 Well, you know the Whale Store, that was fun. Meeting of the Capitol City Council is now in regular session. We've done presentations, excuse me, pledge announcement. So now we move on to presentations. Oh, Pledge of Allegiance. We started. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. With that, I welcome Scott, and you have others with you? Others with me, yeah. I see. Thanks for having me. Thank you. We're here to talk about our Measure C General Obligation Bond. My name is Scott Turnbull. I'm Superintendent of Soquel Union Elementary School District, of which new Brighton Middle School is one of our schools right here in Capitola. So with me tonight is our CBO and Assistant Superintendent of Business, Michelle Kennedy, and our Bond and Facilities Manager, Jim Dupre. So just a real quick background, because I know our time is tight. Back in 2016, we took to the voters a $42 million General Obligation Bond and got the support of the community with about 72% of voter approval. We're now on pace to be able to replace all our outdated portable classrooms with new, modern facilities that you're going to hear about tonight. And we're just very appreciative of the community support. We do have a Citizens Oversight Committee that keeps the district accountable, of which Steve Jesberg is one of our members. And it's a great committee that really works with us to make sure we're on point. The last thing I'll say before you hear from everybody else is that we were pretty bold and pretty public about our goals of getting all of this work done by the time school starts in August of 2019. And a rare instance of a construction program, we are on point with our original goals, so we're really proud of that. And with that, I will turn it over to my colleagues. Good evening, everyone. I'm here to talk about the money, being the money person. Give you a slight overview of our project, and then Jim is going to talk to you guys about some of the pictures we have in the presentation regarding our three elementaries and our middle school. So as Scott had mentioned, in November of 2016, we passed the Bond and we are just over two years now into the Bond Project and very proud to say we are on schedule, on time for opening for school year 2019, which is just three years after passing a $42 million bond. Part of that program is 33 new classrooms district-wide. That's replacing 39 portables that were failing the district that were some up to 40 years old. New Brighton specifically, we have our art studio and our wood shop complex at New Brighton. That project is coming in about $2.2 million of the $42 million that was passed. Our boys and girls locker room at New Brighton is coming in along with our dance and weight rooms. We put that project as one. That's coming in at just over $4 million. And the sixth classroom wing at New Brighton is coming in at just over $6.2 million. So in total, that's $12.5 million of the $42 million that we are spending here at New Brighton. And that is roughly 30% of our overall Bond Project. At the three elementaries, we have new student restrooms going in. We have a science and music room up at Santa Cruz Gardens with a roll-up door. It's very beautiful to get a chance to get up there. We have two of our sites, Main Street and Soquel, that are two-story classrooms. And we have a science life lab and art room both at Soquel and Main Street for outdoor area. Soquel, we just partnered with the county and they're doing a restoration project behind the creek area. So we're hoping to do our science outdoor next year. And so with that, I'm going to turn you over to Jim. Good evening everyone and thanks for having us. So we'll go through this really pretty quickly. These are shots from our elementary school. Upper left there is an overhead shot of the two-story building going in at Soquel Elementary School. You can see that we've got some of the roofing going in and the deck between the first and second floor is all in. Main Street is a little bit behind that. That's the steel superstructure and we've made some progress since this picture was taken. And below at Santa Cruz Gardens, that's a kindergarten classroom which has already been inhabited. We've got kids moved into the kindergarten and to a special ed classroom already. And the music room will be moved into over spring break. So we're really excited about that. These are some 3D artist renderings of the three buildings we're doing at New Brighton. Upper left is the art and wood shop complex. And then on the right hand side is the PE department with the locker rooms. You know, the boys and girls have been changing and outdated portables forever. And then below that is the classroom wing which is closest to the district office. And we'll have a nice new entry pickup area for parents. This is a pretty up-to-date picture. Actually not really because we've now got some color coat. This is the art and wood shop complex. Our builders are saying this is a high school quality wood shop that they're building for us here at the junior high. We're very excited about that. And the art studio will have a kiln room and plenty of room to spread out and do all the amazing things that Roy Segura does there at the junior high. Interior shot to show that we're moving along. You know, things are happening really quickly. A lot of infrastructure in this one. Tons of power and things like that, especially in a wood shop. So we're moving along pretty quick with that one. This is a picture of one of our inside of our classroom buildings. It's a teaching wall which is pretty standard throughout the district in our new buildings. And in this teaching wall there'll be sliding whiteboards that'll cover most of those cupboards. And in that big white area, all the classrooms district-wide will be getting 70-inch TVs that will hook into Chromecast. They're dot cameras and give them almost like a 3D quality. And the kids will be really able to see it. And so we're really excited that we're moving forward with that. Nice high ceilings too, I love that. A lot of volume. This is the exterior of that building. The rain has not been friends to us. I'm the only guy in California rooting for a drought. But we're moving along, making progress. Mostly outside of the outside of this building, the painters have been slowed down a little bit. This is the interior of the dance and weight room. It looks like one big room, but we have a demising wall that moves in the center and cut it into two spaces. So two teachers can use groups at the same time where they can open it up and do what they need to do in there. We're getting on a nice soft surface floor. It's going to be installed in the next week or so. And then this is the interior of the locker room. We have a pour in place epoxy floor in there that will probably outlive all of us, which is great for care. It's waterproof, slip resistant. The little curbs you see are where the lockers are going. Every student will have their own locker for the first time ever. And then we're shooting for, they plan on turning all these buildings over to us on July 15th. That will give the district some time to put together furniture, move things in, get things where people want them. And we'll be able to take a deep breath and say, wow. So that's where we are. We will all gladly take questions if you have them. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Scott and Michelle and Jim for coming and giving us an update in the presentation. I consider very sorely needing new facilities for our children here. My question is, when it is completed, are you going to have like a public open house and invite the community to come and do some tours? I think that, I know I would love to do that and would appreciate hearing about that. Absolutely. We don't have anything on the calendar yet, but besides our ribbon cutting ceremony, we will definitely have some open house type events. Let everybody come in and see the cool stuff. Thank you, Scott. That was the question I was going to ask. I do want to say that I'm really pleased to see that some of these buildings are going towards arts programs that otherwise we're seeing removed from schools nowadays. And so I'm really, I'm happy to see that. Our art and wood shop, if you ever get a chance to come over and see them, they are state of the art. We have great teachers in there and we're finally going to have the facilities to match the quality of the instruction in there. So yeah, thank you. I just want to say congratulations for being on time and on budget. That's really an accomplishment. You should be proud. Our team here put up a great team, good construction manager and amazing architect. And our board has been very supportive too, of which Phil Rodriguez, trustee is here tonight too, I should mention. So thank you. With a little one coming into the school district, I'm really excited to see the upgrades and just really looking forward to having her begin her entire education with Soquel Elementary. She'll never know the difference, right? She won't. Just be her norm. Yeah, we are too. And those two story classrooms at Soquel and Main Street are just amazing. And what a space saver, you know, because not just here, but especially here, every square foot of, you know, land is so valuable. And so we're able to get twice as many classrooms in there and still conserve recreation areas. So she's going to have a good time. So Scott, I did not know you were a band director. I am very far from a band director. You were there the other night, right? Right at our community forum. Please comment. I was very impressed with your band. And even though you were directing, it was wonderful music. And you've expanded the program. Can you go into that please? Sure can. So I got to give credit where credit is due. That was Craig Broadhurst, the principal that was directing the band. So but our band is we just have been able to cobble together a little bit of money. And we have a one class at New Brighton. They played the other night at our community forum and we're amazingly good for the amount of time that they've been together as a band. So, you know, we value music education. Unfortunately, we didn't get our parcel tax passed. That was one way that we were going to try to fund a more full fledged district wide music program. But we do the best we can with the scraps that we have. Okay. I won't confuse it to you next time, but I was very impressed. He's the better looking one. Yeah. Oh, come on. Okay. And you saved the lemon tree. I do have one question for the life lab, you know, the gardens and stuff like that that were taken out. What are the plans for that in the new Brian? So yeah, those will be replaced back when we finish the project. And in fact, Jim might be able to talk about this a little more. But the classroom that's closest to that garden now will kind of be set up to support a life lab opportunity where there be a sink and everything and anything you want to add to that, Jim? As we were moving through and that it came that that that end classroom on that wing, we backed right up to what is going to be the garden. We decided to put a back door on that classroom at a little bit of a cost to us just so that the kids could have easy access to that garden and easy back into the classroom. And just so that those two, those two classrooms kind of married together, making it a little bit of a specialty classroom. But how the garden is very important and it will definitely definitely be replaced. It was kind of in disrepair. So now's a really good time to make it much, much better. Yeah, no, that was important. I've been across the street for 20 years and it comes up and down. And yeah, that's right. Okay. So any more questions? Okay. Staff, any questions? No. Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you all for the time. Thank you. So let's see the presentations. Any report on closed session? The city met city council, but I should say in closed session to discuss two items under the significant exposure to pending litigation and the city has taken no reportable action. Thank you very much with that. The any additional materials? Yes, we received additional material public comment on two items for nine a. There were two. And for nine C, there were five items, two of which came in today. And those are at the dais and they're also all public comment is available in fact. Okay. Thank you. Moving along. Any deletions and additions to the agenda? No changes. Okay. Thank you. Public comments. Now we have a time for public comment. Please keep your comments to three minutes. Thank you very much and cover items not on the agenda. Chairman, city council people. Yeah, the Pledge of Allegiance missing out was not a big thing compared to your oath for office. And what I'm talking about is the surrounding of local government by city councils throughout the Monterey Bay region to a Soviet called ambag. The whole state of California is covered by councils of government. If you look up Calcog, there's not a square inch of California that's not covered by it. It's run. You'll see the emblem every place and everywhere of Ickley, which is a front for the World Bank and the United Nations. They intend to reduce the local and county governments by 80%, according to Lenny Mendonka, who's the co-chairman of Leon Panetta's California Forward. Years ago, when Gary Patton was head of the board of supervisors, he advocated one of these separate power companies throughout the Monterey Bay area. And the supervisor from the south said this is a Fabian socialist proposal. The Fabian socialist emblem is a wolf in sheep's clothing. The person that did support it is Robbie Levy. Her petition was circulated by Hugh DeLacy, who was a communist espionage agent that gave information both to the Soviet Union and to communist China. Leon Panetta, when he was congressman, gave military and policy information to this communist. Now, Gary Patton, that was advocating this, according to a resolution here by the board of supervisors, was supporting the communist takeover of Grenada, in which there were Soviet cruise ships in the harbor the morning of the coup. There were MiG-23s being uncrated. There were Soviet AK-47s. That board of supervisors still maintains honoring plaques to this communist Soviet agent. You can go to the Fabian socialist government. The present chairman of the board of supervisors is Ryan Coonerty. He went to the Fabian socialist school in England. There is no change. Leon Panetta, Gary Patton attended a meeting at the Loudon Nelson Center. And they honored Hugh DeLacy and his communist organizing wife, saying that they sign as comrades and they are in solidarity forever. This present organization of Monterey Bay Community Power, their spokesman is advocating a separation of a separate communist state called Pacifica. And that's Mr. Jay Killigrew. And you've got Palacio. You've got Bruce McPherson who received tens of thousands of dollars from a triple Chinese communist agent. I encourage you to wake up, pull out of the Soviet ambag, pull out of Calcog, and be independent and demand that you represent your city and the people that voted you here. Don't surrender your authority to ambag, please. Thank you very much. Any other comments from the public? Please come forward. It's hard to produce your own videos, YouTube videos. But I want to be able to remind Capitola residents what it is to be a good flag waving Americans because we are good people. I truly believe that. And this is a very welcoming council and I do appreciate it. But I want to be able to share with members of the public my latest book that I'm reading, Killers of the Flower Moon. Really great book. Has a plethora of wonderful information, very illuminating. The protagonist reminds me of a Zach friend. But I want to be able to share with members of the public that, you know, I'm in the, I attend the county board of supervisors meeting and they're in violation of the Brown Act. And so what we're trying to do, what I'm trying to do is trying to galvanize members of the public because they're engaging in anti-dialogical action, anti-political and anti-democratic. They're not allowing members of the public to weigh in on the political issue to make qualifying statements to shake the rules that bind the rule. And the consent agenda, they have talked with that with the public comment. And this is a violation of the Brown Act. And I'm here to show Zach friend and Carl Palacio who resides in Watsonville and we attended that public meeting. And they allowed us to participate in the consent agenda. This is unacceptable. We're asking for members of the public to call up the county board of supervisors and demand that they restore, take restorative action and allow members to weigh in on the consent agenda. It's imperative in order for the political community to grow and hear the public-spirited perspective. They need members that will come and offer that, that don't come from the establishment. We're not anti-establishment, but what we want to do is we want to be able to affirm our democratic values. This is important. And so I want to be able to make capital residents aware that they're engaging in anti-dialogical action, which is a political dismembering of people that don't come from a wild power and influence, which is shameful and egregious. So I thank you for your time and I thank you for you guys being welcoming. God bless you guys and God bless America. Thank you very much. Come forward, please. Hi, council. My name is Jason Shepardson. I'm a doctor of physical therapy. I work at Ronning physical therapy right next to Bangkok West. More than anything, I just want to introduce myself to the council and the community. I've lived here on and on, on and off since 2010 and really going to put down roots here. And just plan on just being a part of the community, being a part of these meetings and more than anything, just to introduce myself. Thank you very much. I wish you business success. Thank you. Any other comments from the public? Seeing none, bring it back to city council and staff comments. Who would like to start off? Any comments? Sam? No. Person? Okay. I went to a wonderful meeting the other day. It's the 2020 census kickoff. You and I went, you wrote me into it. So now I'm part of this committee that will be very actively engaged in trying to promote information about the census, how important it is to this community. We need everyone counted so that this community can be funded for the operations and the services that we provide. If we don't get everyone counted in this community, we will be short the amounts that we need. And so it's very, it's very important to be participating this and spread the word. So that's my comments on that. Any city council comments? Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I just wanted to announce that today was a great day for a cadets at the police academy. We have three cadets, as you know, in the academy and today they made it through the midpoint examination passed with flying colors and moving on to the second phase of the academy. So I know several of our folks from the department were down there to see them through the process and we're excited to announce that progress. That's great. Good. So moving on to consent calendar. Is there a motion? I move approval of consent calendar. Okay. Before we vote on that, is there anyone in the audience that would like to comment on the consent calendar or pull an item on the consent calendar? Hearing none. All those in favor? Aye. Okay. Good evening city council and mayor. Before you this evening is I'm returning after the last meeting with slight modifications to the bicycle and PTD ordinance that was presented last hearing. During the last meeting first off the ordinance has been drafted to bring it up to date with new bicycle parking standards. That would be applicable throughout the city and also in preparation for a future bike share program. And should we decide to have also a scooter program but our previous regulations were from I think 1951. So it was time to update. So during the last hearing we heard concern for the bicycles on sidewalk standards that previously the draft the previous draft prohibited by PTD is the personal transportation devices and bicycles on sidewalks. The updates are the direction we heard from city council was to allow children on the sidewalks as long as they're outside the village. And so in doing that we A is to continue to prohibit PTDs on sidewalks B states that no person shall ride a bicycle on a sidewalk and makes an exception for children. And in reviewing that we felt obligated to say that the child should be riding in the same direction as traffic for their safety. We're setting this up for safety to allow children under the age of 10 on the sidewalks so it would be unsafe for them to ride against traffic. So we added that. And then standard C is defining that children of all ages are not allowed to ride bicycles within the village. And we thought the best technique to put into the ordinance would be to define the village location the same as skateboards. Because really the location of the skateboard ordinance is based on elevation and before you would go down and descend into the village and to slow people down. So at that point anyone on a bicycle should either ride in the bike lanes or children should walk their bicycles through the village. So that was the first change that took place. Second there was conversation about the single file standard that was added to the previous draft. In doing more research I thought it would be more appropriate to add the state code for bicycles and roadways. This talks about the section of code was added as an exhibit but really talks about how bicycles should interact well on the street and when they pass. And there's no regulation stating that they have to be single file as long as they're in the bike lane or passing in the appropriate manner. So with that those are the two big updates to the ordinance since we last met. And I'm recommending approval of the first reading of the new draft ordinance. That would amend chapter 10.04 general provisions repeal chapter 10.44 bicycles and adopt chapter 10.44 bicycles and personal transportation devices. Thank you very much. Is there questions coming from this board. Sam. Thank you mayor. Just one question and it is a matter of clarification. It's okay for young children to walk their bicycles on the sidewalk. They can walk their bicycles on the sidewalk inside or outside of the village. Yes. All right. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions. I have no questions. Any questions from the audience. Seeing none I'll bring it back to city council for direction. Motion to approve staff recommendation. Second. Second. All those in favor. Okay. Moving on to item B. This is an ordinance amending chapters 2.04 2.08 and 6.14. We are here tonight with the first reading of an ordinance that is the final phase of our efforts to transition from an elected to an appointed treasurer. This process began with the passage of measure K by the voters at which point we eliminated any references to an elected treasurer from the municipal code. And then in January the council discussed options for the approach to appoint a treasurer. And we have come up with we brought forth all of the other elements and have incorporated your direction. So the first item is the addition which explains how we will the two part phase that was recommended by the council. And that is to have the city manager appoint the finance director that will then be brought to the council and the council will actually make the final appointment. And so that is a new section of code. The next section is predominantly cleanup. It removes outdated references to the redevelopment treasurer position that no longer exists. It adds the phrase allowing the finance director to serve as the treasurer. The next section allows for the city manager to remove the treasurer. So that is the strikeout portion. And then the highlighted portion is what would allow him to remove the finance director in the same manner that any other personnel would be able to be removed. So this portion refers back to the appointment. So that stays in place. And then this allows him to remove without other action. And then the final section. We also did another cleanup action which was to remove an outdated section requiring dog licenses to be reported to the treasurer for reasons that no one was clear on. So it's pretty straightforward cleanup. This is the first reading and we are recommending that you pass the first reading. Any questions of the city. So city manager will recommend and the city council will approve. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. No questions. Any questions from the audience hearing none. Come back to the city council for direction. Is there a motion to approve this motion to approve staff recommendation second second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. None opposed. Okay. So moving on to central village decorative lighting item C. An evening mayor and council. Don't have a slide show on this one. I didn't before you is at the request of council member bot or to at least have a discussion on the holiday lighting that was installed this year. Mainly along capital. I have but also on the other trees within the village. Just a brief history the city's involvement in the sectional lighting has always been going just to hang the lighting. The various businesses around the chamber at one point actually purchased the lights in the public works department install some kind of their request. That also includes installation of Christmas trees. Historically we had one Christmas tree. We put them all the road it's kind of moved off to the sidewalk and recently we've added more trees throughout the village. So that's it. We're looking from direction if the council wants to make any changes to that program in the future. Thank you. Okay. Any questions of Steve. Yes. Thank you mayor. Steve do we have an agreement with the BIA concerning the lighting program. No there's never been a written agreement. It's kind of just been a handshake and cooperation agreement that we've worked together on regarding that. And one follow up and some of the correspondence that I've received concerning it. I'm consistently ran over the word permanent lighting. Where does that come from? So historically what we've done is we've installed the lighting around Thanksgiving every year and left it up until the small lighting that we've had would eventually fail and we leave it up until it failed and then we go back and take it down. So it would stay lit until it failed and then we've replaced it every Thanksgiving. So that's I think it's anticipated that the rope lighting that has now been installed will last quite a bit longer. May last throughout the year. Okay. So the permanent means year round and for the life of the lights. Right. And refreshing them and you know all this. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Any questions from the attendees here on this particular item? Good evening, Karen. Good evening, Karen Hanna. Congratulations. Congratulations on moving this right along. I said you don't have to be here before seven thirty for the third public hearing. So we do have several members of the BIA board here. This evening and the history of the lighting and the word permanent that you mentioned, Sam, for about at least three years is probably more but I'm trying not to exaggerate. We have been talking to city staff, Jamie primarily, but a little bit to Steve as well, and about and among the businesses down there about how nice it would be to have the palm trees lit all year round. And we started investigating different methods to light the trees, rings that go up under the fronds, lights that are in the ground that shine up. The city even purchased one of the ring lights to test it out and it totally inadequate didn't really light up the street at all. The village is very dark. There are not very many street lights there and the program that we've used for years and years of putting the little twinkle lights on the palm trees is just really sometimes they'd be vandalized within two or three days of putting them up. And it's just not practical for the city staff to go crew to go back and keep restringing those lights. We would just let them fail and then sometimes it would be as early as the middle of January before we'd have to take them down. Sometimes we were able to get them to go till like April before they were just so raggedy it was an embarrassment. So the permanently lighting the palm trees has been something that's been talked about. There have been city council members at the BIA meetings over the years and as they say it's been going on for a long time. I think that because of that there just there didn't seem to be any and because of the what we've always been doing in the past reason to come and get a permit you know because we just honestly those of us who've been involved in that particular project for three years just thought well everybody knows we're trying to do this and nobody seems to have any issue with it. So we investigated the different methods of lighting the trees like those ring lights or the lights in the ground could cost as much as $30,000 to install and that just you know that was a problem we talked about oh well maybe we could not have free parking one year at Christmas and the BIA could pay for half and the city could pay for half and that sort of thing. Anyway this is the affordable program that we finally eliminated all other possibilities this was the only way to light it. I think our letter from the BIA pretty well states that you know it's affordable it does a good job of illuminating the sidewalks where there are no street lights and it's the maintenance issue they're very durable so the maintenance issue they're very hard to vandalize so that's another very important issue for us. So I think that you know whether or not we got a permit is kind of a little bit of a you know red herring I think it's really a matter of you know are some of these are some of the residents able to dictate what the look of the village is. I'm sorry that the letter came so late the email was supposed to go out in time to go out and but it's the look that we want for the future of Capitola it's bright it's contemporary it's clean the city crew did an awesome job making them straight because those lights can be a mess and we have more lights to put up but obviously with this controversy we're just holding them in storage if we have to take the lights down they're useless they're valueless and I'm not sure we'll see anything you know what I don't know whether we'll be able to replace them or not so I sincerely hope I think that a lot of the fervor of oh my god what's happened to our charming town it's not dingy anymore you know it's all of a sudden it's bright and and crisp you know we don't like that we want it to be dingy and have yellow lights up there so hopefully you'll you'll let us leave them up and let people get used to them which I think seems to be happening now so thanks for your time thank you current any others from the BIA board and I'll be here your comments thank you I'm Rodney Warzok with Capitalic Candy Company and also a BIA board member something I'd like to add on top of what she said is we did speak with a lighting specialist took pictures of the entire village I sent them off to them and one of the things I heard was they've implemented these same lights in the warm white versus the cool white in other beach towns and they've removed them kind of like what we're going through and now people aren't liking the bright and they had to remove them and they they went to the bright and people like them better the reason why they went with the bright is because when the warm white is put against the trees it looks muddy this has been implemented on wooden bridges and they've taken it off before because it really makes it just look kind of dingy muddy when you put them against it we tested a little piece of it on at nighttime and it does it doesn't give the light the right brightness it's just a lot safer now down in the village at night and I do tend to stay open a lot later than other businesses sometimes 10 o'clock at night and it does bring in a lot more business for us I mean we're hurting down there during this for these winter seasons and can use every little bit of help we can get and this is a help. Thank you very much thank you and you stay open pretty late so you see this yes thank you thank you any other comments from the public I see someone coming forward thank you. Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the jury how are we doing? Josh Fisher I own left coast sausage works also board member of BIA and board member of capital foundation I've lived down here now for five years in the village I've worked down here in the village for also five years own my own business now for three and in the last five years I think I've seen one or two good attempts as Karn was saying to keep the lights up and they've you know looked decent at times but they've always fallen apart and then the city crew has to go back and spend time and money excuse me taking them down and then replacing them again and then taking them down and replacing them again these ones have longevity they look really nice they're bright it's much safer down on cap ab which was very dark before it would be really nice to see it from Monterey all the way up to Bay Avenue and maybe even potentially on Stockton bridge and in other areas and really really tie in the inner village but I really think it looks really good and there was a lot of hard work and a lot of hours put in so I hope that we can work around this and leave them up and potentially add more. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments from the audience seeing none and bring it back to the board for discussion. Ed can you lead off you brought this to the board. Sure. I was my idea to put this on the agenda because I think it's time for a little clarification on what happens how this started was the lights were installed and immediately there was comment and you know the one thing we can talk about and it's not really factual it's an opinion is do you like them or do you not like them and it was all over the the the planet as far as what people thought there was there were some people that didn't care some people didn't like them some people did but what's important I think and the reason that I put it on the council agenda is is I think this we need to go back and it's my obligation I think since I've been a representative to the BIA for the past three years is to explain a little bit of the history of how this how this happened and what it's all about and Karen touched on it she started the story about three years ago it was brought up at a BIA meeting that they needed to do some they'd like to do some enhancements to the palm tree lights and there was a sub committee formed and the people on that subcommittee pretty much didn't do anything for about a year and then after about a year another subcommittee person took over and I was the liaison with with those committees at both and about midway through eight two thousand eighteen it was suggested that we you know go get upon light and I all I asked for was that they'd make a recommendation what they'd like to look like they gave me a picture of the one they liked brought this at that point I had suggested that to do the trial program I would buy the light personally just so we could see what it looked like because I felt it was important to see that these these lights run about five to eight hundred dollars depending on the diameter and we spend twenty thousand dollars on illumination plan be nice to see if it works so see manager advised me that would be not good for me to personally buy one so the city went ahead and bought the one life Steve did we bought it we mounted it we it came with four lights we tried two lights up two lights down four lights up and as Karen mentioned that you know the illumination of those palm tree lights was ineffective because they they conflicted with the street lights we had the pictures we saw in Palm Springs where it was done and it was really classy was that that's the only lighting they had on the street and they might have had some more intense bulbs I'm not sure but with our lights there was a conflict with street lights so that kind of fell by the wayside and there was more discussion about you know some kind of lights and there was a the most I can look back on from the records of the BA meetings was maybe street sidewalk conversations about good getting some lights there was never a BA meeting where they would they voted on doing lights there was never a subcommittee that I went to and they voted on lights they bought the rope lights they came to the city manager I mean to the public works department and the history as Steve mentioned was they would buy the lights give them to the city and the city would just figure that these are the same kind of lights and install them and what what this opens up for us is is that you know if they would have gone and bought purple lights and then we we hung them you know it's what control do we have should the city have over the village I know I've been here 10 years and when I got involved on the city council the first thing they told me was don't mess with the charm of the village it was driven in very hard I mean we talked about building a village hotel we talked about all kinds of things in the village and it was always made clear that there was this charming appeal of the village so I'm you know I'm protecting that is what I feel and and I say we can get back to the opinion about what we like or don't like but what what really makes this you know with how this translated was is the be I never really approved buying any lights there was a private donor that donated approximately I'm going to say between four and five thousand dollars to buy these lights they were handed over to public works and and you know kudos to public works they went out they took it seriously they I think they meticulously hung those lights which is a credit to them the problem is they changed the complexion of what the theme the village was the village has always been the soft lights and now there's neon so the comment period starts I think they went out to how did that work they went to Facebook there was a next door item I actually went to the next door site looked up but it was there was six people locally that liked them total of eleven that liked them there's twenty three people locally that didn't like them and a total of forty four that didn't like them and it was it was funny because a couple letters you know one letter kind of just really the one we have on here that came to us tonight it was a high I love the lights hate the color which pretty much summed up what most people did the idea of the lights was a fabulous idea the process never really existed there wasn't a process where where you know if I was intricately involved with the with the BIA at all these meetings I never knew the lights were going up that there'd been a change and then there was one letter where somebody wrote that you know people in the city only people that should vote on the lights are people that live in the village or work in the village and I I want to send a message to the BIA you should probably rethink that thought because if it was only the people that work in the village and live in the city you would have no business people that come to the village predominantly are visitors from far away so their opinion does matter so I think I think you should always you know should rethink about how people feel when they with the feeling they get from the village and was mentioned you know with with earlier is like you know we we just passed with the TOT measure we now give an allocation of approximately thirty thousand dollars annually to the BIA which is a significant jump for their budget pretty much almost doubles their budget and part of that was we included in the language that we'd like to see them do some village enhancements and part of that you know was to be if there was going to be purchasing these palm tree lights they would be responsible for doing that so and there's also in there about you know buying Christmas trees and other things in front I realized is as Sam you mentioned you touched on it we have no policy we have no ordinance about what they're able to do and it's like is it just the whim of what the business decides to do and and should we be subject to that because I think that you know I don't want to create a rivalry between the city council the citizens the BIA and the tourists but I there should be some collective way that you know we sit and discuss things and like what was done with the palm tree light there was a trial with these rope lights there was no suggestion of hey we want to try a brighter white light let's buy a strand let's wrap a tree and see what it looks like I think this was a rush to get them in this year and in that case they bought the whole lock stock barrel for all the trees and now we have a situation where like I said there's people that don't like it on next door 44 people that didn't like it 11 there's a significant complaint factor and as you mentioned Sam I don't think people realize that it's not Christmas lights their intent is to be year-round lights and the fact is that because they are rope lights and they're more durable they may last all year long they may not burn out it's possible that they could you know I think I talked to with the person at bottom they said that they think they could last for two or three years so we're talking about a permanent like and a permanent look that we want in the village and I'm just thinking that there should be some city should have ultimate control about what the village looks like we we have ordinances for signs we have ordinances for you know what product they sell there was a run there for a while where people were putting their wares outside the store we had to go in there and do a cleanup because it's the obligation of the city to