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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07/19/2011 Minutes - Regular MeetingCITY OF DIAMOND BAR CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION JULY 19, 2011 STUDY SESSION: M/Tye called the Study Session to order at 5:35 p.m. in Room CC -8 of the South Coast Air Quality Management District/Government Center, 21865 Copley Dr., Diamond Bar, CA. Present: Council Members, Ron Everett, Carol Herrera, Jack Tanaka, and Mayor Tye, MPT/Chang arrived at 5:38 p.m. Staff Present: James DeStefano, City Manager; David Doyle, Assistant City Manager; Michael Jenkins, City Attorney; Bob Rose, Community Services Director, David Liu, Public Works Director; Greg Gubman, Community Development Director; Ryan McLean, Assistant to the City Manager; Rick Yee, Senior Civil Engineer; Kimberly Young, Associate Engineer; Ken Desforges, IS Director; Marsha Roa, Public Information Manager; and Tommye Cribbins, City Clerk. 110� DISCUSSION REGARDING PROPOSAL BY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS (SCAG) TO BUILD A DEDICATED TRUCK ROUTE PARALLEL TO VALLEY BOULEVARD. CM/DeStefano explained that tonight's Study Session was called to discuss a proposal by SCAG to build a dedicated truck route parallel to Valley Boulevard, which is an reiteration of previous discussions in 2000, 2004 and 2008. PWD/Liu presented a PowerPoint presentation giving a brief history and overview of a study that has been revisited every few years regarding the east -west freight corridor addressing goods movement from ports to inland locations. Currently SCAG is developing a comprehensive regional goods movement plan and implementation strategy and looking to refine/modify their earlier work, more specifically, to define an east -west corridor to be included in the upcoming 2012 RTP. The outcome of the study will provide a foundation for the goods movement element for RTP. This is a long-range program and SCAG's long-term investment framework in an attempt to address transportation needs within the six -county SCAG region with a list of projects through 2035 representing regional commitment. It is very likely that SCAG will make its recommendation this fall. PWD/Liu indicated that C/Herrera is the Council's representative on the SCAG Board. PWD/Liu concluded his presentation by stating that staff will continue to update the City Council with any new information as it comes forward. Given what is at stake for the City's future, staff will make every effort to ensure that decisions made regarding any east -west freight corridor work that is in the interest of the City and its residents ensuring that the quality of life remains high for future generations. Therefore at this time, Staff is recommending the City Council oppose the current proposal. JULY 19, 2011 PAGE 2 CC STUDY SESSION CM/DeStefano stated that this is the fourth time this proposal has come forward. This one however, has a slightly different twist because it is clearly focused on the San Jose Creek wash property where the others were narrower. This proposal because of the mandate that SCAG develop a plan that meets the Federal Air Quality Attainment Standards, staff believes is a large part of why this proposal has been brought forth. Because of the zero emission vehicles and other matters built into this concept that doesn't exist yet are necessary based on a variety of technical analyses in order for SCAG to meet the overall regional air quality mandates from the Federal government. There was a comment made earlier about a seeming lack of political opposition to this proposal. Previous proposals included changes to the SR60 that would more directly affect the incorporated cities along the SR60. Additionally, several years ago there were many more active members serving on the Hacienda Heights and Rowland Heights advisory groups. This route is not along the SR60 and further away from some of those incorporated cities and unincorporated areas. He suspects that as has occurred the last three times, D.B. would be the City to do all of the heavy lifting should D.B. continue to have strong reservations if not outright opposition to such a proposal as is currently before the Council. The cities along the route from the SR60 east are few. The majority of the area is the City of Industry and they are a significant proponent of the measure. There is a small piece that might affect La Puente, West Covina and Walnut with a significant residential portion against the SR60, but because of the interchange that is proposed north of Sunset Crossing on the Lanterman property, staff believes D.B. would likely receive the bulk of the impact in terms of aesthetics, construction, noise, etc. that might be associated with such a project. Staff believes that if the Council concurs with prior Councils' and views of opposition D.B. will have to do all of the heavy lifting and will need to organize a group with similar beliefs. Staff does not know how successful that effort might be but part of the reason for bringing this to the Council today is that this is moving through the system pretty quickly. Staff wants to be sure that the Council is aware of the proposal and that the Council's current views based on staffs report with respect to a neutral position, a proposal and support or proposal and opposition will guide staff as meetings and hearings proceed