City Council Preview for Dec 16

The upcoming City Council agenda looks pretty thin this week which seems questionable given the large number of unresolved and postponed decisions in the past.

Following the award of service pins and the introduction of two new staff members, Mayor Robinson will give his outgoing remarks, although the new Mayor won’t step in until January.

The City will approve more than $1,000,000 in the warrant register but less than $20,000 will go to Lake Forest businesses. That’s less than 2%!

There are two public hearings. One is merely to consider street names for the latest Shea/Baker homes, and the other is to hear an appeal of the Planning Commission’s (PC) decision to overturn the decision of the Director of Planning to deny a PCN (variance based on “public convenience or necessity”) to the Mobile station on Lake Forest Drive to sell beer and alcohol. That may sound confusing but here’s what happened –

• · The Mobile Station requested a PCN in order to sell beer and wine in an area that is already full to capacity by the standards of the State’s Alcohol and Beverage Commission (ABC).
• · The Director of Planning denied the request.
• · The owner appealed the decision to the PC.
• · The PC voted 3 to 2 to overturn the Director’s decision and allow beer and wine sales. Commissioners Fuentes, Hamilton, and Brower voted to allow more beer and wine in the City, as they have before.
• · Dwight Robinson, the Mayor, appealed the decision of the PC, doing it as a citizen, although as a Council member he could have appealed the decision by getting another Council member to second his objection.

For more than a year the Council has been promising to develop guidelines for making a PCN determination. It seems that the PC felt they were on unsure grounds when making their decisions and they wanted more guidance from the Council which the Council promised to deliver, but never did. Should the decision on the Mobile station wait for those guidelines? Bear in mind the Council has already sidelined the appeal of the 99 Cents Stores to add a beer and alcohol license to 2 of their stores in Lake Forest.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. . You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook.