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MINUTES
CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING
JANUARY 25, 2022
CALL TO ORDER
The regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Highland was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Mayor McCallon at the Donahue Council Chambers, 27215 Base Line, Highland, California.
The invocation was given by Pastor Stephen Jones, Immanuel Baptist Church, and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Council Member Chavez.
ROLL CALL
Present: Chavez, Lilburn, McCallon, Solano, Timmer
Absent: None
REPORT FROM CLOSED SESSION
None
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
None
PUBLIC COMMENT (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA)
Douglas Ingmire spoke regarding his concerns with blight in his neighborhood.
CITY COUNCIL CONSENT CALENDAR
A MOTION was made by Council Member Solano, seconded by Council Member Chavez, to approve the consent calendar as submitted. Motion carried on a roll call vote, 5-0.
1. Waive the Reading of All Ordinances
Waived the reading of all Ordinances in their entirety and read by title only.
2. Minutes – January 11, 2022 City Council Regular Meeting Approved the Minutes as submitted.
3. Warrant Register
Approved Warrant Register No. 736 for January 25, 202 2, in the amount of $1,766,309.47 and Payroll of $139,059.82.
4. Treasurer’s Report for December 2021
Received and filed Treasurer’s Report for December 2021.
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5. CalRecycle Grant Programs Application Authorization and Senate Bill 1383 Local Assistance Grant Program
Adopted Resolution No. 2022-004 authorizing the submittal of applications for all grant programs offered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery and authorized the City Manager or his/her designee to execute all documents on its behalf.
RESOLUTION NO. 2022-004
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF HIGHLAND,
CALIFORNIA, AUTHORIZING SUBMITTAL OF APPLICATION(S) FOR ALL
CALRECYCLE GRANTS FOR WHICH THE CITY OF HIGHLAND IS ELIGIBLE
6. Bid Award – YMCA Pool Building Skylight Replacement
Awarded the construction contract for the YMCA Pool Building Skylight Replacement to the responsive low bidder, Diamond Sheet Metal , in the amount of $58,850.00.
CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARING
7. General Plan Amendment No. GPA 21 -003 to Amend Three (3) Elements of the Highland General Plan Including Adoption of the Sixth (6th) Cycle 2021 -2029 Housing Element, Update to the Public Health, Safety and Environmental Justice Element, and Minor Amendment of the Circulation Element
Mayor McCallon opened the public hearing.
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated t hank you , g ood evening, Mayor and Members of the City Council. This evening we will review updates to the City’s General Plan with respect to three of its mandatory elements, public health, safety and environmental justice, the housing element, and the circulation element. First, we will look at the public health, safety, and environmental justice element that addresses both the natural and human caused hazards. The goals, policies, and actions of this element are tailored to mitigate, prepare, and respond from hazards . For the first time , this element includes an environmental justice element as required by state la w. Environmental justice addresses disadvantaged communities, referred to as DACs, which identify low- income areas that are disproportionately affected by pollution and hazards. Issues of environmental justice and equity are threaded throughout the plan. You will notice these in consideration of access to resources, healthy foods, safe parks, and sidewalks to name a few. So, there are ten goals in this element which begin on page 355 of your staff report. The first four are shown here. Goal one looks to mitigate air pollution through policies to reduce air pollution from cars, and contains programs meant to protect residents near major roads. Two, uses trees and building retrofits to mitigate against extreme heat. Three, spans mitigation for multiple hazards including flooding, wildfire , seismic hazards, and hazardous waste, and four, covers preparation for hazards, which mainly includes educating the public as well as identifying programs that help residents become more ready to respond. Five through ten are focused more on environmental justice, but also
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overlap the health and safety. Five, focuses on limiting and remediating pollution in disadvantaged communities. Six, promotes healthy food through food distribution and gardening programs. Seven addresses hazards experienced in the home of DACs with actions including lead paint testing , home retrofit programs, home assistance and more. Goal eight looks to improve park equity through programs and enhancements related to park access, park quality, and park programming. The final two goals are related to how Highland engages with residents of DACs and how the programs that impact DACs are dealt with. These include actions such as youth engagement , funding prioritization, and progress tracking. Public outreach is a critical piece of this element. Outreach methods were designed to engage a wide range of community members and generate ideas and feedback representing broad