 Good afternoon. Can you hear me and see me okay? Yes, we can hear you and see you Son in video chat We can hear you councilmember Alvarez and see you. Can you hear us? I can indeed. Thank you. Thank you Madam clerk if I switch over to my Notes, can you still see me? No Okay, very well. Okay. Thank you All right, and I see councilwoman Fleming so it looks like we do have a quorum. Welcome everyone to our February 14th 2023 Santa Rosa City Council it is now 3 30 and we will be starting our meeting Welcome Madam City Manager and fellow council members Madam City Clerk, can you please call the roll? Yes Councilmember staff will be absent for this meeting Councilmember Rogers here Councilmember Okrepke here councilmember Fleming Here councilmember Alvarez President vice mayor McDonald here mayor Rogers present Let the record show All council members are present with the exception of councilmember stab Thank you We will begin our meeting today with item 3.1 interviews for our housing authority vacancies The purpose of the housing authority is to ensure adequate decent safe and sanitary housing for qualified people Within Santa Rosa consistent with federal state and local laws the housing authority primarily consist of the Santa Rosa housing trust in Rental housing assistance programs both of which are responsible for improving the quality and affordability of housing within our city Today we will interview for applicants for the housing authority to fill Three at-large vacancies each to serve a four-year term expiring December 31st 2026 we will start with Andrew Smith then we will continue with Jeremy Newton Jeffrey Owen and Tony Neil in that order Andrew Smith may we please invite you to the podium. Thank you Thank you for being here today Thank you for having me here. I appreciate that. Oh, no problem. Can you please tell us why we should Appoint you to the housing authority Well, first of all Housing is probably one of the most important items in our city To keep the financial well-being going we have a great place to live here for most of us For those who who don't have a good place. We need to do something for them. It's an issue that I have followed Both are building for you know middle income to lower income I'm retired and I do a lot of Volunteer work I'm on a committee for transportation and land and I have an interest in helping my city You know keep on being a good place to live And I've owned a couple of houses. I've been fortunate But I've been on the other side where you know, I didn't always have the money to buy something or live in a better place and I take the time to read I attend a lot of the Meetings for example, I was at the meeting last year at the in April at the steel community center to understand what the city was doing on the plan they were proposing and a lot of questions to be asked and I read all the documents that come in especially the last one So it's an interest I have and I have the time to give back to my city. I think that's very important Thank you so much. Are there any questions from council members? Seeing none, we would like to thank you mr. Smith for coming here today Thank you so much, and we will be now going to Jeremy Newton. Thank you Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself and why you would be appropriate for the housing authority board? Yeah, absolutely. Thanks again for having me today. My name is Jeremy Newton I was a Navy veteran I grew up in Houston graduated from the Naval Academy and flew fighter jets for a number of years did a couple combat deployments in Iraq Afghanistan Did some time in Washington DC as a legislative affairs officer working in the Senate and then left active duty to pursue a career in the commercial industry Managing projects and overseeing budgets and things like that mostly manufacturing I Miss flying so I got back in the cockpit my family and I moved back here to California Santa Rosa Where I'm currently working as a airline pilot for United Airlines. I'm also still in the Navy reserves Throughout that time I've been taught that as a citizen You get involved in your community and you tackle the toughest issues One of the most pressing issues for this city the region and the state in general is is housing And most other issues can be drawn back to to housing so I want to do my part to to get involved on the housing authority and Hopefully provide some solutions to to this issue. Thank you so much Jeremy. Do we have any questions from the council? Looking online. I see no questions Well, thank you very much for being here today and we will now move on to Jeffrey Owen. Thank you Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to Apply again for the housing authority. I've been on it for four years been active as a chair chair for the housing authority Right when COVID started and vice chair now been helpful in trying to get the housing authority to look at requests from a more objective nature in terms of putting a point process in place worked diligently with with the council and The housing authority in regard to the CDBG funds that came in for the disaster recovery That was 38 million dollars, which is a big chunk of money. You're normally six to seven million dollars I like to be able to continue to work with that and work with the housing authority My background is been in finance for either developers or banks I've been on both sides of either approving affordable housing finance structures and tax credit structures or Being working for a developer and going for application So I've seen both sides on it from a from a lending standpoint and applicant standpoint housing for Affordable needs is very is a definitely strong a need in this community like to be able to continue to help with that And help the city hit its rena numbers and Who that are doing that it the city is going very well right now in terms of being able to provide units and be able to continue to do that Thank you very much for being here And do we have any questions from council members looking online saying none? Thank you very much Councilmember Rogers It's actually it's not a question and so I apologize. I just wanted to thank you for your service I know Particularly with the CDBG funds. That's been really important for the community So I want to appreciate the work that you've done with staff and the diligence on that Thank you for the opportunity to do so All right seeing no additional comments or questions Thank you very much for being here today, and we will now go to Tony Neil. Good afternoon Hi there Why why do why should I be included right? I have a lot of heart for this issue For a number of reasons one of them is that I am a senior and I am currently looking for affordable housing so that I can retire Not only that I'm a member of the lgbtq community and I feel like we're not really focusing enough there in meeting those needs And being broad enough in our inclusion It's obvious that housing is not only a national but a regional crisis and we need to provide more housing for everybody I'm definitely at the age now where I want to be of service and give something back to my community I love this place. I've lived here since I I moved here in the early 70s to go to Sonoma state from southern california Sonoma california native And my whole family lives here my kids grandkids, etc And I want this to be the most wonderful place to live ever Thank you. And do we have any questions or comments from council at this time? Looking online councilwoman flimmy. I see a question. Yes. Um, I'm just wondering if the last person If the mayor or the last person could state the last person's name one more time tony neal tony now now tony now Thank you. Nancy ell Like little now Are there any additional questions? Seeing none, I'd like to thank you all for going through this process and your willingness to serve Our city in this capacity housing is very important to all of us Madam city clerk, may you please facilitate our public comment? We are now taking public comments on item 3.1 If you are in the chambers and wish to make a comment and have not provided your name to the Administrator at the top of the chamber Please make your way to the podium. If you are participating via zoom, please raise your hand If you are dialing in via telephone, please dial nine star nine to raise your hand You'll have three minutes for your comment and a countdown timer will alert at the conclusion of that period Mr. Dewitt Hello My name is Dwayne Dewitt. I'm from roseland. I've been a housing advocate for decades And I wanted to make sure that you folks understood one thing that actually is mentioned in your housing element It points out that there are 139 homeless veterans In santa rosa and that 65 percent which is over 90 are totally unsheltered So I just heard the comment from the gentleman from the united states navy Air branch. I want to thank him for his service as long with mr Owen who's been on the housing authority already I've attended a number of housing authority meetings over all the decades And what's really important. I think is that you get Some housing authority commissioners Who understand the dynamic of actually putting housing in the downtown area, which the council Has made a priority in the past But the housing authority hasn't really Prioritized and has actually been funding housing at the outskirts of santa rosa on the far edges Building in the green fields not doing downtown priority development With the money from the housing authority some projects take decades like lantana which took 13 years So we have this disconnect between the commissioners who get appointed And the council members who have priorities that they then set out for the staff and say this is what we're going to work on So what i'm hoping is that whoever you pick today you make a point of saying hey listen This whole process is supposed to be about getting more affordable housing downtown And that actually came to the forefront 60 years ago 60 years ago remember that when our housing authority was actually founded Because we needed more affordable rental residential housing in santa rosa And it was basically here in the downtown area where we were destroying structurally sound businesses And buildings and built the towers that we have bethlehem towers and silver crest We need more of those tall buildings down here the housing authority could help for that And then one last thing just a little aside I've applied for the housing authority before and i know my record should have been Current and active and i have a master's degree in city planning with the housing and community development Focus so i'm kind of curious why i wasn't in this round And where my paperwork went it probably just maybe got shuffled aside with the new mayor and stuff But keeping in mind i'm always willing to volunteer i'm coming down here to volunteer all the time Thank you for your time Zoom host do we have any zoom callers or any recorded messages? Excuse me. We do not have any hands Raised as attendees. Thank you and oh excuse me No, but just went back down. We do not have any hand raised nor do we have any prerecorded messages? Thank you So again, I would like to thank the applicants for being here today And we will be voting on this matter a little later on during our regular meeting Which will start at four o'clock So We will now take a break until four o'clock where we will resume our regular Council meeting. Thank you Thank you seeing that it is four p.m. And we have a quorum We will now begin our regular Meeting for today february 14 2023 Madam city clerk. May you please call the roll? Yes councilmember stapp will remain absent for the remainder of the meeting Councilmember rogers here councilmember okrepki Here councilmember fleming here councilmember alvarez Present vice mayor mcdonald Here mayor rogers present Let the record reflect all council members are present with the exception of councilmember stapp Thank you. We have no study session today No closed session to report on no proclamation So we are going to go down to item 8.1 Madam city manager Thank you, mayor. Good evening, uh mayor and council members Our community powerment update will be given by daniel Gardenio, thank you Good afternoon, madam mayor and council members. Can you speak into the mic a little bit? Yes Better All right. I haven't done this in a while Okay, so i'm get daniel gardenio with the office of community engagement here to give you a brief update on the community empowerment plan Starting with the diversity equity inclusion and belonging spaces mini grant program We are set to launch the program as of april 1st. We're in the process of finalizing the application and Program materials that are associated with that. There will be a hundred and fifty thousand dollars available Through the end of this current fiscal year with another round of funding available july 1st Applications will be available on a first come first serve basis And we will be working with a review team on a quarterly basis to approve The applications that we receive Second update is the citywide internship program. We have a total of 10 um available positions for interns through this citywide internship program Our participating city divisions include zero community engagement and violence prevention SRPD planning housing and community services Economic development and our arts and public places program We have currently a community engagement and violence prevention have selected our two interns They start on february 21st And we'll be assisting our team with engagement and outreach activities As well as activities pertaining to our department strategic plans and evaluation efforts Other departments are working on making their selections currently And finally next steps with the community empowerment plan just as a refresher There were a list of recommendations that were made to city council in may of 2021 From our through our listening session report These recommendations are non-public safety focused recommendations included creating an organizational culture that values public engagement with all community members And increasing access to public engagement opportunities commitment to inclusion diversity equity transparency and access Immandatory trainings and educational sessions sessions for city staff appointed and elected officials and members of our boards and commissions And through these recommendations, we've been working with the seed collaborative over the last few years as you well know And their work really dovetails with these recommendations as well as the recommendations made in the resolution to declare racism a public health crisis So we will continue to work with them and partner with hr and other city departments So that we can do a better job at implementing programs and services through an equity lens and that has my report Thank you We will now go to Public comment on that item We are now taking public comments on item 8.1 If you are in the chambers and wish to make a comment and have not provided your name to the administrator Please make your way to the podium. If you are participating via zoom, please raise your hand If you are dialing in via telephone, please dial star 9 to raise your hand You will have three minutes for your comment and a countdown timer will alert you At the conclusion of that period Hello, my name is duane de wid. I'm a firm believer in community empowerment And many of the people in my neighborhood of roseland have been hopeful that once we got a As they called it a community engagement department That we would get some empowerment Unfortunately, there's a lot of people who haven't been able to participate as well as they might have liked And there's not a real Robust new sharing approach that's happening so that the people from The disadvantaged underserved and overburdened neighborhoods of our city are able to actually participate and feel empowered It's not really happening yet I can appreciate that you've got staff and you've got people working on different things But there needs to be a real world approach where the folks who actually Are living and working in these More unempowered neighborhoods Are given opportunities in which they can become empowered The dilemma that we face with any bureaucracy is typically that it's more about what the bureaucracy has in mind Than the people in a community and what they think could occur What we're hoping over in roseland, especially now that after many years A final annexation brought all of roseland into the city Which is Over 10,000 people when you actually look at the size of what was brought into santa rosa And most of those folks Don't really feel they get that chance to participate and feel empowered As a matter of fact, I don't believe there's probably more than a few hundred maximum right now Even though the departments are working on the things that they try to do And even though there's this effort going forward People feel especially like the neighborhoods on west ninth and link street link avenue, excuse me That the gangs are more empowered than the city And the citizens gang graffiti is everywhere over there Especially on that corner fence and then once you leave the graffiti there It moves further to the east And it stays there We used to believe that the city's Taxes that were being paid into the violence pretension Violence prevention task force Which was then going in to this new approach of what's happening recently just re Authorized that tax monies would help to empower the community tamp down on the Violence and the gang activities that are occurring in various parts of the city roseland over there along link lane And west ninth In other places those people feel like they're totally Disempowered they feel like they have no voice. No one's listening to them And that our efforts on this community empowerment opportunity Are not focused into what could be really helpful to the regular community members So please take that to heart and give it a chance to help the regular members of the community Zoom host do we have any colors on zoom or any recorded messages? messages and there are no Hands raised on zoom Oh hold on No, there are no hands Thank you very much We will move on to item nine city manager and city attorneys report I have nothing to report this evening. Thank you a good afternoon council Miss mayor and council members. I did want to at least briefly alert you that We are anticipating a change in remote participation in the rules governing remote participation in council meetings We understand that the governor will be terminating the Emergency public health emergency due to covet at the end of this month So starting in march The provisions of ab 361 that have allowed you to participate remotely without constraint those provisions will expire and we'll be back to a couple of We have three paths absent the the 361 so existing brown act provisions We haven't been under those for a while, but That is that you can participate remotely But your location Must be posted on the agenda the precise location where you'll be participating from The meeting agenda must also be posted at the door of wherever you are in your remote location And your location must be made open and accessible to the public So if you're calling in from your home You have to post the agenda on your front door and let people in and let people participate in the meeting from from your home And the public has to have a means of participating so for example a speaker phone would work Those have been long in the brown act and those will be back Back active now. We do have two new paths additional paths for participating remotely those are Put into law through ab 24 49 And that's that you can participate remotely for just cause or in emergency circumstances So very briefly just cause includes a need to care for a child or a parent or grandparent sibling on others Or if you have a contagious illness That prevents you from attending in person Or if you have a need that's related to a physical or mental disability to participate remotely Or if you're on business travel on business for the city or for another state or other I mean for the state or another local agency If you want to use the just cause position Provisions to participate remotely You should notify the city clerk at the earliest opportunity And give a just a general description of the circumstances that require you to participate remotely Be aware you can only use that provision twice in any calendar year And in addition at those meetings if you do use that provision You need to be participating both audio and by visual technology And if anyone is in the room with you That is over the age of 18 you need to identify who that person is and what their relationship is to you second Or third if you count the pre-existing brown act provisions is under the emergency circumstances emergency circumstances Are defined as any physical or family medical emergency that prevents you from participating in person Again, you must in in this case. It's not just that you have to notify the city clerk You have to give that notification but request permission To participate remotely and the council has to take action to authorize that remote participation And then the same rules apply It's not limited in terms of to two meetings a year, but it is limited to no more than Three consecutive