 Good afternoon and welcome to today's City Council meeting Madame city clerk. Can you please call the role? Yes? Thank you mayor councilmember Schwedhelm here councilmember Sawyer here councilmember Rogers president councilmember McDonald here councilmember Fleming Vice mayor Alvarez President mayor Rogers here let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of councilmember Fleming Okay, we'll start the day with our two closed session items if you have any comment for items 2.1 or 2.2 Go ahead and hit the raise hand feature on your zoom And I'll look to our deputy city clerk to see if we had any hands We have no hands being raised via zoom for item 2.1 or 2.2. All right, I'll bring it back and I'll take us into closed session Charles I see you're unmuted, but I haven't heard you Checking for interpreter Charles. There we go. Perfect. Thank you Since you were the last one up to confirm Charles I'm gonna go ahead and put you over into the Spanish Channel and then Papa will make the usual announcement of how to participate on the Spanish Channel and then I'll move you over With Charles to Spanish Great. Thank you. You know those just joining us from seed collaborative Please keep your cameras off until your item is called and thank you for Joining our meeting in advance so we can make sure everything's functioning properly for you guys Live translation in Spanish is available and members of the public or staff wishing to listen in Spanish can join the Spanish Channel By clicking on the interpretation icon in the zoom toolbar. It looks like a globe Once you join the Spanish Channel, we recommend you shut off the main audio so you only hear the Spanish translation Pablo can you please restate that in Spanish For those recently joined us at this meeting interpretation in vivo will be available for those who wish to listen in Spanish To listen in Spanish Click on the zoom toolbar in the icon that looks like a globe Once you click on this globe, it is recommended that you turn off the main audio so you only hear the Spanish interpretation All right, Madam City Clerk, can you please call the roll? Yes, thank you mayor Councilmember Schwedhelm here councilmember Sawyer here Councilmember Rogers Councilmember McDonald here councilmember Fleming Vice mayor Alvarez present mayor Rogers here let the record show that all councilmembers are present. All right, Madam City Manager Let's go on to item 3.1 Good afternoon mayor Rogers and members of council Item 3.1 is a study session given by seed collaborative on the city's equity plan I would like to do introduce Amy Reeve our director of human resources. Thank you Great. Thank you and good afternoon mayor Rogers and members of the city council Again, I'm Amy Reeve the director of human resources for the city and I'm pleased to introduce Paul Hedson and his team today of seed Collaborative they will be providing an update on the citywide Diversity equity inclusion and belonging journey which we started after the council established DEI as a tier one council priority As you may recall seed is facilitating the equity plan document creation and has moved into the stage of the work plan that Includes the creation and management of three equity task forces for fire police in the city Today's study session will provide an update of that work and I'm pleased to go ahead and turn it over to Paul Hedson of seed Thank you Amy. It's a pleasure to be back before the council mayor Rogers and councilmembers We were happy to have this opportunity to do a deeper dive and get more into your questions about our work Our approach and the outcomes that we expect so we're gonna briefly go through this PowerPoint presentation and try and leave most of the time for your questions Our presentation is broken into four components. The first poor the first component is Are the definitions that we have? Collectively kind of greed on for the city the second component involves our approach around Collaboration and consensus decision making the third component is to give you a project update And then the fourth component is to talk about deliver deliverables and next steps So let's get right into it The next slide you we have introduced this team before so it's the same team that it's always been with you And Evan and I pretty much the project leads on as from the consultant perspective next slide So again, this is what we're gonna go through and I mentioned that the next slide On the next slide, thanks, so We attempted in collaboration with this city and staff to really define what is diversity equity and belonging mean and so we came up with these definitions and Clearly diversity is a broad range of various very variations of identifying Characteristic some inherent some acquired and here are the ones you were born with acquired of the ones you acquired through Culture religion education citizenship all those types of things so diversity we have a very broad definition of diversity I think the important point to note here is that a lot of municipalities are striving for a diverse workforce What what the literature shows what the research shows is diversity is not an in and of itself Go to the next slide you can what with with this show well first we're going to go through the diversity of the city This is the city demographics that we got from the city the city has this information you've probably seen this information The city is about in terms of all employees about 60 percent male and 67 percent white in terms of those with the salary greater than a hundred thousand It's still predominantly male and white if you go to the executive staff it flips the female, but it's still predominantly white for the police Which is the next slide the police Understandably has a very high male population 83% white These demographics kind of go to how diverse is the city and its departments Greater than 100,000 again, it's male. It's white And I don't think the executive staff is It's larger than one person. So I think this that number is not that relevant go to the next slide The fire department reflects a similar Demographic on the next slide So it's a predominantly male a larger female Component and 81% are our White I think you have to go back one more. There you go great a hundred thousand gal again, it's male. It's white and The executive staff is similar so It's not really diverse that diverse a Staff and the police or the fire and clearly that's been a priority of the city in terms of our work on the next slide What this really shows this next slide really goes to Diversity doesn't solve all your problems. You can have a diverse work staff and still have micro aggressions You could have a diverse work staff and still have pay inequities You can have discrimination you could have You know I'm not a community of both belonging although it's very diverse. So most Cities are looking well What is the equity component then we go to the next slide? We try to look at equity in a lens that anybody can really understand it and that's people's concept of fairness and justice It varies somewhat but clearly there are some overarching Attitudes about fairness like most people would say it's not it's not fair to discriminate one person over another person That's probably not fair So this idea of fairness and justice That are achieved through looking at addressing disparities and targeted a solutions That's a broad definition of equity and we talked about earlier in a Presentation of the council how equity and targeting universalism are different and we'll explain that a little more and the next concept is this concept the next slide is this concept of Belonging Well, I guess I have some examples here, but these are just examples of how in the city Equity shows up. Is it equitable if everybody can't participate in your boards and commissions because of their situation? Are there are there situations where you know the pool of candidates is More weighted one way or another because of the because of the process you use to to select candidates identify candidates the next slide so this is the concept of inclusion and The city is already moving down some of these roads to be more diverse to be more inclusive The fact that you have spanish-speaking translator says you're trying to be more inclusive the fact that You are Consciously looking at your hiring around diversity And all of your departments is this there are already initiatives going on within the city to address some of these issues and What we want to point out here is that inclusion you can have inclusion without belonging so go to the next slide Belonging is really where we're trying to go with this project And we think the meaningful difference is this ideal this idea of participation meaningful participation Colonial co-creating the process in this idea of trust so Crucial to the to uplifting these issues around belonging are these components belonging is the idea that everybody is Respected and has dignity and in the process and that there is a shared power Among the participants so belonging is really what we're trying to achieve with this project Which includes diversity equity and inclusion, but it's just a broader concept that is More transformative in our opinion The next slide So I'm gonna I'm just gonna talk about this briefly and what it says is The way we the way we approach equity the way we look at equity is this idea of it's broader than just The disparities between different groups It's this idea that you have a universal goal and that you have targeted strategies to get everyone to that goal because Not everyone is situated the same within your organization within culture within communities And so if we're all trying to get to this place where we all feel belonged and no one's other That's great, but you may need different strategies Targeted strategies to get one group there versus another disabled folks have a different strategy from folks that are African-American or folks that are female our Segments that are female are LGBTQ so targeting universalism is just as concept of we want everybody to move forward We want everyone to belong and we're going to use targeted strategies to make sure that we respond to the To the needs of the people as they're situated within structures and geographies so you can go to the next slide and The next slide because I think we've shared these slides with the work with the council before on the next slide Thank you, and then the next slide This is just an example of how these Equality equity and targeted universalism would affect the federal housing authority and federal and affordable housing in this country I'm going to stop there and Take any questions that any of the council members have Evan Yeah, before we went to thank you pop before we went to questions I just wanted to add just a couple of things just to ensure some we are clear about why we're sharing information So we share these definitions with the task forces that you'll hear about in a moment that we've shared about in a bit As a way to baseline language and understanding of the concept So we can all be talking about the same thing with the same language and with the same terms And so our intention in sharing it sharing this information in the task force as well Or task forces as well as here today is is that same intention? And then I just wanted to offer that Whereas the city may not have quite you know ethnic diversity in the way we would define it I think the city does have quite a bit of Cognitive diversity in terms of diversity of thought of opinions and ideas And we really observe that and experience that through interviews and focus groups last year We were collecting data and we really have Had the opportunity to observe that through the group process that we'll share by in a moment So so that was all I wanted to add. Thanks, Paul Yeah, and Mayor Rogers if you want us to wait to the end for questions. I defer to you on that Well, let me go ahead and just see if we have any questions for my colleagues right off the bat Okay councilmember sweater Thank you Mayor Rogers. Thank you Paul for what we've seen so far I have a question on slide 14. He talked about belonging and I really appreciated your comment belonging is what we're trying to achieve One of my challenges, how are we going to measure how we're doing here? So it's in order to co-own and co-create individuals need dignity respect and power How would we as a city or a city council measure our progress in this arena? the typical way Councilman Schwedholm is a surveys where you wait maybe 24 months after implementation of some of these strategies and you test Like we have some baselines on people feeling Evan included in the What is some of the what we would So what we learned about belonging at the city during our due diligence process is That there used to be quite a bit of a culture of belonging among the staff and that through administrative turnover of staff of leadership Restructure within the city and other sorts of dynamics budget challenges other things that have made staff feel a bit stressed and stretched There's been less feeling of belonging and less feeling of inclusion for for all of these reasons And so I think that to Paul's point where we've inserted co-ownership Co-creation this idea of shared power in our group process as a attempt to make that shift and to Paul's point When we've moved through the process completed the DEI action plan You'll have some real baseline information in that plan by which to measure and then to Paul's point being able to measure Go back and see if staff are still feeling like that old feeling of belonging is still not there and Being able to survey to see if it is there and you know We've intentionally built pieces of belonging into the process to try and help y'all make that shift as we're planning for the long-term DEI change and I want to think I would add councilman Swenom if If communication is so part of the the work of the task forces is communication How do we how do we ensure that we're more a more transparent organization? We share communication we're more communicating as you do that as people feel like they've had a voice and change within the city As people see actual change within the city There will be there will be changes in people's attitudes and opinions about their city about their job about The mission that the city is on all that you should be able to pick up in a follow-up servant You know the same do you have a recommendation about? Because I heard you say several times about the city wide as a whole What about department by department and I'm not you know, I guess my My question is about how does or how would you recommend the city council? Hear of or learn of this information from a department perspective That's an excellent question Our goal is to have all departments have a similar Outcome around belonging the idea is that one department doesn't doesn't treat their employees different than another employer or have different outcomes And so one of the things we we're doing we're working with The fire the police, but we also have representation I think Amy from all the departments on the task the city task force So hopefully there's getting we're getting input from all departments But I think ultimately in the in the implementation phase there has to be very close Collaboration work work with buy-in and ownership by department heads And they have to feel good about where the city is going and how they're going to get there And that also has to be you know, you have to measure for that also, but I think it's an excellent question It's an excellent thing to monitor and You know, hopefully we will have Buy-in by the department heads as we move towards the end of this process In my final question up to this point is in how do you see the city council as a body Interact with that is there additional training because we're not on any of these groups, you know We get this report, but it seems like you know in my opinion We are a team part of the city How are we incorporated into this belonging discussion and some of the whether it be training or more conversations about this for us as a group So, you know, I think the questions I would ask as a council member is What are the what are the key indicators that we should be monitoring as a city council? What are what are the what are the Factors that we should look at to to Determine whether change is happening within the city So for example You can look at The diversity of your workforce. I mean the fire and the police in the city are all working to be to be to have a more diverse workforce That can be tracked through demographics Um Is there more collaboration among departments? Are they silo for example? Is the police department On an island or are they working in collaboration? Is there more conversation back and forth? Is there more? So Are we breaking down silos within city? That's one thing you shouldn't measure for Evan help me on anything else we there's probably a bunch of things we should use this issue So if I were a city council in the city of santa rosa I would be really interested in the the diversity equity inclusion belonging plan that comes out That's really the result of this process and we're really grounds you in your goals and strategies long term around Around diversity around equity inclusion and belonging and so tracking the progress around Implementation of that plan will be something that I think will be key for the city to engage in And then if you're really thinking about belonging as a city council person within the city council Then thinking about the principles of belonging and how they show up in the city council And that's something you can think about and consider long term What does co-ownership and co-creation look like at the city council level? How does things like inclusion and transparency play out in the city council? I mean, I think Um, you've all done a very good job of already thinking about those pieces I think that you know the addition of translation of the city council meetings is evidence of your thinking around that And I think the continued thinking and the continued conversation and engagement around the principles of belonging Are another way that you can think about how to advance belonging within the city through the city council and one I think Belonging it doesn't it's not like a light switch. It doesn't change overnight It doesn't change in the first six months of operation. So it's something you're going to have to continue to track and One thing I want to know The city has intentionally and we would recommend this has intentionally started with an internal look How do we change internally? And I we think that's best practice, but eventually the city council Probably needs to think about how do we become a belonging city? How do we translate belonging to a city where everyone feels like they belong? And we are we're trans we are transforming our principles and our values To the city and how we engage with the city. So that's that's the next step after implementation within the city And I really appreciate that and Evan, I think you hit the points that are specifically talked about the seven of us is a group You know, I want everyone to feel like yeah, my participation is meaningful And it's interesting because and I'm sure the city attorney say with the brown act You know, we all can't seven of us can't have an authentic conversation, right? Um, and we do have a mayor who directs a lot of this, but I am very interested in seeing how would we apply this to the seven of us given The limitations about transparency and public meetings, but um, I appreciate all those responses. Thank you Yeah, the other thing I would say is um The the council has asked for I'm gonna go to the next day. I'm gonna turn over to Evan. Evan. Let's go through the next problem We'll just want to check in. Are there any other questions before we proceed? It doesn't look like let's keep moving All right, wonderful. Next slide, please So the intention of this section of our presentation is to give you a grounding in the the sort of principles and the Baselining of our group process that we're currently engaged in to give you an update on how things are going to remind you of the sort of structure of our task forces and what their mandate is And um, then we'll talk a little bit about deliverables and the work plan. So that's what we'll talk about in this next session section Next slide, please So the purpose of the group process for you know, in terms of seats facilitation Is really about seeding and grounding some of those principles of belonging, right? So the collaborative group process is really an opportunity to bring Diverse stakeholders to the table so that the process is inclusive that it not only has um individuals from different race and ethnic backgrounds, but also individuals that Are within different positions with the city have different links of service within the city And different sort of lines of sight within the city. And so we really have this cross department representation To inform our recommendations It's really a process that's to build that co-ownership piece that that co-creation and that co-ownership of recommendations and the reason that's so important is because This process is really built not just to deliver a document, you know at the end, but to seed Lasting transformational change as we're planning to make the long-term DEI changes We want to see and so this idea of bringing diverse folks to the diverse group of people to the table and having Folks make decisions in a collective way really seeds this idea of co-ownership and co-creation It's it's a place where we've really worked intentionally and continue to do so to build trust and build buy-in for the process and the outcomes And it's a really lovely platform for conversation And we've really seen staff step up to the challenge of this work. It's not easy work It can be uncomfortable sometimes and folks have really leaned in and we've been so thrilled to see how interested and engaged staff have been In terms of this building trust building transparent You know conversation frames and and moving through the process with that spirit And you know the the group process is a really about establishing a structure that can advance diversity equity inclusion That seeds inclusion and belonging and ideas of diversity and equity in the process So the process is just in fare just as the outcome. We hope will be just in fare So this is sort of the intentionality behind the design of our group process. Next slide, please so just to help Bring to mind and imagination some of the key norms and values and principles that have been seeded in this process We really grounded it in this idea of collaboration and collaborative decision making and so It's an opportunity for interaction and collaboration between task forces So we there if you'll recall and you'll see this in the slide in a moment We have three task forces one that is city-wide. It's called the c et the city equity task force One that is specific to police and is really looking at looking at equitable policing And one that's looking at the the center of the fire department really looking at diversity in the fire department Each of those task forces have formed committees that are taking up particular issues around diversity equity inclusion That have been informed by The c team in terms of bringing our expertise to those those structures And and the discussions that happen in those committees and those are the committees that really are going to bring about recommendations With our support our advice and counsel best practices and thought partnership And so it's this idea of collaboration the collaborative discussion and decision making that's really We're hoping to yield a really fruitful really rich set of recommendations And you know the process is an opportunity for engagement and collaboration For for folks that may not work together You know in their sort of regular day-to-day jobs and roles And so it's really helping to break down silos We heard a little bit about silos and microcultures and the due diligence And so our process is really informed by that that data that we collected in terms of trying to break some of that down And getting some cross department thought thought a collaboration and partnership Next slide, please So the city equity task force all of the task forces Really discussed a set of norms that they want to operate by and some of those norms are listed here They were agreed upon by consensus. I'll talk a bit about consensus in a minute But it's really seeding ideas of committing to consensus decisions Really ensuring that you know folks are are oh keep an open mind And open heart as they move through this work because this is work That's really hard and mind work that we're really seeking to build bridges and lean into common ground and compromise and thinking about recommendations and ideas and this these groups are full of really good ideas And it's just been lovely to watch the brainstorming and the ideation happen over the last several weeks And it's an opportunity to really embrace transparency bring issues to the table in an environment that's really One of safety one of trust And you know allow that process to lead to some some fruitful decisions And so each task force has adopted a set of norms that are sort of centered around these key principles And are really abiding by them and living by them as they move through the work Next slide, please So a bit about consensus decisions So our process is really grounded in the idea of making decisions by consensus And so just to help illustrate this a little bit what we mean by consensus is we all in the group agree Or we don't move forward with a decision And what this does is really seeds that idea of shared power In the sort of belonging model And so by every individual within each task force each having a sort of equal vote That they can you know choose to use or not on any given decision And it really consensus really ensures that Every sort of perspective line of sight within the city position within the city really is considered and those opinions are really Listen to and discussed before a decision is made And so it's a collaborative decision making model Where an idea is either put on the table or emerges naturally through conversation We've seen a little bit of both in these processes And where the group discusses the idea until they reach consensus or until key themes of agreement emerge It um is really a process grounded in deep listening to each other and transparency and trust And it really results in in a modification of the idea that's been put on the table To ensure that everyone's concerns are addressed and then you bring that issue to a voter that idea or the suggestion to a vote And so we've utilized this model to make decisions on the task forces The committees of the task forces have taken this model up and leaned into it as well And are are learning as they sort of go and and it's like I said It's really been a lovely process to watch folks really lean into this model Next slide please Um, I can stop there quickly to see if there's any questions. Well After this section in the presentation, we'll talk specifically about the task forces and their progress to date But before we do that any questions or reflections? Questions from council Looks like we'll keep going All right, so here's we'd like to share a bit of a project update on how things are going with all of these sort of You know norms and values and process grounding that we've done with the group We let's see where we are today Next slide So I think you've seen this before this is just a friendly reminder of the three task forces that I mentioned earlier So the city equity task force has really made up of a variety of folks From different levels of authority and position And background in the city And that is the task force that is sort of spearheading this effort internally and collaboratively We are tasked with supporting The police department of santa rosa and the fire department of santa rosa and addressing their dei issues through this work and so task forces have been created to to address those issues and Each of the task forces have developed committees and we'll talk a little bit about what those committees are and the work they've been up to Next slide So just to as a refresher as a reminder about the responsibilities of the task force It's really about reviewing and discussing the due diligence findings and analysis that seed Shared with city council at the end of last year. I believe last october to uplift questions Bring to bear additional best practices data and research to help inform discussion about solutions and addressing issues that came to light through due diligence process to review discuss and analyze current sort of strategies and initiative that are Dei that dovetail with the dei And div efforts happening within the city so that we can really understand. Well, what's currently what are the current issues? And then what are some current uh solutions and ideas that are being Tried within the city and then how can we use that to inform our long-term thinking? And then the the interest is really to come to consensus on a batch of recommendations that will come up through the fire task force the police task force and the Committees of all of the task forces to be considered by the c et the city equity task force and ultimately approved by consensus And it'll be those recommendations that really make up the dei b action plan that will come out at the end of this process Next slide paul you want to talk about the fire department? The fire department got started first. They've held four meetings They formed two committees and the committees have met five times. So this is a commitment on the part of city staff To make this a reality and they've all really leaned in and they're all contributing and they're all participating and we've been very Happy and elated with the participation shown by all of the employees of the santa rosa So a fire has two committees an internal committee, which is looking at selection and hiring culture and data and they are Beginning so it starts with the data that we've given and the data would say You know that there are that there are issues around diversity and and getting a diverse pool of candidates And then the committee Does a deeper dive. Well, what's what's causing us to lose candidates? Where are we losing candidates and they're going through each step of the hiring process In an evaluative way to say what can we do to be more inclusive? So they're looking at interviews What's the mentoring process for candidates around interviews and testing? How are we preparing them for these tests? because The data shows that people perform better when they've had Some knowledge of what to expect in an interview or some knowledge of what the testing question are the written Are the written tests? So that's one area they're looking at. How can we improve the mentorship and the training of candidates? They're looking at the background checks and where they're losing people around background checks and credit And and challenged themselves to say hey, do we really need To does this credit score really have any indication of how people are going to do in the fire department? there's the fact that they had this criminal infraction really five years ago or something they're really taking a hard look at Um Where are they losing candidates and then how can they attract new candidates? So culture And I go to school the next slide the external cell committee is looking to candidates Where are they losing candidates? partnerships that they're looking at communications And the final thing i'll say here is we're trying to get both the departments in the city to look beyond the strategies they have been trying for some time We said hey, you don't need seed to Expand your explorers program. That's something you're going to do. You've been doing you know how to do that's you don't hire us to To come up with a recommendation that you do the explorers program So we're really pushing the committee to think Beyond what you're currently doing and how you targeted pools of candidates that you don't normally attract And they're looking at process time lateral moves How do we attract candidates diverse candidates to santa rosa? A lot of innovative things are going on with the fire department the second the next slide for the police department They've had they've held six meetings. They have two committees and the committees have met five times again a very large commitment of time And you know all both Both staffs are very busy and they have full plates But they've been very diligent and committed to this process The internal committee is looking at selection promotions mentorship a culture of belonging And the external committee is looking at community relations