 I'm Kristen Atumians. I'm the project planner assigned to the Woodlands project and tonight we're gonna have the pre-application neighborhood meeting So just a little bit of a house of housekeeping. There is a sign-in a few sign-in sheets going around on clipboards It's helpful if you could sign in that gives us an idea of how many people are attending and It's a way to sign up for future updates Please sign as legibly as you can and then To be able to speak tonight in an orderly way like we have some comment cards or speaker cards, sorry Those aren't required, but it helps keep the comments moving in an orderly fashion There are comment cards for written comments. If you'd like to submit written comments tonight There'll be other opportunities to submit written comments Mike has holding them up right now Or Mark. Sorry. Mark is holding them up at the podium there You can also email or mail your written correspondence at any time, but if you'd like to submit those tonight, you can just to let you know the meeting is will be recorded on YouTube and We'll post it on the project website once it's available and Just to respect everyone's time because I know it's Dinner time a meeting will end promptly at 8 so we'll try to keep the meeting with a sharp end time And so this is my Contact information We have a dedicated email Inbox for this project so you can send comments at that email at any time. That's my Direct work phone number and there's a project website for the woodlands So what is the purpose of this meeting? It's the pre-application neighborhood meetings Provide an opportunity for early inputs By affected neighbors and serves as an open forum where neighbors can meet with the applicant team and get more information about a project and they can ask questions and share feedback Tonight there are no decisions being made. This is really early on in the process and it's sort of a first look at what could be submitted in the future and Just some for some ground rules Unfortunately, we've had some negative experiences recently at council and planning commission meetings. So The city is committed to creating a safe and inclusive environment free from disruption and We will not tolerate any hateful speech or actions including those on zoom Or any aggression towards staff or the applicant team. So we will be monitoring this meeting and ensuring that Everyone is participating respectfully. So everyone has an opportunity to participate So if anyone's disruptive or disrespectful, they'll first be muted if you're on zoom or at the podium and given a warning If the behavior continues, then you will be removed from the meeting But hopefully that one happened tonight And then just to give you a brief overview of what the project is currently Described as So the Woodlands at Sinead is a 71.62 acre infill site Located along both sides of Sinead Road and Cobblestone Drive West of Hinden Valley Drive North of Rolling Hill Drive and East of Sycamore Avenue and Nielsen Court Historically this property has been a site for a medical campus as you many of you know It has been vacated for some time and it was sold to a developer There are currently four active uses remaining on the site those include the county morgue a public health laboratory a bird rescue a women's shelter as well as a small cemetery The applicant proposes to amend the current general plan land use designation and rezone the property to accommodate future residential development So the entitlements the applicant will request will be a general plan amendment rezoning and those We a staff believes will require the preparation of an EIR, which is environmental impact report So what is a general plan a general plan is a broad long-range policy document It guides future development and conservation and is a comprehensive collection of goals and policies related to multitude of aspects of community life and in California cities and counties are required by state law to have one And it's sort of our blueprint for future development what we want to see in the city over an extended period of time the zoning the zoning and zoning code zoning ordinance implement that general plan through detailed development regulations such as You know what kind of uses you have what the building requirements are like setbacks height parking etc and Then what is a EIR environmental impact report it's an informational document used to assess physical characteristics of an area and to determine what effects will result if the area is altered by a proposed Action or project and this is prepared in compliance with our California environmental quality Act And so the EIR a EIR will cover a multitude of different topics like those listed behind me This is it could include more, but these are typically what is studied in EIRs and they include transportation wildfire And very and various other topics so those would all be studied in the EIR and The site is currently designated public institutional Both in the general plan and zoning so it limits what can be developed on the site to public facilities utilities hospitals Like schools libraries government offices, so it's very limiting on what can be developed there and the review process will be pretty intense Once the application is submitted There will be a notice of application mailed to residents Various entities will review the project both in the city and outside of the city different entities and The city will have a request for proposal for environmental consultant to assist the city into in preparing the EIR There would be a there will be a scoping session, which is a public meeting to determine the scope of the EIR So I'll be another public meeting once the draft EIR is prepared there will be a notice of available availability and A notice is mailed to the neighbors within a thousand feet to review the EIR It's made public to the neighbors and then there will be a public hearing before the planning commission to review the adequacy of the draft EIR So that would be another notice that you would receive And then once the final EIR is prepared then there will be public hearings So first it would go to planning commission who would make a recommendation to council and the council will make the ultimate decision on whether to certify the EIR and Approve or deny the general plan amendment and rezoning and so the items that I've highlighted in yellow are all the opportunities the public has To participate comment review check in on the project With that I will turn over to the applicant team. They have a brief presentation Good evening everyone And thank you for attending in person and those on zoom The neighborhood meeting to discuss the future of the shenate road hospital campus or what we now are calling it as the woodlands My name is George Maloof Partner with Eddie Haddad And we are very excited to be a part of this project that will transform a historical site That is the largest of its kind in a generation First I'd like to give thanks to the city of Santa Rosa staff for coordinating the meeting They've been very helpful in guiding us through the process and look forward to our continued work together Also, I'd like to recognize our council member Victoria Fleming who's been very transparent with her immediate concerns Over the maintaining of the property thoughts for the future and neighborhood concerns I think we're all very much aligned with the important aspects on the future of the woodlands Eddie and I put together an amazing team of respected Professionals from Santa Rosa community to partner on the project and to introduce them briefly I'd like to point out Keith and Amy Christopherson from Christopherson builders Christopherson build Christopherson builders has been building in Northern California for over 40 years with more than 7,000 homes and 63 communities to date in In addition to being voted Sonoma's County Builder of the year for several consecutive years and winning JD power awards both Keith and his wife Brenda were inducted in the California Builders Hall of Fame in 2006 the firm's president Amy and Keith's daughter is Positioned to bring the same quality of customer service to their clients have expected to receive for the second generation homebuilder We also have Eric Swinside our land planning architect from Las Vegas based advanced and associates and Jeff Coleman to my left from BKF engineers who has extensive knowledge with the city of Santa Rosa ordinances and development standards Lisa Mayo is here as our key point of contact for me for media and community relations whose contact information is available to anyone who would like to reach her The 71-acre Sinead campus includes 17 buildings built between 1936 and 1994 all but two buildings are vacant the Sonoma County Moorg and the Sonoma County Health Department have existing short-term leases and Will be relocated to new buildings once complete The property also includes a bird rescue center that will be relocated once their new facility is built a Historic cemetery adjacent to the 26 acre Pioneer Creek flood control reservoir nine acres of land along Pauline Creek is owned by the Agriculture Preservation Open Space District and includes parcel J With nine acres of land dedicated for public access in use I'm gonna make my comments brief. So we have plenty of time for questions from from the neighbors Sorry, we're not there yet Okay, so I'd like to introduce Jeff Our project engineer. Thank you George appreciate the introduction for those of you that don't know. I'm Jeff Coleman I'm a civil engineer land surveyor and Vice president BKF engineers I'm not new to Sonoma County. I've been here for 40 years or at least a resident for 40 years And I've been practicing here for a little over 25 years And so I first want to thank the city of Santa Rosa for hosting this meeting I want to thank everybody for joining us this evening Now whether you're here with us at the council chambers or participating via zoom We all realize your time is valuable Your your presence is appreciated And we thank you for your interest in helping shape the redevelopment of the former shenate site Now the reason that I say help shape the redevelopment shape the redevelopment of the former shenate site is Because that's precisely what we're going to be doing Now you may be wondering While we're seeking input when we have a concept master plan shown on the city's website But the only reason the concept plan was provided Was so that we can show the city They had asked for a one or more alternatives that demonstrated how the site could actually be developed And so that's the reason that that concept was provided And so the concept that's shown on the website is not part of the upcoming application that's being submitted to the city uh, the christened was talking about a little while ago And uh, again, the only thing that could probably be taken from that that would be of interest would be Looking at the fact that we're proposing a combination of single family residential townhomes and apartments But other than that the the only site plan that you're going to see with the upcoming application Is the blank canvas that you see right now on the screen before you right now And that's uh, the exhibit that's being accompanied with the general plan amendment application So we want to thank sony and the friends of shenate for meeting with us to help us understand the community's needs Uh, we think we've got a pretty good handle on the community's concerns And that's usually a great step to planning a site So we did hear that some of the community's concerns are traffic We know that emergency egress is a concern We know that the density of