 Good morning, Mayor Rogers. If you would go ahead and test your audio and visual, please. Good morning. Can you hear me? Hey, can you check your audio press? Good morning. Hey John. Morning John. Hey, Mayor. Let's go ahead call to order and I'll go ahead and chair until Eddie's able to join us if that works for you, John. All right, let's call the roll. I mean Can you hear us? Hold on a second. Let me just make sure she can hear it. Sure. Oh Madeline, can you call the roll for us? Yes, absolutely. Okay. Member Sawyer. Here. Member Rogers. Here. And Chair Alvarez is absent. The record shows that Member Sawyer and Member Rogers are present. All right, let's go ahead and go to our public comment for non-agenda items. If you have a comment that is within the purview of our downtown subcommittee, but it's not on today's agenda, go ahead and hit the raise hand feature on your Zoom. There are currently no hands raised for public comment. Okay, I'll bring it back and let's go ahead and jump into item 3.1. Okay. For item 3.1, we actually have a bunch of folks here. I believe Amy Nicholson and Claire Hartman and we're about to promote everybody and Jen Santas, I believe, are the ones who are going to be presenting this and as well as Jesse and Megan. And I think they're all up, if not almost that. And then Madeline or Eileen, can you put the presentation up as well? Absolutely. I apologize. There's a little bit of a glitch happening. Hopefully it will open in just the next few seconds for us. We're having a few technical difficulties today. Beauty of Zoom. I know. But Claire's going to start and she's on. I'll start. Good morning everyone. I'll introduce the team that we have for the first item and then while we get the slides up. So we're going to provide an overview and an update on where we're at with the, thank you for that, where we're at with the downtown residential fee incentives. This is a package of three resolutions that was passed by the city council back in 2018, which we just realized yesterday was four years ago. Time flies. The team that we have today, there's two of us presenting, but obviously we work together to look at how this program is working. So Jen Santos, deputy director of parts division and I'm the director of planning and economic development will provide the overview, but on this package of incentives, we've been working with Brice Del Rosa, Alan Alton in finance, Jason Net, and also Amy Nicholson and Jesse Oswell from PED. So next slide. So just as a terms of background, like where were these initiatives have come from and what context really kind of started back in 2016 when the city council adopted the Santa Rosa Help Me Action Plan. And as you remember, this was a plan that was multifaceted actually had five different program areas. We knew that addressing housing in Santa Rosa really had to have sort of this comprehensive all hands approach. And so that was adopted to kickstart 31 initiatives and one of which was to address fees and and incentives for downtown housing. So in support of that plan and other ventures, the council had adopted downtown housing in particular as a tier one priority. And then about that time, we had the Tubbs Fire, we retooled and and promoted and really made a concert effort to focus on downtown for housing with a number of sort of supplemental initiatives or ones that furthered the housing action plan. And we created what I we call the up downtown and I like to call it a toolbox. I'll go over that in a minute. Obviously subsequent to that, we also adopted the resilience city ordinance, which was citywide, but had a lot of concerted deliberate moves in the downtown in particular for reduced review authority focusing on design, but streamlining housing. And then it was shortly after that we adopted the three resolutions that make up the downtown residential fee incentives. And shortly after that we adopted the downtown stationary specific plan which was an update from a two that 2007 plan and it had very swift moves to support housing, such as going to FAR and reducing or eliminating minimum parking standards, just as a couple. And then housing for all has been maintained as a council goal so even though it's not just downtown, it has a housing for all across the city, but still has a concerted effort focused on downtown housing next slide. So our up downtown packages you will or toolbox. Like I said it's dependent on multiple assets to make housing work and I think all of us can attest, working with developers who work in our downtown. They pretty much use all of these. And when you ask, you know which ones use the most they, they use all of them. So, this is a layering effect. So I talked about permit streamlining the downtown plan did two things that it provided sequence streamlining went to update a specific plan like that. It comes with an environmental impact report lots of community engagement. So it really sort of breaks the barriers and increases predictability for both residents and the applicants so that was one of our bigger moves. And then again looking at fees and incentives. One of the things that we talked a lot about is time cost certainty for developers. And so the, the time obviously was in redo review authority that also had a cost factor, but looking at fees and incentives furthers that that that that path. We've also looked at our own city assets and how we can contribute as a, not just in permitting the regulatory agency but how do we actually partner and support downtown housing. So much that we invested and support the rental enterprise district and invested $10 million PG and settlement funds into the red housing fund to support downtown housing and that was coupled with the counter contribution as well. Next slide. So in 2018. This is what we were looking at for total impact fees per housing unit. So it's almost 30,000 a unit and it didn't distinguish between downtown housing for bounty outskirts, but within the city limits. And it didn't distinguish between affordable housing and it certainly didn't distinguish between affordable housing in our downtown and it didn't distinguish about how high or intensive your, your projects were. So these are things that we were looking into. And in particular, there's certain fees here that you can work with more freely than others. So, for example, a school district fee we don't even control. We have the allocation fee we're balancing an interest of inclusionary housing and a fee at the time. Water and wastewater really can't subsidize that based on the structure of that fee. So we had to look, we knew we were going to have to look at alternatives to looking at that what where the flexibility could be. And then we really zeroed in on capital facilities fee and the part impact fee, which the city controls and which we saw had the greatest flexibility for an incentive. So next slide. So in September 2018. What was proposed are three resolutions and the technically I think they're numbered in a different order. I ordered these in the way that we're going to present them so we'll talk about capital facilities fees incentives. And then what water and wastewater impact fees, and this is just a high level just giving you a status update about what these are and where they're at, how they were intended. And then we'll conclude with the park impact fees and general takes that piece of the presentation on the next slide. So, there are eligibility criteria, if you will, the three resolutions are structured. Similarly, in terms of criteria, there are nuances that are associated with the park impact fee that channel get into. But here's the key criteria for that form the base of the package. You have to be in downtown and not just qualitatively in downtown there was a specific boundary set and I'll show you the map. It's as defined and as expanded with the downtown station plan update. We're referencing our pre downtown plan zoning districts, these have since been translated to perform to the downtown plan, but essentially looking at the hierarchy of intensity that we expect in our downtown and desire. So we have to start with the eligibility to really push towards that. So you have to actually be implementing the city's vision to be eligible for you themselves, not just building housing downtown, but building it to the level that we want, and the inclusivity that we want in our downtown housing. So, in some sections it's for you have to be building at least four or more stories and then three of them have to be residential now you can build up to 10, but there's some things are minimum. In other areas, it's three or more stories and two must be residential. And also we were interested in moving projects along right so the whole push in the last few years have been refreshing and recreating our cities downtown market. We don't have a lot of mid rise downtown housing so the market is immature if you will. And so really trying to catalyze that new market for Santa Rosa and so we want to activate the visions not just have what I like to call paper projects we want to actually have sticks and bricks being activated downtown so we have this breaking ground eligibility. Now this was written in 2018. We didn't know that we were going to experience, even an additional fire the glass fire and series of evacuations and whatnot. And COVID and so there's been a lot of natural disasters that have impacted our ability to move along in our downtown toolbox. But as it was written in 2018 the breaking ground eligibility deadline, if you will, was August 31 2023 so that's next year. So we know that we're going to have to revisit this this package and see is it written still for the