001okay the meeting is open and the live stream is going all right well thank you everyone for joining us tonight I'm thrilled we have a full house we have all of our members this is wonderful um I am actually going to hand it off to Miss Jones our chairperson to call the meeting to order and to get us started welcome I'd like to call this meeting to order of the Surplus property committee at next we have roll call Richard Brown Stephen Castro Corazon senen Edward halva Vanessa Jones president Johnny Liu president Hector Miranda here Terry mon heraz here Sam Perdomo here Karen rogley here Lori Ray here next we have the approval of the minute could I all have those in your binder can I get a motion to approve the minutes and please state
002your name Terry manhuras motions to approve the minutes can I get a second and hold on everybody in favor hi hi hi next um let's just pause for a minute when we take a vote let's ask who's in favor and who's opposed just so just think so everyone has the opportunity to express a name is anybody opposed emotion um next is item 4.1 public comment do we have any public comment okay are there any public comments online there are no public comments online thank you and now item 5.1 the presentation of surplus property update thank you all right well before we get started um I just wanted to give a brief introduction for what to expect tonight uh we have Lauren Jennings here from dcg um she is here to represent the firm that has
003been working on a substantial amount of work and is bringing a lot of data and information to you tonight um essentially the the board has a contract with dcg and they were hired to do a like a feasibility review for each of these properties so they have analyzed each of the six sites and they've reviewed things like zoning and land use planning restrictions and had conversations um with city folks and County folks for example to get information about what some potential alternative options are for these properties um as a reminder from our last meeting at the very end we asked if there were any questions or if there were if there was any requests for additional data um we heard that there were questions from a number of you and we hope that the information
004presented tonight will answer some of those questions um in addition there was a question about what potential District uses of the properties was the staff or board considering and we will also address that here at the end of the presentation so just know that we've gathered that information and it's our intent to answer those questions tonight but I will also ask again if there's any additional data or information that you're looking for at the end of the meeting so we can bring that back at the next um so with that I'm going to hand it over to Lauren to get us started with our discussion of the data for tonight awesome well good afternoon everyone my name is Lauren Jennings I'm with dcg strategies and so Sarah's already set it up for me but as
005you all know today's conversation will be focused on the six properties that you all are studying for potential Surplus uh via the 7-Eleven committee so our team we have been we were contracted with the district um in response to a request for proposals so the school district released a request for proposals um I would say last summer and they were in search of a development consultant who could assist the district with assessing feasibility for all potential alternative use options for the six properties and so the six properties that we were contracted to work on are of course the six properties that you all are looking at for tonight's 7-Eleven committee who are the 7-Eleven thing in general um and so just real briefly some history on who we are as a company so our firm
006again dcg strategies we've been around for nearly 20 years and we specialize in working specific quickly with public schools and districts throughout the state of California so my all of my clients are public schools throughout the state and we are provide full service real estate and so what that means is that we do development General land use Consulting as well as brokerage services for schools again throughout the state of California so happy to be here and excited to chat through our sites on today and so uh I'm sure you are all familiar with these sites but uh just to level set and make sure we're all on the same page these are the six sites that our team was contracted to analyze and these are the six sites that will study that we'll discuss um
007today so we have them listed here Center Middle School Alice Ellington Elementary School the former Sierra High School Mountain View Elementary School Powell Elementary School and then Slauson Middle School and so these are just some of the key findings that we're obviously going to talk about this in a lot more detail and before we further go into it um we have a lot of slides that we'll get through today and so it'll be a lot of information and so I have built in a few pauses at various stages of tonight's presentation and so um feel free to either hold your questions till I have the pauses however if at all if at any time you have a point of clarification or a question that would really serve the entire group feel free to pause raise
008your hands fall out stop me and I'm happy to answer your question obviously I am here to answer any and all of your questions and to really serve on behalf of the 7-Eleven committee and so overall in terms of the development feasibility our team was tasked with studying at just over 58 acres of land so between the six properties um it was 58.51 acres to be exact we'll go through individually on each of the sites the exact parcel size for those individually but again it was just over 58 Acres that we studied and so one thing that we'll talk about when we go through each of the different sites just so we're again we're all on the same page is that of the six sites they are located within three different jurisdictions and so I'll
009talk through what jurisdictions are according to what site but essentially what that means is that there's three different um bosses that oversee the the difference I think probably could use a different word but there's three different uh jurisdictions that oversee it and so those are city of Azusa city of Glendora and then the County of Los Angeles and so as we'll talk through the sites you'll notice that four of the properties actually have in Azusa address um however only three of them are within actual city of Azusa City Limits one of the sites is in in an incorporated area of Azusa and then another site is an unincorporated area of Covina and essentially unincorporated um I did provide um it's in the booklets I believe I saw them there's a glossary of terms and so
010um I'm not sure if you've had a chance to read through that prior to but there is a glossary of just a general turns but I'll do my best to be able to uh to pause and explain them but essentially when we say unincorporated land that is land that is not within an official City boundary and so when you have an incorporated land then the land falls under the jurisdiction of the county so in this case it would be the County of Los Angeles and so once again two of the sites are in under County jurisdiction um again because they're unincorporated areas and so as we'll talk through today the properties hold a variety of different zoning designations as well as land use designations and they range in classifications reserved for public agencies which obviously
011makes sense because the properties are currently owned by the school district um and then some of them are actually already zoned for residential and we'll talk about why and how and and how we got there um and so zoning and general plan those are also two terms that are on your glossary definition sheet as well but essentially um any real estate and development in modern times um is all um it's thought about way in advance and the way that the local jurisdiction whether the city or county the way that they um set up their rules and set up their development patterns is via zoning and general plan and they and with the general plan they call they're called land use designations and essentially if you're driving down let's just say the street in Azusa um
012if you're driving down downtown Azusa you see all commercial and Retail that is not by chance that is because the city or whoever the governing jurisdiction has said we want this area to be our downtown and we really want to see commercial and Retail and so because of that they Zone the area to allow for certain uses and in that case of your retail or commercial use and then if you keep driving you'll more than likely run into a residential neighborhood area and then you'll see that the use changes to all residential um it could be all single-family homes that are all clustered together again that is as a result of zoning and land use designations because the city has designated that area to be an area that allows for residential housing and they do
013that because um nine times out of ten are really ten times out of ten you really don't want to have a single family residence that's local get it next to a 10-story apartment building and so they this local cities and counties and jurisdictions really want development to align with the surrounding area really to preserve the character and that's just how you do thoughtful City Planning and so we'll talk through um uh the zoning and the land use designations for the sites because that's really important to understand and when we are discussing potential alternative use options for the properties and then one thing that we'll also talk about too is just where the market is at in general right now um I think it's no surprise to anyone in California that California has been and is
