director: I really think this should be a goal in dealing with overall land use and protecting open space. Policy 2.5.1 All areas of Blue Mountain above elevation 1,450 feet above sea level shall be maintained as open space. Consideration shall be given to existing communications towers. (Open Space Element,Appendix H) Gary L. Koontz,Director: There is a little confusion on how exactly it all fits together but it establishes a policy that has been ongoing for many years. It really needs to be open space above elevation 1,450 set aside from the existing cell towers that are on top of it. Policy 2.5.2 Areas designated as Open Space shall be preserved to provide long term recreation opportunities as well as the preservation of scenic and environmental resources and the protection of public health and safety. (New) Gary L. Koontz, Director: This is new. I have seen it in other General Plans and I think this is an overall good policy that establishes open space and why we are doing it. We are doing it for recreation and we are doing it for public health and safety. We will get more into it when we deal with the Public Safety Element and the Open Space Element. -28- - Commissioner Comstock: I am curious,how high up the mountain is 1,450 feet or can you give me an estimate? Gary L. Koontz, Director: It is probably Chair Wilson: I am 1,100 feet up and I live on Observation Drive. Vice Chair Addington: If I could try,the map behind Commissioner Comstock, that green area is probably about 1,450 give or take. Gary L. Koontz, Director: There is a little area along the foot of the hill that isn't in there yet and if it goes up and there is about 200 feet or so between the existing development and this 1,450 elevation. JEFF McCONNELL 21758 Walnut Does Open Space include parks? I would have a request. Keep in mind that I recall during the election regarding Jessica's Law where it would show predators couldn't live within 2,000 feet from a park. I saw maps that covered all of Grand Terrace except for the Westside. There are no parks on the Westside;we can use a tiny pocket park right in the middle of the Westside and Grand Terrace would be safe. Chair Wilson: Do we want to get into,with that in mind,provide for the preservation of -' natural resources and open space. How do we get to encourage not only preservation but open space? Gary L. Koontz,Director: That really is in the open space section and in fact there is a policy proposing to establish a park on the Westside of the freeway. We haven't gotten that far yet. All of that is answered in the open space element. Jeffrey Mc Connell: Keep in mind that on the north side of Grand Terrace along the river that we have the Santa Ana Riverwalk but the county's cooperatively trying to maintain. Gary L. Koontz,Director: That is open space policy 4.1.6 Chair Wilson: Are there any other comments?. PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street I really don't want to see any more development above where it is now. I think for a lot of reasons. What we can use Blue Mountain for as well as having land slides and other things like that. Up at the base there it would be nice to have an area that encouraged people to 1 ! come,park their bikes, climb and things like that. I am very worried about developers coming in and twisting the City's arm and trying to get big fancy homes up there at the expense of the public use of that mountain. -29 - Chair Wilson: Folks it is a quarter until 9:00 p.m. We are going to cut it off here. This is a lot of information as you can tell. We have a lot of participation. I really appreciate all the comments and we want to encourage the continued support. The reason I would like to cut it off here is because our next item is the circulation element and you can well imagine that there will be a lot of discussion. If you don't mind we will convene the public workshop session unless there is some information from the Commissioners? Vice Chair Addington: I don't have information just a question. The new gas station going in as I recall we approved all of the signage for the Valero and now they are advertising as Shell. Does all of that have to come back to us for signage? Gary L. Koontz, Director: We have had that discussion at length. We are not real happy with the.decision he is making and he still doesn't have a sign program that we have approved. Vice Chair Addington: We didn't approve a sign program with his original? Gary L. Koontz,Director: You approved one under Valero. It's up to you,if you think that's a major change and you want to see a new sign program for Shell;we will be happy to bring it back to you. Vice Chair Addington: I would prefer to see the sign program come back to us for review. As I remember last time he was trying to exceed our sign program and make them bigger than our code. I would like to see it come back to review it. Chair Wilson: I think that is a good point. In addition to the fact that it is a different theme color that could be different from the Specific Plan. It could be staggeringly different. Do we have a consensus? Vice Chair Addington: The theme color would go along with the Barton Road Specific Plan since that is the only Specific Plan on that property right now. Chair Wilson: Do we have any other information from the Commissioners? • Information from Commissioners Gary L. Koontz, Director: Before we totally get through the General Plan for tonight, would you want to have a special first Thursday of the month meeting just to go through the workshop. It looks like we can spend a lot of time going through this stuff. We can have one on the first Thursday so we can reconvene two weeks from now and this is all we talk about. Chair Wilson: Yes,I think we need to intensify. Vice Chair Addington: Otherwise two hours of doing this we will be at this all year. - 30 - Commissioner Comstock: I need to let you know that part of what I do is travel with t ministry. Sometimes that ministry occurs on Thursday evening or early Friday morning and I have to travel to be there. I am going to try to make every meeting that I can but there will be one or two that I will not be able to make. Vice Chair Addington: I do have one other question. I have a lot of the residents coming up to me and asking me "When does the High School open?"Do we have any projections that I could share with them? Gary L. Koontz, Director: At the City Council last week,Dennis Byas, Superintendent, made a presentation on the high school and at that meeting he announced that they intend on breaking ground on August of this year and be opened in September of 2009. Vice Chair Addington: So it has been pushed back a year? Gary L. Koontz, Director: The big issue is relocating some of the businesses. They have had some difficulties relocating two businesses. Chair Wilson: I don't think that is in accordance with what the mayor stated it would be. Gary L. Koontz, Director: As of last Tuesday, that is what the Superintendent of the school district told the Mayor and the City Council. ADTOURNED PUBLIC WORKSHOP SESSION NEXT PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING TO BE HELD ON MARCH 1, 2007 Respectfully Submitted, Approved By, n Gary L. Koontz, Planning Director Doug Wilson, Chairman Planning Commission - 31 -