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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPrelim Minutes - City 02/27/2004-A PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2004 — 10:00 A.M. CIVIC CENTER COUNCIL CHAMBER 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Spiegel convened the meeting at 10:28 a.m. I1. ROLL CALL Present: Councilmember Jean M. Benson Mayor Pro Tem Buford A. Crites Councilman Jim Ferguson Councilman Richard S. Kelly Mayor Robert A. Spiegel Also Present: Carlos L. Ortega, City Manager/RDA Executive Director Robert W. Hargreaves, Deputy City Attorney Sheila R. Gilligan, ACM for Community Services Homer Croy, ACM for Development Services Justin McCarthy, ACM for Redevelopment Rachelle D. Klassen, City Clerk Mark Greenwood, City Engineer Philip Drell, Director of Community Development Paul S. Gibson, Director of Finance/City Treasurer Teresa L. La Rocca, Director of Housing Michael J. Errante, Director of Public Works Ignacio Otero, Division Chief/Riverside County Fire Department Steve Thetford, Lieutenant, Palm Desert Police Dept./Riverside Co. Sheriff's Dept. III. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE - Councilmember Jean M. Benson IV. INVOCATION - Councilman Richard S. Kelly V. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS - A None PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 VI. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. MINUTES OF THE ADJOURNED REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 5, 2004. Upon motion by Ferguson, second by Benson, the Minutes of the Adjourned Regular City Council Meeting of February 5, 2004, were approved as presented by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro Tem Crites ABSENT. VII. PUBLIC HEARING A. CONSIDERATION OF A COMPREHENSIVE GENERAL PLAN UPDATE AND FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT FOR THE CITY OF PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA Case No. GPA 01-04 (City of Palm Desert, Applicant) (Continued from the meetings of January 15, January 29, and February 5, 2004). The following is a verbatim transcript of this public hearing: Key RAS Mayor Robert A. Spiegel PD Phil Drell, Director of Community Development MG Mark Greenwood, City Engineer JF Councilman Jim Ferguson RSK Councilman Richard S. Kelly BAC Mayor Pro Tem Buford A. Crites SRG Sheila R. Gilligan, ACM for Community Services CLO Carlos L. Ortega, City Manager JMB Councilmember Jean M. Benson JC John Criste, Terra Nova Planning & Research, Palm Springs, CA RDK Rachelle D. Klassen, City Clerk MM Myron MacLeod RAS PD We now move to the public hearing...consideration of a comprehensive General Plan...do we have a staff report. I believe the item on the Agenda today is the circulation element, and Mark Greenwood will make the presentation with assistance as required by John Criste. MG Good morning. I just want to start briefly with a 15-minute presentation or so on some of the basic concepts of what we've done, what we're proposing, 2 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 and then John will go into the element itself. Okay, the first...you have some displays in your packet hopefully. The first display I'm going to talk about is the circulation element, the color map with all the streets shown. And it's also up on the board here. What we've shown here is the circulation element with all the arterial streets down through the collectors. We've added quite a few collector streets. A lot of existing streets are now designated collectors to reflect what their function is. We've added Eldorado West as a secondary street. This map now reflects the Portola interchange. The North Sphere streets have all been added and this North Sphere street layout pretty much reflects the land use plans that you've been looking at, so there's pretty good coordination between the two. And then we're proposing to establish a new rural street standard for really only one street, and that's the Calle de las Campasinos, or the Palm Valley Channel Access Road. As you know, this road is currently just sealed with a polymer sealant to keep dust down. There have been a couple of development maps approved there. It's important for those developers to be able to have legal access to their properties before we can finalize their maps. CVWD doesn't seem to think that they have legal access at this time, so what we're proposing is that the City take that right of way, which is from Thrush Road to the south down to Upper Way West, which is where the water booster station is, that we declare that a public street, we offer back to CVWD an easement for their use, and that this would just be a rural street. And there's a standard on another one of your displays...this display that has all the street sections on it...down at the bottom on their right is a rural street standard, which is really just asphalt on the native soil, no curb and gutter, no sidewalk or anything like that, it's just 24 feet of pavement with an eight -foot shoulder on each side. And this would be adjacent to the Channel. So that's really the biggest changes on the circulation network. While we have the cross section map out... JF Why would we do that? RAS (Inaudible) is that what you're asking? JF No...I was thinking about this last night. CVWD has the access road, CVWD can grant an encroachment permit or whatever the legal term is for it to one property owner, why would we make a public street out of a private street and incur all the expense when one private owner has the ability to do it right now with CVWD? MG JF There is more than one private owner. There are... Well, there's only one making noise about a subdivision map. PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 MG There's one that we're dealing with now and then one...another map that has been approved for more lots, for seven lots, that's Dorie Cree...so we have a total of 11 lots, two different owners, that will...in the future that will be 11 owners, and then I don't know how many...I think there's about 30 properties up there now that use this road. The problem is that the Map Act requires that before we can approve the parcel map, they have to have legal access to those properties. There is no truly well -documented legal access to those properties now. In fact, CVWD has said in writing they believe everybody using that road is trespassing. And so it could happen that they could enforce that trespass and lock everybody out. So in order to rectify that situation, we're recommending that it be a public road. JF Any idea what the cost is on that public road? MG I believe about $60,000 or so...I would say between $50,000 and $75,000, something like that. We're just proposing five inches of asphalt on native soil, so it's a relatively...it's a minimal standard, and I should say the treatment that we're using now, this polymer sealant, we will have to redo every year forever. So in the long run, the asphalt will be cheaper. I should say too that I've had some discussions with Mr. Nelson recently, and he's indicated he would rather have us have a thinner pavement section to control the costs. He'd rather...he would like to see three inches, we have proposed five. We could compromise at four. (Inaudible) JF The liability for the Channel. Where is Carlos? MG As you know, too, we currently have an encroachment...we currently hold an encroachment permit for access to the Homme/Adams Park, and that encroachment permit lays all of the liability for that road on us now for any traffic that's on it. So I believe we have already adopted all the liability. JF Maybe we can wait til the City Manager gets here for that discussion (inaudible) MG Would you like to move on to something else, then, until he comes back? Okay. On the street sections, which is this display, some of the major changes are...we are proposing a wider parkway than we had in the past. Our standard arterial street parkway in the past has been a 12-foot parkway and then an optional 20-foot landscape buffer. After quite a bit of experience with these and thinking about it long and hard, we're proposing a 20-foot parkway everywhere, and that there not be an optional...some places it could be 12 feet, in other places it could be 32 feet, so this would be much more 4 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 consistent and much more predictable. I should say that some of the development community has approached us and asked that we make it...that we subdivide this 24-foot parkway into 12 feet of right of way and that the last 12 feet be an easement for public utilities, landscape, and (inaudible) They feel that that's a more appropriate and equitable way to handle this issue. Our current standard on arterial streets, parkways, is that we have a 12-foot right of way from the back of curb. That always occurs. Then there's an optional 20-foot landscape easement. That 20-foot landscape easement may be...sometimes it's interpreted to be in addition to the 12 feet, so that would be a total of 32 feet from the back of curb. Sometimes it's interpreted as 20 feet from the back of curb. So in some places we have a 12-foot parkway, some places we have a 20-foot parkway, and some places we have a 32- foot parkway. And there's not a lot of guidance about where it's going...which dimension applies. It's really been kind of haphazard. What we're proposing here is very clear, and there's no interpretation left. 24-foot parkway everywhere. Now the development community asked us to subdivide that 24 feet and make a subtle change here to that. The right of way would actually be at 12 feet behind curb, and that there be an additional 12-foot easement behind that. RAS Question. Are all the arterial streets going to be six lanes? MG All of the arterial streets shown in blue on this map...they are proposed to be six lanes some day. There are certain cases where that just may not be able to happen. RAS Like Portola. MG Particularly in the south...yeah, Portola's very difficult. In the North Sphere think that's really what we see, that's what we envision is six lanes on all those arterials in the North Sphere. And I should say, too, that the circulation element is a guideline, a goal for us to achieve, and there may be places where we can't get it and...of course, that would be your decision as projects came to you...you'd be using this as a framework, and some places you may not acquire that. Also on the circulation element, there's the gray dots and the red dots. The gray dots are the existing signals that are in place now. The red dots are where we envision signals being... RSK I have a question on this other one before you move to that one. MG Okay. RSK On this... 5 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 MG Yes. RSK On the collector streets, you show a sidewalk that's five feet, but on a local street...all the rest of them, including the local streets, is six feet. Why the collector streets... (inaudible) MG On the collectors we're showing the sidewalk being away from the curb, at the back of the right of way, so there's a parkway between the sidewalk and the cars. There'd be a landscaped area between the sidewalk and the street, where on a local street the sidewalk is right up against the curb. We can adjust that if you...that was just our proposal. RAS How many lanes are there on a thoroughfare? MG A thoroughfare is a four -lane road with either parking or a bike lane. RAS Okay, an arterial is six, a thoroughfare is four...how about a secondary? MG A secondary is a four -lane road with a bike lane, but it cannot allow parking...it is now wide enough. RAS And a collector street? MG A collector street is two lanes with a median of some type, probably a 12-foot raised median, a 12-foot lane in each direction, and then a bike lane or parking, not both. BAC The material we received yesterday from the bicycle program... MG Yes...which I haven't seen, by the way, so I won't be able to... BAC Oh. Never mind, then. I was just going to call attention to items 4 and 5 and see how consistent that was... MG If you'd like to discuss