 All right checking the sound real quick here. Can you hear me Kaylee? I can hear you Perfect and I hear you perfectly also. Thank you. I can really this is Amy. Can you hear me? Okay? Yep, you sound great. Thank you. Thank you This is Andy Speaking for sound test Sounds good Andy. Thank you. Yes, absolutely miss Amy. Let's do a sound check. I can really can you hear me? You sound great. Great. Thanks. And whenever you're ready, we can do a sound check for councilmember Rogers So we've got a couple of our consultants here. I'm gonna send a prompt to go ahead and allow you to unmute and When you receive that prompt Go ahead and test your sound first. We have Andrea Howard. Hi everyone. This is Andrea Sounds great, thank you and we also have Tammy seal Good afternoon. This is Tammy seal Sounds great. Thank you. We have like we have vice mayor Rogers sound check All right. I want to do a sound check for councilmember Alvarez. All right I want to see if we can get a sound check from vice mayor Rogers and councilmember Alvarez All right, if we can get sound checks from mayor Rogers vice mayor Rogers and councilmember Alvarez I said I'm present as well though my audio seems to be very low Well, we can hear you just fine, Eddie. So we'll go ahead get started. We'll call the order Madam clerk. Do you want to call the roll? Mayor Rogers here Councilman or vice council vice mayor Rogers present and councilmember Alvarez Also present Great, so we definitely have a quorum. We have all of our members here today as Most folks have gotten used to over the last year and a half. This is now a zoom format That means that folks will have the ability to participate via zoom When it comes time on each of the items will ask folks to hit the raise hand feature And then they'll be called on and given three minutes to talk on the items We will not part. We will not tolerate any disrespect to staff or any Absentities or any type of inappropriate behavior and folks will be asked to leave the zoom or will be removed should they Cross any boundaries. We'll start today with our approval of the minutes We have March 10th April 21st and May 12th of the minutes Vice mayor or councilmember. Do the either of you have any amendments on today's minutes? We'll go ahead and open it up for public comment on our item three our minutes to see if there's any changes or amendments that folks We're going to request on those minutes. Okay, seeing none. I'll bring it back to the committee and Barring any opposition we will show those as adopted and I'm seeing no opposition to it Great, we'll go on to item number four and that's public comment for non agenda matters that is These are things that are not on today's Council or today's subcommittee agenda that Folks would like to air again because it has not been on the agenda council members can't get into a back-and-forth for discussion But it does give us a chance to really have a conversation About future agenda items or to bring forward concerns or or questions that you have that we can get staff to address So I'm seeing a couple of hands pop up right off the bat. We'll start with eris followed by Kevin Sorry here. I was talking away and I wasn't even unmuted yet So good eris you just got to practice what you're gonna say. That's true That's true. I'm then eris weaver with the snow county bicycle coalition Addressing the climate crisis is a very big thing But it has to be implemented in small individual actions and projects And I want to share with you my frustration about a small Project of fairly recently That got some slightly derailed As an as an example of what happens as things move up and down the different food chains and the frustration of knowing how How to make sure that the lofty goals and plans that Committees such as yourself or the city general plan or the bike ped plan or all of these plans actually gets implemented so the plan for Ridgeway for redoing Bicycle lanes and parking and restricting that street. Was that the most important? Street in the city to get a redo maybe not but the opportunity was there because of repaving to get restriped And the plan that was originally proposed Was very good. It would especially tie into things when the one-on-one overpass is put in but because There was a human cry from some neighbors Because nobody ever wants to lose parking That design got changed it's still better than what was there before but it is not As good as it could be two of the things that get in the way of of implementing These these plans when we have good research to know what is going to actually move the needle and get people out of their cars and change their behavior is the two things that work against us are again the sort of You know public input about don't yes, we want to you know Get rid of climate change, but don't make me not be able to park my car Exactly where I want it and the other is culture within transportation And public works departments everywhere that people if doing that work are used to Planning for cars. So here was something very small You know, it's a small street But add that up all the way across the city with the kinds of actions we need to be taking and I'm very frustrated because I don't know who it was who got to make that ultimate decision to Shift that project Anyway, I think I could carry on but I only have a few seconds left so I should probably just stop right there. Thank you All right, thank you, Eris. I'm happy to circle back with you on that issue as well. Let's go to Kevin followed by Steve Okay, can you hear me? Yep, go for it. Okay. Good afternoon. I'm checking in to just say how disappointed I am with the climate action subcommittee and the city's response In general to the crisis that we're in We're in the middle right now of a climate catastrophe There are climate refugees in Louisiana slogging around in dirty flooded streets looking for someplace to live Pregnant women sitting in the sweltering heat with no place to cool off children Scared out of their wits feeling unsafe because they sense the fear in their parents thousands without power Extreme record-breaking heat devastating fires drought floods Hundred-year hurricanes all happening in the grip of a worldwide pandemic and The climate action subcommittee canceled three consecutive meetings because there was nothing on the agenda nothing to discuss the staff's Presentation which I read addressing climate change in the general plan is two weeks for words After reading it a friend said it's like being in a burning house and deciding that the best action to take is to research fire extinguishers We're living in a world that is collapsing and we all have PTSD, which is present traumatic stress disorder Why it is That we're not devoting every waking moment to this crisis is astonishing We don't get it that every standard municipal process is grossly inadequate and we can't continue to move at the speed of government And with a straight face try to appear as if we're doing anything close to what needs to be done We need leadership that is completely unfamiliar now Section three of our city charter says that our elected officials can pass laws and ordinances That supersede state regulations if the safety of our citizen demands it It reads quote in part the city buying through its council and other officials Shall have and may exercise all powers necessary or appropriate To a municipal corporation and the general welfare of its inhabitants, which are not prohibited by the constitution If ever there was or ever will be a time for our elected officials to act on those words, it's now What crisis can you think of for those words to be more appropriate than the crisis we're in right now? Somebody or some group has to step up and get this process started Be the frog that jumps out of the boiling water and finds a way to turn the burner off I know this sounds dramatic and alarmist, but we all know it's true. You know it's true So be bold be brave get out on a limb and lead. Thank you. Thank