June 14, 2008 Meeting Summary

Preparation

E-mail reminder.   Non e-mail phone list was phoned.

Acknowledgments

Susan brought cookies.

Attendees

6 members

Meeting

Agenda Items:

• Ice Rink redesign
• Altrio cables and box removed
• Viña Vieja Park problems
• former Allstate property problems
• Kinneloa/Walnut Cut-Thru now 2009
• Sierra Madre Villa at Electronic Drive potential signal
• former St. Luke property update
• Hazardous and Electronic Waste Collection Events
  • June 14, Rose Bowl Parking Lot K, 9 am – 3 pm
  • August 16, Arcadia and Sierra Madre
• Convenient Drop-Off Locations for Flourescent Light Bulbs and Household Batteries
• Free Gardening Workshops
  • California Friendly Landscape Workshop, Sat June 21
  • Green Gardening, Sat June 28
• Eaton Canyon Trail project
• June 25 Community Workshop on single family residence zoning regulations
• anything else attendees wish to discuss
  • CVS pharmacy attempts to get alcohol permits
  • passing of Ruth Ellersieck

The meeting began at 11:20 am

• Ice Rink redesign
  • On Monday June 2nd City Council heard agenda item 5B3
    • Agenda Report
      
    • Streaming video of meeting
      • Once it starts playing you can go directly to the ice rink item by choosing “5.B.(3) AUTHORIZATION TO EXECUTE AN AMENDED…”  from the menu underneath the picture.
    • Summary of staff report:
      • Asked the Council to approve another $406,000 for the architect to redesign the proposed building to try to save money on construction.
      • Additional expenditures will be made to rebid the contract and otherwise pay for city staff time, adding up to about a half million.
      • They are hoping to save $1.1 million or more on the construction cost.
      • The expected savings are via unspecified “structural foundation revisions” and making the exterior of the building of mostly “block wall construction”, resulting in “reduction of expansion joint requirements and drywall finishes”.   (I.e. think of the fortress walls of Bed Bath & Beyond, Petsmart, etc, but the entire 450 feet of the ice rink wall would be on one vertical plane.)
      • The redesign is expected to provide about 5000 additional square feet for spectator seating.  No mention of how many seats that equates to.
      • The resulting building is expected to be less energy efficient then the current design but otherwise the interior functionality is expected to be equivalent.  The exterior will be less aesthetic but may cost less to maintain.
      • Now expect construction to start by spring 2009 and take about 16 months.
      • Mentions expecting to resolve construction access and “other agreement-related” issues between the city, Edison, and PCC by the end November.
    • The item was heard first by the Council’s Finance Committee at 3 pm.  But this meeting was a joint meeting with the full Council because they were also discussing the City’s Operating Budget for 2008.  The only Council members absent from the committee meeting were Gordo and Madison.  The item took about 15 minutes.
      • Public Works director Martin Pastoucha summarized.
        • Said expected $800,000 or more net savings.
        • Only “area of play” is structural system
        • “Side benefit” is additional seating on balcony.
        • Redesign is to be completed through summer.
        • He offered to show the “design elements”, but no one took up the offer so no drawings were shown.
      • Councilman Tyler had some questions.
        • Tyler asked about financing.  Pastoucha said they are working on it.
        • Tyler asked about “construction cost benchmark”.  Pastoucha said not applicable because of the unique issues with the site, but the benchmark is around 250 to 285 per square foot.  This project is only in that ballpark if the $4.5 million footprint cost is not included.  (He did not go into any detail, but what he was probably referring to is the difficulty in accessing utilities, ground stability issues that require the use of piles, possibly the extra cost for construction access.)
        • Tyler asked if the architect had done ice rinks before.  Answer was yes, example given was Valencia ice center.
        • Tyler asked about the reference to reduction in energy efficiency.   Answer  included a few details about problems with air stratification and avoiding condensation.  Mentioned block walls absorb moisture so additional work is needed to avoid sweating.  There was more indirect daylight in former design which reduced need for indoor lighting and resulting heat generation.  Council indicated they didn’t want so many details.
        • Tyler asked if building would still be able to meet LEED certification requirements.  Answer was that it could be difficult but staff was not yet asking for an exception to the city’s requirement that all city building projects meet LEED requirements.   Said they are still looking into ways to insulate the block walls.
      • Staff was asked about the mentioned unresolved problems with PCC and Edison.
        • Answer was that it is the construction access.
