November 18 Neighborhood Meeting Summary

Agenda Items:
Preparation
Attendees

Preparation

E-mail reminders

Attendees

6 members

Agenda Items:

The meeting began about 11:25 am?

  • Summary of Council District 4 meeting 11/16
    • The meeting started at 6:42 pm at AGBU High School on Altadena Dr.
    • It was filmed by KPAS television. (Could not check if it is on the TV schedule because Spectrum reports the website as dangerous).
    • As usual, Council member Masuda introduced speakers but otherwise said very little.
    • There was a presentation by and about One Arroyo. See next topic below.
    • KPAS channel of Pasadena Media gave a presentation.
      • They showed a video about some of the programming they have on their public access channel.
      • They encouraged people to get involved in producing content. They offer training.
      • pasadenamedia.org
    • Pasadena’s Planning Department Director, David Reyes, gave a presentation about three local projects and three state regulation issues. City Manager Steve Mermell was also there to chime in.
      • Space Bank
        • This is the 550 apartment units project immediately south of us on Foothill.
        • Displayed some of the planning drawings we have seen already
        • Said it is fully compliant with the new General Plan
        • Environmental review document, including traffic study, should be finished and released for public review in about a month
        • There will be at least one and probably two public meetings at the Planning Commission before it goes to the City Council.
        • One thing we had not heard before is that the City is working with the developer to preserve the main silo building in some manner as a historic artifact. It was used for torpedo testing. (Don’t know where it is on the site and how it would fit in).
      • Panda Inn – Gateway Center
        • 258 apartment units, remodel of Panda Inn, revamp of Gateway Tower podium
        • Environmental document should be released for review in December.
      • Avon site
        • No applications have been submitted to the City. When something is, city staff will endeavor to make sure anyone interested is notified of meetings about it.
        • Do know that Home Depot owns it and has developers working on a site plan.
        • One challenge to the site is a 14 foot grade differential between Foothill and Walnut.
        • David Reyes said he doubts they will propose to retain the possibly historic main Avon building because it is in the middle of the site.
      • Density Bonus
        • This is a State regulation that changed in 2004 to be much more preemptive of local control and be much more favorable to developers.
        • Under the density bonus rules, if a developer agrees to include a certain percentage of “affordable” units, they can ask and must be given, the ability to exceed the number of units allowed for the site in the General Plan and/or to exceed other limits such as height. There are formulas giving bigger bonuses for greater quantity or more affordability.
        • Density bonus wasn’t invoked very much in Pasadena until recently; now it is becoming more popular.
        • Because the City already requires more affordable units (or an in-lieu fee) then the bonus’ requirements, all the state rule does in Pasadena is incentivize the developer to include some of them on site.
      • Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)
        • New state mandates allow any existing legal building on a single family parcel to be converted into an ADU
        • Staff is working on revising City rules for building new ADUs.
        • They believe the City must become less restrictive then the current rules or it will be sued and lose, and as a result lose all ability to regulate them.
        • Revised proposal is expected to go before the City Council in mid-December.
      • Marijuana
        • City has passed an ordinance to prohibit all commercial sales and personal outdoor cultivation when the State allows for it after Jan 1.
        • City wants to see what the state regulations will be and how things work out in other cities before possibly allowing it within Pasadena.
        • Marijuana businesses have been banned in Pasadena all along, but they keep opening faster then the city can shut them down.
        • One reason they keep opening since last year’s election is the hope to get a foothold ahead of competition when recreational sales become legal. But as part of the new regulations, the City makes clear that any person or location involved with an illegal operation will not be licensed to operate if and when the City does allow for it.
    • Mike Basheri of the Transportation Dept spoke about managing traffic
      • Their Complete Streets guidelines specify how they are to measure traffic
      • The Complete Streets approach is all about speed management and traffic calming
      • All traffic studies are done in-house, not contracted out.
      • They impose measures on projects to reduce vehicle trips. Some of these measures include:
        • Requiring the owner/developer to buy tenants transit passes
        • provisioning for bike sharing
        • provisioning for car sharing
        • unbundled parking (tenant must pay extra for each space)
        • amenities to reduce the need for trips
      • They impose conditions on projects to improve usage for pedestrians and bicyclists
      • The eliminate or reduce the number of driveways onto major streets