recruitment of partnerships so for example with the external Subcommittee they're looking at policing and community policing. What does that mean? How do we define it? How can we how can we enhance it within the city of santa rosa internally? They're looking at Unarmed response police responses. How can we how can we have interactions with? Now the public but how can we get back in schools in a way that's not? Um As Intimidating or threatening as some communities perceive the police to be so they're looking at unarmed responses They're looking at partnerships With non-traditional partners. For example, maybe the school resource officer shows up Without a gun and with a non-profit Uh Gang in gang organize. I'm not organized for gang Consulted um and the partnership Just the partnership can create different relationships between the police and the community Next slide. I'm going to turn back to Evan. I think it's the city equity task force Yeah, thank you paul So at the city city equity task force level We've had um five total meetings one was the first one was an orientation and then we've had consistent meetings pretty much every other week With some scheduling exceptions And the city task force has formed three committees By consensus as I shared um the process before and so the the first one we'll talk about is the culture Inclusion belonging and internal communications committee This is really a committee thinking about the internal culture and experience of staff in santa rosa city And how those staff can have a greater experience of inclusion and belonging and um more Sort of breed a more inclusive culture overall Regardless of the department or you're in and the position you hold and so These tasks this uh committee is really these committees for the city equity task force are really early in their processes They've had a sort of range between two and four meetings So they're just sort of standing up their core structures and scaffolding to get their um conversations underway But the agreed upon focus for this committee is to really look at the sort of current culture of the city And to think about what steps need to be taken to see some of those principles of inclusion and belonging So that there can be a greater experience of that among city employees They're looking at the data As you'll remember there's information in our data presentation about staff morale and the various causes of staff morale and some of the More recent challenges that have really helped to continue to fuel some challenging morale dynamics within the city And so this task force will be looking at those dynamics and issues And ultimately this task force will be um looking to develop recommendations That will really help ground the city clarify and ground and think about the implementation of the city's values as it relates to diversity equity inclusion and belonging And finally thinking about internal communications as a tool to continue to advance DIB within the city internally in terms of staff next slide the second committee of the three that the cc et has uh unanimously agreed upon is the recruitment hiring retention and professional development committee This is really a committee to think through some of the human resources related Challenges and opportunities that came out in the data That includes looking at recruitment and hiring strategies. I think what we've learned is that The human resources department is already doing so much around this and it's really about Getting a clarity as to all of the various efforts that have been tried in the past and currently in thinking about What are our growth edges and how can we push the boundary around? DIB from a human resource perspective to consider data that was related to hiring promotion retention We shared some of that data at the end of last year Um consider how communications can contribute to transparency and trust and this feeling of belonging In terms of how folks experience that you know the the function of human resources within the city And really think about recommendations to these ends and so we really anticipate policy and practice recommendations coming out of this committee As well as maybe um experiential related And values related recommendations, but we'll see we're early in the process next slide And the third committee that the c et created Decided to create is the communications and community engagement committee Now just as paul mentioned earlier, this process is really about an internal look Within side the city's policies practices values experience, etc And so this committee is looking at the internal aspect of communications and community engagement And so what are the current practices around community engagement and communications and how can they be improved so that Individuals living within the city communities across the city can really feel a greater connection A greater feeling of trust and a greater feeling of inclusion and belonging in their city And have a clear a clearer and positive relationship with the city. I think we shared Some issues around access to services Especially translation services that have come up in the last few years that was shared during due diligence And so this committee is looking at that Looking at how can we ensure that communications are available in the languages that individuals speak within the city And making sure that they're accessible for folks that may not have internet And so they're sort of looking at all of those pieces And and really thinking about the sort of like longer term history of relationships between the city as an institution and its residents and thinking about how can we sort of right pass wrongs and advanced, you know positive Inclusive relationships across the city across communities particularly those communities that haven't really felt as connected to the city in the past Or where there's been a challenging trust dynamic For a variety of reasons and so this committee is really leaning into that work They're really thinking beyond how do we just have you know good baseline relationships with community members But how do we really have an open feeling within the city a real feeling of belonging and again writing some of those challenging historical Pieces in terms of the city's relationship with the community and so we expect to see recommendations to this end I think this committee is is is really excited and engaged just like all of the committees are And really anticipate some quality recommendations coming out of all three next slide So i'll talk about work plan in a minute, but want to turn to paul to really talk about what the deliverables from this process will look like So I know I want to I want to leave a lot of time for questions So i'm going to go there's basically two as we see benefits the city gets out of this project and process One is an actual plan for implementing diversity equity inclusion and belonging With metrics and implementation strategies. The second one is the process itself That the city is going through Is a benefit I think that that the city will receive and I'm just going to quickly say What often is the biggest challenge to these processes is trust Trust is not it not only an issue in santa rosa. I mean fake news builds distrust within people's Attitudes and behaviors this idea of management labor relations is a distrust police community distrust The idea of shared ownership and shared power is people It's a it's a foreign concept to a lot of folks and so the process is often challenged And so as we work through this and people see that yeah, this is collaborative. Yes, my my opinion. My voice is being heard Yes, we are making a difference that strategies we are putting in place Will make this will make the city a better place for all employees I mean, I think it's a process and at the end of the process We're very hopeful that people will have that have been in the process connected to the process and aware of the process will have a a greater sense of Change within the city and commitment to this these ideas of diversity equity inclusion and belonging And quickly say The city manager has been very supportive has been in the process a part of the process and that sets a very A very strong tone a very strong commitment And I think all of those indicators and all of those and all the work we do along the way and they do among themselves Is a benefit that the city will hopefully have for Years to come after seed leaves And then we'll quickly do the work plan take questions So Evan Yeah, so really one three things I want to mention about this process before we sort of grab and move to questions So one I wanted to mention that across the three task forces. There are a handful of Staff who are a part of all three so that ideas strategies questions issues that get uplifted in in one task force Make their way to others as as they need to or as it makes sense if there's implications for others So I just wanted to mention that and and for example chief Navarro Of the Santa Rosa police department and chief rest Westrope of the fire department are two of those individuals that are not only on their own task forces for their Departments, but also on the citywide task force and really have been leaning into this As well as Amy Socorro and others I want to mention that the task force has not the c et the city task force Has taken this idea of inclusion and belonging a step further And are really thinking about in the literally in the last couple of weeks and in the coming weeks How can we bring and make opportunities for more staff to be included in these processes at the committees? Really where the idea generation and recommendation generation happens And then the third thing I want to offer is that the c team doesn't Leave these task forces off to their own devices Although there are plenty of ideas of staff without our input But want you to know that we facilitate the meetings of the c et the city task force as well as the police and fire We attend as many committee committee meetings as we possibly can To provide constant advice and counsel We meet with the chairs of the committees to provide example agendas to to bring ideas around recommendations So that our thought partnership best practice ideas and strategies from us as experts are woven into the process While also while it continuing to be inclusive and really a process that the city staff can own Excuse me and so the sort of rough timeline for this project is here on the screen We are in the sort of you know march time frame where we've established these committees and these task forces and we're off off to the work We expect that The recommendations from the police task force and the fire task force will come to the city So we have a committee task force for consideration and and approval Later this spring with a plan really coming early summer. I think we've committed to You know moving as fast as we can but but going as slow as we need to to ensure quality robust fruitful recommendations And staff have really committed to that Next slide That's it, so we'll take questions and reflections and happy to engage in discussions Great. Thank you so much everybody Paul and evan and Simone and shana and we we really appreciate all of the work that you've been doing and we know how exhausting it is um And how good of a job everybody is doing Enabling our community and making sure that we have the right people in the right place To be able to build this this future for santa rosa I'll look to my colleagues and see if we have any questions to start Mr. Vice mayor Thank you mayor I thank you for the presentation today I'm wondering what what changes in your strategy have occurred Since the laxing and and removal of some of the covid protocols and so We've only recently been talking about the possibility of having some doing some meetings in person From a project, you know budget standpoint We've allotted the resources to travel and the c team is happy to travel In order to to do some in person meeting facilitation as the committees in the task forces feel safe to do so paul did A phenomenal facilitation of the first first or second I believe police task force meeting And I think that just shows us that we want to do a little bit more of that And so we've been as recently as maybe last week or this week talking to the project team about traveling more paul anything to add to that? No, when I saw all the council members present in the chamber I was saying wow, I wish I was there I think we could have planned to be there and we will definitely be there for the next council meeting We we prefer in person It's just a different dynamic that happens in a person. So yes, we would we would gladly do that And I guess my follow-up question to that would be is not being able to meet With people in person your largest obstacle thus far or is there something else that you've encountered that kind of equates to that? I uplifted the the big one for us is trust It's it's just difficult for for people to Accept this process. It's so different And so it takes a while For people to lean in and it takes a while for people to say hey, I really have the power to do something different We've been working with the fire police in the early stages Around How do we institutionalize great ideas? So One of the big things where you have great people at the city you have excellent that are really leaning in But what happens if you lose? The chief of police are you lose the chief of the fire department? What are what are we doing to ensure that these strategies these thoughts these ideas are Institutionalized and built into the policies and practices. So we're working very hard around that to make sure that we have Changed it's not based upon amy saying we should do x y z because it's the right thing to do It's really no matter who has amy's job. There's a there's a template. There's a toolkit There's a policy that's built in around the city's values around de i and b Thank you And speaking of how great our city staff is I do want to commend amy for a couple weeks ago Bringing up the word belonging Ever since that day, I have not forget forgotten that word and it's it's taking on a completely new meaning for me So so definitely thank you for that House member sped up Thank you, mr. Mayor Really enjoying this presentation and paul you hit on it that this is a big Change in the process and looking at the project work plan. I get my question may be for our city manager. So Evan mentioned a lot of recommendations are made recommendations are made recommendations are made are they made to you? And what i'm interested historically the way we've done it whether it be a chief or department head or the city manager makes the decision But now we're changing the process where it's consensus And I get once it comes to the city council. It's a vote You know, I I don't think where anyone's suggesting we change it when it comes to council because when these recommendations come here Are we going to wait till we get consensus amongst the council to adopt this or is it going to be put it to vote? You need to be able to count to four So if you can just share with us How are you interpreting these recommendations? I'm making the assumption many of these will be going to you And then how do you relay that information to us? So council member schoenheim. I think that is a very good question and as I discussed with seed I am part of these recommendations And one of the things that I want to caution people and caution the council members is I don't want to be be the end all be all I want to be around the table when we're making these recommendations So we make them as a team. They're not my recommendations. They're not c's recommendations. They're not amy's recommendations So by the time they get uh institutionalized and get to the council We we've already moved forward with the recommendations So as we have the committee meetings, I am part of those meetings or try to attend as much as I can So we can go ahead and institutionalize them I appreciate and I also appreciate you know seed and I you'd mentioned a couple of employees I'm sure amy and so quarrel with our charter review committee, right? So they're using some of these same principles And it'll be interesting when that committee makes recommendations to this body. It's the same thing You know for me as one if they've worked through this whole process. These are the recommendations Because it has been collaborative this new process. I'm very appreciative of those efforts and we're starting going this direction. Thanks I have a quick example about belonging uh In the first meeting with the equity policing task force We talked about this concept of belonging and When it came to the discussion in the exchange the chief of police said hey I really want to build this concept of belonging within the police department Now all of you understand this is a command down structure It always has been it probably always will but but for the chief to say hey How do we actually bring this culture into the department at the first meeting was huge It said volumes and he's really committed to how do we build this into our structure into the way We operate with our community and with it within the department. So just want to add that Council member Sawyer Thank you. And thank you very much for this presentation. It's it's great to have this update and I'm a little bit curious what it comes from My experience on what we used to call the inclusion council It was around a fair number of years ago And it was our attempt at the time Of deib actually is this is not the first time that that the city has been involved in trying to Reach goals On a number of levels So and then one of the things that that happened during the our conversations which were at times uncomfortable and always really Positive exchanges the number the number of questions and recommendations that came forward from From the um Of of the um inclusion council we had to we had to make choices and How what is the um, what's the criteria? That the because ultimately you're going to have to pair the the recommendations will get paired down What do you what does seed use or what will the CET use to Pair down those questions. What would be the criteria as an example? So we try and get ahead of that those questions we get early in the process of The committees have been formed and it allows us to focus in certain areas So in a certain area we'll focus on prioritizing the recommendations that come out of those So we work very hard with the committee so the committee May have 15 recommendations that are just kind of brainstorming strategies We really work with them to try and figure out what what what are the what are the core recommendations? And what are the what are the resources that are needed for those recommendations? And then we try and get them to think about Prioritizing them either on a timeline. What can be done first? What's the low hand fruits? What's longer? But also I think that's part of an implementation plan So, you know Councilman Sawyer, this idea of started and nothing happened Started and nothing happened Is built into people's subconscious And that builds to distrust. It's like we've done this before and nothing happened You know, I can't tell you how many meetings we had and some of the last Is this a plan that's just going to sit on the shelf? So I think what I think We don't have I mean Evan may have a better answer, but I don't have a good answer It's one of it's it's it's a it's a it's a component. It's a criteria that we have to Build into the process to ensure that we have realistic sustainable and measurable Recommendations and that's our job to work with the committees to come up with that Yeah, I agree I totally agree with paul and I would just add that um a couple of sort of factors that help with prioritization um One is the data that we shared So the intention behind the data is to say hey here are where some areas of work that need to happen around dei This is an important place to start because we know these are issues because we've collected the data and the And analyzed the data and learn those things. So we So the data will be one prioritizing factor in terms of the topics and issues that a committee may choose to take up I think that even though we've been flexible with the deadline around the plan Um, we do want to ensure that a plan comes out this summer. And so that deadline will naturally in um Push committees to prioritize their recommendations around what what recommendations are going to be most important and and Most critical to seeing the the most transformative lasting change at the city And starting with the flushing out of those recommendations first from a time frame perspective And then moving to secondary tertiary recommendations with maybe less urgency is another way we think about it But important to know is that the concept of targeted universalism that paul shared earlier and that we've shared before Is also a part of this internal process So the way one committee may prioritize recommendations might be different than the way another committee does because they're looking at different issues Right, and there's going to be different factors. Um, that'll sort of drive Prioritization urgency validity of recommendations But the data the time frame and what's most important to make the greatest impact are some of those factors And one one quick thing We're already hearing from task force task force members asking is the city really going to do anything with our recommendations That's built on distrust and that's built on them not sensing their shared power But when they hear the city managers say hey, you know, this is our plan. This is what this is what we're going to agree to do It slowly sinks in that If the city's going to do something the city's employees have to do If they're going to hold someone accountable, they have to hold themselves accountable And and that message is we're trying to build into the process and and when you hear the city manager speak She's reinforcing that message and empowering people to say Yeah, in our department in our work and our relations with the community We we should be part of the change we want the city to be I appreciate that and I think what I were part of where this question was coming from was the the concept of power And there will be recommendations that will come before other bodies that are working in the in the same Um Goals in mind, but ultimately there will be potentially some recommendations that are not embraced and that So what does that say about? Power what does that say about? Well, this is this was you know, one of the groups says this was really important to us But it was removed as part of the plan for one reason or another So it's it's an interesting exercise in how to exercise power And at the same time not compromise the end product So that's kind of where I was coming from Yeah, great question. Yeah, absolutely And I would say the the interesting thing about power in the context of consensus decision making And a transparent process is that before a recommendation comes before the c et for example It's gone to committee. It's been discussed for weeks at the c et meetings as an idea that's being considered And so early questions early doubts early concerns can be considered before the recommendation even comes to the To the body and there's a process to say Oh, well, if I don't know community engagement committee at the c et level has an idea for the the internal committee of the police task force And that those ideas are shared in this cross communication So there's really no big surprises around what comes to the bodies And you can hear where there's disagreement before recommendation even comes, right? If folks are being transparent if they're putting their ideas on the table, right? And so the process is set up to do that. So you're right It's but despite all that it's still going to be interesting to see how it plays out, right? Um, but you know, hopefully there's enough transparency communication and trust that um, there's not too many tough battles We'll see them. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Great answers House member Fleming Thank you. And I I think I share my counsel's Enthusiasm about what's going to come next and really interested to see what the recommendations are I'm really impressed with your work and that of amy and um our city manager And I think this is an excellent opportunity to show our employees how much we care about their opinions And that they have the influence within our organization a couple of questions is um One is what happens when we do have a hold out somebody who Can't is is not on board and make perhaps an outlier because we have them in every group. How do we work through that? Oh, you want me to take a shot first? Yeah, I've never experienced that but go ahead Well, we have I mean we have And the way we I mean there's a variety of ways to address it kind of depends on the situation and Who's disagreeing and why? So sometimes it'll require uh paul or i to mediate between a smaller group of folks who are in disagreement Um, if that's the reason the the tension point is coming up Sometimes it might be about issues or dynamics that are sort of outside of the process that are seeping in And so sort of probing for that and addressing those outside of the meetings can help sort of quell dynamics inside the meetings um Sometimes folks just want what they want when they want it and we just have to really seek common ground and compromise And so the work of mediation the out the work of outside the meetings is about compromise and about how can we reach common ground? um But the the beauty of the process is that we can see some of that happening early So we can try to address it before it you know becomes a really big Um distracting challenge. So those are some strategies paul anything add I wasn't kidding We're talking about fairness and justice and when when you really go down this road of fairness and justice at the end of the day People can reach consensus around what they think is fair They think the disgust it gets modified it gets edited it gets changed But at the end what they've agreed on together. There's usually consensus. Um, and The biggest challenge is getting is pushing people to go beyond their boundaries. Um, but That's not that's not a problem that I think uh, we we can't that we can't handle so good question But I don't think it's gonna happen. Yeah nor have we observed any of that dynamic today Folks have really been interested in common ground Yeah glad to hear it and then my other question is um You know with the experience you have with our city Is there anything that sticks out as unusual about Our staff or our city or our strengths or challenges that is not common to other areas that you might want to put on our radar So that we can set our expectations So you have a challenge that is common not uncommon and that is um a large white population a large white staff in a high cost In community a high cost of housing a high cost of living community so That's a huge challenge and barrier. Um, it's not unsurmanable and it's not uh, it's not determinative But it is a factor and it is a barrier that has to be creatively addressed and thought about And I would add a unique opportunity that you know, we've we that might be possible within the city is that You know, folks are really interested in these issues. They care Um, they care a lot about their city folks are really nice and and come to this work from a place of We are all you know neighbors and trying to do this work to have a better experience for all of us We don't always have that experience in these processes. Sometimes folks just are not moving in a neighborly way and um, I think maybe unique among the clients that we serve is this um, this real um Sort of I don't know human decency kindness interests in belonging interests in building relationships and and making connections that I think is really uh You know an opportunity that's going to give this process flight Yeah, well, I certainly would agree that santa riz is one of the friendliest places that I've ever lived and is One of the things that keeps so many of us engaged. So I'm really happy to hear that reflected I cannot wait to hear what the recommendations are and to look forward to Uh resourcing what our employees come up with and making this the best place for them to work House member bink donald Thank you so much for your presentation today and you know a couple things and because I come from the lens of education We've been doing the shared power experience for quite some time and an example of that is the state education coalition Where lots of different education partners come together and before we release statements Whether it has to do with a budget whether it has to do with what we're going to be focusing on We all agree upon those concepts before we send it forward And that's what I see when I look at sharing power with our employees And and the way that I think that council already started sharing power was to approve us doing this plan We said and nodded to our employees and to the department heads and our city manager that we Value what you're going to come up with and we are going to support that because it is coming from Within on how they would like to do business and so I want to commend the Former council who approved this to go forward because I think it's critical for the work that we want to do to Impart trust on our community members And I really like the thought that we're going to be moving to another level of engagement with our employees That it won't just come what could feel from the top down as Opposed to really being that collective impact of voices across Our different departments and so and I think you get a different lens when we allow those opportunities for engagement from them so So commending all of you as we move forward to the community piece of that certainly looking at Ways that we're meeting different meeting times making sure that we are offering opportunities not only for translation At the meeting but translation so they know the meeting is going to be happening Looking at child care that's going to be provided Will be critical as we move the work forward and I agree that the word belonging is something that I hope to take back and the other Groups that I work with still It's a very powerful word and and I can tell you being the newest member to council I certainly have had the feeling of belonging Right from the get-go from all of our staff and from the fellow council members of making sure that I feel comfortable in my role So hats off to all of you for this work and very well done on the presentation today. Thank you Thank you Also, do we have any other questions before we go to public comment? All right, if you are interested in providing comment on this item go ahead hit the raise hand feature on your zoom See no hands. So I'll go ahead and look to the chambers Mr. DeWitt Hello, my name is DeWayne DeWitt. I'm from Roseland I wanted to thank you for this study session and I wanted to say before going deeper into the discussion I'm hoping our new city manager stays here for at least a decade I'm hoping we have that kind of a situation where we can get some strength in this idea of having a collaborative approach I don't know how deeply this consulting team looked back into our history But in 1995 we had the community action team put together and the idea was that we'd also involve and involve the citizens I'm hoping from what mr. Hudson said a little while ago when he mentioned the city manager And relations with the community That you'll implement this type of technique also for the citizens residents and taxpayers And allow them in the power sharing of our government, which doesn't really happen right now For the time since the 1994 95 Formation of the community action team what i've seen most about our de and i approach has been it's actually deliberate exclusion of individuals And not really letting the individuals be a part of our power sharing at this local government There's a term that comes from the united states environmental protection agency in the brownfields division called Authentic community engagement Ace i'm hoping mr. Hudson and miss holland and their team Look deeply into that idea of authentic community engagement Along with that There's something that happens with almost all boards and commissions and all types of governments that occur It's called gatka go along to get along people get on to something and they're like okay We all have to go along to get along if you're going to truly empower the employees You're going to have to show them that they're going to be able to sometimes voice dissent without being punished This is something that's really important I wanted to also talk about something that i think is Really important and this