PC - Item 4A - Minutes of April 4, 2022Minutes of the
PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING
April 4, 2022
The regular meeting of the Planning Commission was called to order by Chair Berry at 7:00 p.m.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE — Commissioner Ung
INVOCATION — Chair Berry
ROLL CALL — Commissioners Lopez, Ung, Vice -Chair Leung, and Chair Berry
STAFF PRESENT—Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Kim, City Attorney Gutierrez, Planning &
Economic Development Manager Valenzuela, Senior Management Analyst Guerrero, and Commission Liaison Huang
1. EXPLANATION OF HEARING PROCEDURES AND APPEAL RIGHTS
N/A
2. PUBLIC COMMENTS FROM THE AUDIENCE
There being no comments, Chair Berry opened and closed the Public Comment period.
3. PRESENTATION
A. CITY OF ROSEMEAD 2030 STRATEGIC PLAN POWERPOINT
Senior Management Analyst Guerrero introduced the 2030 Strategic Plan for the City of Rosemead. The plan describes a
collective vision and values of the City Council and provides Rosemead objectives for the next 10 years. The goal within the
plan will continue to provide a framework for improving and expanding City services and infrastructure, continue to promote
Rosemead as a destination for businesses and will continue to offer sound fiscal guidance. Last year, the City engaged the
community, City Council, City department leaders, staff, and other stakeholders for various meetings, working sessions focus
groups and surveys to craft this strategic plan. The planning process included four phases guided by MIG as our strategic
planning consultants. Ms. Guerrero introduced Carolyn Verheyen, Vice President, and Chief Operating Officer of MIG
Consultants to present the City's 2030 Strategic Plan PowerPoint.
Ms. Verheyen presented the planning process overview which consist of four phases: Assessment, Development of
Framework, Strategic Plan Development, and Implementation. She shared the Element of Strategic Plan which consist of the
following: Values, Vision, Mission, Goals, Objectives, Actions and Action Plan.
Ms. Verheyen elaborated that "values" consist of safety, diversity, community, service, and family, then shared the City's vision
and mission. Under the Goal discussion, she focused on the following items: Safety, Responsive Inclusive City, Infrastructure
and Facilities, Parks and Programs, Employee Retention and Development, Finance, Activation and Economy and Land Use
and Zoning. In each strategic plan goal, it included the following five elements: Objective Statement, Actions, Metrics, Timeline
and Lead Department(s).
Chair Berry thanked Ms. Verheyen for the presentation.
Commissioner Ung expressed that those were interesting items that sparked some ideas. She shared that it would be a great
addition if we can get access to small lots and do pocket parks that have art installation in different neighborhoods. She added,
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for food events, she suggested a business incubator, where the City can assist home cooks who may be thinking about getting
into the food business or provide guidance with the licensing process.
Vice -Chair Leung thanked Ms. Verheyen for the presentation and believes that workshops for people starting up is a great
idea.
4. PUBLIC HEARINGS
None
5. CONSENT CALENDAR
A. PC MINUTES 03-07-22
Commissioner Lopez made a motion, seconded by Chair Berry, to approve PC Minutes 03-07-22 as presented.
Vote resulted in:
Ayes:
Berry, Leung, Lopez, and Ung
Noes:
None
Abstain:
None
Absent:
None
Roll call vote resulted in 4 Ayes and 0 Noes.
6. MATTERS FROM STAFF
None
MATTERS FROM THE CHAIR & COMMISSIONERS
Ll
Chair Berry inquired on the park that was proposed between Mission Drive and Walnut Grove Avenue. He recalled that there
was a large company that gave a presentation and noted that there was a grant to build a park and they had a lot of success
with Southern California Edison (Edison) and getting parks approved.
Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Kim stated that the City does have a maintenance agreement with
Edison on that property but in order to build, we need to secure a grant for construction.
Chair Berry questioned about the grant proposed.
Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Kim expressed that Edison is only issuing a five-year license
agreement. The grant requirement has a minimum of 25 or 30 -year requirement, and the reason for that is because the amount
of the grant is significant, and the cost to build a park is very costly. He added, the minimum license requirements the federal
government would like to secure a reasonable amount of time. Since Edison does not offer a long-term lease agreement, we
did not qualify for the grant.
Chair Berry asked if this was specifically in our City because this company was able to get other parks approved on Edison
property.
Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Kim answered no, it's pretty much straight across the board and
said the last long term lease agreement from Edison is Jay Imperial Park. He also said, for Zapopan Park, the original lease
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agreement was lengthy, but now, everything is on a five-year period. He added, the City renewed the lease recently for Zapopan
Park and expressed that the City is not getting anything more than five years for the lease agreement.
Chair Berry inquired if there is anything we can do to change their mind because all that area is blighted, and its usable land
that we could all use to benefit the community and save money on maintenance.
Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Kim expressed that he had the same conversation with Edison
recently and they are not just limiting municipalities, it also applies to other entities, every single license is limited to five -years.
He said, in that conversation, the consensus from Edison is that they enjoy working with the cities to build parks because it's
a very low intensive activity, and they have prior leads to nurseries, self -storage facilities, and different commercial enterprises.
He added, when Edison lease to a commercial enterprise, there's more of a maintenance type of activity that would need to
coordinate with the private entity, but parks are very passive, and very low impact. He added, it does not matter what City,
parks are well maintained because it really does serve our community. He stated, Edison truly enjoys working with
municipalities for parks, however, with the current policy, we would not be able to qualify for the grant.
Commissioner Lopez questioned why they won't change more than five years.
Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Kim expressed that he does not know if there's a particular reason
and stated that it is what a change in policy that Edison has implemented.
Chair Berry expressed that if Edison is listening, we would like to know why they change their policy and request to change
the policy to give the City more leeway on some of their lands. He then noted that there were other improvements such as
grants to install sidewalks and treelined streets and expressed that if we could look for more of that, that would be great
especially around schools.
Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Kim stated yes, the Public Works Director, Michael Chung, is
working on an extensive list of CIP projects right now.
Chair Berry inquired if that includes getting rid of some of the power lines or installing nice streetlamps.
Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Kim believes Public Works is working on some undergrounding,
however, it's not very extensive. He said, the procedure is extremely expensive, and the City does not own those power lines
so it's a little difficult to underground because we don't own the land. He then referenced City of Anaheim which has their own
utility company which generate significant amount of revenue and they can invest in undergrounding the powerlines.
Chair Berry noted that on Walnut Grove Avenue and Valley Boulevard, it looks like there's underground powerlines.
Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Kim stated that he would drive by and take a look.
8. ADJOURNMENT
Chair Berry adjourned the meeting at 7:37 p.m.
ATTEST.
James Berry
Chair
Janice Huang
Administrative Assistant
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Minutes of April 4, 2022
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