LOCAL AGENCY FORMATION COMMISSION (LAFCo) (Fresno County, California) MINUTES. REGULAR LAFCo MEETING MAY 18, 2005

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1 LOCAL AGENCY FORMATION COMMISSION (LAFCo) (Fresno County, California) MINUTES REGULAR LAFCo MEETING MAY 18, 2005 Call to order: Chairman Lopez called the meeting to order at 1:36 p.m. Members Present: Commissioners Susan Anderson, Larry Fortune, Trinidad Rodriguez, Bob Waterston and Victor Lopez. Alternate Public Member, Joe Chaidez was also present. Members Absent: None Staff Present: Mike Waiczis, Executive Officer Susan Coberly, LAFCo Counsel Brian Melikian, LAFCo Special Counsel Candie Fleming, Clerk to the Commission Samantha Hendricks, Secretary APPROVAL OF MINUTES The Minutes for the April 13, 2005, regular meeting were unanimously approved. CONSENT AGENDA There were no items on the consent agenda. Written Requests to Address the Commission Request from Gary McDonald Gary McDonald, asked the Commission if his property totaling acres could be included with the Shields-Locan No. 4C Reorganization that is to be considered on this agenda. Mr. McDonald also asked the Commission to allow a 20-acre parcel he owned to be included in an annexation that would be submitted in the near future. The future annexation included a 60- acre parcel that has already been pre-zoned. However, Mr. McDonald s parcel has not been pre-zoned. Mr. McDonald asked if the annexation could be staged to allow his property to be annexed and then completed separately from the 60 acre parcel to allow the 20-acre parcel time to be pre-zoned. The Commission agreed that it would make sense to allow the 20-acre parcel to be part of the 60-acre parcel and be staged. 1

2 Request from City of Kerman Lindsay Bailey, representing the City of Kerman, asked the Commission to defer the requirement for an MSR for an annexation to be considered in June until after Kerman s General Plan Update was finished and the land uses were in place. Executive Officer Waiczis said that the law states that any time a city requests a sphere of influence revision, the city must prepare an MSR. He explained that a piece of property was recently annexed which left out a 3.9 acre parcel that was a railroad right-of-way. Mr. Waiczis said the City wanted to add the 3.9 acres to their sphere and annex it and the City was requesting that the Commission waive the requirement for an MSR. The Commission said they were not opposed to waiving the need for an MSR and directed staff to put the matter on the next agenda for formal action. PUBLIC HEARINGS Protest Hearing for South Avenue Reorganization Annexation No (RO-05-4) Executive Officer Waiczis presented staff s report and summarized Resolution No. RO-05-4, and reported that staff had not received any formal protest. A motion was unanimous to uphold Resolution No. RO Supplemental Report for Alluvial-Chestnut No. 1 Reorganization (RO-05-8) and Alluvial-Chestnut No. 1D (RO-05-9) Executive Officer Waiczis presented a supplemental report that addressed issues for two annexations that were on the agenda. He explained that the Alluvial-Chestnut No. 1 Reorganization, RO-05-8 and the Alluvial-Chestnut No. 1D, RO-05-9 are only separated by one 2.89-acre parcel and presented similar issues in that they are both within, and are part of, a large (94+/- acre) substantially surrounded unincorporated island and if annexed, will leave an isolated 19-acre piece of property located across Chestnut Avenue and the 2.89-acre parcel located between the two proposed annexations. Mr. Waiczis said the Commission may want to add a condition of approval that would require the entire island of surrounded or substantially surrounded territory be included in the annexation. Executive Officer Waiczis reported that the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local Government Reorganization Act of 2000 the Act allows cities to annex territory under 100 acres that are surrounded or substantially surrounded by a city to initiate an annexation and that the landowners within the island do not have protest rights. Commissioner Waterston was concerned about the citizens within the island not having any protest rights and asked if they had all been notified. Executive Officer Waiczis responded that the proposals were noticed per State law that requires all landowners (in an uninhabited annexation) be notified and all landowners within 300 feet of the proposed annexation be notified, saying most but not all landowners were notified. 2