is based on what miss fleming just said about she's impressed because it's going to show our employees That they get to be in the power sharing The term strengths weaknesses opportunities challenges That's An idea that basically tries to avoid using terms that might feel threatening And that's really important in any power structure because anybody at the top wants to make sure Those at the bottom Don't threaten them But don't look at it like a threat look at it like it's a challenge to work together with the people from the community And say hey, we're all in this together Especially those taxpayers that are helping to make the whole thing go forward What i'd really like to see is that you Make actions speak louder than words Because that community action team task force reports still sitting on the file up there and probably nobody's read it Thank you Thank you doinners. Is there anybody else in the audience who'd like to give comment? All right, let's go ahead bring it back adam deputy city clerk. Did we have any pre-recorded voice mails? We do not mayor All right, i'll bring it back to the council and i'll see if there are any additional questions or comments for our seed team Go ahead council member Hi, um, I just wanted to thank you for your presentation. Um, also wanted to say i'm very excited to see what the recommendations Um are i've been anxiously waiting, but I know that it takes time Uh, like grandmas do you have to let it let it sit there and see see what happens? Uh I I was uh, I think this process is Uh, a little different Uh for me because i'm always in the the seat of participating and this is one where council members Are really on the outside the outside so to speak and we have to sit and see what you guys bring Bring forward. Um, and so in that way it's different because we're not a part of the um the task force um, but I Trust all the staff that we have um and so Yes, very excited, uh, not to mention, uh, trust you guys and that is why you guys are here So very excited to see And also excited to see how we can implement The recommendations that are are brought brought forward And my brain is already not even knowing what the recommendations are But just really excited to see how we can make this a great place for people To to work and and live and play like That's something that is so really exciting for me Um and something that I so want for our employees and and for our community members So thank you for everything that you do for um that you're doing and thank you for the staff that are participating Um, and thank you for our city manager who has come Um as we've already been in the process and just embraced it so much. So thank you all Any other comments from council? All right, I just wanted to thank say thank you as well And I'm looking forward to that future discussion with all of the recommendations I think we're really anxious to get to the the final point Uh to start doing the work that the recommendations bring And I do know that that takes time and a collaborative effort. So I want to appreciate that and just thank you for being here tonight Thank you Thank you so much for your time All right council, it's 350 We will be back in 10 minutes and start our regular council meeting agenda at four o'clock Adam city clerk, can you please call the roll? Thank you, mayor councilmember schwaetham here councilmember soyer here Councilmember rogers present councilmember mcdonald here councilmember flaming here Vice mayor alvarez present mayor rogers here let the record show that all council members are present All right, let's go on to our report out from our closed session madam city attorney Thank you, mr. Mayor. Um council met in closed session on two items Item 2.1 was a conference with labor negotiators regarding employee unit 17 council gave direction to the negotiators And took no final action on item 2.2 is a conference with real property negotiator and that concerned The property at 1130 herne avenue and zero pebble creek in san aroza And again council gave direction to the real property negotiation team And took no final action. Thanks We'll move on to our proclamations for today. We have one for national surveyors week. We've got walt mark features and daryl who are Let's get you up by the podium if you'd like Councilmember soyer will read the proclamation and then come on up to you guys Welcome gentlemen. What will we do without our surveyors? Whereas surveying has been an essential element in the development of the human environment since the beginning of recorded history And it is a requirement in the planning and execution of nearly every form of construction With its most familiar Modern uses in the fields of transport Building and construction communications mapping and the definition of legal boundaries for land ownership Ownership and whereas in order to accomplish their objective surveyors use elements of engineering physics mathematics astronomy law And history And whereas since the colonial days of the united states surveyors have been leaders in the community statesmen influential citizens and shapers of cultural demands standards Former notable surveyors included george washington thomas chefferson abraham lincoln louison clark daniel boone and hannery david thorough among many others And whereas many services are now provided through the use of sophisticated surveying equipment and tech and techniques Including satellite-borne remote sensing devices and automated positioning measuring recording and plotting equipment And whereas the establishment of the week of march 20 through the 26 2022 as national surveyors week is a fitting tribute to all surveyors Now therefore be resolved that chris rogers mayor of the city santa rosa on behalf of the entire council To hear by proclaim the week of march 20 through 26 2022 as national surveyors week Signed by the mayor on this date Congratulations Thank you. Is this on can you hear me? Okay Thank you man councilman. Thank you councilman so your uh city council We're missing a few people that you read off earlier, but i'm mike jones The supervising land surveyor for uh capital projects engineering and transportation and public works This is walt belaske who works in my section who was also a licensed land surveyor I just have a a few words here i'll be brief So the california land surveyors association was founded in 1966 to unite a community of surveyors Grow the profession and that work continues today Our organization consists of 20 chapters throughout the state With roughly with roughly 1500 members, which is a very small percentage of the state population of closely 40 million Most people don't think about land surveying unless you know one Or you're told you need one The profession seems to fly under the radar Despite our close connection to engineering architecture and construction disciplines National surveyors week helps breathe a bit of life into an age-old profession So on behalf of myself my city survey team The california land surveyors association I'd like to thank councilman soyer for the reading of the proclamation And all the city council members for their support and recognizing national surveyors league. Thank you Thank you so much gentlemen. Let's see if there's any other public comment on this item I'm seeing no one move in the chambers and I see no hands on zoom. Do we have any voicemails? We do not mayor. Okay Thank you gentlemen so much. We'll move on to our next item now Madam city manager would like to do our staff briefings Good evening. So item 7.1 COVID-19 response update So the good news is COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations continued to decline and guidelines around masking and testing continue to loosen To prevent COVID-19 public health officials continue to recommend getting vaccinated and keeping your booster up to date as well as masking indoors Although no longer required. We're in a face mask with both good fit and filtration like an n95 An indoor settings will help prevent the spread of the virus To support these efforts Sonoma county and its health partners continue to collaborate to make vaccines and testing available where they are most needed More information about local response to COVID-19 vaccinations and testing are available at socoemergency.org Thank you Item 7.2 is a debris response update and I would like to introduce deputy director gundy Who will have his staff present. Thank you Good afternoon. Mayor rogers members of the council Just want to introduce myself with charming gundy the deputy director of field services and transportation of public works and just want to you know, express my thanks and gratitude for the opportunity to provide you with a An update regarding our debris response team that we house here and transportation of public works So just a brief brief update so last February 2001 we were asked to put together a team to respond to all city-wide debris related to um In the homeless encampments and anything out in the public driveway And so we were able to do that by shifting some of our resources and Reallocating three fte's over to that team And so today we have William Petro street screw supervisor here to provide you with an update Of all the ins and outs and the successes of that team at the one-year mark Oh, I'll turn it over to mr. Petro All right. Good afternoon. Mayor rogers and members of city council. Like I said, my name is William Petro I'm the supervisor in the street maintenance section. Um, so here's our one-year update of the drt Um, so the drt was formed last February. It's a city-wide response team that removes debris from city properties um, and right of ways Teams comprised comprised of myself and three skilled maintenance workers and a senior maintenance worker Um, our day is kind of broken up between quite a few parts. We have our encampment cleanups So our camo cleanups the crew Is kind of monitoring the encampments that pop up throughout the city We um, we kind of we visit them We try to offer trash bags and we try to keep all the sidewalks and streets clean of debris the best that we can Um, they're also responding responding to illegal dumping throughout the city This includes furniture and other large items This team is also responding to house mats and spills throughout the city such as concrete That's still on the roadways paint And other unknown substances that are spilled and have the potential to make their way into our storm drains They're all that then also tasked with bringing all this stuff back to our yard and separating it between Our garbage all of our different recycling bins that we have and our different hazardous waste bins So in this one year The our team has been successful of removing 4,275 cubic yards of roadside and camper Campment debris from city property and roadways So the breakdown of this is about 3,573 yards of encampment cleanups And about 701 yards of illegally dumped debris which is included includes our refrigerators couches and TVs that we're picking up Throughout all of our public right-of-ways uh So it's been a quite a year over year increase Of debris throughout the past couple years and last year was about 1952 yards And the year before that was somewhere around 6,800 yards So it's been quite an increase throughout the uh the years So our team's been working very hard. Um, they've been doing a great job And i'm very proud to have these guys, you know working for the city and helping with everything that they do It's you know, they've been just doing fantastic work this year So at that point that's about all I have for the uh the briefing if you have any questions All right. Thank you so much. Uh, both william and jeremy and the entire team Really appreciate all of the effort and the work and it's it's definitely noticeable Particularly coming out of the pandemic I'm I'm noticing in areas that have been problem spots for a long time that they're clear Uh, and we definitely appreciate the efforts from the team Let's see if we have any questions from council members Councilmember schwedel Thank you. Mayor Rogers. No questions. Just some comments. Um, you guys have been doing a fabulous job I had a person who volunteers with uh the city asked me, you know, who could clean up some of this stuff? And I said I remember when uh, assistant city manager jason nut made the proposal to us. I said, we've already created that team Literally last week he sent me another text saying they do an awesome job because he's utilized the service And I've had other people in northwest santa rosa who asked what do you do about this and I make reference to your team And you guys are just doing a Bang-up job. It's been awesome. The work that you've been doing is very much appreciated and noticed in the city So thank you for all you do Thank you Let's go ahead and see if we have any public comment on this item. I'll start with zoom. I've got liz Here it looks like liz lowered her hand. I will come back to liz Uh, perhaps either on this item or another item. Let's look here in the chamber Wayne. Yes, sir My name is dwayne dewitt. I'm from roseland on item 7.1 It's good to hear that the testing and vaccination for covet 19 is still available And has basically been doing its job What I was hoping is that you folks who begin to ask the state If that's who's keeping you from holding your meetings in your city buildings To allow you to open up our government again basically Using zoom zooms people out quite frequently Last week I came here and talked with the city staff about how to follow The economic development subcommittee meeting Spent time in the morning understanding from staff how you could call in But zoom muted me on the call So there was no way to participate. Actually, you're just listening I understand that many government agencies prefer that they would prefer muted all the time But it actually would be a better situation If you folks Here at the council Would begin the process to open up our government again To hold the meetings in the city facilities where they were held before covet And allow the public to come and participate That's what the open government task force Looked at so many years ago It's something that needs to be done and can only come From the mayor of the city is what I was told by one of the state officials I spoke with So here we are in public. I'm making the request Mr. Mayor, please open up our government and bring it back to where we can at least Participate without being muted. Thank you for your time Thank you Dwayne. Do we have any other comments on our staff briefings for tonight? Okay, let's go on to our city manager and city attorney reports Madam city manager. Do you want to kick us off tonight? I will thank you so today we'll talk about The drought and water conditions So in response to the ongoing drought conditions This week santa rosa water is participating in national fixa leak week Encouraging residents and businesses to take a 10 minute fixa leak challenge In just 10 minutes you can search your home for leaks and eliminate waste water waste Many common household leaks are easy to find and you can fix them and not only can you save water But you can save money on your water bill So for more information and to take the 10 minute leak challenge Visit srcity.org Forward slash fix leaks Fix leak s. Thank you All right. Do we have any questions for the city manager? No, but out of comment Go for it Oh go ahead You kind of went kind of fast And you didn't look this way. Sorry mayor Um, I just wanted to tell the team that I think they've made a really big impact in southwest santa rosa I'm coming to pick up the debris and they're really appreciate it Um, I've had a lot of people ask how they can uh have things picked up Um, and they've done it in a very timely manner um, and so I just uh Someone just said that how it the team came to be but I think it was a wonderful idea I hope that we can continue um with the team and um, I wanted to see if Because I don't remember offhand The information but I wanted them to be able to tell us how the public can get a hold of the team again If they needed to get a hold of the team, um For people So that they could call because I think that it is really beneficial Um, so yes, thank you All right, let's see if we have any staff who's available to answer that question Let's go on to our city attorney report and then we'll come back with that answer for folks Thank you, mr. Mayor um I have two items that I wanted to discuss and first uh given the events of this past week I want to very briefly address the brown act As you know last week the district attorney issued a letter Finding that the county had violated the brown act in connection with its consideration Of redistricting maps. Um, this the district attorney found two violations First that before going into closed session the county had failed to provide written documentation to the public As to the justification for that closed session second um The district attorney found that staff had gathered input on proposed redistricting maps individually from each of the supervisors Then prepared a memo summarizing the comments and then shared that memo with the full board outside of a public meeting The district attorney found that the sharing of that memo outside of the public view constituted a what is known as a serial meeting Uh in violation of the brown act So I wanted to offer just a couple of notes and uh reminders uh to the council first, um, I want to reassure you um that we do provide brown act training uh to all new council members Also to all of our boards and commissions on a regular basis And we do give frequent reminders as I think you all know and see Uh to both council to staff and to others As we go about our day-to-day business And then following the district attorney's letter. I wanted to address um To give you two reminders for the council Again, these are just two of the elements of the brown act lots of different elements in the brown act But these are the two that they uh that came to issue this week So first if you hear or receive a threat of litigation Um, please document that threat and provide that documentation to our office Um, if a closed session becomes necessary We will then share that documentation with the public so that the public can understand Be fully informed as to the basis of the closed session second Just a reminder that although council members are very free to meet individually with staff in one-on-one meetings Um to discuss pending items or issues Those meetings with staff cannot be used as an indirect Means to share information with other council members staff cannot act as an as an intermediary in those situations And I think you've all um are very good about that. I'm not concerned, but I do want to give that reminder It's very important staff will not tell you what other council members said nor should you ask Um all of the discussions among the council quorum Have to be taken in the context of a noticed public meeting So again, those are just two of the elements, but uh an important time to give a reminder And uh, of course, we also have to be keeping the comprehensive view of the brown act throughout So I just want to say to the council and to the public that we take brown act compliance very seriously We understand that we're doing the people's business and when I say we I mean not just our office But all of staff and all of the council. I know We're doing the people's business and transparency is essential The county we know will be providing additional training To the supervisors and to its other officials We're happy at any time to provide training If the council should should desire or any board or commission So those are my comments on the brown act um my second That is listed here is our monthly litigation report. This will be quick Our litigation team remains very busy. We have 27 cases currently pending For that 27 includes four receiverships two which are Very close to being completed that means the property has been taken and cleaned And is ready to move on We have eight general litigation matters including allegations of breach of contract civil rights And disability discrimination We have eight personal injury cases Three police cases and four rits of mandate We have several new claims one is listed in the in the published outline and since this was went to publication We have received two additional new claims Um and in all we have five trials coming up in the next few months So lots of trial prep going on in our office right now Um, and then I just want to emphasize again. I've mentioned this before this list. Um, this monthly list uh is just a Kind of the core litigation matters Um, but it does not include a lot of the other work that our litigation team does Uh, which includes code enforcement. The receiverships are listed here, but code enforcement is not listed Uh, hazardous materials bills. That's a koopa work Vicious animal enforcement, which I know has gotten some press over the last couple of weeks Uh weapons retentions Pitches motions and a host of other items that that team addresses And in addition, uh, all all of the members of that team also Provide transactional support and advice to their assigned departments So very appreciate very much appreciate all the work that they do Happy to answer any questions on either of these items. Thanks Great, thank you so much. Madam city attorney. We do appreciate all of the work that your office is doing To answer councilmember rogers. This question. There's three ways to contact the Dirt team one is by phone at seven zero seven five four three Three eight zero zero extension seven One is to email clean city at srcity.org And for the third i'm going to kick it back to our city manager Thank you. So the newest way you can contact us is through the my santa rosa app I wasn't going to announce it tonight, but so there'll be more information to come You can download the my santa rosa app click submit request Then go to streets nada Then select debris pickup and you can submit your online request And that's up and running now Yes Excellent good work With that we will go on to public comment See if anybody has comment on our city manager and city attorney reports tonight Seeing nobody move in the chamber and i'm not seeing any hands on zoom any pre-recorded voicemails No, mayor any additional comments from council Mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor Well, really just a thank you to sue for for taking the time to educate us on What the perimeters for the way that we carry ourselves on on council and why they're so important So I definitely want to make a big thank you and for always make yourself available Whether it be really at all crazy hours just to be able to be there and answer our questions So thank you very much for the guidance anyone else All right, let's go on to our statements of abstention tonight Does anybody have to abstain from any of the items? Seeing none we'll move on to our mayors and councilmember reports who wants to start councilmember mcdonald I just want to do a shout out to our Recreation and parks department for the work that they're doing on the park a month project mayor rogers was out there and he did vast majority of the digging for the trees so I want to give him credit for that but I was there observing Which I'm great at so I just want to say thanks to the parks department for what they're doing It's amazing to be out there to see children and families Being part of that process to not only keep our parks clean but to plant trees and It's not something I ever did with my children So I'm guilty of that But I would really encourage the council to get out when they can specifically when there's a park in their area To be part of that process and to thank them for all the work that they do A lot of their work isn't actually getting to be in the parks because they're doing so much other work in our city So a real thanks to that team And um, additionally, I was able to go and tour the expansion of the sam jones hall, which is Caritas center. Am I saying it right? Sort of you said sure. Um, so But it was amazing to see that building and what they're going to be able to provide for people in our community From the family center to a head start program And I would really encourage the council if they have an opportunity To meet with jenny lin homes who heads that To go over there and see what they're doing and in the work that we do a lot of times We don't get to see those bright shiny spots in our community and not really Made me feel great to go see that there's going to be a beautiful building for people who are really having some challenges to be able to live in so I just wanted to announce those two things and um Also to a council member rogers and council member fleming for Presenting at the commission on the status of women And they were the elected officials from santa rosa city And they did a tremendous job actually representing the work that we do and being a woman Who's an elected official in our community? So I just wanted to say well done to both of them Do we have any other? Reports from council members Council member fleming Yeah, quite a lot has gone on since our last meeting. I do believe I gave an update that on And then on march 25th the red housing fund had its Initial meeting and that there was a number of projects that are oversubscribed We will be meeting again shortly and um as well as we have an advocacy meeting with senator maguire Later this month and uh, we're looking forward to seeing a lot a lot happening And then the north bay commissioners for the metropolitan transportation commission had a meeting on Let's see what was it march 4th to discuss strategy for implementing our transit oriented communities project That's something that gives a lot of our smaller communities heartburn And we're working to make sure that we implement more equitable communities and match the funding and support To make that happen and if anybody has any questions or concerns about that I'd be happy to meet with them As a city manager alluded to their or the city attorney Excuse me that there have been increasing concerns around animal control safety And I look forward to working on setting the public safety agenda with chief navarro on april 20 march 22nd and we will be meeting on april april 20th as it heads up to the community and um, I am glad to have the support of staff on moving this forward to create increasing safety for our community councilmember rogers um, just wanted to report There are a couple things One was I did enjoy being able to present on the commission on the status of women about self-care and the importance of self-care in addition to gave a tour and was able to orient some of our youth in the community With their leader clint st martin This past tuesday with city manager smith and The vice mayor and the mayor so they All came along and we had taco tuesday and it was a lot of fun so Enjoy spending time with the youth and and bringing them down to city hall and orienting them about what we do here at city hall And how they can get involved So that that definitely Was a lot of fun And then also I just like to take the opportunity to to really thank our staff I think we have a very supportive staff Here that works in our city manager's office that We we call we ask for a very odd odd We have odd requests sometimes and we can be very demanding at times There's a lot of us and not very many of you And I think that you guys really Surpass the bar and you make it happen And without you we definitely could not do What it is that we do to support our community members So I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you guys for all the work that you do in supporting us so that we can Do what we do So thank you Thank you councilmember mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor And one thing that that councilwoman rogers forgot to mention was our Day over at south park or actually southwest not a problem here to remind us i'm here to remind us We had an opportunity to meet with our community members really for the first time since covet We exited covet and it was a great opportunity for us to meet with a lot of our concerned citizens In an open setting such as a park and in some mexican sweet bread, which never hurts the conversation And we hope to have more of them soon So with that being said To our community out there watching in tv land and here as well We would love to sit with you in a park setting and join our santa rosa parks and have a great conversation About the future of santa rosa and how together we could make it happen. Thank you Thank mr. Vice mayor anyone else Okay, as was mentioned it it has been a couple of weeks since we had council So indulge me for a moment and i'll fill you in on some of our meetings that we had First i did want to say thank you to our reckon parks team who did have a very big weekend Not only was it the park park a month But it was also our arbor day celebration And so in partnership with some of the little leagues we had at least 50 people that were out in the park on saturday planting new trees Refurbishing the ball parks. I think I saw some city staff that were out there in cognito Talking trash about the tree planting skills of some of the council members We had a really good time and it's nice to just be back out in person and seeing people make a difference in their community and councilmember mcdonald and i were joking One of the people who helped us plant our tree was a little three-year-old and sparkly pink shoes whose job was to jump up And down on the dirt to compact it for us and it was just nice to be back around people So kudos to our reckon parks team for putting that together And then turning around the next day and doing the st patty's day 5k Which has not been in person for the last couple of years and it was good to see people back out there running on the creek trails And through our downtown I'm not going to name any names, but there was definitely at least one director in the city who beat me and my fiance in that race Much faster than we were so clearly they were not eating as much as us during covet But it was nice to see everybody back out and about We've had a number of different Meetings and events that have come over the last couple of weeks one that I wanted to give a special shout out to Was read across america where we did have a chance to partner with our teachers throughout santa rosa I was reading in austin creek and in rosin creek Both some dr. Seuss books, so that was great to get back into the classrooms We had our sonoma county transportation authority and regional climate protection agency yesterday Where scta formally adopted our vision zero plan that'll be coming now to each of the different cities for implementation Obviously, it's something that's been a big priority for us here in santa rosa We had our sonoma clean power monthly meeting and i'll be having my monthly community office hours coming up at the Energy center in downtown santa rosa maybe make some omelets for folks on the induction stoves while we talk about the city We've also had our climate action subcommittee where we talked about the climate mobilization strategies Our long-term finance committee where we talked about our long-term fiscal strategies And many of the the principles that we've espoused from the dais and how we put that in place And then our economic development committee Where we relaunched our or getting ready for our relaunch of our out there santa rosa program and reviewed our arpa programs That will be moving forward Last thing i promise and then we'll keep moving through the meeting Is i am going to make a recommendation from the city of santa rosa to the red housing fund board This is our Our representative absent from the renewal enterprise districts representatives, but really specific to the city of santa rosa And i'm going to make a recommendation of dav guine our former director of housing for the city of santa rosa Council does have to approve that recommendation And so if it works for you madame city attorney, let's do public comment first on councilmember reports And then i'll bring it back as a motion see if i can get a second and then have council deliberate That's that would be exactly the right procedure. So thank you. Okay. Let's go to public comment on council members reports If anybody has one go ahead make your way towards the podium And i see it one hand on zoom. So we'll go to gregory Thank you mayor. I can't imagine a better representative for the city of santa rosa on the red board than david So, um kudos Quick and to the point. I love it. Gregory. Thank you Let's go ahead and see if we had any voicemail public comments on councilmember reports We did not mayor Okay, but i'm going to go ahead and bring it back to the council I am bringing that as a motion for the council. Let's see if I can get a second. I'd second it