The City of Los Alamitos voted at their most recent meeting to approve the new requirements for developers that resets their standards for residential development.
After hearing from its consultant and Ron Noda, Deputy City Manager and Director of Development, the Council voted unanimously to approve changes to its park development standard set forth in the so-called Quimby Act.
“Basically, the Act is to assist local government in mitigating the impact of property development by providing parks and recreation services,” Noda told the Council.
“The Quimby Act was passed by the State of California in 1975,” he added, explaining that the Act set forth the parameters and standards cities must adhere to meet desired park development goals.
Currently, he said, there is a parkland standard of 2.5 acres of parks for every 1,000 residents within a city. Currently, he said there are 18.4 acres dedicated to public parks in the city.
“We’re a little behind the times,” said Noda, when asking the Council to consider updating the standard.
“When you do the math, with how many residents we have, we are in need of more park space,” he said. Currently, said Noda, the city “does not have enough green space to accommodate our residents.”
Working with the SCI Consulting Firm, Noda said they have raised the standards and adjusted fees for developers which will hopefully make the city much greener.
Under the act, the city can accept land donations (as cited in their standard) or collect fees in lieu of land, he said.
“That’s what the Quimby Act fees are for,” said Noda, adding that the updated schedule will allow the city to create more park space for residents.
The Council voted unanimously to approve the first reading of a resolution to create the new standards and fee schedules.
In other action at the November meeting, the Council approved an annual bonus for City Manager Chet Simmons as is allowed in his agreement with the city.
The Council’s vote was not unanimous, however, as Council members Trisha Murphy and Emily Hibard abstained. “I see room for improvement,” said Murphy in casting her vote.
Both members have been critical of financial errors and miscalculations in material presented to the Council, so much so that the city has implemented an “accelerated” warrant schedule to allow the city to deal with the questions before the meetings after errors were being brought up in meetings.
The city now apparently works on any routine questionable financial matters beforehand, to deal with them out off-camera, and before their regular meetings.
The Council also honored Nurse Practitioners during Nurse Practitioners Week and honored Joseph Luck and Mason Peat, owners of Lucky Pete’s Barber Shop as part of their ongoing Business Spotlight program.
