 Good evening, and welcome to Thursday, October 26, 2023, regularly scheduled City Council meeting. May we have roll call please? Council Member Brooks. Here. Council Member Clark. Here. Council Member Peterson. Here. Vice Mayor Brown. Here. And Mayor Kaiser. Here. Would you all join in the Pledge of Allegiance? Thank you. Are there any additions or deletions this evening? Okay. It'll take us to item three. Do we have any presentations tonight? Oh, so sorry. No presentations this evening. So we'll have a report on closed session, please. Good evening. We had a closed session on the item on the agenda and direction was given to staff. Great. Thank you. And additional materials this evening. Thank you. Thank you. And we have more emails were received relating to item nine. Eight those have been uploaded to the agenda packet online and printed and provided to the City Council. Great. Thank you. Item six is oral communications by members of the public. This can be done on any of the consent items or anything that is not agendized this evening. We will be strict on our three minute limit. So just keep that in mind. I would like to, first of all, I have three things to talk about. I'd like to thank the public works for the safety ballard bike racks that were installed on Capitol Avenue this week after two incidents of impaired drivers driving up and crashing on the sidewalk there. This will sometime, maybe not in my lifetime, but I believe sometime it will save a life. We're serious injury. So I'm really thrilled to see that. I also want to thank the city crew who's been partnering with the landscape group from the BIA to help clean up and beautify the village. And I think this summer it's looked almost the best it's ever looked. And especially during our wine, it really looks spectacular. They really have been, I know they're super, super busy. And they really have been doing an awesome job helping with that landscaping improvement. And I also want to thank the city council for paying for the sidewalk cleaning, which is really essential. And the BIA has picked up a few of the extra cleanings. And I think it made a huge difference because after those festivals and things, it's really disgusting. So thank you very much for that. And we hope that you will keep considering that in your budget. And then for everybody listening, there's a group of residents and business owners who get together on the first Saturday of every month at 9 a.m. at the Esplanade Park. And we do weeding, trash pickup on the beach, clean up the parking lots, been working, cleaning up and weeding them on Array Avenue wall, which is one of my very favorite spots. And I think that that's part of that whole group that's trying to help and make the make the village look beautiful because we all know takes a village. So thank you to all the people that have been helping beautify. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening council. My name is Justin Mafia. I am a parent of four minor children in our community. And I wanted to come this evening to share my concerns around the agenda item around book banning. My four kids, minors, can't walk into the Sinolecs and go to a rate at our movie. My four kids can't walk into an adult big store and buy content. The term book banning is so dishonest. And I am asking the this council that you consider what this means when you are making a generalized statement to a very, very complex issue. And to be clear, I'm not here supporting the banning of books. I am here supporting keeping sexually explicit content away from our minor children. And the idea that this body wants to openly protect that in our public libraries is a little bit out of control for me in the resolution that you guys will be voting on in the consent agenda later. It specifically references a book by the title Gender Queer. And I don't know if this body is familiar with some of the content. It is written in comic book style. It is targeted at children. And I wanted to read a passage to you all so you can understand the graphic nature of this. And I apologize to the community but this has come before this body and this needs to be said. From page 166, I got a new strap on today. I can't wait to put it on you. It will fill my favorite dildo perfectly. You're going to look so hot. I can't wait to get my cock in your mouth. What is this? Why are we referencing this book in capital city council? I can't understand why we are not doing the job of protecting our city, building economic prosperity, fixing our streets, and we're taking our time to talk about this. Thank you. Thank you. I'll just remind the public to be mindful with your reactions. Thank you. Good evening, T.J. Welch. And I also would like to talk about item AP on the consent calendar. I would ask that you pull it and agendize it in a regular scheduled meeting where we could have real discussion about this. I recognize most of you don't have kids, don't have families, and may not really recognize the impact it has to families. And it's obviously a big issue in this country as the library association pointed out this is a big issue. And otherwise you wouldn't be writing a resolution to try to ban this stuff or talk about the banning. So while I'm not in favor of banning anything, I am totally in favor of letting parents control what gets to be seen and not seen. And as was just pointed out, it's a lot more graphic than that. You can look at pictures in these books and there's a reason why there's urgency in this country to control what's going on with our kids. And I understand where you guys come from. I've watched you guys vote on past items, but I ask that you pull it and put it on a regular scheduled agenda item so other people can have input. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, good evening. My name is James Ewing Whitman. What was it? Junior shrub. Fool us once. Fool me once. Shame on you. Fool us all. Shame on us. Two weeks ago, the first half of the meeting was muted. That's just kind of sad. I was in the middle of the meeting. You know, about the book banning, I was there at that meeting for supposed to last two hours. It didn't last two hours. I took almost five pages and notes before they asked for questions. Kind of waited towards the end. I didn't interrupt and said that's not accurate at all. And 90% of the people in the room and there were over 60 looked at me. Yeah, you know, Ferris Aba is a pretty sharp guy. I don't really agree with a lot of what he actually really stands for, and I really appreciate community talking about some stuff that's really quite obscene. I wouldn't, it just wasn't in my son's education 10 years ago, and I have no idea why I can explain why it's in there now. So as a community service with the City of Santa Cruz, I didn't re-low. This is the Citizen's Handbook on page four, describes how a juror has more power than Supreme Court or the President. This is about city managers. This is for all of you guys. It would be really great if all the K through 5 were really familiar with that information and also stuff, one of the three constitutions in there, but it doesn't describe the gold fringe on this U.S. flag and the California flag, which under maritime law is a corporate pirate flag. You know, some of the information about city managers and people, the public, I mean when I spoke two weeks ago, I hadn't been here in a long time. I have compassion for you, City Council members, because you're completely controlled by international organizations since before 1915. Some people say from the 1880s. So the citizens that voted for you kind of have some expectations, and it might be interesting if they understood that you guys' hands are tied, and that's really sad, you know. Once again, I'm really glad that people brought up stuff about the children, because that's the future of humanity. And this is a really exciting time to be on planet Earth, because that's enough for now. I left work at 5.45 to get here. So nice to see you all. Thank you. Any other speakers for open public comment? Hi. My name is Gordon Klapec. I play almost every day a J.C. Park basketball. There's a problem that we have at J.C. Park. It's graffiti art. I don't call it graffiti, but it's more like gang-affiliated stuff that is going on in a man's bathroom. I don't check the women's bathroom because I'm not allowed to use it as a man by law. What I'm saying is here, when somebody discovers something like that and reports that to the police, I don't know who is responsible for that. The public works or the police department to deal with that. I worked as a security guard in Switzerland for a long time, and we had to deal with that a lot of times with that. So I caution you to be more careful about how to deal with those issues in Capitola because it could get out of hand. Thank you very much for listening. God bless you all. Thank you. Any other members in-house? I don't see any more. Do we have anybody online? We do here. The first speaker will be Ben Frenata. And when you are unmuted, you will have three minutes to speak. Can you hear me? Yes. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. You have a presentation. I'm not going to talk about the whole thing, but I want to talk about segment nine, which is not on the agenda, which myself, in particular, but others consider to be unsafe and dangerous. The ultimate trail that's in nine. Now the reason why is in the first paragraph. Caltrans, the master plan talks about segment nine, 10, and 11 as being 12 feet wide. Caltrans, however, explains that class one bikeways must have two-foot shoulders, three feet where feasible, setbacks within objects like fences, posts, and walls, and are not considered part of the traveled way. Excuse me, sir, this is actually an item that's on the agenda this evening. It's item nine A. This public comment is open for things on the consent or not agendized. But nine is not on, 10 and 11 are on. I'm talking about nine. I want you to hear me out. It doesn't take long. You've got the information. Oh, segment nine of the trail. Okay. I misunderstood you. Okay. Now, so let me tell you why I've got other information in there. I've had a conversation with a non-voting public servant and they say, well, no, this is 12 feet wide. It's not eight feet wide, but it is eight feet wide. That's the traveled way by the Caltrans. So that sort of got under my little bit. And finally, I said to him, look, when he said to me, it's a political problem. And I said, no, it's a safety problem. So I only put one, the second two paragraphs there for emphasis, not to discuss tonight. But I want to talk about capitol. That's really my topic because it's so important to me. I've lived here since 1967 in Aptos. And you know, we get a recreation brochure from you every few months. This last three months, we're coming into more than half of the events are for kids. That's great. More than half. Parents night out, kids after school, things like that, plus other things that's coming up on Halloween, of course. Now, what else is happening is the Jade Street Park. Thank you so much. That has been your three minutes. The next speaker will be John. You've been asked to unmute. You'll have three minutes. Give me one second. Your time has started. Can you hear me, though? Yeah, you can. So I would also like to talk about item A. You might have cut out. Can you hear me? Hello. Now we can hear you. Hello. So I think it's something I was doing here. It doesn't matter. So I'd like to talk about the banning book item in the consent agenda as well. I'm against banning books and I have no caveats on this. I think there's never a reason to ban books. But this ban on banning books is government using its regulatory powers to take away a potential solution in our local community that others clearly do care about. So I agree with the other speakers who say we should put this on the general agenda. This needs to be publicly discussed. And if you do pass this ban, we need to hear your reasons for it. So that's what I have to say about that. And then what Karen said, also 100% guys, we need to put more ballers everywhere in town. Our lower village is a arterial commuter transport corridor at this point. And that is just bad design. Put the ballers everywhere for safety at minimum. So thanks for bearing with me and have a great night, guys. Thank you. The next speaker will be Mary. Mary, you've been allowed to speak. You'll have three minutes. Hi. Yeah. Can you guys hear me? Yes. Wonderful. So I wanted to just, I was going to, I was going to talk general comment, but I also wanted to talk about banning books. Yeah. I'm against that. I think that there are no exceptions to the first amendment. And I think that the, well, other than what legally are exceptions, but I think the government should never take any kind of step in restricting books or speech or really expression of anything. And I think that's good. Even books we don't like or speech we don't like can be countered with more speech, right? The other thing I wanted to talk about, and this is general comment is a California penal code 286.5. And I think the city could write an ordinance or something to like expand that says every person who has sex with an animal is guilty of a misdemeanor. And we have all these white women having sex with, with niggers and ma'am, you have five seconds to return your, your topic to the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council or we will move on. Okay. Okay. You dumb. Okay. Please cut the mic. Okay. I'm going to give a warning about the remainder of public comment. This is a limited public forum, which means that there are rules for the type of comment that is permitted. The comment in agenda, in items on non-agenda, the comments during the period for non-agendized items must relate to the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council. So if those, if the comments do not relate to the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council, you will receive one warning and then we will move on. The next speaker. Jack, you've been allowed to speak. You'll have three minutes. Well, how do you just say that? Okay. You have five seconds to relate your comment to the subject matter jurisdiction of Capitola. Cut the mic, please. There are no other speakers with their hands raised. Mayor. All right. Well, we can take this to staff and city council comments. Staff is not receiving. Council comments. Is our staff okay to continue? Okay. Okay. Um, all right. We're going to move forward. Um, so. For a second. Yeah, I'm okay. I'm not okay. All right. I'll wait. All right. I've got some comments. I'm going to take a break. Okay. I'll take a short five minute recess. Welcome back everybody. We will continue with council comments. All right. I'm going to talk about, um, this Saturday's. Inclusive adaptive family fall festival happening. And that I'm so excited about treasure cove at jade street park, playground design reveal. And I and we all of you to please attend our October 28th event from two to four. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted to mention that on the Sunday, the 29th is the holiday parade. So, um, that is from one 30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Starting at the Esplanade. Um, so that should also be a fun time. I have a few updates. Um, yesterday. I was joined by the vice mayor and city manager and city manager. And we were presented with a $1 million check to start the renovations on our community center. Um, Nikki, our. Director took us for a tour. So it was, um, pretty eye opening. Even for me, I pass by that building all the time. And I know we've been discussing it in many lengths about the needs. Um, but it was really good to see it firsthand and have the assemblywoman here with us as well. So, um, I'm really excited to get that project going. I, you know, it's a huge improvement for, for all walks of life. Um, some other updates. I know I wanted to just do a shout out to our PD. We've had a couple, uh, major, uh, arrests, a little activity up on 44 p.m. So just thank you guys for always being prompt and, and on the ball and working with our, our neighboring jurisdictions. Um, and a huge shout out to public works. Um, just as Ms. Han was saying, um, also I've noticed a ton of work being done right here at city hall. And, um, it really takes a, a great deal of help and a great team to keep our beautiful city the way it looks. So just want to, um, express my gratitude and, um, that we here in capitol are made up of a wide array of, of people, um, all walks of life, male, female, queer, black, white, Hispanic. Some of these comments that have been said tonight are not indicative of our beliefs here in capitol. Um, in many of our neighboring cities. Um, so this type of speech is not going to be tolerated. Any of the comments that come through this evening, um, we have our attorney here. Um, and I have our amazing city clerk too to help us, uh, navigate that. I will also extend my sincere apologies for anybody that was offended this evening. I know that I was, um, and I personally will not stand for it. So that being said, we will move on to the consent, um, item eight, all items listed as consent will be enacted in one motion in the form listed below. There'll be no separate discussion unless somebody here would like to pull an item. I have a question for our city attorney. If we do pull an item tonight, we can't talk about it tonight. We don't have to wait till it's further agendized. Is that correct? That's correct. With that being said, I would like to pull the consent item, um, eight B. Okay. So then we will be pulling eight B and then just voting on eight A and C. I'll make a motion to approve item eight A and C. I'll second. Great. We have a first and a second. May we have a roll call please. Council Member Brooks. Council Member Clark. Aye. Council Member Peterson. Aye. Vice Mayor Brown. Aye. And Mayor Keiser. Aye. Passes unanimously. Thank you. Council Member Brown. Council Member B. Aye. We will start with item nine A. It's the coastal rail trail segments. 10 and 11. The recommended action tonight is to provide direction to the staff on a comment letter on the environmental impact report and consolidated coastal permit request to start us off this evening as Director Hurley he and then we'll also be hearing from RTC. Thank you. Tonight we have an update on the Coastal Rail Transignments 10 and 11. Next slide. So overview of how this evening is going to go. We'll have a presentation by both RTC and the County of Santa Cruz. Tonight we have Rob Tidmore here. The City of Santa Cruz is managing the EI on this project. We also have a great race ski with us this evening. RTC. So first we'll have their presentation. After that, I'll give a presentation on what the goal is for the EI. And they're going to send helpful questions and to public comment. I just wanted to clarify that the public comment should be heard. This conversation is really about the role of the city and whether or not we've got a couple questions that guidance this evening. Any public comment made tonight will not be submitted to the county towards the EI. Those comments have to go directly to the county and I'll slide at the end of my slide of how that, how you can comment on the EI. And then lastly, we'll have a discussion on the information. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Rob. Next slide please. Thank you, Katie. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members. As Katie mentioned, my name is Rob Tidmore. I work for the County of Santa Cruz and I'm the project manager for Segments 1011 of the Coastal Rail Trail. And I'm here with Grace Blakely, who's the Senior Transportation Planner. Is this cutting in and out? A little bit. Okay, I'll try and talk into it better. So Grace Blakely is the Senior Transportation Planner with the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. And I just want to thank you for inviting us back to the City of Capitola. We were last year in March and we're here to discuss this project again. And I want to thank staff for their collaboration in getting this project to where we are today. So we're here tonight to request Capitola's continued support for the project and your help to successfully deliver the project. The County of Santa Cruz is the lead agency for Segments 1011 and the project team has been working with the RTC and your staff over the last 24 months to develop the design and the environmental documents. Preliminary design is complete. And as Katie mentioned, the draft EIR is now circulating for public review. And as she mentioned, we're not taking comments on the draft EIR tonight. And then I'll pass this over to Grace to give an overview of the MBSSD master plan. Good evening, Council Members. So for some of you, maybe you would be really familiar with the Monterey Bay Synchro Scenic Trail, but it may be new for some. So I'm just going to provide a really brief background and overview. So the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail is a best reunion bicycle trail that extends around the entire length of the Monterey Bay. It encompasses both Santa Cruz and Monterey counties and traverses the city of Capitola. The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission led the development of a trail master plan to identify a trail network in Santa Cruz County that would serve the goals of active transportation facilities and foster appreciation for the Monterey Bay. As owner of the Santa Cruz branch rail line, which extends 32 miles from Davenport and the northern part of the county to Pajaro just south of the county line in Monterey. The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission with input from the public determined that a trail along the rail line, referred to as the Coastal Rail Trail, will serve as a spine of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail network. The trail master plan was adopted by the Regional Transportation Commission in 2014 and was also adopted by the city of Capitola in 2015 and adopted by the other jurisdictions through which the trail traverses around that same time period. The master plan is organized into trail segments and there's 20 trail segments identified with logical beginning and end points, which is why you hear us referring to segment 9, segment 10, and 11, etc. Next slide please. This slide provides an overview of the Coastal Rail Trail project development and the north end on the left side of the slide is the Northern Terminus and Davenport and on the right side of the slide is in Pajaro where the trail ends. The areas shown in red indicate that the project is funded through construction and green is completed. You can see the region is advancing a significant portion of the Coastal Rail which will really transform our community's bicycle and pedestrian network in large part due to the recent competitive grant awards including the 67 million in active transportation program funding that was awarded from the state to the county of Santa Cruz for the project you're hearing about today. You guys probably zoom right in on it you can see Capitola is right there in the middle of the slide. Two miles of almost 18 miles of the Coastal Rail Trail that are funded through construction are located within the Capitola city limits. One of the main reasons we've been so successful in moving these projects forward is all the interagency collaboration that's occurred on this project for over a decade. As you can tell when you look at our county and how this bike path traverses some of the most densely populated areas of our county that these projects are transformative but they are also complex, they are also expensive and involve dozens of agencies reviews and approvals so the partnerships that we have with the RTC the county of Santa Cruz city of Capitola are really critical in making progress and getting these projects to the endpoint. I wanted to talk just briefly about the area south of capital or south of Aptos segments 13 through 20 which is shown in kind of a pink color and then also what's shown as segment 11B in Capitola. So right now we just are kicking off a project to engage with the community to develop these segments that are shown in pink that have not advanced into pre-construction. We are doing so as part of the Regional Transportation Commission zero emission rail and trail project and so I ask you to stay tuned as you'll be seeing lots of information coming out about the development of those segments including the Capitola trestle here in the next coming months. I'm going to hand it back over to Rob to talk about the project description and design. Next slide please. All right now I'm going to move to a focused overview of the segment 1011 project. This is a map showing segment 10 in green which starts at 17th Avenue and goes to 47th Avenue. The Capitola city limits are overlaid on the invention dark gray for reference. Segment 11 shown in purple starts at 47th Avenue. Next slide and passes through New Brighton State Beach before ending at State Park Drive. Next slide. Now I just want to take a few minutes to talk about the project benefits to Capitola residents. Grace mentioned this already but with this project you'd be getting two miles of dedicated separated from traffic multi-use bicycle and pedestrian trail which as she mentioned connects directly to 18 miles of additional trail which is scheduled to come online by 2029 which means that someone living in the city could get on their bike or walk from their house or on their trail all the way up to Davenport and all the way down to Aptos which is a very exciting thing to contemplate very soon. The trail is also centrally located it's within one mile of all of your residents and within half a mile of 90% of them that means that 90% of people living in Capitola would be a 10-minute walk away from the trail so it's really transformative for the city in general. The trail is going to provide car-free access to important destinations one of which was mentioned tonight Jade Street Park and the upcoming all-inclusive playground the 41st Avenue Commercial Corridor and New Brighton State Beach and people will be able to get there without driving and then trying to find a parking space when they get there. It provides sidewalk gap closures on Park Avenue and provides a parallel route for the non-existent sidewalks on Cliff Drive and McGregor and it improves free coastal access without requiring people to get into their cars and all of this comes with no construction costs to the city of Capitola. But perhaps most importantly the trail and all the other rail trail segments will contribute to a mode shift to walking and biking and a reduction in the amount of driving helping our region meet very important greenhouse gas reduction goals. Next slide please. Now zooming out to include the entire project 26,000 people when you look at the entirety of segment 1011 live within a 10 minute walk of the trail and there are 46,000 people within one mile of this project. Next slide please. The full project includes 4.2 miles of trail and runs the entire length of the city of Capitola from roughly 38th Avenue out to New Brighton State Beach. Next slide please. And it provides connections between low-income areas of the city. Next slide. Affordable housing. Next slide. And a whole host of community serving amenities including 10 schools, 2 community centers, 18 parks and beaches, Simpkins Swim Center where I work, 4 libraries and multiple senior facilities and commercial centers in the immediate vicinity not to mention all the other great destinations along the way like the boardwalk and downtown Santa Cruz. And just as an aside, I took these slides directly from our successful ATP grant application and the project was deemed so beneficial and so transformative on a statewide level that the California Transportation Commission awarded it the largest ATP grant in state history. Okay next slide please. All right now into the details. So the project is pursuing a phased approach to trail development and under the phased approach there are two different ways in which the rail corridor could be developed with the trail, the ultimate trail and the interim trail, both of which are included in the draft DIR as part of the proposed project and therefore analyzed in an equal level of detail in the DIR. The first way is shown on the screen in front of you which is the ultimate trail and it involves building the trail next to the rail line. As Grace mentioned this is consistent with the MBSST master plan and this will be the focus of my design presentation tonight since this is the configuration in which we applied for the ATP grant but it's important to note that the county board of supervisors have not yet made a decision on which configuration to pursue and will not do so until March of next year when the final EIR is certified. So with the ultimate configuration the existing rail line is preserved and the trail is built next to the tracks maintaining the required offset distance from center line of tracks. In this configuration this trail is generally 12 feet wide but is reduced in some areas due to constraints and widen in others where there's additional room. Fencing is required on the side of the trail next to the tracks which you can see in the center of the screen and on the far side of the trail where grade changes make it necessary for safety like you can see on the right side of the screen there. Under this configuration the project would include 4.2 miles of trail. It would involve new bicycle and pedestrian bridges and as Grace mentioned the half mile section across the Soquel Creek and Capitola Tressel would be part of a larger later