times. Next slide. This is just a map of the downtown you're all familiar with it. This shows that our downtown boundaries as expanded by the downtown plan include walkability around our smart station in our transit mall. Next slide. Okay, so here's the premise of where we were at with the package of incentives, and I'm no mathematician so don't test me but I tried to highlight sort of the key principles in this. Before the incentives, like I said I talked about the park impact fees and then CFF capital facilities be as sort of our targets for reduce potentially reducing fees under certain circumstances and under the eligibility. But that's what I'm going to talk to speak to at this slide and so what you can see is after the incentives, if you were building market rate if you just built the minimum, you don't get a discount. There's no incentive you to build your project and will support, but if you really want the financial fiscal incentive you have to build higher stories, even if it's just market rate, and you can see what the benefit is and this is per unit. And I think it's in this the combined. If you build inclusionary affordable units, which is another goal of the city, then you get a much bigger benefit or financial benefit by doing that. And again, if you build up, and you build affordable inclusionary, you just start layering on incentives. That's the premise of the structure. Next slide. Well, water and sewer impact fees, different structure all together and what we were looking at is the time and cost, because sometimes time is money, and the ability to defer or have payment plans is sometimes just, it is just that extra flexible flexible arm that they need to move a project forward, especially as we've seen volatile markets for labor and materials and timing and everything is sort of in flex so this is actually been quite popular as well. So there's two options again there's the eligibility clause, but the two options as you can defer your payment of fees until the units are occupied, or six months after final inspection, or two you can have a five year, a five year plan with interest. So there's a estimate cost benefit for that. Next slide. So moving to Jen's part of the presentation we're going to focus on what the park the incentive was was intended to do and in our experience with that. Thanks Claire really appreciate it. Hello everyone, I'm Jen Santos deputy director for parks and like Claire mentioned this is more of a high level review over where we're at staff report with this and so just focusing in on the criteria for the park fee in Claire mentioned already the basic criteria they're already set for the levels and with the park development impact fees. There is, you know, still the qualification for in certain in certain building zones you can get an exemption of all park development impact fees so there's no requirement to pay any park development impact fees. In certain zones for anything above a third floor and then other residential zones there's a complete exemption above anything over three floors or more so. So we've got that that extra layer there. The other thing is that only 25% of the gross floor area that's is considered habitable. Whereas in other, if we look at it differently we want to have each each door essentially each portion of that 100% to be considered residential in order to qualify for each each time there's a new door and so this limits that. The other thing is there is an extra layer for criteria that if a developer is applying for private open space credit, they also cannot combine this incentive with that credit because that would be those two conflict with each other. Next slide. And so, as a status update. One of the things that was projected with the resolution that went to council was a reduction in park development impact fees collected in addition to an exemption for anything over a certain stories. It's a significant reduction to about $2 a square foot. This isn't generally not how we calculate fees for residential units downtown. It's a, it's a set fee for for a unit for residential unit. But when you take averages, it is a significant reduction. So if you look at a regular residential unit is anywhere from $4 to $16 a square foot depending on the square footage. So it's a nice reduction and a good incentive. The other thing as Claire mentioned that the, the projects do need to be within the downtown area for using this incentive and that was that map that Claire showed earlier. Another layer to this for the park development impact fees is the fees that the state does collect are kept within the zones that they're collected in downtown. Park development impact fees are collected per quadrant which the quadrants are made by the intersections of highway 101 and highway 12. They create the, you know, kind of four intersections so there's four quadrants. And so fees are still collected in those quadrants and there are three quadrants that overlap that map. So as those fees are collected, they will stay within that downtown area of the fees that are collected. We are working on the method for develop for collecting those fees and as of yet we have not collected any fees so not a huge update there but we wanted to at least share that with you, we do have two projects pending and they're going to equal about $900,000 that we anticipate to qualify for this project and then there's an additional four or five projects that may or may not qualify coming up that they've applied for building permits and we'll see where they're at so. That's where we're at right now, we've got a couple pending, and we're hopeful to get about four or five more of these projects. And next slide I'll turn it back over to clarify our next slide. This is our last slide and oh is it okay. Remember I see your data. If we can run through this last slide and then we can go through questions on that. Absolutely, I have no problem with that. Thank you. So this last slide is just like where are we at where our next step so staff's quite aware that there is a, not an expiration date that there's an eligibility date that will essentially be like a sunset date and that's that breaking round by August of 2023. So with this review of these resolutions in our work plan. We'll eventually be seeking direction if what you want to do with what the council would like to do with these resolutions. Otherwise, they will, they have their life and it's an eligibility sunset is what it is. And we'll continue to monitor the use of them will continue to collect feedback from staff and applicants from the public. And then we'll continue to report back to the downtown subcommittee. And that is the conclusion of our presentation. Alright, go ahead John. Thanks Claire and thanks Jen could you go back to I think it might be slide number 10. They weren't all numbered. The one with the mark rate versus affordable or I think I yes. And so you lost me on the. I think it's formulated the $2 per square foot. Explain to me if you could how the park fee incentive options are determined or how, how do the developers take advantage of this particular element. Sure, so I'll take a stab at revising how I'm describing it. I have Jesse. One of the things that's interesting is that while the, the parks are section does look at utilization of these fees going forward, Jesse's team does is the one that actually does the collecting. So we may need to ask him a little bit more, but essentially the way that these are collected normally for our codes is a per door, just data costs so for a single family detached home for instance, is around $12,000 per unit per door. So there's a little bit of difference between each zone. So we have the four zones where park development impact fees are collected. So to the resolution change the fee status to say that we're going to reduce it to $2 a square foot. So this is a different way. I think staff is trying to determine how best to implement that, but essentially you're going to divide the square footage of each unit coming in by that $2 rather than just having the basic standard fee that's paid per per unit. Jesse, if you want, if that helps. No, it actually does. And I just, I just got kind of a little bit confused in the formula. And now, and then you explained it to me now. And I was wondering if is there a way, let's say, you know, in the future, there are our parks are in good shape downtown. And there's nothing that is just, you know, biting of the bit to be changed or rectified in some way where there's there's damage or something and another, and another park within our city limits is in need of some quick funding. And is there a way to put into the land and believe me, I am pro downtown pro city center growth. I mean I and there's, there's, there's no one that's more dedicated to this concept than, than I am as far as I know, and I know there are the entire council is looking at the growth concept and, and to in, in, to improve the experience in our downtown. However, there could be areas, there could be times when certain parks need some fee some some kind of funding that could be collected from the downtown bucket, if you will, is there a way to include in the language with potentially a super majority of the council to allow funding that is that is sitting and waiting in the downtown because I'm when my assumption is, my hope is that there's a lot of development in the downtown and that that downtown parks fee will grow quickly. But then not necessarily identified as an as a primary use at that time. Is there a way to allow the council to say we know we have this money sitting in the in the downtown bucket. But this, but this particular park is in need