014in a housing crisis and so we'll talk about some recent uh not even recent but it's just legislation that is at the Forefront of um really every city and every County um specifically in California whether it's Northern and or Southern California so we'll talk about some of that legislation which again really helps to level set some of the findings that we have um and so we'll move moving on and so overall again just starting off with the Azusa General market um actually let me pause here for uh questions any questions in relation to what we just discussed that we've sort of just set the Baseline right now but any questions before we move on are you going to talk about what can be built on residential or okay yeah awesome okay all right so uh
015first just starting off with just a general market right it's really important when you're thinking of alternative use options and when you're just analyzing real estate and development in general to understand the market that you're playing right I'm sure we all hear like the the cheesy real estate sales person always has location location and they say that for a minute for a reason because location really is important so it's really important to understand some of the background in terms of the market and so specifically within the Azusa Market uh one thing that we looked at and reviewed was uh what's called the housing element and so every city and every jurisdiction has to produce a housing element and interestingly interestingly enough the most recent General plan that is currently active that the city of Azusa
016is abiding by was approved in 2004 and that was nearly 20 years ago and so back in 2004 the general plan stated back then that open space and or vacant land was sparse within the city and there was essentially not any vacant land that was developed but that was available excuse me for development and so because of that the general plan back in 2004 uh stated that the city really needed to focus on infield development in order to meet its development goals and its housing needs and so infield development is another term that is included in your glossary sheet and infill development is essentially development on Parcels that are already built up so that could be a variety of different things that could be for example a parking lot right a parking lot technically is
017already developed because it's a parking lot but if a someone wanted to come in and build housing on a parking lot then that would be considered infield development another example of infill development could be taking an industrial Warehouse or to a warehouse that's on Industrial land and then converting that to residential so it's essentially anything that is already developed within an urban within an urban area and the reason why infield development was stated in the the general plan and why what's important was because essentially there was nowhere else to develop so because of that everywhere is developed and there's no vacant land you you were forced to to resort to infield development and so I will talk about this on some of the future slides because actually two of the properties that apply to this
018but um uh the slide here says that by the end of the 1960s really uh the city of Azusa was pretty much fully developed and so that has led to again the need to develop on infield property um and so because of that um and then because of a few more items which we'll talk about on the next slide in terms of recent legislation at really the local policy makers as well as city and county staff are completely aligned in their need to increase housing stock and so that was something that we heard loud and clear when we met with the local policy makers was that um they are aligned in terms of needing to increase housing stock not only within Azusa but also just within the county in general and so some of the
019as I mentioned when we first started uh recent legislation that is at the Forefront Forefront of everyone's mind um is What's called the Regional Housing needs allocation and so um the shorthand for that is rhna which uh a lot of people say Reina so if you've ever heard somebody say Rena and they're talking about housing they're referring to the Regional Housing needs allocation and essentially this is a process that is completed every eight years um and it is a mandate by the state of California and so the Housing and Community Development hcd of California essentially every eight years puts out a mandate in terms of how much housing is needed in every region throughout the state of California and essentially htd not only says how much housing is needed but then they also State how
020affordable that housing needs to be and so um it starts at the state level and then hcd puts out numbers for every region and then every region then has another entity that then assigns or allocates the number of units to every city town and jurisdiction underneath their region and so for locally for you all in Southern California The Entity is called the Southern California Association of governments and the shorthand for that is scac so a lot of people might say Scag and essentially skagg received the number of units from hcd and that number is listed here it's one million three hundred forty one thousand eight hundred twenty seven units and so hcd said that over the next eight years and the eight year cycle that we're referring to right now is October 2021 to October
0212029. so we're sort of right at the very beginning of that it this current eight year cycle but hcd said that over the next eight years Southern California area Association of governments you need to allow for 1.3 million units to be developed and so then um that 1.3 number is for the entire Southern California area and so I have also broken it down in terms of the specific jurisdictions that the properties that we're studying are located within and so as you can see this um of the 1.3 um million units at the city of Azusa was allocated 2651 units the city of Glendora was allocated 2276 units and unincorporated Los Angeles County was allocated 90 052 units and essentially when you see those numbers what that means is that these jurisdictions are mandated by state
022law to allow for this many housing units to be built now a caveat to this is that the jurisdiction is able to check off their box and say we met our goals and we met our mandate by allowing it um the local jurisdiction cannot force you as a private property owner to develop your property they can't force you to do that however in order to meet state law they have to allow for development so if you want it to develop they have to allow for it and they have to provide the appropriate zoning to allow you to build set housing so I'll pause here because that's um a lot of information any questions just in regards to Rina how it works um the process anything like that I just have a quick question of course
023those are the allotments until 2029 do you know how many units have been built or are currently being built so good question so um that the the that yes this is the allotment from October 21 to October 29th and essentially it's a variety the count is made up from a variety of different options or different ways um it could be one properties that are currently in the development pipeline that are underway it could be properties that are have submitted applications um where they're they haven't been approved yet but they're in the application process or it could be properties where they're just completely vacant the owner hasn't made any decisions yet and um they're just allowing for it so because of that there's um there's not a current count right now however in talking with the
024jurisdictions um they're at the beginning of the eight year cycle and so everyone is pushing um to make sure that by the end of this current cycle they can say that they met their numbers follow up that we've had a number of projects completed thing those aren't interesting yeah that doesn't reduce the 2651 acquired no it does so so any so the cycle is from starting October 2021. so um it depends on honestly when the city counted it if they counted it in the prior cycle of this cycle but more than likely starting October 2021 if any new units that are developed following that would count towards this current number the current allocation a little confused by the new project that came online between October 2021 wouldn't reduce the 20 the point it would so
025the 2651 is just the allocation okay the requirement so you don't know what the net amount required correct well that would be important piece of information I can follow up and get that number for you happy to quick question uh do you know at what stage do you count the project as uh for that particular year planning uh in progress or completion all of them would count towards it so is it a double deep pound so essentially if you so the the way that uh Pro that cities and jurisdictions can Count Their allocation is what's called opportunity sites and so they essentially create an inventory of sites and there could be sites that are on that same inventory list for many many cycles if they're never built and so once they're built however then they
