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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/01/2005 - PB&R Commission (2)MARCH 1, 2005 APPROVED PB &R COMMISSION MINUTES CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH Parks, Beaches 8 Recreation Commission Regular Meeting March 1, 2005- 7pm Convened 7:02pm ROLL CALL Present: Debra Allen Tim Brown Roy Englebrecht Bill Garrett Greg Ruzicka Val Skoro Tom Tobin Staff: Marie Knight, Recreation 13 Senior Services Director David Niederhaus, General Services Director DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS Director Knight stated that on March 2 there will be a meeting at the Friends Meeting Room to discuss fundraising efforts for the Newport Village Park and several people have been invited and with representatives from the Library Foundation, neighborhood associations and a few others. She went on to say that construction has begun at Mariners Library, and that the first part of the construction was to take down the two tennis courts and that demolition has occurred and should be rebuilt in its new locations over towards the fire station within two months. She went on to say that staff has relocated Newport Harbor Baseball team to Ensign and once the library construction is complete then the plan is that the existing library building will be coming down and that all the fields will be reconfigured and the park will be redone. She reminded the Commission that the next event is the Flashlight Egg Hunt on March 18 at Bonita Creek Park at 5:30pm and remember to bring a flashlight. PUBLIC COMMENTS None CONSENT CALENDAR 1. Item pulled by a member of the public. 2. Item pulled from the Commissioner Englebrecht. 3. Item pulled from the Commissioner Englebrecht. 1. Minutes of the January 13, 2005 regular meeting. Mary Singleton stated that the minutes included her letter but did not include the addendum with 6 photos and comments and one color photo of a She Oak tree that had been trimmed and asked that they be enclosed. Ms. Singleton noted that the minutes state that Director Niederhaus said "that he is always open to the possibility of mistakes and that is why City staff offered to complete a petition by the 21" of this month, and if there was no change, then staff would remove the trees as directed on November 16," Ms. Singleton said that it should state that it had been offered to the "Singleton's." She questioned the sentence where it states that the trees had been posted for removal, but she commented that they had been marked with white X's. Chair Tobin thanked Ms. Singleton for her comments. Parks, Beaches 8t Recreation Commission Regular Meeting March 1, 2005 Page 3 effort to save the more stately trees especially when they are not causing problems. He stated that he agrees that if they are dying them agrees that they should be removed but hopes that the City will be able to retain more of the stately type trees. 3. Recreation £t Senior Services Activity Report. Commissioner Englebrecht stated that he had pulled this item to prove that he does review the packets. He stated that it amazes him that that it takes almost a full page to report on the Park Patrol with all the rain how the officers have impacted the department and that it really says something about why this program was put into place. Director Knight stated that the rainy season seems to be the busiest season because youngsters like to play out in the mud bowl and a lot of work has been done by the youth sports groups getting the fields ready for opening day and that when the rain comes it becomes difficult to keep people off them. Chair Tobin asked if the minions of the law have appropriate rain gear supplied to them Director Knight stated yes absolutely. Motion by Commissioner Allen to approve items 1.3 of the Consent Calendar). Motion carried by acclamation. OLD BUSINESS 4. Reconsideration of Reforestation Request. Chair Tobin informed the public that the reforestation request was not approved because staff undertook a new polling of the 30 affected property owners and received 27 responses with the following results Reforestation Approval 16 53% Disapproval 10 33% Neutral 1 3% He went on to say that since the request did not achieve a 60% approval rate as required by Council Policy G -1 that is cannot be approved by the Commission. He stated that unless there is other pertinent information that additional dialogue can be dispensed with. Director Niederhaus stated that at about fpm today he received two additional positive ballots and that staff must amend the report because the 60% has been attained and therefore the matter can be reconsidered and that now it does meet all the criteria for approval. Commissioner Allen stated that when reviewing the staff report that it stated that it did not meet the minimum requirements for reforestation and therefore did not study the matter and Parks, Beaches £t Recreation Commission Regular Meeting March 1, 2005 Page 5 flawed way by asking neighbor to neighbor to approve the reforest. Commissioner Englebrecht questioned how the Commission knows that the report back then was not flawed, He commented that a decision needs to be made tonight on whether we are going to keep those