Recommendation to adopt resolution approving the acceptance of a Sustainable Communities Planning Grant from the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans), in the amount of $733,610; Authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all necessary documents with CalTrans relating to the Grant awarded to the Department of Development Services for professional planning services to study land use and mobility regulations for North Long Beach in the context of the City’s proposed updated General Plan; and Increase appropriations in the Development Services Fund (EF 337) in the Development Services Department (DV) by 733,610, offset by grant revenue. (Districts 8,9)
Great. Thank you. Moving on to item 17. Item 17 is a from development services. The recommendation to adopt a resolution approving the acceptance of sustainable communities planning grant from Caltrans in the amount of seven on 33,000 and execute all necessary documents with Caltrans relating to relating to the grant awarded to the Development Department of Development Services by Professional Planning Services to study land use and mobility regulations for North Palm Beach districts eight and nine. There's the motion in a second. Any public comment on this item. To request the staff. Report? Staff report. Linda Tatum. Good afternoon, Mayor. Members of the City Council. I did have. A brief slide or PowerPoint presentation, but if they could pull that up. But I will go ahead and get started. Given the lateness of the hour just a little bit in the way of background on this project. Here we go. In the fall of 2017, our department development services applied for and was awarded this grant, and we actually started the work on it in March 2018. The purpose of it really is to do some planning to promote sustainability in the uptown area, which is covered by both in the zip code of 90805, which is in districts, both districts eight and nine. The work here really is to prepare in phase one, an overall vision for some of the land use changes along the commercial quarters in this district. And in the we actually at that time had a very extensive work program that was pretty substantial. However, we only got funding for $250,000 at that time. So in February of 2018, the city we actually applied for a phase two of that grant for an amount of $733,610. And we were actually awarded the phase two component of that. So we will be working on both continuing phase one and ramping up for phase two of this grant, which is really going to be looking at some tailored neighborhood projects and updates to the zoning ordinance. I do have another slide that gives you a little bit of a comparison between what we've done in Phase one and what we're proposing to do in Phase two in this program. And just in summary, that initial Phase one grant essentially covered our staff time. The the grant was for 250,000, and that covered planning efforts. We did bring on board a consultant and it also covered staff time. And one of the. Primary things we did in phase one and are continuing to do is to to start to work on a vision for the area. But one of the other focuses was to really try to look at some of the commercial land use and development and design regulations for those major corridors I mentioned. Those are Artesia Boulevard as well as Atlantic Boulevard. And one of the other focuses of this effort is to try to start creating some of the zoning templates to implement the city's updated land use element. When that gets considered by council, next year will be in place to not only put in place some of those. New. Zoning codes on these corridors, but to use those in other parts of the city as well. Another couple of key components of this project for phase one was doing some kind of parking inventory. We're looking at how we can better utilize the parking in the area for shared parking. We are also considering some economic development components and it really does have a very strong community outreach component that includes a strong youth engagement component as well as empowerment. And then moving on to phase two, again, it will build on the vision in a lot of the community outreach that was done in phase and phase one. But this time in phase two will be looking at some of the industrial and the residential land uses to supplement the work that we've done on the commercial corridors. We'll also be looking at expanding some of the community engagement opportunities in really is a really high level of interaction and an engagement and not just input from the community. The whole focus of this effort really is creating livability or addressing some of the livability, quality of life and sustainability issues. We will also be looking at some very focused implementation efforts, such as activating some of the vacant lots in the area. We're going to be looking at some demonstration projects. We'll also be looking at efforts we talked about. It's a little bit earlier, but the hotel and motel re-use demand study. That's a component of this grant. And we'll also be looking at neighborhood housing issues, neighborhood enhancement, but also looking at increasing the mobility and also some street improvements and enhancements within the area. So that can increase kind of the major components of the presentation. But I think it's important to note that we will be using this grant to leverage some of the other or to supplement some of the other initiatives that are ongoing in the uptown area. And this is just a list of some of those. The next presentation on your agenda will be the Uptown Open Space Vision plan that Parks and Recreation is currently working on, and you'll be getting that presentation. But other efforts again that are ongoing in other departments, the Heal Healthy Eating and Active Living that's done by the Health Department. The City Council also funded the Artesia Boulevard Master Plan that will be considered and be an integrated component of this project as well. And a couple of other projects by the successor agency Parcels Development, which is ongoing at Artesia and Atlantic, as well as a couple of other projects along the Atlantic Boulevard Quarter and of course , the city's bicycle master plan. Because of that, what we call the mobility component, the bicycle implementation is a key component of that. So that concludes the presentation and I would just ask council support to take the action to receive this grant and to modify the development services budget to accept this grant as a part of the Department's budget. Thank you. There's a motion and a second as your public comment. Mr. Mayor. I'm coming back. It's a is a public comment saying non Councilor Richardson. Thank you. Just wanted to say a few things so so one, this is incredibly important to North Palm Beach. We've talked about sort of the issues, the blight, the outdated land use on the corridors, overconcentration of liquor stores, nuisance motels. And you've heard it because we've talked about it for the last eight years and we've done a lot to address short term. But we've always said we need to talk about the long term vision of North Long Beach, how we improve our standards, our design standards, how we create a strategy to reuse the motels and the liquor stores and all that. And, you know, it's just astounding to me that Sky came in a year ago, maybe less than a year ago, acknowledged it gave us the $250,000 grant city staff. And I have to recognize Linda and Christopher Koontz and that whole team who have gone forward and identified the second piece of funding within less than a year. And this at tables around SCAD and planning tables. This is one of the most exciting projects that's ever happened in North Long Beach, but the region is paying attention to it, and I love that it connects a lot of the other efforts from our open space plan, the Artesia Boulevard study that we're really driving across six cities. So it really places a real focus for the first time that anybody that I know can remember. This is the most significant planning focus North Long Beach has ever had. So thank you all for staying out late tonight. Thank you, Linda, for actually going through the presentation because this is incredibly important and I encourage and encourage the city council to support now and Councilman Austin as a good, strong partner on this effort as well. Thanks. Thanks, Councilman Austin. I did hear everything that has been said, you know, not only Skaggs, but the the Gateway Cities Council of Governments. This is a regional project that that that has eyes of as he mentioned, planning professionals throughout the region are watching not Long Beach. I think that says a lot about the recent leadership in the area as well as the strong support of the council and and great work on our behalf of staff going after the grants. This is us. This item is about us accepting $733,000 for for a planning grant. And I'm fully in support. Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. I just want to say how impressed I am with this 180 page plan. It's beautiful. You guys have done a great job. What was. That? That's the next item. Dang it. Well, I'm super impressed with this next item here. That's what happens. And you guys make me recuse myself. See you still. Congratulations for a time, which I think you guys have done a great job. I will not speak on the next item, but I will just say it again. It's not the next item. It's item after next, you know. Yes, sorry, but it's beautiful. It's beautiful. Okay. Please cast your votes. The motion carries. Out in 20. I'm sorry. I'm 19, 19. 18. That was it, wasn't it? I'm sorry. That was. 17. 19.