026would they would not continue to be counted in Prior Cycles but they can they can be on a list or three or four Cycles in a row if they're never developed and they just say well hey our job is to allow it we can't force someone to build it okay until we move on all right so now is where we'll get into some of the specifics for each of the properties so this slide as well as the next slide is uh just a general overview of the properties but again the information that's included here will be on the following slides and so uh just on the overview slide we have the approximate size of the different personals as well as the current zoning and again we'll go through those in more detail all right so
027the first site that we have up is Center Middle School um and so uh we have again when we talk about development and alternative use options as I mentioned when you think about real estate it's really important to understand where the site is located and to also be cognizant and understand what the local and surrounding development patterns are are and so we need in development we call that contextual influences and essentially what we want to know is what are the adjacent uses um because when a city is allowing for potential development and potential use options um if the owner is looking to change the current zoning more than likely you can look at what's next to the property to see what um you know is likely to be approved for use and so when we
028look at Center Middle School the property is located in a primarily residential area and so this is one property that's located in an incorporated area of Azusa so again you see it has an enthusa City address but it's actually outside of the city limits in Covina islands and so it is under the jurisdiction of the County of Los Angeles and so the parcel the properties compart comprised of one parcel it's approximately 13.87 acres in size so this is the largest property that we have within the analysis and the site is adjacent to single-family homes within light agriculture zoning we'll talk about that in a little bit because you could be wondering why is its own light agriculture um and so the property is boarded uh bordered excuse me by low density residential on all four
029sides essentially low density residential is single family homes and so there are streets separating the site from existing uses on the North and the west and they exist there are existing homes that are contiguous to the property on the south and the east and so as I mentioned this property here is located in an unincorporated area of Azusa and so it falls under the jurisdiction of the County of Los Angeles and so the county has zoned the property as a one six thousand uh A1 under the County zoning stands for light agriculture and then the 6000 stands for the minimum parcel size so the minimum parcel size of 6 000 square feet um and so the um light agriculture is essentially an outdated uh zoning that has stayed with the property um and so the
030county is actually in the process of updating their area plan and they're essentially have identified approximately 25 000 Parcels that they've said hey we realize these Parcels have outdated zoning and the current uses do not align with how the properties are currently being used for and so this property is included in that update um of again it's it's one property of approximately 25 000 properties throughout the county and Incorporated County land that the pro that the county is updating and so the county has proposed to update this property zoning from light agriculture to our one single family our one single family is the County's low density designation and so they're essentially saying that as I mentioned the properties located surrounded by single-family homes in a low density area they're essentially saying that this area is
031already used for residential and so we don't need to call it light agriculture anymore we really want to call it what it's being used for which is single family homes the reason why it the light aquaculture even still works there is that the way the zoning code currently reads is single family homes are an allowable use within a light agricultural zoning and it's essentially from when the the properties and the parcels were all Orchards and so it changed back in the 60s and then it has stayed in continuity until now and so there is no um formal official timeline in terms of when that zone change will take place uh when we did speak informally with County staff they said their goal is to um as to finalize their work on staffs and and take
032it to Planning Commission in June um however you know we're estimating that likely by the end of the year uh the zoning change could take place again um there were notices that were sent out to all the property owners I believe back in January and it's um there's really nothing for the property owners to do it's something that would take place once assuming the Board of Supervisors approved the change and then so um also the property is the zoning is light agriculture which again is going to potentially change to R1 but then the property has a land use designation which is a part of the general plan of uh public semi-public and So that obviously makes sense because the property is owned by the school district and so it's currently being being used as a
033public semi-public use um the area Plan update that is planned for likely this year does not include a change a proposed change should I say to the general plan um however the staff has noted that they're including a footnote in it saying that should the use change away from public semi-public then the land use designation will align with the current um surrounding uses which is residential and so I'm essentially any change away from a public semi-public use um and or any change in development that would allow for residential housing that's within the R1 would not require if it were approved a zone change and or a general plan admin um questions in regards to this property and also to the rest of the slides that we're going to follow the same sort of pattern that
034we have for Center middle school so I'll pause here for questions on this first site and then the next sites we can go through Lauren um looking at sight and knowing would there be a possibility to increase the density along uh is it burritos so um great question so uh the property right now is proposed for R1 which the county has essentially wow assuming Board of supervised approves it they are comfortable with low density single-family homes which is zero to nine low density allows for zero to nine units per acre they're potentially obviously always is the opportunity to increase zoning um looking at it just from my standpoint however one thing that we were told by the county is that any change in use and any potential residential development would need to align with the
035surrounding uses and so to me that likely says that R1 probably is the highest density um it might be pushing it to do a higher density but obviously that can never be guaranteed until whoever the applicant is goes through the application permit process there's even a partial change in order to be you know it would enhance the number of units are right I'll I'll say again we had informal conversations with County staff um nothing is ever guaranteed until you go through the application process so we had informal conversations um and um they were most comfortable with single-family low density and Lauren we'll get to this but there were other sites where they expressed an uh openness to a to a little bit higher density to medium density on the site so so that is certainly
036something that they were able to express with some of the properties but they didn't for this particular site that's interesting it would make it more attractive to develop increase the number especially the Cerritos double go down to 35. we're any other questions and then I guess again to levels that this was this was including the glossary of terms but it's everyone um comfortable with the idea of like density when we say low density what that means okay great all right so moving on the next property is Ellington Elementary School and so the findings for this property are very similar to that of Center um the reason being is that this is the second property that is also located in unincorporated Los Angeles County and so it does fall under the jurisdiction of the county and
037so because they're within the same jurisdiction these properties have the exact same zoning as well as the exact same land use designation and essentially a lot of the same recommendations from the county and so for Ellington Elementary the property consists of one personal the parcel is 8.55 acres in size um and the site is located south of the highly concentrated retail on Azusa Avenue and this site actually is adjacent to a mix of single-family homes as well as the University District zoning from moderate density to mixed use um and so the site is bordered however by low density residential on all four sides and there are streets separating the site from existing uses on all four side and so as I mentioned the zoning and land use designation for this property are exactly the same
