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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLndscpe Btfctn Cmte - 08/19/09 CITY OF PALM DESERT ����� � MINUTES � - LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFICATION COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING . Wednesday, August 19, 2009 — 11:30 a.m. Administrative Conference Room — Palm Desert Civic Center 73-510 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert, California 92260 I. Call to Order 11:30 a.m. II. Roll Call Present: Absent: Chairman H. Spencer Knight Member Connor Limont Vice-Chairman Lauri Aylaian Member Martin Alvarez CITY COUNCILACTION Member Mark Greenwood APYROVED nrNlrp Member Richard S. Kelly RECEIVED� r O1,t-��;� Member Jay Niemczak Member Bob Spiegel MEI:TI G DATE ' - ' Member John M. Wohlmuth AYEs: � �r �t5 i �'� e ' � � NO�:S: 1�ln/�� Also Present: A[��FNT: 1��1� � . Diane.Hollinger, Landscape S.pecialist A};S��A��: , Cora Gaugush, CIP Technician �'EIZ[F�F,D [3Y: � /' Hart Ponder, Code Compliance Manag�r���n�l on I�ile with City Clcr s Office Kathleen Jock, Resident Barb Koltweit, Resident Doug Redlin, Resident Eve Weber, Resident Henri Alihelm, Resident Kay Kaufman, Desert Sun Theodore Pritchett, CVWD Dave Koller, CVWD Bertha A. Gonzalez, Recording Secretary III. Oral Communications None APPROVED MINUTES LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFICATION COMMITTEE August 19, 2009 IV. Consent Calendar A. MINUTES of the Regular Landscape Beautification Committee Meeting of Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Approve as presented. Upon a motion by Chairman Knight, second by Member Kelly, and 7-1-0 vote of the Committee Board with Member Spiegel abstaining, the Consent Calendar was approved as presented. V. Consent Items Held Over None VI. New Business A. UCR/CSUSB Landscape Installation and Rinq Road Recently, staff met with the Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) to discuss the status of the UCR/CSUSB landscape installation and ring road. At the meeting, staff was informed that the Cook Street side has been completed and that the plans for the Frank Sinatra side have been completed and work was scheduled to start within 15 days. UCR will be using the same contractor as CSUSB and will have a presentation of the remaining landscape between the two Universities for the Committee's approval in September. If the Committee approves the plan, it will then be taken to City Council for their review and approval. UCR does not have � the funds for the project, but they do have a loan agreement with the City. They will probably ask for a loan forgiveness of $1.5 million that could be used for the landscape and they will look for donations to complete the project. At an earlier City Council Meeting, staff was directed to work with UCR on building the ring road. Upon a motion from Member Spiegel, second by Member Kelly and an 8-0 vote of the Committee Board, the item was continued to a later meeting. B. Proposed Residential Landscape Turf Conversion Rebate Proqram Chairman Knight and the Coachella Valley Water District presented a PowerPoint that highlighted the "Smart" Landscape Retrofit Program. The program is composed of the following four components: 2 APPROVED MINUTES LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFICATION COMMITTEE August 19, 2009 - Residential: The program would address individual landscapes that are in view of public streets. The City has a large investment in aesthetics and to maintain the overall standards, the City will provide a packet containing the approved landscape pallet, design manual and maintenance guide, which will also be available online. • Maximum compensation of$2,000 to $3,000 • Square footage cost of$1.50 to $2.00 • Administration by the City will include plan approval and inspection from both City and the CVWD • Initial investment will be $50,000 from CVWD and $50,000 from the City of Palm Desert - Homeowners Association: This program will be a continuation of the Curbside Retro-fit Program. It will require a minimum of 24" curbside buffer, the conversion to MP Rotors and the installation of SMART Irrigation controllers for turf areas. • Maximum compensation will be up to $10,000 • Square footage cost will be from $1.50 to $2.00 • Administration by the City will include plan approval and inspection upon completion • Initial investment will be $50,000 from CVWD and $50,000 from the City of Palm Desert - Smart Sprinkler Technology: This program is to encourage homeowners and commerciat enterprises that want to keep turF areas to exchange sprinkler heads to new SMART technology. Property . . owners will be compensated for changing out their standard nozzles to MP Rotor nozzles. In addition, the program would require replacement of their current controllers with a SMART Controller through the CVWD/CPD program, which is already in existence. • Compensation will consist of$5.00 per head replacement • Smart controller replacement will be approximately $150 • Administration will include inspection upon completion by CVWD • Initial investment will be $10,000 from CVWD and $10,000 from the City - Water Waste Hotline: This is an 800 number where residents can report water waste. There are no fines involved and it is currently available to La Quinta residents only. Although if Palm Desert residents call, CVWD will stilt investigate. 