maintain that look of the village and I understand that there is a there's a desire and willingness to run a good productive business but at the same time there's that obligation so the things that I'd like to do to bring it back to you tonight is number one I'd like to make a motion that we I won't make a motion yet I'll wait for the discussion the two things that I want to have in discussion tonight are whether or not we take the lights down and number two is to create some kind of an ordinance that gives guidelines for how decorations of any type are established in the village so I'll wait to hear other counts to be able to go next. So first I want to to just appreciate the BIA for what for coming out tonight and for the work that you do and for even thinking about our village and really wanting to brighten that up so and I appreciate Councilman Botorff's reflections on really everyone's input and the community's insights so there were a couple of things that that that were highlighted to me that was mentioned about expanding the lights and there was some mention of future use of the dollars that are coming in from the TOT and so the TOT tax and so what that means for me is that there's just a kind of there's a lot of unknown kind of from here on out with what the possibilities are and what the collaboration can be between our Council and the BIA and I hope that we can find or create an ordinance as suggested by Councilman Botorff so that we can continue this relationship with the BIA and really think about what's going to happen in the future. In the meantime I wouldn't want to see the lights taken down until there's some sort of agreement between the Council and the BIA I think we need to really work on this relationship and continue this relationship because it's all for the beauty of our own city so so at this point I would say that I am fine with them being up until we figure out a process and we come up with some sort of collaboration or collaborative effort between the two entities ourselves and the BIA. Thank you. Yeah I also want to thank everyone for being here tonight and sharing your opinion on this. I'll say right off the bat that I also don't think it would be wise to take these down definitely not right away not right now especially because we haven't seen the alternatives we don't know what any other colored lights would look like and I don't think that darkness is better than the lights that we have now. I agree that we need to have some kind of collaboration as we move forward and that perhaps you know allow these lights to remain up for the duration of their life and then once those lights are dying or whatever the phrase may be that we consider working together for what comes next in the future not necessarily changing things right now. One of the things that I am concerned about is while I understand and agree with our city obligation for ensuring that the village looks a certain way I am concerned with how far that could potentially go are we going to start telling people that they can't put Christmas lights in their window or if we do what color those Christmas lights can be because they don't match the tree lights and I you know I can really see both sides of wanting it to be kind of cohesive and everything matches and then at the other hand I worried sometimes that we're just stepping way too far into what we want to regulate. So for the time being I'll say I think we should keep the current lights there's no reason to remove them all together at this time but I do think that as we move forward we need to create a plan for us to all work together so that when these lights die we have an opportunity to do something different. Thank you mayor. Obviously if there weren't complaints from the community this wouldn't be here and us talking about it so and one of the difficulties is it's hard to tell where the city stops and the BIA begins because we truly are a partnership and I think these kind of projects should be completed entered into in a partnership fashion so that we don't find ourselves faced with complaints about the lights and they do exist and I still hear them to this day and if people are interested in hearing I mean the complaints that I hear from people is that they're too bright and they're not particularly interesting okay so that's where we are now I agree I don't think we should take them down but I think that we need to enter into a cooperative process because I don't think it's in the BIA's interest to have any kind of product down there that significant number of people are going to be turned off about and particularly local residents so I would hope that we could try to acknowledge that and try to come up with a design that would be pleasing to a greater numbers of people than the levels of complaints that we have heard about the lights so with the lighting and with that I think that we should try to enter into a process one and I think Kristen will respond to you I think we're only talking about the lights that are in public spaces not about any lights that are on private property but as you know we do control signage and lighting and that's all to try to maintain the look and feel of the community they make a big difference and I think it is within the purview of the city council to try to manage that but doing that within the context of the partnership and if it's for the sake of $5,000 I think maybe the city should even incur or pay some of the expense of putting in lights so I think that I would like to see us have the opportunity to forward something where we could enter into a dialogue with the BIA to discuss the lights even to confront the complaints that people have so we can see if we can address them I don't know if the technology is there and if it isn't it isn't if that's the best that we can do under any circumstances then we'll have to live with that but it seems that we could do a little bit further with the corporate with the city staff and see if we could come up with some alternatives to the LED lights a lot of people they have difficulty with the LED lights because they're very bright and so I would hope that we could at least enter into a discussion and a partnership with the BIA to try to forge an alternative in the meantime let the lights that are there stay and I'm not sure permanence is something that you want to as an end goal to try to attract reoccurring shoppers because my experience the shoppers are always looking at what's new what's interesting what's turning over what's different and having the same lights all the time year around I'm not sure if that's going to further your goals about attracting shoppers into the village so just my thoughts but I think that there seems to be a majority here to see if we could enter into some dialogue with the BIA and see if we could you know forge an alternative thank you I think that was ready for a motion I see a couple issues here and to me the main one is process I you know we as Sam said we are in a partnership and as Kristen said we don't want to be defining like all these laws and stuff like that that sort of gets obtrusive so trying to come up with some sort of way so that we could work better together in a formalized manner okay often I think there's problems when it's just sort of like a new agreement we always do it this way and sometimes issues come up when that may be problematic because there's disagreement as to the result but if we have a defined process where we agree to work together in a formalized way then things like this probably be ironed out in a better manner so I think Ed talked about that I agree with that I'm in general agreement I hate to take the things down after that huge investment and I don't know what would happen with this process but that would come into play when they actually come to the end of their life so I'll take a crack in a motion based on the comments that I've heard here as you're willing to listen this will lend us to be a part motion okay and the motion is number one leave the lights up number two install no additional lights number three install at the city's expense to pick up on Sam here one tree with the I'm going to call them the soft lighting soft as opposed to the LED lights so we would have something to compare to direct staff to establish either a policy or an ordinance for village enhancements I would recommend a policy at this point fine I put a slash or so direct staff to develop a policy for what what things we like to put under the purview that the city has to weigh it on prior to them being just randomly installed and last of all I would encourage the BIA to enlist a new city council representative to attend their meetings I know that a couple members here have expressed an entrance we left it with the BIA that was up to them whether they would like to have somebody and I think in cases like this it behooves you to have someone at those meetings to exchange with you so that's my motion there is second on this I'll second thanks Sam there's a motion and a second can I request clarification sure yes please so leave the lights up and then install no new lights does that just mean leave these up for as long as they're good or leave them up until we decide if we like what's on that one tree or how long it's leave them up for now install another one to look at it and then it will have to come back to the council whether they want to do actually take them down or wait until they burn out and then replace them with the new or lights I'm not adamant about doing that I personally have an opinion but I'm trying to work with the BIA I'm trying to recognize the expense I'm hoping for input from the city manager if you're I think one way to think about this is very likely what the policy will say there'll be something along the lines of our special then policy which basically will say that for decorations they're going to be installed in public spaces in the village that the council has to approve the plan and then if it's a recurring it's the same thing year in and year out we can you know do it in a staff level so presumably if that becomes our policy that's I'm thinking out loud here about what we want how many I craft that then presumably the BIA would be coming forward with the village decoration plan for this next year presumably late fall or something like that so at that point then you could take a look at okay so what is the decoration plan what is the amortization schedule and the lights or do we want to keep the lights so I think that may give you kind of a look ahead to where we could possibly end up. Okay you bet. If