City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to call the April 7, 2026 regular city council meeting to order. Let the rec reflect all council members are present tonight with the exception of Mayor Prom Serbo. Votes this evening will be recorded using the city's electronic voting system. At this time, the city council will cons convene to consider public matters. If you wish to speak, please fill out a blue speaker card and provide it to the city clerk. If you wish to submit any written materials, please provide those to the clerk. They will be distributed to the city council. As required by state law, when speaking on an item listed on the agenda, limit your comments to the subject of that item. If you wish to speak to a subject not listed on the agenda, you may speak under the public comment portion of the meeting. And finally, please address your comments to the city council. Staff will not respond to any questions from the uh other than from the city council, not from public speakers. We will now move on to the invocation. So, the invocation tonight will be provided by Pastor Dave Evans from Grace Community Church. Good evening. Please uh join me in with me in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for the residents of our city of Lake Forest and for our city council and all those who serve and represent our city in both paid and volunteer roles and capacities both in the public and private sector, including our cert volunteers who will be acknowledged tonight. Thank you for our sheriff's deputies who protect and enforce the law and for the chief of police services, David PZ. And thank you for the Orange County Fire Authority and their protection of property as well as lives. And thank you for Girl Scout Troop number 3616

who will lead us in the pledge of allegiance this evening. God, this evening we ask you to protect and watch out over the residents of Lake Forest and to please keep our sheriff's deputies safe from harm as they serve us. And will you also give them patience in their interactions with people? Lord, with the cost of living continuing to increase and as we deal with the challenges that presents, I ask you to help senior citizens with their needs and the services they require. Please help families and their children, young people who are venturing out on their own, and for those who are dealing with especially difficult circumstances and situations, for those who own businesses, please enable them to operate profitably and to continue to provide employment to our residents. And Father, please grant our city council and leaders wisdom and clarity for the plans and decisions they make on our behalf. I pray and ask these things in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thank you. So now we'll move on to the pledge of allegiance. The pledge of allegiance to our to the flag of our country will be led by Girl Scout Troop 3616. Please rise. Put your right hand over your heart. Join me in the pledge of allegiance. And join me in the pledge of allegiance.

Let's begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic to which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. All right, you guys ready? In three, two, one. 3, two, one. Cool. is Ethan here. I don't see. All right. Thank you, ladies. And so we'll move on to the student liaison. A report will be provided by Ethan Barrow, student liaison from El Toro High School. Going once. Okay. Well, since Ethan's not here, um Scott, just go go ahead and do go Chargers.

As always, go Chargers. So, I'll use this time right now to introduce our division chief for I guess it's temporary, Reed Gibson. and he he told me he's a man of a few words. So, thank you for being here. Welcome. So, now we'll move on to presentations. Do I have a motion to consider approving presentation number one? Presentations. Second.

All right, let's vote. And that motion passes with mayor Mayor Prom Serbo absent. All right, madam city clerk, please read the title of item number one. The title of item number one is the community emergency response team program. Thank you, madam city manager. Please introduce this item.

Thank you, mayor. Tonight we have a presentation by our administrative services manager, Charlene Depp. Good evening, mayor and council members. Tonight we are recognizing class 12 comprising of 22 community members who have completed their community emergency response team basic training course. With that, we have a short video. One minute everything is normal. The next the ground cracks, a fire ignites, the power goes out, and just like that everything changes. Phones stop working, people are trapped, help is needed everywhere at once. Say what was your

emergency responders are stretched thin and every second counts because no matter how fast they respond, they can't reach everyone right away. In those first critical moments before sirens arrive, the people at the scene become the first responders. That's where C comes in. The community emergency response team is built for moments like this. Training everyday people to step up when waiting isn't an option. They start by taking control, establishing a command center, organizing information, prioritizing needs, and turning chaos into action. Then they move, searching for people who may be trapped or in need of immediate aid. Because in a disaster, every second matters. Cert members provide care, stopping bleeding, treating injuries, and keeping people alive until help arrives. Fires can spark without warning and spread just as fast. Cert volunteers step in early, containing flames before they take everything with them. And when someone is trapped, they don't rush in blindly. They use trained cribbing techniques, stabilizing debris, lifting safely, and making sure no one is left behind. This isn't about being fearless. It's about being ready. Because when disaster hits, help isn't always minutes away. Sometimes it's already there. A neighbor, a coworker, someone who chose to be prepared. When it happens, will that be you? This is certain. SERT is an educational program that teaches residents about disaster preparedness using the F federal

Emergency Management Agency curriculum that prepares residents to help themselves, their families, and neighbors in the event of a disaster. The basic training course includes disaster preparedness, fire safety and utility controls, basic first aid, light search and rescue, cert organization, disaster psychology and terrorism. More than 200 residents have now completed the basic search class since the program began in 2018. I'd like to say a special thank you to Mayor Peno for coming to our Saturday final exercise to kick off our disaster simulation drill and also participate as a survivor. Thank you to Milton Niera of Orange County Fire Authority for providing instructions and sharing his experiences. I would also like to say a special thank you to the Lake Forest Explorers who portrayed survivors during our final exercise. Without their assistant, CR members would not be able to test their knowledge and build confidence in the skills they have learned. At this time, I'd like to recognize CERT class number 12. When I call your name, please stand. Carla Sweeney, Richard Angalia Kerry, David Feninki Frink, sorry,

Ted Felinki, Diane Hanks, Douglas Kohler, Molly McDuff, Loveg Good, Loveg Good, Jeff Oscard, Doris Rodriguez, Nair Sabuchi, Amy Stevens, Bob Telson, Alexisville, Joshua Wineia, and Julia Wineia. Unfortunately, the Explorers couldn't be here tonight, but I would like to recognize them also. Crystal Lee, Emmanuel Bautista, Kimberly Jimenez, Angel Corinel, Alina Cedto. Thank you very much. Class C number 12. Congratulations. At this time, could they come take a picture?

Thank you. supposed to stand up. So be before we take the picture, I'd like to thank them. Um, I was a survivor at this last cert. Uh, and it was a horrible, horrible injury I had. I had a bee sting, but I'm allergic to bee, so I swole up my lip. My cheeks look like Dizzy Gillespie. So, no, but thank you. It was a great job. And Charlene as the leader, great job. And then like I saw you in every part of every video. Were you the only one working? So, no, thank you all. This is this is super important. Uh, as a former first responder, just like the chief will tell you, you guys are so important to us because when things happen across a big city, we don't have enough people to to do things. So, luckily, it's a big class and it's great to see you all and thank

you. And I I did help myself to some of the stuff breakfast items you did have. So, all right. And then three, two, one. 3, two, one. 3, two, one. Cool.

And and thank thank the fire authority for being there. And Putting on that jacket gave me flashbacks. So, uh, madam city clerk, do we have any request to speak on this item?

We do not, mayor.

All right. Thank you. That'll take us to public comment. If you would like to make a comment, please fill out a blue speaker card and give it to the city clerk, and your name will be called. Comments are limited to three minutes per person. The council and staff will not respond to questions or comments during this period. If you leave your contact information, staff may contact you to address the issues raised during your comment. When you're called to speak, please come to the podium and your three minutes will begin. And when the green light when the green light is lit, the green light will remain on for two minutes. When the green light light changes from green to yellow, speakers will have one minute to conclude their comments. When the light changes from yellow to red, your time is concluded and please return to your seat. A timer is not displayed on the screen. Madame city clerk, have we received any requests to speak?

