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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/10/2016 Minutes - Special General Plan Update Kickoff Joint Mtg. of the City Council and Planning CommissionMINUTES OF THE CITY OF DIAMOND BAR SPECIAL GENERAL PLAN UPDATE KICKOFF JOINT OF COUNCILCITY AND • • AUGUST i) , 2016 CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Lyons called the Special Joint Meeting of the City Council and Planning Commission to order at 6:06 p.m. in the City Hall Windmill Community Room, 21810 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765 1. ROLL CALL: Council Members: Carol Herrera, Steve Tye, Mayor Pro Tem Jimmy Lin and Mayor Nancy Lyons. Absent: Council Member Ruth Low was excused. Commissioners Naila Barlas, Frank Farago, Ken Mok, Vice Chair Raymond Wolfe, and Chair Jennifer "Fred" Mahlke Also present: James DeStefano, City Manager; Greg Gubman, Community Development Director; David DeBerry, City Attorney; Grace Lee, Senior Planner; David Liu, Public Works Director; Anthony Santos, Asst. to City Manager; Marsha Roa, Public Information Manager; Cecilia Arellano, Public Information Coordinator; Alfredo Estevez, Help Desk Support Technician; and Tommye Cribbins, City Clerk. Consultants present: Sophie Martin, Project Manager and Eric Simundza, Dyett & Bhatia, Urban and Regional Planners CDD/Gubman thanked everyone for attending tonight's meeting and for their support as the City embarks on this once -in -a -generation opportunity to help shape the community moving forward. The General Plan Update is something that the City must do at some point with the rule of thumb being 20-25 years for embarking on an update of the General Plan. To kick off the process, staff is bringing together the two most important advisory and decision-making bodies of the City to provide a roadmap for the process and get into some depth about the tasks that will be undertaken, what can be expected, and what the roles will be for the City Council and Planning Commission directly and indirectly as this matter moves forward. CDD/Gubman turned the meeting over to Sophie Martin and her consulting team from Dyett & Bhatia, Urban and Regional Planners, San Francisco, to lead the discussion. AUGUST 10, 2016 Sophie Martin, Project Manager, said she was pleased to be at tonight's meeting and excited to get this project underway. She introduced Eric Simundza, an associate who will be working on this project with her. Ms. Martin explained that her purpose in being present this evening and kicking this project off with both the Planning Commission and City Council this evening is two- fold: 1) she wants to make sure that everyone present has a solid understanding of what the General Plan is, what the process is, and why it is being done; and 2) to hear directly from the Commissioners and Council Members about their ideas, priorities, what staff and consultants' focus should be and what they believe is important for someone coming to Diamond Bar for the first time to know and how the effort should be focused to begin this very important process of updating the General Plan. Ms. Martin stated that tonight's agenda will focus on an overview of the Project Purpose and Process, the Roles of the Planning Commission and the City Council as well as, the role of the General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) which the City Council will be appointing. In addition, there will be a discussion that will include questions from the Commission and Council and sharing of ideas and thoughts. A General Plan is something she believes is fun and something participants get to do. It is a long-range plan that is often referred to as a city's "Constitution for local development" and charts a course for growth and change. This document is creating a policy framework and a vision with policies that support that vision of what Diamond Bar will be over the next 20 years or so — how will it grow, how will it develop, how will it sustain and maintain itself. It is important that the document reflect the vision of the community and outlines a set of goals, objectives and policies in order to get there. It is true that the state requires that cities do this and every city in California has to maintain a general plan and there are certain requirements that go along with maintaining a general plan. It must be comprehensive — it needs to address the entire city, sphere of influence, and any additional surrounding area that "bears relation" to its planning. The general plan also needs to address a full range of issues affecting Diamond Bar's physical development from land use to transportation, to provision of services, conservation, etc. Another important requirement is that the document is internally consistent. Since the document is touching so many different areas it needs to be consistent between those different subject areas as well. All of the policies, the analysis, diagrams, etc., need to be integrated and not conflict with one another. The General Plan is implemented vertically, meaning one can think about the General Plan as being a sort of "umbrella" document under which many other actions the City takes will follow such as specific plans; master plans for certain areas that come under the general plan umbrella and lend more specificity to those areas and the zoning ordinance which is one of the primary regulatory tools for implementing the general plan. The general plan sets forth a vision and general designations for land throughout the City but what that actually means on the ground for development projects is determined by the zoning ordinance. The zoning ordinance needs to be, by law, consistent with the general plan. What the City may end up doing after this General Plan Update is complete is update the City's Zoning Ordinance to match what has been done in the General Plan. Similarly, any additional Design Standards and Guidelines that might accompany the Zoning Ordinance, to provide an additional level of detail or guidance to achieve that vision and make sure that the development that is coming into the City is of a quality the City desires, ultimately needs to be consistent with the documents immediately above it, but also with that vision of the general plan. Ultimately, this process will produce both a General Plan, as well as an accompanying Environment Impact Report (EIR) pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The team will be preparing what is called a "program level" EIR that accompanies the General Plan meaning that rather than having an EIR that covers the environmental impacts of one particular development project, the EIR for the General Plan takes a slightly broader view and considers everything within the Plan to be one big package of potential actions and projects and evaluates their impacts collectively. While it will not go into quite as much detail as an EIR would on a specific project, it will allow for some streamlined environmental review of subsequent projects that come in later. Development projects that are consistent with the General Plan, which they should be, will have the opportunity to "tier" off of the program level Environmental Impact Report, lessening the burden on some development products and allowing them to move forward more quickly. The EIR will also be "self -mitigating" which means that as the General Plan is prepared, and as impacts that may arise as a result of implementing the General Plan area identified, those can be addressed directly in "Plan Policies." The idea is not to leave the City with a huge Mitigation Monitoring Reporting Program associated with the policy document that oversees all development. In defining an area (Planning Area) that the plan will cover, the area will include everything within the City limits, the Sphere of Influence and may also consider other land outside of the Sphere of Influence that could be studied and considered under some circumstances. This is often the case when there are certain environmental impacts that may cover areas broader than city limits or spheres of influence lines. There may be certain topic areas where the view is expanded beyond those limits but generally speaking the area will be confined to the areas under consideration. Another set of requirements the plan needs to cover are called Elements of a General Plan. There are seven state -required topics (elements) to be addressed in the General Plan. These include Land Use, Circulation, Housing, Open Space, Conservation, Noise and Safety. These are subjects that must be touched upon in the General Plan but do not necessarily need to be called by these specific names. They can be mixed and matched and/or combined but all of the seven topics must be addressed. The current 1995 version of the Diamond Bar General Plan addresses these topics slightly different under the following headings: Land Use, Circulation, Housing Resource Management (Open Space and Conservation combined), Public Health & Safety (Noise and Safety combined) and Public Services and Facilities. Cities are at liberty to include other elements in their General Plan beyond those required by state law. For example, Public Services & Facilities is quite common. Other common elements that are seen might be Historic Preservation, Economic Development, Public Health, etc. Preliminarily, the following Elements have been proposed for the new updated General Plan. This is subject to change and may very well change based on what the community says and what the Council's priorities are. It has been found to be particularly effective to combine a discussion of Land Use with Economic Development. Generally speaking, these are topics that are very important to a lot of California cities and it is also difficult to divorce economic development from land use decisions. Some cities have separate standalone Economic Development Elements. She finds that they tend to work better when they are paired together with Land Use. Circulation and Housing Elements will remain separate. The Housing Element is a little bit different than the other General Plan Elements because it is subject to an additional set of state requirements and it must be updated on a different schedule. Whereas cities are at liberty to