038as Center Middle School um the current zoning is that a16000 for light Agriculture and this is one of the uh another one of the 25 000 Parcels that the county has proposed to change the zoning from light agriculture to R1 low density single family and so once again R1 does allow for zero to nine units per acre with a minimum of that six thousand square foot lot um and then The Landings designation once again is public semi-public and so similar to the key findings for Center Middle School um this property would be similar we're assuming the Board of Supervisors does approve the area Plan update um it would be one of the 25 000 Parcels that would be updated to an R1 single family and so um the again similar to Center Middle School the
039land use designation is not proposed to change so that will remain public semi-public as long as the school district owns the property in the event that the use were to change away from a public or semi-public use then the general plan Amendment would likely not be required however um there the update does have a footnote that the landing designation would automatically update to align with surrounding uses which is once again low density residential so moving on to former Sierra High School and so we are now switching jurisdiction so the first two we were talking about County of Los Angeles and so now we're switching to our second jurisdiction which is the city of Glendora so uh we'll talk through the zoning and the landing designations here but um we are dealing with different names and
040different Zone zoning codes here and so this property as I mentioned is located in Glendora and it is comprised of one parcel that is just over nine acres so it's 9.07 acres in size uh the property is located in a primarily low to medium density residential area you can see here the property is bordered by multi-family residential to the South and then low density residential to the East and the north um this is actually right on the border of Glendora and unincorporated County Land so to the West is an incorporated County Land and Dalton Park is right across the street which is actually owned by Los Angeles County um immediately West and then the Eustis to the East and the South are contiguous the property and it's bounded by streets to the North and the
041West and so here again we have switched to a new jurisdiction and so the zoning and the names are a little bit different um but they still roughly mean the same thing and so because it is in the city of Glendora Glendora Municipal Code has zoned this property already for R1 a single family residential so this property is currently already zoned for single-family homes here the land use designation is a bit different has a different name but it's essentially the same same meaning so the name here for Glendora is Civic slash institutional within the general plan but it's essentially um reserved for uh public or semi-public use that's similar to County of Los Angeles and so um what's interesting here is that we talked about it briefly before when we were talking about Rena but
042when we said how how does the city or county count basically the number of units they identify what's called either opportunity sites or they put together what's called an inventory list um and they essentially will look at their city and say what Parcels are underutilized and what Parcels do we want to see developed and they have actually already identified this parcel so this property as site 49 so it's a it's one of over I think 80 sites um potentially that they have identified and so this parcel is called site 49 within their housing elements sites inventory list and the city has already said that per their high level overview that the property could support 43 to 54 single family homes on it and so again um essentially because it's on the housing element it's already
043zoned for residential housing um this city is essentially stating that if anything if any development were to take place we really want housing here once again I said it before a city or a jurisdiction cannot force a private owner to develop their property however the city is the ultimate um Authority when allowing for different uses on a property and so if the property were to change hands or if another use were to be considered the city is really pushing for housing on this site and again 43 to 54 units this is one of the sites to your question where the property is zoned for single family however the city this city did mention that they could potentially they were open to further conversation they again nothing is ever guaranteed but they're open to further conversation
044regarding potentially um uh increased density here and so one thing to note for this site this is a little different than the prior two sites because those were under the county um jurisdiction but with this property the zoning already allows for housing however as I mentioned the land use designation does not so the landing designation is Civic institutional and so if um the use were to change away from a Civic or institutional use a general plan Amendment would be required which essentially a general plan amendment is a quite lengthy process it's about 12 to 18 months where a potential property owner or a potential buyer would need to go through a defined process in order to amend the general plan and the general plan this was included in the glossary of terms but it's essentially
045a long-term Horizon where the city or the county or wherever or whoever the jurisdiction is where they say we really want to see these uses on this site and so General plan Amendment you have to go through the process to say well we know you wanted to see this use but we want to change the use so will you amend your general plan or amend your long-term Vision to align with what we want to do on the property um and then this was um I already stated though that the properties included in the housing element and then once again the same as um the other sites that we talked about um any potential development here really should be consistent with the surrounding adjacent neighborhoods okay we're halfway there um so now we are moving to
046our third and final jurisdiction so this site as well as the remaining two sites are all going to be under the city of Azusa and so we are once again dealing with slightly different zoning and slightly different land use designations and I'll explain a bit further on what those mean and so Mountain View Elementary this property is also comprised of one parcel and it is 8.45 acres in size the site has immediate access to Interstate 210 which you can see on the photo here and it's surrounded by single-family residential to the north to the East and to the South and then what's interesting here is you can see it on the photo here but to the left or um to the West uh the property is bordered by light industrial uses and so those are
047potential those are uses such as Ironworks welding Highway improvements contractors things like that and so at this site is a little different again because the prior sites were all surrounded by residential uses and so this one does have some light industrial to the wet and so going into the Zoning for the property this property again we're in a new jurisdiction so the name is going to be different but it is essentially a zoning and Landing designation that's reserved for public agencies and So within the city of Azusa the zoning is called ins which stands for institutional slash School and the ins zone is applied to sites within the city that are essentially occupied or reserved for public agencies public facilities and utilities private schools libraries government offices things of that nature and so um obviously
048that makes sense because the property is currently owned by the school district and then the land use designation for the property is also the same institutional school once again because it is owned by the school district and um similarly the institutional School land use designation is for government agencies administrative offices things of that nature and so with this property um this one is also a little different because the zoning as well as the Lanny says like Nation are for institutional schools so for public agencies whereas the prior three sites that we talked about um the zoning was already for residential I'm here at for this property and you'll see in the the remaining two sites uh the zoning is specifically are or specifically for institutional School use and so if there were to be any
049change in use away from an Institutional School use a zone change would be required as well as a general plan Amendment again because um the zoning is not or is already institutional School and so while the property um is right next to light industrial on the left um when our team did meet with uh informally with the city um you know essentially when we like we said when we talk about development you essentially look at what's around it to see what's likely to be approved and so that left us with two options either potentially residential or potentially a light industrial use um in our informal conversations with the city however the city did note that residential was of high need here over light industrial um and so it was noted that um again they can't
050enforce anything but they would love to see residential here on this property um and then once again same as we've already said multiple times before any residential development considered should be consistent with the surrounding areas may I please ask a question of course uh you mentioned uh previously that a general plan Amendment could take anywhere from 12 to 18 months how long is the rezoning process because with this one you would need both the general plan Amendment as well as a rezone yeah great question so the um the degrees zoning process would be congruent with the general plan amendment process if you were solely just doing a rezoning so for example um we'll know the other three properties you don't need to do a ReSound but if you were doing solely just doing every zoning