of some funding. And is there a way to, to create some language that would allow the council to use some of the funding that's dedicated to the downtown in a different zone. So, you know, certainly an amendment going forward, I think could resolve that I would, you know, definitely want to check with our legal counsel. But right now, yeah, right now it is restricted. So the pie is slice thin for the downtown area and it's restricted to the downtown area for those projects that use this incentive in those quadrants so it does. It is restricted it is tight the only so right now the fees are collected by something called the Quinn the act and that collects it in those zones, and those four zones. This resolution for the park development impact fees applies only to projects that are qualified for this incentive. So we're, we're trying to earmark those particular projects and that that is the funding that will stay in that downtown area. And so it does become rather complicated and it's, it's, you cannot move it outside of the boundary at this point. But a future amendment amendment would allow that to happen allow the combination of funds to happen for instance like we're working on Fremont Park now. Fremont Park is is the funds using for that come from that entire quadrant there would not be enough funds collected in the downtown allow to update that part the way we have intended to update it. Another park similar. So yes, so there is a way with amendment I think to make that happen. Well, I appreciate that and you know if I was a developer and I was putting putting money into that bucket for the downtown park development. I would expect it to be spent there. So, whether it be alone or whatever what how, however would have to be designated and it may not even be legally possible but I was just, I was looking for a little flexibility and being able to be nimble a bit and I mean if there were other parks that were in dire need of some funding. And there were funds sitting available and unused in the downtown bucket, then that's kind of what I was just looking for a little flexibility and it may and not at all be possible. So it's a, it's a, it's more of a question and a potential recommendation, then, then is actually, you know, likely or possible so I just kind of a curiosity question and I appreciate the response. And we'd be happy to respond with some options there, because one of the other things to take into consideration is when we receive grant funding. We have to come up with a match for that and that's another thing that we would like to make sure we have the most optimum amount of cash available so to speak to match for future grants and that restricted additional restriction. That's a problem in future grants we don't know for sure. Absolutely be happy to return. Yeah, good point. Thank you very much. Claire my question for you is kind of a basic one. And obviously, we haven't had as much development downtown as we would like it to this point but do we still consider this program a success. Well, and success is defined in different ways so part of it is how all in is Santa Rosa with downtown housing so that package that toolbox speaks to that that intent and the sophistication of that intent about looking at it from different angles. I think the presence of being creative and addressing time cost certainty in all these different ways has been incredibly successful. That's why people are coming to downtown and starting to really do some significant investment and Jesse can talk about what's under construction now but what's what's going to be under breaking ground between now and 20 next year. In terms of technical success, you know that's going to we're going to actually have to dive into that. One, we, we need to figure out how used have these incentives actually been. And this adds a different test and then what would be output and what was the, what was the contribution that the city provided so yes there's pros and cons to any of these levers to Jen's point. It takes away from our match abilities to council member Sawyer's point, it your marks for a certain boundary in the city is that being flexible or at least quadrant. So there's pros and cons, but I think in terms of part of the overall push that's been very successful. And I think construction wise we would have been a lot more successful if we hadn't had the tubs fire the glass fire and all the evacuations and code. So that we couldn't control, but obviously we lost a lot of momentum in the last few years because of that. One of the things that I also hear from folks is a desire for a little bit more flexibility in what we constitute as a as a park. For instance, I know that some cities, and I've talked to rice about this before some cities have on the side of some of the buildings horizontal rock climbing for for kids and other types of activities that make the space more inviting. Is there a way for us to make this fun flexible so that it's not just being spent on a traditional park but really looking at amenities in the downtown that are park like or create that excitement and that activity. I'll do my best to chime in here I think that you know traditionally that's not how the code has been interpreted. And right now it's it's park property proper that certainly we can look at that and come back with what our options are legally to to look at, you know, can we do some things like that. Can we extend this funding to more creative ways of providing recreational opportunities, you know permanence one of the things about the code is it provides a sense of permanence. And I think that's one of these fees that it's going to be there in perpetuity so that that's something we want to investigate and get back to you all on because we like any ideas of trying to look at ways of creating permanent recreation and so yeah it's it's something that right now is has to be dedicated as park land. So we need to look at what the legalities around that would be and get back to you all. So I'm interested in that's exploring sort of that broader concept, not just on, you know, park proper but really what the intent and overall desire of a park is and whether that need is being met through more creative measures in our downtown where perhaps there isn't as much open space, but still that that need as we put in housing. Any other questions john. All right, let's go to public comment on the item. I see Steve Bertel bow and we'll have him start. Thank you Mayor Rogers and members. Steve Bertel by with a transportation and use coalition. I'm curious, how many projects we're talking about here. How many are in the pipeline or is it half a dozen a dozen or more. And do we have a sense of how many of those have been attracted by this particular process. Thank you. We'll hold questions until the end and then we'll ask staff to respond as we need to. Let's go to Adrian. Thank you and good morning everyone this is Adrian covert leaf Santa Rosa Yambi and a downtown resident. I think the incentives are resolutions program has been a success if you look at the number of developments that are downtown. You know, good medium density developments around the the certainly the railroad square area that are currently under construction and in the pipeline. I would like to see an actual accounting of how many projects and how many units have been using these fees so we can see we can make them better. But certainly I think we should, the city should find a way to extend and improve incentives to develop downtown. I think that, you know, more residents downtown is essential for bringing more customers and workers to make into the downtown area without bringing their cars, and is essential for having a vibrant city. Regarding the water and the sewer impact fees, you know, my question is that multi family households use about half the water demand as single family homes. I don't know if the current water and sewer impact fees reflect this lighter impact or are they the same impact, following the deferral period. And if they're the same, then there's an opportunity there to have the impact fees for the types of three multi family, you know, higher density projects for the impact fees to more accurately reflect their actual impact. Thank you. Thank you. Gregory. Yeah, thank you. What I just did in learning is something that I heard this. I'm confused because at one point I heard that it doesn't differentiate between affordability between inclusionary and a kind of, you know, a mix of housing. And on the other hand, one of your slides seemed to indicate that there were incentives and it did make a sense to try to vary the sizes and the design of the individual units. At the same time I'm looking at this, I read the staff report on 420 Mendocino, which is coming before design review and I have to have to believe that the change in the mix design to smaller units to take advantage of far was in some way kind of incentivized by this. So I'm interested in anything Jesse or anybody else can bring to the conversation about what has happened. Earlier I heard a $900,000 fee expectation or hope. And with with the sizes of the units that are being proposed. I also heard there were two in the pipeline that has to be about, you know, 450,000 square feet that you guys are expecting that these units are going to produce. 