City Heights Area Planning Committee

Minutes - August-October 2021

CITY HEIGHTS AREA PLANNING COMMITTEE

 Minutes of Oct 4th, 2021 Meeting

 

Chairman Russ Connelly called the meeting to order at 6:32 PM and called the roll.  Jake Banfield-Weir, Francisco Garcia (6:50), Rosa Calvario, Asma Abdi, Jim Varnadore, Edwin Lohr, Scott Anglim, Brian Green-Carson (6:39), Maria Cortez, Roddy Jerome (7:13), Kenneth Furukawa (6:41), David Nelson, Rahmo Abdi, Marcellus Anderson, Mazda Merhaz, Patty Vaccariello and Randy Torres-VanVleck were in attendance. No absences were recorded.

 

Corrections to the minutes from August 2, 2021: Accepted with one name correction.

 

Approval of the Agenda:  Jim moved, Maria seconded acceptance of the agenda.  Passed  unanimously.

 

Staff Comment:

Stephanie Estrada of the Mayors Office talked about housing assistance, Covid vaccination requirements, City hiring and new ordinance banning “ghost guns”.

 

Ben Mendoza and Julio Garcia of Council District 9 discussed PATH - homeless enforcement.  Patty, David, Mazda and Brtian asked questions of the staff.

 

Ana Laura Martinez of County Supervisors office: County Is hiring, educating about COVID misinformation and gave details on a Community Coffee on October 9.

 

Off-agenda Public Comment:  NONE

 

Business Agenda:

 

Item 6.1 - Appointment to fill the Business 2022 Seat

Michael (Mick) Rossler - 11 year resident, 19 year owner of The Tower Bar.  Patti nominates, Brian seconds to approve Michael.  Vote was 15-0-0 with Chair not voting and Michael was seated.

 

Item 6.2 - 689155 T-Mobile CUP renewal 3850 Westgate Place

Alexander Lew & Alec Adams discussed renewal of existing CUP on the property.  No changes are to be made for this facility. After discussion, Jim moved and Brian seconded to approve the renewal of the CUP.  Vote was 16-0-0 with the Chair not voting and the motion passed.

 

Item 6.3 - 691621 Vertical Bridge_T-Mobile CUP 3073 40th Street

Gary Cassel with Vertical Bridge (contractor) discusseed the location and placement of a faux-tree type of antenna at the location. Questions were asked about addition tree plantings on the property, ownership of the land its to be placed on and the height of the proposed antenna.   After discussion, Brian motioned to approve the CUP as presented; seconded by Kenneth.  Vote was 16-1-0 with the Chair not voting and the motion passed.

 

Item 6.4 - Cola-Cola/Reyes project update 47th Street between Federal and Air Way

Laurel Patrick, Jim Soring and Mark Langin presented the scope of the project and what the company plans to place in the new building to be built on site.  They discussed the demolition of the current buildings and the potential job expansion once project is complete. Company will keep the committee informed on the progress of the project.

 

Item 6.5 - Subcommittee report on Youth Seats

Russ called for report from Subcommitte chair Jake on the meeting of September 20, 2021.  Jake was not available to make the presentation as he had left the meeting. 2^nd Vice Chair was not in attendance at that meeting.  Russ called on Kenneth as secretary but he was not prepared to make the report at that time.  After calling for a report from any committee member that attended that meeting, Jim volunteered to summarize the highlights of the subcommittee meeting:  After an interesting discussion, a motion was offered that the youth seats be removed and the bylaws be revised to have only 20 seats on the committee.  Two other options were also presented including to keep the seats open “ceremonially” with no voting rights or to keep the seats active and remain as they are. 

 

The Chairman added context to the reason for the Youth Seat review: seats have been in existence for 15 years but In most cases one of the seats seems to be vacant at many times.  Neither seat is filled at the moment and its been difficult to keep them filled. Russ then asked for additional input noting that the reason for the Subcommittee meeting ortiginally was to give more time for the discussion.  The chair noted that only 6 committee members and 2 guests attended the Subcommittee meeting.  Several people noted their inability to gain access to the Zoom meeting that night.

 

Randy, Kenneth, Roddy, Rosa, Maria and Laura Benavidez, a member of the commumity, made comment and gave input.  After much discussion, Jim made a motion to continue matter until December meeting and to take it up again at that time. Seconded by Brian. Vote was 16-0-0 with the Chair not voing and the motion passed.

 

Item 6.6 - Spaces As Places – CHAPC response

The Chair discussed the plan as presented to Community Planners Committee and highlighted elements of the plan and changes since originally presented to CPC.  Next step is for this plan to go to the City Council.  Has already gone before planning commission. CPC asked for 10 week hold so CPG's can give input on the matter. The Chair asked if the committee wished to draft a response and called for a motion, none was offered.