051it doesn't really apply here but just in general it would be a lot shorter I have a question I just need some clarification on the difference between a zoning designation and a land use designation great question okay so um land use designation is a part of What's called the general plan and so the I always say they're two sisters in the general plan is which is essentially The Landing designation is the bigger older sister um and with that the general plan is a long-term Horizon for development um and when you see a general plan the city or the jurisdiction is essentially looking out 20 to 30 years in advance and so as I mentioned the current General plan for the city of Azusa was adopted in 2004 and here we are chosen 23 and we
052still have the same general plan and so um a land use designation essentially says this is how we want the land the parcel to be used and we're designating it for this use the difference between land use designation and Zoning is zoning as sort of a little sister the zoning always has to align and match and be consistent with the general plan however the zoning gives a little more a lot more detail and a lot more specificity so for example um the um the um if we have a general plan designation it would say low density residential right then when we go into the zoning the zoning would say R1 and then it would Define exactly how what what we mean by low density so in in the case of Lindora it would be zero
053to nine units per acre and then also what the zoning does in terms of giving more specifics is it also includes development and building standards so it would say okay well to with within R1 the height limit is 35 feet we require setbacks from the street of this amount or it could even do something such as a specific permitted as well as conditionally permitted uses and so the general plan in The Landings designation is more of a broader long term and then the zoning gives more specifics and more detail but they always a line or they should align there are instances however when they don't and when they don't that's where jurisdictions say oh well we have to crack this and we have to make sure there's there's a continuity thank you I appreciate it
054yes for for the rezoning and for the general plan Amendment that would be on the school district's time so in other words if you wanted to sell the property the developer is not gonna buy it without knowing it's been rezoned correct so yes and no and but I can give you like some caveats right so um there are instances so if the school district were considering selling a piece of property right um there's two ways that you could sell property you can sell property as is which is with the current zoning as it currently is or you can sell property um and what's called subject to entitlement an entitlement is a fancy term that is basically saying that you have approval from the jurisdiction to build what you want to build so that's what we
055call entitlement and so when we say selling it subject to entitlements that is um where you build in a long escrow process for whoever the buyer is to go through the entitlement process to submit their applications and to get approval to build what they want to build um now I say there's a lot of different caveats in it because um most of the time um your if you were to sell a property subject to entitlements versus as is there's a big value differential right because selling a property as just Land versus selling it as 90 homes there's a big value difference right so it it most of the time is in the district's best interest or a seller's best interest to sell it subject to entitlements and so because of that as you mentioned um
056you build in a long contingency period And so that could be anything from 12 to 24 months um based off of whatever the local jurisdictions timeline is and really if it was for development a developer also is not going to want to it's a risk for them right if they have a risk of potentially not knowing what they can build they're going to offer you really low because they're measuring risk but if they can close knowing that we have approval to build what we want to build then they can value that and the risk is immediately lowered for that so to answer your question yes um it would it would be on your time um however though all of that is negotiable in terms of you know how do we account for the time right
057you know there's a ways to do it but you can build in deposits to make sure that hey you're just not going to tie my property up for two years and you know at the end of it I get nothing but making a story building deposits but yeah other questions can the district be the owner that develops like they can oh yeah well so yes the school district can develop you can you're more than welcome to develop your own property um obviously and they develop single-family homes in that well so yes everything is possible and you can make money right um so to answer your question yes if the school district wanted to develop single-family homes on the property you can um obviously with anything you have to think through the feasibility of it and
058you know the risk associated and and how do you fund it but of course you can okay so generally um because I've worked with districts that have asked me this before like well why don't we do the process of just getting the you know the site entitled and then we'll sell it and it's great um there there are some there are lots of things to think about first like we were saying costs right I've heard estimates that just just the entitlements process can be you know hundreds of thousands of dollars to do right and and you have no guarantee on the back end that you are um entitling the property to a density or like a product type that a developer wants right so um you know for example we have all this information about
059what we think the city will approve if they were to receive an application um but we have developers that will come forward and say you know this is our our specialized like product type we want to up the density we're going to submit application and see if the city will go for it and sometimes the city says yes um but if the district were to were to entitle it it was almost the district would have to kind of read the market in some ways and that's kind of difficult right and then if if you entitle to the wrong specs which is the wrong word but like if you entitled to the wrong density for example then you may not have a buyer on the back end and you spend all that money for no reason
060um so yeah the the cost and the risk are really the two things that would dissuade um the other thing and you know if we're talking about past just the entitlements process the actual building and developing of of the residential housing that's something that from a cost perspective right so like if if your question was not just can we entitle the site but why don't we build apartments and sell them and make a bunch of money um well developers have have like economies of scale right so they have all of the they have so many contracts in place and they're doing this at such a scale that it would be much cheaper for them and much more um maybe cheaper is not the right word but it would be more affordable right they would yes
061thank you more efficient for them to do the building than it would be for the district to do building of apartments and to put it in context it ranges the cost for entitlements ranges from City to City into jurisdiction but generally speaking we say like high level numbers 300 to 500 000 and that's for the entire thing that's the city permits the whole process that would be up to the developer to to do right so the district just sold the property that's not on them right okay yeah so uh you know if you were potentially considering development on one of the properties um that would be the entitlement process is typically a cost and a time that is borne by the buyer um and so you know obviously a developer that's what they do every
062single day and so they um you know know the process and they know how to navigate it and so that that's a part of the risk they're risking their dollars um because they see potential in the property other question okay let's move on to Powell Elementary School so Powell Elementary School as I said before this site is also included um within the city of Azusa city limit and so it's going to have the same exact zoning and the same exact land use designation as Mountain Elementary School and so this property is um uh 9.14 acres in size it is consists of one parcel as well and this is surrounded by residential area and so the you can see here in um on the the photo that there's single family residential um on the uh west
063east and south and then there are some multi-family uses up above on to the north of the property and so again this property is uh reserved for um institutional slash School uses and it has the same ins Zone and land use designation and then in terms of the the key findings for the property very similar to what we had for Mountain View where any change in use would require a zone change as well as a general plan Amendment and any potential development whether it was residential or whatever any development would be required to be in line with the surrounding area and then the last site that we have is Slauson Middle School once again it's very similar to the um sites that we discussed um and so Slauson Middle School is also within the city
