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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApproved Minutes_10-04-2023Page 1 of 7 CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH GENERAL PLAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES COMMUNITY ROOM – 100 CIVIC CENTER DRIVE OCTOBER 4, 2023 REGULAR MEETING – 5:00 P.M. I. CALL THE MEETING TO ORDER – 5:00 p.m. II. WELCOME AND ROLL CALL Present: Co-Chair Arlene Greer, Dennis Baker, Curtis Black, Matthew Brady, James Carlson, Annie Clougherty, Susan DeSantis, Lynn Hackman, Laird Hayes, Ruth Kobayashi, Charles Klobe, Scott Laidlaw, Thomas Meng, Jim Mosher, Maxwell Pearson, Harrison Rolfes, Nancy Scarbrough, Amber Snider, Debbie Stevens, Christy Walker, and Lori Williams Staff: Deputy Community Development Director Jim Campbell and Principal Planner Ben Zdeba Absent: Co-Chair Jeremy Evans (excused), Jeff Cefalia (excused), Katie Love, Anthony Maniscalchi (excused), Robert Rader (excused), and Nicholas Acevedo III. PUBLIC COMMENTS ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS Virginia Anders-Ellmore expressed concern for a climate action plan in Newport Beach and offered a speaker list for Item IV.f. IV. CURRENT BUSINESS a. Meeting Minutes of August 21, 2023 Motion made by Committee Member Mosher and seconded by Committee Member Hayes to table the minutes of August 21, 2023, unit the next meeting to include the meeting adjournment time, revisions, and a list of voters by name in favor and opposing each motion as per State law, if found applicable. Committee Member Klobe supported this action. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell directed General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) members to announce their vote in a roll call fashion and subsequently agreed to request votes in opposition first. By a show of hands, the members in favor voted afterwards. The motion carried 25-1 with Committee Member Kobayashi opposing the vote. b. Review and Acceptance of the Outreach and Engagement Plan General Plan Advisory Committee Meeting October 4, 2023 Page 2 of 7 Dudek and Kearns & West have participated in three separate meetings with the GPAC Outreach Subcommittee to prepare a draft Outreach and Engagement Plan. At its last meeting on September 11, 2023, the GPAC Outreach Subcommittee endorsed the draft plan. Kearns & West will provide an overview of the plan. It is presented to the full GPAC for review, input, and acceptance. Once accepted, City staff and the consultant team will continue to work in concert with the GPAC and GPAC Outreach Subcommittee, as well as the General Plan Update Steering Committee (GPUSC) to implement the plan going forward. Recommended Action: Review, discuss, and accept the draft Outreach and Engagement Plan as written or with any required changes. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell used a presentation to introduce Consultant Elizabeth Dickson, Project Manager from Dudek, and Consultant Jenna Tourjé-Maldonado, Outreach Manager from Kearns & West. Ms. Dickson reviewed the project overview – General Plan Update, project phases at a glance, phase one – background analysis and visioning, phase two – Draft General Plan Amendment, phase three – California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) analysis, and phase four - hearings (Item IV.b). Committee Member Scarbrough noted the importance of providing the public with context of the Housing Element and why it cannot be changed and questioned which phases will include the Committee’s involvement. In response, Ms. Dickson concurred and noted that the Committees will be involved at every phase. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell noted the Committees will be involved in the policy development, CEQA items will be handled by professionals, and Committees will not play a big role in the environmental review. In response to Committee Member Klobe’s concern for the Noise Element, Deputy Community Development Director Campbell indicated that the City Council will review the amendment on November 14, 2023, and further refinement would involve the GPAC or a Subcommittee. Nancy Gardner expressed concern about the schedule and suggested identifying and focusing on a couple of the other elements to present along with the Housing Element and Land Use Element to the public. Committee Member Mosher expressed confusion about why areas other than the Housing Element are off limits for review, comment, or revision and questioned if the Subcommittees are on hold until the consultant teams provide a reason to meet. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell clarified that the Noise Element Amendment relating to the Housing Element implementation is going before the Council on November 14 and does not preclude changes found during the review process. Furthermore, he reviewed the purpose of the Subcommittee meeting process and indicated a hold on meeting to provide time for Dudek to do their work. Nancy Gardner expressed concern for meeting time gaps, continuity, the inclusion of Subcommittee input, and limiting the plan to the work of the consultants. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell concurred. Nancy Gardner emphasized the General Plan Advisory Committee Meeting October 4, 2023 Page 3 of 7 function and importance of the Subcommittees and expressed concern for the timeline, additional elements that provide enrichment, and the formation of the vision statement. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell thought this matter is a GPUSC discussion item. In response to Committee Member Mosher’s question, Ms. Dickson relayed that reports are staggered, dissemination to the Subcommittees can be coordinated with staff, Dudek anticipates having all the reports complete by spring of 2024, and the outreach will be informing the analysis. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell noted that the overall timeline will be replaced with a more detailed schedule once the process is kicked off. Jenna Tourjé-Maldonado utilized a presentation to review the engagement and outreach plan development (Item IV.b), development and review process timeline, GPAC Outreach Subcommittee members, and key themes heard during the review process. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell explained a grassroots approach to communicating with the community in a way that they can understand and recognize and noted the challenge with defining the measures of success and a desire to provide as much engagement opportunities as possible. Ms. Tourjé-Maldonado continued the presentation to provide an overview of the engagement and outreach sections: introduction, stakeholder identification, community engagement timeline, getting the word out, and engagement methods and activities. In response to Committee Member Mosher’s questions, Ms. Tourjé-Maldonado confirmed that the community engagement timeline and phases are listed in sequential order and explained the process for collecting community feedback. Ms. Dickson added that visioning is key and the north star throughout the process, resiliency research and data analysis has begun because it has been identified as a community priority, and elements and focus groups have common traits. In response to Committee Member Klobe’s question, Deputy Community Development Director Campbell relayed that he does not think inserts can be placed in the Irvine Ranch or Mesa Water District bills but can be included in the Newport Beach water bills. Nancy Gardner expressed concern for pushing a lot of the elements to the end of the list and questioned the order. Ms. Dickson noted a lot of overlap and relayed that the topics are listed in order and grouped for the outreach process. In response to Deputy Community Development Director Campbell’s inquiry, Ms. Dickson indicated that changing the order is not a significant workflow issue and data analysis has begun for each element. Committee Member Baker suggested a mechanism to capture the calendar of community events for outreach. General Plan Advisory Committee Meeting October 4, 2023 Page 4 of 7 Deputy Community Development Director Campbell noted an adaptive approach to the process, hoped to get the Committee’s endorsement today, and expressed a willingness to adjust the element order and publish a revised outreach plan after the meeting. Co-Chair Greer suggested considering the time of year to collect information from departments when they are busy and in season and expressed concern for missed opportunities. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell acknowledged Committee Member Baker’s suggestion, noted that the City is not ready to participate in community events and will likely miss a few upcoming events, and asked for suggestions of suitable events. In response to Committee Member Scarbrough’s question, Ms. Tourjé-Maldonado indicated that outreach efforts will include targeted engagements specific to the element, as well as broad engagements. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell noted challenges with pop up and misaligned events and opportunities for surveying community members through recreation department and general events that align with an element. In response to Committee Member Hackman’s question, Ms. Tourjé-Maldonado relayed that a communications plan will be developed in partnership with the City’s Public Information Officer (PIO) for each round of engagement. Committee Member Hackman encouraged creative engagement efforts. Nancy Gardner suggested contacting NBTV for outreach opportunities. Committee Member DeSantis suggested a postcard or phone survey approach for the film festival event to optimize the connection and asked for a commitment, scoping, and Committee review of alternative outreach methods. In response to Committee Member Rolfes’ question, Ms. Tourjé-Maldonado stated that the focus is on the effectiveness of the method versus the weight of each engagement effort and the weight can be modified and changed to get the best results. Committee Member Hackman suggested the mayor record a public service announcement for use during the 2024 film festival events. Ms. Tourjé-Maldonado reminded GPAC members that they are ambassadors because of their deep connections to the community and encouraged them to share the information with their networks. She indicated that the consultant’s work will include preparing information for the City Council to do. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell concurred and expressed interest in partnering with GPAC members to disseminate information to homeowners’ associations. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell liked Kimberly Carter’s suggestion for a central repository to collect community outreach engagement suggestions. Co-Chair Greer suggested the Subcommittee meet after today’s presentation to gather and collate information and discuss proactive next steps. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell concurred. General Plan Advisory Committee Meeting October 4, 2023 Page 5 of 7 In response to Nancy Gardner’s inquiry, Deputy Community Development Director Campbell stated that the website will contain all the feedback collected and information and comments from Subcommittee and GPAC meetings. Committee Member Carlson thought that examples need to be created of what the City is trying to sell and that the Subcommittees and Outreach Committee can work on getting the message across every level. Committee Member Clougherty thought the website would answer many questions and is really great. Co-Chair Greer concurred. In response to Committee Member Baker’s question, Ms. Tourjé-Maldonado stated that her team will attend community events and will partner with community groups and members. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell noted that City staff committed to attending community events. Kimberly Carter thought GPAC members should attend events as well. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell concurred. Committee Member Scarbrough suggested including the outreach survey in SPON’s (Still Protecting Our Newport) newsletter and other groups of the like and asked how to relay these groups to the consultant. Committee Member Mosher referenced the 2006 General Plan Update handout to suggest one for this General Plan Update and thought that the GPAC is to make an outreach process recommendation for the GPUSC to consider for approval, as per the direction provided by the City Council. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell reviewed the next steps for the outreach plan and asked for the Committee to endorse the plan. Committee Member Black supported the plan and suggested consistent check-ins and feedback opportunities. Motion made by Committee Member Black and seconded by Committee Member Hayes to endorse the proposed Engagement and Outreach Plan. The motion carried unanimously. Staff agreed to provide a tally of the vote by name. c. Presentation on the Identified Web Platform: Social Pinpoint At the August 28, 2023, GPAC Outreach Subcommittee meeting, Kearns & West and City staff presented the identified web platform that best suits the needs of the project’s outreach and engagement plan. Kearns & West will present an overview of Social Pinpoint, including examples of other agencies currently using the platform. Recommended Action: No action required. General Plan Advisory Committee Meeting October 4, 2023 Page 6 of 7 Ms. Tourjé-Maldonado utilized a presentation to review the website components prioritized by the GPAC Subcommittee, Social Pinpoint overview, and examples of other agencies using the platform. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell found example Social Pinpoint sites to be extremely user friendly and noted required maintenance. Ms. Tourjé-Maldonado indicated that a meeting is scheduled for tomorrow with John Pope, PIO, and an information technology representative to discuss integration of City communication and internal technology. Committee Member Hackman suggested exploring interfacing opportunities with Visit Newport Beach and Newport Beach & Company. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell concurred with partnership opportunities, asked for help identifying other possibilities, and relayed that content can be developed for feedback. d. Updates from Dudek and Overview of the Schedule Dudek will provide an update on work completed and will present an overview of the draft schedule for the comprehensive General Plan update. Recommended Action: Receive presentation and provide input on the draft schedule. This item was addressed during Item IV.b. e. Subcommittee Updates Since the previous GPAC meeting, several subcommittees have held meetings. Recommended Action: Share and discuss updates from each subcommittee. Review the Subcommittee Roster and identify any changes. Principal Planner Zdeba noted that the bulk of the Subcommittee meetings has been the Outreach Subcommittee. Nancy Gardner indicated that the Harbor and Bay Subcommittee meetings were information sessions. f. Future Meeting Speakers At the previous GPAC and GPUSC meetings, the topic of outside speakers was discussed. The goal would be to identify a reasonable number of topics or trends that are within the general scope of the General Plan and to identify speakers that might be engaged to provide insight to the update process. Recommended Action: Identify several topics or trends, and potential speakers, that might provide useful and unbiased information or context that might assist the General Plan General Plan Advisory Committee Meeting October 4, 2023 Page 7 of 7 Update process. Staff would then take steps to coordinate and schedule speakers at future meetings. Virginia Anders-Ellmore shared (handout) a list of people and groups to address the climate crisis that include Katrina Foley, Orange County Power Authority, United Nations Association Group in Orange County, Rotary Club – Steve Bender, Climate Reality Project of Orange County (OC), OC Goes Solar, and Switch is On. Mike Dutton, Corona del Mar resident, thanked GPAC members for their effort, recognized the sense of urgency for the Land Use Element, asked the Committee to consider that not all the issues are created equal with some having a greater impact, and suggested accompanying financial information and outreach efforts with more foot traffic. He questioned State mandates that will be dilutive to the way of life and if the Council has legal and litigation strategies to protect Newport Beach, asked for openness and prioritization, proposed using a heat map to identify important and impactful issues, and encouraged an open mind for disruption methods to combat encroachment from Sacramento on the residents’ way of life. V. COMMITTEE ANNOUNCEMENTS OR MATTERS WHICH MEMBERS WOULD LIKE PLACED ON A FUTURE AGENDA FOR DISCUSSION, ACTION OR REPORT (NON-DISCUSSION ITEM) None VI. ADJOURNMENT With no further business, Co-Chair Greer adjourned the meeting at 6:50 p.m.