City Council Preview for March 21 (Civic Center and Traffic)

Here’s what’s on tap for Tuesday night’s City Council meeting –

CIVIC CENTER

The Civic Center plan is moving forward on schedule. Tuesday night we get one last chance to review. Some of the issues to be discussed include

• LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) status
• Changing dais configuration (anticipating that we will move to a district voting system)
• Addition of covered portico at entrance
• Enlargement of clock tower structure

The current final costs are now estimated at $72,747,973. That’s a sizeable increase since it was first envisioned.

PLANNING AND TRAFFIC

Since I instigated the creation of a Traffic/Parking Commission the idea has been transformed into combining Planning with Traffic (what happened to parking?) and the first discussion will appear Tuesday night. The basic outline will be

• Meetings twice per month (instead of the present 1 time)
• First official meeting July 2017
• Combined meetings instead of 2 separate agendas
• Potential recurring items (e.g., annual traffic collision review, traffic CIP review, permit parking review)
• City Council to provide subject guidance
• Citizens to request studies
• New budget to be developed

I am going to propose some subjects for the new Commission to take up. Here they are –

• Portola Pkwy extension
  • How much traffic will it divert away from Lake Forest streets?
  • How much new traffic will come from Irvine to Lake Forest and how much in retail sales will this generate?
  • What are the costs to build and maintain?
  • Are there any issues with Irvine and/or the County and/or TCA?
• Converting Ridge Rte. Extension
  • Best uses (e.g., parking, dog park, passive park)
  • Issues involved in getting it done (e.g., legal)
  • What are the costs to build and maintain?
• Street sweeping
  • How many streets are having problems getting swept?
  • Can we implement sign and enforcement program?
  • Costs and issues?
• Parking hotspots
  • How many streets are having problems with parking?
  • What kinds of programs can we implement?
  • Costs and issues?
  • Parking enforcement officer? What is the ROI?
• Accident/injury database
  • What more has to be done to get this operational?
  • Once operational, analysis of most dangerous intersections.
• Great Park impacts
  • Once it opens, what will be the major thoroughfares to get to the Great Park and how and where will that impact Lake Forest?
• Individual problems
  • Saddleback Ranch Rd – any problems?
  • Removing 1 street parking sport on Raymond near library
  • Speed bumps on Overlake and Killy
  • Adding crosswalk at Rockfield and Dune Mear
  • Adding left hand turn on Bake above Portola
  • Traffic circulation around Town Center Drive near Bake and Alton
  • Parking/traffic on Osterman (consider parking lot for Regency soccer that could also help here).

Do you have some areas to suggest? Please go to Lake Forest Town Square where you can take a poll and express your concerns.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the 5 Year Strategic Plan, the proposed Duck Patrol, and affordable housing.

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 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be in May.