• Planning Commission Meeting June 2018

The June planning commission meeting came with no decisions that the average Wildomartini will ever notice. There were four items on the agenda... and the last item just sought input, and no decision was issued. 

The first three were known as "zone consistency" changes where land that is already being used according to the General Plan Land Use Map were being rezoned to match the GP.

But let's start at the top of the meeting with public comments. There were two. 
     •   Ken Mayes asked why are we still building, issuing permits, when the state has said we are in a severe drought condition. He also spoke about the general plan, and that he wants the city to update it with input from current residents. 
     •   Paul Hayes asked about Baxter Village and what's its status.
If you're unsure what, and or where, Baxter Village is, click the keyword at the bottom of the blog.

After the meeting I had a chance to talk to Paul, and he just was curious as to what the hold up has been with that project... and honestly, I'd like to know too.

This isn't a city/city council/planning commission/city staff issue, it's a developer issue. 

Anyone else remember how many years that Wildomar Square's developer(s) dragged their feet before that place got up and running?

This is on the developer(s) here, and why they would bother to go through all the pain of getting a large project approved, to then just sit on it, is baffling to me. But it's their money, and they can use it how they best see fit. We just don't have to be all hunky-dory about it.

The part of the project's limbo status that bothers me most is that they don't maintain the property to the standards that I'd like to see. 

First, the grove of eucalyptus trees need to be maintained so that it doesn't become another homeless encampment. There is already evidence that at least one person lives among the olive trees there.

There is nothing nice about those trees, unless you like easy access fire hazards with untrimmed brush that goes right down to ground level, giving ample hiding place for a future homeless hangout.

Also, it's an easy-to-reach dumping ground, and they need to put in serious barricades to keep people from being able to drive in there. About two weeks ago I saw that impediments were placed on the dirt road to keep people out, and about five days later the path was cleared. 

The red arrow points to an old tree stump that someone thought would make a impenetrable barrier... ummm, think again. It was easily moved and access to the property was 'restored' to what it was the week before.

This is the type of thing that we need code enforcement to be hounding the property owners about until they do some lasting work in this regard.

This photo was taken in early April. Let's award a gold star to whoever cleaned up this dumping ground, but it's just going to be whack-a-mole if they don't either fence the place or start building.

Back to the meat of the meeting. 

There were four items that were all somewhat similar. None of them have any bearing on our day to day lives so I'm not going to [over] elaborate here, but I will add the video of the entire meeting at the bottom of the blog (less the part where my camera malfunctioned during item 2.1 — that was rather vexing. lol).

They were somewhat similar because they all dealt with zoning consistency in one way or the other. Properties that are being used as they are allowed in the General Plan, but out of sync with the Zoning Map (such a headache).

Here are a couple of paragraphs from the agenda packet on the issue.

When the County of Riverside adopted its General Plan update in 2003, they planned to follow through with a consistency zoning program to rezone all the land in Wildomar that had changed as a result of the update. 

The County never completed the consistency zoning program, thus, when the City incorporated on July 1, 2008, the city inherited a large number of parcels with inconsistent zoning. Government Code Section 65860(c) states that in the event that a zoning designation becomes inconsistent with a general plan land use designation by reason of an amendment or update to the plan, the zoning map shall be amended within a reasonable time so that it is consistent with the general plan as amended. 

It now has been 14 years since the 2003 County General Plan was adopted. While the City has been unable financially to prepare its own consistency zoning program for the hundreds of parcels (350+) that are inconsistent, it is a positive benefit to the city when an Applicant proposes to change the zoning at their expense. 

Of the three items seeking zoning consistency changes —that you'd ever seen before— is on the east side of the freeway, on an unpaved road called Western Way. 

An illustration that was found in the agenda packet indicated the location.

It's a window manufacturing business that is visible on the north side of Baxter. It's really out of the way, and unless you were sightseeing, you could easily have looked right through it.

The arrow points to where the "notice of public hearing" sign was located on the property.

One neighbor spoke his objections to the rezoning, wanting to "keep it residential".

Here's the rub, that land is already being used for light industrial purposes, and has been since before we became a city. It's kind of hard to "keep it residential" when it hasn't been for years, and is actually on the GP as Light Industrial. 

Another zoning consistency item was dealing with a sliver of property behind the westside Starbucks area on an unpaved portion of Stable Lanes Road.

You'll see by the two maps of the same area, that the area is designated as commerical retail (red) on the GP, but still has the placeholder designation of R-R on the zoning map. 

There are no current plans in the works for this property.

Agenda Item #3.1
For as much as this won't actually affect anyone's lives (other than the property owners) this can bog down quickly in the various rules and regulations. 

Quick note, this was a GPIP. If you're not sure what that is, and want to know, click this link to read a past blog on the topic —it's about halfway down the page.

The current location of Wildomar Storage is L-shaped, and the request would be to include two other parcels to the south so they could upgrade and expand.

