Historic Joint Meeting: Santa Paula City Council & Santa Paula Unified School District Governing Board

By Sheryl Hamlin

Historic, as in a famous or important in history, is perhaps hyperbole; however, the joint meeting held on January 26, 2015 between the Santa Paula City Council and the Santa Paula Unified School District Governing Board was the first joint session of its kind between these two entities. Five members of each organization plus their respective administrators were present. The city council was represented by Mayor Procter, Vice Mayor Hernandez, Council Member Gherardi, Council Member Crosswhite, Council Member Tovias and City Manager Fontes. The Santa Paula Unified School District Governing Board was represented by Michelle Kolbeck (President), Chris Wilson, Kelsey Steward (clerk), Cristina Urias, Diana Ponce-Gomez and Alfonso Gamino, Superintendent.

Both groups welcomed each other with Mayor Procter noting that the physical gap between the two organizations was not a political statement, but rather a logistical decision based on the placement of the projector.

Welcoming statements from both “sides” of the projector were made. Council Member Tovias noted that the school district unification idea was proposed by Council Member Gherardi when Mr. Tovias was mayor in 2010. In the invocation, Deacon Guilin of San Sebastian church insightfully noted that students hold the future and adults must provide the wisdom to inspire them.

Eleven citizens spoke in public comments. Each was articulate and engaged in student success. All spoke about the proposal to disallow use of the school on weekend for activities. T.S. Henderson, a coach, said that sports give kids pride in Santa Paula. Simon Mata said we need to “keep kids busy”. Jacob Avila, a youth advocate, said he taught his students “honor, courage and commitment” in addition to discipline with the goal of becoming productive members of society. Tommy Frutos, a fourth grade teacher, a parent, a coach and former Recreation Commissioner said he was there to advocate for the community that doesn’t have a voice. Cynthia Frutos, parent and 20 year educator, quoted research on the positive effects of sports in terms of attendance and high school pride. Maria Garcia, a 51 year resident of Santa Paula, provided concrete ideas to mitigate the parking problems: support to divert traffic, staggered hours, red zones, and the use of Virginal Terrace dead-end as a drop off. Eliminating sports, she said, was not the way to solve the parking problem. Rosalie Hill, a parent of four boys who participate in sports, said her children were totally motivated by sports. Sports help kids dream and expand their horizons, said Mrs. Hill. The President of Santa Paula Youth Football League said because there is no track field anymore, they drive 80 kids 4 days a week to Fillmore. Milo Solar, coach and board member of Santa Paula Youth Football League, understood the residential issues and the sports issues. He pointed out that eliminating the Saturday events would push those events to the week extending late into the evening, which would conflict with sleep and study. Raymond Mora was concerned about the idea of turning the baseball field and tennis courts into parking because the students have no other place to go.

Next Mr. Kyle Campbell and Ms. Lois Zsarney presented the concept of a “Neighborhood Safety Zone”. Ms. Zsarney, a 24 year resident of Santa Paula and a licensed therapist, stated that the frequency of events at the high school have deprived her of her right to enjoy her own home. Noise ordinances exist to protect rights. She said she can’t sell her home because no one can park within four blocks of the home for six days a week. She indicated that for 20 years, the events were “not bad” but the last few years, the activity has escalated noting, for example, 62 planned events in January of 2015. She said that Santa Paula needs a Student Event Center with parking.

In a consultative presentation with slides, Mr. Campbell said that Santa Paula Street is very dangerous for pedestrians. With 20 years in public safety, he spoke authoritatively as he described the idea of a “Safety Corridor”. He has hundreds of minutes of videos and photos taken over the last few years to document the safety abuses, including noise, parking, trash, vandalism, j-walking, speeding and double parking. He said there is no law enforcement on Santa Paula Street and poor traffic signage. The three components of the “Safety Corridor” are 1) managed high school facility use, 2) traffic calming for cars and pedestrians and 3) parking district. These would include designated drop-off zones, speed tables (temporary speed bumps), solar speed indicators, painted crosswalks with high school police officer enforcement. He provided an annotated map showing placement of the aforementioned items.

Mr. Campbell closed with the idea of “Smart Growth” and collaboration to solve these problems. He showed a dramatic video of the melee on Santa Paula Street day and night.

Two members of the community, Elissa Garcia and Ali Ramirez, spoke in support of Mr. Campbell’s ideas.

Council Member Gherardi suggested they hold questions until after the consultant’s report on the traffic. Mayor Procter was pleased to have heard directly from the citizens, although he noted that no students spoke.

The next item “Access, Circulation and Parking Improvements for the Santa Paula Union High School” was identified as a presentation by the Stantec Corporation addressing traffic issues.