and as this comes to a SCAG decision later this year. C/Everett said he was intrigued with Industry's position and asked if the City of Industry was in favor of San Jose Creek. CM/DeStefano reiterated that it was his opinion that the City of Industry is in favor of the project principally supported by their very active participation in the process thus far with their hiring of professional engineers to assist in the assessment of the viability along with drawings showing a section of the structure which were all paid for by Industry employed consultants. Staff firmly believes the City of Industry is in full JULY 19, 2011 PAGE 3 CC STUDY SESSION support of the proposal as he was certain it would meet a variety of needs for their community which is obviously heavily based on warehousing and other logistical operations as well as, the amount of trucks that flow in and out of that community. PWD/Liu said that Industry had been very helpful in providing this information and were not hiding anything. They are spending their resources to prepare the preliminary engineering drawings the Council has seen this evening. In addition, Industry shared with D.B. that when they compared this alignment versus either Union Pacific or the SR60 they preferred this alignment because of the right-of-way. C/Everett asked if Pomona had taken a position because they would seem to be the City's closest ally. CM/DeStefano responded that the City's closest ally would likely be Walnut. Pomona is probably not aware of this proposal because they are pretty remote from this proposal and the location of the proposal. Pomona may or may not have a position of support or opposition and it would probably be determined by their plans for the future use of Lanterman and what they believe the opportunities to be and how this proposal may enhance or deter those opportunities. MPT/Chang asked if any environmental studies had been done. PWD/Liu responded "very limited" which is why he mentioned that there is a lot more to the environmental issues for which the proposal has not provided specifics regarding environmental issues but yet recommendations are forthcoming. MPT/Chang asked if staff believed the San Jose Creek proposal would alleviate the truck traffic on the SR57/60. PWD/Liu said there could be benefits in alleviating traffic. C/Herrera said that would be true if the corridor accepted all kinds of trucks. However, if the proposal is limited to electric trucks, how many companies have electric trucks and even cleaner fuel trucks? Many companies do not have those kinds of trucks and while billions of dollars might be spent to build this very few trucks would qualify to be on the corridor so the bulk of the trucks would remain on the SR60. M/Tye pointed out that even the trucks that qualified to use the corridor would dump onto the SR60 near D.B. C/Herrera agreed and said that is why D.B. is closely monitoring this issue. SCAG has appointed a Regional Transportation Plan JULY 19, 2011 PAGE 4 CC STUDY SESSION Subcommittee that will be looking at different aspects including this aspect. The Subcommittee will iron'out the details and refer their findings to the Transportation Committee which she serves on. But she recommended that staff attempt to get the notices of the RTP subcommittee meetings and attend them to see what they are talking about and materials that may be presented. She serves on the High Speed Rail Subcommittee and hoped the meetings would be on the same day; however the meetings have been scheduled for different days. She believed that as a City, SCAG knows that D.B. will be opposed. The Council and the City need to think abou ' t offering alternatives to this proposal as it attempts to gain support of neighboring communities because SCAG will ask D.B. what it would suggest or how the proposal could be more acceptable to D.B. MPT/Chang said she agreed that if the City were to oppose the project it should offer some alternatives. C/Herrera said that especially since this is a mandate of SB375, if they totally ignore it they will jeopardize future funding from Federal and State government and SCAG is not about to do that. C/Herrera stated that these are plans and concepts that have to be put into a regional transportation plan. Once they are ready to build, environmental studies will be done and then they will have to determine who will fund the project. PWD/Liu said that the feasibility study that was done in 1999/2000 determined a price of about $4 billion for a very different proposal than has been presented this evening. As a rule of thumb the cost is roughly $10 million per -lane, per -mile. So for the proposed four -lane 15 -mile stretch the cost would be in the neighborhood of $6 billion. C/Everett said he is always frustrated by the fact that rail is discounted and that rail is potentially environmentally more effective than the number of trucks that would use the corridor. PWD/Liu said there are studies being conducted that address those issues and he hoped that some of these things would come out of the financial studies but so far staff has not seen any of those results. M/Tye asked how the Council could do anything but oppose this concept because there are more questions than answers and how would any Council Member or staff member defend this proposal to the residents. C/Herrera said No; especially since it is planned to dump out at Sunset Crossing and Diamond Bar Boulevard. JULY 19, 2011 PAGE 5 CC STUDY SESSION M/Tye recalled the opposition to Sunset Crossing being opened up to the City of Industry. Public Comments: None Offered. ADJOURNMENT: With no further business to discuss, M/Tye recessed the Study Session at 6.