The meeting opened at 6:00 p.m. by Donna Erickson, Chair. Members present: Bamford, Beckham, Bussell, Carini, Castro, Cole, Corley, Duncan, Erickson, Morgen, Shannon, Spahitz, Stang, Tomcek, Wilson, Members absent: Cleary, Hughes, Perwin, Riquelme, Rodriquez. Quorum established.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all 27 in attendance.
Public Comment
Sheila Hardin from the CCDC office announced their office is now located downtown in Horton Plaza. The land for the redevelopment project, 20% of that land was acquired by eminent domain. The project at 7th and Market St., a 4.9 million dollar project, is in jeopardy due to a conflict of interest with the former president and the developer. Ms. Hardin answered several more of the questions given to her by the Linda Vista Planning Group on the Downtown Bus Tour. She mentioned that increased density coupled with the water shortage provided challenges. “Developers will have to be smarter about development and the current green building code has volunteer incentives.” She stated that some projects will be on hold for quite a while. The percentage of Park land is 9% (13.1A) of the Downtown land base.
Action Items (Chair does not vote unless there is a tie.)
1. Approval of LVPG July 28, 2008 minutes as written. Motion: Castro, 2nd: Cole, Vote: 11-0-3 Carini, Morgen, Wilson not present at the meeting – abstained. Approval of August 11, 2008 minutes as written Motion: Wilson, 2nd Castro. Vote: 10-0-4 Bussell, Corley, Shannon, and Stang not present at the meeting – abstained.
2. Approval of taking the word “knowingly”, found in Article III, Sec 6 and Article IX, Sec 2 out of the Linda Vista Planning Group Bylaws because it directly conflicts with the Brown Act. Further, the LVPG requested that there be equal representation for each of the 7 census tracts, therefore a total of 21 members (Article III, Sec 1) and in Article V, Sec 1, LVPG Board candidates should have attended 3 of the last 6 planning group meetings so they could make an informed decision when voting. Motion: Erickson, 2nd Morgen Vote 14-0-0 in favor.
3. Margarita Castro, chair of the Zoning Committee reported that many unresolved Cycle Review issues have come before them: Metro Wine, #154083 has 16 items and AT&T Kearny Mesa Park Wireless Facility #156016 has 23 items. Therefore the LVPG is postponing a vote until applicants resubmit all requested documents to the City and until the LVPG receives a final assessment letter.
4. La Tiendita de Linda Vista Market beer license. Discussion: Mr. Bamford does not recommend the beer license to the market because this would increase the allowed number of licenses in the area. The market is too close to residential, church, schools and the library. The crime rate is already high in this area. Motion not to allow the liquor license: Bamford, 2nd: Wilson. Since the owner of the business was unable to attend this meeting Rick Bussell felt that this item should be tabled until the next meeting. Motion to table decision on the beer license: Bussell, 2nd: Beckham. Vote: unanimously in favor.
Motion was made to reappoint Gail Cole as the LVPG Representative to the North Bay Redevelopment Committee. Motion: Castro, 2nd: Wilson. Vote: unanimously in favor.
Informational items
Government/Agency Reports
Susan Davis’ office: Katherine Fortner handed out The Davis Dispatch to all in attendance. Davis will attend the USD water conference and the Bayside News conference. Upcoming events include grant writing, small business, and home foreclosure workshops.
onna Frye’s office: Mark Sauer reported that the City Council is dark during August.
City Redevelopment Plans for the Skateworld building, Morley Strip and the vacant lot on the corner of Comstock St. and Linda Vista Rd.
Libby Day, along with Jasmine Kim and Shani Pak, were present from the City’s Redevelopment Agency. Time allotted for the power–point presentation and questions was one hour. Handouts of the slides were given to the LVPG Board. The discussion began with the issue of blight, which consists of the physical and economic conditions within an area that cause a reduction of, or lack of, proper utilization of that area. The goal of redevelopment is to eliminate blight and improve economic and physical conditions in designated areas of the City. Redevelopment rebuilds and improves existing neighborhoods promoting renovation and sponsoring improvements that are focused on the growth of the community.
No specific or current area of blight in the Linda Vista Redevelopment parcels were identified by Ms. Day in her presentation, yet in 1975 the shopping center, Parcel A, was considered a blight to the City. Board members questioned if Parcel A was acquired by eminent domain. Day responded that she did not know. Don Ballantyne stated that all three parcels, A, B and C, were forcibly taken from him by the City in 1976 through eminent domain.