trees and keep some semblance of beauty in Corona del Mar or chop down those trees and put in little trees that will take 30 -40 years for them to grow and provide the beauty. He stated that he was very concerned with the entire procedure in allowing last minute votes. Commissioner Skoro stated that he is totally adverse to people slipping in votes at the last minute and likes to have time to digest something and make the rational decision and does not think it is fair for the Commission to make a decision on the spur of the moment and agreed that the item should be continued and shutting off any additional voting until the week before the next meeting. Commissioner Englebrecht asked if we continue to get the decision that someone wants because not it was approved and so its continued because we don't want it approved and next month it will be disapproved and whup lets take another month to get it approved. Commissioner Garrett asked if we can make a motion to postpone this to give the Commission time to digest this but to also put some sort of timeframe to say that any additional votes after today must be received at some arbitrary date. Commissioner Ruzicka stated that he believes that there should be some kind of policy that says that once you vote that you are done. Commissioner Englebrecht questioned that since the Commission has had this month to review this item and that all of us have visited Larkspur and have researched it and that staff did a good job of getting the packet out and asked what has happened tonight should make it easy to make a decision. Commissioner Garret agreed that votes made in the last five minutes should not be used. Commissioner Englebrecht stated that he believes that the Commission should vote on the staff report as written because these other votes are bogus. Commissioner Allen stated that the problem here is that the Commission is not the final decision maker here and that it can go to City Council because we only recommend action but actually the Council can call it up. But stated that the Commission is not doing their job if we are just going to pretend that the figures are different then they really are and cannot do it that way and we cannot pretend that the request does not meeting the criteria if in fact it does and would much rather continue the item and put a drop dead date to vote. Commissioner Englebrecht stated that we are continuing this item based on the fact that two people came in at the last minute to submit there vote and that all the work that staff did goes out the window because two people at the 11`h hour and stated that we cannot let that happen. Director Niederhaus stated that no one changed there vote at the last moment, the gentleman that stepped forward submitted his ballot. They were two of the three that staff Parks, Beaches Ct Recreation Commission Regular Meeting March 1, 2005 Page 7 Commissioner Englebrecht stated that now that he have established the "Hatfields" and the "McCoys" in CdM that maybe now we do not want to publish something like this because it now lets everyone know how they voted and lets in animosity and intimidation. Director Niederhaus stated that there is one letter from a Mr. Seth Christiansen who called today and later received an email noting his concern in his own neighborhood because he voted no and feels very uncomfortable and asked what he could do. Director Niederhaus stated that he told him to come to the meeting tonight and voice his opinion but informed us that he would not be here and sent a letter instead. He went on to say that there is a lot of emotion regarding this issue. Commissioner Ruzicka stated that this is becoming more and more of a contentious issue and that a policy needs to be developed on vote deadline because the Commission relies on the staff report. Commissioner Englebrecht asked if the vote was to come back at 65% approval is the Commission required to approve the request or are they allowed to say that the trees should remain. Director Knight stated that she believes that if the reforestation request meets the requirements of the G -1 Policy then the Commission is bound. Commissioner Ruzicka stated that then we have no discretion. Director Niederhaus stated that the Commission is an advisory not an action body of the Council. Commissioner Englebrecht asked if they could make it mandatory for property owners to attend the meeting and raise their hand if they approve and so forth. Director Knight stated that the G -1 Policy is very clear about how the reforestation process and reminded them that a sub - committee was formed and met for many months and the process for reforestation is very clear on the requirements and steps that a petitioner must take and stated that if changes or additions need to be made then those are amendments to that policy which is a Council Policy and you would be recommending those changes to them. Commissioner Englebrecht stated that Director Niederhaus makes a good point regarding that within all the community associations that there are very few problems but since this is public property then maybe the G -1 Policy in that area of polling needs to be changed such as requiring the homeowner to show up and vote instead of