Rolando Park Community Council

February Reporter

Feb 10, 2007

RPCC Monthly Meeting February 15th 7 p.m. Rolando Park Elem. Auditorium 6620 Marlowe drive
We will be electing this year?’s board & officers. Our guest speaker Bill Tall, owner of the famous City Farmers Nursery, will give a talk on pest and insect control including the Bark Beetle. The next scheduled meeting dates are: March 15th, April 19th, and May 17th.
Past
We started this venture in 2003. I was courting the Darnall Community Council, as the departing VP, to expand its area of coverage to include Rolando Park during that summer. After much discussion over there and a few meetings with people in Rolando Park, it was decided to make a go of it on our own. That decision solidified in Lyle Wright?’s garage in October; and in November it began. The first year we were warned not to figure on big numbers as we were getting started. This community exceeded all expectations. We had 50 to 80 people per meeting for over a year. Just as we were getting settled into our second year, we got the news of the impending school closures including our own elementary school. We tried contacting our school officials to change their minds to no avail. Only after a huge outcry from our and other communities did they concede to at least let the next incoming school board make the decision. We then set out to learn all we could about these candidates through our own member?’s efforts culminating in a debate between the candidates at our meeting. After the election we succeeded in convincing the new school board to leave our school open. Besides saving the school and ensuring that the canyon didn?’t go to some use that wouldn?’t fit, we also developed a great relationship with the school and its principal, Leslie Barnes. While all that was going on we took on the task of pushing for undergrounding to both enhance our neighborhoods and improve the systems so critical to modern life. We were rewarded for our efforts by Jim Madaffer?’s office with being selected as the first of these projects to take place in our District 7. These were the major achievements for us, but not all of them. We looked at stop signs and red curbs. We had one stop sign placed at Meridian & Zena, and declined to put one at Vista Grande & Marlowe so we could keep our school?’s crossing guards. During the last year or so it has been fairly quiet. We learned that through the persistent efforts of our 3 members on Eastern Area Community Planning Committee (EACPC) a traffic light has been funded and is currently being designed by CalTrans for the SR-94 off ramp at College and Livingston, a project long awaited by the EACPC board. More recently we also learned of the loss of our Police Storefront at University Square. We have since secured the old College Heights Library to replace that. We will let you know when we need help to put it together in the near future. Also a Graffiti Cleaning Squad was started to help keep that out of our neighborhood. The quiet times seem to be harder to handle than when we were faced with major task. The second year we only lost, the Posillicos, two board members, which were quickly replaced by Lynn Rine & Grant Merkel. This past year we lost Grant & Lynn, our Vice President and Treasurer respectively. Sandra Crandall offered to replace Lynn as Treasurer, but had to vacate the position due to an out of town move. Recently we did get a replacement for our long empty VP spot now filled by Rob Wilkerson. Unfortunately this year is proving even harder as I cannot return as President and we have lost a few more board members.
Present
After the State of the City address by Mayor Sanders it seems things are improving but it will be a long hard road ahead for them and us. Upcoming budgets and cuts will put almost every little thing we are getting under the microscope for scrutiny as to whether it is necessary. A large chunk of land near Chollas Lake was in talks to be developed into a pitch and putt golf park and batting cages by a company called Paragon. This would give our kids a much needed place to go as we don?’t have many parks around us.
Unfortunately that set of talks has broken down with the Real Estate Assets Department of the city, so now we start all over. This leaves us with
Present continued
methane well problems to take care of and no additional park space over there on the old landfill. Harry, owner of the store on the corner of Rolando & University, finally got out of permits and as you can see is well underway to bring us a gas station, mini-mart and carwash. I recently noticed the tanks are in the ground and some of the concrete islands have been poured. We saw the clean up days for University and the Chollas Triangle- 54th St, University, & Chollas Pkwy with help from Jim Madaffer?’s office, Alpha Project, and many other local Community Councils.