perspectives of local residents. Due to COVID-19, a hybrid in-person and virtual outreach was pursued to ensure health related barriers did not limit participation. We h eld one Joint City Council and Planning Commission meeting, two virtual public workshops, five stakeholder interviews and one online survey. Section two summarizes the feedback gathered and copies of the individual results are located in the appendix. Next, we move on to the housing element that begins on page nine of your staff report. Now the housing element is an element of the general plan that is required to be updated every eight years. We are entering the eighth required iteration of the housing element, which we refer to as the 6th cycle, and it contains goals, policies, and actions to address the comprehensive housing needs of current and anticipated residents of all income levels. The housing element update is an extensive process that consists of several stages and components. The stakeholder and community engagement goes on throughout the process. First, we review the previous housing element with updates to all the background documentation, including needs assessment, fair housing, land use pattern, and disproportionate needs. In addition, there is an inventory of city land. It is conducted to demonstrate that the sites are available to accommodate the housing and capacity. Here is a quick review of how the goals, policies, and objectives kind of relate to one another, with the goals being kind of a high-level, long-term vision going down all the way to our programs, which are specific, implementable actions that carry out the policies. So, you hear a lot about the RHNA [Regional Housing Needs Assessment]. This is an overview of the City’s regional housing needs, also known as RHNA, and the sites analysis and inventory portion of the housing element update. One of the key components of the housing element includes the sites analysis and inventory and, while the City is not responsible for building the housing, it must identify the sites available in a manner that makes the RHNA targets possible. So, our RHNA allocation for the next cycle is 2,513 units. There is a buffer of 15% to 30% is what is recommended from HCD for lower and moderate income. The buffer is also needed to ensure that there is enough capacity throughout the City to plan for additional lower and moderate- income units. The City must make these available in a way that the targets can be met so probably this is the strategy that is used. First, we look at all projects that are in what we call the permit pipeline and expected to receive the C of O during that eight-year period. Then we calculate the number of anticipated ADUs and then if the number still is not met, then we look at capacity on the vacant sites and those include vacant and underutilized that are available for redevelopment. The map shown here demonstrates all the vacant and underutilized sites in the City for low or moderate and above moderate RHNA, as
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well as projects that are currently in the pipeline counted towards the 6th cycle. We talk a lot about capacity, and here is what the numbers look like. When you factor in the pipeline projects, projects of ADUs, vacant and underutilized, we end up with 3,188 units ; 1,390 above mod, 518 mod, 1,280 towards the lower RHNA. The housing element programs focus on five main goals which are shown on the screen; preserved and enhanced housing stock , d iverse range of adequate housing supply , a dequate sites, and resources for a variety of housing types.
Affordable housing supply for extremely low, very low, low, and mod, and a broad range of housing types to meet the diverse needs of all types of housin g for Highland residents. Many of the programs in the ele ments include a response to recent legislative changes. These include updates, the density bonus program, and incentives for lot consolidation to facilitate affordable housing, continued implementation of our Inclusionary Housing Ordinance , which is already in place, and identifying opportunities to use those funds. On those sites that were identified in the last two housing element cycles and are being re -identified at this cycle , a program is needed to allow by right development where 20% or more of the u nits are affordable. The State has approved lots of legislation regarding housing. We made sure to identify programs where needed for these. Again, these are some that you are familiar with , ADUs, emergency shelters, supportive housing, low barrier navigation centers, etc. Those are found within the individual programs and policies in the document . P rograms related to housing assistance and h ousing rehabilitation; this is a program that is ran by San Bernardino County that is available to Highland re sidents. The City will continue to increase awareness of available programs through the County. We also continue to participate with the Housing Authority’s Voucher Program making information on that available on our website and we will continue to provide resources that connect residents with the City and the County. Before she concludes the presentation on the housing element portion, she does need to bring to your attention and read into the record three modifications from the City Attorney. The first is on page 16, it is just a typo.
