Santa Margarita Area Advisory Council
Post Office Box 627
Santa Margarita, CA 93453-0627
www.smaaconline.org
Regular Meeting Minutes
7 PM, Wednesday, February 13, 2013
At the Santa Margarita Elementary School Library
Regular meetings are held on the 2nd Wednesday of the month except December and July
Special or called meetings and rescheduled meeting dates will be noticed
Members Present: Butch Pope, David Blakely, Steve Rossi, Chad Pankey, Mike
Cole, Charlie Whitney, George Sullivan, Chris Volbrecht, Steve Haymaker, Bob
Righetti, Jeremy Burns, and Sophie Treder.
1) Call to order. 7:02 pm.
2) Pledge of Allegiance.
3) Approval of the minutes from the previous meeting(s). Minutes
approved unanimously.
4) Approval of the agenda. Agenda as amended approved unanimously.
5) Open comment:
a) Public announcements and comments regarding items not on the
agenda. None.
b) Council announcements and comments regarding items not on
the agenda. George Sullivan asked to canvass the Council regarding
whether there have been any issues with the noticing of burn days. There were
several comments among the Council regarding fewer and fewer burn days and
the notice being posted later in the day. Supervisor Arnold suggested that
because the council is an advisory body to the Board, and each member of the
Board sits on the APCD, that this Council would be justified in bringing any
concerns to the APCD. The Chair suggested the Council send a letter of inquiry
and clarification to the APCD. A possible letter will be added to the March
agenda for discussion.
6) Public Safety: None.
a) Cal Fire/County Fire Department.
b) Sheriff’s Department.
c) Highway Patrol.
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d) Other agencies.
7) County Service Area 23 update. Roy Reeves from the public gave the
report. Two new members were elected. They made a decision to send a letter
to Public Works to add an item to their budget regarding water conservation, and
are going to ask Supervisor Arnold or an aide to attend their meetings.
8) Treasurer’s report. Treasurer not present, but the account balance is
unchanged (per an earlier email to the Chair and Secretary).
9) Unfinished Business:
a) DRC2009-00025 Mining/reclamation project update. Ken Johnston
gave the report for the Applicant. His understanding from County Planning is that
the DEIR should be out by the end of this month.
b) LRP2008-00002 Land Use and Circulation Elements Planning Dept. presentation, LUCE committee report,
discussion and action item. Karen Nall was present from County
Planning to give the presentation. This is a reorganization and consolidation of
the current LUE and Area plans, not an update. Step 1 is this reorganization,
Step 2 would be a later, future update. Idea is that future updates will be less
expensive with fewer, larger plans. George Sullivan from the subcommittee had
some comments regarding the outdated language from the old plans regarding
Tassajara Canyon.
Matter opened to public comment: Gwen Pelfrey asked where did this resonate
from, and then what are the additional stages—in other words, what is the next
step and what is the end result? Supervisor Arnold commented that Karen Nall
and Jason Giffen (Planning Director) gave her a presentation, and that was very
helpful, but she had a few concerns she wanted to share with the Council. For
instance, she had the opportunity to work on the El Pomar Area Plan, and they
spent 1 ½ years doing the update, and there was a great community focus and
effort involving both downtown Creston and the surrounding rural areas. There is
a benefit to not separating the villages (URLs) from the outlying areas that use
those villages. Bill Pelfrey commented that he is concerned about what will
happen to the advisory groups when we are all lumped into one large planning
area. There are individual differences between these areas that must be
respected and it is those differences that make the whole community. Roy
Reeves commented that these plans have taken 10 years to be revised, and they
are supposed to be updated more often than that, so with only 5 plans, maybe
we’d see updates more often.
Matter brought back to the Council: David Blakely asked where is this coming
from, there seem to be some good ideas here, but the old plan also seemed to
be working. Karen Nall answered that the primary reason is to save money- the
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area plans take forever to update and cost a fair amount of money. Boundaries
were based on watersheds. Initial idea for reorganization was authorized by the
Board in 2007. Original idea was a complete update, but it was reduced to just a
stage one reorganization because of budget issues.
Council members had a number of comments, mostly regarding the need for
such a change when things appeared to be working. Sophie Treder commented
that having a LUCE and then large area plans underneath it and then
community/village plans under that could present vertical consistency issues.
She also commented that the Pozo village plan should not be lumped in with
Garden Farms or Whitley Gardens, because those plans may need updating
more often than Pozo, and Pozo will be along for the ride when the updates
happen. Karen Nall observed that some of the villages were lumped because
they were so small that if they had a stand-alone plan it would only be a few
pages. Sophie Treder noted that could be a good thing because if Pozo did need
an update in the future, if it were a small, stand-alone plan, it might be
accomplished with an exemption or negative declaration, as opposed to some of
these plans which will require a full EIR to update. The Chair brought up the two
map versus single map system, and there was some discussion of the merits of
one versus the other.