420 Mendocino is about 160. So I mean, I think there's actually some real projects that can be used as illustrations. And but it's really hard for me to figure out what, you know, Adrian and Steve are asking which is to what degree did it stimulate any of this because we won't really know that for a while. And that's really crucial to whether or not you ought to continue this. If all we're going to get from my point of view is a whole lot of market rate housing. I'm going to be less excited about it. We've said all along the stationary plan and lots of others that we want to mix and this is part of the formula. So let's let's get some data on what it is this is actually producing. Thank you. Thanks Gregory. Let's go to Hugh and then we'll come back to cadence. Mr. Mitchell. Yes. Do you hear me now. We can. Great. Thank you. Sorry. Technological illiteracy on my part. Speaking on behalf of the DAO, which of course manages the downtown benefit district. Several observations. One just for clarity that $2 per square foot fee applies only to affordable projects. Non affordable projects pay a different fee structure under the incentive program that may be clear, but I wanted to point that out. Secondly, I want to clarify Jen's comments about the Quimby act, the Quimby act is explicit that fees may be spent on quote, parks or recreational facilities unquote and many jurisdictions have interpreted that interpreted that as broadly as you're suggesting Mayor Rogers. There's no legal issue really about that. I also want to point out that the incentive program is needed. More now than ever the combination of exploding construction costs higher interest rates have made entitled projects, all the more difficult to get off the ground and has compromised the performance for projects that are now under consideration. It's really important to maintain this toolbox in its entirety. That's, I can't stress that too much speaking as a developer who is both working on projects that has projects under construction. In terms of the park fees. I also need to point out something that hasn't appeared yet in discussion, which is that the provisions in the ordinance and respect to park fees have been now incorporated in the downtown stationary plan. And they appear to be permanent they appear not to be subject to sunsetting, and that should be born in mind, and in addressing your comments. Council Member Sawyer. You could and should perhaps make this permanent. So you codify it. Obviously it can be revisited you could create a provision to revisit it periodically. And if there was a very significant number of units built beyond the hundred that we have currently under construction, or the roughly 100 that Pullman loss has under construction, then you can obviously revisit the policy which is a policy which is a plainly extremely critical. Finally, in terms of defining how park dollars are spent downtown. J. J. way Comstock mall, the potential climbing walls on buildings, planting, benches, trees, improved lighting, all those to make the downtown core a genuine recreation. And the source for that in part is park fees in part would be the IFD which you support and is critical. So I would encourage staying focused on the toolbox, making permanent whatever you can make permanent codifying what needs to be codified to eliminate inconsistencies and move forward aggressively. Thank you. Thank you so much you go to cadence. And thank you for being mayor Rogers Council member Sawyer, cadence, single Alton also with the downtown action organization and downtown district. I wanted to start by saying how much we appreciate the time and work of city staff in both putting these incentives together initially, and bring this into the discussion today. mentioned, the DAO is really committed to working with and supporting the city and kind of bringing our shared vision of downtown to fruition. I'm just going to reiterate the importance of keeping the park fees in the downtown area. It is really critical for the shared economic vitality of the area and the city center growth that Santa Rosa needs. We, as we're aiming to increase housing downtown and limit the need for vehicles, making the city more walkable and bikeable. We just, we need to continue investing and renovating the green spaces, parks, and recreational spaces within the area. There is an incredible amount of unmet potential in the downtown, both in the existing parks and for other recreational spaces. And we really need the city to keep the PDI fees in the downtown area in order to realize that potential. As everyone has said, we have not been able to make as much progress as we'd like over the past few years given the fires and the pandemic, but we are poised to make that progress with the number of developments moving forward and others on the horizon. And these incentives are critical for reaching our housing goals and continuing to attract new development into the downtown area. So again, appreciate all the time and effort that's going into reviewing this and the city's forward thinking policies about downtown growth and development. And we look forward to continuing to work with you all as these opportunities come up. All right. Thank you so much, Cadence. Any other hands? We have no additional hands raised at this time. Okay. I'll go ahead and bring it back. Claire, I'm hoping you can jump in on some of the questions that we heard from folks in the public. Namely, there were some questions around developments that are moving forward. How much do we know that this mattered for them? And then the distinction between affordable and market rate. Yeah, no, due for great questions that came up in public comment. I appreciate them. For what's in the pipeline, I'm going to lean on Jesse for that. I guess what I would say is in terms of collecting the feedback, a couple of things. One, documenting our progress, what is the momentum? Spoiler alert, but we are preparing a council briefing on what we're calling a downtown dashboard. And that's going to be presented on August 23rd. And so you'll get a peek. We're hoping to launch a dashboard that's similar to our rebuild tracker. We can actually see and monitor what's going on downtown for downtown housing. So that is forthcoming. So we'll all have the same information that you can self-research. And then we're also embarking on what we're calling the developer roundtable series right now. And part of this is part of our just looking at our downtown asset strategy, but really checking in with developers right now about what's working, what incentives are working, whether they find useful, and checking in with this toolbox and seeing what they like about it, what they would want changed, and whatnot. And then also in terms of further engagement, so this is on our council work plan, which means staff will be assigned to review this, monitor, report back out to the public. And the council will have an opportunity to weigh in on what they would like to do with it, whether it's an amendment or let it, I guess, de facto sunset. So with that, I'll turn it over to Jesse to talk about what's in the pipeline. And then I think Jen probably might have some follow-ups on some of the comments about recreation. I'll leave it to that. Thank you, Claire. So Mr. Mayor, Councilmember Sawyer, Mr. Futrell pointed out a couple of projects that are currently under construction. His Mr. Futrell's project at 8884 Street, that's one project that will be paying specifically into this downtown area for park fees. And then 701 Wilson Street known as Pullman Lofts, that project is one of those qualifying projects also in this park fee or incentive area. Those two projects combined, as I said, are under construction and they have fees that are deferred until final inspection or occupancy. So park fees alone are just about $920,000 combined for those two projects that will be paid into the system when they reach that point in construction. We have another project that is much more viable. So to speak, it has been recently applied for building permits. That's the railroad square project that we know of the old Canary site. I don't have the fee amounts for that one, but that one is one of the currently most viable that we see that is moving forward. And then there are three to four other projects that are entitled or re-entitling or getting close. Mr. Futrell talked about 420 Mendocino, that will, has been through the process once before, but it will be a qualifying project. And I recall last numbers on that project were approximately 120 units, I believe. So that would be fairly close to Mr. Futrell's project as far as what the dollar amounts would come in, which is 888 4th Street is $475,000. So that's where the split is. The other three projects aren't in for building permit application, and that's where we do apply the fees to, so we don't have dollar figures on those. And I do have some information as well on the question about the water and sewer demand fees. If you would like me to expand what I know about that, that's not my department, but I work with those fees as well. Sure. So the question was, is there a concession being made, or is consideration being made for smaller apartment square footage type units? And I went and looked at the water division fee schedule, and they do have a category that is new. And I recall it going through the process, Santa Rosa water went through a process to really evaluate small units. And it was a combination of small, high density type apartment units that really married up with the same way they looked at ADUs. And the magic number on those is 750 square feet or less. So they have a lower fee for a specific category in apartment units, 750 square feet or less, same number applies to ADUs, 750 square feet or less, no demand fees for those ADUs in a fairly significantly reduced fee for apartment units below 750. You know, I just want to provide a little bit of background too, just to go answer some of the questions that were provided. I mean, at the