Home Minutes Acton Town Council Meeting Minutes, September 16, 2019, Approved

Acton Town Council Meeting Minutes, September 16, 2019, Approved

  1.  Call to Order, Flag Salute, & Roll Call – The meeting was called to order by President Jeremiah Owen at 7:00pm.  Present at the meeting: Pam Wolter, Jacki Ayer, Jeremiah Owen, Troy Pieper, Dylan Lunde, and Kelly Teno.  Absent:  Tom Costan.
  2.  Community Comments – None
  3. Minutes of Last Meeting – Jacki Ayer made a motion to approve the minutes of August 19, 2019 with the correct spelling of Roque.  Pam Wolter 2nd the motion. The motion carried.
  4.  Announcements and Correspondence – We have reached out to Metro several times but have not heard back. Received an email from Ms Carson about water. Mr Kimes from Thousand Trails CUP can attend a meeting to discuss project.  Three residents need help obtaining and putting up No Camping Signs.  Received emails regarding the Eagle Scout Project and the Welcome to Acton signs.  Email about the new electronic voting machines and meetings to learn how to use them.  Received an email from a resident about mysterious tree plantings and asked if we knew who was doing it.  As of now we are not  sure.  We had a resident not happy about the real estate directional signs being taken down.
  5.  Councilmember Comments – Comments included: Appreciate everyone being here when we have a big item, nice to see the community come together.  Fundraiser for the ATC, an Acton bumper sticker. $3.00 each or 2 for $5.00.  A councilmember was at Bloom Ranch buying peaches and it came up that Acton wants no filming, which is wrong.  There is an HSR Open House for the Palmdale Station.
  6.  Housing Ordinances – Connie Chung and Project Manager Heather Anderson came to present the 4 housing ordinances.  The Board of Supervisors asked for the ordinances to be written in February 2018 because of SB35. When the ordinances come out they will need community input.   They gave a quick overview of the ordinances, not all apply in Acton.  By-Right Housing Ordinance: Allowing multifamily housing by-right in certain zones.  Inclusionary Housing Ordinance: Requiring affordable units in new housing developments.  Interim and Supportive Housing Ordinance: Encouraging development of housing for people experiencing homelessness.  Affordable Housing Preservation Ordinance:  Preserving existing affordable housing.  They spoke about mobile home parks being used for affordable housing and preserving existing.  They felt this would change the density or intensity standards and that is not preserving but making new.  Interim housing is for short term stays / services for housing. Supportive housing is permanent housing with support for long term homeless.  There are three buckets or ideas under this: Shelters – allowing property owners to use parts of their buildings in the evening  and they will be out during the day.  An example would be a church with a meeting room.  The 2nd bucket is Transitional and it will not affect Acton.  The third is Vehicle Dwelling Bucket – This would be safe parking for overnight use and will not disrupt the main use of the property.  This parking would be for car and RV.  Many questions were asked which included, How are they dealing with CEQA?  They are finding an EIR consultant to review the ordinances.  The Safe Parking and Interim Housing has no component for services and the closest services are about 20 miles away.  They were asked to clarify the definition of shelter in the ordinance.  In Safe Parking they were asked to address standards for sanitation and how to enforce that people leave in the morning.  Acton already has vehicle living on vacant land.  Many were concerned that our lack of services in Acton would be a set up for disaster.  Another concern is that since we are in a High Fire Zone would their camp fires start wildfires.  They will take all our comments and questions back to the project.
  7.  CARB/Water Haulers – Councilmember Dylan Lunde gave an overview which included, California Air Resources Board or CARB makes it so that the water trucks mufflers and engines need to be replaced or retro fitted to meet standards.  The other option is to buy new trucks which is very expensive.  Everyone wants clean air but CARB does not take in the fact that lots of businesses are small family businesses and cant afford these options and need more time.  If they don’t comply and drive their trucks they will be fined.  The owner of Acton Water gave her overview and added that every time she has tried to reach out for help she has been turned down. She felt that doing all the expense is not really an option while their CUP’s are still up in the air. We need to emphasize the importance of water to this community along with the fire dangers, health issues, humanitarian, and we need a path for exemption. The ATC can reach out to the County on the CUP.  Brandon Roque from Senator Lackey is talking to CARB but he is not for sure what he can do.  He will bring all the concerns. Residents were asked to write Senator Lackey,  Governor Newsom and possibly Brett Banks from AVQMD.  Jacki Ayer made a motion that we take up the issue of the water haulers CUP and to support the activities that the water haulers initiate in anyway we can.  Pam Wolter 2nd the motion.  The motion carried.
  8.  Acton CSD Revisions – We reached out to Supervisor Barger’s office and they are willing to meet with us.  The meeting is on September 19th from 1 to 3pm.
  9.  Dalusong/Hefner Rd – Tabled
  10. Election Update – We haven’t received any applications
  11.  Unfinished/New Business – None
  12. Items for the Next Agenda – Polsa Rosa Discussion, Election
  13. Adjournment – 9:45pm
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