CITY OF HIDDEN HILLS
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
VIA TELECONFERENCE IN COMPLIANCE WITH
GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 54953(E)
Monday, February 14, 2022 at 5:30 p.m.
Consistent with Government Code Section 54953(e) (Assembly Bill 361), all members of the Hidden Hills City Council or staff may participate in this meeting via a teleconference and such teleconference locations are not accessible to the public and are not subject to special posting requirements. Members of the public may participate in the meeting electronically as indicated further below. The City Council Chambers will not be open to the public. If you are an individual with a disability and need a reasonable modification or accommodation pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") please contact Deana Gonzalez at 818-888-9281 or [email protected].
MINUTES
CALL TO ORDER
A regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Hidden Hills was duly held via teleconference on Monday, February 14, 2022 at the hour of 5:30 p.m. Mayor Laura McCorkindale called the meeting to order and presided thereover.
ROLL CALL
Council: Mayor Laura McCorkindale
Council Member Eniko Gold
Council Member Larry G. Weber
Staff: City Manager Kerry Kallman
City Attorney Roxanne Diaz
City Engineer Dirk Lovett
City Clerk Deana L. Gonzalez
Absent: Mayor Pro Tem Steve Freedland
Council Member Stuart E. Siegel
Upon MOTION of Council Member Weber, seconded by Council Member Gold, and unanimously approved by roll call vote, it was resolved to excuse the absence of Mayor Pro Tem Freedland and Council Member Siegel.
City Council Minutes
February 14, 2022
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Upon MOTION of Council Member Weber, seconded by Council Member Gold and unanimously carried on a roll call vote, it was resolved that the agenda for the February 14, 2022 regular meeting be approved as submitted.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
City Offices will be closed on Monday, February 21, 2022 in honor of Presidents' Day.
AUDIENCE
There were no comments.
CITY COUNCIL COMMENTS
Mayor McCorkindale wished everyone a Happy Valentine's Day, and also congratulated the Los Angeles Rams, and our Hidden Hills resident standouts, on their Superbowl victory. They represented the Great City of Hidden Hills and the County of Los Angeles extremely well.
STAFF COMMENTS
City Manager Kallman announced that the COVID-19 testing site that was opened previously at the Agoura/Calabasas Community Center will close at the end of the week.
OLD BUSINESS
Update on the 2021-2029 Housing Element and Approval of a Budget Adjustment Request to Complete the Housing Element Project
City Engineer Lovett presented the following report:
this is an ongoing process that the City is required to do every eight (8) years, which is adopt a Housing Element; the City Council conducted a study session on November 15 to review the draft Housing Element and solicit public comments, with a second public City Council Minutes
February 14, 2022
meeting on November 22, which authorized staff to submit the draft Housing Element to the California Department of Housing and Community Development ("HCD") for review; HCD issued a letter on January 21, 2022 finding that the draft element addresses many statutory requirements and revisions which will be necessary to comply with State Housing Element Law; staff, the City Attorney and our housing consultant have begun to analyze HCD's comments and will be preparing a revised Housing Element for review by the City Council and other interested parties at a public meeting in the near future; staff requests City Council direction to prepare a revised draft Housing Element and schedule a subsequent meeting to review proposed responses to HCD comments and Housing Element revisions, after which the revised draft Housing Element would then be submitted to HCD for additional review; the City Council previously approved $71,280 plus reimbursable expenses to prepare the Housing Element; due to the vagueness of new State laws and HCD comments in their review letter, it is uncertain what changes to the Housing Element will be necessary to obtain HCD certification and the Consultant has requested a budget adjustment increase of $7,500.
Council Member Weber confirmed that the City submitted a first draft and this long list came back based on our draft? What is the possibility of the City submitting draft number two and it is returned with a lot more corrections?
The City's consultant, John Douglas explained that following:
at this point, it is difficult to predict the outcome of the second draft; one statistic that is very telling is that there are 197 jurisdictions within our SCAG region, and only two of those have received approval from the State; the Housing Element is part of the City's general plan, and the general plan is the overriding goal for the future development of the City; State law requires cities include a housing element to address housing issues in the Community; the focus of that exercise is on demonstrating that cities have enough land with the right zoning that can accommodate additional housing development. commensurate with the needs that have been identified by the state and by SCAG, so it's a fairly lengthy detailed document that goes through, and analyzes a number of things, but the real focus of that document is on does the City have enough capacity and the right kind of zoning that can accommodate future housing needs; as you well know, Hidden Hills, is a very unusual community that creates some complexities in this process; and so state from Sacramento is looking broadly at all jurisdictions and one of our challenges is trying to impress upon them, the unique situation that communities like Hidden Hills, have, for example, the Community Association and the very limited amount of land that is available.