        • The existing agreement with PCC is just verbal and hasn’t been taken to Council yet.  It does not allow construction access via the PCC parking lot.  Edison has given permission to go through the east side of the park.  So that is the plan that was included in the defunct construction bid process last winter.  PCC was “adamant” about not allowing construction access due to too much potential conflict with students.  But city staff plans to re-approach them on that.
        • Haderlein asked how a stronger case can be made to PCC.
        • Acting City Manager Melekian indicated they would be coming back to Council regarding the financing.  The PCC route would be better from a cost standpoint.
        • Pastoucha was asked isn’t it necessary for the route to be decided before it is put out for bids again.  Answer was yes, it should be.
        • Haderlein asked for an update on the PCC matter in two months.  Tyler indicated it could come via a “green sheet”.  (That is a way the staff uses to distribute information to all the Council members without it being on a public meeting agenda.)
      • The finance committee approved increasing the architect’s contract to do the redesign.
    • Afterwards, our association president met with Segun, the city’s planner for the project and got more info.
      • City staff had looked at projections for three possible alternate designs and the block wall construction was the most feasible.
      • The proposed concrete block wall construction is much heavier then the previous steel column design, but the weight is spread out more.  The structure will still need pilings but instead of them all being 40 feet deep, some inner ones will only need to be 30 feet deep.
      • The roof connections are much simpler for concrete block design.
      • Concrete is expensive, but steel prices have really been soaring.  It is the saving on the amount of steel that really makes the difference.
      • The “extra” seating space comes from moving the east wall back out above the locker rooms instead of having a balcony.  In other words, returning to the original configuration before they moved the wall in to save money on the roof and air conditioning costs.  Expected to result in a potential seating capacity of about 500 again.
      • No built in bleachers/seats are planned on the “balcony”.  That’ll be up to the operator.
      • Colors/patterns of block walls are part of what is to be determined during redesign.  Expects the exterior of the blocks to be rough, probably painted.   Translucent blocks are still expected in “random” pattern in the lower east wall to allow light into the locker rooms / offices.
      • Electricity to come to site either down the center of the park (under the lot) or around the park on the west side.  PWP to determine which is best later.
      • Water and sewer are to come from/to our neighborhood, probably via upgraded pipes on Alameda.
      • Still plan to have a reservoir for ice melt which can be used for landscape watering, including a connection that the park could link to at some future time.
      • No mention of solar arrays now; none were in plan before.
      • Preliminary drawing shows some large windows which extend off the top of the east wall.  These windows would allow light in, but not visibility.  Same drawing also still shows green screen frameworks that plants would supposedly grow up on from base of building.  There is also still the shadow box sign and wierd parapet, although it looks like different materials.
      • Probably no trees on east side because of Edison wires.  (However, if the park can have trees so near the wires, why not the rink project?)
      • Segun said landscaping is still in the budget but agreed that might suffer as an easy target for cutting as a “do later” that may never happen.  But he agreed that staff should not cut it on its own; should force Council to make any such decision and promises.
    • Later, at the Council meeting
      • There were a number of ice rink supporters who spoke about how much it is needed and how they need at least 500 seats to have the events they think they should have, and how they need a commitment that the current rink won’t close before the new facility is open.  Also mentioned that important to have it open before the 2010 winter olympics because of the interest that will generate.
      • Madison and Gordo both made very gung-ho statements about getting it done ASAP and supporting the speaker’s statements about having enough seating and not skimping on functionality.
      • No one said anything about the stated purpose/goal of the rink not being to host large events and that isn’t where the revenue is expected to come from.  And the approved environmental documents specified 2 to 4 large events per year.
    • Next steps
      • Revised design expected to go to Design Commission in August time frame.
      • City staff may hold a community meeting prior to that.
      • City staff should be bringing financing revisions/options to Council sometime during the summer.