time our goal was housing for all. And there was a recognition through the Council of Enfield Builders that, you know, it might, we couldn't say no to market rate housing, but we were trying to incentivize or provide additional incentives for inclusionary affordable and affordable housing in the downtown. So I just want to point out that, again, we looked at these policies to Hugh Fitzgerald's point as part of a stack of incentives. So isolating it for one or another for specific purposes or trying to make it so that it's only for affordable is a little bit different from what the initial intention of our efforts with the Housing Action Plan and the Council of Enfield Development report that we responded to. So I just want to give the historic perspective as well on that. Thanks. And I'll just add one of the questions or one of the comments was about the $2 per square foot. If I missed that step, yes, it's for the affordable. So that's an extra incentive for adding affordability to a project that's coming downtown. You know, it's a significant reduction in park fees for anybody wanting to have inclusionary slash affordable housing downtown downtown. And then with the comments about using park development impact fees for other recreational purposes besides parks, we would definitely like the ability to further dive into that topic, maybe not right this minute, but coming back either to this subcommittee or to full council to look at that. And, you know, ask the question, are the park development impact fees the right fees to be used for things like that that maybe are less permanent? There's, you know, we have some concerns and we want to bring up all of the aspects around that. There's also other projects that we had to stop doing so that we could focus on the downtown with the park development impact fees we were collecting in order to meet that. So we want we want to have a really well-rounded discussion. So there's a lot of information available to this board and to and to the council when we're looking at this ordinance either sunsetting or moving forward as you know with an amendment or something like that or as is. So we want to make sure that all the information is there and you'll have the everything you need to make that decision about use of park development impact fees. Great. Thanks, Jen. John, do you want to any other questions or do you want to give your direction? No, thank you, Mayor. I appreciate staff's response and I have no further questions. Okay. From my perspective, I'd love to see us keep this train rolling. And so let's bring it to council as an end of clarity. You said it's already on the work plan for this year. Let's bring it to council for discussion of extension, whatever that means, whether it's a permanent move or if it's a timeline to be defined. I also do want to have the conversation about what the fees can go towards. Part of this is a recognition that what we define as a park in our downtown core might be different than what we define as a park in other parts of our city. And so I want to make sure that we're being as generous and flexible with the definition to be able to meet the needs of the people that'll live there. And so let's have that discussion. No, I appreciate that, Mayor. And I agree with you. I'd like to continue the conversation. I just want to make sure that what we told our developers about how these funds would be used is that that obligation is satisfied. But at the same time, I'm also looking for the potential for flexibility where possible. But if we say they're going to be used in a certain way, we have an obligation to make sure that they are used in that way, unless there's a dire need elsewhere where we can justify it and replace those funds in subsequent to the use in a different environment or a different site. So I'm not looking to eliminate our obligation as stated in the original intention of the council in 2018. I'm just looking for where possible, the possibility of some flexibility where legally and we're legally possible and without disrupting our obligation to those developers that have paid into that fund with knowing that they were to be used in a certain way. Okay. Are you saying? Yeah, I just want to say, Amy Nicholson has to jump off for another meeting and I believe Claire does as well. So the next sign permit item, Amy, do you want as the postponer? Do you want me and cadence to go over your notes for the sign item? I think I can provide a quick update and the housing ad hoc meeting can start with a different item that I'm not involved in. Okay. Mayor, do you mind if we jump to this real quickly? Yep, I'm good with that. Okay. Okay, you're good to go, Amy. Okay. So I'll just go through a few of my notes and good morning mayor and council member Sawyer. My name is Amy Nicholson and I'm the supervising planner for our current development team. And so we had a meeting with cadence from the Metro Chamber and Sino-Rama representatives, we being Claire and myself just last month to discuss some challenges with our sign permitting process. And the purpose of this meeting was to understand some challenges that were raised with our sign permitting process. And so we certainly recognize the importance of these challenges and our need to address them since signs are universal to all of our businesses here in Santa Rosa. And through this process, we identified a number of issues. First and foremost, we heard just generally that sign permitting was becoming a more lengthy and expensive process. Some of the specific issues raised were that the application requirements were unclear or confusing and this pertained to both planning sign applications and also our building permit requirements for signs. And then there were also some issues with the applicability of sign programs. So sign programs are typically only required for buildings which have multiple tenants and they are really specific to square footages and design. We redid the city sign ordinance, I think back in 2014 and at that time it was intended to sort of simplify the requirements for when sign permits are required. And it sounds like this has been a point of confusion as people have been attempting to obtain signs for businesses, even in cases where a sign program may no longer be applicable. And then we also heard that there was just an increase in the amount of time to obtain a sign permit. So we sort of understood this as being a change that came into place during COVID because we moved into virtual permitting and there were fewer people coming into the front counter to have their signs reviewed and issued over the counter. And so there's more back and forth that's been happening through email exchanges. So we've identified a number of follow-up items required to resolve these concerns and recognize some of these are shorter term items and some are longer term. We have had a follow-up meeting with our intake staff and also Jesse Oswald to just understand what changes have occurred in our sign permitting process for planning specifically since we moved to a virtual counter. And then our planning team has reviewed our sign permit application to understand how we can simplify it and clarify any requirements. And we'll be updating this application within the next month. And then I wanted to add too that we're very fortunate we just finished onboarding four new planners on our current development team and so they'll be able to help us with reviewing sign permits. We have a training that's scheduled so this will help to improve consistency and certainly help to alleviate some of the concerns that we heard during that meeting. So again those are some of the short-term solutions that we've identified and there are some longer-term solutions where we'll need to coordinate more with various other staff within the department but Claire and I will continue to work toward these solutions as we can and we'll continue to seek feedback from anyone who would like to provide it and can have a follow-up meeting as necessary and certainly provide updates to the subcommittee as well. And Cadence I know that you're here too and I'd love for you to add in anything that I may have missed. I don't think I have anything additional. I just want to say how productive the meeting was. This is an issue that's definitely come up to me over the last three years pretty regularly so I appreciate the acknowledgement and the the expediency that that you and Claire are kind of moving this forward to address some of the challenges. I think it'll really help both our existing businesses as they look to make facade improvements and help to highlight how the city is simplifying policies and permits for new businesses coming in. It's really great when we can talk about the kind of business forward approach the city is taking. John any questions? No questions just a comment. I mean in this this conversation I think because it does deal with aesthetics has been going on for decades and I don't envy your task in trying to come up with a program that satisfies all the the various nuances that are that have to do with signage and not only city signage and directional signage but signage on buildings. It's a very difficult task and it's very it has been going on for a very long time. I don't think it will ever be really completely satisfied because aesthetics change and people's desires change. We all know when we enter into a city and are faced with a lack of sign ordinance and the first thing that I experience when I see that is who the heck let them do that and that's what I don't want to have in our signage in our city is you know because they have they have forgotten the concept of subtlety