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May Meeting

MINUTES OF THE WEDNESDAY May 29, 2024 MEETING: Meeting held at 1020 West San Marcos Blvd, San Marcos, CA 
The meeting was called to order by President Gary Wynn at 7:00 PM.  Our guest speaker for the evening was Jennifer Schoeneck CecD, she is the Director of Economic Development for the City of Escondido.  She was introduced by Vice President Tory Walker. The following items were discussed:

  1. A brief overview of the City’s finances was given.  They have a 11-million-dollar operating deficit and are attempting to reduce it.  The major contributor is the California Center for the Arts Escondido, (which accounts for 4.5 million per year of the deficit).  There are several significant areas within the city limits owned by the City of San Diego resulting in no tax revenues.  The North County Mall revenues are significantly less than original projections.
  2. The downtown area has seen an increase in vacancies and absentee owners.  Renovation of a lot of the buildings is very costly due to the buildings being unreinforced masonry and not conforming to current building codes.  She commented that Grand Ave does not have a waterline, so upgrading existing buildings on that street is difficult.
  3. Jennifer currently supervises 130 people at the city of Escondido, and properties within the city, with a valuation $975,000,000.
  4. She mentioned the City has four fundamental goals to increase revenues.
    1. Balance Population growth rates, (they are currently experiencing reductions in the 20-29 year old population as well as school age children).
    1. Create more Economic Opportunities.
    1. Maximize land values, (many parcels are not being utilized to their full potential, resulting in a loss of potential tax dollars).
    1. Market existing businesses that have the ability to yield opportunities and/or market the potential of downtown buildings that are currently vacant.
  5. The city has a reverse osmosis purification treatment for effluent producing non-potable water that can provide lower cost water, (as opposed to potable water).
  6. The City has also been working with several entities including the UC Cooperative Extension on an agricultural innovation hub (Ag-Tech) based in Escondido.

OTHER NEWS

  1. The June Board of Director’s meeting was held at Broken Yolk Restaurant on Las Posas Road in San Marcos on May 30, 2024.
  2. June’s meeting will be our annual Social meeting, bring your significant other and enjoy the comradery and fun at Draft Republic, 255 Redel Road, San Marcos. 

ATTENDANCE/MEALS USED:  19-people attended our meeting representing 11 member firms.  The meeting adjourned at 8:45 PM.  

Bob Sukup, Secretary

The meeting was called to order by President Gary Wynn at 7:05 PM, we were joined by the San Diego Chapter of the California Land Surveyors Association (CLSA).  San Diego Chapter CLSA President, Dirk Nasland welcomed his members to the meeting. Our guest speaker for the evening was Dallas Sweeney, Professional Land Surveyor for the State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists. Dallas spoke to us via a zoom meeting, due to the State’s budget woes, (all staff travel for speaking engagements have been cancelled until future notice).  He was introduced by President Gary Wynn. The following items were discussed:

1. Dallas covered a lot of ground and when we opened it up to Q and A many interesting questions were brought up.

2. Presently there are 3,892 Licensed Surveyors in the State of California. The number of surveyors has gone down over the last several years. Part of it was pinpointed as a result of retirements.

3. The State has a watchful eye out for the competency of active surveyors. They fined one unlicensed “surveyor” $1,000 for practicing surveying when he wasn’t qualified. He paid the fine but turned around and sued the Board. The Board in turn requested said surveyor to provide evidence that he is qualified to perform as a surveyor. He could not provide that information. End of lawsuit. A job well done by the State Board.

4. The State is starting an outreach effort with the City’s to encourage checking practicing Engineers and Surveyors are certified by the State. The State wants to maintain a high level of integrity.

5. A discussion took place about boundaries shown/attached to a topography map that had not actually been surveyed. Dallas said that all found monuments should be shown on the topo map. He indicated that the “callout of a line being a Record Boundary”, could lead others to rely on that information which might not be correct or accurate.  The issue was not resolved.

6. The question was raised as to what the Board has been able to do with threats made to surveyors when they are out doing a survey on a property. This was another area that not too much can be done. You hope that calm answers indicating something like “the owner of the property has asked us to do the topography of his lot” would suffice. Reference to Section 8762 of the Land Surveyor’s Act came up, which defines what a survey is and who may perform them.