• Altrio cables and box removed
  • In 2002 a company named Altrio strung their extra thick cables all over the place and put in big green “coffin boxes” on street parkways to drive the signals on those cables.  As their installation proceeded it generated a lot of controversy throughout the city due to the extra view clutter and the big ugly, and sometimes noisy, boxes. Many of the cables were never even connected and big loops of cable remained hanging on the poles.
  • After Altrio’s finances went kaput, a small Colorado company took over their services.  Recently (last year?) Charter cable bought that company, and became owner of all those cables and boxes.  Since Charter is already the incumbant cable company, most of that Altrio infrastructure is excess and recently Charter agreed to remove it.  Public relations if nothing else.
  • Saturday morning, June 14, a Charter contractor was observed in our neighborhood cutting down the Altrio wires.  They also removed the green box that was located on Sierra Madre Villa between Hermanos and Las Lunas.
• Viña Vieja Park problems
  • One of our neighbors has written Councilman Haderlein about problems at the park.
    • Public Works is supposedly now looking into:
      • Wasteful and inefficient watering.  Lots of water draining down the pedestrian path to Alameda in mornings.  Muddy mess near gate.  Muddy paths on east side.  Pooling water on west side.  Drought tolerant plants dead from too much water and replaced by weeds.
      • Grape vines along fence had just gotten big enough to be nice when they were cut back to the ground during the winter (Nov or Dec?). Then they were cut down again on May 11 or 12 when they had just started to grow again.
    • Humane Society is to be contacted about:
      • Dog owners allowing dogs to run freely on east side of park and in the weed patch to the south.  They are leaving feces all over the place and sometimes bother people and/or dogs on leashes walking to/from the park.
    • Rhonda Stone had information that somebody had complained that the grape vines are supposedly poisonous to dogs.   She says that has not been proved, but the vines are staying even if they have to be moved.   Some question as to whether the cutting back in May was done by parks employees or was vandalism.
  • Reported at meeting that there is now a poop post next to the pedestrian path at about the mid-point.  And a sign on it noting that dogs should be leased and poop picked up.  However, there has not yet been any change in the excess watering and dogs are still running everywhere off leash.
  • Manuel Vargas spoke to the City Council during Public Comment on June 9 about getting a permanent pedestrian path to the park done.  It has been over two years since the park was opened and it still is not finished.  Acting City Manager Melekian said it is the ice rink and its potential construction path through the park which is holding up progress.  Melekian said without any equivocation at all that the ice rink is going to be built.  Vice Mayor Haderlein noted he is strongly urging that a solution be worked out with PCC to send the construction traffic south.  He said that recently Edison has indicated a willingness to work with the city on resolving the issue of routing the path under the wires.
• former Allstate property problems
  • The former Allstate property includes the big brick building at 600 N. Sierra Madre Villa which has been vacant since about 1991.
  • Recently it is really getting hit with vandalism.  Lots of graffitti and people breaking in.  It appears there may be homeless living there too.
  • As one of our neighbors did, if you see anyone coming out of or going into windows, call the police.  If you see tagging in progress, call the police.   If you see graffitti, call the graffiti hotline 626-797-9045.
  • It appears that the new owners do not care to be proactive about protecting the property since they want to bulldoze everything anyway.
  • Contacting the authorities about every observed incident will raise the profile and get the problem more attention.  Otherwise it becomes a criminal magnet with potential spillover effects for our neighborhood.
  • The Councilman’s office has been informed it is becoming a problem.  Rhonda Stone reports the empty theator has also been having lots of problems.
  • There has been no word on any new development plans having been submitted.
  • A meeting attendee noted having seen what appeared to be a security guard there in recent days.
• Kinneloa/Walnut Cut-Thru now 2009
  • This is the project that will extend Walnut Street from Sunnyslope Ave to Kinneloa Ave and extend Kinneloa Ave under the freeway via the existing train underpass to Titley Ave and Foothill Blvd.  It would also add a signal at Altadena and Walnut.
  •  Last year city staff documents indicated that construction would begin this spring.  They are now reportedly still working on the engineering design and working out the agreements with Caltrans, flood control, etc.  Projections are now that construction might begin in spring of 2009.