the development is a concern And we know that people are concerned about the impact in schools and public services And did I mention traffic because we all know that traffic is a concern So, you know, these are all really important elements That need to be studied and evaluated And we'd like to hear if you have other concerns other than those And more importantly, we want to hear about the things you'd like to see within the development So we're curious if you want to see a market Uh, would you like to see a small park? Would you like pickleball courts? uh, we learned talking to a number of people that Uh, people wanted to see the trail system the trail network that runs through snowmowaters property improves So you're not walking an ankle deep mud in the middle of the winter And so these are things that we want to hear what are your desires coming out of this development And so the purpose of this meeting is to answer your questions Is to hear your concerns, but more importantly, we want to gather input to help shape this development Because we don't have a site plan that's fixed And so we also want to keep you informed and keep you part of this process And so the question are they going to be other meetings? The answer is absolutely. There'll be additional meetings And so what are the next steps as uh chris and they pointed out the land use for this property is currently public institutional And that's intended for public buildings hospitals schools and government offices None of us want that we want a residential development out there if anything at all And so the current land use that's out there today is not congruent with the surrounding community And so this really ranges from low density residential to the east which is on the right the graphic above to medium density residential on the west Which is uh, can be seen by the the small orangey brown area on the left hand side of the yellow And so uh We would really like to change the land use so that it's consistent with the surrounding uses And so in order to do that as chris may had mentioned the general plan amendment the rezoning the environmental assessment are needed to to accomplish that And so the outcome of this process will actually drive the site plan. So we're looking at uh running through a number of Special studies and the environmental process is going to help us establish that site plan So again right now, we don't have a fully vetted site plan and we're looking for input to help with that So the the existing site is naturally broken down to what are somewhat free distinct areas And we're calling the neighborhoods and the graphic above So neighborhood c that's to the east on the right hand side is composed of approximately 30 acres And we're currently proposing to rezone and reestablish the land use there as low density residential And this is consistent with the areas to the south and the east So in that exhibit on the right hand side and just below And uh And so if you're kind of curious what this might look like it's going to look like the areas that are surrounding it to the east and to the south And then chris may if I can have you toggle down to it And so uh with the exception of if if the community wanted a small park and or the pickle ball courts that I'd mentioned before or something similar Then you know those types of things could also be incorporated in the development So as george mentioned earlier, he and eddie they uh, they intend to partner with christopherson builders For the single family residential homes and many of you know christopherson That's a name that's been around sonoma county for a very long time And everybody that knows them knows that they take pride in the quality of the homes that they build and in my opinion There are some of the nicest homes in sonoma county So uh on the screen before you right now Is a rendering of a some similar product that they're doing just over the hill over in fountain grove And uh, this is also consistent with the zoning that's being requested in neighborhood c So we are asking for a slightly higher density neighborhoods a and b And neighborhoods a and b they're approximately 20 acres apiece making up 40 acres And so the zoning for those areas We're asking for The land use to be able to accommodate between eight and 18 units per acre And again, that's consistent with the orangey-brown area to the west just west of the schnade development and uh again, um You know a lot of people are going to ask the question Okay, how many homes are going to be built and you know the answer to that is that we just don't know yet Until special studies are performed and we've completely vetted this with the environmental process and until that happens everything else is speculation so If we are strictly looking at the math looking at the density ranges are being requested Then we're talking about somewhere between 388 homes at the low end and 878 units at the high end But again, this is going to be a combination of single-family homes townhomes and apartments And whether or not we can actually achieve the higher end of the density. This is true of any development that we've ever worked on We don't know the answer to that yet. Again, until we go through that environmental process But the the actual density that we're able to achieve is going to depend on constraints the things that I mentioned earlier It's going to depend on roads transportation egress Fire safety and all the things that we're going to study through that process including earthquake faults So the next question everybody wants to ask is When can we expect to see a site plan? it might take a year to get through the environmental process and So we're looking at the end of 2024 And then we're going to have a better understanding of our opportunities and constraints and and then once a real site plan is developed it's going to be shared with the community And at that time another neighborhood meeting is going to be held and an application submitted the city So we've got multiple public hearings So this very first step is just getting through that environmental process And trying to figure out what our opportunities and constraints are mitigation measures will be developed And it's with those mitigation measures that we're actually going to figure out. Okay. What can we actually build out here? And so uh, how is emergency egress going to be handled and so our experts are going to study this they're going to like I said evaluate this and determine what those mitigations measures need to be And uh, that's going to all be included in the environmental document that's going to be produced It's going to be made available to the public and everybody's going to have a chance to look at that environmental document next year before it gets taken to the council And so, uh, another question that, um People tend to ask is how tall are these units going to be? Uh, we can tell you at this point in time that the single family homes are going to be one in two stories Um, but we haven't figured out the rest yet. That's all going to be determined and so Will there be commercial uses? Will there be a park? Will we have the pickleball? Are we going to create a walking community? That's kind of up to you. And that's what we're here to obtain feedback for And so with that I'd like to get all of your thoughts on that and i'm going to turn this back over to christine. Thank you With that. Thank you for your presentation With that we're able to get started with the public comments. We're going to do in-person questions and comments first and we've reserved some time, um Around 7 15 or so for the zoom uh people attending zoom to be able to um ask questions or give comments um, if you can please keep your comments to two minutes and, um If possible try not to repeat the same, uh comment. Um And we have some comment cards um that jessica has so she'll call um whoever's submitted a comment or speaker card We'll come up to the podium. Thank you All right. Thanks everybody and just a quick introduction to myself. I'm jessica jones I'm the deputy director for our planning division overseeing both our current development Division and our advanced planning policy work um, so i'm going to be reading these Uh three at a time so that people can cue themselves up So if anybody is out in the courtyard listening in you'll hear your name and you can Come in to speak I mean as christine mentioned if we could try to keep it to two minutes Just so that we can get as many people to have an opportunity to speak as we can Should there be any questions if these are questions that we could potentially answer We will attempt to do that. We've got representatives from most of our city departments here in the chambers with us And for any questions that we can't answer tonight And for any of those that we can we're going to be gathering all these questions and putting them together to Create a frequently asked questions page that will be put as part of the project page on our website So first up is going to be jim herson followed by bill davidson and then rental affordable housing So we've got two podiums up at the top you can pick whichever one you want They are they can be raised on the right hand side. There's a toggle if you need to raise it up or lower it down And then if you could speak directly into the microphone, that would be helpful Good evening. I'm jim herson resident of hidden valley estates. We just got I guess i'm not short enough anyway Jim herson resident of hidden valley estates. We were part of the fire burnout We just returned after the fire to find this proposal which Frankly, we're very concerned about As a person who used to live on the east coast, I have seen high density developments in many places It never works out to the positive benefit of the neighbors to the development ever They result in higher crime higher demand for social services higher traffic problems Never anything that is a benefit One of the things that I am most concerned about with this particular development I'm speaking specifically of the high density development now Is we just went through a period of of 20 percent mandatory water conservation I Assume there is a water study somewhere that has to do with the consumption of all of these giant apartment complexes and high Occupancy developments that are being made that is compatible with the time of drought Which is becoming more and more frequent And to expect the citizens in the neighborhood to increase their conservation To provide more water to a high density development is frankly unreasonable So it raises the question and the best thing question I saw on the screen was what are alternative uses What should we do with this property rather than let it sit there and decay? The answer we think at least like in my family Is we should be looking at something like vocational training sites We desperately need more Urgent care facilities if you go to providence hospital to the emergency room Their gurneys are lined up on all of the walls with patients in them people that don't really need Emergency care, but can't wait four or five weeks to see their primary care physician if they have one Jim thank you for your comment your two minutes is out And also just a quick note if you are not able to get in everything that you want to say in the two minutes You can contact christine through the email and we can we'll put that up again later in the evening But there's also comment cards up at the top of the chambers up here Or you can write written comments and provide them tonight, but we'll have lots of ways for you to submit additional comments So up next is bill davidson followed by rental