you. Kevin go to Steve Ah now I've learned to unmute Yes, this is Steve Bertlebaugh with the transportation land use coalition The problem with the climate change issue is that it touches every single act that we make Including where we put our waste whether in the green can the blue can or the the the gray can And it affects every single department. So trying to deal with it is like Trying to Connect with all parts of the elephant at one time an example the transportation authority the county transportation authority Is going to be looking at its Plan for 2050 We know that climate change has to be dealt with long before 2050. It has to be dealt with by 2030 But uh, they They're they're they're focused on a plan that's that's got a deadline in 2050 and it's very difficult for them to say Nothing in this plan prevents us from meeting the 2030 date that the rcpa Is is focused on The I suggest that what we do is back plan from 2030. How do we become uh, how do we come carbon neutral? by 2030 And that will set the schedule for when we need to do each of the steps that That are coming The planning process that's been promoted Is is just going to delay any efforts to accomplish things And most of the things that need to be accomplished are already common sense and don't need a whole lot of planning uh, so my My effort is to get us to take this very seriously Uh, figure out what needs to be done in the order that they need to be done And get every department in the city on board Uh to just do it Thank you. Thank you for your efforts look forward to Faster progress between now and the end of the year Great. Thank you, steve I don't see any other hands for public comment for non-agenda items. So I'll go ahead bring it back to the committee Let's go on go ahead and move on to the main event for today. That's item 5.1 It's our climate action plan update. I'll turn it over to amy lyle our supervising planner Good afternoon. Let me share my screen real quick All right, just confirming you can see that presentation and I'm in the right presentation mode. Yep Excellent. All right. We'll get afternoon mayor vice mayor council member. Uh, thank you for having us This item today is related to the work we've been doing on the climate action plan itself um, but just wanted to Start off by saying we've got some folks on the call today. So, um, I I um Privilege to be able to supervise our advanced planning team and get to work on the general plan as part of that We also have andy gasseson on the call who's our project manager for the general plan And then we also have andrea and tammy from place works who is our consultant Team working specifically on the climate action plan. So they'll be helping with this presentation today as well but just wanted to note that we have been underway on our general plan update and All three of you have been a part of those efforts thus far And that effort is pretty large. So we are doing a comprehensive update which includes land use transportation We do have a special focus on updates related to our safety element to environmental justice and housing housing element And the climate action plan update is folded in to this process So we did do a contract amendment to add that piece into our general plan And we want to provide a very focused discussion around the climate action plan itself with your subcommittee Not just today, but on an ongoing basis So you'll see during this presentation We'll have different touch points and opportunities to talk about specific policy areas or issues And then just get regular updates on the process as we go forward So with that, I'll go ahead and turn it over to tammy and have her talk a little bit about the What's in the actual scope of work and what we'll be doing moving forward Great. Thank you. Amy. Is my sound coming through okay everyone? Yes. All right, thanks Good afternoon. So I'm gonna we've got just a couple slides here to go over the highlights of our approach and our scope of work And we'll be really happy to answer your questions after we go over these slides So as we've um as as amy's mentioned our approach as part of the general plan update is to Integrate and do what we call mainstream climate action And to pull forward climate mitigation and adaptation policies And strategies into the general plan We think this approach is consistent with the city's overall goals for you know for the future And puts climate action kind of on equal footing and waiting as other key topics to be addressed in the general plan So provides the overarching framework. It integrates climate change mitigation and adaptation into the decisions that are being made about land use transportation energy use other resource use safety and resilience and uh justice and equity So since this is a you know, this was a very timely update to the general plan and a great opportunity to pull forward that climate action plan Update into the general plan process is ensures that we have a comprehensive strategy for the city That addresses community-wide issues as well as city operations So we're doing all the same steps that we would normally do in a climate action plan We're just doing them integrated into the general plan update process So at the end of this, you know, we'll have uh updated greenhouse gas emissions inventories updated ghg reduction targets Goals policies and implementation programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions goals policies and programs to ensure climate adaptation and resilience across the community And to think forward to 2050 but with an interim point of 2030 as well recognizing The urgency of the issue So we are obligated to meet all state requirements related to greenhouse gas emissions reduction and climate adaptation And then we think it's incredibly important to leverage the regional work. Um, that's been going on And I want to know that while we're work doing this work to Update the climate action plan It doesn't preclude ongoing Implementation of the city's climate action plan and other climate action commitments We anticipate that that work to implement and to continue to reduce emissions and increase resilience will continue And we'll be able to note the benefit of that work when we start doing what we call the quantification next year, so While we're updating and freshening policies, we certainly expect that the city Maintains its commitment to reducing emissions towards its current adopted targets for for 2035 Uh, so, you know, we are familiar with the 2012 climate action plan I had the opportunity With my previous firm to be part of the team that worked with the city on the climate action plan So it's a real privilege to be able to Participate in this update And take a look at that plan and to see that many of the topics addressed in the 2012 climate action plan are still relevant We just need to update them kind of and ensure that they're future ready Um, we recognize there's been significant changes across The state and the region and even in the city on climate action We want to ensure that the updated general plan Reflects the existing activities the city's successes and that we're also aware of challenges that have come up with implementation of a climate action plan And a new part of the work that we're doing now is also on the adaptation side Consistent with state guidance. We've prepared a climate change vulnerability assessment And we'll ensure that that informs the general plan's goals policies and implementation strategies related to climate adaptation and resilience So this is a big bundle of work ahead of us. It's an exciting time to be doing the work the state continues to provide good resources and guidance to us And we have as we mentioned excellent resources from the regional climate protection authority to inform the work And I just want to kind of restate that By taking this approach of integrating climate action into the general plan This is an integrated mainstreamed approach. It doesn't treat climate action as an in