months or more than 20 of the meetings in any calendar year And just as with the just cause provisions You need to participate both by audio and visual technology And you have to identify if there's someone in the room. That's over 18 I wanted to it will not apply to next your next meeting, but it will start to apply In march, so I want to alert you to that and I'll probably give you a shorter reminder Next time too. Thank you And I have nothing else to report Thank you, madam city attorney, uh, we'll be Taking public comment on that item We are now taking public comments on item nine If you're in the chambers and wish to make a comment and have not provided your name to the administrator at the top of the chamber Please make your way to the podium if you are participating via zoom, please raise your hand If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand You have three minutes for your comment and a countdown timer will alert you at the conclusion of that period Seeing no comments in the chambers zoom host. Do we have any Comments on zoom or any pre-recorded messages? Recorded messages and we do not have anyone on zoom Thank you Moving on to statements of abstention by council members Council member opreck me Okay, there you go. I'll be abstaining from 13.6 and 13.7 as I already voted on those at planning commission any additional Looking online seeing none Madam city clerk Can you please facilitate public comment? We are now taking public comment on item 10 if you are in chambers and wish to make a comment And if not provided your name to the administrator at the top of the chamber Please make your way to the podium if you are participating via zoom Please raise your hand if you are dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand You have three minutes for your comment and a countdown timer will alert at the conclusion of that period Seeing no comment in chambers zoom host. Do we have any Raised hands in zoom or any recorded messages? No, there are no pre-recorded messages and no Hands raised in the zoom Thank you. We will now move to item 11 mayor and council members reports. Do we have any reports? We'll start off with council member rogers All right, welcome back everybody Since we last met we had Summa clean power had their monthly meeting their first one of the year Just as a Primer and a little bit of an update. We've been working through what's called the geo zone It's a partnership between summa clean power Sonoma county board of supervisors and marine county board of supervisors And the goal is to create additional geothermal capacity for 500 megawatts of geothermal In the western region. I think it's the best way to put it We're currently in sonoma county one of the only places in the world that can do 24 7 renewable local energy So the idea is to produce additional geothermal Capabilities so far we've partnered with one group out of nevada for 16 megawatts and at this meeting Last week We got an update on two more projects one is an expansion of the existing contract with calpine That's 25 megawatts and then also Open mountain energy up in bottle rock in lake county for an additional seven megawatts We also because it was the beginning of the year set our rates that we had discussed in december We pegged the rates for sonoma clean power to five percent below pgne's bundled rate for electricity It'd be even lower if the state would fix the pcia issue And we can talk about that if if council members need to And then we modified our EV charger infrastructure program So right now anybody who is a member of sonoma clean power can get 50 off a level two electric vehicle charger Before it's installed and they get get additional savings if they enroll in the grid savvy program So the cost if you were to be sonoma clean power member And invest in an EV charging infrastructure Would be between zero dollars and a hundred dollars for you to install it Based on which charger you select and whether you enroll in some of these programs So good things for us to highlight for folks We did see we went over looking at 2.9 billion in dollars coming to California from the california energy commission to expand EV infrastructure And I know our staff is working on going after that And we got our update from last year's car sales Right now california has 10 of the cars in the united states and represented 40 of the electric vehicles sold including One out of every five cars here in sonoma county We also had scta rcpa where we released our 2022 annual report We passed a model tree protection ordinance that'll be coming to each of the cities in the county for discussion And we got an update on a potential funding measure that's been worked on Moving forward for 2024 I also will report was re-elected as the chair for scta rcpa at our meeting last week Finally today, we had a special economic development subcommittee meeting where we heard an update on our enhanced infrastructure finance district And just want to thank staff for their diligent work on that as well Thank you councilmember rogers Vice mayor mcdonnell Thank you, mayor I do want to make a few more appointments tonight Andrea rodriguez will be continued to serve on the community advisory board under my appointment And I want to thank her for her continued service to our community And Doug McKenzie will continue to serve on the bicycle and pedestrian advisory board under my appointment I want to thank him for his continued service And I will be appointing omar lopez To the board of community service Omar is a new appointment And he is in his second year of political science a student at the santa rosa junior college He lives in santa rosa Since 2013 after moving from mendicino county He's a super energetic member of our community and he is working for generation housing a local nonprofit He's previously served as The santa rosa city school's board of education as a student board member So he has a background in governance and understands how to be prepared for these meetings So he's worked on multiple campaigns and and he loves santa rosa and wants to be involved And so i'm super happy to appoint him to this role I also attended the park a month month event at place to play with mayor rogers I just want to say I was super helpful that day and she can speak to that We I also met with the santa rosa metro chamber and Recently attended the league of cities conference in la And there I was able to um complete my ethics training as well as Have an overview of what they do for the california cities conference And we talked about their legislative conference that's coming up in april And it was great that we have our policy platforms that we just adopted. We're way ahead of the game I do want to say congratulations to the savour bennett valley golf course group for their recognition and receipt of a community service award I was able to attend the california parks and recreation annual Awards banquet this past weekend and and was able to see them receive that award So congratulations to them and for being a bright spot in our community And last night I was a speaker at census santa rosa and met with daemon connelly's office And recently had some onboarding meetings for the gsa as well as a violence prevention committee that I will be chairing And with that that concludes my report Thank you councilmember okrepke Thank you A few weeks ago, uh, we was able to attend the dedication of unum, uh, the structure on uh, courthouse square um, the sculpture was as beautiful as a great event um, and Then on february 2nd I was able to attend the housing 101 workshop put on by generation housing or gen h It was a very informative workshop on Multitude of issues when it comes to housing And then that evening I was able to attend the uh, 2019 employee service awards for the city santa rosa Um, that was a great event including recognizing 35 years of service of one parks department employee Um, who didn't look like a day over 34 years of service and then On the fourth I went to the farm bureau crab feed the great sonoma crab feed And uh, as always that was a fantastic event and a good time And then um last week I was able to go to washington dc on a personal trip But was able to meet with our legislative lobbying partners, uh, mmo while I was there And see the beautiful view from their offices over the capital, which is really cool And then finally i'm excited to talk to announce that the city is kicking off a new cleanup and beautification program Called clean santa rosa the first event will be in my district district six We will be gathering at the former kmart site on cleveland avenue That'll be this friday the 17th from 10 a.m. To 1 p.m. And uh, 3771 cleveland have um clean santa rosa is a A great way for the community to get involved to volunteer and join city staff to take care of our our city And show community support Thank you councilman roger. Oh Was me councilman phleming Thank you mayor The renewal enterprise district met on monday and we had our reorganization david rabbet will now be our chair and i will be our Vice chair going forward we For finalized our commitment to continue moving toward um extending our joint powers agreement to um participate or to put ourselves out um To jurisdictions for essential function bonds, which will allow jurisdictions in the region to eventually Place properties into trust to maintain them as affordable in a way that is more ethical and More affordable frankly than some of the more predatory joint powers That are operating in the area, which i'm sure some of you have heard about And then the metropolitan transportation commission met a couple weeks ago And we said goodbye to our outgoing executive director therese mcmillan and thanked her for her service And we selected a new executive director andy fermir and then um There was one other thing but oh now i remember what it is i'm going to be placing uh whore hey in osensio on the community advisory board for the southwest position in agreement with um mr. Alvarez councilman ralvarez And then I'll also be placing debil faulkner On the art and public places I'm bored. So thank you all for being willing to serve Thank you. Are there any additional reports from council members? Council member alvarez Yes, thank you, mayor, uh, just want to report that i've been in conversations with uh former senator Wessel out of san diego who's been very successful with uh acquisition of funds for libraries philanthropic efforts if anything and He actually will be in town tomorrow on a separate visit So i'm hoping to link up with him once again and they're really just educational purposes of any of my fellow council members Respecting the brown. I'd like to join me for for a conversation with him. I'll be more than happy to Bring you along and just learn about what works for him in regards to acquiring funds through through private sectors and as well as federal and state It just educating ourselves on What could be done to for that heavy lift that is the library coming forth. Thank you Thank you My report is kind of lengthy. So I will try to get through it as fast as I can um I too was at the unum dedication and if you have not made it To core health square to see it. Please do it is very beautiful Um, definitely want to thank our arts and public places Uh committee that took charge of that and made it happen. So thank you very much Um, I was able to participate in the point in time count Um, if you have not done that Um, we need to do it twice a year. I mean twice Once every two years, but we actually do it Once a year So and that is where we count our unhoused that we have in our community It helps us to One keep track of how we are doing to see if our numbers are increasing decreasing And if we need to go back to the drawing board to do something different So I was able to do that with a lot of County employees not so many city employees, but it was still very fun Lack intact meeting On february 2nd was lobby day A delegation of sonoma water whack intact Representatives held a sacramento lobby day I attended and I met with staff from offices of assembly member Connelly assembly member wood senator dod Just to name a few And the delegation met directly with senator maguire along with executive staff on the california department of water resources And we discussed regional issues such as forecast informed reservoir operations a drought response Aging infrastructure and groundwater sustainability issues Um The russian rivers supply conditions Um, it's something that was discussed at the whack intact meeting Um, sonoma water staff provided a very optimistic water supply update Um, we'll both with both reservoirs Looking like they will be filled In the u.s. Army corp of engineers made flood releases from lake mendicino in january So it is definitely looking up A lot brighter than it was about a month ago sonoma waters 2003 2004 water transmission system budget update was provided Some sonoma water has been meeting with attack ad hoc finance subcommittee to review their proposed A fiscal year 2003 2004 budget In the water transmission budget Sonoma water will be presenting their recommended budget to the board of public utilities and the city council For our review and potential recommendation in late march And lastly sonoma water infrastructure report Um, technical staff provided two updates regarding their transition to new computerized maintenance and management systems in 2023 That will improve their system Reliability and shared a video that highlighted the completion of two Retrofridic projects That will improve the overall system reliability for two locations. Um, so That is what's going on with water Moving along to a park a month. I was able to participate At a place to play this past saturday Um, and what would like to thank all the volunteers that did come out and also Special thank you to not only our community members that came out But some of our staff that came out on their own time to help make the park look And feel like a much brighter place in a place that people really want to go to uh to recreate So thank you very much for that. Um, I was able to visit the vineyard at fountain grove I had lunch with some seniors. Um, I learned about some of the issues that our seniors are facing now in our community Um, and was able to take a tour of the facility And lastly I hope i'm getting to lastly. Oh no the farm bureau, uh crab feed was very delicious and very fun A lot of networking and I was able to see a lot of people that I know in the community But also meet some people that I did not know um The police department briefings. I was able to visit our police department. It was Two visits of I hope many to come And I really enjoyed myself and I want to thank them for inviting me and allowing me to come into Their space so that was very nice and it was very nice to just sit down with them We had some coffee and donuts and it was great. So thank you very much for that I would like to make some appointments. Um So for our in public places the chair will be and bum gardener For a board of community services Logan pits will be our chair Community advisory board will be callum weeks And for the board of public utilities Thankful that dan galvin will continue to serve ash chair Lastly, I have a little something here that I would like to read So please bear with me I would like to honor Stephanie williams who will be retiring soon Stephanie has been a valued employee for the city of santa rosa since 1992 when she was hired as a clerk typist for the Utilities department Stephanie has served in various roles including Secretary confidential administrative secretary deputy city clerk and now city clerk This past year. Stephanie was so deservingly awarded the employee of the year in the city manager's office Stephanie is the ultimate professional and is a prime example of a public servant Stephanie, we wish you the best and your dedication and hard work will be missed Thank you for a job. Well done. Thank you so much Thank you so much for this I just want to say that it has been an honor to serve The organization for 30 years and especially to serve the council this council and past councils Throughout my career you have everyone has helped me grow personally And professionally over the past 30 years and it has been a wonderful experience for me And I definitely will miss everybody But I will be kind of keeping my eye on and see what you guys are doing But thank you so much for the recognition. I do appreciate it Thank you Just looking to council to see if there are any comments before we go to public comment Okay, thank you very much Adam city clerk may we please go to public comment We are now taking public comments on item 11.1 If you are in the chambers and wish to make a comment Have not provided your name to the administrator at the top of the chamber Please make your way to the podium if you are participating via zoom Please raise your hand if you are dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand. You will have three minutes for your comment and a countdown timer will alert you At the conclusion of that period Dwayne DeWitt Thank you, mayor rogers for all of your outreach and going to the parks in person and participating Especially because place to play has been in the works for 25 years We had a setup called the santa rosa youth athletic field trust put together Before the turn of the century to help raise funds to get that place fully built And as you could see while you were out there, it still needs a lot of tender loving care I'm glad that you were there and I'm glad that you're looking at the other parks and you're involving other good people Especially good people are the parks people It's really a difficult thing that our city Doesn't have as many parks employees as we used to at the lower levels And we don't even have a tree maintenance team like we used to have with 11 employees To take care of a lot of that stuff So i'm hoping that you and all of your enthusiasm will keep on pushing to make our parks better And we'll reach out to give us even more young people of color diversity In those jobs those entry level parks and maintenance type jobs, which we really need Thank you so much for your time and your efforts on all that you're doing And all the rest of you council members who also gave reports today. Thank you so much Madam mayor and members of the council and stephanie Thank you stephanie You answered more emails From friends of mine in a very timely and the thorough manner And that's what I think a clerk is all about You've been a terrific intermediary between the community and the council And we're going to miss you, but i'm going to take you up on that offer to be Around to keeping an eye on us Thank you Seeing no other comments in the chambers zoom host. Do we have any zoom comments or recorded messages? Now there are no pre-recorded messages and no hands raised on zoom Thank you. We'll now move to item 11.2 board commission and committee appointments Today the council may vote To make an appointment to fill or to make three appointments to fill three at large positions For the housing authority each to serve a four-year term set to expire on december 31st 2026 At 3 30 today the council had the opportunity to interview four applicants andrew smith jeremy newton jeffrey owen and tony neal The purpose of the housing authority is to ensure adequate decent safe and sanitary housing for qualified people within Santa Rosa consistent with federal state and local laws the housing authority primarily consist of Santa Rosa housing trust and rental housing assistance programs Both of which are responsible for improving the quality and affordability of housing in our city I will now look to the council for a motion to fill the first of the three at large vacancies or If you would like to Do all three And we can agree upon that is that Uh, yes, you may make a motion either to fill one or to fill all three And in the alternative you may also Conduct a process of elimination if you prefer, but you may do it simply by motion Perfect looking at councilmember roger's Thank you, mayor. Uh, my first motion For the first one is I'd like to move to reappoint mr. Owen Second Madam city clerk, may you please call the vote councilmember rogers? I councilmember okrepke I councilmember fleming I councilmember alvarez Vice mayor mcdonald I Mayor rogers. Hi The motion passes with six eyes with councilmember staff being absent Looking to fill the second at large vacancy councilmember okrepke I'll make a motion to appoint jeremy newton second Madam city clerk may you please call the vote councilmember rogers. Hi councilmember okrepke I councilmember fleming I councilmember alvarez I Vice mayor mcdonald I Mayor rogers. Hi The motion passes with six eyes with councilmember staff being absent And now we are looking to fill the third and final seat on the housing authority Seeing no hands raised Um, I think the council is going to just Appoint the two Seats that were voted upon and agreed upon Thank you And so if I can clarify so your intent would be to leave the third position vacant It looks like it Council vice mayor mcdonald Thank you, mayor. I just have a clarifying question and perhaps staff could Let us know the process for going out for applications and then how applications are received so that The public is aware of this process