HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/09/1989 Minutes - Regular MeetingMINUTES OF STUDY SESSION
OF DIAMOND BAR CITY COUNCIL
May 9, 1989
Call to Order:
San Bernardino
v. City of Diamond Bar:
Mayor Papen called the Study Session
to order at 7:00 P.M.
Mayor Papen asked City Attorney
Arczynski to give an update of the
Mandatory Settlement Conference that
had occurred on May 9. Attorney
Arczynski advised that the hearing
set for June 2, 1989 had been
continued to June 9, 1989. At that
time the issue of the Writ of Mandate
would be addressed.
Presentations: Mayor Papen advised the audience that
in order to get background information
regarding the planning function 3
people were asked to address the
Council. Mayor Papen then introduced
Rudy Lackner from the L.A. County
Planning Department assigned to
Diamond Bar and asked Mr. Lackner to
give an overview of what is the
current status of our General Plan.
Mr. Lackner displayed a Community Plan
Map and explained the reason for a
General Plan. It is to provide a
framework for the future. Allow for
utilities, schools, transportation
to provide for the future and is
required by law.
State Law says that each General Plan
must have 7 mandatory elements which
are land use, circulation, noise,
safety, conservation, open space and
housing.
Mr. Lackner went on to discuss how
to develop a general plan and gave 3
ways to develop the plan: 1. Get
public involvement, develop data in
each areas necessary to develop an
element. 2. What are the community
issues, needs and objectives. 3.
What are objectives.
May 9, 1989
Mr. Lackner advised that the Diamond
Bar Community Plan adopted in 1983
met state requirements through L.A.
County. It was adopted by 3 elements,
land use, circulation and noise. All
other elements were taken care of by
the County General Plan. All
elements of the General Plan must be
consistent with each other.
Mr. Lackner explained how to implement
the policies of the General Plan once
the General Plan is adopted. He
advised that the procedure is most
commonly addressed in the local
ordinances, such as the building code,
zoning ordinance and sub -division
ordinance.
Once a sub -division map has been
filed the first requirement is that
within 30 days it must be reviewed
by a committee consisting of the
Public Works Department, Parks and
Rec, Fire Department and Regional
Planning who will sit down with the
developer and engineer and give him
their recommendations based on their^!
individual review. Most
comprehensive is from Public Works
Department. All engineering
requirements are reviewed by the
Department of Public Works.
Mr. Lackner explained that the
difference between a zoning case
and a sub -division case. In zoning
cases the legislative body has more
discretion. A sub -division case, the
State Map Act provides for many.of
the general guidelines. Sub-
division creates lot lines, and type
of ownership.
Mayor Papen asked Council if there
were any questions?
Councilman Werner asked if there was
any reason with the exceptions of the
white areas shown on the map that we
would consider the D.B. Community
Plan not consistent with the
requirements for state law.
May 9, 1989 May 9, 1989
Mr. Lackner explained that as far as
he knew it was consistent with state
law. In terms of land use it is
consistent.
Councilman Werner then asked about
the four other elements that are
required, does the state allow the use
of policies of the County Plan in
lieu of going through the exercise of
adopting our own.
Mr. Lackner advised that we could
adopt the safety element only as to
how it applies to the community. The
one element that is going to be
tricky is the housing element.
Councilman Werner also asked
questions about housing, more
specifically affordable for all.
Councilman Werner also advised that
SCAG updates those plans every 5
years or so. So even if we wanted to
update a housing element now we would
not have any numbers provided for us
^I by SCAG.
Mayor Papen then introduced Mr. Dal
Cabell who was Chairman of the
Municipal Advisory Planning Advisory
Committee to give an update on their
report.
Mr. Cabell advised that the General
Plan had been adopted in 1982 and
readopted in 1983. The new committee
established priorities in the
elements that they could deal with in
adopting and amending the Community
Plan. Their first priority was in
land use and then confined themselves
with areas that could and should be
added to the City of Diamond Bar as
the areas of the "sphere of
influence" or direct annexation.
They recommend that the City request
for a sphere of influence with LAFCO,
as these areas are wide open and under
_ the new rules, we have no sphere of
influence as a new city and we must
create it. There are two portions
that need to be addressed, commercial
and industrial.
May 9, 1989
Mr. Cabell then spoke about the
circulation element. Critical problem
of traffic coming from all the
arterial highways that go to and
through D.B. They looked at all major
highways. A series of motions which
were put in amended form of the
circulation element of the General
Plan. Four areas of priority were:
Traffic generated from S.B. County
(Chino Hills). Traffic generated
from the westside (Industry Valley
Blvd area) additional development in
and around Diamond Bar and general
growth in traffic. Most critical is
Tonner Canyon Roadway.
