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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021_06_29 - SpecialMINUTES Special meeting of the City Council of the City of Redlands held on June 29, 2021 at 5 00 P M Present Staff Paul Banch, Mayor Eddie Tejeda, Mayor Pro Tempore Paul Foster, Council Member Denise Davis, Council Member Jenna Guzman -Lowery, Council Member Charles M Duggan, Jr , City Manager, Dan McHugh, City Attorney, Robert Dawes, City Treasurer, Jeanne Donaldson, City Clerk, Carl Baker, Public Information Officer, Chris Catren, Police Chief, Danielle Garcia, Management Services/Finance Director, Chris Boatman, Facilities and Community Services Director, Brian Desatmk, Development Services Director, Jim Topoleski, Fire Chief, John Harris, Municipal Utilities and Engineenng Director, Janice McConnell, Assistant City Manager This was conducted as a virtual teleconference meeting with all Council Members and staff participating remotely All votes during the meetings were conducted by roll call In compliance with public health recommendations to limit public gatherings during the Covid-19 pandemic and acting as the City of Redlands Emergency Services Director, City Manager Charles M Duggan Jr , directed meetings of the City Council/Successor Agency of the former Redevelopment Agency of the City of Redlands be closed to the public until further notice or until the current local State of Emergency has been lifted The City Council will continue to meet to conduct essential business Public comments, up to 250 words and received by 5 00 P M the day before the meeting, were read aloud by the City Clerk Mayor Banch called the meeting to order at 5 00 P M and a quorum was established PUBLIC COMMENT All public comments received by 5 00 P M the day before the meeting were read into the public record at the meeting RHNA Inventory - Dennis Bell stated the very low and low income sites fisted in the Regional Housing Needs Assessment inventory contained too many commercially zoned properties, and it seemed to him the City didn't want affordable/low-income housing, but had a preference for high -end housing He thought the online maps of these sites were quite vague and hard to read, and he complained the two community meetings for this update were held via zoom which he has found to be completely unreliable England Grove Estate - Richard 0 Donnell urged Council Members to keep an open mind when the proposed development of the England Grove Estate on Palm Avenue comes before them He asked whether correct procedures related to a Measure U exemption were properly filed, adding he thought all requirements were not met and the proposed development was incompatible with the neighborhood and voter approved Measure U Zoning- Joshua Cox, of Hillwood, explained that recently his company partnered with Mistretta Properties to re -develop the former Splash Kingdom site based on the underlying industrial zoning He inquired why this property was recently added to the proposed down zone to residential zoning area, and he said this location should be one of the last parcels to be designated as potential residential, given its proximity to the Special CC_June 29, 2021 Page 1 I-10 freeway, frontage to truck traffic with the site adjacent to a truck court Council of Carpenters - Mitchell Tsai, an attorney for Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, said the City should require the use of a local skilled and trained workforce for development projects in the City, and he recommended the City continue the item until the public could directly address the City Council Comments Received After the Deadline Housing Element Questions- Ed Bonadiman raised questions about the document presented, including, will City -owned property be included in this Housing Element, how were parcels that were included in the proposed zone change selected? When will the community and landowners be offered an opportunity to provide their opinion? Industrial Zoned Properties - Alan and Robin Gotta, longtime property owners on Iowa Street, expressed concern with the City's move to rezone certain parcels They purchased their property within the EV/IC zoning, with the intent that the Industrial Zoning would one day encourage a buyer to help them towards their retirement, and now they are worried the City may rezone their parcels STUDY SESSION - 6th CYCLE HOUSING ELEMENT UPDATE Development Services Director Desatnik explained tonight's study session was intended to give Council an opportunity to ask questions and offer comments on the selection of potential housing sites for the City's Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) inventory Planning staff and the City's consultant, Michael Baker International, have been working on the Housing Element Update since Fall of last year Director Desatnik gave an overview and presentation of the Housing Element Update, which is a required element of the General Plan State law requires that every jurisdiction regularly updates its Housing Element At the local level the Housing Element allows each city to prepare a community -specific approach to "how" and "where" housing will be addressed to meet the needs of the community and Redlands is currently on an 8-year cycle for its Housing Element Update The current 6th Cycle Housing Element Update program will cover the period from 2021 through 2029 Community outreach was conducted, which included an online survey (almost 300 responses received), eleven stakeholder interviews, two community meetings open to the public, and two study sessions with the Planning Commission Topic areas covered and detailed were Housing Element Content, Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), California Department of Housing & Community Development (HCD) Reviews RHNA Sites, RHNA Density Requirements, City's Identified RHNA Capacity, The Importance of Housing Element Certification, HCD Incentives and Consequences of Housing Element Non-compliance He reviewed the RHNA Inventory and how the City would reach that goal Included were sites identified as either vacant or underutilized, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), recently entitled projects and pending projects He added the City must always maintain enough sites to meet the RHNA numbers dunng the planning period and there could be some senous penalties if this was not maintained The State strongly encourages a buffer, so a 20% buffer is applied to protect the City from the need to rezone during the planning period Utilizing a site inventory Webmap, he identified land inventory that was broken down by income levels and density Sites requiring some sort of zone change in order to make them available for RHNA were highlighted, and he stated it was not currently feasible for the City to meet the RHNA targets without looking at some commercial and industrial properties for rezoning Land located east of the 210 Freeway and land situated in the East Valley Corridor, south of the drainage channel, were considered properties that could easily transition to residential or mixed use He stressed the State was giving high priority to housing program areas such as ADUs, affirmatives furthering fair housing, constraint removal, education and RHNA A project schedule provided for the goal of adopting the Housing Element Update by the end of this year Mayor Banch raised questions concerning the initiative petition currently circulating which will come before Council next month, and he inquired if the City will be in violation of local growth measures Director Desatnik explained staff will analyze the proposed initiative ordinance closely and include this Special CC_June 29, 2021 Page 2 within the constraint section of the Housing Element He added that State law supersedes local law Council Member Davis was very supportive of rezoning on the west side of town and was encouraged to see more mixed use possibilities Mayor Pro Tem Tejeda inquired if the areas proposed for rezoning match or complement the existing land use, and it was confirmed there appeared to be no major conflicts Responding to additional questions from Mayor Pro Tem Tejeda, the following was clanfied the State judges the City based on available land, and it is not judged on what actually gets built, a brand-new inventory is accomplished every eight years, protected open space areas were not included in the site inventory and staff was developing a program to facilitate ADU development, with the goal to make the process easier Director Desatmk informed the Council that staff may be proposing a moratorium, an urgency ordinance, on industrial development in the East Valley Corridor for the first City Council meeting in September The moratorium would apply just to the parcels m the RHNA proposal and not City wide This would allow staff the time to determine whether rezoning would help the City to meet the state mandated RHNA requirements Overall, Council Members were pleased with the direction of the Housing Element and thanked Director Desatmk and staff for a well organized and thoughtful presentation ADJOURNMENT With no further discussion, the special meeting adjourned at 5 52 P M Special CC_June 29, 2021 Page 3