Okay, councilmember swedhelm with the second. Is there any discussion on the motion? For appointing dav guine to the red housing fund board All right, madam city clerk. Can you please call the vote? Yes, thank you mayor councilmember schwedhelm. Hi councilmember soyer. Hi councilmember rogers. Hi councilmember mcdonald. Hi councilmember fleming. Hi Vice mayor alvarez. Hi mayor rogers. Hi that motion passes with seven eyes All right We have no minutes for tonight for approval. Let's move on to our consent calendar Madam city manager All right item 12.1 Is a resolution for a contract award for fire damage roadway landscaping Item 12.2 is a resolution the third amendment general services agreement f 00 1636 for ammunition disposal for police for the police department Item 12.3 is a resolution Sonoma county community development commission grant agreement for the safe parking pilot program Item 12.4 is a resolution approval and adoption of the city city salary plan and schedule Item 12.5 is a resolution approval of amendment number three to city attorney's Appointment agreement and introduce an ordinance to increase the compensation of the city attorney by providing one A three percent cost of living salary adjustment effective november 7th 2021 to a two two point five percent cost of living salary adjustment effective april 10th 2022 three One time not non pensionable pensionable lump sum payment of five thousand dollars And four five hundred dollars annually for wellness Item 12.6 is a resolution amendment to the city classification and salary plan Increasing the salary range of the police chief and fire chief. Thank you Thank you, madam city manager. Do we have any questions from council on the consent items? councilmember mcdonald Just on um item 12.3. I know I emailed the city manager I think there was on page 17 of the report A box not checked and I just wanted to ensure that that was done before approval tonight It is my understanding that the that will be checked before the agreement is signed. I apologize if that was not clear I apologize. Thank you so much. Thank you Mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor general question on 12.2 The ammunition disposal for police department What does that mean it does it mean that is this accumulation of ammunition that's been confiscated is this outdated ammunition from our police department Do we have staff on to answer this question? I'm promoting now one moment, please I see the chief popping up good evening Mayor rogers and uh council members Councilmember vice mayor alvarez. It's a good question the The ammunition destruction is ammunition that's been confiscated or turned in by the community and we have to dispose of it In a legal fashion, so there's an increase in the price to destroy ammunition and so that's what the That's that's what this is regarding Thank you for the elaboration chief Any other questions from council? All right, let's look to public comment on the consent calendar Go ahead duane Hello, my name is duane DeWitt. I'm from roseland. I'm concerned about resolution 12.5 I want to make sure I understand correctly This is a three percent increase and then another two and a half percent increase is that cumulative meaning It's going to be 5.5 percent increase from a base salary of what year? The way it was described here in the Minute, excuse me in the agenda. It doesn't clarify that per se and i'm real concerned that the way the Salary structure for the city has been advancing. We're very top-heavy We've got people at the top getting big money But the people at the bottom who take care of the city the people in parks and recreation the people In maintenance and road repair. They're not being Compensated as fairly I feel Yet here you're going to give the police chief and the fire chief another five percent again It just doesn't seem fair and we just listen to these people talk about the diversity And the equity and the inclusion and how we're going to be fair and just to our employees I wish you'd explain this better as to why the people at the top get so much in terms of increases And the regular working class members of our santa rosa city staff Are still down there at the bottom kind of groveling if you will So if you could please tell us what the base salary What year is being used for these city attorneys cost of living salary adjustments. Thank you for your time Thank you duane Let's go ahead. I see amy has her hand up on zoom let's promote amy I see no other comments here in the chamber On the consent calendar I see no other hands on zoom. Did we have any pre-recorded voicemails before we go to amy? We did not mayor right so Amy would you like to answer mr. Dwitz question? If I may mayor rogers, thank you I just wanted to point out that these cost of living adjustments That are requested for the city attorney and will also be requested for the city manager by the way in upcoming meetings It is because their contracts must be approved in open session by council And they do mirror the same adjustments that are given to the rest of the employees and other bargaining units So the three percent cola and the upcoming two and a half percent cola We're also they agreed upon increases for the rest of the bargaining units and do Impact staff at all levels such as those mr. Dwight was referring to in parks and streets, etc Great. Thank you so much. Are there any other questions from council? And let's put a motion on the table mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor I move items 12.1 through 12.6 and weigh further reading of the text second Any additional discussion? Okay, let's call the vote councilmember schwaitham. Hi councilmember soyer. Hi councilmember rogers. Hi councilmember mcdonald. Hi councilmember fleming. Hi vice mayor alvarez. Hi Mayor rogers. Hi that motion passes with seven eyes All right, it's not yet five o'clock. So we will hold public comment on non-agenda items and go on to item 14.1 Thank you item 14.1 is a report Elliott avenue pilot closure project and I would like to introduce deputy director sprinkle Good evening. Can everyone hear me? Okay Yes, we can Great. Thank you. Good evening. Mayor rogers and members of the council. My name is rob sprinkle I am the deputy director of traffic engineering and today i'm presenting to you the elliott avenue pilot closure project Next slide, please So for a little background the san rosa junior college approached the city With an interest to provide a pedestrian only link across elliott avenue And it's been identified in their facilities plan over the last 10 years for the location where traffic calming Um is planned to be installed the city has also been working with the san rosa junior college On pedestrian enhancements in this location for several years The jc has a desire to provide a vehicle free crossing to strengthen that link between the campus to the north and south Across elliott avenue next slide, please So this slide it indicates The senator's junior college campus and the black box near elliott avenue there. Thank you Also indicates where the closure is being proposed and it's between the emeritus circle parking lot And some buildings on the north side of campus with the main campus to the south next slide, please So the project location is this is a closer view of the project location where there will be Gate closures on the westerly and easterly side of emeritus Um at the maristus circle driveway And there'll also be a new Um To the upper corner of the slide there. It'll be a new driveway at clement and salem Now as you could probably infer from this This photo or this aerial The axis can be Gained from elliott avenue from the west actually through the parking lot and back over to elliott on the east end If that's in fact a desire of of someone and that's something that we'll be watching Throughout the if this is approved throughout the review of this temporary closure Next slide, please So some of the improvements have already been done on the on the campus side of the Of emeritus circle they've changed the westerly driveway from a exit only to a enter and exit They've also Installed some new sidewalks pedestrian ramps landscaping And asphalt and a new Angled parking along there. They're building there and they these improvements were completed in april of 2021 Next slide, please so as part of this project before the environmental document was Prepared in november of 2019 the srgc held a community meeting with the city santa rosa To present this pilot project to the neighborhood and the community to gather information from them to determine what What the neighborhood and what the community would like to see covered in the environmental document The environmental document was prepared at initial study and mitigated mad declaration was prepared and was Put out for 30 day public comment in january of 2021 and then it closed in february 22nd of 21 uh more recently in january of 22 The santa rosa junior college in conduction with the city Re-engaged the community about the project prior to this document going to their board of trustees in february Where it was where the environmental document was adopted and then in february of 2022 the city santa rosa by school and pedestrian advisory advisory board also by motion supported the pilot project closure Next slide, please So along with the public Outreach we did receive public comments and actually as I was reading the slide earlier today I noticed that we didn't put Uh, one of the main public comments on here, which was that there was a lot of support from the community These are more of the concerns from the community that were brought up. Um, then i'll go over here so, um, some of the concerns from the Neighborhood to the north of elliott were brought up was regarding the inconvenience for the residents who want to access Um, medecino avenue instead of using elliott with the temporary closure They will have to go up to steel lane, which is a little which is busier to get over to medecino avenue or the alternatively they'd use Armory drive down to either bear cub or ridgeway But it is an inconvenience for those in that neighborhood Also brought up as a concern was the intersection of steel lane and illinois where That intersection is congested when the centers of junior college and the sr centers of high school are in in in full peak The dismissal Other comments were related to the emergency access how that how would that work? And how would evacuations work in the in the neighborhood? And it's noted that the elliott avenue is not considered to be an evacuation route And there are other access routes that can be used In an emergency, however with the gates being there if emergency personnel deem it necessary they can open the gates and allow egress And another comment we heard was About how this project will link with the bicycle and pedestrian over crossing and although those plans aren't Completely solidified staff has put a lot of thought into how these two will link together potentially with a cycle track Next slide, please So one of the main items that was brought up was the circulation That wanted that the neighborhood wanted to look at And that was covered in the environmental document in the traffic study So the traffic study looked at Operation the 15 different locations those listed here on on the map and i'll just If you look between the intersection 10 and 11 that's where the closure would be proposed to happen Next slide, please So looking at the potential redistribution of the the traffic in the area the blue lines here show Where traffic currently is mainly using the arterial streets to exit On to mendicino illinois over to steel and with the closure again between the intersections of 10 and 11 There between america circle west and east traffic could then also May want to choose to use the green Lines or that are redistributed through the neighborhood which is a concern to us and which is why we're proposing this pilot project actually The whole reason for the pilot project is that we want to test this to see how it will work and see what the impacts will be before Anything permanent is done Next slide, please So the findings of the traffic study Indicated that This project won't be creating any new trips. It's basically going to be redistributing trips And it could potentially reduce trips if there's an increase in bicycle pedestrian activity in the area The vehicle ship ships would shift away from alia avenue and use other routes as I mentioned maybe onto armory or bear cub Or even down to ridgeway During the pilot phase of this project Each of the 50 intersections that were studied are expected to continue to operate at an acceptable level of service Next slide, please So even though during the pilot project as it They'll be meeting our level of service expectations as we go into future years out into 2040 the level of service at steel lane in minnesino avenue does Become reduced and it reaches a level service e but this occurs without the project and it also occurs with the project so There are some mitigations that can take place to help with that Um And i'm not suggesting that these would be the final mitigations, but one of the items identified would be to Um add an additional left turn lane at the intersection. This would if we did that within its Existing footprint, however, it would be considered a significant impact according to seqa because the bike lanes would then have to be Removed in order for all the lanes to fit So that's why I wouldn't necessarily suggest that this is the direction we would we would go in a final final mitigation Um operations at steel lane in illinois will also Have an increase in delay and that could be mitigated with addition of a right turn lane Which actually can be added in the existing lane width that's out there today With some redistribution of the the lane widths Next slide, please so for next steps If implementation is approved by council the project would be constructed to to do the temporary closure this summer summer 22 And be evaluated through um december of 2023 So the srjc would hold two additional public meetings Um in february of 23 and november of 23 to get feedback from the community the neighborhood Um the staff and the students on on how everything is working The reason for this uh project going Approximately 16 months in length would be that in the fall semester of 2023 is when the stem New stem building that's being constructed And the new housing a building that's being constructed are be our plan to be opened and that's when we would go in and retake additional counts To see what the the final impacts would be at at basically the kind of the worst-case scenario So feedback from the centers of jc and the surrounding neighborhood would be collected and all the impacts noted Prior to any permanent closure and this I don't actually come back to the city council for any final Approval for the road closure Next slide please So with that it's recommended by a transportation and public works department that council by resolution approve the temporary road closure of elliah avenue between west america's driveway and east america's driveway To enhance pedestrian connectivity for students across elliah avenue for the duration of 16 months beginning in summer of 2022 As a pilot project to evaluate the impact a permanent closure may have And with that, I also have a serif in fernandez with the center of the junior college and daling with lock with w trans who prepared the traffic study Um available to answer any questions that I may not be able to answer All right, thank you so much deputy director. I'll start with questions from council members councilmember fleming Thank you, mr. Sprinkle As you can imagine this is giving a little bit of heartburn to some of the residents north of Of the junior college but south of steel lane particularly the most salient concern I've heard is around egress during an emergency which you did address a little bit But i'm wondering if we have an all-out emergency If the the barriers during the pilot study can be taken down by by residents if somebody um From the city is not available to do that or if there would be a designated person from the junior college Who would be able to take the barriers down immediately? We I wouldn't say that we typically give keys to those types of gates to the community however The the centers of junior college police is also right there on site on elliah avenue So I would think that they would be a Have a great opportunity to to help with that if um if City staff is not available um And that would be something that I could look into further to It's not something I've heard we've done in the past though Okay, what i'm wondering is if we could designate somebody from the the s r jc police staff to be Whoever's on call 24 hours a day who can be there immediately because that's the the primary concern is can we get those down right away? right Rob my question is really sort of what problem are we fixing here? Are we seeing traffic collisions? In that site. Are we seeing? pedestrians and bicycles that are having to compete For for space with cars We haven't had any collisions uh with pedestrians there in the last five years or so from our our data However, there were close calls reported Um to the s r j c so There's not a documented. I wouldn't say problem, but there is a very large amount of pedestrian activity in those locations And there are a lot of vehicles in those locations going to and from school where they're Don't always make good decisions on their speed so um Although hasn't been a collision recently or That i'm aware of in the last five years. I'm not sure if there was before that point in time um This would help prevent that from occurring Okay, thank you so much Any other questions from council members? All right, let's go to public comment on this item if you're here to provide comment Go ahead start to queue up up near the podium and i'll take in person first and then come back and take hands on zoom Make sure you get really close to that microphone so people can hear you We'll do thank you. Hello. My name is bruce reisman and i'm one of the many residents will be affected by the proposed closing of elliott avenue This pilot is unnecessary. It's too soon and it's not well defined We're told the reason that jc should be allowed to annex a public street is for safety According to the jc's own records. There have been no reported accidents on elliott for at least the past eight years Too soon because there are two major buildings being constructed at this time The 100 000 square foot stem building and the 300 room student dorm The wtrans 2019 traffic study stated the buildings would have no effect on traffic Because it would not add more students to campus Their findings are questionable. Can they tell us where these students currently attend class? Where did they park and where will they park? Once their class has moved to the new building. How many drop-offs can we expect? Did the account fit a need to double back turning one trip into two? Since the drop-off cars must leave the same way they came Please wait until the buildings are open and then assess based on fact and not on conjecture Too soon also because the enrollment at the jc is at a 35 year low Here are some of the spring semester headcounts directly from the jc website 2002 37 000 students 2018 24 000 2022 14 000 Does it make sense to make permanent decisions based on reduced enrollment? The criteria for the pilot has also not been well defined The only party is negatively affected by this annexation will be the residents of our neighborhood Those who live between elliott and steel and between armory and selam We're the ones whose streets will be crowded with inpatient young drivers And we'll have to find other ways other than elliott to drive downtown and anywhere east If you're going to move this pilot forward, please start it later and define Beforehand how the final decision will be made. We know sending emails and flyers are ineffective This is the neighborhood of working people who have learned what the jc wants the jc gets And who feel unfortunately, there is no sense in trying to do anything about it I hope you understand how wrong this is and how it is in your power to change it We know this pilot will not reduce a number of accidents so they're on none If the goal is to prevent future accidents, why not start with speed bumps? This would be welcomed by everyone concerned And remember there's a traffic light on elliott and the students do know how to use it In summary, there's no reason why elliott should be annexed by the jc But if you insist this is important to city, please explain why Please time the pilot appropriately set criteria responsibly and ensure the stakeholders actually have a say This may mean paying a time for door to door to ensure to get Real feedback from the people most affected. Thank you for your time Thank you Is christie schlosser and I live on albany which intersects with elliott In fact, we share a fence line with the new math building elliott avenue is a public street that provides important access to surrounding neighborhoods and jc students being public It should not be restricted the jc has made Recent changes that have had a negative impact on my home life like student trash Student loudness and noise pollution students smoking in my yard and leaving butts in heaven knows what else and student public vulgarity Though the student impact can be inconvenient with increased foot track Foot and auto traffic. This is only true Monday through thursday and isn't really too bad A road closure or restriction would be permanent 24 7 very unlikely to be reversed and um and that is very unnecessary And unfair to residents like me and several hundred other people Keep the public road public and do not let the jc make their own Decisions on about public property There are already many safe measures for student for safe student crossing Including lighted crosswalks new stop signs and unlike crosswalks If safety is an issue adding another lighted crosswalk by cundey hall is an excellent way to increase safety at the western end of elliott And would minimally impact traffic when student presence is low It would be very inconvenient for me My husband and our neighbors if elliott avenue was closed to us It is a path that takes us directly to downtown without it I might be more inclined to find services in codding town area and not have to deal with the runaround that I'd have to go through I'd like to address the driving through the parking lot. Are you kidding? How unsafe is that? Not only are you looking at moving vehicles in a very tight situation, but students dashing off to class because they're late again I do not want more traffic past my house I put up with it and I don't have to deal with it some days because I'm at work But sometimes I cannot park near my house and that is terrifically annoying Um, also reducing bike lanes. Oh my gosh, please do not reduce bike lanes I like to use my bike and there are some streets I will not go on because it is not safe as a bicyclist and There are a lot of students that do bike to school both at the jc and the high school the STEM and housing on the south side of the closure do not seem to me like they would be impacted Because they're on the other they're on the larger portion of the Of the campus and um, I don't see how that would really change The uh, the student traffic. Thank you for your time. All right. Thank you No, anybody else in the chamber All right, we'll go to zoom we'll start with lee followed by patrick Hi, can everyone hear me? Yes Hi, my house backs up to the srjc and they have not been good neighbors. They create lots of Dust and noise from construction I understand you've done studies, but I've lived here for 10 years and I see it every day and the srjc students use our roads as racetracks My house backs up to the proposed alternate route past emeritus It's already noisy. You know, it will get worse with this project. I highly oppose the srjc pilot project It solves nothing If it does go forward, I agree with bruce to wait until the construction is finished If you want real feedback come and knock on our doors and talk to us. Thank you Thank you lee We'll go to patrick Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can Okay, thank you. Uh, yes, I recently purchased a home on nordike and I just found out about this proposal to shut down elliott I'm here to say I'm supporting my neighbors and um Being against this I'm two doors down from steel lane and at this current state Being on an uncontrolled intersection. I prefer to go through elliott just to get to downtown It's near impossible to get out of my street, especially during the morning. So people are trying to commute to work um I could see my street becoming a busy busy busy street If people are forced to come down my neighborhood to egress the To steel lanes. So, um, once again, sorry, I don't have a proposed statement, but I just thought about this yesterday So I'm just here to chime in and support my neighborhood Please reconsider. Thank you All right. Thank you patrick. Do we have any other public comments on this item? Do we have any voicemails? You're not here. Okay. I'll go ahead close public comment. Bring it back Let's start by Getting a motion on the table for discussion. I'll go to councilmember mcdonald Thank you, mayor I move The adoption of resolution of the council the city of santa rosa approving the elliott avenue closure pilot program and Wait for the reading of the resolution Okay, a motion. Do we have a second for the purposes of discussion? I will certainly second this Okay, we have a motion and we have a second I'm going to start all the way at your end john and see if you have any comments Thank you, mayor. Well, um the comments About waiting until the construction a fairly major piece of construction there on the campus um Is going to change a lot of traffic patterns. I would guess and the Impacted neighborhood already is feeling has has for some time and and based on their proximity to a large educational Environment There will be a fair amount of traffic. I live very close to montgomery high school and I can attest to It's it's pretty not too difficult to tell who has and has not had drivers that It's uh it can be Disturbing the way some students and neighbors drive as well oftentimes the worst traffic Comes from neighbors in a particular neighborhood I would prefer as far as the timing goes I would prefer to wait until the project is completed and Then we assess the need for a closure of that street It's I think that I'll just leave it that I'm at this point. I'm not ready to support staff's recommendation although I respect their their The presentation and the way it was presented Not having had any at least reported accidents in the last five years Not that we would necessarily wait for someone to be hurt Severely injured by a company coming in contact with a vehicle But I think the lack of data around The need for this particular change in the traffic Doesn't exist at this point. Um, I would be willing to consider it in the future, but not now Thank you Council member splato Thank you, mr. And I'm sorry, I do have a question for Rob just after hearing comments from the public Rob, you had mentioned that there were a lot of public comments In support of this project and what was the reasoning behind it because I'm struggling with the data also We've had no accidents and to enhance pedestrian connectivity I'm struggling with that a little bit So what were some of the comments that we're not heard tonight in support of this project? So part of it was to strengthen the As I mentioned to be in with strengthen that that connection across Elliott with the With the two sides of campus, but the and the other piece was once the overcrossing is is constructed the having that be another Um, kind of destination that people would be able to come to using the overcrossing and even going through over to Mendocino um on on bikes as well, so it's Those are the the feedback that we got was from People interested in in the maybe a little bit of the bigger picture Thank you, rob and so for me they just I'm in agreement with some of the comments and council member sorrier said So if we do When we do get the bridge over 101 one, is that going to happen when these buildings are built? This does seem a little bit premature at this point And especially for 16 months. So um, I'm hesitant to support this at this point in time. I would love more data as Circumstances on campus change, but right now I'm I'm I'm just hesitant to support this project the way it's risen now House member Fleming Yes, I have the unenviable position of trying to balance our city's bike and pedestrian plan and recommendation from that committee as well as our our climate goals and That with the concerns of my constituents, which are Which are real especially around evacuations And so I do I lean towards actually trying the pilot and here's why I think that One of the things is that when if you try the pilot now while there's not tons of people there The the traffic and the challenges will be fewer and could potentially be worked out Whereas if you wait until things are really busy, then it's a lot more difficult and there's a lot more people to move around I think that we need to to be bold and To look at the bike and pedestrian plan and take the the recommendations of that committee seriously I don't think it's really fair in general unless we have a really compelling reason Not to to take the work of what these folks do seriously And then to the question of well, what problem are we solving? I would hate to be sitting here solving for a problem of a death When we just because we don't have a death doesn't mean that we shouldn't be solving for preventing them Especially when we're trying to move towards a more bike more walkable more You know our vision zero is is going to be adopted before us This is an excellent opportunity to try and see what happens And I am not at all insensitive to the inconvenience. I live right by a school myself and It can be really really difficult and really frustrating I don't take this decision lightly and I still haven't made up my mind I can't wait to hear what the rest of the council has to say And then the other thing that you know, I think we're increasingly saying it's been all over the newspaper the issue of residents in Berkeley versus, you know, the ability to educate students and I know that there's tensions here And I think that it's really important that we try to balance out You know the opportunities that we provide to young people as well as the property rights And I hold both of those things as I as I make this decision. So I do encourage us to be bold. I think that it's important to do so I know that it's not politically wise for me to say what I'm saying But I think that if we're going to get to a point of Decarbonizing our future and if we're going to get to a point of not having any pedestrian fatalities It's going to take at first a little bit more patience and Creativity and forbearance on the part of us who are our vehicle dependent and That's it's really frustrating. I get that it doesn't it's not an easy decision to make And I hope that we move forward with the future in mind Thank you councilmember. Let's go all the way down here to councilmember rogers Um, so I I had a question Could this not wait until next summer? or when the the pilot If that's the council's direction We could definitely work with the junior college on that their request was to Have construction done this summer and then have it in place for the 16 month period But that would be something I'd be discussing with their With them um, so Per their request, which is definitely what I hear and I also heard What what the jc wants is is what the jc gets? um, and so I think it it's very difficult when you have Very difficult to be sitting here right now actually But to hear all these comments and you really just want to do What is right? and Is there really a right? Don't know but it can be done next year change is hard and there happens to be a lot of change going on in your neighborhood Right now, and I don't think all change has to happen at one time although change is very difficult and so um, I'm leaning towards waiting to see how um One thing will impact another just to Let it all fall out just to see how one thing is impacting Um one another. I don't think everything has to happen at one time. That is a lot of change um In a neighborhood to happen and I do know that we want to move towards, you know, not having people in vehicles um and making it safer, but I I don't think Having people that don't know how to drive down one road speeding through neighborhoods necessarily is going to make um anything Safer um And that was kind of a takeaway that I had also um, so I think that there's