We have, mayor, and our first speaker is Maxim Maximov and Anastasia Fman. Good, good evening, Mayor Puquina and members of the city leadership team. My name is Maxim Maximoff and I'm representing Aren School of Rythmic Gymnastics. Um, this is Anastasia Fin who is a head coach and founder of the ICRG School. We're here tonight to announce an significant milestone in our community. Upcoming international athletic event hosted here at the 74 Icon. On June 6 and June 7, ISRG School will host USA athetic group gymnastics national competition followed the next day by inaugural international Mercury Cup. We're expecting 270 athletes from United States and Mexico and they coming with their parents. Those athletes are from 6 to 14 years old. So we expecting about 700 visitors traveling across the United States in our city and from Mexico. Given the scale of international gathering, we formally requesting the city partnership and guidance to support regarding public safety, coordination, assistance and performing protocols, um advice on emergency preparedness and ensure safe and welcoming environment for the visitors. Um it would be also a great honor if the city official will represent and um prepared a brief robin ribbon I'm sorry ribbon cutting in opening

acknowledgement for the championship and also honoring uh the winners of the competition. Beyond this inaugural competition, we're also exploring long-term vision to attract athletes every year from United States and uh an international um this time we have um um guests from Canada who's also be judging the competition and uh from Spain and this is about 500 the economical impact is about from 700 families is about $500,000 just for this one event. And with your support, we can expand this for each year and multiple competitions and establishes Lake Forest as the home for the aesthetic group gymnastics sport. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. And we have a brochure if we can uh share it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our next public commenter is Brian McMillan. Good evening. My name is Brian McMillan. I'm a small business advocate. Um, the city continues to issue unlawful notices of code enforcement uh violations. Once again, I was issued a notice, another of many, that I had violated a city ordinance which is a misdemeanor, a mis in the Lake Forest Municipal Code

book, it says it is unlawful for any person to violate any provision or to fail to comply with any of the requirements of this code. Any person violating any such provisions or failing to comply with the requirements of the code shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Not may be guilty of misdemeanor. Shall be guilty of misdemeanor. That's uh 1.01.200. I did not violate any codes or ordinances. My tenant might have, but I didn't. I will state once again, landlords cannot be held responsible or liable for the behavior of their tenants. It's a well-worn law, a multi a multitude of laws. In addition, the city has once again violated my right of due process of the law by depriving me of my right to appeal. I couldn't even appeal it. I understand this council has abdicated its legislative authority to the city attorney. I understand that for 700 bucks a month, who wants to to to research laws? Who wants to do all that work? Pay them to do it. And the and the but what you do is you just rubber stamp everything they bring before you, whether how cockami it is or even illegal it is, you just rubber stamp them. And you you rubber stamp these. And it might be directly contradictory contradictory to what you just said a week before. You can't you have an author. You have a responsibility though all five of you or four of you tonight. You have a responsibility to the your constituents. You have a responsibility to protect your constituents against

illegal city staff behavior. And I'm in the process of proving that. Of course, you guys just don't understand the damage you're doing. You're doing damage to landlords, property owners, business owners, and you're doing it in a way that's prejuditial. Uh you you just can't keep people from opening business in the city and saying that it's uh you know, contrary to to health and safety. you know that that's wrong, but you continue to uh rubber stamp these stupid laws that the city attorney brings to you.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next public commenter is Omar Tles. Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Omar Tees and I am here representing Love Lake Forest and I'd like to take a moment to share about an exciting upcoming initiative, our very first Love Lake Forest Day, uh coming up on Saturday, May the 16th, which you all are invited to. Uh, Love Lake Forest is a growing uh, community movement focused on bringing people together to serve our city through simple tangible acts of care. On this day, uh, we are mobilizing volunteers from local businesses, nonprofits, churches, and residents to complete service projects around the city. uh supporting seniors uh serving families in need and also uh beautifying our ne neighborhoods and public spaces. What makes this uh uh especially meaningful is collaboration. We are seeing different uh parts of our community come together uh many of them for the first time uh with a shared purpose of strengthening Lake Forest. Our hope is that we uh through this we are able to meet real needs uh but also build lasting relationships and a deeper sense of pride in our city. We would like to continue to partner with the city to uh as we work together to make Lake Forest uh an even more connected, compassionate, and thriving city. For more information about this and how to get connected, please visit

lovelakeforest.org. Uh, thank you for your time, for your leadership, and also for your service to our city. Thank you for your comments.

And our last public commenter is Mark Hermanson. Hey, good evening everyone. I guess my fan club didn't show up tonight. Uh we didn't know if we were going to make it tonight, but it was really important for us to because my neighbor Bob is one of the people that was being recognized for cert. Uh he's kind of a humble guy and when I asked him what he was doing here one night, he just said taking some classes. What he doesn't say is he gave up something like 8 to 10 weeks of time with his family being up here doing something for the city. And personally, I kind of find that pretty amazing that somebody would want to give back. And it kind of tells you some of the class of people that we have living here. Uh, one of the things I like to do is recognize some of our people that we have here to show what a good city we have. I had mentioned last week about Councilman U and the work you do with veterans. You can always find something to respect in somebody. And tonight for me, it's it's my neighbor Bob. And uh really proud to know him, really respect what he's doing. And recently I found out something about our mayor since Councilman Serbo's not here. And you're the next one to my right. Our mayor takes the time to practice what he preaches. Apparently, a restaurant wanted to give you a free soda just for coming in. and our mayor said, "No, that's not the way you do business, and I can't take free stuff." So, when you're sitting up here looking at people wondering about their integrity or what they're doing, as quite often it gets questioned at these meetings, a soda is something a restaurant gives most people. But we have people on our council who won't even do that because they don't

want something to look improper or I can't remember the word I was going to use, but Uh that actually means a lot, Mr. Mayor, that you would do something like that. Um the restaurant was a recommendation from you. It wasn't my thing, but it was they spoke very highly of you. So, thank you. And Bob, thank you for everything you did. Thank you for your comments.

That's it, mayor. Okay. So, we'll move on to the consent calendar. All matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and will be enacted by one vote. There will be no separate discussions of these items unless members of the council or staff request specific items be removed from the consent calendars for separate action. Have there been any requests to remove an item from the consent calendar? No request to remove any items, but we do have public comment on consent calendar item number five, which is the Earth Day proclamation. Okay. So, we'll pull that one and then we'll vote on the remainder.

I'll make a motion we that we vote on all except five. I will second that. All right. Let's vote. And the motion for the remainder passes 4 with Mayor Prom Servo absent. Okay. So item number five item number five is the Earth Day proclamation and our public commenter is Sean Fletcher.

Good evening city council uh Mayor Peno and those here and those watching online. My name is Sean Fletcher and along with Mayor Peno uh we run Clean Lake Forest and in Clean Lake Forest we uh organize community cleanup events uh four times a year. Two of them are really major events and that happens on Earth Day and also on National Cleanup Day. Uh we do have a cleanup event on not on Earth Day but the Saturday after. Uh we meet at uh Pittsford Park from 8:00 a.m. and then everyone signs up for a particular park and surrounding neighborhood or a school and the surrounding neighborhood. Uh we provide the pickers, the vests, the bags. Uh we do a little rah rahrra and then we dismiss everybody out to the event and then everyone picks up. We also have a lot of community organizations there including CRNR uh and a couple churches, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and uh we do a little rah. Everyone goes out to their events and then at about 10:30 they come back and CRNR donates a really large bin so we can actually celebrate the amount of trash and amount of refugees picked up. People are also encouraged when they do their pickups to if they see anything that involves uh an alpha report that they do that as well. Again, I encourage everyone to to attend. We typically have a really large gathering up to 200 250 people on Earth Day including uh we have representatives from Kowanas as well as the key clubs at uh El Toro and Tribuka Hills that help. And if anybody is here that wants a flyer to learn more about this, I do have extra flyers. Thank you very much.

