An Interesting Council Meeting Tonight

FINAL MEETING OF THE YEAR
Tonight the Costa Mesa City Council will meet for their first meeting of the month and their LAST meeting of the year.  The next full City Council meeting will be on Tuesday, January 5, 2016!  The meeting tonight begins at 5:45 in City Council Chambers at City Hall.  You can read the agenda HERE.

CONSENT CALENDAR
This one just might be a short one, but we never know.  There are only two Public Hearings and one item of New Business, but let's start at the beginning with the good old Consent Calendar - items considered routine so they CAN be considered in one vote unless someone - a council member, staff member or member of the public - pulls an item for separate discussion and vote.  I won't address all of them, but will comment on a couple that are fascinating.

SPENDING YOUR BUCKS
Item #3, HERE, is Warrant 2547 - the items recently paid by the city.  Scrolling down through this list is always interesting and informative.  Here are a few items that caught my eye:

• Costa Mesa Conference & Visitor Bureau - $182,811.54 - BIA Receipts for Sept 2015
• Liebert Cassidy Whitmore - $31,900.16 - Legal Services
• Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth - $27,183.00 - Legal Services
• CSG Consultants, Inc. - $11,520.00 - Bldg Inspector Svs, 8/29-9/25/15
• Civil Source - $8,787.50 - Resident Engineer Svs -Sept 15
• FTOG Inc - $3,587.50 - Procurement Consulting
• Apple One Employment Services - $4,478.59 - Temp Svcs, Various
• G4S Secure Solutions Inc. - $65,069.63 - Jail Services
• Accountemps - $2,179.20 - Temp Svs, Treasury
• Civil Source - $12,600.00 - Construction Mgr, Sept. 15
• Kabbara Engineering - $5,457.00 - On-Call Traffic Engr, Oct 15
• Scientia Consulting Group, Inc. - $13,760.00 - Prof Svc Agreement, Oct 2015

CONSULTANTS FILLING STAFFING GAPS
As has been the case for a few years, we continue to rack up legal service AND, of even greater concern, we continue to pay expensive consulting/temporary services to fill holes in the organization because we simply cannot keep up with the hemorrhaging of experienced staffers throughout City Hall.  There are a couple items further down the Consent Calendar that provide exclamation points to that problem.  We had more than 50 open positions in the city at the start of this week.

Item #4, HERE, is a professional services agreement with Lilley Planning Group for $93,000 (plus extensions) to backfill vacancies in the Planning Division.

Item #9, HERE, is a professional services agreement for $906,218.00 for construction management services for various projects - Fire Station #1, City Council Chambers and related projects.

TRAFFIC IMPACT FEES
Public Hearing #1, HERE, is a no-brainer.  It's the annual review of the citywide traffic impact fee program and the staff recommendation - again - is to leave it alone and continue the same charge of $181 per Average Daily Trip.

MANDATORY COMMERCIAL ORGANICS RECYCLING
Public Hearing #2, HERE, is VERY interesting.  This is a new ordinance to require Mandatory Commercial Waste Recycling and new requirements of Mandatory Organics Recycling required by the State of California.  You may recall that the Costa Mesa Sanitary District has imposed an Organics Recycling program on those of us who are in its service area.  This is a BIG deal for commercial trash haulers serving businesses in Costa Mesa.  Perhaps the most telling sentence in the staff report appears under the Fiscal Review section:

"The City’s authorized waste haulers set their charges based upon the competitive market (a benefit to clients of the non-exclusive franchise system), and therefore their costs of compliance with the program will likely be passed on to their clients."

MORE DEVELOPMENT WITH DEVIATIONS
New Business #1, HERE, is the screening request for a 10-unit detached residential development at 522 and 526 Bernard Street.  This was approved by the Planning Commission in October with a load of deviations:
1) Lot size (one acre required, 0.53-acre proposed); 
2) Garage size standard (20’ x 20’ required; 19’- 4” x 19’ proposed); 
3) Open space requirement (40 percent required, 22.4 percent proposed); 
4) Front setback requirement (20 feet required, 10’- 5” proposed); 
5) Side yard setback for corner lots (10 feet required, 8’ - 3” proposed); 
6) Interior side setback (10 feet required abutting residential, 6 feet proposed); 
7) Minimum distance between buildings (10 feet required, 7 feet proposed); 
8) Privacy wall setback on Charle Street (5 feet required, 3 feet proposed)

 This is the City Council's first cut at this project.  The discussion should be VERY interesting.