a lot more that we need to To look at and a lot of data that we need to to gather so Thank you All right. Thank you councilmember councilmember mcdonald Yeah, I would like to actually thank the jc for the information that was provided to us I do think that they did a significant amount of work preparing The items that came before the council tonight. So I want to thank them for that I also want to thank the neighbors of the jc because we know when you live next to a school or junior college There is a lot of disturbance. I have the sons that all went to the jc So they were probably part of those problems in the past. I apologize in advance for that but um What are the things about the enrollment currently is that we are at an all-time low not just at the jc But across the united states because of the pandemic and everyone being online So by piloting right now What i'm what i'm curious about is as students come back and they are our face to face Will we have more foot traffic? And so we'll be able to have a bit of a pilot pilot that then would also give us information On going through those roads as exits right now because if that did become a problem during the pilot program We would need to address that to make something permanent The barriers the concrete barriers worry me more than a gate that could be closed during maybe primary hours, so If the majority of the students go at maybe eight to five or those kind of regular school hours, which jc has hours everywhere I would be curious to know if that might be better if we could close during those kind of peak moments where students have more foot or Our bicycle Traffic because i'm not sure that all the students are riding their bike late at night to attend classes at the jc And by opening that road again, maybe in the evening time it might serve as a solution to some of the concerns of the neighbors so It's it's a tough decision to make because we want to make sure that our students are safe On both sides of that campus being over there and parking in that lot There's a lot of services that are provided On the right hand of the jc that i'm aware of and they do go back and forth and so Certainly, you know their safety I know none of the neighbors and none of us want to see something happen and then to have to react to that So I do like the proactive approach and and do appreciate everyone's comments and for being here tonight Thank you. Mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor I think i've echoed a lot of the comments that councilwoman McDonald's stated especially the innovative thinking of peak hours and how we can actually adjust the the flow of traffic depending on On the need of the jc Having said that I feel that we would receive two different pictures whether it's the present moment Of activity that's happening at the jc compared to that in 2023 when it's When the emissions are are greater and we might not be seeing the the picture the actuality of the need I think with that being said and and especially with when we contemplate The bicycle Overcrossing that might also increase the traffic and the need Where we might at this point be lacking data And I think that's where I am feeling The greatest amount of question is what is the reality? Of both the needs of the students the needs of the residents and the needs of the institution as well And that is where I believe I might hear that this is a very difficult seat to be taking at the moment Is because we're working with data that we currently do not have No, I'll leave you at that for now Thank you, mr. Vice mayor I am actually going to be supportive tonight Mostly because we have discussed at length from this council day as Vision zero and trying to look at our built environment from a perspective of bicycle and pedestrian Not just from a perspective of cars And while I understand that cars have been there first and that's what was The the main mode of transportation there I'm willing to give it a try to say if our jc partners Not just because they get what they want But if because they're hearing from their constituency that they want a more bikeable more walkable community And we as a council have been putting a lot of resources into trying to provide those avenues whether it's the 101 bike bridge I'm willing to give it a shot And if there is a significant problem with the neighbors if it does turn out that this is A complete hindrance we can come back and we can end the pilot program and we can move things forward But i'm willing to try and so i'm going to support the staff recommendation tonight Madam city clerk if you could please call the roll. Thank you councilmember schwethelm. No Councilmember soyer. No Councilmember rogers. No Councilmember mcdonald. Aye councilmember fleming No vice mayor alvarez nay mayor rogers. Aye That motion fails with five no's and mayor rogers and councilmember mcdonald voting. Yes Okay, thank you so much all the neighbors who came out That motion does die and so unless there's another motion from a council member we'll move on to our public hearing for the night Our 15.1 if it pleases the mayor I would like to entertain a motion that has Some sort of hybrid system and I don't know that we can make the sausage from the dais but if it's possible to have Some closures during peak hours with a gate that could open rather than something that is Close 24 7 is that something that this council would be willing to consider If it works for the council and I'm looking at the the look on the city manager's face We could give direction to staff to go back work with the neighbors work with the jc And see if there's some type of a hybrid approach that they could then bring to the council Should it be deemed feasible? Yeah, I think that that would would meet the goals that you Stated so eloquently while protecting the concerns of of our residents in that neighborhood Thank you. Does that work for staff? Yes, okay All right, then we'll take no action on this tonight But rob if there is something when you work with the neighbors and when the city manager feels like it's Appropriate we can bring back a discussion at a later time Great. Thank you. Great Let's jump back to our public comment for non agenda items. That's item 13 on our agenda We typically don't start those until five o'clock So if you have a comment that is within the jurisdiction of the city of santa rosa But is not currently on the agenda tonight Go ahead hit the raise hand feature on zoom or go ahead and queue up at the podium I'll start with liz on zoom and then we'll come back to in person after that Good evening. Thank you for having this hybrid meeting Um, I've been picketing in support of plan parenthood santa rosa for the last five years You can read about my activities in a feature in the press democrat I'm here to express my outrage the lack of enforcement by the santa rosa police department of the federal law the freedom of access to clinic entrances Act known as the face act which protects patients rights to unhindered access to reproductive services including abortions As you probably know anti-choice protesters regularly congregate en masse on the sidewalk in front of the complex of plan parenthood It's sonoma avenue. They generally engage in activities. They're in violation of the face act along with other laws They are known to break the law with impunity They march across the driveway entrance and exits to the clinic and hover over the driveways just regarding the buffer zone That is a standard set by federal law They engage in other illegal activities including co-opting public properties such as poles and sidewalks with their signs And they sidewalk council Advertising faux clinics that try to send women to doctorless centers When I asked the center was a police department what they were going to do about this They informed me that they quote do not enforce federal law the face act But advised me a regular citizen to identify a local ordinance that they then may enforce In response, I respectfully implore the city to immediately instruct the police to at a bare minimum enforce the face act Through the following city code 10-12 Point zero four zero obstructing churches schools and places of business Moreover, I urge you to enlighten the police that they are indeed required to enforce all laws of the land Including an especially time place manner laws and the face act The city is at risk of litigation when it does not enforce the law Women using the clinic deserve equal protection under the law Instead they are not only singled out for harassment But they are then ignored by the very body sworn to protect them as a professor of media law I know that free speech is protected But the right of one set of aggressive protesters may not be allowed to intimidate others and violate the civil rights of a protected group Women the city needs to create or enforce a buffer zone to protect access to all reproductive health services And women need your help. I call on you to help Your community by compelling the police to simply enforce the law of our city and to do it now before things get worse And make no mistake when rovey waves overturn this summer Things are going to get a lot lot worse for the poor women of our city state and country The city is liable at a bare minimum for traffic accidents For instance when it doesn't your constituents are watching will you protect us with all to respect you must Thank you Thank you so much. Liz So per the brown act We can't get into a back and forth discussion on items that aren't on the agenda But I did take a note down and I will work with the city manager and the chief of police And if it works for you, we'll circle back with you here in the next couple of days See no other hands on zoom. We'll come back to the chamber dwayne Hello, my name is dwayne de wid. I'm from roseland. I wanted to thank you for what just occurred with that matter involving elliott avenue also when I spoke earlier on the 12.5 You had miss reeves answer And that was really nice I didn't understand the answer though totally She said the cost of living adjustments mirrored the adjustments for all staff Does that mean everybody on staff got a five percent raise this last time? I'd like to have that explained if I may I basically really enjoy the idea that we might have open government and at the bottom of the agendas It always states that the open government ordinance was adopted back in december of 2020 It states it is for a culture To embrace a culture of open government to ensure public trust Engage the community And establish a system of transparency with public participation and collaboration And that last item you just heard one of the speakers say Why don't you come knock on our doors? Now that'd be a really good idea I've never seen that happen out in my area And this is the kind of thing that the open government Approach could begin to do I'm hoping that you'll continue with these zoomed approaches as you open up our government again post covid So that you'll have this hybrid system where people are able to call in they're able to Be on zoom and then they're also able to be here in the chambers Where we can all be here to hear the same thing at the same time What would be really nice is after three years if you'd fix the overhead projector That's over on the other podium Over three years ago you took it out of use so the public couldn't bring their evidence to you to submit it into any type of a hearing that's actually Against everything that your open government ordinance says you're for The sign on the overhead projector says it's coming back soon The sign's been there for close to three years now So it's not just because of covid And I know you got enough money now because you're giving out big raises So why don't you just pay somebody to put that projector back into use so that the public can come here And they can put their evidence up for everyone to see at the same time That's what we did before it worked well for many many years And it could work well again If you'll put the money in to put in the projector back into use. Thank you Thank you Dwayne. Do we have any other public comments for non-agenda items? I apologies. I couldn't see you behind the podium That's due to my shortness I guess Anyway, I'm Susan Diaz and I'm here. I really wanted to know about how many Can you hear me? I want to know how many of you city council members Live next door to a hotel or a short-term rental that a non-hosted short-term rental um I think you probably don't but I do and it wasn't planned I I hadn't planned on my neighbor deciding to create this party house and advertise heavily in several websites Creating a huge disturbance in our once quiet neighborhood of families The disruption on a daily basis and every weekend consist of literally a party bus And labeled that way to drop off dozens of more people After a day of partying that will continue on to the evening in our backyard With the smell of all types of smoke cigars cigarettes marijuana It just into our backyard and also represents a safety problem With the drunken revelers and loud voices and singing music and lights on all night outside When it's checkout time on fridays the party and starts Then there's check and check out on sunday mornings where long goodbyes car alarms doors slamming horns harking filling up garbage bins loudly with bottles and cans That's I really want to thank you for Putting the ordinance in place, but to be honest, there's no enforcement mechanism The code enforcement department is only open monday through friday during regular business hours Not when these problems occur on the evenings and weekends I urge you to provide funding and resources to enforce the ordinance rules you've put in place and It's it would be wonderful to hear my pleas in response to the city to regulate these complaints of the people that live next door to these nuisances Thank you. All right. Thank you Hello, my name is monica bryant and i'm a homeowner in monosito meadows and susan is my neighbor and I want to thank the city for passing an urgency ordinance clarifying short-term rental requirements It is a good step towards protecting the neighborly quality of our neighborhoods As my neighbor susan just said none of us expect to live next to a hotel The emergency ordinance is good at defining some limits of short-term rentals A weakness is that it relies on the neighbors to enforce the limits In the recent incident a neighbor must call the local contact who is not on site And he she contacts the renters Who much must clear up the problem within 45 minutes? If the problem is not cleared up a neighbor must write a report that will be addressed during city working hours A day or so later In writing up the permanent ordinance Please strengthen the enforcement of restrictions Eliminate all hotel style operations from residential areas by allowing only hosted Rentals or limiting rentals to one every 30 day period To effectively enforce the current ordinance And finally respect the covenants and restrictions of homeowner associations Thank you, and thank you for your work. It's impressive to be here Thank you so much for joining us We have any comments for non-agenda items Andy My comments are not on that item. Uh, mayor rogers My comments are addressed to the proclamation that uh, You and julie managed to get done for tonight's meeting It was originally planned to be on the agenda for all of you and all of the audience to See and hear about but unfortunately due to technical difficulties regarding Getting items on the agenda legally. Uh, it did not make the agenda But I want to read just one little section of it to you Whereas the red cross works to prevent and alleviate human suffering And this is vital to the strengthening of our community's resilience And they continue to advance the noble legacy of the american red cross founder Clara Barton and live by her words You must never think of anything except the need and how to meet it Now therefore be it resolved that I chris rogers mayor of the city of san rosa on behalf of the entire city council Do hereby proclaim march 2022 red cross month on behalf of red cross. I want to thank you City and council members for passing that resolution I also want to say a couple of words if I might about red cross programs going forward Like many of your council meetings that have been closed to the public Many of our normal red cross activities have not been available to the public due to the pandemic We are coming out of that as are you coming out of that and there's a particular event starting up called sound the alarm There's a fire in a home every seven minutes in america Half of those homes are in homes that have no smoke alarms And that's where the damage is most done to individuals In terms of death and injury Red cross for many years now has been offering free smoke alarms And free installation of those smoke alarms To residents in sonoma and napa counties, which is the area that I represent By the way, my name is andy witt home. I guess I forgot that part I am a red cross volunteer and have been since the tubs fire in 2017 when I was Sort of a gopher doing all things now. I've got many hats that I wear including government relations So anyway sound the alarm. We hope to partner with the san rosa fire department I'm sure that they have knowledge of areas that they go to where smoke alarms are not present Areas of the city that need attention Some of you board members Council members represent areas that you know are more needy than others in terms of being protected. And so You can go to sound the alarm.org. I'm also going to email you all a copy of a flyer that we're distributing I believe sometime in the next couple of weeks Some of you may have been familiar with country mobile home park over on folton We will be having a big event there In a couple of weeks to install alarms Or additional alarms or replace alarms as the population there needs it. We've already done many mobile home parks in san rosa And we hope to move into neighborhoods that are in the same need. Thank you very much for your time You have a long agenda. Good luck with it. Thank you so much andy for being here Good What Andy just so I'm sure I heard you correctly Is it sound the alarm dot org and how they would get a hold of you sound the alarm dot org I'll give you my cell phone too since I'm intimately involved in the program my cell phone number 707 9729162 And I will send all of you that flyer that I mentioned that advertises sound the alarm You can copy it as you need be send it to community leaders that you know Live in those areas that are most in need of having additional smoke alarm protection Thank you for that clarification Thank you so much and I welcome I welcome to the san rosa city council Thanks, andy. We know each other from when she was pta president in cloverdale Just last week And i'm deputy city clerk to be have any voicemails for non-agenda items We do not mayor. Okay. We'll go ahead bring it back and keep moving through our meeting We'll move on now to our public hearing item 15.1 Just for the public We'll do item 15.1 and then likely take a dinner break for council before we come back for Actually I take that back. We've pulled item 15.2. So let's move on to 15.1 Item 15.1 is a public hearing hern veterans village appeal And I would like to introduce city planner monay. I'm not gonna Mess up your last name. So it's okay go with monay. That's fine Okay So thank you and good afternoon mayor rogers and members of the council I am going to present the hern veterans village project appeal today located at 21 49 Western avenue. I will turn my camera off and we can go to the next slide please Okay, uh a brief description of the proposed project The applicant is proposing to subdivide a 2.01 acre parcel Into four individual lots in compliance with the rural residential zoning designation The four proposed parcels would range in size from approximately 20,000 to 25 Thousand square feet The future development of each parcel would include a detached residential dwelling unit Bit and accessory dwelling unit outdoor amenities and associated on and off site improvements For the permanent supportive housing So the only proposed entitlement for the project is a tentative parcel map Which is a discretionary action and subject to environmental review under california environmental quality Act The planning commission approved the tentative parcel map and adopted an addendum to the roseland area annexation project final environmental impact report, which was appealed Next slide, please So the project side was annexed into the city limit as a part of roseland area annexation in 2017 The western avenue annexation area Which is being shown on this map with the purple rectangle on the left side was identified as a county island County island is defined as areas of Unincorporated land that are substantially surrounded by incorporated city land Next slide, please So the proposed housing is a permitted use and does not require any planning entitlement which i'm going to Explain to you here. So per our zoning code single family dwelling units are permitted by right in rural residential zone zoning code defined single family dwelling as a building designed for Ant or occupied exclusively by one family And code definition for family is an individual or two or more persons related by blood Marriage or adoption or a group of unrelated persons Which if numbering five or more persons must be living together as a group in a dwelling unit Using common cooking facilities and as a group bear the generic characteristic of a family as relatively permanent household Since 2011 supportive housing has been an allowed use in All residential zones that allow single family use by right and is not subject to any restrictions not imposed on similar dwellings in the same zone in which supportive housing is located Next slide, please So here is the project site that is located in the south west quadrant next slide And here is an aerial view of the project site The existing uses on this site include a 15 bed transitional housing facility and a permanent supportive housing duplex for veterans Also, the project site has an existing 20 foot wide emergency access pathway that extends between western avenue and park meadow dry and does not allow Access for vehicles next slide, please Here is a street view of the project site and the area that is being proposed for Subdivision next slide, please So as a part of the annexation process the general plan of designation of the western avenue Was changed from low density residential Which allows two to eight units per acre to very low density residential which allows maximum of two units per acre The zone for this parcel is rural residential with rural heritage combining the street So the rural residential zone is the primary zone for the slot This zone applied to areas of the city intended to accommodate residential neighbors neighborhoods with Compatible agricultural uses but where the primary uses are residential And the rural heritage combining this street is intended to recognize preserve and enhance centerozo's rural communities This zone allows some special land users that are not allowed in other residential zones Such as animal keeping indoor harvesting and pet fancier facilities Next slide, please Okay, and here in this slide, it shows the existing two parcels for the site The applicant has submitted an application for a lot line adjustment Which proposes to adjust the eastern property boundary of the parcel number ending with Here zero one three To surround the existing transitional housing facility This adjustment would result in 2.01 acre rake and lot proposed to be subdivided with the tentative parcel map application Can you go to next slide, please? And here is the The approximate proposed layout of the parcels Resulting from the lot line adjustment Next slide, please And a brief project history February of last year the project application was submitted on June 10th The planning commission meeting was held But it was continued to date uncertain And on December 9th, the second planning commission meeting was held and planning commission adopted the addendum to the certified 2016 final environmental impact report And approved the proposed tentative map And on December 21st, the appeal of the planning commission decision was received Next slide, please And here is the proposed Can we go one more? I think there's the arrow there. I want to show it. Yes, there you go. Thank you And here is the proposed tentative parcel map The access to the project site is proposed at the southwest corner through an existing driveway Each lot would include one covered parking space and 24 uncovered parking spaces That will be located along the private access is meant So the total of 28 Off-street parking spaces will be provided while only 20 are required The 20 foot wide private access is meant Which here is being shown with the red arrow Would serve and as emergency vehicle access is meant extending extending from western avenue To the north to the northern property line and would be close to vehicle access from the North with a swing gate Next slide, please And this large shows the four parcel configuration with the proposed single family units and accessory dwelling units The project site will continue to provide Pedestrian access between her and park meadow dry Which will achieve it will be achieved through Dedication of an easement and construction of a four foot wide sidewalk pathway Here is shown on the left side with the green line Yes, that's it. Thank you. And next slide, please And just a map that shows the notice for tonight meeting has been mailed up to property owners and tenants Between 1000 feet of the project site while our zoning code requires only 600 foot mailing radius Next slide, please So the council is being asked today to act on an appeal of the planning commission actions The appeal was submitted on december 21st by leonard moore acting on behalf of western avenue residents for rural integrity I will go over the grants for appeal and provide you with staff responses So the appellant states that the biological resource impact analysis of the addendum is insufficient And the full environmental impact report is necessary to identify potential impacts of the project Staff response to this is that The addendum was prepared in compliance with the california environmental quality act and no environmental impact report or additional environmental analysis is required Several technical studies were prepared including biological resource assessments which analyzed impacts to Biological resources resulting from the project The studies were reviewed and was determined that the project would not cause new significant environmental impacts Or substantial increase beyond those previously identified in the Final environmental impact report for any questions related biological resource. We have the applicant team available to answer there And another grant for appeal is that The project would result in an adverse adverse impact to the character of the neighborhood The appellant asserts that the project exceeds the maximum residential density established by the general plan land use designation and the Proposed size and two story height are incompatible with the surrounding neighborhood So the staff response is that I mentioned in one of my slides The base zoning district for this project site is rural residential The project site and its surrounding are designated very low density residential Which allow for a maximum of two units per acre The proposed four single family units comply with the required density and the proposed Four accessory dwelling units do not count toward the density per state regulations The maximum allowed height for a single family unit is 35 feet which allows for two story construction And the maximum allowed lot coverage is 40 percent Which the project will be required to comply with otherwise. There are no size limitation for a single family residential structure And the combining district the rural heritage district does not establish any building development standards Instead it establishes standards for streets Fencing screening and street lights. Can we go to the next slide, please? So another grant for appeal is that the project requires a minor conditional use permit for the future Supportive housing use because the project site is not zoned for multifamily or mixed use The staff response is that um the project proposes to construct four detailed single family dwelling unit Each consists of six bedrooms with shared cooking facility and eating facility the Zoning code definition for a dwelling unit is a room Or group of internally connected rooms that have sleeping cooking eating and Scientation facilities, but not more than one kitchen. Which constitutes an independent housekeeping unit The proposal for uh four independent structures Meet the definition of single family dwelling unit. Also senate bill 2 sp2 Which went into effect on january 2008 Included language which says Transitional housing and supportive housing shall be considered a residential use and only subject to those restrictions That are applied to other residential uses of the same type in the same zone Because this site is located in a residential zoning district And the supportive housing use will be located within four single family units The operation of supportive housing land use is permitted by right and no use permit is required And another grant for appeal is that The project requires national environmental policy equity, which is called NIPA The applicant at the appellant indicates The project will be federally funded through united state department of housing and human development If this is still the case a NIPA environmental assessment must be prepared to determine if an environmental impact statement is required So the staff response is that the NIPA environmental review was performed in 2019 For the use of pre-development federal funds So if additional federal funds are committed to the project for construction related costs A NIPA environmental assessment will be required for the project At this time, there are no federal funds for construction related costs Next slide please So staff has received several emails and some phone calls Since the notice of pre-application neighborhood meeting was sent in April 2021 The appellant has included neighbors comment with the appeal package as well And the concerns and comments are mainly regarding the proposed supportive housing We also have received some comments and calls In favor and supporting this project here in this slide I'm trying to go over the main comments and concerns received from the neighbors Which I briefly respond to them So one of the comment is that the permanent supportive housing for 32 veterans is too dense Our general plan land use density The response is that our general plan land use density does not regulate number of people living in a household It only regulates number of dwelling units and the proposed four single family units Is consistent with the general plan land use designation for the number of allowed units per for the two units per maximum two units per acre And another comment is that Or comments I should say that one story buildings are preferred instead of two story buildings as I mentioned The maximum allowed height for this zone is 35 feet And the proposed two story buildings cannot exceed the site I should also mention that any other Property opening between Heron Avenue neighborhood that has the same zoning district can have a building up to 35 feet And anyone can propose a two story maximum 27 feet in height accessory dwelling units And another comment is about The future housing would increase the traffic and noise and population on western avenue So the traffic division has reviewed the proposed and has The proposed project and has indicated it will have negligible trip generation Also based on the project size and its characteristic The trip generation will be well below 50 peak average trips and also the project screens out from a vehicle miles traveled Another comment is about drainage affecting the properties on western avenue The city and county storm drainage drain standards and city policy required Developers safely collect And convey storm water to the nearest public flood control facility The city engineering division has reviewed the project and has conditioned it to meet the required storm water design standards And also a city engineer and the applicant engineer available tonight to answer questions related to the drainage another comment Is regarding the Some comments were stating that the applicant is proposing to remove the emergency vehicle access The response is that the proposed project is not removing this access Actually, it will be improved and extended in east west orientation last likely And with that it is