Thank you. So, before we vote on this, um, a few years ago, this this this program got started and um, I don't think it would have got off the ground. Um, but my colleague Benjamin U donated all of the equipment that we currently still have. I mean, I have more pickers than I can I try to give them away. I think Mark has like six or seven at his house. Uh, but uh it's successful and thank you for for for taking the charge because u I'm I I sometimes get a little too busy, but Sean grabbed the bull by horns and thank you so much for doing that and thank all the the different people that show and the different uh did you talk about the raffle prizes afterwards?

We have a significant number of raffle prizes this year. This year we have raffle at when people come back they draw they get tickets when they check in and raffle prizes. So thank you and I'll take a motion. Move Earth Day proclamation second. And that's a great time for the community to come out and help clean up Lake Forest.

And that motion passes 40 with Mayor Prom Serbo absent. Thank you. We move on to discussion items. uh 9 through 12. Madame city clerk, please read the title to item number nine. The title of item number nine is the waste infrastructure system enterprise agreement with the county of Orange. Sorry, madam city manager, please introduce this item.

Thank you, mayor. Tonight we have a presentation by administrative services manager Christine Groves. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, city manager Rose. Good evening, Mayor and members of the city council. Tonight, I am introducing the waste infrastructure system enterprise agreement or the wise agreement with the county of Orange. Yeah.

Okay. Go. There we go. Uh, for background, the county through Orange County Waste and Recycling or OCWR operates three active landfills and approximately 20 inactive sites. Since 1997, Orange County cities have participated in the waste disposal agreement or WDA, which guarantees landfill capacity for Orange County cities and sets contractual rates for disposal at the county's landfill. The WDA has been amended several times and most recently in 2025. The WDA was extended one year to June of 2026 to allow additional time for Orange County city managers and the county to agree on a successor agreement. In late 2024, uh, OCWR introduced a draft wise agreement to city managers as the successor to the WDA. The wise agreement addresses issues raised by the OCWR, such as rising operational, regulatory, and environmental compliance costs not accounted for in the CPI rate adjustments allowed by the WDA. It also addresses the closure cost of the Brea Oinda landfill and the expansion of the San Juan Capistrono landfill which will happen over the life of the proposed wise agreement. Uh the initial drafted version of the wise agreement included a proposed disposal rate increase from $43.76

per ton to $82 and was projected to increase to $107 per ton by 2030. The agreement also included a requirement that all cities participate in the county's organic disposal services. OCWR was open to working with the OCCMA and discussions began in early 2025. The OCCMA is the Orange County City Managers Association. The result is the wise agreement presented to you tonight. Key provisions in the wise agreement include a trueup process beginning in 2030 that depending on OCWR's cost recovery and tonnage revenue may result in a freeze of the annual CPI adjustment. Another key provision is a review by OCCMA to improve transparency and oversight of OCWR's financial status and its implementation of the wise agreement. Additionally, a blended CPI will be used for annual disposal rate adjustments and mandatory participation by cities in the county's organic waste processing was made optional and language that made cities financially responsible for hauler non-payment was removed. OCCMA also negotiated a phased in approach for the rates. In the first year, the disposal rate increases by 53% and by approximately 10% in the next two following years. Beginning July 1, 2029,

the rate can only be adjusted by the blended rate or blended CPI. As an example of the impact of the WISE agreement will have on residential rates, the 95 the most common uh bundled rate is a 95gallon trash cart and it will increase $3.35 per month or 13.4%. The $3.35 increase includes a 95 increase for collection and processing in accordance with our agreement with CRNR and a $2.40 increase based on the disposal costs set by the wise agreement. The impact on commercial rates is demonstrated by looking at another common service in which a three cubic yard trash bin that is serviced once per week. The monthly cost of the service will increase $46.29 or 26.5%. This adjustment can be broken down by a $3.84 an 84 cent increase for collection. There is no processing fee because it goes straight to the landfill. And again, in that is in accordance with the agreement with CRNR and a $4245 increase based on the disposal cost set by the wise agreement. Please note that the disposal rate increase only affects commercial customers with services that include landfill disposal. CRNR will be sending out rate adjustment notifications to all residential, commercial, and multif family customers in their next billing cycle, which is no later than 30 days prior to the

effective date of July 1, 2026 in accordance with uh Prop 218. Other notable items, uh, the wise agreement term is 10 years with one optional 10-year extension. And most importantly, cities must approve the wise agreement by April 30th of 2026. If it is not approved, Lake Forest will be subjected to disposal rates 10% higher than the wise agreement rates. Additionally, landfill capacity for the city would not be guaranteed. And so staff recommends that the city approved the wise the wise agreement with the cor the county of Orange for municipal solid waste disposal rates and services and authorize the city manager to execute the agreement on behalf of the city and make minor modifications as necessary. This concludes my pro presentation and I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

Okay. Thank you Christine for that. Uh before we come to uh to my colleagues, madam city clerk, are there any requests to speak on this item? There are none, mayor. Good. Thank you. So I'll bring it back to us colleagues. Thank obviously anytime we have rate increases but thank you for the report. Um, you know, this is coming upon us because of the state mandates and some of the things that are coming upon us and the lack of landfills opportunities we have in the county of Orange. And so, um, it's something that's been worked out with all the cities of Orange County. Is that not correct? That is correct.

And so, we're we're one of the last cities to actually, um, most of the cities have already complied with this because we have a deadline in April. So, is that not true? Um most of the cities um many of the cities have done it before now but all of them are in the April depending on when their um uh council meetings are. Okay. Well um it's it's basically because we're closing the bra Linda and the fact that we're losing capacity in our landfills and so the cost has rised um there there's no real way out of it. So, um, unfortunately, um, I'm willing to move staff recommendation and

thank you very much, mayor. I just want to confirm in the staff report, it talks about our 218 notice that we sent out previously um, included language that would cover this type of an increase. Um, so I just want to make sure that staff is comfortable, legal counsel is comfortable that we have the proper coverage under the 28 the previous 218 notice to accommodate this.

So the prop um the prop 218 went out on or the hearing was held on April 1st and it is an exhibit B of the Prop 218 hearing. It explains exactly how the disposal fee would increase. And it says in here basically you take the old rate uh subtract that from the new rate. It's 53% increase. So on all of the rates there's a component for disposal. You multiply all of that by 53%. So it's a pass through. So in the staff report it says a prop 218 hearing conducted April 1 of 2025. Oh, you are correct. I'm sorry. I misspoke.

Okay. So, I just want to make sure that that language covers these types of increases that's covered in the Prop 218 notice. I will defer to legal. Thank you. Uh, mayor and council. Yes. If you look in attachment J, uh, and it is step 2 C, it does discuss the adjustment for change in the disposal charge. Um, and so it appears that those processes have been, you know, followed and would be allowable as a pass through.