HOPING FOR CIVILITY
Fingers tightly crossed for a short, collegial council meeting.  Let's hope there are no more public displays of arrogant, vindictive stupidity as was displayed by the Mayor Pro Tem last time.  What are the odds?  70/30 against... I actually expect the mayor to break the gavel presented to him by the mayor pro tem as he demands order and calls for a break.  Of course, he's yelling at the wrong person most of the time.

Seniors Hear About Organics Recycling

FINAL PUBLIC MEETING ON ORGANICS RECYCLING
This morning Scott Carroll, General Manager of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, and Mike Silva from CR&R Environmental Services presented the final public outreach workshop to a very small group of seniors at the Costa Mesa Senior Center.  Fewer than a dozen of us geezers showed up to hear their presentations, but we all stayed awake and asked good questions.  Each of the other four recent meetings played to packed houses - in a couple cases standing-room-only - so this turnout was not unexpected.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW...
Although I've attended the earlier version of this presentation several times, this is the first time for me to hear the current pitch, with the current numbers.  I'm not going to bore you with all that stuff - you can visit the CMSD website, HERE, which has ALL the information you'll need to know about this change in how our residential waste will be handled.   There's a link on the website to an excellent video presentation from the Town Hall held on June 2nd, too.

(click image to enlarge)

NEW SORTING REQUIRED
In a nutshell, instead of just dumping all our household waste - trash, green waste, recyclables, etc. - into a single cart each week as we do now, once the new carts are delivered over the next few weeks we will be required to sort our waste.  Green waste and food scraps will go into the new cart - the one with the light green lid - and everything else will go in the old one.  As Silva said in response to one of the questions today, "Don't overthink it."

SAVING LANDFILLS FOR TWO BUCKS A MONTH
This new process - the CMSD is the first company to sign up with it and, as a result, will ALWAYS have the lowest rate for this process - will end up costing each ratepayer about $1.72 per month.  That charge will be assessed on your property tax bill.  The new facility in Perris will eventually end up costing around $100 million when fully built-out.  The initial phase, which will be processing our waste, will cost around $30 million, part of which will be offset by grants received.  The objective is to reduce the stuff being taken to landfills.  We are running out of landfill space.  Presently Costa Mesa diverts over 50% of it's trash from landfills.  The goal of this process is to divert AT LEAST 75% once it's implemented.

SOME INTERESTING INFO

I've provided some slides from the presentation.  These and others are shown in the video presentation.  If you're really interested, take a few minutes to watch it.  The direct link to it is HERE.   

(click on the images for easier viewing)

The Team

 The Goal

 The Incentives

GOT MY FOOD SCRAP BUCKET...
On the way home I stopped at the CMSD offices at 628 West 19th Street - kind of just across the street from the Senior Center - and picked up my brand new counter top, dishwasher-friendly food scrap bucket.  If you choose to use one of them, the CMSD has them for free.  Or, you can just wrap your potato peelings, steak bones and other food waste in newspaper and toss it into your Organics cart. 

...AND BAGS TO LINE IT
Then I stopped at Mother's Market at the corner of 19th Street and Newport Boulevard and got a box of COMPOSTABLE bags to line the bucket.  Similar products are marked "biodegradable", but should NOT be used in this process.  You can use newspaper if you wish, but I wanted to be sure Mother's actually had this product on hand since the CMSD information lists it as a supplier.  I chatted with the managers and told them to stock-up!  This box of 25 cost $5.00.  I showed the gift card, since that might be a nice gift for your friends... give them a $5.00 gift card and they can buy a box of bags.

 

 NO "TRASH POLICE"
And, per the conversation today, if you choose NOT to put your food scraps into the new Organics Recycling cart, it's OK.  There will NOT be trash police patrolling the streets, inspecting your trash.  Here's a nifty chart from the CMSD website that shows what kind of waste should go into which cart.

(click on the image to enlarge)

TWICE AS MANY TRUCKS
What WILL be happening, though, is that we'll have twice as many trash truck trips through our neighborhoods.  One truck will pick up your trash, while another will pick up only the Organics.  If you're only using one can each week now, soon you'll be using two.  The schedule for distribution of the new carts is shown on this nifty chart, HERE.  It's a PDF file and looks like this, but much bigger.

