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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/12/2005 'B:.'A K 'E R S F I E :L -"D ~ ~'~ ~~ Sue Benham, Chair Staff: John W. Stinson David Couch For: Alan Tandy, City Manager Mike Maggard AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING Monday, December 12, 2005- 1:00 p.m. City Manager's Conference Room - Suite 201 1501 Truxtun Avenue, Bakersfield CA 1. ROLL CALL The meeting was called to order at 1:06 p.m. Present: Councilmembers Sue Benham, Chair; David Couch; and Mike. Maggard 2. PUBLIC STATEMENTS (REGARDING CLOSED SESSION) 3. CLOSED SESSION A. Conference with Legal CounselmPotential Litigation Closed session pursuant to subdivision (b)(1)(3)(A) of Government Code section 54956.9 - two cases The meeting adjourned to Closed Session at 1:17 p.m. The Closed Session adjourned at 2:27 p.m. The regular meeting reconvened at 2:30 p.m. 4. CLOSED SESSION ACTION No reportable action. 5. ADOPT oCTOBER 10, 2005 AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Adopted as submitted. 6. PUBLIC STATEMENTS 7. DEFERRED BUSINESS (This item heard first before Closed Session) A. Report and Committee recommendation regarding establishing a memorial grove Recreation and Parks Director. Hoover reported that at Committee direction, staff has been looking for a location for a Memorial Tree Grove. At the same time staff AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Page 2 PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING Monday, December 12, 2005 was looking for an appropriate location, the Bakersfield Breakfast Rotary was searching for a significant project that would benefit the City to commemorate Rotary's Centennial Celebration and adopted the idea of the Memorial Tree Grove. Staff met with Dana Karcher of the Tree Foundation who suggested using the open area at the Manor Street bike path parking area. The Manor Street site has existing parking and easy accessibility. Representatives from the Breakfast Rotary also met at the Manor Street parking area and all agreed this would be an excellent location. The Kern River Parkway Committee was consulted and approved of the project and site. The Bakersfield Breakfast Rotary Club has approved $5,000 for the purchase of 100 trees to be planted in the memorial grove and budgeted $2,000 to apply to the irrigation required for the trees. Jackie Maxwell, Bakersfield Breakfast Rotary, spoke and provided pictures of a sample grove at San Luis Obispo. California Arbor Days are March 7th through the 14th, The Breakfast Rotary Club would like to have a dedication ceremony, and place a plaque at the site noting the club's donation and celebration of the 100th year of Rotary International. With Committee approval, staff will begin preparation of the site and work on a layout for the trees in cooperation with other City departments, the Tree Foundation, and the Bakersfield Breakfast Rotary. The goal would be to have the site ready and have volunteers plant the trees before the annual Arbor Days in March 2006. Committee Member Maggard thanked the Tree Foundation and the Breakfast Rotary Club for participating in a private/public project and made a motion for staff to proceed with the Memorial Tree Grove project at the Manor Street bike path area location. The Committee Unanimously approved the motion. 8. NEW BUSINESS A. Discussion and Committee recommendation regarding General Plan Updates Planning Director Movius provided an overview of the memorandum included in the Committee packet, which outlined two different options for updating the General Plan. Both options would provide the ability to use 2020 visioning again as the public outreach component. The difference between the two was Option B included assigning land use designations. Option A will take from three to four years. It will require at least one additional principal planner in Planning, affects staffing needs in other departments, and would require a consultant. The estimated cost would be $700,000. Option B will take from four to six years. As it includes the land use designations (mapping component), it is more controversial and will require more meetings. Much more staff would be needed and the estimated cost is $1 million. AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Page 3 PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING Monday, December 12, 2005 Planning Director Movius explained Option A will provide a way for the Council to communicate to the community that the City is addressing the issue of growth. It will address many issues and policies such as, provide a new EIR to address cumulative impacts, policies for walkable communities, a parks and trails plan for new development in the southwest and northwest, address super center retail, and expedite the transportation plan provided for by the "Thomas" funding. It could also designate such things as the ratio between residential, commercial and industrial development and how it will look. City Manager Tandy explained Option A needs to be done. Option B would be very complex, require work from the entire organization, not just a couple of planners. He noted this was a referral from the last Joint City/County meeting and updating the General Plan is a cooperative effort between the City and County. Dave Dmohowski, Project Design Consultants, spoke on the importance of undertaking the process to update the General Plan, a new EIR to address cumulative impacts from growth, and specific plans. Planning Director Movius stated a fee is charged on building permits that is designated for the general plan update. It may be necessary to review the fee, change the assumption of the nUmber of years it is based upon, or raise the fee to cover the cost of updating the General Plan. Committee Chair Benham made a motion for staff to proceed with Option A, meet and coordinate with County staff, and place on the next Joint City/County agenda. The Committee unanimously approved the motion. B. Discussion and Commiff~ee recommendation regarding streamlining the General Plan amendment cycle and process City Attorney Gennaro explained the Council had a special meeting beginning at 5:15 p.m. on November 16 dedicated to general plan amendment hearings. If this process worked well for Council, another Council meeting could be designated to hear only general plan amendments and consent calendar. At least 21 general plan items are anticipated for February. Committee Chair Benham made a motion to have one of the meetings in February 'designated for general plan amendment hearings, consent calendar hearings and eliminate all other business. She requested staff to encourage the applicants and other parties to resolve issues prior to the meeting. Committee Member Maggard suggested the Mayor include in his explanation that if Councilmembers have issues to refer to staff, staff will be available after the meeting. Committee Member Couch expressed that since this may happen four times a year, if a Councilmember had something they really wanted to say that night, they could be limited to three minutes. AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Page 4 PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING Monday, December 12, 2005 Committee Member Maggard did not want to keep other Councilmembers from speaking and wanted to have the invocation and flag salute at all meetings. Committee Chair Benham amended her motion to have one of the meetings in February designated for general plan amendment hearings and eliminate all other business with the exception of consent calendar hearings, invocation, the pledge to the flag, emergency items, emergency closed session items and Council statements. The Committee unanimously approved the motion and requested staff to prepare a report and forward to the next Council meeting. C. Discussion and Committee recommendation on 2006 Committee meeting schedule The Committee unanimously voted to schedule meetings on the following Tuesdays in 2006 at 1:00 p.m. January 31 February 28 March 28 April 25 May 30 June 27 July 25 August 22 September 19 October 17 November 28 December 12 9. COMMI'I-rEE COMMENTS 10. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 3:10 p.m. Attendance-staff: City Manager Alan Tandy; City Attorney Ginny Gennaro; Assistant City Manager John Stinson; Assistant City Manager Alan Christensen; Assistant Public Works Director Jack LaRochelle; Development Services Director Stan Grady; Planning Director Jim Movius; Recreation and Parks Director Dianne Hoover; and City Clerk Pam McCarthy Attendance-others: Dana Karcher, Tree Foundation; Jackie Maxwell, Bakersfield Breakfast Rotary; Dave Dmohowski, Project Design Consultants; Kevin Burton and Scott Howry, Young Wooldridge, LLP; and Scott Blunck, Castle and Cooke cc: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers S:~JOHN\Council Committees\05Planning&Development\P&D 05 dec 12summary.doc