 and some member of Tibbets. Buenos dias. Hey Rafael. Hola bien, how you doing? Muy bien. Good to see you too. Feel riding your bike around? Yeah, yeah, for the most part. That's good. Yeah. What have you been up to lately? Are you still working with Rio Ray over at Salvation Army? I'm the chair now of the advisory board. Hey, congrats. I've been part of it for seven years, but you know, I backed off being chair several times. Just a lot of responsibility. But yeah, he's a great guy. It's a good organization. Yeah, it is. You know, they do so much work that I don't think it's talked about enough, you know. Yeah. I mean, the amount of rental assistance you guys do is staggering. Yeah, yeah. The amount of food that is given away. It's pretty amazing. Yeah, so Victoria said she'd be about 10 minutes late. Okay. Would you like to, would you like to start? Sure. Okay, I'll call this meeting of the downtown subcommittee to order. And so here's a little disclosure for due to COVID-19 for anybody who's watching. Due to the provisions of the governor's executive orders and dash 25 dash 20 and end dash 29 dash 20, which to spend certain requirements of the Brown Act and the order of the health officer of the county of Sonoma to shelter in place to minimize the spread of COVID-19. The downtown. Subcommittee will be conducting today's meeting in a virtual setting using zoom webinar. Committee members and staff are participating from remote locations and or practicing appropriate social distancing members of the public may view and listen to the meetings as noted on the city's website and as noted on the agenda. So the public wishing to speak during item three public comment or during our public hearing items will be able to do so by utilizing the raise hand feature or pressing star nine on their phone. Then by giving, then, and they will then be given the ability to address the committee. Okay. Shall we take role. Yes. Thank you. So we'll move on to item three public comments. So for any members of the public attending, if you would wish to make a comment via zoom, please select the raise hand button. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Each speaker will have three minutes. Present. Council member Sawyer here. And council member Fleming will be joining in the next 10 minutes or so. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. So we'll move on to item three public comments. And each speaker will have three minutes and a countdown timer will appear for the convenience of the speaker and viewers. Please make sure to unmute yourself when you are invited to do so. Your microphone will be muted at the end of that countdown. Do we have any public members of the public wishing to speak. There are no raise hands at this time. Okay, no raise hands at the time so I'll move on to. And do we also have sorry, any comments via voicemail or email. No, we have not have any comments for voicemail or email. Okay, thank you. Item four new business. So it looks like I will bring up should we bring up the presentation is that we're on now the ballers. So the first item is the update from the railroad square. Or would you prefer to start. Okay. Great, let's do that. Chris, if you would test your audio, please. Good morning. Let me go ahead and once again, let me jump in first. Okay. All right, so well, good morning, chair TVs and welcome to the downtown subcommittee. We're very delighted to have you as as chair. You'll find that this is one of the, the most fun subcommittees that we have just kidding. And then good morning also to council member Fleming I understand that she'll be arriving a little bit late. But good morning council member Sawyer. Great to see you. And good morning to everyone joining the call this morning on this very cold Thursday morning. As part of the formation of the community benefit district in railroad square, our division has worked closely with the railroad square association to help facilitate meetings and conversations between members of our staff and corresponding departments and members of the association board. Most recently, there was a great discussion this actually took place last week, regarding upgrades to depot park where, which we're very excited about in which members from our division and parks, Jen Santos participated in, along with the depot park railroad square association committee. In addition, there's been a lot of planning and activities in recent months. And here to talk about that is Chris Wilson and she is the executive director for the railroad square association. Good morning. Thanks Rafael. And thank you for arranging to get some of our banners that were damaged in the last storm that weren't looking too good thank you for getting those straightened out and taken down. Yes, we've been doing a lot of meetings. Thank you to I think Tim Finnegan is on this call and want to do a shout out for the time that he's been giving us to meet with a depot park project and trees, and things that we're trying to get going in railroad square. One of our biggest projects is that we're starting versus the tree project. So a lot of the trees need to be replaced and at least or at least trimmed. So we're looking and waiting for a bid now. The plan is to probably start on Fifth Street and use that as our model to to replace ultimately replace those trees, and then we'll be moving on to fourth street and looking at those trees it's a huge project so we're waiting for beds and to be a phased phased project. Also we've been. So the trees. We've put together a small marketing committee to really try to look at some other marketing opportunities planning the year but also for right now to support our businesses to make sure that people know that we're open down there and help our businesses. You saw that Jackson's had quite a bit of damage from the last storm, their tent that they are now reopened waiting for a tent. So, trying to really support the businesses down there. We've met with the Hyatt, the general manager from