August 24, 2001
Secretary Diemert was unable to attend the meeting, so former secretary Rob Spahitz took notes. He arrived a few minutes late but was informed that the pledge took place as scheduled, led by Den Leader Jim Frederick and the Linda Vista Peace Luther Church's Junior Webelos Den #278, and that the July minutes were approved.
Members in attendance included: Don Ballantyne, Wayne Bamford, Doug Beckham, Pat Buckmaster, Rick Bussell, Jo-Ann Carini, Gail
Cole, Ed Cramer, Greg Edwards, Roy Hughes, Alfrieda Jackson, Gary Stang, Ron Tomcek
Members not in attendance: Grover Diemert (excused), Jim Horsley, Ester McNulty, Liliani Stiffler
Although the Chair was to report on the redistricting effort created by the 2000 census, instead District 6 Councilmember Donna Frye gave the presentation. She indicated that the recent changes, which appeared to be the last major updates, would include all of Linda Vista in District 6 instead of the current split with District 5.
District 5 representative for Brian Maienschein, Monica Ortiz, indicated that new trees were to be planted near Tait Street and along parts of Comstock Street. She also thanked the group and wished us the best as it appeared that we would no longer have District 5 representation (as per the redistricting efforts.)
76th State Assembly representative for Christine Kehoe, Anthony Wagner, indicated that state vanity license place for Veteran's vehicles would be lowered from $35 to $10.
Police Officer Deborah Borders gave concerning statistics about graffiti call-ins: only two during a recent period, compared with several dozen for such things as auto-related incidents. She indicated that if people don't call in about graffiti, the police depart cannot do anything about taggers. She also indicated that the complaint must come from the affected property owner since this is a private property issue. Citizens can encourage the property owners to make the reports, but the police cannot act on reports from non-property owners. She also requested that callers be patient as there is currently minimal staff to handle such calls, and few patrolling officers assigned to the region (typically 4 to 6 for all of Linda Vista and an equivalent area south of I-8.
Skateworld owner Gary Stang indicated that there would be some upcoming positive press for Skateworld, and therefore Linda Vista, in the Union-Tribune and KSWB-5's "Boy Meets Girl" story. He also indicated that several youth (especially twins Michael and William) had recently done terrific work at cleaning up the park area next door to Skateworld. All they asked in return were a few quarters to use at the Skateworld video games machines. To show his appreciate, Mr. Stang present each of the two boys with a $25 gift certificate good for use at Skateworld. He also requested that the Planning Committee consider such certificates for future good work.
Motion (Stang/Cramer): Set up a nominations program for future meetings.
Motion passed unanimously, and Councilmember Frye suggested that her office would pay for the certificate printing.
Doug Beckham presented, on behalf of the San Diego Park and Recreation Committee, the 2001 "Be a Friend Award" to Jo-Ann Carini and the Maintenance Assessment District group for their efforts in keeping Linda Vista looking great.
The Round-About proposed for Linda Vista Road and Napa Street was discussed by Linda Woodbury, Disability Services Coordinator of the City of San Diego. Since she is totally blind, she presented the city's concerns about how to create a round-about such that pedestrians, especially the disabled, can cross such an intersection. She indicated that the round-about's traffic calming measures are good for increasing traffic flow and reducing traffic accidents, but can actually reduce pedestrian safety because there is less opportunity for crossing, and the blind cannot tell when to cross because of constant noise levels (versus alternating noise levels when traffic flow changes from traffic lights), different angles required to cross roundabouts, and other such things. Her experience in Clearwater, Florida was that there were bad pedestrian problems because of a fountain in the middle (extra noise) and no rumble strips (can hear when cars arrive), and indicated that the low volume traffic and a high-pedestrian area made it very different from our local busy intersection.
The City Water Department's Crystal Huynh and Regan Owen helped present the Sewer and Water Main Replacement Project on Burton, Coolidge and David Streets and the connecting cul-de-sacs between Tait and Kramer Streets (with possible exception to Lake and Morse Courts, which may have been mistakenly omitted.) The group met with the school to ensure that they would have access during the project, which entails replacement of a 60-year old cast iron with a PVC pipe. All streets will be resurfaced except David Street which will be slurry sealed. This seal concerned several members because of past problems.
Cecilia Williams and Nancy Brogado of the Strategic Framework / City of Villages project for the City of San Diego showed a short presentation of community density projects around the city and in various other cities. Ms. Brogado indicated that since the city currently has about 12% open space, and increasing population, people will either spread out or build denser and upward. She also indicated that the project is concerned with the 20-year plan of determining how the community would like to deal with the increasing population considering that sprawl tends to cause traffic congestion, but densification often causes local concerns if not properly implemented. As such, the project looks at how to reduce city congestion by densifying according to community needs including creation of neighborhood "centers," especially where communities have aging shopping centers which need renovation anyway (rather than in single-family blocks.) Aside from the "centers", the project looks at transit within and between communities, how to get more civic public space, walkable communities, etc. Linda Vista has two area which look promising for the renovation: the Morena Trolley Center and the area just north; the central shopping center. The expectations are to redevelop to accommodate a 60% growth over 20 years with an expected increase from the current 10,263 dwelling units (d.u.s) to about 12,360 d.u.'s.
The University of SanDiego (USD) Parking Structure project, proposed and the southwest corner of the USD campus, has had many neighbors up in arms for several months. Our Planning Committee has been working with both sides to ensure a peaceful outcome. As such, the subcommittee for this topic met with residents and USD representatives and expressed concerns over some verbal agreements presented by USD. The subcommittee wrote down the agreements and asked USD to sign them. They indicated that they could not because the wording basically tied their hands to certain things of which they could not necessarily legally commit. After some discussion, some of the concerns were over things that they thought that the city would not allow them to do. A city representative indicated that this was not the case, but USD was not ready to accept this without further investigation. The USD representative, who was relatively new and filling in for Pam Gray (our usual representative) during her absence objected to some of the subcommittee finding and proposed resolutions.
Motion (Bamford/Beckham): Accept the USD subcommittee report.
Motion passed unanimously.
Treasurer's report was of a previous balance of $293.91, with a collection of $35 over the last few months, and a disbursement of $13.69 to cover refreshments, leaving an ending balance of $332.22.
The group adjourned at 9:45pm.
Respectfully submitted for Mr. Diemert,
Rob Spahitz, previous LVCPC secretary