First let me include some of the language from the agenda packet:
The land use change (and concurrent zone change), if approved, would allow an existing/dilapidated mini-warehouse storage facility to be replaced with a new self storage facility meeting all code requirements.

The Planning Commission, as part of its comments to City Council, could also consider the following: 
• whether allowing the BP land use and M-SC zoning designations at this specific location is an appropriate and/or logical policy decision? 
• is redevelopment of the site to allow a new self-storage facility to replace an existing/dilapidated self-storage facility a good policy decision? 
• could this land use change result in a “de-facto” policy decision that would “open the door” for other legal non-conforming self-storage facilities in the commercial zones to redevelop?

If this was empty land, and someone wanted to put in a self storage yard, where it was neither zoned for it, nor part of the General Plan, this would be a slam dunk "NO".

However, there ALREADY is a self storage yard there, and they are looking to bring it into the 21st century; the owners have used the term "dilapidated" describing its current condition.

A view from Mission Trail courtesy of Google Maps (2016).

A legitimate concern that was noted by Planning Director Matt Bassi dealt with potential consequences of changing the General Plan. 

What if the GP gets amended, and the project doesn't go through? Would that then allow for a manufacturing business to locate there?

The way the rules are written (passed by the council in 2012), storage yards can't be put into commercial retail areas, they go into areas designated as light industrial with a CUP (Conditional Use Permit).

With that 2012 ordinance, it allowed such businesses to exist legally, but restricted them when it came to improving them beyond basic cosmetic upgrades... hence the need to ask for a General Plan Amendment (GPA) now.

Just a preliminary drawing to give a feel of how a rebuilt "Wildomar Storage" could look from Mission Trail. 

Without knowing the ins and outs of such minutiae, I'd think it would be a reasonable expectation that any GPA would be wholly contingent on the plans at hand, or it would simply revert back to its existing designation.

The problem is, that is far too reasonable, and easy to follow, for that to be how things get done on a governmental level. So I wouldn't be surprised if such a logical solution were to be greeted with titters and guffaws by those that do this for a living.

Again, no matter how this gets dealt with by the city council (where it will come before them in July) it's quite preliminary and years away from being anything the rest of us would see, even if "fast tracked".

If you live in district three, visit the website and take a look at my views.
If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask them.

There was a thread that started with Kenny Mayes' public comment at the front of the meeting, that I touched on when addressing Wildomar Storage's GPIP agenda item, and responded to by Planning Director Matt Bassi.

It was about our General Plan, and it having last been updated in 2003 when we were county, and the map redone in 2007 (still before cityhood). 

In my comment I asked how much it would cost to redo the General Plan. 

I asked some direct questions, that really weren't part of the item at hand, but Director Bassi still did his best to answer them without any prep time; kudos to him.

The questions were:
1) How much would it cost for a whole new General Plan, and or complete zone consistency project?
2) As specifically as you can, please estimate how much time such an endeavor would take to complete... both in actual man hours and in weeks/months
3) Why would it cost that much?

Director Bassi's answers begin at the 2:10 mark of the video below. 

I had another two paragraphs on the backside of my notes that I didn't read at the time, but they'll work here.

I ask these questions because I know there isn't a large cash reserve in town, to the point that the city hasn't been able to swap out a $5,000 broken guardrail for more than three years. (my ballpark guess on how much the cost would be)

So a million dollar project, on something that isn't pressing, would seem absurd to have pushed to the front of the line, even if it would be nice to have.

Below is a video of the entire meeting as described above.

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A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.
– Abba Eban

If "consensus" were a bird, Wildomar Rap wouldn't throw it bread crumbs.  

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• City Council Meeting August 2015

It was a fairly short meeting with only one real agenda item (3.1).

Going down the agenda we start with notes from the closed session.

This is where we get updates from the city attorney about pending cases against the city.

Item A was dealing with a case that will be settled with the city's insurance carrier (PARSAC) paying $27,500 and the case will be dismissed. The issue was dealing with a car accident (those were all the details I could get.)

Item B was a case challenging the city's adoption of the General Plan. A few months ago the trial judge ruled in favor of the city, but heaven forbid the knotheads behind this suit think that the ruling of some pedestrian trial judge be good enough for them, so they appealed and the city council unanimously voted to defend the appeal.

Presentations

Steve Beach as Rotary Club Citizen of the Year.

L-R: Bridgette Moore, members of Cal Fire, Ben Benoit, Steve Beach,
Marsha Swanson, Tim Walker, Bob Cashman, Joel Vela.

Dave Fontneau was speaking about Cops For Kids and some of the upcoming fundraisers they will be having. (see posters at bottom of the blog)

Left to Right: Marsha Swanson, Bridgette Moore, Ben Benoit, Dave Fontenot, Time Walker, Bob Cashman.
Foreground: hands of Janet Morales working the DSLR.

☻
Public Comments (on non agenda items)

• Sheila Urlaub was discussing Lost Road.
• Kenny Mayes spoke on a several things including the city website.
• Joseph Morabito suggested a second clock should be added to the council chambers.

