TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL

FROM: CITY MANAGER

DATE: NOVEMBER 7, 2006

SUBJECT: UPPER POINT VICENTE MASTER PLAN

RECOMMENDATION
Receive and file.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City Council has received considerable input regarding the use of Upper Point Vicente Park. Various private groups including the Palos Verdes Art Center, the YMCA and Zenith Aquatics have proposed “partnership” arrangements through which the City would provide a site and the partner would provide a public use. In 2004 a Task Force appointed by the City Council presented a plan for the use of Upper Point Vicente Park that included a vast array of proposed uses. In 2005 the City Council apparently reached a consensus that Upper Point Vicente Park should include an Art Center, a pool, a gymnasium, an amphitheater, a Council Chamber, trail heads and a village green. On April 18, 2006 the City Council embraced a proposal from the Palos Verdes Art Center to locate in Upper Point Vicente Park. Currently, the Annenberg Foundation is funding a Vision Plan for the open space and parks along the City’s coastline. The Vision Plan will include conceptual alternatives for development, enhancement and linking of city properties. The City may soon approve a Palos Verdes Art Center proposal committing a large portion of Upper Point Vicente Park to the Art Center. Although the City is moving forward to develop the Upper Point Vicente site there is no master plan.

BACKGROUND
At a workshop on October 21, 2006, the City Council heard a Vision Plan presentation by Melendrez Landscape Architects that included several concepts for development of Upper Point Vicente Park. The concepts included a wide assortment of choices including the Art Center, a Council Chambers, a pool, a gymnasium and softball and soccer fields. The Council was not asked to approve a concept or provide any input at this time, but simply receive a status report on the study.

In May 2002, the City Council established the Open Space, Planning and Recreation and Parks Task Force to study a wide range of recreation and open space issues facing the City of Rancho Palos Verdes. The Task Force conducted an extensive public outreach effort to better assess and identify the community’s goals, ideas, and opinions. This effort included a professional telephone survey, stakeholder meetings, and two facilitated public workshops. From its inception, a significant portion of the Task Force’s resources was focused on developing a plan for Upper Point Vicente Park. A number of groups, including the San Pedro YMCA, Zenith Aquatic Program (ZAP) and the Palos Verdes Art Center were interested participants in the Upper Point Vicente planning process. The Task Force Report was presented to the City Council on June 29, 2004.

Approximately nine months later, at their meeting of March 29, 2005, the City Council heard a number of options for developing Upper Point Vicente ranging from the Task Force’s recommended approach to plans that emphasized civic and cultural aspects, civic and recreation components, and civic and open space access. The City Council also heard a proposal that evening from Art Center representatives describing a concept under which the Art Center would construct a $15 million facility on City land, deed it to the City and lease it back through a long term lease arrangement. The City Council approved the plan in concept and encouraged the Art Center to continue its study of the site. The Council also agreed on other potential uses for the Civic Center site. The following is an excerpt from the minutes of the March 29, 2005 City Council meeting:

Mayor Clark noted that Council had reached a consensus on the major components to be considered for the Upper Point Vicente site, including a remodeled City Hall with new Council Chambers, a new facility for the Palos Verdes Art Center, an outdoor pool, a gymnasium, a village green, an amphitheater, a band shell and trail heads; and asked staff to look at the site map and determine how it might all fit together and report back to Council. Without objection, Mayor Clark so ordered. He asked that staff work with the representatives from the Palos Verdes Art Center to bring in an architect to help out in this initial planning phase, and noted that this was not intended to be a full scale development project at this time.

At their meeting of April 18, 2006 the City Council received a staff report with the following recommendations:
1. Approve a “staff” conceptual site plan for Upper Point Vicente;
2. Authorize staff to work with the Palos Verdes Art Center to develop a Memorandum of Understanding to enable the Art Center to move ahead with design of a facility on the Civic Center property.

The City Council approved the second recommendation only.

A number of concerns are pertinent to any significant development at Upper Point Vicente and will need to be further analyzed if the City Council decides to proceed with developing a plan for a civic center complex at this site. These concerns include availability of utilities, parking/circulation, grading/phasing, impact on existing maintenance yard, impact on trails/habitat and access/sightline analysis.

DISCUSSION:
Recently, staff has become concerned over the lack of information about the location condition and capacity of utilities that serve the Upper Point Vicente Park site. Although the power supply appears to be more than adequate to serve new uses, step down transformers will be required. In addition, huge underground power lines that exist on the site may present restrictions for future building sites. We have discovered that the existing sewer lines are deteriorated and in need of repair, and possible relocation or resizing. Drainage facilities to serve the site are also a large unknown. The capacity of the water system and adequacy of service has not been explored. Exactly what utilities exist on the site, precisely where they are and just how much capacity they have is largely unknown and has recently presented some costly and embarrassing situations during site development.

Access and parking are also becoming a concern with the pending agreement with the Art Center. In order to accommodate access and parking for anticipated uses, a master plan showing potential building sites, an interior road system and parking lots should be prepared.

Finally, a Master Plan of the entire site should be developed before the City makes further commitments to future uses. Attached is a proposal from a premier architectural and planning firm that will give the City Council an idea of the scope and cost of such a plan.

FISCAL IMPACT
The cost of a utility plan for the site has been estimated at approximately $15,000. The cost of an access and parking plan would probably be close to $50,000 depending on how precise a plan was specified. The cost of a Civic Center master Plan would be about $200,000.

Respectfully submitted:

Les Evans
City Manager

Attachments: Task Force Plan for Upper Point Vicente
“Staff” Conceptual Plan for Upper Point Vicente
Civic Center Conceptual Master Plan Proposal