update their entire General Plan whenever they see fit, the Housing Element must be updated at a certain time. It used to be on a five-year cycle and is currently on an eight-year cycle. Because housing is such an important statewide issue it is important that every jurisdiction do what it canto address the state's housing needs. Diamond Bar has already updated its Housing Element to be consistent with state requirements and this update will not deal with that Element as part of this scope of work. That being said, the remainder of the General Plan must be consistent with the current Housing Element. Even though they are sometimes treated as two separate items, they continue to be a part of the same document. If it turns out that in the course of updating the rest of the General Plan, changes to the Land Use map etc., that might impact the Housing Element, that issue will be revisited to make sure that the two components are consistent. Resource Management/Resource Conservation includes the recommendation that Open Space and Conservation are kept together. Noise and Safety work well paired together. Many cities do that and it is likely that the update will continue to take the approach that Diamond Bar has taken with Public Health & Safety covering both Safety & Noise. Another idea is thinking about health somewhat more broadly. Typically, the Safety Element and Public Health have been treated in General Plans of the pastas more about protecting the community from hazards rather than Public Health or Wellness which is the way communities tend to think of it these days. There has been a recent movement to make the connection between Land Use planning, city planning in general and its connection to Public Health. It connects in many different ways from provision of healthy food to parks and recreation opportunities to transportation options, etc., and she believes there is potential for treating some of those concepts separately. Finally, another topic that is proposed to be introduced is an element focusing on Community Character and Placemaking. Much of what her firm has heard as they have spent time learning about Diamond - Bar to date is that there is an interest in creating more of a "there there" by defining the City's identity and figuring out from a planning, urban design, Placemaking perspective, how that identity can be strengthened and fostered over time. This would be an element that would focus more on the role that physical design, urban design and public realm improvements could make in creating a real identity for the C ity. Public Participation will be critical. This plan will be worth something only if it is something that reflects what people who live and work here want to see and it will be important that the City offer opportunities for the community to get involved, to learn about the process and to offer their ideas and opinions at multiple stages. There will be a few things up and running from the beginning of the process. The team is working on a standalone project website which will serve not only as a way for people to read documents (project library) but also as a way to advertise upcoming meetings, ways to participate, etc. There will be a series of stakeholder meetings during which interviews are done on an individual and small group basis which is a good way to reach out to people who have some more unique perspectives on planning, growth and development in the City. This is also a good way to get in touch with agencies that may be interested in what is going on in Diamond Bar such as transit providers, other jurisdictions, as well as making sure that the City hears from representatives of different community groups, neighborhood organizations, members of other commissions, etc. There will be a series of community workshops at different stages in the process both early on as the team is working on issue identification and visioning as well as later, when different land use alternatives have been developed — choices and options that the City would want people to consider and weigh in on before the team hones in on the final General Plan. This will be supplemented by providing information about the plan and about the process at a number of community events — places that people are already going to. Over the years she has found that when workshops are held some people will come but there will not necessarily be a good cross section of the community and the City wants to make sure it is doing a good job reaching out to everyone who either does not have the time or the interest to come to a separate event at City Hall. So because Diamond Bar already has so many community events and is active in schools and community, the team will try to go to places where people are already gathering, publicize information and give them the opportunity to weigh in on their own time. To help spread the word the team will be working on newsletters in cooperation with the City's Public Information Division to spread the word and make sure that people are aware that this process is taking place and help explain why it is something they might want to pay attention to. Throughout the process the team will be coming back to the Planning Commission and the City Council at certain stages, as well as the General Plan Advisory Committee. She wants to hear from the Commission and Council today and at each key point to make sure that they are aware of the point of progress and that they are providing the team with direction at key stages. By the time this gets to the adoption hearings there should be nothing in the plan that surprises the Commission and Council Members. At that point she will be giving the final presentation and the Commissioners and Council Members will be confirming that it looks great and it is what they have anticipated. The team wants Commissioners and Council Members to stay in the loop and Commissioners and Council Members can help the team by talking about the process with their friends and neighbors and encouraging them to come to and participate in events. Ultimately, the City Council is the approving authority for adopting the new General Plan by Resolution. The Planning Commission will be providing a recommendation to that effect. The Council will also certify the Final EIR. This process will take time to get through because it covers a lot of ground. Her team has been working with staff on initiating this process getting the contract underway, kicking off with staff, touring around the City with other members of the consultant team, reading up on all of the City's background materials over the course of the summer and will move into a first -phase of Community Outreach and Issue Identification, as well as technical background research overthe course of the fall and into early winter. Early in 2017, this process will move into defining several Land Use alternatives that her team will come back and share with the community which will provide the City an opportunity to weigh in and tell her team in which direction the plan should head. From there the team will implement a preferred plan and a set of key goals and this can be thought of similar to an Executive Summary for the General Plan which will be comprised of the basic map, basic idea and general goals that will be built on with a set of policies and implementation programs. In late 2017 and early 2018, the team will be working on writing the Draft General Plan itself, moving on to the Environmental Impact Report which has a required public review period of 45 days. There will be times when it seems that things are going silent; however, the team will continue to work hard during that time and there may be times when the Commission and Council will not be hearing much from the team. There will also be times when some of the documents that have been produced are sitting for a time to make sure that people have time to review those documents and comment on them. Ultimately, this process will extend for about three years which is fairly typical for cities that are doing a really comprehensive update. If this were a technical cleanup it could take less time but if the objective is to make sure that the community has a chance to weigh in, that the City has a chance to carefully consider all of the ingredients and considering that a lot of this might be written from scratch/whole cloth, it will take time. Again, it is very likely that the City will end up updating its Zoning Ordinance after this is all said and done. This is not part of her firm's scope of work. It is something that her firm could do but it is not within the scope of work for this update process. The General Plan Advisory Committee is going to be another level of people who will be participating in this process in a slightly greater capacity than the average citizen, who will be providing advice and input into the plan, making recommendations to the Planning Commission and ultimately the City Council. The consultant team will be meeting with the GPAC periodically over the course of the next three years, taking to them research and analysis to review to get their feedback, sharing with them what the community has said and bouncing ideas off of them to help form some of the goals and ideas that will be carried forward forfurther analysis. They will help the consultant team refine issues and key policies. It is also important that this group provides a really broad community -oriented perspective. While everyone certainly brings their own experience, opinions and backgrounds to these processes, Commissioners and Council Members know that as elected and appointed officials they need to take on not just their own perspectives but also need to listen to the community at -large. And it will be important that those appointed to the GPAC can do the same thing. The role of GPAC members is to also act as ambassadors for the plan, to engage community members, to reach out to groups of which they are members, to advertise the plan, to try to drum -up interest, to get people to fill out the online survey and do the leg work that the consultants and staff can do only to a certain extent. The City Council will appoint members to the GPAC and each Council Member will appoint a total of three members