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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09/18/17 - Minutes - Regular MeetingTRES HERMANOS CONSERVATION AUTHORITY BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES OF SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 1. CALL TO ORDER: Chair/Marquez called the Tres Hermanos Conservation Authority Board of Directors meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. in the Community Meeting Room, First Floor, 14000 City Center Drive, Chino Hills, California. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Mark Gutglueck gave the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL: Herrera (DB); Rogers (CH), VC/Low (DB), C/Marquez (CH). Also Present: Konradt Bartlam, Executive Director; Dan Fox, Deputy Executive Director; Ben Montgomery; Asst. City Manager; and, Tommye Cribbins, Authority. Secretary. 2. PUBLIC COMMENTS: Jim Gallagher, a resident of Chino Hills and a representative of Save Tres Hermanos Ranch, said that his group recognizes the pressures coming from State agencies to preserve "green space" and reduce carbon emissions. His group is committed to save Tres Hermanos Ranch as open space as much as possible. Cynthia Smith, Diamond Bar resident and member of the Save Tres Hermanos Ranch is very mindful about updating her city's decision -makers and updating their environmental literacy to understand the details of 21St Century conservation planning details of green infrastructure and how it works, and focus on quality of life rather than profit to lead her city's decisions, especially for environmental projects. Lee Guenveur stated that he has heard rumors that there is excess power being generated from the solar plant on Interstate 15 that can't be used in California so it is being sold to both Arizona and Nevada. He intends to look into this matter and questions if this area needs another solar plant that has capacity that cannot be used. Mr. Guenveur suggested that Industry place the panels up at their millions of square foot buildings they are building north of Grand Avenue. All of those buildings should have solar panels on them and that way if there is any runoff from water contamination due to cadmium, lead, zinc and other things from the solar panels that it would be trapped in their waste water management for their parking lots. Bob Goodwin, President, Chino Hills based group "Hope for the Hills" said that it fought Southern California Edison to underground the 500,000 volt TRTP project in the city. During that nearly six year battle the group learned, which came out when the PUC ruled in the group's favor, was a term that was oftentimes forgotten which was "community values." SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 PAGE 2 THCA What value does this add to the community, what value does this give the residents of Diamond Bar and/or Chino Hills. From where he sits, the answer is "nothing". The other issue with residential or commercial development it leads to more traffic on Grand Avenue. From where he sits and it has been talked about, why not land swap with the Diamond Bar Country Club — build a golf course where Tres Hermanos is and let them develop the Country Club land for commercial and residential. It sits right on the freeway with freeway frontage, on ramps and off ramps already in existence. It's a win-win and there would be retention of some open space and quality of life does not suffer. RESPONSE TO PUBLIC COMMENTS: None offered. 3. CONSENT CALENDAR: Upon motion by D/Rogers, seconded by D/Herrera, the Consent Calendar was approved by the following Roll Call Vote: AYES: AUTHORITY MEMBERS: Herrera, Rogers, VC/Low, C/Marquez NOES: AUTHORITY MEMBERS: None. ABSENT: AUTHORITY MEMBERS: None. (a) Approved Minutes of May 16, 2016 as amended. (b) Approved Minutes of Special Meeting of August 21 as amended. 4. OLD BUSINESS: None. 5. NEW BUSINESS: 5.1 UPDATE ON OVERSIGHT BOARD OF THE INDUSTRY URBAN - DEVELOPMENT AGENCY ACTION OF AUGUST 24, 2017 REGARDING THE SALE OF PROPERTY KNOWN AS TRES HERMANOS — ED/Bartlam reported that the Oversight Board of the successor agency for Industry's Urban Development Agency took action on August 24th by a 4-3 vote to sell Tres Hermanos for $41.6 million. The recommended action by the Successor Agency was to purchase it for $100 million and he thinks there has been some confusion over where the dollar figures came from and the action taken. The Successor Agency's offer was based on an appraisal that was conducted in December 2016 using the area cities General Plans as a basis for value. In January 2017 the Oversight Board met and considered Industry's updated offer of $100 million which is consistent with the appraisal. At that time, the Oversight Board sent Industry back basically to divulge their intended use of the property. The Oversight Board had not met since January. At the August 2411 meeting again the Board reiterated their offer for $100 million for the property. At that time the motion was made by the City Manager of the City of Industry who sits on the Oversight Board to offer $41.6 million, and after a lengthy discussion taking some three and a half hours, the vote was finally taken SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 ' PAGE 3 THCA to complete that offer. In the meantime, the cities of Chino Hills and Diamond Bar have suggested to the State Department of Finance as an oversight position for redevelopment agency actions, to review the sale of the property. The cities of Chino Hills and Diamond Bar believe there was a variety of issues that should have been considered by the Oversight . Board and that both Chino Hills and Diamond Bar believe that the State Department of Finance has the authority to at least review the action. Chino Hills has been quite clear in not opposing Industry's ability