Bob Righetti made a motion that the County take this off calendar while this is
looked at a little more seek further input from the community as to whether and
how to proceed with a reorganization. Seconded by George Sullivan. In
discussion on the motion, Sophie Treder added that since this whole thing was
being driven by cost and efficiency concerns, perhaps Staff should include some
cost comparisons about what it would cost to update the current LUE and Area
plans (current setup) versus updating the LUCE, 4 large area plans, and multiple
community plans (proposed setup). The question was called and the motion
passed with one abstention (David Blakely). The Chari will send a letter with the
recommendation to the County. Karen Nall agreed to email the Council with what
happens. The Chair will place this item on the next agenda for further discussion.
10) New Business:
a) DRC2012-00056 Thompson/Verizon cell phone tower Planning Dept. presentation and discussion. Holly Phipps gave the
presentation for the County. This is actually a CUP, not an MUP as it said in the
referral. Located at 94062 Random Oaks Rd in Atascadero. David Blakely
asked whether the neighbors had been notified, and Holly responded that the
ordinance does not require notice until it is scheduled for hearing. There was no
discussion, and it was asked that it come back to the Council once the neighbor
referrals go out.
b) Community Event at the Santa Margarita Ranch – informational
presentation and discussion Rob Rossi gave the presentation. The
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Ranch is looking at putting together a large concert event as entertainment for
the Amgen tour in late April or early May. There is the opportunity to bring in a
nationally-known, very popular country western group to perform. Rob Rossi
currently couldn’t name the group because of the status of ongoing negotiations,
but they recently won a number of Grammy awards. The event would be a
partial fundraiser- charity has not been selected yet but they are considering the
local Food Bank since that is a cause important to the artists. David Blakely
questioned where on the Ranch it would be—Rob said at the headquarters,
south of the ranch house. They are not certain, but expect 3,000 or more
attendees. All traffic would be routed in and out China Gardens just like Savor.
There should not be any traffic on Yerba Buena other than equipment delivery
because there would not be vendors like there is for Savor. It would be an
afternoon/evening event. Sophie Treder stated it was a great idea and sounded
like a fun event for Margarita, but they should try to avoid conflicts with the Pozo
Saloon concerts in late April. David Blakely continued to express concern about
potential impacts and mitigations. Matter opened to public- Cheryl Cole
commented what a great opportunity to bring in local bands and talent
underneath a band that performed at the Grammys, and that she supported the
idea. This was not an action item, but the Chair asked if anyone on the Council
other than David Blakely had any objections, and none were raised.
c) Biosolids (sludge) ordinance – informational Supervisor Arnold
observed that the interim ordinance would likely be continued, and no one on the
Council had concerns with that.
d) SMAAC elections - incumbents’ courtesy announcements.
Incumbents Charlie Whitney - Parkhill, David Blakely – Santa Margarita, Butch
Pope – Rinconada, and Mike Cole – Highway 58 all announced they will run
again. Steve Haymaker – Garden Farms is currently undecided. Bob Righetti –
Pozo brought in 5 signatures officially installing him as Debbie Arnold’s
replacement, and he will be running in April. Keith Wales – South Atascadero
and John Reed – Tassajara Canyon are also up for reelection but were not
present. There are also vacant spots for the following areas: Rinconada (1) and
Las Pilitas (2).
11) Fifth District Supervisor’s report. Supervisor Arnold gave the report.
There is a Strategic Planning session scheduled for next Tuesday. Caltrans is
planning on doing some work to the Tassajara Creek Rd/Hwy 101 intersection,
and she provided a handout on that. George Sullivan expressed his desire to
have a frontage road at that location. Chris Volbrecht commented that the NB
off-ramp at Santa Margarita is not well-marked and is hard to see at night.
12) Chairman’s report and meeting reminder - next regular meeting
will be March 13, 2013 at the Santa Margarita School Library.
a) scheduling of quarry projects. Chair noted that scheduling of quarry
projects has been challenging. Had a talk with the Environmental Coordinator.
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The Las Pilitas EIR is expected to be released in the next 2-3 weeks. If it is
released in time, he will put it on the March Agenda, and the subcommittee will
be activated. Ideally the subcommittee will be prepared to present and we will be
prepared to take action at the April meeting.
The Chair has not had a chance to meet with the School District yet to discuss
the rent.
13) Adjournment by 9:30 PM. Meeting adjourned at 8:44 pm.
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