CARLSBAD — When the time came to vote on the Village Revitalization Partnership Program Sub-Committee Appointment, five City Council members dwindled down to three. During the May 10 meeting, Mayor Matt Hall and Councilman Mark Packard removed themselves from the issue due to personal interest in the Village area.
Both own properties in this locale.
Even without Hall and Packard, the council unanimously voted 3-0.
With an absent Hall, Mayor Pro Tem Ann Kulchin took the lead and introduced Assistant City Manager John Coates for the official presentation.
“Essentially, this item is to restructure or reassemble the sub-committee of City Council from a committee of two to a sub-committee of one from a housing and redevelopment commission,” Coates said.
The member of this sub-committee, Coates said, would work with city staff and develop a request for proposal to initiate the Village Revitalization Initiative.
“We are asking tonight that you adopt the resolution to dissolve the City Council sub-committee resolution number 2011-090 and adopt the housing and redevelopment commission resolution number 502 to appoint one commissioner to work with staff on the development of the RFP (Request for Proposal),” he said.
Coates pointed out that because Hall and Packard own property in the Village area, a determination was made that there could be a potential conflict of interest.
Essentially, the committee of two constituted a quorum of the City Council, Coates said, and could not function as a sub-committee like previously planned.
“So therefore we made a decision to reduce the working sub-committee down to less than a quorum so they can work with staff, get business taken care of, and then bring it back to the full council for a decision.”
Because Kulchin was acting as mayor for the interim she deemed it inappropriate to appoint herself to this committee.
“We approached Ms. Douglas, who graciously said she would love to be in charge,” Kulchin said.
The parameter of the Village area borders span west from Carlsbad Boulevard, to the east of I-5, to the north of Agua Hedionda Lagoon, and south by Tamarack Avenue.
Effective immediately, Councilwoman Farrah Douglas will be part of this sub-committee.
“We will work over the next several weeks with (Douglas) to develop a request for proposal to put out into the business community to see if there is a partner that would be willing to come forward with an idea that would allow us to move forward with that initiative,” said Coates, noting that it was their hope to bring that particular request(s) back to the City Council for consideration toward the end of May.
A partnership with property owners in the Village area is critical.
“The city invested a lot of money to the redevelopment agency over the last 30 years to initiate revitalization and they believe now it is time to create an initiative that the property owners can participate in and be a part of designing what that means,” Coates said. “So the city is willing to invest some time and money for the first several years to help get that up and running with the exception that it would be a sustainable initiative.”
previous post
