ON THE AGENDA: Twentynine Palms City Council, January 14, 2025
Roads, bike paths, bridges, camping & RV park kerfuffle, and a slew of appointments
This Tuesday, January 14, 2025, the Twentynine Palms City Council is set to meet with a 14-item agenda. The 184-page agenda is linked here. Highlights include road, bike path and bridge design and construction approvals, consideration of code updates for mobile home and special occupancy parks, including campgrounds, and several appointments and regional organization assignments.
PUBLIC COMMENT
You can comment on agenda items and issues important to you at every City Council meeting. Comments on agenda items take place during discussion of that item, while comments on non-agenda items take place near the end of the meeting. The Brown Act prevents Council from commenting on non-agenda items. To comment, just pick up a green or gold form at the entry desk, fill it out, and hand it to the Clerk, who usually sits just in front of the Council bench toward the right.
Here's the list of Council email addresses to write if you can't get to the meeting — be sure to email them prior to 2 p.m. on the date of the meeting so they have time to read your email prior to discussion. The Mayor has stopped reading emails into the record at meetings. You can also copy the clerk at cvillescas@29palms.org and ask that your letter be made part of the public record.
AWARDS, PRESENTATIONS, APPOINTMENTS, AND PROCLAMATIONS
Following an invocation by Rev. Don Thursby of Little Church of the Desert, the meeting will kick off with a series of presentations, including a State of the Base Address by Brigadier General Mark H. Clingan, a presentation of the Artist of the Year Award by the PAAC (Public Arts Advisory Committee) and a presentation to Feathers and Fur Wildlife Rehab Team and Morongo Basin ARCH for their participation in the Cash for Trash and Recycling Program.
CONSENT CALENDAR
The Consent Calendar consists of routine items usually approved with a single vote. The public is given a chance to make public comment on these items prior to the Council motion. Again, fill out a comment form if you wish to address any of the items on this meeting’s Consent Calendar.
Routine consent calendar items include approval of this month's City’s Warrant Register for $1,331,140.63, which includes $455,060 to the Sheriff's Department, $253,488.65 to Qualite Sports Lighting for part of the the $1.3 million Luckie Park lighting upgrade project, and $24,500 to nonprofit Molding Hearts to mitigate homelessness. Other items highlighted on the consent calendar include:
7. Material Acquisition for the Road Overlay from Blue Diamond with SB1 Funds
This is approval of a $687,400 expenditure of SB1 funds for material to resurface four miles of roadway, including sections of Adobe Road, Mojave Avenue and El Sol Avenue. SB1 funds are collected by the state for fuel excise taxes and vehicle registration fees, and allocated to cities, so this comes at no direct cost to the City. The particular sections of road to be resurfaced were already approved by Council at their June 11, 2024 meeting.
8. Award an Agreement for Design Services for the SR 62 Phase 2B Project
Part of a sizable project initiated in 2011 to improve Hwy 62 by adding curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and raised medians between Encelia Avenue and Split Rock Avenue, this item entails spending $526,083 of County funds on the design phase for these improvements on the north side of Hwy 62 between Encelia Avenue and Larrea Avenue. It awards this work to consultant DEA (David Evans and Associates) following DEA's submitted bid in response to the City's RFP (request for proposal).
9. Award an Agreement for Design Services for the Hatch Road and Sullivan Road Bike Path Project
At its June 11, 2024, meeting, Council approved a number of capitol projects funds, including funds for a Hatch Road and Sullivan Road Bike Path Project. Per the staff report, this is an east-west corridor located south of Twentynine Palms Highway (SR-62) on Sullivan Road and Hatch Road, between Morongo Road and Amboy Road. It will include 2.1 miles of paved shoulders to provide bike lanes and a pedestrian walking area. This item is to award the design and construction oversight aspects of this project to consultant HRGreen Pacific, initially using $518,930.50 from a state fund.
10. Split Rock Avenue Bridge Project: Construction Management Services Contract
Originally approved at the April 9, 2024, Council meeting, this bridge will enable safe passage on Split Rock Avenue during heavy storms, where Split Rock Avenue crosses the Twentynine Palms Flood Control Channel.
This item would award an Agreement for Construction Management Services for the “Split Rock Avenue Bridge Project” to Parsons Transportation Group for a total contract amount of $929,755.10. All expenditures will be reimbursed from Caltrans and County funds.
Per the staff report, "creation of [this] two-lane bridge will provide for multimodal safety, ensure compliance with current safety standards, and provide access across the drainage area during precipitation events." Staff received three submittals responding to its RFP for this project, and they recommend going with Parsons.
PUBLIC HEARING
11. Development Code Amendment: Mobile home Parks and Special Occupancy Parks
During the past couple years, staff has been plowing through the City development code in an effort to clean it up, modernize and harmonize it with other codes. Normally staff brings suggested changes to the Planning Commission, the Planning Commission weighs in with their views, and the resulting revised code sections are brought to Council for approval.
But not in this case. Instead, for this item, the staff report advises that "Staff has received a request from the Planning Commission Chairman [Max Walker] to return the item to the Commission for reconsideration of the item."