Program 2 it will read, update the website by Winter 2023. Program 8 is on page 19 of your staff report, the body of that program itself, we are going to modify the first and the last sentence in the paragraph. The first sentence would read those qualifying sites identified in the sites inventory were previously identified in prior housing cycles in accordance with the specification of the housing element law will be permitted by right. The last sentence being the City will, that word is inserted, will ensure that those uses are eligible for b uy right development. The next is program 12, which is on page 21 of your staff report , i t just needs to be a clarification that the City did update its ADU ordinance, and it was provided to the state. So, the language on that would read the City submitted the updated ordinance to the State Department of Housing and Community D evelopment for their review and will incorporate amendments as required by HCD . So, staff did provide that to H CD. We do not have comments back yet, so any future amendments will need to be made. The third element that you are looking at this evening is modifications to the Circulation Element. While we were reviewing public health and safety, it came to our attention that we needed to make some modifications to the Circulation Element concurrently. There are two of these. They are in the existing roadway network and there are two regional connectors. The first is Cone Camp Road, south to Redlands and the second is Greenspot Road, east of Bryant St reet. Neither one of these connectors are needed for quality
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regional connection nor are they desired by either Redlands or the City of Yucaipa. This is the timeline the Planning Commission has reviewed and made comments to these documents. All those comments are incorporated into the version you have. The Council will hope fully take action tonight and we will send these documents up to th e State where there is a 90-day review period. Staff is recommending approval of the General Plan Amendment and the Mitigated Negative Declaration. She is happy to answer any of your questions.
Mayor McCallon asked are there a ny of the Council Members who have any questions before we hear public comment?
Council Member Timmer stated in the staff report, page 33. He understands the language, he is reading it, but he does not understand what it means. Talking about churches, parking lots , and low-income housing. So how did the two of them interface? He does not understand. He understands the words, he just does not understand what they are talking about.
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated that is a program that the state has implemented. It does not always make the most sense to us too, and we do not know how that arrived, but they are stating that there will be a parking reduction to a hous ing project if they are utilizing parking space of a church . We do have our consultant on the line. She does not know if they have anything to add to that but it is an odd combination.
Council Member Timmer stated yes, it did not sense to him either. He knows it is directly from the State so that makes it very clear. That is the only question he has at this point.
Mayor McCallon asked are there any other questions of staff before we hear from the public.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated she has a lot of questions, and she is willing to listen to public comment first.
Mayor McCallon stated okay, madam clerk, have we r eceived any public comments.
City Clerk Hughes stated we have not.
Mayor McCallon stated we have one speaker slip , Jody Scott, you have three minutes.
Jody Scott stated she will hand out some information where you can get the background information that she has here, but we have housing needs that require the health and safety of the citizens. Problems that the City must solve that she can see from reading the report. Number one, outside of development fees and property tax, at 24.4%, 1% of that is all the City is going to get from these multiple dwellings. Yet, we are going to have to provide police, fire, schools, all the services and we are going to go bankrupt. Already approved projects that are in the City of
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Highland, the al ready approved , th ey have not been built yet , s ome of them have, but they are still in progress, will give us approximately 4,134 citizens. If you count three houses per and if it is four houses per it is 5,512 and that is going to require all of the services plus the schools. With Highland’s limited available land, where will the children go and your DI Fs, your development impact fees and the building and t he 24.4 %, 1% of that general fund levy, will not support those services. That is one big problem she sees. Number two, every home will have at least two cars, at least two cars. Where are they going to park? We already have a very serious problem in Highland and a dangerous problem where on many streets cars are parked on both sides , big, large SUVs and trucks and so forth. It is a very dangerous situation. In fact, she would love to take any of you on several streets if you would like to ride with her. That is a real danger, but if you would like to ride with her, she will take you and show you where some of the homes have five and six cars, and they are really close by, so you would not have to go far. You would not have to be scared for long. The additional mandate from the state that the City allow ADUs, this ADU stuff scares the living daylights out of her. These come, there is no development impact fees that the City will get if they are under 750 square feet. What in the world is the State thinking? Anyway, we already have homes right now, especially on the west end, we have homes where five and six families or people related, friends, whatever, are living together.
City Clerk Hughes stated we are at three minutes.
Jody Scott stated okay, well, she has more . We have got more apartments and she does have all of this. She was afraid she was going to go over. Be sure to read number three.
Council Member Timmer stated he thinks the full Council agrees on what most of the things she said. However, the State mandates that stuff and if we do not include some of those things, they w ill not approve our plan and then they start fining us every day for not being in compliance.
Jody Scott stated she would like to thank staff too because they were very helpful as she pestered them many times over getting information.
Mayor McCallon asked does anyone else wish to speak to the Council either for or against this item? Seeing none, he will close the public hearing and bring it back to the Council for discussion and action.