Okay. I just want to make sure we're covered under the 218 notice. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Okay. before I go to my colleague. So Christine, a couple weeks ago I talked to you about compost. I know this is this is in honor, but this is kind of about compost. So you gave me this card. Yes, sir.

And I actually went to B Canyon and I could have filled my car up with compost had I wanted to. I didn't. But I went and got a whole bunch of compost just for everybody out there. You go online for where can I buy where can I get free compost any day? Well, Monday through Friday, you just go online, set up an appointment, drive right over here. It was six miles from my house. I bought some buckets from uh Home Depot, six of them. Filled them up. They had a shovel, everything. They have compost and um mulch, whichever one you want. And you can go every day if you want. Now, your yard's going to smell like pretty bad. But anyway, so just to put it out there, there's plenty of compost because I missed that compost giveaway. I I felt left out, but then I heard there's free compost there. So for the residents, there's plenty of compost out there for you.

Yeah. So that is at ocandfills.com. That is at the county um uh landfills. They do have a compost and mulch production line there, and they do give it out for free. Yep. You can go online and make an appointment. Just go show up, uh, drive, fill up to your heart's content, and leave with your windows down. Yes, sir.

So, I understand there's a motion to approve this item. There is. Okay. And I will make a second on that. And mayor, before we um vote on this, um, I am an employee. This involves agreement with the county of Orange. I'm an employee with the county of Orange, but I do not work for the department that generated the agreement. Because the county of Orange is a public agency, and because I do not work for the department in question, I have determined I have a non-interest in the item, and I will be voting on this item. Thank you, mayor. Okay, let's vote. And that motion passes 4 zero with Mayor Prom Serbo absent. All

right. Thank you. We'll move on to item number 10. Madam city clerk, please read the title of item number 10. Title of item number 10 is the potential reuse of whispering hills park site. Madam city manager, please introduce this item.

Thank you, mayor. Tonight we have a presentation by our assistant city manager, Keith Neves. Uh, good evening, mayor, members of the city council. Tonight, I have a brief presentation on the Whispering Hill site. The city owns an approximate 6.5 acre park site commonly referred to as Whispering Hills located along the east side of Lake Forest Drive between Vintage Woods Road and Dimension Drive. As you can see on the PowerPoint up above you, the site has remained undeveloped since prior to the city's incorporation in 1991. As part of the original development approvals, the developer responsible for constructing the park did not complete the required park improvements and instead provided the county with an IOD for park purposes. The IOD was sub subsequently transferred from the county to the city in 1999. Just to add further context, with the transfer of the IOD came available land, but no money was provided to the city for the development of a park. In addition, recent parks in Lake Forest are typically built and paid for by the developer and privately maintained by the association's HOA. Some examples of these parks include LAR and the Meadows are two most recent developments and I'll show you those in two slides. Here's Lake Forest Park history. LAR and the green is showing you the parks that they have put on site. The HOA maintains it and it was paid for completely by the developer. And then here is the meadows and you will see the parks that are on site was completely paid by the developer and

maintained and um maintenance by the HOA. A little bit about the site history. Um, after the transfer of the IOD to the city, the city designated the site as community park open space in the city's general plan. Over the years, the city has explored various options to develop the site as a park. Prior community outreach efforts generated interest in a range of recreational amenities. However, no clear consensus emerged regarding a preferred park use. In addition, there was an absence of identified funding for capital improvements, ongoing maintenance, and long-term operations of a park. Due to the lack of clear consensus and identified funding, the site remained undeveloped. This is a strategic initiative number 13. Included in the strategic plan is strategic initiative number 13, Whispering Hills Affordable Housing Development. The initiative aims to identify an affordable housing development partner to develop the partial into affordable housing dedicated to seniors, parking, and a park. This initiative is structured in two phases. Phase one consists of an outreach process that includes engagement with the surrounding homeowners and nearby residents. And phase two contemplates advancement of the development process subject to the council authorization. As you can see here, the potential redevelopment concept would allow for the development of affordable housing on a portion of the site while retaining a

park component to continue serving community recreational needs. This approach is intended to balance the city's affordable housing objectives and state requirements with preservation of public open space consistent with community feedback and prior plan in prior planning discussions. Here's another conceptual image of what that would look like uh from the view of Lake Forest Drive. Now, community outreach phase. For phase one, two community workshops were held to accommodate varying schedules and maximum public participation. Staff initiated community outreach to inform nearby residents of the city's exploration of potential development through a dedicated email and the mailing of postcards to approximately 818 residential addresses surrounding the site. This screen outlines some of the topics that were brought up by participants during the meeting. Overall feedback received from residents was generally positive. There was neither strong opposition nor overwhelming support expressed. However, most participants were receptive to the concept of an affordable housing development with a park component on the site. Staff will continue to incorporate community input as the project advances. If authorized by the city council, staff would advance the project through a phased and transparent process to ensure legal compliance and continued community engagement with the objective of bringing an affordable housing opportunity while retaining a park component to the site. To proceed with development of the land, the city must complete two distinct statutory processes. the municipal park

abandonment law procedure and the surplus land act. Under the municipal park abandonment law process, the city council would first consider adoption of a resolution of intention expressing the city's intent to abandon the site for the development purposes. Following adoption, the resolution of intention would be published once per week for three consecutive consecutive weeks as required by state law. Upon completion of the publication period, the city council would conduct a public hearing and consider adoption of a final resolution to formally abandon the park designation subject to applicable findings. in coordination with the municipal park abandonment law process. The city would be required to comply with the surplus land act. This process would begin with the city council declaring the property surplus and staff issuing a notice of availability to the HCD and other eligible entities. Following issuance of the notice of a availability, interested parties would have a 60-day period to notify the city of their interest in the property. If interest is received, the city would be required to engage in good faith negotiations for a minimum of 90 days to determine acceptable terms, including price and development parameters. If no agreement is reached during the negotiation period, the city may proceed with disposition of the property subject to HCD's review and confirmation that the city has complied with the surplus land act requirements. Upon completion of the solicitation and negotiation process, staff would submit a report to HCD documenting compliance. HCD would then have a 30 days to review the submitt and notify the city if a

violation of the surplus land act is identified. In the event of a violation, the city would have 60 days to remedy the issue. Here's a brief uh a preliminary timeline illustrating how the municipal park abandonment law and the surplus land act processes would be coordinated is provided on the screen as you see. Uh the timeline is intended for planning purposes only and may be adjusted based on city council direction, public input or other procedural requirements. So tonight the recommended action is authorize staff to move forward with starting the municipal park abandonment law and the surplus and lack process. Uh that concludes my presentation and I'll answer any questions from the mayor or the city council.