having staff canvassing the neighborhood and getting 1 f `" hour votes. Commissioner Allen stated that the sub - committee spent approximately 80 hours of public hearings developing the G -1 Policy and with all due respect that if Commissioner Englebrecht would like to come up with a different way to handle the problem then suggests that he ask that the sub - committee be reconvened and that he chair it. Parks, Beaches 8 Recreation Commission Regular Meeting March 1, 2005 Page 9 Commissioner Englebrecht asked how you can give them a cutoff and not notify them. Director Knight clarified that the substitute motion by Commissioner Garrett is that the issue is continued until the April meeting with a cutoff date of March 15`" and that cutoff date would be for those that staff has not received ballots from which would be just one ballot. Commissioner Englebrecht stated that if we are waiting on just one vote then it would not change the percentage and the issue can be voted on tonight. Commissioner Garrett stated that he was concerned that Commissioner Englebrecht received a call from someone stating that their vote was reflected incorrectly. Commissioner Englebrecht stated that he received that call from the first vote taken. Commissioner Garrett asked if anyone else has received those types of calls and that frankly there seems to be enough people represented from the street that repolling would not need to be done and that if people want to change their vote they have until the 15th Director Knight stated that the motion does not include the issue of changing votes. Commissioner Englebrecht asked if that should be included on the motion. Commissioner Garrett stated yes. Director Knight stated that the public comment is on the issue on the motion to continue the discussion of the reforestation request until the April meeting and to allow anyone that has not yet cast a vote to do so by March 15`h and that public comment is not open on the discussion of the reforestation request itself. Dr Vandersloot questioned the ruling since the agenda states discussion of the reforestation request and believes that public comments are allowed. Commissioner Allen stated that if this issue is going to be discussed at the April meeting she suggests that it seemed ill advised to discuss something that is not going to be voted on tonight and suggests that the comments be on the discussion at hand to have them considered. Dr. Vandersloot continued to talk off mike. Chair Tobin stated that he was very embarrassed because he told some folks that this issue would probably not need much discussion based on the staff report. Chair Tobin opened the public discussion. Walter Eck, property owner on Larkspur stated that he believed that he is one of the people that voted late and stated that he was out of the state and requested the post office to deliver the letter to the vestibule of their home but it never appeared. He went Parks, Beaches l3 Recreation Commission Regular Meeting March 1, 2005 Page 11 requirement was never met; 23 of the 39 property owners approved it which is 58.9 %. He stated that the approval rate is really 51% because three of the votes were completely invalid since the petition only included one tree and the request was for six trees. He went on to say that the maximum of 30 properties was not complied with since the City went to 39 properties and so staff was not following the G -1 Policy again. He noted that the petition did not appear to be approved by staff since there were five different versions of the petition. He reviewed the packet that was presented to the Commission and which stated that 95% of the property owners were notified and that is not the case and were not even made aware of the November 16`h meeting. He displayed the last page of the report which shows 41 owners but the City could not verify one of them as being a valid owner and the City counted one person twice and in addition there were three petitions that were for one tree only and so when you subtract those out it leaves you with a total of 20 out of 39 which is where the 51% comes from. Mr. O'Connell stated that in his letter it was answered with some errors specifically the number of 24 approved which was really only 23 and stated that 311 Larkspur should have been excluded but was left in the count. He stated that the G -1 Policy says 15 properties in each direction. He went on to say that they believe that the petition themselves are inaccurate as they did not list the number of trees and reason and noted that it was a pine tree and many of the people felt as though they had been mislead. He stated that there was no consistency in the petitions used and finally the criteria for removal was not met since there was no hardscape or view problem not were they declining in health or the wrong species. Bill Singleton stated that when he purchased his home there was a canopy of 14 Large beautiful She Oak trees until 2002. He stated that tree lined streets enhance the beauty of CdM and enhance the home values. Mr. Singleton stated that there are plenty of streets without trees and those are listed in the G -3 Policy; he stated that home values go down when large trees are removed even the Newport