to acquire the property, just simply want to know the ultimate intent for land use. Chino Hills continues to ask the decision -makers of Industry what they are desirous of doing with the property and as recently as early today have been met with no comment. Chino Hills will continue to pursue options in an attempt to get the City of Industry to be transparent. He suspects that this will mean a bit of a back and forth tussle for some time. DED/Fox said that EDfBartlam's comments were well summarized and accurate. He believes that Diamond Bar will be talking about this issue at its council meeting tomorrow night as well. Diamond Bar has also sent correspondence to the Department of Finance and has attempted to get information from the City of Industry as to what their plans are the use of the property. Chair/Marquez offered the following: If Industry purchased the property for $100 million, or bought the property with a deed restriction for $41 million, it would be the same, right. They could only buy the property for Public Facilities or for Open Space so the deed restriction meant nothing. But because the City of Industry's City Manager stated that, all of a sudden there is a discount of $59 million in reality, if they had paid $100 million, it would have had the same deed restrictions. EDIBaMam agreed. Existing state law regarding how municipal entities can use property outside of their jurisdiction, is fairly clear that it can be used for public purpose; however, what is the definition of "public purpose". Chair/Marquez asked who lost the $59 million. EDIBardam said the unique situation that this represents is a former redevelopment agency owning property outside of their boundaries which is arguably, a situation that should never have occurred to begin with. First and foremost finding they would have had to make, is that the property was blighted and in need of redevelopment assistance to remove that blight. It is pretty hard to say that a piece of property that has never been touched for development purposes is blighted or is exacerbating its influence on its surrounding property. Certainly, the areas surrounding both Diamond Bar and Chino Hills, is and was not blighted at the time. SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 PAGE 4 THCA The question is "why was Industry able to purchase the property" they've owned since 1978. The City of Industry can only use the, property, by current state law, for "public purpose." Again, public purpose has no definition, but the kinds of things one sees municipalities use property for outside of their boundaries is anything from the various utilities that cities are involved in — water, electricity, waste water, airports, waste water treatment facilities, landfills and a gamut of utility kinds of activities. It is true that it could be open space. He would be remise to suggest that Industry has shown in their 60 plus years of cityhood, that they have had a penchant for providing open space for themselves, their residents or the region. So the concern that the cities have been that if it is solar as we have uncovered through the documents, that is one thing and what else could it be? Mr. Gallagher mentioned in his public comment that there is a great deal of pressure, not just from the State but from the market, for housing. And he would argue that with the amount of legislative activity just over this past year regarding housing, that a fair argument can be made that a "public purpose" is the - - construction of housing. - D/Rogers said that this property was sold for $41 million. Over the last year as this has started to take on more traction and word is starting to leak out more and more, he hears comments from the group that "why don't we come up with $100 million and buy it and keep it in conservation mode and he would always say, hey, if you can come up with $100 million, good luck. $41 million may not have been all that tough to find, actually. If THCA had known that and if that had been out there to give these cities an opportunity to do a little federal and state fundraising for $42 million, perhaps that could have been accomplished. In light of that, to him this looks more like a backroom deal than ever before. And he did not really think about that until just now. What a deal - $41 million for that type of property. He wants to find out the true definition of THCA's mission for this group going forward. With $92,000 sitting in the account, why not use that to fund the two cities legal aspects of their initial outreach. What this group had talked about over time was to use this in case it needed legal help to try to do something with the City of Industry. Now that this has come so far past what was perhaps THCA's original mission, is this group now like a middleman? What is the role of THCA? While that does not have to be determined today he would like to read up on the bylaws to refresh his memory. What is the mission and what is the purpose of the THCA? D/Herrera said she believed the bylaws were sent out to everyone. She is probably the only one on the Conservation Authority who was on it since The beginning. It was originally a "planning" committee to work with Chino Hills to plan what was going to happen on the land. Years ago there was SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 PAGE 5 THCA A commissioned plan similar to a specific Plan as to what could happen and be developed in the property. The complication is that while the property is within Diamond Bar and Chino Hills city limits, it is owned by a third party who did not come to any of the meetings and did not participate. VC/Low said that her observation is that over the years the City of Industry has not provided any information and has not participated in any discussions regarding Tres Hermanos up to and including today. And yet, some