February will be busy month for council

February’s municipal agenda is full of important discussions and potential decision-making by City Council members, whose actions on these key items will affect Yorba Linda’s immediate and far-into-the-future identity.

First is a looming debate among council members on the city’s substantial reserves, which is money leftover after all revenues are collected and expenses are subtracted.

City policy is to keep about 50 percent of an annual operating budget in reserve for emergency or other unforeseen circumstances. Using round numbers, the near $30 million annual budget should leave about $15 million in reserve.

However, Yorba Linda has a $36 million reserve and forecasts adding more by the end of the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

At a November council meeting, Councilman Hank Wedaa called for using some of the reserves for current needs, while Councilman Allen Castellano suggested increasing the reserve policy beyond the 50 percent level.

Mayor Jim Winder and Councilman Jan Horton appeared to agree more with Castellano than Wedaa on the matter, and Councilman John Anderson proposed investigating what amount is needed for an adequate reserve fund.

As a result, Finance Director Susan Hartman was asked to present a report on future revenues and expenses in February, so discussion on the issue will wisely begin with reliable numbers.

Second is the Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee’s report to the council on guidelines and recommendations for development in the Old Town area. The 24-member group has spent 18 months creating a consensus document to be presented in February.

Two members, Castellano and Winder, remain from the past council that favored the controversial high-density plan fashioned by the unlamented Old Town Yorba Linda Partners development firm.

Anderson and Horton opposed OTYLP’s proposal before their 2006 election to the council, and Wedaa also found fault with the plan before his 2007 campaign win.

A third important matter to come before the council in February or soon after is the status of the many Redevelopment Agency-owned properties in Old Town.

Council called for a report on remediating the former residences and businesses for aesthetics and safety and also on the possible rental or other uses of the boarded-up structures.

A FINAL NOTE

Only three people spoke at a recent Yorba Linda Water District public hearing on rate increases for some 23,387 water connections in Yorba Linda and nearby service areas.

Directors increased the cost of 100 cubic feet of water (748 gallons) from $1.71 to $1.79 and boosted the monthly service charge from $7.92 to $8.35. The average customer uses 2,800 cubic feet of water per month, according to officials.

A resolution approving the rate hike also allows directors to “consider” passing along increases, credits or reductions from five other agencies billing the district.

Developers face a council shift

For the first time in nearly 20 years a majority of Yorba Linda’s City Council members were elected to their current terms without using campaign cash supplied by developers and other building-related interests from outside the city.

As a result, developers who profit from residential and other projects will ignore a new council philosophy at their own peril, as Newport Beach-based Etco Homes discovered recently.

Etco wanted to put eight single-family homes and two other lots on close to five acres on the east side of Lakeview Avenue between Mariposa Avenue and Orchard Drive, a much-traveled gateway entrance and exit on the city’s south side.

Planning Commissioners approved the Etco project, which incorporates four active oil wells to the south, on a 3-0 vote in October, a decision appealed by Councilman Hank Wedaa in November.

But through arrogance or adopting a misguided business-as-usual approach, Etco made two major mistakes in dealing with newer council members less friendly to developers.

First, Etco requested a two-week postponement of a Dec. 4 public hearing on Wedaa’s appeal without explanation and didn’t bother to show up to see whether or not council was willing to reschedule the hearing.

That prompted Councilman John Anderson and Wedaa to oppose rescheduling the hearing, because residents were present to comment on the project; but Mayor Jim Winder and council members Allen Castellano and Jan Horton approved a new date.

Second, in the hours preceding the Dec. 18 hearing, Etco installed a sign on the site advertising eight custom homes for sale. The sign was removed, but Anderson and Wedaa wondered why the billboard appeared before council action on the project.

Etco Southern California division president and Building Industry Association director Roger Hatch apologized for advertising the homes before earning council approval.

The offending sign likely will remain under wraps because council voted 5-0 to send the project back to a Planning Commission with three new members who weren’t among the commissioners who voted with the developer last year.

Anderson, Horton and Wedaa led the opposition to the development, citing traffic, landscaping, equestrian use and future oil well abatement issues. They labeled the project “minimal” and inadequate for one of the city’s gateway locations.

More instructive for future in-fill developers, however, is the higher standard adopted for these admittedly difficult projects by the three council members who have pledged to not accept contributions from individuals or businesses associated with the building industry.

A FINAL NOTE

Councilman John Anderson says he’ll ask council next month to place a ballot initiative forbidding future councils from using eminent domain authority for private development.

The past council rescinded eminent domain use in redevelopment areas, but it could be reinstated, even though a newer state definition of “blight” makes it unlikely.

If such a measure appears on the same November ballot as council candidates, current and past supporters of the late, unpopular eminent domain ordinance certainly would suffer consequences.

The beginnings of an election season

Yorba Linda’s biennial guessing game—who will run for City Council? —has begun in earnest, even though the first day to file is six months away in the final of four elections scheduled in this city in 2008.

Voters are focused on the Feb. 5 primary, which includes the school district’s $200 million bond measure, and the March 4 ballot deadline in an arterial landscape tax increase election.

But politicians and civic scene observers are looking past the June 3 regular primary and speculating about the year’s main electoral event: an anticipated scramble among a large field of candidates for three City Council seats on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Normally, incumbents, past contenders and political newcomers announce candidacies close to the summer filing period because they prefer to scope out likely opponents and don’t want to appear thirsty for public office.

However, Hank Wedaa said he’d run for a ninth term soon after taking the oath for his eighth term in June. Two other council members whose terms expire this year haven’t yet formally stated their intentions.