for a total of 15 GPAC members. As the Council Member is thinking about who to appoint there are a few things to keep in mind. The group as a whole needs to represent a broad -range of community perspectives and interests. That also means that the membership should also include a mix of both people who have lived here for a long time, as well as people who may be relative newcomers. Often she has worked in cities where the whole committee is filled with people where every single person begins a sentence with °I am so and so and I have lived here for 45 years" and the next person tries to outdo them and their legitimacy is rooted in how long they have resided in the community. The sense that she gets in Diamond Bar is that it is a more dynamic community in which new residents reside and different types of people are represented, those with young kids, people who have lived here for a long time, people of all different ethnicities and she believes that such a mix and perspective is really important. She encourages the Council Members to look for people notjust who can bring a longer term perspective of having been in Diamond Bar for a while but people who maybe have just moved here because they are really excited about the schools and the community and they are bringing a fresh perspective which is also important. People come with particular areas of interest, certain areas of focus or expertise. It can be great to have people who have some professional experience that might be relevant to the plan and the City can definitely benefit from that experience. But at the same time, being able to take a broad perspective and stepping back and seeing things from the perspective of the community is still important. So even if they do have or do represent a certain interest, that is fine, but their purpose should not be solely to advance their own personal agenda. She also recommended that the Council consider not only residents, but also consider inviting members of the business community or local employers who many not necessarily be residents of the City. C/Tye asked if this would include business owners who may not live in the City. CDD/Gubman responded that if they are rooted in the community because they own a business in the City or they own property such as a shopping center and truly have a significant stake in the community, he would say it would be appropriate to consider them. The team will be coming back to the Planning Commission and City Council numerous times as the process moves forward to review interim products and various options that have been presented. The team hopes that Commissioners and Council Members will attend community meetings and reviewing public feedback and providing feedback, recommendation and direction of their own to the team at key stages. Ultimately, the City Council will take action to certify the EIR and Adopt the General Plan. C/Herrera asked who would chair the meetings. Ms. Martin said that it would depend on the type of meeting. It is the team's hope that the GPAC will appoint a chair and vice chair. The team will be present to facilitate but generally, it is better if the committee has a chair. For the public /LLIrljlj.�� I meetings and workshops she will be doing the bulk of the presentation. In addition, there is a large team of sub -consultants that consist of specialists in transportation, urban design, environmental science, civil engineering and community outreach. There is a firm that will be assisting the team specifically with community outreach and be involved in all of the meetings. C/Herrera said that when the Council was given the consultant's proposal all of that information was contained in the booklet. C/Herrera asked if the meetings that will be updating the City Council would be in this type of setting or at a regularly scheduled Council meeting. Ms. Martin said it would depend on the timing and the topic. If it is a brief check-in and the team is providing the Council with an update on where things are, typically, if there is time those can be worked in as regular agenda items at a regularly scheduled meeting. She does not anticipate that there will be many joint sessions because they are very difficult to schedule. It may be that if there is a big topic that merits a lot of discussion and it is something that might overtake an entire agenda, it may be prudent to find a special time to meet. C/Herrera assumed that some of the items in the old General Plan will be deleted if they have been accomplished and are no longer relevant. Ms. Martin said that C/Herrera's assumption was correct. MPT/Lin said that based on the drawings the Sphere of Influence seems to be south of Diamond Bar and why not in the other directions. Ms. Martin said that the Sphere of Influence is determined by the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). LAFCO is a commission of the county that is responsible for approving annexations and LAFCO will also determine and approve what is called the city's Sphere of Influence and that is supposed to represent the ultimate area into which a city may expand. There are certain other criteria and it may vary county by county but ultimately, that is what the county considers to be the area into which a city may expand in the future. If the city wishes to change its Sphere of Influence it must apply to do so from LAFCO. But as stated, Diamond Bar is not restricted to planning for the area that is just within its Sphere of Influence. Diamond Bar may plan for areas that are beyond your Sphere of Influence. MTP/Lin felt that the area northeast of Diamond Bar that connected to Chino Hills would be a very critical area of influence for Diamond Bar. From what Ms. Martin has said that would not be included in this definition. AUGUST 10, 2016 Ms. Martin said that she believed that some of that land was either owned by or within other incorporated jurisdictions and in those instances, no, the Diamond Bar General Plan would not plan for areas that are within other incorporated jurisdictions. However, the City can, through policy, express the direction in which it would like those areas to take and work with those jurisdictions accordingly. CM/DeStefano explained thatwhen discussing the boundaries surrounding the City, to the east it abuts San Bernardino County and the incorporated City of Chino Hills. To change a city limit line through the two LAFCOs that are involved would be difficult. To change a county line is almost impossible. So while logically it likely makes sense that Tres Hermanos ought to be Master Planned, the likelihood is that the two cities are going to wind up doing so independent of each other. There is the possibility, given time and interest, that the two cities could work together on a Tres Hermanos plan and in some jurisdictions throughout the state of California, cities and even counties have gotten together to do that. But it is very rare, very difficult and there are often very competing interests about who gets what land uses —who gets the commercial on the corner, who gets the open space in the back. South of Diamond Bar our Sphere of Influence is in the County of Los Angeles's jurisdiction which is commonly known as the Tonner Canyon area and that property immediately abuts the County of Orange and the City of Brea. And that line is right about where the Tonner Canyon on/off ramps are at the SR57. As one travels back up the SR57, the vacant land to the west of the SR57 is unincorporated Los Angeles County, was previously designated as part of the future anticipated City of Rowland Heights. For a variety of reasons, the City of Rowland Heights is not likely to ever take place. And so, if there was interest, there could be a discussion if not planning for, the use of that property. It may make sense as an extension of the City of Diamond Bar and it may not. It may make sense to look at it from an offensive standpoint and it may make sense to look at policies to protect Diamond Bar from future development in the County of Los Angeles from a defensive strategy standpoint. As one travels even further north on the SR57 one reaches clearly incorporated Diamond Bar but right about where the Royal Vista Golf Course lies is the Diamond Bar border with the unincorporated area of Rowland Heights. Once again, there could be an opportunity to look west down Golden Springs/Colima by example which generates other kinds of thought processes, not likely to have any great impacts on Diamond Bar because it is already fully developed; not likely to benefit Diamond Bar if Diamond Bar were to seek and be successful at incorporating that area because it is principally 60-70 year old housing with 60-70 year old infrastructure and minimal parks, etc. Traveling farther north on the SR57 at the northern part of the City roughly at Sunset Crossing/Temple Avenue the City is smack up against the incorporated City of Pomona in the same boundary. And the largest piece of land that Diamond Bar should be thinking about offensively or defensively is Cal Poly South, the Lanterman property which is acreage that will be developed by the campus coordinators over the next 20 years. aiw2lillis This can create opportunities for Diamond Bar and create issues the City might want to consider and try to work with or around. Walking around the City brings up those kinds of thoughts and some opportunity but clearly, those areas have a potential impact on Diamond Bar. There are influencers that are 10-15 miles from Diamond Bar, most principally the areas in Chino and in Ontario. Diamond Bar has 18,000 dwelling units. There are new areas in Ontario that are talking about 45,000 dwelling units and those folks will go someplace for work, much of which will be close to home but much of which will come Diamond Bar's way. So no matter whether Diamond Bar was to ever build another square foot of office or another single family home, the City will be impacted by regional traffic. So while that is way beyond the boundaries one might typically look at during this process it is an area that will have an impact on Diamond Bar as those remaining vacant areas to the east are developed out and to a lesser extent to the west of the City in the City of Industry. Those are things that are part