project phase. Next slide please. So the second way in which the corridor could be developed is to implement an optional first phase as part of the project where the existing railroad tracks are removed and an interim trail is built on the rail line. This approach would require rail banking of the corridor in order to be able to remove the railroad tracks. Under this scenario the trail is generally 16 feet wide but is reduced to 12 feet in several areas due to constraints. Fencing is not required with this option except where grade changes make it necessary. This option would result in 4.7 miles of trail because of the additional half mile associated with Capitola Tressel and would convert existing rail bridges to bicycle and pedestrian bridges. If the rail line were later reactivated the optional first phase would be followed by future phases where the interim trail is removed. The railroad tracks are rebuilt and a new trail is built next to the rail line in the ultimate trail configuration. And I will not be going into detail on the interim trail designs during this presentation but I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have at the end of the presentation. Next slide please. So since we presented a detailed design review to you all back in March I'm going to walk through an abbreviated version of that same design. So in segment 10 in green the trail is on the inland side of the tracks. In this area it ranges from 11 to 14 feet wide and the trail switches to the coastal side of the tracks at 47th Avenue. The project also includes one and a half miles of relocated railroad track from 17th to just past 47th Avenue and they're retaining walls on the inland side to hold up the existing slopes. And in my next two slides I'll be focusing on three key areas 41st Avenue jade street park and the cliff drive parking lot and plaza. Next slide please. So these are two views of the 41st Avenue railroad crossing looking east. The image on the left is existing and the image on the right is proposed showing the proposed trail and relocated track. Bull belts have been added on both sides of 41st Avenue to shorten the crossing distance and improve the visibility of trail users. As with all the crossings green cross bike pavement it's basically a combination of a bike lane and a crosswalk. Markings are shown there and there are LED flashing pedestrian crossing signs added to improve safety and visibility of people crossing the street. Next slide please. Here we have jade street park again two views left is existing right is proposed we're looking west. So there's no fencing on the park side which is intentional is to provide maximum permeability between the trail and the park and this is a very important community asset. The existing redwood trees that are on the park side will all be retained and then at the bottom of the image the trail you can see the trail switching from the inland to the coastal side at 47th. The project is also adding a bulb out at the southeast corner of 47th which will help slow turning cars and improve safety. And just as a note the image incorrectly omits the green cross bike painting that will happen at the trail crossing on the right side of the screen. Next slide please. All right moving slightly farther east these are two views of the cliff drive parking lot looking west. And here the trail is on the coastal side of the tracks which takes advantage of the wider RTC right of way and also serves to maximize ocean views and connection to the coast. The existing on street diagonal parking lot which is partially on RTC property has been reconfigured to parallel parking in order to fit the trail next to the tracks and retain the existing on street bicycle lane. The existing class two bike lane has been improved with green striping for better visibility and the change to parallel parking configuration reduces the risk of a car backing into the cyclist that's using the bike lane. The initial parking lot designed for this area included 23 spaces which is a reduction of 23 spaces from the 46th that were there originally and based on input from city staff the latest design now expands the parking area southwest along cliff drive so there are now 34 spaces proposed. Next slide please. At the end of the parking lot a trail plaza is proposed within the RTC right of way which will have seating, bike racks and potentially space for some sort of public art installation. The project also includes a formalized rail crossing and improved and widened concrete staircase up the hill that leads to Prospect Avenue and Opal Street to improve neighborhood connectivity. Just as a note this crossing is subject to CPUC approval but we think it has good chances of being approved due to the well documented historic use in this area. This drawing also shows where the trail ends and connects to the existing crosswalk across cliff drive and on the next slide I'll show how people will transition from the trail to the existing bicycle and pedestrian facilities through the village. Next slide thank you. All right from the trail end at cliff drive trail users will be directed to use existing bike lanes and sidewalks through Capitola Village and up to the Monterey and Park Avenue intersection where the trail restarts on the upper right hand of the screen. In addition to all the other benefits I mentioned earlier the project will also be improving the existing bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure along this route through several methods. The first is similar to other portions of the rail trail like segment eight in front of the boardwalk where there are existing bicycle facilities that are part of the trail. The project will be adding green paint to the existing bike lanes and the the existing class two bike lanes and class three shadows which will improve visibility of cyclists and better delineation of bike infrastructure and will also help with wayfinding. We will also be installing rail trail branded wayfinding signage through the village to help trail users navigate from one end of the trail to the other and most significantly the project will be restriping a 350 foot long section of cliff drive on the bottom left hand corner of your screen from the end of the trail at the cliff drive plaza to where the sidewalk starts on the coastal side of cliff drive and we'll be doing this in order to create a separate four foot wide pedestrian pathway next to the five foot wide class two bike lane which will create separation between cyclists and pedestrians where there currently is none. And finally I'll just note that restaurants and other businesses in the village could potentially see a benefit from increased visitation as a result of trail users traveling through the village and stopping along their way. Next slide please. Thank you. So Rob talked about the improvements to the bicycle and pedestrian network in Capitola village that are funded through the coastal rail trail segment 10 and 11 project and in discussions with your staff RTC staff understands that there's a desire to continue to enhance and add new bicycle and pedestrian access within Capitola village specifically. So the RTC and the City of Capitola staff have come up with steps to work towards this goal. It starts with RTC RTC leading development of a grant to develop an active transportation plan for Capitola village specifically. We are targeting a Caltrans planning grant and applications are due in January 2024. Development of this active transportation plan is a critical step towards identifying scoping the desired new bicycle and pedestrian facilities and with robust public engagement that we could see funding for capital construction for. Furthermore RTC staff will work with the City of Capitola to conclude funding for the priority improvements identified in the active transportation plan for Capitola village in future state and federal funding requests. Funding requests could include new sidewalks on cliff drive which City of Capitola staff has expressed as a high priority. Next slide please. I wanted to talk a little bit more about the Capitola trestle because we've received a number of questions about the Capitola trestle through development of the coastal rail trail project. We put together a frequently asked questions document to help answer some of the questions we've heard and it's included in your packet. I hope you find it informative. It'll also be posted on the RTC website. One question that we are asked is can a bicycle and pedestrian bridge be attached to the existing Capitola trestle? And the answer to this question is no. The Capitola trestle is not suitable to cantilever a bicycle and pedestrian bridge from due to its structural integrity. It is a different kind of bridge than the San Lorenzo trestle where we have seen a bridge can bicycle and pedestrian bridge cantilevered from it. Another question we receive is can a separate bicycle and pedestrian bridge be constructed across Sokels Creek and within the RTC owned rail line right of way? The answer to this is it may not be feasible due to the space and right of way needed for the bridge as well as the engineering challenges to place the bridge abutments next to the existing rail trestle abutments within the rail line right of way. You're all probably very familiar with how the land around the base of the trestle has developed and we would need space to place new bridge footings in this area and within the RTC right of way if we were to construct a separate bridge. So due to these constraints the current approach by RTC is to replace the existing trestle with a combined bike and pedestrian bridge over Sokel Creek as part of the regional transportation commission's rail project that's currently underway. Another question we receive is can the capitol trestle be converted to a bicycle and pedestrian bridge? From a constructability perspective it is possible to convert the capitol trestle from a rail bridge to a trail bridge if the bridge is rehabilitated. However there are regulatory challenges that we that would need to sorry regulatory changes that would need to occur to be able to remove the tracks from the capitol trestle and this would involve the process of rail banking where the freight operator would need to file for direct abandonment with the surface transportation board or for RTC or another interested party to file for adverse abandonment. The regional transportation commission has discussed rail banking extensively over the last few years and at this time is not pursuing it. Next slide. As specific to the segment 10 and 11 coastal rail trail project the capitol trail conversion and trail on the capitol trestle was not included in the county's active transportation program grant application and the scope and the scope is not included and therefore is not funded as part of the project you're hearing about today. However repairing conversion of the trestle to support the multi-use trail is included as part of the interim trail configuration analyzed in the draft EIR which would allow the project to be environmentally cleared should this option be pursued in the future. During discussions with your staff early on in development of this project we heard that the city's preference is to have the trail on the trestle and therefore the project team added the trestle conversion to part of the ultimate trail design as a design option in the environmental document so again that should this project be pursued in the future it would already be environmentally cleared through this process. Should the capitol trestle trail be sorry the capitol trestle be converted to a trail the trail would continue past the cliff drive plaza that Rob was explaining to you a few minutes ago and transition on to the alignment of the existing tracks which would then be removed the trestle would be repaired and converted to the trail use and then the trest trail would can trail would transition back to the ultimate trail configuration on the coast side of the tracks just past Monterey Park intersection so I know there's a lot of details there and we're happy to answer questions at the end of the presentation should there be some I encourage you to take a look at the fact sheet it is really helpful all right moving on to segment 11 so the trail starts again at the Monterey and Park intersection as Grace mentioned the trail is on the coastal side from Monterey to Mar Vista and then switches to the inland side from Mar Vista to State Park Drive again here the trail is 12 feet wide but it narrows to 10 feet at intersections for safety purposes to slow trail users that's intentional and then some of the existing bridges where there's not room to sorry some of the the new bridges where it's difficult to provide a sufficient width or a 12 foot wide width on on those bridges there are also several viaducts and a new trail bridge at the new Brighton access road over crossing and then there's retaining walls in many areas due to the steep slopes and existing grades so here I'm going to focus on three key areas the Monterey to Grove section the portion of the trail from Grove to Coronado and which includes the the Coronado Street ramp so next slide please so Monterey Avenue to Grove Lane the steep topography and abundant trees between Monterey and Grove make this one of the more challenging portions of the project so the design team explored three different options in conjunction with the city of Capitola to determine which alignment have the least environmental impacts trail on the inland side of the tracks trail on the coastal side of the tracks and then a trail along Park Avenue the trail on the coastal side of the tracks requires the least number of tree removals and has the least impacts however as you can see on the image in front of you the steep topography necessitates the use of retaining walls to hold up the slope the original design shown on the left utilized a single tall retaining wall and the latest designs shown conceptually on the right utilized two smaller walls to raise the trail grade above the railroad grade which is reduces cost avoids the need for underground anchors below adjacent properties and just generally makes the walls less imposing to trail users next slide please it looks like it didn't update oh that's okay all right I'll go on the old one okay so um since our March presentation to council we completed schematic design for an inland alignment uh inland alignment design option between Grove and Coronado which is in addition to the original coastal alignment and this is an area where we'd like to get feedback from city council to help inform project direction this additional design option was added to the project at the request of the coastal commission in early 2023 due to their concerns about the rate of bluff erosion in the area and their hesitation to permit a project that may be impacted by