Okay. Thank you for that Keith. Uh before we bring it up to staff or to council, madame city clerk, are there any requests to speak on this item? They're our mayor and our first public commenter is Amanda Sheik. Hello, my name is Amanda and I'm a Whispering Hills homeowner in the tract overlooking the open space. I'm here today because I believe the current direction of this parcel lacks the transparency and multi-dep departmental collaboration our community deserves. While this plan fulfills strategic initiative number 13, I urge council to involve the community services department for new ideas and then the economic development department to consider alternative sites for affordable housing. I would argue that placing senior affordable housing on this specific parcel does not fulfill goal a priority area one creating a community future generations will value. Furthermore, I'm here to challenge the public engagement process communicated to council. Phase one in the initial initiative document required the city to engage the Whispering Hills HOA board. I have reached out to my board and the president confirmed they were never contacted. Postcards sent to residents were misleading, framing this as a general search for community input when only one specific idea was actually on the table. If the city had been upfront about building senior affordable housing next door, the community response might have been different. The email address provided for feedback with Spring Hills at lakeforestca.gov actually doesn't work. I received bounceback errors in November and again yesterday, April 6th. This has effectively proven the feedback doesn't matter. Our HOA president is ready and willing to engage our community through our database if the city cares to cooperate. In November, I suggested keeping this space as a park and developing a bike pump track similar to the successful model in St. Clemeni. I have been in contact with Blake Robinson

of the American Ramp Company, who is available to assist in this idea and has talked to multiple city officials about the concept. This would drive economic development through recreation and tourism while preserving the park intent of the land. There is an aerial view of a proposed layout from Blake in my email to council. In the current plan, the attached park next to housing is to be maintained by the developer, which is also not in the best interest of the surrounding residents. We will have no say in the direction or maintenance of the park. I'm all for finding affordable housing solutions, but the city council should be looking out for the best interest of existing residents. I ask that you encourage the economic development department to find alternative sites and come up with more than one initiative under strategy C in priority area one. And I ask that you don't allow them to proceed with the MPAL and SLA processes until better outreach is completed and until alternative concepts are created alongside with the community services department. Ultimately, if you allow them to proceed, I wanted to be here today to make it known that it is a shame to see the city prioritize state mandates over the voices of the people who call this place home. Thanks for your time.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next public commenter is Amy Stevens. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Amy Stevens and I have been a Lake Forest resident and homeowner for 14 years. I appreciate the thought that has gone into this item. I'm someone who supports affordable housing and also really values green space. So, I see this as a win-win if it is planned correctly. I understand this site has been sitting undeveloped for a long time because there was no funding to build and maintain a full park. That makes sense to me and I appreciate the city looking at creative ways to move something forward instead of letting it sit unused. As this process moved forward, I would encourage the city to treat the park component as a true amenity and a real asset for the neighborhood. something that is usable, inviting, and actually adds value for both the neighborhood and future residents, not treated as an afterthought. I also wanted to flag a few practical considerations that I think are important to get right early. First is parking. A lot of these projects are built with one space per unit, and in reality, most households have more than one car. that tends to spill into surrounding neighborhoods and creates frustration. This is especially important on a tighter site like Whispering Hills. I would encourage the city to look at providing at least two parking spaces per unit where feasible or at a minimum be very realistic about actual parking demand so we do not unintentionally create parking challenges for the surrounding neighborhoods and nearby businesses. Second is the impact to the nearby businesses. There are commercial properties right next to this site and during construction and after this is a real risk of or sorry there is a real

risk of construction impacts um or residents using their parking lots. Those issues can affect their ability to operate and serve customers. So I would like to see that addressed proactively in the planning. Third is access. Getting to that site from the opposite direction on Lake Forest is not very intuitive right now. It involves a median U-turn or left turn on a stretch of road where speeds are fairly high. Will this project include any changes like a signalized intersection or improved access to make the site safer and more functional? I am supportive of the concept of combining affordable housing and park spaces at this site. I just want to make sure that we get it right because once this is built, we have to live with these decisions for decades. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. Our next public commenter is John Thurich. John, not here. He's not here. Then our next public commenter is Kenton Bcher Butcher.

Do I start?

Oh, sorry. Honorable mayor, mayor prom, and council members, my name is Kent Bcher. I live in Whispering Hills adjacent to the Whispering Hills park site. I moved to this area 45 years ago in 1981. I signed the purchase agreement for my Whispering Hills home in April 1986. So, it's 40 years ago this month. After 40 years of dealing with the Whispering Hills Park land under the IOD as a public park, most wonder why I've actually continued. Some in this room say I should have given up, moved away, or passed away. None of these are on my immediate plans. I come here as they attempt to take public land and monetize it by leasing it to a developer of senior rental housing. Soon after the city was incorporated in 198 1981, I learned from the city that as an attached home resident in Lake Forest, we would never have a park on that site as parks were a single family home amenity. I still sometimes sting from being a secondass citizen in Lake Forest even after 35 years. The laws that have protected parkland, even the secondass parkland, mean little to those that want to change the laws. I need to emphasize from day one of Lake Forest. I believe there has always been at least a few golden threads of honesty and faithful public service to the people of Lake Forest on this dis. I realize times have changed. We see local governments such as Lake Forest mirror the federal government. Lake Forest has always been a developer town deriving the majority of its revenue from developer fees. This civic center complex and the sports the sports contact complex was paid for by

development fees. The theme of the park the theme of the city seems to be for the love of money leaving out the next phrase is the root of all evil. Interestingly, the most widely recognized real estate developer is now the president of the United States. The federal government, local government in Lake Forest, have for the love of money as a priority. If you don't like a law, you ignore it or change it, usually resulting in court challenge. Now, it seems for the love of money is the main reason this land grab for the city to save millions by not building a park and leasing it to a residential developer for senior housing at a low price to increase the profitability for the nonprofit. The saying you can't fight city hall is a true statement. We can't give up.

Thank you for your comments. No, your your three minutes is up, sir.

Our next public commenter is Ann Owens. Good evening, mayor and city council. My name is Anne Owens and I've been a resident of Lake Forest for the last 45 years. I represent Welcoming Neighbors Home, a local group that advocates for workforce housing. Um, on the agenda tonight is your proposal to redesate land near Spring Hills from its original park designation. Although the site is extremely small for an apartment, parking and a small park, I do encourage the city to check out its viability. The previous affordable housing at the Meadows, Prollea Hills, and Mountain View have only upgraded their area and I have personally been to all three and seen um how they have actually improved the environment. However, there are valid comments I feel that have been also raised tonight, especially parking and the ease of accessibility. I know financing is very difficult these days uh for people that are willing to come in and try to build affordable housing in communities. I encourage you to please uh really look closely at this uh and keep promoting our community to be builders of affordable housing, especially for families uh besides just seniors. And I know you will do the right thing, especially maybe reaching out again to the members of Whispering Hills who seem to have felt like their voices have not been heard. I know you will do the right thing for our community because you've already put um the previous mentioned affordable housing units um on your priority list and we are above and beyond all our

neighboring towns in this manner. So, thank you for your time and um your attention to this matter. Thank you for your comments.

Our next public commenter is Mark Hermanson. First thing I'd like to say is that the people who have already spoken over are very impressive in the way they present themselves tonight. Uh and I think it should be commended. Something's definitely different about this meeting. There's no yelling. Uh when I first read this, I my first concern was, "Oh no, we've got more affordable housing coming in." Then I took a step back and I thought about it and I had seen some article recently where Sacramento threatened a city if they didn't do more. Uh and then I know there was some other cities with some lawsuits and everything and truthfully I have not develop delved very far into it. Uh my question would be is some of the things with affordable housing things we just have to do that we have to identify areas or put plans in place and things like that. U I agree with one resident who said it would be great to have put people before state mandates but I deal with compliance laws all day every day. We actually have our own attorney for our company that just sits there for phone calls from me. So, I know that's not always something you can do. It's it's a nice thought. It's just not feasible. Uh, but with the affordable housing, like I said, my question would be, are we required to do certain things that we have to do to keep Sacramento kind of happy? Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