3.1 Community Meeting Room and Rental Policy

This passed 5-0 and here is the takeaway from it.

The room is can be rented for $8 an hour. That is with a $100 deposit and a $30 processing fee.

To prevent people from trying to open up a business at city hall, you can only rent the room once a month... though there is an exception if you are a non-profit organization.

Wednesdays and Sundays the room isn't available.

I asked for some clarification about what the $30 processing fee was for. It covers the paperwork and confirming insurance coverage. It is only charged once per year per group.

I then asked if there was a small group, that isn't organized yet, that wanted to rent the room, but didn't have insurance, if there was a provision for them. The answer is yes, and you can get insurance through the city... though that sounded like an ordeal in itself to me.

☻   ☻   ☻

A reminder of things coming up:
Chamber Mixer at the Santa Rosa Plateau Thursday August 13th and a movie in the park Saturday the 15th.

From the Cops For Kids website.

•      •      • 

"Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers." Which is why a 'little knowledge' is a dangerous thing, but a little wisdom can save the world. 

—  EG Marshall, CBS Radio Mystery Theater

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• General Plan Update Meeting Recap

Tonight's meeting was attended by very few people and it was over in about 40 mins.

There were only a three public speakers following a 15 minute presentation by Mark Teague. For all the hand wringing done about our city needing a "Wildomar Specific" General Plan, you'd have thought that some of the usual suspects would have come to register their opinions. Instead, there were next to no people there. Not counting myself, or those connected to the city in some way, I think there were less than half a dozen average Wildomarians there.

 The power point presentation will be on the city's website this week. 

http://cityofwildomar.org/ 

My favorite exchange was between longtime resident Sheila Urlaub and Matt Bassi on the topic of lawsuits.



There will be a workshop style meeting this March 5th. This is where you're supposed to bring your photos of things you like or dislike about how you'd like Wildomar to look. 

Click for the blog about workshop number one back in December

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Come on, man up already and start following Wildomar Rap on FaceBook.

• Workshop #1, What Is Wildomar?

That was the theme of the Planning Commission meeting of December 4th, 2013.

 Mark Teague gave a presentation on the 2014 Wildomar General Plan Update, and true to his word it was an actual "Workshop" style meeting. Very refreshing change of pace from the usual meetings. Sad part is that I counted eleven people in the audience. 

For all the endless squawking I hear about Wildomar, and how 'we should do this', or 'not do that'... it sure looks like there are a lot of people that prefer to flap their gums about it, than show up and try and make a difference. 

______________________________________________________________________

When it comes to the general plan, they've assigned us all homework.

Take Pictures of things you like, and things you don't like.

 Specifically of things that you'd like Wildomar to resemble,

and things you don't want it to resemble. 

            Try

            and

            guess

            which

            one

            I'm

            partial

            to...

Send your photos to Planning Director Matt Bassi

mbassi@cityofwildomar.org

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I have mixed reviews of the meeting. 

First, it was a good format with the audience interaction. Had there been more people there, it might have really gotten going. I liked the presentation and the input by the members of the community. My problem is... I don't get it. 

Sorry, but it didn't seem realistic. It's important to remember what Wildomar is, and not try to pretend otherwise. In the words of Planning Commissioner Stan Smith, "Wildomar is basically a bedroom community." 

That isn't a slur, it's a good thing and it's our reality... but you need to understand that we FLAT OUT are NEVER going to have a Performing Arts Center here (And yes, that was not only in the "top 10 list" of wants, it was at the TOP of the list, from the last General Plan of 2008, of things people wanted in our city). 

If you build it, they will come...

We'd be better off aiming for something more feasible...  like 4 cops on duty at the same time.

For all the talk of 'desiring businesses to move in' is nice, but I'd like to see the list of businesses trying to open up that we are refusing. Anyone? 

I imagine you've heard the old saying,

"You Snooze, You Lose." 

Well, way back when, Wildomar decided to stay in the 20th century, and the spoils have already been divided among our neighboring cities. There aren't lines of important businesses waiting to (re)locate here... they've either decided to skip California, or they've already set down roots a few miles north, south or east of us... other than Walmart that is... and many people are fiercely against them. 

But I don't want to stop those that want to dream of grandiose things for our city... 

playing make believe is great fun. ☺

_________________________________________________________

What you need to know is that Workshop #2 is scheduled for

February 5, 2014. 

If you have an opinion about Wildomar's General Plan, you need to be there. If you have an opinion, and don't show up... you need to keep your opinions to yourself in the future.

__________________________________

Two other bits of news.  

1) Stan Smith was voted to be Chairman again by a 3-1 vote, and Veronica Langworthy was voted in as Vice Chair by the same vote. Applications are still being taken for the vacant seat on the Commission. Contact the city if you're interested... times running out on that one.

2) Someone needs to let Stan know that Mr. Mayes' name is Kenny, not Kevin. ☺