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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1993-06-10MINUTES REGULAR PALM DESERT REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MEETING THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1993 CIVIC CENTER COUNCIL CHAMBER * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Benson convened the meeting at 4:50 p.m. H. ROLL CALL Present: Excused Absence: Member Walter H. Snyder Member Buford A. Crites Vice Chairman S. Roy Wilson Member Richard S. Kelly Chairman Jean M. Benson Also Present: Carlos L. Ortega, ACM/Executive Director of Redevelopment Bruce A. Altman, City Manager Doug Philips, Deputy City Attorney Sheila R. Gilligan, Secretary Ramon A. Diaz, ACM/Director of Community Development Richard J. Folkers, ACM/Director of Public Works Paul Shillcock, ACM/Director of Economic Development Frank Allen, Director of Code Compliance Pat Conlon, Director of Building and Safety John Wohlmuth, Environmental Conservation Manager Larry McAllister, General Services/Purchasing Officer III. CONSENT CALENDAR A. MINUTES of the Regular Meeting of the Redevelopment Agency of May 27, 1993. Rec: Approve as presented. MLNU TES PALM DESERT REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MEETING JUNE 10, 1993 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B. CLAIMS AND DEMANDS AGAINST THE AGENCY TREASURY - Warrant Nos. 51 and 52. Rec: Approve as presented. C. PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE OF INVESTMENTS as of May 31, 1993. Rec: Receive and file. D. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL of Notice of Completion for Construction Purchase Order No. 000900, Tennis Court Night Lights. Rec: By Minute Motion, approve the Notice of Completion for the installation of the Civic Center Park Tennis Court Night Lights by Purchase Order No. 000900, and release the amount of $296.40 in retention. E. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL of Country Club Drive Median Landscape Retrofit (Contract No. R07580). Rec: By Minute Motion, approve Change Order No. 1 in the amount of $1,005.37 to TKD and Associates on the subject project. Upon motion by Wilson, second by Snyder, the Consent Calendar was approved as presented by unanimous vote of the Agency Board Members present. IV. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None V. RESOLUTIONS None VI. CONSENT ITEMS HELD OVER None VII. NEW BUSINESS A. CONSIDERATION OF REQUEST BY HOUSING AUTHORITY FOR ADDITION OF 16-UNIT TAOS PALMS APARTMENTS TO HOUSING ASSISTANCE PAYMENT AGREEMENT (Contract No. R07590). Mr. Ortega reviewed the staff report, noting that the Housing Authority was completing the rehabilitation of these apartments and had requested that they be 2 NUM. 11..s PALM DESERT REDEVE" `PMENT AGENCY MEETLNG J1. E 10, 1993 * * * * * * * * * * . s * * * * * * * * * * * * ,_ * * * * * * * * * * * * * included in the our rental assistance program. Member Wilson moved to, by Minute Motion, authorize Chairman and Executive Director to execute agreement, exhibit "G". Motion was seconded by Snyder and carried by unanimous vote of the Agency Board Members present. VIII. CONTINUED BUSINESS A. R&BOUEST FOR CONSIDERATION OF INVESTMENT OF PALM DESERT REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MONIES IN THE COUNTY TREASURY POOL INVESTMENT FUND. Mr. Ortega recommended that the Agency Board take the same action as the Council took previously. Member Wilson moved to waive further reading and adopt Resolution No. 271, authorizing investment of the Palm Desert Redevelopment Agency monies in the County Treasury Pool Investment Fund, subject to final approval by the Finance Committee, City Manager, and City Attorney. Motion was seconded by Snyder and carried by unanimous vote of the Agency Board Members present. IX. OLD BUSINESS None X. REPORTS, REMARKS, AND AGENCY BOARD ITEMS REQUIRING ACTION A. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 1. Request for Authorization to Advertise and Call for Bids for the Construction of Phase III of the Civic Center (Contract No. R07620). Mr. Ortega noted that this had come up after the Agenda was posted. Member Snyder moved to, by Minute Motion, add this item to the Agenda for discussion. Motion was seconded by Wilson and carried by unanimous vote of the Agency Board Members present. Mr. Folkers reviewed the staff report, noting that specifications had not been completed yet and that the design for the concession stand was not as far along as anticipated. He recommended that bids not be opened on July 6th as indicated in the report and that instead they be opened on July 15th. He added that this would require that the Agency Board adjourn its July 8th meeting to another date in order to award the contract. After discussion by the Agency Board, it was decided that the Agency Board should adjourn its July 8th meeting to 9:00 a.m. on Monday, July 19th. 3 N1LN U TES PALM DESERT REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MEETING JUNE 10, 1993 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Member Snyder moved to, by Minute Motion, authorize the City Clerk to advertise and call for bids for construction services for Phase III of the Civic Center Park (Contract No. R07620). Motion was seconded by Wilson and carried by unanimous vote of the Agency Board Members present. B. AGENCY COUNSEL Mr. Phillips requested a Closed Session at the appropriate time pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8, Real Property Transactions (133 acres near the corner of Portola Avenue and Gerald Ford re: Cal State University; 100 acres of residential land and a right-of-way easement located west of the Palm Valley Storm Channel approximately half a mile south of State Highway 111, owner Fox). C. CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE AGENCY None Upon motion by Wilson, second by Snyder, and unanimous vote of the Agency Board Members present, Chairman Benson recessed the meeting to Closed Session at 5:05 p.m. pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8, Real Property Transactions (133 acres near the corner of Portola Avenue and Gerald Ford re: Cal State University; 100 acres of residential land and a right-of-way easement located west of the Palm Valley Storm Channel approximately half a mile south of State Highway 111, owner Fox). She reconvened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. with no action announced from Closed Session. XI. PUBLIC HEARINGS A. REQUEST FOR APPROVa OF REDEVELOPMENT PLAN AND FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT FOR PROJECT AREA NO. 4. The following is a verbatim transcript of the joint Palm Desert City Council/Palm Desert Redevelopment Agency public hearing: JMB - Mayor Jean M. Benson BAA - Bruce A. Altman, City Manager CLO - Carlos L. Ortega, ACM/Director of Redevelopment RAD - Ramon A. Diaz, ACM/Director of Community Development SRW - Councilman S. Roy Wilson WHS - Councilman Walter H. Snyder SRG - Sheila R. Gilligan, City Clerk BC - Bill Carver JE - James Ellis MB - Mildred Barnett 4 MLN L TES PALM DESERT REDEVE' 'MENT AGENCY MEETING JU E 10. 1993 * * * * * * * * * * * s * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * JMB The next item on the Agenda is a public hearing. And the public hearing is a request for approval of Redevelopment Plan and Final Environmental Impact Report for Project Area No. 4. BAA Yes, madam Mayor, this is a public hearing of both the City and the Agency. I'll just start the brief, and then we'll call on Carlos in a minute. This is something we've been working on for a long time - annexation of Palm Desert Country Club. When we started out, we had meetings with the people at Palm Desert Country Club, then we began meeting with the County to try to resolve some kind of equitable financial situation where the City of Palm Desert could afford to take on Palm Desert Country Club without jeopardizing the health of our city. We were hopeful that by this evening we would have concluded the negotiations with the County. Unfortunately, we haven't. We're still trying to come up with what monies it's going to take to provide not only police services but also some of the capital improvements. The recommendation tonight is to continue this matter until June 24th, and we're hopeful that maybe we'll have an answer from the County. I personally would encourage folks that live in Palm Desert Country Club and that area that are really interested in pursuing the annexation to contact Supervisor Larson and the County folks to let them know your feelings so that we can try to get this things off dead center. If we don't complete our process by December, then we'd really have to wait another year because we wouldn't be able to get any of the tax money. And this happened to us before, and again Palm Desert just can't afford to get into that type of situation. So that's kind of the general opening, and unless there are questions of the Council, we'll ask Carlos to kind of go through the briefing for this evening. CLO Madam Mayor, we have advertised this as a public hearing of both the City Council and the Redevelopment Agency acting in joint session. For the folks out there, we have requested that this hearing be continued, so if you are here and you cannot be here in a couple of weeks and you want to give testimony, you should go ahead and do so. However, one of the things that is lacking as part of this hearing is, of course, we don't know at this time officially what the County's and the other taxing jurisdictions' response to our plan is. One of the items that is missing at this time is what we call the fiscal impact report in which the agencies (for example the County, the school districts, and all other agencies that levy taxes in your area) what their response is going to be to our plan. And the reason that is important is because, as you know, our plan is to take some of those taxes that are being levied by those agencies and to in turn use them specifically for your area for public improvements, for additional police services, and other public facilities that the City is planning for the future for your area. Some of you folks that were here for our citizen participation process I think had a chance to ask questions of our Police Department, our Fire Department, our Public Works Department, our Planning Department, on some of the specifics of what it is that we are going to do. And we talked about some of the projects. 5 MINI. TES PALM DESERT REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MEETING JUNE 10, 1993 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Today, we held a meeting with the County and the other taxing jurisdictions in which they presented us with a report. If that report had been ready a couple of weeks ago, we would have been able to respond and today we would not be seeking a continuance of the public hearing. However, under the Redevelopment Law, the Council cannot act on the ordinance to create the plan until we have answered the questions posed by the County and the other taxing entities. Essentially what it boils down to is we identified the number of dollars that we are going to be taking from those entities to do the improvements for your area, and under the procedure that we have to use, they look at the impacts that the withdrawing of those funds from them will create on the ability to continue to provide those services that they provide (for example, the County and the school districts). During the next week we will be looking at their comments and looking at the number of dollars that they're talking