bluff erosion during the lifespan of the facility in addition the coastal commission also requested a bluff erosion analysis that included the impacts of sea level rise the results of that analysis are still pending and we'll share them with city staff when when they're ready so we'll start with the coastal alignment here there's two portions shown the first the the western side shows the connection at grove lane and the right side of the screen shows the connection to Coronado street the primary difference between the coastal and the inland alignment is that the so okay so sorry um little thrown here because the slides are different that's okay so all right so on the coastal side there's there's two access points to the trail one at grove lane and one at Coronado no access from park avenue to the trail in between those areas the coast uh side trail requires some retaining walls on the coastal side due to the existing grade and then on the right side of the screen you can see that transitions to viaducts as you move closer to the new brighton parking lot this option does provide better access to the coast and continuous access to the existing coastal bluff trails in the area at grove lane you can see on the left side of the screen the existing sidewalk gap on park avenue has been infilled as part of the project and that provides ADA access from park avenue down to the trail and at Coronado the existing informal steep dirt trail that many people use to access new brighton you can see is replaced by an ADA accessible viaduct supported ramp going down from Coronado and park to the trail there and you'll see this on both options but the the project also includes a new formal concrete staircase in conjunction with state parks to to provide better access to new brighton next slide please so this is the the new inland alignment option that you have not seen previously so again grove lane is on the left Coronado's on the right on the grove lane connection the project does provide the sidewalk gap infill there but due to existing grades and the fact that the trail is now closer to park avenue there's not ADA access for on the sidewalk to the trail so you can see there's an addition of a switchback ramp and staircase a little bit farther east on park avenue to bring people down to the trail in an ADA accessible route the inland alignment has similar environmental impacts to the coastal alignment there are four additional tree removals that are required as part of the inland alignment and generally speaking the inland alignment requires a single retaining wall along the park avenue edge due to the existing grades there on the east side of the screen the Coronado connection is similar but different in that it still provides an ADA access ramp from Coronado down to the trail but is done so with retaining walls rather than a viaduct and the the existing informal crossing is improved in both scenarios and similar to the opal street staircase this formal crossing is subject to cpuc approval but we think due to the existing high historical usage that we should have no problem getting this one approved next slide please all right so just want to go over some key public input to date the project team has held numerous public engagement events over the last 24 months including the earlier presentation to your council that I mentioned earlier and an integral part of this project is the public input process and we've had extensive coordination with your staff working closely during design reviews and incorporating their comments into this project I give examples of some of those during the design overview and again just noting that we're in the 60-day public review period for the draft EIR and that the county will be holding a public meeting on November 16th from 5 to 7 30 p.m to accept comments next slide please so project schedule on next steps these are the major project milestones the top half of the screen is once we've already completed and then on the bottom half of the screen is the the current draft review in the public meeting as well as the upcoming certification the final EIR which is expected in March of 2024 and that will conclude the environmental review process on the federal side of the project Caltrans is the lead for federal environmental clearance and the project is on track to receive a categorical exclusion in early 2024 and then final design right of way in permitting will begin after completion of environmental review the ATP grant funding that we've mentioned has several deadlines associated with it including that the project completes the environmental review process next spring and completes final design right of way in permitting by 2026 and starts construction that same year therefore it's it's absolutely critical the project keeps moving forward and avoids project delivery risk wherever possible so one of the the recommended actions in the staff report today is for the council to provide direction to staff on whether to pursue a consolidated coastal development project permit process for this project and consolidation allows the project to receive a single CDP from the coastal commission rather than having to get three separate CDPs one from the county one from the city and then a third from the coastal commission for the portion of the project over SoCal Creek and the county's position is that CDP consolidation is preferred from a streamlining process which avoids having three separate CDPs moving forward all of which would have different standards of review the county's local coastal program the city's local coastal program and then for the coastal coastal commission the coastal act which would complicate and potentially confuse public participation further each CDP would have its own timing and participation requirements potentially involving a mix of local hearings coastal commission hearings and then later potential appeal hearings making it harder for the public to participate part of the coastal commission's threshold for accepting the consolidation process is that it doesn't prejudice local participation so there would be guardrails in place to ensure sufficient local participation which would include accepting written comments hybrid participation option in the coastal commission hearing and then potentially scheduling the hearing to occur at a nearby district and as you saw on the previous slide you know we've always believed that robust public engagement is a critical part of the project so we'd work with your staff to schedule additional meetings on the project if you felt that was necessary next slide please so in conclusion we want to work with the city to bring these extensive project benefits to capitol residents at no cost to the city and we've built maximum flexibility into the project delivering approval process to keep all options on the table for us decision makers including what grace mentioned which is approving a trail conversion of the capitol attressal as part of the ultimate trail project and as you mentioned this is a huge complicated project with significant benefits to everyone from live oak pleasure point capitol a c cliff aptos and it requires all of us continuing to work collaboratively with your staff to deliver the project for our residents rtc has committed to working collaboratively with your staff to seek funding for additional act of transportation planning and projects in the capitol village that would be pursued separately and we respectfully request that the council direct staff to write a letter of support for the project's draft dar and to approve cdp consolidation through the coastal commission thank you so much for your time and we'd be happy to answer any questions if you have them and on this last slide just as the public knows this is our contact information including at the bottom where to send comments on the draft dar you can email them to the email address there send them to me via mail or attend the november 16th public meeting thank you okay next slide please now thank you rob and grace for your presentation i'm going to quickly go over capitol's role within this project so next slide please so as rob explained this project is subject to sequa the california environmental equality act we really need to look at the overall impacts and that that's what the public comment will be based on that goes into the next 60 days that the county will be collecting the county is the lead on the environmental review and we are responsible agencies the rtc as well as the city of capitol next slide please and the reason why we're a responsible agency is because we do have a role in reviewing the permits for the coastal development permit as well as a tree removal permit and grading permits for this project so what our role is as the responsible agency first we had as as discussed we've been and we've had many discussions with the county on the project currently we're in the step of reviewing the eir when you have the opportunity it's optional to submit comment on the eir through either a letter of support or to identify any shortcomings in the eir the city as a responsible agency also has the ability to challenge the eir and also come up with other alternatives and then when we go through our permitting process for the coastal development permit and the tree removals that's a separate process in which we can have our own mitigation measures next slide please so within the draft eir we we did submit in our conversations with county staff we did clearly state that we have a preference for option a which is locating the trail over the trestle and then we also in our comments suggested some improvements through the village between the two end points of the trail next slide please and the county is very receptive in rtc to these requests the project has been revised to include within on cliff drive a 350 linear portion of it to allow a separate four-foot wide pedestrian path next to the class two bike lanes so really separate like creating a new place for the pedestrians to walk also the repainting the white strides and adding green pavement throughout the village so there'd be green paint i'm sorry the green paint on the existing class two from point a to point b and then also in those areas where we don't have a bike lane updating it with these beautiful new um shadows um next slide please this next slide is just the map through the village i'm not going to focus in on this one because rob gave a really good overview of that next slide please two items that we didn't we also asked for were 80 improvements through the capitol village and then a new sidewalk on cliff drive at this time they couldn't commit to that due to the current funding but as grace stated rtc is willing to look at other grant opportunities for the city to look at enhancements through the city or through through the village uh next slide please and the second part of the discussion tonight is the consolidated cdp so coastal development permits are usually reviewed by our planning commission and they look at um the coastal development permit to see if a project enhances the public views if it creates more recreational opportunities if it protects the natural vegetation um maintains and enhances coastal resources so that's really what the review is by the planning commission the county is has requested that this be a consolidated cdp so it wouldn't be reviewed by the planning commission it would um go directly to the coastal commission for review and it would instead of uh reviewing the criteria we have an r-code it would be reviewed against the coastal act next slide please so tonight we're seeking feedback on whether or not the um city council would like to submit a comment letter on the eir and then also if there is support for a consolidated cdp at this time um and next slide please so just to uh i think rob is hit this one pretty clear but tonight we will not be taking the public comment and giving it to the county as part of the eir that's a separate process folks are welcome to email their comments to the email address on the on the slide or go to the november 16th meeting so with that that concludes our presentation this evening and we are available for questions and then after that we'll go to public comment thank you great job um any questions from council questions for anybody okay all right uh thank you so much for the presentation and for um mentioning the future plans for the capitol atresl because i think that that's something that a lot of people in capitol have on their mind um and i'll try to word these questions as clearly as i possibly can for such kind of a complicated issue and i'm afraid that i'm going to make it more confusing so please stop me if at any point this sounds like i'm just speaking nonsense um so right now we're looking at these kind of interim and ultimate trail options um but my understanding is with the need for us to replace the capitol atresl in the future there is essentially an ultimate ultimate option which is that third option much further down the road where the trestle gets replaced entirely and we will have pedestrian and bike going over the trestle so it will be a new trestle a new bridge correct okay um so at rtc um and for those who don't know myself and councilmember peterson are on the rtc um we recently approved a project concept report for passenger rail service and if i'm not mistaken that report will be done around 2027 or at least the contract goes to 2026 2026 okay and that's when we're going to find out more details about the replacement of the bridge okay and then i also understand there's going to be a whole new eir for that right for the replacement of the trestle when will we expect that to come um that would follow the project concept report so pending funding that begin in 2026 and be completed in 2028 okay um so by 2020 and so we're expecting to see construction of this um what we're now referring to as enter ultimate trail through the village in 26 so we would have essentially two years of people of pass um bike and pedestrian coming through the village before we would get the final eir for a replacement of the trestle is that correct well the completion of the um project that you're hearing about today i think it's a three-year construction period so it'd be 2029 okay so we would actually have the eir for the trestle replacement before bike and pedestrian traffic increases through the village due to the trail yes i mean depending on the availability we have to do not have the eir for the passenger rail project fully funded but we are seeking funding to complete that package okay um i think that's i know that didn't sound like a question i was just making sure i understood so i think that's um i think the rest of my comments i think everything else is a comment and i'll wait till it comes back thank you um i'm curious about the consolidated coastal development