Beach City web site states that trees increase the value of residential property by as much as 20 %. He stated that River She Oaks are perfectly suited for the coastal environment and they are wind tolerant and drought resistant and do not drip sap like Pine trees. He went on to say that they are also still being planted by several local cities such as Santa Monica, Pasadena and Los Angeles. He stated that the reasons listed for reforestation was messiness. He stated that messiness is not a criteria for removal and that any 50 -70 foot tall tree will drop leaves and several cities still plant them. He noted that the only trees that do not drop leaves are plastic. He stated that some mentioned that it would uniform the block but the non - uniformity would still exist if these trees were removed but would make it uneven on the other side. He stated that the replacement Firewheel tree have mites and require pesticide treatment and all those accompanying problems and are already blocking blue water views because they only grow to 30 feet. He stated that they are so small and slow growing that Sunset Western Garden book states that they are popular as an indoor potted plant. He went on to say that the City replaced section of the sidewalk on both sides last month and asked if sidewalk placement was a way to document tree damage and to justify future tree removals as problem trees because per the G -1 Policy problem trees can be removed for sidewalk damage and do not require the approval of the Commission. He stated that they want to go on record tonight to say that they do not think that those sidewalks should have been replaced. He went on to say the She Oaks are fast growing and grow to 70 feet as opposed to slow growth of 20 feet of the replacement Firewall tree. Mr. Singleton stated that tall trees can be trimmed to frame and enhance views where Parks, Beaches £t Recreation Commission Regular Meeting March 1, 2005 Page 13 Director Knight stated that the Roberts Rules of Order state that the public discussion is on the issue of the motion. Jan Vandersloot stated that the issue should be continued and submitting some photographs to see the difference between the She Oak and the Firewheel tree and asked them to notice that the Firewheel tree is blocking the view of the residents up the street and that the Commission should address this dynamic and that this is not a tree that is blocking the view from above but rather sideways out to the ocean and that if a little Firewheel tree is planted then you are substituting a tree that is actually blocking the view and requested that the Commission look at that and also the criteria. Commissioner Skoro stated that the issue should be brought back to the Commission and that there is no reason to belabor if the issue will be coming back to in April. Bill Singleton stated that since their poll is so much different that they would like the Commission to direct staff to let them have access to that data so that the data can be compared and willing to give the signed petitions in exchange since the last two reforestations have had errors. Commissioner Ruzicka asked Commissioner Garrett to clarify the motion. Commissioner Englebrecht stated that we have had three surveys and there have been errors and again suggested that live bodies come to the chamber and vote since there is so much difference. Commissioner Brown asked that we get through public comments. Jeff Antrillo stated that in regards to postponement of the issue does not understand why there would be any question whatsoever since Director Niederhaus has done an excellent job in seeing that everything has been done in compliance with the policy. He stated that they actually waited over a year and a half because of the changes being done to the G -1. He stated that they have done there best to abide by the Policy and now we have a 60% agreement for the reforestation and tonight is the appropriate time to conclude this item because 29 of the 30 ballots have been counted and everything is in agreement and does not see why this cannot be concluded tonight. Tom Goble stated that he is one of the petitioners requesting the reforestation. He asked that the Commission listen and asked that his time be stopped until all Commissioners are listening to what he has to say. Commissioner Englebrecht left the dias. Mr. Goble urged the Commission to take action tonight either one way or the other as this was literally tearing the street of Larkspur apart. He stated the property owners had did everything that they had been asked to do the General Services Department. He stated that when the first petition had come back and were told it was flawed, they had accepted that and put the entire matter into the hands of the City and now they are told Parks, Beaches £t Recreation Commission Regular Meeting March 1, 2005 Page 15 Commissioner Brown commented that he understands the difficulty and believes that is the reason why the Commission is looking at this issue again next month. The Commissioner is concerned about the neighborhood and that they are trying to the the right thing for all. Commissioner Englebrecht stated that CdM is unique and that the fact it is very special community and are only