of the buzz words they have thrown around have been taken as oh, it's a public service or a public purpose and that can easily be misconstrued by many individuals in the public as to what they mean by that and what they want it to be. For example, she wants trails so she thinks that is a public service. Some people want a golf course so they believe that is a public purpose. From the history of the City of Industry, it is probably more toward one direction than the other. Having said that, she believes that it would be prudent as the goal has been in the past, to work to plan but while that is a nice goal, she believes this process is beyond the planning stage and she believes one of THCA's first missions is to flush out what might be "public purpose" by way of demonstrating what the various alternatives could be. At the same time, THCA needs legal advice as to what it can do and what "public purpose" can be. Even if THCA or the cities could have come up with $42 million to purchase the property, in her view, presents some kind of fiduciary issue/problem and whether it rises to the legal of breach of duty she cannot say because she believes THCA needs a legal opinion about that. However, she believes THCA does need to explore whether or not there has been a breach of conflict of fiduciary duties by the Oversight Board She suggested THCA take a two-pronged approach: 1) Flush out what can be achieved on that property and 2) determine whether or not it is legal., and 3) Work with their respective city council's to maximize the funds THCA has and not overlap or be redundant with the Authority's funds. Chair/Marquez stated that ED/Bartlam said that both cities are working on this and the respective attorneys know about this matter. If THCA were to dissolve, how would this entity be dissolved? ED/Bartlam said he believed the Authority would have to take an action to recommend to the respective council's the dissolution. Chair/Marquez asked if as a group the Authority could hire an attorney representing both cities. ED/Bartlam said the Authority could hire an attorney or appoint one of the respective City Attorney's. D/Rogers said this goes back to his original statement which was not answered as to what the true mission of THCA is? Is it redundancy or is it SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 PAGE 8 turn around and sell that property to a developer. THCA Chair/Marquez said he would not go into that kind of detail until THCA had an attorney on board. In the meantime, Mr. Gutglueck could meet with each of the City Managers for a response to his questions. Mr. Gutglueck's next question was whether THCA was anticipating political action, financial political action that would be hatched among the City of Industry and a potential future developer. ED/Bartlam indicated in Chino Hills there is a voter -approved measure which sets a limit on the number of units that can be built on any given property and to change that takes one of two things — it takes the council to define whatever additional units that do not exist today or a "vote of the people" to approve that change. And so the notion Mr. Gutglueck is headed toward is not the council being able to do that but convincing the citizens of Chino Hills that it is a good idea. Measure U was adopted by the Chino Hills residents in 1996. Cynthia Smith asked if Diamond Bar had such a measure. DED/Fox indicated Diamond Bar does not have such a measure. Mr. Gutglueck referred back to the megawatts being limited and that the solar farm could not generate as many as they said. There are different types of technology and he heard people talking about panels. There is stuff called Therminol, an artificial petroleum product and depending on how it is rated it absorbs a whole lot of heat which they pump into the condenser and they steam it in the turbine. 6. AUTHORITY MEMBER COMMENTS: D/Herrera said she understands people want information but this matter is at a delicate point since there will likely be litigation and does not believe a lot should be said. Even with the attorney present she does not believe there is a lot that should be said in public. VC/Low thanked everyone for being present this evening and for their input. She thanked Chair/Marquez for his leadership. D/Rogers said he did not know where to go with this because he does not know if THCA has that much information at this moment. He believes everyone has been pretty forthcoming with the information with the press and with the public as everyone seems to be hearing the information. He does not know how much, more information can be shared at the meeting next month unless something starts to roll out. SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 PAGE 9 THCA Chair/Marquez said he serves on the League of Cities on the Inland Empire side and also serves on SCAG. The two areas of concern he has are: 1) affordable housing and SB35 which has to do with multiple housing units which calls for streamlining and modification of CEQA. There are a lot of Bills for affordable housing and Tres Hermanos is a nice piece of property; and, 2) Renewable Energy which says that by 2020 for 50 percent of electricity to come from "green energy" and prior to the close of session they were talking about 100 percent by 2045. It is a concern and we will begin to see more renewable energy. During the SCAG meeting there was discussion about renewable energy. It was stated that solar panels would be needed and a transmission line such as a 500kb TRTP which they said is very expensive. But, as everyone knows, it is already in our backyard which is another concern for him. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business to conduct, Chairman Marquez adjourned the meeting at 6:18 p.m. �J07n'77f-- QJdl Tommye C Abbins, Authority Secretary ATTEST: Ray Marquez, Chair an