I may regarding the third line of that the city at the city expense to do to add the one tree of soft lighting from what I understand there's revenue coming in from the TOT tax and I'm not sure that that should be at the city's expense I think that with any revenue the BIA is receiving that this could be something that they could possibly take on. Okay any comments? This is a ballpark to do one tree would probably cost about $250. Okay can you accept $250 for that? For the city? Yeah I mean well we have the budget for would you feel okay with that? Maybe this is part of the conversation that a representative from the city council has during the BIA meeting and what that would look like. It would just be easier to expedite it if the city did it. I think it's a process. I mean I think Steve would say that it would be within the budget to spend $250. Yeah I don't think it could be that much. I did have a question about the type of light you're looking for on that. It would be the same type of rope light. What I call mini lights the individual lights as opposed to a rope light because you can get a rope light that is a softer color that we're more used to than the regular light. That's what I was asking. It would be the same type of light only in the softer light. So a rope light with soft lights. It's called soft white instead of daylight. Okay thank you. And it probably as you say it's probably less than $250. Yeah I think it's a couple ropes which is probably under $100. Okay city manager you have a comment? I guess the other nuance here is that my recommendation probably would be to have our staff research this a little bit and we may want to potentially get two or three different types if we're going to be testing things out just because I'm not sure that necessarily we would nail it on the first try. I mean I don't know if there's obviously a parent other alternative so it may be that there's a couple different alternatives not just one. I'm okay with that amendment to the motion. Second okay with that? Yes. Okay. Sam you had another comment? Well I just wanted to as a matter of clarification I just wanted to make a comment. I just wanted to make a comment. I just wanted as a matter of clarification on Kristen's question about the no additional lights and leaving the lights up. My interpretation of that was that the program would not be expanded to other parts of the community but if let's say a strand went out before we arrived at the alternative that strand should be replaced. Because I don't think we want to have you know gaps and holes and that would be right. At this time I would agree with that. They mentioned they had additional lights. I wouldn't want to put them on more lights in different locations. I think maintaining primarily Capitol Avenue with the existing lights is the main theme and the experiments could be done wherever public works deems that they could be appropriately compared. And so yeah if there one were to burn out but what we're getting at is you know I would really like to see you know we could get it done quickly because it would be nice to just make a decision about which lights is the appropriate light for the village. That's the idea. I have a comment for your motion and maybe if you could agree with us. So I see this and you mentioned this Sam. This is a partnership with the BI. Okay so we all have different perspectives. I've had businesses before and I remember my perspective on how the city dealt with me and that is a perspective. We're in a sense representing the city here. I kind of like Ed if you would say in this motion that coming up with Jamie coming up with this proposal on how we're going to work together that this is done in concert with the BIA. So I don't want us coming up with a proposal that we put forth to a public forum comment like here. I would like to have something that we've had some feedback from the BIA before we actually put it before the city council. Because to me they're partners in this city with us. So do you get the idea I'm talking about? I get it but understand that we pass ordinances in the village. There's an ordinance that says there's no neon light in the village. I mean that's our job is to pass and then businesses and just like with our signed ordinance they we pass ordinances and then they adhere to that and just like entertainment permits everything. So I think that the city managers should come up with the guidelines. I mean it shouldn't be a corroboration of what we will allow. We should say these are the things that matter to us as a city and then you're allowed within certain guidelines to you know as Kristen mentioned we're not saying you can't change your storefront. Your storefront is your storefront but when you get onto city property you know anything that's hung on street lights or signs you know I think they just recently did banners for the season okay and that was run by us and that was fine. These are just guidelines for them to use because we don't really have any guidelines that's why we ended up with lighting that is questionable. Okay that's a fine answer. Okay any other discussion Kristen? I just have a quick comment I wasn't going to bring it up because I didn't want to complicate things any further but since our city manager mentioned having other options I think it's also worth looking at. I know that there's some kind of lights where you can adjust the color or the colors change like when it's Valentine's Day they put them they make them red and when it's St. Patrick's Day they make them green and that might be kind of cute you know lights that we can potentially dim or make brighter as one of our options if we're going to be looking at options I think that might be worth looking at. I'll help you with that because when they were doing the process I remember they were looking at it because we had mentioned that you know why don't we put some lights around the trees that you could change colors on Valentine's Day we could light them red and as Sam mentioned you know what you bring people in to draw is when you change it up and I think what they came back to me was is the lights that they ended up buying the brand, the strand everything about it is they're durable those ones that were interchangeable to change lights were not as reliable and so the lights that are actually hung there the quality of those lights they come in sections and if a section goes bad you are able to change that section without doing a whole light so there was a lot of thought put into the type and quality of light the only question right now is the color. So that's why they but I thought that was a great idea you know on green for Easter and red for Valentine's Day it would you know they weren't as good quality of lights. Okay I think any more comments from the board here? Okay Sam? Just one more question on that last point I assume that means you want to remove yourself as the representative to the I've already done that I was drew and then I mentioned to the be I went to the last meeting I told them I said I won't be able to be represented anymore if you would like someone they said that they would reach out if they had I said there were a couple people are interested I said it's up to you to reach out and maybe they thought that maybe they didn't need one and I'm thinking that this is probably a good reason why they should have one because I know when we were doing assignments there was a couple people that said they would be interested in being a be I representative so this is my message to the be I that I think you should consider someone that you support and fight them to your meetings so as the mayor said it would be good to just have ongoing dialogue right so that's new council member at the discretion of the be I I it's there it's not an assignment we have it's it's there it's at their request great thank you okay any more comments I sense a consensus here if I'm wrong there's been a motion and a second those in favor please say I I Any in opposition? No, okay. It passes unanimously. Thank you very much Moving on to D ordinance amending chapters again This is a misprint. So we're actually going on to Considering an agreement with the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission. Is there a report? Yes Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm before you is to consider entering into a memorandum of understanding with the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission for a Likeway signage Project that they're undertaking As I mentioned the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission has been working on several projects countywide to Enhance and encourage bicycle riding throughout the county in 2016 they issued a Santa Cruz bikeway map that really identifies primary secondary and local Bikeways throughout the county and it offers ways for people may not be familiar how to ride from Santa Cruz to Watsonville and the preferred routes So that map is available In paper edition at various locations and certainly online at the The RTC website Their focus right now is on implementing a wayfinding signage program This directs actually provides on-street signage that directs bicyclists to these preferred routes and safest routes to destinations throughout the county There's the program includes over 300 sign locations countywide and there's approximately 20 sign locations within the capital and this program So I've given you an idea what the signs will look like these are two examples that the In the program document itself So the first are these destination signs And these are signs that come to you as a bike rider would see before you get to a decision-making point typically an intersection And it would give you both a direction of a local Destination I can this on case here Cabrillo College two miles ahead you would go straight at the intersection C Cliff Three miles ahead and you'd go straight at the intersection or you turn right to go to Watsonville So these are destination signs they help you make a decision before you get to an intersection The other type of sign is a confirmation sign And this typically goes after that decision-making is occurred just to confirm that you you're going where you think you're going and These can don't necessarily need to go together In couplets you can probably the preferred is to have these before intersections Then you don't need these you have you wait till you get to the next intersection But in certain instance instances and certainly in Capitola. We've recommended Worked with the RTC to use the confirmation sign Just to