the Hyatt down there. And again, Tim was gave us time to really walk around down there and help with the getting rid of the homeless camp that was across the creek but looking at the issue the biggest issue unfortunately is the vandalism and the homeless issue down there and the vandalism is really seem to increase since New Year's at least. You know stores getting windows broken and doors jammed and the Hyatt has had a lot of issues that impact their being able to rent certain rooms because because of the access to the greenway. And working with the Hyatt in the city to try to see what we can do to help them, as far as fencing and getting fencing approved through for them to protect their property and ultimately bring guests make guests feel comfortable there. The greenway is a project that our president, Mike Montague and all of us take very personally to try to to work working with Steve or Bennett, what's this group to help clean that up and make it more accessible for tourists and our community to be enjoying so a lot going on kind of just beginning a lot of projects so more to follow and again thank you Rafael and Tim for your support. Thank you Chris. John, do you have any questions for Chris or staff on this item. I do thank you. And I miss part of going ahead to change chairs actually the trees. Chris have they. What are the trees that are being replaced and what type of tree are they using. That's still being decided. First of all, we have a waiting for a tree bid to look at the trees to see what, what can be done. You know for some of them just to be cut back, and then to really assess which ones really would be better to to remove we can't just go we're not going to go in and just tear them all down. There's a couple of different trees we do have the city list of suggested trees. So they've talked about Ginko, and I forget the other one but they haven't made a decision something that maybe is a little slower growing and doesn't have such a deep root system that's tearing up the sidewalks. Yeah, because we've had such poor history with tree selection and I, you know, every once in a while they come up with a new urban tree and then the urban tree, they discover has a blight and then they all die. I'm taking looking at the place of least resistance as far as tree replacement is, you know, it's been a real challenge downtown, especially with irrigation as well and of course irrigation is important. But I just kind of, you know, it would be great to make. I would assume that the tree list recommended by the city has been updated to to to deal with the realities of urban trees that have failed in the past. So we've probably replaced the trees downtown, two or three times, at least twice. And they're, and the, they're still dying. I mean, it's, we're still dealing with dead trees because they got a blight and there were not the only city in the state that dealt with that but going cautiously. I would would recommend because Ginkgo sounds like a great tree, although they do have major leaf loss in the in the fall, which is beautiful but also creates a maintenance issue. But anyway, it's, you know, I'll stop there but it is, it seems like a simple there seem like simple answers that are not necessarily so. I think that yes, and I will make I do have a list I don't know if it's an updated tree list, but that that is a concern is to really looking at something that it's not only going to be aesthetically beautiful isn't going to be a major maintenance problem. And then the other issue is the irrigation and the electrical is very old. So, you know, for Depot Park that's definitely an issue. Yeah, good point. Thank you. Okay, thank you. I don't know Victoria are you with us. I am with you. No questions. Thank you very much. Okay, do we have any members of the public wishing to speak on this item. We have no raise hands at this time. Okay, shall we move on to item 4.2 downtown action organization update from Candice Hinkle Allison. Hi everyone, can you hear me. Yes. Good morning, chair tidbits nice to have you joining the downtown subcommittee I agree with Rafael it's a it's a very fun group. And good morning, Council members, Sawyer and filming it's nice to see you both again it's been a while since we've met. I think thank you to everyone who has been supporting our downtown businesses city staff are putting in a lot of work, and we're very grateful for their continued support and creativity as we keep working through the myriad of issues that are happening for all of our local businesses. It seems like a long time ago since we haven't met since winter lights ended so I just wanted to get a quick update on that, which was that the new version went really well you know we adapted to kind of get with the times. And we've got great feedback from business owners and the community who really enjoyed seeing downtown looking so festive and having activities to participate in. And we did, we were able to install some lighting, and that's actually going to stay up year round and kind of be our. We're going to look to that as we continue working on new lighting this year as well. Just a couple quick updates for our downtown businesses I think everyone knows it continues to be a very tough time for our business owners. Thankfully we've not had any more businesses close over the holidays so we know it's going to be a struggle for quite a while. Our restaurant owners are thrilled to be able to operate outdoors again so very grateful that that happened a little faster than we were anticipating. But other than operating under the current restrictions, the main concerns and issues that come up with our business owners are really dealing with issues with the homeless population. So those logistical updates for the DAO we did hold our annual meeting in January. We completed our annual report which is available on our website for anyone interested. At that meeting we highlighted our priorities for the year, which are to install additional lighting. We also