affordable housing and then sam walker Okay, thank you bill davidson resident of hidden valley And I appreciate this time to be able to speak here Uh as far as potential uses for this land while I see that something needs to happen other than a deterioration mode I think something other than high density Low-income housing might be in the offing And what I feel that some of these state mandates are doing Is that we are you know, the there's this whole idea about low pay And we have to support industries that don't pay very much. Well, how about we further our community with building Opportunities that bring in higher paying jobs. So Instead of perpetuating low pay and building high density Low-income housing. Why don't we use this land to develop a business park? Or some sort of further educational institution? And perhaps do something like a business incubator to really Bring something more to Sonoma county in santa rosa Excuse me The other idea I'd like to float out is that should this project go through And the you know up to 900 units that's being discussed I I think that the residents Surrounding the this this area and perhaps the entire town Might start to view this as a taking situation where Our quality of life is being taken Our um our homes could potentially be Further diminished in value and I think that there needs to be something To along the lines to consider of inverse condemnation. So those are my comments. Thank you Thank you very much Up next is a rental affordable housing followed by sam walker And then uh, Nancy I think it's waxig So we had somebody submit one Just stating the name as rental affordable housing. Well, I'm sam walker. I guess. Okay. Yeah, go ahead sam. Okay all I had we live in cobblestone and You know the traffic on cobblestone when you come down to shenai And and getting on shenai sometime can be Really high risk adventure and all I and then I see That the possibility of this high density housing and even medium density housing and some of it may be coming Right in the same area and so the traffic would be Multiplied worse. It's not just traffic But we we've had and we will continue to have in the future where we have to evacuate And I just cannot imagine this thing when you have that many people as a possibility And coming on to the shenai And uh, the roads around there Thank you Thank you very much Up next is Nancy. I think it's waxig then followed by phil wheel and then brian mills I think I need to correct my name. It's a wa ng. Oh, sorry about that. It's wrong I'm 46 years resident at hennie valley drive. I'm so glad to hear you say low density This is the only things I think everybody here we want to hear We don't want to be chaos. I hope everybody still remember 2017 We had to be back in vape on the fire. It's only shenai roll. We can get out We're fighting for our life to get out of there copper stone And what's the nomida heights Montecito heights Hennie valley area and fountain grove We're fighting our life to get out of there. I hope these things is not going to happen again Then also I would like you keep your promising low density please Because without I think you Forks is the third developer county soda to turn over for different owners and uh The only one things we have a history cemetery out there because My personal I worked at cemetery. We have a 2008 We delicate that cemetery and because you block the road. We can't even go up there anymore being stole and completely destroy the history cemetery there So I hope after you do some developer low density, please And keep public assets open We can go up there to pay our respect because that's cemetery since in 1986 Has a lot of history there This is a residential area. I think everybody here Really want to be low density. Please. Thank you Thank you Up next is phil wheel followed by brian mills and then sandy stoddard Thank you. I've come from an environmental point of view and I find it Cruely ironic that in order to make this development called the woodlands The oak trees and the redwood trees will need to be cut down We've talked our neighborhood has talked about wanting a buffer between The houses that currently exist that look back into a beautiful, uh, natural area And what horrible possibilities there is for the future in that back area when the homes are built The people are put in their cars are there their dogs are barking their lights are on etc My suggestion is for the builders to come into the neighborhoods and do what mr. Maloof said that Communication is required And come meet in several of the houses so the neighbors can have a meeting rather than a large Mega public forum like this and listen to What people are looking for what we'd like to see when the land is developed safely and with the neighbors in mind Thank you Thank you. Up next is brian mills followed by sandy stoddard and then uh burt mendenhall Hello, thank you for the time tonight. My name is brian mills My family and I own the property on the corner of parker hill in cp hollow Which we just finished rebuilding after the tubs fire My children attended sleepy hollow or sorry a hidden valley elementary school Which is now completely overrun with students because even the satellite campus that used to exist was not rebuilt So I spent over 12 years now driving in and out of that neighborhood rebuilding in it getting to know the neighbors I can definitely say that that neighborhood was built with the intention of low density housing One the r16 at best Um when I hear the initial comments about how this is being planned and what the ideas are I don't think you're at all in line with what the neighborhood actually wants I don't think we want a bunch of medium density or high rise buildings We all saw what happened in coffee park when you have a bunch of homes shoved together Or at the bottom of found grow were two large apartment type buildings. There were hotels burnt down completely Uh the idea that having a bunch of graham together christofferson homes and high rise apartments Is what the neighborhood even the community wants or what that area was designed for is completely out of step With what actually is needed in that area and what the surrounding community actually wants So I do hope that you do hold yourself to your comments and to your pledge to listen to us And understand what's actually wanted and needed in that area and not create some amazingly out of step and out of place development that will cause nothing but chaos and problems like jim described And bringing nothing but a lowering of the quality of life to that area Thank you Thank you. Up next is sandy stoddard followed by burt mendedhall and I think it's jackwell and marcus First of all, I apologize for my hearing problem. I missed most of the comments So I I've Apologized if i'm being repetitious I live in The area just behind the northern park parking lot of the old sutter hospital And my concern is is traffic is is is concerned with lots of people There's only one road which comes down into shenate From our neighborhood There's hundreds of homes up there and you add on to that Somewhere where a thousand plus Cars with the new development My question really is to the city is there going to be a Traffic light added on to the terror linda Where it joins into shenate And that's that's my that's my question. Thank you. Thank you for that quest. Thank you for that question With the environmental impact report there will be a traffic analysis a traffic study done along with EIR that will analyze whether any sort of light or Other types of mitigation are required You also have someone from traffic. I don't know if you Have anything to add but All of that will be analyzed as part of the EIR Okay, up next is burt mendedhall followed by jackwell and marcus and then tim mcfarlin I'm uh burt mendedhall. I live A block from the center the old center hospital on neilson road I am now retired but used to leave often for work Just as everyone's bringing their kids to school or going to school It would take Even though there's a light up at the old center hospital It would take a long time to get out of that and somebody already said it You're taking your life in your hands So yes, I'm talking about traffic and You've addressed it several people have addressed it I've heard for many years That they're going to put a lot of homes up there I'm all for homes I'm all for helping the veterans But on our side of town I'd like to see it go for yeah, maybe a pickleball court. How about a swimming pool? How about another soccer field for the kids? It's not going to make you money but You are putting our lives at risk because I've I've only looked at it as You can't widen chenet road You're going to put stoplights For every side street Or are you going to stack the road? I don't see any way to handle That much more traffic fountain grove did not alleviate traffic on chenet road Everyone takes it That's all I have to say is I just I want something else done with it Or a combination not as many homes as you could put in there Thank you Thank you very much. So up next is Jacqueline Marcus Tim McFarlin and then I I'm going to I apologize everybody if I mispronounce your names. I think it's a piota Chimbalski Hi, thank you very much. I was very pleased when you were making your presentation That you were going to include a park Until you said small park Because so many other areas in san rosa have these big beautiful parks like in bennett valley with a golf course and tennis courts and all this beautiful stuff and Montgomery village has a park at doile park and juliard park and they're all over the place We don't have such a park in our area. So I hope you seriously consider that But what I really wanted to speak about and I I know other people have already is The fire danger. I I still have ptsd. We've been evacuated three times now in five coming on six fire seasons It's a very fire prone area and very little egress in that area. So at most Low density housing beautiful park in there. I think it would be beautiful But I did want to add one thing to emphasize The fire danger there. I just lost a home in that horrible fire in lahina And I actually have friends who had to they left their car on front street With all the other cars where families burned to death in those cars Because they couldn't get out she she's able-bodied. So she climbed over the brick wall down into the water She survived We don't have an ocean We're stuck on shenate or hidden valley or somewhere else one of the other little side streets And the fire is blazing and everybody has stopped in front of us and they can't go anywhere We can get out of our cars But there's nowhere for us to go. We can't jump into the pacific ocean But save some of the people in lahina But it didn't save everybody who got caught in their cars. So please I don't think we can emphasize this enough Miss here two minutes are up. Thank you Okay, up next is tim McFarland followed I'll be brief and I just want to uh add on to what was just presented We were presented with a similar project about five years ago and the repetitive question at the time was Emergency exit on shenate Um, and I asked the question when is it going to be widened and everybody laughed The since the city of santa rosa's had almost five years to deal with this question of adding 1200 1500 cars What's the plan? You've had five years to develop a plan. Where's the plan? That's real simple It's an easy question I've heard anything from anybody about a plan and and and to Follow up on the eir with traffic. Um, I can tell you the traffic is going to be a mess. You don't need to study It's real simple. It's going to be a mess