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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-10-2007 - Minutes TCCITY OF ORANGE CITY TRAFFIC COMMISSION Minutes of a Regular Meeting: October 10, 2007 Tape #CTC-27.08 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. Please contact the Recording Secretary at (714) 744-5536 in this regard, advance notice is appreciated. I. OPENING A. Flag Pledge B. Roll Call Present – Commissioners: J. Beil, L. Dick, N. Lall, J. Pyne Absent - Commissioners: W. King Present – Staff: T. Mahood, D. Allenbach, W. Winthers, P. Then Absent - Staff: Sgt. D. Adams   INFORMAL AGENDA REVIEW  Weimer Room – Weimer Room    1. Discussion of continuation of Administrative Sessions.    Wayne Winthers, Asst. City Attorney  ‐  It is up to each Commission, Committee,  etc. to decide if they will continue to have these meetings or not.  If we’re going  to keep on we have to make a few changes such as using the Weimer Room,  making an agenda and taking minutes.  We can make a motion to discontinue  these meetings and if the Commissioners have any questions about an agenda  item they can meet individually with staff.    Commissioner Pyne asked what other Commissions have administrative  meetings?    Asst. City Attorney Wayne Winthers replied that not all the others have them.  I  don’t know if they are going to keep them or not.    Commissioner Pyne – I don’t know that we need to keep these meetings.    Vice Chairman Lall – I think we get something out of them but we’re not voting  on anything.    Chairman Beil – How does staff feel?  Maybe it’s more appropriate to have us  meet individually with staff prior to the meetings.     September ‘07 [N:/Traffic/CTC/2007 Minutes] Printed on Recycled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting – City Traffic Commission – October 10, 2007 Pg. 2 Voted to eliminate the 4:30 p.m. Administrative Session.    MOTION: J. Beil  SECOND: J. Pyne  AYES:  Unanimous    2. Informal review of Agenda items.      C. Election of Chairman and Vice‐Chairman     Chairman, elected for a two‐year term, scheduled to expire October 2010.     Elected Jim Beil as Chairman.     MOTION: J. Pyne   SECOND: L. Dick   AYES:  Unanimous     Vice‐Chairman, elected for a two‐year term, scheduled to expire October 2010.     Elected Nick Lall as Vice‐Chairman.     MOTION: L. Dick   SECOND: J. Pyne   AYES:  Unanimous      D. Approval of Minutes   Š September 12, 2007   ACTION: Approved minutes as published by Recording Secretary.   MOTION: J. Beil SECOND: L. Dick AYES: Unanimous II. ORAL PRESENTATIONS   None this meeting. Tape #CTC-27.08 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. Please contact the Recording Secretary at (714) 744-5536 in this regard, advance notice is appreciated.  September ‘07 [N:/Traffic/CTC/2007 Minutes] Printed on Recycled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting – City Traffic Commission – October 10, 2007 Pg. 3 III. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Request to modify existing overnight parking restrictions on a portion of the east side of Virage Street in front of Prospect Elementary School. Valerie Via, Director Released Time Christian Education PO Box 2935 Orange Ca 92859-0935 The oral presentation is based on the written staff report; please refer to your copy. There was no discussion of this item. ACTION: Approved the installation of a 40 ft. general use parking lane in front of Prospect Elementary School’s main entrance. MOTION: J. Pyne SECOND: J. Beil AYES: Unanimous 77777777777777777 End of Consent Items 777777777777777777 IV. CONSIDERATION ITEMS 1. Request to remove on-street parking from both sides of Lincoln Ave. for a distance of 500 ft. east and west of Glassell St., and both sides of Glassell St. north of Lincoln Ave. for a distance of 400 ft. Traffic Engineering Division Public Works Department CITY OF ORANGE The oral presentation is based on the written staff report; please refer to your copy. There was no discussion of this item. ACTION: Approved the request. MOTION: J. Beil SECOND: J. Pyne AYES: Unanimous Tape #CTC-27.08 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. Please contact the Recording Secretary at (714) 744-5536 in this regard, advance notice is appreciated.  