and and maybe we are a little bit more aware of that as well. I'd appreciate that So we um run a Add I'm saying that we are soliciting applications from persons Interested in serving on the housing authority We run that through all of our social media channels and in the press democrat And it is also posted online that ad has the Website link to fill out then the application online You can also submit a hard copy that we can you can mail in and then once those applications are received We give them to the council members to review and then we will schedule interviews like we did today And to just to be clear on this now that we have one spot vacant will we have an opportunity to go back out again and Have applications open again for the public too. Yes, that was going to be my question if council would like us to Put out another recruitment ad for to solicit additional applications. We can do that Do we need to make a motion for that or can we just direct staff to go back out again? You can just direct staff to go out and do that. Okay. We have another hand raised. So Let me go to council on the flimmings Before we yes. Thank you mayor. I have a question and then a suggestion. My question is Does having a vacancy create any issues in obtaining quorums to To conduct the business of the housing authority and the other question is Would the mayor find it reasonable that each member of the body might Might choose between one of the two remaining applicants so that we could fill the slot this evening and Or go the difficulty of putting that extra work on staff Can we have staff answer the first question, please Can you promote director bassinger, please Good afternoon. This is Megan bassinger director of housing and community services Council member flaming. Can you please repeat the first question? Um Sure the question is um, does having a vacancy cause issues in reaching quorum or other administrative issues in the housing authority conducting their business With the two appointments that you have made during the course of this meeting We will have six out of seven positions filled so I don't anticipate there being quorum issues. Ideally we'd have a full Commission, but six out of seven will allow us to continue doing our business Okay, thank you. Um, but it could allow for um split votes and that sort of thing Correct Right So then thank you very much miss bassinger. My question is would the mayor find my suggestion appropriate Um, I would find your suggestion appropriate prior to Going there. I would like to make a motion for andrew smith To be appointed second Madam city clerk. Can you please call the vote? council member rogers no council member okrepke no council member flaming I council member alvarez I Vice mayor mcdonald I Mayor rogers I The motion passes with four eyes To no votes and council member stapp is absent Thank you I would like to take the time to thank all of the applicants and also to let the public know that there are additional positions available on our Boards and commissions So if you wanted to take a look at that we would more than welcome that we need to get those positions filled So again, thank you to the applicants that apply for that for the housing authority And now move this mayor before we move forward I just want to note that the housing authority bylaws do require A resolution so we will bring back a resolution at your next meeting on consent calendar with those three appointees Perfect. Thank you madam city attorney Because public comment was made Initially during the interview process. Is it correct? Thank you very much We will now move to item 12 approval of minutes We have 12.1 12.2 12.3 and those are Minutes for november 15th 2022 november 29th 2022 and december 6th 2022 Are there any corrections? That council would like to make Seeing none Madam city clerk May you please Facilitate public comment We are now taking public comment on item 12 if you are in the chambers and wish to make a comment And have not provided your name to the administrator at the top of the chamber Please make your way to the podium if you are participating via zoom, please raise your hand If you are dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand You have three minutes for your comment and a countdown timer will alert at the conclusion of that period Seeing no comment in chambers Zoom host do we have any comments on zoom or any pre-recorded messages? There are no pre-recorded messages and no hands raised in zoom Thank you. Uh, we will adopt the minutes as presented We will now move to our Consent calendar madam city clerk Item 13.1 is a motion authority to issue design build request for proposals for the Fulton road Repairing and habitat mitigation project Item 13.2 is a resolution amended council policy 000-47 community promotion funds Item 13.3 is a resolution Approval second amendment to general services agreement F 0020 71 to extend the term Of the contract and increase compensation with matrix hg incorporated for hvac maintenance services 13.4 is a resolution approval of amendment to blanket purchase order 166 149 with smothers parts international incorporated Santa Rosa, california for the purchase of automotive automotive parts and supplies Item 13.5 is a resolution speed limits on cross creek road item 13.6 Ordnance adoption second reading Ordnance of the council of the city of santa rosa pre-zoning the properties located at 4646 badger road and 999 middle rink and road also identified as assessors parcel numbers 182-120 dash 034 and 182-120 dash 035 To the r-1-6 single family residential zoning district file number 8 and x2 1 dash 001 item 13.7 ordnance adoption second reading Ordnance of the council of the city of santa rosa pre-zoning the property located At 1600 manzanita avenue Also identified as assessors parcel number 181-030 dash 005 To the r-r dash 40 dash sr rural residential scenic road combining district zoning district file number a and x 2 1 dash 002 Item 13.8 is a resolution making required monthly findings and authorizing the continued use of teleconferencing for public meetings of the city council and all the city's boards commissions and committees pursuant to assembly bill 361 until such time that the state and county declarations of public health emergency are lifted Thank you bringing it back to council. Are there any questions from the consent calendar councilmember rogers Thank you, mayor. I've got some questions about item 13.2, please And then I'd like to ask a couple questions about 13.3 We'll start with councilmember rogers. Thank you Hello director Yes, hello So for 13.2, I would like to promote to the Panel risa de la rosa She is available to answer questions on this item Hi, risa So from my reading of the item Uh The way that the process will work out for community funding is the council will approve a set amount each year in the budget By eliminating council members from serving on the committee that reviews requests and also A lot of the other folks that are on the committee How will the public understand what the money has been spent on and what level of accountability will there be on the dollars? Sure. Um, so for one thing what we definitely want to do starting with the um the question about the amount so It's not typical to have um a program funding amount set by a policy or within the policy And we were able to well not we weren't able to but it was always done through the budget process anyway And so this gives council more flexibility with the funds whether The it goes higher or lower So that's one thing. It's just it's just taking the amount out of the policy itself The other thing is we wanted to allow for more transparency through the program and Historically there was only one council member that had served on the selection panel and Really it was only a few people from inside the city who reviewed it. Um, so the Process itself will be more equitable As will be online and we've clarified the process and then the um The review of that um and the budget allocations will still be done through council. So council will have an opportunity As it has in the past to still review. Um, what's being uh awarded or what we're recommending to be awarded Okay, so just to clarify We'll set in the budget the total amount But then each of the individual requests will still have to come back on the agenda So that the public can see what the dollars are being spent on Um, if I recall correctly, that's how we've done it in the past. We're not proposing to change that process I'm just looking for confirmation Okay, thank you vice mayor mcdonnell Thank you so much. I just have a couple questions on item 13.3. Um, I see that this is um HVAC coming A contract that's being increased by 65 thousand dollars. Have we looked at hiring? Our in-house maintenance workers to be able to service our HVAC equipment and and just for clarification Does this contract just include servicing belts? Um changing filters? What else does this particular contract include? It says Equipment if it breaks it replaces equipment, but I'm assuming that that would be a different fee Vice mayor mcdonnell My name is Doug Williams. I'm the facility maintenance and operations coordinator Well, I'll start with the increase is not an increase of $60,000 it was it's it's a 15 percent increase over last year Two years ago. We went out for a request for proposals For a HVAC contractor to do maintenance on our HVAC units This is just an extension. It was two years Guaranteed and then three years We come back each year with their proposal. We've been happy with their service and The facility staff And matrix has has worked really well As for your question about in-house I have looked at that I called the city of san francisco city of oakland city of san jose and they have what is called a A stationary engineer position, which is an HVAC technician essentially We did look at that the the cost of that Was about the same as the Cost for an electrician, but at the time it was decided that we were not Creating new positions in the city and we weren't hiring new folks at that time Thank you for that clarification and then just so i'm clear on the contract Is this for one building or how many buildings does this particular maintenance contract cover? For our facilities This is for all the general fund building. So it's going to be all our fire stations our rec buildings police station city hall NSE north south so basically all the general fund buildings Thank you so much Doug. I appreciate all the clarification Not a problem Looking to council to see if there are any additional questions looking online saying none councilmember rogers and vice mayor mcdonald Did your questions get answered or are we looking at pulling any items? Thank you very much mayor. Can I can I just ask a clarifying question to councilman rogers? Are you comfortable with that process? So long as there's the accountability of being able to explain back to the public what we use the funds on That's what I was the only thing I was concerned about is making sure if Councilmembers are not in the the selection process But have the opportunity in budget to talk about what it is for and then there's reporting after the fact to the public on How it was used i'm fine with that. Thank you Thank you seeing no additional questions Our comments from the councilmembers will go to madame city clerk for a public comment We are now taking public comments on item 13 If you wish to make a comment in person and have not provided your name to the administrator at the top of the chamber Please make your way to the podium If you are participating via zoom, please raise your hand if you are dying in dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand You will have three minutes for your comment and a countdown timer will alert you at the conclusion of that period Hello, my name is duane de wid. I'm from roseland two items 13.2 and 13.8 13.2 Community promotion funds has been confusing to a number of members of the public in the past It had seemed it had been basically a fund to help the chamber of commerce and other activities Going forward in some sort of a um I guess many people in many parts of the community felt it was a locked box You had to know somebody to get something and if you weren't in the know nothing was coming your way So with measure o which has a funding mechanism set up And it always seems that it's the same folks getting money There's many in the community that wonder how does this all work? Mr. Rogers has pointed out that public awareness is important Perhaps what should be done is there should be some sort of a mechanism in which you could actually have public workshops And tell the public how they could participate in the opportunity to gain funds for community promotion in their area Especially in disadvantaged underserved and overburdened communities such as roseland Now looking at 13.8 One of the things that's been very helpful Is that you do these meetings now in a hybrid manner with the governor getting ready to end the Um Lockout if you will that has kept many people from participating It was pointed out to me by one of the zoomsters that I know that it's actually been more helpful for those folks who are zoomers to be involved Many folks don't want to come down here and sit around in a meeting and participate in the old Civic kind of approach that was there back in the old days They would prefer to have something where they could call in And it's really been quite helpful to a number of people to make comments While sitting at home and relaxing at whatever time of the day these meetings might be going on So i'm advocating that you keep this format going that you have now where people can call in They can participate in this meeting without having to be here in person But at the same time you allow All of the meetings that the city has All public meetings to be open once again to the public that includes every committee Small committee such as the waterways advisory committee, which used to be open to the public Get all these things back open and then make it even better by allowing them to also have This new 21st century technological approach where you can zoom instead of boom if you will Us boomers got to come because we just feel comfortable with that But as you go and you're going to zoom Let everybody participate as much as possible And then one last thing in the past it's been mentioned that There used to be longer opportunities for people to participate And have public comment up to five minutes in the past when you have a meeting with not a lot of work I don't think you should have a three-minute limit. Thank you Seeing no additional comments in chambers zoom host. Do we have any comments on zoom? Comments a career quarter comments and there are no hands raised on zoom Thank you vice mayor mcdonald. Can you please put a motion on the table? Yes, I'd like to move item 13.1 through 13.5 and item 13.8 Second miss mayor May I also make a clarification? I know we do not engage with On public comment, but I do want to note that Although the restrictions that I mentioned earlier with the expiration of AB 361 those limitations respect are with respect to the council members themselves The public it is our intent to continue to operate hybrid for the public So the public will still be able to participate without limitation through zoom And telephone. Thank you Thank you We have a motion in a second from councilmember rogers Madam city clerk, can you please call the vote? councilmember rogers I councilmember okrepke I councilmember fleming I councilmember avarez I Vice mayor mcdonald. I Mayor rogers. I The motion passes with six eyes with councilmember stapp being absent I'd like to move item 13.6 and 13.7 second We have a motion from vice mayor mcdonald in a second from councilmember rogers Madam city clerk, can you please call the vote? councilmember rogers I councilmember okrepke abstain councilmember fleming I councilmember alvarez I Vice mayor mcdonald. I Mayor rogers I The motion passes with five eyes councilmember stapp is absent and councilmember okrepke has abstained We will now move to item 14 our public comment on non-agenda items This is an opportunity for the public to speak to council Matters that are not listed on this agenda, but which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council Madam city clerk, may we please have public comment? We're now taking public comment on item 14 non-agenda matters This is a time when any person may address the council on matters not listed on the agenda But which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of council if you wish to make a comment in person That have not provided your name to the administrator at the top of the chamber Please make your way to the podium if you are participating via zoom raise your hand If you're dying dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand You have three minutes for your comment and a countdown timer will alert at the conclusion of that period We'll take 12 speakers under item 14 If we have more than 12 public comments on item 14 The remaining speakers will be afforded an opportunity to speak on item 18 non-agenda matters to provide public comment Mr. Farron Madam mayor and members of the council. My name is Gregory Farron A year and a half ago. I came before the council with An announcement that some of you knew about but hardly any of us knew the the impact it might have It was called ARPA And it brought to the council and to the county an awful lot of money that was flexible And it helped us solve a lot of problems and at least begin to address a few others Today I'd like to bring you another Announcement a kind of valentine president Some of you have been watching and listening to what congress did subsequent to the cares act the cares act was Contained the ARPA funds But there were two other trillion dollar Legislative packages And those acronyms you probably should begin to listen to one is called the b i l It's the it was the bipartisan infrastructure law And the other is called ira and it's it was it's now referred to as the inflation reduction act Both of those are going to give you a combined five times more money than you got from ARPA Uh, you will be getting money for what what the governor and a couple of other people sort of mentioned yesterday as He he has a council the governor of california called the Cal ICH and it's uh, I attended a lot. It's called the california Inner departmental council on homelessness cal ICH There will now be a cal I see everything else in government because What didn't get funded under cares act what didn't get funded on homelessness? And there are things like as you know bridges roads The broadband transportation education A whole lot of other things that you're responsible for and that you have ambitions for Are going to be funded the national association of counties yesterday heard from Seven additional special assistants to the president who will now join the cabinet Heading departments larger than in some cases the existing departments And it was a wonder and uh thrilling to a lot of us who have been Uh, sort of championing the we can work with government to get things done Statement Some of you hold Have known about the statement that people often deride government by saying hi. I'm from the government and I'm here to help From the community point of view. We've always wanted to partner with you on lots of projects We found ways of doing that and I think these two bills these This bunch of money is going to make it a lot easier for us to do that. So, uh, happy valentine's day Next step will be duane duit followed by peter allen Hello, my name is duane duit. I'm from roseland. What I have here is a document from 50 years ago And 50 years ago On the 6th of may Right here in this building Right here at this place in this time may 6 7 30 p.m The metropolitan transportation commission came to santa rosa to talk about how important it is to have housing In the core areas of a city and how if you have Housing in the core area of a city it makes things better than the urban sprawl that we've been doing All over santa rosa As a matter of fact many people in the bay area call this sprawl rosa Because we've sprawled all the way out to wood avenue up by fulton And all the way out past bell view and now we're going to get ready to go take morland and go all the way down Past tog road you have to keep that in mind if we're going to have this housing that you've talked about for 50 years This core housing not fringe housing. It's going to have to come with you folks Having the political will to make sure that we get the higher density The taller buildings here in downtown santa rosa like 50 years ago when they put in the bell bethlehem towers Silver crest the three tallest buildings in santa rosa Are here near the core. They're for seniors In rosin where i'm from we need seniors housing We came down here a while back and we talked with you about the lot that was right next to exchange bank on sabastopol road at dutton avenue where a 12 story building could have been put in But instead city staffs allowing something that's probably only to be about four stories So over there in that dense core area along sabastopol road where you could be having lots of housing We're just getting lower level multifamily housing And we're not getting