minutes

South Bay Irrigation District

The Board of Directors of South Bay Irrigation District held a regular meeting on Monday, September 20, 2004, at the Sweetwater Authority Administrative Office, 505 Garrett Avenue, Chula Vista, California. President Welsh called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m.

ROLL CALL

Directors Present: Alkire, Doud, Pocklington, Reynolds, and Welsh.

Directors Absent: None.

Others Present: General Manager Dennis Bostad, Operations Manager Mark Rogers, Legal Counsel Peggy Strand, and Board Secretary Marisa Farpón. Sweetwater Authority staff Russ Collins and George Silva. Also present was Sweetwater Authority Director Mitch Beauchamp.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Director Pocklington conducted the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC COMMENT (Government Code Section (54954.3)
There was no comment from the public.

PRESIDENT'S PRESENTATION
There was no presentation.

ACTION AGENDA

1. PRESENTATION BY BEN MARTINEZ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF NATIONAL CITY
National City's Revitalization Effort.

Mr. Martinez thanked the Board for giving him the opportunity to talk about the good things that are happening in National City. He said this is a very exciting time in National City. Compared to other cities, National City has provided affordable housing in a disproportionate amount. The affordable housing Section 8, although it does provide housing, to some degree it has also presented some problems for the community. He said they are still struggling with issues such as apartment complexes poorly planned and developed, which were plopped right down in the middle of a single-family neighborhood.

The Redevelopment section of the Community Development Commission has been reorganized to address the new challenges and they are now tackling a huge redevelopment effort. The City has done its fair share of affordable housing and surpassed all the goals set forth by SANDAG and other entities that monitor affordable housing. Its effort now is more directed to providing market-rate housing, which is not as expensive as the market-rate housing in other communities like San Diego or eastern Chula Vista.

Mr. Martinez mentioned the need to start building a city that meets the demands of new residents and gives the existing residents things that they never had in the past, such as the 54,000 square foot library, the new Southwestern Community College project, and the education village downtown. He talked about the specific planning for areas such as the "downtown" district. The plan for that area will promote a mixture of uses, residential and commercial. The residential will be of a higher-rise nature, three to ten-story residential buildings, with retail uses on the ground floor. This market is untested, but the Plaza and 805 and the Plaza and Palm projects are moving and selling quickly, and so are the single-family row, one to three-story home projects. They have received a tremendous amount of interest from local as well as out of state and even international developers.

They are also concentrating their efforts on Highland Avenue and Plaza Boulevard. Unlike the downtown plan that is going to lay out the exact community, uses, and densities, this plan is more of a streetscape plan. They are promoting a revitalization project along Highland Avenue, which has not changed much in several decades. They are bolstering the image of the existing businesses and looking at vacant lots and the opportunity that those might bring. They want to keep on attracting new banks, and at the same time they have put a moratorium on check-cashing businesses. They are looking at both physical and social revitalization. The idea is to bolster the existing economics of this area, which has 300 to 500 Filipino-owned businesses.

SANDAG has deemed Plaza Boulevard one of the major arteries off the freeway and gave the City funding to plan the movement of cars coming off the freeway. The City wants to move forward on projects that ease vehicular access and movement; however, this clashes with the Mayor and the Council's vision of more of a pedestrian-oriented district in that area. The City will take the funding money and meet the objectives of the project proposed by SANDAG. At the same time, they will consider other improvements like street medians, signage, etc., to help with the increased pedestrian and commercial activity that they expect to see in that area.

Mr. Martinez explained some of the projects in progress in the Business Improvement districts. He said that two weeks ago they had a tour of the city for bankers, real estate brokers, and developers. As a result of this tour, they are getting interest calls from developers that historically never worked South of I-8. They hope to be able to target vacant lands and bring them back into productive use. He noted that National City is built out, and there are very few large commercial and residential sites. They take very seriously the underutilization of land, whether is vacant land or warehousing, because there is not enough property available in the city. He stated that the Westfield group has submitted plans for a major upgrade to the Plaza Bonita Shopping Center, and Costco has submitted a proposal to build a store on the North side across the street from Outback Steakhouse.

Another example of vacant lands is the North area of National City in general. He mentioned the Park Villa Apartments area, where a single-family housing development is in progress. The Trophy Lounge building will be torn down at the end of the year and a new restaurant/bar will be built. He showed a computer-generated picture of the type of row homes they are promoting in the downtown plan area at 8th Street and C Avenue. The plan promotes a condominium tower with retail uses on the ground floor and three, four or five story town homes around it.

Mr. Martinez said that because of the success of the mile of cars, for many years the downtown area was plagued with car lots, which did provide sales tax but not as much as the new cars on the mile. The City is working with the owners of these properties to redevelop this area with the type of housing that he referred to earlier. The car lots and garages, because of their use and lease structures, kept the property values artificially low in the city and kept the downtown area from being revitalized.

Mr. Martinez showed several other examples of redevelopment projects, such us a mixed-use lower-rise type of project, with homes above retail users. He said that the City is planning to acquire six (6) acres of highly contaminated property at the Pacific Steel Recycling Center in the harbor district for a more productive use. The two main contributors to the blight in the harbor district were the recycling and the meat packing businesses.

