Old Town La Verne Business Improvement District Agendas

OLD TOWN LA VERNE BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING Monday, M.ay 3,2021 I The teleconference meeting was called to order by Chairperson Craig Walters at 8:30a.m Mr. Walters stated that questions can be emailed to planning@.citvoflaverne.org. Advisory Board Members present: Craig Walters, Jason Miller, Matt Forgey, Marianne Stark, Micky Rehm, and Sean Franco. City Representatives present: Community Development Director Eric Scherer, Mayor Tim Hepburn, and Secretary Natalie Hiatt. Others present: Leah Skinner. Chairperson Walters announced Matt Forgey as the new regular board member and Sean Fracno as the new altemate board member. 2. CALENDAR City Council Public Protest Hearing - Monday, June 7, 2021 @ 6:30p'm. Mr. Scherer encouraged everyone to watch and participate. There was one public comment received via email. Cool Cruise - Saturday, September 71,2021 Cruisin La Verne - Saturday, November 20,2021 3. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES APil5,2021 It was moved by Mr. Miller and seconded by Mr. Forgey to approve the minutes as submitted. Motion carried by a 5-0 vote. 4 NEW BUSINESS A. Proposal for Craft Fair - Carmel Plotkin Ms. Plotkin was not present at the meeting. Proposal will be rescheduled to a future date. ti. Mainiero Square Update - Mr. Scherer stated that the proposed cell tower project is not moving forward. Mr. Scherer stated that the Mainiero Square design does not include the existing pergola but Public Works says it can be saved with cosmetic fixes. He asked the board if they are interested in preserving the pergola. The board discussed and decided that it would be best to preserve the pergola if it works with the new design. Mr. Scherer will prepare a site plan with a sketch of the new location. I 5. CONTINUED I}USINESS A. D Street Closure - Received Letters and Comments Mr. Scherer stated that we are potentially moving into the Yellow Tier with a 5Oo/o capacity for restaurants. The Governor also announced an open date of June 15'l'. A survey was sent to the restaurants to check interest for a modified outdoor dining setup to allow for the street opening. All the restaurants responded stating they were grateful to the BID and City for allowing the street closure. Roberta's and Spooners declined the modified setup. Cafe Wang, House of Wings, and Argo expressed interest in a modified setup. Lordsburg Taphouse presented a petition to keep the street closed indefinitely. The board discussed a timeline for re-opening the street. It was moved by Ms. Stark and seconded by Ms. Rehm to keep the sffeet closure until mid-August unless the street is not being used or ABC changes the guidelines. Motion carried by a 5-0 vote. 6. COMMITTEE REPORTS/ TES A. City Report (Eric Scherer): AT&T on University Parking Structure - Planning Commission approved a wireless communication facility that will be mounted to the existing structure. B. University Report (Jason Miller): None C. Marketing (Micky Rehm): Boosting ads still available. D. Chamber Report (Leah Skinner): Teacher of the year awards to be held virtually ftA"V ZOfr. N"* promotion "Let's Do Lunch" begins Wednesday, May l2rh at ", Lordsburg Taphouse. E. Social Media Update (Micky Rehm): None F. Financial Report: None 7 PUBLIC COMMENT (Any discussion or action on non-agendized items must be deferred to the following meeting, as required by California Brown Act Law) No public comments were received. 8. ADJOURNMENT Meeting was adjourned at 9:17 a.m., to the next meeting to be held on Monday, June 7o 2021 at 8:30 a.m. vel sq N Hiatt ATTACHMENTS: LETTER TO RESTAURANTS, RESPONSES, AND PUBLIC COMMENT RECEIVED. 2 ---Origina I Message----- From: Jackson Salinas Imailto:jaxsalinas@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, April 30,20215:26 PM To: Planning Subject: OLD TOWN LA VERNE BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT MEETING Public Comment 0s/03/2021. 