THE PROCESS BEGINS NEXT WEEK
So, neighbors, the distribution of the new carts begins next week through August 14th and the collection of trash using them will follow the next week after distribution.  If you need another Organics cart, just call the CR&R at 949-646-4617.

Organics Recycling And Library Expansion

ANOTHER BUSY DAY...
Tomorrow is another busy day in Costa Mesa... what's new?!

FINAL ORGANICS RECYCLING OUTREACH MEETING
First, tomorrow, Thursday, June 18, 2015, there will be the final public outreach meeting by the Costa Mesa Sanitary District on the plan to implement an Organics Recycling program in Costa Mesa.  There have been several public meetings on this subject, stretching back well over a year.  This one was added as a special outreach for the Costa Mesa Seniors who may not have had a chance to make any of the others.

SENIOR CENTER LOCATION
This meeting will be held at the Costa Mesa Senior Center, 695 West 19th Street and begins at 10:00 a.m.  CMSD General Manager Scott Carroll will provide the information and will likely be accompanied by representatives of CR&R Environmental Services - our trash hauler.

 VIDEO OF EARLIER MEETING AVAILABLE
If you cannot make the meeting and still need information there is plenty available to you at the Costa Mesa Sanitary District web site, HERE.  Included there is an excellent video shot by Barry Friedland of Costa Mesa Brief of the June 2, 2015 Town Hall meeting.  You can link directly to that 75 minute video HERE.

NEXT WEEK'S THE BIG ROLL OUT
The new trash carts will begin being delivered to CR&R customers beginning next week and will be distributed on a rolling cycle through August 14th.  Click HERE for a map of the distribution schedule.  The Costa Mesa Sanitary District will also have free counter-top waste food buckets available for pick up at their offices at 628 West 19th Street in Costa Mesa.  For more information call the District at 949-645-8400.

*****

LIBRARY MEETING AND TOUR
Then, tomorrow evening, there is another meeting about the Library/Neighborhood Community Center project - that will discuss the options for the expansion of Costa Mesa's library capacity -  that will be held at the Neighborhood Community Center, 1845 Park Avenue (Lions Park) from 6-8 p.m.  There will be a tour of the Donald Dungan Library following the meeting.  Here's the information on that one.  Click on the image to enlarge it.

Organics Recycling Town Hall Tonight

THIRD IN THE SERIES
Tonight the Costa Mesa Sanitary District will host the third in their series of town hall meetings for residents to inform them about the Organics Recycling Program that will be launched later this month.  This meeting was to have been the final town hall, but an additional meeting has been added to the schedule to accommodate the Costa Mesa Seniors who have had difficulty attending other meetings.  More on that one at the end of this post.

BACK BAY HIGH SCHOOL TONIGHT
The meeting tonight is at Back Bay High School, 390 Monte Vista Ave., Costa Mesa and begins at 6:00 p.m.  Both of the previous town halls held earlier this year have been well-attended.

LOTS OF GOOD INFORMATION ON THE WEBSITE
The Costa Mesa Sanitary District Web Site has a wealth of information on this issue, HERE.  There are links to Frequently Asked Questions and to a 2-hour video of a previous meeting, HERE, in case you cannot personally attend one of the town halls.

PROGRAM STARTS THIS MONTH
The distribution of the new Organics Recycling carts begins the week of June 22nd and the new pick-up program begins the following week for folks with the new carts.  The distribution of the new carts will be phased in through August 14th, so the new pick-up program will follow along that same schedule.  A large map like the one shown below can be found at this link, HERE, shows the cart distribution schedule for the city. 

MEETING AT SENIOR CENTER LATER THIS MONTH
As mentioned, a fourth meeting has been scheduled to accommodate the Costa Mesa Seniors who might have difficulty attending one of the other meetings.  This one is scheduled for Thursday, June 18, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. at the Costa Mesa Senior Center, 695 West 19th Street, Costa Mesa.  This meeting is open to all residents, too.

