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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-05-12 Approved MinutesMeeting Minutes NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION COMMITTEE Location: Council Chambers Thursday, May 12, 2011, 4:00 p.m. 1. Welcome and Introduction Mayor Henn convened the meeting at 4:00 p.m. The following persons were in attendance: Committee Members • Mayor Michael Henn (Chair) • Council Member Rush Hill Committee Member Absent • Council Member Ed Selich Ci Staff • Dave Kiff, City Manager • Dana Smith, Assistant City Manager • Steve Badum, Public Works Director • Dave Webb, Deputy Public Works Director • Leonie Mulvihill, Assistant City Attorney • Jim Campbell, Principal Planner • Kim Rieff, Department Assistant 2. Public Comments on Non - Agenda Items Council Member Rush Hill discussed his potential conflict of interest with some areas considered for revitalization and stated that he is planning to request advice of the Fair Political Practices Commission. The meeting started without a quorum which was corrected after several minutes by the arrival of Council Member Rush Hill. 3. Discussion and recommendation prioritizing the Neighborhood Revitalization Project areas (staff presentation on preliminary estimates of scope, time, and costs). Mayor Henn said the main item today is to talk about how we want to prioritize the projects on the list and determine the resource availability of what we can do. Ms. Smith discussed the draft Priority Matrix chart. She said this chart is to describe in general terms what we think each project might entail. The first step is to set the priority. Once we know the top three or four projects we will go back and start the frame work to get these projects up and moving very quickly. Ms. Smith said staff has given a recommendation. It's not final it's subject to this committee, your testimony, your input, your thoughts as well as the Council's thoughts about how we should prioritize. Ms. Smith discussed the types of criteria, staff support, anticipated consultant services, specialists needed to work with the advisory panel, should it be contracted out or in, costs, and the staff's recommendation in the additional comment section on the matrix. Current City Ha1ULido Marina Village Ms. Smith said that the staff recommended moving forward with this project as the number one priority. She said the project is currently underway with an active land owner and that the City is moving off of this site. So making a determination and completing our planning efforts is of utmost interest to the City and it's paramount that we keep our timing and keep moving forward. Mayor Henn said we will have a situation where the current Pavilions store is going to be dark for months no matter what we do. This will have an impact on the rest of the center, the area, and the availability of a good retail offering for the residence in the area. The objective is to minimize the amount of down time and work in conjunction with the owner of the property to get an attractive revitalized center to pair off with what is already happening at the old Albertson's center. We have property owners who are anxious to move forward. Council Member Hill said from previous public hearings there is a sense of urgency from the people that live on Lido as well. We have a significant opportunity because of the City Hall site becoming vacant and the Duda property going through changes. He said if we don't go forward we will have a significant attractive nuisance on our hands with respect to the site as well as the Duda site next door. It's also a significant gateway to the peninsula. Mayor Henn said the approved land use concept includes this site. We need to finalize our view not only of the ownership but more importantly planning what the final use elements are for this site. Ms. Smith said we will form a Citizens Advisory panel very quickly if this is our number one priority. Mayor Henn said the idea is to prioritize what we want to tackle and how many of those priorities we can tackle first. He said the group will recommend to the City Council in a public setting the final decisions about this. The first thing that would happen is we would determine the nature and the citizen involvement for each of the priorities. A property owner said she agrees that the Lido Village area should be the top priority. Mr. Bettencourt said a column needs to be added to the matrix that shows if the properties are within Caltrans jurisdiction because that will raise special issues certainly for Mariners Mile. He said he would add a column to the matrix as to whether or not the vision of what we would like to achieve is consistent with the current local coastal plan and land use element because it will add additional complexity. He said he would also add if the condition for any of the areas is likely to require major parcel assemblage. Mr. Helm said he sees the Lido Village project as a once in a generation actually two generations one with the City Hall moving and the Duda property renovation. This is the one time we are going to have to tie this together and provide a gateway community. Mr. Hawkins said he agrees with Council Member Hill that this is a gateway area. 2 Council Member Hill said he added a column to the matrix that is important to the priorities and the potential return on investment. In response to Mr. Bramberg, Mayor Henn said the fundamental planning for Marina Park is done. Corona del Mar entryway —PCH and MacArthur Ms. Smith said the redesign of the area of MacArthur and Pacific Coast Highway is something the improvement district in Corona del Mar seeks to move along fairly quickly. They also believe it will enhance the area, and businesses. There was a parking study done previously that Council Member Gardner would like to see implemented in Corona del Mar so this would be added to the Corona del Mar feature. Staff ranked it highly because it already has strong commitment in the community to move forward on this project. It has a fairly significant capital component which would require us to re- program our CIP and it has a design component. Mayor Henn said the design plan, the parking component, and the approval of doing the design work is subject to City Council