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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1995/04/25 - Workshop Minutes - PC-HPC April 25, 1995 CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA CITY COUNCIL MINUTES Joint Meetin.cl with the Plannin.a Commission A. CALL TO ORDER A joint meeeng of the Rancho Cucamonga City Council and the Planning Commission was held on Tuesday, April 25, 1995 in the Tri-Communities Conference Room of the Civic Center, located at 10500 Civic Center Drive, Rancho Cucamonga, California. The meeting was called to order at 5:04 p.m. by Mayor William J. Alexander. Present were Councilmembers: Paul Biane, James Curatalo, Rex Gutierrez, Diane Willjams, and Mayor William J. Alexander. Present were Commissioners: Heinz Lumpp, Larry McNiel (arrived 6:00 p.m.), John Melcher, Peter Tolstoy and Chairman E. David Barker. Also present were: Jack Lam, City Manager; Jerry B. Fulwosd, Deputy City Manager; Brad Buller, City Planner; Dan Coleman, Principal Planner; Larry Henderson, Principal Planner; Nancy Fong, Sr. Planner; Beverly Nissen, Associate Planner; Steve Hayes, Associate Planner; Gall Sanchez, Planning Commission Secretary; Joe O'Neil, City Engineer; Shintu Bose, Deputy City Engineer; Dan James, Sr. Civil Engineer; Bill Makshanoff, Building Official; Jim Frost, City Treasurer; and Jan Sutton, Deputy City Clerk. B. ITEMS OF DISCUSSION BI.. DISCUSSION ON THE VALUE OF PLANNING Brad Buller, City Planner, stated there was a variety of material provided in the agenda packets. He presented a video entitled "Why Plan" to the group which covered the basic reasons why planning was important for a community. Mayor Alexander felt the video was very informative after viewing it. Commissioner Tolstoy stated he had attended a Council meeting where they were giving out recognition to members of the community, and the recipients had commented on what a nice city Rancho Cucamonga was to live in. He stated the reason it was so nice was due to the planning process which has been done with the support of the Council. Mayor Alexander felt that good planning stimulated pride in the community. City Council/Planning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes Apdl 25, 1995 Page 2 Commissioner Tolstoy stated one of the things they will be discussing later tonight is that they are asking the Coundl for help in updating the General Plan. He stated that plan was formulated in the 1970's and '80's and the retail trade has changed a lot since then. They have gone from many small retailers to a trend of very large retailers. He felt it was important to update the General Plan to reflect current and future trends. B2. DISCUSSION OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING COMMISSION PARTICIPATION Commissioner Lumpp stated there were two thoughts he had on this item. First, he would like to know how the City Council perceives the Planning Commission's role in getting out in the community, including other communities, to bdng in more commercial development. Secondly he wanted to share an incident that happened at the last Design Review meeting he attended with Frito-Lay and their developer, the Kohl Company. He stated their representative expressed his appreciation the for efforts made by staff, the Commission and Council for making their project move so quickly through the system. Commissioner Lumpp asked the developer to pass that information on to others that Rancho Cucamonga does not prohibit development efforts. The Kohl representative stated if he had been asked to do that a year and a half ago he probably would not have done that, but currently things are moving forward, and he was so impressed with how things are going with this project that he has made an offer on another piece of property to build another project in Rancho Cucamonga. Commissioner Lumpp felt this shows they have made progress and improved on the problems they had in the past. He stated he would like a feeling from the Council on what their role should be in economic development, because he would like to be able to promote Rancho Cucamonga more during the course of his regular business. Coundlmember Biane stated in regards to the trend in the retail arena of going to the large retail business, he felt it was also important to address the issue of possibly puffing the small business owners out of business, and by doing so they do not increase the sales tax base, they just shift it around. He wanted to be sure that was covered in the study. Commissioner Tolstoy felt if you were to go many of their shopping centers you would see a lot of the retail space is vacant. He stated nothing showed decay quicker than shopping centers that were starting to be boarded up. He stated sales tax was important in these economic times, however, he did not want to see them create more retail space than they could use. Commissioner Lumpp stated he saw economic development as a two-fold process. He stated one was the retenljon of existing employment base as well as commercial. The second was the creation of new available space and felt these two things needed to work together. Councilmember Willlares stated in regards to the study, she would like to request that when they look at the trends, could they identify what will be the new trends before the current one goes into decline. She also felt the quality of a town was reflected in how it took care of its old areas, and not only by how far it goes