-14 p.m. to the Regular City Council Meeting. TOMN C NS, City Clerk The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 2na day Of Aug -u s t 2011. L!k5D-LKG CHANG, Ma��r Pro Tern MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY OF DIAMOND BAR JULY 19,2011 STUDY SESSION: 5:35 p.m., Room CC -8 Public Comment an Study Session Agenda — None offered. 10� Discussion regarding proposal by Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) to build a dedicated Truck Route parallel to Valley Boulevard. Study Session recessed to the Regular City Council meeting at 6:14 p.m. CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Tye called the Regular City Council meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. in The Government Center/SCAQMD Auditorium, 21865 Copley Dr., Diamond Bar, CA. CM/DeStefano reported that during tonight's study session PWD/Liu provided the City Council with a study that the Southern California Association of Governments is undertaking as a component of the Regional Transportation Plan, a document that SCAG hopes to adopt later this year, SCAG is proposing an east -west freight corridor that would contain truck lanes near D.B. Basically this corridor would run on top of the San Jose Creek flood control channel which is a wash that runs essentially parallel to Valley Boulevard. It directly impacts D.B. at its termination of the proposed route which would extend the flood control channel right-of-way through the southerly portion of Lanterman and terminate at the SR57/60 interchange. The studies that have thus far been undertaken by SCAG have been very general and Council has indicated that much more thorough studies are required. Due to the lack of any details related to the engineering, environmental issues and community impact, Council has many concerns and is currently opposed to the proposal. Staff will continue to monitor this proposal, attend meetings, participate and provide the City's opinions and expressions of concern as this proposal works its way through the process. This is a similar proposal to one that was forwarded by SCAG in 2000, 2004 and 2008, all of which D.B. opposed for various reasons. The current proposal has a couple of tweaks reflecting opportunities available for the year 2011 but staff has many concerns and will continue to monitor and report back to the City Council and community as events unfold and information becomes available, PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Ben Lumley, Boy Scout Troop 730, led the Pledge of Allegiance. INVOCATION: Pastor Jeanne Favreau-Sorvillo, Diamond Bar United Church of Christ, gave the invocation. ROLL CALL: Council Members Ron Everett, Carol Herrera, Jack Tanaka, Mayor Pro Tern Ling -Ling Chang and Mayor Steve Tye. JULY 19, 2011 PAGE 2 CITY COUNCIL Staff Present: James DeStefano, City Manager; David Doyle, Assistant City Manager; Michael Jenkins, City Attorney; Ken Desforges, IS Director; David Liu, Public Works Director; Bob Rose, Community Services Director; Greg Gubman, Community Development Director; Ryan McLean, Assistant to the City Manager; Rick Yee, Senior Civil Engineer; Kimberly Young, Associate Engineer; Lauren Hidalgo, Public Information Specialist and Tommye Cribbins, City Clerk. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: As Presented. SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS, CERTIFICATES, PROCLAMATIONS: None. 2. CITY MANAGER REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: CM/DeStefano stated that during the past week staff has received a number of telephone calls from residents living principally in the North Diamond Bar area, regarding coyote sightings. This time of year young pups are born, and with the rise in temperatures, food and water become less available which causes the coyotes to leave their environment and move into the residential neighborhoods looking for food, water and shelter. Staff immediately contacted the County Agricultural Department which provides trapping services for contract communities to assist with coyotes. Coyotes may be more problematic when seen during the daytime hours jumping fences and entering private yards possibly causing concern for pets. When one sees a coyote, staff would like for them to immediately contact City Hall and staff will immediately contact the appropriate agency. Last week traps were set in North D.B. and over the weekend, two coyotes were captured. Additional traps are in that community and those traps are looked at every day to make sure that there is not a pet trapped by mistake. Residents should never feed wildlife and should ensure that any food they have for their pets is kept indoors at all times except for feeding time. Residents should also ensure that refuse is inaccessible and rather than putting trash cans out early should be placed at the curb just prior to pickup. It is also important to clear brush and maintain fruit trees near homes to eliminate any food, breeding ground and safe havens for Coyotes. Residents also need to supervise their pets if they are kept out of doors — especially, small pets particularly during early morning and evening hours. Please call the City at 839-7010 to report any sightings. 