Mr. Martinez then talked about the Thrifty Oil on the corner and Plaza and 16th Street in the Filipino Village, where there is a vacant, underutilized property, an unsightly gas station, and a Days-In motel. They have convinced Thrifty Oil and are looking at the idea of closing this station, consolidating the property with the Days-In property, and doing a redevelopment project with a mixture of retail and residential uses.

Going back to the harbor district and the fact that they have acquired many of the meat packing sites and recycling centers, Mr. Martinez said they hope to replace these properties with others such as a hotel right down Bay Marina Drive and I-5 overlooking the marsh area. They are also looking to get other residential and commercial uses in that area and to integrate the Trans Continental train depot development that they acquired with the new commercial uses. They are very close to securing an agreement with an operator that will develop the marina with the slips, and they already have temporary facilities and are fully funded to build a new aquatic center adjacent to the marina.

Mr. Martinez then answered questions from the directors. He ended his presentation by stating that he thinks the largest attraction of business in the downtown area is going to be the retail, restaurant, and neighborhood stores.

2. ITEMS TO BE ADDED, WITHDRAWN OR REORDERED TO THE AGENDA
(Government Code Section 54956.5)

There were none.

3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Doud, that the Board approve the minutes of the regular meeting of August 16, 2004. The motion carried.

4. APPROVAL OF DEMANDS AND WARRANTS

Director Alkire made a motion, seconded by Director Doud, that warrant numbers 10156 through 10167 be approved. The motion carried.

5. NEW BUSINESS

· Upon a motion made by Director Pocklington, seconded by Director Doud, the Board voted for Dennis L. Shepard for Seat B and Harry Ehrlich for Seat C of the California Special District Association (CSDA) Board of Directors Election 2004 for Region 6. The motion carried.

· Request from Palomar Pomerado Health to vote for Ms. Scofield on the Ballot for LAFCO Special Districts Advisory Committee Member: This item was to be filed without action.

· Upon a motion made by Director Pocklington, seconded by Director Doud, the Board voted for Jo Mackenzie, James C. Alkire, Keith Lewinger, Gary Arant, Dennis Shepard and Harry Ehrlich for the LAFCO Special Districts Advisory Committee member positions. The motion carried.

Upon a motion made by Director Doud, seconded by Director Alkire, the Board voted for Bud Pocklington for the LAFCO regular member position. The motion carried.

· SAN DIEGO COUNTY REGISTRAR OF VOTERS - CANDIDATES STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONS - Increasing the number of words for description of candidate's education and qualifications in the Candidate's Statement of Qualifications:

After discussion by the members of the Board, it was agreed to bring this item back for discussion at the beginning of next year.

6. REPORT OF TREASURER

Treasurer Avery said that the interest rate for a one-year investment with Mission Federal Credit Union is 2.72 percent, and 3.2 percent for an 18-month investment. The Local Agency Investment Fund (LAIF)'s rate is 1.77 percent. The Board was in agreement to transfer some money from LAIF and put it into an 18-month investment with the Mission Federal Credit Union at 3.2 percent.

7. REPORT OF LAFCO SPECIAL DISTRICTS REGULAR MEMBER

Director Pocklington provided two publications dealing with the Sphere of Influence for Special Districts for Management or Directors to review. He noted that he did not attend the meeting because he was at an MWD meeting, but Director Alkire did.

Director Alkire gave a brief report on his attendance at this meeting, which he said was short and there was no real discussion. There were three information items. San Diego LAFCO was presented a plaque by CALAFCO for being the most effective commission. Commissioner Wooten was reelected to CALAFCO. The third item was regarding the Tia Juana Valley County Water District. LAFCO voted to dissolve the district and gave them 95 days to circulate protest petitions and gather signatures. They have until November 5, 2004.

8. REPORT OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY REPRESENTATIVE

Director Pocklington said he would give a more detailed report at the Sweetwater Authority Board meeting. He briefly talked about HR 4791 (Hunter), and on the negotiations with Poseidon regarding the desalination plant.

9. DIRECTORS' COMMENTS

Director Reynolds said that at a family event this weekend, his daughter-in-law brought a bottle of water called Apel, which has a little bit of sugar in it and sells for $1.49 for 23 ounces. He figured that would be $5.07 per gallon or $1.65 million dollars for an acre-foot, and $39.6 billion dollars for 24,000 acre-feet that we sell in one year. He thought perhaps we could help the Feds pay off the debt if we put a little bit of sugar in the water.

Director Alkire said he wanted to thank those who recommended that he attend the Water Education's Northern California tour. He did that last week and it was very informative. He feels very educated about rice and salmon and also tired since they went from about 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., but it was a very good tour.

10. CLOSED SESSION
There was none.

11. ADJOURNMENT
With no further business before the Board, President Welsh adjourned the meeting at 4:31 p.m., to the hour of 3:30 p.m., on October 18, 2004.