addition to Work it's just as equally important as all of the other land use transportation and Decisions and topics that will be in the general plan. So we think that this provides a really good foundation for the city going forward And is responsive to what we've heard from council in the community related to the general plan update So I think we can go to the next slide just to go over the schedule So the schedule is aligned with the general plan update or the santa rosa forward schedule Which does extend out through spring of 2023 And the work that we need to do to do the greenhouse gas emissions inventory Is dependent on some of the early work of the santa rosa forward project. So right now we're anticipating Updating the city's past greenhouse gas emissions inventories and preparing a current year inventory and updating all the forecasts So they're very important quantitative foundational work. We need to do We're going to do that in In the spring of 2022 Be able to bring that back to the group and use that to inform discussion and selection of ghg reduction targets And to confirm what we call the breadth of the approach or the topics that we anticipate covering in the general plan update Will work with the council and the community to and staff to develop the strategies to reduce the emissions we identify in the inventories in the forecast and To address the vulnerabilities that have come through in the vulnerability assessment So we anticipate that that strategy work the policy work will be done Spring and summer of next year, which will then This is all work that will be subject to review consistent with the california environmental quality act And that work will be done in the winter of 2023. So we do have to follow The guidance in the california environmental quality act does guide the work that we're doing And one of our objectives with this approach is to ensure that the general plan And this update can serve as what we call a qualified ghg reduction strategy that provides benefits to future projects that are subject to discretionary and view and sequa And ensures that the climate action policies are carried through into all new development And that all potential impacts are considered evaluated and addressed in the santa rosa forward project So I think that covers our Keynotes and we wanted to lay out the schedule now so that you all could have a sense of What topics would be coming back to you and when and to also let us know This seems appropriate is what you expect or if you have other questions for us Thank you tammy and i'll just note that I just see a mistake on our side that The environmental analysis would be winter 2023, but that's actually 2022 So the project the project itself will conclude early 2023. So that environmental review will be winter 2022 correct tammy right it would Follow yeah next ended next year Yeah, yeah, sorry. That's problem that sorry about that, but No problem. So 2022 is going to be a busy year for sure Yeah, but I will say through this process and through the various components where we have public input built in We will want to come back to the subcommittee to You know talk through Specific issues related to climate action and to give you all an opportunity to weigh in as these As these work products and policies start to get fleshed out. So we're we're at an exciting point So with that, we're happy to answer questions Or elaborate on anything that you you've heard today Council members. I'll start with you vice mayor or council member alvarez. Do either of you have any questions? Looks like no from the vice mayor For for myself where it's not a question if anything just commanding the city on the work that they're doing and you have to excuse me for not having my My image of it seems to work better without it But nonetheless, I just want to commend the city Especially after taking a tour yesterday with the public works department and and seeing that they are putting in place different different strategies, whether it's the Electric bus to different different forms, whether it be the road repair that we're becoming much more efficient And really looking after not only the efficiency, but the effectiveness of the repairs that we're doing So we can create better transit through Through vehicle usage and such. So we want to commend the different staff in different departments. Thank you All right, thanks council member So Amy, I think one of the things that we're likely to hear from the public and I think that it's a valid and a good question Is if the city has a genuine goal of getting to carbon neutral by 2030 Why does the general plan have a target reductions that go out as far as 2050? And can you address that question? Yes, and I might have asked that tammy to help me with that one Um, but first of all, I will say that we and just as tammy said, we do have an existing climate action plan and existing municipal climate action plan And those are still in effect and being implemented through various other programs and policies Um throughout the city. Um, so this is a refresh. So we are looking at um moving forward from um existing baseline So there's going to be a couple different approaches our our general plan itself has a 2050 horizon So we are looking at population projections up to that point growth projections up to that point and all of our policy discussions are looking at that as a horizon year but we are going to be doing inventory work and projections related to climate action plan based on the policy goals that you have already adopted at a city council That are different than that 2050 horizon year So tammy, do you want to talk further about those those different years and different thresholds? sure and this is always the you know a little um I guess Hopefully I can provide the clarity here, but I know it's always a little challenging So what what's really important is that we sync with the general plan horizon year, which is 2050 That's also one of the state's horizon years So we always recommend looking out to 2050 because we don't want to stop through emissions reductions So we want to ensure that even with the 2030 target that there's a clear plan in place to ensure that those emissions continue to They either stay at carbon neutral. They continue to define or wherever we're at at that point. So we we are um Obligated and it's good best practice to ensure those are continued path to 2050 So with the carbon neutral goal for 2030, um, that's really very clear in the climate emergency Resolution and as part of the work, we are going to do what we call the quantification the math of of How we get there? So as Amy said, we start with what's already been improved And we have to then look at where there might be gaps to get to that carbon neutral target And recommend additional policy strategies or work programs to get there So that's like what we see as a big focus of the work In spring and summer of next year after we do these inventory updates. So We are I do anticipate that we're going to show a path to 2030 and a path to 2050 Okay, I appreciate that Tammy and that is uh fairly clear to me What I you know, san francisco has a document that I think you're very familiar with That has been very instructive that that went through and I think does a lot of what you're talking about the quantification Where it it says, you know in order to meet its carbon reduction footprints This percentage of individuals needs to be shifted out of single occupancy vehicles and into onto a bike or onto pedestrian Uh It'd be very helpful for our community to see that For what it's actually going to take for us to hit carbon neutral by 2030 and then within the plan My expectation is if we're going to be uh carbon neutral That's the goal that then future developments from that point forward from 2030 would need to be carbon neutral themselves, right? And how do we look at things through that lens? And so Is that going to be accounted for In the analysis that you're doing