3 Al Solis, Sol Development Associates, said he was the Deputy Director of Planning for the City of Fresno in the mid to late seventies. He said he specifically remembered doing planning in the subject territory and recalled the Birch and Paula Avenue neighborhoods being very concerned about urbanization coming to their area. He said he indicated to them that the City had no intention to urbanize their area or increase the density of their properties and that it was not the intention of the City of Fresno to annex their properties. Tom Thomas said that if the Commission was going to start working on islands they would have to go to Old Fig Garden and Mayfair and get them involved in the same type of situation. He said this was going to open up a whole can of worms, not that it was bad, but the issue needs to be addressed City-wide, not just this annexation. Alluvial-Chestnut No. 1 Reorganization (RO-05-8) Bill Robinson, Sol Development Associates, representing Dwayne and Jeannie Smith, spoke in favor of the annexation and the merit of the development project that fulfills a need for senior citizen housing. He asked the Commission to approve the proposal without the condition that would require the entire island be annexed. Commissioner Lopez asked if it would be better to create an island, based on the past protest of landowners? Executive Officer Waiczis responded that historically this is an area where the people do not want to annex. He said that this would probably be the last opportunity to annex the area unless the City of Fresno wanted to bring an annexation to the Commission later. Betsy Temple, spoke on behalf of the Unitarian Universalist Church. She said they were unaware of any condition that would force their neighbors to annex and said the church did not want to create any animosity with their neighbors by forcing them to annex. Martin Gault, owner of property next to Mr. Smith s said he voluntarily signed a consent form to be annexed along with Mr. Smith s property because he thought the project was good. He was concerned about his rights once he was annexed into the City and whether the City would take part of his property to widen the road. Mr. Gault also asked if his property was included in the pre-zone application. Executive Officer Waiczis said that LAFCo s conditions would not have any direct effect on his property, but he would have to check with the City of Fresno about whether they would take part of his property to widen the road. Bill Robinson said that Mr. Gault s property was not included in the prezone application filed by the Smiths and that Mr. Smith will be compensating Mr. Gault for the right-of-way in front of his property and would be paying for the improvements to the right-of-way. As a point of clarification on prezoning, Executive Officer Waiczis said that once Mr. Gault s property is annexed, the City would automatically zone the property consistent with its General Plan. 3

4 Dave Braun, City of Fresno, said that Mr. Gault s property would be zoned R-1 consistent with their plan upon annexation. Mr. Braun said that the City had previous discussions with the property owners in the island area and made a commitment not to initiate annexation of their property. He said a number of the property owners showed up at the Ellis hearing on the property along Willow Avenue and were concerned about development and annexation at that time so the City would not be in favor of initiating annexation on the property south of Alluvial. He said the City and County already agreed that the proposed annexation is part of an existing island so a new island would not be created. Commissioner Anderson moved to approve the annexation without the condition of including the other portion of the island. Commissioner Fortune said one of the things the Commission is charged with is orderly development and the avoidance of creating County Islands. He said the island rule has been in place for several years and it doesn t appear that the City planned to initiate any island annexations. Commissioner Fortune also said that if the Commission continued to approve islands and allow them to remain they were going to create a patchwork and said it was not good government. Commissioner Waterston said he didn t disagree with Commissioner Fortune but what he disagreed with was that not all of the people were notified. Executive Officer Waiczis said that the landowners were notified per the original application. Commissioner Anderson said she felt the Commission would not be creating an island but reducing the size of an existing island. Commissioner Fortune agreed with Commissioner Anderson but said the Commission allowed this island to be created and that this could be the last opportunity the Commission had to force the City to do something. Commissioner Lopez also felt the Commission would be reducing an existing island and didn t want to force people to annex that didn t want to annex. Commissioner Fortune said he would join the Commission in supporting the motion but would like to ask the Commission s support to direct staff to come up with some policy that the next time they were going to create an island then they better know the reason why. The motion to approve the annexation per staff s recommendations with the exclusion of the condition to require annexation of the entire island area was approved. Alluvial-Chestnut No. 1D Reorganization (RO-05-9) Executive Officer Waiczis gave staff s report and said the annexation was proposed to facilitate the construction of a church. Executive Officer Waiczis said the only remaining issue was the 2.89 acre parcel located between the two annexations. Tom Thomas said that he felt any time someone located in an island wants to annex it is like a gift to the City and makes the island smaller and that the Commission should accept any annexation. 4

