Thursday, June 07, 2007

June 7, 2007 CAC meeting

First I need to apologize to everyone in the room for some of the R1 supporters who didn't practice the best citizenship during the meeting. There was clapping that I did not participate in, some hoots that I also remained silent at, and a whole lot of laughing out loud that some of us, including me did throughout the whole meeting.

It was impossible to keep from laughing, on my part, because I thought the evening's meeting was about the funniest I have attended.

The CAC, Councilwoman Janice Hahn's Community Advisory Committee for the Ponte Vista at San Pedro, created a circus atmosphere that I completely enjoyed.

The members first tried to do some more tackling of traffic issues. After what seemed like about an hour they tabled whatever they were dealing with, without getting anything accomplished except possibly bring more confusion into the mix.

Mr. Jerry Gaines, Mr. Rick Schuyler, and Mr. Dan Dixon, did a mitigation study and Jerry presented it. I actually read it before the meeting and found that they worked with Bob Bisno and others to craft a fairly decent study. Unfortunately, after about the first hour of discussion, Mr. Dixon proposed tabling any further review or possible recommendations, based on the Study.

During the process however, one of the CAC members asked Ms. Betsy Weissman, a supervisor in the Planning Department, if any recommendations made by the CAC or even a City Councilperson, like Ms. Hahn, would have to be considered in any further review the Planning Department. Betsy replied that the Planning Department is under no obligation to be required to accept any recommendation from any committee or any Council member, when they do their studies and make their (the Planning Department's) recommendations.

That cause me to laugh quite a bit. All these studies the CAC has been looking at can be summarily ignored by the Planning Department, if they want.

The next thing the CAC tried to deal with was a proposal for density. This brought me to almost tears with all the laughing I was doing. Folks were suggesting percentages of single-family, Senior Housing units and non-age restricted development and rushing to find tables of densities and calculators to figure out numbers.

One CAC member thought it would be good to look at a development of 60% R1 lots at Ponte Vista and 25% Senior Housing acreage and 15% non-age restricted acreage. I had to point out to this person, after the meeting ended that they left out all of the Open Space areas. Bob Bisno has about 40% Open Space of many different types in his current Plans.

As folks were trying to figure out numbers of R1 dwellings per acre on 40% of Ponte Vista, I hardly could not stop what looked like a silent movie from the Keystone Kops. 40% of the acreage of Ponte Vista would allow for approximately 185.5 single-family houses on R-1 sized lots. (minimum 5,000 square feet) I had this figured out months ago when I proposed a 40% Senior Housing section, 20% open space, and 40% SFRs on R1 lots.

One big, and I mean big comment was made by Mr. Bisno when asked about traffic generation numbers in his "new" plan. Mr. Bisno stated he would be using data supplied to him by Mr. Jerry Gaines and Mr. Pat Nave. Commenting that he would use numbers produced and supplied by Pat Nave was a big concession on the part of Bob and some rejection of his own traffic engineers.

The oral comments were fairly few. There were 6 speakers who are seeking R1 and there were two individuals speaking on behalf of the supporting side of Mr. Bisno's plans.

One speaker was Mr. Joe Gatlin, the President of the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council. In Mr. Gatlin's remarks he stated that the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council endorses Mr. Bisno's Ponte Vista at San Pedro Development.

I had to ask Mr. Gatlin if what he said was an actual endorsement of the development and he repeated to me that it was. I asked him about the Email sent to Elise Swanson concerning the recent resolution passed by Central that did not specifically endorse the development, but Mr. Gatlin stated that the writer of that Email was not a member of the board.

Mr. Gatlin stated that the resolution he signed was, in fact, and endorsement of the Ponte Vista project and reject the Email sent to Ms. Swanson.

I asked unnamed sources within the Bisno organization if they thought the resolution Elise Swanson read out at the last CAC meeting was an endorsement of their project and they said they believed the resolution was NOT an endorsement of the project.

I have posted the resolution and the body of the Email sent to Ms. Swanson on this blog in another post. You may judge for yourself who is correct.

And then there is Ray. Ray Patricio is a gem of a human being and a real crack up at every meeting he attends. Tonight he seemed to have done some preparation for his speaking time.
Again, I was laughing so hard I had a tough time remembering it all. Everyone in the room, except Ray were laughing so hard it probably needs to be printed out for everyone to read at the next CAC meeting.

It seems Ray wasn't feeling too good one day and he had to visit the pharmacy. As he was looking for some type of medication he happened to pass the section containing remedies for tummy ailments and thing like that. After some first words, he said "Pepto Bisno". He noted that right next to that was Ex-lax and just a bit further down was Preparation H! After that, we all were laughing too hard to hear what else Ray had to say.

Tonight's meeting was free and could have rivaled the Comedy and Magic Club for the number of laughs some of us got.

There was something also interesting and it has become a regular event as far as CAC meetings go. At the beginning of each recent meeting, more that half the seats are filled by Bisno supporters, many of whom don't seem to have ever been at a CAC meeting and almost look like they were bussed in. I don't think they were, but it looked like it.

The usual band of rudderless steering committee members show up, along with some R1 supporters. We all stay until the end of every meeting.