Council Member Timmer stated most of the comments he has are all related to one subject, the wildland fire threat to our city. Would you like him to list page by page where he would like to insert some stuff?
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated that would be great if you use the bottom center number.
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Council Member Timmer stated on page 137, under wildland fire, it talks about the precautions such as fuel modification zones and vegetation maintenance which help protect the City. He would like to insert somewhere in there the importance of perimeter roads. He thinks anyone that has seen the wildland fires around knows that is the most effective method of protecting residences and development from wildland fire is having the ability to put a fire en gine behind the homes , between their homes, and the fire itself. It is a very effective way, but he thinks think most people include those things in a lot of their design, but he wants to make sure it is paramount in this document that perimeter roads are a very important aspect of protecting our citizens from wildland fire . On page 397 , again, it is talking about wildland fire. In the second part of it, where it says wind, it talks about the Old Fire of 2003. The Old Fire burned 90,000 square acres, ra n around Highland, destroying nearly 1 ,000 homes, and took the lives of six persons. Yes, that is correct, that did happen in the Old Fire, but none of it was in Highland. We lost no structures in Highland and there were no deaths that he recalls in Highland. So, he would like to reflect that, yes, there was the Old Fire that had a major impact to the City, but we did not lose one structure in Highland and there were no deaths in Highland, and that is directly related to the design of the projects that are up in the foothills with the perimeter roads that gave us access to fight the fire and light some fires behind th ose homes and we saved them all. There was no loss of life , physically in the City of Highland during that fire.
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated we will make that correction.
Council Member Timmer stated on page 413, again talking about wildland fire on the top of the page there . Somewhere we need to insert in there include a reference to perimeter roads that t hese roads adjacent to the wildland interface work and that we need to address that. Changing subjects, a little bit, on page 423, it is talking about the circulation element . On the bottom of the page , it lists the I10/210 will be completed by 2007.
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated this is existing language from the 2006 General Plan.
Council Member Timmer stated okay , would we reflect that it is actually going to happen?
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated she thinks we can. Even though it was not really part of an advertised action. She thinks there is really just a clarification.
City Attorney Marroquin stated she would consider that a typo that needs to be corrected, that is fine.
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Council Member Timmer stated someone could read that a nd say, oh, we have already finished this project. We will just drive around, and we have not. Also, on page 487 , u nder Item C , in that block, he thinks he would like to insert again something about perimeter roads in the protection of the structures. He knows he is repeating himself, but he thinks it is important to have it listed in each one of those sections. On page 496, again it lists that 2007 date. His question is all that information is listed twice; it is repeated.
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated this is just an attachment to the initial study, so it is a duplicate copy. It appears twice.
Council Member Timmer stated he knows it was related to the environmental stuff.
On page 493, it says figure one, but there is no figure.
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated it is just the figure that follows. It is the next page that it is referring to.
City Attorney Marr oquin stated just to clarify, she missed the changes that were being made to page 487.
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated she has them.
Council Member Chavez stated just reading the entire packet he has noticed what he has been saying for a long time , that the west side of Highland, specifically District 1, 2 and 3, has been disadvantaged and we have been missing resources and we are not getting our fair share. After, you know, going through everything but noticing all the goals, policies, and actions that we are going to be doing, he is completely satisfied with the way the City is going to be taking this direction. He is just very content. He thinks this is a great way , a g reat direction that the City is moving forward with. He is just specifically looking forward to the Policy 9.2 where the Council Members get to go to each district and you know, visit the disadvantaged areas, and really look around. He thinks that is something like Jody Scott was talking about, we should be doing, and he thinks that is something that he would like to do immediately if we can, but he is just very content with the actions and the goals that we have set.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated she wants to comment on Council Member Chavez’ comments. She does not know about Council Member Chavez , but she already visits all the districts. She drives his district; she drives everyone’s district because sometimes more sets of eyes are better than just your own and she helps people in your districts as well as everyone else. So, and she hopes he does the same in hers as well. She has a lot of questions, so she hopes staff bears with her. The DACs, the d isadvantaged communities , she has mixed emotions on the environmental just ice portion . She knows that is new, but she feels that is a very woke policy that they are bringing into cities. That is really none of their business, but that is the State, and that is what they are doing to our cities. They want to damage our cities. One thing she put down that in the multi-crime free that we have they could assign the multi-crime free policy that we have . She thinks it is absolutely mandatory that we put that in there. She does not think it should be
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an option. She knows some of our apartments that are grandfathered in, have not.