with the new. She stated they would be able to seek out the right businesses if they can identify the new trend. She also felt they should avoid the old philosophy of building something and then looking for someone to fill it because that was not practical in this economic climate. Commissioner Melcher concurred with the comments made by Councilmembers Biane and Williams. He stated in the 1980's when they were working on the Foothill Boulevard Specific Plan, his employer at the time took exception to adding more commercial space with that plan because he felt there was enough. The City Council at that time acknowledged that viewpoint but went ahead with the Plan. Since that time they have had more than an adequate supply of commercial land. Now they are being confronted by one application after City Council/Planning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes April 25, 1995 Page 3 another for zone changes to develop commercial projects in areas not currently zoned that way, and felt this would contribute to the downfall of small businesses and blight. He stated perhaps in conjunction with the proposed land use and market study, they also need a City policy to encourage a developer that wants to come to town with a new project to look over already existing properlies to see if they could redevelop them imaginatively. Coundlmember Curatalo felt they should also consider that people's shopping habits are changing and they should look at establishing new premises of what shoppers expect, so he was in support of conducting a study. Councilmember Gutierrez stated there was no question that they need some guidance in this area, but was concerned that they be delicate about it. He felt there were reasons why certain areas of town have some vacancies. He felt there were a lot more people located east of Archibald than there used to be and when they think about shopping, they do not always think about going to the west end of town for services. He felt they will have more needs towards the east end of town, and felt the study would help to identify factors why the east end of town appears more active than the west. He believed in the planning process, and felt the attitude of the City towards the applicant needed to continue to be open and courteous. He has heard statements made in the community that City Hall has a more responsive attitude than in the past and they are starting to get a good reputation. Mayor Alexander invited comments from the public. Addressing the Council and Commission were: Don Kurth, 10569 Apple Lane, supported Councilmember Biane's comments and felt it was important to keep the small Mom and Pop businesses in town, because these were people that live and shop in town. He stated large companies do not keep their profits in the community. He felt that vacant spaces in shopping centers were a concern. He added that Rancho Cucamonga has not had a good reputation in the past and people will not bring their businesses here. John Van Doren, Corsica, stated he was appreciative that the Council and Commission have seen the need to open the process and think about future planning. He felt the people in the audience tonight were not just there to listen but to participate so felt it was not appropriate for the Council and Commission to make decisions without first consulting with the citizens, whether they were residential, commercial or corporate. He did not think they should rely only on consultant. Chairman Barker stated in regards to Mr. Van Doren's comment update the General Plan will have to be done after a public hearing. He stated they are only looking for the consultant to give them new data and material instead of working from data that was fifteen years old. Once they had all that information a public hearing would be held. John Van Doren stated he concurred but felt the public should be included prior to the public hearing. Chairman Barker stated the Commission recognizes in this instance it has asked for only a land use and commercial market study which is only a small piece of everything that takes place. He felt a community cannot function only as a service provider, and that there needed to be something more there, and they needed to look at attracljng jobs, which might be something the Planning Commission could help with when they look at economic development. City Council/Planning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes April 25, 1995 Page 4 B3. DISCUSSION OF MODERNIZATION OF GENERAL PLAN AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS Brad Buller, City Planner, stated when amendments have been made to the General Plan they have been done as addendums, and that a lot of the documents available at the counter are outdated. Some of the materials they use to market Rancho Cucamonga are also old, and the Planning Commission felt they should update the documents so they can be used as part of economic development. He stated the documents are up-to- date in a sense, but the information is not easy to retrieve. Commissioner McNiel arrived at 6:00 p,m. Chairman Barker stated there are so many amendments and the process has become awkward because it relies almost totally on staffs memory to know where anything is. They would like to see the new computer system utilized also where a developer can come in and access information themselves. Commissioner Melcher stated another aspect is that no plan is a fixed document, it is rather a take