looked at some of the light poles downtown. Like River Road Square establish a plan to prune and replace trees along 4th Street, and then also look into the feasibility of an ice rink in Courthouse Square for winter next year, this year. Future years really. We're going to be talking about our board of directors so just wanted to share the updates there. Our current board is Leanna Ozielo. She's a new board member. Natalie Balfour, Zach Berkowitz, Pauline Block, also a new board member. Joe Dietzen, Charles Evans, Hugh Futrell, Katelyn Kurosak, also a new board member, Tom Robertson, Bernie Schwartz, Stephen Stankovich, also a new board member and Peter Stanley, who's also new and Doug Van Dyke. Our executive committee will be selected at our next board meeting. We have two new committees forming. The first is an ad hoc group to support efforts around the EIFD and the County Civic Center. And then the second is a community engagement committee, which is meant to support our businesses, downtown with post COVID recovery, and also create regular programming for summer and winter, which will again look to include the ice rink, and really focus on what's worked for us in the past. You know, we had two kind of last minute programs that we put together through Open and Out and Winter Lights. What worked, what didn't, what can we look to in the future that will work for the majority of our businesses and create a great opportunity for our community to come down. We also had a really good meeting, I think it was just yesterday with Jason and Marisa around public works, and I think we've got a good plan moving forward, a couple of projects that we're going to be working on, but really just appreciate their support, talking through issues around baseline services and making sure that we've got kind of a clear plan for the future with the work split between the DAO and the city. A couple updates on what's already planned and in the works. We did have one more art installation go in. Hopefully you've seen it. It's along 4th Street. You wouldn't notice unless you're walking though, because it's in some empty tree grates on the ground. So we had six mosaics installed of native flowers. And they're really gorgeous. So I recommend you take a stroll down forth if you haven't seen them yet. They go from the 500 block up to the 700 block. Coming up soon. Baside Church, who's been a really great supporter of downtown, is putting together an Easter egg hunt at businesses throughout the area. So that'll be a lot of fun for families. And we're looking forward to working with them on that. The goal is just to get families to stop by as many businesses as possible throughout a couple of week time span. So it should be a lot of fun and a great way to kind of introduce some people to the businesses that we have downtown. And I'll share more details on that at our next meeting once it's kind of finalized. We also are working with California poets and schools to do a poetry installation in the month of April for National Poetry Month. So that's really exciting. And we just started talking with both the museum and with Tara and her team about ways we can keep using downtown as a canvas to both engage the community and support business. So we'll look forward to sharing more details about those as we're moving forward. So a quick update from our Street Plus team. Not much new there. They continue to dedicate most of their time to issues with the homeless population, especially those struggling with mental health issues. We meet regularly about once a week with Catholic Charities in the city to talk through specific challenges that are occurring and the Catholic Charities team has been great about coming through regularly and to trying to get to know some of the folks who are longer term residents in the downtown area. So most of the majority of their time goes and it's often preventing them from doing other work. So, for instance, this past week, we had a homeless individual pull a bunch of our plants out of the planters and throw them on the sidewalk. So it took our team a couple hours to pick those up and clean them up and, you know, a little bit of damage from it but ultimately hours wasted, not being proactive in their work which is tough for them. So it's definitely an ongoing frustration, but want to thank Sergeant Wolf and his team for working so closely with us, especially this past week to address some of the more challenging individuals. It's definitely taking the support of a lot of city departments to try and address this as best we can. So we really appreciate you working so closely with us. And then finally, a quick update on the Asawa Fountain. We are still hoping to break ground soon but don't have a date yet. So I will definitely share that and that's something everyone is very eager to hear about. So as soon as I have a date I'll make sure that gets shared with everyone here, even if it's before our next meeting in March. Any questions from Council? Okay, seeing no questions, do we have any questions or comments from the public? There are no raise hands at this time. Okay, seeing no hands. Let's move out of 4.3 the public safety update. It looks like we have Sergeant Wolf. So this is Sergeant Wolf. Good morning everybody. A few things to update everybody on. I think I'll start with the Greenway. About a week ago, we cleaned up the Greenway. There were imminent floods and the camps were in a low line area. Contrary to what people may have read on the press, I just want to take this opportunity to explain that not only were everyone offered beds for three days in advance, but we did get the most vulnerable and sick people, some into hotel rooms, some into Sam Jones. So we did house a number of people from there. And as we've seen before with the Greenway in the days following the cleanup, there were a number of people that came back. We have done our best to stay on top of that, knowing the impact that it has on the Hyatt and Railroad Square. Of course, with