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HomeMy WebLinkAbout0420 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING TUESDAY - APRIL 20, 1999 a,,., 7:00 P.M. - CIVIC CENTER COUNCIL CHAMBER 73-510 FRED WARING DRIVE * * � * * .� * � � * �. «. � � �. � �. ,� * � � � * .� �. .� � �. .� �. * � ,� .� ,� � .� � � � * � � I. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Jonathan called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Commissioner Finerty led in the pledge of allegiance. III. ROLL CALL Members Present: Sabby Jonathan, Chairperson Sonia Campbell Cindy Finerty Jim Lopez � Members Absent: Paul Beaty Staff Present: Phil Drell, Director of Community Development Bob Hargreaves, City Attorney Jeff Winklepleck, Parks and Recreation Planning Manager Tonya Monroe, Administrative Secretary IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Consideration of the Apri( 6, 1999 meeting minutes. Action: It was moved by Commissioner Finerty, seconded by Commissioner Campbell, approving the April 6, 1999 meeting minutes as submitted. Motion carried 4- 0. V. SUMMARY OF COUNCIL ACTION Mr. Winklepleck indicated there were no items pertinent to Planning Commission decisions at the April 8, 1999 city council meeting. �.. MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION APRIL 20, 1999 VI. AWARDS/PRESENTATIONS ""� Chairperson Jonathan presented a certified copy of Resolution No. 1914 to George Fernandez commending him for his service as a Palm Desert Planning Commissioner. He noted that it had been a pleasure and honor to work with George during the past four years. Mr. Fernandez thanked everyone and said he enjoyed his time as a member of the commission. VII. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None. VIII. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Case No. PMW 99-8 PALM DESERT REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY, Applicant Request for approval of a lot merger to facilitate project design ; for property located at the southeast corner of Highway 1 1 1 and "'�� Portola Avenue. B. Case No. PP 98-2 - FOXX DEVELOPMENT CORP., Applicant Request for approval of a one year time extension for a 4,974 square foot office building on two lots on the south side of Fred Waring Drive, 190 feet east of Monterey Avenue. C. Case No. TPM 27419 - RANDALL W. CROFT/EDC CONSULTANTS, Applicant Request for approval of a third one-year time extension for a tentative parcel map subdividing 17 acres into 19 industrial lots. Project site is located approximately one half mile easterly of Monterey Avenue, northerly of the future extension of Dinah Shore Drive, and southerly of the Southern Pacific Railroad and Interstate 1 0. � 2 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION APRIL 20, 1999 � Action: It was moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Lopez, approving the Consent Calendar by minute motion. Motion carried 4-0. IX. PUBLIC HEARINGS Anyone who challenges any hearing matter in court may be limited to raising only those issues he, she or someone else raised at the public hearing described herein, or in written correspondence delivered to the Planning Commission at, or prior to, the public hearing. A. Case No. PP 99-5 - CITY OF PALM DESERT, Applicant Request for approval of a precise plan and negative declaration of environmental impact to allow the construction of a 2.5 acre ± neighborhood park with amenities including parking lot, playground, rest�oom, picnic pavilion, basketball court, volleyball court, dog park and open grass area. The subject property is ,,, located at 77-820 California Drive in the R-1 (9,000) zone. Mr. Winklepleck noted that Ms. Marilyn Hamlet, President of the Palm Desert Country Club Homeowners Association, was present and he stated that she had been vital to this whole process. He indicated there was quite a history behind this, but he would only say that it had taken about two years to get to this point. He was glad to note that there wasn't anyone present in the audience except Ms. Hamlet. Mr. Winklepleck stated that the project would have a 48-space parking lot that would include 41 regular spaces and eight gotf cart spaces. He assumed that some of the local area residents would want to drive their golf carts over there. There was a tot lot which would include both a large area and tot area similar to the Civic Center park. There was a small water feature planned which would be to the northwest of the tot lot. West and a little to the north of that was an open grass play area. The reason it was designed with all of the activity amenities pushed to the right was because of concerns for the property owners to the west of the park. He met with those property owners Monday and they were more than pleased to see this and were actually excited about it. Above the tot lot area would be a sand volleyball court, a basketball court, a restroom and a pavilion located between the tot lot and basketball court, and last but not least up in the right ° side area they were proposing a dog park. Unlike the Civic Center dog park, �"" they were not proposing any lighting for it. Because of its location fairiy close 3 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION APRIL 20, 1999 ,� to neighbors and since there weren't any structures between it and the +� neighbors, night time activity there probably wouldn't be a good idea. As far as specifics, they would be lighting the basketball court, the volleyball court, the tot lots, and providing some perimeter lighting along the walkway grass areas (low level) as well as the parking lot. Staff was proposing that the lighting for the volleyball court and basketball court go off no later than 9:00 p.m. and the remainder of the lights off no later than 10:00 p.m. Similar to all other city parks, there would be no alcoholic beverages and no overnight camping. He also recommended a condition on this park to prohibit amplified music. If there was ever a problem, the condition would be in place. The facility was designed as a neighborhood park to provide the area residents something to do without having to come all the way to the Civic Center park or soccer park. It wasn't designed to attract people all the way