For City Council Meeting [September 24, 2019]
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
APPROVAL: Rod Foster, City Administrator
FROM: Sean Grayson, Acting Public Works Director
Title
Request City Council Approve a Maintenance Agreement by and between the City of Rialto and Synergistic Properties (dba Rialto Animal Hospital) for the Maintenance of Landscaping on Ayala Drive.
Body
BACKGROUND:
The City approved PPD 2018-0100 allowing Synergistic Properties (“Rialto Animal Hospital”) to construct an expansion to the Rialto Animal Hospital complex on Ayala Drive, south of Leiske Drive. The conditions of approval and the Renaissance Specific Plan require Rialto Animal Hospital to construct parkway landscaping along Ayala Drive within an 8 foot strip between the curb adjacent sidewalk and the property line. The Rialto Animal Hospital will also landscape a 10-foot landscape easement area adjacent to the parkway, for a minimum landscaped setback from the sidewalk of 18 feet (with private landscaped area, the total width is 33’). The Rialto Animal Hospital requested permission to construct and maintain all landscape from the sidewalk onto the property, thereby ensuring seamless construction and maintenance, and avoidance of multiple irrigation meters. The site/landscape plan is attached hereto as Exhibit A.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION:
The Maintenance Agreement attached hereto as Exhibit B conveys the responsibility for maintaining the public landscape on Ayala Drive to the Rialto Animal Hospital (and its successors in interest). The Maintenance Agreement establishes standards for landscape maintenance and provides enforcement remedies for the City in the event of a failure to maintain the landscaping. The City has recently entered into a similar agreement with Aldi/WSS.
The Rialto Animal Hospital will annex to LLMD #2 for contribution to the cost of median island maintenance and the cost of streetlights. The City will reduce the benefit assessment to reflect the assumption of responsibilities under the Maintenance Agreement.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT:
The request is not a Project as defined by Section 15378 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines. A “Project” means the whole of an action, which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. By definition, a Project does not include: The creation of government funding mechanisms or other government fiscal activities which do not involve any commitment to any specific project which may result in a potentially significant physical impact on the environment according to Section 15378 (b)(4) of the CEQA Guidelines.
GENERAL PLAN CONSISTENCY:
The project is consistent with the following goals of the Land Use Element and Economic Development Element of the Rialto General Plan:
Goal 2-22: Promote commercial and/or industrial development that is well designed, people-oriented, environmentally sustainable, sensitive to the needs of the visitor or resident, and functionally efficient for its purpose the architectural and design quality of development in Rialto.
LEGAL REVIEW:
The City Attorney reviewed and approved this staff report and the Maintenance Agreement.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
Operating Budget Impact
The Maintenance Agreement will shift the responsibility for parkway landscape maintenance to a private property owner and from the lighting and landscape maintenance assessment district. The impact to the City is initially neutral but may be positive in the long-term. The LLMD assessments must be annually established by the City, and inflationary caps may compromise maintenance efforts. The private owners will not be subject to any cost limitation but must maintain in accordance with the standards.
Capital Improvement Budget Impact
There is no impact based on this action.
Licensing
Not applicable to this action.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council Approve a Maintenance Agreement by and between the City of Rialto and Synergistic Properties for the Maintenance of Landscaping on Ayala Drive.