the timing being contemporaneous with the rains coming in, we did see an increase at the underpasses, which some of it was from the Greenway, but most of it I believe was just the weather conditions because there weren't a lot of familiar faces from the Greenway. It's been a little tough to stay on top of. As of yesterday, I know there were about eight tents on nine. And we've had a few individuals showing up on fifth or six as well. So that's something we're definitely going to have to keep an eye on. We're also seeing an uptick in both vehicles and some camping around the Juilliard Park area that's not necessarily related to the Greenway started before the Greenway, but we are seeing that and getting reports about that as well. So bearing in Cadence's frustration, downtown has picked up a bit. We've been getting reports of more campers on 4th Street. I have two guys from my team who have been trying to walk it in the mornings as calls for service in time allows. And that's probably had some impact, but we'll do our best to keep doing that. The team for DET is a little low right now and we've decided to keep two guys on the weekends and two on the weekday so we can continue offering some support seven days a week. But it means we just have fewer officers available. And I want to thank the DAO because they've been great as far as letting us know when they've had major issues as recently as a couple days ago. They notified us of one individual that was causing some pretty serious problems downtown. The good news is we were able to arrest him for drug charges and warrants. The bad news is the arrest happened yesterday and he was released and causing problems there again today. So as I've explained before, we're still dealing with some difficulties with the way the justice system is set up during the COVID pandemic. We do intend this year to go around as we do every year normally on Valentine's Day and get the trespass letters out to the businesses. The timing's a little bad as it's coinciding with some major camp operations we'll be doing. So it's okay with cadence we can talk offline later we may have to adjust the date a little bit but I'd like to work with you on getting those trespass letters updated a regular annual thing. And then the railroad for the railroad square folks, I'm aware of the issues I've actually met with Mike Montague as well. And I want to let you guys know you are not forgotten we're aware of the impacts, especially with the camp closing so close to your area. And we are aware of it and we are devoting as much time as we can there. It's just really divided between a number of areas that need attention right now, so no one's getting quite what we would like to offer everybody. And I do apologize for that we're using our resources as best we can with the most significant problems we're experiencing. And I believe that's it. Awesome. Thanks, Sergeant. Any questions from council. I'm seeing no questions. Sergeant, I did have some questions for you. You mentioned difficulties with the justice system as a result of COVID. Can you expand upon what some of those problems are right now. Absolutely. So, the jails had to reduce their population pretty extensively. As a result of the COVID outbreak. What that means is people that would normally when we book them be held are cited out with a court date absent it being a serious violent or sexually related felony. In most cases. So we're seeing a lot of people that we arrest who are causing problems for whatever behavior they're engaging in. Right back on the streets within a few hours so I know sometimes we even get calls from people who are pretty ticked because they're like the problem still go and you came out and what they don't know is we may have arrested them and they may be back there within a few hours sometimes. So that's some of the impacts we're having and then a lot of cases are being cleared because there was a backlog and it affected the courts and what type of cases they were willing to put on in their limited capacity. So, some people previously that would have been held to a higher sentence. They may be received probation or not even that are the cases were dismissed. And so we're seeing kind of more of a brazen attitude from some of the people we deal with because they committed offenses and essentially have fewer no consequences. That answers your question. Yeah, it does thank you so when COVID-19 is over. Do you feel like you're going to have more enforcement capability than you do currently. Well, I mean, I'm speculating to some extent, but based on what I'm saying, my concern is less so with the jail because their capacity should increase, but the courts going to be faced with an enormous backlog of cases. And I'm just not sure about that second part I described, if some of these cases may be dismissed or what's going to happen with them. So, it's kind of tough to tell. Sure. And then my last question is, as you mentioned staffing issues within the DET. And it sounds like there's a need for an additional officer without additional officer help you address some of the issues that are popping up on the greenway downtown. It would absolutely, it would. And on top of that we've got some injuries that I'm hoping the guys come back here pretty quick. But yes, another officer would absolutely assist with our ability to be downtown and at some of the camps that we're dealing with simultaneously. So are you understaffed right now because you have somebody out on disability leave or is it because there was a position cut. Well, we had a difficult time so our staffing is myself and six officers. And with that we're kind of telling the line we couldn't meet all the needs but we can meet more than what we're doing now with with the two injuries it's definitely impacting us but even prior to that we'd had some discussions because if we deal with a larger camp like we're about to go into it can require as many as 10 or 12 officers. So, and a certain number of them need to be