City Council Minutes
February 14, 2022
Upon MOTION of Council Member Weber, seconded by Council Member Gold and carried on roll call vote, it was resolved to direct staff to prepare a revised draft Housing Element addressing HCD comments and authorize staff to increase the JHD Planning, LIC budget in the amount not to exceed $7,500.
NEW BUSINESS
A. Consideration of Approval of the Additional Service Authorization with RRM Design Group in an amount not to exceed $57,000 to Develop a Draft ADU Ordinance, Draft Development Standards for the City's Commercial Restricted and Community Use Zones, and On Call Planning Services
the City has been able to handle all planning efforts one of four ways, John Douglas being one of them who assists with the Housing, the City Engineer has handled planning and switches titles to planning consultant with some smaller items including a development project, and the City Attorney helps with planning, the municipal code and interpretation of ordinances, and the HHCA assists with the Architectural Committee with the Aloney tel architectural standards; while that has worked for some time now, the City's mandates and responsibilities related to Planning have increased, mainly due to recent legislation handed down by Sacramento related to increasing housing, including legislative actions related to Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), SB9 "lot splits" and increased scrutiny on the City's Housing Element; this past fall the City contracted with a planning firm, RRM, to assist staff in the development of an urgency ordinance related to implementing SB9; the successful implementation of the SB9 Urgency Ordinance has made staff of the belief that the City should continue association with RRM on three projects, including an updated ADU Ordinance in the amount of $16,500, the update and/or creation of development standards for the City's Commercial Use Zone and Community Use Zones in the amount of $35,500, and on call planning services for an additional budget allotment of $5,000; accordingly, a budget adjustment of is requested in the amount of $57,000.
Council Member Weber inquired as to how long this project would take.
Diane Bathgate, the Principal at RRM responded:
that as there are several tasks as Mr. Kallman mentioned, it depends, but she thinks that RRM can return a draft ordinance in about four to six weeks, the initial draft, and then some refinement, but that's a general timeline to be anticipated; for the development standards, one thing about our design group that she wanted to mention is that they're about 150 professionals and they're a mixture or multi discipline firm, so they have architects architect planners, urban designers, engineers and surveyor; the reason why she City Council Minutes
February 14, 2022
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mentioned their monthly disciplinary background is that a lot of times they partner with architects to truth test the standards that are proposed for certain types of uses, they actually have as part of their scope for the affordable housing overlay, to do a conceptual site plan to show, to treat test the standards that are being considered, and also to help share with the City Council and the Community what one of those standards looks and feels like.
Upon MOTION of Council Member Gold, seconded by Council Member Weber and carried on roll call vote, it was resolved to authorize the City Manager to execute the Additional Service Authorization with RRM design Group and approve a budget adjustment in the amount of $57,000.
B. Consideration of a Request from the Hidden Hills Community Association for City Approval of the Installation of Tennis Court Lights at the Spring Valley Arena Site and Approval of an Amendment to Lease Between the City and the Association for the Lease and Use of City Property
City Engineer Lovett presented the following report:
as the City Council is aware, the HHCA would like to install lights on the Spring Valley tennis courts (which are owned by the City and leased to the HHCA), and submitted a request on January 21, 2022 stating such; the HHCA is requesting to six (6) lights on cach court, for a total of twelve (12); the proposed lights will be controlled with photo cell and timers to come on at dusk and turn off at 8 p.m.; the HHCA also submitted some specifics regarding the location of the lights, recent test results, equipment, and photometrics, along with a brochure and product endorsement from the International Dark Sky Association; in stan of sie its shinid bet by coded and bedre the A can i rie. approve the HHCA request with conditions discussed above, approve an amendment to the lease, which indemnifies the City, and execute and transmit a letter of written approval to the HHCA.
Council Member Gold asked if there are examples of the hoods or shields the City would approve?
City Council Minutes
February 14, 2022
Mr. Lovett and Mr. Kallman replied that there is a spec sheet provided in the packet with different options for shields, which was provided by the HHCA. Mr. Lovett also confirmed that the general manager of the HHCA was notified about the glaring situation that he observed and the recommendations he will be bringing forth in his staff report.
HHCA Board President David Stanley addressed the Council:
untortunately, he was not aware about there being any sort of a glare issue; he's the one who actually has had these installed in the past, and would expect them to be equipped with baffles; if he had known this was going to be an issue, he would have been sure to have the representative from the lighting company on board; since this has already been delayed.
Extensively he hopes that the City Council understands that that was the whole concept, and that here is no intention of lighting up the neighbors or any of the surrounding area; he also wanted to mention that the Community is overwhelmingly supportive of this request.