them, we can give it a try. BAC Item 4 considered bicycle access (inaudible) here...just need a copy of this darned thing... MG Okay, which item? BAC Items...start with 4 and 5...or start with 4. MG On Item 4? We are... 6 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARy 27, 2004 BAC How consistent is that with what you're recommending on these cross sections? MG I think very consistent. Every one of our sections, from arterial down to collector, allows for a bike lane. The only competition with the bike lane is the parking lane. So the only choice we have is between parking and bikes. We don't have to choose between a traffic lane and a bike lane, which is the situation we're in now. So yes, we're accommodating this desire. BAC Okay, Item 5. MG BAC MG JF MG (Inaudible) From a staff level, we agree that the shared sidewalk thing is not desirable in the long term. What we've done now is that in order to expand the bike lane and the golf cart system as widely as possible, as quickly as possible, we've used sidewalk where we've had to, but in the long term we're trying to provide bike lanes in the street more than on the sidewalk, so we agree with that, too. Alright.... long term, what are you looking at in terms of eliminating this shared use? In other words, if somebody came up to you and said when will you not have that problem, what would your response be? Well, when the system is built out and we...the way it works now with both traffic lanes and bike lanes is that we do the best to exploit opportunities, and when we have the opportunity we build enough space in for a bike lane. It would be difficult to predict that we would widen streets just to add a bike lane unless there was a program established for that in the capital improvement program. So it is a long term goal, you know, 10 to 15 years before we would see us getting off the sidewalks altogether. Question. The fundamental assumption that these bicycle folks make is that everywhere there's a road, there needs to be a bike path, yet we don't allow bicycles on Interstate 10. Do you agree with that assumption or is there... No, there are certain streets I don't think bicycles are appropriate on, Monterey Avenue for one. The speeds are just too high. I believe Portola is a much better place to ride a bike. On the other hand, Portola is very narrow and very difficult to get bike lanes in some of these areas. And so it's...bike lanes are a very difficult thing to make fit into an already built environment, but... 7 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 JMB It seems to me that 111 is too dangerous with cars pulling in and out (inaudible) thing to have bike lanes. The accidents we've had in the past have been on 111. We've had them going over the portion there by Desert Crossing in years past, we had a fatality that...couple along 111. We have other ways to go that way. They can come and go down Fred Waring and get clear down to the other end. MG Our bike plan does not propose bike lanes on 111. JF Let me ask a question... JMB That's just referring to one of their suggestions. MG Right JF ...a different way. For our golf cart program, we have prescribed streets that golf carts may go on and streets they can't go on. MG Yes. JF And we have something similar for bikes? MG BAC Bicycles are covered by the Vehicle Code, and even streets that we don't post as a bike lane, a bicycle is still allowed to use. For example, a bicycle is allowed to ride on Highway 111, whether we establish a bike lane there or not. They are just required to do it safely and to not impede traffic. How you would ride a bike on Highway 111 safely and not impede traffic I don't know, but I do see bicyclists on 111 frequently. The classic of that, to me at least, is we can't restrict...not our city, but we the generic we, can't restrict bicycle use on Highway 74 going up the mountain. That's a... RAS Very dangerous. BAC ...a remarkably dangerous place to come around the corner and find a bicycle in front of you going up or down, whatever that issue is. And, again, that's the law. MG The differentiation is a bicyclist enjoys all the rights and responsibilities as a motorist, whereas a golf cart is a much more specialized thing, and it's...it falls under the City's golf cart transportation program. So we have more control over the golf carts than we do over the bicycles. In our case, the PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 bicycle system and the golf cart system are identical. They lay on top of each other exactly. RAS Can we have a brochure for bicycles in our City that describes streets that (inaudible) they ride on. MG I believe the Visitors Center has a brochure that they hand out, but I wasn't involved in it. RAS Maybe we can get a copy for the (inaudible) SRG Mark, what's the one we just did with Phil Joy? MG We just did the golf cart brochure. I believe there's a similar bicycle brochure. SRG Okay. MG Shall we go back to the... RAS Mayor Pro Tem JF Apparently not. BAC Just one quick one. You have not, then, met with the bicycle folks on... MG No. BAC Would you...will you be doing that? MG If you'd like, yes. BAC RAS I would appreciate it if whoever's appropriate would meet with them and then come back with any comments that...or changes that you do or do not think are appropriate. That way...I want to make sure they've had the opportunity for input, having recently heard someone in this Chamber say how this is all being done without any public input. (Inaudible) they had that chance. Thank you. Let's go back now to the rural street section. Mr. City Manager, you weren't here when we talked about it, but one of the people on the Council indicated you had concerns about the rural street, the liability of the City, etc., etc. 9 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARy 27, 2004 CLO RAS CLO Well, the Council considered a report from City staff that said that if we're going to have these kinds of streets, that maybe we wanted to create a different standard grade of rural street because right now, the way our municipal code reads that streets that are into the public system have to be approved to a certain specification. What Public Works staff recommended is that with regard to this particular street and others like it, that we create a rural road standard, but the Council said not yet, let's wait until we look at the information today and look at it as part of the General Plan. And the reason this is important is because you know the City approved the project out there, and the developer can't be given the go ahead by the Public Works Department. In addition to that, the Water District is pressuring us to accept that because as of right now, it's an easement that we have, and they don't want, I presume, the liability of having people go through there, through their easement. So they're pressuring us to accept it as a City street. So there are several points of pressure that we're looking at. And so far, what we've told the Water District is no, we are not prepared to accept anything because the Council has said we want to review the matter. Would your recommendation be that we do accept it? Well, I think...I would agree with staff's recommendation that we do create a rural road standard. And, you know, we have a park there and everything, there are people in our city that depend on that, and that we've already made some improvements, that we go ahead and create that rural road standards and go ahead and accept the offer of the Water District. Otherwise, we're always going to be continuing to live in this...with this problem. RAS But as far as the liability is concerned, it's not going to increase dramatically if we accept the road? CLO Well, there are liabilities to having City streets. My own personal view is that we have a liability anyway because to an extent we have promoted that use. We approve it, you know, and we are allowing it to be used as a public street, and because of that the Water District is saying we want to give it to you, you guys go ahead and accept it. RAS So is everyone satisfied with the (inaudible) JF Well, I guess the one hangup I have is that folks have been living out there since the passage of the Homestead Act, which is a depression area statute, and now all of a sudden because of one "person that wants to build a residence out there", we have to accept, dedicate, improve a public street where people have been living just fine for the last 75 years. It just doesn't compute with me. I think we've got a rural street there right now. 10 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 RAS You're suggesting we accept it as is? JF Well, I talked to our City Attorney yesterday, and he told me that CVWD can issue an encroachment permit to this property owner, which is acceptable to his lender, which allows him to get his financing to build his home, and things go on just the way they've been going on for 75 years without us having to incur the expense and, I think, increased liability for a public road. CLO We can leave things as they are and continue to have what we have there. RAS The only comment I have is that Mark indicated that it's going to be long term more expensive that (inaudible) to maintain (inaudible) resurfacing it, what, every year, something like that? MG The polymer sealing will probably have to be replaced every year and after every rainfall, every, you know, substantial storm. (Inaudible) JF Well, again, I compare Cahuilla Hills where the residents got together and decided they wanted to pave their streets. They were willing to accept the increased accessibility and off-roaders having access to their parcels, and they did that. These homeowners haven't done that, and they prefer to have a dirt road or as closely akin thereto as you have to keep people out and to keep off-roaders off of their parcels and to keep it rural. And if we do anything in there, my preference would be to contact all of those homeowners and see if this is something they want us to do and not just do it for David Nelson and Dorie Cree. RAS (Inaudible) and what happens (inaudible) JMB I think at least we should (inaudible) RAS Hopefully they'd pick up the maintenance of the road over the years. JF Once it's public, though (inaudible) RSK Well, my feeling about that is when we did the park, that's when we created the (inaudible) nothing to do with the homes that are there. We did something as a city, created a park in a fashion, and to me that's when we took on the responsibility to do something about it. MG I guess I should add, too, that we would be seeking contribution from the newly developed parcels to help pay for construction of this road, whereas 11 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 JF RSK JF RSK JF RAS JF if it's on the City year by year to maintain it, I don't think...we don't have any mechanism now to involve the property owners, so if we actually pave it and we get some... But the irony for me is we bought the park to preserve the open space, and then by buying the park to preserve the open space we created a road that destroys the character of the area...(inaudible) self-defeating purpose. We didn't just make it open space, we made a park. Well, when I was out there for Hopalong Cassidy Days, I saw scant improvement to the park. Well, if you went on any other day, you'd see...you wouldn't see very many people either, but... I know...which is why I think it's open space and not really necessarily... We didn't really know the ramifications when we made it a park, that's the problem. Well, do you have an objection to at least contact the folks that live there and getting their input? RAS Mayor Pro Tem, you have a comment? BAC Just a humble thought that maybe we look at different ways of both improving the surface and get options for Council to look at to potentially accomplish what folks want to do without not accomplishing what other people want to do. There may be... MG Sure, we can do that. RAS Okay. JF (Inaudible) contact the residents? BAC I think that's a fine idea. JF That would be less than 20 of them, and it's not going to be a very expensive proposition. If they say want a road, I'm all for it. If they say they don't want one, then that's a different story. RAS Mr. City Manager, you have a comment? 