anything at rosin village yet where that community center was basically destroyed with the idea There would be some affordable housing in there, but that was 15 years ago So now a previous speaker mentioned the american rescue plan act monies That funding for infrastructure should be used there in rosin up on sabastopol road to help that project get done You folks have allocated it to build out on the green fields to the far south of rosin a mile and a half away from the rosin commercial core the anchor to one of the largest communities in santa rosa Which has been neglected for over 50 years? The most disadvantaged underserved overburden community cannot be disputed It's in the county's records in the portrait of sonoma county update 2021. This doesn't come from me I'm just that messenger. You don't like to hear But don't shoot the messenger. How about we go out there and grab that big money that mr. Fearon just said is going to be available from the big federal banks those guys that got the dough They got the acronyms and they got the money. Please go get it and spend it in roseland. Thank you Next step will be peter allen followed by tom lapenia First of all I want to thank everyone at this meeting tonight for their service, especially coming to a meeting on valentine's day I also appreciate the recent email from the city building official chief building official That the decision to leave the utility meters on the easement at 805 wide oak drive has been postponed While he investigates the summary of our concerns. These were sent to the city council last friday I'll be sending pictures of the utility meters on an unimproved lot in our association showing their temporary construction along with pictures of the type of utility meters on a lot with a finished home at 805 drive a wide oak drive And pictures of a similar in front of a previous help that house that this homeowner built right next door With no temporary meters remaining in front of that home just like all the other 129 homes in our association Our other homeowners and our association want to know why this homeowner is being given special Consideration to leave these meters where no one else has left them or been allowed to leave them Even though there are similar soil conditions and other lots in our community and in violation of the rules He agreed to when he moved here This location all also violates your codes both city and state codes Then we want to know what is so special about this individual that the city staff allowed temporary installation to be declared permanent Even worse The city has recently declared that the private easements in our association that we have taken care for over 40 years Are now public without the proper legal steps steps in the california code to make them public After these 40 plus years Why does the city suddenly want to take responsibility for them? The city administration is claiming that the plain text of the city certificate on the subdivision map Establishes these easements as public however. This is a misapplication Of of this legal doctrine of plain language the plain text of state code mandates a specific dedication and a specific purpose in plain text To be a public easement none of which the city or anyone else has done In summary the plain text of the law overrules the plain text that the city is claiming justifies their actions Otherwise any statement in plain text could be used to violate the law Therefore a misinterpretation of the plain text of the subdivision map Can never use to violate the plain text of city and state codes I respectfully request the city to review its claim of plain text To justify its decision that private easements in our community are now public in light of the plain text of state and city codes Thank you for your time And again best wishes For valentine's day Thank you Tom lapenna will be followed by crystal england My name is tom lapenna. I'm the president of the santa rosa manufactured homeowner association I just wanted to remind the council though. I know you really don't need a reminder You've probably been getting emails from my members And i'm here to mention those five parks again that got Left out as I look at former mayor rogers, and I remember at the last meeting how shocked he was when he found out that happened And I don't blame anyone. I just want to get it fixed And Those parks are codding town That is in councilman. Oh crepti's district the country That's in mayor rogers district mayor natalie rogers And Three parks that are in councilman alvarez's district roseland wayside gardens in carriage court and Mayor natalie rogers. I want to thank you for agreeing to have a meeting with myself and roger mcconnell and joanne jones tomorrow To discuss that further And vice mayor mcdonald. I want to thank you For speaking at our december meeting I wasn't there unfortunately as you know but I've heard that members could would take you back as a speaker every month and councilwoman Fleming I want to thank you for the long phone call that we had recently And now that you have santa rolled as a village in your district Uh, they were very excited, but we've got another problem I found it out just this saturday It's not clear on the city Website and this can be fixed very easily What the new rent control amount is Everyone who has gotten notifications From the owners of the parks is still getting 5.7 percent If you look at the what was the old ordinance It says annual rent increase the cpi percentage Change for the year ending of 21 is 3.7 percent This year it's a very nicely redrawn page With everything listed in attachments But you have to jump from up here where the original ordinance is To down at the bottom to where the amendment is And then you have to toggle back and forth between Nowhere does it make it easy for senior residents to find out what their increase is And i'm hearing through the press democrat That people are not sure what their new rent increases are I looked at it myself and tried to find out it's very hard. Please look at it and get it adjusted Crystal england will be followed by thomas elves Thank you for your time today. My name is crystal england I'm sure that you guys have heard about the child who was hit on hoan and is in critical condition I myself am a mother of four children I have two boys who go to manzanita And i'm here to ask you to please put cross school crosswalk safety on the agenda so that we can talk about this and come together as a community In december of 2021 my son was also hit in his school crosswalk Our school crosswalk has flashers. It has a median and a crossing guard And the car coasted through the crosswalk hit my son He my son fell forward into the asphalt Smacked his head face down and then the rear tire rolled over his back leg A parent saw what happened and started laying on her horn trying to get the driver's attention And the driver never stopped. She said she saw him look in his rear view mirror and throw up his hands like what? And kept going We never heard from the police again regarding whether there was an investigation Whether they were pursuing it or not pursuing it whether it was a closed case um Since then Even when my son was in a wheelchair with his broken leg We were almost hit as I was willing him into the crosswalk again flashers on during reading night Again flashers on the cars flying through that crosswalk right in front of the school Almost hit my husband who was carrying my two-year-old daughter I did art docent so You know, maybe the car wasn't looking but I saw a car. I put on the flashers He had over 300 feet to slow down and he never took his foot off the gas pedal He was going 45 50 miles per hour in a large truck in a 35 mile per hour zone And almost hit me again So this issue doesn't matter about what time of day it is And it's more about distracted drivers and or indifferent drivers and the flashing yellow lights Send a level of ambiguity. We don't want them to you know, be cautious of pedestrians We want them to stop for pedestrians. So I'm here to ask to please adopt crosswalk safety policies that Speak to our current realities Yellow flashers came out. That was for a less busy time with less distracted drivers We don't want our drivers to slow down. We want them to stop So if you could please put this issue on a further agenda So we can come together and talk about this and keep our children safe. Thank you Thomas ells will be followed by sandra limos Hello, can you hear out? Thank um Well, thank you for the opportunity to speak Happy new year And and valentine's day as well That's a really important issue. I think everyone in the city Recognizes that people are not stopping at crosswalks and they're very dangerous um as a as a civil engineer and a traffic person Those are very important issues. We we're not controlling the Speed of people driving at this time. They're As she says very distracted, but I came here to speak about something else and heard something very interesting from gregory, which is Obviously about these new funds And I the what I came to talk about is I'd like to speak with staff and so on Potentially about creating another safe parking site within the city. So The former mayor had in his district A safe parking site developed and I think it's been Very effective and like to be able to talk about creating another one possibly using some of these funds that are coming down from the federal government To be used for this type of housing Not a giant place, but certainly something that can move people forward in their in their housing One other thing is that if we talk about sprawl What you can see here on the map is Well, I mean that's the park there actually but then in oakmont is where you can really see this sprawl and One other thing that's happening is the sonoma developmental center Which is kind of getting imported into according to the Environmental impact and report in specific plan for for sonoma developmental center is They're looking at having a very dense population of some 2000 residents or so or more Being sort of imported into the the area that is consistent of the Sonoma developmental center Which would be effective effectively like putting the downtown of winsor there. They want to have Three story buildings That was the type of thing. I was in uh, sonoma santa rosa's leadership 15 and um That was about 1999 And there were people sam salmon and deb fudge and there were people that were involved in the leadership santa rosa at the time and um They were advocating winsor and having a nice downtown and having a concentrated Population there that could attract other services and so on and be a downtown And that's exactly what they're putting At sonoma developmental center is a downtown winsor and the problem with that is that You will have a force first brawl out this direction Much more than we have seen and especially in the valley that has been resistant and Uh, we need to really be careful of that cognizant. Thank you Sandra limos will be followed by monica sapata Hi, my name is sander limos and I am a Um resident santa rosa city um been here my entire life So I definitely have seen the the changes and the growth that we've had I'm also a mother of two Pages from school age or actually middle school and junior college age now crazy to say that but um, yeah, so so i'm here to also talk about the the Focus of safe school crossings as well The other piece of me that i've also worked in the school systems for over 15 years from rules and school districts belby unified school district center of the city schools as well And I have seen this issue come up Several times in my time But what i'm just also here just also support christelle who just shared about her son But it also just not only affects or impacts her life Or her families or her child's life, but it also impacts the school's community as well as Other parents who walk their children to school Here we are thinking that our children are safe walking into schools When you get that phone call when there's been an accident One that hits home to me Is a former student of mine that was hit and tragically killed It was about 20 years ago, but it was um just recently just kind of Lifted it lifted it up again for me and um, I don't want to have to put up another Boulder with a plaque of a child's name on it Tragically so we need to you know put our heads together and I asked that you guys That we put this agenda item on our list to work together to figure out How we can improve these situations But thank you monica Hi, my name is monica sapata Um, I am here to talk about crosswalk safety as well I have been a resident of santa rosa for about four years now in my current home on dutton avenue Which is a hot spot for our crosswalks Um, the reason why that intersection is so important to me is because I live between West college and west third And I in the four years that I have lived on that crosswalk. I have witnessed two people Get injured in the same crosswalk that is painted white on dutton avenue and this issue is important to me because I Witnessed the first tragedy of a teenager getting hit and I emailed the city about it and They did some work on They put a camera up to see what they could do And the resolution to that incident was that they replaced a yellow sign with another yellow sign And that made me feel enraged because the same thing was put To replace this sign And since then I've brought my seven-year-old daughter To come to a community meeting where diana mcdonald was there We had another resident who is um part of the council who was there and she was able to put in her public comment About her safety because she walks to school with that crosswalk every day And the other incident that has pat that has happened Was a man with his dog and I could hear that dog squealing Out my window and I could not hold it together for that one I I was just I couldn't figure out what had happened because I couldn't even understand what was making that sound And until I saw someone's car pulled All the way on the sidewalk Did I understand that someone had gotten hit in that sidewalk and they were working to help assist that person? My neighbor walks with rocks in his pockets Because he is so worried about getting hit on the sidewalk Not just on the crosswalk, but on the sidewalk He has run his own vehicle into another vehicle to stop traffic at that sidewalk I am I'm so sad and I'm so Afraid for the people who walk on that street every day, which is quite a few of them. And again, I just ask for to repeat the sentiment of Really thinking about what kind of signage is going to be effective for streets that are this busy For people and for bikes and for all of our community. Thank you so much for your time If there's anyone else in the chamber that would like to make a comment, please make your way to the podium Good afternoon. My name is Marta Valdez I am a mother of a 17 years old daughter and a nine years old son Thinking of my son who is special needs I really feel hurry that Something that happened like my friend crystal england. It can be happened with my son Who right now might prepare him for being dependent in this city? so I think You can't have the opportunity to Make the change And all the kids in our community can be safe Using Something that is for them The crosswalk Thank you Good afternoon. My name is Nancy Boteo. I'm an employee at one of your schools center of associate schools I start morning supervision out in the yard The playground at 7 30. We have students crossing. There's a crosswalk that's visible from our playground Many mornings. I've heard The tires breaking of cars that have had to stop In seco because they are not giving themselves enough time or not paying attention that we have students crossing We have a cross guard at that Crosswalk and It hurts to think Of the possibility of one of my students being injured out there and how I'm going to respond to all the other students that are there Watching as this unfolds and I hope it doesn't happen But it's a matter of time. So I ask and plead you put this on the agenda Say for crosswalks and it's just for all our schools in santa rosa and everywhere else in sonoma county Thank you for listening Do we have any additional speakers in the chambers? Can you please speak into the microphone? Thank you Hello Keysights encouraging housing policies that improve the time certainty and cast of housing development by streamlining and reducing the cost of entitlements and permitting processes including increasing by right development opportunities To meet our local and regional housing needs as you may know Keysight is an employer of over 1500 full-time employees and another 500 contractors in santa rosa and retaining and attracting talent is Key critical area to our success and I think the success of the the city But is a big challenge because of lack of housing for Uh new new employees that we would like to hire. So we're encouraging the council to include Perhaps a high level staff person to align and coordinate departments with an eye towards increasing efficiency in the entitlement and permitting process Which could use some help Sure, you know and a policy extending the santa rosa's adu fee structure to multifamily units Uh of the same size. Thank you very much Seeing no additional speakers in the chambers Zoom host we have calls on zoom We have uh two hands raised The first one is resident 6914 You've been allowed to talk to speak please Resident 6914 you need to unmute yourself All right deeply apologize This is charles the spanish interpreter interpreting for your session. Um, I just wanted to ask the zoom host, please Add the other interpreter into the spanish room, please We don't have a them available to add at this time They are interpreter renzo mori is present has been present Yes, but we will we are not able to add him when we go to interpretation. He must have signed in under a different email Oh, I see I understand. Okay. Thank you very much. Sorry for interrupting Okay, we now have a marvered mail. You are allowed to uh, you've been unmuted I speak Hey, good evening city council and staff marver to madio housing policy attorney with legal aid of sonoma county Uh, I just wanted to hop on here and second tom lapinea's concerns And let you know that uh, we at legal aid are trying to support mobile home residents With how much rent they should pay? But what we're hearing is some park owners even those that implemented a rent increase that took effect Or will be taking effect After january 6th Are not issuing any notice of rent reduction and are refusing to answer inquiries about when tenants inquire as to whether their new rent will be The lower amended amount or 5.7 percent increase So, you know going on the cities we can't direct them to the website because it's not been updated and it, you know Can add to the confusion We do have a letter from uh City attorney jeff berk that went out to mobile home parks Letting them know that the rent increase was effective after january or the rent decrease was effective after january 6th Um, regardless of whether when it was noticed And if you haven't seen that letter, I encourage you to get a copy of it That's the only guidance that we have and that guidance flew in the face of what the residents believed Which is that the rent the rent decrease would apply to all the parks Via either retro via either an urgency or a rent freeze And I know like tom said, I'm not putting blame anywhere I just want to know what the solution will be and let I'm able to inform tenants that there is a solution coming Um, and we're happy to assist provide, you know ideas and options And I just urge that if this doesn't come up before march 9th that it'd be prioritized for the march 9th goal setting meeting um, and you know that that agenda be set forward in a way that Residents can know whether or not they need to show up on the 9th or the 10th Since it is a two-day event Um, because you know most of them are senior and not all of them are able to get out and about So it's a big deal when they do show up um, thank you And you know, thank you for continuing the opportunity to speak on zoom It does help people that have small children like myself Um, and I will be back when you guys get to your regular calendar, but thanks so much for hearing me on this issue There are no other speakers with their hands raised on zoom and we have no prerecorded messages Thank you We will be moving to our public hearing for tonight, but I would like to thank all of the people that provided a public comment and to let you know that we have taken some notes and We look forward to working on some of the suggestions that we received Public hearing 16.1. Madam city manager Item 16.1 a general plan amendment winter package housing element update 2023 the 2031 and sequined in them to 20 35 general plan environmental impact report Supervising planner Amy Lau will lead the discussion and if you could introduce your team For the record. Thank you Absolutely. Thank you so much. Give us one moment to pull up the PowerPoint And while they're preparing I just want to thank um the city attorney or um Ashley and director Hartman for all the work that they've done Moving this forward. I know it was a lot of work. So it's great. Great. We appreciate it. All right. Thank you for your patience there I think