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Minutes from February 12th

February 14th, 2008

Pierpont Community Council Meeting Minutes Feb 12, 2008

John called the PCC meeting to order at 7 PM

Police Report – Lt. Vance

No report this month. Lt. Vance was unavailable.

Treasurer’s Report - Rosemary Icardo

Last month’s checking account balance was $1486.15
There were on charges to the account.

Rosemary requested that each Pierpont Household make a donation to the PCC of
$50/year to help support the operation of the PCC.
Donations can be made by writing a check to the Pierpont Community Council and sending it to:
Pierpont Community Council
C/O Coastal Postal
2419 Harbor BL, #166
Ventura, CA 93001

Vacation Rental Report – Joy Berger/Sandy Bothman

The PCC is still waiting for a response from the Ariel Calonne, the City Attorney,
related to the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) and the Mello-Roos

Only 19 Vacation Rental Landlords have applied for a permit from the City so far.
The City has stated that these landlords cannot even advertise their Pierpont
properties without this permit.

There is a Meeting of Vacation Rental Committee scheduled for Tuesday, Feb 19th.

Neighborhood Improvement Committee Report – Dan Clarke
(Not in attendance so John Whitman spoke)

Anastasi Housing Approval Process (HAP) filing

Ian Holt is the City planner assigned to the Anastasi HAP.
iholt@ci.ventura.ca.us
805-654-7752

Ian indicated that the City had received Anastasi HAP. He said that City had asked
for more info from Anastasi related to the HAP. He doesn’t expect the resubmission
until the end of March. He indicated that Anastasi has hired a new architect that is
based in Santa Barbara who should be more familiar with the City of Ventura’s requirements.

Beach Committee Report – Rosemary Icardo

John Whitman stated that he has asked both the City and Coastal Commission
to clarify whether or not Pierpont Beach is an environmentally sensitive habitat area (ESHA).
2/13, Gary Timm of the Coastal Commission stated that the Pierpont Beach
is not ERSA (Environmentally Sensitive Resource Area) designated.

SMP Workshop moved from Valentines Day to Mar 4th

Per Rick Raives, the City Engineer, the Sand Management Plan (SMP) workshop
has been changed from Feb. 14th to March 4th because Feb 14th is Valentines Day.
March 4th was the next available date where the City could get the speakers
and City conference room.

Postcard notices have been mailed notifying Pierpont residents and property owners,
as well as others in the City who may be interested in what happens at Pierpont beach.
(See an example of the Sand Management Workshop Postcard below.)

Rick Raives indicated that pushing out of the Workshop date delays coastal permit approval.

At the workshop Rick’s tentative plans are to start with a presentation from Dave Hubbard,
a coastal dune expert who will discuss the benefits and other info about dunes. Biologists
from Coastal Commission and State Parks will present an overview of the Sand Management Plan.
Rick Raives will address the City’s current position and responsibility of Shore Drive as well
as the remaining schedule for the coastal permit process, and then they will take questions
from the public. Councilman Brian Brennan will preside over the meeting. The experts will
stick around afterward to answer questions from the public.

Mayor and City Council to address a variety of Pierpont issues in March

The City is going to use this extra time to bring the Sand Management Plan, as well as other
beach issues (lifeguards, beach cleaning, cleaning sand from the lanes and stairs) to the City
Council for discussion, probably in March after the Public SMP Workshop (no date set yet,
but Rick Raives will notify the PCC when it is).

Notice of Intent to Adopt a Mitigated Negative Declaration for Pierpont
Beach EIR-2496 (Environmental Impact Report), Sand Management Plan

The City gave everyone a month to file responses to their Mitigated Negative Declaration
for the Sand Management Plan. The final date for responding was Feb 8th. A number of
individuals sent in responses to include John Whitman for the PCC, Kate Neiswender,
the Attorney for the beachfront owners, Rosemary Icardo for the Beach Committee and
VCSB Committee and several of the beachfront owners and Murray Robertson as a
concerned Pierpont resident.

Maura Macaluso, Principal Planner, who works for Rick Raives, is in charge of getting
the responses to the Mitigated Negative Declarations.

Maura Macaluso, Principal Planner
mmacaluso@ci.ventura.ca.us
805-677-3983

Maura indicated that she had received 14 responses to the Mitigated Negative Declaration.
A couple of the responses are from governmental agencies.

John Whitman asked Murray to contact Maura and get copies of these responses
for the PCC to review.