from Palm Springs to Coachella (which was a concern that had been raised early in the processl. He felt the intent and the design both reflected that. He recommended approval and asked if there were any questions. Commissioner Campbell asked for clarification on the size and location of the parking lot. Mr. Winklepleck said the area was paved right now and starting at the south end of the rose garden and running straight across was all parking �; lot. It was all paved but it wasn't striped. He thought they could probably � squeeze in about 100 cars. It was used very little and would probably fill up to half, but the majority of the time when there were large functions people parked on the street. Commissioner Campbell asked how many children lived in the area, noting that the Montessori School was near there. Mr. Winklepleck said he didn't know but thought that Ms. Hamlet might have a better idea. MS. MARILYN HAMLET, 42-600 lowa Street in Palm Desert, 9221 1 , stated that Palm Desert Country Club had changed completely since she moved there. Sunday they had 185 people in the pools and that was tremendous because they have never had those numbers, but it had been going that way more and more every year. They were having more children than they've ever had and they were getting more young families in there. Commissioner Campbell noted that the present pool wasn't going to be part of the park. Ms. Hamlet concurred, but indicated they could tell from the amount of � usage at the pool by small children that younger families were moving � 4 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION APRIL 20, 1999 � in and older families were moving out. She felt they definitely needed a neighborhood park. They have a private basketball court and they have been letting children that live around there that don't belong to the association use it because they didn't have any place else to go. Some of their association members didn't like that they let the children come in and play, but they've asked what else they were going to do with them. She felt it will be nice if they have a place where they could really go and play. Commissioner Campbell noted there was no opposition. Mr. Winklepleck pointed out that there was one letter received with concerns about the dog park, but he felt with the City's experience with the Civic Center dog park they could handle most of those concerns. He also mentioned that staff was proposing a wrought iron fence along California and up along the CVWD access road on the west primarily to keep balls and kids from running out onto California since it is a very busy street. Commissioner Campbell asked if the , dog park would be fenced and if everything would be fenced in from the golf course. Mr. Winklepleck said yes and indicated that right now along the northern property line there was a chain link fence that would remain and for ` the dog park itself there wouldn't be too many changes other than adding a double entry gate. It was currently all fenced. Chairperson Jonathan noted that ownership would remain with Palm Desert Country Club. Mr. Winklepleck said that was correct. Chairperson Jonathan asked if, in the unlikely event that after the 30 years plus the 10-year option, it expired if the worst case scenario would be that the owner would get the property back and would either continue to operate it as a park or do something else with it. Mr. Winklepleck said that was right. He explained that when they first started this process the City was looking at having the Association gift it to the City--the City would go back and build a recreation facility similar to the Civic Center park. He thought that the people who voted on it were in favor of that but they just didn't have enough people voting. He also thought that eventually would change and didn't think it would take 30 years, but that was the worst case and if in 40 years they still had this park, he thought that was a very good life for a little neighborhood park for $1 .00 per year. Chairperson Jonathan o�ened the public hearing and asked if there were any comments in FAVOR or OPPOSITION. There were none. Chairperson Jonathan asked if Ms. Hamlet had any comments to add. �... 5 MiNUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION APRIL 20, 1999 i Ms. Hamlet said that everything they have heard and all the comments "� made were that everyone wanted to know when it was going to happen. They were really looking forward to it. Chairperson Jonathan thanked Ms. Hamlet for attending the meeting, closed the public hearing and asked for commission comments. Commissioner Campbell asked Mr. Winklepleck what he thought of the concerns expressed in Mr. Miller's letter. Mr. Winklepleck did not feel there were any concerns that the City wouldn't be addressing. The dog park was pretty much self contained and self patrolled. With the rare exception it worked very well, but if there was a problem, they would take whatever steps were necessary to correct or mitigate the problem. While all of Mr. Miller's concerns were valid, he didn't see them as being major concerns at this point. Commissioner Campbell asked if the City would be doing anything different with the restrooms at the new park compared to the ones at the Civic Center park. She said she used the Civic Center park restroom one time and would never go in there again. She also indicated there wasn't any lighting. Mr. Winklepleck said that most likely the new park's restrooms, similar to the City's other facilities, would be part of a maintenance contract. The � contractor would have specific requirements to clean them. Commissioner "r' Campbell asked if they had doors now in the ladies section. Mr. Winklepleck said they would have doors in the ladies' and probably the men's, too. Chairperson Jonathan shared Commissioner Campbell's concerns about the dog situation. He wouldn't object to it in terms of the park and thought the City would end up doing whatever was necessary, but he lives close to Ironwood Park and there wasn't a dog park section. It was all open to dog owners and he could say it was about 50-50; about half of the dog owners tended to be very considerate and bring doggy bags and so forth and the