7. A question came up about when is a Record of Survey required and whether there is a statute of limitations, Dallas said there was none. We had an excellent combined turnout of 49 attendees, including 22 members of the San Diego Chapter of CLSA.

March 2024 Meeting

NORTH COUNTY CIVIL ENGINEERS AND LAND SURVEYORS ASSOCIATION

PROMOTING INTEGRITY, GOOD FAITH, JUST AND EQUITABLE PRINCIPLES IN BUSINESS, UNIFORMITY IN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES, AND REPRESENTING THE BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL INTEREST OF CIVIL ENGINEERS AND LAND SURVEYORS IN CITY AND COUNTY LEGISLATION

  MINUTES OF THE WEDNESDAY March 27, 2024 MEETING: Meeting held at Cocina del Charro, 1020 West San Marcos Blvd, Ste 50, San Marcos, CA   The meeting was called to order by Vice-President Tory Walker Our speaker was Attorney Whitney Hodges, Partner, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, Land Use & Environmental Department.  She was introduced by Annie Aguilar, who is a member of our board.  The following items were discussed:

  1. California is in a housing shortage and has been for many years. Our elected officials have been trying to catch up every year but cumulatively the shortage continues to grow. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, a non profit, non partisan think tank, California is facing a $ 3.5 million unit housing deficiency for the current population.
  2. On January 1, 2024, there were 47 new Senate and Assembly bills that became effective. The new bills addressed the following 11 categories:
    1. Streamlining Tools and Housing Production
    1. Adaptive Reuse
    1. Land Use, Planning, and Housing Element
    1. Accessory Dwelling Units
    1. Parking
    1. Housing and Infrastructure
    1. Surplus and Excess Lands
    1. Mitigation and Assessment Fees
    1. CEQA
    1. Homeownership and Tenant Protections
    1. Taxes and Financing
  3. As you can see there is a tremendous effort not only to provide housing but also AFFORDABLE HOUSING. The other issue facing our Cities and Counties is what to do with the homeless people roaming our streets

We certainly did not come up with any solutions but it opened our eyes as to the severity of the situation

OTHER NEWS

  1. The Board of Director’s meeting was held at Broken Yolk Restaurant on Las Posas Road in San Marcos on March 29, 2024.
  2. April’s meeting speaker will be Dallas Sweeney, PLS of the California Board of Registration for Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists.  He will speak to us on will bring his views on the issues facing Surveyors and Engineers.  This meeting will be a joint meeting with the San Diego Chapter of CLSA.

December Meeting

NORTH COUNTY CIVIL ENGINEERS AND LAND SURVEYORS
ASSOCIATION
PROMOTING INTEGRITY, GOOD FAITH, JUST AND EQUITABLE PRINCIPLES IN BUSINESS, UNIFORMITY IN
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES, AND REPRESENTING THE BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL INTEREST OF CIVIL
ENGINEERS AND LAND SURVEYORS IN CITY AND COUNTY LEGISLATION
MINUTES OF THE WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 6, 2023 MEETING:

The meeting was called to order by President Gary Wynn at 7:30 PM.
Our Speaker were Jamil Wade and Dave Davis of Chelsea Development Group and they were introduced by Bob Sukup.