September ‘07 [N:/Traffic/CTC/2007 Minutes] Printed on Recycled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting – City Traffic Commission – October 10, 2007 Pg. 4 2. Request to remove the “NO PARKING 11 PM to 7 AM” restrictions from both sides of Wayfield Street between Madison Avenue and 525 N. Wayfield Street. Erlinda Biares 560 N. Wayfield St. Orange CA 92867 The oral presentation is based on the written staff report; please refer to your copy. Chairman Beil opened the public hearing for the following discussion: The following residents spoke in favor of the recommendation to remove the overnight parking restrictions. Erlinda Biares, 560 N. Wayfield St. Rick Parra, 585 N. Wayfield St. Bill Telkamp, 535 N. Wayfield St. The following residents spoke in opposition to the recommended removal of the overnight parking restrictions. Anita Greco, 555 N. Wayfield St. Dona Strader, 545 N. Wayfield St. David Steele, 575 N. Wayfield St. Chairman Beil closed the public hearing and returned the item to the Commission for final discussion and a motion. Chairman Beil – I think we’ve heard there has been a requested reduction in the signing, and I really don’t agree that we should take it all out. I know there are some people very passionate about having signing and other people who are passionate about not having anything. I think we’re all in agreement that the real solution is a parking permit program for this area. It requires somebody to step up and be the proponent, sell cookies, lemonade and have a bake sale or whatever, whatever way there is to collect the fees. But other areas of the City are doing it and right now that seems to be the only answer to our densification issue that we’re suffering with in areas of the City, and multi-family unit areas where there are a lot of people are living in there, and a lot of vehicles. We’re a vehicle society. I really hope the Planning Commission, and the Council make amends to our parking requirements because the City will be doing a lot of densification here in the future with overlaid development zones as we start going vertical in some areas. I sure hope that they adjust parking requirements for those developments because right now you can see that historically these developments are under parked. You’ve got to plan for a long time in the future and try to deal with the changes in our parking, that’s what causing the overflow in your Tape #CTC-27.08 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. Please contact the Recording Secretary at (714) 744-5536 in this regard, advance notice is appreciated.  September ‘07 [N:/Traffic/CTC/2007 Minutes] Printed on Recycled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting – City Traffic Commission – October 10, 2007 Pg. 5 neighborhoods. I’m really pushing to try to have this slightly changed request where we remove some of the parking but I know there’s that little strip and we’ll let them keep that after removing it, I’ll never again support putting something back in, you’ll have to come back requesting a parking permit program. Vice Chairman Lall – My position hasn’t changed at all and looking at this further it seems to me if we divide half the street as No Parking, and the other half as open parking, it’s just going to create more division in the neighborhood. The people that don’t have parking are going to be parking down by people who do have parking, and we’re going to look at this over and over again until we finally reach the ultimate decision, which is the neighborhood parking permit program. My recommendation would be to deny this and let it stand and we should leave it alone. Commissioner Dick – I believe the recommendation could be adjusted to reflect the recommendation we had put before this group last month, which is, as I understand it: Approve the staff recommendation with the clarification that putting the END – NO PARKING 11 pm to 7 am signs at the border of 555 & 565 N. Wayfield St. To include that clarification I would make that motion. Wayne Winthers, Asst. City Attorney – That would only affect the east side of the block and on the west side of the block you would still want it to end at Madison, is that correct? Chairman Beil – That is correct. In the minutes the statement of the action has exactly how it’s stated, and we can add to that: the westerly side of Wayfield St. between Walnut Ave. and Madison Ave. ACTION: Approved the removal of the overnight parking restrictions from both sides of Wayfield St. between Madison Ave. and Orange Park Ave., with the clarification of putting the END NO PARKING 11 pm to 7 am at the border of 555 & 565 N. Wayfield St. (east side); and the west side of Wayfield St. the paring restriction will be removed between Walnut Ave. and Madison Ave. MOTION: L. Dick SECOND: J. Pyne AYES: J. Beil, L. Dick, J. Pyne NOES: N. Lall Tape #CTC-27.08 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. Please contact the Recording Secretary at (714) 744-5536 in this regard, advance notice is appreciated.  