other half couldn't care less. Their dogs run wild and do their thing wherever and everywhere and it really spoiled it for the people who just wanted to take walks because it was unpleasant to have to watch where you walk and so forth. He didn't know that the City needed to address it now, but at some point it would be an issue that the City should take up. Mr. Winklepleck said the good news about the dog park itself, since it was contained it had a much better percentage of people cleaning up after their own dogs and helping out with someone else's dog, although there was an occasional p�oblem. The City had staff at the Civic Center park and the contractor would be at the new park, whether it was daily or two to three times a week to maintain the area. Commissioner Finerty noted that as discussed Mr. Winklepleck indicated they � 6 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION APRIL 20, 1999 �. provided scooper bags at the park. Mr. Winklepleck explained the bags weren't in the facilities themselves, but they did have some scooper bags for people outside the fenced dog park. Inside they had a little scooper shovel so they weren't wasting a lot of bags. Commissioner Campbell thought during the summer it needed to be a cleaned daily. She lives next to a dog and in the summertime it was bad. Mr. Winklepleck said right now they were trying to come up with solutions and acknowledged that it smells like a dog park. Commissioner Campbell noted that at least there weren't many neighbors close by. Commissioner Finerty noted that Project Area 4 has worked on a neighborhood park on the east end of Palm Desert for two to three years and indicated the park is really needed. They were happy to see this happen and Project Area 4 unanimously supported this park and asked her yesterday to make sure that the Planning Commission approved it. She told them she would do her best. She also indicated that she would like to see as possibly one of the items in one of the City's newsletter an article about parvo because that was basically spread by not picking up after dogs and she felt that educating the public as far as how that disease is spread and how deadly it is might help with getting ,�, people to pick up after their dogs. Mr. Winklepleck suggested if it wasn't an article in the newsletter, perhaps they could get a pamphlet from Animal Control that they could mail along with it. He felt that was a good idea. Commissioner Finerty moved for approval. Action• It was rrioved by Commissioner Finerty, seconded by Commissioner Lopez, approving the findings as presented by staff. Motion ca�ried 4-0. It was moved by Commissioner Finerty, seconded by Commissioner Lopez, adopting Planning Commission Resolution No. 1923, approving PP 99-5, subject to conditions. Motion carried 4-0. Chairperson Jonathan thanked all the people who have worked hard for many years and noted another park in our community could only be a wonderful addition. Commissioner Campbell asked when it would be started. Mr. Winklepleck explained that the next step would be to take it to City Council for approval to do the working drawings. He anticipated those would take four to six weeks considering it would be a fairly simple project. Then they would have to go to bid which would take another couple of weeks. He hoped it would be under construction in July and since it would have a fairly short �.. 7 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION APRIL 20, 1999 � ; construction period of 30-45 days, he hoped it would be complete sometime '� in September--worst case it would be open early October. X. MISCELLANEOUS A. REQUEST FOR STREET RIGHT OF WAY ABANDONMENT WITHIN CANYONS AT BIGHORN Mr. Drell explained that this property was originally the extension of Portola way back in the old days when Portola was supposed to run through Ironwood Country Club to Highway 74 and obviously that wasn't occurring anymore. The portion from the entrance to Indian Hills would be abandoned since there was no purpose for it and was no longer in the City's Circulation Element. Ac ion: It was moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Finerty, determining by minute motion that the subject street right-of-way vacation is in conformity with the City's General Plan. Motion carried 4-0. z � B. INFORMATIONAL REPORT ON ELEVATOR REQUIREMENTS Mr. Drell said that the requirement for an elevator was kicked in when there was a certain amount of building area. For a building less than 3,000 square feet it wasn't required and was optional. Chairperson Jonathan indicated that if he was reading the report correctly, if a building was less than three stories, then there wasn't a requirement and that explained why most of the two story buildings Planning Commission has recently reviewed didn't include elevators. Mr. Drell noted that it was very expensive and the builders make that choice, unless it was a medical building or had a health ca�e provider. Chairperson Jonathan said he appreciated the report and felt that clarified the confusion. A ion: None. XI. COMMITTEE MEETING UPDATES A. ART IN PUBLIC PLACES - (No meeting) � � 8 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION APRIL 20, 1999 ""� B. CIVIC CENTER STEERING COMMITTEE - (No meeting) C. DESERT WILLOW COMMITTEE - (No meeting) D. PROJECT AREA 4 COMMITTEE - (April 19, 1999) Commissioner Finerty said they basically had an informational meeting. They were still moving ahead with the walls and landscaping on Hovley, Oasis and Fred Waring. They would be meeting with residents and sending out ballots for the Landscaping and Lighting Assessment District. It looked like it was finally going to be a reality. As she mentioned earlier, the committee was also concerned about getting the Planning Commission's support for the park. E. PALM DESERT/RANCHO MIRAGE MONTEREY AVENUE CORRIDOR PLANNING WORK GROUP - (No meeting) F. ZONING ORDINANCE REVIEW COMMITTEE - (No meeting) `"' XII. COMMENTS None. XIII. ADJOURNMENT It was moved by Commissioner Finerty, seconded by Commissioner Campbell, adjourning the meeting by minute motion. Motion carried 4-0. The meeting adjourned at 7:27 p.m. � PHILIP DRELL Secretary ATTEST: SABBY JONATH N, Chairperson ,,,,, /tm 9