about. And part of this process is that we will negotiate what we call some tax sharing agreements because the formation of this project area is of course closely linked to the annexation of your area. There is a double process; not only are we looking at the impacts of the redevelopment plan with the County but as the City Manager said we area also looking at the impacts of the City annexing you to the City and setting aside sufficient revenue so that we can provide the proper level of services and also be able to make improvements to your area. Our recommendation tonight is, of course, that we will continue it. However, based on the fact that we did finally get a report from the County today, we do not foresee any further continuation. The process will be that at the next meeting of the Council and the Agency, we should be able to close the public hearing, both on the Environmental Impact Report and on the Redevelopment Plan. If there are issues that are brought up either by yourselves or any other interested parties, we will answer those questions and adopt the ordinance at a subsequent meeting. The importance of us creating this in a timely manner is that, of course, we will be able to receive those monies beginning in Fiscal Year 1993/94, whereas if we don't complete the process by the end of July, we will not be able to receive any funds until 1994/95, and of course that will delay the implementation of the plan. So if you do have some comments, of course, you should present those to the Council. If somebody needs a very brief summary of what we're doing and what the creation of a redevelopment plan for your area is, my assistant Dave is here. If not, of course we would encourage you to come back next time, because by that time we will have a complete report and a report of the County and we will have a better idea on what the negotiating points with the County have been. And hopefully we will have reached an agreement by that time. So if people are here and wish to speak, you should let them speak. If not, they can come back in a couple of weeks. JMB Are there any questions of staff? Alright, I will open the public hearing. Is there anyone here that would like to speak at this time? BC Honorable Mayor and Councilmembers, my name is Bill Carver. I am the general partner of the property at the corner of Country Club and Washington. This has been 6 MI.NUTE.S PALM DESERT REDEVT )PMENT AGENCY MEETLtiG JUKE 10, 1993 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * shown on the...within the area that we are discussing tonight. I have a three-part question here, so I'll start with my first one, which is something that I should have asked staff a long time ago. We are in the middle of a project which has been approved by the County and which has been approved on a phase basis. Is the approval process and all of the entitlements that we received under the County going to be adopted by the City and, therefore, negate the necessity for us having another public hearing? I guess that's my first question and one that I should have asked on another similar situation that happened a little while ago but I failed to ask the question. JMB Carlos, would you like to answer him? CLO With regards to the creation of the Redevelopment Plan, there is a section of the Plan that talks about that. And basically those approvals that have been given are part of the Plan, and that zoning that exists is part of the Plan. And if the zoning were to change, the Plan is automatically amended to comply with that zone. I think the question is more appropriate to what happens from the City's standpoint when it annexes the County territory. And I think Ray can answer that. RAD Madam Mayor and members of the Council. It has been the policy of the City of Palm Desert that when property is annexed and it is in a development mode such as the shopping center Mr. Carver alludes to, the Council's policy has been that the approvals of the County continue to remain in effect, and therefore, those approvals that you have would continue. If there is any changes in building codes which would apply, that's different, but the approvals that you have you would be permitted to complete the center. That has been the City's policy consistently. BC Well, that's great, I'm not much good at public hearings. The next question is... it seemed to me just looking, I've read the thing, I guess I didn't read it closely enough, though. It seems that one of the great income producing capabilities within the district is being left out or it's jogging around the shopping center that is presently under construction that would help defray some of the costs of this thing. Was there some reason for that? CLO The shopping center is included within the area to be annexed. It is not within the Redevelopment Plan area at this time because it is currently in a County redevelopment area. One of the negotiating points that we're working with the County is an agreement that we tendered to the County for their consideration is that as part of this Redevelopment Plan and this annexation that they let us implement that County plan. And so even though it will technically be a separate project area, we are asking that they give us the County project area and let us carry out that redevelopment plan. We may need to have special legislation passed in Sacramento, but we have drafted that also, and as soon as we conclude our negotiations with the County we will both march up to Sacrament and get that so that this can happen. 