Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/02/2015  B A K E R S F I E L D fM V{Ü|á ZxÜÜç Committee Members: Chris Gerry, Administrative Analyst Jacquie Sullivan, Chair Bob Smith Willie Rivera AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT REGULAR MEETING OF THE COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETING Thursday, April 2, 2015 12:00 p.m. City Hall North First Floor - Conference Room A 1600 Truxtun Avenue, Bakersfield CA 93301 The meeting was called to order at 12:05 P.M. 1. ROLL CALL Committeemembers Present: Councilmember Jacquie Sullivan, Chair Councilmember Bob Smith Councilmember Willie Rivera Staff Present: Alan Tandy, City Manager Steven Teglia, Assistant City Manager Christopher Gerry, Administrative Analyst Caleb Blaschke, Management Assistant Virginia Gennaro, City Attorney Andrew Heglund, Deputy City Attorney Nick Fidler, Public Works Director Kris Budak, Public Works TRIP Manager Roani Sandoval, TRIP Engineer Tera Loveless, TRIP Accounting Supervisor William Knoetgen, TRIP Project Manager Greg Gharib, TRIP Deputy Project Manager Janet Wheeler, TRIP Community Outreach Coordinator Don Anderson, Finance Property Manager Dianne Hoover, Recreation and Parks Director Others Present: Roland Genick, Parsons Members of the 24th Street Improvement Association Member of the Public Members of the Media Community Services Committee Meeting Agenda Summary Report Thursday, April 2, 2015 Page 2 2. ADOPT FEBRUARY 5, 2015 AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Adopted as submitted 3. PUBLIC STATEMENTS None 4. NEW BUSINESS A. Committee Discussion Regarding Landscaping and Walls of the 24th Street Improvement Project – Tandy City Manager Tandy stated that the City Council directed staff to provide concepts of an attractively landscaped 24th Street Improvement Project at a public workshop to gain community consensus regarding the design options and present the results to the Community Services Committee for further discussions. The majority of comments for the community were in favor of the landscaping identified as Palette A. There was not an overwhelming consensus regarding the design options for the walls, however, some residents requested a design that incorporated a brick facade with vines. Therefore, in additional to the two design options previously presented at the public workshop, an additional two design options that incorporate a brick facade were presented at the meeting. He provided a brief description of all four design concepts. The two new design concepts do not include vines because they attract insects and rodents and are problematic. Committee Chair Sullivan asked if there are any added benefits in the differences between the four design concepts or if the designs were merely differences in appearance. Mr. Roland Genick of Parsons stated there were no added benefits between the concepts only differences in the appearance. City Manager Tandy added that the cost of each of the four design concepts is relatively similar. Committee member Smith stated that there are existing walls along 24th Street which will remain the same; therefore, there will not be consistency in the overall appearance of the street. Mr. Genick stated the private walls on along on the south side of the street are not affected by the project and will remain the same. The majority of changes will occur to the walls on the north side of the street because traffic will be moving closer to the homes on the north side. Mr. Tandy added that some of the existing walls are historic in nature and are not proposed to be removed and that based on the federal sound study criteria, federal funding cannot be used to replace the walls on the south side as the traffic will be moving away from those homes. Committee member Smith asked what the appearance of the south side of the street would look like. Community Services Committee Meeting Agenda Summary Report Thursday, April 2, 2015 Page 3 Mr. Genick stated there will be trees and the sidewalk between cul-de-sacs and the Parkway. Public Works Director Fidler stated residents of the Tree Streets are establishing a community nonprofit partnership and are planning to put up walls at the end of the cul-de-sacs which will match the walls on the north side. City Manager Tandy stated that there had been no recent communication with the residents of the Tree Streets and was unaware of any proposals they may have. Committee member Smith stated he thought design alternative 3 was the best as it contained an appearance of a mix of old and new due to the brick details. Committee member Rivera stated he agreed with Committee member Smith. Committee Chair Sullivan asked if there was a specific timeframe to select a specific a design concept. City Manager Tandy stated there was not and depended on what the Committee preferred to do. A decision during the meeting was not necessary; the discussion could be brought back to the Committee next month or the Committee can recommend having the presentation presented to the full City Council. Staff will add the design concept to the website to get more feedback from the public for clarity on how to proceed with the final design phase. Mr. Tandy also stated that there are a couple of other issues related to 24th Street like, crosswalks and landscaping adjacent to the cul-de-sacs on the south side of 24th Street, that will also need to be discussed at a future meeting after staff has had time to prepare background material. City Attorney Gennaro reminded the Committee about the pending litigation of the CEQWA report on the 24th Street Project. She stated that there would be a period of time to consider all the concepts and make a decision. Committee Chair Sullivan stated it would be good idea to have a workshop with the full City Council to review