Future?
There are still many items that are coming and need to be done. We had started to look at making the road to the east of College Ave, ?“little College?”, a one-way street to improve its traffic flow. At one time a stop sign at Racine & Vista Grande to replace the current yield for left turns sign had been talked about and still needs to be done. The other half of Rolando Park for undergrounding still needs to be placed in the budgeted line up for those projects. The circuit containing the other half our neighborhood extends into the Oak Park Community Council?’s area between College Grove Shopping Center & Streamview Drive. Oak Park Community Council can be a powerful ally to get the rest of our neighborhood completed soon after the first part is done, if we act now and together. Neighborhood Watches and Citizens Patrols could go a long way to helping offset the dwindling police patrols until they can regain their numbers. Plus there is about $2000 to be had from the Citizens on Patrol if we could start a new COP in our neighborhood. Last year we were promised a future Home Tour for RP as the tour stayed in Rolando Village. This would spotlight our neighborhood and its history. Despite what is reported, we have maintained our pricing here with the exception of a few people who had to leave our area quickly. Another deal near the Kroc Center is pending that would set a new record high price for a home significantly smaller than the last one that set the record. I?’d like to see us encourage the Rolando Little League and Women?’s Softball teams again. We also have a nice new school library which is in need of more books. EACPC has been promised a traffic study of the area around College Grove. In March EACPC will hold elections for board members including Lyle?’s and my seat?’s which we need to fill. We have been a large force at EACPC and I?’d hate to see that change with all that is and will be coming to the areas around us.

Another thing to consider is who will replace our two officials, Shirley Horton & Jim Madaffer after their last term? Even with all the city and state have been through I think they have served us well and do not as yet see any good replacements for them. I?’m also wondering what they will do next with their talent and experience.

Redevelopment
The southeast corner of University & College is being looked at for a Walgreen?’s. They are trying to work with the owners and lease holders. They also are having concerns about landfill on the lot. This corner could use improvement. It currently holds an unused restaurant, an auto body yard, a car sales lot, and the Mexican restaurant. The Mexican restaurant seems to do a good business and would be presumably missed. I don?’t know much about the other two functioning businesses.

In the 5500 block of University Ave on the north side, a project was proposed to build condos with a little retail at street level. The design was to go straight up from the sidewalk six stories with a very modern out of place look. EACPC reviewed the project and asked the developer to reconsider since they didn?’t feel the communities were willing to allow a six story complex. At the last meeting the developer came back with a new design. It is a night and day difference. It?’s still six levels but it does so by following the slope of the land. It?’s designed to have four stories at the street with a courtyard visible from the front with a fountain. It proposes to have a pool, Jacuzzi, basketball court, shuffle board court, kid?’s playground, bar-b-q, recreation room, plus an enclosed separate courtyard for residents with an outdoor flagstone fire place, bubbling fountain, arbor arches, bamboo, and ferns. On the inside it would have a ground floor drop off area within the building and parking for guests of both the residents and businesses. The 67 units would vary from one bedroom, some with attached lofts, to three bedrooms; all ranging from 900 to 1450 square feet.
University Square will be coming to EACPC with plans for development at their site between 58th St & 60th St on University Ave
Redevelopment continued
The Crossroads Redevelopment Area is working on obtaining proposals to develop the Chollas Triangle area. A request for qualification has been done and they are now focusing on getting different designs. One of the groups involved are the new owners of the old Hillside Hospital just north of the 5500 block of University Ave. This location is one of the most underutilized areas within our neighborhoods. It is rumored that the other large spot at 63rd & El Cajon Blvd is seeking permission to start phased demolition of the old Albertsons shopping center. That site is set for several new condos with a few retails shops. This seems to be the trend for our older commercial corridors. Crossroads has been bringing more funds than expected and should bring about $4million in this year. Once they can write bonds on that income, a lot will be getting done around here that has been neglected far too long without raising our taxes and fees, all the while improving our area. Amazing what can be done when the government, the public, and businesses pull in one direction.

Undegrounding
I recently talked to Carol Drummond from the Capital Improvements Department of the city. She informed me that delays in procuring easements on the other two projects outside Council District 7 have now pushed the start date for our 7F project in northern Rolando Park to late March or early April. Welcome to the world of construction folks, which has been busy and expensive in recent years.

Water/Sewer Rate hike
Speaking of construction, we saw a presentation about the up coming rate hikes at EACPC. They said that they need these increases to fix what has been neglected for years and decades. To accomplish that they must get less than 50% of the responses back saying we oppose this. I have seen the results of this neglect in stopped up houses, ripped up roads, and people on College Ave without water Christmas day. Trust me they are right when they say fixing a pipe on Christmas day is not the most efficient way to get the pipe repaired. The flip side to this is ?“don?’t they get enough now, and how much more do they need?”. Well at EACPC they said they would balance things better with the new rate structure. After reading what they sent in the mail, it seems to me that the resident monthly meter fees, a meter typically 5/8?” to 1?” in size, will go up about 20% at the end of 4 years while major meters monthly fees, up to a 16?” size, will be cut in about half. Water usage will go from about $2/unit to $3/unit- an additional 50% for water. On sewage they will now have a higher amount for which they can charge fees on - it goes from a cap of 14 to 20 units per service; and a higher rate to charge with per unit. The base monthly sewer fee will go up about a third. This is a rotten choice to be left with. I?’m not sure which way to go?—broken pipes or empty pockets. I will admit I know cost of construction and maintenance have gone sky high in recent years, but where does the pocket picking stop and good services begin.

