Town Hall Meeting - Summary

Saturday Mayor Pro Tem Leah Basile and I held a Town Hall meeting at Lake 1 Clubhouse from 2 pm to 4 pm. About 20 people showed up, including former Councilman Adam Nick. Here are some of the topics discussed –

Village Pond Park – People were concerned about when the project will start and about what will happen to the wildlife. According to staff, the bids are in and being evaluated. Staff expects to present them to the Council in the next few weeks and work should begin before the summer. During construction the park will be closed and fenced. Plans have been made to relocate the wildlife in the pond and any wildlife that doesn’t fly away on their own. Costs will be in excess of $1,000,000. People worried that the oversaturation of geese will resume once the park is re-opened. In more than a year only 3 tickets have been given for feeding the geese. Mayor Pro Tem Basile said she hopes for a more aggressive approach after the park is re-opened.

Parking – One resident was worried about parking over-sized trucks in his area. He was encouraged to notify Code enforcement anytime this happened.

Traffic – One resident was worried about traffic around Serrano school. Mayor Pro Tem and I succeeded in having traffic and parking added to the Planning Commission and hearings should be started soon. Mayor Pro Tem Basile and I asked the Commission to study this problem, which is not limited to Serrano. I also asked the Search Committee for the new SVUSD Superintendent position to put this item as one of the major issues we want a new Superintendent to look at and solve.

Street sweeping – One resident was concerned that his streets weren’t being swept because of all the cars. No one is being ticketed so the street sweeper goes down the middle of the street. This is another issue we’ve sent to the Planning Commission for review, and we plan to talk about this in our budget meetings to determine whether or not a Parking Enforcement person should be added.

(BTW – I will publish an article soon with the draft of a full list of recommended topics for the Planning Commission on the traffic and parking issues. When it appears, please comment).

Single Family Homes- Several residents were concerned with airbandb and drug rehabilitation homes in their neighborhood. I succeeded in getting staff to prepare a comprehensive report on alternative uses of single family residences. That includes sober living homes, group homes, airbandb rentals, etc. We are waiting for the report. Once we have the report, I hope to have an ad hoc group develop ordinances to deal with this issue which seems to be growing.

Mayor’s conflict of interest – 100% of the people in attendance thought that Mayor Voigts had a conflict of interest with his job as an Executive Assistant to the Mayor of Irvine.

This issue has been referred to legal staff and we are waiting for their opinion. It should be discussed at the next Council meeting. Meanwhile, click here or here.

Naming Streets – One resident asked about naming streets after “Fallen Heroes”. We recommended that he talk to developers of Meritage and Baker Ranch to see if this could be done.

Towne Center – many people bemoaned the condition of Towne Center shopping center. They asked that the City take a more active role in developing our retail areas. We discussed the advances being made in Aliso Viejo, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo, and Irvine. Lake Forest is falling behind.

Mayor Pro Tem Basile and I said that one of the main qualifications we are looking for in a new City Manager is someone who can address the problem of our major retail areas not being updated while all of our neighbors are moving forward. We will be looking at possible replacements in the next few weeks.

More Development? Two residents mentioned getting a phone survey asking about building new homes in the area where the Nakase nursery now sits. There is no official word as to whether or not this is under consideration. Residents were concerned that more new homes would aggrevate the traffic problems.

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.