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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/21/17 - Minutes - Regular MeetingTRES HERMANOS CONSERVATION AUTHORITY SPECIAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 21, 2017 1. CALL TO ORDER: Chair Herrera called the Tres Hermanos Conservation Authority Board of Directors meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. in the Chico Hills City Hall Community Meeting Room, First Floor, 14000 City Center Drive. ROLL CALL: Carol Herrera, Chair (DB) Ray Marquez, Vice Chair (CH); Peter Rogers, Delegate (CH); Ruth Low, Alternate Delegate (DB) Konradt Bartlam, Executive Director (CH); Dan Fox, Deputy Executive Director (DB); Ben Montgomery, Asst. City Manager; and, Tommye Cribbins, Authority Secretary. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Chair/Herrera led the Pledge of Allegiance. 2. PUBLIC COMMENTS: Jim Gallagher, a resident of Chino Hills and a representative of Save Tres Hermanos Ranch, said that his group is concerned about what Tres Hermanos may become. They are aware that both Diamond Bar and Chino Hills zoned it for commercial and residential development and that the City of Industry will be putting forth a plan to install a solar farm on that property. His question is about the role of the Conservation Authority. Robyn Smith wanted to know the purpose of the Conservation Authority. She is a conservationist and is concerned about the behavior of the City of Industry. She has been mapping wildlife in Diamond Bar as a citizen and believes it is time to form a non-profit group because she has mapped some pretty important species on the border of Tres Hermanos close to where she lives. She is very concerned about the overall behavior of the City of Industry and their conversations about the land because they do not seem to be discussing what the land is, biologically, and she would like to know what biological authority is being referred to in the journey of discovering what this land is and how best to develop or save the land. She would like to see the land preserved as a conservation effort not only on the part of at least Diamond Bar's portion, but for the entirety of the land because of the wildlife connectivity. Richard Zoya said while he is ignorant about this committee and Tres Hermanos Ranch he has been observing it from afar for a long time and lives very close to Tres Hermanos. Almost every day he passes through Grand Avenue between Diamond Bar and Chino Hills. It is a beautiful place and a prime piece of property. He would hate to see it developed by someone who does not live here who wants to use it for income producing solar generating or flooding and water generation of electricity which, in his estimation, would ruin the land. He would like to see the land undeveloped or developed in such a way that it would possibly derive income for both Diamond Bar and Chino Hills while leaving 95 percent of the land undeveloped. A resort developer, for example, could take a small portion of the land for development where there is a left -behind structure and old foundations of buildings that existed at one time and would not be visible AUGUST 21, 2017 PAGE 2 THCA from Grand Avenue. The community needs to provide input into what could be done with the land. He understands that cities probably have a hard time leaving that big of a piece of land undeveloped, but he believes in this instance, there needs to be "outside of the bo) ' consideration for other alternatives than those that have been proposed for the land. In addition, he does not know whether that land is still available for sale to a private company. Lee Guenveur said he has lived in Chino Hills since 1991. Use of that land was part of his growing up where he rode horses which he loved and now seems to be pushed to some other use and his main concern is a 1000 acres of solar panels, associated manufacturing items and rain runoff from the panels and what that could do to the rainwater areas including possible groundwater contamination and water pollution as well as, wind generation units and other equipment that are left to rot in the landscape. He also wanted to know what the end -of -life plan is for these solar farms. RESPONSE TO PUBLIC COMMENTS: Chair/Herrera stated that the role of this organization is a Conservation Authority from the City of Diamond Bar and Chino Hills and the Tres Hermanos property is owned by the City of Industry. At the time, it was owned by the City of Industry Redevelopment Agency. The State of California did away with redevelopment agencies and now they are compelled to sell all of their properties with bulk of the money going to state, school districts and everybody else who did benefit from redevelopment agencies. This group has not had a lot of work to do since it was formed 11 years ago because it is unable to do anything when the owner of the property is not a member of this Authority. There has been discussion in the past about bringing in the City of Industry so that the Authority could have a more complete conversation about what would be planned for the Tres Hermanos' 2500 acres; however there was never consensus to bring them in to work with the Authority so it is left to two cities to work on this issue. She believes that both Diamond Bar and Chino Hills are concerned about what is going to be planned. Nothing is set in stone yet because nothing has been approved by the Oversight Committee and until the Oversight Committee does so, there is nothing for the Authority to consider. Until that happens, this Authority may want to collectively consult legal action or perhaps the individual cities may want to do that. It remains to be seen depending on what the plans are for the land. VC/Marquez said that he has been involved with the Authority for about two years and served as Vice Chair last year. One of the things he really wanted to do was to reach out to the City of Industry and over the last year and a half he has been communicating with the City of Industry through the City Clerk. He tried to communicate with Industry's City Manager but was unsuccessful. He has had meetings with the Mayor. As a City, Chino Hills has been proactive in its attempt to find out what was going on behind the scenes. As a group, this organization has been working hard and has its concerns. Authority Members let their guard up and he believes it is important from this point forward to continue to be proactive as a group. AUGUST 21, 2017 PAGE 3 THCA Delegate Rogers said he has served two-year stints on the Authority several times. The last time he served there was no activity, just rumors. And then there was the involvement with Redevelopment. As Chair/Herrera said, there has been conversations and he knows that the City of Industry was invited