of the realm of thought as this process moves forward over the next couple of years. M/Lyons referred to the light pink portion of the map and asked CM/DeStefano if he was saying that area could be within the City's Sphere of Influence and that it would also be possible for Rowland Heights to develop it so Diamond Bar would want to make sure to do everything possible to influence that development. CM/DeStefano said he was referring to two different things — the property M/Lyons was pointing to just south of the City and between Diamond Bar and the incorporated City of Brea is within Diamond Bar's Sphere of Influence. It is already part of the LAFCO designated Sphere of Influence. So, Diamond Bar has ultimate responsibility for land use planning for that area through this General Plan process. It doesn't really kick in unless Diamond Bar was to consider incorporation of that land. It is much more rugged and distant from the City and there is no connection to the City so there are issues/opportunities/environmental constraints, etc. The land he was referring to that Diamond Bar might want to look at offensively or defensively was the area just west of the SR57 which is basically the vacant land from about Brea Canyon Cutoff down to the first group of homes on top of the hill in Brea. Much of that vacant land is within the County of Los Angeles and meant to be the future City of Rowland Heights which may be something Diamond Bar may have an interest in and would have to be very, very careful about the thought process and planning efforts to make sure that it would be of long-term benefit to the City. Diamond Bar may choose not to from a land use planning standpoint. But knowing that LA County then would, Diamond Bar may want to look at that property and protect itself in whatever way was deemed to be appropriate, most likely from a traffic standpoint. That is an example of a surrounding area that Diamond Bar may want to look toward in the next couple of years as the GP process moves forward. MPT/Lin asked how the consultant quantifies the Community Character and Placemaking. AUGUST 10, 2016 Ms. Martin said that these are two separate questions - "what is Placemaking" and how is it quantified which is a very tricky question. She cannot say that everything in the General Plan is quantified per se. There will be characteristics or components of everything that can be quantified to some extent. For instance, if the City were to take a closer look at Urban Design Standards & Guidelines for new development projects it could think of quantification in terms of more attention to things like building massing and design, building heights, streetscape design, ways in which buildings approach and interact with the street, and how the public right-of-way is designed and allocated. But when talking about Placemaking this is something that is open for debate and explored further or tossed or, it can be incorporated into the Land Use Element instead. For example, Diamond Bar does not have a real downtown. It does not have an identifiable center per se. Maybe that is okay. A lot of people might be quite fine with that concept and people commute elsewhere to hang out with people to eat, pick up their kids or wherever. There are many other jurisdictions in this area that have things like that that people really like and that satisfy those needs. She believes a fundamental question is, is that sort of "town center/community center" identity type of place something that the City of Diamond Bar is interested in pursuing. If the thinking is long-term and this is not the type of thing that happens overnight or maybe even in five years but as land uses and parcels change over time, the question is, does Diamond Bar want to try to create circumstances in which a "town center" type of environment could arise in Diamond Bar. A city that has a more traditional downtown often pays very close attention to what happens in the "downtown" and Diamond Bar would also want to take that same type of approach to a new place like that in this City. And that could be one particular place, it could be a higher set of standards and objectives for certain properties in the area that are believed to have a higher likelihood of redeveloping or changing overtime and there are certain aspects of that that could be quantified. A lot of it is also a matter of establishing a vision and a set of goals to get there to achieve what the community wants to see. MPT/Lin asked who Ms. Martin would consider to be included in the stakeholder group. Is AQMD a stakeholder? CDD/Gubman said he had not considered AQMD to be one of the stakeholders. They are a regional agency and they have a wide reach but to some extent, since they are headquartered here it may be a possibility. Right now their campus has a lot of surface parking and land values in Diamond Bar are very high, so surface parking is really a policy decision that the City may want to pursue when that site could be intensified. In that sense he supposes they could be stakeholders with respect to the long term vision for their site and perhaps in the Gateway Corporate Center overall. As land values increase, surface parking becomes an inefficient use of land. In this context, AQMD or perhaps the Gateway Corporate Center Association as a whole is a stakeholder. When he thinks of stakeholders he thinks J more of the community groups that touch all of the demographics in the spectrum of the community (age, ethnicity, etc.) including the senior groups, youth groups, sports organizations, school districts, and developers who have a record of building homes or commercial projects in the community who plan to remain a part of the community going forward. CM/DeStefano said that another way to look at it is the stakeholders may be equivalent to shareholders and to look at this municipal corporation with its 58,000 shareholders. Every one of them owns a piece of it. Every one of them plays a role in shaping the future. It can be children, it can be adults, it can be Caucasian communities, it can be the Italian community, it can be anybody and everybody with a variety of different ideas and opinions and as Ms. Martin pointed out, those that have been here since the first stop sign was installed and those that arrived last week. Part of the process the Commission and Council will engage in is to not only incorporate all of the community's thoughts and ideas going forward but their own thoughts and ideas for the community—for those that exist here today and forthose that are not yet here. And incorporating changing values. This community is getting older. For now and for the foreseeable future this community has far fewer children per household. The City is at about 41 years of age on average. Many communities are more like 35-36-37. 41 is getting old. The ethnic and social economic breakdown and profile may lead Diamond Bar to move into different types of recreational programming, amenities and land use needs. Diamond Bar may end up doing a lot of things differently over the next 10-15-20 years and much will be learned about that by going out and trying to touch or at least invite all of those 58,000 shareholders through a lot of different community opportunities whether it is popup City Halls or special events, publications, website, ambassadors, etc. MPT/Lin asked what other state agencies would be involved in the EIR process. Ms. Martin said that any agency that choses to make a comment either during the scoping period when the team is soliciting input on what the scope of the EIR should be or during the public review period. Typically, it is common to get letters from Caltrans, Air Quality District, Regional Water Quality Control Board and other agencies where issues are particularly pertinent. MPT/Lin said that since Diamond Bar is the approving agency it can accept or ignore their comments, right? Ms. Martin said that at the very least the City must acknowledge receipt of the letters. MPT/Lin asked if the final product would be a tiered plan (short-term, mid-term and long-range) or will it be a target year plan. AUGUST 10, 2016 e Ms. Martin explained that the General Plan will have a horizon year it plans for so that a number can be picked in the spirit of quantification to say that by 2035 or 2040 it is anticipated that the City will have X number of people and X number of jobs; however, the actions that the City may take between now and that horizon year may occur in the short term or the long term. Often, an implementation program is put together that is sort of a summary of the types of actions that the City may take over time and give a general indication of when those are likely to occur. So, updating the Zoning Code for example, would be something that the City would want to do in the first five years or less. Longer term capital improvements, public infrastructure projects may take longer or they may be tied to when certain development thresholds occur. MPT/Lin asked if it was typical to have one or two City Council Members as liaisons to the GPAC. Ms. Martin said she has worked with cities that have a liaison from the Council and sometimes from the Commission and she has worked with other cities that preferred to keep it entirely separate which is not her decision. It can work either way. M/Lyons asked if "Circulation" meant traffic. Ms. Martin responded "yes." M/Lyons said that he had heard from the school district that they are expecting more children in. Diamond Bar. Will there be a demographic study and if so, how will it be done and what will happen. Ms. Martin responded that a sub -consultant is an economist and will do some upfront work on understanding the City's demographic trends, as well as market trends for various land uses. She does not believe that they will be developing their very own demographic forecast, she believes it will be looking at a variety of third - party sources to definitely get a handle on the pure number of people that will be in Diamond Bar over time and the very important age -breakdown. If there is a discrepancy between what the Department of Finance or the Census thinks and the school district thinks that will be a topic of concern to be understood. Chair/Mahlke said that in researching