So save your save your money. Don't don't waste your time doing a study on traffic. It's real easy. Thanks We do have representatives from traffic and fire that could Speak to either traffic or evacuation. We have paul lo and paul We're a fire department and terino wilson from traffic Hear me. Can you hear me now? Okay. Hi there. I'm terino wilson. I'm the transportation planner for the city of santa rosa. Um, I Have a lot of thoughts and comments based on the comments that have been made by the public and I you know It could take so long for me to answer all of the questions Um, I agree, you know, there's traffic on chenet and we know as a community and As a nation that we can't build our way out of congestion And even in you know moments of intense evacuation, which I know we've experienced many times There's no community where the entire transportation system can accommodate Your whole city evacuating at the same time And so that's an issue that that you know, the city really cares about and we try to look at I did pull the traffic counts from chenet in preparation for the meeting tonight and so You know, I can share that with the planners who can share it with I heard there would be some sort of frequently asked questions page put up So you can have that information the main issue with evacuation as far as I know is intersections Our intersections are Smaller and we don't have the right of way in a lot of cases to then widen them so that you would have enough access for egress so The the traffic impact analysis that will have to happen as part of this project It's going to look at all of the intersections and it's going to have to Make recommendations on what kind of things can be done To help mitigate the impact of the project. So I know that the report is going to tell you that traffic is rough That's the point of the report. So the the point of the report is to say Here's what the impact is going to be and here's a couple ways that we can help remedy these issues And that happens before the project gets approved So you get to see that before it goes to your city council members and before they approve the project So you then have another step to read that report Make your own determination based on the report and the mitigation that's put in it and then You know then comment to your council members Okay, up next is And I apologize for the name Piotr Chimbalski followed by James Barnes and then Blake Heligus Good evening. Thank you. It's it's Peter Sambalski. I live north of Cottington. Oh, is it better? I live north of Cottington. It's Peter Sambalski No hard feelings. By the way, I've had lots of substitute teachers have way worse pronunciations than that. So water under the bridge When the purchase of the property went through there was a public plan which discussed Mixed use development. I think that's a great idea neighborhood mixed use NMU creates sociable walkable fiscally stable Urban regions they reduce car traffic by bringing workers and customers directly to the shops You can go downstairs to get groceries or get a haircut or anything they reduce But they're sociable walkable spaces because those shops you go to every day become third places places that are neither home nor work Where you can relax and socialize They maybe create more economic activity than a similar purely commercial space or purely residential space because of course the increased interaction and the Frankly increased density in terms of dollars per acre. They are very effective and help pay for their own infrastructure much more than single family detached or low density commercial Why was the NMU plan Scaled back As as we've seen now we're looking only one shop say what happened to more and NMU Zoning and can the city encourage that use and as a quick aside, can the city help the development become resident-owned co-ops or co-op or network uploads Thank you Thank you very much. Okay. Up next is James Barnes followed by Blake Hilligas and then Charlene Staples yep, um, I live in cobblestone and as most of you know cobblestone is surrounded by most of this project um cobblestone has one way in and out and I was there during the tubs fire and We could not get out We could not get on to to shunate. It was impossible. We sat there for Extended periods of times because nobody everybody like this one lady said were afraid for their lives and left And wouldn't let anybody in and so it's up to the city of santa rosa All you folks down there to protect the citizens of santa rosa The plan that i've heard it here really does nothing to alleviate the problem that we had in 2017 As far as I can tell nothing is going to happen to shunate that's going to enable it to withstand the traffic onslaught particularly in light of an emergency be it a fire or an earthquake and so earthquake would have the similar effect of not being able to get out and so um We I look to the city of santa rosa and you folks the city employees that ostensibly work for the citizens of santa rosa to um protect the the people that live there and not allow immensely dense project to go through that will basically um If there's another fire it'll be a death Uh Sentence for the people cobblestone in particular. I can move fairly well, but some of my neighbors Wouldn't be able to get out under any circumstances and so We need to have a plan that is also consistent with cobblestone. None of the plans here Are and the other neighborhood areas and take into account the historic problem with the events that um occurred in the 2017 and As far as a question excuse me sir your two minutes are up. Thank you very much Thank you. And then also just just a reminder We do have comment cards if you want to um get additional comments and um, we'd be uh, more than happy to take those um Okay, blake hillegas followed by charlene staples and then frank uh, egger Thank you very much. Uh, my name is blake hillegas and I live at 3573 shenet road homeowner on shenet Next to the hidden valley school um, just speaking from my perspective tonight and uh, I support housing um I support, uh Balanced housing with the amenities that are also to be provided Um, whether it's low density townhouses or apartments or all three um my biggest concerns are traffic on shenet not from a You know too much traffic standpoint, but the speed of traffic coming down the hill Or going up and passing in the center turn lane So it's really just an enforcement issue of the speeds on shenet, but I understand There's little enforcement because there's other priorities. However, if there's anything that would help Me would be the speed on shenet. Um, and just getting people to slow down a little bit I don't care if we ain't there's increased traffic, but what you have to think about is there is a school there It's a it's an elementary school And um, you know, there's people coming down that hill Superfast and I would appreciate some traffic calming Um, besides that in the development Um, I think that recreational amenities and open space are important important I think there's a great opportunity for this development to incorporate the existing open space The water agency property And make that not just a private amenity I think the development needs to provide their own Recreational space private amenity But they also need to look at the public amenity And connections to that open space and to that water agency property and make it a community asset if you can Thank you And thank you up next is charlene staples followed by frank egger and then thomas ells Hi, i'm charlene staples. I just have four points My original was could the planning for traffic light at terra linda lamida heights Be included right from the beginning of the um of the planning process My second is I implore the city The traffic department the safety department to get moving on shenet road And other roads in san rosa that are difficult for evacuation The third is I really like the idea of having sports fields I didn't hadn't thought of that myself, but whoever brought that up. That's a desperately needed issue in our part of the neighborhood I like the idea of starter homes Parks and making a walking neighborhood. Thank you thank you up next is frank egger followed by thomas ells and then hulan Lou Thank you, frank egger here The egger family has been in sonoma county since 1918 I graduated from san rosa jc in 1960 my wife ronita graduated from wakame high school in 1959 We live in fairfax full-time But we own a family home on franklin avenue I fought the Hanley fire of a brink county fire engine in 1964 We saved mark west spring's lodge. We fought that fire and we stopped it with two other engines From there we went up to wiki up and fought fires for the week The weekend of the of the tubs fire We were working in sonoma county harvest fair all weekend friday saturday and sunday and headed home back to fairfax Was a eerie feeling that night I woke up about one in the morning and I put my scanner on and I heard a ring down for 10 engines to come out of We're in county to go to santa rosen. We started calling family and friends To get out They got out, but they lost everything home's gone everything they own gone their history going Fire follows fire The hanley fire the tubs fire and the next fire will take out shanae too You know, there was no fountain grow fire in 60. There was no fountain grove in 64 Friends and fountain grove lost their with their homes. So so evacuation is is the whole story here Let's not set us up for for death of destruction. Thank you very much Thank you up next is thomas ells followed by hua han lu and then helen effrin Well, thank you for the opportunity to speak and and coming to a forum here um, my name is thomas ells and i'm a civil and environmental engineer and um When fountain grove was being finished I've said this sometimes before admitting my own uh Lack of understanding that this man has At the time people said that a fire was going to come follow the hanley fire and it was going to jump the freeway That was just unheard of it was impossible to believe that it absolutely did that Okay, so and I went up and I saw places that were pasture that the fire went across 900 feet Hot fire Intense fire above the ground crossed 900 feet of of just stubble grass Uh, it's kind of things you just can't imagine um many many things are Quite unusual in these fires. We don't really understand them um So I just really look forward to seeing and and hearing from you in response to all these comments of how you're going to address these because It is very important to this community I have great experience as a civil engineer. I had a lot of development and um These are very unique Compared to where most developments have been because they've mostly been in flatlands very regularized patterns of of roads with a lot of um Accesses and intersections and egress, right? This doesn't have that so please take care and and listen to the the community here Thank you. Thank you. Up next is hua huan lu followed by helen effrin and then erin miers I could be pronouncing the name wrong. Um, it's spelled h u l h a n and then lu I'm from cobblestones and uh, I think I I totally agree is uh for most of the people they already mentioned is uh about how terrible the fire in 2017 And I still had to really remember the day uh because um Because uh in our community at the day, I think uh uh, luckily, uh It's not any fire, you know the single house and but at the time is in our community one of the uh The neighborhood is in the backyard at the Is is there's another amber fire And I I see the you know the big fire is the behind the The yard in the open area Many old trees is is in the rundown