And our next public commenter is Jeff Ward. Hi, Gel. Thank you. Um, so I live in Whispering Hills. I've moved here in 2019. I have small children. We would like a park there. We've had neighbors that have lived there for over 30 years. Whispering Hills, they have grandchildren now, and they can't even take their grandchildren to a park without driving. So, it's kind of like frustrating that like Whispering Hills has donated the property site and the city has done nothing in over 30 years almost. And our neighbors are frustrated. We just been looking at a lot for ever. And about two years ago, we thought you guys were doing something. We saw trucks in the lot and we saw heavy equipment being done and we thought, "Oh, they're going to start working on a park." But nothing was being done. And then I actually found out about this meeting on Instagram today. Somebody posted about basically low income or housing. I don't want that. Nobody wants it. It's one of those things where they do it in Huntington. My mom has it going on right now in Sil Beach. They're fighting low salos because they want to build a development right on the base and nobody in that neighborhood. Garden Grove, Loell, Sil Beach, they don't want low-inccome housing. And also too with the traffic. I live right next to Lake Forest and Dementia and between Vinces Woods. People drive 60 70 miles an hour in that section. The sheriffs don't do anything. They don't pull people over for speeding. There's been four traffic accidents right next to my house. I mean, we they crashed into trees. There's is there going to be development for basically, you know, a traffic light in that area? You already have one on dimension vintage wood. So, it's like I don't I don't know what's going to

happen. I mean, it'd be great to just keep it as a park and not have more development and houses being built. They just built the new meadows right next to Home Depot. And you guys, in the original plan, there were supposed to be an elementary school there. There's no school there anymore. They built the whole neighborhood out. So, I'm just tired of just basically taking my kids to a park that I have to drive to. I'd rather have one across the street where we can walk, get Starbucks, hang out for the day, but we don't have that. We have to drive to Sports Park or drive by Baker Ranch or go to the great park for the day. So, I just would like for you guys to a park that would be great, but no housing or anything like that. I think it's a waste of time. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Then our last public commenter on this item is Rona Henry. Good evening. I'm Rona Henry. I'm with Welcoming Neighbors Home as well. Um we have many members that live in Lake Forest and we sent you in a written comment but um to say that we are really much in favor of you directing staff to move forward to facilitate uh with Spring Hills being available for affordable housing. Um I just wanted to show up in person to show our enthusiasm for this. Um I we've been really impressed that with all that Lake Forest has done in this area of housing, but much much more affordable housing is needed. Our daughter used to live near us, but one of the reasons she moved away, frankly, was because she couldn't find affordable housing. Our young people need more options to be have affordable place to live. Um so I just am here to say keep up the good work. We really need it. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. That's it, mayor. Okay, I'll bring it up to colleagues. All right. Thank you, mayor. U our city's moto is remember the past and challenge the future. One of the major challenge in the future is affordability in the city. And what I see is there's a very few piece of land that available for development affordable housing. This is one of the opportunity here we cannot miss. So I would like to make a motion to move the staff recommendation. Okay. Before we do that, I have uh council member Voitz.

Yeah. Um obviously I've been on council for a long time and this this piece of property has been back and forth uh um before us and community outreach has been done. Um, I supported soccer there. They've there was been community garden suggested there. Um, Ken, it's good to see you back in again. Um, my question to the staff is um this is if if this goes out and we um go out for bid and act, we it's surplus city land. So, do we not have to go to the surplus land act and don't home low-income housing get first dibs at that?

Affordable affordable mayor and council. Um, as the staff reported note as the staff report noted, two legal processes would need to be undertaken including the municipal park abandon abandonment law as well as the surplus land act. um when the notice of availability goes out it will go to certain housing sponsors including affordable um groups or affordable developers so they would be notified. So yes um the answer is we would need to go through the surplus land act and groups including affordable developers would would get notice of that surplus land.

Okay. Um, and then there's been some discussion this evening about um the email address that's provided by the city. Is that is that is that a valid email? Yes, we we looked into that and that email address was provided by the city and it was not working, but it is now working. But it wasn't working. She is correct. It was not work. It was not working when she got into it both times, but we've got into it both times a few times and it has been working and we corrected that.

Okay. Um, we've even had bus tours of the property from people because we had public hearings at the sports park and then bust them over to the property to go through this. Um, so this is something that's been before the council many, many times. And unfortunately with the soccer advocates, the community garden advocates, there could be never there was never any consensus. And so, um, we just put the fence up, put the, um, the nice green, um, shades that you find on the Chain Lake fence. Now, um I'm I'm excited for the opportunity that to have a park there, but 6.5 acres. Is that guaranteed to be half park, half building? Uh the total acreage on that park is 6.5. That includes slope. So, really there's probably about 3.75 usable acres on this site.

Okay. So, um, we're talking about a proposed park there, too. So, um, how many units would be proposed in the consent or the, um, the drawings that you've had now in in that that was just a conceptual drawing um that looked like about 65 units, but we won't know this until we get through the surplus land act and we start negotiating with a developer.

Okay. My my one last question is that we have the light there at the Starbucks drive-thru, the the business part. Is is there room for them to be ingress and egress for this residential and park use? Uh our initial um look into that there would be but we would have to do more investigation as we go through this process.

Okay. My my last question would be um some of the people that were wanted to be involved and were excluded. Is there going to be any more public hearings when this goes out to bid? Will those that are bidding on the process be able to um show what they what they're proposing to the residents of Whispering Hills? I'm certain there would through the municipal park abandonment law, there would be three more public hearings in front of the city council. So there is plenty more time for people to come up and give their opinions and so that there is time for the community to come out and once again. Yes.

Let their grievances or their support for a conception to be heard. Yes. So let me let me just ask what what you're asking is kind of like with Kavanaaugh Park. The community is gonna come saying okay there's going to be a park. What do you want there? Is that what you're asking? No. I it basically do they have a opportunity to chime in on what the park's going to look like and how much it's going to be? Of course, we work with when we get to that part of the process and there is a developer picked, we would work with the community on the park site. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. I just want to follow up on on some of the comments made to make sure I understand. um comment made, the concern which is also expressed by council member Voitz about the bounce back on the email address. So it wasn't working, it's working now, but more important to me is do we know what the comments or concerns that were going to be expressed previously and have we contacted the resident about that? So, they were frustrated because they didn't their message didn't think got to us and we're saying it works now, but I'm really more interested in understanding what the communication's been since.

Yeah, we have not I have not talked to her. Um, we can give her a phone call. She was at one of the outreach meetings. Okay. Uh, that we had we had one on um a Thursday night and one on a Saturday and uh she was there expressing the same opinions that she expressed in the email that went to the city council today. Okay. Um comment made about the concern about the that the community surrounding community will have no input on the maintenance the park. This will be a city park I assume and we have standards for that.

This would be a park in the city. It would be the same as what we see in the Lonard development. Ultimately the um the developer would be responsible for maintenance. If there was a decline in maintenance, it would become a code enforcement issue and that's how we would make sure that the standard would stay high, right? But what in whatever contractual understanding we'll have with Yes, it would be a requirement in the contract. Well, there will be a standard. It'll be city standard. So, I assume it would correct match our city standards. Yes.