Another concern the Committee looked
into was signal controls that would
need to be installed if Grand Avenue
is opened. The committee recommends
that mitigation be in place and paid
for by San Bernardino County before
Grand Avenue is opened.
Mayor Papen asked Mr. Cabell if the
committee had looked into any other
elements beside circulation.
Mr. Cabell advised that they looked
into housing, but in terms of
percentages it was the same as the
1982 plan. It was recommended that
the committee look into housing
percentage requirements as we begin to
think about building out into the
northeast section. Would also talk
with the people building in the Shell
property. Mr. Cabell did not feel
that there was a threat in regards to
the Firestone Camp area since this is
a dedicated trust property. The new
committee should look into these areas
of building in a timely basis.
Mr. Horcher asked Mr. Cabell if it
was safe to say that we will have a 6
figure population.
Mr. Cabell advised that yes, we "—
would. The Shell property is looking
at approximately 1500 dwelling units.
All property west of the camp site.
Either set for dwelling or commercial
use.
May 9, 1989 May 9, 1989
Mayor Papen asked Mr. Lackner if
there were guidelines regarding
notification to the City when projects
were being considered out of the City
boundaries but within a few miles.
Mr. Lackner advised that the County
will notify any city or jurisdiction
within a mile.
Mr. Werner stated there are two large
areas not designated and he would
like to know if the City of Diamond
Bar ran any risk in terms of land use
development proposals within the
areas? The concept is:would it be
proper for the City to establish an
interm land use designation for
those areas that would reflect
existing land use.
Mr. Lackner advised that the County
General Plan does have land use
designations for them.
Councilman Werner asked City
Attorney if the City needed to adopt
the the Community Plan as might be
supplemented with the 2 areas
discussed as an interm policy, would
it allow us the 30 months to develop
our own general plan and would it
give us some means of guidelines if
and when each development proposal
comes before Council.
Mr. Arczynski advised that is what
we have at this time.
Mr. Werner reiterated that by
adopting all the County Ordinances we
more or less adopted those as interm
land use designations. Can we amend
those interm land use designations
before we adopt a complete General
Plan?
Mr. Arczynski advised that it was
possible.
Mr. Caswell asked Mr. Lackner to let
Council know what exactly those two
areas in question are designated for.
May 9, 1989
Mayor Papen asked Mr. Lackner to also
advise Council on the percentage of
housing in each category.
Mayor Papen then introduced Mr.
Koffi Sefa, who is an urban land
economist who has developed an interim
growth management plan for the City of
Diamond Bar.
Mr. Sefa discussed his proposal with
Council. Mr. Sefa also discussed the
fiscal impact of all the various
elements. Two elements that could
also be added were urban design and
economic development. These elements
were included because of the direct
relationship they had to the other 7
elements.
Mr. Sefa recommended that Ordinances
should be enacted that would limit
certain kinds of developments that
are undesirable.
Mr. Sefa went on to explain there are
two kinds of ordinances, urgency or
emergency ordinance which could be
formulated without going through the
long term process, and then the
regular ICO (Interim Control
Ordinance). He feels that we could
benefit from the ICO.
Mr. Sefa thanked Council for allowing
him to speak with the Council and
offered to help in anyway possible.
Mayor Papen asked about the 600 acres
in the City of Industry redevelopment
area and whether Mr. Lackner, Mr.
Cabell or Mr. Sefa were aware as to
whether or not there were any plans to
mitigate the freeway impact?
Councilman Miller advised that City of
Industry has no thoughts of doing
industrial,they know that it is
under Diamond Bar zoning, so that
particular piece of land is not a
concern as far as putting in major
industrial.
May 9, 1989 May 9, 1989
Mayor Papen opened discussion up to
the audience.
Joe McManus, 23561 Coyote Springs
Drive. He asked to clarify if in
fact when there is talk of adopting
the General Plan if it also meant
adopting the amendments that were
discussed or as it was written in
1983 or the plan in 1988.
Both Councilman Werner and Miller
advised that Council has to create
the plan.
Mr. McManus advised that there were
some mitigation measures on specific
things discussed such as
signalization, if adopted would it be
adopted with the amendments?
Mayor Papen advised that Council
would take a look into it and
possibly insert it.
Councilman Miller advised Mr.
-- McManus that all data would be
looked at and considered.
Sunny Martindale 1333 Rapidview Dr.