try and reduce some of the sign clear particularly in the village. We've gone with that option so This is a quick map that shows Bike routes in the county and I realize it's a large scale, but you can all see the red lines Those are the the primary and recommended bike routes that go You know south to north and north south through the county Capitola is right through here Park Avenue is the primary bike route Everybody sees a lot of bike riding on that and then it goes up cliff drive and then Portola Drive is identified as the primary bike route East and west Through the pleasure point area We all know you can go along Opal Cliff Drive and a lost east along East Cliff Drive That's pretty congested. So they're recommended route is there Capitola Road is also a primary bike route that comes into the city And then these two north south starts kind of connected by 38th Avenue is the recommended route And then Bay Avenue is a connector up into Soquel Drive, which is another east-west connector in the in the city in the county so Looking at Capitola. It's at these key intersections where We're recommending or the program is recommending signs, so we have Park McGregor and Kennedy all come together right here There's a series of signs that provide direction You know to Cabrera College this way see Cliff Beach that way capital village that way Again at Park and Monterey. There's a series of the directional signs in the village We opted more for the confirmation signs just because it's tough to get all those signs in the village and then you'll see again signs at 38th and Bromer and 38th and Capitola Road and Those were selected 38 so much easier ride for bicyclists and 41st Avenue I will say the first iterations that came from the RTC on this probably had three times as many signs And we've worked at them trying to get it down to what we feel is and you know Something we can all live with and still provide the benefit that the programs after I think it is a worthwhile regional project So just to give you an idea again how this this is it 38th and Bromer this location is a little blue dot here. You'll see a sign like this I have a bicycle and On one side it will say Capitola Mall half mile to the left and then I'll say Capitola Village 1.6 miles with an arrow to the right and these two bottom lines So you'd have the bike sign and two directional signs that would go right here before the intersection So bicyclists can know whether they're turning right or left and then in the village This is going up Monterey just at the bottom of the hill before you go up Monterey Well, you would add a confirmation sign instead of having all the signage if for each option before the turn It is mainly bicyclists are going to get here and realize they have to turn But it will give them a confirmation and I think it says to see cliff on this. So that's the type of signage We would put there So the Memorandum of Understanding is an agreement between the city and the in the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission Transportation Commission is responsible for the development of the sign program Certainly they there's been completed and staff has reviewed it and we've gone over it several times with their staff The RTC will pay for the initial fabrication of the signs and their installation And the city will agree to maintain the signs including replacement if necessary You know, there's not really a period says for the life of the signs I think it's in you know anticipated that the signs will in five to ten years will decide if they're Working or not if we're getting a lot of feedback on them whether they and then we can continue to maintain them Certainly if one were to be knocked down and destroyed next year, we'd be on the hook to replace it I really don't think that's a big deal We don't go through needing to replace many signs in the cell in the city We do replace them more for age That's 20 or 30 years from now and we replace the stop sign if it doesn't get hit Tagging does occur which requires that you typically we can clean them So I think we're looking at less than a thousand dollars a year to mainly maintain these signs for the first ten years So our recommendation is to consider approval of the MOU and I'd like to quickly introduce on a each shank Who is the RTC's project manager on this? She's putting lots of hours on this and I think she has a Few comments to make and I'm sure she'd be happy to answer any questions. Yeah, what's coming tonight. Thanks for having me Steve did a really good job presenting this project Actually, most of the things that I was going to say he's already covered I do just want to emphasize that we have worked very closely with the city staff to make sure that the signage is not Intrusive particularly in the village. We understand that that is a Place where there's already a lot of visual elements. I guess I'll just say a few things about the importance of signage I do get the question a lot Why is this an important project? Why do we need to put up signs for bicyclists when everybody has a cell phone now? We often think of Cyclists differently than drivers for good reason. There are different modes. However When we put up a new road or we build a new freeway, we wouldn't do that without putting up exit ramp signs signage is just a given for Drivers for bicyclists it can be just as important But there's a different need the signage needs to look a little different And it also needs to be In different places a bicyclist moves slower and also has to contend with Vehicles moving at a much faster pace. So the placement is really important And again, I'd like to thank the city capital of staff for working with us so closely on that placement We also, you know, I don't know how many of you are avid cyclists But when you're on a bike trying to look at your cell phone is not an easy task And can be very dangerous So this helps cyclists be able to navigate the city and not just the city of Capitola But also the Pacific Coast bike route and regional routes that run right through some beautiful arterials and Collector streets within the city so they can do that now or they will be able to do that without having to look at a cell phone and It also makes the city and the region a bicycle friendly place So those are the reasons I usually give to people when they ask me why is this program important? we do We've been working on MOUs with all of the jurisdictions within Santa Cruz County to maintain the signage As you might I don't know how familiar you are with the RTC, but we were formerly mostly a planning organization We are now starting to get into project delivery. We don't have funds that we can easily or readily pull to a pay for Signage with most of our funds were used for planning that is changing we do intend to look towards finding a funding source to maintain to have a maintenance program for the signage and We may even be looking to a phase 2 where once we've had Significant changes in infrastructure We can update signage to sign relevant new facilities such as new green lanes that might Facilitate easier access to other parts of the city Thank you any questions of staff or yonica here I Have a comment. Oh, excuse me Sam. So, no Thank you, mayor. I did have a question from staff My understanding is that the signs are meant to identify Preferred routes through Capitola They identify preferred routes through the county. So Preferred means routes that access key destinations and routes that already have Either bike lanes or low traffic So they're a little bit safer Is one of those preferred routes and I'm not necessarily just directing this at you But is one of those preferred routes down East Cliff Drive into the village and up Monterey and vice versa One of the routes does use East Cliff And then wouldn't use We have park and then Bay Yes, yeah, so the Just most of the bike route through the village goes down cliff drive And Breaks apart a little bit as we go through the Esplanade and capital Avenue and then does go back up Monterey to park at Park Drive Park Avenue I'm sorry Most of the signage on the on the tables that were presented in the staff report seems to steer Riders that are headed into Capitola Down East Cliff And up Monterey and then on the other side down Monterey East Cliff And I'm just questioning of that is is really a preferred the preferred route if safety is The main criteria I Monterey is very low volume Street I personally when I ride my bike to and from work. I like using Monterey because it's low volume You know, there are Different preferences for different types of riders. I'm maybe it would help if you explain your concern for using Monterey I don't think I want to sit up here and take questions But And I would like to just direct my question and My years of experience in Capitola is that The hill down Monterey into the village and the hill down East Cliff into the village It's not the safest route and it's not the preferred route for all types of riders So that's the nature of my concern But I think I have the answer to my question is that that is the dex and designated preferred route In this signage program. There are multiple routes through the village And that is one of the routes all of the routes we call preferred routes, but there's different classes. There's regional Local and then neighborhood only the regional and the local ones are signed So I wouldn't say that Monterey is more preferred or less preferred than using Park or East Cliff is more preferred or less preferred than using Capitola They're all with collectively Within this program Some of them are regional. Some of them are local. I would add We did look at the ones coming From West East of Santa Cruz to cut into the village and At least in my opinion Coming down Cliff Drive is a better option than going down Warf Road into the village, which is the other option There's really no other way short of going up Warf Road and then back down through you know over the riskman bridge and back And that's pretty circuitous. So There are other options You know going From Monterey, they're all quite lengthy Involved much more interaction with crossing of traffic So that's the shortest and most direct to go out of the village in the Eastern direction I think that's why that's nominated that way. Thank you Steve Have the placements of the signs been evaluated for ADA compliance I know some are embedded in the sidewalks some are embedded in the dirt next to the sidewalks Those shouldn't be an issue, but the ones that are going into the sidewalk proper Yeah, they've all been evaluated