recommended by the planning commission and the planning and economic development department That cancelled by resolution denied appeal and One adopt an addendum to the roseland area sabasapo road specific plan and roseland area annexation projects final environmental impact report and two approve eternity parcel map for the heron veterans village project Located at 2149 western avenue The applicant team and city staff team are available to answer any questions That the council may have and that was my presentation. Thank you All right. Thank you so much mone. So for the public and for council members who might be a little bit new Appeals have a little bit of a different process We uh council will disclose in a moment our ex parte communications That's to make sure that all of the information that we've been privy to that the public is privy to We'll then go to a quick presentation from our chair of the planning commission The applicant will have an opportunity to make a presentation Then the appellants will have a chance to make a presentation And then finally the applicant will also be able to then rebut the presentation After that it is a public hearing will open it up so that anybody in the public can give their thoughts on the project And then the council will make a decision. So first we'll start with our ex parte disclosures I will start. I will disclose that I've met with neighbors. I have heard from veterans I have gone out. I've toured the site and I read all of the materials in the packet There's no information that I gleaned from any of that that is not publicly available already through our staff documents Or what was just presented by staff I'll start over here council member soyer Thank you, mayor. I visited the site. I had a couple of phone calls on both sides of the of the discussion But learned nothing more during at that time than I received from the staff report Thank you, mr. Mayor. Um, yes, I've read all the material here Received and read all of the emails that have been sent to many of us both in support of it and against it As my planning commissioner recused himself. I also had a conversation with the planning commission chair To get her perspective on this project, but again all the information I received is contained in what's publicly available to everyone Council member Fleming. I have no expertise contact to disclose. Okay mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor. I have visited site I have met with neighbors and I have received emails that are also part of the public information that we have at hand. Thank you Council member mcdonald I just had one conversation with somebody who's been working on the project If that's something I need to disclose just for a question Yeah, and any information that wasn't present already in the staff documents I don't know that it was so I'd rather disclose it to be safe than sorry. Perfect councilmember rogers I toured the site met with the neighbors Had a conversation with staff read emails and spoke with my appointee Perfect the planning commission so Go ahead soup. Yes, um, if uh councilmember mcdonald You mentioned that you may have gotten additional information from your From your contact with the project proponents Can you just generally disclose what that is on the record? Thanks Sure, I I'm not exactly sure of the title of the group. It's the Sonoma County Housing project that works on that owns the property currently I just had a question about the expansion of that so I spoke to them Thank you. Hmm. All right council. Let's start. Go ahead the councilmember Sorry, and I received a phone call from Shirley Zane Um, Shirley Zane Do we have any questions for staff on the staff presentation to begin? Mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor if You can elaborate on what the designation of rural heritage is when it comes to zoning Sure, um, let me bring a definition from the zoning code so I can clearly read that or actually I had on my um I think I had on my power point. Let me just give you a second So the rural heritage combining the streak is intended to recognize preserve and enhance Santa Rosa's rural communities the zoning This zone allows some special land uses that are not allowed in other residential zones such as animal keeping indoor harvesting and pet fans here and also It wants to maintain the existing rural street side street standard and does not want And no street lighting for this area because neighbors wanted to maintain the same street as it is right now And Let me see if I can find more definition. I can let you know, okay Please thank you. Okay. Uh, I can read it from our zoning code directly. Is that okay? Yeah, please do Okay, uh, it says, uh, the rural combining the street as I mentioned is intended to recognize preserve and enhance Santa Rosa's rural communities The combining district shall apply to properties between rural residential areas near the perimeter of Santa Rosa's city limits The rh combining streak may be combined with any primary zoning district established by this section and the location is The standards of this section shall apply to properties located between the western avenue neighborhood as follows There's a figure that shows a location that I tried to show in also annexation area the county island Thank you Thank you Monet, I have a question and I'm not quite sure who the right person to answer it is Sure, but in my discussion with neighbors one of the central arguments against the project seems to be Um an understanding that they had with the city on the intensity of the land use at the time of the annexation that uh That what was promised to neighbors in order to come into the city in the annex Is incompatible with the project because now you've had state law that has changed since that annexation took place And i'm just wondering if there is any historical record of that Or if we have any staff that are left from those discussions who can shed some light on that conversation Jessica Jones, uh supervising planner She's here. She can't answer this question. Thank you I think Jessica, I think you were here and then not here and now you're back just in time for the appeal, which I appreciate Yes, um, you know, thank you, uh mayor members of the council uh, Jessica Jones supervising planner for our current development team um, so uh the uh The city staff um had A lot of conversations with the neighbors of the the western area during the annexation process And you know, we heard from them what their desires to maintain their rural quality Of life that they currently enjoy out there. Um, some of the biggest concerns that we heard during that process Were concerns about, um, you know further uh subdivision With this area coming into the city because the area was at that time designated for Low density residential which would have allowed more density than the, um, very low density designation that was ultimately adopted um, and then also A concern about losing the kind of rural quality of the the street itself, which I think mone kind of alluded to Um, they were not wanting to see any new sidewalks added. Um, any new street lights that type of thing And so what was ultimately put into the zoning code is what we currently see in the rural heritage combining districts, um, which allows Certain land uses that mone went over that are not necessarily allowed in our other rural residential zoning districts and that includes animal keeping pet fanciers and such Um, it also the designation also outlines, um definitions of fences in this area Provides for the rural street standard That was desired. Um, it talks about no additional street lights in the area Unless requested by the neighborhood or deemed necessary by the city for safety and then a provision for limiting extension of west herne avenue To uva drive Those were the the pieces that were ultimately put into the zoning code. Um, there were no regulations or restrictions regarding Um development of lots But again, as I mentioned the other piece to that was the redesignation of this area from low density residential to Very low density residential to reduce the density. Uh, and then the the rural residential zoning district was then applied to that Okay, yeah, it feels like And I forget which senate bill it was it feels like the Conversation about intensity is coming from The by right nature of ad use which were not Contemplated at the time that this area was annexed Um, so I might want to dig a little bit further into that as we go through the presentation No, any other questions from council council member rogers Um, I may have missed it. Was there a um traffic impacts study if we're looking at was it 28 additional parking spaces? Not looking at Will there be any staff or the 28 additional parking spaces or those just residents? Okay I will let the applicant answer that question But every single family I will just give you the what number of parking spaces is required Every single family requires one covered parking spaces and three uncovered parking spaces So total of four single families require four parking spaces that gives 16 And they are providing one for each ad you so that's going to be 20 But they are adding eight more parkings along the site I remember during a pre-application meetings. There were some comments from neighbors asking for more parking spaces An applicant tried to add more parking spaces to answer some of the comments I believe the applicant can go over that and explain to you with more details Okay in the shifts of the staff when the applicant comes if there are staff Wondering about the shifts Okay The applicant can answer that questions Any other questions council Let's move on then to the presentation from Karen weeks the chair of the planning commission Thank you. Mayor rogers vice mayor alvarez and members of the city council Uh, as was mentioned, my name is Karen weeks and I am chair of the planning commission I'm here tonight representing the commission I'd like to provide you a brief overview of our actions as it relates to the item before you tonight As stated by michicale the issue before you is the appeal of the four lot tentative map And the addendum to the final environmental impact report This is a single family project as defined by the zoning code amendments and sp2 And not a multifamily project which would not be consistent with the general plan and would also require a conditional use permit On december 9th 2021 the commission reviewed this item at that time there were five members present one was absent And one member recused himself from the item As I stated at the beginning of each meeting the planning commission is charged with carrying out california planning and zoning laws In the city of san aroza, which includes the implementation of local ordinances and policies Which relate to land use matters It should be noted that the project itself that That this is um the construction not the tentative map is a use allowed by right and is providing needed supportive housing for veterans We heard from staff and the applicant Regarding the history of the proposed project and other pertinent issues During the public hearing we heard from 11 members of the public five opposed the project and six report commissioners asked questions regarding issues of both the applicant and the staff at that time We determined the addendum was the proper document and that a new ear is not required After discussion among the commissioners we approved the two resolutions The first resolution was the addendum to the certified roseland area sabastopol road specific plan plan and roseland area annexation projects final environmental impact report And the second resolution had to do with the tentative parcel map for the heron veterans village subdivision to subdivide a 2.01 acre parcel into four lots And that was approved by a five to zero vote as I mentioned two members did not vote The commission's uh mission as you all know is to determine consistency with codes and the commission At this project was consistent with and implemented all relevant city regulations I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them of me Thank you, madam chair. Let's see if there are any questions from the council Okay, i'm not seeing any. Thank you so much for your service. Um, actually really fast. Was it a unanimous vote? Uh, yes, it was there were five of us present and it was five to zero unanimous Okay, great. Thank you. We'll move on then to our applicant presentation And craig you'll have 10 minutes for your presentation. Uh, thank you mayor rogers and members of the city council I'll speak for about five to seven minutes And then I'd like to have mike ziskey our attorney complete our presentation So my name is craig meltsner and we're the consultant project manager for community housing sonoma county The developer of herne betts village because it's a mouthful. I'm just going to call them community housing I'm joined online by my colleague barba towner There are two members of the community housing board of directors here. Keith christofferson the board president and ross lisco And we have members of our development team online Including architect paul fritz bkf civil engineer Andrew de zurek sequa consultant olivia ervin attorney mike ziskey Our biological resource consultants trishtatarian and jane valerius And mary hanes and chris cabral from nation's finest It truly takes a village to build a village The subject of today's hearing is the appeal of the planning commission's approval of the tentative map and seaco environmental review for herne betts village In december the planning commission unanimously approved the project as conditioned We respectfully request that you affirm the planning commission's approval and deny the appeal some background Community housing is a local leader in the development of supportive housing communities including housing for veterans people living with disabilities And individuals experiencing homelessness Their current veterans housing includes benton vets village and zane wolf vets village in san aroza and robinson house in sabastopol nation's finest which operates herne house at the subject site has been providing housing and supportive services for veterans and their families for 50 years Community housing purchased the west herne avenue site in 2008 With a goal to provide housing with supportive services to low-income veterans including homeless vets The first step was to rehabilitate the vacant care home now known as herne house For transitional housing and services for veterans Community housing has owned and nation's finest has operated herne house successfully since 2013 The second phase of herne's vets village will add affordable permanent support of housing Helping fulfill our common goal to end veteran homelessness in sunoa county Community housing nation's finest and their community partners will provide a high level of supportive services including Case management health services benefits counseling and peer support and advocacy All the services are designed to assist veterans to maintain their housing gain stability and reach self-set goals Based on the post annexation city zoning and very low density land use requirements and following extensive study by our design team and environmental consultants We created the plan for herne vets village before you today A project that fully complies with city standards Our plan includes four 20,000 to 25,000 square foot lots Each with a resident serving six veterans and an accessory dwelling unit serving two veterans We haven't requested density bonuses Nor bonus incentives available by city code and state law for affordable housing No changes to setbacks Building heights parking or development standards Neighbors have questioned our plan for two-story homes Two-story homes are fully consistent with the zoning and city standards The homes are located to avoid the two small wetlands and reduce the size of the building footprints If you review the site plan, you'll see that the home closest to west herne is set back about 40 feet From the street, the second home is set back 135 feet from the street and the two homes in the rear more than 250 feet from the street The city staff report addresses most of the appellant's arguments However, a march 14th letter from the appellant's attorney just received Made a couple specious claims about the property size Suggesting that the size of the property is inconsistent with the standards for the approved four lot subdivision The claims are baseless They cite county assessor data for the lot areas which are unreliable for that purpose The lot areas per our approved tentative map are based on a record survey of the volkert home site subdivision approved by the county surveyor and the board of supervisors The attorney further claims that the proposed lot sizes rely on land owned by a neighboring property owner It's true. The neighbor to the east has a fence which encroaches four to six feet over a proportion of our property But that encroachment does not change the lot size nor the ownership of the property After developing the current plan we reached out to and met with neighbors We listened to their comments and adjusted our plans to address concerns including pedestrian access building and window orientations However, we did not modify the number of homes or the two story design Both elements are consistent with city zoning and land use and represent our effort to provide a thoughtful feasible affordable housing development for homeless vets Please keep in mind the community goals and policies embedded in the city's general plan And numerous council policies and actions to provide supportive housing for those with special needs including homeless vets Veterans will be proud to call her and vets village home The city will be proud to have supported this housing We appreciate your support of the planning commission's action And now I would like to introduce attorney michael ziskey to conclude our presentation Thank you and michael you'll have about three more minutes Thank you. Um, I have three points to make and mayor and members of the council First the appeal letter from the appellants attorney is based on the wrong legal standard Second there is ample substantial evidence before the council To support the conclusion of the addendum that there are no new environmental impacts requiring an eir And third this project is governed by the housing accountability act And the appeal does not provide any basis for their request that the council revoke the commission's unanimous approval Going back to the first point the appeal is based simply on the wrong legal standard They argue that sequels fair argument standard applies And that's the legal standard that's applied when there is no prior eir But here the roseland eir specifically included the project site in the project description in the biological analysis They just looked at the maps again So there is a prior eir And they say because that was a program eir That sequels tiering that's t i e r tiering rules apply which anticipate a series of eir's But under the statute and the guidelines tiering is optional and the city hasn't elected to use the tiering provisions What does apply is sequels standard provisions For review of a project after an eir has been prepared And that's what the citizens against airport pollution case in our letter said and i'm going to quote from that Where environmental review has been conducted through a program eir Seek what reviews or seek with limits for the review To these limited circumstances that are set forth In public resources code 21166 i know i'm getting legal on you But it's important because the supreme court has ruled that under that statute The evaluation is a substantial evidence question Your decision will be upheld if it is supported by substantial evidence. There's no far fair argument standard So on the biology issues you have dr. Smallwood for the appellants You have three biological resource assessments. You have your staff report And you have the addendum on the side of the project that is ample substantial evidence supporting A decision to approve the project and and project the appeal The final point i want to make is that Because this project is consistent with the general plan and the zoning It is governed by the housing accountability act Under that act For the appeal to succeed they need to show that there is a specific adverse Public health and safety impact and they have made no showing of that. They haven't tried to make that showing so That they have not shown a legal basis for overturning the planning commission's decision In some the appeal lacks merit The heron veterans village will provide needed benefits for homeless veterans We ask that the council rejects the appeal and affirm the planning commission's unanimous decision To approve the project and the project team is available to answer any questions from the council. Thank you Great. Thank you so much. I'm going to bring it back to the council and see if we have any questions for the applicant Okay, we'll move on to the appellant's presentation Rebecca being promoted right now Hi there Can you hear me all right? Yes, we can All right, and i'm told that someone on your end is going to run the there. Here we go the slides Cool, you'll have 10 minutes all right Good evening mayor and honorable council members. My name is rebecca davis Oh, and i'm just going to say with the slides. I think there is a button that's going to be pushed where the they'll just run on their own Is that correct? Yes, one moment. Okay. Thank you If I could have the the time restarted. Sorry There we go. Thank you so much As I said, uh, my name is rebecca davis and I represent western residents for rural integrity A group of neighbors living in the western neighborhood We're concerned about the impacts this project will have on natural resources and the rural nature of this small neighborhood In june of last year we commented on the mitigated negative declaration that was prepared for the project And many other members of the public provided oral and written comments on the mnd at the planning commission hearing as well Rather than engage with the public on their legitimate concerns Since june the city and the applicant decided to play games with sequa Abandoning the mnd entirely and preparing an addendum instead in a clear effort to get a more favorable standard of review if the project is challenged in court The complete lack of engagement is particularly disappointing because as we have stated over and over again My clients are not opposed to the type of use proposed here The western residents are fully supportive Of the existing current veterans house that is already part of their neighborhood and they even support additional housing on the site for homeless veterans What they object to is the scale of the project and the city's failure to fully analyze and mitigate the environmental impacts of the project So before you now is our appeal of the project and the sequel addendum And in support of this appeal we submitted a letter including experts comments by dr Son smallwood Describing a number of reasons why the approval and the addendum would violate sequel and land use law And i'm going to just cover a few of the main points today, but I urge you to read the letter in its entirety And throughout my comments, you're going to see a number of images Each which is taken on western avenue Many of which were taken of the project site itself And these pictures give you a sense of the rural nature of the neighborhood and are also in some cases such as these ones right here Evidence of the special status species that was observed on the project site, but completely ignored by the addendum These pictures were taken by our biologist So starting with sequel I want to explain why an addendum is not appropriate for this project In an effort to streamline the sequel process sequel allows agencies to tier sequel documents So when a more general policy or program is first approved it can be done through a programmatic EIR With later project specific or site specific environmental review taking place at a later time as individual projects are proposed And that's what occurred here in 2016 when the city prepared a programmatic EIR for this specific plan and annexation When this happens a city has to determine if a later project falls within The program analyzed previously and then decide whether a project specific MND or EIR is required When well tiering applies when then EIR was prepared for a program or policy Previously a different set of standards applies when an EIR was previously prepared for a project that That proposes some later changes to that project In that case sequel subsequent review provisions determine if a subsequent EIR subsequent MND or an addendum should be prepared for that project But here there was no prior EIR MND or Addendum for this project. So sequel subsequent review provisions including those allowing an addendum are inapplicable Instead the question becomes does this project fall within the program analyzed in the programmatic EIR? And it doesn't nothing in the programmatic EIR ever mentions This project or building at this density on this site. The only thing analyzed here was the Lowering of density actually from Low density to very low density So under this standard if there is a this actually falls under the fair argument standard And if there is any substantial evidence in the record that this new project may have a significant adverse effect on the environment An EIR must be prepared even if there is evidence to the contrary and this is the situation we have now The project as you can see is extremely rich in biodiversity It contains wetlands It's part of the critical habitat for california tyrosalamander and it provides breeding foraging and nesting grounds for numerous other special status species As detailed in our comments and those of dr. Smallwood An EIR is required here because the project will have significant impacts that have not been analyzed and mitigated To begin the biological reports relied on in the addendum are completely inadequate For example in the 2021 report the city's consultant surveyed the site for four hours and identified only eight bird species It our biologists visited the site and in only three hours detected 30 bird species more than three times as many Just from walking on the perimeter of the site Importantly some of the species detected by dr. Smallwood and not the city's consultant Are protected species including the white-tailed kite the red-shouldered hawk and the willow flycatcher As another example the consultant's conclusions about the impacts on monarch butterflies Is based entirely on a site visit that took place in april of 2021 Despite the fact that the appropriate time to survey for monarchs is in the fall In other words the city's consultant appears to have done all it could to not detect these or other sensitive species And these deficiencies are emblematic of the rest of the analysis Dr. Smallwood's letter ultimately concludes that the project will have a significant impact on california tiger salamanders That numerous protected bird species will be impacted as a result of window collisions and house cat predation And that a loss of reproductive capacity will occur because of loss of habitat His comments constitute substantial evidence the project will have significant impacts and an eir is required prior to project approval I want to briefly address the housing accountability act and its relationship to sequel which was misrepresented by the developer's attorney The housing accountability act explicitly states that it does not relieve an agency of its duty to comply with sequel Per the terms of the act unless and until the city comes into compliance with sequel the city council is prohibited from approving the project So the housing accountability act cannot be used as a shield to protect against sequel compliance Next Based on the county records the applicant does not have sufficient land to build the project as proposed without a use permit Because it exceeds the standards for the site's very low density housing designation The applicant is seeking a lot line adjustment that will create a 1.04 acre parcel for the existing current house And a separate parcel with 2.01 acres Subdivided for the proposed project for a total of 3.05 acres But according to the county assessor and tax assessor these two parcels when combined only amount to 2.9 acres I have attached a printout of these records Which are provided on pages 5 and 6 of my comments submitted yesterday This is critical because once the line adjustment creates A 1.04 acre parcel for the existing current house the developer is left with a parcel size of only 1.89 acres Since the very low density designation allows a maximum of two homes per acre Allowing four homes on less than two acres as is proposed violates the general plan and zoning law The city and applicant have provided no evidence whatsoever showing otherwise It is a fundamental tenet of land use law that a city cannot approve a project that violates its general plan And the city must therefore deny this project And finally, I want to step back and provide a little context for the neighborhood and the project some of which has briefly been mentioned The the rosin annexation and the 2016 EIR came to fruition after lengthy negotiations between The western avenue residents and the city back in 2015 and 16 The western residents wanted to ensure the rural character of the neighborhood was maintained if annexation occurred As a result the general plan was amended changing the neighborhood's land use from low density to very low density And the city created a rural heritage district applied to the neighborhood and stated with the stated purpose being to recognize preserve and enhance santa rosa's rural communities The neighbors negotiated these terms in good faith Yet now the city is proposing to allow this single project to nearly double the population of the entire neighborhood Violating both the spirit and the letter of the agreement and the law Each of the four main houses proposed will be three times larger than any of the existing houses on the street And each will contain another additional adu in addition to that gigantic house Excluding the project site and her house western avenue houses approximately 100 people on 33 acres Or approximately three people per acre In contrast the project's population together with the existing her house will have a density of 16.7 people per acre More than 555 percent greater than the rest of the neighborhood Put simply the project would neither preserve nor enhance the rural community as the neighbors were promised would occur When they agreed to annexation just a few years ago My clients are not asking that no additional housing be built on the site They're asking for a project that is in line with the neighborhood and that protects the unique biological resources of the site and the neighborhood So to conclude we believe there is a solution to be had that is workable for both western neighbors and the applicants However, my my clients have repeatedly attempted to undertake these conversations with the applicant Yet the applicant has refused these requests altogether As a result, we are now in a position where we must ask that you grant our appeal and decline to approve the project and the addendum Instead we ask you require an eir and require the project to be revised to come into compliance with sequa and the general plan Thank you, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have All right. Thank you so much rebecca. I'll look to council members for questions councilmember rogers Hi rebecca, can you uh state? let's say the last Two or three requests that the neighbors have made to have a conversation about this proposed project As in are you looking for dates of the requests or If you have dates that would be great. I don't have dates off hands I know that my clients will be giving individual comments During the public comment portion and they may better be able to provide those dates Okay Any other questions? All right. Thank you so much rebecca We'll keep you on in case a question does come up as we go through our public comment and bring it back for our deliberations If that works for you Sure, great. Thank you Okay Let's move on then. Uh, we have the applicant response And so you'll have five minutes Thank you, mr. Mayor. Uh, those were lovely pictures of birds and And wetlands and so on However, I'd like to have trish titarian or jane valerius our biological coons Speak to whether or not those features that were presented in that slideshow are are accurately represented in the war site I'm promoting them now Jane or uh trish. Are you available on zoom? Yes, this is trish titarian. I'm available so Yeah, please go ahead. Sorry go ahead. I'll