064of Azusa it's one square shaped parcel um it's 9.43 acres in size the property is adjacent to a mix of low density as well as medium density homes and it is one block from the San Gabriel Avenue commercial Corridor it's bordered by low density single family on the east west and north um and Memorial Park which is owned by the city of Azusa is located south of the property right across the street and the property is bounded by streets on all four sides and so similar again to Mountain Boone Powell it's the same exact zoning of institutional school and so if the use sort of change away from an institution or School use then a General plan Amendment and zone change would be required the key findings once again are similar in terms of any
065development of the property would likely need to be strongly likely need to be consistent with the surrounding area and then again one thing that we did note obviously is that the property is directly across the street Royal Park and so um now moving just to just a summary of sort of everything we discussed um So based on the study of land use regulations governing the development of property um local market conditions uh the highest and best use for the development of the property is residential housing ranging from low density to medium density and so I wanted to pause real briefly to talk and help Define what we mean when we say highest and best use and so even though it sounds like it is object or subjective highest and best use is actually a term
066that is from the appraisal Institute so it is an appraisal term and it's a very objective term and essentially what height and best use means is that it's the most probable use that is going to provide a property owner with the maximum value and so we're essentially when we say highest and best use we are solely looking maximum Revenue so what is the highest and best use from a revenue standpoint we obviously understand when looking at school district property revenue is important but there are other influences that that would need to be considered and so I just want to make it clear when we say highest and best use we're solely talking about what is going to provide the property and the school district essentially who's the property owner with the maximum dollar amount and
067so for that it's going to be residential um and so when we look at the highest and best use of the properties like I said they are some form of residential ranging from low density to medium density housing and so the proposed Zoning for Center and Ellington those are the two properties that are are under County jurisdiction and those are the two properties that the county is proposing to rezone to single family residential the proposed zoning does align with the property's highest and best use or the the current Zoning for the former Sierra High School that's the property that's within city of Lindora um that's also the property that site 49 within the housing element um the current zoning already aligns with the property's highest and best use we did discuss however that the um
068the land use designation does not align with housing and so it would likely require a general plan amendment to receive the highest and best use and then finally the final three sites that we discussed which are within city of Azusa City Limits um Mountain View Powell and Slauson the institutional school as zoning and landings designation does not align with the property's highest and best use and so as we already discussed a general plan Amendment and a zone change would be required to allow for residential housing and so um we talked through this um and high level but really the primary factors when you're looking at development and also when you're looking at um specifically highest and best use um have to do with the contextual influences and development patterns within the area um and they're
069really largely dependent on um input from the local jurisdiction and so uh we did share how our team we had informal conversations with the governing jurisdiction so city of Lindora City Azusa and County of Los Angeles and based off of um just the market and specifically Arena allocations each of the jurisdictions are strongly strongly strongly strongly strongly pushing for housing again they cannot force you to do housing on them however if they had it their way they would have housing on the site and then also one thing that I wanted to note on each of the properties that we went through we listed what the highest and best use was and then we also listed some other alternative use options so I wanted to talk through um some what some of those options are um
070and so um each of the properties can be used and they're as is conditioned and so when we say as is um we're essentially saying buy right development and buy right development is another term that's included in your glossary of terms um and buy right development is essentially development that aligns with the current zoning and so as I mentioned I I want just I keep reiterating this but a local jurisdiction cannot force you to develop your property um and they also have to allow you to they have to allow by right development meaning that they have to allow you to develop within the current zoning standards and so because of that um the properties are the ones that are zoned institutional school um the school district can use them as is whether it is for
071internal School District use or you could uh potentially sell it and or lease those properties to another end user who will use the property as it and so when we obviously when they use it as is it would have to align with the allowable uses that are within the current zoning um however when we say as it's essentially a user that can come use the property with relatively little to no develop additional development or construction and so that is is an option on the side um and then for a few of the properties it also listed potentially alternative housing and so um alternative housing Housing Development are potential options on some of the properties as well and essentially that is any housing that is not market rate housing and so that could be a variety
072of different housing options that could potentially be senior housing that could potentially be Workforce or employee housing if the school district wanted to allow housing for its employees that could be an option um and so that's what we call alternative housing essentially anything that is not um market rate it could also be supportive housing or something along those lines and so with that I'll hand it back over to superintendent thank you Lauren um one of the things that came out of uh our last our first meeting uh was a question about does the district see any potential use for the properties um and so just initially um we can say that there is some initial interest from the district to use at least two of the properties um so right now in initial thinking uh
073property no First Property would be to provide Sierra High School with its own School right now they share the property with the adult school um and as we start to Envision the adult school and growth of the adult school um Sierra High School already is very compacted and um there's things that teachers have to do they're like sharing rooms um and so it would be nice to provide them with their own School the second property um again just an initial thoughts is something like a community and Conference Center that's a very vanilla term but let me kind of explain a little bit about that uh Azusa Unified School District was one of the largest grantees from the state of California for something called a community schools Grant we received 15.9 million dollars uh to Institute
074and grow Community Schools at each of our schools and so when we think about the journey that we're about to launch at every one of our schools it almost seems appropriate to have a hub like a community Hub um where we would have Community Resources and benefits at this location additionally one of the things that we struggle with is space space for meetings space for professional development State uh space for training and so when we think about not only for the district but for school sites as well if they wanted to host something a little bit larger than than they have in their capacity or they just wanted to be off campus Because the library is in use but they need a space that there would be a a location where we would have meeting
075space for training for meetings for those types of things maybe even envisioning model classroom setups right those kinds of those kinds of things so kind of like a multi-purpose uh space uh for those things and so right now initially um to answer the question that was asked last time right now that's kind of of initial thought I will tell you that um throughout the process we'll continue to refine and we'll continue to communicate with this uh committee I know that uh the Board of Education probably also has uh some thoughts and some dreams and some interest in that as well and so we'll be bringing that uh uh as well but right now initially uh we do see at least the use of uh two properties again one for Sierra High School one for a
