Mar08Minutes

5. Approval of Minutes of the Council Meeting 5/15/08 – Motion by Councilmember Pierce & seconded by Councilmember Campbell seconded. Approved - None opposed.

First Responders

LA County Sheriff Lt. Greg Sisneros

- 1 robbery in May (skateboard taken by force)

- 4 burglaries – 3 residential and 1 locker

- 41 thefts – 21 unlocked vehicles; 11 vehicle burglaries

- 211 Crew car phishing in the area – 4 members are in custody. The Sheriff Department has cleared 150 cases!

- 4 Vehicle thefts

- 43 vandalism, although this has dropped drastically due to arrest of 211 crew

- Remember to keep your cars locked and don’t leave anything in open view

- Graffiti at Pennsylvania and Markridge reported by a resident. (Did not call the County hotline.) It’s been cleaned up and once it is investigated, the Sheriff Department will follow up with the graffiti hotline.

California Highway Patrol Officer Todd Workman

- 140 tickets in May – 105 for seat belts, which is a fine of $90 for the first offense. For the second offense, the fine goes up and you get one point on your driver’s record.

- July 1 – Hands free cell phone law goes into effect, so if you have the cell phone up to your ear, the fine will be $75 for the first offense and it will go up from there. It will appear on your record if convicted, but it is not a point on your record.

- No grace period, it will be enforced.

Brianne Johnson, Girl Scout

- We have a plot of land the County has donated at Two Strike Park for Brianne’s girl scout project

- Adrienne Griffin is the Girl Scout leader

- Special thanks to Al Evans with LA County Parks for his help

- Working on the Gold Award – Phase II

- A possible water feature will run down the rock bed. They would like to put it in now to avoid pulling everything out and then put in the water feature later.

- California Waterscapes is willing to donate equipment for the water feature

- July 3 will be the date for the County to drop rocks and dirt

- Plants will go in within 10 days of dropping the rocks and dirt

- Currently working on the depth of the water feature

- The sketch has been approved, but they are asking for approval to add the water feature. The County and Supervisor’s office has given approval for the project.

Al Evans, LA County Parks

- Phase II has been approved

- Phase III to be presented to Maintenance & Construction for approval

- The County is starting a lot of new programs at Two Strike

- Fitness Club for Kids starts June 23 – There will be a morning fitness instructor and nutritionist 9-10 am. There will be a senior wellness class 8-9 am.

- CV Park – Summer day camp M-F; martial arts M-F, cheerleading, Hip hop, wrestling, tiny tots, tai chi

- Tyrone Brown is the new Supervisor at CV Park. He can be reached at (818) 249-5940.

- Al Evans cell phone is (661) 510-4149. Please feel free to call him regarding staff or maintenance issues.

- The July 19 Movies in the Park changed to August 2 at Two Strike, 4-9 pm – hot dogs, snow cones, popcorn, cotton candy, movie from dusk to end ( the original Parent Trap). The Parks mobile recreation van and the Mike Perry Band will be there too. It’s all FREE! We will be collecting donations of canned foods to restock the Salvation Army food bank.

- Later, in conjunction with the CV Historical Society, there will be a Dennis Morgan film. Mr. Morgan is responsible for the creation of Two Strike Park.

LA County Department of Regional Planning Connie Chung & Ann Russett, Housing Section

- Working on the LA County Housing Element update, which is part of the State mandated component of the general plan. Every jurisdiction in California must do it. Its purpose is to demonstrate how every jurisdiction needs its fair share of the housing need.

- The Housing Element needs an assessment of current and projected housing needs (6 yr), assessment of factors that influence housing – governmental (density, height) or non-governmental (hillsides, high fire area, wildlife), an inventory of vacant and underutilized sites, an analysis of housing needs for special needs groups (large families, disabled, elderly), and a schedule of improvements in the next 6 years

- It helps establish goals for housing for the next 6 years

- They have been drafting the Housing Element from the fall of 2007. There have been three public hearings and yesterday LARP approved the draft and hopes to receive approval from the Board of Supervisors July 29, 2008.

- After approval by the Board of Supervisors, they will submit it to the state for a 90-day certification review

- Unique characteristics in Unincorporated LA County include a high rate of overcrowding 25%; 26% of households cannot afford the housing they are in; 10,000 homeless individuals; 91% of those are not sheltered.

- The draft Housing Element is available online

- Does this mean there will be a requirement for low income housing everywhere? 57,176 units are needed in unincorporated areas. LA County is not responsible for building those units, just planning for the need. If your jurisdiction does not have enough sites, you could have to rezone. Currently, the analysis shows no rezoning is necessary.

- There is a concern that for many years, Unincorporated La Crescenta has been left out of the loop. La Canada, Glendale and Sunland have been recognized, but La Crescenta is not recognized and the Town Council is not notified or informed. This is why Supervisor Antonovich organized local Town Councils

- Water purveyors must receive a copy of the housing element to coordinate efforts with the County and local jurisdictions.

