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HomeMy WebLinkAbout00 - Insider's GuideMay 9, 2017 Insider's Guide Subject: FW: Newport Beach Insider's Guide - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 Holal A good Cinco de Mayo to you. On Nueve de Mayo, the Newport Beach City Council will meet for both a 5:00 p.m. Study Session and a 7:00 p.m. regular session. More detailed Council meeting information is at the end of the Guide. I don't summarize every item on the agenda, so make sure you look at the City Clerk's agenda page to read the whole agenda if you'd like. Study Session starts at 5:00 p.m. has two main items: Council's second look at the proposed Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for Fiscal Year 2017-18. This is the blueprint for construction projects large and small that are planned for 2017-18. It also includes one-time expenses, like a planned Update of the General Plan, that fit better in the CIP than in our other budget document, the Budget Detail. By the way, both documents are posted online now and can be viewed here. The CIP includes things like water mains, sewer repairs,. road repairs, park upgrades, and a lot more. Much of our CIP items come from detailed "master plans" that usually describe upgrades planned for specific functions (like water, sewer, streetlights, and more) over 10 to 20 years. We've been working recently on a Harbor Master Plan — at the request of our City Council — that would better outline what our short- and long-term harbor obligations are. So this would address sea walls, dredging, amenities, and more. This too will be a part of the Study Session discussion on Tuesday. Regular Session is at 7:00 p.m. The items worth noting are: • Getting right to the "big deal" of the evening, Bayside Drive. This last came to the Council in November 2016, with a general preference by the Council to look at something with a roundabout at Bayside and Harbor Island Drive. But as more community members have weighed in, our Public Works staff has reviewed other options. Those include: o Not changing anything, but just doing our planned repavement job (Option Zero? O) o Option #1- Staying with four lanes total, but narrowing the lanes slightly to allow for limited traffic calming measures, such as medians and landscaping and a better bike lane. o Option #2 — The option with a roundabout at Harbor Island Drive and Bayside. This uses one lane in each direction to approach and leave the roundabout, with the staying one lane in each direction until Bayside restaurant and the shopping center. o Option #3 -- A "three lane" option, whereby if you are going westbound, you have 2 lanes in your direction. If you are going eastbound between Harbor Island and the pedestrian crossing which is just past the homes, it's one lane. The traffic counts on the road show that the road's capacity would be OK with this. This option likely provides more traffic calming than the four -lane alternative. You will want to read a lot more about all of this issue. There are a LOT of opinions about it (we often say we have 85,000 traffic engineers in town (D). Please read the staff report and related attachments. And allow me one gentle bit of commentary. Many people have weighed in on this issue. By and large, people offer friendly comments. But this issue has been very polarizing, too. Folks who live on Bayside say there is no way to make the road safe except with a roundabout. Folks who live on Balboa Island say "there isn't a problem here, so don't change it so that there IS a problem." Both of these statements are on the extreme side of the debate. Our roads are safest when we drive safely and conservatively — and without distractions. We can engineer improvements to the road that help here, but there is nothing better than a safe driver observing the speed limit. Whatever is decided needs to involve as much of the community as possible (as well as our good Public Works engineers), dialoguing in a civil way that recognizes that even though someone may disagree with you, it doesn't mean they're wrong (Dave dismounts well -used soapbox). • Council will again consider establishing a temporary (summer) anchorage area in Newport Bay, up near Lido Marina Village (i.e. the Turning Basin). • Residents in the Finley area (across from the Old City Hall at the start of the Peninsula) have asked the Council to consider initiating a resident -only parking permit program in their small neighborhood. As it stands today, some of the employees who work across the street in Lido Marina Village appear to be using the residential streets to park. While this is legal (these are public streets), it's certainly a new issue and problem for the folks who live in the Finley neighborhood. Residential parking permit programs within the Coastal Zone don't have an easy go of it — it will be challenging to get full approval should it be called up to the Coastal Commission. But we are trying to be creative in seeking the best solutions to this new parking problem. Today's Random Note: • I will reiterate here again that NextGen has arrived at John Wayne Airport. Forgive the duplication from 2 weeks ago, but I've gotten a lot of calls about this issue (most folks saying, "why didn't I know about this?"). So we are now in Week Nine or so of the FAA's implementation of NextGen in our community. NextGen made more precise flight paths from JWA (and nearly 2 dozen other airports in Southern California). On April 27"', the FAA moved the second half of JWA's departures on the NextGen paths. Generally, these track the historic patterns of flights from JWA. Please know that we will follow this closely to ensure that the community's overall goals are met. However, the FAA always has the final determination on where flights go. As I noted before, if you ever want to talk NextGen with me, I'm happy to do so —just call. As always, thanks for reading. Please forward this Guide to family, friends and members of your HOA if you represent one. I always like hearing from you, too, so please don't hesitate to ask a question or offer a comment. Sincerely, Dave Kiff City Manager dkiff@newportbeachca.gov 949-644-3001 City Council Meeting Information: The Newport Beach City Council meets on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of most months (the exceptions are August and December). Typically, there is a Study Session that starts at 4:00 p.m. Study sessions are times for the Council to take a deeper look at a specific issue, or hear a presentation, that might eventually lead to a specific and more formal action. A closed session often follows the Study Session. Closed sessions are typically to address legal, personnel, and other matters where additional confidentiality is important. The Regular (evening) Session typically starts at 7:00 p.m., and often has a specific listing of 20-40 different items ready for formal votes. Items on the "Consent Calendar" are heard all at once, unless a Council member has removed (aka "pulled") an item from the Consent Calendar for specific discussion and separate vote. If an item on the agenda is recommended to be "continued", it means that the item won't be heard nor voted on that evening, but will be pushed forward to another noticed meeting. Public Comment is welcomed at both the Study Session and the Regular Session. The public can comment on any item on the agenda. If you want to comment on a Consent Calendar item that was not pulled from the Consent Calendar by a Council Member, you will want to do so at the time listed on the agenda — right before the Council votes on the entire Consent Calendar (it's Roman Numeral XIII on the posted agenda). If an item is pulled, the Mayor will offer that members of the public can comment as that specific item is heard separately. Additionally, there is a specific section of Public Comment for items not on the agenda, but on a subject of some relationship to the city government. If you cannot attend a meeting and/or want to communicate with the City Council directly, this e-mail gets to all of them: CityCouncil@newportbeachca.gov. Please know that I get a copy of that e-mail, too, because in almost all cases it's something that the City Manager follows -up on. It's my head -start. z The Council meets in the Council Chambers at 100 Civic Center Drive, off of Avocado between San Miguel and East Coast Highway. There is plenty of parking in the parking structure behind City Hall. You are always welcome to attend in person, but you can also watch on TV Time Warner / Spectrum 3 and Cox Channel 852 or stream it on your computer. This Insider's Guide is not an attempt to summarize every item on the Agenda —just the ones that seem of specific interest to Dave. I encourage you to read the full agenda if you wish.