we're in business Good evening Mayor rogers and member of the council. My name is Amy lile. I'm supervising planner for an advanced planning team which is the long-range planning team and this evening we're going to be presenting our housing element for you with a recommended adoption And presenting tonight. We have um a couple different people one. We have betrice geroano Who is our equity and public health planner? And um, then we also have synthia walsh who is our consultant with place works So we'll be breaking up the presentation And hopefully making this go a little bit quicker and will be as succinct as possible We are going to provide a little bit of review just for context for The community members who may not have have seen this presentation yet So this is very similar to what we presented with the planning commission Last month on january 26 So with that, um, I will note that um, this housing element is part of our santa rosa forward general plan update project So the housing element before you tonight is an eight-year snapshot in time Whereas the general plan is looking at 2050. So a much longer horizon So this is part of the process but pulled out To move on a faster track But we are still working on the general plan update which will be Be coming before you later this year All right, so for tonight, uh, we're going to give you a little bit of review over what is required as part of the housing element The process and where we've been And what is in the housing element and then um, what our recommendation is this evening and what the next steps are I will say the the housing element itself is a rather rather thick document. Um, we hope that you all did get that hard copy We do have summary documents, which are just a synopsis. It is all of the policies and programs But then a little synopsis of the chapters within that housing element So we do have copies of the summary in english and spanish for the community here tonight So they are up at the the desk near the front door And of course that's online as well And I should note that online. There's multiple versions of the housing element So we do have the housing element. That's before you We also have a version where you can track the various changes that have occurred over the last year And so those are annotated With highlights where comments have been incorporated in response to the state and then in track changes Where there's comments in response to community comments and other engagement efforts So um, and then we also have the summary in english and spanish on the website as well As well as all the comments that we've received to date Okay, so um the housing element I should also note is one piece of the complex puzzle related to housing It is the policy document that will be in place for eight years that really set the policy the programs And all the other zoning code updates and work that would occur come under this document So it is not here to solve everything, but it is one vital piece of that puzzle Much of this document is state mandated There are Especially in recent years a lot of legislation around housing And what needs to be included within a jurisdictions housing element It is one of the only pieces of our general plan Really any local land use authority that has to go through a state process So it does um get eventual certification by the state And review throughout So we'll talk a little bit about what that process has been for us and um what How that actually works So i'll also note that we have been working collaboratively with other jurisdictions We have a um grant through association of barrier governments To have a housing collaborative So we worked jointly with the jurisdictions from Sonoma and Napa county supported by a consultant team So we've been able to do additional outreach have a lot more coordinated discussions around policy and housing And um, so that has been a major um Add value add to our process All right, so this slide is i'm not going to go through this in detail But this is really, uh, just a snapshot on the timeline of where we've been There have been significant changes to state law, especially since we've started the process So the it's been a bit of a moving target as far as what needs to be in the element How much review goes into it and what this process is And um, we really started this process when we received our housing allocation numbers So that's our regional housing needs allocation arena. So we'll be talking about that a little bit more But once we received our allocation, which in this case is 4,685 units That really provided us the information that we could go and then draft the general or this general plan element with We did kick this off with a study session in 2021 and then The process throughout has been In partnership with hcd. So we did work with them and had Them review our housing element There our draft was submitted to them after public comment And they took a full 90 days to review that We've also had informal discussions with hcd And that's housing community development making sure i'm not using too many acronyms But we wanted to make sure that when we get to tonight And the submission to to them for that final certification that we have anticipated public comments Anticipated needs from hcd And that we can go through this next review and and get a certified housing element So I do just want to note that Since we started the process a few things have occurred So one was ab 215 which went into effect in january of 2022 This law expanded the timeline for hcd review Without adjusting the final deadline for the housing element certification So now it essentially needs to be completed 74 days earlier than previously required So that also means that Our housing element had to be posted for public comment for at least 30 days for our initial draft And that we had to wait 10 days or two weeks after comments were received from From that public comment period before submitting an initial draft to hcd And hcd now has 90 days to review a housing element instead of the 60 for the last cycle And all of this remains with the same adoption Deadline of january 31st 2023 There were also a lot of Back and forth over our rena numbers at abag So that that process did track late. So we did We were anticipating the number, but we did not have those final numbers In addition the 2021 legislation increased the requirements with affirmatively furthering fair housing And so this is relating to a whole new section that's required in the housing element And that guidance from hcd did not come to us until late 2021 So there were a variety of different things Shifts and pivots that we had to make We were very fortunate in that we had a consultant under contract already for our general plan update And they were one of the two Consultant groups in the state at the time who knew how to specifically write the affh or affirmatively furthering fair housing reports So and I will say that Because of the myriad of new laws that hcd has to implement And there's a large number of statutory requirements that hcd has to deal with at their Layer of government and so most of the housing elements reviewed about 90 Require a second round of review So although we submitted our housing element Hoping to be on track on time in in uh, August We were hoping for a conditional certification letter. They did request Another round of review and provided us comments So the draft that you have tonight includes the comments from that we've incorporated for hcd's review And then we also have within your staff report the itemized list of requested changes that came out of our planning commission hearing last month So with that I'll turn it over to Beatrice to highlight our outreach efforts. Thank you, Amy. Good evening city council members community members and staff who are present in the meeting today One of the Essential parts of the housing element was a public outreach. This was required by the By the state and we did all the requested items that the state was Was requesting through through the law Starting with service provider interviews City council and planning commission study sessions community workshops that happened during march 2022 And we had an online community service survey as well as participation on the napas anoma collaborative as equity working group as amy was mentioning besides this The housing element conversation was included in the san rosa forward community involvement strategy So all the comments provided by the community through the preferred alternative vision of the city and Alternatives processes were included in this in this housing element too were provided To the group that was working on this housing element and included in if I can add to To the housing element public outreach We also had additional steps beyond state law and this included creating a specific Website for the housing element which can can be found in san rosa forward.com We created bilingual social media campaigns together with our communications team And we had bilingual pop-ups in equity priority communities. This means Coming out to communities that usually don't show up to to community to public meetings and Set a table and by equity priority communities We are referring to the metropolitan transportation commission methodology on identifying census tracts that are both low income and With a high percentage of people of color Additional to this we created channels of communication that were more accessible for for community members We use the let's connect platform to Include our our draft and receive comments from the community We opened our text messages and whatsapp channels to be able to receive comments from the community to Once we submitted the first draft We heard from from community organizations that they wanted Different requests in relationship to housing policy as well as time for reviewing the the drafts And we had additional meetings during december focused on providing information and fostering Collaboration in terms of the outreach that we created And finally during this timeline While we were submitting The changes that hcd required to our housing element. We were also creating a bilingual housing element summary Since we couldn't translate the whole document because that was 11 000 dollars for us to translate We we decided to make a summary of this document to make it more accessible for our community members So that they could access this document and we decided to translate that document into spanish So that is a document that we have upstairs in case any of our community members wants to see it And we also have to say that this document is very unique Since we are the only city in the state that went ahead of what the state required and created a document That was accessible for community members and that was translated into spanish or into a different language Thank you. Amy. I'll I'll let you continue Thank you so much So i'm not going to go into detail on this slide But just to say that these are all the components of the housing element before you tonight So we're going to go through these chapters very briefly and we'll focus on the The policies and programs a little bit later in the presentation So first we wanted to give you a little bit of information on the rena So the regional housing needs allocation Again, this was a process that was headed by a bag and included all of our jurisdictions in the nine county bay area and Ultimately what our allocation Ended to be is four thousand six hundred and eighty five units And so this slide is really showing you that there is a breakdown in how we Are asked to produce these units They're not just all moderate or all above moderate. They are Very specific as far as what income levels the housing needs to be created for And this includes almost two thousand units for our low income brackets So we can come back to the slide if you would like but just to let you know that it is broken down into different incomes So for us specifically, this is how we are within the context of the Sonoma county region So A lot of the other cities have been grappling with the same issues of How to accommodate their allocation within their cities? A lot of their Reena allocation numbers have increased So we are actually in a very good place because we don't need to rezone property to be able to meet this allocation So we'll walk through that as well And then just a very quick highlight on our past cycles So we are in our sixth cycle right now the last cycle, which is the fifth cycle Ended the end of last year and we are working on those 2022 numbers But I will say our our housing count is around 1100 units So we still will not meet our rena for the last cycle But again, there is a significant need to increase the amount of units in those low income categories We have been able to produce the housing on above moderate categories I'll also note that this does not include any Fire rebuilds. So those are are counted as existing units as those rebuild And then looking back a little bit further here are the two Previous cycles before our last one Just giving you some some information about how well we've done or not well. We've done As I've noted the housing element is one piece of the puzzle We have no control over what comes in the door or What production occurs we do as much as we possibly can with your leadership to streamline housing to provide incentives But at the end of the day a lot of the challenges come down to funding and The actual projects themselves All right, so moving into what the other chapters are in the housing element The first Chapter is the housing needs assessment. And so this is really a deep dive of data. It's a very demographic heavy It is a snapshot in time. So it is this was released in june of last year And a lot of the information was based on the available data at that time And the available census data at that time So just to give you a little primer of what's in this I just pulled out some of the major Highlights in my minds that are important to note One that we saw a huge increase in overcrowded units between 2010 and 2019 This has been an increasing area of highlight around the state Because that does really Lead to substandard living conditions And a lot of unsafe situations And so we are experiencing that in santa rosa We do believe that the four percent of units being overcrowded is an undercount And so that will be You know a focus over the coming years interestingly 40 percent 46 percent of our households are renters And 60 percent 62 percent of our households have families And are not just single Single people living within a home And then I'll turn it over to be trace to talk about fair housing Thank you, Amy For the first for the first time the fair housing assessment was required in housing elements and this came Up to to the to the state's regulation in april 2022. So this is pretty recent and The city had to analyze say different 60 different characteristics that were relevant to understand. What are the main barriers to fair housing? And one of this is racial diversity household income rates of poverty rates of overcrowding Overpayment and family status as well as rates of disability. We included in in this slide just um A graphic of a portrait of sonoma showing the differences in between 2014 and 2021 in relationship to the Human development index this index actually takes into account housing, which is a big part of of The portrait of sonoma analysis and we can say here that there's two groups That we see in in the city of san a rosa having issues with human development index And this is black and asian populations And we want to point this out because it's not visible during during the analysis that we made in the in the diversity composition index And we want to talk a little bit more about that and what was discovered in the fair housing assessment So in relationship to that, um, I I want to bring up some of the some of the main Things that we addressed during the during these fair housing analysis number one In terms of race and ethnicity Highway 101 actually serves as a physical barrier that separates the city into two different Sites east and west and the east side is Less diverse and home to the city city's most affluent households while the west side reflects more diversity both in terms of race and ethnicity as well as income and for for for the same Topic santa rosa's non-white communities are clustered in southern and southwestern santa rosa primarily in mixed commercial and resilient residential areas south of highway 12th and east of stony point road Additionally to this we found that the highest diversity in the city is found on lower resource areas And that this regional these patterns are not only Um Happening in santa rosa. This these are regional patterns that are happening across the county and across the the Greater bay area. So um, just to add to this western santa rosa is considered a low resource resource area While most of the eastern, um side of santa rosa is moderate to hide resources So, uh, this is something that we uh identified through the Fair housing assessment and that we also addressed in the policies included in the document So important just to to mention that this is a new part of the of the housing element that was not considered before and that um Also gave us a lot of feedback in terms of the communities that we had not been Engaging in the past and just to add to the conversation of of engagement We had more than 42 of people who were renters responding to to our community engagement efforts as well as people who Own businesses in santa rosa Majority live in santa rosa but also A greater racial diversity and the survey responses including two percent of Asian communities two percent of black and african-american communities as well as 15.3 percent of latin Of latinx or hispanic members of the community and just to to add up to this We had a fair distribution of age in the in the responses that we had Through our engagement except for people Under 17 years old which was the only group that we did not we were not able to address and just this this is just Some additional points to the to the not only diversity Composition of the city, but also How we are addressing the comments and integrating Requests that the community members Ask us for in this in this part of fair housing Part of a housing element. Thank you Thank you so much So we will move on to the next section of the housing element, which is the housing sites analysis So this is directly related to that rena number. So this is Showing that we have the ability and the capacity to be able to meet that 4600 number And again, we do not have to rezone any sites This is not a likely development pattern This is recognizing our existing capacity to be able to fulfill that allocation We are engaged in the general plan update, which does Provide a better community driven process and a snapshot of a larger Traductory of how our population will grow and change over time It is certainly in concert with this housing element, but this is just identifying existing capacity There will be increases and intensities of development But in areas that are driven by our areas of change and our priority development areas as noted in the the larger general plan effort So the site inventory Does include projects that are pending that have been approved and are under construction So we are able to take Projects that had building permits issued as of july last year into this cycle So this is really just providing the map showing where those projects are and at what amounts And then we look at the vacant property And this is split between downtown And non downtown And that's primarily because our downtown specific plan Has no density. We have floor area ratio, which is It's been a challenge to work with the state on this because they are looking for certainty That projects will develop at a certain density So we took a very conservative approach to show what certain projects have been doing in the downtown and not putting a lot of Numbers associated with our downtown plan within our housing element and As you know, the downtown plan was adopted and able to Consider up to 7 000 units. So for this eight-year period of time We are only suggesting that the capacity is 1,300 units Which may or may not be the case But that is the capacity that we have been able to work with hcd on As far as what densities we can show and what types of housing units can be developed downtown So outside of downtown We do have a range of different sizes of properties and the different types of projects hcd is very particular about the size of of the properties And the different components of the site on how It will be developed as a lower income site moderate or above moderate So this really reflects a lot of back and forth and review with hcd And we are counting some of those properties that have not yet rebuilt that is allowed within the cycle To recognize that existing capacity as you may remember when we came to your council last june That was a question is if we wanted to identify the sites within those wildland urban interfaces That have the potential to rebuild knowing that those property Value or those property rights still exist The other piece of this is projecting how many adoos will develop those are our accessory dwelling units We've had