076again for lack of a better term right now Community slash Conference Center so with that I'll just I'll just pause here again for a minute and see if there were any thoughts or questions from the committee about any of that content we've just gone over question so I noticed here that uh the news here or the old Sierra would be Sierra again basically is that what you're saying though at the adult education center uh that's a very good question and a very good conclusion uh but not necessarily okay um one of the things that we want to make sure that we are extremely mindful of as we go through this process is such a big decision okay um is that we are taking all of the data points into consideration so for example we have
077six sites and we know that not all six sites are equal right now in terms of where they are on big things like HVAC modernization cabling Roofing like those kinds of things and so I think we need to we need to bring those pieces into those decisions so not necessarily to answer your question directly a little bit differently there the staff or the board the district has an identified particular sites yet for those uses these are just kind of more abstract Concepts these are things we think we could do now let's identify where it makes sense to do them potentially I'm concerned about the words of use when you use the word community are you thinking of a center for use outside of just the school district in other words a small places for small
078businesses to conduct a business that they could rent and and have a business meeting haven't thought that far ahead um so no initially uh no when we think about the community we're thinking about uh resources and Services for Families um that would bring benefit to our kids and to our parents whether those be health related mental health related uh social emotional related um so not necessarily um to rent out to businesses that have nothing to do with what we are doing as a school district I was also just going to note at the board meeting yesterday of the ideas that came from the board with regards to this particular idea was to potentially partner with the city um and so obviously that's going to depend on the interest from the city and availability of funds
079and you know if if that's something that they're interested in doing but it was something that was brought up uh by the board last night when when the same information was provided okay I'm sorry I'm turning it off um adult education does that fit into this picture yes so right now our adult education center uh shares the property with Sierra High School so if we find Sierra High School its own school now adult education can can take over the entire property and as we again dream big and we think about growth and we think about programs to attract our adults back to learning back to training uh that we think that that would bring a benefit to us as a district as well yes please out of curiosity is there any so the former Sierra
080High School is in Glendora is there any conflict with it that has come up in the past or anything where it being in a different city has caused issues or is that something to think about uh it just being in a different jurisdiction from the district perspective uh zero conflicts or zero problems um as noted today um we have properties in three different jurisdictions um and sometimes right um you're dealing with the sheriff's Pandora PD this is a PD right those kinds of things but nothing that I would say major that would be like deal breaker or like something heavy to consider among the similar in your informal conversations has the city of Azusa made any indication at all that they are interested in looking at their General plan or updating their General plan since
081hearing from you today that it hasn't been done in over 20 years well so um that's pretty standard you know General plans are 20 to 30 year time frame Horizons um I went in talking with them they are in the process of getting ready to update it but it won't be anytime soon it's typically uh two to three year process in terms of it's a public process similar to this when they update the actual General plan but so it's pretty standard for a general plan to be from 2004 and is still be active because of the long term Horizon um yeah I have a question regarding um the criteria of needs that that the school district needs um I just uh like for example I love hearing the fact that there is conversation about um
082this community center type thing um because I think that is obviously speaking to the board or the school district saying we have these needs that are being unmet we have a grant for 15 million which is so exciting um is there a timeline on when we need to use that Grant by yes there is a timeline uh right now that timeline is five years okay um even though it's Uber early they're already conversations or talks about extensions but we don't want to bank on that but right now we do know it's a five-year timeline right okay and again because funding is always always the hard part so it's so exciting I'm not sure if you guys already have a list of criteria of what the even you know the teachers are saying the students are
083saying Etc as just a Community member I get excited when I think about something outside of housing love how housing is you know obviously highest and best you know use you know for many perspective like any landowner really wants to be able to build a house you're probably gonna make the most money back Etc but when I think about this community project type thing I think if we can narrow down what the criteria is that exactly what we're looking for um that would be really neat to then sort of package that with the with you know with hopefully use of these funds and be able to actually build what we suggest which is so exciting so yeah anyway I was just going to speak to that and then I think you know for example one
084or you know several of the criteria might be um what existing facilities on one of these one of these sites has the you know the the age and the current condition to be able to support these uses right so we would maybe want to use a slightly newer building or one that's been updated more recently as opposed to a building on a site that may need a lot of rehab or you know where more money would be needed to get it up to speed to be able to you know to have used for this and uh the superintendent really spoke to that that's that's you know something that um you know we're going to be looking into further to be able to kind of make an assessment of what which sites may be most suitable
085for that um the other thing that I want to note is you know of that great massive amount of money that was allocated for Community Schools right it's not um I don't I don't want it to come across as we have all of that to build a new facility right some of that's going to providing those services and doing all of the other aspects that you know are required for Community Schools uh so Personnel for example right those costs as well so um one of the other things to think about is that um you know we heard about the push from from the local jurisdictions to build homes on some of these sites now some of those sites could could bring in Revenue right that could also be put back into these you know School
086uses Community uses and so it's really figuring out how do we identify what what the district needs and then do we identify funding from that that we can put back into those uses and just one other question too is is there an ability for us to subdivide properties um yes so all the properties that we looked at are single Parcels I believe um but that doesn't mean that they can't be further subdivided um school districts as public entities actually have kind of a shortcut they have an exception to What's called the subdivision map act which is the the process the the law that dictates the way that uh that uh the parcels are maintained and split and taxed um so uh yes for example I worked on a site for a district a couple years
087ago where um the city expressed interest in just a small portion of it to build a lift station so we split off the city kind of carved out their use of the site we sold that to the city to use and then the remainder of the site being sold to a developer for development so that is that is certainly an option Sarah since you um alluded to it a little bit uh can you be a little bit more explicit uh with the committee in terms of um when we think about potential of you know of um usage and if there were to be a sale can you be a little bit more explicit with the committee in terms of those dollars and how those dollars can be used yeah so I think the question came
088up with the last meeting are there any limitations on you know if we were to sell a site and make millions of dollars potentially what can that money be used for and um the answer is there there are limitations they essentially have to be used for Capital Improvements they have to go back into facilities improvements um and so that's why you know I brought up this this concept tonight about if you know if there's an exciting idea for a district use that Revenue could be put into improving that facility making it larger upgrading you know things internally that it needs to operate any other I think was there a question comment I have a just a question on the Community Schools I don't know much about it I haven't been involved in it but could