on the condffions at the time it is written. Every plan needs to have periodic review and updating, and felt they needed to review all the plans one by one and bring them up-to-date and then keep them current. Mayor Alexander explained to the audience that there were many projects happening in the surrounding cities that will have an impact on Rancho Cucamonga and how they wanted to be prepared for that. He stated they ware not there to discuss updating the entire General Plan, just a certain portion of it, and the purpose of that was to avoid having piecemeal development that did not fit in with the direction of the City. Coundlmember Gutierrez stated they had discussed those issues at the last City Council meeting and felt the Coundl was unanimous in their opinion that they need to complete the study and update the General Plan. He stated as an example there was the Foothill corridor, and the dwindling vacant land between Haven Avenue and the I-15 freeway. He felt there was a trend pointing to Foothill as an area of greater activity than other porljons of the City economically. He had a vision of seeing commercial/retail and restaurants along Foothill Boulevard, as well as more recreational uses. He was concerned that they did not shut the door on any applicants while they were completing this study. Mayor Alexander asked if conducting the study would preclude anyone from submitting a development application. Brad Buller, City Planner, stated it would not. He stated if an applicant came in and chose to apply, they would still have to answer the same questions. He stated this was just a proactive effort by the City to do an economic analysis and fiscal study that would help other developers to understand where they were at. Councilmember Biane asked if this was the correct forum for identifying specific areas they were concerned about. He stated a concern of his was that they do something to hang onto the older business in the City, such as along the west entrance along Foothill Boulevard near Grove. Also another area he was concerned with was along 4th Street. Brad Buller, City Planner, stated when the Commission brought this to the Councirs attention, it was because of requests they were receiving for commercial along Foothill and commercial in the industrial area. The question was where are they drawing the line and should they be drawing the line. He stated the scope of services they will get from the consultant is dependent upon them. He stated the Commission has attempted to address some questions that staff has tried to formulate into a general scope of services that they will ask the consultant to answer. They did not want to say that this was only for Foothill Boulevard because they have many other areas they will be looking at. He stated they tried to address some of the issues raised in the City Council/Planning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes Apdl 25, 1995 Page 5 Request for Qualifications, and when they select a consultant they will hammer out a Scope of Services and then take it to the City Council for approval if it is in the allocated pdce range. If it is not in the price range approved by Council, then they will look for another consultant that can do it, or they will negotiate a price. He stated this ties in with Item B8 on the agenda. Jim Frost, City Treasurer, stated the first City Council served as the Planning Commission for nine months. Since then they had some very strong Coundl participants in the planning process, but during the current years he felt that has dissolved so now the City Council as a group is not as aware of what the Planning Commission does. He felt part of this process needs to be for the Council to re-evaluate the process, not necessarily just change the documents. He stated it would take about $200,000 to do this right but they needed to start the process. He stated in the past they were dealing with a seller's market and the City basically set the rules for the developers to follow, but felt since the City has had a change in awareness that they are now in a partnership with the developers. B4. DISCUSSION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLICIES BASED ON PHILOSOPHY Mayor Alexander felt they have covered some of this item in the previous discussions. Councilmember Curatalo felt they needed to look at developing new assumptions and premises when they think of planning. Commissioner McNiel stated he had requested this item. He wanted to make sure that the Council and Commission were talking about the same thing. He stated when the City first incorporated they had to draw up a plan based on the information available and decisions had to be made on how the City was to be developed, He stated the City is constantly under assault to make changes to the Plan, which was acceptable, but in addition to that they are under assault to reduce their standards. He wanted to be sure that the same philosophy that applied at the outset still did because he wouldhate to see the standards relax to where they could no longer be proud of the City. He wanted to be sure that when they talk about standards within the community; that those standards have some value and they will not be lowered just because someone is being critical about Rancho Cucamonga. Mayor Alexander stated the intent was not to reduce the standards, it was just to improve the process, which staff has done already. Councilmember Curatalo agreed that they