and effectiveness and that's the that's the challenge and I don't envy you the the task but I'm I honor your the effort because we definitely need to have a model of what is and is not acceptable as difficult as that is to develop and I again I appreciate the effort. Let's go to public comment on this then John. If you have a comment go ahead hit the raise hand feature. We have no hands raised at this time. All right I just wanted to say thank you as well Amy I hear about this all the time from folks particularly downtown I agree with John it's no easy task it seems like it's something that should be simple and I hope that we can continue to move things forward and streamline it since it is a cost and it's a time time suck for a lot of our businesses trying to get even something simple done so thank you for that and thank you to Claire for for pushing it forward. Sure thanks so much. Let's go to item 3.3 yeah just a point out it seems like anything we do here is not simple it's like it should be a never is um all right so cadence and I are actually I actually want to do a time check too because um this isn't an urgent item if you guys get to go until 10. Yeah I actually I have another hour until my next thing John. I have no restrictions to the point. Retired life. All righty well um so this um report on data business recruitment development program development um is actually it's a collaborative effort between the city chamber and the downtown action organization it is um part of uh something that we call out on our economic development strategic plan as well and at least for this first initiative the city's sponsoring the it through funds but for ease and flexibility we're running it through the chamber program and cadence is leading it so I'm going to hand it over to her but just as an overview of what we're looking to do is this is really a marketing program um you know mostly web based but we want to make sure that the points of entry are seamless regardless of where they're coming into the city or inquiring about being in the downtown so we're looking to develop something that will be again online that you can get to from the downtown action organization website that centers the metro chamber website or the city website and the interface for permitting at such what again will be should be seamless the other thing that we're looking to do and again cadence will go into the detail but is this is an iterative program to get to do better and get better especially as the market changes and the needs change so it's another way to not just address the current things but to look for potential policy initiatives and that we can follow up on as we identify or as our market changes and we identify new things that are needed to encourage businesses to come downtown so with that I am going to hand it over to cadence to give an overview of what we're doing at this point thanks racy as racy said this is a collaborative effort and we're really excited to be able to be helping to move this forward from the chamber and the dao um we're going to be aiming to create a marketing piece and a website um as racy said that we'll be able to live with the city of the chamber in the downtown um that just highlights and promotes downtown santa rosa as a feasible location for successful new business and development um I think having having something very professional and holistic that pulls together all the benefits the incentives the relevant data and information is going to be really key both to share with share with brokers share with potential developers and provide the information for anyone looking at the area for potential investment opportunities so our goal is to complete this in about six months so we're looking at about march 2023 and as racy said to have materials that can be regularly updated as information changes as conditions change as the market changes so that it really reflects the current situation downtown and what people looking to invest in the area are are needing to know so the goal is to include um a bit of a picture of what's been happening downtown over the past couple years a little odd considering um most people think about the pandemic time as as pretty stagnant or um regressive but uh we we really didn't lose very many businesses and we've had quite a few new ones come in so it'll be important for us to highlight that um highlight the the new businesses that have come in highlight the the current developments and where they are in in their process as well as any upcoming developments that are kind of moving moving through so um we're going to have a map that kind of calls out all those pieces to give um a very nice visual for what and where the development is happening in the downtown area uh we're going to try to pull some some quotes and some feedback from businesses in the downtown um help people understand kind of the the market that exists here the the opportunity that current business owners have been able to take advantage of um we're going to include relevant information about the community as a whole talk about Santa Rosa um the demographics uh as well as you know some of the fun awards or uh accolades the city has gotten throughout the last few years um and then we're also going to work specifically on um data and demographic details that would be very relevant to new businesses so we're going to focus on some new methods for for data collection um to kind of explain and illustrate the opportunity really create um a really clear picture of what it would be like who your customers are um what type of activity happens downtown what people who come downtown are looking for all of those things that we we know that um new businesses and developers need need to understand before making that investment and then we're also going to highlight the services and amenities that are available to business owners so that will include you know the d.a.o. street level services it will include any um uh information about parking uh as far as the um ease of parking downtown the number of garages and spaces available for both um employees and for customers and then also highlight the business-friendly policies that the city has put together so that includes um the the um sign sign permit and ordinances that uh Amy was just talking about so we're really glad to be able to move that forward and then it also takes into account some of the other items that the d.a.o. has been focusing on this year so we've we've mentioned them for the last couple months um but it really ties into to kind of that memo and we know some of these ideas are more realistic than others some will move more quickly than others um and it'll be a lot easier to implement some than others um but we want to be able to talk about uh ti permits which we know is really big for new businesses coming in how long is it really going to take me to get up and running we've had a lot of complaints um uh or kind of shock and and disbelief about how long it can take for the permits to get processed and those delays can be really really harmful to new businesses getting started if they're anticipating having revenue come in one month and it's and it's four or five months later that they're able to start they're they're just kind of spinning their wheels trying to get back to where they they need to be and it makes it harder for them to be successful um we also want to talk about better uh parking permit options for employees downtown this one is a little more specific to office employees because we know um as you're uh bringing a workforce downtown during the day parking is expensive um so coming up with ways that will help incentivize office leasing downtown and make it easier for businesses who need um you know bulk parking for their employees uh to come here rather than uh you know out to stony point for a new office space we know that the office landscape is shifting so anything we can do to really promote downtown as a um as a a safe easy and affordable option for the places that are looking for offices will be really critical and then the last item on on the list of things that we're hoping to be able to um talk about and this one might be a little bit complicated is a five-year suspension of business license fees for new employers in the downtown which is kind of a minimal financial impact and it's really more about the perception of Santa Rosa being really business friendly um so so these are some of the some of the items that we'd love to be able to highlight in this package just as kind of quick bullet points things that really are um make it easy to move your business here or start a new business here um we have a lot of resources available to to share with um potential new businesses coming in both through the chamber and the city so I think Rice uh that's kind of my summary of what we're aiming to to accomplish through this project but we wanted to see if there were any other um policy initiatives or ideas that would uh that either um Mayor Rogers or Councilmember Sawyer wanted to share as as things that we could include in this um in this program as we have created over the next few months John oh thank you mayor and thank you cadence you know anything that we can do um that uh expedites and eases the ability of business owners to take the risk to come it's always a risk whether wherever they decide to locate um Montgomery Village is starting to look like a ghost town um so even in Montgomery Village it's a risk so anytime that we can reduce or mitigate some of the some of those risks of bringing businesses to our downtown is is um it's something that I that that I support I think that the the one has to look