September ‘07 [N:/Traffic/CTC/2007 Minutes] Printed on Recycled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting – City Traffic Commission – October 10, 2007 Pg. 6 3. Request for the implementation of a Neighborhood Parking Permit Program on both sides of: a) Morgan St. between Collins & Jackson Avenues b) Mallard St. between Collins & Jackson Avenues c) Juniper Ave., between Morgan & Mallard Streets d) Jacaranda Ave. between Morgan & Mallard Streets e) Locust Ave. between Morgan & Mallard Streets f) Monroe Ave. between Morgan & Mallard Streets g) Jackson Ave. between Morgan & Mallard Streets Robert Cheatum 3214 E. Jacaranda Ave. Orange CA 92867 The oral presentation is based on the written staff report; please refer to your copy. Chairman Beil opened the public hearing for the following discussion: Allison Rose, 3215 E. Jackson – In favor of request. I have noticed that if I drive in from Mallard St. the street is always congested with work vehicles and trucks, and they are parked all the way up to the STOP sign. There’s a lot of jaywalking across Collins Ave. throughout the day, I think the permit system would work as a safety tool to eliminate the opportunity for people to be parking there. Michelle Ginther, 3207 E. Juniper Ave. – In favor of permits. I’m affected greatly on the first street by unwelcome visitors. Sometimes they leave unwanted things on our lawn, and often they are parked there late at night and they have no respect for our property. This area is very unsafe, I followed my 9 yr. old son home on his bike, I won’t let him ride home from school because of the area right next to our home, because it’s a blind corner. We also have 3 registered sex offenders that live right across Collins Ave. from us in those apartments, and personally I don’t want them parking in my neighborhood. Fergus Ginther, 3207 E. Juniper Ave. – In favor of permits. I urge you to go with the approval and I was a little unclear as to what the City Manager of Villa Park had to say. Chairman Beil – They don’t have a problem with it. They sent a letter since the last meeting saying they had reviewed it and really couldn’t see that it would cause a problem, but they will monitor the situation and if the parking intrusion comes into their city they will address it. Fergus Ginther, 3207 E. Juniper Ave. – I want to reiterate the safety issues, the jaywalking. Somebody was in the back yard and at times there is a lot of traffic. I’ve actually had mail stolen out of our mailbox and I’ve had to go down and press Tape #CTC-27.08 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. Please contact the Recording Secretary at (714) 744-5536 in this regard, advance notice is appreciated.  September ‘07 [N:/Traffic/CTC/2007 Minutes] Printed on Recycled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting – City Traffic Commission – October 10, 2007 Pg. 7 charges against somebody that was in the neighborhood that shouldn’t have been. I think that would cut down that kind of crime and conduct. It caused me some identity theft about a year ago. I don’t really see a downside to this at all, and I just hope you approve and enforce this. Helen Brown, 904 N. Morgan St. – In favor of permits. Late at night I have seen kids come around there in their vans and I’m looking outside and I can’t believe it, they’re having a big party There are kids putting blankets on the lawn, I don’t see them having beer, they have cups but they’re going from van to van and I’m telling you it’s quite an experience to see all this go down. I’m right on the corner of Morgan and Collins. Bob Cheatum, 3214 E. Jacaranda Ave. – In favor of permits. I submitted the original application and the fee and I’ve been working on this for a year. I tested the waters in the neighborhood, and I went to other neighborhoods that have permit parking and I learned about this process. The attitude of the people who are parking along Mallard St. is getting worse, they’re rude, they leave beer bottles, prophylactics, and twice I’ve had to call graffiti people and things of this nature. The last guy I talked to about it said it was a public street and he can park wherever he wants to. I’ve tried to do the right thing, I just don’t want any trouble. My house has been broken into before at 985 N. Lincoln St., and the guys were in the house when I came home. The issue for me is that the overflow parking is a breeding ground for other things. The City of Santa Ana did a study in their city and I have a copy of that for you. I have a package for you that identifies the neighborhood and the high-density areas. It identifies the type of vehicles we have parked here. When I did the initial application I