City to revise Negative Declaration – will delay permit process

Rick Raives of the City finally received information from the biologist that the City hired
to do the initial evaluation for sensitive species along Pierpont Beach. This was an
additional study over and above those of the Coastal Commission and CA State Parks.
Although the biologist did not find any legless lizards, the biologist feels that the legless
lizards have a moderate potential to occur. The legless lizards, however, are not present.
He did find dune beetles in all 3 Units along Pierpont beach. The dune beetle is a
species of special concern. A copy of the final report has been sent to the PCC. This
new report does not refute the validity of the State biologists. The question was raised
as to why the City embarked on an additional report.

John asked Murray to contact Rick Raives at the City to see if the report can be put
online so that Pierpont residents can access and review.

Based on these concerns and potential mitigation measures, Rick feels that the
environmental document will need to be revised to add mitigation measures. This will
restart the public notice for another 30 days of review and public response. This will
delay approval of any coastal permit and environmental document until April, or later.

Maura, Principal Planner at the City, indicated that she would have the new Mitigated
Negative Response on the City’s website for residents to review probably around Feb 15th.
Citizens will be able to respond for 30 days.

Status of immediate relief for the beachfront homeowners

Per Rick Raives of the City, it does not appear that the 11 properties most impacted
by the sand will be considered as emergency areas where an emergency coastal
permit could be granted.

According to Rick, if a separate coastal permit, outside of the Sand Management Plan
permit, is pursued for these 11, they will likely be required to follow the same
recommendations in the Sand Management Plan and it will likely take just as long
or longer for a permit as it would if they are part of the Sand Management Plan permits.

Per Rick Raives Feb 11th email to John Whitman, “The State Coastal Act clearly
spells out when an emergency exists where emergency work can be done without a
pre-approved permit. It is contained in Section 13009 of the Coast Act and Sections 13009
and 13136 through 13143 of Title 14, Division 5.5 of the State Code of Regulations).
You should be able to find this on their website http://www.coastal.ca.gov/ and it looks
like there is a link to the State Code too. Even if an emergency exists, a coastal permit
would have to be obtained after the work was complete. At this point, this permit would
contain all of the requirements in the Sand Management Plan.”

Sand excavation before May 15th for the beachfront owners is in
Jeopardy

Given that the coastal permit and environmental document will not be issued until
April or later, there seems to be little hope that beachfront owners will be able to excavate
sand prior to the May 15th deadline. Note the Sand Management Plan states that sand
can only be excavated between Sept 15th and May 15th. As it stands this means that none
of the beachfront owners whose properties are being damaged that the sand coming off City
property will be allowed to do anything until September. This is well over a year from the
date we originally asked Mayor Morehouse to resolve this situation.

The beachfront homeowners will most likely pursue legal Action

The beachfront homeowners have hired Kate Neiswender as their attorney. Given that
most of these homeowners do not consider the Sand Management Plan implementable
in its present form and the fact that they do not feel that an approved Plan is forthcoming
in a reasonable timeframe (because of the delays that are already starting to crop up),
the beachfront homeowner feel they have no recourse but to take legal action against
the City. Waiting will only cause more damage to their homes.

Sand Management Plans requirement for beachfront residents to create dunes

An individual in the audience discussed his experience with building a dune in front of
his beachfront home in North Carolina. He said that he would never do it again because
it ultimately destroyed the view from his home. He indicated that five years after putting
a dune in front of his property that his view from his first story was lost. After ten years
the view from his second story was lost. Ultimately the dune grew to 30 feet tall.

Rosemary indicated that this is exactly what has happened at her home on Waterbury
as a result of the City no longer maintaining the sand along Shore DR. She stated that
before she purchased her beachfront home over ten years ago that she had met with the
City Manager and he had assured her that she would never have a problem with the dunes.
Now she wishes she had gotten that in writing. The dune in front of Rosemary’s house is
25-30 feet above sea level and is now blocking her view of the beach from her second floor.
Plus the dune is now up against her retaining wall. Next year it will be in her yard.

Update on ownership of first 40′ of beachfront

John Whitman, on behalf of the PCC, has asked Ariel Calonne, in a letter dated 12-3-07,
to provide us with information as to who owns Shore DR. Shore DR is the beach property
immediately adjacent to the Pierpont Community. It runs from San Pedro ST to Greenock LN.
So far John has not received a response. Note that we started asking this question of the
City beginning in January 2007 – well over a year ago.