Perceived errors continued to be pointed out by Board members and the audience as Day went over some more history of Linda Vista. She reported that in November 1972 the LV Redevelopment Plan was approved by the City of San Diego. In August 1975 John S. Griffith Company received an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) and in September 1975 there was discussion of Don McLane’s property, part of Parcel B, or was this actually part of Don Ballantyne’s property? Questions and confusion reigned and there was no clarification by Day. She continued on noting that in December 1975 Griffith Co. DDA (Disposition Development Agreement) was established. Libby Day pointed out that in April 1979 the original Skateworld lease was started. From the audience, after recusing himself from the Board, Gary Stang stated that his lease started in October 1976, not in 1979, and it was a month to month lease. In December 1982 Skateworld received a 20 year lease. LVPG Board members asked how much the City spent on the upkeep of Skateworld during that 20 year lease. No answer was given.
More questions were asked and went unanswered especially about the goals for Linda Vista. There were so many generalizations and the audience and Board members wanted specifics. For example, what are the “incompatible land uses, obsolete structures” mentioned in the slides?
June 1999: HazMat Removal at 6901 Linda Vista Rd. (location of a former gas station). Day stated a letter was received that no further action was required. The LVPG Board members requested a copy of the letter be given to the Board that contains this information. Additionally, the LVPG Board requested to know who paid for this clean up.
Libby continued her historical time line. In December 2002 Skateworld received a 3 year lease. May 11, 2005 was a LU&H (Land Use & Housing) committee meeting. Donna Erickson provided everyone with the minutes of that meeting which reported the following motion by Donna Frye and seconded by Councilmember Young:
“1) With respect to the Skateworld property: enter into negotiations for a long term lease with an option to purchase with the current lessee (Gary Stang) with direction to respect the historic nature of the building and further research its historical significance, enhance the appearance of the project while maintaining the existing character of its tenant base, and provide an opportunity for the Linda Vista Community Planning Group to review and comment on any proposal before it is brought to the Redevelopment Authority for consideration.
2) With respect to the corner lot: issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for development of the site.” The vote was 4-0 in favor with Councilmember Peters absent.
Backtracking a bit, LVPG Board members asked about the Community Survey. Libby reported that the Katz Survey was done in 2004. It was considered very comprehensive. Rob Spahitz read for the record the planning group minutes of October 25, 2004 in which the Group supported Skateworld. (The full motion can be accessed on the planning group’s web page.)
Since Betty Rodriguez was absent, the Chair gave a brief synopsis of her Linda Vista Civic Association Minutes for November 18, 2004 General Membership Meeting in which Wayne Bamford, 2nd by Janet Kaye made a motion to support, in its entirety, the LVCPC motion of October 25, 2004 concerning the Katz Survey. This survey showed that 82% of the respondents wanted more entertainment for kids and 75% wanted more parks and open spaces.
Day continued on reporting that in January 2006 there was a new mayor and different form of government which changed the dynamics and put the focus on money with regard to the three Linda Vista parcels, A, B, and C. Erickson interjected that there was more than a strong mayor form of government; there was also a pension scandal and a major City financial crisis.
The Mayor directed the Redevelopment Agency to evaluate highest and best use of the property. The Redevelopment Agency owns these three parcels, not Real Estate Assets.
On June 17, 2008 Donna Frye directed the Redevelopment Agency to continue to negotiate with Mr. Stang. The LVPG Board asked Day if they were doing that. She replied that she did not know. The LVPG Board asked Stang if they were negotiating with him and he replied, “No.” When asked about how they determine highest and best use of a property, Day replied, “It can be subjective.”
A question was asked regarding the status of Morley Strip being removed from the Development Agency and going into the Park and Rec inventory. The plan is for this to occur in 2012. Tax assessment from the shopping center located on Linda Vista Rd. pays into the MAD for Morley Strip.
Reports by Committee Chairs/Announcements
Jo-Ann Carini inquired about the August 19, 2008 Meeting with Mesa regarding the MND mitigation amendment. Traffic Chair, Doug Beckham, emphasized that the amendment dealt with a matter that had already been discussed – the left turn lane at Mesa College Drive and Ashford. Rick Bussell then pointed out that the planning group was already on record to deny the amendment. There was no further discussion.
Sandy Duncan, treasurer was presented with the LVPG checkbook with a balance of $436.86.
Traffic, Beckham chair: Quarry Falls is going before the City Council. A suggestion was made to contact our representative to let them know the impact Quarry Falls will have on the interchange at Fashion Valley.
JoAnn Carini: The weekly Code Compliance is tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. The director of code compliance will be in attendance.
Meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Kathleen Morgen, recording secretary.