and the plan that you are putting forward For for the general plan section I'd say yes. Um, so while we're Integrating the climate action policies the goals policies and programs into the general plan For consistency and completeness. I think we are anticipating that there will be What we call the g g reduction program or a poll it'll be perhaps an appendix to the general plan or a pullout that makes it very clear that the path and what's along the path along the way and the participation or performance assumptions of each strategy and they'll be quantified to 2030 and 2050 So as part of that we do get at what you're talking about We're going to look at Estimate, you know estimate number of cars that'll transition to Electric How many people you know the mode share splits that we can look at reducing single occupancy use increasing transit increasing? uh bike ridership and that's why it's This is a good opportunity working with the general plan to sync up those goals and targets That are also going to come out of those elements of the general plan So yes, it would be Reasonable to expect that all new development would be carbon neutral. That's consistent with the state's goals right now Um, I can tell you that our our challenge will be the existing built environment those buildings in particular that are built before 1980 Okay, I appreciate that Council members any other questions before I go to public comment Hey rogers if I may I just wanted to note that um, someone asked a question in the chat related to RCPA's inventory that they just published recently And I'll just note that we have been working closely with RCPA And although we will be doing a new inventory as part of the general plan update We will be utilizing the research and the findings that RCPA has done as well So we're looking to just build upon what they have already done To get even more specific within our city limits But we we do work closely with them and we'll continue to Great, I appreciate that Let's go ahead go to public comment if you're interested in providing comment going to hit the raise hand feature on your zoom We'll start with Abigail followed by Jenny Hello, can you hear me? Looks like we're on Jenny's we'll go Jenny and then we'll see if Abigail puts her puts hands back up for us to call on Okay, thank you. So this is Jenny Blaker. I'm co-coordinator of the coalition opposing new gas stations congas We have been expecting that the climate action subcommittee would be bringing forward today wording for a draft ordinance prohibiting new gas stations in the city of santa rosa To be forwarded to the city council. I'm extremely disappointed that this isn't happening and hasn't even been mentioned yet We have been in discussions with the mayor since april 2020 When we provided some policy points at his suggestion And we've been in discussion at several of these climate action subcommittee meetings We were urged by the mayor to take our policy points to the climate action subcommittee first So that they would then be presented by the city council So i'm surprised and disappointed to see this is not on the agenda We would urge you to do whatever you can now to move this forward It seems to be low-hanging fruit. No more new gas station infrastructure in the city of santa rosa There are already plenty of gas stations Not only is it a climate issue an environmental justice issue But as we've been through there are plenty of gas stations. They cause leaks There are underground leaking storage tanks all over the place And what we're trying to do is reduce dependency on fossil fuels into the future nothing about existing gas stations Petaluma did this they passed a prohibition no new gas stations and there was no pushback We're really wondering what is happening. We've been told since april 22 Bring this to the climate action subcommittee and we will help you get it to the city council We were told it would come up in march then may then now and it's just puff disappeared What's happening? Why? We're also concerned because gas stations are increasingly Not little mom and pop businesses anymore But huge corporations like Safeway and Costco moving in to take to create new gas stations with so-called cheaper gas to attract membership And just as Safeway in Petaluma is is In the courts right now There's a similar court case going on a sequel lawsuit in nevato Where Costco was trying to bring in a lawsuit bring in a gas station We I hope nothing like this is going to happen in Sonoma county But the sooner that we could get a gas station prohibition Ordinance passed then the sooner we could just be done with that I don't understand why it's so difficult or why we've been told that this will Be taking place that an ordinance will be brought back And it's not happening So if you can give us any explanation of the status of the gas station ordinance Proposal that would be very welcome. Thank you All right. Thank you, Jenny And we'll circle back with staff after public comment on this item Item number five Abigail, did you still want to speak if so, we'll we'll go to you right now And then we'll come back to eris after Are we able to get Abigail? Oh, okay. Abigail says i'm fine eris followed by Alexa Looks like we've lost eris So let's go to Alexa and then we'll go to woody Hi, can you hear me? Yep, there you go. Thanks. Hello mayor rogers vice mayor rogers and councilmember alvarez also Thank you, amy and tammy for the clear presentation and amy. Thank you for The correction my blood pressure points went down some when you move that year to 2022 instead of 2023 And I prepared this comment before that so please keep that in mind as I as I make it I am as someone who is very relieved to see the 2030 carbon neutrality As like the most important part of our climate emergency resolution or a key defining feature of it I was very disappointed with this so-called climate action plan and I understand now the context of trying to sync it up with the general Plan and that makes sense But I want to address the particular language of including a comprehensive strategy to reduce municipal and community emission sources through 2050 setting reduction targets For 2030 and 2050. I actually think that that language renegs on the climate emergency resolution And sounds a lot like kicking the can down the road as mayor rogers. You predicted the public would react this way But carbon sequestration options simply do not exist at scale To handle anything but our most essential greenhouse gas emissions like the fuel and the airplanes that we use to fight fires Which means that we already know that in order to reach carbon neutrality our greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets for 2030 Should be in the 95 to 100% range So I just don't want to see us waste any more time in investigating what that number should be I feel like the city's Staff people as the stewards of our city should Be working feverishly between now and 2030 to create a Santa Rosa Where citizens can flourish in spite of and because of 95 to 100 greenhouse gas reductions If we treat these reductions as negotiable as something that needs further study and years of review We are wasting precious time and dooming us to failure So for all the people I love for all the people you love and for the city we all call home I am imploring this subcommittee the staff and the city to do better I would ask the subcommittee to direct the staff to set emissions reductions requirements for 2030 at at least 95 percent And so that we can spend our valuable and limited time figuring out how to make that transition as painless and prosperous as possible For all of us santa rosans. Thank you Thank you, Alexa. Let's go ahead and go back to eris. It looks like eris got dropped in his back Eris you with us. Okay. I'm unmuted. I'm just waiting for my timer So two things the first is just an image that came to me as is looking through the slides with all these words that To me just don't seem to to say very much is