We are trying to play catch up and have some of them sign it. She thinks going forward, and she knows that we spoke about this a while ago , that it should be absolutely mandatory. It is not an option and it should be included in there. That gives us maybe a little more tooth, probably not, but it is something. Bear with her, she is going to skip over a lot of stuff. They want us, in one of the goals, to preserve and enhance the housing stock with high quality neighborhoods. When you start putting in multi -units it is hard to maintain a quality neighborhood. You have parking issues, you have public safety issues , you have trash issues , you have crime issues, so she knows that while that is a great goal, and we all want to see that in our neighborhoods, she is not sure that can mesh correctly, and it is going to be a tough goal. She guesses it is more of a comment. What is the goal to promote a built environment that stays cool? Staff report, number four, promote a built environment that stays cool. What is that?
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated so you are referring to goal number two in the public health, safety, and environmental justice. It goes into detail and the technical appendices about how heat islands are created. The asphalt, the construction of the buildings and how those all kind of generate a natural heat and then if we provide a better landscaping canopy and we do better in our land use planning with the types of uses and how the buildings are separated and the landscaping is incorporated that we can kind of , she does not want to say artificia lly because we are genuinely doing it , r educe that heat island effect that that happens and makes people uncomfortable. It just gives you a more pleasant environment to walk and live in.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated okay, well we are supposed to be watching our water resources and they, in one hand, they tell us to do this and then the other , you know it is tongue in cheek. They tell us to do one thing and then they discourage us from or do not allow us to do another thing. So, it is all very concerning to her. She has a lot of notes so she is going to skip over a lot. In the residential rental enhancement and rehabilitation program, the City's rental enhancement program, in conjunction with crime -free multi-family housing program provides technical assistance to real property owners on how to maintain their rental property . She does not get that. W e may provide it, but there she is just giving you Hillview, for an example, how many murders and and shootings have we had over there in the last year?
City Attorney Marroquin asked what page are you on, just for the record.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated she is on page 15 of the staff report, the bottom half.
At what point in this document do we get to say I am sorry owner of the property you no longer get to own property here because you do not know how to manage, or we shut t hem down as a rental unit when they have shootings. She guesses she has a concern that we do not have a way to and if we do have a way, we are not enforcing it. We need to shut these people down when they can not maintain their rental property.
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Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated right, there is a process and Community Development Director Mainez might be able to get up and add a little to it, but it is through Code Enforcement. Multiple actions declaring properties substandard and law enforcement activity that goes out in documents as far as completely shutting them down there…
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated she knows we have our hands full. She does not blame it on staff by any means. She just really wishes that we could put that in a document to say look.
Community Development Director Mainez stated yes, it is going to be impossible because this is a policy, so it is up here and from there we develop our ordinances. So, what he will do is he will make a note and we will go back and look at the ordinances and see if we can tighten it up. He will work with City Manager Hughes and our City Attorney and maybe bring it back for further action. This is just setting the policy parameter.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated she knows this is just a document that we have to do and get it approved and in reading these, these are just things that triggered her.
She knows our code enforcement; we keep revisiting the sites. While we are at this, maybe we could put how many times we revisit a site. She guesses that was just a trigger item. She knows staff does their best and she knows we have the best code enforcement, but it is just because we see it mostly in our west side issues. Group homes, page 24, group homes, can they be counted as a multi- unit facility because we do have group homes. Why?
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated if you are referring to the RHNA count, it is not. They have different purposes. From the State’s definition of how we satisfy our RHNA, they have different purposes.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated okay, that is too bad because there is a lot of residents and we do not even know about the groups six and under that are in our City. Mobile home parks, she knows that we have no jurisdiction over mobile home parks, but it is this mobile home park preservations.
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated there are some current standards in our code now that talk about when and the goal that is in here talks about if there is going to be a mobile home, you know, reduce park , reduced or eliminated, that we need to account for that housing elsewhere for similar incomes and look at relocating some of those families if a developer were to come in and those units are eliminated.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated so are we responsible to relocate them or th e developer?
