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03/20/2008 GRAND TERRACE PLANNING COMNIISSIONc Development Department I MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING (ALIFORNIA MARCH2O,2008 The resular meetins of the Grand Terrace Plannins Commission was called to order at the Grand Terrace Civic Center. 22795 Barton Road. Grand Terrace. California. on MARCH 20.2008 at 7:05 a.m.,by Vice Chair Addington. PRESENT: Matthew Addington, Vice Chairperson Darcy McNaboe,_Commissioner Brian Phelps, Commissioner Gary Koontz, Planning Director Richard Shields, Building &Safety Director Sandra Molina, Senior Planner Jerina Cordova, Planning Secretary ABSENT: Doug Wilson, Chairperson Tom Comstock, Commissioner 7:10 P.M. CONVENED SITE AND ARCHITECTURE REVIEW BOARD/ PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING • Call to Order • Pledge of Allegiance led by Commissioner Darcy McNaboe • 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. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street Ms. Farley requested a formal review of the Schwertfeger's Conditional Use Permit. Vice Chair Addington requested status on Schwertfeger's Conditional Use Permit. i 1 22795 Barton Road • Grand Terrace, California 92313-5295 • 909/ 824-6621 1 - WILLIAM KAMINSKY 11818 Burns Avenue Mr. Kaminsky inquired on the replacement of John Lampe, Senior Planner. Director Koontz introduced Sandra Molina, Senior Planner. ITEMS: Vice Chair Addington stated that there were no items to be reviewed at this meeting. Vice Chair Addington adjourned the Site And Architecture Review Board-Planning Commission Meeting and convened the public workshop session. * Minutes relating to the General Plan are verbatim. 1. SUBJECT: General Plan Workshop#12 (Continued from March 6, 2008) Director Koontz: A couple months ago,-we sent out copies of a screen check document to the Planning Commissioners, we made it available on the website and copies were available on the counter. t The request of the Planning Commission was that they wanted to see a comprehensive of what it looks like and be able to compare sections and elements. It has been over two months since we have sent it out. We are assuming that everyone has read it word for word. Some have and they sent red lined copies showing all of the typos and corrections. Tonight we are going through the document chapter by chapter. We want to get input from the Commission and any suggestions on changes as well as the public. We are going through the introduction and if there are any questions or recommendations, we will go through them. Vice Chair Addington: I think that is a good approach. Director Koontz: First, there is the Introduction. It is the preliminaryinformation, which talks about the General Plan and approaching the elements. We will also discuss the history and demographics of the City taken from the 2000 U.S. Census data. I request the Vice Chair to open to public comment. 2 r -- PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 1 PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street It would have been nice for the public to know what was planned for tonight. I don't think it is fair. Vice Chair Addington: It was announced at the last Planning Commission meeting of March 6`t'. The agenda item has been available. Director Koontz: The next element is Land Use. This is a key element. The introduction talks about how plans are related and how zoning Barton Road identifies the other specific plans that are in the area. We did our analysis of the existing land uses in the area in categories and compared them to the General Plan on how it exists right now. We have a copy of the existing General Plan to date. Commissioner McNaboe: My questions are in relation to the tables and exhibits. Director Koontz: There are a couple of them that we struggled with. The current General Plan is missing pieces of certain parcels. If you go back to the Original General Plan you will see a difference in acres as well. We believe that in the mid 1980's we did not have computer graphics capability to measure precisely. We will go back and review them. Commissioner McNaboe: I would suggest a disclaimer. The other thing is the direction of the tables and exhibits. Director Koontz: We will double check it. Commissioner McNaboe: I have a question on 2.1.4: Policy 2.1.4: The supply of vacant land and underutilized lands within the City shall be reviewed every 2 I/s years to consider changes in zoning in support of General Plan goals. Who does this review? Is it City Council or staff? Director Koontz: I would approach this with a staff report and maps. I would then present it to the Planning Commission for suggestions and recommendations. Commissioner McNaboe: I have an issue with the wording. It sounds as if the City is going to review it and possibly make changes. 3 Director Koontz: The policy has to have an implementation measure. We can look at the implementation measure and size it up. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street This is a major complaint of my family about how the City has treated them. My mother was sent a request for her input on the General Plan and other people in the City. We had a General Plan and this is exactly what happened. People started changing it. They did not notify the public. A couple years they put in different things and they may or may not date it. Then its used and we have administrative approvals and other garbage going on. This is unfair to those in the City who_thought we had a General Plan and thought we would be notified. If you look at the minutes of the meeting there was opposition by City Officials who were in the minority. What they tried to do was "trompled" on, as were the rights of people like my family. These types of things cannot be happening. Everyone needs to know about a General Plan. We should have been notified that they were going to make a change when they reviewed it. They did not notify.us. They seem to have special favors for special people. They go by whatever some person says rather than what legally = had been happening. I have a huge problem with all of that. If you look at the history in the City;there has been a lot of garbage. You need to put a stop to it. CHUCK HORNSBY 22656 Brentwood Street Darcy brings up a good point. It should-be clear when you read the policy. You should be able to understand what something means. In a General Plan, where it will dictate the policies of the City for the next few years, it shouldn't be difficult to understand for an educated person. I notice, in government documents, that language is structured so that it could be anything the person who has written it wants it to mean at the time. When you guys sign on to a General Plan you should be careful that the language is clear. If you are going to set policies based on language, it leaves a lot of wiggle room for people. You are setting yourself up for grief down the road. The current General Plan is vague. Commissioner McNaboe is a very educated woman and she too had questions on what a simple paragraph meant. Please be careful when you sign onto a General Plan that the policies of the plan are clear and that it doesn't leave it up to someone to tell you that"this means this" when a dispute comes up. Vice Chair Addington: Commissioner McNaboe do you want to propose alternative language? 4 Commissioner McNaboe: It is my understanding that when we get to the table the clarification will come in at the discussion. Director Koontz: Goals are broad statements, the policies refine it and implementation for each policy. It gets more detailed and the true action is in the implementation.. I can change what you are asking but it in the implementation plan that goes with it, that is how we are exactly going to do something. Commissioner McNaboe: Is there a time where the policy is separated from the implementation plan that would give the policy a different meaning? Director Koontz: Every policy has to have an implementation plan. Commissioner McNaboe: Without the implementation plan can the policy stand on its own. Director Koontz: The implementation plan can change overtime if you want it to. You will still have to implement the policy. If you decide that instead of staff doing it you want the Planning Commission to do it. Commissioner McNaboe: What is the method for changing the implementation policy? Director Koontz: You would have to go back and amend it. Commissioner McNaboe: That is clear to me. Commissioner Phelps: In a General Plan amendment, what kind of notifications are given out? Director Koontz: It is your standard public hearing notification. Commissioner Phelps: Is it agendized? Director Koontz: There is an application prepared, it goes through a CEQA evaluation,public notification, Planning Commission public hearing and recommendation from Planning Commission to the City Council. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION WILLIAM KAMINSKY 11818 Burns Avenue I may have an answer for Darcy. Way back when, I did the original General Plan for the City. The acreages we got were from the Assessor's office off their maps. The Assessor changed it from within the County to the City. 5 - In talking to the County, they stated that they take a scale and make an estimate of the acreage. It may or not be right. In 1985, they did an update with some known numbers that they based upon measurements. Director Koontz: A topic of discussion from before was "what are the descriptions of the land use designations?" Those are listed on H-12 and 11-13. Are there any questions? On II-17 is Policy 2.1.4. I would like to expand on the implementation plan and talk about what Staff is going to do and write it up in detail for you. Commissioner McNaboe: That would be clearer but it still leaves the impression that it's not going to be something that is going to be reviewed by the Commission, Council or General Public. To me it reads that City Staff will review it and make appropriate changes. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street Because we were not notified on the way you were doing this, it seems that it would be nice to have things on the overhead. I would like it as part of the plan that when any zoning or use or - change more than three hundred feet(holding up a map) they should get a formal notice. This is incredibly unfair to people like my mother who have been "trompled" over. This is happening because of the reviews that are not done properly. I would like to know what maps Mr. Koontz is using. Director Koontz: I would like to mention that this is just a workshop. We still have to go through public hearings. We are still moving forward and cleaning up things. In Circulation, you have the introduction that talks about various plans. There are a lot of regional type plans that we are having to deal with such as Caltrans, SANBAG and SCAG We have to address different alternatives like traffic, bikeways, railroads, mass transit, airports. There are no airports, very little mass transit and two railroad issues are what we have to deal with. We have identified the existing &proposed bikeways. This comes off the exiting bikeway map. If anyone is interested in adding bikeways or if anyone has questions we can talk about it. We have also talked about levels of service(LOS) which is the key to all the traffic issues. Commissioner Phelps: There is.a possible typo on Policy 3.1.3 Director Koontz: That is already changed. 6 Commissioner McNaboe: I have questions on Policies 3.2.1 and 3.2.2. They have the same actions assigned to them. Is that supposed to be that way? Director Koontz: I will need to take a look at that. Commissioner McNaboe: Is there an opportunity for us on Transit Development to be building transit oriented development in the City? Director Koontz: At this point no we are not. Commissioner McNaboe: We are encouraging transit-oriented development to provide housing that is in close proximity to designated public transit facilities and routes Director Koontz: There are two'issues in that. One, this a long range plan and we don't know if in twenty years there will be high speed rail. The other issue is that state planning law requires that we address transit-oriented development. We are meeting state law by putting that statement in there. Vice Chair Addington: Let's move forward. Commissioner Phelps: I have a question on the Circulation plan map Exhibit 3-3. Can we get Commerce Way to go all the way through. Director Koontz: That needs to be corrected. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION None Director Koontz: Open Space and Conservation is a combination of two mandatory elements from state law that go hand in hand. In one of the workshops we went through the goals and policies. The Introduction explains the standard material on relationships. We talked about the existing conditions,planned or existing parks, biological resources, cultural resources, public health and safety. You have the hillside problems on the steeper part of Blue Mountain; flood hazards in the Santa Ana River and high fire risks which is also on the side of Blue Mountain. Commissioner McNaboe: On the last page of 4.2.5 Public Health and Safety, 4.2.5, under flood hazards, isn't it the Northwest part of the city that lies within the designated floodplain and not the Northeast? Director Koontz: Good catch. Commissioner McNaboe: My next question is 4.3.3 Water Resources. Director Koontz: There are two and it should be south basin. 7 Commissioner Phelps: I have a suggestion on 4.3.4. I would like to see passive lighting under energy conservation. There are five uses of energy conservation here and I would like to use passive lighting. Director Koontz: I'm not sure that is the appropriate place but we will slip it in somewhere. Commissioner Phelps: I have another question on 4.1.6. Is there an action stated? Director Koontz: I missed that one. Commissioner McNaboe: I have one on 4.3.7 and 4.3.10. They have the same action on those. Director Koontz: They are supposed to be the same. Commissioner McNaboe: 4.5.2; Isn't there already a logo developed for that? Director Koontz: This is ongoing. Commissioner McNaboe: Is there a way to put a check mark by it? Vice Chair Addington: In twenty years, there will be a lot of things that don't have check marks. Director Koontz: If you look at the priorities it is listed as a one which is an action already done. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION None Director Koontz: Next, is Public Health and Safety. The introduction deals a lot with the open space issues we had before. We also added hazardous materials, emergency preparedness and airport compatibility even though we don't have an airport near us. There is somewhat of a repeat with Open Space and Conservation because they play hand in hand. Commissioner McNaboe: I have a question on page V-4. There is a general grade of"blank". Next is `.