She wanted to know where the
boundaries of the 600 acres that
had been discussed?
Council advised that it was in between
little league field goes around Honda
dealership, backing up to Valley Blvd.
She asked if it would impact
Brea Canyon Road and Grand going
through Diamond Bar Blvd.
Mayor Papen advised that Golden
Springs will be significantly
impacted because maps show
Sunset Crossing opening up to
Grand Ave.
Mr. Sefa advised that it would pay a
city to do a cost analysis of all the
services that are being provided and
then identify what type of General
funds should be utilized.
May 9, 1989
Councilman Miller advised the audience
that the City would not subsidize any
development in the City of Diamond Bar ^,
and that the costs would be paid by
the developer.
Mayor Papen then asked the
Councilmembers what direction they
wanted to take.
Mayor Papen recommended that each
Councilmember put together a list of
people to serve on the planning
committee.
It was decided by concensus that
each Councilmember nominate 6 people
to serve on the planning
committee.
Mayor Papen advised the audience
that if anyone was interested in
being on the planning committee
to send letter to City Hall and
with what area or areas you are
interested in.
Mayor Papen then asked Council
if a City Planner or a firm should be
hired to work with the group to
develop the General Plan.
Councilman Miller recommended
that before a Planner is hired
that the hiring of the City
Manager should come first
since he should have quite a bit of
influence in the hiring of a City
Planner.
Councilman Werner said that he would
like to keep things flexible. That
even though Mr. Sefa mentioned 3
optional elements, there aren't any
limits in the General Plan.
Mayor Papen felt that it was
appropriate that a letter be sent to
both LAFCO and Regional Planning that
it is anticipated that the area in
question would be in our sphere of
influence and that we would like to be
kept up to date with any projects
within the future sphere of influence
and even though we are to be notified
she would like it in writing.
May 9, 1989 May 9, 1989
Mr. Caswell advised that he would
send letters to both LAFCO and
i
Regional Planning.
Councilman Werner went on to suggest
that this issue be taken up with the
Planning Sub -Committee so they can put
the application together to be
recommended to the City Council as a
group. Secondly, to request planning
staff to provide definition of Land
Use from the County to the local
designations that are white on the map
and make sure they reflect existing
land uses. Thirdly, Mr. Werner liked
the fiscal Impact analysis from Mr.
Sefa. That the City get the best
information available from the
developer which would also include
a fiscal impact analysis which he
felt would not have to be done by
an interim zoning ordinance.
Horcher asked Mr. Sefa if he in
fact had a specific game plan
--� in mind for the City of Diamond Bar?
'i
Mr. Sefa advised we need to do a
data base analysis, and looking at
our strengths.
Councilman Horcher asked all things
being equal what does the City want?
Mr. Sefa replied that the city wants
to be economically viable. We want
retail, because of the revenue.
Mayor Papen asked the audience if
there was anything urgent that
anyone in the audience wished to
discuss.
Mr. Al Rumpilla 23958 Golden
Springs. Mrs. Mayor, at your last
meeting according to your agenda
and according to the way the meeting
was handled the public did not have a
chance to participate. Tonight, I see
that that has been corrected. My
question to the City Council is next
Tuesday's meeting are you going to
follow last Tuesday's agenda or
continue with the way you did tonight,
which is very acceptable.
May 9, 1989
Mayor Papen explained that this was
a study session, so it was opened
up for questions and answers. The
procedure at any council meeting is
that there are slips on the back
table to be filled out and what item
number you wish to discuss. The
procedure will be this way for City
Council meetings.
Rumpilla - If a citizen comes in
during the meeting with no desire
to address council, then an item
comes up and he wishes to ask a
question? Will the citizen have
the opportunity to fill out a
sheet of paper and address the
council and then be called upon.
Mayor Papen time allowing "yes"
that citizen would be called upon.
Councilman Miller reiterated that
the whole point is for organized
discussion.
I�
Rumpilla - "I don't want to beat a
dead horse", the agenda was
acceptable. But Council did not
stay with the agenda.
Mr. Philip Duarte 1340 Red Bluff
gave update on South Pointe School and
problem with boundary. It appears
that Arciero is acting on behalf of
the school district.
City Attorney Arczynski adjourned
meeting to Executive session to
discuss County of S.B. v. Whole
World. No action will be taken.
Also personnel matters will be
taken under advisement.
Adjourned at 9:00 P.M.
R pectfuul�ly Submitted,
6 --
Tommye A. Nice I
Secretary
ATTEST:
4/�7"
Phyllis Papen
Mayor