General Plans for other cities she found that the Office of Planning and Research recommend that the General Plan should start with a community vision. She asked if the City would be rewriting the City's Vision Statement and if so, who would be the lead on doing so. Ms. Martin said that this was a great question. The first phase of community outreach that is done will mostly focus on trying to establish what that vision is. Typically, at the end somebody has to put pen to paper and try to articulate that 1 based on all of the input received which will come from a combination of all of these different means that the team intends to use to hear from people online, through workshops, meetings like this meeting and many other ways. The team will do its best to take the broad range of perspectives that she is sure will be expressed and tease out the points of common ground. One thing she often finds is that even in incredibly diverse communities, people still have a lot of consensus points and they tend to jump out at you. So the team will try to articulate that and bring that vision back to the Commission and the Council and ask if that vision sounds right to them and did the team capture what they collectively heard from the community. And, the team will try to establish that "vision" very early on in the process. Chair/Mahlke asked if Commissioners and Council Members were allowed to participate as someone who wishes to participate without people perceiving them as being too influential in ways that might not be beneficial. Ms. Martin said that sometimes there can be a bit of a fine line. She has had instances in which doing a workshop with small groups around a table a Council Member is at one of those tables and in an attempt to listen and facilitate it seems that everybody is kind of deferring to what that Council Member is saying. So to some extent, there needs to be discretion and good judgment used about how best to participate and impart that information because the team wants to hear from the Commissioners and Council people as well because everyone's opinion matters which is another reason there are meetings such as this meeting tonight, so thatthe team can make sure it hears those perspectives in a forum that is open to the public but where those in positions of authority are not putting someone else in a position of even unintentionally making them feel like their opinion is less important. Chair/Mahlke said that Diamond Bar contracts out its Public Safety — Fire and Law Enforcement. She asked how the City's General Plan would account for the fact that the City does not control those aspects. For example, LA County recently acquired some property within the City limits that they might be using for training facilities. Are they invited to participate in the City's General Plan? Ms. Martin responded that the team will definitely be talking with those entities. It is fairly common for cities to have a number of different service providers. The school district is a great example because they are intimately involved in the City and yet they are not part of the City. Many cities contract out for fire, police, and waste water treatment but the impact that the City has on the waste water system and its ability to handle that is really important. One of the first things the team does is to figure out who all of the different players are and reach out to them to understand how the needs of the City of Diamond Bar figure into their overall planning and begin a dialogue with them and communicate with them about how much Diamond Bar thinks it is going to grow, this is the type of development the City is interested in in the future, this is the intensity of development and is this something that you, the RILtI1� service provider can serve in the future and help us to understand what the City would need to provide and vice versa to make sure that those services are provided adequately. CM/DeStefano explained that public safety services through the sheriff's department, the City's police agency, is a subscription service. There are core service levels that are advised and recommended for the City to pay for and utilize. There is a lot the City pays for each year that is purely discretionary which has worked very well for Diamond Bar for the last 27 years and is likely to be the format going forward. So as the community grows, intensifies, develops areas that might presently be vacant and so forth, the City will continue to work with the Sheriff's Department in determining what type of law enforcement service levels might be needed. If the City were to have more retail commercial for example, the City would typically need a greater level of law enforcement than it would for offices. The fire safety provider is through a district so property owners are paying a dollar amount per parcel for that service. In that particular situation, the fire department provides a certain level of service that again reflects the City's land uses. If the City wants additional services they can be purchased, but over the course of the last 27 years that has been very, very rare that it would do so. The only extra service that was paid was a small wildland fire fee for the vacant Tres Hermanos land. And that is because the county is paying for those service levels through the district that the City's residents are supporting through their taxes. As a vacant area, Tres Hermanos will be a part of the discussion and thought over the next 20 years. If there were to be development in Tres Hermanos, there is likely to be an additional school or two, a fire station, etc., and those would all come as part of the development and would likely be paid for by the developers through assessment districts or whatever the vehicle might be at that point in time. Ultimately, the service levels for sewers, storm drains, fire, police, and library are decisions the City Council make but only after very careful thought looking at a wide variety of input including input from those that provide the services. VC/Wolfe commented on a couple of items he felt important. He felt it was important for this City to develop a long-range "downtown" area which he believes adds to the character and provides that community "place" that people identify with. He believes there are great examples in LA County such as Claremont and Monrovia that are really close. Of course those are old preserved downtown areas which would be much more difficult in the context of the development Diamond Bar has within its City limits to accomplish something like that but he felt itwas important to at least have that conversation. The City Manager mentioned future development on the Lanterman site and he believed this process should look at the proximity to Cal Poly Pomona and opportunities to try to build upon the fact that there is a very large student population that does not really have a place to gather. Third, Majestic Realty announced a year or so ago that they had significant plans to develop on the west side of the SR57 and south of Grand Avenue and he believed this process should look carefully at what they are doing and tryto leverage something within the City limits. There has been discussion about the vacant parcel on the south side of Grand west of the SR57 as a potential hotel and such, but when Majestic Realty is looking to take advantage and put in a lot of businesses and retail outlets and because there is a lot of that same type of development to the east along Grand Avenue in Chino Hills, Diamond Bar should be thinking about what it can do to take advantage, if possible, because the City is certainly suffering from the traffic that follows along with those types of land uses. The potential sale of the Tres Hermanos Ranch is another thing that the City needs to be very careful in looking at. One of the things the City of Chino Hills has been pushing for is the extension of Tonner Canyon Road and obviously that impacts the Sphere of Influence on the south side between Diamond Bar and Brea and what that ultimately would mean to that area and also what it means to the Tres Hermanos land use in the long run. C/Farago asked who will be collecting information about things going on in other cities including Chino, Tonner Canyon, City of Industry, etc., to inform GPAC about what is happening to help make the right decisions about how these changes might affect the City for many years to come. Ms. Martin said it was very difficult in such a large and dynamic a region wherein Diamond Bar lies, not just within LA County but other counties as well. There are so many different jurisdictions with many different plans and ideas. It is difficult to keep track and everyone needs to do the best possible job to collectively keep their fingers on the pulse as the background research is being done to look beyond Diamond Bar's borders to attempt to understand the regional transit influences. Certain aspects of that to get back to MPT/Lip's comment about quantification, some of that can be quantified and some of that will be worked into the assessment the team does of impacts on Diamond Bar from external forces. Transportation and traffic is a really good example of that which is an area that there is the ability to model not just what is happening within Diamond Bar but in the future, what is happening in other jurisdictions as well. The transportation firm that the team works with will ensure that all of that information is taken into account accordingly. Whether the City of Chino Hills or LA County and others change their minds about something five years from now, Diamond Bar can control only so much. But to the extent this process can stay on top of forces and movement that is known and take it into account, the team will do its best. CM/DeStefano spoke about other avenues of collecting information in response to C/Farago's concerns. The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and the localized San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) San Gabriel Valley COG, Gateway Cities and South Bay Cities and others are all good resources because SCAG puts out massive documents with regional forecasting for population, housing growth, goods movement, etc. The ports of LA in Long Beach have