The Best Laid Plans And Organics Recycling

WATER CONSERVATION NEWS LATER
A funny thing happened on the way to the Mesa Water District Board meeting tonight.  I planned to attend to hear what kind of scheme they have in store for us users to deal with the perceived water crisis.  The Public Hearing was to be held tonight at the end of their regular meeting, which also includes their budget discussions

TOO CROWDED... MORE TOMORROW
But, I digress... I got to the Mesa Water District headquarters on Placentia Avenue with 10 minutes to spare.  However, all the parking spots were already taken and folks were being routed out to the back lot, near the dirt piles, to park.  The Board Room would be guaranteed a standing room only affair, so I just blew it off and came home.  I'll check with the District Friday morning and report the results of their vote.

ORGANICS RECYCLING
However, do not despair... let's talk about the other end of the pipe!  Monday night I blew off another meeting - that was a town hall conducted by the Costa Mesa Sanitary District - one of three planned - to discuss their plan to initiate an Organics Recycling Program.  The meeting room at the Halecrest Community Center was packed - standing room only - so I gathered up the literature, took a few photos and left for the Planning Commission meeting.

TWO MORE TOWN HALLS COMING UP
We've written about Organics Recycling before, about fifteen months ago when they first announced this plan.  So, let's rehash this program.  I'll provide you with some links and some answers to questions and remind you that the next town hall is this Saturday, May 16, 2015, at the Neighborhood Community Center, 1845 Park Avenue, beginning at 9 a.m.  This is for you working folks that cannot make evening meetings.  The final town hall will be held on Tuesday, June 2, 2015 at 6 p.m. at Back Bay High School, 390 Monte Vista Ave.  I will NOT be attending that one because it conflicts with the City Council Meeting.

THE SHORT VERSION
Basically, in a nutshell, the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, through their trash hauler, CR&R Environmental Services, will replace one of your current trash cans beginning in June through the middle of August with an Organics Recycling cart.  It will have a different colored lid, at least, and will be used strictly for stuff that can be processed in CR&R's new $25 million plant in Perris, CA.  Things like green waste - grass, shrubs, etc., - and food waste, like grease, bones, vegetable matter and newspapers.  Those cans will be collected by a separate truck, which means TWO trucks through our neighborhoods each week instead of one.  Twice as much heavy truck traffic on our residential neighborhood streets.  All other trash that you accumulate will be placed in the other cart.  That Organic stuff will be hauled out to Perris and processed through the Anaerobic Digestion Plant and produce fertilizer and methane gas, which will be used to power their fleet.

VIEW THE DETAILS AT THE CMSD SITE
Go the the Costa Mesa Sanitary District Site for this program, HERE, to begin learning more about this program.   When you get to that page, slide over to the Organics Recycling tab with the flashing arrow and read the drop down menu of subjects.  Almost every question you might have will be answered.  In fact, you can watch the slide show of their town hall presentation, too.

YOU HAVE TO ASK TO OPT OUT
As I suspected they might, they've done a little bait and switch on us.  During the earlier meetings on this issue I asked if folks could simply NOT participate in this program.  The answer at that time was a simple "Yes".  Well, now that "Yes" comes with a caveat... you must ASK for permission to opt out and must meet specific requirements as defined by the Sanitary District.  Before you get all agitated, the restrictions make sense... you can read about it on the site.

PAILS FOR FOOD WASTE COLLECTION
Yes, they're going to make counter top kitchen pails available to us so we can collect all that food waste.  Yes, it will take some getting used to.  Yes, we will be able to buy compostable bags for those pails.  In fact, on that subject, do a Google search for counter top trash pails and you'll find an array of decorator-type pails you can buy on your own.

MAKES SENSE TO DO THIS
In fact, doing this makes a lot of sense.  Southern California is running out of landfill space.  This plan by CR&R is leading edge - nobody else is doing it and it's going to save a lot of space.  It's going to cost us a little more, but nobody will ever pay less than we will - a guarantee by CR&R.  In fact, the costs have gone down since the original presentations last year.

GOOD INFORMATION AVAILABLE
Please go to that link and read the first paragraph, which describes the reason for this plan.  Follow the other links for the FAQs, Cart distribution schedule (I'll get mine right after Independence Day) and you can also view the slide show AND Barry Friedland's Costa Mesa Brief coverage of an earlier meeting. 

SEE YOU SATURDAY
I'm planning to attend the Saturday morning event at the Neighborhood Community Center.  See you there.