permit and um do we know like what specific differences there would be if we approve that compared to um our code compared to the coastal act i think are they very similar or are they some key differences that you could highlight i believe the findings are quite similar because um you know there's eight findings within our zoning code and they're really about access to recreation and coastal opportunities and protecting the environment which is a lot of the same language that is in um the coastal act so i can't say for sure how much duplication but the goals are there maintaining access and recreational opportunities i think one of the newer items that we included in our code was um more affordable access so for lower income to you know at at less cost of recreation support for that i'm not sure if that's in the original coastal act but thank you yep any other questions okay uh we will go out to public comment for this item anybody in house there you go how many people are wishing to speak on this item this evening all right making sure the mic works good evening council and staff thank you to the staff for putting up signs at the rail end points noting the agenda item tonight um and drafting a comprehensive staff report for reading ahead of this meeting it was really helpful and well written i was particularly interested in learning more about measure l and the concept of a continuous pathway to keep the Monterey Bay sanctuary scenic trail within the rail corridor and not allow a detour around the trestle i'm not rooted in the greenway debate as a matter of fact we were house divided on measure d with one of us voting for and one of us voting against because we clearly see both sides of the opportunity i also now see the challenge of honoring the responsible agency role to uphold measure l when the authority over the use of the trestle is with the lead agency or county and rtc who owns a rail corridor and seemingly excluded trestle repair costs in the raising and distributing of funds effort to date i got heard tonight that there'll be some continuing funding efforts but i also heard that the rtc is not pursuing rail banking and that it was not part of the atp grant scope for funding so there's some inconsistencies in what what i'm hearing there about the goal um like the city i support the preference for design option a with the trail located on the trestle the eir did did respond to city comments on improving bike lanes and striping but it did not respond to comments from the city regarding surface street improvements including the sidewalks on cliff drive which brings me to my second point at the october 12th city council meeting we learned a lot about the cliff drive resiliency project and i'm here tonight my name is leslie nielsen i'm representing the group of four property owners on the ocean side of cliff drive who have been informed thank you for the transparency that new and potentially widened sidewalks are a discussion point for the section of cliff drive that we all use for ingress egress and parking now to the extent widening is a consideration several parking spots would be lost a wider sidewalk for a very short stretch of cliff drive in front of four residences before the sidewalk abuts buildings does not improve safety on cliff drive diverting non-motorized traffic off a trail expected to be widely used will add a lot of pedestrian bike etc traffic and we know the motorized traffic on that stretch shows no signs of slowing down the garage and carport access to the homes on cliff drive of which three of the four are short-term vacation rentals would be lessened and likely increase the risk of collision until we can study the safety of this suggestion i would like to see it stay decoupled from the eir being commented on related to the rail trail project and instead be included in discussions for the cliff drive resiliency project creating an unsafe major city access street corridor is not the answer to avoid funding the common sense solution to promote the rail corridor safe access with a rail bank or replacement trestle comms trestle complex to the extent tonight's topic or project requires approval of a cdp giving you the choice thank you that's consolidated or other i would go with other let's go in front of the planning commission please thank you thank you good evening karen hannah as you know whenever we talk about this that's my hair on fire because capitol village is one of the least safe places to bike right now and nothing in this current plan will improve that at all yes painting green on the yeah it gives it's a slight improvement and the area where most of the green painting is going to take place which is down cliff is not the part that's most dangerous the dangerous part in capitol is monterey avenue going up it because it's steep cyclists will lose balance stop have to walk many you know we've got 19 docking stations full of rental bikes coming so all those people will be trying to ride through capitol village and then coming down monterey there's nothing i mean there's nothing there's a narrow sidewalk and then you're in with all the traffic so this is does nothing to help that and i also worry that the active transportation plan is going to be something like oh well let's get rid of all the parking and put in bike lanes which i don't think it's going to be acceptable either so we we really have a dilemma here so i would sort of like to echo what leslie said and what she didn't really get to finish was um i know that the consolidated um cdp process claims to have plenty of individual public input but i know the people of capitol will come to hear the planning commission and they will talk to the planning commission and if it's sort of taken away from that and i know that the coastal commission can just write rough shot over everybody i've been to their meetings and um it's nothing not they won't hear us like the planning commission will hear us so i'm i'm asking that you at a minimum separate the process because people in capitol love that trestle they want to know what's going on with it as as indicated by the vote um basically i'm asking that you don't accept uh segment 11 at all until segment b is um it's decided and that's going to be many years down the line yes it'll it'll delay everything but things aren't going to improve in the village as far as as far as bike safety anyway so why not just wait and have something that might actually allow people to do what they're claiming it's doing which is to be able to write from one end of the county to the other car free car car safe it's not going to happen you're still being forced off the trail into the traffic thank you thank you three minutes thank you hello council thank you for uh hearing this it's uh for holding this meeting my name is barry scott i live in rio del mar i'm a trained as an architect and i uh am involved in educational matters today the uh i'm excited about the ultimate trail the possibilities of a new bridge i want to say something about the very popular trestle and and bridge uh facility which is that it's very old and it will need to be replaced eventually and it can be replaced with something quite beautiful even even the the sections could be nearly replicated although that might not be the best solution i'm glad that there's such a thing as an ultimate trail design that can be built soon while waiting for the rail study to be completed i think uh citizens need to understand that the the rail line is a is a public utility owned by the county um that it was purchased for the purpose of a rail transit and a trail and that um these magnificent grants that we've been getting thank you rtc uh may partly be because of the multimodal nature of the project if it's going to take and according to the the prior executive director the rtc it could take eight years or longer to a pant and rail bank uh the bridges so the interim trail project may seem to some to be something that could start next week and it's simply not true if you had eight years to 2024 when the eir is accepted that's what is that 2032 whereas i think we're told that the ultimate trail can be completed except for the bridge by 2029 so we need to stick with the ultimate trail we need to honor the rtc agreements that have been made in the past as well as the studies the tcaa the unified quarter investment study and all of the grants that i would argue we we uh stand to lose 67 million dollar grant uh so if we come up with this short-sighted design of abandoning the rail line we could easily lose that funding so i hope that the council will join the santa cruz city council in their unanimous vote when it came to eight and nine a unanimous vote to support the ultimate trail direction thank you thank you next speaker good evening mayor kaiser and council members my name is matt ferrell and i'm here today speaking on behalf of the board of friends of rail and trail um we want to thank uh city of capitol's staff and county staff rob tidmore and the other staff at parks and recreation at the county and also um grace lexley from regional transportation commission we think the collaboration and the proposal that's been brought before you today represents the best opportunity to move forward on this and we support the um measures that are proposed for uh cliff drive and capitol village in order to provide a transition option for people not only to continue on the trail but also to access capitol village i um ride my bicycle to capitol village because my wife gets her hair cut in the village and we like to in this friday i'll be going there to have a glass of wine with her and her hairdresser after and having improved bicycle access to the village will benefit me and a number of other residents in the county and in the village and we really support those improvements finally i'd just like to say that um there are a lot of challenges around the interim trail on the trestle and the most serious one is rail banking and it will be a while if that option were chosen before it could even be approved and rail banking is not a foregone conclusion there are interests that are concerned about rail banking and we would prefer having a solution that maintains the option that voters supported in the defeat of measure d which was to maintain the option for rail and for trail on the corridor so thank you very much for the time and opportunity to speak and uh we urge you to move forward with uh item before you thank you thank you hi brian peoples with trail now we're a local organization thousands of supporters we've been in for over a decade dealing with transportation and promoting the trail be built with the removal of the tracks you know the historical capitol of trestle is historical and we need to say that we don't need to lose it we will continue to have it in our lifetime and actually the analysis on that trestle is salv salvageable as a trail it's a valuable resource and we need to use it now the ultimate trail is expensive it's the most damaging to the environment and they've only built one mile of it in over a decade because of the complexity even guy kreston who's now basically quitting the rtc after three and a half years knew this and that's why he recommended rail banking over years ago because he knows that's the fastest way the most cost effective way most environmentally friendly way to build the trail he recommended it guy kreston and he's leaving our organization the legal challenges that will come about with the property owners it's already happening we know that the rtc doesn't fully understand they're legal we've seen the deeds they're suing there's lawsuits so going with the ultimate trail will continue to delay it the co he also knows that the coastal commission will never approve a trail or a train that's 20 feet from the ocean sea level rising requirements will never allow it even with this elevated trestle trail that you're going to build that's 14 feet high that you heard you don't have access points to the coastal commission will deny it because of those axle access points there's a bunch of holes in your plan in this ultimate plan and that's why we've only built one mile of it in a decade federal some people don't know this but federal guidelines for having a fast-moving train next to a trail you need a 525 foot separation that's just one of the many barriers that are could prevent us from having a train and do we really want 60 trains a day driving over through capitol atreus village we don't need to destroy our capitol atreus we need to use it now we need to open that corridor and we need to be realistic in how we build our trail and be proud of a trail we need we don't want a 12 foot trail that costs twice as much as widening highway one it's actually more than that you're building a 12 12 foot trail that costs twice as much as widening run let's save the capitol atreus let's save it and use it today as a valuable transportation resource you all can start the momentum we've been dealing with this for over two decades thank you thank you thank you hi there my name is tina andrietta and i want to thank you for pointing out that we have 18 miles of the coastal rail trail that's being built now yeah in you know in a short time we have a full funding thank you for your hard work the long-term vision has always been for continuous ultimate trail with the new rail bridge and as the gentleman mr. barry scott mentioned that the design of the capitol atreus could definitely keep it and you know keep it keep the beauty of it keep the rail line and have a maybe similar to what the downtown have a candle levered trail next to the next to the coastal you know next excuse me next to the capitol bridge when that gets built my point being that the ultimate trail has been consistent from day one we've got funding through the state of california the ultimate trail was unanimously voted by not just capitol voters but the whole county almost by 74 percent in the last election the interim trail went down in flames so i'm asking you to continue with um going forward with supporting the ultimate trail and all the hard work you folks have been doing thank you thank you next speaker good evening honorable members of the council denison i was sitting up there 24 years ago and we're discussed the same issue that's when they begin to look at purchasing the corridor i sat on the rtc 14 years through the time that we purchase the corridor and it's never been the intent of this county to do anything but put a trail and in a rail line on that corridor and that that holds true today the monray bay scenic trail was never intended to stay on the trail on the rail trail the whole time it's never been intended to and it still is and even today you're getting off the trail in santa cruz you're going to be doing the selva beach this is not a unique program here other areas of the county will will require