and uh You know our community is to help each other Because by the time there's no any fire truck is coming And uh, we have to help each other to connect all the Garden host, you know put down the the amber fire so, um until I think uh I think wait about the More than a couple hours or three hours and probably around din time The fire truck is finally is coming and uh So I I feel very lucky, you know our community is it's not uh Not not any single house is that destroyed But uh my my heartfelt is uh go to all the home, you know is that burn down like uh, uh You know is around the area uh like a found the growth for example, right and In terms of I think is the I think the The main concern is the safety issue If any, you know, uh emergency, there's no no way to evacuate it and uh Because uh, then I I don't think the shane will excuse me sir your two minutes are up. Thank you. Thank you Okay, up next is helen effrin followed by erin mires and then sharyl fields I'm helen effrin. I live on quebec terrace off of franklin avenue and I I agree that the intersections are a big concern and there's also many driveways that come into shane along franklin And possibly shane in terms of you know one road out of big neighborhoods and Right now it can take a long time for me to get out of my cul-de-sac because of the traffic on franklin, which is an extension of shane with So, you know, there's obviously the safety issues But then there's the quality of life issues because you can't have A traffic light in the stop sign at every single street in the driveway and it's just I just don't see how Franklin and shane and well those are the main the main where the main impact will be can accommodate that much traffic And how people are going to get out of their driveways and streets safely With that increase in traffic. My other concern is earthquakes Um, it's a red earthquake zone. It sits right on the rogers creek fault during the napal quake Lightning came out of my front yard. I had new cracks in my foundation and my garage. This is A serious risk that's as serious as fire. So we have two major risks of fire and earthquake and evacuation So that that needs to be considered in terms of the density as well Okay, up next is erin mires and followed by sherald fields and then hannah fields the uh Members here in the audience a question Can I ask everyone in the audience a question? Sure. Okay, how many Everyone here how many were affected by the 2017 tubs fire? By their order to evacuate on standby or whatever Okay And to the gentleman who fought the Hanley fire in 64 Thank you for your service So obviously the main concern here is evacuation during a fire and it's going to happen again But There's no question about it You know, I'd like to see the plan How is that going to happen? Tubs fire 2017 redo I I don't think it's going to work with an additional 878 units and how many more people That's all I have to say Thank you. Up next is sherald fields followed by hannah fields And then sarah kelly I'm sherald fields. I live near this development I don't I don't just I've been at all these meetings for years now and I would love to be heard to say that I'm pro housing. I'm pro low income housing But it's in the wrong place that they keep trying to put it It's because you're trying now to make a high density or even low density Place where it was never planned for because it was planned as public youth community hospital And the neighborhoods grew up around it My main concern is obviously safety. If there's wildfire, we all heard that But let's just think about what it's like on one day 878 homes if we just let them go to work and come back That's 3,512 more cars on the road That's just to let them go out to work and come back If you anticipate each home has two cars that's 7,024 cars on the road on shaneet every day We all agree that it's very impacted now. How will you mitigate that? Putting in stoplights will make it even harder at more intersections Again, it's a development that needs to be very low density more open space so that you don't Create more Quality of life issues not just threatening people in a wildfire, but just every day. Thank you All right up next is hannah fields followed by sara sara kelly and then mike morado Hello Let's see. Oh, yeah, I can hear it. Okay. So i'll just be brief I was happy to hear that you have some plans for the cemetery and i'd love to Hear a little bit more about that when the plans come out I also wondered if you guys had any plans for any other Archaeological sites that you might uncover when you start doing stuff around in that area When I was growing up in that area. I heard that there were, you know, native american sites Uh in that area and I was wondering if you guys had plans for if you run across those sites What are you going to do about them? Are you going to you know Put them in a museum. Are you going to leave them there? Just kind of wondering if that was considered in the plan Thank you for that question. There will be a cultural Resource study that includes potential archaeological resources Also, because this is a includes a general plan amendment The city is required to Initiate a tribal consultation for the project and we would be working very closely with the tribes on this project And they're the EIR will identify any mitigation necessary to Preserve those artifacts Okay, up next is Sarah Kelly followed by mike marado Hi, my parents are one of the original homeowners in hidden valley back behind the school They built their home in the early 70s when there was just grassland everywhere I went to hidden valley elementary school I worked at sutter hospital. I now live in hidden valley myself in the neighborhood. I grew up and in love The city streets around that neighborhood cannot be impacted the way that your plan Has them developing. They just can't hold that infrastructure is not there for it You've heard many people here tonight raise a number of very very good Points to be considered and so I ask of you to as developers and as someone in the real estate industry To think about proactive accountability for our community And also for the wildlife interface with pollen creek That has been a green belt itself for wildlife throughout that northeast pocket of santa rosa The water system is a huge concern as well with an additional 300 to 800 Units and how you're going to get water into that area Responsibly and I also would ask for you to talk to those who've been here and know of the the need for community in that area Fountain Grove lost a deli With traversos a long time establishment here in the community They also lost sweet teas which was a restaurant that you couldn't find a seat some nights Those kind of live use mixed use commercial living situations Can work and they've worked before in that portion of the community And it would help reduce the overall traffic that's that you're looking at putting On the infrastructure around you don't need a traffic Um study Go stand in front of hidden valley school when the elementary school is being let out in the afternoon And I encourage you to stand on beneath a best and see for yourself the impact that's already taken right there All right Yeah, it's a mic rata. You're up next and then after mic we will go to our zoom comments Thank you Good evening everyone. My name is mic morado. I live on cobblestone drive My family has been here in santa rosa for 123 years I was raised here When I was 21 years old I fought The honey fire out in the mark west area And after an entire day and night of fighting it there I went to cloverty for ranch where I was working and fought there the next day The Tubbs fire that all of you know so much about Followed essentially the same footprint as a henley fire And before those two we had the great fire of 1870 What we have here is a pattern Not a unique situation, but a pattern And also as an environmental specialist with more than a half a century Of experience working with sequa And many federal and other state legislations well I can tell you that this project as proposed is fatally flawed And the developer needs to hear this now And take it to heart Because the environmental process is not going to take one year I've been involved in billions of dollars worth of projects All together over the entire western u.s And a project of this magnitude even to go through the sequel process Will require something like three or four years and multiple millions of dollars to perform so My argument again is that this project is fatally flawed Not for what it is or proposes to do But where it is proposed to be built Okay, we'll go to dwayne de witt and then we'll go to the zoom colors after Hello, my name is dwayne de witt. I'm from here And we need to talk about transfer of development rights The city should negotiate a land swap for mr. Haddad to get downtown land for high density housing of over 900 Residential units on city owned land This would truly be city-centered growth and can be achieved downtown The city technically exists for the health safety and welfare of its residents has already been mentioned The point here is this is a fire zone I was here during the Hanley fire My grandfather was out there fighting it. I was watching the flames as a nine-year-old This is common sense Mr. Haddad can make a whole bunch more money with downtown land Which is already owned by the taxpayers right here across the street Other sites you're doing the parking lots So mr. Haddad and your partner Look to how you can make as much money as possible by doing a transfer of development rights Based on how many units you could have got up there at shinnate Where I used to work at community hospital and say we want to get A thousand units in downtown santa rosa and high density multi-level buildings Close to the transit that you already talk about because you're always blowing smoke about resiliency And sustainability and all these less vehicle miles traveled. Well, it's time to put up or shut up Let your talk through the wall okay Thanks everybody. So we're going to move to his comments on zoom and before you do that Um, I know that we've gotten some questions and comments on the zoom feature I just want to let everybody on zoom know that we are collecting those comments and questions They'll be included with the project file just like the written comments that are received here And just like with every question that we're getting we will be putting those together For a frequently asked questions portion of our website. So if we could go to the zoom callers, please Holly Holcomb I'm going to send you a prompt to unmute yourself Hello, is holly holcomb can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you Hi, i'm a resident of glen echo drive through 352 glen echo drive We we've been here for about 12 years and My five-year-old daughter and I were forced to evacuate during the tubs fire in 2017 It was horrific and I was afraid my daughter and I were going to die in our car So I'm concerned that these developers Despite their best interests Don't understand the realities of those of us who live in this community And I will hope that they will take that into consideration with their future plans Although we realize there is a need to develop this neighborhood in this space We hope it's done in a way that appreciates Our our community as it is And we're a beautiful community. We're a natural community. We're an organic community Who doesn't need thousands of more cars on the streets? We need safety And we hope these developers will appreciate that. Thank you so much Trevor Jones. I'm sending you a prompt to unmute yourself Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you