at the long term you know admittedly we may not get some fees in the beginning but the sales taxes and just the the the vibrancy of a downtown being lively and where you don't see a lot of closed businesses um is a long term short term and long term um plus so um I'm more than than pleased to hear you articulate some of the challenges and uh and recommendations as well so I having been a long term downtown business person for well for personally for 35 years and my family business started in 1945 so um I know the challenges and uh and and what can happen when the city gets involved and decides to make some changes to its fees um with the ultimate result of being a popular place for people to to to visit so um I appreciate the report and look forward to to to positive change yeah and uh our team knows that I I like the dashboards I like the access to information for uh for folks um I am picturing and Kate and Sue and I've had this conversation before I had somebody come to me and they wanted to look for office space uh to move their headquarters and they came to the mayor because they were trying to figure out what spaces were available and if we had a dashboard I could point them to and say go to this and see all of your different options but people are putting out there how much square footage they have uh what the expected rent might be um it'd be a lot easier for us to attract some of those businesses and just make it so convenient and easy for them uh that it's the path of least resistance for them to to come here so I think it's a wonderful project uh I really like the idea let's go to open it up for public comment see if others would like to make comments as of we do have uh one public public comment Gregory Farron hold on just one moment and Mr Farron you have the ability to speak you would like to proceed thank you very much um thank you cadence for that report and I wanted to add at some point in the future um the uh I'd like to see a report or at least some conversation about another huge metro program the largest single ARPA grant the county gave was to the metro Chamber of Commerce for what I will call a kind of equity uh incentives for BIPOC community businesses I don't want to see all those businesses end up in Roseland I'd love to be able to have a real incentive to have small businesses uh like they're supporting end up downtown and I'd love to be able to have some consciousness of what it will take to do that six million bucks uh is going to be spent on incentivizing and supporting those small businesses by the chamber and I'd love to be able to have you guys and the community uh join together uh whether it's you know business license fee waivers or anything else the city really needs to invest jointly with the county in this effort and I'd love to hear it in the future thanks a lot let's go to Polly hi thanks so much um I had our the marketing and development team for cornerstone and I also serve as the vice chair on the dao so I'm familiar with this project but I just wanted to reiterate the need for this um this is a tool that we um at cornerstone I've been looking to create um but it's something we really can't create on our own to see this more holistic view um and it's something that's really helpful not only for the business to business like you're talking about um and for brokers but for the development community um we have the development website obviously on the the city of Santa Rosa's um site um however it's not really a front-facing tool so I just want to reiterate the importance of this for developers to um not only attract really interesting you know ground floor tenants but also to help with um you know financing and showing banks and other community uh groups the impacts that um downtown is looking to see in the next you know let's say three to ten years so thanks so much for uh for supporting this thank you Pauline I don't see any other hands let's go and bring it back then any final comments john no thank you mayor and thank you cadence yeah thank you both all right let's move on to item 4.1 then while we have cadence yeah so actually we've moved to written updates um so that um we can streamline and focus more time on the things that we just did so I'm actually going to just do a very quick summary of what is uh attached as written updates to the agenda and we do have representatives from each of these uh uh groups um so if you have any questions we can pull them up but this is um this is the first time we're doing this so um from the downtown action organization I do want to highlight that in their reports they do both theirs and the rover square association they do call out new businesses um both um downtown action organization and rover square association highlight some of the common issues that they're um that they're seeing um so we have noted these we will continue to work and I know they continue to work directly with city staff on challenges such as um homelessness still of course um as well as the permitting issues so those were highlighted um something that I noted um which was interesting on the rover square association report is the scooter program that there are some complaints about scooters being left so um that's a possible future agenda item to get an update on the how the scooter program is rolling out um how effective it is if there are any issues we need to um address or that could be easily mitigated um the other park uh the other report that's attached is the parking program um so just a quick highlight on that one um the the parking program has returned to pre-covid operations um and I know you'll be getting this uh the walker study was done on um uh the state of our parking in the downtown area that's coming to council soon but there is a high-level overview of the walker study uh on the um report um we are still over parts we still have a lot of capacity for parking in their downtown um and then the the last thing especially vent permits we actually put this into two categories are we actually Tara Thompson did um so just to be cleared there's a special event application that um we get from the public for um for uh things within the public right away but then there's also the um additional list especially events at the center of the metro chamber um is doing under their blanket permit and that covered everything within the square in the downtown area um so hopefully you had a chance to read those or at least scan them and if you have any questions for any of those areas um we can unmute the correct people and then the other thing I want to say is if there are any other written updates you would like or if you want to go back to oral updates we can do that sounds good thanks Ray so John any comments on the reports um just a quick question you know I may have completely missed this and I apologize is there a current update on our parklet design program and how things are going in that in that arena um it's it's a I know it's probably a challenge for some of our retailers and some of our restaurants but I'm curious if I missed the report and secondly where are we where are we might stand and and what what do you see is the future um so um we don't have that agendized but if Ken stays on we can touch upon it under department reports I was going to call out and say that that is moving forward so Ken's don't leave yet we can do that under department reports okay let's see if there's any hands on our written reports we have no hands raised at this time okay I'll bring it back I did want to just highlight you know I'm in railroad square at least a couple of times a week and I did want to call out the uh railroad square association it's looking clean it's looking friendly I've noticed a real uptick in the last couple of weeks in particular of people being there and they're from the atmosphere so I did want to call that out in particular because even my wife noticed and pointed it out to me I thought that was nice okay so we'll go on to um department reports and so yeah we I did want to point out that we are moving forward in the uh the um parklet program as we move forward um we do have a couple of applications um Ken's you work more closely with some of those who are doing the applications in Osiello is one do you want to touch on how it's going because I know that you engage more closely than I do on this yeah I mean sorry the we have downtown we've got one um I think the furthest along is Osiello's they've put together kind of a very nice plan that's going to map the facade of their building um to expand into uh I think two parking spaces out front they might not actually be even taking up to because they're going to be kind of shifting a yellow zone um and then I know from talking to Gabe that uh both Bru and Toad in the Hole are also kind of in the early stages of moving forward I am regularly sending information out to all of our current parklet holders and Gabe and his team just sent a big update out to everyone who um has a parklet and a um I'm blanking on the phrase but seating attached to the side of the building patio seating so we have um I believe Russian River is moving forward last I heard with expanding their patio seating but they won't be having a parklet um and then um I love our downtown restaurant owners but they're not the quickest to respond to things so they've got so much else on their plate so they know they have until September 12th to get their current parklets um taken down and I imagine this month we'll get a lot of action from those who are ready to move forward um with starting the process figuring out the design um and kind of getting their permanent parklet in place there is a little bit