City Council Preview for Feb 17

Here are some items coming up at the next Council meeting (Feb 17). If you want to discuss them in an informal town meeting, come to the Foothill Ranch Library from 2 pm to 4 pm on Saturday, Feb 14.

EVEN MORE HOMES FOR LAKE FOREST?

Meritage Homes and EPD Solutions want to amend the General Plan to build 52 SFRs at the south corner of Alton and CommerceCentre Drive on 5.75 acres. To do this they must get an EIR analysis performed and the City is being asked to approve LSA Associates at a cost of $43,295 (paid by the developers). LSA was recommended after interviewing 5 other firms. Their bid was the third highest, although they received the highest ratings on the proposal and the interview. The lowest bidder ($29,760) was 33% lower that LSA, but in the comparisons they were only 12% lower on the proposal and 13% lower on the interview.

EVEN MORE ALCOHOL FOR LAKE FOREST?

The appeal of the Mobile Gas Station (21721 Lake Forest Drive) comes back to the Council following the December 16, 2014 meeting in which the Council agreed to get more information and review the situation once again. The business is in a tract that the State’s ABC deems to be fully saturated, so adding a business would result in an over-saturated tract. Moreover, the 3 existing businesses that sell alcohol are all reasonably close to the proposed business, and 1 of the businesses (7-Eleven at 21701 Lake Forest Drive) is only a few feet away.

California law allows a City to recommend adding to a saturated area if the officials believe that the addition of the business would serve a public necessity or a convenience (PCN), but the burden is on the applicant to establish either of these conditions. Unfortunately, neither the State nor the City are very specific about what parameters would constitute a public necessity or public convenience.

According to the business, the public convenience is that they “offer consumers additional alternatives and convenience”. The public necessity appears to be that they “maintain competition in the area by retaining our current loyal customers and preventing them from switching to other competitors” and that this new offering (beer and wine) will “provide additional employment opportunities.”

FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLAN

Every few years the Council, Commissions, and staff get together to plan the next 5 years. The broad topics include land use, transportation, and open space. From the 5 year strategic plan usually come the 2 year Capital Improvement Project (CIP) budget and the Fiscal Year Operating Budget. In theory, the strategic plan is developed based on demographics, community satisfaction survey, strategic issues, and financial resources.

Click here for my recent comment on the need for long range global planning.

TREASURER’S REPORT

The good news is that the City has $68.1 Million in cash and investments as of January 31, 2015. The bad news is that we are earning only 0.284% on this cash.

For 2014, the City took in $19.6 Million with the largest amounts coming from Local Taxes ($10M) and Developer Contributions ($5.4M). The City spent $25.8M with the largest expenses in Capital Projects ($8.6M), Police ($5.8M) and Public Works (3.2M).

PURCHASING AND CONTRACTING

City staff wants to prequalify firms based on a project by project basis rather than the global process in place now and also require registration with the Department of Industrial Relations.

There is nothing in the report to try to give preference to companies in Lake Forest or companies owned by residents of Lake Forest.

FLEET MAINTENANCE

The City contract for maintenance of our 15 vehicles and 5 motorcycles expires on June 30 so the City seeks to solicit bids. Staff wants to change the routine from 4,000 to 5,000 miles and to allow for a 3 year contract with 2 one year extensions.

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 comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 2 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every moth. The next meeting will be Feb 14 from 2 to 4 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.