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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/10/2005 B A K E R S .F' I E L · D /~t,~ ~ Sue Benham, Chair Sta~:- John- W. Stinson David Couch For: Alan Tandy, City Manager Mike Maggard AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING Monday, October 10, 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 1:00 p.m. Present: Councilmembers Sue Benham, Chair; and David Couch Absent: Councilmember Mike Maggard 2. ADOPT SEPTEMBER 12, 2005 AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Adopted as submitted. (Committee Member Maggard absent.) Committee Chair Benham announced that New Business, Item 5A, on the agenda regarding "Vacation of "O" Street between Truxtun Avenue and 17th Street" was not going to be heard until the Committee's next meeting. Committee Member Maggard was absent and Committee Member Couch may have a conflict due to an affiliation with a client. 3. PUBLIC STATEMENTS Lorraine Unger, Sierra Club, spoke regarding attending a workshop at Kern COG and while touring in the downtown, she noticed the dirt was very uneven with 3-inch deep depressions next to the curb at the northwest corner of "K" and 18th Streets and requested it be filled in and leveled out. 4. DEFERRED BUSINESS A. Report and Committee recommendation regarding subdivision tree requirements for new single family homes and sidewalk design standards Planning Director Movius gave an overview of the memorandum in the Committee packet. The Planning Commission had formed an Ad Hoc Committee to review the issue of walkable neighborhoods for new residential developments. The Planning AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Page 2 PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING Monday, October 10, 2005 Commission referred the Ad Hoc Committee recommendations to the Council. The highlights of the recommendations were: 1. The normal type sidewalk is a "combination-type sidewalk" with the sidewalk next to the curb, which is used in most new subdivisions in Bakersfield. The "standard sidewalk" has a landscaping strip between the sidewalk and the curb. The Ad Hoc Committee recommended the "standard sidewalk" design be the requirement for new residential developments, unless a deviation is required. Also, the Ad Hoc Committee recommended an ordinance amendment to require Planning Commission approval for deviations to the sidewalk standard, which is currently approved by the Public Works Director. If the Council votes to change to the "standard sidewalk" design, while making the revision to the Public Works Subdivision Design Manual, also recommended that a reference be included from the Municipal Code regarding clear sight view for trees planted in the parkway pertaining to sight-line visibility for drivers. 2. Recommended for new residential developments that developers be required to ' plant two 15-gallon trees in the front yard of single-family homes, in addition to those in the parkway. The homeowner would not be required to keep the trees as they would be planted on private property. 3. Recommended that the Parks Division make available to the public .through publication and posting on the City's website, a list of appropriate trees for residential parkways including planting and maintenance standards. Dana Karcher, from the Tree Foundation, spoke regarding the proposal to require two trees to be planted in front yards in new developments, and instead, suggested the tree requirements be based on square footage and the developer be allowed to mitigate that requirement by planting the trees in another location if the new homeowner does not want the trees. Public Works Director Rojas explained the current standards allow for either combination or standard sidewalk designs and Public Works staff has no preference of one over the other. He strongly recommended that the Planning Commission not be in charge of decisions in the public right-of-way. There are utilities and sewer lines under the right-of-way, which require the expertise of the Public Works Department. City Attorney Gennaro pointed out-in the June 2nd memorandum in the Committee packet dealing with trees planted in the parkway strip it states:" .... maintenance of those trees will be the responsibility of the homeowner." The City ordinance defines trees in parkways as street trees. Under the current ordinance, if the standard type sidewalk becomes the subdivision design standard, the City would be responsible for the maintenance of the trees planted in the right-of-way, parkway strip. AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Page 3 PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING Monday, October 10, 2005 Committee Member Couch asked staff to provide an estimate of the cost to implement the change to standard type sidewalks in new residential developments, including how many extra Tree Maintainers would need to be hired in future years, cost to contract out the tree trimming, and how that could be funded. He asked staff to provide cost information on using a different material other than concrete when repairing buckled sidewalk from tree roots. Committee Chair Benham expressed she liked the idea of the parkway between the sidewalk and curb, but thought there should be a subsection in the tree list with specific trees for parkways, which do not buckle the sidewalks and block sightlines. Committee Chair Benham agreed with the Public Works Director that the Planning Commission not be involved in decisions in public right-of-ways. Public Works Director Rojas suggested if the City decides to use the standard sidewalk design, the parkway strip in the right-of-way be at least five feet wide. Committee Member Couch confirmed with staff that the Building Industry Association (BIA) was notified about the Planning and Development Committee meeting as well as the Planning Commission Ad Hoc Committee meetings. He requested staff to provide him with a transcript of this portion of the meeting. The Committee requested staff to bring information to the next meeting on the parkway tree list, cost of maintaining the trees if the standard type sidewalks were implemented in new residential developments, and the cost of using materials other than concrete to repair root-damaged sidewalks. 