did not want to see the standards change, they just wanted the process to be more dynamic. Commissioner McNiel stated they have made changes to improve the process and to move projects through more quickly. He felt they were not as rigid as they were five to six years ago and felt they were more cooperative now. Coundlmember Williams stated one of the things she would like to see in the study was to look at things like the project process, and just because someone has an idea does not necessarily justify that idea being executed. She also felt the study would help to identity when a proposed project might not be appropriate for the location selected by the developer and they can help locate a site more suitable for that project. City Council/Planning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes April 25, 1995 Page 6 Mayor Alexander stated they were talking about a lot of items right now, but what they were going to be focusing on was commercial land use and market study, not the way they do everything, and they were not really addressing standards at this point in time. He felt it was to focus on where they were with their land use, and that they need to take advantage of what was occurring around them, it was not to change the entire General Plan. Councilmember Gutierrez asked for an explanation of "standards." Commissioner McNiel stated it is a philosophy. He stated they zone for certain uses. People approach the City with uses that fit or don1, and if they don1 fit, then they go through the process to try to make them fit. He stated the standards are simply that if you were to look at a project, such as a Wienerschniztel for example, the corporation will want to bring in a 1969 design because that is what they have plans for. It is up to the City to say that is not acceptable, their standards are higher than that, and to advise them that they are looking for something more personal to the community. He felt that is in essence what has made this community. Councilmember Gutierrez stated there is no question that they don't want something from 1969, but that there would be change overthe years in design trends. He felt it was difficult to focus on future design trends, so he was glad to hear they recognize the need to be flexible. Jim Frost, City Treasurer, stated historically the Planning Commission took some hard stands and the only feedback they got on that was by appeal to the Council. He felt Council would not want the Planning Commission second guessing their political philosophies but rather to stick to planning. Councilmember Williams stated she has heard from people that the Council should tell the Planning Commission what they want, but she disagreed. She felt they picked the members of the Commission for their expertise and that it was vital that not be water-downed by politics. She agreed that they should stick to their standards, and then if something was appealed and the Council disagreed with the decision, then it was just a difference of opinion in a parlicular matter. She stated the Commission should not try to second the Council when making decisions. Commissioners McNiel and Melcher thanked the Council for their support. Coundlmember Biane felt it was important to note that when they talk about making a commitment to stay with the planning document that is in place, it has been mentioned that things are different now but the planning document has not changed while the philosophy of the Commission has. He liked knowing that the Planning Commission was still there and still have the leverage of the document and what it means to the future of the community. Commissioner McNiel stated because the General Plan has not been updated and is not current, and many changes have been made in the City which are unrelated to the document itself, it puts a huge burden on staff to process projects. B5. DISCUSSION OF PLANNING VS. PROJECT PROCESSING Chairman Barker stated this was meant to be an educational item, and asked if it was clearer to the Council now after having viewed the video. City Council/Planning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes April 25, 1995 Page 7 Commissioner Melcher stated it was important to realize that the staff function for planning has been seriously weakened by attrition and lay-offs. He stated each year they get a Planning Department Program, and over the last five years the list of Advanced Planning projects grows longer because new needs are identified, but they are never able to take anything off of the list. He hoped that when the financial situation improves, the City will not just view planning as something that is supported only by development, but will see the need to strengthen the department because Planning was more than just development processing. Commissioner Tolstoy stated he came on the Planning Commission a long time ago and some of the items that were on the work program when Jack Lam was the City Planner are still on the list. At one time they.did not have enough time to address these items, now they did not have enough money, but he still felt that all of these items Were importa. nt. Item B8 was heard at this time, but the minutes will remain in agenda order. B6. DISCUSSION OF THE DESIGN OF ON-SITE ANCILLARY STRUCTURES Item continued to May 30, 1995. B7. DISCUSSION OF ZONING FOR RESIDENTIAL LOTS, I.E., MINIMUM LOT SIZE, SIDEYARD AND STREET SETBACKS Item continued to May 30, 1995. B8. DISCUSSION OF COMMERCIAL