went to every one of these neighborhoods, I went down to the Police Dept. and met Sgt. Ken Adams and learned about what happens when you have service vehicles. In the back is a photo of this home that has been on the market for over a year, it’s 2 doors north of Collins and every time they have an Open House on Saturday and Sunday they just get slimed, no one wants the place. Hopefully that issue will change. This is the process of what happens when you have a gardener or pool guy come in with permit parking. This is a 10-year study by the City of Santa Ana. I went and spoke with residents of an existing permit parking area and they indicated to me that when these signs went up they stopped having these problems. I anticipated there would be a lot of people who couldn’t attend today’s meeting so they all wrote you a letter and about 51 people signed it. I know there are some of my neighbors that are not in favor of it but if they want to pull out, the unwind process doesn’t cost a dime, but the presence of permit parking and this is a restricted parking area goes up in the neighborhood and the word gets out, and that’s what we want, to stop people from coming into our neighborhood. We have people drive through that slow down when they see a open garage and they stop and look to see what’s in the garage. Tape #CTC-27.08 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. Please contact the Recording Secretary at (714) 744-5536 in this regard, advance notice is appreciated.  September ‘07 [N:/Traffic/CTC/2007 Minutes] Printed on Recycled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting – City Traffic Commission – October 10, 2007 Pg. 8 Ren Lee, 3126 E. Juniper Ave. – In favor of permits. My backyard is on Collins Ave., Morgan St. and Juniper Ave. I find lots of bottles and papers, and twice cars have smashed into my back yard, and once into my pool. That caused my insurance rates to go up, so I’m in favor of the parking permits. Sheridan Bishop, 3137 E. Juniper Ave. – In favor of permits. I have other neighbors on this street that have been out in the mornings with me policing the streets for garbage left by other people, and this doesn’t happen occasionally, it happens frequently. I won’t repeat what other people have stated today. Richard Slaughter, 3136 E. Juniper Ave. – In favor of permits. Roma Hadley, 3213 E. Locust Ave. – I’m opposed to permits. (Read letter by Bruce Ramm and left a copy for the Commission.) Paul Jackson, 3133 E. Locust Ave. – Is opposed to permits. I visited the 50 homes which encompass Locust Ave., Monroe Ave., Jackson Ave. and the adjacent homes on Mallard St. and Morgan St., we circulated a petition and obtained 35 signatures of the 50 residents opposing the parking permit program. There were 11 households where we were unable to connect with the homeowner’s and discuss this issue. Believe it or not there were 4 people that want the permit program. Please review and approve the proposal we are presenting, it is a win-win situation for the entire neighborhood. If our proposal is not acceptable then I would suggest you table this item until you can run a parking study. Norman McGrane, 941 N. Mallard St. – In favor of permits. My primary concerns are about strangers in the neighborhood. On garbage pick-up days I have been unable to put my garbage cans out because of parked cars in the area where the trash cans go, and some of the cans have been removed from the street and a car will pull in and park, and then when the car leaves the driver won’t replace the cans on the street so they can be emptied. Safety is a concern especially at Collins and Mallard, we have cars parked sometimes around the corners which causes a blind spot pulling out onto Collins, and it provides a much narrower entrance when coming in and out of the neighborhood on Mallard St. The pedestrian traffic on Collins Ave. is concerning. We want a place for our children to ride their bikes and be able to play in front without strangers in the neighborhood. I believe the additional parked vehicles can reduce our property values. Noise is an issue; sometimes at 11-12 at night I hear car doors slamming. I don’t know anybody that would not like an opportunity to reduce crime in their own neighborhood, and the crime studies that I’ve read have proven that there is statistical research available that indicates this will reduce the opportunity for crime. Tape #CTC-27.08 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. Please contact the Recording Secretary at (714) 744-5536 in this regard, advance notice is appreciated.  