by our now retired maintenance superintendent Has walked each site and reviewed each site And we'll do that as the installation goes through and make sure they are Right. Will there be More technical specs about the location of the signs then what's on these tables? No, that is the plan she said yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Thank you, Steve My question is to Is there an eval well whoever could actually answer this properly is there an evaluation of the existing signs that are in place? I think these have been in place in Santa Cruz and other areas, right? The only existing bicycle signage in place is for the Pacific Coast route And we did evaluate that and have recommended removal of some of the signage So was to minimize the net new signage that would be going in The placement of the current placement of the Pacific Coast route signs do not follow best practice They're typically after the intersection or at the intersection and if you're on a bike and need to make a left turn You need to know prior to Getting to the intersection that you need to make that turn So in some places we have recommended removing it. There's also significant gaps in the Pacific Coast bike route signage particularly getting between the unincorporated area of Portola East Cliff that area and over to Aptos We were able because that area is mostly straight We were able to just move some signage in the plans without really generating much new locations But we did for what was out there. We did evaluate it Okay, so If in working with the RTC and evaluation we determined that some of these things do not meet our needs Is there means to change the location or change the placement? Or the number of signs I think that's always an option to continue to improve the program as we move forward if we find things aren't working We can work with RTC on that. So that's always within our preview. Okay, having done the Pacific Coast Trail I would hate to see the signs go Although I did get a map so Any more questions of staff and RTC representative? seeing none Any comments from the audience here for staff and RTC representative? Seeing none bring it back to city council for guidance here Anyone like to jump in well, I'll jump in I'll start and I'll just say that I don't support Put it in these signs. I think we have a great numbers of signs in this community And there's such a pollution of signs. I think people even stopped seeing any particular one of them So before with adding more signs I would want to have a better understanding of the purpose and need for this program Why who's why are people asking for this? I don't know that that's Capitola residents They know how to get from Capitola to Soquel without having to read a sign I am concerned and I don't think it was addressed about the preferred route That going through Capitola, I think there's other routes if you're coming down Park Avenue You don't necessarily need to go down that hill of Monterey Which we have just decided You know that you can't ride the bicycles on the sidewalk And you can't ride bicycles on the sidewalk in the village, which means that young children would have to navigate through the streets Relying on this signage So I don't think that that's well thought out You can just as well on from Park Avenue to Monterey go right on Bay and you can go through the city parking lot To get to the village that would be a much safer route and an alternative route So I think there's just many reasons Not to mention the cost of maintenance Having to replace the signs and so for those reasons. I'm not going to support this project Thank you, Sam. Any other comments? Yeah, I Think I'm gonna take a different position on this I don't necessarily have a problem with the sign program. I look at it as a countywide program and sometimes one thing that's really hard that I noticed is hard to do in the county is having a Group project and this is one where this is a trail that runs from Watsonville to Davenport and Encompasses the entire county and I think there's an obligation, you know, we we we are trying to become I think a more bicycle-friendly community and I Know that as a motor vehicle driver There's an inundation of signs for for vehicles and I think this is just another way of helping as was mentioned You know, I mean, I know a lot of people do embrace technology when they're riding and I know that it's pretty awkward You know, even though it can be done with your phone when you're on your bike And there's a lot of thought that went into this sign program and it said it's intense was to enhance Bicycle riding through Santa Cruz County, which happens to include the city of Capitola. I know that there's a Concern always about, you know excess signage, especially with regards to the village I don't find the 18 signs to be detrimental. So I'm gonna support the motion To comments any others that would like to weigh in Okay, seeing no comments. I will weigh in I do agree with that that we're trying to create a countywide system for bicycles I've been bicycle rider most of my life like I mentioned. I've done Pacific Coast child up to Washington Completely enjoy the fact that there are signs along the way I'm also have one question of staff before I continue It was mentioned by the RTC rep that there will be a second phase. Are you familiar with what that means? No, I'm not Please come forward so some of the Bicyclist advocates that we've been working with on a sit on our bicycle advisory committee and other stakeholder groups we work with have asked for Additional signage on the existing poles that we're going to install. So for example, if you're approaching new Brighton, there's These sometimes a little brown Signs that have a symbol of a tent so it would identify that there's a camping place nearby another example of additional signage would be if there was a new route or a new facility where we would have to Rethink one of the existing routes and so in that case we we need to look at Finding this changing up signage and possibly purchasing new signage It was mentioned by Sam and I could see the reason behind his comments because it's a lot easier to go through the parking lots Would you consider that as a route alternate route? I? Would have some concerns with putting Bicyclists in a position where they're contending with vehicles pulling in and out of parking spaces Personally, I don't think that's as safe as having a bicyclist on a roadway I'm not sure that that would be supported by our engineer We can certainly consider other alternatives. I'm not I'm just a little uncertain about putting somebody through a parking lot Okay Can I respond to that and maybe we should have the engineer because I'm not sure if the village is A better alternative than going through the parking lot the village is a parking lot People are getting in and out of their cars. They're crossing the crosswalks The summertime there is very congested and it's congested with cars And so if that's your example of a safer alternative I would submit that you're wrong and that we should maybe if that's what we're hearing We should have their engineers come and assess each one of these preferred routes so that we can determine that for ourselves for ourselves So I just wanted to respond to that I have another question Steve can we Choose certain areas that we want the signs in right now It's contention right now going down East Clifton up Monterey So can we jump in to this agreement with all the other signs? But not that right now until it's been evaluated and looked at So, yeah, this is a sign. You're going to be installed under an encroachment permit. So we have the authority to You tonight you could approve or disapprove certain locations if that is what you want to do Any comments? Yeah, I have one one additional comment I think we need to understand that the bike lanes already exist right now if you're a Bike rider, you're going to be coming down Park Avenue. You're going to turn on Monterey You're going to be in the lane of traffic Through the village and then up and out of the village on an existing bike lane or at the minimum it's a Might be a Cheryl once it gets on to Stockton if I'm correct me. I think that's that's what happens there But the bike riders are going to use the route that they're going to use What we're doing is we're trying to add signs to clarify the route and and I don't and I I Immediately when the idea was suggested of going through the parking lot I If you go through the parking lot, which I go through on on the weekdays It's a great place to cut through But on a weekend What goes on in that parking lot is no place that I would want to subject a bicycle rider to I think it puts us at risk for you know for for Just people's habits and what they do and you know not being cognizant of a lot of things and I think what's hard for us as a society to embrace is that There is a movement towards embracing Bicycles as a way of communication. I mean of transportation I mean when we're talking about the corridor trail we're talking about, you know, it could be used for e-bikes And e-bikes are a whole another animal all themselves, you know of how they how they interact and But what I'm looking at this policy is this policy is not anything to do with changing existing bike lanes or traffic It's just acknowledging that these are the paths and and and if I was a bicycle rider And coming through capitol and trying to get to Santa Cruz I don't think I'd want to detour up bay and over to capitol or as Steve suggested over through peary park and up, you know The idea is that bicycles are to be treated In the same vein as other modes of transportation i.e. a car and Heck it might even be safer to get to the village on a bike than in a car. I don't know but I I'm just thinking that there's you know, maybe there's apples and oranges here. I can I can appreciate the point Councilmember story makes about you know safety with an engineer, but I I think if someone was going to design a route It would there already isn't existing routes. So with that I'm going to make a motion that we adopt staff recommendation to install The signs as designated Thank you for that motion. Is there a second on this motion? All second, okay, there's a motion and a second Let's call for a vote city clerk. Would you please call individuals? Councilmember story no Councilmember peterson. Hi councilmember brooks. Hi councilmember botthorff. Hi member trend. Hi Motion passes four to one Thank you very much. That brings us to the end of our agenda. I believe Yes, so I call for adjournment. Thank you