3. PUBLIC COMMENTS: Jesse Lantz, Diamond Bar Library Manager, announced upcoming events offered by the Library and encouraged everyone to find the library information and updates on Facebook and Twitter by clicking on www.summerreadin.g.org JULY 19, 2011 PAGE 3 CITY COUNCIL 4. RESPONSE TO PUBLIC COMMENTS: None offered. 5. SCHEDULE OF FUTURE EVENTS: 5.1 Concerts in the Park — July 20, 2011 — 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., The Cords (80's Rock) — Sycamore Canyon Park, 22930 Golden Springs Drive. 5.2 Movies Under the Stars — July 20, 2011 — MegaMind — Immediately following Concerts in the Park, Sycamore Canyon Park, 22930 Golden Springs Drive. 5.3 Planning Commission Meeting — July 26, 2011 — 7:00 p.m., SCAQMD/Government Center Auditorium, 21865 Copley Drive. 5.4 Concerts in the Park — July 27, 2011 — 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Sgt Peppei's Band (Beatles Tribute Band) — Sycamore Canyon Park, 22930 Golden Springs Drive. 5.5 Movies Under the Stars — July 27, 2011 The Goonies — Immediately following Concerts in the Park, Sycamore Canyon Park, 22930 Golden Springs Drive. 5.6 Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting — July 28, 2011 — 7:00 p.m., SCAQMD/Government Center Hearing Board Room, 21865 Copley Drive. 5.7 City Council Meeting — August 2, 2011 — 6:30 p.m., SCAQMD/Government Center Auditorium, 21865 Copley Drive. 6. CONSENT CALENDAR: MPT/Chang moved, C/Evereft seconded, to approve the Consent Calendar as presented. Motion carried by the following Roll Call: AYES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: Everett, Herrera, Tanaka, MPT/Chang, M/Tye NOES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None ABSENT: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None 6.1. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES - Regular Meeting of July 5, 2011 — Approved as submitted. 6.2 RATIFIED CHECK REGISTER — Dated June 30, 2011 through July 13, 2011 totaling $1,485,733.42. 6.3 APPROVED AMENDMENT NO. 4 TO THE MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU) WITH THE WALNUT VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT RELATED TO THE SITE D SPECIFIC PLAN. JULY 19, 2011 PAGE 4 CITY COUNCIL 7. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None 8. COUNCIL CONSIDERATION: 8,1 ADOPTION OF PARKS AND RECREATION 2011 MASTER PLAN. CM/DeStefano reported that tonight's presentation of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan update for the year 2011 is the result of a multi-year effort headed by CSD/Rose. This is an extremely comprehensive document completed by the excellent staff and team spearheaded by CSD/Rose. CM/DeStefano then introduced CSD/Rose. CSD/Rose presented a timeline of the three years it has taken to create and update the document to its completion. The Parks and Recreation Commission reviewed the document during the time period from March 2011 and May 2011 during which the Commission found that the break between September 2009 and May 2011 did not impact the policies and recommendations contained in the Master Plan. The Commission also found that the 2010 census did not significantly change the City's demographics that would have affected the recommendations contained within the Master Plan. As a result, the Commission made no significant changes to the Master Plan. Commissioners have spent countless meetings and personal hours editing the document and once the changes were made, the Commission recommended City Council adoption of the Master Plan at its May 12, 2011 meeting. The corrections recommended by the Parks and Recreation Commission were placed within the Parks Master Plan by the City's consultant between May 2011 and early July 2011 which resulted in the document presently before Council for adoption. CSD/Rose stated that the Draft Parks Master Plan has been available for public review and input at the front counter of City Hall, on the City's website and at the Diamond Bar Library since September 2009. Documents were updated in early July and are available at those three sites. CSC/Rose then introduced Ron Hagen with TKE Engineering who provided a power point presentation. Ron Hagen, TKE Engineering and Planning introduced Monika Robinson, Principal Park Planner and then proceeded with a Power Point presentation that addressed the process, provided detailed information about the contents of the draft document and how the Master Plan is intended to be used. JULY 19, 2011 PAGE 5 CITY COUNCIL C/Everett thanked Mr. Hagen for an outstanding product. He asked why the nice roadway trail on Brea Canyon from the south end of Diamond Bar Blvd. to almost DBHS was not included in the document. CSD/Rose responded that the location in question was a concrete pedestrian and bike route and that pedestrian and bike routes are not included in the Trails Master Plan. M/Tye said he was most impressed by the fact that 75 percent (3 out of 4 residents) have visited a City park, trail or recreation facility within the past year. To hear that 94 percent of the residents are satisfied with the current level of park, trail and facility maintenance does not happen by accident. Staff does a terrific job and it is great to hear that statistic from the residents. Mr. Hagen said that D.B. has the highest level of park maintenance satisfaction he has encountered in the 30 plus master plans he has done. The next highest was La Palma which had an 84 percent approval rating. Most are in the 60-70 percent range which is considered to be a good job. It is almost unheard of to reach such a high satisfaction rate. M/Tye stated that fifteen years ago when he served on the Parks and Recreation Commission the number 1 and 2 priorities were a pool and a gym. The question then was, would residents contribute $50 a year to that and the response was "No."