that You know, there's there's a patient laying on the floor Gasping for their last breath and we're talking about two years worth of Tests and things to figure out what to do when all I want to do is get my hands on them and start doing CPR That said, I've also been sitting here scanning through the 2012 climate action plan and again because I'm an action oriented person I've gone directly to the implementation and monitoring section of it and what strikes me Is something that I've seen in the all-in-all profits that I've worked for is it's easy to make a plan with all these things and then if you don't Include in the plan who's going to do what and have regular Checkups report cards to see how you're doing then it Where does it go and so I'm wondering who is in charge of monitoring the last action plan? I don't think I remember seeing any report card of you know Have we achieved any of the intermediate goals? I know bike related wise we haven't Nor do I see clearly other than staff will monitor Implementation if there's not a specific Person or department or role or committee that is charged with Implementing a specific thing or monitoring a specific thing It tends to not get done So I would very much like to see any action plan Include the things I would put in my action plans and strategic plans, which is Not the lofty goal, but who is going to actually do what piece and when are we going to look at the results? and I would like to ask has there been any report card along the way of what targets have we met in which of the Activities have we implemented that was you know the several pages worth of tiny type of actions that were listed in that previous plan Thanks Thank you, eras. We'll go to woody and then the steve Okay, can you hear me? Yep. Go ahead woody. Good afternoon, mayor and committee members Woody Hastings with co-coordinator with the coalition opposing new gas stations along with jenny blaker I you know, I think jenny really said it pretty well I don't But I have much of substance to add Yeah, I would just say that we would like to hear what the plans are. I was Disconcerted to receive an email from staff saying that this has been this issue of Of prohibiting new gas stations in santa rosa Has been placed on some kind of low priority and then it might may not come back until For consideration until sometime around march next year And as jenny said, we don't understand why this couldn't be you know being somewhat of a low hanging fruit Sort of in the category of you know, if you're in a whole stop digging, you know Great that you've got a climate action plan to do proactive things But this is you know, stop doing things that are making the situation even worse and so You know, so this is something that we see that the city council could do fairly expeditiously and Yes, the rcpa is going to be hearing the item on monday at their meeting with guidance to all the cities In sonoma county to cease accepting new applications foreign processing applications for new gas stations um, so you know, I would like to urge that you Not cancel your next meeting bring this issue back with uh, you know directing staff to Put put together whatever steps it is either a draft ordinance or the revisions to the code Whatever it is that needs to happen With a report for what the next steps are and I understand it needs to go to the planning commission before it goes to the city council But whatever it is we want to keep the ball rolling on this And I think past comments supportive comments from You mr. Mayor and and council members Have been very supportive and sort of like yes, we want to do this So like to see that come to fruition. Thank you Thank you, buddy. We'll go to steve followed by tom and chris Yes, uh, thank you this steve burlbow again with the transportation land use coalition Just a quick word on the uh, the process of Uh, making streets safe for for cyclists and for pedestrians If we're going to make a shift from driving to cycling and walking The first thing that needs to happen is we need to have safe streets And the second thing that needs to happen is we need to have places within walking distance where people can shop Uh our tendency to Have strip malls that are accessible mainly by car It's got to be reversed and I think can be done fairly quickly Simply allowing People to convert to convert their living room To bodega where people can come and get groceries and so forth Uh could very easily do do away with many of the food deserts Uh corner grocery stores are fine, but they're going to take a little while Uh, but I think we need to think outside the box in terms of really making Every part of the city a 15 minute city for those that walk as well as for those that bicycle Uh I've been talking to people from uh, utah Uh, who think that they're good models there for what you can do in order to speed up the process And of course we can look at places like, uh, apple door and then the netherlands or, uh Places in spain where the every nine block superblock Is uh 15 mile an hour territory for automobiles Uh, so those are the kinds of things we need to think about that will take relatively little change in the infrastructure But really reduce Our need to drive. Thank you All right, thank you steve go to tom and chris followed by michael Hello, i'm Tom omato. I'm the chair of the okman democratic club um, and, um, my comments will be fairly brief first I would like to compliment and recognize that both the Uh, current council and actually previous council members as well as city staff I think have taken the climate crisis seriously and have really tried to integrate it with a lot of the work In particular, I'd recognize, you know, you're the city's effort about a year ago to go all electric um, and part of where that was important was the beginning to dismantle or not allow the expansion of um Basically the petroleum industry and and and the use of of green health gases in the new neighborhoods Um, i'm going to mix two metaphors. Hopefully to confuse everybody um as somebody who is very, um Inept at chewing gum and walking at the same time I hope you as a council are very able to walk and chew gum at the same time um in some ways what I see happening with the overall city plan uh climate plan is developing a beautiful fruit tree And it's going to take some years to do that and it's really great But I think it's really important as that beautiful tree is developed and designed with your plan That if some of the fruit on that tree gets right that you pick it And i'm also kind of baffled that the conversation around no new gas stations is not moving faster with the city It seems to me that's low hanging fruit Not going to take a lot of staff time. I wouldn't believe or council time Particularly since petaluma has already led on this issue You should be able to mostly copy what they've done So again, I am frustrated that you've not be able to move that part of the agenda forward Again, I think that's low fruit And I think we need a good fruit salad at this point. So again, thank you for your time and um Yeah, there's still a little time left. This is chris thompson and um i'm Uh co-chair the vice chair, I guess Technically for the oakmont democratic club and we're getting kind of tired of evacuations last fall Year ago, we were out of here again And the whole state is burning up again in louisiana people are Just beside themselves and new york city. We used to live in new york city. It's unrecognizable during the flooding I just want to say that if it comes down to staff time And cost I'm not sure why Those either of those things come into play when we're looking at Look looking at the precedent in petaluma for say no to new gas stations We could reach out to them They've done a lot of the work The staff time should make this a priority It is it doesn't seem to me that it would be a long drawn out thing Thank you All right. Thank you tom and chris. We'll go to michael Yeah, can you hear me? There you go. Wow