5 Betsy Temple, representing the Universalist Unitarian Church, spoke in favor of the application and said their design is an energy efficient, environmentally sound design. She said they had no notice of any condition of approval and would object to any condition that would force someone else to be annexed with their property and felt they shouldn t be responsible for obtaining their neighbors agreement to being annexed to the City. She asked that the project be approved without that condition. Commission Anderson made a motion to approve the annexation without condition number 5 that would require the City to adopt a resolution initiating proceedings to annex the entire area. The motion was approved with Commissioner Fortune voting no. Shields-Locan No. 4C Reorganization (RO-05-10) John Bonadelle said he had no problem with having Mr. McDonald s property included in the Shields-Locan No. 4C Reorganization but was concerned that the inclusion of Mr. McDonald s property might cost them time or money. Executive Officer Waiczis said the Commission could consider a phased approval where Mr. Bonadelle could move forward with his project and Mr. McDonald s project could be Phase B and move forward once his prezoning and environmental reports were completed. Gary McDonald said he would be very grateful if the Commission would consider his project as part of the Shields-Locan No. 4C Reorganization proposal and requested the Commission s approval in a phased request. The Commission unanimously approved the proposal with the inclusion of Mr. McDonald s property as a phased annexation. Commissioner Fortune requested that all the property owners within the island that is to be created when Mr. Ridenour brings in his application to annex his pie-shaped piece of property be noticed so that the City of Fresno could invoke the 100-acre rule for annexing the whole territory without a protest hearing. Executive Officer Waiczis said staff could notice everybody whenever there is an annexation of territory that would create an island or would reduce the size of the annexation. A citizen in the audience said he represented Mr. Ridenour and said he would make sure Mr. Ridenour was aware. Annexation (Royal Woods Tract 5383) (RO-05-11) Bruce O Neal, representing the City of Sanger agreed to all conditions and urged the Commission to approve the annexation. 5

6 The Commission unanimously approved the reorganization with conditions and waived the conducting authority proceedings. Floral-Stillman Reorganization (RO-05-7) Executive Officer Waiczis presented staff s report and read into the record staff s recommended conditions of approval. Neal Costanzo, representing the City of Selma, agreed with staff s recommendation. Mr. Costanzo said he could confirm that there was no injunction order or application for one at this time so condition of approval No. 2 on the pink sheet should be the condition of approval issued by the Commission. Hella Mankin, Sr. Planner for the City of Selma, spoke in favor of the proposal. John Kinsey, Sagasar and Jensen, representing Wal-Mart thanked the Commission for their consideration and the City of Selma for their thorough environmental document. The Commission made all required findings under State law and unanimously approved the reorganization as recommended by staff with Condition No. 2 as stated on the supplemental report. Final Fiscal Year LAFCo Budget Commissioner Anderson was concerned about using $155,000 of the fund balance to pay for next year s increased budget, fearing that there wouldn t be enough fund balance to pay for the increases next year. Commissioner Fortune suggested cutting the contribution from the fund balance in half and contributing about the same next year. Commissioner Anderson asked why the telephone, liability, and other accounts increased so much. Executive Officer Waiczis replied that LAFCo got a much better phone system that included voice mail which is the same system as most the other County departments are using. Mr. Waiczis said LAFCo is also being charged for services previously provided by other County departments at no charge. The Commission unanimously approved LAFCo s 2005/2006 Fiscal Year Budget as recommended except to contribute only half of the originally recommended amount of $155,937 from LAFCo s reserve fund towards LAFCo revenue. Recommended Amendments to LAFCo s Policies, Standards and Procedures Section 520 Selection of Public Member The Commission tabled the item to the June 15, 2005 hearing. 6

7 Report on the Recruitment of Independent Legal Counsel The Commission tabled the item to the June 15, 2005 hearing. Executive Officer Waiczis announced Thursday, June 23, 2005 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. as the date and time for LAFCo s open house. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC There were no comments from the public and the meeting was adjourned at 3:40 p.m. Michael R. Waiczis, AICP, Executive Officer 7