a lot of success in the city with promoting our adoos and especially with our rebuilds adding those those units and so these have been We have taken a conservative approach as well Looking at the annual average that we have done over time and what we can likely do based on the capacity we have over the next eight years and And we also have to show a breakdown of income amongst our our adoos And with that a bag methodology as you see on this slide All right with that i'm going to turn it over to synthia. Um, who is our consultant and who has helped us draft this this document tonight Thank you. Amy. Good evening. Cynthia walsh with place works. I'm just going to jump right in So another section of the housing element is the housing constraints section And this is where we look at both governmental constraints And non-governmental constraints and governmental meaning we're looking at the city's fees the processing times and the procedures allowable uses Things like that that things that the city has control over We also look at non-governmental constraints and these are things such as the cost of land availability of financing and construction costs We also include information on energy conservation identifying available programs that are out there as well as the city's practices Next slide So for the evaluation of the previous housing element The review of the previous housing element section is where we look at the city's progress towards implementing each of your programs From the prior planning period. So for the fifth cycle So once we've reviewed where the progress that has been made we determine the next steps for each program So should the program be continued? Should it be modified or should it be removed because it's been completed? Next slide Looking at the housing element goals, you can see we have six overarching goals that are aimed to encourage housing development address special needs groups such as large families female headed households persons experiencing homelessness persons with disabilities farm workers and then We also have ensuring equal housing opportunities looking at ways to reduce or remove governmental constraints and developing energy efficient residential units Next slide So here you can see that the sixth cycle housing element has 42 actions also called programs sometimes So of those 42 programs or actions, I apologize There are seven that are continuing. There are 19 that are modified Modified meaning a majority of the program most likely remains the same The funding could be modified or the time frame could be modified on those And then we have 16 new programs that are that are new to the housing element And these are typically based off of new state law requirements So ensuring that we're meeting all of the new requirements there And it's also they're also included to support analysis So if we have our site inventory where we want to include additional programs to strengthen our analysis We would have new programs there Next slide So the next few slides we're going to just kind of quickly walk through what the different programs are All of these obviously are detailed in the housing element with time frames funding and responsible parties So you can see here. These are our continuing programs So again, these are carryovers from the fifth cycle document. We're looking at adequate sites This is ensuring that the city will maintain sites to meet arena throughout the planning period I'm looking at opportunity development areas the Santa Rosa housing trust fund Housing for large households a large household is where there's five or more persons Build community acceptance real property transfer tax and participation in the mortgage credit certificate program Next slide So now we'll jump into our modified programs So again, most of these were all of these were in the fifth cycle has an element And then they were modified to continue to be relevant for this current cycle So we're looking at encouraging mixed use projects As Amy mentioned accessory dwelling units Code enforcement activities housing rehab those also kind of play together mobile home park preservation preservation of at risk housing at risk our housing units that are Converting to market rate within 10 years. So we've identified actions there The inclusionary housing program Support affordable housing development overall and funding for affordable housing development So our modified programs continued There's several programs aimed at special needs groups as I mentioned persons with disabilities Farm workers persons experiencing homelessness Extremely low-income households senior households We also have fair housing services as a program tenant protection eviction prevention measures section 8 housing choice voucher program Application for streamlining and compliance with SB 35 and then energy efficiency in residential development Next slide And then last we have our new programs So as I mentioned several of these programs are either to address new state law or to help strengthen our analysis in the document So you can see we have lot consolidations small site development innovative housing options large lot development and subdivision These are all going to help boost up our analysis for the site's inventory Looking at completing a housing condition survey This would give the city an idea of where the rehab needs really are within the community mobile home park rent control affordable housing tracking and essential housing bond financing program We also have the pro housing designation, which is a big one I'm on this slide the first two programs h 30 and h 31 The fair housing as Beatrice mentioned so 86 86 is a brand new section of the housing element So there are some rather lengthy programs to address the fair housing needs So both 30 and 31 we're looking at anti displacement strategies and place-based revitalization strategies We also have a new program for a community land trust program of our zoning code amendments That's where the state law requirements come into play looking at revising parking standards design review findings And then water and wastewater priority for affordable housing development Next slide. I think I'm going to hand this back over to Amy Thank you, Cynthia Um, so I'm actually not going to go through this slide because we did go through a lot of the detail of where we've been With hcd at the beginning of the presentation So I will say for next steps if your council adopts tonight We will be submitting the housing element to hcd They do have 60 days to be able to review the document. We hope they will take less time We have we will be planning to request an expedited review We have submitted The draft before you to them last week To get a head start and to ask for their informal review before your adoption and So We will be in full compliance under state law once we have a certification by hcd So there is a a gap in time until that occurs So during this time period, there's a couple different things that we want to make sure you're aware of And under state law that means that one we may have potential impact to being able to apply for different grants around the state We to give you more context along with all the complexity of the state laws that have changed I will say we are not alone We are there are only four jurisdictions in the nine county bay area that are currently in compliance with certified housing elements In southern california a year and a half after their deadline Approximately 46 of them are in compliance So the state funding opportunities have shifted what we're seeing is instead of asking for a certified housing element At application they now say certified housing element at the time of award Because there's simply not enough jurisdictions in compliance to be able to be able to provide grant funds The other piece is something called the builders remedy So I know you may have heard about this in the news as well And what this does is it provides additional streamlining for affordable housing projects So it's our position that with your adoption tonight and with the findings that we have in our housing element resolution That this streamlining opportunity and the other penalties would not apply after tonight and that's because the resolution before you Does say that we are in full compliance with state law based on hcds review And their letter that they provided and the changes that we've made That you'll be hopefully adopting tonight And that is consistent with the a-beg guidance as well And so with that I will also note that the Resolution that we are hoping you adopt tonight Also includes the ability for staff to make minor revisions as necessary to the To the housing element So if they do find minor things within their review that we would have the ability to make those changes without having to go back Through a full adoption process So um that is something that we will have to Assess once we get those final comments from hcd, which we hope will just be a certification letter So this housing element tonight um is Certainly a project under sequa, and so there is an addendum as part of your package And this is an adoption Opportunity relying on our existing general plan eir This is primarily possible because we are not changing any land use or zoning as part of this This is a policy document that is recognizing the existing capacity that we have And is in line with our existing general plan It will be um as this is a general plan amendment will become part of our existing general plan We will be continuing to work on our general plan update and making sure that all of the policies drafted do Are consistent and are In concert with this housing element So there there may be changes on the horizon as we work through the full comprehensive update And certainly opportunities to incorporate non-housing things that Help create these complete communities and look at infrastructure and other needs So it's our staff recommendation tonight That you hold a public hearing and consider two resolutions There's the first resolution would be approving the addendum to the general plan our environmental impact report And the second would be adopting a resolution to adopt our Housing element as part of the winter general plan amendment package So i'll also note that there is some late correspondence that you've received So most of that was posted midday today And we do have one letter that i'm not sure posted and that is from generation housing So we do have physical copies of that for you this evening to make sure that's in the record as well I will note that the generation housing letter does Acknowledge and single us out as One of the jurisdictions that did provide additional time The only jurisdiction in sonoma county to provide additional time for their their review as well as the collection of housing element commenters that we've worked with as far as stakeholders And we're of course ready to respond to any of the comments and any of the late correspondence As as you would like so with that I will conclude and turn it back over to you mayor rogers Thank you all for your presentation and for being with us tonight Are there any questions of staff from council members? Council member rogers Thank you mayor So first of all, I did want to thank everybody for all of the work that's gone into this I know that it's one of the more difficult and lengthy community engagement processes that we see across the city But I did want to ask one Question for me one disconnect Is between slide 15 and slide 18 So slide 15 as we talked about is the disadvantaged areas of the city Slide 18 is where we are citing projects That are outside the downtown specific plan And it one of the things that's most striking to me is that we are not proposing or we're not identifying A single site in northeast santa rosa and again even outside of the Very high fire severity zones But we don't have a single one that is identified as being low income or proposed to be low income Even when our own Report shows us that we already have an over concentration of where Where poverty and where Different different graphics exist in our community. I'm wondering if you can just respond to that Yes, and I'll ask Cynthia to weigh in as well But that is you're absolutely correct And part of that is because of the methodology that we have to use to identify sites So hcd is very specific about what a site is required to have to be able to Accommodate a lower income or a fully affordable project And so we just don't have the abundance of large sites within the northeast area And that's one of the primary issues Our sites have been reviewed in accordance with our fair housing policy as well And that's one of the lenses that hcd reviews our sites with is to make sure that we are Looking equitably throughout the community as far as the distribution And we actually did incorporate Programs related to not having enough large sites available for So some of those projects that we would like to see in the northeast, but um, sythia. Do you want to um elaborate on anything? Sure. Yeah, that's a great question. Um, so really at this point with the housing element This is just a land exercise So we are looking at what's currently zoned appropriate and as Amy mentioned hcd ties Density to affordability until it becomes an actual project So we are taking an inventory of the sites that are zoned at different at varying densities And then allocating them towards each different income category So as these develop they could develop differently. This is just based off of this initial analysis looking at density and affordability I would like to add something else. Uh council member writers in relationship to this We also are going through the general plan update part and if you Go back to the to the final draft of our of our Referred alternative There's actually areas of change in the east of the city which are addressing this This this changes of zoning in the future Which will help us with policy after this eight-year cycle because this is this is only for for the next eight years With within the general plan update. We're planning for the next 50. So our Expectation would be now that we get to the other part in terms of land use to change what we have right now on the east side Of the city. So that would be a next step And one more add-on is that that map was showing the vacant land capacity if you look at You can find the slide, but the map showing the approved or under construction Capacity we do have 100 affordable projects occurring on the east side A couple under construction at right now Are there any additional questions from council members? Yeah, I still had one additional question Can you talk us through a little bit the pro housing designation? What it is how we anticipate to get it and why we would want it? Yes, great question So your council did approve a resolution allowing us to apply for the pro housing designation So that application is underway right now It is an application to hcd it's the same set of reviewers and Basically what that designation provides is additional opportunities for funding The legislature is layering on other incentives around that pro housing designation, but To date our Compliance with housing law and our ability to produce units has really been tied to our ability to Show success of those arena numbers and the success of actual housing being produced But we know that jurisdictions don't always control the market. We don't control the market or the production So the pro housing designation is really trying to move that incentive to To jurisdictions that have policies in place to streamline housing To encourage housing in all different ways. So there's four categories of policy area that hcd is looking at and There's so far only a handful of properties have or jurisdictions have received the pro housing designation So we hope to apply for that and it will coincide with our certification of the housing element But that will put us in line for additional incentives as we move forward I will say we have to keep the pro housing designation So it is not you get it and you have it forever We will have to show progress towards that designation that we are actively Moving on the draft policies which are part of the application or and continuing the programs that we have in place Does that answer your question? It does. Thank you. I'll have comments at the end Thank you. Are there any additional questions from council members? None here None online All right, we will now open the public hearing Madam city clerk, may you please conduct? public comment We are now taking public comments on item 16.1 If you're in the chambers, we'll first call on those speakers who have signed up with the administrator at the top of the stairs We will then ask anyone who's not signed up to make your way to a podium If you are participating via zoom, please raise your hand If you are dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand You will have three minutes for your comment and a countdown timer will alert you at the conclusion of that period First up. We will have dwayne dewitt Followed by bob harder Yes, thank you for your consideration Sir, can you please state your name? Thank you so much. My name is adrian covert Head of taller than I thought My name is adrian covert. I'm local lead for santa rosa yinbi member a resident of the west end father of said young child Happy valentine's day. There's a lot to commend about the city about this housing element This is a very difficult process a lot of cities in california are having a very hard time meeting the state's new standards So there's a lot to work with here and commend city staff and the consultant for doing a lot of great outreach To our all volunteer group that's dedicated to pro housing affordability pro livability pro sustainability and our housing development So thank you nevertheless Four key inputs One we believe the city should probably look at scrapping the inclusionary so-called inclusionary ordinance There's a lot of new research out from hud and others that show that inclusionary ordinances Increase housing costs over what they would be without the ordinance in place and the city center has already had to ratchet down It's inclusionary ordinance to prevent housing production from being stopped. So that's number one. Oh, and I would just add to that A common sense here. We don't tax schools to make education more affordable We shouldn't be taxing housing to make housing more affordable. It doesn't work number two We should eliminate car parking minimums citywide We've already done it in the downtown area and the areas around the smart stations Minimum parking ordinances increase the cost of housing Pro long car dependency. They violate our climate goals. They violate our vision zero goals Let's be on the right side of history here. Cities are doing this across california We should do it here and be a bit more visionary on that front And we can do that in the housing element three when it comes to bikes Please don't force me to drive places that I would rather not drive And i'm not alone a lot of people would like to bike places But they don't feel safe doing it because there isn't the adequate infrastructure in place Not enough support and the housing element where this can be addressed is in parking minimums four bikes, particularly multifamily housing We strongly encourage city staff to work with the bicycle and pedestrian advisory board on strengthening bringing the Bike minimum parking on multifamily to one to one and particularly getting some minimum standards on e-bike parking e-bikes are a really attractive way to eliminate about 20 percent of road trips that are currently taken by car in the city But they have specific safety And charging requirements So please look into adding that to the housing element as well And then lastly strengthening the pro housing designation long story short The benefits of the designation are strong But they're going to get a lot more competitive as more cities in california angle for this designation So please work with staff to maximize the amount of points that we can get because it's really important. Thank you Hello, my name is duane de witt. I'm a member of the sonoma county housing advocacy group Which has been in place for over 27 years advocating for affordable housing This is a nice aspirational document, but there are some inadequacies Congratulations to all the magnificent seven women that worked on it. There's all this good stuff going But as usual with a big document, there's some open spaces I'm very supportive and so is the hag Of these new opportunity development areas All of the new programs that are being put forward the community land trusts Specifically the downtown specific area specific plan is a really good thing And that's where a lot of this housing should go Thank you to mr. Chris rogers for his comments about east santa rosa It's really important to remember that el noca and the southeast greenway are large sites Which should have a lot of affordable housing put into them and that needs to be mentioned in these types of documents The idea of Going forward for pro housing designation is very nice The political will is what it usually takes and that's been the dilemma in the past As you'll look back through the documents You'll see we've never really had a