fantastic uh, well, thanks for reconvening. I just uh want to remind everybody that It's been almost a year since you all signed on to the climate emergency resolution And the last I checked emergency requires immediate action And I know there are a lot of nuances to what we're talking about But the urgency is in our face Actually, the current science climate scientists Are not looking at 2030 in carbon neutral. They're looking at carbon negative And that means carbon neutral plus drawdown out of the atmosphere So we have to get creative and use what nature has taught us One example is regenerative agriculture To sequester carbon Planning trees greening spaces Removing removing some parking lots and greening those Making 15 minute Uh in dwellings where all your shopping banking needs are within 15 minutes of cycling or walking And I think the county public health department has done really well with adaptation Information for its citizens in the county but it's solely remiss In educating our public regarding simple climate actions Listing some simple things that we can do That each in their small and simple way have a huge effect On climate action and in so doing and being active I know I speak for myself and many other climate activists Once you take a little action that really helps mitigate Our fear and despair About what's going on in the future. We're leaving our children and grandchildren And just lastly, I think it's a no-brainer To not permit more gas stations If we have a climate emergency going on This is just a very simple choice And as already has been reiterated by aris and steve We need to really scale up our active transportation sector cycling pedestrians Etc. And that requires investment and infrastructure That is safe with separated bike paths so people aren't competing with traffic and I really thank you for listening And a lot of us in the climate community are just Really getting tired and burned burnt Seeing the same things repeat over and over again Thank you very much Thank you, michael So I'll go ahead. That's the last hand that I see. I'll go ahead bring it back to the committee So amy, there were two questions in particular that I was hoping you could jump in on I know that neither is entirely 100% within your wheelhouse. One of them is about the timing for the gas Gas station ban. The other is about who is Who has charge who has responsibility for monitoring the Climate action plan from 2012 and obviously that's a fairly complicated question But if you wanted to take a stab at the two of those I'd appreciate it Absolutely. Thank you mayor. Um, so we are We've been a part of this subcommittee for a while and have heard the concerns and opinions expressed about gas stations and have been watching and working with the other jurisdictions within the county and as you know a couple meetings ago We did have a focused discussion on the gas station ban and have been working behind the scenes to formulate a plan to move that forward and Amy Nicholson is our project lead on that and I will say that anytime we undergo Considering a new ordinance or piece of policy. It's really important that we make sure we have The capacity to do it correctly. So it does take capacity from our team to be able to accomplish something with the right amount of outreach And thoughtfulness when it comes to policies that will work best within our city and for the constituents and for everyone involved So with that being said, we did assess our workload And our capacity and we do have a fair number of things on our plate which are related to climate action Many of which are grant funded with specific timelines associated So it is something that we brought forward to the council during the council goal setting I believe that was just a few weeks ago to look at how we prioritize The various things that our team are currently working on and just how do we move forward? And that's going to be an ongoing conversation as we start completing some of the things that are on our plate And when we did have that conversation at the council We did hear that over the next six months our focus should remain on the general plan streamlining housing And working on short by short term rental policy initiative, which is new to our plate as well So all of those things combined really means we weren't able to pivot as quickly As I know the community wants to work on that gas station ban But we are going to be watching the issue very closely and hopefully have capacity to work on that in the near future But we'll continue to also monitor the permit activity related to gas stations in the city We haven't had new applications in quite a while We do have one application that's under review right now that we know of But that is another piece that we'll continue to to monitor and we'll continue to work with Those on the call today to do what we can Knowing the capacity that we have at this time All right, I appreciate that and just for folks If Because I've seen a couple of folks and I've gotten a couple of emails from folks about wanting this particular issue to come faster Here is What we're working on and you tell me if you'd like us to push any of these off For the gas station ban There's the implementation for the food wear and litter reduction ordinance. That's the zero waste ordinance that was passed There's the implementation of that as well as the composting requirements for the state that we have to do There's the eco pass and free public transit that's being worked on There's the rosin creek community park that's being worked on There is the ties That's the the transit integration activity that we're working on There's the bus electrification fleet That we have coming Later this year we can push that off if folks want us to push that off for this there's the There's a couple of grant applications For different electrification for other vehicles Happy to talk about that. There's the shared mobility ordinance that's being worked on Uh mandatory composting uh, that's in compliance with some of those rules Again if if folks want to contact us and tell us to prioritize The gas ban over these things. There's the new vehicle purchasing policy around electrification that that's coming and that applies across the board I'm just looking there's the uh climate action Uh bicycle update that that staff has been working on uh our bicycle and pedestrian master plans We're happy to have this conversation. We know that this is important to folks But we also know that things like electrifying our bus fleet are also important and we have limited staff So it's moving forward. It's set to come early next year If folks really are interested in having that pushed ahead of some of these things that I've mentioned Let's have a conversation about it We didn't hear from folks during the goal setting that the next couple of months were more urgent than next year given the proposal of a couple of No, no new proposals coming in for a while. Happy to have the conversation about it. Uh, but let's have that conversation Uh vice mayor councilmember any final thoughts on this item Um, I just want to say I am not happy to have the conversation because I think they are all Good things. I think that they all need to be done and it is just so difficult To prioritize them For me, I'll say for me. It's difficult to prioritize them because I think that they all need to be done and I wish we had um staff time and resources to do them all um at the same time Uh, and it was uh pretty difficult to um Um, so I guess to prioritize them and I didn't really hear a lot From people when we were going through the goal settings. I don't think I really heard from anyone when the goal when we went through the goal settings again, so um And it doesn't mean that we don't think it's a it's a great idea or we support it Um, it just means that we couldn't get to it um this time so I feel I feel bad because it is something that I I support and that I do Want to to get to um I just know that we