Okay. Thank you. Um, there was a comment about concern for parking and is there enough? And maybe it could be just a brief staff comment because I know this issue came up before with Mountain View and how much parking there would be. And I think that when we if it is a senior affordable housing, they do not park cars, but maybe staff could share a little bit about the parking standard for this type of

experience we've had with parking with senior facilities is we'd go back and look at the meadows over there. um right along uh Bake Parkway. And the experience we have with talking to affordable housing developers is those senior projects do not we will still park this as required uh through our planning department. But a lot of those seniors do not have cars. Okay. But we will still have to allocate the amount of parking spaces for the amount of units. Right. But I guess the concern and it sounds like more research will be done, but there the concern about the overflow issue doesn't seem to be of concern,

right? I I think with these affordable what we've seen with these affordable housing projects is that they're actively maintained. And so in order to keep this housing, you have to follow the rules. And unlike market housing, you can't just have someone move in with you and then they bring their car and then a friend staying over, they have their car. there there are rules about who can be in the unit and how many vehicles and so forth. So, it's pretty tightly regulated. And again, to echo what assistant city manager Ne said, we've found with these senior projects as well is the seniors typically don't have the same number of vehicles that if you had a a family um unit that would typically have,

right? Okay. Um and then issues raised about traffic or speeding. Obviously, that's something that we would look into. There's a whole I presume S squa process up ahead for the project would need to be undertaken which will look at a number of things including traffic speeding and then also construction impacts. And I just want to make a comment about the no school at Meadows. The city had nothing to do with the no school at the Meadows project. So that is not this council did not make that decision. So I don't want somebody to walk away thinking we uh we killed the school project. We didn't. That was a school district issue, not ours. Um, I think that's it for now, mayor. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. So, I do have a host of questions and one of them I got I I received a phone call today from a resident that was um not schooled in our Rena number, our regional housing needs assessment. So, this person asked me or uh said to me, "You guys are trying to build 3,200 low-income housing or affordable housing by 2029." And I told that person, I says, "Go get some glasses and read a little closer. We just have to zone areas for that." Correct.

Mayor, that's correct. The city is not a builder of of homes or buildings. It's not required to build under those uh HCD requirements. Rather, the city's required to zone properties to um give builders the ability to to build, but the city does not build itself. So, the second part to that, and you can answer this one also, uh madame city attorney, um how many cities have actually successfully challenged or appealed the regional housing needs assessment numbers? and won. Mayor, I'm not aware of any city that has uh challenged their arena numbers and have had a substantial win.

Okay. Thank you. So, Madame City Manager, how much is the city going to make if this turns into uh affordable housing? Well, we would potentially receive property tax, but affordable housing developers could file for exemptions from that. So, very most likely very little. So, this is not really a money grab then. No.

Okay. Thank you. So, um I I know we brought up the Meadows, but Iron Ridge is also senior affordable. There's no no parking issues and my my colleagues right a lot of these a lot of the seniors don't have multiple cars. You know, they may have one or none. uh and our fastest growing homeless population are seniors. And so senior affordable would be appropriate if we do build. And to me, it seems like it's a win-win. There's people that want to park and there's people that want affordable housing. This is going to give us both. Am I right? So I I I I believe that this is a good um good mesh of the two. And yes, in over the years I've heard uh soccer fields. I've heard of course pickle ball. I've heard a little bit of everything. But this I think you know we give we give this when this land comes open it's not going to cost the city any money to to donate the land to a developer to come and and build they can build and uh Doug's here Doug Erdman's here he'll be able to tell you that uh the traffic issues seniors don't drive fast I was a patrol deputy in in Laguna Woods and I gave out zero speeding tickets and so I'm you know, maybe the people that come and and uh visit them may speed, but seniors aren't known for except for that song of the little old lady from Pasadena. So, uh we don't have that here. So, I know my colleague uh made his motion and I'll second his motion to uh authorize staff to move forward with the uh ML MP and SLA.

Mayor, I I have one more question if I may before we vote for this. Um there was two outreach community outreach sessions already. One with 19 attendees and the other with nine. Yes. What was the sense of the people attending the meetings? Um as it says in the report, there wasn't an overwhelming sense of yes and there wasn't an overwhelming sense of no. But is what we got from both those meet. In the second one, it actually stated seven out of the nine supported the project. Uh in the second meeting, it was a smaller meeting that was on the Saturday morning. Yes.

But of the of the 19 attended the first time, there wasn't overwhelming opposition. There wasn't overwhelming opposition, but there wasn't overwhelming support either. Everybody, you know, there was things brought up in those meetings is they wanted a Trader Joe's there, they wanted this there, they wanted a park, they, you know, they wanted a pump track. you know, everybody really had their own ideas individually on what they wanted on that site. So, Mayor, um, one last clarification, there will be more public hearings for the community to participate in the outcome of this project. Yes.

So, I just want the record to be stated that there will be community outreach continuing if we move forward with this conceptional plans. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, mayor.

Yeah. And so that that's that's something else once we start having conversations about what's going to go there, who's going to who's going to who's going to want to purchase the land or use the land. Uh I I think staff need to be very vigilant and getting with the community around to say, "Hey, how do you want this park to look?" Uh I mean, the outreach is pretty good. Sean's Sean's shop does a good job. They did a good job with with Kavanagh. They did a good job with uh El Toro Park. They did a good job with Vintage Park. So, I don't imagine that uh that they'll slow down. So, um a motion's been made and a second's been made. So, let's vote. I do need one more vote. Still waiting on that one more vote. Thank you. And that motion passes 40 with Mayor Prom Serbo absent.

All right. Thank you. We'll move on to item number 11. Madame City Clerk, please read the title of item 11. The title of item number 11 is the protected permissive left turn phasing project phase two. Madam City Manager, can you please introduce this item? At the podium to deliver a presentation on this item, we have our public works director, Doug Erdman.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. I'm here to provide an update on the protective permissive uh phasing program. Uh just as a reminder what PPLT is. PPLT is allows drivers to turn left on both a protected green arrow and also during a yellow or a green ball with a yellow flashing arrow. Uh this can improve intersection efficiency by allowing more opportunities to turn uh reducing weight times for drivers. As a refresher on the program, back in 2018, council approved the PPLT phasing Sunday and identified six intersections for upgrades. And in April 2023, we finished phase one of the PPLT at Town Center and Market and Center and Rockfield. And in 2024, council requested a review of the remaining intersections following the completion of the Alton traffic signal synchronization program project. And that impacted four intersections. Those are Alton Parkway in Catalina, Alton Parkway in Monarch, Bake Parkway in Town Center, and Lake Forest Drive in Town Center. The Alton TSSP results show a reduction in delays of 15% and increased speeds along the corridor and the total city investment for this has been $150,000 with the majority of that being paid for by OCTA. Uh the issue we're having in when going back and looking at these intersections for a PPLT, we really would love to just install the this new signal head with the yellow flashing uh arrow. However, the issue we're running into is right now the configuration of the left turns have a conflict have a conflict where uh you'd basically be hitting the other left turn coming out on a protective per in a permissive situation. So what we'd have to do is have a little bit more money spent on the intersection by removing the existing medians and reconfiguring the left turns to allow

that conflict or to essentially get rid of that conflict. We have this uh situation at both Alton and Catalina and we have the same situation at Monarch and Cat and Alton. So it uh and in our study we also looked and installing the proposed PPLT at these intersections really doesn't help a whole lot. It only helps in the midday and PM and it really only increases it very little because the standard of city service for uh intersections is anything better than a D. So it really just moves these from C and C minus to C plus and C. Um the intersections of Bacon Town Center are already well above what our standards are. So installing PPLT here really wouldn't create much of a difference. The ALS the other issue is uh at uh Town Center and Bake Parkway and Town Center and Lake Forest, the new Costco development is going to significantly change the traffic patterns there. So would really like to wait and have some time to study those intersections once the new traffic patterns come in. Costco is providing some money for traffic signal upgrades there and we'll look at putting some video detection in some of those signals to help address those issues. Um the cost impacts for this are pretty significant as well. So uh you can see here the estimates for Alton and Monarch are around $350,000 and we assume that those will probably be about the same for Bacon Town Center based on the current configurations of those intersections. In summary, uh the visibility restraints can uh limit safe implementation. Required improvements are complex and costly and the traffic has already been improved by the traffic signal synchronization plan and the intersections do meet city performance standards. So staff recommends not proceeding with PPLT phase 2 at this time at the four intersections listed and we will continue to monitor traffic at all these intersections and if a future PPLT

opportunities come up, we will bring those back to council for future CIP. I'm available for any questions. Thank you, Doug. Before we do that, madam city clerk, do we have any request to speak on this item? We do not, mayor. Okay. Thank you, colleagues.