All right um, I I grew up in Santa Rosa and I want to see it become A more equitable sustainable unless car dependent city I think this project is a really incredible opportunity to address our housing shortage while also working toward our climate goals um, I think we need to make sure that new residents of this community have access to a variety of transportation options I think this is a really a way we can alleviate traffic concerns without reducing density And one way we can do this is by adding a new bus route on shane And by improving cycling and pedestrian infrastructure on the road Um, the bus route that I'm proposing should connect key site this new development Safeway Santa Rosa junior college Santa Rosa high school downtown and start Um, I think that in terms of bike lanes, we should put protected bike lanes on the street We should also help with traffic calming and we should improve the sidewalks So that people can walk down the hill and to safely or something if they wanted to or ride their bike um This all these things in addition to Having neighborhood markets and other amenities within the community would help reduce the traffic without needing to reduce the density On every trip we desperately need more affordable housing in california And we need to encourage sustainable development of our cities. Thank you Sarah jones. I'm sending you a prompt to unmute yourself Hi, I'm Sarah jones And I teach at Santa Rosa junior college And I live in the neighborhood and I ride my bike to work every day And I think we desperately need better bike routes so we can be less car dependent There's no way to build enough infrastructure for the cars So we need to start riding public transit and riding our bikes And being much less car dependent The bus routes Need to go from this community to the major Schools as well as Kaiser and Sutter and Keysight so that people can get from these places to their workplaces on public transit In a reasonable amount of time without having to drive their cars We need to completely rethink how we get around the community and Everybody needs to do this not just the people in downtown santa rosa. Thank you If you wish to make a comment on zoom you could do so by Selecting the raise your hand icon at the bottom of your zoom screen I'm not seeing any hands raised on zoom Jack depri I'm going to send you a prompt to unmute yourself Jack you're unmuted you can Go ahead and start your comment. Okay. This is uh jack and marsha have lost your pray Um, it was so crowded for which I am extremely thankful that everyone all of you people who were there showed up that we could not get inside That's that's probably good news. Um, and many thanks to uh, sonia taylor and joyan thomas Who have been involved in this uh friends of shenette. This is obviously um A project that has many things to like but more things to dislike We do not need this project here. I echo dwayne de witt's comments 100 They can do the real estate transfer get this project downtown or to the city center where we have more Facilities so that we can get more people You know in public transit riding their bikes, etc. Please do not play with people's lives Trying to survive In this high highly, you know dangerous area by putting more people there It is unfair. It is just not realistic. So please let us get that resituated Um and get that real estate transfer. Thank you very much Do we have anyone else on zoom who would like to make a comment? Please raise your hand Okay, um, it looks like we don't have any other comments on zoom But yes, I'm seeing some hands here if there's anybody who wasn't who did not fill out a card It wasn't required. So please you can go up to the podium To speak Good evening everyone Thank you for what has been a very thought-provoking evening. My name is the anthony limb. I'm a family physician I I came out to santa rosa in 2010 to Attend the family medicine residency at the old sudder hospital So I've delivered babies In that hospital and brought new lives into this world and so that piece of land means a lot to me And I think hearing the people's comments tonight. That's very evident I'm sure that the people thinking about developing this had to add to know I think I don't want to doubt the intentions, but to me the real problem Is that well intentioned as it may be? I don't know that The people in charge of developing this really care About the land like a really putting the community first And so to me the solution going forward is very simple either Somehow have a change of heart where you truly are having these neighborhood conversations in people's homes And really listening to the community and really value the needs of the community above any financial monetary interests or Affect the transfer of this land into the hands of a truly well intentioned group of people that knows this community Listen to this community and wants to see what's best for this community going forward Thank you Thank you next speaker Hello, my name is jennifer dion and I live on hidden valley drive My backyard is adjacent to the plan c area Um My husband and I spent a few years digging around the city of santa rosa and county Departments trying to understand why The water load that comes off of the mountain east Of hidden valley drive the whole water flow comes down where the lowest elevation Along hidden valley and there's an easement under our property Where that whole water load drops right down behind our house the toe of the slope is During continuous rain it floods at the bottom there In our digging the only thing we could find was at the public works department there was plans in 1963 to have a bee ditch Placed at the bottom of the slope on that county property And it was never built even though the engineer signed off on it And our homes along hidden valley drive are on landfill so you can imagine the amount of water that Flows from that huge area of the mountain side all the way down through this culvert that just drops right onto the dirt Behind our house is causing our house to slide along with some of our neighbors and city Denied our claim with no explanation county doesn't want to take responsibility and so I have questions about How are you going to make my higher elevation? Of about an eight foot drop Come and connect up with your planned community So that i'm not my backyard isn't sitting on excuse me The public comment period is over. Thank you Is there anybody else in the chamber who'd like to speak? Go ahead Hello I'm cameron blotter. I live on hidden valley drive and i'm also a keysight employee. So I thought It's worthwhile to have a voice for a keysight. You know, we're a Top tech company and we've you know hired hundreds of young engineers that are looking for homes They're probably looking for low density You know considerable You know homes that are similar in the area for sure Um, I'm also thinking, you know a general theme. I'm as an engineer. I'm interested in You know solving a problem and I think everything revolves around. What do we do with shenate? And I haven't heard You know anything of all changing shenate and I think that is essential for You know making this a worthwhile project, you know talking about You know safe bike lanes to be important widening the roads providing cobblestone Maybe a emerging path to get on to shenate. You know, I think there's a lot of infrastructure you could do with Doing something about shenate. So having a solution there. I think is essential for this to work so thank you Thank you So anybody else in the chambers that would like to speak? Go ahead My name is robin kuhn. I live right off of monocledo meadow Which is right off of shenate and listen this evening would really I hear a lot about it's a traffic Which is a very realistic problem And I think it's really and not to sound disrespectful I think it's really important for the city and the planning and the traffic people To sit down with the developer and figure out a solution You know, there could be alternate Entrances or accesses added or maybe different roads put in But there needs to be a concrete method to solve the problem if we're going to go forward with this kind of development I think most people here are not against development. It just needs to be responsible and thought out what to do So I really want to urge the city to take a strong look at and work with the developer and come up with some concrete plans That'll work. That's all I got to say Great. Thank you All right, looks like we've got another speaker over here. Go ahead. Hi. My name is greg Is wanted to say my wife and I just took a trip up to southern oregon We're over crater lake looking down looking at shasta another car pulls up a couple gets out You start chatting a little bit one of them asks, where are we from and I say santa rosa And they grin Where do you think we're from santa rosa? It didn't take 10 seconds for the conversation to turn to Where were you that night? Did you have to evacuate? Do you know anybody else who had to evacuate? Do you know anybody whose house burned down? How long was your power out? My wife describes this perfectly if you just scratch below the surface We're all still there someone said they had ptsd. I think everybody in this room Had p has ptsd If you think 800 units can go in this slot You guys don't get it. That's all that We were trapped that night We aren't pleading for our safety. We are pleading for our lives I hope you consider it Okay, thank you Go ahead Hi, my name is jill richardson. Apparently you already know that we're worried about traffic. We're worried about evacuation And I think you're getting a can you speak more into the microphone? Please community This community has been traumatized um We're not your average community looking at a new development I like most of my neighbors did lose my house We rebuilt our house. We came together as a community. We became very educated We were we had to become very educated on How we would rebuild our community How we would work with the city. I see representatives here from the departments that supported us We pay attention and when I hear Well, there could be eight to 18 units per acre I think okay, so what happens when you pencil it out? It's 18 or it's more we've been through these Things before it's going on with the developmental system center right now Where there was a plan in place? Oops. I'm sorry. It didn't pencil out now We're going to make more units more density We want to be able to trust you But we're skeptical as a community. Thank you Okay, it looks like we've got another speaker over here. Go ahead Hi, I'm I'm sorry. I'm new to the Santa Rosa area So it's been very educational in hearing and my heart is felt for the fire as I was not here for that But I can understand that impact As a newer person I was actually more I had a concern about the schools Since I understand that the satellite school burned down And there is just the the hidden valley elementary which my daughters attend With the proposal of the new housing and new families coming in on top of that congestion just wondering How one of the largest schools and and lower funded is going to accommodate New enrollees and also with the change in the the law for the tk that's going to increase as well in our general families And and so I think I just I'm just curious because I know that the things will move forward if in any regard Just what will happen with education? Thank you Thank you for that question. So this project would be referred to the school district that isn't affected And um, they would be able to plan for The number proposed number or projected number of