7 MINUTES PALM DESERT REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MEETING JUNE 10, 1993 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BC Okay, and lastly, and by far the most important, the map that you have there shows our property in black and at the bottom of the map it shows that the property in black is the only property that is subject to eminent domain. And I was wondering what that meant as far as our ability to develop the property. CLO The fact that we are including our ability to have eminent domain is so that in the future if there ever arose the need for us to, say, put a through street or to acquire a piece of property, we would have that ability, although in the Plan we don't have any particular activities that would identify a need to acquire any properties by eminent domain at this time. It's merely that we need to keep that ability because if we did not include that and later we wanted to have the ability to condemn any property, we would have to go through the whole process of doing the plan all over again. But there are no plans, there are no projects, that would require eminent domain at this time. BC I've got two problems. Number one, I've never seen a nine -acre street, square, which is the size of the property. The second is that this precludes me from getting financing, from doing long-term leases, from being able to develop my property. I would either like to see the property not be designated as being subject to eminent domain or for you to buy it. CLO It is a comment that we should actually consider, and we will bring back to you an answer and a response to an issue that was brought up at the public hearing. BC Thank you very much. JMB Is there anyone else that would like to speak tonight? If you would, please step forward and give your name and address. JE Honorable Mayor, my name is James Ellis. I live at 43-340 Illinois Avenue. And I have some questions here. For example, it says that...I don't see where this redevelopment plan is going to do any good for the area that they're talking about, this area #4. For example, it includes Palm Desert Country Club, it includes Woodhaven Country Club, which has its own entity, has a homeowners association, pays for its own streets, and so forth, as does Palm Desert Resort Country Club, where I work, as the new development Indian Ridge Country Club. You're talking about implementing activities which will eliminate and prevent the spread or reoccurrence of conditions of blight in the project area. We've been doing pretty well. The only thing that we're concerned about, and it has been neglected in Palm Desert Country Club where I live, is the streets, and that's the County. The County should take care of those streets. We've been paying taxes on it for years and years. A lot of those streets haven't been touched in 30 years; I've lived here for 30 years. I don't see where we need a redevelopment plan to give a bunch of money for the protection of police, flood control improvements, all these things have been taken care of when the different country clubs have been built. And to tell you the truth, I am 8 MENU TES PALM DESERT REDEVEI 'MENT AGENCY MEETING JUNE 10, 1993 * * * * * * * * * * * . * * * * * * * * * * * * * } * * * * * * * * * * * * completely against the whole plan. I don't think we need it at all. We're taking care of ourselves, it is not a blight area. What are you going to give us with the money you're going to get. I've read over part of the development, you're going to fix our streets and so forth. The County should fix the streets. This is all I'm going to say. Thank you very much. SRW Would you like an answer to that? This is contingent upon the request for annexation. Once we annex that area, the County has no obligation to touch streets, provide police protection, fire protection, or anything else. We will have that obligation. So what we are trying to do is set up the financing mechanism so that we will have the money to provide those services and those improvements to the area once it becomes part of the City of Palm Desert, if it becomes part of the City of Palm Desert. JE Well, the point I'm trying to get at, Mr. Wilson, is when we get this money, the money they're talking about, there isn't that much to do in this particular area for the money. So I don't see any reason for the redevelopment plan. In fact, I don't see any reason actually myself to be joined in with the City of Palm Desert. SRW That was going to be my second question. Do you favor annexation or do you oppose it? JE I don't favor it, no. SRW Okay, thank you. JE You bet. JMB Is there anyone else that would like to speak? MB I'm Mildred Barnett. I live on Massachusetts Court in Palm Desert Country Club. I, too, have lived there for over 30 years, 32 years to be exact. For all of these years, the County has completely neglected our streets. I see no hope of having the County do one thing for us. The only hope I see is for us to be annexed to the City of Palm Desert, and apparently the only hope we have of being annexed to the City is to have this redevelopment plan go through. So I am thoroughly in favor of having this redevelopment plan. JMB Thank you. Anyone else that would like to speak tonight? You will also have the June 24th hearing. Seeing no one else, I will leave the public hearing open. SRW I move we continue this item to our meeting of June 24th. WHS I'll second it, and thank you all for coming down. And hopefully, we'll finalize this at out next meeting. Thank you for being here tonight. 9 NIEN I,1 LS PALM DESERT REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MEETING JUNE 10, 1993 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * s s s s s s JMB Please vote. SRG The motion carries by unanimous vote. (Note: Councilmen Crites and Kelly were absent.) XII. ADJOURNMENT Upon motion by Snyder, second by Wilson, and unanimous vote of the Agency Board, Chairman Benson adjourned the meeting at 7:30 p.m. ATTEST: SHEILA R. GILLIGAN, SECRE ARY TO THE PALM DESERT REDEVELOP ENT AGENCY JEAN M. BENSON, CHAIRMAN 10