City Council Rejects Residents' Pleas

Yesterday we look at the Tuesday City Council meeting in which nearly 100 people showed up and more than a dozen spoke about their concerns with Saddleback Ranch Road. The major issues raised were –

• · Inadequate notification
• · Failure to incorporate new bicycle safety laws
• · Inability to evacuate in case of fire, earthquake
• · Inadequate clearance for large vehicles (e.g., garbage trucks)
• · No room in places to pull over if your car breaks down
• · Dangers to pedestrians in some areas
• · Bicycle riders in danger in narrow spaces
• · Bicyclists forced to join single traffic lane, slowing traffic

The appearance at the City Council this week follows an appearance by 40 people at the Traffic Advisory Group the previous week. Though some aspects of the project have received good reviews, the aspects enumerated above have received nearly universal disapproval. Not only did people show up at the TAG and the City Council, Council e-mails and Ask Lake Forest were inundated with comments, almost all of them negative. In addition there is an online petition started Tuesday night that already has more than 300 signers. Click here to sign.

When confronted with this situation, City staff stood behind their process, claiming that the notification system did solicit more than 100 people at the workshops, and the current plans reflected the decisions made at those meetings. Subsequent to that, the plans were brought before the Council for approval and then the contractor bids were accepted in May 2015, at a cost of $1.4 million.

(FWIW – My colleague Dwight Robinson falsely claimed that I approved the plans at the May 2015 meeting. In fact, if you review the agenda documents (Click Here) you will see that there were no plans attached to that agenda item (#14). Instead the complete package addressed only the bids for the project and contained no information about the plans per se. As originally presented in 2012 I opposed the plans, but was not on the Council then or subsequently when the Council approved them.)

The City claims they did everything right, although they admit not taking into consideration the 2014 change in law concerning bicycle safety.

But regardless of right or wrong, as we now see the plans being turned into reality, it’s obvious to me that serious mistakes are being made in some places. Rather than continue I recommended that we stop construction, get a complete review, and then meet in a week to decide how to proceed.

The City Manager suggested that 1 week was far too soon, so Councilman Nick offered a two week period. City staff objected based on legal issues, cost factors, and the problems associated with calling a new public meeting.

At this point, the City Attorney notified us that we were exceeding the time allowed under the Brown Act for discussion under the “Council Comment” section of the agenda.

Councilman Nick asked for consensus to review and report back at the next regularly scheduled Council meeting (in 2 weeks). I agreed. But in the system being sued by the Council, it takes 3 Council members to place an item on the agenda.

Both Mayor Voigts and Mayor ProTem Hamilton refused to agree because they didn’t want to have another meeting in which residents came and complained about the situation. Having already accused me of being a “liar” and falsely accusing me of approving the plans and “pandering” to the residents, Councilman Robinson was uncharacteristically quiet. But he also refused to give consensus so the motion died.

The Council refused to reconsider the project. Mayor Voigts did encourage anyone who was interested to talk to the staff, but talking to the staff will not achieve any action. The only way to achieve action is to put the item on the agenda, and now that my 3 colleagues refused to agree, we are at least 4 weeks away from being able to do anything.

The fact that Voigts, Robinson, and Hamilton refused to put this important item on the agenda should not dissuade people from coming to the next City Council meeting (Oct 20) and expressing their concern, asking for an update, and telling my colleagues that they are unhappy with their decision making.

In the interim I will do my best to see that all these concerns are addressed in writing by the City staff, and once I get this report I will share it with you.

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 on Dec 12 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.

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