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HomeMy WebLinkAboutIV(a)_Draft Minute of March 22, 2023 Attachment No. 1 Draft Minutes of March 22, 2023 Page 1 of 5 CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH GENERAL PLAN UPDATE STEERING COMMITTEE MINUTES CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS – 100 CIVIC CENTER DRIVE MARCH 22, 2023 REGULAR MEETING – 7 P.M. I. CALL THE MEETING TO ORDER – 7:00 p.m. II. WELCOME AND ROLL CALL Present: Chair Nancy Gardner and Committee Members Kimberly Carter and Phillip Brown Absent: None Staff: Deputy Community Development Director Jim Campbell and Principal Planner Ben Zdeba III. PUBLIC COMMENTS ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS Chair Gardner requested that GPUSC be automatically notified of GPAC meetings and subcommittee meetings. IV. CURRENT BUSINESS a. Joint Meeting Minutes of February 1, 2023 Motion made by Committee Member Carter and seconded by Committee Member Brown to approve the minutes of February 1, 2023, minutes with Mr. Mosher’s edits. The motion carried unanimously. b. Discussion of General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) Applicants to Fill Three Vacancies Principal Planner Zdeba clarified that, as of the meeting time, four vacancies exist. He recommended the Committee generate a list and prepare a formal recommendation for the City Council that includes the recommendation on GPAC Chair and Vice Chair for Council confirmation. The Committee discussed their individual lists of most-qualified and best-suited candidates and identified three candidates who were most qualified and one back up for recommendation to the City Council as appointments to the GPAC. The list included Charles Fancher, Matthew Brady, Susan DeSantis, and Harrison Rolfes, as a back-up candidate. General Plan Update Steering Committee Meeting Minutes March 22, 2023 Page 2 of 5 c. Review of the Responses Received to the General Plan Update Consulting Services RFP Chair Gardner noted the GPAC discussion regarding the request for proposal (RFP) responses. Committee Member Brown questioned if staff conducted outreach to find out why applicants did not respond and, in response, Principal Planner Zdeba stated that staff did not seek the reason for no responses but did so the first time the RFP was issued. He shared the RFP distribution process and noted there was a voluntary question and answer virtual session. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell indicated that an evaluation panel to assess the technical qualifications will be used, staff will be checking references, and the RFP process will restart if Dudek’s proposal is not satisfactory. Chair Gardner noted the varied GPAC support for Kearns & West, as it relates to community outreach and emphasized providing easy access to the General Plan process and meeting dates. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell described the outreach approach for a comprehensive General Plan Update and noted that staff included the task within the overall scope of the contract, no timeline for the overall General Plan Update completion, an overlap with the Housing Element implementation, an opportunity to augment the scope to include outreach, the revised Charter Section 423 vote in November 2024, and the balance of gaining input on the housing policy through public outreach without unraveling it and ensuring the Land Use Element is consistent with the Housing Element. Chair Gardner recognized the need for community outreach to support a vote. In response to Chair Gardner’s question, Deputy Community Development Director Campbell indicated that staff is reviewing the technical aspects of the proposal to ensure it meets all the minimum qualifications in the RFP. He added that the City could potentially modify the scope to incorporate public outreach related to the Charter Section 423 vote, so voters are more informed and engaged when making a decision. Committee Member Carter expressed concern for providing appropriate outreach that focuses on education and community buy in. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell noted past outreach efforts by Principal Planner Zdeba that were facilitated by Kearns and West that helps with examining their qualifications. Christy Walker questioned what will happen if the vote does not pass in November 2024, shared misnomers in the community, and recommended providing the public with a clear explanation. In response to Jim Mosher’s question, Deputy Community Development Director Campbell stated that there is not enough time to update the Land Use Element, create the zones and objective development standards for the higher density housing, and get it right by March 2024. He added that a November 2024 vote is consistent with the Housing Element, and overlays will come with the Land Use Element. He was not sure what would happen if the vote failed but thought that State law would prevail and suspected the State would move to decertify the City’s Housing Element and use the Builder’s Remedy. Jim Mosher suggested inquiring about who Dudek is using for their outreach subcontractor General Plan Update Steering Committee Meeting Minutes March 22, 2023 Page 3 of 5 and using a different outreach subcontractor. Committee Member Carter inquired about removing Kearns & West and that public outreach be pulled out to review other options. In reference to an earlier comment, Charles Klobe suggested that bids could have been downloaded for competitive analysis which leads him to think that the 22 bid downloads are meaningless. He thought that Kearns and West’s work is subpar and suggested the Committee direct them to do more because he believed they are capable. Dennis Baker provided two historic examples of institutions who were proactive on controversial issues and thought the City needs to take the issues to the people. Charles Fancher noted that outreach is as important as the sourcing work of GPAC and GPUSC and the importance of community involvement in the planning process by putting information out to the public. In response to Committee Member Brown’s question, Deputy Community Development Director Campbell indicated that staff has been in touch with several communities with the same issue and compares notes with jurisdictions in Orange County. He