12 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 CLO Just that the Council is aware, we will continue to tell the Water District that at this time we do not wish to accept those for public streets. JF But that we're looking into it. CLO Yes, if we send a letter, I'II send a copy of the Council, of what we were doing, and then they'll have to deal with that, the Water District. BAC I have just a purely informational question. Difference that one applicant falls into, the issue between a single family home and a parcel map... JF Subdivision map. BAC ...subdivision map...I know Mr. Carver, as an example, is... MG Exactly. Mr. Carver did not subdivide land. BAC Okay, that's the issue. Alright...thank you...that just answered my question for me. MG Okay, we can move on to...my last item is the issue of level of service. Palm Desert has had a level of service... JF Yeah, I want to talk about signals. MG Okay, let's talk about signals. JF Thank you. (Inaudible) RSK Okay, I'll start over again and turn my mic on. Without going into individual locations and discussing should there be one here, shouldn't there be one there, it doesn't seem to me like we should propose signals in different places with...kind of locks yourself into it...and that we would have some kind of policies relative to traffic signals but that we wouldn't specifically designate where we're going to have them in a 20-year plan. MG Okay. Let me explain my philosophy here. What I did is I showed all of the signals that are currently proposed on existing entitlements and such. The signal on Country Club just east of Monterey was included in the Merano entitlement for their next phase. Most of these other signals that are shown as future are the intersections of collector to arterial or arterial to arterial, so they're pretty clear they're going to be future signalized locations. And I 13 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 wanted this to be a guideline in the future that as each new development came in, they wouldn't be seeking a signal at their driveway and having us have to have that discussion every time and that we could point to this document as a guideline and say these are the kinds of locations where signals are installed, and driveways are not the kinds of locations. We could just as easily do that in a written policy. I just thought this was maybe easier... RSK Well, I'd rather see a policy that we're going to have no signals in driveways... MG And that's what this does. RSK ...and that we use this sample, this sample on the bottom here... MG Right. RSK MG ...and that this actually be an objective of ours to have driveways or openings and use this particular kind of a right turn in, right turn out, and left turn in only. And that by doing that, we could eliminate the need for lots of signals. And that's why we prepared this standard, that this is what we want...what we're going to have steer people toward that. They are arterial driveways, and that needs to be...it will be a great help for us, a good tool, if we can point to the General Plan as backup to that... RSK But if you put these all over like this, that defeats the purpose of trying to eliminate signals and do it this way... MG So you're saying you'd rather see it in a written policy than a map? RSK What? MG You'd rather see it as a written policy rather than showing the locations... RSK Yeah, I'd rather see a policy that we're going to do this and that we're going to do everything we can to avoid creating new signals. MG Very good. JF My comment, and I realize this is a 20-year document and the North Sphere we don't know what's going to be out there, but putting seven new signals on Gerald Ford between Eldorado and Monterey and committing yourself, as Councilman Kelly says, in a map... 14 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 MG Well, let me explain that three of the seven are currently entitled based on existing approved developments. The signals on either side of Cook Street are developer signals at...the one east of Cook Street is a back driveway to the college... JF Now why do you call it a developer signal? MG The developer will be building it with completion of his project. JF You just told me last week the biggest impediment to efficient traffic flow is a traffic signal. MG I still believe that, too. JF MG So why are we...for example, you've got one at Mesa View on 111, one at what looks like Pitahaya... Yes. JF That's as built out and developed as it's ever going to get, so... MG And we have...I believe that...what I would like to do here is to prevent a safety concern that seems to be growing, where we...turning left onto Highway 74 from these side streets is difficult for less skilled drivers, and there are so many opportunities here to turn left onto 74. What l want to do is establish just two or three signalized crossings and do a raised median on the rest of Highway 74. So we'd channelize all those left turns into a few locations and have signals at those locations. That's really a long term thing, but that's what we're working towards. JF Couldn't we also put that in text as opposed to a red dot on a map. MG Yes, absolutely. RSK There's a lot of red dots here that I have a problem with. RAS Mayor Pro Tem BAC Well, just as a note on that issue...you'll also be, then, funneling more traffic onto some of those streets... MG Yes. 15 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNEDREGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 BAC ...and you're going to have...we're going to have another one of those people whose street it isn't think it's wonderful, and the ones whose street it is think it's an absolutely awful idea and... MG Right. There are frontage roads along Highway 74 that don't show up at this scale, and the goal would be that people would continue to use their own local street to get to the frontage road, then parallel the Highway to the signal and use that signal. And that's what happens at Haystack now where the existing signal is. People come out of the neighborhood to the south, use the frontage road, come over to the signal, and then access the Highway. BAC But as an example, on the frontage road that's on the east side of Highway 74 as you proceed southerly...every time you cross a street, more times you have people proceeding along a frontage road through intersections to get to an intersection, they cross the intersections where other people are going...you're also increasing the number of intersections people are crossing with potentials of accidents to get (inaudible) MG I absolutely agree. It is a balancing act. JMB I can see maybe putting on the map that the future ones that are very obvious, like Portola and Frank Sinatra, where there's a four-way stop now on a lot of those...those I think should be designated, but it's the inner ones that I agree that maybe we don't need to put on, but certainly on the main arterial ones, and there are several of them on there that should stay on as future. MG I guess...part of this, too, is I wanted it to be a guide or a display of what our city's probably going to look like in 20 years. Even if we don't show these red dots on these intersections, traffic volumes are going to increase at these intersections, and we're going to at least talk about signals in the future at these locations. RSK Well, we'll do that then. MG That's fine. That's okay. RAS Wherever an arterial crosses an arterial, it makes sense. (Inaudible) RAS ...that's obvious. The rest of them we'll take a look at. 16 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 JMB Yeah, especially along that new street up at the top there where they've got one, two, three, four right in a row. RSK Five, six... MG Would you prefer a written policy, then, that identified where signals would likely be considered and where they would not likely be considered and guiding people toward this display at those locations where signals aren't to be considered? JMB The main ones. (Inaudible) RSK The main arterials (inaudible) We wouldn't try to avoid that but all those other locations we'd try to avoid it. MG Okay, not a problem JF Probably Eldorado West and Fred Waring we're going to need a signal (inaudible) that street's going to have (inaudible) that's not an arterial... RAS If that ever comes to pass. (Inaudible) MG One last thing is the...the maximum intersection improvement. Basically, the General Plan establishes a...we have an existing level of service "C" (inaudible) now...the General Plan you have before you now also proposes to maintain that level of service "C" with a limit that this display showing three through lanes, dual lefts, and a right turn lane, either a signalized right turn or a free right turn, depending on the need, that this would be the maximum width of intersection that we would build in Palm Desert. What this does is leave maybe four or five locations that might be level of service "D" during peak hours, and those are the intersections up against the freeway for the most part, Dinah Shore and Monterey, Portola and Gerald Ford, Washington Street at the freeway, I believe would have level of service "D". But we need to balance the impact an intersection has on the community to the benefit it provides, and to say we have a hard level of service "C" no matter what, in some locations we would have to have triple lefts, four throughs, and a free right, and it makes it kind of a pedestrian waste land, there is no way to cross that street on foot. RAS Like Las Vegas. 17 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 MG RAS It would be like Las Vegas, except you'd be the only pedestrian. You'd be all by yourself out there. So this is what we're proposing as our maximum intersection, and admittedly, there will be a few intersections that we might not make level of service "C", but given the balance of the overall impacts, I think this is what we're proposing. Maybe I can kind of summarize for the Council, and you correct me if I'm wrong. On the rural street section, we're going to talk to the people that live there and also come up with two or three other things that we might use for the rural street. As far as the (inaudible) we agree that wherever a new arterial crosses a new arterial, there should be a stop light. The others we'll look at and develop a policy. And (inaudible)... RSK And you just covered what we covered here and not necessarily what's in the... JF RSK MG RAS MG RAS BAC General Plan. ...General Plan. Yeah...and John Criste is here. He's going to go through... Yes ...through the elements. I'll turn it over to John. Thank you very much. Oh, I have one. On the typical arterial intersection, we mentioned some time ago making sure that we put the signals and the equipment and everything else at ultimate distance. MG Yes. BAC MG Same thing with landscaping...you know, it's less than a happy thing for me to look at what we've had to do to 111 and other places and so on and so forth, and as we spend an enormous amount of money, things get really nice looking and then they're all turned into trash, and we have done that in the past with remarkable regularity. The current team won't do that. And having this General Plan in place will be a great tool for us to get that done. 18 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 BAC Okay. So that if we put a bush in the ground, we can gently tap it on the head and say it's got a place to live for a long time. MG We'II have that as a goal for sure. I can't say we can guarantee every plant. We'll do our best, and we definitely see that as a benefit. RAS One thing that I failed to mention is that you're going to work with the bicycle people to get their feedback on what we're doing. MG Yes. RAS Okay. Thank you. John... JC Good morning. RAS Which book are you in now. JC I'm in the General Plan, and we'll be starting...at least run quickly through the element...page 