approval at a public noticed regular meeting. If the plan is approved there would need to be a secondary approval which is the approval to do the work. This could require more money than just the cost of the plan. Ms. Lesley said this is the only one that is not marked in poor physical condition and its number two. She said poor physical condition should be the main factor. A resident said there has been a considerable amount of money in upgrades along Pacific Coast Highway starting at Jamboree all the way to Laguna with Corona del Mar being the prime source. She said it's not a needy area and doesn't see it as number two. Mr. Svalstad said the reason this should be chosen is because the Corona del Mar Business Improvement District has $75,000 to pay for this and we are asking for staff time to get a cost of what it would take to implement this. Mr. Nichols said this is the most impacted area along Coast Highway and the public transit system of a State highway. This would be a terrible place to impact traffic. Mr. Hawkins asked does the planning process include some sort of analysis of the intersection. In response to Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Badum said the process does include that. He said there was a study done to see what would happen if the lane was dropped. We will have to do some analysis to see what it does to the level of service and how it compares to the General Plan. Mr. Palmer said the issue about closing the lane is if anybody is trying to turn left from MacArthur that's where the lanes narrow down from three to two. He said the businesses in Corona del Mar over the past five to ten years have put over $350,000 into the improvements. 3 Mr. Yeo said to follow up with what Mr. Palmer said we have been working on improving Corona del Mar from a beautification stand point as well as making it more conducive to pedestrian traffic. This is really one of the most important things we could do in Corona del Mar to improve those things. Balboa Village Ms. Smith said staff suggested the Balboa Village area in terms of visioning, the commercial area, and the infrastructure. We primarily made this recommendation because of the activities that are ongoing currently on the peninsula. It's an area that needs to have the parking addressed and a vision for economic development. It is an iconic little community in Newport Beach. Mayor Henn said the reason he feels a since of urgency for Balboa Village is there are a couple of stake holders in the area that need to move ahead with substantial plans. The Nautical Museum has a very large capital fund and so does the Balboa Theater. We are going to have to describe a new vision for this area for donors to feel confident that a significant contribution to either of those projects will be worthwhile in the long run. Mr. Dildine said the area is going down every day with the private property owners. Mr. Palmer said this is an extremely important part of this project. The biggest thing we could achieve here is a dialogue between the resident associations and the Business Improvement Districts as well as the owners of the property. West Newport Beach — Balboa Boulevard, West Coast Highway Ms. Smith said this is a beautification project. Mr. Watkins said this project should be moved up. The project would have low staff time, it can be done quickly, and maybe the encroachment fund could be used for the improvement of West Newport in this area. Mr. Kiff said this is his favorite project. He said our investment in this part of town would help turn that part of town into a kind of place we want West Newport to look like. Ms. Jamison said she supports the improvement of the West Newport area. Mr. Hawkins said this project should be moved up on the list. Mr. Morissette said there is a portion not a median on Newport Boulevard between 26`h and 301h and the properties right in the middle of that are really rough looking. In terms of a gateway that is a really rough looking area. Mariner's Mile Council Member Hill said his concern regarding Mariner's Mile is the City through the General Plan that was approved about five years ago is now bringing the zoning code in compliance. His concern is that there is a greater picture to look at as it relates to marine orientation. A more comprehensive look at the zoning code to insure this new incentive for revitalization is applied and would work for the commercial aspect of it. It needs to El stay Mariner's Mile not by legislative mandate but by market driven opportunities. He said it needs more review and it needs more visioning. Mr. Nichols said he would hate to see too much residential. Then there would be constant traffic out on the highway. Santa Ana Heights — Bristol Street Landscaping Project No Continents were made about Santa Ana Heights. Mayor Henn said the critical issue is what can be included in the first set of projects. He said he thinks more than one project could move forward. It is a question of the mix of projects, the complexity, and the availability of staff resources. In response to a resident, Mayor Henn said we will find money to move forward with the necessary projects on the list recognizing we can't do them all at once. Mr. Kiff said we are interested in seeing the priorities then we would assign an estimated budget to each project and draw a line somewhere based on what we know. He said he does not see spending more than $300,000 or $400,000 on this. In response to a resident, Mayor Henn said we will sort out the applications that will be applicable to the particular two or three projects we are going to move forward on and make sure that we select a group for those projects. Ms. Smith asked the Committee if they would like staff to go back and take the top four or five projects give more detail in terms of overall budget costs, components, and staff resources. It's a budgeting issue that is going to help drive this as well as some of the comments. Council Member Hill said he thinks some of these projects are going to go quick with a very low cost. Mayor Henn said it's not just a financial matter we also need human resource. 4. Roundtable Discussion No comments were made. 5. Set Next Meeting The next meeting was discussed for June 9, 2011. 6. Adiournment The meeting adjourned at 5:30 p.m.