2. CALENDAR-City Council Public Protest Hearing Mon. June 7 ,2027 @6:30pm: ls this Protest Hearing regarding the budget or something else? 3 City Email Sent April L5,2O2l Hi D Street Restaurant Owners ln light of the Governor's announcement that his plan is to fully re-open the State on June L5th, we have been discussing the closure of D Street. This week, a letter (attached) was delivered to me from some business owners calling for the street to be reopened now. There was also a discussion at the last BID Board meeting on April 5th about D street and that perhaps there could still be expanded outdoor seating in the parking spaces in front of your business and allow the street to reopen. ln this scenario, the businesses would be responsible in building out the spaces to be a bit more permanent (as is seen in the Claremont Village) with a commitment by the City to allow them to remain for a while. I have also reached out to ABC to determine if they will be revoking the temporary permits many of you received in order to expand your serving areas. While they haven't made a decision, they indicated that businesses would be provided at least 30 day notice prior to them changing any of the rules that they put in place with Covid, Also keep in mind that if the State reopens everything on June l-Sth, the County of LA would also need to do the same, and as you know, theirtrack record has been to be more restrictive than the State' However, there has been some indication that the County would follow the State on this, provided the numbers are stable and there is not another spike. Basically, we reaL lv need to know what vour plans are with the u of D Street, With the 50% inside occupancyallowance,doyoustill haveaneedorwanttocontinuetheexpandedoutdoorseating? Ifso, do you want to continue it in this configuration or would be willing to reduce it to the parking spaces in order to open the street? Do you want to do this now or wait for June 15'h? Would you continue to want to use the area if ABC does revoke your permits to serve out there? The City Council will have to make a decision on how to move forward, but your input is vital in allowing them to do so. lt is extreme important to let us kn what vour thoughts are on this issue Please email or call me with your thoughts. Thanks. Eric Scherer, AICP Comm unity DeveloPment Director City of La Verne 3660 D Street La Verne, CA 91750 Office: 909-596-8706 escherer(ocitvof laverne.org  RESPONSES RECEIVED AS OF APRIL 29,202L Spooners: Mr, Scherer, Thank you for your email. l'm on the fence with D street remaining closed. Of course the street closure helped all the restaurants tremendously during the lock down and I am forever grateful for what the city has done for us restaurant owners. However, I noticed more trash all over the street, public drunkenness, customers complaining of no parking space, and with sports games played in the canopy by other venues, my customers have experience not so pleasant time while they dined outside. Again goes back to public drunkenness and unruly crowd at nights. Dealing with weekend melees of people partying outside has been a struggle' As much as I love the set up right now, l'm beginning to doubt if it's even worth it. My husband is allfor keeping the street closed and remain the way it is but he's not the one working here everyday to experience the bad side of it, lf the D street remains the way it is now, I would like to ask that we have more rules and policies for the restaurants to follow to keep our street clean and safe. Roberta's Village lnn: Hi Eric, First I want to say Thank You for all you and the City have done for us. We would like the Outdoor Dining to remain the same until at least June 15th, We aren't interested in taking away our parking spaces once the Street reopens. Hopefully we can still use the Sidewalk as extra dining space. Roberta's Village lnn Second Email: I would like to begin by thanking the City of La Verne and the other business owners of D street for approving the street closure during these tough times. We appreciate the overwhelming positivity and support you have shown in protecting our small businesses during this pandemic.This street closure has benefited us greatly and has saved our small business which would otherwise close because of the pandemic.We have heard an overwhelming amount of positive comments about our outdoor seating arrangements. Numerous customers commend the city for allowing us this type of arrangement. Some customers even suggested that this closure be made permanent. However I as a business owner understand that this arrangement does not work for all the businesses on D st. I would like to ask that the street closu re be kept u p until we a re al 1,OO% capacity inside and would prefer that it remain as it is now. As far as using the parking spaces I think that there is a little more liability and it is not as enjoyable with the noise of the cars so for now I will pass on that.Once again thank you to the city of la Verne for providing us with this amazing opportunity for outdoor seating Caf6 Wang: Hi Eric, Thank you for the update regarding the future of D Street. ln answer to your specific questions: 1. We would like to continue expanded outdoor dining and would be willing to reduce the area to the parking spaces. There undoubtedly will be customers who would prefer to sit outdoors, for precautionary reasons, even after the pandemic is officially over. 2. We want to work collectively with all the businesses who have been affected with the th D St. closure, And we support opening D St asap in order to help non-restaurant businesses get back to normal. lndeed, it has been a struggle just to survive for nearly all small businesses owners. 