go ahead. Um, so Regarding the adequacy of the surveys done by My company and jane valerius who we work together. She's a wetland Specialist and botanist. I'm a wildlife biologist Typically what happens on for a site that's going to development is we go out and assess whether Any habitats for special status species occur on the site And from there we address whether special status species can occur And then we provide mitigation measures to prevent take which is harm harass kill Of individuals and if there are listed species or potential for listed species on site such as the california tiger salad matter we provide measures to Prevent loss of habitat in regards to the western avenue We did not do any nesting bird surveys because development will occur during the non nesting season Um, therefore no take of individuals will occur The loss of habitat unfortunately is not for nesting birds except for a couple of them such as swainsons hawk or burrowing owl Are not protected by california apartment efficient wildlife and therefore No species specific surveys were required california apartment efficient wildlife did review. Um, the the um our reports And um, they did not request additional surveys We did an further analysis for monarch butterfly because it's a species that is of um prominent concern for cal efficient wildlife My analysis in april was conducted to determine whether there was Potentially suitable habitat. It was not a species survey monarch butterfly Rarely extremely rarely occur More than 30 miles from the coast and we are more than 30 miles from the coast They are coastal species Um, and then last but not least the kites nesting On the site that are foraging on the site Nest in a pine tree about 235 feet to the west of the site. They're not nesting on the site So that's pretty much A quick rundown for you Thank you very much I would just reiterate that the reason why we have not engaged in dialogue with the neighborhood is Straightforward the neighbors want us to reduce the number of units and the building heights. We're not interested in doing that okay Thank you so much. So we'll go ahead and Is it possible for me to make one response or no? No, you've had your opportunity To speak if you have somebody who'd like to make public comment. They are welcome to But first we'll see if there are any other questions from council members No Okay, I'll go ahead and open the public hearing then If you're interested in providing comment on this, I'll start in the chamber So I'll have people go ahead and queue up at the podium Don't everybody jump up at once Good afternoon. My name is Dominic Dominic Pavuzzi, and I'm a member of Veterans for peace chapter 71 here in Sonoma county and on behalf of veterans for peace Uh, I wish to speak in favor of her and every new village As an organization veterans for peace strives to expose the true cost of war heal the wounded and honor the dead And though this project is not limited to post 9 11 vets. I wanted to bring to your attention that 25 percent of post 9 11 vets from likely to be deployed more than once 47 percent have seen combat 71 percent have likely sought help for traumatic and moral injury In our review this project seeks to heal and offer opportunities for permanent housing Her and avenue village her and veterans her and veterans village is for Sonoma county's veterans And has chapter 71 support. Thank you Thank you, sir Keith Ross Low Keith Christopherson 565 west college avenue san rosa And I am the uh, I am the current chair of community housing Sonoma county And I'm just I'm just here to advocate for for our veteran population and um I'm a veteran ross liscum is a veteran. He's on the board And we put a lot of work into this Not for profit not for pay because we don't gain any profit. We don't we don't get paid And uh, we deal with problems just like uh, you folks have to do every day but The ukrainian the ukrainian episode that's occurring in front of us Uh Right now is probably a good Is probably a good Good place good place for all of us to focus on You see these young soldiers that are uh, that are out there and they're defending their country when millions of people are evacuating the uh The the the fellows that uh the men and women that you see and that we serve Have served us and those folks once upon a time were young young soldiers and and people working hard to defend our company our country and being in the military and especially in combat is uh Is a very hard experience and some people have a hard time recovering from it Physically perhaps and mentally Uh We have i'm not sure of exactly how much a veteran on On 100 disability Uh is paid But it was around $3,500 a month. I don't know what the number is now and uh Think about that think about someone trying to live in sinoma county on 42 000 a year And someone who's 100% disabled considered 100% disabled by the by the veterans administration That's why ross and i and so many others are doing what we do In the time that others people are spending at home or going to little league games or or being with their children or grandchildren So that's my uh, that's my story And uh, we have to put these guys somewhere Community housing has demonstrated the day to do a great job And uh, we thank you for for approving this project. Thank you very much Thank you, keith Now the younger vet Mr. Mayor members of the council My name is ross liscom As a marine corps vietnam combat veteran I've been active on the board of community housing in sinoma county since 2009 I'm working on providing housing for our homeless veterans in santa rosa and throughout the county We have six properties currently that are serving them But we're three are in santa rosa The benton the benton veterans village firehouse Zane wolf tiny homes complex by the county administration buildings And the existing hern avenue property is housing 36 veterans residing in these three properties I truly believe that you realize The only way to get our homeless veterans off the street is to actually provide a safe and secure rough over their heads If it's if otherwise it's not going to happen This expansion of the existing hern avenue property will provide an additional 32 homeless veterans a home These men and women served our country Now it is our turn to serve them by providing a hand to them To assist them in stabilizing their lives This community voted in urban growth boundaries Overwhelmingly which the majority wanted to concentrate our future growth Inside the boundary and within our existing neighborhoods This project fits that voice of our community Please support this project and approve it this evening. Thank you Thank you, sir Good evening, mayor rogers vice mayor alvarez council members and staff My name is cal weeks and i'm the policy director for generation housing where we advocate for more More diverse and more affordable housing I'd like to really start by grounding this conversation with the following U.S. Veterans experience conditions. I place them at an increased risk for homelessness Veterans experience higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder ptsd as it's known traumatic brain injury sexual assault and substance abuse Veterans experiencing homelessness are also more likely to live on street than in shelters often increasing the likelihood that the affirmation issues Manifest themselves at greater frequency And while the rate of homelessness Veterans has declined precipitously over the past decade Sonoma county's 2020 homeless count senseless census, excuse me, uh, determined that we still have 139 homeless veterans living in sonoma county Now I state all of this not because I question the community support for veterans. I don't and It it I think it's really been stated tonight Um, and also I think reflected in public comment that folks are in favor of supporting our veterans But what I've kind of observed and what I would think is really going to I think be the foundational Component to our discussion this evening is whether a promise was made To the community during the rosalind annexation that there should be a lower density and while I certainly understand and respect that Um If there is evidence to suggest that's the case then that's something to be explored But as it's stand and through our communications with the applicant We understand the following to be the case and first and foremost the the proposed project as has been stated. I'm sorry. I'm reiterating Um, but it meets the very low residential general plant designation of 0.2 to two units per acre And the rural residential zoning designation as the property is currently zoned And it's it's also understanding that the candidate or the applicant has gone to great links not only to communicate with the public But also to really make significant alterations to the existing project at hand in order to accommodate those concerns Case and point is really when it comes to the windows when it comes to preserving the open space and watershed They've gone to great lengths to make sure that we preserve what is important to our community Everyone wants to preserve our open space But we also need to meet the needs of our most vulnerable and I know my argument or my commentary right now is morally More grounded and paid those than it really is in logic or or facts But I really want to make sure that I I I put forth the appeal On behalf of generation housing that you really focus our discussion on making sure that we house our most vulnerable Thank you very much as always. I really appreciate your service and thank you for your time Thank you cal Like that. Hey, my name is jeff lorence. Um, I'm probably gonna cry because you're touching something very near and dear to me um As a past resident of the hernaus and somebody that's been through this system. Thank you sonoma county for what you do for veterans This guy over here saved my life You know, um community housing so sonoma county saved my life So I know this isn't what this is about. I mean the the numbers they add up What what they're asking adds up and this appeal to me seems unbased. I love that picture of those all those birds I haven't seen half of them out there and I've been there a few times Like a lot of times stayed there for nine months in my last day I'm very familiar with community housing in sonoma county and the zane wolf village. I help work on that when they built it You know, I'm looking at those those puddles down the road and that must have been 2018 at the end of 2018 That's the last time we had that kind of rain you know and um What I can say is I do now work for nations finest and community housing in sonoma county But they on site you somebody asked a question about staff parking earlier And what they'll have a supporting staff that'll just show up as as needed So it's not a fully staffed functioning unit in that aspect. This is the transitional housing This is where guys like me get off the streets at the hernhouse Learn how to live again and then move someplace else Such as the zane wolf village. I am currently the um on site peer support specialist at the benton street veterans village And what that means is that i'm a cognitive information From what's going on there to the project manager or the property manager, you know and um So it puts me in touch with the vets and I do a lot of work with vet connect I love these guys, you know, they take care of us And everybody else that's here these guys here put in more hours than I know, right So for me, you know, they asked me to come up and speak and You know, I I can't speak on the politics of it I can't speak as eloquent as them if you do But I can tell you from my heart that this kind of program saves lives It saves lives. I mean they literally pulled me off the river in 2018 up in cloverdale Brought me down here. I went through this program Now I'm gainfully employed not once but twice How does that happen? Right And I have to ask myself that is because I utilize what they gave me what they offered The supportive systems that nations finest offers the veterans As far as all the trauma I went through on the streets And getting my life back together learning how to cope with skills again You know, I mean there's there's a lot of different ways we get to where we get But we always get to where we're going, right? So my path kind of veered off and I'm a you know, I used to live up in cloverdale I owned a couple homes had my own business. I wasn't always a homeless vet, but I ended up that way So to have this kind of availability is just huge in our community And I don't know if any of you have been up to the Windsor's veterans village. Holy smokes I would venture that any of the neighbors here From the heron project. You want to see your property values go up? Go look at that place and see just imagine what it'll do to your property values You know, but anyway, I thank you for listening Thank you, sir Hello, my name is paul moosman. I'm a 21 year resident of western avenue You've all received emails from me. So really the points that I come up to here to bring have already been heard I think what's important and what I came across in the paper On sunday was this help santa rosa starting tomorrow Well, santa rosa forward is going to be holding a series of meetings to help plan the future of santa rosa. Well, that's why we're here We're trying to help plan the future of santa rosa the neighbors With all due respect to you guys, this is not about vets This is not about the veterans. We support the veterans. That's proof in the existing house that's already there heron house We've got 15 residents that come through that walk the streets that I talked to on a daily basis All right, we support the vets. It's about the size the scope the impact in the environment The applicant wants you to believe that they've done their due diligence in terms of communication The first we heard about this was it spring of 2021 When they tried to conduct a zoom meeting asking for our feedback at that point community housing sinoma county already had plans And architectural drawings tentative maps on their website. It was a done deal And that's why we're upset because it feels like a done deal We've been told by members of the council. It's all done. There's nothing you can do here But maybe your advice maybe your ideas can help support somebody else. Why is it a done deal? We're not stupid people. We're smart. We're educated. We've done our research It's going to have a huge impact not only on the environment, but us Councilmember rogers started to ask the planning commission about a traffic study, but it got caught up in Correct me if I'm wrong councilmember rogers. It got caught up in a number of parking spaces The city has determined there will be no impact on traffic for this development Who are they fooling? Who came and looked at it? What study was done They're gonna add 32 more residents They're gonna add how many mentors does anybody know how many mentors get to live on site, sir A bunch of there's at least four mentors and a site supervisor who live there on site We have all the support services. Hey, let's not forget the sisco truck that delivers food Barreling down the road All right, it's gonna have an impact the rural heritage things is it just blows my mind This was done with smart thinking and with a lot of history and now yeah, your rules all fit You could build this you can mitigate it. You can do all that stuff But it doesn't take into consideration the impact that it has on people Let's make this something that we could all do. I know it's a hard balance You do not have easy decisions. We're talking about veterans. We're talking about homelessness We're talking about concerns from the neighbors. How do we make it all work? You can do that. You can help us do that By slowing this thing down and saying let's look at some of these pieces Let's have less than a huge impact the numbers this gentleman gave it's 200 feet off western Thank you, sir, but it's 15 feet off the neighbors at park meadow drive. Let's not ignore that Thank you We have any other comments from folks here in the chamber If you'd like to comment you can go ahead comment dwayne Let's go to ann then on zoom Oh go for it then we'll come back to Ann Hi, my name is Cheryl saline and I live on western And I just would like to say that the pictures of the birds and salamanders were beautiful But what they didn't show was all the children that walk up and down a very narrow kind of street with no sidewalks and That the quietness of the neighborhood the fact that there's kids riding their bikes in the street People with strollers walking up and down the street. It's a very quiet rural neighborhood And those of us who live there live there because of that And I am completely for the veterans like Paul said we have a lot down the street from us And they also walk up and down the street and we wave and we smile and that's all fine, but I think that you need to redo a few things and maybe rework the impact of the the cars the parking The traffic that it's going to create the traffic during construction If this is the only way in and out of that is on her You need to look at that street and the nature of it Thank you Thank you so much You ready to give comments dwayne All right, we'll go to ann Hello Go ahead ann Hi, thank you. Um, thank you to our veterans who spoke and our neighbors Fabulous job and I thank you for your service This issue is not about veterans My father is a veteran of the korean war and he died homeless in a trailer on my driveway And my driveway was purchased or not purchased Rented by me a welfare mother on afdc Welfare and section 8 housing. So I get it. This is not about veterans We've invited the developers to buy every house on this street and put it put the veterans here We welcome them. We love them. We appreciate them or respect them This development is an apartment complex. It is not single family housing It is multi family housing and I'm going to apologize for myself for being so passionate about this But I work my whole life to live on a country lane in a beautiful community where I can hear birds And I don't have a lot of people around me I'm 63 years old and I've worked for 32 years Um in as a teacher and 15 of them in santa rosa city schools I bought this house three years ago This is an apartment complex every one of the bedrooms has an adjoining bathroom with a sink Every one of the bedrooms has a countertop with a sink in it to accommodate a kitchenette A single family home does communal eating in one kitchen In other words, I'm saying they're they're liars. They're pulling the wool over your eyes. There are Designated spots for banks of post office I have so much to say I could take three hours. So I'm trying to fit in fit it in here This is an apartment complex. This is not single family living when I bought this house I looked at the zoning very carefully. It's a combined district It's a combined zoning for very low rural residential density and it's combined with rural heritage Very rare designation and the purpose is to preserve rural communities this Three acre parcel wants to put 10 houses. It already has two. It wants to add eight That will add 49 people and that's if they don't double up if they don't put two people in each bedroom If they put two people in each bedroom, which they're allowed to do and can do Perfectly legally. It's 100. I want you to protect the spirit of this zoning law. That's you're our last hope Please don't force us into litigation because apartments on this street are illegal. You are Our only advocates. We're your constituents Constituents, please protect us Thank you, and we'll go to adrian followed by lenny Greetings. Thank you members of the council. My name is adrian covert santa rosa resident Santa rosa has a special responsibility to ensure local veterans have access to quality housing And what we have before us before the council today is the opportunity to provide with a single project permanent supportive housing to nearly a quarter of the estimated total homeless population of veterans in sonoma county and the idea that we would reject this opportunity because of Concerns about density or or traffic This is about values the herons veterans village is an important part of fulfilling our responsibility to veterans I strongly recommend the council follow the recommendation of the planning commission And the planning and economic development department and reject this appeal. Thank you Thank you, adrian. We'll go to lenny followed by sal Hi, i'm lenny more you can hear me. Okay Yep, go for it Okay, great. I live on west heron on our property located 100 feet from the applicant site We've been developing and implementing an ecosystem restoration of our land based on permaculture and regenerative agriculture methodologies with plantings careful holistic managed grazing with our Icelandic sheep And encouraging proliferation of species of interest in other native species of flora and fauna We're also collaborating with conservation organizations fiber shed lagoona de santa rosa foundation madrone autobahn society And others who support these restorative efforts Like many of our neighbors We bought our property to be close to nature to enjoy the diverse wildlife that is part of this unique riparian corridor And create a peaceful space to live And that life that we imagined and have worked so hard to create has been completely disrupted and threatened by the actions of one developer And a process that seems intent on ignoring our entire community's cries For doing what is reasonable fair and equitable We support housing for veterans and existing services that have been on this site over the last decade Veterans also own properties on western ave and surrounding streets that this applicant would be impacting Many of our residents are essential workers farmers educators health care professionals So why is the city ignoring these constituents over the designs of one property owner? Our appeal has nothing to do with this being a site for veterans Any narrative about us being against veterans by chsc and its board members is false It's unprofessional disrespectful and disingenuous The public needs to know that at many times during this process City planning planning commission and city council could have directed this applicant to do better To fix issues in their project proposal To add elements that would address the serious concerns expressed by this community But the city didn't do that The applicant Has no idea what we want since they've never sat down with us to talk And at many points along the way they could have seriously engaged with us negotiated in good faith Reduce the scale of the proposal in order to conform this project to a positive Collaborative and welcome addition to our community that would respect the natural beauty and character of our rural heritage district But the applicant didn't do that city planning accepts. Wra's report is canon despite major errors in judgment inadequacies and lack of evidence And the representative that just spoke a little while ago Misrepresented what was in the department efficient wildlife report which you guys have on record from may 27th 2021 Which only responded to the mnd and in that report their recommendations are for further studies Right, so whoever was talking before was lying We're in this we're here at this appeal because both the city and the applicant have made serious errors Which you remedied. Thank you for your time. And I want to thank briefly the mayor uh councilwoman rogers and vice mayor alvarez for Communicating communicating with us and visiting with us on our uh On our neighborhood. Thank you. Let's go to sell followed by kerks Hello, can you hear me? Yep. Go ahead sell And hello, this is south floors. I'm a resident here on 2115 western avenue I live right next door the proposed Property for this project and I want to definitely express some of my concerns I'll start with what's going to affect my wife and I the most And after listening how this project was been presented so far regarding the maps They continue to propose some of these maps showing where the boundary line between my property and their property is going to be moved I've been here for 21 years And this issue has never come across. Why didn't they come and talk to me about that? They're trying to claim part of my property. What was it 10 15 feet? So I don't know if that's going to be part of the conclusion to have their total three acres to make sure that they're able to do What they want to do I think that's very unfair and unprofessional of them. It just goes to show that They're not very good neighbors. They don't care as you probably I think it was mr. Craig that was up for now I'm talking earlier that he's not interested in sizing down or anything that we want They're now willing to work with does what's whatsoever Um, it's pretty disturbing Um, let me get back on my notes. So with that, um So they plan to relocate the boundary line between my property their property as well as affecting my neighbor in front immediately and booth It appears that they want to move the boundary lines um To the full length from the 10 15 feet of the property the entire length. Um I even uh Let's see. So that's pretty much. I did consult with an attorney. It did mention to me A state cause called adverse possession So if I need to go that route, I will What they're doing is wrong. I'm pretty disturbed um My other concerns are that the uh Community housing and our city planning commissioners have already failed to listen to knowledge and care Of our community concerns by the size of this project There are many issues and concerns that will affect the neighborhood and the future of Of the vets that will live here. You know at one point as well traffic number one um Our community made several attempts to reach out to all of you to meet and discuss some of these issues And only a couple of you showed up, which I think you you three did did um While back I also reached out to the planning department spoke with moned regarding the property line She assured me that this property line will not be moved But then again today some of the pictures that you propose about the boundary lines It shows cutting into my property Um, so that's a concern Um, some of the other issues I've also experienced here The I think the attorney mentioned that we haven't demonstrated any uh safety or health hazards I'm downwind from this property and they smoke like crazy and we're downwind and I had my way by non smokers And we have to close all our windows and doors to enjoy our home So there's your health issue Uh safety issue a couple of them jumping over to my property line. I appreciate it, but I need you to wrap up Well, I'm this is it so the safety issue a couple of these guys making comments I want to jump over the fence line take care of his wife Meeting in a sexual way. So if there's not a safety issue there, I don't know what you call it again. Thank you Thank you. So we'll go to kerks followed by johanna Thank you, mayor. Good evening mayor council members and susan kerks I am speaking tonight on behalf of madron autobahn society. I am president of our autobahn chapter I've been listening tonight and I did attend the planning commission meeting And honestly, I've been waiting until that planning commission meeting to be able to speak to you tonight at this appeal hearing At the planning commission meeting there was a public comment made by someone who Was very intense and very critical of the neighbors the residents of this area Stating how would they feel if a homeless veteran was living on the street and didn't have somewhere to live And that was the tone of voice that this particular person used I knew and I think you're hearing that these neighbors are supportive Very supportive of veterans and veterans housing as am I as is everyone in our autobahn society chapter I was thinking about how you would deliberate tonight and how you will make a decision if I were in your position, which of course i'm not But i'm very interested in honesty. I'm interested in integrity and government I'm interested in transparency and fairness And I do know that the residents of this area Negotiated and invested a large amount of time Prior to this area being annexed into the city of san aroza I don't think there is any question at all that their Negotiations and their good faith Are being violated with this proposal you're looking at an incredible increase in density on this particular property to add about 50 residents if not more than that And when you think about it the quality of life for the veterans who will live on this property And the willingness of the citizens and residents of that area to all live in harmony The natural environment there is very healing And really very important And I actually have visited the site several times. I know dr. Sean smallwood. He's one of the most reputable biologist in california And I personally witnessed a whitetail kite nest less than 100 feet from the property line Contrary to what the applicants biologists stated So I think that In terms of what is appropriate you're hearing that the residents Welcome the veterans But this particular proposal is not in alignment with the community And it really is unfair to the residents who live there But I do believe that you could give guidance to A best decision for everybody. Thank you Thank you. We'll go to johanna Hello, can you hear me? Yep. Go ahead. Hello. Oh good. Hi. This is johanna greenberg and i'm a resident of west turnab Thank you, uh mayor rogers and natalie rogers as well as eddie for just your great visits out here We really loved talking to you and are heartened by your environmental knowledge What we have here is a really cool little rural Area in a unique environmentally rich region that its citizens have fought and negotiated long and hard to preserve And we have a greedy applicant that despite all superficial appearances and the good intentions is a business That cares for one thing Making federal state and local money off of stuffing as many veterans as possible into an area no matter of the impacts Um and the list of investors is quite large if you look on the website, so Um The applicant has been deceptive about the type of facility they are building They have slapped a single family housing label on this project to subvert zoning and building codes and use permits when in fact This is a multi-family care facility only for At-risk veterans with 32 bedrooms in total each having its own bathroom a kitchenette with countertop and sink as another resident Um Stated chsc has in fact described this facility elsewhere in written commentary as quote hyper efficient apartments and on the bkf maps Quote multi-family housing The applicant has ignored the real concerns of neighborhood residents The tenor of previously negotiated agreements with the city and biological evidence brought forth by residents themselves And the professional biologist Sean Smallwich would far outstrips that of the applicants The applicant has done their best to bypass and subvert environmental laws Lastly, the applicant has taken land from two properties on its eastern boundary to make up its required acreage for the proposed subdivision There are property laws at stake as well as adverse possession law as these fence lines have been in place for 20 to 30 years The city needs to investigate that Perhaps the biggest offender here though is the city or at least city planning That have allowed all of this applicant's bad behavior supporting its flouting of environmental laws designed to protect every resources And allowing the applicant's deceptive labeling of what is truly in fact a multi-family care facility it has failed to investigate the acreage and Which only shows 2.93 acres on its own website Further the city planning has effectively reneged on the Our negotiator on their negotiator promise to western residents the tenants and purpose. Thanks jessica jones for Stating that and for chris in rogers in Accurately describing it but the purpose of this r.h designation is Yes to preserve rural farming but also to preserve ecological resources, which is why we Specified no storm drains for groundwater recharge or sidewalks, etc. Okay I have more to say but that's okay. Thank you so much for your time and we Hope a reasonable solution can be reached Thank you, johanna. We'll go to clark Hi, my name is clark lewis I'm a resident of west herron And I just wanted to say we're as I think you can probably tell from the comments We're a strong community in this neighborhood and we consider the veterans home That's there now to be part of that community that we have What we're asking is that there the additional Housing that we put on be Something that makes sense in this neighborhood And that the people that are building it Respect everyone in the neighborhood and try to be part of that So if the