The New Lake Forest - Part 1

Last week I provided a description of the budget workshop (Click Here) and some of the new initiatives introduced at that meeting (Click Here). It’s safe to say that at this meeting the Council approved more innovative and progressive changes than any other Council in our history, and probably on a cumulative basis as well. I’d like to single out a few of these projects for more detailed discussion as I believe we are entering an era which I am calling “The New Lake Forest”.

NEW CITY MANAGER

We’ve appointed a new City Manager whom I believe will dedicate herself to our City striving for excellence in everything we do. For all his good qualities, our previous City Manager was satisfied with the status quo and generally speaking, averse to innovation. The “new” Lake Forest is going to be focused on not merely continuing what we’ve done, but re-inventing ourselves to deal with the present realities.

NEW CIVIC CENTER

I believe we are the last City in Orange County (maybe in the U.S.) to finally move into our own City Hall. But the new City Hall will be more than a City Hall.

• We’ll have a Performing Arts Center that will make us the focus of performing arts in South Orange County, increasing our quality of life and bringing new revenues into the City.
• We’ll have a real Senior Center, uniquely designed for our people, with innovative planning that will dramatically improve the quality of life for the ever growing senior population. I expect this new center will increase the number of seniors who stay in our city, accelerating the current trend.
• We’ve changed from a partially opened City Hall to a fully opened City Hall that means better service to our people. Instead of being closed on Friday every other week we will now be open every Friday.
• We’re continuing to improve our ability to service people through the Internet. This will mean better service and lower costs.

NEW GENERAL PLAN

We’ve voted for a new general plan. The old one is ancient and out of date. It hasn’t been used for years, and reflects the thinking of one or two generations past.

Most of the City is built out, so the new General Plan should concentrate on those areas of the City that are undervalued and/or underutilized. To do this we’ll need to ask some fundamental questions. Here are a few examples -

• What is the current status of our traffic congestion problems and how will they be changed by the addition of the 2,000 homes already approved but not yet built.
• What is the net value of any one acre of land in purely financial terms? When you take account of the revenue (taxes) and expenses (police, streets), what type of zoning (residential, commercial, industrial, retail, agricultural) should we be looking to increase?
• What are our major demographic trends and what does this tell us about future land uses?
• Taking into account the changes in our neighboring cities in terms of retail attractions, how should Lake Forest position itself?

NEW MOBILE APP

I’m really excited about the new mobile app I’ve asked the City to add to our budget. Here are some of the specifications of Phase 1 -

• Using mobile phone, communication by picture, video, text, or voice, accompanied by GPS coordinates and registered name of the sender.
• Allow people to check the ordinance/regulation prior to sending.
• Push button simplicity for issues in major categories (e.g., street maintenance, parking problems, pets, code violations) with over 50 subcategories (e.g., double parked, parking near hydrant, parking too close to red lines, parking on sidewalk)
• When possible and applicable, communication goes directly to the City worker responsible for the issue.
• Generate reports as needed, by problem, by area, etc.

In Phase 1, no fire or police functions will be introduced. The normal channels for reporting a crime or a fire will be used.

Phase 2 will increase the power of the mobile app to send messages to users (e.g., emergencies, traffic problems) and make announcements (e.g., city events).

In Phase 3 we will use the mobile app to gather opinions about major issues facing the City.

These specifications have to go through the City staff and come back to the Council before we can move forward. Hopefully that will be in the near future.

If developed as proposed, Lake Forest will be at the cutting edge of interactive technology for cities – fitting for a New Lake Forest.

Tomorrow we’ll discuss some of the other projects that suggest Lake Forest is entering a new era for all of us.

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 June 10 at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.