City Council Review for Feb 7

Here’s what happened at the City Council meeting on Tuesday Feb 7. To see more information on the issues discussed, click here.

PARKING AND TRAFFIC

The entire meeting, that lasted until after 11 pm, was concerned with traffic and parking. Parking and traffic are major concerns of our residents. I reported last week that in the city’s ALF system for the last quarter of 2016, parking and traffic combined were the most concerning issues, accounting for 20% of the inquiries. During that same period, my own set of inquiries revealed that traffic was 1 of 3 major issues (the other ones being council behavior and animals). So, any way you slice the cake, traffic and parking are major concerns.

EXTEND OLD TRABUCO ROAD?

After an extensive discussion the Council decided

1. Stripe Old Trabuco Rd so that there is a dedicated right turn lane
2. Synchronize the lights along Lake Forest Drive at Trabuco and at Canada during days/times that have heavy church traffic. In this manner, people exiting Old Trabuco Rd and going West on Lake Forest Drive should have minimal cross traffic.
3. Encourage church goers who travel East on Lake Forest Dr to exit through church parking lot instead of using Old Trabuco Rd.
4. Ask Cemetery owners to formalize an easement allowing church goers to use Old Trabuco Rd exit through Cemetery on busy days/times.

We asked the staff to report back after 6 months to tell us how well these changes have impacted the problem. If this is not successful, the Council will consider other measures which may include a new traffic light or even opening Old Trabuco Rd. Before any of these alternatives are selected there will be more meetings and input will be actively sought especially from the people living in the area.

UPDATE ON BENNETT RANCH-VIEJO WEST PROJECT

Residents from the area say that there was some improvement but things are starting to get worse. Council decided to

1. Set up an ad hoc committee (Leah Basile, Scott Voigts, Police Chief, Code Enforcement) to study ways to improve the problems in the area.
2. Consider “Parking Enforcement Officer” during budget discussions

PARKING POLICIES

At my instigation last year we started on a comprehensive look at parking in the City. This resulted in a staff level “Parking Management Advisory Committee” who studied the issue and then worked with the Planning Commission (Oct 13, 2016) who ultimately released a “Residential Parking Manual” (Jan 12, 2017) which came before the Council. Council endorsed the new manual and procedures and made a few minor changes. Adoption of the policies means some changes to City Ordinances, so these suggested changes will come back to the Council for a vote.

Parenthetically, I thought this was a great job by the City staff and I'm pleased to see the quality of staff reports show a marked improvement lately.

TRAFFIC COMMISSION

Leah Basile and I motioned for an independent Traffic Commission, however, a substitute motion by Andy Hamilton resulted in the traffic/parking problems being absorbed by the Planning Commission. I got consensus to review the results in 6 months in order to see whether or not the Planning Commission was doing an adequate job, and if not, to re-consider an independent commission.

Staff will bring back a new description of the Planning Commission for Council to approve. But, in my opinion, it will take more than a job description for them to do a good job in this area. It will take initiative, creativity, and determination. Let's see.

SCOTT VOIGTS’ CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Several residents were upset to hear that Mayor Scott Voigts took a job working for the City of Irvine as an assistant to the Irvine Mayor. One resident quoted from the bible, Matthew 6:24

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”

Residents pointed out examples where the interests of Lake Forest are not necessarily the same as those of Irvine, and in fact, can be antithetical. I'll have more to see about this topic next week.

The City Attorney was asked to produce a report discussing the legal and ethical issues involved and report back to the Council to discuss. Hopefully this will happen aty our next meeting.

EXTENDING OUR REACH

Councilman Robinson and I asked that the City get more involved in the organizations and agencies that impact our quality of life. I asked that we set up a systematic way to interface with SVUSD to share our concerns, and Councilman Robinson asked that we get together with the top 10 businesses in the City.

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 February 25 at the Lake 1 Clubhouse from 2 to 4 pm.