The Rollingwood Annual Meeting was held on October 8, 2024. Our guest speakers were Velveth Schmitz, Mayor of Rolling Hills Estates, and Frank Zerunyan, City Councilman, Rolling Hills Estates.
Mayor Velveth Schmitz was elected to the Rolling Hills Estates City Council in 2015. Velveth has been volunteering with the city of Rolling Hills Estates since 2006. She has served as a Commissioner on the Park and Activities and Planning Commissions.
Mayer Schmitz offered an overview of the challenges and progress made by the City on multiple issues. Topics included an improvement plan for traffic flow within the City using grant money; development of a pedestrian plan; completion of Founder’s Park; launch of the George F. Canyon project; approval by the State of the “Housing Element” plan; and work on the Fire Warning and RHE Emergency Alert systems.
Councilman Zerunyan addressed Issues related to housing requirements placed on cities by the California state government. He mentioned that state affordable housing requirements are not necessarily bad since they encourage persons such as teachers, police officers, and nurses to become residents of the cities in which they are employed.
Presentations were followed by a question and answer session. Among the topics were: the State-mandated housing goal; concerns over traffic congestion and traffic planning; increasing use of and lack of traffic enforcement on electric bicycles ridden by children; role of the City, schools, law enforcement and parents to insure safe use of the electric bikes; school programs addressing safety when riding ebikes; lack of ability of the City to become involved in the “Ironwood/Silver Spur Condominiums” project; and, whether the City will implement plans to install a landslide monitor system.