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated t he developer is ultimately responsible but we need to make sure that they have followed the law and do that.
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Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated h ome improvement grants, on page 27 , the collaborative partnerships, the home improvement grants. We do not have any of these any longer, right, because the state took away our program that we used to have our neighborhood revitalization and what were the funds that they took? The redevelopment funds. So, they took away our redevelopment funds, but a lot of these things in here are things we could have done with those redevelopment funds.
Assistant Community Development Director Stater stated yes, so the program just talks about collaborating with o ther entities, whether that be the county, the state or nonprofit organizations that w e will do our best to seek out those sources and have projects in Highland that will be able to assist those income categories.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated she is reading all these bullet points or pull programs in our goals. She is just curious why everything revolves around low income. Low income, lower income, medium income, but nowhere does she see that the state wants us to reach out and you know everyone gets rewarded for low income and we give and give and give but nowhere does she see that we are rewarding and taking care of home ownership. People who are doing well and taking care of their homes, their yards, their kids, you know, no crime . She guesses it is k ind of is a little agitating when you see we are going to give everything, we just keep giving it and giving and giving, but we are not getting any money to give, and we are not even bringing any money in on these through DIF or through taxes or anything. So, she guesses that was her take on the housing element. She has so much, and it is all you know what if and how come but she really just wants to say thank you to the staff. She knows they have little to work with but a lot to accomplish and we all have our differences of opinions and where our priorities are, but she thinks if we could just, her preference is to really work on the code, that we do not have to visit a unit so many times before we start hitting them in the pocketbook to people that do not live in our city who have a rental. She does not know how we can mix that in with the element but just in the code enforcement to help with that element of our housing. She has a lot more, but she will go over it with staff at another time.
Mayor McCallon asked any other comments or questions?
Council Member Timmer stated he would like to echo one thing Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated and he thinks it was mentioned that the DACs or disadvantage people, we have to address certain concerns. If you look at the map when they define the disadvantage areas of Highland, more than 50% of the way he read the map is considered disadvantaged. He knows the state has these criteria they used to generate that, but he would imagine a lot of people designated in those areas would say I am not disadvantaged. I take care of my house . I am doing a good job. I take care of issues but to collectively say this half of Highland is disadvantaged. So, three of our Council Members live in disadvantaged areas. He would imagine every one of them would say I am not disadvantaged. I see things that need to improve in places, but he just thinks when you broad brush comments like that against the whole community , to me just does not seem appropriate.
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Mayor McCallon stated he agrees with Council Memer Timmer, and that is one of the things he argued at SCAG about is that they needed to not call them disadvantaged communities, but call them something you know, SB whatever law, it is an eligible kind of thing because disadvantage carries such a negative connotation to it. There are communities, you know, we have problems in terms of smog, of air pollution and things like that which can be used to, in the States calculations, to say this community is disadvantaged . In reality , m ost of San Bernardino County and the Inland Empire is disadvantaged because of air pollution. We have the highest air pollution in the entire basin in this area because of all the pollution that comes from the ports and that is a big factor in defining what a disadvantaged community is.
Council Member Timmer stated he u nderstands that. He read most of that stuff, but it seemed, maybe the term, the root grabbed me as this is not a term you talk about a large population of our city. Woke term, whatever that means these days, he is not sure what woke is anymore, but he was just concerned with the use of that term in an official document that our City is now going to advertise for trying to encourage development a nd all those things , well, I am not going to develop in Highland, half of it is disadvantaged.
Mayor McCallon stated well, it is the entire state that has the requirement. He had several comments and he provided those already to staff. As everyone knows, this is a document that we have to get approved by HCD. If we do not get an approved housing element, then there are certain potential penalties that could come our way and he would like to tell everyone that the housing elements and RHNA and all of that have never built one stick of housing. It is a planning document that we are required to do, and, in his view, what really driv es housing is the market.
Whatever the market needs will eventually get built and so he understands the frustration that you have.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated she feels like this is a dictator document, not a helpful document.
Mayor McCallon stated he understands.