LAND USE AND MARKET STUDY (Continued from April 19, 1995 City Council meeting) Brad Buller, City Planner, stated they were going to go with a Request for Qualifications and try to solicit four or five consultants that they knew of that have done this type of study before, and from that list staff will select one consultant and work with them to develop the Scope of Services. After that they will prepare a contract to submit to the Council for approval at the first meeting in June. He stated nothing was final, but he believed they would be successful in addressing the questions raised by the Council tonight and by the Commission and hoped to keep it within the budget constraints. Councilmember Biane wanted to be sure the $50,000 allocated would be enough to achieve adequate results. Brad Buller, City Planner, stated they were aware there would be some constraints in regards to budget so their approach was not to try to address every questions or ask this consultant to be the land use planning consultant. They were simply asking them to be the resource data consultant to provide the date for the City to analyze and make a recommendation from. He explained the type of information that would be provided. Mayor Alexander asked if they would be involved in the definition of areas that would or would not be suitable for commercial development in order to address the regional development that is occurring around Rancho Cucamonga. City Council/Planning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes April 25, 1995 Page 8 Jack Lam, City Manager, stated the consultant will be asked to at least look at everything that has been mentioned tonight. They will also want the consultant to look at other things they might not have thought about. He stated this was just a component to address the pressing need of commercial land use. He stated this was not an entire review of the General Plan, which in other cities has cost around $800,000 upwards. He stated the General Plan is made up of many components, and though they cannot afford to address all of the components, they felt they could start with this one which was most pressing. Don Kurth, 10569 Apple Lane, felt conducting the study was a good idea. MOTION: Moved by Curatalo, seconded by Gutierrez to authorize staff to move forward with selecting a consultant. Motion carried unanimously, 5-0. Councilmember Williams suggested they continue the other items to another joint meeting and to look at the proposed scope of services. Brad Buller, City Planner, suggested they could meet during the fifth week of May to go over the proposal, possibly on the 30th or 31st, at 5:00 p.m, again, then he could make any necessary changes in order to try and have it on the Coundl agenda for the first meeting in June. He stated as he works through the process he will keep the Council and Commission updated so that they will have time to provide feedback during the whole process. Councilmember Curatalo asked if there was a way to protect themselves from cut and patch consultants. Brad Buller, City Planner, stated there were consultants that did that type of job but he felt they would be .capable of screening them out. He added they would be using other studies as resources. C1. C2. C. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC David Dennis~'6816 Padova, stated consultants were good but he would hate to see the Council sell out their own City Planner who was a valuable resource, and felt they needed to be careful when hiring a consultant because they were very costly. He thought if they were going to continue hiring consultants in the future, instead they Should funnel those .funds back into the Planning Department and hire staff and let them do the job. Andrea Zeller, 9431 Manzanita, stated she has not heard any mention of using a Geographic Information System. She felt Ontado was taking a lead in development because of their renowned GIS system. She felt the City should put the money into a system. Jack Lam, City Manager, stated the City has a GIS system, and it was more sophisticated than the one used by Ontario, He stated they were in the process of installing hardware that would make .that system more accessible to the community. Currently it is used internally by staff and with the addition of the new equipment it will provide the information quicker. Andrea Zeller asked why were they spending money on a consultant then if they had the capability of providing the same information through their GIS system. -. Jack 'Lam, City Manager, stated the funds were not to produce geographic information, it was to do an economic analysis. City Council/Planning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes April 25, 1995 Page 9 C3. Hormuzd Sethna, 14084 Hastings Ranch Lane, stated another resource is the residents. He felt staff would have a better understanding of what the residents wanted. C4. DOn Kurth, 10569 Apple Lane, read a statement which is on file in the office of the City Clerk asking for the resignation of several Councilmembers. D. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Moved by Williams, seconded by Gutierrez to adjourn. Moljon carried unanimously, 5-0. The Planning Commission voted on a continued motion to adjourn. Motion carded unanimously, 5-0. The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jan Sutton Deputy City Clerk Approved by.the Planning Commission: May 30, 1995 Approved by the City Council: May 30, 1995