Brian Yanez, the interim Public Works Director, spoke first about the Parking District on Palm Court, which is in progress, while the other areas will be postponed until the rest of the construction is finished. He noted that the MOU (Memo of Understanding) between the school district, the city and Stantec is not complete, saying that the scope of work is still under discussion. One of the outstanding questions is how to simulate football game traffic outside of football season. Ms. Urias suggested that they study the traffic on February 21st which will be the dedication day for the new building when there will be many attendees and cars. Council Member Gherardi agreed that the study should be completed; however, she said there is an immediate enforcement problem which could be solved now by having the school district pay overtime to the Santa Paula Police for enforcement.

Ms. Kolbeck, Board President, asked the consultant what was needed to launch the traffic study. Mr. Fontes answered by saying the liability could be split evenly and he congratulated Council Member Gherardi on the enforcement idea. Chief McLean indicated that Santa Paula does not have a “traffic” car, but stated that one officer is authorized for motorcycle work, which could start immediately. He will also send the three cars to SPHS in the morning and afternoon to start ticketing. They will review the cost of cadets and increasing cadet hours from 20 to 40 for more enforcement coverage.

Ms. Kolbeck indicated the traffic study should be finished by Spring Break. Mr. Fontes said that each component, such as analysis for East Area I school aged children, would add to the cost and complexity, which was a segue for Mr. Penrod’s presentation on East Area I and II for which Mayor Procter recused himself due to a conflict.

Mr. Penrod noted that the Final Phase Supplemental Environmental Inpact Report (EIR), Development Agreement and Full Traffic Study of the entire city with an updated city traffic model had been completed. He stated that February 17th would be a joint session between the Planning Commission and the City Council. Reminding everyone that the project started in 2004, it then took LAFCO three years to approve annexation by the city of Santa Paula. EAII, the commercial area on the other side of highway 126, was the catalyst for the second EIR.

After the financial crisis of 2008, homebuilders showed no interest in the project; however, he said that recently there were 41 firms expressing interest. These 41 were narrowed down to three firms who specialize in land development where they will sell off the property in parcels to the actual home builders. He did not describe the “partnership” with the finalist, but it is likely that the “winning” firm will pay Limoneira for the ability to resell the property thus allowing Limoneira to monetize the project for its stockholders. Mr. Penrod noted that one of the three “finalist” firm said they had 500 lots “pre-sold”. Infrastructure would take one year, so actual building would not occur until late 2016.

Several other notable uses were described: 1) the historic packing site will still look historic, although it may have another use, 2) there will be a high density development near this area, either condos or apartments, and 3) there will be an “age targeted area” in one of the “neighborhoods”. He said that one of the finalists was talking about marketing to “snowbirds” who would live in the area for the winter months only. As for commercial uses, he said that Ventura College declined the use of the land because of funding. He did not comment on retail possibilities in East Area II. The new concept for an educational component is one of a “Learning Center” wherein Limoneira builds and owns the office building, but leases it to Cal State or CLU, who have money for operations but not money for capital expenditures. A similar cash issue exists with the City of Santa Paula who has no money to operate a civic building, so a committee will have to determine what to build with the $5 million set aside for this purpose. Limoneira plans to pay for the maintenance until the park is complete. Mr. Penrod suggested this buildout could be accomplished in 5 to 7 years. Such a schedule equates to 15 to 20 homes sold a month.

Council Member Gherardi asked about the school board’s vision for the new elementary school in East Area 1. Ms. Kolbeck answered that they had identified an architect but had no design plans as yet, although they were planning for a 900 student school with a gymnasium.

There were no further questions asked of Mr. Penrod. Recall that Dr. Gartner, the city’s financial advisor, told the council at the December meeting that they could expect only about $400 a year property tax income from each dwelling unit of $400,000 value. This translates into a mere $600,000 annually for 1500 units. Therefore, the city must have a sales tax component to offset the costs for providing services to this new area: water, sewer, police, fire, etc. Mr. Tovias said that “good schools bring in good companies with jobs”; however, such “good” companies do not bring in sales tax.

Nor were there questions from the council to Mr. Penrod about the “challenge” to the project which Mr. Fontes mentioned at a previous meeting. A discussion of the Limoneira project can be read on-line in a three-part series.

After commentary, it was agreed that the meeting should be repeated in a televised format as soon as the traffic study is ready.

Mr. Kolbeck adjourned the meeting at 9:15 pm.

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Sheryl Hamlin: With an MS in Industrial Engineering, Sheryl Hamlin spent years in technology with stints at Motorola, Tandem Computers and various startups. She has been on the boards of neighborhood organizations both in San Francisco and Palm Springs where planning issues were her specialty. She now resides in Santa Paula and loves the historic fabric of the city.  Ms. Hamlin’s blog Stealth Fashion  and  technology product ‘ Plug and Play Webmaster’.

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