`During times of heavy rainfall, the potential for runoff from the slopes of Blue Mountain increase"; that does not make sense. Last is V-9 there is a blank there as well. Director Koontz: We will fill them in once we figure them out. Commissioner McNaboe: 5.4.1 in the policy action table: Policy 5.4.1 The City shall require that all new businesses that produce,�use, transportation, storage, treatment, or disposal of hazardous materials and wastes are located away from sensitive land uses such as residences, schools, and hospitals. 8 That to me that leaves open the possibility that an existing business can begin to use hazardous materials when they haven't in the past. There is no provision to stop that from happening or to move somewhere else. Director Koontz: How would you like that worded? Commissioner McNaboe: Maybe it's not new businesses maybe it's old? Vice Chair Addington: The only thing I would use caution on, is that we don't use the General Plan as a tool to prevent businesses from coming into town. I believe Grand Terrace wants to be business friendly. Director Koontz: We can keep that in mind. Commissioner McNaboe: I think the idea is that you are keeping certain types of businesses in an area that is not incompatible with other uses. It isn't necessarily only new business. It calls out all new businesses in my opinion. We should keep in mind that businesses should be in a compatible area with each other. Director Koontz: We can add another implementation program; one for existing and one for new businesses. We have multiple implementation programs for individual for each policy. Commissioner McNaboe: I don't think that discourages business by doing that. Vice Chair Addington: I don't think it does but just to be careful in the wording so that we don't have a tool that prevents business. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street One of the major statements for Grand Terrace was to maintain it as a residential community. What has happened is willing and dealing at the expense of the residential until it is trashed and businesses run the City. That is not following that General Plan which says that we are maintaining the residential community. To pretend that is what we are doing and allow the garbage that we have allowed is part of the problem. We are not following the General Plan. WILLIAM KAMINSKY 11818 Burns Avenue 9 r i My problem is the grandfathering clause. We use to have a plating outfit in town; should we continue that as a plating outfit or should we look for another type of business that should go in there. With grandfathering you can grandfather it through or you can make a"sunset" and say that after so many years he has to be out of there. You should have some sort of numeric value like ten, fifteen or twenty years. You can't grandfather through for decades and decades. CHUCK HORNSBY 22656 Brentwood Street I have more of a question than a comment. Earlier someone brought up the fact that there are different maps floating around. I have seen different maps particularly that pertain to the area between the 215 Freeway and Michigan Street. There have also been rumors that some people see some maps and judges see other maps. My real question is there is a debate about the zoning for the land that is west of Michigan Street and South of Barton Road. I have seen some maps that clearly designate it as Commercial and others that look as official that show it as Industrial. There is a big distinction there. I have seen those maps circulating in this town in the last month. There seems to be a real disagreement and that is part of the problem. I guess a lot of stuff that is going on in that area is Industrial more than Commercial. A company named Hammerlift is coming in and they are Industrial. You should clarify that. Vice Chair Addington: It is my understanding as we are going through the public workshop process more than one map proposal was brought forth. Director Koontz: We have dealt with a lot of scenarios. Once issue is that there is an existing Land Use Map in this document that we consider certain uses more of an Industrial type use rather than a Commercial. All we are doing is identifying the existing uses. For example, the business park on Michigan, we have considered that more of an Industrial type of use. If you want to call it Commercial then we can call it Commercial. The zoning in that area, since we are talking about zoning,is "CM", which allows certain type of manufacturing type uses. We are not talking about zoning here; we are talking about the General Plan. PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street This is the problem. You have people on the side changing description of what can be in there. This is what has happened in Grand Terrace. You are playing games. This is not right. All of what was on Michigan Street was Light Commercial, not