problem providing housing for above moderate income That's always been able to happen And that's not a problem for the rich people to find a place to live Where the problem is is for the people who are below moderate income Extremely low income people specifically and that's where we need to really focus our efforts to make sure That we are housing these people and we're actually having actual units produced If you encourage housing encourage it for those who are the most vulnerable Extremely low income very low income low income Go right there build thousands upon thousands upon thousands of units because we shouldn't have any homeless people In this community, which is in one of the richest places in the united states of america There's billions of dollars in sonoma county. Let's make sure and house our people And then one thing that doesn't get mentioned much is it's passed over vacant units are at five percent So if we have 70,000 housing units think of those vacant units That's thousands upon thousands of housing units that should be in use There's now never enough time to go deeply into all this on what we need But the downtown area has been supposedly the focus for at least 30 years And that's where we need to go where the city owns properties And plans have already been put in place That sit on shelves for the white house property across from the post office things of that nature your parking lots, etc You can take the lead You can be the folks the new council the new mayor go for it Don't be bashful go out there and house people as the old people used to say bill bill build I say house house house. Let's go for helping those who are less unfortunate Bob harder will be followed by lauren fury I'm a name is bob harder 93 27 lakewood drive windsor I apologize in advance for My voice for some medical things i'm dealing with i'm here to speak in favor of your adoption of the general plan and the amendments And really want to address What I think you need to do to fight for Achieving it and to vent and to defend against Those who will try to sabotage it I've been working on cities anarosa county of sonoma town of windsor general plans and housing elements since the 1970s What they share in common? is Sincere belief to achieve their goals Which have gotten more challenging through the years as Properties more expensive etc what they also Share Is their failure to meet the goals? Generally speaking That's not new news But here's my thought on Why that has happened As shown in your slides and it's gotten worse i'll say through the years About half of our housing needs are for renters Who don't tend to rent 4,000 square foot homes at fountain grove? Most of our production has been the above moderate Generally 2,000 houses a year and 2,000 more affordable housing generally for renters What comes through the door as staff said? Has been continues to be i'll say except for hu fu trell single family homes And i've been in the development business a long time That's what i would build because i can build it Sell it and walk away from the place That's What single family home developers are in the business for like doing And most neighbors support So the two cautions i have is one Defend this Especially with regard to density and houses per unit Single family home neighborhoods don't want renters near them nimby Renters don't want high rise near them Then you get into splitting condominiums who are owners Don't want renters near them this rental owner sense and as you can see we're mostly renters So guard against their concerns which are legitimate and maybe more difficult for you now with districts And developers who come in and only want to build Lower density and will encourage you To forget about the higher density these lands are zoned sometimes and encourage you With neighbors support to Thank you Thank you Next will be lauren fury followed by evan wig Good evening council members and members of the public Generation housing's 2021 report found that sonoma county needs 58,000 new homes by 2030 With the lion's share of that need here in san aroza Our city is uniquely poised in the county to set ambitious housing goals We have undeveloped space within city limits sufficient infrastructure transit options including three smart stations And as a largely flat city we have the opportunity opportunity to create a safe efficient Bike and pedestrian network that spans the city and supports denser housing development The current housing element is an opportunity to lay the bedrock for achieving these ambitious housing goals I want to thank this council and especially the city's staff Who have put enormous effort into this housing element draft and for all the work done to engage our community In the development of the draft and the wider general plan effort I also want to implore both council and staff to make several critical changes to the housing element draft before adopting it So we don't miss this window to propel san aroza's future Into a new denser and more equitable direction One please consider eliminating the inclusionary housing requirements Research has shown that inclusionary housing disincentivizes new housing production in areas with high housing costs relative to rents San aroza has bay area costs, but not bay area rents Which makes the financial feasibility of new housing developments more challenging here than elsewhere Adding inclusionary requirements, which further reduce rental income on a property or add capital costs in the form of in lieu fees Makes the financing of new construction even more daunting We need new construction to be financially viable to increase the housing supply here in san aroza and make rents more affordable for everyone Beyond direct cost to new developments inclusionary housing burden city staff with the implementation and monitoring of small numbers of restricted affordable units spread across many different buildings as a 2021 press democrat article on the vineyard creek apartments exposed Monitoring and enforcement of current of current inclusionary units is already a significant challenge here in san aroza To uh, we recommend eliminating parking requirements throughout the city as other cities have already done and san aroza itself has already done in the downtown core Requirements that prioritize cars over people and other forms of transit is in direct conflict with the city's climate envision zero goals Three increased bike parking minimums to at least one secured bike parking spot per dwelling unit throughout the city Also develop and adopt minimum e bike e bike parking requirements for new construction Since this is an increasingly affordable and efficient way of moving through cities For aim for a higher pro housing designation score Since some funding programs are already ranking pro housing designation Pro housing designated cities including the new pro housing pilot incentive program In five ensure that the forthcoming transportation element is drafted in consultation with the san aroza bike and ped board. Thank you Evan wig followed by alexa forester Good evening everybody. My name is Evan wig. I'm a resident here in san san aroza Um, and I just first off want to thank the staff I've been able to have conversations with several of them over over the last year or so at meetings and by Number of events. So they've done incredibly responsive. So I really appreciate that and all the work that's been done to to really encourage development of housing and particularly affordable housing and a more livable community here in san aroza The one thing I wanted to really focus on today is We have different elements and obviously in order to tackle something like a general plan. It's incredibly complicated We can't do everything all at once. So we separate them out into elements My concern is that you you miss the opportunities for to really make sure that things are synthesized I also heard from the staff tonight, which was reassuring is that after this is Approved there is still opportunity to make sure that there are elements or are in concert And two things the two elements that i'm hoping Staff can really make sure are actually in concert is the housing elements And the transportation uh element to make sure that you know, you wouldn't you wouldn't allow for housing development without thinking Are there roads there? Are there stop signs there? Are are there driveways available, right? But we don't have that same thought about bicycle infrastructure We have what my request then is that As we develop this general plan in a larger sense that we're really thinking about connectivity And and not just you know, first we do the housing element and then we figure out You know where we want to put some bicycle paths But really think about housing where people are transportation where people live The ability if we're going to be allowing for housing in one area is there safe A transportation routes we heard earlier tonight a whole bunch of really concerned people about the safety of their children And I can tell you there's a number of places Throughout the the the city that it's just unsafe and the reason why people don't bike is they're they're nervous, right? And so how can we make the average person moms and children and just an average person? Not just like diehard bikers, right? Not like the biker game that we showed up here the night But like just normal everyday people to see that transport that you can actually live a life without parking requirements for development That's another point. So you've already heard that one But you can actually live a full And and sustainable life here in Santa Rosa without a car And that's going to require that density that that we're being we're working towards as part of this housing element But it's also going to require the transportation Infrastructure so I do hope that those things get in concert and the last thing I'm just going to throw in there is program h6 innovative and alternative housing I hope that that you guys dig a little further into that and not just sort of like consider the options of but for instance Making movable tiny homes to be considered a to use cooperative housing all those opportunities to really broaden your horizons about what can be Housing here in Santa Rosa. Thank you so much Alexa Forrester and then Gregory Fierin Hi, is this on Can you guys hear me? Okay. Hi, I'm Alexa Forrester I am a mother of a 15 year old and a just recently turned 12 year old And I'm a professor at the jc and those two lenses Have made me care about some things very deeply That I love and I'm bringing them here because I love this city so much that I'm spending Valentine's Day with my city So the things that I really care deeply about are the city's adopted vision zero safety goals I want my sons are spring lake middle students and in addition to the Student that's currently in the hospital still from being hit In the past two years students have been hit on bicycles spring lake middle students have been hit on bicycles as well and that motivated me and my husband and a number of our neighbors to collaborate to Form the campaign bikeable santa rosa and we've been very appreciative for the council's response to our Reaching out to you about that the other goal is equity goals Many of my students at the jc Struggled to complete college because of transportation issues and because of the lack of affordable housing For them and then of course climate goals because when you have kids and you think about what is Sonoma county going to look like 40 years from now is this going to be a safe place for them to live All of these things inform my vision for the future of santa rosa And there are a number of ways that those intersect with the general plan You know overall and then the housing element in particular So I just want to endorse everything that's been said by adrian and lauren and evan and other speakers tonight about The you know and the gratitude especially for the language justice component and making sure that everybody has access to this But I want to especially endorse the The removal of parking minimums across the city not just in the downtown core If you are requiring development developers to put parking minimums in their housing structures You are admitting defeat you are admitting that you have designed a city where they're it's impossible to live without a car I think people should have the right to drive their cars I think we should make it safe for them But you shouldn't force people to drive and you shouldn't force people to bear the costs of car infrastructure If they want to choose not to drive. I also want to just Advocate for what evan was saying about making sure that the housing element gets Integrated and worked Worked systemically with the transportation and circulation elements when those come before you Thanks for your time. Happy valentine's day Gregory fearon will be followed by christin keifer Gregory fearon I want to say this is Dreams Some part of me says it's a a fiction But I want to support it nevertheless with some exceptions It's clear and if you read it and I know you all have that Most of the low income and I mean Not $50,000 a year but folks making 30 and 20 and 10 will never Have any impact from anything you're doing in this book They are not going to get places to live in and you know it now The other thing I want to say is everything this guy said in front of the lectern here paul harder. I totally agree with Every single word he said is true And the third thing I want to point out is all of this comment about inlu fees and and uh, you know inclusionary zoning You wouldn't have the 5 000 units that burbank and midpen and eah and anybody else built without that funding I don't understand their perception that somehow The money for low income housing, which is what burbanks been trying to do Would fall from the sky somewhere It doesn't happen. They point to one source the bonds We've tried bonds and every time it comes up every time they put it on the ballot It has nothing to do with real low income housing Now because affordability is a huge stretch We've now gained over the last 20 years A lot of people who think they can't afford housing From the folks that we used to say we're down and out to everybody We are a community that has only a few people who can afford to have a home ownership And a whole lot of people who are struggling to just be renters Market it does not produce without pressure Anything for what I would call affordable and the only tool you have to get affordable Is to browbeat them into doing what we've done for the last 20 years Have those who pay more help pay for those who can't That's what it's all about. That's what your inclusionary and inlu fee is all about and god bless you for trial Because he's one of the few people who buys into that Thank you Kristen kiefer will be followed by cliff wingham Good evening mayor rogers and honorable members of city council and our city staff Thank you for hosting this public hearing tonight and for hearing all of our comments from the public I want to appreciate give time to appreciate all the work that has gone into this housing element update Although I do want to point out that there is still work that can be done to make these city policies more impactful I want to voice support for continuing programs That make development of ad use more flexible I will admit that from an outsider's perspective the convoluted process can be daunting and there can be more done to boost Those numbers of producing more ad use Especially on properties and historic preservation districts Specifically in the station area specific plan I would also like to support programs to relook at lot consolidation and small site development The opportunities for zoning code amendments will give opportunities for flexibility that can Increase the number of housing units that we have available to renters and homeowners I want to applaud the rate at which multifamily development has been approved by city staff And that has been in the process of being constructed Yet, I do notice that many of these developments are located on the outskirts of town Or outside the station area specific plan plan boundary This is concerning to me as this does not Align with city policies and goals to address climate change Reliance on private automobiles continues to be a strain on families in santa rosa And does not further goals and strategies to address climate change Look at More a lot has been written about the hidden cost of housing and owning a private automobile is on the top of the list Also, I am a cyclist and I want to continue being a cyclist and to feel safe that when I commute to work That is my decision For my health for my community To be a better steward of our community, but also I want to feel safe on our streets The bike paths are great, but there can be so much done by looking at the Bike and pedestrian advisory boards plans and advisory to this council I would also like to reevaluate Have this council and city staff reevaluate the fees and regulations regarding smaller developments or rehabilitation projects Uh permitting and impact fees are often impediments to creating different sizes of units and opportunities That fit into the missing middle or mid-sized projects that could provide anywhere From two to you know two to eight units on a smaller lot Uh, thank you again for this time, and I hope you have a great evening and consider making amendments before the approval Cliff wingham will be followed by thomas ells Hello, my name is cliff wingham I'm addressed new not only as the organizer of the gateway properties But also as one of the property owners in the roberts district. I bought my property in 2006 Six months later. It was rezoned from light industrial to tv r Uh 25 to 40 units per acre In 2016 I formed the gateway coalition uh to Help defeat the redwood gospel mission homeless project And at that time I organized the property owners to market the properties We had a developer interested in it, but the environmental issues came up We secured a grant from the epa through the count cdc of uh soma county And we did the environmentals which we completed november 20th 2020 Uh The city of san rosa rezoned our properties Six weeks later to the now unrealistic six point of floor area ratio I understand the housing element plan is uh To identify where housing can be built I had identified the gateway properties. It's 10 acres in total At 25 40 a good for 400 units of affordable workforce and market rate housing That's a reasonable density that can be built Anything over 40 units requires basically structured parking. I know there's no parking minimum But the reality is that 90 percent of the people in san rosa and soma county own cars Even if they take the bus They will own a car and no developer or financial institution will support development without parking of some kind The reduced parking would work if we were to put possibly 50 or 60 units to the acre with reduced parking Supporting things like studio apartments and double occupancy two bedroom apartments That would economically work and not require the structured parking The core density of downtown the density works because there's parking structures Uh, Santa south west does not have any parking structures south west is A depressed area that needs affordable housing Roberts is technically on the south side of highway 12, which puts it in southwest not as part of railroad square The homeless encampments has been a plague on the roberts district I organized the uh police and public works to clear the homeless Seven out of the last eight years Anyway, there's my spiel. I hope you read the letter. I sent you Thomas ells will be next and then anyone that hasn't checked in if you'd like to speak please make your way to the podium Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak Over the years i've come before the city council In order to speak about southeast greenway And that is great to save that property and use it as a parkland But the area to the north Is primarily rental property and uh should be up zoned for the For the future So that you can have infill there and even you know, um Redevelopment that would raise the height of those buildings have access to that park in that greenway and that's your safe access For bicycles and pedestrians and so on to the to the core of the city A good deal could be done there I think the point that i'm making is that i'm surprised. Well, i'm not surprised uh But i would ask you to consider zoning As a part of this housing element that you go forward with with amended zoning And uh zone changes because this is an amendment to the general plan So you don't have to stick with your existing general plan in the zoning that you have This is the opportunity for you to change Some of the zoning within the city Some consolidation of zoning particularly with regard to commercial type zones There's so many different kinds of commercial zones and everything that's very Very confusing Uh and in particular one aspect of that zoning is that The city approved for Up to 50 percent of housing to occupy Commercial property if it was in general commercial zones So the city approved that But the interpretation was that That must fall within a specific zone called commercial general Which is only about less than one-tenth Of the commercial