that you leave the rail corridor because it's not possible go through it um the other part of it is is that not one foot of rail has been removed in santa cruz county not one not one foot all that rail is still there it really needs to stay in place taking people through the village i i would think that if i was a merchant down there i'd be i'd be really happy about that you know it would it brings people in and as one gentleman says they stop over there um yes it's a little bit of pedal out of the way um it but the village itself could use a better bike corridor which we would get out of this through the village and so people capital will benefit from the trestle the trestle will be there and uh at today it's rebuilt it can it will be built to accommodate both both uses of transportation um i urge you to keep the plan of keeping people going through the village and stay off of the trestle now it's it doesn't do any benefit for the people live here it it's it people will still be glad and i i as a bike rider um i would say um there's many places i would jump off the rail trail just to get away from it for instance i would rather drive through pleasure point than i would on the rail corridor through everybody's backyards and that's what we're asking here so so please please keep keep the keep the best from traffic going to the village till we rebuild it and we can provide for both means of transportation as it will happen in this county thank you thank you and next speaker good evening mayor and council members um as always i just want to thank you for all your time and service and study about this long long simmering issue my name is molly ording and my husband mickey and i are 25 year plus residents of capitol and actually just above monterey avenue in the portion of monterey that we are discussing specifically tonight i'm here this evening representing many residents of monterey avenue who all of us have probably met with either four or five former police chiefs in the past years in attempts to try to slow down and control the speeding and the traffic and the excessive noise on monterey and onto park avenue we are directly affected neighborhood and we are solidly in favor at this time of this ultimate trail configuration our rationale being that purposely increasing both pedestrian and bicycle accessibility up and down monterey will add to the safety and discourage the speeding and the dangerous driving that takes place there daily yearly there are already two wide well separated sidewalks both on both on the north and the south side for pedestrians and by clearly marking bike lanes in both directions with green and white stripes that we see on a few streets in capitola bollards and new thing i learned tonight sharrows on the street we feel that we can slow the traffic deter the traffic and ensure the safety of bicyclists using monterey avenue so we urge your support for the ultimate trail configuration and thank you for your attention thank you good evening my name is rosemary sarca and i work with ronkamp railroads ronkamp railroads doesn't have the intention of running the passenger rail on the rail here neither freight nor passenger that will be somebody else that will do that but we do have some expertise regarding rail banking and in order to rail bank there must be a filing of abandonment on the line the only people who can file for abandonment are the rtc itself or that with the cooperation of the operators and any any operators on the line which would include the regular operator progressive or big treats which does freight on the line and that's not going to happen not within anyone's expectations because it's extremely important that we keep the line available so if there's not going to be a filing of abandonment and there's therefore there's not going to be rail banking therefore there cannot be a interim trail um I would be happy to talk to anybody in more detail about rail banking which we all mostly learned about uh under measure d but I think it's extremely important to make that very simple point an interim trail cannot happen without a filing of abandonment and there will be no such filing thank you thank you is there anybody else in house that wishes to speak seeing none we will take it online madam mayor yes if I may for the people on zoom and in person as well I should have done this earlier just a reminder that public comments on agendized items must pertain to the agendized item if they do not we will move on to the next speaker thank you thank you the first speaker has been allowed to speak you will have three minutes hey guys it's john from strong town santa Cruz uh so about that trestle we bought that trestle second hand if no one's uh people want to know the history of that so it was never a new trestle not like a historical landmark it's something we bought used and put there because we needed a trestle at the time uh a sharrow is not a very fun thing a sharrow is just a fancy word for the bikes and the cars in the same lane at the same time with no bike lane at all so there is no bike lane from park down to uh capital ab on monterey there is just cars and bikes the only thing that will discourage speeding on these lanes it's not going to be enforcement with the police that's really isn't their job to be honest it's not going to be signage it's design design is how urban planners and jamie will tell you guys this that is the only way to really control off road violence and behaviors of humans and cars on streets so the solution here because it is going to be years and everything will take longer and people are going to protest and file appeals and whatever they can do to make this take forever we're going to be like 10 years of monterey ab just cars and bikes on the same lane there's going to be so many accidents if you just make monterey one way however just make it into the city too so it still gets all the parking for the businesses all the people still coming down to the village but just make it one way in that direction uh you can have bike lanes on both sides you could even put up some plastic or even kind of three fallers if you really want to make those lanes nice and then this trestle issue just goes away because we have a safe bike lane through the most dangerous part of the village that will maintain us until we figure it all out so that is my suggestion uh yeah have a great night guys thank you thank you the next speaker has been unmuted you will have three minutes we've asked you to unmute yourself can you hear me yes i'm paula bradley a capitola resident and a cyclist i urge the council to support the proposed bicycle and pedestrian improvements for a safer route through capitola and proceed with the approved ultimate rail trail plan without delay despite what the greenway people say an interim trail and rail banking is a dead end rail banking will result in years of legal issues and delays property owners with that with a rail easement may be eligible to apply for federal compensation that means taxpayer dollars if the rail is removed and therefore there is no purpose for the easement the best way forward for a multi-use trail is to proceed with bicycle and pedestrian improvements until the trestle is analyzed and eventually funded we need to preserve the future option of zero emission public transit on the rail corridor for the city and county residents and visitors thank you thank you next speaker the next speaker has been allowed to unmute themselves they'll have three minutes hello can you hear me yes yes hi my name is johanna lighthill uh thank you for considering comments tonight i'm a county resident my comments relate mainly to safety issues on the ultimate trail proposed next to the tracks it's my hope that the city council will share and address concerns and provide comments to the er er the trail is described as mostly 12 feet wide and this is a bit misleading tonight we heard that segment 10 ranges from 11 to 14 feet wide however caltrans considers a 12 foot wide uh excuse me caltrans considers a 12 foot wide trail as eight feet because required shoulders and setbacks are required from the fence posts on either side of the trail so the 11 to 14 foot wide as described take away four feet for the shoulders you have a seven to 11 foot wide trail eight foot is the minimum 10 foot is preferred and 12 foot 12 feet or more is recommended where heavier use is expected um there's another trail planning guide that explains that eight feet should only be used in very rare circumstances uh quote it is not desirable to place the pathway in a narrow corridor between fences for long distances as this creates personal security issues prevents uh users who need help from being seen prevents path users from leaving the path in an emergency and impede emergency response so um most planning guides explain that eight feet uh significant user conflict can be expected um the ATP grant the largest ever awarded um will be used to create a trail that doesn't meet the minimum requirements requirements by caltrans um that kind of is concerning and uh we're going to get a lot of conflicts see another another concern I have is that um the only reason to consider building the ultimate trail is to accommodate a rail project which hasn't been approved yet in the yard there's no consideration to rail and trail interface which means there's no consideration that a train might be actually run past people on this trail and the trail next to the tracks as proposed overlaps into an easement that is currently owned by the rail operator and there's no mention of possible conflicts with trail users and a train um finally the trail is said to provide new transit a new transportation corridor and will encourage people to bike or walk but without passage over thank you that's three minutes the next speaker has been allowed to unmute themselves you'll have three minutes hello my name is jean brockelbank I sent to the city council a letter yesterday I'm really hoping that all council members read it if they didn't read it then then it's almost it's impossible to describe everything that I wanted to say I noticed tonight that there are no homeowners of the mobile home parks within the city of capitola who are here speaking to you about the fact that the eir states that their homes will have to be relocated these are residents in castle mobile estates um which is in the city of capitola across the corridor is blue and gold they're in the same uh they're in the same problem even though they're not within the city of capitola and and why you know why do these homes have to be moved if they could be moved they can't be moved um I don't think any of these homeowners know yet what is ahead of them if the ultimate trail is approved and built and that's why I suggest that the proposed project uh option first phase 16 foot wide trail down the center of the corridor is what the city of capitola should recommend for 10 and 11 this will will um eliminate the homes that stick in that that encroach upon the right of way and I noticed that neither grace nor rob tonight mentioned that everybody's focused on the trestle they're focused on traffic in the city of capitola but the homeowners um nobody's speaking on their behalf so I hope that you will look again at this problem and I recommended that the city of capitola the county as a lead secret agency and the rtc have a responsibility to contact these homeowners and tell them what may be happening to their homes um and and they're I think I think they should be alerted uh at at a minimum I'm really troubled by the fact that nobody else understands this about what's going to happen these are all affordable homes low income uh homeowners for the most part and and it's so let's build the trail let's do our recreation let's let's just forge ahead and forget about these homeowners who don't even know this is going to happen um I'm passionate about this I thank you that's three minutes thank you the next speaker has been allowed to speak you'll have three minutes is this for on the agenda or not on the agenda public comment you're commenting on agenda item 9a did you already have public comment we did oh okay um let me let me read some more I'm gonna put my hand down and put it back up I'm gonna just make sure I'm on the right topic okay the next speaker has been allowed to speak they'll have three minutes fuck niggers and fuck you cut the mic please that was not the clerk that was the city attorney your comment is not related to the agenda item cut the mic please thank you this is what we have one more speaker I'll defer that to the city attorney if you guys want to cut the zoom our last speaker has been allowed to speak you'll have three minutes all right thank you that that previous caller was something else I'm sorry about that our cities overran with Jews and niggers okay thank you okay take a few minutes so yeah why don't we take a little bathroom break and we're gonna discuss the zoom possibilities for the rest of the evening you move forward just with that we would love to finish our item 9a here on trail segments 10 and 11 seeing as how we are here doing that now I know that we also have a large group here that is interested in item 9b so I want to honor that and I do have to preface that with an apology in the fact that we need to continue using zoom for that item 9b which does run us the risk of being put through what we just went through again this is not indicative of capitola it is nothing that we stand for it's really really sad that there are people in this world that will show up on behind a computer screen and not in person and try and state things that are completely horrific so that being said the rest of the items 9c9d and then the item that was pulled earlier this evening 8b will be continued to the next meeting so we will come back right now to council deliberation about item 9a and that's where we are mayor there were still speakers on zoom do you wish to continue public comment okay yeah that was closed so so council who's going first I'll start okay I'll start first with just clarification from staff our staff and our RTC staff is any decision that is made tonight going to impact whether there's an intimate interim or ultimate trail in capitol based on the vote made tonight I can answer that for you there's no there's no decision made tonight will impact where the trail will be in the that's the that will go for the county for a decision after the final EIR is adopted I appreciate that I just wanted to clarify that because this is an important issue and I know that it's important to folks on all sides and I didn't want there to be any suggestion that regardless of the decision made tonight will have an impact on ultimate or interim or what I am calling ultimate ultimate which is the new the new bridge thank you I appreciate appreciate that so I understand that our