Upon MOTION of Council Member Gold, seconded by Council Member Weber and carried on roll call vote, it was resolved to approve the HHCA's request to install NLS VUE Series LED lights at the Spring Valley tennis courts with the following conditions: (a) Lights shall be hooded and/or directed to confine the lighting within the limits of the property from which they emanate, without glaring onto adjoining properties, trails or roadways, to the satisfaction of the City Engineer, and (b) lights shall be controlled by photocell sensors and timers with respect to the 8 p.m. shut off; approve the Amendment of Lease, and authorize the City Manager to finalize and execute the written letter of approval and transmit to the HHCA.
CONSENT CALENDAR
A. City Council Minutes - January 21, 2022 Special Meeting B. City Council Minutes - January 24, 2022 Regular Meeting C. Recond eration of the Circumstances of the COVID 19 State of Emergency and D.
Determine that the City will Continue to Hold Meetings Via Teleconferencing Pursuant to the Finding Set Forth in Government Code Section 54953(e)(3) City Council Minutes
February 14, 2022.
Upon MOTION of Council Member Weber, seconded by Council Member Gold and unanimously carried on roll call vote, it was resolved to approve items A, B, C and D of the consent calendar as submitted.
PUBLIC HEARING
Consideration of Approval of a Request for a Filming Permit at 25211 Jim Bridger Road City Manager Kallman presented the following report:
on January 12, the City received the attached film permit application concerning a proposed one-day shoot at 25211 Jim Bridger Road; on February 4, the City issued the attached public hearing notice for the proposed project, and as required by the City's Municipal Code, the public hearing notice was sent to all residences within 1000 feet of the property; the proposed filming date is February 16; all insurance and permits have been acquired except for the City's; staff is recommending the following conditions for the film permit: A maximum of one-day of filming allowed, no filming between the hours of 8 pm and 8 am; all filming must occur at 25211 Jim Bridger Road and no other properties may be included in the filming, no driving shots within the City, no special effects, no generator use allowed as part of the film production, all vehicles and equipment associated with the film production must park on property or off site. No on street parking, all LA County requirements related to COVID-19 safety protocols must be adhered to the entire time, and an LA County Fire safety Inspector must be on site during the duration of the production; the City has received a check in the amount of $300 for filming fees from the production company; on Saturday the HHCA placed a moratorium on commercial filming for 120 days, which would has an effect on this; they're going to review their filming process or rules they have, but at this point they placed a moratorium on all commercial filming for 120 days; but we're the City, and they went through the process they were supposed to be, set the conditions and at this point, it goes back to the City Council to make a decision on this application.
Mayor McCorkindale opened the public hearing. As there were no questions from the City Council, Mayor McCorkindale asked if anyone from the public would like to speak.
At this point, John Carr, the Executive Producer and Showrunner of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Bravo/Evolution Media, addressed the Council. In general, a new cast member of the show lives in Hidden Hills. They've been filming with her all season and are at the very end of the season, so they thought they ought to see where she lives, so it's as simple as that they want to come in with one crew, which they keep small and just observe her in her home environment for City Council Minutes
February 14, 2022
several hours in the span of one day and that's the scope of our ambition. They don't ever need to be off of her property.
The City received two emails, one from Lori Giannuli and one from David Stanley, objecting to the granting of the film permit.
Council Member Weber asked the Executive Producer if the show is Housewives of Beverly Hills, why do they need to film in Hidden Hills?
Mr. Carr explained that the women on the show actually live all over Los Angeles, but when the show first started, they were all living in Beverly Hills.
As there were no further comments, Mayor McCorkindale closed the public hearing. Mayor McCorkindale would like to have some Council deliberation on this topic before the Council votes.
She explained to the audience after received some calls and questions, that people are concerned about the filming. Unlike most of the decisions that your City Council makes which are legislative, this decision is in a different category for Council, this is called a quasi-judicial decision, which means it's akin to a court proceeding, and this is different than the HOA. This is something that is very specific to cities. The City has a process and a permit requirement process, and from her review of the staff report, looking at the emails received, and all of the facts, this application absolutely meets the City's criteria. She just wants the public to understand that our opinions as Council Members or our desires don't really matter in this sort of deliberation as the codes that are set, are the criteria that we have to look at. There was no further deliberation or discussion from any Council Members on this topic.
Upon MOTION of Council Member Weber, seconded by Council Member Gold and carried on a roll call, it was resolved to approve the request for a filming permit to allow one day of filming (2/16/22), and subject to the conditions stated above, at 25211 Jim Bridger Road for the upcoming episode of "Housewives of Beverly Hills."
City Council Minutes
February 14, 2022
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business to come before the Council, the meeting was adjourned at 6:31 p.m.
Imccorkendall
aura McCorkındale, Mayor