City Council Preview - Dec 19

This is the final meeting of the year. On the agenda…

800 NEW HOMES ON NAKASE PROPERTY?

Having spent $68,500 to keep Andrew Hamilton in office, the Toll Brothers is proceeding with their proposal to purchase the Nakase Nursery and re-zone it for up to 800 new homes. The proposal claims that they will also build “an elementary school site for approximately 1,000 kindergarten to sixth grade students”, but according to the School District there are no firm plans to create this school.

LSA Associates was chosen by staff to prepare an environmental document, at a cost of $233,670 (paid for by Toll Brothers). LSA received the highest points on the city’s evaluation, but they were more expensive than the other 2 highly regarded companies ($209,003 and $232,910). FWIW – LSA Associates is a generous donor to City Council campaigns, having given $500 to Andrew Hamilton (3/2/17), $250 to Andrew Hamilton (9/30/15), and $250 to Scott Voigts (10/5/2015). As far as I can confirm, the other two companies have not given any money to Council members.

This is the first step in the process of Toll Brothers trying to get approval for their project. Once the report is finished it will come back to the Council.

GENERAL PLAN UPDATE

The Council reviewed the prior proposal for a general plan update and asked for a quicker, more focused plan. The current proposal is for a plan that costs $990,232, which is down a mere $89,090 from the previous plan proposal, but will still take 28 months to complete.

APPOINTMENTS

At the last City Council meeting, Voigts-Hamilton-Robinson voted to delay appointing the Mayor until after the special election. As such, the appointments on the agenda for this week (Vector Control, Boards, Committees, and Agencies) would appear to be more properly scheduled for after the special election.

SVUSD UPDATE

For 6 months this year Scott Voigts and I have been meeting with city staff and they in turn have been meeting with SVUSD staff. I asked the staff to prepare a report for the Council. Here is their summary -

School Mitigation Fees: SVUSD receives fees to mitigate the impact of new development on school facilities. This funding is generated by new residential, commercial, and industrial developments, including development occurring through the Opportunities Study Area. As of June 30, 2016, SVUSD reported an ending balance of $20,163,494.44. The report also identified a number of potential future projects, totaling an estimated $46,250,000, which would be funded with developer impact fees.

School Crossing Guards: The City’s Fiscal Year 2017-2018 Operating Budget includes $275,000 for the school crossing guard contract. The Ad-Hoc Committee discussed whether any portion of these costs could potentially be shared with SVUSD. The school district identified budgetary constraints as a potential challenge in any possible cost-sharing agreement with the City.

Busing Program: The Ad-Hoc Committee discussed the status of the school district’s busing program. Staff shared a potential desire from some residents regarding a possible busing program. While SVUSD does not have plans to expand the busing program, it would work with parents that wish to self-fund a busing program for their children. SVUSD is currently preparing additional information regarding potential routes and has expressed interest in further discussions with the City.

School Resource Officer: The City funds the School Resource Officer (“SRO”) position through the Sheriff’s Department contract. Similar to the discussion regarding crossing guards, the Ad-Hoc Committee discussed potential cost sharing opportunities with the school district. Again, SVUSD identified budgetary constraints as a potential challenge regarding potential cost-sharing associated with this service.

After School Programs: SVUSD operates after-school programs at its various school sites. For Fiscal Year 2015-2016, SVUSD spent approximately $1.7 million on these programs in Lake Forest and generated approximately $2.5 million in revenue. SVUSD’s The Learning Connection ("TLC") provides extended child care and after school programming to children from kindergarten through 6th grade. The program is offered 7:00 am to 6:00 pm, Monday through Friday. TLC centers are located at each elementary school campus in the school district.

Based on staff’s further discussions, the school district is interesting in continuing its dialogue directly with city representatives. SVUSD is currently considering forming a committee to discuss school-related issues with interested local elected officials. SVUSD anticipates this new committee would be formed once the Facilities Master Planning process is complete sometime in 2018. Once SVUSD is prepared to create this new committee, staff will inform the City Council and request a formal appointment

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. His twitter handle is @DrJimGardner. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a town hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be Thursday Feb 15 at 7 pm at the Beach and Tennis Club on Ridge Rte.