from this team because we have certain expertise and some of the legal factors dealing with the homeless. Effectively when we do those we don't have anybody available to support the downtown area. And if we did get up over six bodies, that's enough where we could supplement it with patrol staffing and partner one to one to manage the camps and it would leave us at least one officer who'd be available to keep an eye on the downtown during that time period. Okay, thanks for that information that's really helpful because you know, we recently had a presentation from Chief Navarro, where he talked about staffing needs within the police department so I believe that's going to be coming back at some point so this will be helpful for the members of council who comprise this subcommittee to know about. So I believe we've asked the public councils had the chance to ask their questions so I think we'll move on now to item 4.4 maintenance of courthouse square. Good morning everyone you hear me. Yes. Good morning, Chairman tidbits and council member Sawyer and Flynn and I'm introduced myself. I am Tim Finnegan. I'm a crew supervisor for the parks department was the retirement of Dean Hamlin. I've been tasked to oversee the, the entire park system, why we work to fill his position so I'm going into this. I'm a little bit green and learning as I go. I had the, the opportunity to meet with the railroad square association. As previously mentioned, on some of the concerns and so forth with the trees and Depot Park and we were able to talk about those items. The main plan put together the look that to do some trimming down there on those trees, either with our internal staff or seeing if, if we can have our contractor do a little work out down there so we had a great conversation about the, in general the park maintenance in that area Depot Park. We also talked about looking at some of the trash receptacles in that area and some work was done on doing some painting and some power washing, cleaning Also have a few ideas about maybe moving some of those trash receptacles and maybe a little bit better areas, better, better areas so the public can throw this away and just make, make, make it look a little bit cleaner down there on the, on the sidewalks. Then we were, as far as courthouse square stuff our crew has been busy with doing the leaf cleanup. Now that we're kind of on the tail end of leaf drop our crews were working hard down in courthouse square. Jeju Way, doing a lot of blowing a lot of cleaning, had quite a little bit of storm damage with some limbs and so forth that required our crew to do some, some cleanup in that area. So that was all taken care of so it's looking good down there. Looking, looking ahead. We have our crew scheduled for next week to do some Graffiti abatement in the Greenway. We've been putting a plan together with With, with our senior mains worker and, and getting the things that we will need to do that sort of cleaning that will include painting The graffiti on the walls, as well as some power washing and some soda blasting on the sidewalk to try to get that area cleaned up and looking, looking good again after We have the cleanup there of the homeless cleanup that Sergeant Wolf and his team helped us with there last week. So I'm kind of excited to see how that's going to turn out. That's such a beautiful area. When it's cleaned up and it's usable for our public so I'm kind of excited to see how that's going to look after next week. Looking ahead a little bit. We are going to be working with streets plus on their receptacles down for elsewhere for street downtown area. I'm kind of doing the same thing as we did in the Depot Park area, the railroad square where we're going to be doing some power washing and repainting of those receptacles. So looking forward to that in the future. I think that's all I have. I do appreciate and I please be patient with the parks department. I'm a I'm the only supervisor and you know trying to look over 67 of our parks, as well as 18 members of our staff, our crews. I'm just I'm being stretched a little bit thin and I just appreciate everyone's working with me and introducing themselves to me. But I just ask for your patience and we are in the process of refilling that position that cruise supervisor position. It's just taking some time with some of the other things going on in the city revolved around our our our employees hiring and figuring everything out so I'm glad to be part of of this committee and and working for you guys and doing the best I can to make the city in the downtown area with the best as it can. Thanks, Tim. We appreciate that. Right now I'm looking up here's john. Thank you. I just want to say thanks, Tim for their I mean it's got to be not only is it thankless, but it's never ending, and you've got to know you have a like you said you mentioned how many acres of of park land you have to deal with and it's very much appreciated even though it feels like sometimes that it's one step forward and two steps back, you know, is we really do appreciate your dedication, especially to our to the core of our city, which is very important not to underestimate the importance or not to understate the importance of other parks. But these are the downtown area has its particularly challenging areas and very much appreciate your your hard work and the hard work of your staff. It can't I know it's not easy, and I just wanted to voice my appreciation and I'm sure that I am not alone in speaking for the entire council and in in voicing our appreciation for the hard work of your staff. In voicing our appreciation for the hard work that you're that you and your staff do and what you provide as far as quality of life for our city. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks john seeing no other hand hands raised by the council. Let's look to the public for any public comment. There are no raise hands at this time. Okay, seeing no hands raised. We'll now move on to item 4.5 courthouse square ballards project update and thank you to Tim. Are you able to see your presentation. I am. Yes, thank you. Can everybody hear me all right. Great. Right. Well, good morning, chair tidbits, council members Sawyer and Fleming. I'm Grant Bailey, associate civil engineer with the transportation and public works department. This morning I'll be providing and project update on the courthouse square ballards project and this update is a follow up update to an update we provided in July 2019 on this project. Today I'll be discussing project purpose current that the timeline anticipated schedule as we move forward. Project scope, as well as design and construction considerations. Next slide please. The purpose of this project is to install or replace existing ballards in the square with traffic rated ballards to mitigate the potential of a vehicle entering the square. And this need was identified. And the completion of the courthouse square reunification projects, because there are two, you know, relatively long straight stretches of roadways and Mendocino Avenue to the north and Santa Rosa Avenue to the south that have the potential to allow to gain a high rate of speed and a relatively short amount of time. And, you know, whether it is by an intentional act of terrorism or unintentionally, if a vehicle were to interest the square at a high rate of speed there's a significant potential for injury and possible loss of life. And so this project will install traffic rated ballards that should stop a vehicle or that will stop a vehicle from entering the square from the north or south approaches at courthouse square. Next slide please. So for the project timeline, as I mentioned in 2019 staff provided an update to this subcommittee. At that time we're preparing requests for proposals for design build services to install traffic rated ballards in the square. In January 2020, we received two design build proposals. And then in March 2020 Council awarded this contract to M3 integrated services of Santa Rosa, California to carry out this project. As you're well aware, you know, in March of 2020 the state went into lockdown because of COVID-19 and as a result there were delays to finalizing the execution of the contract. But in September of 2020 we were able to finalize the contract and begin design work, which leads us into present day February 2021. So we are now pretty much completed our design and we're looking at finalizing it in the next week or two. Since the project is a design build project that's been awarded by Council, we have a short timeline to get to construction so we're anticipating starting work next month in March. The project should take about eight weeks between installing the ballards and doing some curb ramp and ADA upgrades. So we're thinking we should be complete about mid May of this year. Next slide please. So for the project scope, you can see on the screen on the right hand side there, there's a planned view of Courthouse Square. The primary scope objective is to install two ballard arrays on one on the north side and one on the south side of the square. Each array is approximately 85 feet wide and span Mendocino Avenue to the north and Santa Rosa Avenue to the south. The baller heights will be 54 inches and they'll be spaced at 60 inches on center. In addition to the primary scope objective, we'll also be replacing curb ramps in the square on the north and south side of the square, as well as curb ramps outside of the square on the north side of fourth street in front of exchange bank and fourth alley and on the west side of the square in front of La Rosa restaurant. Next slide please. So some design considerations when we picked off our design phase for this project we engage a number of city departments including planning and economic development parks, police fire and of course transportation and public works to, you know, have different staff members provide input on, you know, variety of options on the ballards and based on feedback we received. The final, I guess appearance of the ballards will have a jet black powder coat smooth finish with reflective tape at the tops of the ballards with a slant style top. The ballard appearance should be very much similar to what's shown in the picture here with the exception of the paint color being black. A couple of other really nice features about this project, you know, from the beginning we aimed to maintain the existing appearance of the square as much as possible and so we wanted to replace the existing permeable pavers that are out there. And in working with our designer and ballard manufacturer. We came up with a foundation system that does allow us to replace the papers so you know outside of the ballards being replaced or, you know, being upside the visual appearance in the square should be pretty well maintained. Another nice feature of this ballard foundation system is it's a shallow foundation system, which, you know, really minimizes impacts to existing utilities and as a result we have virtually no utility relocation, because this project. And also the major consideration for this project was to ensure that we're providing a system that would protect users of the square from a large vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed. And the system that was selected does it does achieve that. And, you know, in the event that a vehicle attempted to enter the square. This system should only allow penetration of up to three three feet maximum. Next slide please. So as far as construction considerations. We consider that there are two work areas effectively part of this project, the ballard work area themselves inside the square and the curb ramps outside of the square on 4th Street and on courthouse square West. We also consider traffic control for vehicle traffic and pedestrian traffic and how this project would impact the surrounding businesses and residents of the square. Next slide please. So to elaborate on my some of the points on the previous slide. As I