Council Member Timmer stated we are supposed to be doing what the citizens of Highland want in putting a plan together and the restrictions or the restraints are so severe that it gives us little flexibility. He would like to refer to page 31 7, we are talking about survey. It says what type of housing is most needed in Highland and if you look at that diagram more than 50% say we need single family homes and then about 2% says we need apartments or multiple family. That is the people telling us what they want but the State says the numbers should be reversed. They are more concerned about apartments and low-income housing, and rightly we have a concern with those issues. He just saw that survey and it just kind of struck home. That is what Highland wants but this document really does not reflect that.
Mayor Pro Tem Lilburn stated that is correct.
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Mayor McCallon asked any other comments? What is the Council's pleasure on these general plan amendments?
Council Member Ti mmer stated as much as he dislikes it, he will move that we go forward with all three portions of the criteria that we are supposed to do with the adjustments that we made going through the process.
A MOTION was made by Council Member Timmer, seconded by Council Member Solano, to adopt Resolution No. 2022-005 to:
1) Approve General Plan Amendment No. GPA 21-003 to adopt the Sixth (6th) Cycle Housing Element for the 8-Year planning period of 2021-2029; adopt the updated Public Health, Safety and Environmental Justice Element; and adopt an Amendment to the Circulation Element deleting two (2) street extensions as amended; and
2) Adopt a Negative Declaration and direct staff to file a Notice of Determination with the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors and State Clearinghouse. Motion carried, 5-0.
RESOLUTION NO. 2022-005
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF HIGHLAND, CALIFORNIA, APPROVING GENERAL PLAN AMENDMENT NO. GPA-21-003 TO AMEND THREE (3) ELEMENTS OF THE HIGHLAND GENERAL PLAN INCLUDING ADOPTION OF THE SIXTH (6TH) CYCLE 2021-2029 HOUSING
ELEMENT, UPDATE TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY AND
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ELEMENT, AND MINOR AMENDMENT
TO THE CIRCULATION ELEMENT
CITY COUNCIL LEGISLATIVE
8. City Manager Report and Comments (Work Program, Regional/Legislative/ Development Issues, Subcommittees, etc.)
City Manager Hughes stated he wanted to bring the Council up to speed on a few items. At the January 18 Planning Commission meeting , t hey approved a conditional use permit to construct two restaurants and a small retail space at the northwest corner of the 210 Freeway and Base Line in the Town Center policy area. There is interest from El Pollo Loco and the Habit Burger Grill restaurants to establish their newest locations in Highland. There are going to be some hurdles that a re going to have to be overcome , working with the surroun ding property owners and this new development, but staff is going to work with everyone involved and hopefully we will be able to bring in these new establishments into Highland. The Planning Commission recently received a design review application from KZ Dev. Co. for the construction of thirty-four single family detached homes on small lots on the vacant lot behind Smart and Final Plus. The annual San Bernardino County Homeless Point in Time count was originally scheduled for January 27, it has been postponed because of COVID that has now been moved to February 24. We have another public works project under construction, it is the Joint Payment Rehabilitation Project with the County of San Bernardino, the City of San Bernardino and Highland as the lead age ncy. This work program item
01.25.2022 – cc regular
consists of payment rehabilitation on Tippecanoe Ave nue, 6th St reet, Cooley Street, Ward Street, and the Elm Street alley. The construction cost is $2.3 million, with each agency paying its fair share of the project cost . Construction did begin on Monday, January 24, and it is anticipated that the project will be complete by the end of April. Volunteer services, Monday, January 31, we have a blood drive at the Highland Police Station from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. We have at this point in time , received 170 Coronavirus Recovery Grant applications that the City provides $7,500 to businesses. We have rece ived twenty-six Grocery Delivery applications and we now have two Mortgage Assistance Program applications.
Illegal dumping work orders through Burrtec, as of this month, we had 65 which is a little lower than normal. Burrtec had staff out with COVID, so COVID has been hitting everybody this go around. The Police Department from January 10 through 23, t hey had 1 ,530 calls for service, made 152 reports and 53 arrests . A lso, a reminder the YMCA run is this weekend, Sunday, starting at 8:00 a.m.
9. Council Member Comments (Agency/Committee/AB 1234 Reports, District Updates, etc.)
None
ANNOUNCEMENTS
None
CLOSED SESSION
None
ADJOURN
There being no further business, Mayor McCallon adjourned the meeting at 6:57 p.m. in memory of Kenneth Mardis and Mario Salazar.
Submitted By: Approved By:
Betty Hughes, MMC Larry McCallon
City Clerk Mayor