Larry Pearson, interim Pierpont Key Association President, showed showed everyone in
attendance, a map from the City that has both Shore DR, and the active drainage system
along Shore DR. At the end of each lane there is a cap to the drainage system. He says,
to the best of his knowledge, that the City owns Shore DR.

Larry says that the Keys and Pierpont share a portion of this draining system.

Discussion about hiring a Lawyer to represent the PCC related to the sand issues

Several individuals in the audience felt that the PCC should seek legal representation if the
Sand Management Plan does in fact seek to limit the use of portions of Pierpont beach.

Additionally, there is the concern about the fact that the City is not maintaining the stairs
that lead up to the beach from the ends of the lanes. By not maintaining Shore DR, the
City has created a very dangerous situation by allowing sand to flow down the stairs.
To date many of our residents and their guest have fallen. Additionally, because the sand
is even or higher than most of the beachfront owners and the City’s retaining walls, persons
can fall from the beach onto the concrete below. In several places this fall could be
as much as 7-8 feet.

The PCC was asked to investigate hiring Kate Neiswender as the PCC attorney
to address these issues.

Sand Burying Stairs on Several Lanes

Sand has buried the stairs on Pittsfield, Winthrop, Kingston, Cornwall, Montauk, Brockton
and Sharon LNs. Several emails have been sent to Vicki Musgrove, Public Works Manager,
asking that these stairs be cleaned. The first email was Jan 26th when Murray Robertson
fell on the sandy stairs on Pittsfield. This was followed by another email on Feb 8th.
To date nothing has been done to clean the stairs.
(See email below that includes pictures of the sand on these lanes.)

City to put signage and fencing at ends of lanes where sand is
encroaching onto the stairs

Rick Raives indicated that the City will be installing temporary fencing and signs on the
handrails at those lanes where the sand has built up and over the walls. The caution signs
will notify people using the stairs as well as those coming close to the railing. When Rick
has a schedule for this he will notify us. (In Murray’s correspondence with Vicki Musgrove,
he emphasized that cleaning the stairs was much more important that putting signage to
let people know the stairs are dangerous.)

Lifeguard Stations

Jack Futoran, Lifeguard Supervisor for State Parks has asked Rosemary to attend the
Lifeguard Training for Ventura plus do a “ride along” to determine the how the lifeguards
count the saves, etc. Rosemary will report back to the PCC.

John Whitman met with Jack Futoran and Peter Brown (City Community Affairs).
Last year the City spent $162,000 for lifeguards. Peter was not sure whether they will
have this funding this year due to budget cuts. Additionally CAState Parks has reduced
their budget by $14 million.

The City wants to have lifeguard stations at Greenock LN (Marina Park) and Seaward AV.
They have abandoned the idea of having a lifeguard station at Schoolyard (Martha’s Vineyard CT).
The audience clapped indicating their agreement with not having a lifeguard station
at Martha’s Vineyard.

John indicated that the City has asked him to see if the Pierpont residents were
interested in doing a fundraiser for the lifeguard stations. John indicated that the City
would even help us with the arraignments. John put it to a vote. The vote was
overwhelmingly NO, in fact, there was laughter at the proposal.

The issue of charging for parking to support the lifeguard station in Marina Park was
discussed. It was noted that the parking revenues would end up in the general fund and
not be earmarked for supporting the lifeguard towers specifically. John indicated that the
City was evaluating charging for parking City wide. Larry Pearson, interim Pierpont Keys
President, raised a concern that charging for parking in Marina Park will cause people
using the park to look for free parking on the lanes and in the Keys.

Neighborhood Watch – Sandra Kinsler

Sandra indicated that there were only 4-5 block captains in all of Pierpont. The PCC
would like to get one on every lane. She said it anyone was interested to contact:

Laura Robinson, Neighborhood Watch Program
lrobinson@ci.ventura.ca.us
805-339-4403

(See Letter to New Block Captains below)

Pierpont Elementary School Sidewalk – Murray Robertson

Larry Hardesy, Pierpont Elementary School principle, thanked the PCC for their
support related to getting the sidewalk widened next to the Pierpont Elementary
School. Larry said that the City will be doing the work this summer.)

Water Department Work – Murray Robertson

The Ventura Water Department is replacing water valves in the street in the area
of Cornwall, Kingston and Sheldon LNs. They will be making 12 different holes
in the street. Also, they indicated that the water lines in this area go out onto
Shore DR. They say the amount of sand on top of these water lines has made
it hard to gain access to them in the past.

Letter to Editor on need for an elected Mayor and City Manager – John Whitman

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