mentioned, there are two work areas, the ballard work areas themselves inside the square. You can see, it's kind of a hatched area in the north and south side but, you know, outlining that hatched area there's kind of a heavy dashed line here. That indicates the approximate location of construction fencing, which should, you know, bar access to the public to the construction site as well as secure the site during construction. Also, there's some arrows around that around the work areas, which indicate pedestrian detours to ensure that pedestrians aren't getting into our work site or we're signing appropriately. Outside of the work area, as mentioned, we'll be replacing, excuse me outside of the square. We'll be replacing curb ramps on the north side of 4th Street, as well as on the west side of the square in front of a restaurant. As far as traffic control goes, we don't anticipate any long term lane takes required for this project. However, there will be some short term lane closures to accommodate construction activities, those activities primarily being the concrete pores for the foundation, the ballard foundation and concrete curb ramp and curb and gutter replacements. We'll be replacing curb ramps for pedestrian traffic control since we'll be removing the existing curb ramps on the north and south sides of the square. We'll be preventing access to the square or closing down those access access points to the square. We'll be officially detouring pedestrians to the next closest signalized intersection at B Street and D Street. However, we do anticipate a significant amount for traffic will utilize the crosswalks that are unsignalized just to the east of the square and shown on the far right hand side of this slide. Just to touch on the surrounding businesses, the project management team at the city and our contractor will be working with businesses to ensure that throughout the construction process we're maintaining access to businesses and to residences and any services that businesses offer, we're going to do everything we can to ensure that they're maintained in full. Next slide, please. So with that, I'd like to thank everyone for their time and open it up to any questions that there may be. Council, any questions. Okay, seeing no questions. Let's go to public comment. Any questions from the public. There are no hands raised at this time. Okay, last chance for questions or comments from council. Sergeant, what would like to make a comment. Yes, I had a quick question if I may have that three foot penetration of vehicle. Is that for any vehicle or is that for like a passenger car size vehicle. Yeah, that's a really good question. So it's for a larger vehicle larger than a passenger size car. And kind of nature of the project. I don't, I don't know if we want to go into the actual design vehicle that the border systems rated for. Unless, of course, you'd like me to and I'd happy. I'm happy to discuss that the specifics around the design vehicle. No, just the concern was whether it was like a small passenger car, or if it would accommodate or stop something a bit heavier and that no specifics needed. Thank you. No problem. Thanks for the question, Sergeant. Okay, so seeing no comments from council. Thank you, Grant. We're going to at this time move on to item 4.7 the imagine art presentation. And it looks like Kim NATO will be presenting. Pardon that will actually be Tara Thompson presenting. Oh, okay. Thank you. Sorry about that. Hi there. This is Tara Thompson. Can you hear me? Yes. Great. Hello chair tidbits and council members. So you're in Fleming. I am here today to provide my normal public art and permitted events update, but I thought I would start off by sharing a visual sense public art is a visual medium in many cases. So this is the approved artist for the imagine art in courthouse square project, which I presented to you status updates. Since gosh last year or even the year before, it's been a long process to get to this point, but we have now a selected and approved blessing Hancock and her design unum for the north end of courthouse square the large public art project that was presented in the master plan for courthouse square. So after an extensive selection process that narrowed down over 140 submissions to five finalists. One artist has been approved by the art and public places committee blessing Hancock's design unum was identified by the project selection panel is the top proposal that best satisfy the goals of the project. The unprecedented number of submissions from artists 140 was our highest number ever and from that five finalists were invited through a competitive selection process to submit designs. And then the selection panel was very thoughtful and thorough with the entire selection process, especially with this final decision. To account the artist responses to their final selection questions the public opinion that we gathered through an online survey, as well as the stated project criteria. So this piece unum, it means Latin, it is Latin for oneness or together, and as a signature artwork that places emphasis on innovation diversity and engagement as leading values of San Rosa. It is inspired by the themes that the artist heard through an initial survey we did out to the public about being welcoming being inspirational and also relaying values of innovation and cultural inclusivity. So you can see the surface has engraved or I should say laser cut words on it and those words will be collected through a robust community engagement process that will be beginning this spring to determine what words and phrases should be on there that speak values inherent to San Rosa. During the day, the sculpture will cast shadows onto the words shadows of the words onto the square using sunlight and then in the evening LED lights from within will light the piece from within creating a soft diffuse glow. This piece will be approximately 12 feet high and 15 feet in diameter, and will be made of water jet cut stainless steel