thought the City is well informed and indicated that additional technical or legal assistance can be obtained with the help of the City attorney’s office. Committee Member Brown expressed concern for a valid answer to the question, “What happens if …?” An unidentified speaker suggested bringing this conversation to homeowner’s associations (HOAs). Chair Gardner acknowledged that the Committee is clear that more needs to be done to get the message out to the community. Susan DeSantis thought the narrative “the State is making us do this” is problematic in gaining support and emphasized the importance of the narrative and getting the community to understand who the housing will support. Chair Gardner differentiated between the mechanics of public outreach and the message and noted the mechanics will not work without an effective message. In response to Chair Gardner’s inquiry, Principal Planner Zdeba indicated that staff is looking for feedback from the Committee on missing pieces from the proposal. He noted a derailed community outreach and engagement effort due to the onset of the high Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) and the Housing Element effort, a complex community for outreach, and outreach plans not yet tried before included in the task presented in the proposal. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell stated that the comments from the Committee are very helpful and important to support a more robust outreach plan, an effective message, and the final scope of work. He relayed that cutting Kearns & West out from the proposal would mean rejecting the proposal and going back out to bid. General Plan Update Steering Committee Meeting Minutes March 22, 2023 Page 4 of 5 Committee Member Carter noted community outreach is a critical part of the proposal, compared it to political campaigning, thought Kearns and West is not experienced in this approach, and suggested other consultants might be more qualified with messaging and reach. Chair Gardner agreed that the approach to gaining community support was like a political campaign. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell cautioned the Committee to be careful using the term “political campaign” because the City cannot engage in campaigning for a vote and suggested using the consultants to provide information and community education. Chair Gardner acknowledged having misspoken and noted that community outreach is an area everyone shares concern. She directed staff to get confirmation that Kearns & West understands there was not full support for their last effort and needs to be more supportive, or suggested Dudek add another consultant option to the proposal. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell concurred with Chair Gardner’s suggestion, thought the proposal could be augmented not structurally changed, and stated that staff will work to refine the scope of work, so the Committees are satisfied, and the objectives and needs are met. In response to Committee Member Brown’s question, Deputy Community Development Director Campbell thought the City can modify parts of the proposal, but needed to talk with the City’s purchasing staff to ensure it would not violate the rules for procuring services. Committee Member Brown suggested staff complete due diligence to start the process, Deputy Community Development Director Campbell acknowledged the option of ending the proposal after evaluating the proposal. Principal Planner Zdeba commented an observation that Kearns & West and Dudek have worked together on several other projects and he expressed an interest in getting more information on those projects. Nancy Scarbrough suggested regular meetings with Kearns & West regarding outreach and messaging so the Committee can hold them accountable for the process and provide support. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell concurred and noted potential availability obstacles. Charles Fancher suggested print material for community outreach and engagement and Chair Gardner noted brochures included in the proposal. Deputy Community Development Director Campbell noted that the proposal is a summary and may not include everything needed before augmenting it. d. Consideration of Formally Requesting Council’s Support for a Sustainability and Resiliency Element At the February 28, 2023, City Council meeting, the bi-monthly report from the GPUSC was pulled from the consent calendar for discussion. Some members of the City Council did not express support for adding additional elements. General Plan Update Steering Committee Meeting Minutes March 22, 2023 Page 5 of 5 Deputy Community Development Director Campbell suggested that the Committee may have gone to the Council prematurely without enough information. He added that a consultant may be able to help identify and outline what the element might look like before returning to the Council through a GPUSC recommendation. He noted that GPAC tabled the item, and he relayed a consensus to slow down the process and spend time identifying what the Committee would like the Council to endorse before bringing it to GPUSC for review and then to the City Council as an action item for their endorsement. The GPUSC agreed to the direction. Jim Mosher noted that the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem thought that adding an element was outside the scope of the GPAC and commented that the GPUSC needs to gain direction from Council of GPAC’s latitude. Chair Gardner suggested GPUSC present the Council with ideas and ask for purview direction at that time. Jim Mosher concurred and relayed Mayor Pro Tem’s direction for GPUSC to submit a proposal to amend the scope document to the Council first. Chair Gardner thought Jim Mosher’s understanding of Mayor Pro Tem’s direction was a matter of interpretation. Arlene Greer thought the Council wants to be informed and concurred with Chair Gardner that the proposed element was not completely shot down. V. COMMITTEE ANNOUNCEMENTS OR MATTERS WHICH MEMBERS WOULD LIKE PLACED ON A FUTURE AGENDA FOR DISCUSSION, ACTION OR REPORT (NON-DISCUSSION ITEM) Council Member Carter provided a report on the first Land Use Element meeting she attended. VI. ADJOURNMENT – The meeting adjourned with the next meeting tentatively scheduled for May 3, 2023.