The La Cañada Flintridge City Council held its first regular meeting of the month on Tuesday after two previous meetings were canceled.
The Council discussed a variety of items having to do with the housing element, the Public Works Department, all-way stop signs and public safety.
The meeting started with a reordering of the agenda, in which Mayor Rick Gunter wanted to address items related to ordinances of public works and the housing element first.
The first public works ordinance included a slight change to the alternative bidding procedures for construction of public projects under the California Uniform Public Construction Cost Accounting Act.
Since it was passed in 2021, the Public Works Department has been operating under the approved procedures for the past two years.
“The purpose of adopting these procedures was to improve the efficiency of getting smaller public works projects out to construction,” said Paddy Taber, senior management analyst II for the city.
The department has discovered that the usual Level 1B authorization, which includes projects that range from $25,000 to $60,000, would take longer to process since it is required to go through the City Council. Doing so added a minimum of two to four weeks to process, and sometimes longer delays, depending on staff workload. Since the cost of construction projects has risen, there have been many projects falling within the Level 1B threshold.
“Staff is requesting to amend the authorization requirement to allow the city manager to sign contracts up to $60,000,” said Taber. “The proposed change would expedite projects under construction, resulting in improved delivery of smaller public works projects.”
The Council unanimously approved the amended ordinance and moved on to the second reading and adoption of the regular ordinances approving amendments to the zoning code, zoning map and Downtown Village Specific Plan or DVSP, in order to comply with the state-mandated housing element.
The Council was reminded of the specific changes related to the DVSP by the Director of Community Development Susan Koleda.
The amendment would establish new mixed-use 12 and 25 zones within the DVSP, which would each have their respective density per acre. It would also establish the Housing Element Implementation Overlay Zone and allow specific standards to put less constraints on development within the area.
The Council unanimously approved the amendment for the DVSP, and Councilwoman Terry Walker excused herself for the voting of the zoning code and map since she owns a business in the proposed area.
Similar to the DVSP, the zoning code would create a new Housing Element Implementation Overlay Zone and create new standards for multifamily and mixed-use development.
The city is now on track to completing rezoning after the Council unanimously approved the second reading of the amendments.
Items in the consent calendar that related to all-way stop signs on intersections of La Cañada Boulevard and Vista Del Valle Road, along with Crown Avenue and Santa Inez Way were brought up by members of the community and the Council decided to take the matter out of the consent calendar to discuss it.
Since the all-way stop signs are already installed at La Cañada Boulevard and Vista Del Valle Road, there was not much discussion. But, both residents, David Haxton and Anne Tryba agreed that the city should look more into the proposed all-way stop sign on Crown Avenue and Santa Inez Way. The Councilmembers agreed that they would have a deeper discussion on the all-way stop sign in a future meeting.
First published in the September 21 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