      • They impose mitigation measures for environmental impacts
      • He gave a couple of local examples of requirements they have imposed:
        • Space Bank project is being required to
          • Put a “pork chop” island on Foothill at Santa Paula to prevent vehicles from driving directly between Santa Paula and the Space Bank main entrance. Vehicles on either side will have to turn left or right.
          • The driveway at the eastern border of the property on Foothill will be restricted to in-only. (Wasn’t clear if that is also right turn only; think so). This is because that driveway will be right next to Kaiser’s driveway.
          • The developer/project owner will be required to buy and provide to residents 275 Metro passes for the first 5 years.
        • Panda Inn project was required to eliminate one of two driveways they had proposed on Foothill Blvd.
      • Orange Grove from Wilson to Lake is scheduled to be resurfaced in the summer of 2018. Denied they have decided yet whether it will be reduced to one lane in each direction.
      • He said something very fast about Orange Grove from Wilson east to Sierra Madre Villa. Missed what he said other then they promise to do “extensive” public outreach about it.
    • Pasadena Police Department officers talked about crime levels and “homeless” activity in District 4
      • In October there were 60 “reportable” crimes in District 4; 624 year to date.
      • Of those October crimes, 10 were commercial burglaries, 7 were residential burglaries, and 3 were rapes. However:
        • The 10 commercial burglaries are a lot higher then normal and seem to be part of a spree by a gang in the San Gabriel valley. They are working with an inter-agency task force to figure out and stop it.
        • The 7 residential burglaries is the same as the monthly average for District 4.
        • One of the 3 rapes took place in a different jurisdiction far away and Pasadena Police were asked to take the report on it. One was a date rape situation. One report involves a runaway minor and is being questioned because sometimes they make up stories as excuses for not making curfew in order to avoid being kicked out of a program they are in.
      • District 4 is a very large, but not so densely populated area, and has the lowest crime rate in the city.
      • Shopping safety – don’t go to car and put items in and then return to stores. Thieves are watching for that. Try to hold onto everything until you are going to put it in your car and drive away. If you are going to drive to another location, hide the stuff in your car while at the first location.
      • “Homeless” situation.
        • Big and growing problem everywhere in Southern California, not just in Pasadena.
        • Pasadena has had a lot of success housing those who want it.
        • Many of the drug abusers do not want housing; prefer to be free to go and do whatever they want
        • Many of the pan-handlers are not homeless. They just come to Pasadena because they make good money here. It is much more lucrative then working for anything near minimum wage. They don’t report the income so it isn’t taxed and they don’t lose whatever government benefits they are getting.
        • Because of constitutional rights, the police cannot do anything about the panhandling. They can only take action if they see them block traffic, assault people, or commit other crimes.
        • There are three HOPE teams of one Pasadena police officer and one social worker from LA County
    • Questions were held to the end.
      • Questioners/commenters tended to be pretty upset about one thing or another and City Staff became unusually heated in some of their responses. Seems like they are getting tired of explaining the same points over and over again. The transportation department representative seemed to be enjoying it though.
      • Many were not happy about the “complete streets” business of road diets and scarcely used bicycle lanes. Several made the point that seniors are not going to be balancing on bicycles and especially not riding up and down the hills. But there were a couple of guys who spoke up for more complete bicycle lanes and one who thought that with electric assisted bikes everybody should be able to use bicycles. The point was also made that it seems unfair that those who drive vehicles pay taxes and fees for road maintenance, but those are being used to remove traffic lanes to make space for bicyclists who don’t pay those taxes.
      • Several expressed unhappiness about so many apartment units going in, the increased traffic, and increased use of utilities.
      • One commenter said it seemed like the City just rolls over in the face of state regulations that subvert local control. Why doesn’t the city or league of cities push back and sue if necessary.
      • The City staff rejoined with comments, some of which were:
        • Pasadena’s population has actually has only grown about 1% per year over the last several decades
        • Pasadena “does a fantastic job of managing growth” through the General Plan over 20 years.
        • There are always cycles of boom and bust in development. This boom cycle has been going for over five years. Expect it will at least level off soon.
        • Planning process is much more stringent and careful then most places.
        • Multi-unit housing is much more efficient with resources then single family homes.
        • The General Plan focuses growth in the transportation and business corridors in order to protect the single family neighborhoods.