> Not even $1 per month with the reason that they want what they wat without having to pay for it which is essentially the case now. It is very difficult to get residents to participate in a funding mechanism to provide the improvements people say they want which is a real challenge. There was no one present who wished to speak on this matter. C/Herrera moved, MPT/Chang seconded, to adopt the 2011 Parks and Recreation Master Plan as presented. Motion carried 4-1 by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: Herrera, MPT/Chang, Tanaka, M/Tye NOES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: Everett ABSENT:COUNCIL MEMBERS: None JULY 19,2011 PAGE 6 CITY COUNCIL 9. COUNCIL SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS/COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS: C/Tanaka spoke about his attendance at Concerts in the Park and Movies after Dark, and the Eagle Scout Court of Honor on Sunday, July 10 for Boy Scout Justin Gutierrez, Troop 730. He congratulated Alex Morgan and her teammates for reaching the finals in the Women's World Cup Soccer event and congratulated the women from Japan who won the very exciting final game. C/Everett joined in congratulations as expressed by C/Tanaka. He commented on a newspaper article account of two men who were sentenced for D.B. burglaries and encouraged residents to get involved in Neighborhood Watch. He also thanked the DBI\Nalnut Sheriffs Department for their work on behalf of the residents. C/Everett explained the reason for his voting No on the Parks Master Plan He stated that although it is an outstanding document it had not been opened up for public discussion for two years and that he was looking for some feedback from those who had provided input into the document. He stated that he was disappointed that we were not taking advantage of the opportunity to get feedback from the community in order to get a "buy -in". He felt that once residents studied and understood the document that they would be willing to spend the money since the next step is funding, which Mr. Tye has indicated is difficult to get. ClEverett encouraged the community to take some time to review the document and to ask questions. C/Herrera said there was a lot of excitement on Sunday as people gathered at local establishments to watch the soccer game with D.B.'s Alex Morgan. Everyone is very proud of her and that as a graduate of DBHS she is the youngest member of her team participating in the World Cup. She played spectacularly. Congratulations to Alex for a job well-done and C/Herrera looked forward to the day that she could be properly honored during a future City Council meeting. MPT/Chang stated that she echoed C/Herrera's comments regarding Alex Morgan and that as always residents can follow her on Facebook and Twitter. She thought it was very interesting that not a lot was said about any of the other player's hometowns except for Alex Morgan and she is very proud of her. As a fellow DBHS she was filled with pride that Alex represented D.B. and DBHS in the international spotlight. DBHS has always had a reputation for excellence as exhibited by the excellent Newsweek ranking. Alex Morgan personifies excellence and has taken it to another level with her accomplishments. Everyone is incredibly proud of her and Team USA. With respect to the Parks Master Plan, when she served on the Parks and Recreation Commission and worked on the JULY 19, 2011 PAGE 7 CITY COUNCIL Youth Master Plan subcommittee and the Sports Complex Committee there was a lot of public comment sought out during the process. This is a product of years and years of work and the Parks Master Plan is a working document for which comments are always welcome. This document is not set in stone but a blueprint for the future. She commended staff for their great work. When she was on the Parks and Recreation Commission it is a highlight of her tenure to finally see it in this form. M/Tye said he felt Alex Morgan did more to stimulate the economy, certainly at Chili's. The City is very, very proud of her. She comes from DBHS with a long line of professional athletes; Jim Edmonds, professional baseball, Keith Van Horn, professional basketball and now Alex Morgan who has brought international acclaim to D.B. There was not a bad comment to be heard and appreciates the fact that the team represented the US so well. Everyone looks forward to having her in front of the Council when her schedule permits. He hoped everyone would join in the Concerts in the Park tomorrow night to hear the 80's music of The Cords. This is the 2 oth year of the Concerts in the Park program. ADJOURNMENT: With no further business to conduct, M/Tye adjourned the Regular City Council meeting at 7:31 p.m. TOMMYEICRIBBINS, CiTY CLERK The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 2nd day Of August 2011. CHANG, MAVUR PRO TEM