After a sometimes contentious series of six meetings on code changes to modify where RV parks and campgrounds are allowed, at its October 15, 2024, meeting the Planning Commission finally approved its suggested changes.
The Commission's final, redline ordinance draft includes some allowance for campgrounds and RV parks in RL (rural living) zones, but perhaps Walker has had second thoughts about this and has thus requested a do-over.
Notably, the current draft maintains a number of potentially difficult and expensive requirements that must be met to create a campground or RV park in RL zoning. For example, any such development would require a CUP (conditional use permit), underground utilities, and toilets with running water.
It's unclear whether Council will take this opportunity to interject its own views on this subject, or simply vote without comment to hand this hot potato back to the Planning Commission.
DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL ACTION ITEMS
12. Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID) Advisory Board Appointment
The fifth seat on the TBID (Tourism Business Improvement District) Advisory Board has been vacant since the October, 2024, when Vice Chair Heidi Grunt, co-owner of the 29 Palms Inn and Campbell House, stepped down.
Per the staff report, the TBID subcommittee charged with recommending a fresh board member consisted solely of Mayor Bilderain. Having a single member of the Council make such a recommendation is a departure from Council’s usual practice of having a subcommittee of two Councilmembers do this, but it appears Klink, who recently stepped down, had been on just this subcommittee.
The report notes that three applications were received, but only the application from Liz Shickler, who works as operations manager at the 29 Palms Inn and Campbell House — and thus works for previous TBID board member Heidi Grunt — is included in the staff report. If Shickler were to be selected, this would appear to effectively extend the influence of Grunt and 29 Palms Inn beyond Grunt’s term.
Also remarkable is that although TOT (transit occupancy tax) revenue from STRs (short term rentals) now surpasses that from hotels, currently all TBID board members are primarily from the hotel industry. Although TBID Vice Chair Ashton Ramsey owns STRs as well as being a hotelier, representation of STR owners is undoubtedly lacking on the board. Should this imbalance be at least partially rectified by whoever fills this fifth seat?
The Desert Trumpet reached out to STR owner and frequent TBID board meeting attendee Susan Peplow. Peplow advised that she applied for this appointment but didn’t hear back regarding an interview — and that she’d applied and been interviewed last time an opening became available on this board.
13. Public Arts Advisory Appointments
Forwarding the PAAC's recommendations, staff recommends that Council appoint Jenelle Angles and Rita Lilly as new members, and re-appoint Paul Razo for another term, on the Public Arts Advisory Committee.
The City received five applications after it advertised on October 16, 2024, for one PAAC vacancy with a closing date of October 31, 2024. A second vacancy was then created when Anna Stump stepped down after running for Copper Mountain College Board and being appointed without opposition.
The PAAC reviewed these applications on November 20 and unanimously recommended that the Council appoint these candidates.
Members of the PAAC now have four-year terms with the potential for reappointment, similar to how the Planning Commission is appointed, so these appointees will serve until December 2028.
14. City Council Regional Organizational Assignments
With last month's retirement of longtime Councilmember Joel Klink and the seating of new Councilmember April Ramirez, Council must redistribute which Councilmembers represent the City on the boards of multiple public agencies, as well as adjust which Councilmembers serve on the Council's own subcommittees. This item is exactly this redistribution.
Public agencies with Council representation include the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA), Morongo Basin Transit Authority (MBTA) and Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District (MDAQMD).
Additionally, Council itself maintains subcommittees for various purposes, the membership of which now needs to be similarly rejiggered. Examples of such subcommittees include:
Economic Development, now with Mayor Pro Tem Daniel Mintz and Councilmember McArthur Wright.
Personnel, now with Bilderain and ex-Councilmember Joel Klink.
Community Block Grants, now with Mintz and Bilderain.
Planning Commission, which recommends Planning Commission appointments, now with Bilderain and Councilmember Octavious Scott.
The staff report provides no specific recommendations for this reshuffling, so we can expect to witness the Council hashing this out amongst themselves.
FUTURE COUNCIL INITIATED ITEMS
1. Revisit allocated funds for the portable showers and Navigation Center.
2. Discussion on the General Plan Update.
3. Discussion surrounding (i) costs to maintain dirt roads verses paved roads; (ii) what is a City maintained dirt road, a non-maintained dirt road, a road that has been accepted by the City, a road that is private and not accepted by the City; (iii) the City's ability and liability associated with the City periodically maintaining non-maintained roads, and (iv) ways residents can bring non-maintained and non-accepted dirt roads to paved-rural-road standards ready for acceptance into the City's accepted-and-maintained road list.
4. Shade structures around Freedom Plaza and a possible art fixture with "Freedom Plaza" announcing the location.
5. A review and discussion of fees as it relates to Site Plan Reviews for Barber Shops in existing buildings.
6. Discussion on abandoned homes in the community.
The City Council next meets on January 28, 2025.
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Hi DT,
Clarifying that the Public Arts Advisory Committee created an award called "Arts and Culture Award of the Year," not Artist of the Year.
Thanks,
Anna
I live at Morongo Rd and Poleline, can I comment on your news. lived here since 1977?