children that would live in this area should the project move forward Hello, my name is rosemary burgan. I live in hidden valley And I've listened to all this tonight and I really don't think you guys get We're scared And I I would suggest to get to know the community You just go out on shanaid on any day of the week when the school gets out or goes in you can't even get through And and where are all those kids you're putting in going to go to hidden valley? It's bursting at the seams now Um, but mostly how in the heck are we going to evacuate? I have a way out I have other ways out because i'm farther down in hidden valley But I have a friend that can't get out of her jeremy court To take her kids to hidden valley school because the traffic out there is so bad In regular times and then rush hour By the time you put like a thousand more houses in there A thousand more people in there and all the cars It's you haven't thought this through you'll all go back to las vegas or wherever you're from And we'll be here with the mess you leave behind Thank you. Is there anybody else in the chambers that would like to speak? We have Oh, go ahead. Sorry, just uh, I know I already spoke from once but I think everyone else had a chance I did have a question that uh came to mind which I don't know if there's actually a way to study the impact of but Because I do live in the area the hui area the upper hidden valley neighborhood Uh several of my neighbors and I know ourselves. We've had uh quite an issue with trying to keep Insurance for our homes a lot of them have been raised significantly others have been cancelled without being able to find additional Insurance companies that will cover their home So it would be nice to know what the impact of adding upwards of 800 new homes requiring fire insurance into our neighborhood Would do not only to the idea of a low-income house Which will have an additional three to four hundred dollars a month in fire insurance But how will affect the cost of our or even our being able to hold on to our policies in the area? When you create a higher density The Population within a fire zone like that Thank you Thank you. I see we've got one other person In the chambers here. We also have three more hands raised on zoom So we'll go ahead to the gal here in the chambers and then we'll move over to zoom My name is Liz lock it. I live on hidden valley drive um The two subjects that I wasn't hearing until recently or the schools that was number one Like where are these kids going to school? I work at a school district and it just makes my mind go big The second one is and this sounds really nimby, but it's wildlife and I know there's this this study these studies series of studies that are going to happen But there is amazing rich wildlife in that section There are there's a buck right behind my house yesterday Actually was in front of my house and I was worried for it because it was on the road in front of my house And not back in the field You know, there are coyotes which are totally natural and we worry about our cats But they should be there and there are it's so rich with wildlife It's not just a plot that's downtown or somewhere else just sitting there with with You know grasses and who knows just kind of sterile or appears sterile This is a really rich location and I've said for years when talking about this project Are we going to pave over? You know Golden gate park in san francisco because they need more housing. Are we going to pave over? you know The This is such a magical green space that are I consider our neighborhood pretty highly dense dense right now And to not have a break For the wildlife and for the people is really tragic. Thank you Thank you. We'll go ahead and go to zoom now Oh shannon fields. I'm sending you a prompt to unmute yourself Hi, hello I'm a resident from sycamore avenue and I saw the tubs The tubs fire swallow up fountain grove while I was waiting to see if it would cross the line The mandatory evacuation line which was at the base of our hill Um, so we were like 100 feet from the evacuation line And if the fire hit that line it would have gone straight up so From what I can hear the the housing shortage While oppressing issue is a very familiar and recurring issue ever since I was a child And I remember hearing stories about developers like text tux horn and so many others just coming in Making promises to make equitable affordable housing And then nothing would really come of it So I have a couple questions one What's happening to the land downtown that we can use and we can develop to make more affordable housing? I'm sure we can find ways to reallocate resources and property and improve the downtown in a more thoughtful way That's more long term instead of short term. Maybe making more lighted sections more Safe secure areas We can use what we have that's available there instead of putting it in land that's Honestly, not safe to build on especially due to the fire danger due to climate change and uh two Why is this land that We've had here it was set aside to be a natural wildlife corridor But it seems to keep coming up again and again as a place to redevelop When we already have other places downtown We need to make sure this land is not on the chopping block because if we chop it then The pollen creek project and so many other projects we had to improve and grow our city Especially in the face of climate change. What's gonna happen to all that? I'm very concerned about that. Thank you Susan smith. I'm sending you a prompt to unmute yourself Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Okay. Thank you While I was waiting a couple people did bring up something that I had sent you a question on and that was Nobody really had discussed the insurance Many people are being dropped by their fire insurance And on top of it a lot of these companies are leaving the state too. So I think that is a huge concern How is this all going to be insured? How are people going to afford it? Is it going to affect the people that already live here and have insurance? Will we be dropped? So I think there's a real issue there. The other thing is where does the water come from? I never hear anybody answer that we have so much building going on right now all over santa rosa In the new apartments and housing and townhouses and that And again, I know somebody did mention that we did have to cut back during the drought 20 I think everybody in tsunami is on board with that type of community effort, but What happens when we keep being told in all these communities there's not enough water But we continue to build where does this water come from and how does it affect the people that are already here? Those are my questions Lonnie We have Andy Allen Speak to the water question. I think he's a panelist. Sorry. I can't be there with you Um We basically had two questions regarding water One is availability And while i'm not the expert with santa rosa water on availability Uh, we did we do an urban water management plan on a regular basis And based upon that urban water management plan, there is sufficient water for development For many many years Yes, there will be One year and multi-year shortages likely in the future, but based on the urban Water master plan We anticipate that there is sufficient volume of water to support developments like this and others throughout the city Um, the other question that came up earlier was The infrastructure for water in the area and we have a relatively large diameter Water main in chenate That it can be fed from both below and above and any Development that goes in the city We look at our existing infrastructure To see if it's sufficient and if it's not sufficient We it's part of the developer cost to Upgrade the water system I don't have the specifics on this project because it hasn't gotten far enough But uh, it either is sufficient. It is sufficient as it is Or the developer will have to upgrade it as needed Great. Thank you, Andy. Are there other uh hands raised on zoom? Yes, we have two more Carton robin kundi. I'm going to send you a prompt to unmute yourself Hello I Appreciate all the conversations. I would like to ask the developers to consider compatibility cushion and what I mean by that is In the areas where They're coming up against what it's low density I'd like to meet low density with low density and put your medium density in the middle of your cupcake Um, I do want to see the land developed, but Where terra linda joins in to chenate there are no sidewalks on terra linda And there's no room really probably to put them And I also want to bring up to the city since you're listening and thank you for that That people use chenate road as a shortcut And they come through there 40 miles an hour and where we turn on to terra linda. It's great. It's less than a 90 degree turn It's very unsafe And my so my final point is that when you did the chenate sewer project And I think the city project engineers did a really good job And I want to thank you for that but they opened up Our cul-de-sac for what was supposed to be one-way traffic and what turned out to not be one-way traffic And so the people who are coming in and want to live in the apartments in the townhomes that you're going to build They would already know what neighborhood they're moving into We moved into a neighborhood where we were on a cul-de-sac I'm terrified that you're going to permanently open that cul-de-sac and take off 20 feet of our front yard So Uh and the other thing I did one day was just sit and count the cars. I went from zero cars a day to 90 And I I will I will I will leave It it's desperate. So and everything everybody said about the fires you can just double that my mother died of a heart attack during those fires So please be careful Tom I'm going to send you a prompt to unmute yourself Tom I sent you a prompt to unmute yourself I just wanted to address one thing. Um, I live up on cobblestone and We have one fire station that serves hidden valley Monocito Heights Parker Hill cobblestone terra linda And that fire station burned to the ground During the 2017 fires It's taken over six years for it even to be considered to be rebuilt and that will be moving up to fountain growth We will no longer have a fire station in our area And you are talking about putting an additional 850 units without fire and medical emergency support in the neighborhood. Thank you Brandon Smith, I'm sending you a prompt to unmute yourself Yes, I'm Ray Smith lived here on in valley drive for a number of years uh And I've noticed around town Quite a bit with some of the other developments that appears that the parking has been severely under under written in terms of the The calculations for for that I suspect some of that has to do with When people look at parking if you go out midday when people are working And do your calculations at that time. It's going to look pretty luxurious However, if you go around six or seven o'clock at night At many projects that I've had the occasion to be around They're severely restricted So it'd be very helpful to share with us as the public and homeowners in that area What are the calculations and do they actually Match up with the need that will be there. Thank you I'm saying one more comment on zoom Jennifer dion. I'm going to send you a prompt to unmute yourself Hello We can hear you Okay, my name is rick dion. I want to say uh, you guys are pretty great for Cutting off my wife so early when she was talking on the mic earlier But uh, yeah, there is a real problem in our backyard in the city of santa rosa has denied our claim As far as what is supposed to be built back there as a v-ditch And