  1. Chelsea Investment Corporation is a leader in designing, financing, constructing, and managing high quality affordable
    rental projects in California and beyond. Since their inception in 1984 they have built over 100 affordable communities at a
    cost of over 2 billion dollars.
  2. Jamil is responsible for acquisitions. He handles deal financing, underwriting, feasibility and partners with Dave on the due
    diligence. and obtaining funding from various sources. Dave is their Development Manager. He handles design,
    entitlements, permit processing, construction monitoring, and partners with Jamil on the due diligence as well.
  3. Chelsea Development is a privately held company that partners with not for profit companies on some of their projects.
    Chelsea perform the project construction themselves as the General Contractor.
  4. Many of Chelsea’s projects include joint venturing with a local nonprofit. The nonprofits have access to special low interest
    loans from the State or Federal Government, various grants as well as being able to provide Head Start programs. Financing
    is CRUCIAL in making the projects work. The Head Start programs provide after school tutoring, computer labs, and I
    believe some day care as well.
  5. The rents for the projects differ from area to area. They take the average median income of the area and based on that, there
    is a certain percentage that caps the rent for 1, 2 3 and 4 bedrooms. In renting the units to families, Chelsea has to be very
    careful to check their incomes, make sure there are no additional people moving into the unit and recheck incomes from
    time to time.
  6. Typically they manage the project during it’s life, this includes qualifying renters based on income, collecting rents and
    maintenance. Chelsea also has a comprehensive maintenance schedule to make sure the interiors and exteriors of the
    project are well maintained. This is very important to show the cities how well an affordable housing project can fit into the
    community.
  7. It was a very interesting presentation and may be of use to our developers tasked with burdensome affordable housing
    requirements.
    • OTHER NEWS
  8. The Board of Director’s meeting was held at Broken Yolk Restaurant on Las Posas Road in San Marcos on December 7,
    2023.
  9. Discussions covered sending information to potential new members, a guest speaker about the San Diego Mobility Study,
    the impact SB-9 and SB-10 are having on traffic, Development Feasibility Studies and Health Department Inspector quirks.
  10. The 2024 Brochure of Member firms is out and available for download by interested parties on our website, at
    https://nccelsa.com/, “About” page. Members are also reminded that they can download current meeting fliers on the
    “Association Meeting” page.
  11. Next month’s meeting on January 31, 2024 will feature speaker Jacob Armstrong, the Director of DPLU at the County of
    San Diego.
  12. We are also looking at getting Attorney Whitney Hodges to speak on SB-9 and SB-10 as well as possibly SANDAG and
    Carlsbad’s Traffic Engineer for future meetings.
    ATTENDANCE/MEALS USED: 15-people attended our meeting representing 7-member and 2-guest firms.
    The meeting adjourned at 8:45 PM.
    Bob Sukup, Secretary

September Annual Meeting Minutes

NORTH COUNTY CIVIL ENGINEERS AND LAND SURVEYORS
ASSOCIATION
PROMOTING INTEGRITY, GOOD FAITH, JUST AND EQUITABLE PRINCIPLES IN BUSINESS, UNIFORMITY IN
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES, AND REPRESENTING THE BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL INTEREST OF CIVIL
ENGINEERS AND LAND SURVEYORS IN CITY AND COUNTY LEGISLATION
MINUTES OF THE WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2023 MEETING:
Meeting held at Cocina del Charro, 1020 West San Marcos Blvd, Ste 50, San Marcos, CA

  1. The meeting was called to order by President Doug Logan at 7:20 PM. Our Speaker was Bryan Bradway, the Deputy County Surveyor for San Diego County. and he was introduced by President Doug Logan.
  2. Bryan was appointed to this position after the previous County Surveyor left for the City of San Diego. Since our meeting
    Bryan is the odds on favorite to be selected as the County Surveyor.
  3. Surveying for Capital Improvement Projects for the County are done by private surveying companies.
  4. Bryan oversees the department as well as signing all maps and other documents required by statute.
  5. His office is staffed by very knowledgeable people who can provide help when needed.
  6. SB-9 issues regarding the need for Tentative and Final Maps were also discussed.
  7. Election ballots for the Board of Directors to serve from October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2024 were counted,
    declared official and the results announced as follows: Gary Wynn of Wynn Engineering, President; Tory Walker of Tory
    R. Walker Engineering, Vice-President; Robert Sukup of The Sea Bright Co., Secretary; and Chuck Iacuaniello of U.C.
    Iacuaniello II, Consulting Engineer, Treasurer. Additionally, Immediate Past-President Doug Logan of Rancho Coastal
    Engineering will also serve on the board.
    OTHER NEWS
  8. The Board of Director’s meeting was held at Broken Yolk Restaurant on Las Posas Road in San Marcos on September 13,
  9. The treasurer reported that dues invoices would be sent out by the end of the month.
  10. Next month’s meeting speaker will be Erica Ryan of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board.
    ATTENDANCE/MEALS USED: 27-people attended our meeting representing 15-firms.
    The meeting adjourned at 8:45 PM.
    Bob Sukup, Secretary

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