September ‘07 [N:/Traffic/CTC/2007 Minutes] Printed on Recycled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting – City Traffic Commission – October 10, 2007 Pg. 9 Dodd Medhurst, 1055 N. Mallard St. – In favor of permits. I have a signed statement indicating his concerns and I will leave that for you. Dan Todd, 904 N. Morgan St. – In favor of permits. Is also not in attendance but here is a list of his concerns. Chairman Beil closed the public hearing and returned the item to the Commission for further discussion and a motion. Chairman Beil – My comments go along with the last item, this densification problem in the city is just horrible, I’m really hoping the Planning Commission and the City Council can figure out something to do with this. I think the parking permit program is a good solution in dealing with a lot of this, I really wish this neighborhood would get together with the Wayfield neighborhood of the earlier item and advise them how to do a parking permit program request. Vice Chairman Lall – I agree with Chairman Beil this is the right way to solve a parking problem and I’m glad you put together a good coalition of people, you met and exceeded the minimum requirements for our acceptance. It’s an example of the right way to do things and I’m very pleased to see this come before us, I am in support of this solution to this problem. Chairman Beil – To respond to a couple of things I heard from the neighborhood, there was mention of a parking study. A parking study of where people are going after they park is extremely hard to conduct, it’s sort of a mini origin and destination study, it’s very hard to conduct and make that statistically valid. The other piece was the area, there was some talk about reducing down the area. I think you can almost see from the last item, the Wayfield issue, is that we start having a lot of problems when we reduce areas that are proposed beyond what would be a logical area so problems don’t move around. Believe me they will, as we have seen. Commissioner Pyne – As you both have said this idea of permit parking certainly puts a burden on the homeowners that live there, but it is most certainly the best of the alternatives, if we look and see what has happened on Wayfield. The one issue I have with the resident opposed to it, his proposal indicated he was going to cut up the neighborhood again, which makes absolutely no sense to me and I think we would have another problem with permits in part of the neighborhood and no permits in the other part. I adamantly agree with the permit program, and I will certainly go along with that. Chairman Beil – I think it’s important that we got the formal statement for the record from the City of Villa Park so they know they will be responsible for monitoring their own impacts, and dealing with that. Tape #CTC-27.08 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. Please contact the Recording Secretary at (714) 744-5536 in this regard, advance notice is appreciated.  September ‘07 [N:/Traffic/CTC/2007 Minutes] Printed on Recycled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting – City Traffic Commission – October 10, 2007 Pg. 10 ACTION: Approved the implementation of a Neighborhood Parking Permit Program on both sides of: a) Morgan St. between Collins & Jackson Avenues b) Mallard St. between Collins & Jackson Avenues c) Juniper Ave. between Morgan & Mallard Streets d) Jacaranda Ave. between Morgan & Mallard Streets e) Locust Ave. between Morgan & Mallard Streets f) Monroe Ave. between Morgan & Mallard Streets g) Jackson Ave. between Morgan & Mallard Streets MOTION: L. Dick SECOND: J. Pyne AYES: Unanimous 4. Request for installation of an “All-Way” STOP control and “NO U- TURN” signs at the intersection of Highland Street and Lomita Avenue. Jo Distefano 1935 E. Lomita Ave. Orange, Ca 92867 The oral presentation is based on the written staff report; please refer to your copy. Chairman Beil opened the public hearing for the following discussion: Jo Distefano, 1935 E. Lomita Ave. – I am the Neighborhood Watch Captain and we have a nice quiet little residential area, it’s basically a dead-end off Tustin St. and Highland St. Half of our neighborhood are apartments, it used to be a single family in each apartment, now there are multiple families in each apartment, and in the peak hour 6 am – 7 am and 6 – 7 p.m., we have an inordinate amount of traffic, kids will come out of the apartments get into cars and zoom down the street hanging a U-turn and then zoom out to work, and they do the same thing at night. This is a beautiful picture of our street, it’s probably on street sweeping day because it doesn’t really look like that. Because of the apartments we have parking problems like you’ve