3-47. RAS 3-47 JC 47...that's the beginning of the circulation element. I thought what we would...I understand that what we would like to do is run through the policies and programs, and I thought real quickly I'd give you an overview of the element because it logically leads to the policies and programs. We've got...of course, our purpose statement and... BAC Let us get there first. JC I'm sorry. BAC Let us get to 47. JC I'm sorry. RAS It's the big one. BAC I know, that's where I am. RAS It's a big book. BAC Yes. 19 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 RAS BAC Okay. There's a smaller one, you see. Alright. Circulation element. JC We've tried to...and it points to how important obviously, maybe not so obviously to folks, the circulation element, and the background discussion gets into that, the relationship to land use planning, which is essential...we speak to at length, talking about optimizing land use, transportation planning, and you know a lot of our work that we've been doing in parts of the City have to do with trying to enhance pedestrian and on motorized vehicle access to other land uses, and we discussed that. We also discussed trying to enhance the use of mass transit, of our bus system. We talked about the rapid transit system that has been discussed now for the last couple of years. We've incorporated some of the route data that was brought to us early by Mr. Kelly and others into the circulation element that Mark showed you the plan. Then we also speak to some others like traffic calming where we can...we know we have to have the traffic come through certain areas, but are there ways to slow it down and make it safe for bicyclists and for pedestrians, we speak to that. The State guidelines require we also look at things like utility services in the context of transportation. We briefly mention it. We also reference pedestrian, bicycles, and golf carts, but we also reference the reader back to the parks and recreation element. And we talk about the element requirement, the relationship of transportation to air quality, levels of service, definitions of levels of service, both for mid -block quality of flows as well as for quantitative levels of service at intersections, which are the most constrained parts of the roadway system. Some data on capacities for different types of roadways, average daily traffic volumes. We have maps that came from the traffic engineer's report that show volumes as they currently exist and as they are projected to exist in the post 2020 period, and that assumes not only the growth of essentially the build out of the City but also a growth in background traffic coming from the rest of the Coachella Valley. You can pretty much ignore the street cross sections that are in the General Plan because Mark and his staff have enhanced those and amended those. We took the time to explain the traffic model because we are in a regional context, and our analysis needs to match up roughly with the analysis that's being done by other cities and by CVAG, so we've tried to describe how that is done and how traffic modeling generally is done. And then we described current conditions on major streets, major roadways. The circulation master plan, as I've mentioned, which Mark and his staff have now expanded, and then we have roadway analysis that shows the General Plan designation for the major roadways. This will probably now change...excuse me...this will probably now change with the new map, but we're substantially conforming, Mark and I determined. And also we're showing the kind of volumes that would occur on the major roadways in the 20 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 post 2020. That table is on page...starts on page 3-67. And we also have maps showing the different traffic volumes, again, that would occur in 2020...post 2020 period. We speak to intersections and how they're really the arbiters of capacity, and then table 3-17 on page...starting on page 3-71 shows the levels of service that will result from the implementation of the mitigation measures that are recommended in the traffic study. Now, we have...you'II notice that there are some intersections that are shown at level of service "D" but the handout we gave you, a technical memo, a few weeks ago, highlights the intersections where additional improvements can be provided, and we can get to level of service "C". So that we have some minor adjustments to make...we will make to this table in the final version. But we, as Mark indicated, we are able to apply the current...this maximum standard and get to where we want to get in terms of levels of service. Then we talked about some of the special focus areas that will probably continue into the future...Highway 111 jurisdiction, the Portola/I-10 interchange, the Gerald Ford Drive at University Park area, Monterey Avenue/I-10 interchange, Monterey Avenue joint planning with the City of Rancho Mirage, and access control along Highway 74 as was mentioned earlier. A few other things have to do with assuring adequate all-weather crossings so that we know if we have major flooding we can still get across the Whitewater, and adequate crossings and ultimately maybe even the mid -valley stormwater channel will play into that. Preserving roadway capacity along the lines that Mark and Mr. Kelly were speaking to, how to keep the traffic flowing and still provide safe access, we have provided a couple of policies that I can go over that are recommendations for...and they're in your packet...for some of this type of design treatment. Again, the pedestrians and non -motorized vehicle users, the golf cart route system, getting right of way if we know we're going to need right of way, is making sure that when we approve a project we don't miss an opportunity to have enough right of way dedicated to get the facilities we'll need in the long term. And then parking and access is an integral part of the planning and transportation planning process. Discussion of SunLine and public transit, we described the existing lanes or lines, rather...the SunLine Bus rapid transit route, transportation demand management. We briefly touched upon the railway facilities and the forthcoming station. And air transportation major...major utilities and bicycle facilities. And then we condensed the issues down into two major goals, as you can see on page 3-80. The first goal being a sustainable and environmentally responsible system that provides a wide range of facilities and transportation options to move people, vehicles, goods, in a safe and efficient economic manner. And then the second goal, which is a logically distributed hierarchy of streets that meets the current and future demands of the City and the region while maintaining and protecting the City's residential neighborhoods and resort character. Now...shall I proceed through each of these...my understanding 21 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 was that you were...would you like to do that, or can we...I'II be glad to just try to address questions you have regarding this. RAS Why don't we try to address questions, and if there are no questions...does anybody have any questions? RSK Would you like questions or comments both? RAS Both, yeah, sure. RSK JC RSK JC We've used...the first one...we have used single lanes where we couldn't have four lanes for calming...as a calming device. Did we mention that anywhere in here? Under...I believe we do have policies and programs that indicate we'll use traffic calming devices. It says that, but it gives some examples of calming, but it didn't give that...you might look at that...it's not critical because (inaudible) Make sure we have it covered. RSK We'd probably do it anyway. And on page 3-86, we talk about all-weather crossings and coordination and...is there somewhere here that we talk about...should talk about safety when we consider where we're going to put a bridge and setting up priorities for bridges...I didn't see anything where (inaudible) JC With regard to accessibility or... RSK JC Where we have...in other words, so we could have a higher priority on a crossing...that it can get...extremely dangerous conditions. The emergency preparedness element refers to the City's emergency preparedness plan. And that really needs to be coordinated with the...I guess capital improvement programs, if you accept the premise of the policy and the program, then there's a prioritization that still needs to be done, and that's not done in the element. JF Are you talking about policy 9? JC Yes. 9 and 9A RSK I was talking about 9A...I was looking at. 22 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 JF And a bridge that has nothing to do with emergency preparedness. It's just straight transportation. JC The Whitewater is the critical issue. RSK Yeah, Whitewater is the critical part of it but the biggest deterrent to our transportation we've ever had in the City. I think it's more in the past than now, but it still happens other places around but it still happens with us, too. JC Right. RSK JC If we have really torrential rains, and then you have a bridge out or a crossing out, that's a horrendous detriment to the level of service. (Inaudible) for three or four days that you can't... And you can count on that to happen more often than (inaudible) RSK It could happen again. It happened in the past, and it'll happen again. JC And that kind of strategic planning is something that I would suggest that the emergency preparedness staff, coordinating with Public Works, to determine what is the priority and then how to put it into the capital improvements project plan. JF But I think you're question is can't we put in here as a goal in the next 20 years to get a bridge put in. JC RSK Oh, sure. Yes, exactly. JC In which case, you know, under the schedule, we could... RSK That's probably been the biggest transportation I can think of, and it still is in the Coachella Valley, is Whitewater crossing. And so it seems like that would be an important thing to put in here...we still have some places we're going to have to deal with, even though we have a bridge on Monterey. Well, that's really the only bridge we have in the City, and we're going to have another crossing I'm thinking of that we're going to deal with it and we're going to have Portola...that one the Coachella Valley Water District has told us it's not safe, that it could go out very easily in a major storm. So it seems like we ought to address it here. JF I agree. 