plans for how they think their ports are going to grow and that cargo is going UltmWINTINVIV 7_Tr7�iF�cl�a�7_lAf��la1L� :.IT�iiTl���larl somewhere and in many cases it is traveling down the SR60 which may have some impact on Diamond Bar, not necessarily in terms of land use but maybe surrounding cities in terms of warehousing, etc. all of which would affect Diamond Bar in terms of traffic. CDD/Gubman and Ms. Martin's team will be collecting all of this data to help the City determine what is influencing Diamond Bar and what Diamond Barwants to be welcoming and attracting such as a university that will grow or other things the City might want to do to protect itself. Perhaps the City does not widen arterials to allow more traffic for transients to drive through. There are many things that will be up for consideration as the team brings information forward. C/Mok asked about GPAC and how through their past experiences the consultant team has seen how City Council Members selects GPAC members. Are there any parameters or is it strictly up to the Council Members to determine how members are selected. CM/DeStefano responded that Ms. Martin outlined the teams' thoughts regarding the types of individuals that might be appropriate for the GPAC. Staff will be recommending to the City Council that they engage in a selection process somewhat akin to the selection appointment of a Commission and further, thatwhile they can pick anybody they choose staff will offer the Council an application form similar to the recent commission application form which gives the decision -maker background information. Individual Council Members may wish to interview folks or not, they may have contacts in other arenas in the community, and staff will help them toward that end, and if all goes according to the plan, the Council would be making their decision on September 20. Staff will advertise the availability of the openings in the same basic manner that opportunities are offered for a community member to become part of a commission. C/Mok asked if possible candidates would be interviewed as part of the process and can those being interviewed be related to Council Members or Commission members. C/Tye said his feeling is that they should not be related. CM/DeStefano reiterated that the number can be whatever the Council feels appropriate and comfortable with. In the past there were about 20-25 GPAC members and on a regular basis about 15 participated. There was a drop-off in the number of attendees and there were those who came and went over the course of the years the GPAC was engaged in the process. Probably more than 5 and 10 would be the absolute bare minimum and perhaps 15 would be a good number but if the Council wishes a larger number that is Council's call. C/Mok explained that the reason for his questions is because he believes the GPAC should be made up of a group of people that will have pertinent input into this WEEIMEMIM process and not just someone who can answer questions on the spot — someone who really has a stake in the community young and old. He would not want to be in Council's position for this most important task. C/Herrera suggested that if any of the Commissioners have recommendations of people in the community that would really like to serve on the GPAC and would do a good job and be conscientious about doing the job, please forward their names to your respective Council Member for consideration. At this point she has received a couple of requests from residents who would like to serve on the GPAC and as stated, the Council wants good thinking people who are not out to serve their own interests. C/Mok said that C/Tye suggested that it not be relatives of Commission or Council Members but is that chiseled in stone? C/Herrera said it would depend on who they are. She would not select her husband, for example. M/Lyons asked CM/DeStefano if she heard him say that the Council should be in a position to offer their selections at the September 20 City Council meeting. CM/DeStefano responded "yes." M/Lyons felt that was too soon because there will not be a Council Meeting on September 6 and there needs to be time to talk about this publicly and advertise the positions. She felt the decision should be pushed off to October. CM/DeStefano said that was Council's decision but this is something that needs to get moving so at this point staff would want to encourage the application process, get the word out that there is the availability and target the second meeting of September for the announcement but if the Council is not ready so be it. To reflect back, this year when the Council was looking at Commission appointments and reappointments there might have been a Council Member that needed a couple of extra weeks which happens from time to time. M/Lyons said she wanted to make sure it was out to the public in all vehicles possible including The Windmill, The DB Connection, social media, etc. in order to get the best people. MPT/Lin said that based on the schedule presented this evening the first GPAC meeting is scheduled to take place in July 2016 and the second meeting in October 2016 so if the appointments are delayed will the schedule be pushed out? Ms. Martin said it may have some impact but not huge. MPT/Lin said he did not believe Council Members should preclude themselves from picking Commissioners as one of the GPAC members. CM/DeStefano responded that as has been stated, it sounds like that could be done but his recommendation would be not to do that and to allow Commissioners independently as their body to receive the recommendations of the GPAC and to make their own decision on the particular issues before them because it starts to cloud the issues. In fact, he is not sure it is really appropriate to have a Commissioner or Council Member as apart of GPAC. If one were to be present for the meetings, most of the other members of the Advisory Committee will defer to the elected official or member of the Planning Commission. From staff's perspective an independent body might better serve the process. CA/DeBerry said that typically, one does not see the type of structure where a person is sitting on a lower body when they would be receiving recommendations from that lower body. The only thing that would be similar or equivalent would be if the Council appointed its own subcommittee of two Council Members who would then make recommendations to the full City Council, a body they are sitting on. He would recommend against having a Commission or City Council Member as part of GPAC. MPT/Lin said that the City Council could be an ex -officio member of the GPAC because the idea is that there is a liaison so that the Council knows what is going on. Chair/Mahlke said she believed that what would happen during the process is that the consultant will be the liaison and by not including Commissioners and Council Members as part of the GPAC it provides for a wider scope of people from the community and the Commissioners and Council Members are already going to be represented on several different levels as a result. CDD/Gubman said that a possible compromise or balance would be to consider members of other City Commissions for seats on the GPAC so that there are representatives of the community who are engaged in important issues but they are not in an advisory (i.e., planning commission) role that would make recommendations regarding adoption of the General Plan. C/Barlas said she was looking forward to the General Plan Update. When reading the version of the current General Plan her children said they did not want to live in Diamond Bar because they see much more happening in Chino Hills and Walnut and other areas so she is looking forward to a final product that will make her kids feel like they can find something for themselves in Diamond Bar. She is also involved with the school district and she confirmed to M/Lyons that more children were enrolling in the school but it is happening mainly because WVUSD is the district of choice. Four of the seven board members live in Phillips Ranch. M/Lyons suggested adding the development of the pad at the top of Summitridge Park close to the Diamond Bar Center. A resident suggested to herthatthere could be consideration of a high density housing transit village around the Metrolink station. She asked if there would be discussion of what kind of employers the City would like to attract (affirmative nod) and anything within the Sphere of Influence and Tres Hermanos should be included in the discussion. J Y C/Herrera said that her overall vision for Diamond Bar's future would include economic development as an important focus of attention. She would like to see Diamond Bar become economically self-sufficient and while there has been a lot of development in Walnut, Chino Hills, Chino and Brea, Diamond Bar has been squeezed out and there are certain properties within the City that might be considered for repurposing, one of which would be the Diamond Bar Golf Course. C/Tye agreed with C/Herrera. Shortly after he was elected to the City Council there was a discussion about a "downtown" area and his vision was to incorporate this into the General Plan Update. If the area on Diamond Bar Boulevard from Golden Springs Drive north to the SR57 and from the back of the Mandarin Taste (west about Y4 mile) and flatten the area (Kmart Center) to make that one property, it would be about the size of The Shoppes in Chino Hills and it would be something very dynamic and a terrific financial/revenue engine for the City. If that could be incorporated to include the shopping center across the street (Diamond Bar Boulevard) and somehow go under the street to provide immediate access to both areas there would now be 35-40 acres to repurpose for exciting retail elements that would attract people on their way to Chino Hills to think about stopping in Diamond Bar. This concept would be exciting and would give C/Barlas's kids a reason to stay in and want to be in Diamond Bar and it would give Diamond Bar a sense of a "downtown" and a sense of community. Council Members and Commissioners often hear from the constituents that Diamond Bar does not have a downtown. There is a center of town but there is no "downtown" and he believes