While Mayor Jim Winder is a sure bet to seek a third and final term, Councilman Allen Castellano might retire to focus on family and career, since his usual campaign fund sources are less active now. Winder placed first and Castellano third for three seats in 2000 but reversed that order in 2004.

And former Councilwoman Keri Wilson’s campaign fund is open. She won by three votes in 2002, lost by 1,456 in 2006 and 805 in the special 2007 election Wedaa won.

If the 2008 contest draws eight or more candidates, Wilson would be competitive due to name recognition and a core of eastside supporters. She beat Wedaa by 160 votes in the 92887 Zip code precincts, while Wedaa won the 92886 precincts by 965 votes.

Also mentioned in the guessing game are former three-term Councilman Mark Schwing, who lost to Wilson by those three votes in 2002, and Planning Commissioner and former water district director Mark Abramowitz.

Others are Traffic Commissioner Larry Larsen, past Parks and Recreation Commissioner Steven Brunette and former Community Foundation board president Bill Davis. (Anyone left off this short list can e-mail me at the address below for a future plug.)

A Presidential year turnout from 40,000-plus registered voters should surpass 2006’s 23,354 ballots and dwarf 2007’s 8,362. More voters, a possible open seat and greater interest in city government promise to make 2008 a spirited political year.

A FINAL NOTE

Financial rewards for council service include an annual $6,600 salary and about double that in benefits, such as retirement pay, health premiums and auto and phone allowances.

Council members also earn $100 to $170 per meeting if appointed to one or more of five county boards: fire authority, sanitation, vector control and two toll road panels.

Town center and the general plan

Work begins this year on two items that will shape this city’s remaining development opportunities and include citizens serving on two new advisory panels, if City Council members wisely follow past practices and a blue-ribbon committee recommendation.

One involves Town Center redevelopment policies based on a series of clear and concise guiding principles and recommendations from the 24-member Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee, which is expected to deliver a final report to the council next month.

The blue-ribbon body suggests preparing a specific plan for Town Center consistent with the committee’s findings and, importantly, forming a Town Center Specific Plan Citizens Advisory Committee to “uphold” the blue-ribbon group’s recommendations.

Clearly, the proposed watchdog committee would eliminate the closed-door Town Center discussions involving council members, city staff and designated developers that played a major role in dooming a past council’s high-density Old Town project.

Another involves a second update of the city’s original General Plan, scheduled to start this year with actual completion in two or three years.

A citizens group, including several low-density advocates elected to the 1970 and 1972 councils, wrote the first General Plan in 1971. It was endorsed 2,317 to 1,902 by voters in 1972 and replaced a county plan approved in 1962.

Residents also played a key role in the plan’s first update in 1993, with insurance broker Mike Duvall chairing a citizens’ advisory group before his election to the council in 2000 and state Assembly in 2006.

The revision was adopted by the council but not placed on the ballot. It maintained an overall density of 2.8 dwelling units per acre, which includes the dwelling unit lots and the streets, other easements and open space directly serving the acre.

However, densities of 15 units per acre were approved for specific areas in the downtown core, and new areas were added to various land use designations, including low, medium low, medium, medium high and high-density.

Although council properly will hire an outside professional planning firm to guide the process, formation of a citizens’ committee to oversee the revision and evaluate likely changes is essential.

Both the Town Center Specific Plan Citizens Advisory Committee and a General Plan panel should be created using a method similar to selecting Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee members, a procedure that brought together a diverse group of residents.

A FINAL NOTE

The City Council recently voted 5-0 to hold Town Hall meetings at various locations for each month with a fifth Tuesday, starting Jan. 29 at Lakeview Elementary at 6:30 p.m.

Two sessions were held in 2007, with John Anderson and Jan Horton attending a Jan. 2 discussion that drew 48 to City Hall, and all five council members responding to citizen queries at a July 31 meeting that attracted 82 to the Eastlake Village clubhouse.

On the 2008 agenda

This city’s 41st year promises to be one of the busiest ever in local government, due to a record-breaking schedule of four elections, new Old Town development proposals and a General Plan update.

Today and for the next two weeks, we’ll examine issues on the agenda for 2008.

First, let’s look at decisions voters will make beginning this month on a tax hike to pay for landscape maintenance on 14 major streets and a $200 million bond measure in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.

Yorba Linda’s 12,000-plus mail voters will receive ballots next week for the Feb. 5 Presidential primary that includes the school bond, while the landscape tax ballots go out to property owners about two weeks later.

Since both ballots involve items many residents cite as reasons for living in Yorba Linda—a superior school system and well-landscaped open space—and organized opposition has yet to form, sizeable majorities supporting each might be expected.

The measure with the best chance of passing is the school bond, needing a 55 percent “yes” vote. The 2002 $102 million bond won about 66 percent in Yorba Linda, despite opposition from Councilman Allen Castellano and former Councilman John Gullixson.

The volunteer Campaign for Kids 2008 group has distributed material on how the bond money will be spent at each campus and told voters about a citizen watchdog committee that will keep an eye on bond expenditures.

Phone banks, mailers and newspaper ads are getting out positive word on the bonds, which are important to residents with children in local schools and others concerned about home values. The tax is $29.50 per $100,000 assessed valuation for 25 years.

Less sure of passage but still likely to win over residential property owners and the weighted votes of commercial landowners is the arterial landscape tax increase from $47.29 to $91 per year. Current law permits an annual Consumer Price Index hike, but the new measure allows the CPI plus three percent more for 10 years.

That added automatic boost and a colorful four-page, city-paid glossy mailer containing arguments in favor of the increase has led some residents to promote a “no” vote during City Council public comment periods.