heard over and over tonight, and since that is the problem with U-turns and several people who have parked their car on Highland St. because they live there have gotten dings and dents from people that are doing that big U-turn and didn’t turn enough. I really am thankful that you are in support of the STOP signs, I think that will help. I really ask you to look at posting the “No U-Turn” sign. Commissioner Dick – Do you know what day this count was taken? Dave Allenbach, Asst. Transportation Planner – The count was taken 9-19-07, a Thursday. Tape #CTC-27.08 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. Please contact the Recording Secretary at (714) 744-5536 in this regard, advance notice is appreciated.  September ‘07 [N:/Traffic/CTC/2007 Minutes] Printed on Recycled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting – City Traffic Commission – October 10, 2007 Pg. 11 Chairman Beil closed the public hearing and returned the item to the Commission for further discussion and a motion. Jo Distefano - So if it was a Thursday it was probably slow a traffic day. Chairman Beil – It’s very normal, we don’t post for U-Turns on these types of residential streets. If you weren’t allowed to make a U-turn there a lot of people would make a left turn. Jo Distefano – Then they would have to go to Highland and then out on Rose. Chairman Beil – If they knew to go out that way, a lot of them would probably end up going down and circling around on Barkley. Jo Distefano – Or they could just go into their own driveway and turn around. Vice Chairman Lall – In the future, being the Neighborhood Watch Captain, tell your neighbors having a problem with cars getting hit to make a police report, it gives is more ammunition to do things that are outside our normal policies. Make sure there is some sort of documentation of these incidents. Chairman Beil closed the public hearing and returned the item to the Commission for further discussion and a motion. Chairman Pyne – I agree with Vice Chairman Lall’s comment about documentation, everybody can say there are a lot of accidents happening but if there’s no police report taken it didn’t happen. We can’t refer to anything and use that as criteria for changing our decision. 1. Denied the installation of an “All-Way” STOP and “NO U-TURN” signs. 2. Approved the installation of a “1-Way” STOP control for eastbound Lomita Ave. at Highland St. MOTION: N. Lall SECOND: J. Beil AYES: Unanimous Jo Distefano – Will they paint red curb where the sign will go? Dave Allenbach, Assoc. Transportation Analyst – Normally they would, however, in this case where the sign would go there is a fire hydrant, so it’s already illegal to park. Tape #CTC-27.08 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. Please contact the Recording Secretary at (714) 744-5536 in this regard, advance notice is appreciated.  September ‘07 [N:/Traffic/CTC/2007 Minutes] Printed on Recycled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting – City Traffic Commission – October 10, 2007 Pg. 12 Jo Distefano – Can you re-paint the red curb on the other end of Lomita? That was painted years ago and its all faded now. Dave Allenbach, Assoc. Transportation Analyst – Yes, we can take a look at that. 777777777777777 End of Consideration Items 7777777777777777 V. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS None this meeting. Chairman Beil - We’ve been told that this is the City Traffic Engineer’s last meeting as he moves on to greener pastures and so Tom I would just like to say thank you for your support and the work you and your staff are doing that has supported this Commission for many years, and you put together very professional packages and I’m sure Dave and Amir will make certain those standards are maintained. Our best wishes to you. VI. ADJOURNMENT After discussion of today’s Agenda the City Traffic Commission meeting was concluded, and as there were no further requests for action under Oral Presentations, the Chairman adjourned this session of the City Traffic Commission. The next meeting of the City Traffic Commission is scheduled: 5:30 P.M. Wednesday - November 14, 2007 Respectfully submitted, CITY OF ORANGE Phyllis Then, Recording Secretary Traffic Engineering Division pthen@cityoforange.org CITY OF ORANGE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT 300 E. CHAPMAN AVENUE ORANGE CA 92866 PH: (714) 744-5536 FAX: (714) 744-5573 Tape #CTC-27.08 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. Please contact the Recording Secretary at (714) 744-5536 in this regard, advance notice is appreciated.  September ‘07 [N:/Traffic/CTC/2007 Minutes] Printed on Recycled Paper