23 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARy 27, 2004 JC Well, that's why we've identified in the policy Portola and Cook, they seem to be the most demanding sites for (inaudible) RSK Well, can you look at (inaudible) JF But couldn't we put a goal in that said it's a goal of the City to get at grade crossings at every intersection across the Whitewater channel? RSK But the goal ought to be that we... JC We could certainly do that. RSK ...have a real bridge at all our crossings. JF Right. JC Then what I would...how about if we add the program 9-B which sites that specifically and then also put a time horizon on this, say within the next ten years or next 15 years, something of that sort, if you want to try to get some impetus to the effort. JF Sure. RSK And then I have one more that's an ongoing concern of mine, that I think holds up traffic. I was holding people up this morning trying to find an address. I know that we've done a lot of work on our addressed, but they're still terrible. If you go down El Paseo and you want to find an address on El Paseo... JF Forget it. RSK ...it's horrendous. So I think it's a detriment to traffic circulation when people are trying to find an address and it's still bad, and it seems like it just gets worse. JC We can certainly add a policy. RSK At least put the policy in there. We've been working on it for years, and we haven't seemed to make much...haven't made much progress it seems like, but we ought to at least have it in there. With that, I'II let someone else... JMB I don't have any. 24 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 JF I have one. On 3-...oh, good Lord, I lost it...71 maybe? Yeah, 71. We have the existing level of service at Deep Canyon and Fred Waring as "F", with no time delay but a footnote that says it happens periodically. Is that associated with high school traffic? Where did Mark go? The only "F" intersection we have in the whole city. 3-71. (Inaudible) JF Middle of the page, intersection of Deep Canyon... RSK Deep Canyon/Fred. Waring MG Deep Canyon/Fred Waring JF "F" and "F" MG The delays there are short term, about 15 minutes or a half an hour at the beginning and ending of school. JF So the high school really... MG You get an enormous volume of traffic in the morning from dropping students off at Lincoln and the middle school and then going to the high school to drop off another student, so we have huge southbound left turn volume there... JF So how are we going to improve it to "C" and "C"? MG This traffic study was performed before the Fred Waring widening was completed, so we already have improved it by widening Fred Waring, and we are also considering a dual left turn lane westbound with the extension of the Fred Waring widening to the east. JF And Bob mentioned the Aztec Way. Is that going to be one way out or is it going to be two way in and... MG It's going to be two way with a signal, so we're hoping that it also helps. It probably won't help the Deep Canyon issue because it's interaction between the two schools, so Aztec won't help that, but for parents who just have a student at the high school, Aztec would definitely be a huge help. You know, we think Aztec is going to make about a 30% improvement to the Fred Waring and Phyllis Jackson issue in the morning and the afternoon. JF Great 25 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 RAS Anything else on the circulation element? JC Nothing else to report except that it's been a pleasure and a tremendous productive process to be working with Public Works and Planning on it. We really ground on this quite a bit to try to address all the concerns. RAS So with the addition of the bridges and identifying addresses... JC Yes RAS ...are we ready to vote on this element? JF And we're going to have a map brought back, and we're going to have (inaudible) RAS Yes JF ...brought back... RAS All the things (inaudible) JMB (Inaudible) JF But that's the direction (inaudible) RAS Yes JMB I'll move approval. RAS Is there a second? JF Second RAS Please vote. Mark, with those few things that (inaudible) RSK (Inaudible) RDK Motion carries by unanimous vote. RAS Finally. Alright. RSK Mark, you're the success of the whole City here. You're the first one approved. 26 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR `MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 RAS JF PD SRG RAS JF (Inaudible) RAS SRG BAC SRG JF JC JF BAC RAS (Inaudible) RAS JC You got one. You and Wendy's with a drive-thru restaurant. What's next for us? Natural resources, I think. Do you want to start on those environmental resources and hazards elements we can start grinding away on those. Mayor Spiegel. It's 11:30, we planned on staying here until about 12:30, is that correct? We could knock out environmental resources. Okay Can I point out that we're going to lose our Police Chief... What? We're going to lose our Police Chief at noon. Do we want to do public safety next? Public safety? Which tab? Anyhow, let's come back in five minutes (inaudible) (Inaudible) 12:30...1 have one request to speak, and we'll do that before we exit the chamber. Please Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I refer you to the police and fire protection element, which is on page 6-26 of your General Plan. This element, I think, probably received more input and scrutiny from not only the City's Police Department, especially Steve Thetford behind me and some others who contributed in a major way to the development of this, but also to the Public Safety 27 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARy 27, 2004 Commission, who I think we met with three times or four times on this project and went over the various aspects of it. It is police and fire specifically and at the recommendation of one of the Councilmen we've gone through and tried to provide you with some comparison, if you will, of the old element, the old general plan versus the new one. And, of course, the old plan is about 23 years old now in that regard, but this discussion, relevant discussion, of police and fire was found originally in the public facilities element and it really focused on, in general terms, on public safety but also talked about the expansion of fire and police services and facilities in general, seeing that as an important thing for the City to pursue as part of the quality of life that we've achieved here and also things like development permits would be issued commensurate with services that could and were needed to be provided to those developments. And listed among those were police services and fire services. The element...the old element also referred to the need for facilities north of the Whitewater, and of course we've got an existing station that's been in place for some time now on Country Club Drive and others being planned in that vicinity. We've also, of course, got the sister stations; for instance, in Rancho Mirage on Gerald Ford, we have a relatively new facility also. And also, a general statement in the element, the old element, that talked about requiring developers to fund increased services demanded by their developments. The new draft general plan takes police and fire and makes it a separate discussion entirely and discusses at length the issues that are associated with providing these services and also refers to other elements where appropriate, including the emergency preparedness element. We even speak to some degree about how...who regulates some of our public lands that fall within our sphere of influence or are adjacent to us, and the BLM is the primary, Fish & Game has some regulatory responsibility, and the Forest Service up in our sphere, up in the southerly most area. Then we spoke to the issue of police protection in detail first, general description, and police personnel, levels of service as of 2001, you can see we obviously are somewhat dated sometimes because of the length of time it takes to get these projects approved and general plans. But we...you see the information there which Steve may want to correct or update in some fashion. It's still representative, though, of the level of service we're providing and the kinds of facilities and support that is available to the police and fire departments. We also talk about demand for services, primarily in the year 2000 where we had lots of data available, and that is provided as a...for a frame of reference. Also, programs having to do with crime prevention and public safety, there are a lot of things going on in that regard. And also, we have...we extend this as...I know staff and the police department does to issues of community development, where we want to make sure we have defensible space, as it's sometimes referred to, areas that can be...are visible to security, that can be driven around and we don't have blind spots where criminal activities would easily...could easily occur. 28 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 We also talk about the relationships of the police department to the school resource officer program and schools, how many are involved and what a great program that is. Also, the COPS program and then other law enforcement services that are discussed in that section. And so we've done a fairly comprehensive job of explaining the fairly expansive services provided by the City's police department. Yes, ma'am. JMB On 6-29, we should change the wording where it says City is evaluating the feasibility of COPS because we now have it. (Inaudible) how many we have and some of what their activities are. JC Okay. Who would be the best contact for that? JMB Pat Scully. JC Okay. JF Another issue... RAS What page? JF That's just it...it's not on a page that I can see, and maybe it's in here and I just haven't found it yet since it's been so long since I've worked on this element. I know our Public Safety Commission really went the extra mile to put the time and effort into this, and I don't know where it flopped out in the time line of the assessment, but we have done a space evaluation of our existing substation at the City Hall complex and found that it is just dramatically overcrowded over there, literally bursting at the seams, and we've been discussing with the Cove Commission and the County and siting a new facility to accommodate training and space and storage and what have you. I don't see that reflected in any of these policies, that it's our policy to provide adequate space for our officers while they're in service. JC I remember that the issue was addressed even a couple of years ago. JF Yeah, but I just can't see it in here. JC I'm not sure I see it either. JF But whatever the appropriate wording for that is, I think it ought to be included as a policy. JC Identifying the need and the (inaudible) 29 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 JF Well, the need's been identified. JC Then we need to (inaudible) JF We just need to do it. JMB Program 2-A speaks to that. JF Does it? JC Consult and coordinate long term planning with fire and police departments regarding the optimal location of future police and fire stations and to assure adequate staffing levels are provided to meet the demands of new development. JF Maybe we can get a little bit more specific about it. JC Okay. JMB Expand on that. JF Has that even made it on the radar on our long term capital improvements program? We still haven't figured out the financing for it? (Inaudible) CLO We have (inaudible) consultants some phasing numbers as to how much each phase would cost. In addition, we have also asked our consultant to give us a debt service schedule, which I have shared with our other cities. And we're going to address it as three cities along with the County. JF Well, it's on track, it's not stalled. CLO No, it is not stalled by any means. We've looked at the phasing, we've got a cost for that from the consultant. We know how much the first phase is going to cost. We know what it would take to service if we decided to finance it, so it is not getting stalled by any means. JF So maybe we could put some language in there that says identify and site and coordinate with other governmental entities in the establishment... CLO I think that the item that could be addressed by this City Council is where we would site it if it's in Palm Desert and what land we own or we may want to 30 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 ask a developer for or buy for this future facility. That, you know, we haven't addressed at all, at least this City Council hasn't addressed at all. JF Right, not in the General Plan. RAS Wouldn't that have to go through the Cove Communities if we're going to stay with the Cove Communities? RSK We shouldn't be getting too specific in the General Plan, especially an element like this. JF No, I just want to recognize that there's a need and we're going to plan on meeting that need and leave it at that. JMB Maybe we need to add under the responsible agency, the County (inaudible) where we've got community development, police department, and Riverside County or Cove Commission or if that isn't in existence, at least Riverside County as one of the responsible agencies. JC Okay. We'II also add a discussion at the end of the police discussion on future facilities, need for future facilities, planning for that, and then get the policy expanded, and we'll bring it back to you so you can see that we're addressing it. RAS You also mention in here that a city shall maintain a police staffing ratio of at least 1.5 sworn officers per 1,000, police #3. JC Yes. RAS And as I understand this morning, if the annexation comes through, we're going to be below that? JF Barely...1.489 or eleven one -hundredths. RAS (Inaudible) more people moving in. JF Well, the Public Safety Commission, whatever you think of their opinion, was adamant about the 1.5 number. JC We could add language that said that the City shall make a good faith effort to maintain, something of that sort, that you're concerned about kind of being called on the carpet, lagging behind sometimes, which is a natural thing to happen. 