 

 

Chair's Report:

Krista Berry Ortega has resigned.  Her District 4-23 Seat is now open and will be filled in November.  Andy Field, Director of Park and Rec to visit next month to update us on the City Heights parks projects and asked that any questions for Andy be sent to him in advance of the meeting.  MTS - improving bus lines, timing, and new bus lines-presention on subject in November. Joe Lacava, District 1 councilman on update to Council Policy 600-24 and future of Planning Groups:- 3 way proposal regarding CPG's:  officially noticed (current), completely independent hybrid, or no planning groups in order to comply to the City Charter. Subject is ongoing. The 2021 City Code update is under way.  36 items on the list. Of interest to City Heights: Eliminate storage requirement for multi-tenant buildings. Needs to be further vetted as this is an impact to parking. Also in Code Update: Request to eliminate drive thru restaurants along transit corridors as well as bigger notification signs for upcoming projects at project locations, Community Gardens to be approved at a process 1 level, eliminating fees and making it easier to get through.  Russ concluded by calling for volunteers to join the election subcommittee next month.

 

Board Comment:

Rosa, Edwin, Randy and Maria made comment.

 

Meeting was adjourned at 8:34 PM. 

 

No meeting was held in September 2021

 

 

CITY HEIGHTS AREA PLANNING COMMITTEE

                                                           Minutes of Aug 2, 2021

 

Russ called the meeting to order and called roll at 6:33 PM., Francisco Garcia, Asma Abdi, Jim Varnadore, Edwin Lohr, Brian Green-Carson (6:53), Maria Cortez, David Nelson, Mazda Mehraz, Patty Vaccariello, Rosa Calvario, Roddy Jerome, Krista Berry-Ortega, Randy Torres-Van Vleck. Ken Furukawa, Marcellus Anderson and Russ Connelly were in attendance. Absent were: Rahmo Abdi, Scott Anglim, Jake Banfield-Weir and Simonei Medina.

 

1. After roll call, the sign in sheet was disclosed per Brown Act and Council Policy 600-24 guidelines.

 

2. Minutes were approved unanimously as presented.

 

3. Agenda as presented was moved by Patty Vaccariello and seconded by Krista Berry-Ortega. Passed unanimously.

 

4. Staff Comment:

• Julio Garcia, representative of Council district 9, talked about the following: Interpreter availability, Cool Zones, The Nat Night out screening Spies in Disguise.

• Stephanie Estrada – Mayor’s office – Gave comment on various staff positions filled and Rent Relief.

 

5. Off-Agenda Public Comment

• Becky Rapp spoke against marijuana businesses

• Paul Simonds discussed the Fairmount Ave. Fire Station

• Krista Berry Ortega: might be her last meeting

• Danielle Laman asked about the Fire station project

• Esperanza Gonzalez expressed her position against Marijuana businesses.

• Linda Coffman inquired about the Firehouse project and the Chollas Creek Bed restoration project.

 

6. Business agenda

 

6.1 Apptointment to fill the 2022 Business Seat - Mick Rossner owner of Tower Bar is interested but was unable to attend the meeting. No one else expressed interest – Tabled

 

6.2 Update on Repairs to City Heights Pool - Sara McCullen & Elif Cetin gave a presentation/update on the community pool repairs/rebuild. Several questions were raised by the committee and the community and were discussed with request to give responses to back to the Chair.

 

6.3 City’s “Homes for all of us” proposal and Development Code Updates - David Nelson Motioned to send a letter to City Council and Mayor to delay any action on policy updates until Community Planning Groups could look into them further. Patty V. Seconded. Vote was 14-1-0 with the chair not voting and the motion passed.

 

6.4 Discussion of future meeting topics and return to in-person meetings - Russ explained that we may have to go back to in-person meetings after Sept. 30th unless decided otherwise by the State of California per the Ralph M Brown act and gained input for future meeting topics.

 

7. Chair’s Report:

No meeting in September due to Labor Day.

• Zoom meeting previous week about State ADU law vs what the City adopted. The city was much more generous due to setback waivers and other incentives. Senator Atkins and City Council members Joe Lacava and Sean Elo attended this meeting. A group that is fighting these regulations will come to us for a presentation in the future.

• Code enforcement and Community Policing have still not been restored to previous levels and that means that City Heights is being feeling the brunt of homeless and other quality-of-life issues.

 

8. Board Comments Maria, Jim and Randy made comments.

 

9. Adjournment - Russ declared the meeting adjourned at 8:19 PM.