5. NEW BUSINESS A. Discussion and Committee recommendation regarding vacation of "O" Street between Truxtun Avenue and 17th Street This item was deferred to the next meeting. B. Discussion and Committee recommendation regarding planning, development and funding of community and regional parks, bike paths and trails Assistant City Manager Stinson explained this is the item the Committee had requested the Council to refer back to the Committee. Also, per the Committee's request, Colon Bywater and Dave McArthur from North of the River Recreation and Parks District (NOR) were invited to the meeting and were in attendance. Committee Member Couch explained his idea was to go forward with some grants and with the large developments being proposed in the southwest and northwest to AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Page 4 PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING Monday, October 10, 2005 take advantage of the opportunity to develop a specific parks, trails and bike path master plan in other partS of the City, as was developed for the northeast. Highlights of his ideas included: Explore the possibility of the City being able to get right-of-way for a bike path adjacent to the South Beltway. · Develop extensions from the Bike Path into new developments. · There is one developer (Castle and Cooke) in the southwest that has expressed an interest to have an extension off the Bike Path into their development. · Develop a more creative parks plan with smaller' pocket parks, as well as medium and large parks and incorporate into the ordinance on park standards. · Referring to the Gardiner properties in the northwest, in a cooperative manner work jointly with NOR District on being creative with other types of parks as well as the big active parks in their District, perhaps add some small pocket parks, and work with NOR on a large regional park in the northwest similar to the new park in the southwest. City Manager Tandy explained the City does not make those decisions in the NOR District. NOR receives the Park Development Fees, owns and operates the parks, unless they would agree to enter into some type of agreement or MOU. Dave McArthur, North of the River Recreation and Parks District (NOR), expressed a willingness to cooperate on smaller parks if the developer requested it, but indicated smaller parks are leSs economical to maintain. NOR has a master park plan and puts in what their constituents want and that is recreational parks for the children. The developments in their District are small and it takes several developments to fund a park because small developments cannot proVide suitable parks sites. For the most part, NOR parks are not in maintenance districts, which provide funding for park maintenance, so their park plan is different from the City's. Public Works Director Rojas explained the City adds property to the maintenance districts at the time of approval of the subdivision map. NOR has the authority to form maintenance districts, but it is difficult because for the most part they work with small developments. Committee Member Couch suggested City staff meet with NOR to work out how they might time the adding of developments into a maintenance district. City Manager Tandy suggested Assistant City Manager Christensen, Parks Director Dianne Hoover, and Public Works staff could meet with NOR. City Attorney Gennaro offered to work with staff and NOR if needed. Committee Member Couch stated he had invited Ron Brummett, the Director of Kern COG, to attend the Committee meeting today because all the planning for the AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Page 5 PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING Monday, October 10, 2005 Bike Path was funded through Kern COG. The construction money or matching funds were from grants through Kern COG. When the City develops a master plan to secure the property for trails and bike path extensions into developments, the City will need to be looking for future grants and funding to construct the trails and bike path extensions. Ron Brummett, Kern COG Director, indicated he would be glad to help the City apply for grant funding. 6. COMMITTEE COMMENTS 7. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 2:07 p.m. Attendance-staff: City Manager Alan Tandy; City Attorney Ginny Gennaro; Assistant City Manager John Stinson; Assistant City Manager Alan Christensen; Public Works Director Raul Rojas; Planning Director Jim Movius; Recreation and Parks Director Dianne Hoover; and Park Technician Tom Jones Attendance-~3thers: Lorraine Unger, Sierra Club; Ben Wageman, Castle and Cooke; Jeff Leggio, ASV Associates; Dana Karcher, Tree Foundation; David McArthur and Colon Bywater, North of the River Recreation and Parks; Jennifer Cadmus; Ron Brummett, Kern COG; Ward Wollesen, CCAPE; James Burger, The Bakersfield Californian; Jamie Nickel, Nickel Family cc: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers S:~JOHN\Council Committees\05Planning&Development~P&D 05 oct 10 summary.doc