  • There is also a tie-in with the ice rink project adding to the confusion.  If the ice rink is done, then there is to be a signal at the PCC driveway on Foothill.  It would likely be included as part of a strange long intersection of Foothill with Titley.   If the ice rinks don’t happen, a signal would still be needed for Titley, but not for PCC.  So the design and budgetting of this intersection is problematic until the ice rink is resolved.
• Sierra Madre Villa at Electronic Drive potential signal
  • There was reportedly a discusson recently about improving Foothill’s streetscape from Sierra Madre Villa Ave. east to Rosemead.  Including making it more pedestrian friendly.
  • As part of this discussion, the problem of pedestrians getting across Sierra Madre Villa to/from our neighborhood was raised.   What about the previously requested signal at Electronic Drive?
  • Response was that city staff is waiting for the development of the former Allstate property to tackle this; anticipating it can be required to provide a signal as a mitigation measure or to fund it from fees.
• former St. Luke property update
  • On Thursday May 22, the Victory Rose Neighborhood Association hosted a meeting at Pasadena High School to discuss the development status and community issues about the former St Luke’s hospital property on Washington Blvd.
  • Victory Rose Neighborhood Association represents the single family neighborhood just south of St Luke site.  Their President, Carl Vail, led the meeting.
  • Meeting was not heavily attended.
  • Two city staffers were present to answer questions.  Patrice Martin is from the Planning Dept.  She will be the city’s project manager when the developer submits a project plan.  John Poindexter, manager of of Planning & Development?, was also there.
  • Point was made that the developer has not yet submitted any plans to the City.  So far everything is preliminary discussion.  The formal process has not begun.  Developers ask staff questions about code and process requirements all the time as they develop their plans.  Staff frequently tells developers they won’t be allowed to do things.  Also frequently tell them that they need to meet with the community.
  • There have been a couple meetings with the developer by community members.
  • General plan designation for the site is institutional.   That severely limits what can be put there.  Council isn’t likely to approve a zoning change.
  • Density is set through a master development plan process with input from the community.  It has to go to the Planning Commission and then to the City Council.  There is a master plan for the site that was approved in 1980 and revised in March 1987.  The developer could bring in a hospital operator and follow the plan exactly without any new approvals.   Other then that highly unlikely possibility, the developer has to get a new master plan approved.
  • There had been talk about getting the developer to include a public park and the developer had included that in one preliminary scheme.  Victory Rose Neighborhood Association objected.  They do not favor a park there because there is already a huge park (Victory) just to the south of the neighborhood, and also Pasadena High School.  They are concerned that the existing problem with high school students coming and going to the fast food place on Washington would be much worse with a park in between for them to hang out in.
  • There was also contention about the fate of single family houses on Woodlyn that are actually part of the St Luke’s property owned by the developer.  Reportedly the last discussion included agreement by the developer that those parcels would remain as single family residences.
  • Part of the preliminary plan floated by the developer to the community included a substantial size assisted living facility.  One of the attendees at this meeting claimed that no more such facilities are needed, that there are already too many.
  • If an Environmental Impact Report is needed, the City Council policy is that the developer has to pay for it but the city hires and controls the contractor that does the report.  This is because the Council must certify the report’s accuracy.
  • There was a discussion about the Del Mar site (formerly Girl’s Club) that the city owns and is working on plans to make into an urgent care facility.  There is a rumor circulating that it is the location of a former Army dump and has contaminated soil.  Rhonda Stone said that no contamination has been found there yet and it appears from historic research the dump may actually have been on the Ability First property.
  • There was a discussion of what potential issues there would be with any development.
  • A strategy point was made that community should not give the developer an agreed upon list of what it wants.  This would give the developer the upper hand to put something objectionable together and then say “see, we did everything on your list so you have to accept it”.  Needs to be negotiation.
