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Home My WebLink About00 - Insider's GuideReceived After Agenda Printed February 24, 2015 Insider's Guide Brown, Leilani From: Kiff, Dave Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2015 12:44 PM Subject: Insider's Guide - City Council meeting of Tuesday, February 24, 2015 Happy Saturday! Here is the Insider's Guide to the Newport Beach City Council meeting of Tuesday, February 24, 2015. The City Council meeting is held on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of most months, with study session starting this coming Tuesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. and the regular session at 7:00 p.m. The Council meets in the Council Chambers at 100 Civic Center Drive. There is plenty of parking - you are always welcome to attend! But you can also watch on TV (Channels 3/31) or on your computer. I do not summarize every item on the Agenda —to read the full agenda, click here! http: / /newpo rtbe a c hca.gov/ modules /S howDocu me nt.a s px ?doc u mentid =4414 You are always welcome to weigh in and contact the entire City Council with one email address — that's CityCouncil @newportbeachca.gov. They appreciate hearing from you, especially about any agenda item. Study Session begins at 4:00 p.m. These items may be worth your review: • We've asked the good folks at the Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) to talk with the Council and community about how the big Newport Force Main Project is going (aka the "OMG, why is Coast Highway so torn up for so long ?" project). As we've discussed on this e-mail before, the Force Main Project replaces a very large sewer line that takes our wastewater (and others') to the OCSD treatment plant in Huntington Beach. The old pipe runs right down Coast Highway, and the new one has to as well. Thankfully, this is a once- every-70 -years project - but lucky for all of us, its happening right now. • You know those water- propelled jet packs you see in the Harbor sometimes? We need to figure out if one operator is enough for the Harbor, whether none are (and they should go offshore), or whether more than one is OK. The Council will be asked whether to proceed forward with the Harbor Commission's recommendation, which was to only allow this use off- shore. The current provider isn't keen on that, and would rather stay working generally off of the Marina Park area. This is a study session item, so the Council will provide direction to staff for a future action versus taking an action on Tuesday. Evening Session — starts at 7:00 p.m. I'll highlight a few items: • Council will review a proposed new ordinance for massage establishments. The law has changed back and forth on this over time, with localities first being able to adopt local regulations on massage establishments (let's cut to the quick here —the issue is making sure they really remain in the business of legitimate massage therapy versus, say, culinary classes), then the State decided that it should regulate them, then the State decided that it was OK for localities to do this again. So we're doing this again. Maybe. • Some nice new water quality improvements are all in and done, but you won't notice them easily. They're underground "continuous deflective separation units" (CDS Units) at five areas across town generally where large storm drains enter the Bay or Ocean. For example, if you've been wondering why Begonia Park was dug up there by the low side, it was to put one of these in (in part). They collect waste (esp trash) and bacteria from water in the storm drain. This was a $1.28M project (all five of them were $1.28M in total, I mean) with about $700K of that coming from Measure M2 grants. This is another step forward in some remarkable water quality improvements in the upper and lower bay —and the data is showing significant improvement. Worth a @. • There are some more private encroachment requests on the agenda for 3335, 3415, and 3425 Ocean Boulevard in CdM. The Irvine Company has asked to transfer some existing development rights within sections of Newport Center and Fashion Island, something that they have done in the past with Council approval. In this case, the request generally takes away some retail and theater intensity from Fashion Island and moves it to the 100 block of Newport Center Drive. The proposed uses and transfers are consistent with the 2006 General Plan. Forgive this bit of inside baseball, but for the past handful of years, the City and the owners of Via Lido Plaza have disputed an accessway that allows delivery trucks into the back side of Via Lido Plaza (mostly delivering to West Marine, previously Pavilions). The trucks cross over City property near the Fire Station off of 32nd Street. The City's concern over the continued use of this accessway related mostly to the future guests at the Lido House Hotel — we were not sure if that was the best place for delivery trucks outside hotel windows. After some hard work by Mayor pro Tern Dixon (wow, and she only recently took office!), there is a proposed solution that seems agreeable to both the City and Via Lido Plaza (aka Lido Partners). It involves a new driveway off of Via Oporto, so trucks could come in off of Oporto onto the new driveway instead of between the Fire Station and the new hotel site. Finally, a mid -year budget adjustment recognizing about $5.3M in revenue that's come in above what we projected in June 2014. The increases come from most sectors of our revenue base — sales tax, hotel bed tax, property tax, and even parking revenue. It's clear that the local economy in Newport Beach is doing quite well. Some Saturday Notes: • We were sad to see that longtime Newport Beach resident Henry Segerstrom passed away yesterday at age 91. Mr. Segerstrom lived at Peninsula Point, and took a lot of pride in his home community (I would hear from his staff with ideas to better improve some projects on the Balboa Peninsula) in addition to all of his investment in Costa Mesa. What a nice thing to be able to live to 91 though. • You can still weigh in on fire rings —what fun! The deadline is now March 6`h. Please use http : / /www.connectnewportbeach.com / to do so. Or you can always send me or the City Council an e-mail (many have!). Karen Tringali of the CdMRA was kind enough to point out to me that the upcoming Coastal Commission hearing on Fire Rings has been moved to Newport Beach, at least according to the Commissions website. If all goes according to plan, the Commission will meet June 10 -12, 2015 here at the NB City Council Chambers at the Civic Center. Dang, that happens to be the week I'm taking off to organize sock drawers — who'd have known? @ • If you are or know of a person who might be on a fixed income and who might qualify for a reduced rate for natural gas to their home, the SoCalGas company reminded us recently that a program is available that offers up to a 20% discount to those who qualify —for more information, look here: http://socalgas.com/for-your-home/assistance- programs As always, thanks for reading. If you have any questions about this Guide, the Council's agenda, or any other City issue, please ask. I always appreciate it if you pass this along to others in town who might get value from it, especially if you represent an HOA or community association. If you would rather not receive this e-mail, contact me with a return email and I'll take you off the list. Sincerely, Dave Kiff City Manager 949 - 644 -3001 dkiff@ newpo rtbeachca.eov