of flexibility so if um any of the businesses are moving forward in the process but are not far enough along for their permanent parklet to be in place by September 12th um they will be able to keep it up as long as they are kind of good faith moving forward um with the the permanent part of the installation so I would get I mean by next meeting we should have a pretty clear picture of who specifically is going to have a parklet um and we might have some updates too on whether anyone else is going to be able to you do um can add the patio seating um so it's great to be able to share that there's a facade improvement program that the city is bringing forward I mean the I'm just saying again it was so great how the city brought all the fees down to as low as possible um you know five hundred dollars for a permit and then a hundred and thirty something for every subsequent year is it it's a makes a big difference especially when they do have to take on construction costs so now that the city is even offering to help support that is just um it's really appreciated and if you don't hear it from our restaurant owners I hear it from them so I'll pass it along to you how much um how much they see and feel that the city is wanting to kind of help and support their success but I'll I'll try to provide an update in my next report about who is um who's officially moving forward who's gotten the permit going and we'll ask for that from from chris and willow square as well thank you canes and through the mayor I'm the the I think I can speak for the entire council and they're sensitive to the costs involved and their dedication to creating a consistent and just a welcoming environment with with the parklets it's it's not easy it's not cheap um and we appreciate the effort the restaurants were hit hard as we all know and this is one more step actually it as as expensive as it may be and as challenging as it may be it is a a step in the right direction and I and I sounds like they the our restaurants are in agreement that as a long-term solution the parklets are are are a great idea so I appreciate their effort and it is not lost on us their dedication to creating a a an attractive environment in which to to have their dining experience so thank you very much um so I just want to be aware that this is um department forces these are agendas so I know you'll get public comment on this item at the end but I just want to be aware that we don't get into too much of the back and forth on this one okay thanks kings um so the other things that we wanted to do for department reports is I just want to let you know the EIFD we've put together um the enhanced infrastructure finance district um request for proposals for the infrastructure finance plan so an EIFD RFP for an IFP um so that's making its way through the city review process right now we hope to have that released in the next week or two time is of the essence for us so I'll give you an update on that at a future meeting we touched on parklets um I did want to say something just this isn't downtown specific but Montgomery Village is as new owner um and what is typical in malls is they lose tenants so they do the upgrades and regain tenants um I want to um give you an update on the the change I did make the edits to the um subcommittee purpose statement I can send that out in the just as a as an addendum to the next um meeting I didn't add it for this but I captured all of your changes that you asked for in the purpose statement last time and then lastly our department reports Tara Thompson has an update from the public art program thanks Raysa good morning Mayor Rogers and member Sawyer um so I will provide just some quick updates on the public art program and the projects we have going on in the downtown for the Unum sculpture in courthouse square there unfortunately have been additional delays with the artist submitting her engineering a final budget and her final design to us so installation is now looking more like the end of this year um there were delays with materials coming from various places in the world um and then and scheduling conflicts with the fabricator so it's just been slower uh in our COVID and the climate of uh of the world right now but we are currently working on finalizing the text for the plaque and other installation details for the Fifth Street parking garage mural the mural was completely installed in June but we have scheduled a dedication event for this August 19th so coming up in a couple weeks so please mark your calendars August 19th 5 30 to 7 p.m the art and public places committee will be hosting a dedication event uh we'll be closing down a small section of orchard street right in front of the mural right there to have a short celebration and more details will be shared soon for our ongoing conservation and maintenance over the last several months extensive repairs to the dragon tile mural on the prince memorial greenway have taken place and now the piece is finally stabilized there had been damage due to vandalism and some homeless encampment activity along the path there for the asawa art panels artworks foundry has had unfortunately extensive delays due to COVID outbreaks and have had to shut down several times so we are expecting to have the engineering for the panels and the attachment of the panels to the fountain completed by Monday August 8th and a timeline for the rest of the project should be generated shortly thereafter hopefully this week for live at juliar just wanted to invite all the community members to come out and we have three more concerts for this summer the first three have been really successful great music in the park great attendance there are three more happening sundays five to seven through august 21st and if you want to see the lineup you can go to srcity.org slash live at juliar or you can check out our out there santa rosa social media channels so thank you that's all i have and happy to answer any questions john any questions no questions actually important thanks tara yeah thank you so much tara really appreciate it and i look forward to getting that timeline this next week you and everyone else i think we're house daily that's it for the department reports but race it doesn't understand is that i have a recurring text message that just goes out to her every other day asking about it and then on the off days other people do that yeah look good a public comment then on department reports i don't know if she's still on but chris had her hand so chris's hand pop up and then disappear there she uh nope somebody new all right let's go to victoria and victoria just one moment victoria you have permission to speak if you'd like to proceed thank you very much and thank you for this report about this really large part concert series and i was wondering what accommodations are there for disabled i have a friend who can't walk very well or for very long and i was just wondering there's anything there and i apologize victoria maybe it was on my end you seem to have cut out so if you can repeat the question i can have staff respond when we come back i think it's um the question is um are there accommodations for a b a combination gotcha okay let's go ahead uh see if there's any other hands and then i'll have staff go ahead and answer we have no additional hands raised at this time perfect uh risa tara who wants to take that one i can address that thank you um so we did get requests from members of the public last week uh at the concert series for this so we're already working with risk management to make sure we're providing appropriate accommodations um there are paved pathways throughout the park and we can provide some kind of temporary seating for folks right near the paved pathways so i think that's what our plan is but we're making sure we're accommodating this correctly okay thank you john anything additional dad no thank you mere good job all right risa do you want to go over future agenda planning um yeah i just it's mostly a question for you is there anything um i i've noted a couple of things we can certainly come back on parklets um i can't find my notes on the other things that i noted um i think the um the dashboard item might be going to council before this but if it isn't that we can bring it here first as well um but is there anything in particular that you were interested in seeing that um uh that i should there yeah so the dashboard i believe is coming to council august 23rd i think was the date so it will be before our next meeting uh so it may or may not be worth doing a small demonstration or a quick demonstration on the agenda um i'll leave that to you in the the chair to determine uh and work with the the dao and others on on issues john anything else on your end no just thank you mere just thanks to to cadence and to chris even though we didn't hear specifically from her um and all and the staff your your plate is full and i appreciate all the efforts in making our downtown um what we know it will be um in the future yeah and i just want to echo those comments and maybe it's just because it's summer maybe it's because we're emerging more from the pandemic um but i do find myself being pulled to to downtown in railroad square uh if not daily then every couple of days um and it just seems like there's always something that's happening there's a there's a buzz that's that's going on and so it does feel like things are trending in the right direction i want to thank folk for their efforts on that right that's it then that's the agenda all right let's see if there's any public comment for future agenda items we have no hands raised at this time okay we'll go ahead and