property within the city. So it's very specific that general commercial means All commercial does not mean commercial general zoning under a specific zoning So I would look at that number one and then 50 percent of those Uh square footages could be converted to to housing But specifically also within this Particular housing element is you can utilize this for zone changing I would recommend that you Approve this later after you get those You know conditionally after you get zone changes because you can Have the approval of this For at the time of funding of the types of of uh housing that you're looking for So you can delay that and get your zoning changes if you want. Thank you If there are any additional speakers in the chambers, please make your way to the podium Seeing none we'll go ahead and turn it over to our zoom host to facilitate We do have uh some hands raised the first one will be uh margaret If you can unmute you are next followed by joshua Hello, can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you Okay, hi, it's margaret's amadio again with um legal aid of sonoma county I'm just calling to Um predominantly express support for the housing element plan Uh, I want to thank staff and planning for um giving our Seemingly a coalition we sent a letter around asking for additional time To analyze and respond to the housing element draft and they've been really accommodating And you know, we just we really appreciate that because our coalition group which is made up of a lot of different sectors Uh, we have been working really hard on analyzing all the housing element plans across the county um, and so, uh, we appreciate that and um, I just wanted to note that Uh legal aid had submitted a letter in december Um regarding some changes to the housing element draft primarily around fair housing and tenant protections Um, and I'll note program h 32 looks to be um the area that the the city will Look to when formulating policy around preventing displacement and senate protections So around that though, I would just encourage you to consider more specific language Um, you know, the housing element is supposed to be um have attainable and measurable Uh goals and specific Um, so when we're talking about, you know, it's kind of displacement and eviction protection You know, we know that the city funds, you know eviction defense and we appreciate that legal aid is the primary um non-profit that provides that free legal assistance to low income tenants Facing their loss of housing Um, and we encourage that to continue. Um, but you know Having that ability to have an attorney in court doesn't necessarily prevent the loss of housing because In the absence of local protections Closing um loopholes and state protections of tenants and there are several Uh, there's not much that there's not as much that we can do to keep people housed As we could if there was, you know, just cause eviction protections like pedaluma is adopting Um, like sonoma the city of sonoma has put into their housing element plan They've also put in, uh, a rent registry and rent stabilization in the city of sonoma They're the only jurisdiction in the county to do so and I would urge you to at least consider what what they're looking at Um, and then, you know, predominantly I would support the commons area of gen housing Uh, I don't disfavor the inclusionary housing policy. I think it was um, it's intended not as a solution to everything But as part of the solution And, you know, it was designed to address, um Zoning practices such as redlining Uh, and so it doesn't go Okay, we will now hear from, uh, joshua You can unmute yourself Um, great. Thanks so much. Can you hear me? Okay? Yes Um, uh, good evening. May rogers vice mayor mcdonald and council members and staff My name is josh shipper, and I am the director of special initiatives with, uh, generation housing Um, we we want to applaud the progress made on santa rosa's housing element With special thanks to director hartman and amy lyle and the planning team Um, cal weeks personally asked that I passed along his gratitude for your work Having worked with all of you over the past, uh, year as a part of the local housing element working group Um, we know it's not easy to look ahead a full eight years to think through what the housing inventory Will look like, uh, but this housing element does represent a commitment to create a policy context where where housing is more likely to be built Um We want to say that we think the plan is ambitious in several areas and we would just encourage you to see it as a guidepost Please be flexible and adapt to what is working As you've done with ad use And consider applying that to new types of housings such as smaller and affordable by design housing that Continue as you've heard tonight to be very difficult to develop in part because of the larger per unit size fees We think those creative policies can work for more than one type of housing Just two general comments Although the the housing element is a state mandated component of the general plan We really do encourage you to view it as adding more and not less power to city governments to build housing The state's many new policies are designed to help localities um Pivot from past and restrictive laws that you want the council have inherited but that no longer Truly match your climate needs or uh commitment to equitable housing and and the need to house workforce residents um Secondly part of that inheritance from the past includes a lot of dated ideas about the cost of new housing and especially the cost The cost-benefit terms of denser housing that simply Does not correspond with today's housing economy um And so for those of you who participated in our housing 101 day You saw how outdated our sense of land use revenues can be and how those perceptions continue to favor traditional emphasis on Low density housing, but today the per acre tax revenue generated by denser units far out outweighs those of single family um And yet we continue to collect fees on denser units when in reality it's single family homes who Do not generate the revenue down the road. So please consider these kinds of flexible approaches as as the housing The cycle gets started The housing element is long term for a reason because it asks you to revise and adapt But also because it allows you time to change broader ideas and perceptions about what housing is possible Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks for your service and we appreciate you moving this forward Okay, we now Will have steven followed by chris Steve you cannot mute Thank you, uh, steve burtlebow. I chair of the transportation land use coalition And we are looking very carefully at the requirements of the Air resources board that we reduce driving At the rate of about five percent per year 25 percent reduction by 2030 and We appreciate the work that's being done on this. We hope that As you Move forward You listen to the people that are asking for reduction or elimination of parking minimums And that uh, we really look at the fact that Upcoming generations are less wedded to the car than We think we we like to think about them The There's a good deal of indication that People are waiting longer to get their driver's license They're relying on other forms of transportation, particularly e-bikes e-bikes are making it Able making us able to commute Five miles on a bicycle And be comfortable when we get to work Uh, we need we need to make our streets more comfortable and we need to Separate the cost of parking a car From the cost of renting a house or an apartment Um, unbundling the cost of parking Will Impress upon people the fact that you really don't need to have a car And you can live more economically without one So those are just some ideas about how we can proceed forward Thank you very much for what you're doing Hope to move this forward tonight. Thank you Uh, we will now have Chris if you can unmute yourself Hello Can you hear me? Yes Thanks so much just want to quickly echo The thanks for staff and council for all the hard work on this the consultants as well I've been paying increasingly close attention to the process And appreciate, you know, how hard it is to to keep making progress on this With the dizzying array of requirements from the state And of course all the the differing points of view from the community. So just really appreciate the effort I also want to underscore As others have that, you know, this is a visionary document and and should be a visionary document and I especially want to Join the chorus folks that are connecting the dots between housing transportation land use Obviously in the city and in the county broadly Transportation itself is a very significant land use issue And we do need much much denser development But in order for that to work and in order for it to create the city that we really want We need much more people friendly streets. So that's biking, but it's also pedestrian infrastructure I was struck by the the gentleman who You know emphasize that it's just not realistic to build without parking And of course, there's lots of examples of of where it is being done now Um, so I think we should not give in to that that inertia and that typical Point of view that we can't change. We should be visionary And we should bring the infrastructure into play to make that possible Um, I'll end it there, but just want to say thank you. I know that's that we'll get approved tonight And uh, also just really looking forward to working on the transportation elements to make sure this is a success There are no more Callers and there are no pre-recorded messages Thank you with no additional members of the public that are wishing to speak. We will now close the public hearing I'll bring it back to council for any final comments or questions council member rogers Thank you, mayor I didn't want to just make a couple of comments as well Mostly because we've seen sort of this interesting juxtaposition in the press Over a couple of different articles in the last few days One was the article that I think ran today that talked about this discussion that we are going to have And one was over the weekend an article that talked about More people leaving sonoma county than coming in And I've received a number of comments from folks who really were questioning Well, why do we continue to build housing if we have fewer people coming into the the community than we have leaving Uh, first of all, I think it's really important for us to continue to fight that narrative and push back And say that just because we have been historically under housed Particularly for the last decade doesn't mean that fewer people here is a good thing When we look at the demographics when we look at The fact that retired individuals in the community continue to grow And that the loss of individuals in the community are those who are the workforce or are younger I think it tells us why this process is so important There is not the ability for young people to get established in our community when you think of the metrics when you think of the life points Going to school meeting your significant other buying your first homes The things that root you in the community and allow you to live there Do not happen in santa rosa at the same rate as other places because the cost of living is so high And we heard from some businesses key site is a great example of their inability to find workers who are here Because people are leaving and the inability to attract workers who Councilmember o'crepki and I were just talking about issues that the city is having Where we find qualified people who look at the salary and say that's great That's so much more than i'm making elsewhere and then they look at the cost of living and they're like there's no way I can go there So I want to thank staff for this. I want to thank the community for showing up in support today And I really want to thank staff for not trying to take a An easy way out. We've been hearing stories of hillsboro and other communities that have Tried to game the system to actually build less housing or housing of a different type a more appropriate type I think our plan that's being put forward today is a plan that's realistic for our community that looks at The need in our community and tries to provide an appropriate response So I just want to thank everyone for their participation in it Are there any councilmember o'crepki Yeah, I just like to First reiterate what councilmember roger said and thank you to staff so much for all the work you've put into this Thank you for all the stakeholders in the community as well as all of you have given public comment and also remember that Um We hear everything you guys are saying and This isn't the only chance that you we're going to have to address any of your concerns Um, we do have our goal setting coming up That is a great opportunity for you to show up and talk about housing and what you want to see in housing um and To to councilmember roger's point of us talking earlier about uh recruitment Yeah, it's it's and being younger um living here and trying to buy a house. It's it's intimidating It's intimidating to try to move to santa rosa as a young person To start a career and start a family and we are very cognizant of that um as a whole council and um, so don't just because of uh, of If any changes aren't made tonight that you are happy with Does it mean that it's going unheard and that it won't be addressed at a later date or discuss at a later date? I want to assure everybody of that Are there any additional comments from council members or questions? All right Seeing none councilmember roger's if you would please make a motion All right, i'll put a resolution of the council of the city of santa rosa Adopting an addendum to the 2035 general plan environmental impact report for a general plan amendment to update the housing element Of the general plan for the period of 2023 to 2031 And i also heard and i'll wait for the reading of the text But then i also heard staff ask for a little bit of leeway in case they need to make minor tweaks Without having to come back through the full process. So i'll include that in my motion as well second All right, we have a motion from councilmember roger's in a second from councilmember okrepki Madam city clerk, can you please call the vote? Councilmember roger's Aye Councilmember okrepki. Aye councilmember fleming Aye Councilmember alvarez Aye Vice mayor mcdonald. Aye Mayor roger's. Aye The motion passes with six eyes with councilmember stapp absent I will also make a Motion approving the resolution of the council of the city of santa rosa Adopting a general plan amendment to update the housing element of the general plan for the period of 2023 to 2031 Including affirmatively furthering fair housing and compliance with state housing element law And authorizing staff to submit the adopted housing element to the california department of housing and community development For certification and wait for the reading of the text second I have a motion from councilmember roger's in a second from councilmember okrepki Madam city clerk, may you please call the vote? Councilmember roger's. Aye Councilmember okrepki. Aye councilmember fleming Councilmember alvarez Aye Vice mayor mcdonald. Aye Mayor roger's. Aye The motion passes with six eyes with councilmember stapp absent Again much thanks to our staff and also the stakeholders in the community and if I can add I think that we're all stakeholders in the community. So thank you very much for your participation In the hard work We'll be now moving to item 15 report items of 15.1. Madam city manager item 15.1 a resolution making Resolution making required findings and approving the hiring of jeffrey berke retired and newton as a temporary employee to serve as To serve part-time acting chief assistant city attorney for a period of a limited duration I will turn this over to city attorney gallagher sorry actually HR director amy reeve will be doing the presentation. Thank you Good evening. Madam mayor and members of the city council. I'm amy reeve the director of human resources And before you for consideration this evening is an item approving the hiring of jeffrey berke as a temporary employee And retired annuitant to serve as part-time acting chief assistant city attorney for a period of limited duration jeffrey berke retired from his position as the chief assistant city attorney on january 4th 2023 And the city is currently conducting an open recruitment for his replacement It is anticipated that the recruitment process could take between four and six months And there are critical issues and projects pending which will need to be addressed while the recruitment for a permanent replacement is ongoing Mr. Burke has this specialized knowledge and skills required to address those critical issues and projects To ensure a smooth transition and uninterrupted city operations It is recommended that mr. Burke be returned as a temporary employee to serve in the position of part-time acting chief assistant city attorney Until february 20th 2024 or until a replacement is appointed Mr. Burke is a cow purse retired annuitant and his employment is therefore governed by cow purse regulations The cow purse regulations allow a retired person to serve without reinstatement upon an interim appointment by the council To a position that's currently vacant during a recruitment period And deemed by the council to require specialized skills Or an emergency situation to prevent the stoppage of public business Pursuant to the cow purse government code section 7522.56 f1 Retirees shall not be eligible to begin work for a period of 180 days following the date of the retirement Unless the council does certify the nature of the appointment meets those requirements stated above And that the appointment is necessary to fill a critical need within that initial period The cow purse the cow purse regulations require that the appointment be of limited duration that it must have a beginning and an end date That the retiree will not work more than 960 hours each fiscal year And that the compensation must be within the existing hourly range for the chief assistant city attorney Additionally, a retiree shall not receive any benefit incentive Compensation in lieu of benefits or any other form of compensation Other than the hourly pay rate Finally it is recommended by the city attorney's office and the human resources department that the council Solution approved jeffrey burke to be hired as a temporary employee to the position of part-time acting chief assistant city attorney For a limited period from february 21st 2023 Through february 20th 2024 Or until the permanent full-time position is filled Whichever is sooner and to certify the appointment is necessary to fill the critical position of chief assistant city attorney With that i'll open it up for any questions Thank you so much for that presentation. Are there any questions from council? Seeing none here. Are there any Online seeing none there Who has this councilmember okrepti? I'll move a resolution of the city council of the city santa rosa Proving hiring of jeffrey burke as a temporary part-time employee Into the position of acting chief assistant city attorney for a limited duration from february 21st 2023 through february 20th 2024 or until the permanent position is filled and way further reading of the text I'll second but i Did we get the dates correct? And mayor we need to take public comment on this item also The the dates are correct from starting february 21st And we've made it for a year duration in the event that we have difficulties for the appointment So that is correct. And i'm sorry. Did I miss that you open the for public comment? You missed it because I didn't do it. Okay, thank you All right, so I think we have a motion by o'craftianna second by rogers But if we can go ahead and open public comment We are now taking public comment on item 15.1 if you're in the chambers Please go ahead and make your way to the podium if you are participating via zoom Please raise your hand if you are dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand. You'll have three minutes to comment and a timer will Alert you at the conclusion of that period I'm seeing no public comment in chambers. Do we have any zoom comment? Uh, no, we have no raised hands and no prerecorded comments Thank you so much. So we have a motion by councilmember o'crafti in a second by councilmember rogers Madam city clerk. Can you please call the vote? councilmember rogers I councilmember o'crafti I councilmember fleming I councilmember alvarez I Vice mayor mcdonald. I Mayor rogers. I The motion passes with six eyes with councilmember stapp absent Moving to item 17 written communications. We have none item 18 is our last public comment on non-agenda matters If you would like to make a comment and you are in the chamber Please make your way to the podium seeing None seeing no hands raised on zoom Are there any other comments Seeing none We will now go to our announcements And I just wanted to point out that we will be having some Local art in the chamber Throughout february So thank you very much to the students in our city that have Provided us with their art for february And happy black history month to all And I think that is all meeting adjourned. Thank you so much