density was not what's been proposed But if our appeal is listened to and approved if we could if we could talk to them and get the density down And I know somebody tonight said they weren't interested in having that conversation, but to be great if they were interested It would just be an easier way for us to continue to welcome veterans in the community A lot of said we said before have veterans. I mean I have veterans in my family And there are a lot of people on the street and there are veterans that live here on on west herron. So We'd like to keep that community peaceful And I think making sure that we're all in agreement as we move forward would be the easiest way to do then We could use your help In helping to negotiate that for us. Thank you Thank you Clark Madam deputy city clerk, do we have any voicemail public comments? We do not mayor I understand Dwayne What was that we do not have any pre-recorded voice messages Although we just had two additional hands pop up view zoom, okay We'll go to rena and then we'll go to brenda Waiting for the clock to restart Great. Thank you. My name is rena radich and i'm a long time resident of west herron avenue 28 plus years and I live just two houses down from the Project and there's been so much that's been discussed And my whole presentation was is just going to be a repeat. So i'm going to come from a little bit different place and One of the things that I feel That needs attention Especially in the fire threatened danger that we've been experiencing here in sinoma county is Taking a fire road and turning it into an access road and an off street parking lot How is that efficient? as a fire road it's I Please I don't understand that that's like safety issues. That's like a big deal So that's something that that and also the parking which is on that Fire road The we have a tributary that runs through that a seasonal tributary So all the runoff all the oil and gas and all the junk that comes off of our cars Is going to run off right into that tributary another concern of mine So speaking about the road we've talked about it some you've seen pictures of the potholes That was a very bad year. We have potholes every year. We have a very fragile street And I don't know if the city is planning on coming in After this project is fully functioning and redoing our street I don't know that's probably a costly project But those things and and that we are a quiet rural neighborhood. We have children playing in the street we have Mothers with their we have people coming from the other development behind us that come and walk our street Because it is rural and it is friendly And in that nature of being rural and friendly one of the things that that really Hits me about the heritage village that they're proposing Is its industrial style? It looks like an industrial clump of buildings So how is that friendly? How is that healing? How is that? Feeling like it's part of a neighborhood and not an industrial complex Plopped down in the middle of in the neighborhood to serve a specific community that needs serving And then how are how is this particular project responsible for? Mitigating the homelessness for all of the population Right. So to me it's there's a lot of disparity going on here. So I would appreciate you Looking at that disparity as you decide to Go for or go against this particular appeal. Thank you for your time Great. Thank you All right dwayne you're up Hello, my name is dwayne de wid. I'm from roseland and I'm not taking aside What I'm trying to do is clarify an issue that was brought up by the employee of Generation housing the question was asked whether a promise was made I served on the roseland sabastopol road specific plan citizen advisory committee six years ago during the annexation discussions Part of the discussions revolved around the fact that people at west herne avenue did not want to be annexed at all Basically from what occurred in those meetings It was said that they would not come into the city The city made some sort of offers Which clarified to the west herne avenue residents that they would have rural heritage And that there was some sort of Agreement and there was something put into writing. I think you need to find that before you make your decision I was a participant in meetings and I saw these things occur What's really important today is you not try to divide and conquer veterans And not pit veterans against other veterans There's veterans living on that street that support veterans I've worked at that veterans facility in the past. I support veterans all the time I respect all these veterans that are up here. I've talked to most of these veterans that are here today, but don't Catch us up in some sort of a bureaucratic boondoggle type thing here I can respect also mr. Meltzner. I know him personally and I like him also So what's happening here is I believe you should slow this up You should look and see what was said by the residents about promises by city staff I see now that the city staffer jessica jones has come back to the city She was here when we did this annexation discussions There should be something in writing And if there's not something in writing you can understand Why those people from the western avenue neighborhoods might feel a bait and switch was done to them I don't have a dog in this thing at all Except I always support veterans for what veterans need but not for running over The veterans that live there in the neighborhood and want to be treated fairly and want to negotiate With this developer they have said time and time again Maybe the developer could bring the minutes from the meetings that they had With the residents and you could see those and you could discuss them I think you need to continue this matter and not make a decision tonight until it's been proven whether or not A promise was broken because I believe a promise was made when I was on that committee six years ago We'll go to Brenda Hello, can you hear me? Yep Hi, um, I'm resident of western avenue. Um, I'm not well comfortable speaking in a public forum But I feel strongly enough about this to speak up. So I'll read what I have written down Most of my neighbors have covered pretty much everything what I was going to say But um, I'm not an mb. My husband is a 100% disabled purple heart getting on vet My nephew is a 100% disabled, uh, Iraqi vet and he is currently living in the veterans housing up in Windsor Um, that was just completed about a year and a half ago. So I get it like and Um, I know that we need housing for our veterans the 15 or so that we currently have living at the the heron house on the street Um, now we welcome them with open arms. We are proud to have them as neighbors Um, but this project that has been proposed is just way too big for this area Uh, this proposal doesn't coincide with the 40 to other houses on the street Uh, this has been here since the 50s and the 60s. Um, these buildings that are proposed in the 32 residents and the additional staff And security does not fit into the country atmosphere Excuse me country atmosphere that we currently have here now Um, I've lived here in my house for 35 years and I've been expecting some development on that property Maybe two or three farm type houses, but nothing of this magnitude Um, please have the applicants reduce the size of this project. Thank you Thank you so much Is there anybody else who would like to provide public comment on this item? All right seeing none. I'll go ahead and close the public hearing I'll bring it back to the full council Let's see if there's any questions Before we get into discussion comments emotion Mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor and please entertain me as I do have quite a bit of questions and I understand if Staff is unable to answer some of them. I think I'll start with the question of When was the very Rural designation given to the property Mr. Mayor if I may answer that Yes, please do Okay, um, uh, thank you, um vice mayor alvarez, uh, jessica jones again. Um, so the rural heritage combining district was included As part of the annexation process It is a zoning combining zoning district that was added to our zoning ordinance and was applied to This neighborhood. Uh, so there actually is not an agreement The The the negotiation between the city and the neighborhood Resulted in this rural heritage combining district So to be clear the rural designation was Given at the same time that Rosalind was annexed into the city center as well That is correct Thank you The rural heritage zoning Apparently from a comment that was made it is very rare out of out of how many Zonings in the city san rosa Can we find the rh designation? So, uh, as I mentioned it was created For this neighborhood at that time but was written In a way that could be it could be applied to other Uh neighborhoods within the city of santa rosa in the future We have not yet applied it to any other neighborhoods in uh in santa rosa. So this is currently the only location Actually, there'll be all my questions for now. Thank you House member mcdonald I thank you. Um, I see on some of the public comments. There's some photos on slide 94 95 97 781 and 782 pictures of two-story homes Can you tell me where that's at in vicinity to where this project is supposed to be that's It's not indicated on those public comment pictures, but I'm just wondering where those are Okay, uh, the two stories apartments. I think I had also in one of my power points They were behind the project site. I believe they are the one along Park middle drive. Yes. Are you talking about the ones right on the north side? So the two-story homes are will be right there Behind where the site is proposed right now. Correct. And yes, correct. And if we go on page slide seven You can see them also in that picture. Thank you. There you go The overhead view was hard to tell that those were two stories. So I appreciate that and the photos as well Um, I did have a couple questions One was on a comment that was given to us about the concern about a bike path and walking path And it wasn't clear to me on the map where those would be located But I do understand that the project Um is going to be able to allow a public pedestrian bicycle Access path. Could you explain where that is on the map? And then I have one more follow-up question. Sure Let me get Nancy Adams for our traffic division. She can address that question and also Thank you Do we have Nancy here Nancy Adams I'm promoting her now one moment, please. Thank you. Can you hear me? Hello? And yes, yes, we can hear you. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Yeah, so Nancy Adams transportation and public works department So, yeah, um, and I I'm looking at the map. We're we're just trying to make You know that connection there through that to the existing Street there just for bikes and pads and I believe there's already An emergency vehicle access So it would align with that as well. So it's just trying to you know Make connections through our neighborhoods as best as we can. So hopefully that helps Thank you. Yes. And then my last question was around a couple photos that I had seen around the flooded street And my understanding is that there will be some new storm drains that will help provide Relief from that. We hope that there's enough rain to have some Some floods around Sonoma County But I was just wondering if you could address that on the updated plan and how that will be taken care of So that question can be answered by Gabe Osburn and also the applicants engineer Andrew to Zurich. So I don't know which one I build. I think both of them are available. Okay. This year. Thank you Good evening mayor vice mayor members of the council. Uh, Gabe Osburn deputy director of development services and acting director of the transportation public works department Um, just I'll go briefly over how the drainage systems work in this area when we get into unimproved areas where there is really not pipe in the ground And that that is the challenge with some of the streets that we've annexed as part of the rosin annexation Where the drainage measures are really taken care of by roadside ditches And there often isn't private structures on each individual site that funnels that water to the ditches So we end up with pooling in certain areas As development occurs it really fixes that problem because it brings formal street improvements in and it brings permanent storm drain in So as this site develops what the site will have to do is accept any water running into the property So any drainage that historically flowed through the site it will have to address that it cannot cut that off and Create a problem off site of the development It will also implement drainage measures inside the site that focus on obviously flood control, but also lid So limited impact development takes the storm water takes the storm water off all the impervious surfaces And it treats it and retains a portion of it to hold it in the ground and that basically helps with some of the flood control As the design moves forward it does have to submit formal hydrology and hydraulic reports that shows exactly those impacts that it's having So basically the development can't further any impacts that are already in the system now From a transportation public works department standpoint We do operate those ditches when they are a public and part of the street And we do respond to some of those concerns about flooding some of that can simply be maintenance of the ditch So it can be a combination of a few things, but I think the important point is when the development goes through It will correct all of those situations on site and it cannot further any issues that are off site to the development I hope that answers your question Any other questions from council members? I wanted to ask We heard a little bit about the property to the east Of this property and a disputed lot line Can you walk us through and perhaps this is a question for the city attorney? It sounds like the county has approved one lot line. It sounds like the county has Hosted a separate lot line How does the city make the determination of where the actual lot line lies? Can I jump in before city attorney jumps in? Oh, please Okay, the information that we get from a gis which is called geographical information system It's inaccurate. No one should be relying on those lines being shown on the gis if Clerk shares a page. I will show why you should not be like relying on those Lines if you look under page 13 Go to person 13 On Okay, do you see on the top right how the lines go through the houses? So those lines are not accurate as you can see We do we do not rely on those lines in the gis system And the neighbor on the right side came to sell his name is sal. He came to the city I provided him the access or parcel map so he could see the property lines are straight. They are not like a Diagnose and if you need help from city attorney, she can jump in Well, so I guess my question is it sounds like that there is a fence that is based on Sounds like the gis lines Sounds like they've been there for a number of years. I think what I heard was 20 years so I guess I'm I'm struggling a little bit because one of the questions or one of the comments that was brought up is that Based on what you were saying are the proper lot lines. There's enough space enough acreage for this density and If that lot line is not correct Then there's not enough acreage for the density I will refer this to Gabe Osburn. He can explain that I appreciate that Gabe help help me walk through this Happy to mayor and it is a challenging one. It really gets into property line disputes And what we run into in that particular case is the private serving community has been granted quite a bit of authority Both at the federal and the state level for determining property boundaries So as we previously mentioned in the presentation when we look at excessive parcel maps They're really developed for tax purposes to determine square footage for tax assessment They are not a legal representation of property boundaries When a surveyor prepares a tentative map that surveyor is either doing physical surveying exercises on the field where the surveying Firm is looking or the engineering firm at previous data that was prepared by other Surveyors and they're piecing that together to determine that legal boundary In many situations because the property line is often different than a fence placement It does create a situation because we deal with these historic issues where the fence is essentially inside the boundary So as part of that that really becomes a private dispute and the surveyors I've seen situations where surveyors can disagree on what that boundary is And that happens with a lot of with the absence of a lot of local authority over it and the surveyors can disagree And then often a judge is the determining body for the legal property boundary In this particular case as this project evolves They will move forward with what is referred to as a final map that will have a legal subdivision boundary And there likely will be a heavier level of surveying that takes place as part of that And they'll have to work out this surveying issue that before we record that map Will in they can legally to define the boundary on that map And the property dispute we can become that legal issue But there is another step where there's a higher level of surveying that pins that property line down And monuments and make sure is the the property boundaries are secured I will Leave it up to our city attorney to further that explanation if there's anything I missed in that process No, I think Gabe gave a very Complete and correct answer and I just reiterate the assessor parcel maps are for tax purposes only States it right on those pages And The developer will have to rely on professional survey being done And if there is a property line dispute Beyond that Then it becomes that private matter that would have to be resolved before we can move forward with with the final map So if there's when the the final Survey is done if it is found that the project Site is actually below the required acreage for the density Or if there's a legal fight subsequent to approval That finds that that line is more accurate towards what the neighbors believe that it is Does that unwind unwind the approval of the project as a result? Not necessarily the um, first of all, I the developer will be doing a survey Early on I imagine that they already have done a survey. Um, it would be an additional survey perhaps if that's needed Um, they're not going to go through a lot of work to Get things done without knowing that they have the right acreage and the right design of their lot line adjustment so If if it becomes a private matter if they are able to establish By professional survey that the parcel Is 2.1 acres and that the project can move forward we will rely on that If it then becomes a private dispute That's going to be between those two private owners Okay, so but they do have to establish that before they can move forward with the final map Correct and if there's private litigation that then finds that that lot line is not correct What happens on our end on our end if the if the if the court determined that though The line was as the neighbor said and that they're that the property is less than 2 acres in size Then the The project could not move forward at that point Okay I see an additional question That's member rogers I think this just went from bad to worse. Doesn't that lot line go through sales house? I As I'm seeing it goes through a building that's on the property. I don't I didn't understand that it was his home But if it is over the boundary line The Project site owner can compel it to be removed. I know he mentioned perhaps adverse possession Adverse possession has to have been He was using that property without the permission of the property owner And that That he had paid taxes for that sliver of land Over it for at least five years It's a it's a huge hurdle to establish adverse possession In california in this situation So if I can jump in here and ask kind of the the follow-up question then If The Assessors map Is strictly for the purposes of tax? Then are we to believe that if the assessors map shows that the line is a different place that you have a neighbor who's been paying tax Based on an understanding that they own that part The assessor parcel map also has acreage. So you're being your Your you're paying your taxes based on the acreage not necessarily based on The the precise line Okay additional questions I would also note. I don't know what kind of flexibility there is in the lot line adjustment in terms of The acreage that we're talking about is very small And there may be a possibility that the developer if there were a problem and we haven't seen that established If there were a problem there may be some adjustments that they could make That way as well Okay, clear as mud That's member schwedhelm. Do you want to put a motion on the table for discussion? Sure, mr. Mayor. Thank you I will move a resolution of the council the city center osa denying an appeal and one Adopting an addendum to the certified roseland area slash sabastral road specific plan and roseland area annexation projects final environmental impact report state clearing house number 201 601 2030 And two approving a tentative parcel map for the herne veterans village subdivision To subdivide a 2.01 acre parcel into four lots for herne veterans village subdivision located 2149 west herne avenue Assessors parcel assessors parcel numbers 134 dash zero one dash zero one two and dash zero one three File number M i n 2 1 dash zero zero one and wave further reading in the text second We have a motion from councilmember schwedhelm and a second from councilmember fleming Who wants to start with comments? councilmember schwedhelm Thank you, mr. Mayor, you know as We've had several of these appeals before us and you know, I do appreciate as some people have said Both very compelling arguments those both very Dedicated perspectives with a lot of research and different perspectives and then all of a sudden, you know in this City attorney mentioned that sometimes when there's disputes it goes to a court of law judge Well, we happen to be that body now So I take all that information I know all seven of us take all that information You know I've been on the site several times taking a look at it you read all the material Just come to a different conclusion. And so my conclusion is Denying the appeal I'm in support and I've come to the same conclusion that the planning commission came to So I'll be supporting the motion Councilmember soyer thank you, mayor in my experience that Potential change is Desperately difficult at times I don't question the neighbors support of veterans at all And it's very clear to me that This housing is desperately needed I'll be supporting the planning commissions decision And the planning and economic development recommendation and deny the appeal Councilmember Fleming These these land use decisions are never easy to make however After reviewing all of the information and hearing from both sides The value that comes forward for me is that we have a desperate problem on our hands and that that problem as I see it Is taking care of our most vulnerable residents It is not my belief that the residents who would wish to keep the character of their neighborhood You know very rural Are in any way opposed to veterans. That's not what I heard. I heard a lot of support for veterans And one of the challenges we have anytime we take up a land use is that We don't oppose affordable housing or we don't oppose veterans and we don't oppose density But what we oppose is having it right here And i'm not unsupport Unsensitive insensitive to those arguments in terms of When you do have something in your backyard, it is really difficult to deal with change and If you wanted to live in a place that didn't have this kind of density in your backyard You probably wouldn't have lived there and so It is not with a cold heart that I that I Am going to deny the appeal It is with an open heart towards veterans and with the The broader concerns that we're dealing with as a society And I am very regretful to the residents who feel impacted by this and it is not something that I take lately councilmember rogers um So I think that it is um a very difficult Decision to make I don't like these land use decisions um, I I definitely don't like Making it seem as if we're either choosing veterans or not choosing veterans being as though I am married to a veteran. Um, my daughter is currently in the navy um, and I have a ton of Friends that are veterans But for those of you that know me and know um, how I operate i'm a very loyal person and so when The city says that they're going to do something such as Bringing a community or a residence In to the city limits I think that it's very important that we honor that And when we say we're going to look at housing and we're going to do infill and we're going to work in with downtown And focus on that and not go on the outskirts. I think that that is something That we should stand by and also do um, and I also don't Want or I would not want um To put a veteran in a community or a residence um, where there is already um Not good vibes like I I want to put them In a beautiful community in a beautiful new neighborhood where they are welcomed um and They're in a in a wonderful place And to say, you know, we did not speak to neighbors because We knew they were going to say something that we didn't want to hear That just doesn't sit well with me. I I listen to People say things that I don't always agree with But I still listen to what they have to say because I may learn something And I may have to compromise and in multiple ways not just in the ways that I want to compromise um So I'm going to approve The appeal because I think that there's more compromising That could be done and it's not because I don't want The veterans village to go up. I think it's a beautiful A beautiful plan and I want it there, but I want our veterans to go they've been to war They've been deployed. They've been where people don't want them. I don't want them to move into a neighborhood Where that is the case. I want them to move somewhere where people are welcoming them with open arms and I think that We should all want that for them. So it's not just about housing. It's about It's the whole person. So if we're worried about their mental health We're worried about their physical health. We need to worry about The whole veteran not just putting a roof over their heads. Thank you councilmember mcdonald Yes, just so I can have some clarification I is this consistent with development within the urban growth boundary Just so I'm clear on that. Thank you. And um, you know with the zoning ordinances being adhered to the planning commissions deliberations and a 5-0 vote Um, I I really do want to thank the neighbors that came here tonight I did not hear that they were not in support of veterans However, I I feel very strongly that we speak about supporting our most vulnerable We speak about affordable housing and we speak about ensuring that there's places for our unhoused Folks to live is specifically our veterans. And so this project actually Almost doubles housing that we currently have for veterans in Santa Rosa and so I am definitely in favor of that I was a legislative advocate that supported military families and what they go through During deployment is far different and these are men and women who have served our country They've sacrificed their lives many times and certainly their limbs. And so I think You know as councilmembers We owe them for their service to our country and I highly respect them And so I will be denying the appeal and approving this project And mr. Vice mayor Thank you, ma'am Well, first of all, I want to appreciate those that offer services to those who have Sacrificed through their service uh And I hope that each one of you can appreciate that I'm not in the business of going back on our on our word Even if it was the word of my predecessors It's clear to me that In 2017 There was an understanding between the city of Santa Rosa and the residents of western to protect The rural identity of their neighborhood I don't think it's an issue of nimbyism As a child who grew up in that same field You know to hope that the children of the future also have an opportunity to experience what it is Chasing those lizards and and watching those hawks And and and we think about What our vets have done for us and again, I don't think that that the veteran is the issue here The truth of the matter is that each one of you deserve a million dollars and imagine Not a small unit But I cannot see myself Negating an understanding that was made And something that has actually produced great things for district one Which is right across the way If anything I invite the the developers To district one to purchase a home to rent a home and offer even more services for our vets But I will be upholding the the appeal today. Thank you Thank you colleagues So for me this was a Very difficult decision that became more clear as we went through the discussion I agree with some of my council member colleagues When they talk about promises that have been made and it actually started to remind me Of discussions that we have elsewhere in other types of land use decisions throughout the entire city as well And i'm distinguishing between what was the promise that was made by the city of sanarosa And what has become a more intense land use as a result of state law changes that apply equally throughout And this is a discussion that we're having in every corner of the city as people complain about parking reductions adu Or single-use family zoning elimination things that are intensifying the land use that we are largely supportive of here And so it comes down to me What was the agreement that was struck between the city and the neighbors and that's the rh zoning Does this plan make does this plan match the rh zoning that was agreed to by the neighbors With the city at the time of annexation and the answer is yes if you Assume that the lot line is correct This is part of why I tried to dig into a little bit about where that line actually is And ultimately that's out of my hands. That's going to be a discussion for the courts I think that my job as the mayor and as a council member is when something meets the Zoning when something meets the spirit of what we're trying to accomplish throughout sanarosa Our job is to approve it and if there's a dispute it's the court's job to then step in and fight that So i'm certain that there'll be a lawsuit around whether or not that line is correct I think that the outcome of this project will largely be dependent on or dependent on what a judge finds If the judge finds that the neighbor's understanding of where the line is It doesn't meet the zoning it wouldn't move forward if a judge finds that the line is the city and the applicant understand it Is correct then it does meet that r.h. Zoning that compromise that was reached between the city and the neighbors And so then the project would move forward I'm interested to see what ends up happening It is no disrespect to anybody in this process. It is not an easy one But I will be voting tonight to deny the appeal With that madame city clerk if you could please call the vote. Thank you mayor councilmember schwedhelm. Hi Councilmember soyer. Hi councilmember rogers. Hey councilmember mcdonald. Hi councilmember fleming. Hi vice mayor alvarez Mayor rogers. Hi that motion passes with five eyes with vice mayor alvarez and councilmember rogers voting no I want to give a quick. Thank you to all of our staff as well. I know this was not an easy one to walk through So thank you for your work on this item As we mentioned earlier item 15.2 was pulled from tonight's agenda. So we will hear that at a later date Uh, actually the appeal was withdrawn. So we will not hear that we have A written communication here. It's our federal legislative update with a couple of support letters That were signed by the city I'll go ahead and see if there's any public comment on item 16. That's our written communications I see one hand on zoom and I don't know if your hand was left up from the last item or if you're giving comment on item 16 I was just concerned that they thought they could put storm drains on our street because they cannot All right. Thank you so much, Ann I'll go ahead and bring it back to we have any voicemails on our Written communications we do not mayor. Okay Let's move on. Let's see if we have any public comments for non agenda items if anybody has a comment This is our second non agenda items period Go to hit the raise hand feature on your zoom Seeing none, I'll bring it back to the council And with that we will adjourn