can't get to everything at one time and um, we want our staff to to dedicate their time to do uh Some things well instead of trying to do Multiple things or everything and not be able to do them um 100 and do them well um Is one of the things that I was looking at when we were trying to have our staff kind of hone in on what they were um able to prioritize It's to be clear. It's to be clear. It's still coming. It was just delayed a couple of months uh councilmember alvarez Yes, thank you mayor uh for myself I think I have more of a question and and that question would be out of all the gas stations that have a permit submitted as of now have any of those permits moved forward in the last six months Amy shaking her head. No, I only know of one application in process and I Don't believe anything has happened those substance in the last six months with that application Thank you for that and with that being said I find it uh, and I would like to echo vice mayor roger statement That I would not like to have the conversation if we're going to prioritize other issues in front of that one Especially if we're not seeing any or or any project move forward within the last six months I think that that there's plenty to do and I think we're we're moving forward I know that it's very frustrating at the speed that things must move forward at But I am confident with the statement of making that says that the city of san rosa Is moving forward with the climate action plan and and I think we're doing well with it And I would like I would actually hate to see us a fall-off track with that because we want to discuss something that that we're not seeing as relevant or as as Really vital such as the bus electric electrification project, which I really want to see come to fruition All right. Thank you councilmember We'll go ahead. We'll move on to the next item. That's our subcommittee reports Uh, I don't have any report. We'll see if any other council members do Then we'll take public comment on that and I'm sure we'll also get a couple of comments about Whether people would like to change the priority order Because I see a couple hands that have popped up Vice mayor councilmember any additional reports? No, sir Okay, we'll go to public comment on it I'll start with alexa and then we'll go to woody. Hi. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yep Go ahead alexa. Yeah, so I I appreciate some of the backstory because I am a supporter of the gas station ban And I have been under the impression that One of the benefits of doing that is that it will save staff time in a long run if you get a gas station Permit application tomorrow that's staff time that has to get dedicated to that And so by just implementing the ban you're saying we're not going to spend any more staff time on that and so I can't see Amy anymore. Um, but I was you know, I guess I would just ask you to elaborate on what the staff need to do given that pedaluma already has the ban in place and The rcpa has already endorsed the idea and that's coming up next week Like it seems like low hanging fruit. It seems like one of the least time consuming Certainly much simpler than electrifying the bus fleet and then once that permit ban is in place It seems like that's going to keep staff from having to spend time processing Permits that for gas stations that shouldn't be built and to respond to council member Alvarez's question Which I think is a legitimate reason one of the reasons that those aren't moving forward Is because we citizens are watching them like hawks and sending them letters and like we're on it And we're devoting our very precious time to trying to stop it And we would like to take that time reclaim that time and spend it on different fights So that would be a help to us as citizens If you could just make it that those battles don't have to be fought anymore. Let's move on to the next stage So that's why I think it deserves a high prioritization I want to thank you profusely for all the other things you are doing as well. Thanks Of course. Thank you, Alexa. We'll go to woody followed by eris I Okay, thank you. Uh woody Hastings coalition opposing gas stations Yeah, I want to thank Alexa for reminding me. Uh, so there are two live active gas station applications permit processes underway in san aroza One is at 43 middle rink and road on the east side of town. The other one Is at 874 north right road on the west side of town and that one is on hold In part because the coalition opposing the gas station gas stations filed an appeal On their subdivision subcommittee approval of that station and it's been on hold since then And that was december of 2019. So it is our activities that have been keeping these things at bay You know, and it's a really good point that Alexa also raises about saving staff time You know, this is if you want, you know part of prioritization is figuring out What's the easy quick stuff you can get done and get out of the way get off you get it off the plate This is one of them. We believe that this is not going to be something that takes a lot of staff time. So again You know, I just want to say that if you uh want to prioritize things that can be done relatively quickly And easily without a lot an enormous amount of staff time This is one of them. And so I would encourage you to keep it Get it done this year. Thank you Thanks, bloody eras Oh, I used to have aspirations to public office and I am so glad now that I lost the One and only election I was ever in for because um, I would hate to have to be In the position of having to prioritize so many Uh worthy actions all toward the same goal and of course the con gas group or See their issue as the most high priority and of course I think getting more people on bikes as the highest priority and you know, there are multiple high priorities out there And while I overall support, um My friends and colleagues jenny and and and woody in that endeavor um I'm not sure that I always think that doing the easy low hanging fruit first is actually It's not how I choose what to do first always because what I always want to look at is what's going to have the biggest result What is going to get? People out of their cars. What's going to get other stuff done and in the long list of Things we could be doing while I agree. We do not need more gas stations and I don't want to see anymore gone um, I don't think that stopping this one or two permits of gas stations Is going to change a whole lot of people's transportation behavior, frankly right, um making um more bike paths that where people can ride a bike where they don't Feel like they're going to get run over by a car is going to entice some people to get Out of the car and ride their bike at least on destinations that have that kind of infrastructure and that's expensive and takes time to build um so whereas again, I I agree with an insympathetic towards that um ordinance it would not be On the top list of my priorities, but again, I know um you all as a committee and as a council have to balance a lot of priorities and So I guess I'll just leave it there. Thanks Thanks, eris. We'll go to jenny followed by michael Jenny you able to unmute? I did unmute. Can you hear me? There you are. Okay. Yeah, I started twice. Okay um I certainly want to see people get out of their cars walking and bicycling and I totally support those efforts as well This is just as as woody said earlier about not digging the whole deeper that we're already in But I wanted to make a new point Which is that um, we did also coalition of opposing new gas stations did supply the staff with a model ordinance It is more straightforward than the one that petaluma passed, which I think got a little bit more complicated And we also submitted policy points. So a lot of the work at least the The initial work Is is provided If it can be used by staff to to tweak some to tweak to make it appropriate for santa rosa um And the other thing is this isn't just about, you know, stopping one or two