31 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 RAS JF Anything else on police and fire? I guess I'd rather leave it the way it's worded. RAS Mayor Pro Tem BAC Well, just one quick one. We note in several places in that...that you've chatted with Desert Sands about schools and everything like that, and we certainly do now note the need for an elementary school from the Palm Springs District in the North Sphere, and so... JC We can go through that element as soon as we finish this if you like to talk about schools and libraries. RAS We'll go to that one after we do this one. BAC It's noted in the public safety element, so I'm just noting that... JF Do we note in the public safety element that we do put school resource officers at our schools? BAC It does talk about that on... JC Yes. BAC ...page 29. So just a note about that, however appropriately to be reflected. JC The discussion on fire protection starts on page 30, 6-30, and it follows the same sort of approach, describes levels of staffing, the City's current class 3 ISO insurance rating, equipment, regional fire protection, and then we discuss the various stations either within the City or in a position to provide services to the City during a fire or other emergencies. Proposed fire station...we talked about a fire station perhaps at the California State University campus. And then other protection services are discussed on page 33, including mini musters, those sorts of things, which, you know, just get the young children geared to be able to respond in case of a fire or other emergency in the household. That usually turns out to be a very good investment, those kinds of programs. And then we have our standard future directions discussion, which is fairly boiler plate in this particular case because the City has clear cut goals. And then the goal is the provision of efficient high -quality police and fire protection for all types of development and socio-economic segments of the community, and we go through the various policies and programs and (inaudible) implement the element. 32 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 JMB I see at the Mesa View one we need to add (inaudible) necessary expansion for additional crew quarters. Necessary expansion is under way. RAS Yeah, it's under way. JMB It's already being worked on, it's in... RAS We approved it last year. JMB Yeah, and it's now out to bid, so... JC This is in the text? JMB (Inaudible) page 32 under Palm Desert Station 67. BAC The last sentence. JMB The station is being remodeled now. JC Thank you. Any other questions regarding police and fire? RAS With the changes so noted, is everybody willing to accept the police and fire element? Is there a motion? BAC So moved. JF Second. RAS Please vote. JF Now we're two for two. RDK Motion carries by unanimous vote. RAS We've got about a half an hour. JC Okay. If we can...if Councilman Crites would care to...would you like to go to schools and libraries next, then...they're out of order, but that's...I'm out of order all the time. BAC (Inaudible) Schools and libraries won't take very darn long. 33 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 JC Look on page 6-38. We'll start with our purpose statement and then get into the background discussion and also talk about relationships of the elements to parks and recreation and open space as well as to other issues of noise having a potential effect on the schools. And then, of course, circulation and land use. Some discussion of State law briefly regarding primarily the school district's authorization to charge development fees. Then we talk about public schools at length, the fact that we...the City's current city limits are straddled, district boundaries between Palm Springs and Desert Sands Unified. We talk about each of those; Desert Sands I think is the lion's share of the discussion here because of all the facilities that are in the City (inaudible) of that district, Abraham Lincoln School, DesertMiddle School,gand ton Charter, Gerald Ford, Carter Elementary, Palm Palm Desert High School. And then we discuss briefly... JMB We need to add the new school out on Country Club. We don't have a name for it yet. JC It's going with the park site. JMB At Freedom Park, the school going in out on Country Club and Oasis. JC That's a middle school? RAS No, it's a grade school. JC Elementary. RAS It's going to be used the first year by Washington Charter School. They're going to transfer all their children out there to rebuild the Washington Charter School When that's accomplished, then it'll be named and it will be (inaudible) JC Okay, we'll add that discussion to the element. We have a brief discussion of Palm Springs Unified School District, specifically the Della Lindley Elementary School, and we (inaudible) Thousand Palms. Also a brief discussion of overcrowding and future school construction, and we discussed this at length. And finally you know the issues with regard to the impact fees, development fees. I'm not sure that these numbers are still current, but we site 2003 numbers for impact fees for commercial and residential development. We also give attention, some attention, to the private schools and have identified those located in the City. JMB In the private schools, youmight add under Sacred Heart Catholic a proposed high school. They're re in escrow on the land across 1-10. 34 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 RAS Yes, north of the City, across 1-10, they've announced that they're building a Catholic high school over there. JC Okay. BAC And then when you get to the next page, you might just note that it's the Palm Valley...Palm Desert campus, not the Coachella Valley campus on page 43...Cal State. (Inaudible) RAS Yes, please. JC Having to do now with the four colleges and universities that we're host to, we discuss College of the Desert, Cal State San Bernardino campus, the University of California extension, the Chapman University, and what those facilities are now and long term. Of course, with the new bond issue if it goes through, COD will be receiving some monies for important renovations and expansions. Libraries, which the City has really championed and which we discussed furthering perhaps a satellite library in the north end. We discussed the relationship with the College and then discussed future directions for schools and libraries. And then we have, I think, two goals for the element, that educational and library facilities that City residents...provide City residents with a wide range of high -quality services, which are physically and financially accessible to all segments of the population. And a second goal, that schools and library facilities that serve an important venues...that serve as important venues for community, social, and cultural events and that play an important role in community...enhancing community cohesion. RAS Could we add to the library goal that the College of the Desert and the City have the same library hours, make it more convenient for our residents? JC We could make a policy out of that. That would be appropriate. JF Maybe you could use the same language that you used in policy A, the City shall continue to explore and advocate any reasonable means by which College of the Desert and the City can maintain... RAS Yeah, let's add that. JF ...similar hours. RAS So the hours... 35 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 BAC JF RAS JF BAC RAS JF JMB RAS JMB JF JC JF BAC JF BAC Similar hours and services. Yes. Yes, yes. Uniform. Yes. Whatever. And... And maybe we need to add, then, as the responsibility agency the College. Yes. I would say that they're the responsible ones. Right. Well, they're not listed... And to the extent that it is an accredited institution of higher learning, we might want to note the World Trade Center University as being planned north of 1-10 off of Cook Street as well. That's a good point. Find out if it is accredited first, if you would. I'll bet it doesn't appear on any... It's a bonafide question. Yeah, but it doesn't appear on any accreditation list. JC We have, again, a full set of policies and programs to address all the issues. think that the added policy doesn't prompt a need for an additional program. And I'd be glad to answer any questions you may have on this element. RAS I don't see that you identify anywhere in here, and maybe I'm wrong, the schools that will be in the area that is currently Palm Springs Unified School District. JC The reason we haven't... 36 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 RAS JC That's good, that's fine. ...yes (inaudible) RAS Fine. Is it necessary that it be in here that the College of the Desert will work with Cal State San Bernardino/Palm Desert campus and University of Riverside to make certain that the freshmen and sophomore classes are (inaudible) okay... BAC That's covered under their master plan agreement. RAS Okay. Anything else on the schools? I'II entertain a motion to approve the schools. JF Is there anything in here about our ongoing efforts to coordinate between COD, CalState, and UCR the development of the balance of the 150 acres university site? JC The element recognizes the UCR/CalState relationship, but that's the only thing we really say in regard to that campus. JF Well, we have a Master Plan Committee in place (inaudible) only built 25% of that property. Everybody's hoping that it will develop into a full university, and shouldn't we at least address it in the General Plan that we'll cooperate and advocate and work with those agencies to master plan the entire... JC To implement the master plan on that university. JMB Under program IA (inaudible) to include that, working with Desert Sands and (inaudible) college could be... JC We could just add the colleges to the mix essentially, is that your suggestion? JF COD, UCR and CalState. JC Perhaps a separate program would be...it would say in the policy and then make a separate program for the higher... JMB For the colleges. JC ...for the colleges. JF Yeah. 37 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETINGy OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL -FEBRUARY 27, 2004 RAS (Inaudible) RAS Certainly, it's a public hearing. MM My name's Myron MacLeod. I was here yesterday, and I... RAS Would you give us your address? MM Absolutely, sorry. 4035 Avenida Brisa, Rancho Santa Fe, California. I didn't come prepared with any exhibits. I just wanted to mention that I just heard the comment about some of the schools being up in the air. And when it's appropriate, which I understand will be Wednesday morning, I would like to address the Council about the land use issues again. I just did want to bring to your attention while you're talking about schools, though, that our family owns the 70 acres that's out there on Monterey and the future 35th, and there has been a group of contiguous property owners that have been working together out there for a very long period of time with...that attended all the Planning Commission meetings, worked with Mr. Drell's department and others, and also with the Palm Springs School District to come up with an integrated plan that everybody agreed upon and that we thought would be in the interest of the City. And I just didn't know...I just wanted you to be aware that we are negotiating a contract with them, and all of the property owners have been kind of working together on arterial flow and what we thought the City would want. And I know there's kind of bad blood between the City and the Palm...you know, an argument of what Palm Springs School District can do. But I just wanted you to know that we've had ongoing meetings with property owners to make this an easier process and one we thought would work for the City. JF You're talking about the elementary school site? MM I'm talking about the K through 8 school. JF Yeah. RAS You're not talking about the high school. MM Right. JF The high school is the one that's up in the air. Okay, does that pretty well cover the schools? You've got a comment. 