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HomeMy WebLinkAbout00 - Insider's GuideReceived After Agenda Printed September 13, 2016 Insider's Guide From: Kiff, Dave Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2016 6:16 PM Subject: Insider's Guide for Tuesday, September 13, 2016 Happy almost Fall to you! I hope that everyone had a safe and restful summer 2016. Here's what's on the agenda for the Newport Beach City Council meeting of Tuesday, September 13, 2016. More detailed Council meeting information is at the end of this e-mail, and here is a link to the full Council agenda don't summarize every item on the agenda. The afternoon study session begins at our more typical time of 4:00 p.m., and the evening's regular session will begin at 7:00 p.m. The Study Session has a couple of items: • We'll update folks about new changes to the MyNB app for your smartphone. It's a good one to have on there, next to your Pokemon Go. Given that September is National Disaster Preparedness Month (a shout -out to our terrific and terrifically -prepared CERT folks all across town), you'll hear about our efforts to maintain the community's preparedness in the event of a natural or other disaster. After cutting folks off way too early on August 9t" (I'm still feeling bad about that), we'll invite more public comment on Short -Term Lodgings. If you missed the meeting last month, or if you were there but didn't get a chance to talk, please come and speak on Tuesday. I'm trying to see if we can have at least an hour to hear from everyone. As you prepare for that, it's worth reading the Community Development staff's recommendations (that staff report is here) about possible changes to our Short -Term Lodging rules and regulations. Those are our staff's ideas, and are based on a series of public workshops held since the first of the year. There are a lot of items on the evening's Regular Session agenda, but only a few of them jump out at me today: Parking around CdMHS, Second Reading. As school has begun, we're again trying to balance some competing needs in and around Corona del Mar High and CdM Middle School. There is a parking permit program approved (at first reading at least) for the streets across Eastbluff from the HS entrance (Arbutus, Aleppo, Alder, Almond, and part of Alta Vista). And we've increased the red curb on the residential side of Vista del Oro near the football field and parts of Mar Vista. This is in large part to guide students back onto the school lots. We know, though, that some students don't like to use the lots, as sometimes it is tough to getout of the lots quickly if there is a lot of traffic (like at lunch). But nor is it fair to the nearby residents to deal with student parking every school day for multiple hours. Anyway, I do expect some folks to come and speak about this issue (and that's of course welcomed — I don't know that the perfect outcome has been attained), but I know that the Council would be most interested in the best ideas to balance those conflicts — how to encourage more students to use the lots, how to improve safety overall, how to protect residents' rights to regular parking on their own street on school days. Would a closed campus at lunch make sense? I don't know, and I'm old and grumpy (I yell at clouds!) and have never had a kid at CdMHS. So what do I know? But it's my e-mail. O In the categories of great but impactful improvements headed your way, we're about to let a nearly $2M contract for a BIG re -paving project on MacArthur from PCH all the way to Bison. Much needed, but also on a significant thoroughfare. Please stay tuned as this project progresses — it's slated for this fall. The good news — the pavement material will produce less road noise than the current material. Another big dollar item is a contract to start the work to improve the habitat (and water quality) at Big Canyon Nature Park. Those following this issue know that we've been working with regulatory agencies on ways to reduce the impacts of naturally -occurring selenium in the Big Canyon watershed. One item NOT on the agenda this time is the proposal for residential units at 150 Newport Center Drive (the current Beacon Bay car wash). If you're following this issue, I'll certainly make note of it as it comes before the City Council — but Tuesday, September 13th will not be the day for that. Some random notes: • Fun news! We've got a new space for great recreation classes on the west side of the bay. It's off of 16th Street (the one inland of Hoag), and there are some nice class offerings — click here to find them. I went to visit the space today and it's bright, colorful, and well-equipped in terms of exercise and gymnastics stuff. My thanks to our Recreation staff who pulled it all together. This location takes the place of rooms we used at Pacifica Christian high school off of 15th. And these rooms are even better than the ones from which we've moved. • As I write this, we're in the back third of one of the Coastal Commission's regular visits to Orange County, hosted over these three days at the NB Civic Center. So if you've had to come down to the Civic Center or to the Main Library, I know that parking and traffic has been impacted. Your