        • The city can keep growing and thriving or it can be shrinking and dying.
        • The city needs to grow because the state has mandates requiring it.
        • The Space Bank and Panda Inn projects meet the requirements of the General Plan and also the air district requirements for distance from and measures to mitigate the freeway.
        • If the Space Bank and Panda Inn projects get their entitlements, the limit on new units in the East Pasadena Specific Plan area will be met.
        • Private parties decide what private parcels to purchase and how they want to use it. The City doesn’t control who buys property and has to approve projects as long as they meet the zoning requirements and building codes and pay any required fees.
        • City Staff doesn’t make the rules, they just implement/enforce them. If you want different rules, need to get the City Council to change them. (Actually, staff has huge influence on the rules because they provide most of the information and recommend what the rules should be to the Council. It is up to citizens to pay attention and get involved with either support or contradictory information and arguments. Sometimes the Council doesn’t follow staff recommendations).
      • Council member Masuda didn’t say much except that if he hadn’t pushed and held out for a lower limit on the allowed number of new residential units in east Pasadena it would have been much higher.
  • One Arroyo Survey; input on Arroyo Seco
    • The Arroyo Seco is on the west side of Pasadena, running from the mountains above JPL down through South Pasadena and eventually to the LA River.
    • The portion that runs through Pasadena is owned and (mostly) managed by the City of Pasadena through several different departments and agencies including the Rose Bowl Operating Committee, Parks and Recreation, Forestry, Department of Water and Power. Outside government entities that also have some jurisdiction within city limits include L.A. Country Public Works, Army Corp of Engineers, the U.S. Department of Forestry.
    • It is managed as three separate park segments, Hahamonga Park to the north of Devil’s Gate dam, the middle section that includes the Rose Bowl, and the southern section which includes an archery range and casting pond.
    • There are 22 miles of existing trails within the three areas, but they are fragmented, failing in many places, and signage is often poor.
    • One Arroyo is a citizen’s committee appointed by the City to look at how the entire area is used and managed, how that can be improved, how to get better/more reliable funding for management and improvements.
    • They have a web page with details:  www.onearroyo.org
    • As part of their study they have a survey which they are distributing at events as well as on-line. They want to know how respondents use the Arroyo, what they like, what needs work. The paper survey is probably more useful to fill out, because the online survey requires picking an answer to every question whether you have valid input or not.
  • Rose Parade/Bowl Ticket Lottery for District 4
    • The annual raffle for up to four free Rose Parade and/or face value Rose Bowl Game tickets is now online.
    • These are tickets that are issued to each Council member.
    • Registration ends December 3.
    • You must have a photo id listing an address within Council District 4. All of our neighborhood is in District 4.
    • Look for the link on the right side of this page:  www.cityofpasadena.net/district4/
  • Hastings branch library tree lighting; grant match
    • The big outdoor tree will be lit up again on Friday December 8.
      • Festivities begin at 3:30 and include a balloon artist, hot chocolate, goodies, holiday crafts, and a performance by RHYTHMX Show Choir
      • The Community Tree Lighting will occur shortly after dark.
    • The annual fall book, parade ticket, and more raffle to raise funds for Hastings Branch begins on Wednesday November 22. Check it out in the center of the library.
    • Hastings Branch library has been awarded a $5000 “Maximize Learning Spaces” aka “How to MacGyver Your Library” grant from the California State Library. The grant, and $5000 in matching funds, are to be used to evaluate the layout and purchase and install moveable furniture so that large programs/events can be better accommodated. The concept is to have moveable bookshelves, instead of the fixed ones, separating the children’s area from the reading area on the east side. They would be moved out of the way for events with large attendance. The Friends of the Pasadena Public Library support group for Hastings Branch, called Hastings Associates, is soliciting donations toward the matching funds.
  • Outdoor watering now Saturday only
    • Outdoor watering is now restricted to Saturday only.
    • Lasts until March 31
    • We have had a dry and warm fall with only a little drizzle and no real rain in sight. Until substantial rain comes, don’t forget to continue to deep-water trees that do not go dormant; just less frequently then when the days were longer and hotter.
  • Local Crime Summary
    • For the last month in our neighborhood, from crimemapping.com:  (note that time is typically when reported, not when it happened)
      • Friday Nov 3, 4:04 pm, 3000 block E Orange Grove Blvd, Petty Theft
  • anything else attendees wish to discuss

Next meeting is December 16, 2017 at 11:15 am, in Hastings Branch Library meeting room

Adjourned about 1 pm