and LED lights. We are looking at a timeline where this piece will be completed and installed next February 2022. That's the only slide I just wanted to share the slide the image of this piece you can learn more about the project see the other finalist designs if you had not seen them previously on our website which is srcity.org slash imagine art. That's the website for the project. The dates that I have related to the public art program are that another exciting kind of step forward for us just last week was the art and public places committee approved a new strategic plan for fiscal years 21 through 24. And this will be an exciting way for us to operate operationalize some public art program initiatives and strategies, moving forward for the next three and a half years or so. And we'll be working more on some of the projects that will come out of that at a future meeting. We also on Monday, the eighth, February 8 will be issuing a new call for artists for a parking garage project on the fifth street parking garage. So if you want to learn more about that you can check out our website as well. And that's all I have for public art updates. The only special event updates I have are really just that the permits themselves remain suspended under our current health orders and restrictions. We have permitted the open and out street closures, the continued street closure of the 500 block of fourth street as a part of the expanded dining space and retail space. But really all other permits are currently suspended. We are starting to get event organizers asking us about events for this summer and fall and unfortunately there's not a clear answer to that yet we're awaiting guidance from the county and state on how to start permitting and when to start permitting large gatherings but right now we do not have a timeline for that. That's all I have for today I'm happy to answer any questions. Thanks Tara, looking at council for any questions, john. Thank you chair to it's not a question just a comment, Tara, what a, you know, what an elegant piece, you know, it's everyone has an opinion on art, and you had some really great submissions and I. This was, it was a hard choice when I was looking at them to this and this was in my top two. And I, it is. Such a great piece on on so many levels congratulations to the committee that that have a very difficult job of selecting a piece of artwork I've, I've, I have sat in that chair before and it can be very very challenging and they did a beautiful job. This is, like I said before a very elegant piece I think it will stand the test of time. And it's right for our times. So, thank you very much for your effort and I look forward to it to its to its placement, ultimately in the square. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks john, Victoria. Any questions. No, I, my, I was just going to echo what john said it is a beautiful piece and also congratulations to the artist on getting commission. Thanks. We'll move to the any public comment. There are ways at this time. Okay seeing none we'll bring it back to council for any final questions or comments. Seeing none. Thank you Tara, appreciate the update. Great, thank you so much. So now I believe we'll move on to item 4.7 the parking program update. Yes, good morning, everyone and welcome chair tidbits to this committee. I have a brief update for you. We had seen a gradual uptick in parking activity for the downtown, starting with the resumption of paid parking in July and then with the resumption of outdoor dining that went into effect in December of course we saw a corresponding dip in activity. And with the resumption of outdoor dining. We've already in a week seen people coming back downtown and seeing increased activity so that's good news. We are seeing revenues down about 50% year over year, which is not a surprise and actually I'm pleased to report that in comparison to similar cities, we are actually doing better than a lot of cities who are seeing 6065% drops in their revenue. I'm happy about that. I did want to remind folks that we are offering free parking options we have the first hour free and all five of our garages. We've got free parking after five o'clock Monday through Friday and all of the garages and all of the garages are free all day on Saturday and Sunday so we are offering many options for folks to to park at no cost. And we also have some garage construction underway, you may if you are parking in the garages you may see that there's work underway right now we're in the D street garage. This is primarily ceiling cracks to keep water out of facilities to extend their useful life. And that work will be going on for several more months at all of the garages except for the third street garage. And then lastly I just wanted to say that I am really excited to be working with Tara on that new art project for the fifth street garage. The purpose of this besides being aesthetically pleasing and you know making the garage more attractive. It's also to help people in wayfinding to understand that that garage is there it's kind of hidden behind redwood trees. So we're looking at the corner of orchard and fifth street, which people can see from fourth street and D. And so we're hoping that this project will kind of serve multiple purposes and making people more aware that that large garage is there and very close to fourth street core. So that's what I've got for you and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thanks Kim. Any questions from council. Seeing none we'll move on to public comment on item 4.7. There are no hands raised at this time. Okay, seeing no hands we'll bring it back to council. Seeing no hands we'll move on to item five matters held in committee. And thank you, Kim. And there are no matters held in committee. Okay. Item six department reports. There also seems to be no additional reports. Okay. Good stuff. Well, so we're at the end of our meeting. So I guess I'll go ahead and adjourn. Thanks everybody. Thank you.