3 APPROVED MINUTES LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFICATION COMMITTEE August 19, 2009 This program would be the most progressive in the Coachella Valley, setting a standard for landscape water conservation. The total initial investment for the City of Palm Desert would be $110,000, which is currently not in the budget, and staff time. Questions from the Committee included: • Does staff have an estimated dollar amount for staff time? Chairman Knight will do a cost estimate of staff time and he will present it to the City Council. • How successful has the City of La Quinta been with this program? According to Ted Pritchett from the Coachella Valley Water District, it has been extremely successful, using over $75,000 in reimbursements. • Could the 800 number include other agencies? Coachella Valley Water District will investigate. • A resident that was present at the meeting expressed her concerns with the waste of water and the safety of pedestrians. Another resident showed photos of her residence and expressed her desire to convert to desert landscape. • Could this program include backyards? Member Kelly said the program could be proposed in two phases. Backyards can be included in the second phase. • Will a landscape architect be involved with the program? Member Knight informed the Committee that staff will be working directly with the homeowners; therefore, no landscape architect will be necessarily involved, but it could be if necessary. • A Homeowner's Association (HOA) representative expressed her _ belief that the money require�l was not excessive, if.it will help with . the City's water conservation efforts. • If an HOA has been previously reimbursed, will they be able to return? Member Knight informed the Committee that the details to these questions needed to be studied further. • Member Wolhmuth clarified that at this point the project needed to be included in the budget. Upon a motion by Member Spiegel, second by Member Kelly and an 8-0 vote of the Committee Board, staff was directed to present the item to the City Council. Member Wohlmuth was absent from the meeting after 12:06 p.m. 4 APPROVED MINUTES LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFICATION COMMITTEE August 19, 2009 C. Palm Tree Pruninq Addition to City Tree Maintenance Ordinance (PD Municipal Code Chapter 12.32) Chairman Knight informed the Committee that staff has received a number of complaints regarding the facilities that opt to not prune their palm trees. He asked if staff should include terminology regarding palm tree pruning in the City's Tree Maintenance Ordinance. He presented the Committee with the City of Indian Wells' Ordinance, which addresses this issue by stating that if a palm tree creates an issue with another property, the problem needs to be addressed. Question regarding this issue included: • Has staff talked to the City of Indian Wells to see how their approach is working? Chairman Knight responded that they have not, but they will. • Member Aylaian asked who will determine when a problem is being created. Chairman Knight responded that at the City of Indian Wells, Code Compliance made that determination. • Member Kelly commented that the City needed to be careful since the City does not prune the palm trees at Desert Willow and now we will be asking others to do so. • A resident present at the meeting expressed her concern with her neighbor's palm trees, which dirties her backyard pool right after she had it cleaned. She believes it to be unfair. According to Hart Ponder, Code Compliance Manager, palm trees are not the No. 1 offender of residential complaints; other fruit trees are. The way . Code Compliance currently handles this type of complaints is that when one resident is complaining about another resident, it is considered to be a civil matter. If the issue affects more than one property, it is considered to be a public nuisance; therefore, Code Compliance responds to the complaint. After a brief discussion, the Committee agreed that it seemed like the City already had the tools to address these types of issues; therefore, no further action was required at the moment. Should a need arise to continue this discussion; it could be addressed at a future meeting. In addition they asked staff to communicate with Code Compliance and for Code Compliance to address the complaints that Chairman Knight has received. Upon a motion from Member Kelly, second by Member Aylaian and a 7-0 vote of the Committee Board, the item was continued to an uncertain date. 5 APPROVED MINUTES LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFICATION COMMITTEE August 19, 2009 �. Update on Developer Maintained Landscapinq at Universitv Park Due to the current economy, the developer of the University Park project is unable to continue with the project at this time. Although the developer is not abandoning the project, it has requested to scale back on its maintenance. Chairman Knight asked the Committee whether they prefer to keep the area looking at its best or would they allow the developer to scale back the maintenance in an effort to save money. The trees and shrubs will be regularly maintained, but the small plant material that dies due to the wind will not be replaced. The developer will also cut back on the sand and decomposed granite cleanup, but they will still be responsible for irrigation and materials. No dead plant material will be left in the area and the maintenance on Portola and Dinah Shore will continue as usual. After a brief discussion, the Committee approved the developer's request to scale back the maintenance at University Park. Informational item; no motion required. VII. Continued Business None VIII. Old Business None IX. Reports and Remarks . Member Aylaian inc}uired on why the northwest corner of Cook Street and . Frank Sinatra Drive has a land buffer. What is its purpose? She was informed that the purpose of this area was to keep a view area at the corners and in case work needs to be done. X. Adjournment With no further business or discussion, and Landscape Beautification Committee Board concurrence, the meetin was a ' urned at 12:35 p.m. H. p ce ight, Landscape Manager ATTEST: rtha A. Gon lez, ording Se etary 6