the design concepts. Mr. Hawkeswarth, a member of the 24th Street Improvement Association (Association), stated he and others of the Association prefer the brick appearance. He stated the association was created to be able to handle any issues that may arise in the future on the overall appearance of 24th Street. Committee member Smith requested he be provided with examples of local works of the brick appearance. Mr. Genick reviewed several pictures of similar examples of the brick look from a catalog. Committee Chair Sullivan asked if funding was available to replace the walls on the south side so they are similar in appearance to the walls on the north side. Community Services Committee Meeting Agenda Summary Report Thursday, April 2, 2015 Page 4 City Manager Tandy stated that the current plan of the project included retaining some of the private walls on the south side. Public Works Director Fidler stated the issue was not funding, but an environmental issue because some of the walls were deemed historic in nature by the State of California’s Historic Preservation Office. Mr. Hawkeswarth asked if the Association unanimous voted to put up similar walls from what will be found on the north side that the State’s Historic Preservation office would deny such request and whether there was a document which specifically indicates which walls are historic in nature. City Manager Tandy stated it was a possibility because the Historic Preservation office would be interested in preserving what they view as historic not want what the property owners are interested in. TRIP Project Manager William Knoetgen stated the cultural report and the EIR identify the different areas including the historic area in general and is not specific to each wall. City Attorney Gennaro informed the member of the Association that they consult with a private attorney if they care to move in that direction as there may be other circumstances that they would need to address. TRIP Deputy Program Manager Greg Gharib added that additional studies can disrupt the current process if there are any alterations to the current project and will delay it. Committee member Rivera asked staff to provide him and the full City Council a copy of the presentation provided at the 24th Street Community Meeting held at the Rabobank Arena on February 4th. Public Works Director Fidler provided a detailed summarization of the construction including where walls would be built, direction of the roadway, curb and sidewalk, etc. along 24th Street utilizing Google Earth. Committee member Rivera made a motion to provide the landscaping from Pallet A, all four wall design concepts including the no planting of vines to the full City Council at the next council meeting. The motion was unanimously approved. B. Committee Discussion Regarding Landscaping the 23rd and 24th Street Couplet - Tandy City Manager Tandy stated that several City Councilmembers requested a study to extend the aesthetic elements of the 24th Street Project throughout the couplet area after review of the proposed improvement plan for the 24th Street Project which included new signage, ornate banners, and decorative concrete features on handicapped accessible ramps. He also added that landscaping was not designed into the original project and that there was no funding budgeted for it. There are numerous site constraints that limit the scope of the proposed couplet project including lack of space and costs associated with excessive concrete removal, distance to water sources for irrigation, and existing drive Community Services Committee Meeting Agenda Summary Report Thursday, April 2, 2015 Page 5 approaches that require a clear line of site. Staff was able to identify 31 potential landscaping areas which do not occur continuously or consistently and some of which already have landscaping. The cost to landscape such areas is very high due to the scattered tree locations, lack of irrigation, and extensive areas of sidewalk reconstruction to establish landscaping and an irrigation system. The existing on-street parking along the couplet will be removed as a component of the 24th Street Improvement Project making on- site parking critical to the property owners adjacent to the couplet. Businesses have not been surveyed but staff believes that a substantial amount of the property owners would not support the project if they face additional loss of parking. Committee Chair Sullivan asked what the proposed changes to the couplet area were. City Manager Tandy stated the couplet section is not proposed to be modified with the exception of some drive entrance enhancements and handicap ramp improvements. The Couplet Landscape Project will not achieve the design continuity several Councilmembers expressed interest in. Staff can still do some of the things to create a visual continuity between the respective projects like monument signs, street markers, signage, banners and colored concrete. Committee member Smith stated he liked the proposed signage concepts, but that he would like to see trees throughout the couplet area. He requested staff do a walk-through of the couplet area with him to pinpoint areas where trees can be placed and to get clarification as to why it may not be feasible. Committee member Rivera made a motion to continue discussion of this item to a future meeting and requested staff work with the City Attorney to coordinate a walk-though of the couplet area with all three Committee members. The motion was unanimously approved. 5. COMMITTEE COMMENTS Committee Chair Sullivan asked if streets signs would be located on the south side indicating the residential streets. Mr. Genick stated there would be monument signs indicating so. 6. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 1:50 P.M. cc: Honorable Mayor and Council