how much water pushes out through our side yard It's a huge concern of ours and I hope the developer Looks at it and make sure that Whatever was supposed to be built there back in 1968 is going to be put there And that's about it. Thank you very much. Have a good night Okay At this point. Oh, we'll have one more comment Okay, two two more comments and um, we've got our fire marshal here who wants to say a couple words and then we're going to close the meeting So go ahead sir Mediation and one of the things that I'm trying to teach my kids is not to assume the worst So with whatever time I have remaining and if this is valid I think it would be really helpful for us to hear from say the christofferson's And and the people up there Just some of your reaction like without having anything prepared just from the heart What is your response? In a few words, you don't have to have it scripted. What is your response to hearing what you've heard this evening because that would Show me a lot Thank you We'll give a chance for the applicant to respond just a moment, but go ahead ma'am My name is susanna quartz and I live in monocledo meadows and I grew up there Moved away. I came back And I just want to um, obviously i'm concerned about everything that everybody has already spoken about And I just want to encourage the city to Consider some other things from the community and the neighbors. Um, I know I worked in Real estate lending at banks in various places in the bay area specifically We did a lot in the peninsula on redwood city palo Alto To cram a project like this into As proposed with potentially 900 units into this area just Doesn't make any sense is a terrible fit. Um, I think if you're talking more low density, that's more appropriate Um, you know, some people may throw out the term nimby in other parts of santa rosa But I think I would guess most of the people that are here in this neighborhood santa rosa You know, my kids go to hidden valley school. It's just not, um, we were talking about medium density Um housing it's not appropriate for the area for all the things people have talked about fires traffic Quality of life everyone that bought their houses here When community hospital was there never in a million years in vision. They're being 900 Units on that one little, you know 71 acre land and so from the city standpoint I know the developer is going to pencil out you're going to propose a maximum You think you can get and maybe dial it back a little you're Going for the most profitable project possible But since this, you know for everyone that's here with the city You are us you work for the residents I would encourage you to think outside the box and maybe find, you know Another piece of land as other people have mentioned that's more appropriate for this number of proposed units. Thanks All right, thanks for that So I'd like to give a moment for paul lowenthal with our fire department to speak and then we'll have the applicant Say a few words and then we'll close up go ahead paul Good evening everybody paul lowenthal the fire marshal for the city that was also doubling as your occupant load check So thank you for your patience tonight I want to take the time to cover a couple things regardless of what happens with this project I heard some common themes from the people that were here that I think it's important that everybody understands We definitely learned a lot from 2017. What happened in 2017 was unacceptable There's a lot of things that we didn't have control over in 2017 that we've changed how we act and respond today We've developed zones. So shenate has three different zones primarily that dump onto shenate road One to the north two to the south and we now we're one of the only cities in cal and sorry in the entire country They had the ability to utilize our own emergency alert systems where we don't have to ask permission from the state Or for another agency We learned a lot of lessons in 17 and we implemented those lessons to a successful evacuation in 2020 for the glass fire We've heard that people complained about the traffic in 2020 But that was calculated and we knew how much time we had To get those people out of the east side of santa rosa We also recognized that our fire station our old station five on parker hill road as well as our new fire station five On new gate both burned down But the location of that fire station is moving to is going to be at the intersection Of stage coach and fountain road parkway in an area where we'll have better control over the environment and provide What we refer to as defensible space defensible space and new building construction are Requirements for what is going to be built in those areas today. There was questions about the potential for insurance That's something that I monitor personally and professionally. I'm involved in the united policy holders Where we advocate for insurance and look at what changes can be made to benefit policy holders as well as insurers Right now there's risk associated with the area. We've seen uh open undeveloped lands Um have higher risk when homes again regardless of what happens with this project are built in some cases that can actually reduce the risk Because you're taking an undeveloped area and replacing it with requirements where a building is required to be built to current code standards The required to comply with defensible space and it reduces the what the state refers to as risk And we're seeing some of those risks play out right now in our own city So areas in what in santa rosa that were initially very high fire hazard severity zones that does Dictate what happens to your insurance are actually changing where a lot of our very high fire risk areas Are being lowered because of what the state is seeing this changes within our communities And that also plays into how we respond in general to fires um Sorry, there was a bunch of questions that I was trying to hit on I think hopefully that covered it. Um, but yes, we are very aware of of the concerns regarding evacuation and now I did remember the last thing was Uh, shenate road is one of our evacuation routes. We're very aware of it So the city of santa rosa applied for a fuel management grant and shenate road was one of the properties or one of the streets that is actually in a uh Wildland urban interface evacuation route clearance program right now So we're actively actually inspecting a number of properties along shenate To give us the opportunity to go onto their properties to reduce fuels to help with any future evacuations On that road itself. So hopefully that helped a number of the number of the questions And feel free to come up and talk to me afterwards if you have anything else that you'd like to discuss or cover Great. Thank you paul Uh, so now I'd like to hand it over to the applicant team for any response This is eddie haddad. I do want to thank every single one of you for attending here tonight It really shows that you care. I mean if you're here until eight o'clock tonight To listen and we listen to you it shows that you really care about the community and doctor we care too Remember what we said in the beginning We don't have all the answers Doctor, we do not have all the answers We need to enter into an environmental study. We need to get the answer We're we are caring people. We have families too just like you do We're trying to propose a project that we feel based on an initial study that we've done Shut down the hospital and almost 300 000 square feet of commercial buildings That are shut down You're forgetting to subtract all that traffic From those buildings being shut down Okay, so we have a lot of credits and we felt like from the initial traffic study that we've done That this number of units actually more units that we're proposing right now our project should develop should um Should actually Support more units than what we're proposing. We actually came down because we've been working with the nice folks at friends of shenai They're doing a wonderful job representing you folks. So don't really don't forget that Okay So we don't have all the answers We have to work with scientists. You don't you know what i'm talking about We have to work with scientists. We have to get the data And then upon getting the data we will adjust according But it's not like we want to come and shove a whole bunch of homes Down your community. Okay, but we have rights too, you know property owners have rights I think paul said it best Do you like the situation do you like looking at the buildings the way they are right now and all that brush It's just all open territory. It has to be managed So we have a wonderful plan and why not have your own values even increase based on the product type that we will introduce It's uh, it's very expensive to build And this is going to be a an award-winning project It'll be a project that everybody can benefit from including you folks. Okay, it's not again The science will provide We have to defend our position Okay, it's early on this was an early meeting Okay, please. Let us continue doing the work that we need to do so we can bring an award-winning project For the overall community and I do thank you for being here. I mean, I can't comment comment on that right now Nobody's made any effort to swap any land But I tell you there are a lot of projects downtown and there's not enough housing on the outskirts of town Okay, in the northeast part of town, there's not enough housing. You know that there's 20 more 20 people For every person that's comfortable living in a house right now. There are 20 people that want to get into a house There's no housing in in center rosa Especially in the northeast part of town No down only downtown but not in the northeast section right, okay So If we could get we want to make sure we've got some time for a quick closure or the meeting's about to end And um, yeah, they'll be I'd love to meet every one of them. Let me ask you a question once Sonoma county had Hold on just a moment. Um, so the folks on zoom can't hear any of these questions So I think generally speaking your concern was about safety and security for the site Sonoma county had the property they didn't fence off the property. How do you fence off 72 acres? We have 24 hours surveillance We have 24 hours security and you can call me at any time if you ever need anything for the property We'll respond we respond. We have we have weekly reports. We can make those available to you Absolutely, call me. I'll make sure jake anybody who's on site will respond according Okay, so If there are any more comments or questions, it would be super helpful if we could have folks speak into the microphone So that those folks on zoom and this meeting is also being recorded. We want to make sure that people can can hear the questions Yeah, I'd love to meet you. Thank you folks. I appreciate everybody And it is after eight So I just want to make some closing remarks So there are ways that you can sign up to receive an email bulletin if you go to the woodlands at shanate project page There's a sign up link at the very top if you enter your email Anytime there's a public A reason for a public notice to go out. I will send an email blast to everybody that's subscribed And here's the my contact information and there's a dedicated email inbox And project website for this project. So If you think of more questions or you want to submit your comments and writing, please email them to woodlands at shanate at src.org It's best to submit your your comments and writing so they become part of the project file. Thank you Thanks everybody for coming. We really appreciate your attendance tonight