089that include Community Day School there or is that not part of that that's a totally separate so to answer your first question can it yes but are we talking about the same thing 100 no Community Schools and Community Day School are two very different things okay and and the grant that we received has nothing to do with a community and that's yeah yeah because I always like think about that and it has nothing to do with it correct and so what you're saying is that if you do sell another property you can use it to improve so you sell let's say Sierra you can use it to to prove Gladstone meaning a pool you're waiting for it right well I'm biased there so yeah okay cool yeah to answer your question there's there's no restriction
090that says that the the money has to stay on the same parcel or the same property it just um has to be spent for district facility uses in general so yes it could be used to improve a different site excellent I think also um and I'm not the expert on this but I'll speak to it just because I think it helps to clarify this uh this this concept of Community Schools I think is really intended to help kind of build out the services that are provided to students right so beyond Education Health mental health physical health all of these other things that kind of go into you know creating healthy students and and adults right so that that's the idea is you you build a community around them with all of these other more functional
091services that go into education as well yeah thanks for the clarity because some of us think at the end education we think Community Schools and we think Community Day schools so excellent clarification Mr superintendent has there been any he has the city indicated any interest in partnering with something like this I realize that you're in the dreaming phase but has the city indicated in any interest in partnering with some sort of Community Conference Center um and a follow-up question have has the district considered partnering with any non-profits or entities that are already in existence within the school district or within the the boundaries of Azusa that provide similar programs that are already available to Residents yeah so let me Begin by saying that um I am very uh proud of the relationship that we have
092been building with the the city of Azusa um although we have not spoken about this particular thing we are in the works for a lot of Partnerships uh to revive some of the things that we used to have here in Azusa for example people after school Parks and Rec programming at our sites that is something that we are working on um and we're hoping to launch uh two schools pretty soon and hopefully all of our schools uh right now uh we are also envisioning and dreaming uh possibly teaming up with the city to open a teen center at Gladstone Middle School uh for again a place to have students be able to go to uh after school if they don't want to be one of our after-school uh programs we understand that kids and families
093should have choices and we offer a plan a plethora of choices uh but that doesn't mean that if it's all of our students and all of our needs um so so yes we have been partnering with them when I think about a community uh and Conference Center again it's very vanilla I probably think of something flashier and prettier to say but yeah that's kind of the vision right we know that we have lots of Partners uh that provide services to our students Apu McKinley Pacific Clinics um so many different partners um the city that that we have and so um that's what I Envision a place where those Services could be centrally located so that families don't have to um navigate um and make it difficult where I can just go to a place where
094I'm going to be helped and it's going to be help right there and right there I don't have to get an address and I have to try to figure out how to go there and now I have to go talk to somebody else and so how do we centralize some of those things to make it easier for our families uh to uh Sarah's point the this would be kind of like a hub because then every school would be an extension of this idea but the idea would be that what is important and needed at Paramount could be completely different to what's important and needed at Hodge and so to allow that individuality and praise it and embrace it and applaud it um but that we know that as a city though and as a community
095there are things that are essential to all of us and so that's kind of the the initial dreaming of kind of where that would be the only other thing I was going to know in response to your question is that they're um in in the um the framework or what it looks like to to sell a property there are certain legal requirements that you know for example before any one of these properties got to be open for developer offers it would have to be offered to uh certain government entities and non-profits right so they they have a uh what's what's called a priority offer for each of these sites before it gets sold um one of the things I've seen though that will happen is you know you'll have folks in the community that have
096all of these great ideas about a community garden or a non-profit use and yet when it comes down to that that chance right where the district has opened the market to those those folks those those offers just aren't there right there's you you don't see the you know the individuals or the entities that are willing to support those uses and so sometimes I just like to you know to kind of to kind of put it out front it's not that in some cases districts aren't looking to support that or they're not making the property available for those uses it's just that we all have those dreams and then you have to have someone that comes forward with the funding and the and the effort to make those happen so um I just want to highlight
097too that as part of that process there is this this built-in priority for those more like public and non-profit uses as well even if it's not something that necessarily supports District students at the district can be a part of like the idea that we talked about you know separate and apart from that there's this there's this other part of that of that process um I just have a request I'm not sure if we're able to do this but um on page four uh we have the overview of the locations in which we're discussing right uh the six properties is it possible to get an overview on top of that of where the existing schools are now uh the reason why I'm interested is because you I think we should always be taking into consideration um
098accessibility just sort of making sure that under resource areas of our communities can walk to their school still or some you know I'm just interested in so knowing for example if there's really no other school near Ellington maybe that's not something we sell right off the bat because maybe in the future at some point we might need to resurrect that as um as a school you know et cetera I'm not sure is that I know I can go on Google Maps and do it but I just was curious about that yeah it sounds like we can we can generate a map that has it would look similar to this one I think right but would show where the existing operational schools also sit okay sure sure showed in a different color so that it was
099clear which are which any other questions yeah question has the district given any thought because like Central Kitchen right now is it Slauson which if it was to be eliminated so like you know like if we're gonna do Sierra you know are there any plans to move it an updated upgraded since we're doing scratch cooking and hiring you know um is that in the Indian plans there's definitely a dream of that that request and I think need has been discussed um and again this is super duper early but like an idea is if we're gonna if we were to run with the idea of giving Sierra its own school this is an example um maybe that's the site of the Central Kitchen as well but now you have students and you have a Central Kitchen
100well then maybe we can start uh offering to our students uh culinary experiences or work experiences uh because we have a full-blown operational uh Central Kitchen so yes that and and other other things that we have talked about and again kind of discussed um again right now early we're going to be together for for quite a bit uh but we'll keep bringing more refined uh ideas and as the boards begins to also show some of their interests and some we'll make sure to communicate those as well but yes that has been brought up so you did say just to clarify that you're going to look at the most feasible uh with respect to the the land that you keep with respect to the modernization if you will still tell us what's been modernized so you
101look at the cost I don't know I'm not an economic or realtor you know what I'm talking about yeah okay anyone else any any other pieces of information or data that you don't have yet that you want to put in a request for we have the map information about the school facilities conditions anything else you think is there any preliminary thoughts I don't think no I don't think there's any there's any thoughts quite yet I mean um you know I think all the sites at this point are equally open to to whatever you know uses the committee recommends and the board decides on open okay thank you for that presentation and discussion um on to 6.1 which is discussion of the next scheduled meeting it's scheduled for May 17 2023. and I get a motion
102to approve that meeting date motion to approve seconded Johnny Lou gave a emotion and Corazon second all in favor bye bye I'll opposed the motion has passed and can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting at 6 32. Aaron rugley makes a motion to adjourn the meeting Sam Perdomo seconds thank you all in favor aye aye any of those meeting all right thank you