residents would all like to have a downtown and planning for an opportunity such as this would be outstanding. M/Lyons said she heard nothing about "country living" so she is thinking that that part of Diamond Bar no longer exists. With respect to overall vision she believes economic development is important and safety and education continue to be very important as well. MPT/Lin agreed with C/Barlas's comment that kids want to move out of Diamond Bar. Real Estate folks consider Diamond Bar to be a very expensive residential community and not too many people can afford to live in this City. Is this the direction this City wants to go in or does the City want a "downtown" because this City is very restricted in areas that would be suitable for a "downtown" area. On the other hand, the golf course might be the place for a Planned Community including residential areas, offices and other amenities that would create a town centerwhich is a topic he believes needs to be addressed. That vision may be controlled by the county so he is not sure it is a vision for Diamond Bar to consider but it is a very important topic to be addressed by this community. Chair/Mahlke said when she thought about a vision she was thinking less about economic development because the City Council has always done a great job taking care of the residents although she agrees with everything Council Members have said in terms of making sure Diamond Bar has a place for people to go. She thinks about multi -generational families and teens who even if they wanted to live in Diamond Barwould be unlikely they would be able to do so because they would not likely be able to afford it. When she thinks about an overall vision she thinks about how Diamond Bar puts "community first" and ways in which the City shows that vision, some of which is making sound economic decisions and some of which is embracing education and recreation and culture in ways that are meaningful. She is not sure what that looks like or how that translates but she thinks it needs to be within layers of the ways in which the City does a lot of its land uses. When she thinks of overall vision she thinks of "community priority" and she does not know what the community wants to have as its priority yet. She believes this City struggles with "country living" and "access" — residents want theirwide open spaces and we want our Starbucks and want to be able to shop in town and are irritated that we can't; but, on the other hand, we don't want the traffic that goes along with that. She believes that sometimes when the City plans it plans for the traffic going through and not the people who live here and she believes we have to figure out the balance of what that might look like and hoping that can be done in the General Plan Update. VC/Wolfe said he believed that Diamond Bar should be cognizant of its heritage as a "country" type living place and believes the City should try to look at building elements that encourage that and encourage more outdoor activity throughout the entire City. He also believes there are properties like the Lanterman property that CM/DeStefano mentioned earlier and the Metrolink station are areas where the City can take advantage of the morphing of society — the demands that the Millennials AUGUST 10, 2016 PAGE 23 GENERAL PLAN JOINT are bringing forward, and build that into the fabric of the community while not ignoring the City's heritage. C/Farago said he agrees with VC/Wolfe. He has been thinking about a "downtown" area because the identity of a community is not just their downtown area, it is all of the elements. If Diamond Bar built a downtown area now, unless the traffic issue can be addressed, no one can get to a downtown area. His kids go to The Shoppes because they can't go anywhere in Diamond Bar, especially when they get out of school and it is rush hour. So even if there was a downtown area, how would people get there when one of the most important issues is traffic? Another area of concern is when certain types of "downtown" elements are brought in they can attract crime, and as a result, safety becomes an even bigger issue. There are a number of different areas in Diamond Bar and not one of those areas gives him the feeling of "country." These areas have changed and when C/Tye talked about the Kmart he agreed that it needs to be bulldozed. It does not give him the feeling that he has entered a nice "country/bedroom" community. He believes the GPAC will be very important to see what everybody else feels because while officials tend to look at things on an economic level other residents tend to look at things on a "lifestyle" basis. It will be a tough balance and he believes the City has a tough job ahead of it. C/Mok said he is an old timer who has been in Diamond Bar since the mid -'70's" and so many times when people have asked him where he lives and he tells them they look at him quizzically and the only way he can explain it as a sleepy bedroom community at the junction of the SR57/60 which is all he can say because he cannot point to any other kind of landmark. He wants to be able to say that and something else. As earlier mentioned, there was discussion of the Metrolink and possibly making that a hub for entertainment which made him think about the ARTIC Commerce Center off of the SR57 in Anaheim maybe on a smaller scale with restaurants, etc. The phrase "having a downtown" makes him feel uncomfortable because his definition of a downtown would be multiple streets forming some sort of urban area with multiple uses. He prefers the phrase Town Center better which makes him feel more comfortable. He would like to see some sort of entertainment facility at the Town Center such as a La Habra or Brea type playhouse. In short, he would like for Diamond Bar to be a destination and not just a place to sleep. C/Barlas agrees with C/Mok that Diamond Bar should be more than just a bedroom community but since she has talked with a lot of different groups she is really looking forward to the GPAC because they are the ones that will be defining the City's vision. AUGUST 10, 2016 What are the greatest opportunities and challenges you see in achieving that vision? C/Herrera felt the greatest opportunities toward achieving the vision were within the City limits such as open space areas like Tres Hermanos. The greatest challenges she sees are a lot of what the City would like to see is being controlled by somebody else — another government entity or another city. The City of Industry owns all of Tres Hermanos but some of it is within Diamond Bar's City limits. The Golf Course is owned by Los Angeles County but it is within Diamond Bar's City limits. Diamond Bar would like to repurpose the old Diamond Bar Honda site which is owned by a developer who would like to see other things provided by the City of Diamond Bar. And so reaching agreements with these other individuals and entities will be a challenge. Once Diamond Bar gains control and access, getting community support is probably going to be a challenge so it will be important to "sell" the new vision that is being formulated and sell the reasons why it is wanted and needed for Diamond Bar's future. C/Tye felt the opportunity was with the GPAC looking at the opportunities to repurpose properties like Diamond Bar Boulevard, Golden Springs Drive, Gentle Springs Lane to the freeway including the Smart & Final and CVS area. Areas like the pad by the Diamond Bar Center as identified by the Mayor and different areas that there is an opportunity to add amenities and be able to afford them. He believes the biggest impacts result from regional traffic. If he could take the Mayor and City Manager and go to the headquarters of Lazy Dog Cafe and Wood Ranch and Trader Joe's and others that would make great amenities to the community that everyone is clamoring for and get them to come here they would say they already have one in Brea and in Chino Hills. When the City Council campaigned for a Trader Joe's three cities were considered, two of which got a Trader Joe's and Diamond Bar did not. The biggest challenge is that the window is closing as other nearby communities add those amenities and Diamond Bar will remain a bedroom community if it does not pay closer attention to the opportunities which is a huge challenge. M/Lyons agreed with C/Herrera and C/Tye and said she had nothing further to add. MPT/Lin said that one of the opportunities is that Diamond Bar has a lot of buying power and to have a high quality commercial development should not be an issue forthe City. The challenge is, where can the high quality commercial developments be built when there is no space. In looking at the Sphere of Influence area, those are incorporated areas and maybe there is an opportunity to annex that entire area and create a town center like the one Chino Hills built around its City Hall. It has /_11Ie11 f,� SEW -411V` 5,11 Fr*1TNV1rJqA] become a destination for people who live there. He envisions a well-planned town center which he feels would be ideal. Also, any successful economic development will require a private and public partnership. Diamond Bar will have to put some money toward attracting those people to come into the area. Chair/Mahlke felt that one of the City's greatest opportunities, because it is limited on land, is to be innovative and because we strive to find the balance for our community and for the idea that we want to sort of view it as country living and at the same time be a hub of activity gives Diamond Bar the opportunity to not be like Chino Hills or Anaheim Packing House but decide what we want Diamond Bar to be and make them want to be like Diamond Bar. If the City Council picks a great GPAC that can look at being innovative and not just sit around and say "we want another Shoppes" because if that is the decision it will not look good on Diamond Bar and will not serve Diamond Bar well. The traffic is here, the people are here and the community support is here. We just have to figure out an innovative way to make the opportunities available and we will stand on our own. The challenge is "we have to figure it out." VC/Wolfe said that with respect to opportunity Diamond Bar has had solid leadership since incorporation and the City