3. We would still like the outdoor accomodation whether or not ABC revokes permits lf possible, we would like to continue to use the parking lot areas in front of the restaurant and dessert shop on a long term basis. With the commitment of the City, we would seek to construct permanant structures to accommodate outdoor dining, alongside a D St. that is open to traffic. We believe that the La Verne Old Town District has the potential in a very short time to be something even more special than it already is. Following in the footsteps of Claremont Village would help create a similar ambiance that the area that it is well known for. And with the reopening of the University, in a few months, and the Gold Line in a couple years, it is predictable that the district will become a focal point within the City, with students, locals and tourists alike coming to see how much Old Town has transformed. Allowing all the restaurants in the district to increase its outdoor dining footprint will give the community a greater dining experience, But this is especially true of Cafe Wang, because of all the full service restaurants in Old Town, Cafe Wang has the smallest outdoor dining area. We believe the opportunity to expand on a permanent basis would be a "win-win-win" between for the community, the restaurant and the City. We want to thank you, as well as the Mayor and the City Council for your consideration. We know that you must all consider a multitude of factors before coming to a decision that meets your most important priorities. We thank you for the opportunity to share our input. House of Wings: Hi Ericl So sorry for the delayed response. Thank you for reaching out and allowing us to give an input on the outdoor seating decision. We highly prioritize and appreciate D St. being closed as it has allowed us ample seating. Our customers have been extremely vocal about the seating situation and many have expressed that they (1) enjoy that they have the option to sit indoor or outdoor and (2) many have voiced that they hope D St' stays closed at least through the warm summer months because they'd like to continue sitting outside. Both our employees and customers appear to feel safer outside. There were concerns about people driving by the smaller seating sections on D St. as closing off a few parking spaces would make for a narrow lane. We are not sure if our customers would be interested in sitting in an area so close to motor traffic. Of course, if the option was parking space seating or nothing, we would take what we could get. We hope to continue to have the option for tent seating but understand the situation the city is in when it comes to making this business decision. Lordsburg Eric, I have been circulating this letter to our patrons for a couple of weeks. We probably have 100+ signatures of local residents. ': :r'.;;;.i.'--,.i ii: I ,:..',,,r. i..t,:iil::,-,-i::.,r-. --,..._ij 1,,,,:: L..,_,.,:.:.!.:..-,r-, I Lr:r,.t.t.jji., i:.;i:,: ..i:r' ,i :: j. i: 1.:, ., . fr:.. l, ,.. ,: ;::. ,.-i.: .r,,,.r..r, -r - l- :..,.r ,, ,.i.:..r , r,. :i.. . r.,. ..,., r,.,..,-.. L, ,i'1.''" '.. ::.. -,': t-' i ,lrit...j . 't.-. i:t it Lr ,. i ,:i!t\ l:,.,i ,.1. rir.:, .1 ,. :, j. ..,., .,..;, :, l rj.t.,,-. .,. ,;ll il'i,ti i.iii:, L |lr,-f i.r :,,,lri'i:j r. 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In order to abide by COVID 19 CDC regulations, the city has permitted outdoor dining and closed D 5t. Local businesses (non-restaurants) are suffering due to the street closure. The city needs to acknowledge the financial harm and emotional stress caused hy favoring restaurants over other businesses. The city could utilize the sidewalk in front of the restaurants for outdoor dining while re-opening D 5t. Also, the rear parking lot behind the restaurants can be used safely for outdoor dining. This would help our local restaurants and our small struggling businesses simultaneously. The local small businesses need equal opportunities to str,ve during this universal pandemic. We believe that our trust worthy city will take our suggestions into consideration and will not allow favoritism ts continue. Thank you for your continuous support. 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