patience was and is appreciated. At Wednesday's 11 -hour meeting on the Newport Banning Ranch, the Commission voted at the end of the day to NOT approve the Coastal staff's recommendation for a scaled-back project. And in this afternoon's hearings, the Coastal Commission unanimously approved our "Implementation Plan" or "IP" that is the second and integral part of our Local Coastal Program or LCP. It's a huge step, and it means that in the not too distant future, the City will be able to issue Coastal Development Permits here at City Hall for many uses. • On Monday evening, September 12th, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., the County of Orange's Public Works Department is hosting an Open House about the upcoming Sand Management project for the lower reaches of the Santa Ana River. The open house will be at Marina Park, so please attend if you have questions. Link here for more information. • A number of folks in the West Newport Mesa area have been asking about all the trucks going in and out of our Utilities Yard as well as the removal and re -installation of the big radio tower there. That's what's going on — the tower needs replacement — and please know that it will be done soon and that we've been very careful to protect the falcon's nest (wasn't that a 1980's nighttime soap?) on the tower. A new nesting platform will be installed with the new tower. No nesting was occurring as the tower has been replaced. • If you missed it — and hopefully you did not —the Newport Beach PD did a great public outreach and education program about kids, schools, and bike safety. If you are on Facebook or Twitter, please find them and like them to see the program's good advice. • There are still a good number of upcoming Council Candidate Forums on the calendar—to find them, click here. One of those groups is Women in Newport Networking (WiNN) and they have an open -house style meet and greet set for September 22, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. at the Civic Center. That can be a more informal way to meet the candidates. For more information, e-mail WiNN here. • One more Concert on the Green for 2016 — it is the Springsteen Experience, on Sunday, September 11, 6-7:30 p.m. I'd imagine they'll be playing more Springsteen than, say, Streisand. Just guessing. All concerts are held at the Civic Green here at the Civic Center. As always, thanks for reading. Feel free to forward this e-mail to family, friends and members of your HOA if you represent one. I always like hearing from you, too, so please don't hesitate to ask a question or offer a comment. Sincerely, Dave Kiff City Manager dkiff@newportbeachca.gov 949-644-3001 City Council Meeting Information: The Newport Beach City Council meets on the 2nd and 4t" Tuesdays of most months (the exceptions are August and December). Typically, there is a Study Session that starts at 4:00 p.m. Study sessions are times for the Council to take a deeper look at a specific issue, or hear a presentation, that might eventually lead to a specific and more formal action. A closed session often follows the Study Session. Closed sessions are typically to address legal, personnel, and other matters where additional confidentiality is important. The Regular (evening) Session typically starts at 7:00 p.m., and often has a specific listing of 20-40 different items ready for formal votes. Items on the "Consent Calendar" are heard all at once, unless a Council member has removed (aka "pulled") an item from the Consent Calendar for specific discussion and separate vote. If an item on the agenda is recommended to be "continued", it means that the item won't be heard nor voted on that evening, but will be pushed forward to another noticed meeting. Public Comment is welcomed at both the Study Session and the Regular Session. The public can comment on any item on the agenda. If you want to comment on a Consent Calendar item that was not pulled from the Consent Calendar by a Council Member, you will want to do so at the time listed on the agenda — right before the Council votes on the entire Consent Calendar (it's Roman Numeral XIII on the posted agenda). If an item is pulled, the Mayor will offer that members of the public can comment as that specific item is heard separately. Additionally, there is a specific section of Public Comment for items not on the agenda, but on a subject of some relationship to the city government. If you cannot attend a meeting and/or want to communicate with the City Council directly, this e-mail gets to all of them: CityCouncil@newportbeachca.gov. Please know that I get a copy of that e-mail, too, because in almost all cases it's something that the City Manager follows -up on. It's my head -start. The Council meets in the Council Chambers at 100 Civic Center Drive, off of Avocado between San Miguel and East Coast Highway. There is plenty of parking in the parking structure behind City Hall. You are always welcome to attend in person, but you can also watch on TV (Channels 3/31) or on your computer. This Insider's Guide is not an attempt to summarize every item on the Agenda —just the ones that seem of specific interest to Dave. I encourage you to read the full agenda if you wish.