Industrial. r" 10 - My view of Mr. Sch*ertfeger's property, is that I thought it was a code violation that the City didn't take care of. If you research the old documents of the City, you will see that we are right. No one seems to be doing that. I have to as well as other people. I don't think that is fair. I am adamant that we cannot have a General Plan where people make changes without notice. Director Koontz: At least one of you was on the Commission in 2002-2003 when we approved the Noise Element. I have went through the document and made some minor changes. It is almost what it was in 2002-2003. Commissioner Phelps: I have a question on 6.1.3. Certain land uses, such as heavy industrial uses are potential sources of high noise levels, while residential and some institutional and use as schools and hospitals are noise sensitive. Should that read institutional and land uses such as? Director Koontz: Yes. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION r WILLIAM KAMINSKY 11818 Burns Avenue My only question is that I didn't know who prepared it. It didn't take into effect that we have a lot of terrain such as cliffs. It assumes that the town is flat. In certain locations we have the freeway where most of it is above ground. It says that the freeway made an even noise all over. It didn't reflect that the terrain was different in certain locations. Vice Chair Addington: Gary, do you remember who the consultant was? Director Koontz: This is before my time. A noise consultant was hired. We didn't take new noise readings because we don't see that things have changed significantly that would move the contours. PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street You should hear the truck noise outside my bedroom window at the early hours of the morning. It sounds like I am on the Freeway. This is because what has been allowed in my area. 11 Director Koontz: Public Services.and Facilities discusses basic services provided by the City, County, private contractors and utility companies. The City is built-out. The infrastructure for public services is in place. This is cohesive with the General Plan but we do need to look at these.services. We are not changing the General Plan in terms of Land Use then we don't need to change the services. In the Mixed-Use area, they are going to have to do a complete an analysis of their required services. We want to go through this and talk about existing systems. We have Sheriff and Fire; if you want to put a proposal of something like increasing staffing. We can talk about things of that sort. Vice Chair Addington: Are there any questions on the Introduction?No. Are there any questions on the Goal and Policies? Let's move on to the Implementation. Commissioner McNaboe: 7.1.2 doesn't have a number of years specified in the action. Director Koontz: I would like you to make that decision. Vice Chair Addington: Would it be simple if it was done at the same interval as the zoning. That way every two and a half years staff can focus on the report. r" Director Koontz: This relates to the fees. We did one a few years ago. To my knowledge, there isn't an "X" number of years where you do this. If you want to set up a policy, we can. Commissioner Phelps: What is the average? Director Koontz: Some cities look at it every year and some look at it seldom. I think it has to do on the development that is occurring. Faster growing cities probably look at it more often. Commissioner Phelps: The number that comes to my mind is five years. Commissioner McNaboe: 7.1.4 also asks for specified years. Director Koontz: We are establishing what we think is appropriate. If we can put"at least"it gives us way to do it sooner than an exact time. Commissioner McNaboe: Calling out a formal contacting like this; is that worthwhile if there is constant contact between the city and the utilities? Vice Chair Addington: Would it work in well with the other study? This would work out to be one large study for staff? 12 Director Koontz: Yes. They can consolidate them in terms of timing. Once you are looking at l� one thing you can look at the other. Commissioner McNaboe: 7.1.6 the second action doesn't fit with the policy. Director Koontz: I will change this. Commissioner McNaboe: 7.8.2 The City shall work assist telecommunications companies in identifying potential locations to state-of- the-art telecommunications facilities and assist in the entitlement of those facilities determined to be of benefit to the community. What are we achieving with this action? Director Koontz: The goal is to approve communications within the City. Vice Chair Addington: Are we trying to eliminate the dead zones? Director Koontz: Yes. The way I look at it is to let them come to us. They have very specific needs and I don't know what they are. Commissioner McNaboe: Do we really need the action? l Director Koontz: If we have a policy, we need some sort of action. Commissioner McNaboe: Is the second one.needed? Director Koontz: We can get rid of it. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION WILLIAM KAMINSKY 11818 Burns Avenue I used to work with Southern California Edison and Southern California Gas Company. They had their lines projected. They wanted to know from the City every couple of years not every five years. I would suggest three years. Vice Chair Addington: Are we still okay at five? Commissioner Phelps: Including "at least"in the wording, I think five is okay. Vice Chair Addington: We will keep it at five. \ Director Koontz: We will go over the Housing Element when we have all five Commissioners -- here. 13 Next, is the Sustainable Development Element? I never knew where it came from and now I know that it came from some place in the United Nations. The introduction talks about the United Nations urban environmental accords and different programs that they looked at in terms of certification. Different ways of looking at Sustainability like Site Selection, Brownfield Development and Transit Oriented Development. It talks about relation to other elements. It just about relates to all of the elements. Commissioner Phelps: I would like a Policy 5.2 to say something along the lines of"encourage jobs in the City to reduce commutes and save fuel resources". Director Koontz: I know what you are looking for so let me try to work that in. On the first page of goals and policies under Waste Reduction Goal 2:Reduce the total quantity of waste generated within the City requiring landfill disposal by _%. Vice Chair Addington: Isn't that dictated by the State? Director Koontz: There is 8939, which dictated that everyone reduce by the year 2000 by fifty ( percent. That was back in 1990. We are now in 2008. We can make this generic because the State looks like they are coming back with some new laws that will require some additional reductions. We can word this where we relate to meeting or exceeding the State goals in waste reduction. Commissioner Phelps: 9.7.2 I would like to throw out the use of passive lighting. Also, promote the use of heat recapturing equipment where it is appropriate. Vice Chair Addington: Are we getting too specific for a general plan? A lot of these seem like they are technology related. Technology changes over time. Director Koontz: I would like to include these with a general efficiency type of program. Commissioner Phelps: If it is general, then that is okay with me. Director Koontz: I will have to think about where I can put that. We can do a generic implementation program and add in wording "such as". Commissioner McNaboe: On 9.2.3, how is this different than green waste? Director Koontz: It relates to grass. Green waste includes shrubs &trees. There are certain programs that the Waste Board promotes. 14 Commissioner McNahoe: They would rather have the mulch mower than putting it in the green waste bins. Vice Chair Addington: It seems like a big new word for mulching mower. Director Koontz: It has been a word in the industry for a very long time. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street Are you talking about forcing people to do that with their grass. There are reasons for not doing that. Vice Chair Addington: It's part of an education program. We are not forcing people to do that. This to encourage people to do it. Director Koontz: It is providing public information that shows people that there is an alternative to putting it in a green waste can. I would like to go back through this with the other members but this gives me some additional information to work with. f � Commissioner McNahoe: Will we be getting another copy of the Housing Element? Director Koontz: Yes. It is a big document and it is very confusing. HCD has so many requirements that we have to address in a certain way. Woman#1: Inaudible Director Koontz: Yes. • Information to Commissioners • Information from Commissioners Vice Chair Addington: Is staff aware of any new development coming through? Director Koontz: We have a gentleman that is looking at a condominium project. The Town Square project is coming through slowly but surely. The Starbucks development is also moving along. We have met with him a couple times. He is coming up with a new shopping center design. Vice Chair Addington: I have had a lot of people asking me about the high school. 15 Director Koontz: I met with Alice Grundman and the Riverside Transportation Agency on what the county is going to do on Main Street. Alice said they are waiting to move the lumber company. Vice Chair Addington: I know it is out of our hands but people ask. Director Koontz: They have us talking to Riverside Transportation so it is moving. ADJOURNED PUBLIC WORKSHOP SESSION NEXT PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING TO BE HELD ON APRIL 3.2008 Respectfully Submitted, Approved By, Joyce Powers, v'ce c' airman / / Community&Economic Development Director at.tt, w:Addington For Gary L. Koontz, Planning Director i 16