as strong as the community as if part of the community is injured then it affects the entire community and the vote is taken on what is best for CdM and Newport Beach. Director Niederhaus asked if he is supposed to notify all 30 of the property owners by letter of what happened tonight. Commissioner Allen stated that he is to do nothing. Director Knight confirmed that should a property owner wish to change their vote then they must contact Director Niederhaus by the close of business of the 15`h of March. NEW BUSINESS 5. City Street Tree Designation Change - Request from the Irvine Terrace Homeowners Association to change the El Paseo median street tree from the Olive tree to the Golden Medallion tree. 6. Reforestation Request - Request from the Irvine Terrace Homeowners Association to reforest 9 city parkway Olive trees in the El Paseo median to the Golden Medallion tree. Director Niederhaus stated that this may be the first step in a less cantankerous reforestation process but stated that items 5 and 6 are linked together and should the Commission elect not to approve the Golden Medallion tree at the designated street tree for El Paseo Median then the Commission would not need to discuss item 6 which again is predicated on the Commission's approval. He pointed out the attached street tree designation list and stated that the reason for this request is the that the Olive Trees (Olea europaea) on El Paseo median are rapidly declining as noted in the photographs attached to the staff report. He went on to say that currently five of the nine Olive trees are severely infected with verticillium wilt, and have been confirmed by staff. He suggested that there are good examples for the Golden Medallion tree along Bayside Drive and Gateway Park. Motion by Commissioner Englebrecht to approve the City Street Designation Change and the Request for Reforestation submitted by the Irvine Terrace Homeowners Association. Chair Tobin opened the public discussion. Ray Kennedy, Irvine Terrace Homeowners Association President stated that they have about 385 homes in the community and is urging support of the designation change as well as the request for reforestation. He went on to say that they have been working with staff for the last six months and have been great to work with. He stated that they are basically just requesting that the Golden Medallion tree replace the Olive trees that are dying and that the HOA will bear all costs and pointed Parks, Beaches & Recreation Commission Regular Meeting March 1, 2005 Page 17 Chair Tobin opened the public discussion. Mr. Moosmann stated that his project for becoming an Eagle Scout is to build a information kiosk in Castaways Park. He stated that he has designed it and will be built out of pressure treated wood and will really help the visitors learn more about the flora and fauna of Newport and the natural wildlife in California and basically enjoyed designing the project and urged approval by the Commission. He also stated that he would be responsible for looking over the site every two weeks to check on the information and the landscaping to make sure that it does not deteriorate or vandalized. Director Niederhaus stated that this project would serve as one of the requirement for the Coastal Commission grant. Commissioner Englebrecht asked this was a precedent by having a resident build something on parkland. Director Niederhaus stated no and noted that it is the Commission's function to accept the donation and location and what is being offered; he stated that it was done most recently on the Newport Balboa pier by another Eagle Scout who did the fish species display and at Galaxy View Park redid the landscaping. So there is definitely a history of that type of occurrence going on. Jan Vandersloot urged approval of the project noting that he had been working on Castaways Park for over 10 years. He went on to say that the location of the kiosk was where the sycamore tree had been removed and suggested that it be replaced also. Chair Tobin closed the public discussion. Motion by Commissioner Ruzicka to approve the Eagle Scout project of building a kiosk at Castaways Park by Max Moosman. Motion carried by acclamation. COMMITTEE REPORTS • Finance - Nothing to report. • Park Development - Nothing to report. • Rec li Open Space Element - Nothing to report. • Recreation Activities - Commissioner Englebrecht stated that a meeting would be scheduled to discuss the criteria and responsibilities for youth sports commission organizations. • Seniors - Director Knight invited the Commissioners to the OASIS Senior Center Casino Night on March 19 and included a complimentary admission for each and hopes that you will bring friends and stated that for the past years of so staff has been working with the Friends of OASIS on a cooperative agreement and a consensus has been reached and will be bringing it to the subcommittee for their review and will go to City Council within the next month or so. • Beach Activities - Nothing to report. • Ad Hoc Community Service Award - Commissioner Garrett asked Director Knight to put something in the papers requesting nominations. Commissioner Ruzicka suggested Max Moosman. Youth Sports Liaison - Nothing to report