has a great staff and he believes there is great opportunity that can be derived from that. On the challenge side of the equation is "traffic." This community suffers because of the confluence of the SR57/60 with four counties coming to this City. People come from one county to the other to work and recreate which is a problem for Diamond Bar because the SR57/60 cannot handle the capacity. It really doesn't matter what Caltrans or LA Metro do to try and improve that, or what OCTA does to the south of Diamond Bar to improve that, there will be continued growing demand in this region. SCAG has forecasted huge growth in this region by 2050 and so Diamond Bar has to recognize that and there are probably other things that need to be looked at such as CM/DeStefano's suggestion that Diamond Bar not widen its own arterials so as not to attract some of that demand onto the City streets. Unfortunately, the demand will continue because of where Diamond Bar is situated which is a real challenge for the City, which includes the increased port activity in the next few years, most of which will hit Diamond Bar hard because most of that port traffic traverses the SR60. SCAG wants an arterial route that parallels the SR60 or converting lanes on the SR60 to be dedicated truck lanes which will impact Diamond Bar. Traffic is a huge problem for this community that will be a detractor long-term if a solution cannot be determined. C/Farago said that where he comes from, the greaterthe challenge, the greater the creativity and the greater the opportunities. Between staff, Council and Commission this City has some very creative people and it will all come down to the people who are chosen to serve on the GPAC. We need some very creative and dynamic people that are going to come up with some of these ideas. For him, the challenge AFRi113fNfINE is time and Diamond Bar is running out of time to do a lot of things it wants to do because of everything that is going on around this City which is largely beyond the control of Diamond Bar. What he does not want to see is folks who are indecisive, procrastinating and not being clear thinkers who get out and move forward because if everything comes to a standstill opportunities will pass by and the opportunities will be limited as a result. C/Mok said he echoes everyone's comments, especially those about traffic because Diamond Bar is at this confluence and there does not appear to be any Big Fix right now. He is surprised about not hearing from PWD/Liu but he gives the Public Works Division accolades because of their work in DC to let them know that Diamond Bar needs the money to get this immense issue fixed. He believes that officials need to be cognizant of the public response when discussing all of these issues. Just listening to certain comments from the podium during City Council meetings and public comments, people are really concerned about the General Fund. They are happy the City has this extra money but they want to know where every dollar is spent. The City needs to be very careful about its plans and how it keeps the public in the loop. While it is important to continue to be fiscally responsible and prudent, it is also important to have a vision to help the City grow and prosper. C/Barlas said the greatest opportunity she sees is that the City has a very active community. Everybody has strong opinions. In a way that presents a good opportunity but the challenge will be how to balance that with what is in the best interest of the entire community. What specific issues (topic or area) would you like to see the General Plan address? C/Herrera said that some of the things that she would like to see addressed in the General Plan have been covered. C/Tye agreed. Most everyone will likely reiterate the traffic issue M/Lyons said that her issues have been addressed. MPT/Lin said that he was looking at the elements of the General Plan one other item he believes is critical to the City is the Open Space and Parks and the General Plan should address the City's needs and demands of the City with regard to those issues. Chair/Mahlke said that Ms. Martin alluded to Chair/Mahlke's specific issue when she commented that other cities had included historical preservation which she believes is essential to the consideration of finding the balance of city living and current millennial needs and because this community has such an active Historical Society she feels it would be worthwhile to determine if the GPAC found it worthy of inclusion in the General Plan. VC/Wolfe said that if there is town center or community place he believes it is important that the discussion carefully consider where such a location would be located. There has been discussion about the Kmart area but the transit connectivity exists to the south and west of that location. And the only way there will be success in building something that attracts people from outside the community as well as from within the community has to have a robust transit connectivity and it will have to be linked to the Metrolink facility, even with their limited slots, although that is expected to change. Transit has got to be an important component of what is proposed moving forward. C/Farago — No comment. C/Mok asked staff to be sure to get input from the schools in the area. CM/DeStefano mentioned that property values in Diamond Bar are very high and one of the main reasons, he believes, is because of the schools. Many residents buy in Diamond Bar because of its schools. C/Barlas — Nothing to add. C/Tye asked if as a matter of this process the document would be sent to schools and surrounding communities. Ms. Martin emphasized that the community input begins now. This is community input now and this process will seek input not just from the Council, Commission, other Commissions, community members on the plan after it is written, input will be sought before the plan is written so that it is written on the basis of that input. With respect to the formal public comment period, the only formal comment public period that is actually required by law is on the Environmental document which demands a 45 -day circulation period in which the document will sit out in public view so that people like Caltrans, community members and anyone else can write a letter on the content and findings of the environmental document and the City is obligated to respond to them. But for how long and by what means the City Council chooses to circulate the Draft General Plan or any other interim documents that arrive before that is complete, is up to the Council. She and her colleagues will do their best to seek input on all of those ideas, get people's opinions on different options and develop the details of those different options and opinions. Ms. Martin thanked the City Council. She believes this has been a really great meeting and she definitely benefited from hearing from everyone and hoped that HEEEE� '!FLoll ilk dVtl:Igo1g they had benefited from hearing from each other as well. She looks forward to working with everyone and she is excited to move forward. M/Lyons thanked Ms. Martin. CM/DeStefano said that staff really appreciates Ms. Martin and her team and look forward to working with them. Staff is very excited about moving forward with this update. This is not the sexiest topic the Council will ever have. This is a three-year project but it is probably the most important project that the 10 people involved will engage in. The Planning Commission will be working through the recommendations from the GPAC, having their Public Hearings and making their decisions and recommendations to the City Council is a critical part of the Planning Commission's role. Everything that this City is and does feeds off of the General Plan. It will be the most important policy document the Commission is involved in that the City Council weighs in on and makes a decision about and it is going to be extremely challenging. The Commission will have to weigh differing opinions and determine what is in the best interest of the City 20 years from now. There will be interest in parks, traffic mitigation and dealing with things not mentioned like aging infrastructure, how it will be replaced and where will the money come from to do so. Diamond Bar is a great place as a result and the effectiveness of the proven value of incorporation and this City is blessed with great schools and a great physical environment. This City remains a very, very good and popular place to be which is why the property values are so high. The Commission and Council will want to maintain all of that and balancing all of these interests overtime is going to be really challenging and how the City captures the opportunities. While Diamond Barwill be bombarded by traffic maybe it wants some of those folks to stop and buy something in Diamond Bar. And if this City gets those businesses that are not easily accessible online, it will be better than what is available today. As the discussion has begun about potential opportunities to create potential town centers and own towns and projects that provide the City with that fiscal reward the golf course screams as that location. All opportunities must be carefully considered but that is one that screams to be something other than a golf course. As work continues that may become the focus or other alternatives may be found which goes back to the opportunities and issues that have to be balanced. It is not going to be easy but it will be some of the most rewarding moments and whether in 10 or 15 years you are still in Diamond Bar or not you will know you played a role in what did occur over that course of time. Welcome to the next couple of years in your life and become fully engaged in the process because it will be rewarding. 3. PUBLIC COMMENTS: None Offered. AUGUST 10, 2016 PAGE 29 GENERAL PLAN JOINT MEETING ADJOURNMENT: With no further business before the joint session, M/Lyons adjourned the Special Joint Meeting at 8:12 p.m. The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 20th day of September , 2016. d-�L- Tomm e Cribbins, City Clerk , Aa 4d' it!4ancy A,, f s, Mayor Attest: Respectfully Submitted, Greg Gubman Community Development Director ! 1 nnife� M� Ike, I nnin C mmission Chair