- 57,176 units – How much of these include moving from outside Southern California or within other areas of Southern California? The Southern California Association of Government (SCAG) did projections. Remember that this was done pre-foreclosure crisis. They look at natural growth/deaths and migration.

- The Water Board is asking us to reduce water usage 20-30%, so how can we take on more housing and residents? Quality of life issues are extremely important. Planning for 57,000 doesn’t mean we will need to build 57,000. The last assessment resulted in building only 42% of the recommendation.

- Should water, power and sewage needs be assessed BEFORE the draft housing element is presented to them water purveyors? They did survey water purveyors in Unincorporated Los Angeles County.

- The draft has already been reviewed by the state and concerns have been expressed so revised the draft can address all concerns.

- They are identifying vacant and underutilized sites and reviewing land use to try to meet that number. There were a couple sites in La Crescenta/Montrose. The rule used is ½ acre. Section 8 provides a housing program for all housing needs, not just low income.

- Do they address open space? Land use encourages open space. If we want to encourage more open space, then we need to address it in a Community Standards District or general plan

- Is there no way to tell the State, here’s the numbers, but we can’t take them? Originally, the number was higher than 57,000 by 800 or so. It was challenged and reduced.

- Motion by Councilmember Pierce and seconded by Councilmember Beatty. Approved - None opposed.

- Motion by Councilmember Beatty and seconded by Councilmember Pierce. Approved - None opposed.

Oak Tree Notices – There is an issue of people trimming and removing oak trees late Friday, or on Saturday or Sunday. The County worked on it and in September, they will be launching a button on their Web site to enter the property address to see if an oak tree permit was issued. If the Sheriff can verify no permit was pulled, they can stop work.

The County requested the Council work with Briggs Terrace residents regarding emergency planning. In September, a meeting will be called with residents, CV CERT and the CV Town Council.

- Move $500 from the Harvest Market to Fundraising – Motion by Councilmember Beyt and seconded by Councilmember Beatty. Approved - None opposed.

- This month’s fundraiser – 2 one year certificates valued at $311.26 retail for Allied Waste Service. Auction goes through July 15.

- The Council will be selling glow sticks for $2 each or 3 for $5 at the July 4^th fireworks

- October 11 will be the pancake breakfast at CV High in conjunction with CV High groups. 7-11 am. The Baptist church has graciously allowed us to use their parking lot for this event.

- Carol Fodera, CV DOGS – It is the one year anniversary of discussing the need for a dog park. CV DOGS has gathered 1,600 local (a total of 2,000 LA County) signatures. www.cvdogs.org has the potential sites suggested for a dog park. Fundraising – For a $25 donation and membership, you get a free shirt. For members, additional shirts cost $15, or you can buy individual shirts for $18. The County has put together a committee of the County Task Force, CV DOGS, and the Town Council to help this move forward.

- Terry Kappen, Family Style Restaurant on Foothill Blvd. A Committee has formed for Foothill restaurateurs for development of a tradition, family style restaurant. Contact Terry at tkappen@yahoo.com or home (818) 249-8805 or contact Councilmember Pierce if interested.

o Parking restrictions can be very difficult and we have tried to mitigate that with the CSD. When passed, it may help ease the parking restrictions.

o There was a suggestion to have a corporation enlist an attorney and make it a stock corporation so people can buy a stake in the restaurant. If everyone had a little piece of the pie, that’s where they would go where their groups could hold meetings.

- Portable stage was supposed to be received today, but has not arrived yet. County Parks will call the manufacturer tomorrow.

- CV Town Council drafted a letter to the Glendale City Council asking them to continue their banner program by adding banners on Foothill Blvd. in the Glendale Annex of La Crescenta. Motion by Councilmember Campbell and seconded by Councilmember Pierce. Approved - None opposed.

- The meeting at the Legion Hall was a success. We might be removing the first set of banners (5) in November. Maybe the ceremony can be November 8 or the evening of November 11, which is Veteran’s Day.

- VFW has a flier for rebuilding the war memorial at Two Strike Park. www.twostrikememorial.com

o Which community groups would like to be asked to participate – Verdugo Montrose Chamber, CV Chamber, CV Historical, and CV Arts Council?

o Determine specific goals – Community-wide campaign and make the final choices in ballot form. The final choice to be done by ballot at the beginning of November.

o Set a timeframe to establish goals – September 1 to launch a News campaign, September 18 in schools, October 1 deadline for submissions, October 16 finalists presented, November 1 for voting on the ballot as part of the CV Tow Council election.

- Councilmember Thomas will be the Chair, with Councilmember Arnold co-Chair or Acting Chair

- Marilyn Masters requested a 4-way stop at Cloud & Altura due to traffic at 3 pm. The request is being reviewed by Public Works and will be referred to the appropriate Department.

- Invited by the Girl Scouts to give awards to the Gold Award achievement winners 3 pm, Saturday, June 21.

- CV Fireworks July 4 – Tickets are $5 each at and can be purchased at Crescenta Valley Insurance, Paul’s Professional Window Washing, or the CV Chamber of Commerce

- (800) 675-4357 is the Graffiti Hotline. Also report graffiti to the Sheriff’s Department.