gas stations. It's about Um saying no more new gas stations and we're hoping this will be countywide pretty soon so um, and that would just be another way to stop Stop prolonging dependency on fossil fuels into the future But I totally support all the other things that are happening as well And thank you for your work on the other issues. I would also not like to have to be Prioritizing which comes first or which is most important. Thank you Thank you, jenny. We'll go to michael followed by tom and chris Can you hear me? Yeah, go ahead michael. Yeah, okay. Thanks I concur with all the comments made by alexa and woody and jenny I think The stepping back. I think all your decisions have to be made through the lens of climate change And I think you're attempting to do that Hence prioritization is a very difficult thing However There's more to it than just banning more gas stations once you do that You create a public perception That we will not allow any more gas stations that support the fossil fuel industry And it also is a deterrent to these corporate entities that want to come into our county And apply for permits Slow down all our other priorities and climate change use up staff time I think We really need to recognize that it's just bigger Than not allowing more gas stations. It's a deterrent And it's public perception That's all I have to say. Thank you Thank you michael tom and chris Yes, can you hear me? Yep. There you are. Yeah. Thank you. Um, it occurs to me that This this problem this climate change problem is probably gonna Be bigger than we even think now as time goes forward. I think it will become more and more acute I think the the entire city council needs to revisit its budget priorities With the climate lens in place To see where they're gonna where are you all and how the public can help you either by raising taxes or Uh getting uh people who are environmental offenders individuals or corporations to Pay more of the cost of what has happened not going forward not to it's not a cap and trade thing It's you know, they they need to be paying their fair share And I'd like to see um, there's a bigger staff To handle this bigger problem That we're going to be facing and if that means bigger amounts of money, then we better come up with it Thanks a lot Thank you chris. I appreciate that So that's the last hand that I see so i'll pull it back And I really do appreciate everybody being willing to sort of engage us on this conversation. I'll tell you it's not easy Uh picking and choosing which things to prioritize And I I'll say this about our staff and I hope they don't mind me saying it, but they're exhausted Uh, and I think we all recognize that they're exhausted because of climate change because of emergencies that were Worse and are more frequent because of climate change and they know that we need to address that and do our fair share At the same time we asked them for an honest assessment of what they thought that they could deliver given our staff capacities And and that's what they gave to us And you know what we heard from our staff was that they really wanted to focus on the things where they were going to get the Best bang for their buck and again remember that our staff members live in santa rosa They believe in addressing climate change. They want it to be a priority. They want to move things as fast as they can And we we want to make sure that we're communicating with the public and hearing from you all what you want to accomplish First and foremost, but some of these things like electrification of public transit Those are priorities that we started last year or the year before and we're starting to see it come to fruition Which does end up having additional staff time to it. We want to make sure that we get them across the finish line So it will be a constant push pull. Uh, I appreciate hearing from folks about what they'd like to see prioritized over others Yes, we will be looking at the broader impact to see what we can move both quickly And also that is going to move the needle the most on climate Uh, and so we'll continue to have this conversation as it's set right now Uh, that issue will come back to uh us with the full language and I can actually talk to to staff about Preparing it and see if we can skip a step of not having to come back to our committee if that's a good middle point to try to help out And we'll get it done as soon as we can is the answer In the meantime, like I said, I know our staff is exhausted and they're working hard So I just wanted to appreciate them for that We'll go on to the last item for today. It's our department reports from staff Let's see if there's anything additional that staff wants to add From today's meeting before we adjourn Thank you mayor and vice mayor and council member. I just have a few quick Quick updates one. I wanted to follow up on our climate action plan monitoring So we do this in a number of ways One is through our annual review of the general plan. So this is a report that comes out on a yearly basis and has a section on our climate action plan And describes the progress that was made For each of those goals and and policies We also have These spreadsheets which include all of the action items in the cap and then that circulated To various staff members to plug in any sort of updates And then we do coordinate with our cpa on just kind of broader Efforts, and they also are evaluating our GHG inventory Every few years and so they're looking at Are the effectiveness of some of the work that we're doing on a more macro level Just a quick highlight We had a climate adaptation workshop earlier this year and that report was released this week So this was a community and staff workshop that resulted in some specific adaptation measures And this document will be used as a resource in our general plan update And the consultant Actually spoke about this briefly during her presentation This report will be posted to our climate action subcommittee web page And the report was also emailed to all the workshop participants And finally, I just wanted to note that we are anticipating more items to come before the subcommittee in the coming months We are we've actually previously discussed sort of an upcoming meetings list or pending items With the subcommittee before so we're working on Getting that pulled together so that everyone can be more informed as to what we are working on And that is it for me. I don't know if there are any other staff that have an update Thank you Okay. Thank you so much. Amy Vice mayor council member any questions for staff? No, sir No, great. We'll go to public comment then folks are interested in talking on item seven. So I'd hit the raise hand feature Okay, I'm not seeing any so that uh eris you got it in just under the wire Let's go ahead go to public comment with eris Okay, just a quick question to um to the follow-up of Where to find this? annual update or report that indicates that thing, you know What goals have been met because I am noodling around on the website Which is extremely hard to sometimes to find the documents that you want. So I you can just I can take that offline if Amy if you can email me Uh where on the website those things are thanks Thank you, eris. We'll see if we can get Amy to answer that. Uh, but it's not just you I have never found our website to be particularly easy to navigate. I know we've been working on it Amy I want to clarify exactly what what documents would be helpful. So that was it the annual just the annual report That's what it sounded like. Okay. Perfect. I yes That's on the general plan section of our webpage and and it is it is confusing to organize information in a And an intuitive manner. So I'm I'm happy to send this to you by by email eris. I I do have your email Okay Thank you so much. Amy Any last thoughts vice mayor or council member alvarez before we adjourn All right saying done. We will go ahead and adjourn. See you all at our council meeting on Tuesday Thank you