BY ARIEL CARMONA, JR
Diamond Bar – During the July 15 meeting, the Diamond Bar City Council addressed a light agenda calendar which included a discussion of the following steps for three of the City’s Lighting and Landscape Assessment Districts (LLAD), approval of minutes from a study session regarding updates to the Grand Avenue Beautification Project, and ratification of an expenditure totaling more than $1 million in City funds for green building construction, legal consultants and health insurance benefits, among other items.
In a written report made public by City Manager, James DeStefano, he stated the purpose of the July 1 study session was to provide the City Council with more details on the Grand Avenue Beautification Project. According to the report, the concept was first discussed with the Council in April. Since that time, the Public Works Department team has been designing the project and preparing for construction.
Upon City Council approval, the project will go to Caltrans for review, after which it will move to the design and construction phases. 53 residents attended an open house earlier this year to review the concept plans and give input on what the community wanted to see as part of the final design. Some of the votes of elements for the final design included decorative traffic signal poles, the diamond shape representative of the City, and interlocking pavers in parkways and medians.
The Public Works Department staff reported that all improvements presented during the study session totaled about $1.5 million with available resources at $1.7 million. There is no general fund money committed to the project according to Public Works Director, David Liu. Staff estimated the project to begin in October after all the design plans and specs are sent to Caltrans for their review, which could take up to three months to complete.
In other actions, the Council approved the recommendations from its Lighting and Landscape Assessment District subcommittee and consultants from SCI (experts in the field of assessment engineering and levy administration related to LLAD) to discuss options to reduce ongoing general fund subsidies to the districts. The districts primarily maintain public rights-of-way, medians and parkways throughout the City, consisting of mini parks, slopes and open space areas totaling 60.45 acres, and small turf areas located primarily in the southwestern side of the city including the Ronald Reagan Park neighborhoods and Brea Canyon cut-off, among other areas, respectively.
Council members lauded City staff and members of the Parks and Recreations Department for their work on the City’s 4th of July Celebration, which included 25 minutes of fireworks to commemorate the Diamond Bar’s 25th Anniversary.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Diamond Bar City Council takes place on Aug. 5 at 6:30 p.m., at the AQMD/Government Center Auditorium, 21865 Copley Drive.