I do. Thank you, Doug. Um obviously for some of the areas um permissive lefts are still could be valuable to the residents in getting home and not sitting at a light where there's no traffic coming. When I started driving, we didn't have left turn arrows. We just went when it was safe. Um with this this project, this is phase two. That doesn't kill us in future phases, correct? No, it does not. But currently, we don't have any current locations identified, but we definitely could look to find some other locations for PPLT and bring those back to council for future CIPs.

Yeah. You know, I I think that um permissive lefts are are are valuable when you're when you're not on a high flow street and you've got plenty of visibility to where you can make that left turn safely. So, I think that um I'm in agreement that maybe this is the wrong timing because we have Costco which will actually become um help us with Costco coming in will become a destination city. So, um we'll have destination people coming into the city driving to Costco. So, the fact that I think that we're premature by putting these in now. So, I I I support your recommendations and I'll make a motion that we go with staff recommendation. I'll second it.

Well, there we have it. Let's vote.

And that motion passes 40 with Mayor Prom Serbo absent. Thanks, Doug. All right, that moves on to item number 12. Madam City Clerk, please read the title of of item number 12. The title of item number 12 is the strategic plan quarterly update. Madam city manager, can you please introduce this item? Certainly. At our podium tonight, we have our assistant to the city manager, Nidia Rules, who is going to go over our strategic plan.

Thank you, city manager O. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. This is a quarterly update on the progress completed so far in the city strategic plan. So the current plan cycle under review in review is the strategic plan that was adopted June 3rd of 2025 and this is our third update and includes the uh any updates on that were accomplished in the quarter starting January 1st 2026. We typically highlight major project completions or milestones on a quarterly basis. We track strategic plan the strategic plan from two perspectives. First, we track initiatives based on overall progress. Out of the 60 initiatives in the implementation matrix of the plan, 11 or 18% of initiatives have been completed, 29 or 48% of initiatives have reached substantial progress, 16 more have been started, and four initiatives have yet to be started. We also track progress in the plan from a goal point of view. We have been able to start reach substantial progress on or complete 36 projects in goal A so far. Uh 14 projects for goal B and six projects in goal C. As we progress, these bars will begin to show a higher percentage of green to indicate completion of initiatives and will show the progress towards each goal. So under goal A for this quarter, we have four initiatives that we're highlighting. And goal A is our livable city is well planned, attractive, and safe. So, for this quarter, we're highlighting the completion of the Heroes Field, Heroes Park field renovations, the um neighborhood park renovations at Vintage Park, the equestrian center

lease extension, and park security enhancements. Goal B is our connected city is engaged, informed, and technologically current. And we have one uh initiative to highlight that was completed in this quarter, and that is the new lake forest resident packet. And as a reminder of goal C, our healthy city government is sustainable and well-run with committed people. So here we have strategic plan initiative number 26, the Heroes Park field renovations. And we have a before and after picture. The renovations included irrigation improvements, upgrades to the baseball fields, and leveling work to improve playability of the fields and enjoyment from users. Next we have uh neighborhood park renovations at Vintage Park. Um and this project provided fencing and field upgrades at the park to improve aesthetics and safety of this neighborhood park. It also included some improvements to the stairs. Next, we have the equestrian lease extension, which was approved by the city council in March on at the March 3rd, 2026 meeting. And this uh included the approval of a new 20-year lease which would ex expire in August of 2046 and achieved the long-term uh benefits of having a a long-term operator with established relationships, the ability to assist during emergency situations and a continued high level of care oversight and protective stewardship at the equestrian center. Next we have uh park security enhancements and these s sought to implement uh night and weekend park patrols with contract security staff to improve park security

and safety and a park security contractor was selected and a contract was awarded in February of this year with services starting at various parks throughout the city in this spring. The last item uh to highlight or initiative to highlight tonight is the new Lake Forest resident packet which is which was de developed to welcome new Lake Forest residents with a packet that included the leaflet and civic center information. So the new packet has been designed and produced with the first batch to be released to new residents soon. This concludes tonight's update. I'm happy to address any questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Nidia. Madame City Clerk, do we have any request to speak on this item? No comments. Thank you, colleagues. No, this is a receiving file. I'm good with it. Thank you so much for the update. All right. Thank you. Well, that brings us to the uh city manager report. Madam city manager, do you have anything to report? No, I have nothing further this evening. Go on to council comments. Council member Tedmer. Thank you very much. Um, I just attended one event with the state of the city or meet the mayor and it was a great event. Congratulations on a uh well done and also thanks to staff for I know there's a lot of staff support that goes into making that happen. So, good job all the way around. Thank you.

Thank you, council member. Yeah, I too attended to meet the mayor. Um, good job. The state of the city is healthy. Thanks for the great update and a futuristic look back at what it was. So, thank you. Thank you, council member. You I echo council member Tatimemer and W's uh comments here and nothing further.

All right. Thank you. So, I attended uh the chambers coffee chat at El Poo Loco and starting tomorrow, they're going to be at Laasita Aloe Vera uh from 8:00 a.m. So, if you're a business or wanted to start a business in the city, I suggest you go there and uh they're they've got a lot. I attended uh state senator Choy's women of distinction and he recognized a Lake Forest resident Ezra Noir as the woman uh of the of distinction for the city of Lake Forest. And so I stole his idea and I started the uh business of the month uh recognition and I recognized well Senator Troy also did the bit this we did second impressions in uh in district 5. And why that was this stuck out to me is the owner of that uh store used to be homeless. when I was the homeless officer, he was one of my clients. And so now he owns two storefronts here in Lake Forest. So rags the riches and I, like they said, I was I attended the C class and uh they made me a casualty and uh congratulations to the C. Uh I attended Bunny Blast which was great. Uh of course the meet the mayor. Uh Deborah, your staff did a phenomenal job. Keith um do not lose hope and I'm talking about the employee hope. She did a great job. She did an amazing job. Uh, and then I went to the South Orange County meet the mayor breakfasts uh in Laguna Niguel and it was it was interesting to watch other cities talk about how great they are and they let me go last and I told them how great we

were and they they all agreed and um I do want to bring up a consent item. I want to uh bring up for consensus a chance for Lake Forest to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest potluck. And so I'm looking for consensus. Yeah, we you got it for me. Okay. Right. That's all there's all four of us. So I'm You know why I say four, right? It doesn't count. But yes. All right. Uh other What? Huh? Yeah. He he consented from uh from from Dallas. So with with all that uh we're adjourned.