on a few occasions to participate in meetings; however, were never interested in attending. They were again invited to participate in tonight's meeting to at least provide an update on what is going on. Chair/Herrera said they were not interested unless they could be a voting member. Delegate Rogers continued that this group was really formed years ago to be kind of an "oversight" group of the two impacted communities in case the City of Industry tried to pull a fast one on us and slip something through quickly. Both cities put in,seed money for a total of about $100,000 in case the Authority needed to come up with legal action very quickly. As everyone knows, this Authority normally meets once a year to approve the minutes, the agenda and finance which is what this meeting is about. It is still premature to know what direction to go in. Obviously, there has been a lot more press the last year plus when it comes to what might happen with this property via the rumor mill. It seems to be surfacing as to what the intentions might be and he does not know what direction the collective group will take, but individually, the City of Chino Hills is watching the City of Industry very closely to make sure to as best as possible, be properly informed to make a decision to support or not support the intended outcome on behalf of its citizens. As a group, he is not sure how this Authority goes in collectively defending a direction or if each City will take its own course of action. Chair/Herrera agreed that a course of action for the Authority has not been defined because the Authority has not encountered a situation where it needed to research and determine what kind of legal authority this group has. She reiterated that each of the Cities of Chino Hills and Diamond Bar has "permitting" authority. So, if something is planned that is not within the City's General Plan, the City has a right to deny the proposal. There might be some exceptions which might lead to Court hearings but in general, the two cities have permit authority which means that someone cannot just proceed to build whatever they feel like building such as 1000 houses because it is not allowed within Chino Hills' General Plan nor is it allowed within Diamond Bar's General Plan. So there are certain things people do not need to be alarmed about and a lot remains to be seen as to what will happen. Again, until the Oversight Board grants approval, we do not really know what we're facing or need to discuss. D/Marquez asked for a copy of the Authority Bylaws. AUGUST 21, 2017 PAGE 4 3. CONSENT CALENDAR: THCA Upon motion by VC/Marquez, seconded by D/Low, all Consent Calendar items were approved as presented by unanimous vote with the exception of Item 3.1 which was pulled for separate consideration. 3.2 APPROVED CHECK REGISTER for the Time Period from March 2016 through July 2017. 3.3 RECEIVED AND FILED TREASURER'S STATEMENTS for the months of March 2014 through February 2015. 3.4 RECEIVED AND FILED INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT for Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2016. 3.5 CONFIRMATION OF APPOINTMENTS: a) Chino Hills Mayor Ray Marquez and Vice Mayor Peter Rogers as Delegates to the Tres Hermanos Conservation Authority. b) Diamond Bar Council Member Carol Herrera as Delegate; and, Council Member Ruth Low as Alternate Delegate to the Tres Hermanos Conservation Authority. ITEMS WITHDRAWN FROM CONSENT CALENDAR: 3.1 APPROVED MINUTES OF May 16, 2016 as corrected by Chair/Herrera to indicate that the meeting was adjourned by Chair/Herrera. 4. OLD BUSINESS: None 5. NEW BUSINESS: 5.1 a) SELECTION OF AUTHORITY CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR FOR TERMS COMMENCING AUGUST 1, 2017 AND ENDING JUNE 30, 2019. D/Rogers nominated VC/Marquez to serve as Authority Chair for the designated two-year term. D/Low seconded the nomination. With no other nominations offered, VC/Marquez was unanimously elected to serve as Authority Chair for the two-year term beginning August 1, 2017 and ending June 30, 2019. C/Marquez nominated, D/Low to serve as Vice Chair of the Authority for the designated two-year term. D/Rogers seconded the nomination. With no other nominations offered, D/Low was unanimously elected to serve as Authority Vice -Chair for the two- year term beginning August 1, 2017 and ending June 30, 2019. AUGUST 21, 2017 PAGE 5 THCA (b) ROTATION OF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR THE TERM COMMENCING AUGUST 1, 2017 AND ENDING JUNE 30, 2019. ED/Bartlam provided staff's report. Staff proposes that the Chino Hills City Manager, Konradt Bartlam be appointed the Chairman; the City Manager of Diamond Bar, Dan Fox be appointed the Deputy Chairman and that the new Finance Director for Chino Hills, Christa Buhagiar be appointed the Treasurer/Auditor. D/Rogers moved, D/Herrera seconded, to unanimously approve staffs recommended appointments in accordance with staff's report. Without objection, the motion was so ordered. 6. AUTHORITY MEMBER COMMENTS: VC/Low thanked everyone for attending and offering their opinions and participating in the meeting. This has been a long time coming and while it is not yet known what is coming, it has been very frustrating. She is personally frustrated but she believed all present tonight along with the cities' respective Councilmembers are frustrated as well and doing everything possible to stay on top of the situation to see how they can best represent the cities and be good stewards of the land. D/Herrera assured everyone that Diamond Bar's first priority is to protect its citizens and to protect the City, which is what Diamond Bar intends to do and she is sure that is what Chino Hills intends to do as well. It is difficult because it is like pulling teeth to get information. But everyone is persistent and will continue to pursue valid information and will be prepared to do whatever is necessary to protect the residents. D/Rogers said everyone is watching closely and his City Manager and Mayor have been watching closely this past years and it is in everyone's best interest to continue to watch closely. Starting in 2018 Tres Hermanos will be in Chair/Marquez's district so he will be watching even closer. Chair/Marquez thanked D/Herrera for her service. His goal is to look at the schedule and try to be proactive about what is going on and to communicate to the Authority Members. He would like to meet more often than once a year on an as -needed basis. He thanked everyone for their participation. 8. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business to conduct, Chairman Marquez adjourned the meeting at 4:02 p.m. 04,11" LI Tommy A. Cribbins, Authority Secretary AUGUST 21, 2017 /PAGE 6 THCA The foregoing rpKutes are Ray Marquez, approved this l8th-day of September , 2017.