38 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 MM Okay, but I mean I just wanted you to know that we've been putting a lot of work to have some cohesive plans so that...that we thought would work for everybody, which I'll address more in the land use... BAC I think that's been something that nobody has had a problem with at all. JF There's no issue about the elementary school. NI Well, yesterday I was stunned to see that...I guess what I'm alluding to, which might be more appropriate to address before Wednesday, is that part of this cohesive meetings was land uses around the surrounding area. Nobody wanted the school, but the MacLeods were willing to take it with the assumption that we were going to have our mixed use and commercial zoning left intact, and we were the only person there that wasn't trying to sell their land and make a profit on houses. And yesterday I saw a proposal that shocked me that said the MacLeod's remainder piece to the left side of the K through 8 school would be now residential. And we had made all these concessions...I'm not trying to imply there was any deal or understanding with the school, but it was...we had gone to the Planning Commission and where the school is the most palatable...those other developers that had certain needs and so the school was just one integrated part of this. So we were okay with taking the school because we weren't trying to make money off of selling houses. But...so I just wanted you to know, which I would be addressing on Wednesday, just to let you know that we had thought we had been going through the right steps to have a cohesive plan that everybody would be okay with. JF Well, I think we heard your concern yesterday. MM Okay, great. JF The change to residential was really a conversation on how to keep our mix for the whole North Sphere... MM Right. JF ...and when we were presented with pretty cogent arguments about why we should leave it commercial, I think we decided to put it back in commercial... MM Okay, and I (inaudible) JF ...and asked you if you would consider a mixed use, and you said yes, so I thought we were done. 39 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 MM Okay, great, and I didn't mean to digress now. I knew you were focusing on streets, but I just wanted you to know that we all have been working on that school. JF Great. RAS Comments on the schools? JMB Move for approval. JF Second. RAS Please vote. RDK Motion carries by unanimous vote. JC If we can move, then, to the first element of this chapter, which is on page 6-1. This is the water, sewer, and utilities element. It's important, but it's also a fairly straightforward element. Same format of course...lot of government code references. Then we go directly into the discussion of domestic water. I should first say that this is distinctly different from the water resources element, which talks about water supplies in a broader sense, but it refers back to that element as well. CVWD, of course, is our primary water purveyor. Myoma Dunes Water District is adjacent to us. I don't believe they actually occur within the District, within the City limits, but they service Bermuda Dunes area. We discuss ground water demand and conservation efforts, including CVWD's new water management plan, and the landscape ordinance of the City and other means to try to conserve water used (inaudible) recycled water. Waste water treatment is discussed, and the ongoing expansion of capacity of tertiary treated water for golf course use and landscaping use. Septic tank usage in the planning area...we've identified...we know that there have been problems in the past, not necessarily in our area but elsewhere in the immediate vicinity with the effects of malfunctioning septic tanks, and we emphasize the need to sewer everybody if we can. We talk about the City sewer connection requirements on page 5 and then discuss electrical service...again we have kind of a funny situation with Edison providing service to us but also a portion of our city being in the IID boundary. And I had kind of an interesting education when I thought it would be easy to get IID or Edison to agree to have one service provider for the CalState campus. And after a few meetings, that went nowhere. So they are...we'll be dealing with both of those and perhaps the competition enhances costs of service, etc. We discuss then IID and its facilities as well, and then we speak to the issue of deregulation, which looks like there may be more on the horizon in that regard so this snapshot may 40 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 warrant some kind of consideration in the next few years. And then opportunities for conservation. Also discuss natural gas. We host major transmission lines going through the planning area, including immediately south of and within, I think, the Union Pacific Railroad right of way. And also talk about air quality issues associated with the use of natural gas in place of liquid fossil fuels. Opportunities for conservation there as well. Then we speak to telephone service, cable television service, which is now also becoming a broad band service. Solid waste management and our provider and certain...the conditions at the landfills that are available to us. And the hopeful resolution of the issue with regard to Eagle Mountain and our access to that in the long term, in the near to mid term rather. Recycling efforts and the City's pretty good performance in that regard. And then we speak to general...to future directions for water, sewer, and public facilities and have been able to boil the goal down into a single goal, which is a full range of water, sewer, and utility facilities and services that safely and adequately and cost-effectively meet the immediate and long term needs of the City. JF Question. On page 6-15, policy 14, would it be possible to change that language to instead of "exploring the potential for assuming ownership of local electric transmission and distribution" put as our goal "explore and to the extent practical encourage a reduction in overall energy rates within the Palm Desert service territory." JC Means by which? JF I mean, we pretty much beat this one to death. BAC Yeah. JF Voted unanimously that that wasn't the best way to reduce... RAS We're not going to do it, so... JF But I think it's still our goal to reduce power rates for residents. RAS If we can, sure, absolutely. I just don't know how we're going to do it. JC Okay, we'll enhance that policy. Any other questions? RAS Alright, with that change, I'll entertain a motion. BAC So moved. JF Second. 41 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27 2004 RAS RDK Please vote. Motion carries by unanimous vote. JC The next element would be, then, the public buildings and facilities element, which follows immediately thereafter on page 16, 6-16. JMB Which page? JC 6-16. And the introductory material you see on the first page, and then we go into a discussion, a brief description of public buildings and facilities, the City Hall and the Civic Center, the Corporate Yard and that maintenance facility, the Palm Desert Community Center, the Joslyn Senior Center, the Visitor Information Center...references the fire stations and the police stations in just general terms and then references the reader back to that element. And it also...other City buildings...we reference briefly educational facilities, schools K through 12, colleges and universities, and again refer back to schools and libraries element for more detailed discussion of those facilities. Then we talk about utility infrastructure and the, again, the CVWD, Edison, IID substations, wells, those kinds of facilities that we don't necessarily have a lot of control over because as lead agencies they can implement them themselves in many instances, but at least we have some policies and programs that we don't have thoughtlessly placed substations and if we're going to have well sites and utility boxes, that maybe they can be done in a fashion that doesn't obstruct line of sight along intersections and isn't particularly...isn't too offensive. These things tend to sit out right in the middle of your line of vision, so landscaping, placement, those sorts of things may reduce the impact they have. JMB John. JC Yes. JMB On 18, where you're talking about the new Visitors Center and it will also house the Palm Desert Chamber of Commerce, and you say facilities will include...I think that needs to be defined a little bit more that it will be a multi- purpose purpose building including the Chamber of Commerce... RAS Chamber of Commerce, yeah... JMB ...and facilities, which will be another wing of that building some way. The Chamber isn't going to house it, it's going to be a separate part of that building. 42 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 JC Okay. Do we need to add any additional, other than clarification...do we need to add any more information there, then, do you think? JMB Well, I think it needs where you just say it will house the Chamber of Commerce facilities will include but it's separate facilities, not...the Chamber of Commerce will not be managing those facilities. RAS A separate facility with...we'll have the Chamber and meeting facilities. JC Okay. I may...probably wish to bring that back to you just to make sure I've captured Councilmember Benson's... (Inaudible) JMB Maybe Sheila can give you some wording for how to word that. JC I think we've covered everything there. The goal, two goals recommended. Let me back up. Under...we do speak briefly to critical structures, public facilities, including things like all-weather bridges, fire stations, things that we're going to need in case of an emergency, either flooding or earthquakes, that sort of thing. And then a discussion of the future...of future directions...we reference the capital improvements program and the need to coordinate these general plan programs with the capital improvements program. Construction tax and those sorts of things, and recommended annual review of CIP and developer fees to make sure we're keeping up. JF John...to jump back to Jean's point. I think you should leave the Visitor Center/Information Center freestanding and put under other City buildings that there will be a community meeting building developed at the 12-acre site, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the Chamber. It won't house it, it's not under the same roof, it's a separate freestanding building...that's my understanding. RAS It's one building that has the Chamber in it and a community... JF No, but it has nothing to do with the Visitors Information Center. RAS No. JMB No. JF It's a separate building, so it should appear under other City buildings, not under the Visitors Center. 43 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 JC (Inaudible) leave the Visitors Center discussion...just limit it to that and move both the Chamber and the multi -purpose... JF Right...that's another building. RAS Okay. RSK I have a couple here. RAS Yes, sir. RSK On 6-24, policy 7, the City shall encourage underground electrical/power lines to the greatest extent practical and also talked a little bit 7A about (inaudible) Southern California Edison and Imperial Irrigation District (inaudible). Two comments. Why don't we include all the utilities? JF For undergrounding? RSK That's the first comment. JF For undergrounding? RSK Huh? JF For undergrounding? RSK Yes, it says nothing about telephone. JC We'll reference all overhead utilities. RSK (Inaudible) cable JF Good point. RSK And then the other one...the other thing is that "shall encourage"...I think that's a little bit too light. 