direction this evening is to decide if as a council we want to provide comments on the EIR document to the county so I will start there I do think that as a council I personally have if you know some comments that I think would be worth sharing in a letter to the county regarding the EIR I received an email from a resident with concern about a question about the EIR statement about how the project regardless the project would not result in the need for additional police protection or law enforcement facilities to maintain acceptable service ratios or response time but as far as I could tell there was no indication of how that decision was reached that that would be the case and so I think it would be good for us to get additional information just on the methodology for how that determination was made and then while I understand that the EIR is specific to certain impacts in the city the the environmental it's an environmental document I think if possible to at least put in our comment letter that it would be beneficial that somewhere in the EIR it mentioned that these are two options of essentially three options and the third one is not being mentioned because it is a separate project so I'm not asking for that separate project the new and replacement bridge to be explained in any detail in an EIR for this project that but that perhaps it would be beneficial for there to be some kind of footnote in it somewhere that this is a project separate from the future bridge replacement which is forthcoming I'll stop there for now and wait to hear from my colleagues thank you yeah I have a few concerns over losing control with not having our planning commission being involved in the process from the start to the ending I don't know if we can hybrid that some somewhere to where we get information if it goes through the coastal commission and not through our planning commission um losing control after hearing some of our residents is uh kind of frightening so that's one comment I have and the other being we asked the county for a few things and they agreed to one but left two out and you know building this project's really gonna be a burden on capitol so hopefully we can get a little bit more assistance there the other projects with the ADA and the sidewalks I just have a follow-up question regarding the steps to planning commission um if either one of you can address that that concern and you know what future information will be going to planning commission post this evening's decision so the planning commission will review the tree removal permit for this application and we also as the city will be will be reviewing um the the permit for grading as well and in regards to the items that we requested um to or the additional items that what we did not get in other words can you tell me and I think maybe either one of you can tell me what the grant process looks like and how likely it is that we would get those items so I guess there's there's two ways you would get those I want to make sure I understand are you asking how they would be added to the current segments and 11 project or are you asking how they would be added to some sort of future grant application and partnership with the RTC in our in our packet it was highlighted that two of our additional requests post the big giant grant that you receive were not included because we asked for them afterwards but it's noted that there's a possibility for additional grant funding can you tell me a little bit more about that funding yeah um thanks for that question it's something we've been um putting our heads together about um the first step really would be to apply for a planning grant um so that you have these priorities identified um that makes your project a much stronger candidate for obtaining state and federal funding um and then the one other piece that we mentioned is didn't mention is that the portion of the Monterey basing next sanctuary trail that is identified through capitol village does make it eligible for measure d funds which the city of capitol it could request be used as a match to leverage state and federal funds um your question about timing well this RTC just had a consolidated call for projects I know the city of capitol has submitted an application but not for these particular improvements the next time when you have a consolidated call for projects is typically two years out so it would be a few years before you would be applying for capital improvements I would say though that RTC is going to resubmit an application for funding for the trail segments for a federal funding source and we are contemplating how we may be able to route some of these requests into that application and that application is due in February so we'll be working with your staff I had a question about um wildlife will be affected um between Monterey and Grove Lane um specifically with the ability to cross the trail as I saw the big walls that you were talking about thank you that question yeah so um there are in the in the draft year are there several environmental impacts identified one of those is an impact to wildlife moving as as you noted right now um you know the the rail corridor is relatively unused and so right now wildlife in the evenings take advantage of that and traverse along the rail line and potentially you know north south across the rail line as well so the project would result in an impact basically to wildlife movement and that's one of the impacts identified um in the IR as a significant unavoidable impact so even though we'll be creating preserving enhancing additional habitat for wildlife and sensitive habitat in the area to the best of our ability to mitigate the impacts that are result from the project there will still be a significant unavoidable impact to to wildlife movement in and along the corridor I guess is there anything that could be added to make it more you know suitable for wildlife crossing to the designs that's a good question um I'm not aware of anything but I'll bring that back to the design team and something we'll look at um you know in the draft ER and see um what the response may be and what sort of design solutions may be applicable for that um off the top of my head I'm not familiar with with anything that could be done at a reasonable cost while they've crossing because you know of infrastructure can be pretty expensive yeah I'm just thinking that those walls just look very large and flat and even if they were like textured so that different types of animals could scale them my help yeah that's something we'll look into thank you thank so the additional comments I have for the EIR is we've heard many of comments about safety and the concerns of safety through the village and I think it'd be really important to highlight the I mean you've talked about green lanes and bulb outs and all of those items but to just really um I think someone said footnotes that it is a high concern of myself and and our community here um about the impacts uh impact of pedestrians walking through just normally shopping and so forth um and then the other comment or EIR is about um oh gosh the um now I'm blanking because I was just thinking about all the safety stuff it's been a distracting evening um uh the no not planning commission um I'll think of it in a second I don't know if you guys have more comments sorry yeah thank you um just timeline wise so this EIR is circulating through December right and so when would you need to know if the consolidated development permit is approved by this body great question um so the the the coastal commission won't even consider a coastal development permit until after the environmental review process has has been completed so um segment eight nine is a good example that project has elements in the city of Santa Cruz the county of Santa Cruz and their support of the project over the city of Santa Cruz harbor which is similar to so-called creek part of the coastal commission's original jurisdiction and so um because of that and to avoid some of the issues that I mentioned tonight that project um both the city and the county and the coastal commission consented to consolidation um to streamline the permitting process and we submitted an application um or a letter requesting consolidation to the coastal commission I want to say maybe a month or two after the EIR was certified so the EIR was certified in March and we sent a letter in April or May so that that process would happen sometime in the spring of 2024 okay and then what is the timeline look like for these projects if uh if if the council approves the CDP and if we don't or otherwise um does the grant have a deadline is essentially what I'm saying because we're approving an EIR and a consolidated development permit that's tied to a grant correct correct and so did the grant have timelines of when these things need to be completed by and does this kind of does this impact that in any way yes it does so um I probably can't pull up the slide so basically we have um the the deadline to complete environmental review is the spring of next year and and that is working back from a deadline to basically allocate the final design and right of way funding in fiscal year 23-24 and the last date which we can do that is the June end of June CTC meeting so working back from that date and going through the Caltrans requirements that are required to meet the the requirements to allocate funding gives us a timeline of roughly end of March in 2024 to certify the final EIR and complete NEPA process for the for the project so that's environmental review and then once we allocate funding we have two years to complete final design right of way and permitting for the project so that's where and that would mean you know we're allocating for construction in in 2026 and so that's what I mean when I say we have we have deadlines that we're trying to meet and so anything that we can do to streamline the final design process the right of way needs and the permitting of the process just reduces risk that we're going to go over project schedule okay so just to make sure that I understand the EIR all that final all that would need to be finalized by around February because it'll finish circulating December and you said spring actually like March yeah sometime in so yeah March I'm not sure exactly which date but sometime in late March we'll be planning to certify the final EIR with the county okay finally I are certified by March funding allocated by June for construction in 2026 correct would the planning commission have to wait until the final EIR in March for them to start considering if we were not to consolidate this permit so what they would have between March and what June to hear and then issue any permits I'm just trying to understand the timeline of all of this because my my main concern to cut to the chase here is that if we don't consolidate and we and the grant is gone we get nothing so the the risk that's there is if planning commission makes a decision say in April and then if it were appealed it would go to city council and then if it were appealed by the city from the city council to the coastal then coastal typically gets three months before like in time to put something on to an agenda that would be July it would be passed when they would have needed to allocate the funding in order for that grant to be valid yeah it takes it takes time and that's not always we've been through a lot of coastal lcp updates recently and you don't always get it on within three months so and depending if they ask for more information and so it can definitely be three months as your kind of best case scenario or a coastal development permit okay can I interject a second I really appreciate the the conversation where this is going but I just want to clarify that the deadline in June of 2024 does not include completing the permitting process so the permitting the the final design right of way in permitting is from 2024 to 2026 and right yes the funding needs to be allocated by June correct and we do not need the coastal development permit signed off by June of 2024 in order to allocate for the next oh I see okay okay okay you have two years right two yeah okay and and just add on that you know as everyone knows you know construction prices are moving very strongly in the wrong direction so while we are committed to as far as the state is concerned starting construction in 2026 we're going to do everything we can to start construction earlier so that we don't continue the inflation and the escalation increasing prices for the project so while 2026 is our end goal ideally we start construction center than that all right thank you yep I remember now I have a comment it came back to me um there was a comment about Caltrans and working with Caltrans and how much space we had versus like what away from the road and such and so I just think that if there's any more clarity we can offer or add to the EIR for further explanation and then there was a comment about Cliff Drive and I know there's you know some conversations previously about encroachment and what's ours and theirs and I would just encourage staff to maybe reach out to that speaker to to clarify you know what options we or what what how this process affects what she would be leading to so those are just my comments along with the homeowners of the mobile homes that I don't know the speakers seem to think that they were not notified so I'd like to make sure that that happens um RTC is just beginning the process to work with home owners the property owners and the mobile home owners um to discuss the encroachments that are occurring on the rail line from the mobile homes we've just completed a record of survey and we actually have our first meeting with the Castle Mobile Home Estates property manager to begin discussions next month and then we will be contacting both the property owner and the mobile home owners that are encroaching um although it is a responsibility of the mobile home owners or anyone who's encroaching on public property to remove their encroachments RTC is committed to evaluating options and working with the mobile home owners to come up with at least feasible options or to address the encroachment we realize it's a very sensitive issue thank you okay I can take it back um I just wanted to clarify for um Monterey there's no room for bike lanes going on both directions it's not at all possible so we haven't I want to say there is not just from observation but without a study I I don't think it's been studied but it does not look like there's any room for two bike lanes that's why we have the sharers already I'm confident saying there's not room yeah I was walking on it today okay you can only get down to about 10 foot traveling just not them okay so I don't think you need any more information you have all the direction you need for the EIR statement and I