• Hazardous and Electronic Waste Collection Events
  • June 14, Rose Bowl Parking Lot K, 9 am – 3 pm
  • August 16 will be collections in both Arcadia and Sierra Madre
  • Toxic waste items include:  medicines, flourescent light bulbs, household and car batteries, motor oil and filters, other auto fluides, paint and thinners, cleaners, pesticides, weed killers, pool chemicals.
  • Electronic waste includes: t.v.s, microwaves, computers, monitors, printers, cables, video games, phones, radios, stereos, VCRs, electronic toys.
  • Not accepted:  Big appliances, radioactive or biological materials, explosives.
• Convenient Drop-Off Locations for Flourescent Light Bulbs and Household Batteries
  • City of Pasadena has arranged to have collection stations at 12 locations throughout the city.
  • Green pouches labeled “MDS” for putting compact flourescent bulbs.
  • White pouches labeled “MDS” for putting all household batteries including rechargeable batteries and unwanted cell phones.
  • Only some of the locations also accept flourescent tubes
  • Local locations include:
    • Hastings Branch Library (look for large cardboard box just inside the north doorway)
    • OSH (accepts tubes)
    • Victory Park Center
• Free Gardening Workshops
  • California Friendly Landscape Workshop, Sat June 21
    • Eaton Canyon Nature Center, 8 am to noon
    • Sponsored by Pasadena Water & Power for PWP residential water customers
    • Covering the topics:
      • Garden design for homeowners
      • California friendly plants
      • Sprinkler system basics & irrigation
      • Soils, watering, and fertilizers
    • Reservations required.  Call 626 744-3715 or e-mail Gloria Acevedo at [email protected] with your name, address, and contact info.
  • Green Gardening, Sat June 28
    • Eaton Canyon Nature Center, 9:30 am to 11:30 am
    • Go Green grow green Smart Gardening workshop
    • Sponsored by LA County Dept of Public Works in conjunction with City of Pasadena
    • Topics:
      • Backyard composting
      • Worm composting
      • Grass recycling
      • Water-wise gardening
      • Fire-wise gardening
    • For more information call 626 744-7168
• Eaton Canyon Trail project
  • On June 2nd the City Council approved consent calendar item 3.A.4.  to submit an application for a grant of $44, 468 for planning of “the Eaton Wash Trail project”.  The grant would be funded by “The Rivers and Mountains Conservancy”, which is the authority for distributing about $63 million in state bond funds authorized in 2002 and 2006.
  • According to the staff report, the proposed project “extends approximately three miles north to south connecting a number of parks within the City of Pasadena limits as well as connecting City residents to the numerous trails in the Angeles National Forest.  The multi-use trail begins in Eaton Canyon at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center and continues south to the City limit near Eaton Blanche Park.  When complete, the Eaton Wash Trail has the potential to connect with existing and planned regional trails such as the Emerald Necklace trail system.  In order to facilitate use by multiple user groups, the Eaton Wash Trail is proposed for both sides of the wash wherever feasible.”
• June 25 Community Workshop on single family residence zoning regulations
  • Wednesday June 25, 6:15 pm, Council Chambers, City Hall
  • Workshop with the Planning Commission to “discuss possible changes to the Zoning Code’s development standards that regulate the ‘bulk and mass’ of single-family residences.”  In other words, to discuss ‘mansionization’.
  • This is city staff’s response to a direction from City Council to study whether there should be modifications to ensure that the “scale of new construction is appropriate with existing development.”
  • However, for some reason, the announcement also says “discussion is expected to focus on large non-hillside properties”.  Non-hillside makes sense because there are special fairly new regulations that apply just to hillside properties.  But why limit to large properties, thus eliminating all normal neighborhood concerns?
• anything else attendees wish to discuss
  • CVS pharmacy attempts to get alcohol permits
    • CVS pharmacy at Foothill and Michillinda continues to attempt to get a permit to sell alcohol.  A few months ago it tried to get both 24-hour again and alcohol but dropped the 24 hour request.  City staff recommended against the alcohol permit because it would be inconsistent with rules limiting the number of sellers of alcohol for off-site consumption within a certain distance of each other.  Do not know what the result of the hearing was.
  • passing of Ruth Ellersieck
    • Ruth Ellersieck was President of a former incarnation of this association in the mid-1990s.  She was also known to some as one of the polling place workers until a few years ago.  She was a community activist involved with many different issues during the 57 years she lived in our neighborhood.  She died on May 18.

Next meeting is July 12, 2008.

Adjourned about 12:30 pm