Busy Week Ahead

 PLENTY OF ACTIVITY THIS WEEK...
There's a lot going on in Costa Mesa this week.  Here's a quick rundown:

Tonight, Monday, there are two meetings running simultaneously.

PLANNING COMMISSION
Planning Commission, at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers, with some controversial items on the agenda, HERE.

SANITARY DISTRICT ON ORGANIC RECYCLING
Costa Mesa Sanitary District Meeting on the Organics Recycling Program at the Halecrest Community Center, 3107 Killybrooke Lane, at 6p.m.

SENIOR COMMISSION
Tuesday, at 9 a.m. the Senior Commission will meet at the Costa Mesa Senior Center.  The agenda, HERE, and hear about the Brown Act and approve new instructional classes and fees.

BUDGET STUDY SESSION
At 5 p.m. the Costa Mesa City Council will hold a Study Session on the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Budget.

MESA WATER ON NEW RULES
Thursday the Mesa Water District Board will meet at 6 p.m. at District Headquarters at 1965 Placentia Avenue and will discuss their budget and new water use regulations and a new ordinance, according to reports in the local media, HERE.

A Big Agenda For The Planning Commission

AN INTERESTING EVENING AHEAD
The Rob Dickson-led Costa Mesa Planning Commission meets again Monday, May 11, 2015 beginning at 6:00 p.m. in City Council Chambers for what likely will be a VERY interesting meeting.  You can read the agenda HERE.

AN EASY ONE TO BEGIN
It looks like it might start out with an easy one in Public Hearing #1, HERE.  This is a plan for a two-unit development at 1620 Orange Avenue with a couple minor adjustments to setbacks.  As far as I can tell from the staff report, this should be a nice little project.

DENIAL OF RADIO STATION
Public Hearing #2, HERE, is a little more interesting.  This is an appeal of a decision by the Zoning Administrator to deny the application for a radio station at 440 Fair Drive which includes a 70-foot tall antenna in the parking lot!  Some might recall that address - the site of previous controversial businesses.  Reviewing the agenda report, it seems unlikely that the appeal will be approved since there is no way to screen that tower, which is nearly twice the height of any other structure nearby.

MOVING SUTRA LOUNGE
Public Hearing #3, HERE, is an entirely different kettle of fish.  The applicant - Diamond Star Associates, in the person of former Senior Costa Mesa Development executive, Don Lamm - who represents the owners - Greenlaw Partners (a member of which will receive recognition at the upcoming Mayor's Celebration next week) are asking for a Master Plan amendment to move the existing Sutra Lounge - a business that generates significant calls for service - from the current location at the confluence of Newport Boulevard and Harbor Boulevard to the former NikeTown location at the other end of The Triangle, along 19th Street.  The existing space would then be available for another restaurant.

NO PARKING PROBLEM, THEY SAY.... UH, HUH...
According to the staff report, parking will not be a problem because there is a surplus of parking at The Triangle.  OK, if they say so, but my personal experience and that of many of my neighbors is that there are major parking issues at The Triangle, particularly during the evenings when all the restaurants are open and the theaters are operating.  Over the years this shopping venue has gone from one with a diverse array of businesses - most of which typically had customers in and out in less than an hour.  Today, with the theaters, the gym in the basement and the proliferation of popular restaurants, most visitors are staying for two hours plus.  Hearing Lamm's pitch on the parking will be very interesting.  The staff is recommending approval.

ANOTHER INTENSE DEVELOPMENT ON THE WESTSIDE

Public Hearing #4, HERE, is also an interesting item.  This is the development of 177 units at 671 W. 17th Street - the old Argo-Tech industrial site at the corner of 17th Street and Pomona Avenue.  According to the staff report, there will be three-story with rooftop patios in these configurations: 42 detached live/work units; 89 attached live/work units and 46 residential loft units.  Don Lamm is also pitching this one.  The staff report is nearly 1,600 pages!  This project follows the guidelines of the Mesa West Bluffs Urban Plan created a decade ago.  Theoretically, the parking is within guidelines, but includes some of the "open spaces" within closed garages!  What?  The staff recommends approval of this very intense, traffic-producing development.

ORGANICS RECYCLING MEETING CONFLICTS WITH THIS ONE
Oh, yes, simultaneous with this meeting there will be an Organics Recycling meeting at the same time at the Halecrest Community Center, not too far away.  It's decision time again...