Bark Beetles- Watch your Pine Trees
One of your neighbors has lost a (Japanese) Black Pine to an infestation. If you see small pitch mounds, tiny holes with sawdust in the bark, woodpeckers, or brownish red needles in your pine trees have them checked immediately. They said that when it was quite it sounded like something was chewing on the tree then a month later it was dead. If you do have pine trees it might not be a bad idea to have them checked by an arborist soon to prevent such attacks. This is the reason we are having this months guest speaker to inform you about his and other pest issues.

Reporter delivery
Again the topic of sending the Reporter by email and/or posting it to a web site has been proposed. This concept has been around since the beginning of RPCC. Originally we didn?’t have enough email addresses to do this and wanted to include everyone we could. That results in a lot of effort. The time to compose, edit, and print. Next, to get stacks of this newsletter to our Guides, the people that physically deliver this newsletter. Then all of the effort expended by the wonderful Guides that get these out to you and 1432 other households in our area. This is a big task and while it makes for good coverage it does constrain what can go into it. It takes about a week and a half to two weeks from conception to door. That means timely news doesn?’t always get out. The cost of doing this has been largely our efforts and the paper. Unfortunately the generous printer that does this for us may not be able to continue this for free. He?’s had large equipment to replace this past year at
Reporter Delivery continued
equally large cost. He said that he can continue to do it at his cost though which is cheaper than we?’ll get anywhere else. Emailing the Reporter would allow: more timely news delivery, eliminate the paper and printing cost, reduce the time to edit because it could be any size, more consistent delivery, no more wear and tear on our generous Guides, possibly translating it into other languages, and no worries about inclement weather getting to them outside. The problem would be to get the same coverage we?’ve been getting. We would need a similar network of people willing to print a few and deliver them to their neighbors without email access, much like the Guides do. Right now we have guides that deliver from 28 to 175 households each. I figure to do email and not ask to much of anyone person in printing some for others we would need to limit each Email Guide to printing a maximum of 20. I have no idea how many of you could receive this through email to reduce the 1432 households down, but using that number and dividing by 20 gives us a need for about 70 Email Guides. Right now we have about a dozen Guides. They are fairly well distributed too. You can see to get to this goal we need: many more email addresses from you, dozens of new Email Guides, a good, spread out pattern of the Email Guides, so nobody has to go to the other end of the area. This is no small task to say the least. It will require a bit of coordination and your efforts to pull off. Our website could be a good place to start gathering the needed email addresses. It could also be the place for the Reporter distribution by itself. This eliminates a lot of coordination, but has limits on who it can reach.

Proposal to Drain Chollas Lake
Recently a rumor spread rapidly that there was a proposal to either drain this lake or stop filling it. Since it doesn?’t have a water source this would result in a slower drain yet still the same result. This came about as a result of a conversation after a local meeting about the requested water and sewer rate hikes. One of the people in charge of the Water department discussed that they would no longer be paying to put water into the lake. That is because a San Diego Grand Jury said it was illegal to do so since the lake is no longer a reservoir and not part of the water system. The people who heard this knew that the lake has a leak and, though attempts were made to fix it; they did not succeed. They took this to mean that no water would be added and then the resulting emptying of the lake was pending. Unfortunately, the person at the Water department did not realize that the person they were talking to did not know that the Park & Recreation department has been paying for the water to replenish the lake and has no current or future plans to stop doing so at this time. These types of rumors are another reason to have local groups like our own. We responded quickly to get to the facts. A silver lining to this rumor is that it has brought attention to the old leak at the lake. The person in charge of the lake said they would make another go of finding money to find a fix and the funds to pay for it ?– no small task these days. I was also pleased to hear that they wouldn?’t spend tons of dollars to fix it if the solution turns out to be more expensive than just replenishing the lake. It?’s nice to see there are still some people who take in the whole picture at the city.

Time to Renew Your Membership or Become a Member
As you can see this organization has done a lot of good, and will continue to do so with your time, dues, and donations. Dues can be paid at a meeting or mailed to Lee Rittiner at: 4095 Vista Grande Drive; San Diego, CA 92115 made out to Rolando Park Community Council for $12. Please include your name(s), address, phone number, and email. The dues cover everyone in your household. We are getting a late start this year, but would still like to get more memberships than before. Hopefully this will be the year in which we get 10% or 142 households. Even if you can?’t make a meeting your dues will be put to good use. Everyone is welcome to the meetings paid or not, but voting is limited to members.