1 mean, we're not going to allow anybody to do overhead construction. RAS Existing. (Inaudible) BAC Inaudible to existing Encourage the undergrounding of existing... ) g• g 9 g 44 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 RSK Yeah, that would make more sense, but it gives you...it makes the...it gives you the impression that you might allow that...the same way where it talks about...it sounds like well if they determine that it costs too much we might let them (inaudible) Hopefully we're not going to allow even the high-tension lines like (inaudible) worry about not undergrounding because it costs so much, well we're probably not going to let them put any more up. RAS All new development will be undergrounded. JC Would you like a statement to that effect? RAS Yeah. JF Yeah. RAS All new development will be undergrounded, and the City shall encourage the undergrounding of existing power, cable... RSK (Inaudible) all new developments are required to put utilities underground. RAS Period. JC Okay, we'll add that policy to the element. RAS Anything else? Are we ready to vote on the part of the plan? Is there a motion? JF I'll move for approval. RAS Second? RSK Second. • RAS Please vote. I think that this is probably the last element that we have time to go over, but I will ask Mr. Tom Noble if he'd like to address the Council. RDK Motion carries by unanimous vote. (Inaudible) RAS Sir? (Inaudible) 45 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 RAS Whatever you want to do. RSK I have a comment. RAS Okay. RSK We did announce, you know, on the Agenda, that we were going to do environmental resources, hazards, and public services. It would be helpful to me if I knew at each meeting, ahead of time, what (inaudible)... RAS We're going to go over. RSK ...and I would review them for the meeting. RAS Okay, Mr. Drell, did you hear that comment? (Inaudible) BAC Question. I assume that at our next meeting, we're intending to get through the rest of all this stuff, right? JC Well, we should set a realistic agenda and prioritize as you see appropriate. RSK Could we have some kind of...tell us ahead of time what order we're going to go? JC Well, I have a personal bias that I think if we can resolve the land use issues and land use map at the University Park area, that will then free us up to run through the rest of the... BAC Well, I'd like to get the rest of this stuff done. RSK Well, we jumped around. JC Okay. RSK I'd like to know what we're going to... (Inaudible) JF Well, we've set two additional meetings, one for next Wednesday for two hours and one for March 15th that is open ended and we'll go as long as we need to go to get it done. Is that a realistic time frame? 46 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 JC RAS Yes, I think so. The question is, where do you want to go next time? PD (Inaudible) JF I thought that was when we were going to getout map back. PD Huh? JF I thought that was when we were going to get our map back. PD Exactly. (Inaudible) we should (inaudible) at least an hour of the meeting next time (inaudible) try to deal with it (inaudible) at a minimum we'll go...if we can do an hour for these other things and then...which one do you want to do first? RSK Start in the front...are we going to start in the beginning and then work (inaudible) PD No, do you want to do the land use thing first or do you want to do the... RSK Well, you do the... PD It's up to you. RSK If we do the land use and get that done, then are we going to start at the front and go through... JC RSK JC RSK PD JF Sure. ...and not jump to the back... Sure, however you prefer. ...then I know what to prepare myself for. If we can go with an hour, we will try to delineate the specific elements that we will be covering. And the only two real issues that I see in the land use, of note, are whether we do 28 acres in the little pocket on Mr. Noble's property or not and Mr. Marix getting comfortable with the plan and possibly Mr. Beaty or Brady seeing whether his apartments pencil out in our new criteria or not. 47 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 RSK What does that have to do with us doing a general plan, what somebody wants to propose? JF I was just saying those were the points of controversy. RSK Those are the points of controversy, but we need to look at the master plan, we need to look at the... JF Okay. But even with those out, then I think it should be less than an hour. PD Yeah, I don't think (inaudible) RAS Is there a motion to adjourn til next Wednesday? JMB So moved. RAS Is there a second? JF Second. RAS Please vote. Council stands adjourned. RDK Motion carries by unanimous vote, 12:25 p.m. The following actions were taken and/or direction was given at this public hearing: 1. Traffic Analysis. a) Desert Bicycle Club Correspondence With City Council concurrence, directed staff to contact this group to discuss their input as it relates to the proposed Pedestrians, Bicycles and Golf Carts portion of the General Plan Circulation Element. b) Rural Street Calle de los Campensinos (Palm Valley Channel Access Road) With City Council concurrence, staff asked to contact the residents and look at different ways of improving the surface of said roadway, further asking staff to advise the Coachella Valley Water District of the City's intent. 48 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 c) Sipnalization With City Council concurrence, provide a written policy as to where traffic signals would likely be considered (e.g. the intersection of two arterial streets) and where they would not likely be considered in the future, as well as providing alternatives for controlling circulation in other situations. d) Maximum Intersection Improvement With City Council concurrence, directed that: i) Level of Service "C" would be the overall goal for intersection improvement, understanding that in order to balance the impact of an intersection on the community with the benefit it provides, at certain times, level of service may fall below that of "C"; ii) a goal of making improvements to typical arterial intersections (i.e., signals and equipment, landscaping) be as if they were being made at the ultimate build - out distance in order to preserve the overall investment in that project. 2. Circulation Element (Draft General Plan Section III-47) Traffic Calming Devices Ensure that the Plan emphasizes use of `Traffic Calming Devices" and provide examples. b) All -Weather Crossings (Policy 9 and Program 9.A, Section 111-86) Effect a manner of setting out priorities for such projects as they relate to safety concerns - coordinating this policy with Emergency Preparedness and Capital Improvement Program. ADD PROGRAM 9.B: It is the City's goal to get at -grade crossings at every intersection across the Whitewater Channel within the next 10-15 years. c) Identifiable Addresses ADD a policy for ensuring identifiable addressing requirements are met for all location addresses to further enhance traffic circulation, especially in the retail/commercial segments of the community. Councilmember Benson moved to accept the Traffic Analysis and the Circulation Element, with the additional direction given for each, as shown above. Motion was seconded by Councilman Ferguson and carried by 5-0 vote. 49 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 RECESS observed from 11:25 a.m. to 11:40 a.m. 3. Police & Fire Protection Element (Draft General Plan Section VI-26) a) Citizens On Patrol Program (COPS) (Section VI-29) Change the wording of the last paragraph of this page to reflect that COPS is currently in existence with the number of participants and their activities, as well as reflecting COPS current existence in any other areas of discussion. (Mr. Criste to contact Patricia Scully for this information.) b) Additional or New Space for Police/Sheriff's Services Expand upon Program 2.A to include appropriate language that identifies the need for expanded operational and training facilities' space for police services, adding the County of Riverside to the list of "Responsible Agencies," with said discussion also included in the narrative for Police as it pertains to "Need for Future Facilities." c) Police Staffing Ratio Leave language in Policy 3 as is. d) School Districts Ensure any discussion that includes mention of "School District" to include both Desert Sands Unified and Palm Springs Unified. e) Palm Desert Station No. 67 (Section VI-32) Note that the project to provide "Necessary expansion for additional crew quarters..." is currently underway. Mayor Pro Tem Crites moved to accept the Police & Fire Protection Element with the additions/changes as noted above. Motion was seconded by Councilman Ferguson and carried by 5-0 vote. 4. Schools and Libraries Element (Draft General Plan Section VI-38) a) Public Schools (Section VI-39) Add new DSUSD Elementary being constructed at the Freedom Park site, at Country Club and Oasis. 50 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 b) Private Schools (Section VI-42) Add under Sacred Heart Catholic School a proposed high school north of the City, across 1-10. c) Higher Education (Section VI-43) Note that the CSU should be identified as "California State University, San Bernardino, Palm Desert Campus" (instead of Coachella Valley Campus). d) Libraries (Section VI-47) Add a Policy to state: "The City shall continue to explore and advocate any reasonable means by which College of the Desert and the City can maintain uniform hours and services. Responsible Agency: College of the Desert." e) Higher Education (Section VI-48) i) Expand language on Policy/Program 7 to include, to the extent that it is an accredited institution of higher learning, the proposed World Trade Center University being planned for north of 1-10. ii) Expand the Policy and add a separate program to emphasize that the City will continue to endeavor to coordinate between COD, CSU, and UCR, and will cooperate and advocate to implement the Master Plan of Development for the balance of the 150-acre University site. Councilmember Benson moved to accept the Schools and Libraries Element, with the additions/changes as noted above. Motion was seconded by Councilman Ferguson and carried by 5-0 vote. 5. Water, Sewer and Utilities Element (Draft General Plan Section VI-1) a) Policy 14 — Local Electric Transmission (Section VI-15) Change language to state: "...explore and, to the extent practical, encourage means by which a reduction in overall energy rates within the Palm Desert service territory can be achieved." Mayor Pro Tem Crites moved to accept the Water, Sewer and Utilities Element with the change as noted above. Motion was seconded by Councilman Ferguson and carried by 5-0 vote. 51 PRELIMINARY MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 27, 2004 6. Public Buildings and Facilities Element (Draft General Plan Section VI-16) a) Visitor Information Center (Section VI-18) i) Limit the Visitor Information Center discussion only to its current and future freestanding status at the southwest corner of El Paseo and Highway 111. (Mr. Criste to contact Sheila Gilligan for appropriate language.) ii) Move all reference to the Chamber of Commerce, that will be housed within a separate, freestanding Multi -Purpose Building at the southwest corner of El Paseo and Highway 111, including meeting facilities for community organizations, to the section entitled "Other City Buildings." b) Policy 7 - Undergrounding (Section VI-24) Change language to state: "All utilities for new development will be undergrounded, and the City shall encourage the undergrounding of all existing overhead utilities to the extent practical." Councilman Ferguson moved to accept the Public Buildings and Facilities Element, as amended above. Motion was seconded by Councilman Kelly and carried by 5-0 vote. VIII. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS - B None IX. ADJOURNMENT Councilmember Benson moved to adjourn the meeting at 12:25 p.m. to Wednesday, March 3, 2004, at 9:30 a.m. Motion was seconded by Ferguson and carried by a 5-0 vote. ATTEST: RACHELLE D. KLASSEN, CITY CLERK CITY OF PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA ROBERT A. SPIEGEL, MAYOR 52