The supporters who don't normally come to most meetings, usually are all gone by just over half of the meeting. The number of "regulars" in support of Bob's plans seem to be staying the same or very slightly decreasing each meeting. Bob usually get about 10-12 regular supporters and I can probably name them all by now. The R1 band usually has about 10 regulars and all the "regulars" on both sides tend to stay until the bitter end.

Tonight the CAC members seemed so fed up that nothing was accomplished, they didn't seem to even take a vote to adjourn. They all got up at once and collectively said "enough is enough" for tonight at least.

Two more meetings in this current round have been planned. June 28 and July 24 were agreed upon for the next two meetings. Some of us thought that after Bob presents his "new" proposal on June 18, we would all take a hiatus from having this much fun. Perhaps August will be a month off from dealing with the dealings.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do not understnad this great interest in the fact htat some people leave early. Yes, some Bisno supporters leave after it becomes obviuos that they will have to sit through long oratories where they will have no opportunity to contribute or even participate. Many of them are seniors, and it is asking a lot for them to stay that late. In the past the CAC allowed public comment at the beginning of the meeting, just for this reason. Now that they cannot speak until the end, usually after 9:30, it is not suprising that people would leave. This does not mean they do not believe in or support the project, just that they are not as masochistic as the rest of us.

M Richards said...

Thank you L. Dominguez for your comment,

I don't believe that there is "great interest", by many folks about supporters leaving early and not sticking around to make any public comment they wish too, or for any other reason.

It was interesting to me to see a great many more "supporters" of Bobs at the beginning of the meeting and then to see many of them leave before they had the opportunity to offer their opinions.

I counted two "supporters" of Bob Bisno's plans speak to the CAC, while at least 6 individualy spoke that seemed to opposed Mr. Bisno's plans.

Considering how many "supporters" attended the meeting, versus that far fewer numbers of "opponents", it seems that there would have been more "supporters" who wanted to speak, than actually did.

As I understand it, many individuals, both supporting and opposing Bob's plans may have only submitted written comments, as I did at last night's meeting.

The June 7 meeting was the first time I did not offer oral comments while either on the CAC, or as an audience member.

I also do not find anyone of us to be "masochistic" but I do agree that there have been some fairly brutal meetings the audiences has had to sit through.

Last night's meeting was probably one of those meetings for a lot of folks, but I could not help but finding it very amusing. It seems I may have been the only one in the room that laughed the most watching the members of the CAC trying to figure out the impossible and hearing Betsy state that whatever recommendations come from the CAC or Ms. Hahn, might not necessarily have and impact with the Planning Departments.

It seems that where the politicians fail to screw things up as much as they can, we all have the bureaucrats for look to in many of the screwups, now and in the future.

Again, if you and the many of Bob's supporters attending last night's meeting were offended by the bunch of opponents that may have received lower citizenship grades in school, I apologize and I tried to get Rob to simmer down, just a bit, but he seemed to be having too much fun.
MW

M Richards said...

O.K., I have something more to add.

Why don't the folks who leave early want to know more about the Ponte Vista development from "independent" sources like some members of the CAC? I think we are all being given a rare opportunity to watch democracy in action at almost the lowest levels when we are trying to discuss the Ponte Vista development. Is it that the many "supporters" who leave early do not care about positions that vary from Bob Bisno's, or are they just there for a show of numbers?

A month or so ago, the tables were turned and the R1 group flooded the meeting room compared to the "supporters" of Bob's current plans. Nobody on the CAC seemed to care that opponents far outnumbered supporters, at those meetings.

Both sides have regular folks who attend just about every CAC meeting. Bob brings out some folks who seem to look more prominent that the opposition does, as is his right, but even many of them attend few meetings.

I think I can name all the "regulars" who have attend every meeting or almost every meeting. L. Dominguez, even though Louis Dominguez, a co-chair of Bob's Advisory Boards would not necessarily be in the "regulars" category that I have come to know. It is true that Mr. Dominguez attends some to many of the meetings, but after attending EVERY meeting so far, I can safely say that I know who attends the meetings regularly, even in the winter time and other times when attendance was at a minimum.

If Mr. Dominguez cares to comment to me personally, my Email address is mrichards2@hotmail.com
MW

Just4fin said...

R-1 Support Petitions break the 8,000 Mark
Over 5,000 petitions submitted to Janice Hahn's office at June 7th meeting


R Neighborhoods Are 1 handed 5, 140 petitions over to Janice Hahn’s office during the June 7th meeting of the Ponte Vista Community Advisory Committee at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown San Pedro.

Bruce Horton, representing R Neighborhoods are 1, gave Gordon Teuber, Hahn’s Director of Community Development, the stack of forms with the comment “this is just another example of the how the community really feels about the proposed 2300 unit development. At this point, people can’t wait to sign on in support of R-1 zoning.”

At the going rate of signature collection, the group expects to hit the 10,000 mark fairly soon. “That is our first goal,” said Bruce Horton, “but we won’t stop there. We expect to be collecting support petitions throughout the entire planning process.”

For those individuals who want to help in the collecting more signatures, just log on to the group’s web site at www.rneighborhoodsare1.org/7.html and download petition forms and supporting documents.

“We are seeing a big increase in the number of folks out there collecting signatures,” said Horton. “They take them around where ever they go now and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.”