think in terms of trying to meet the few goals of the grant funding and so that we don't lose any can see some sort of trail conversations continue I'm happy to um make a motion and I'm trying to pull it up but I'm scared that Julia will touch anything up there um for the CDT direction on comment letter and consolidate also permit request for the central post rail trail segments 10 and 11 to you're looking to authorize the community development director to consolidate the cdp with the county yeah okay let me just and I can happily say that but you sorry that can just be your motion okay yes while she's looking while she's looking at that do we have to vote on that today or do we not have time you do have more time if you want to make a decision at a different hearing it does not have you do have the option of having me bring this back in another time but it sounds like we have a I would like to hear more about what well I made a motion council member I'm sorry sorry I thought you were still no no no I I'll give consent city the consent to a consolidated CDP at this time I'll second we have a first and a second maybe we have a roll call please council member Brooks hi council member Clark no council member Peterson hi vice mayor Brown hi and mayor Kaiser thank you this is four to one okay so we're moving on to our final piece of tonight's evening one question before we leave I took down I think it's like six or eight comments and so that's the intent the comments that we heard tonight from the council members to include in the comment letter for the yeah okay thank you we'll do that so item nine B is to receive a report about the police chiefs advisory committee and review the application and selection process and provide direction to staff and our chief is presenting this evening good evening mayor and council I'm here this evening to talk about the upcoming capital police chiefs advisory committee provide a report for you for everyone give you a little background on what what it is so just some background this conversation started back in 2020 when following the death of George Floyd many communities began discussing this discussions around police policies and procedures following that and 2021 the criminal justice council of Santa Cruz county which is the CJC and the members at that time was chief McManus and council member Brown they did an overall regional study of what the policies are in the in the county the good news with that is that the widespread policy alignment is in Santa Cruz county and then they banned there was the eight can't wait and this is kind of a representation of the things that were in alignment with the other agencies within this in Santa Cruz county so we like I said those are the nine things next slide so following that review under chief McManus we began as an agency researching different chief advisory boards and commissions for Capitola as part of that in 2021 through our sergeant's promotional exam we had each applicant write a research paper on the benefits of CACs and how they would how they could be adopted in in Capitola we reviewed those we also started reviewing different agencies both small agencies many medium-sized agencies and a little bit larger agencies specifically we reviewed Chico police departments chiefs advisory board Santa Cruz police and Watsonville police I also interviewed the different chiefs from those different organizations and collectively put together the policy that's in your packet so that's our new capitol police policy number 217 next and then just there's been some kind of confusion it seems like about the difference between a chiefs advisory committee versus like an oversight board and so the intention is for a chiefs advisory committee so I just wanted to highlight that this is the chiefs advisory committees are more of a proactive approach to where Capitola wants to meet with the community representatives to to have a place that we can talk about what's going on to learn about the police department to kind of build those relationships and then we can building those relationships we can have the partnerships to talk about police policies as we move forward and really proactively address potential problems in the community where the oversight committee is is more where police and sheriff's organizations that maybe have done improper things and so the council or there will be a board to oversee kind of the operations and a lot of times they do they have the ability to investigate misconduct or actually make recommendations to policies and it's more of an accountability thing so that's again that's like Oakland police has an oversight board most agencies like I said it's more of a community-based it's a proactive approach towards the community advisory committees next slide so this is just kind of four points on the goals and objectives of the vision of the CAC so our department mission is always to collaborate with the community and quite honestly just make Capitola better and safe for everyone and we really want that to be inclusive to everyone so we want to include the residents the business the community and also the visitors and we really at Capitola police highly value the partnerships with the community and recognizing that the public engagement is is an important aspect of community policing the CAC then the vision of it is that members will advise the chief on community issues and public policies and the influence or impact the ongoing relationships again it's an advisory group and then lastly the CAC the members do not have the power to or authority to investigate review or participate in other personnel matters or play a role in any type of criminal or civil civil litigation they will be privy to like I said learning a little bit more about the police department the city and how we operate and again it's a it's a it's a it's a relationship building environment next so some of the topics that we'd like to bring forward to this group one of the things is that the unmanned aircraft assistant which is the drone policy we're looking at automatic automated license plate readers which are flock cameras um we're we want to review what's going on in Santa Cruz with the oversized vehicle stuff and look at those impacts as they kind of migrate this way and be proactive with that we want to look at some you know what the the department website and how we want to have it be transparent we want it to be accessible so people have good information and then another topic that's kind of just looming out there is just what's going on with the mental health services in the way that the police department and mental health and how we how we intersect there and the challenges that's going really going on in Santa Cruz County so kind of highlighting those things so those are just some topics for this group next next slide so um so a little bit about the composition of the of the committee it's in the policy itself so we're seeking a diverse representation of capital residents and business owners again we want to encourage across section of active community members like I said you have to be it's a it's a proactive community so you have to have we want people they want to be active with this so we're looking for those that are in the educational section a nonprofit public relations faith communities your third youth organizations we're like I said we're looking for dedicated representatives that they really are not focused on themselves but more about the overall good of the community so it's not an individual thing but part of that is their working agreement that they'll have to agree to again it's not a personal thing it's something that they want to bring capital forward this is a little bit of a change from initially it was six to eight members but understanding you know it's a it's it is a smaller community so we want to kind of look at a minimum of four people on that committee no more than eight and then the term itself is a two-year term looking at like quarterly meetings again they have to be committed to the mission and then also a big piece of it is they do need to have a techno technical ability to understand policies and procedures because again they're going to be reviewing that type of stuff and like I said they just have to have some technical understanding of that again the membership is definitely voluntary well is not compensated and then staff to staff develop the policy the qualifications the application and also the working agreement next so we started recruitment in July with a goal of starting starting in in october we posted on facebook next door and facebook instagram next door city website we had a question and answer section there and we also had some articles in our capital of waves the results of that is we did have 12 about 12 inquiries we received eight completed applications following those applications I followed up interviews with each one of those individuals explain the expectation our mission and and and and then expectations of this new committee of those all applications were accepted and initially approved to move forward next and then when we announced that on october 6th and in a friday update we we really realized that the compensation or the composition of the group probably needed we needed some more outreach and and a part of that is part of the policy is that it allows for me to reopen that the application process to increase the diversity of the community remembers so at this point I want to keep the current cac applications and then go out like I said the next steps is more recruitment and then obviously just a lot more outreach next so the plan that we're proposing is to reopen the recruitment for another two months and we want to concentrate on obviously the capital is diverse community members we want to broaden the scope of applicants to allow for the capital's sphere of influence to apply we have a map of that in the back I think we've applied that same standard to a couple of our commissions that we have translate the the application into Spanish and then also repost on the city website and then again on all social media platforms we want to recruit by publishing information in the local newspapers and then again post it city buildings kiosks community center libraries some mobile the mobile home parks and then obviously some of the service industry locations next additionally we want to reach out directly to these organizations so Santa Cruz county diversity center the bay air bay avenue senior center and double acp real college some of the faith big or faith based organizations family resources the middle middle health groups next so with that like I said we want to get back out there re recruit get some more applications so we estimate that these recruitment efforts could cost approximately three thousand dollars some of the information to get out to get out to publicize cost of money and then as I stated my intention is to return with the appointments an annual working plan and then any costs associated with that recruitment next slide so the recommended action for tonight and if you have any questions is to receive the report about this chief's advisory committee if you have any questions about it advise on any new recruitment efforts the application select in the selection process and then like I said the intention is to extend the recruitment for another two months include the conduct the interviews and then return the council with the appointments and any fiscal impacts with that I'm happy to take any questions great thank you this is exciting do you have questions yeah thank you chief deli for the report you mentioned in three slides prior that your intent was to to keep the current eight but you're going to recruit more is that how I read it I'm sorry no just keep those applications and then go out re-recruit and then come back with a decision on who oh okay thank you that was my question I've got a couple questions so in your criteria to have the technical ability to understand policy and procedures can you elaborate on that because that seems pretty open to interpretation yeah well so I mean the some of the discussions are going to talk about reading and understanding and understanding policies so just having that ability so like I said they need to come forward with the ability to read and understand policies oh is the requirement to be able to read or you know how would you specifically decide if somebody is able to read and understand policies compared to somebody who is not and you said as an objective criteria when selecting your committee members what's that oh um so as far as like I said this is a it's a group um the uh technical ability so you know we want to see if they can fill out the application can have an interview um you have a conversation be open to to the thought process again it's not an individual it's more about a broader broader scope and so like I said the the process itself I think would lend towards that understanding of it so have to fill out the application have to you know read and write have to understand the policies um so that there's no kind of test on the policies no no just basically the ability to apply and understand why be reasonable yeah um doesn't seem particularly objective um my next question is um in regards to the criteria for not influenced by personal agendas I'm wondering what this means specifically and if you can provide an example of possible personal agendas that would restrict a person from joining this committee yeah so if if someone came to the committee and was voicing a very singular or their opinion on something again the group is designed to provide a conduit between the police department in the public and so um I would the expectation and part of that is that when we when we meet is that that we have a work in agreement that they're going to be professional again the idea is that we don't want a personal agenda we want them to come as a community member and they want a voice of the community so whatever community that they or background that they represent that their voice for them much like a council member not it's not as an individual but as a as a community member I'm still having a hard time understanding specifically so an example would be um I wouldn't want someone to bring forward that they have a concern about something that's happening like traffic on their particular street if they want to talk about traffic in general that would be so it's not like I want to talk about traffic on my particular street I want to talk about traffic in the community and how that impacts again if I saw someone that was not participating in that kind of in the in the in the as the group again that would be discussions that I would have to have with that person is that are they want do they want to be a part of this working group as a community group or is an individual thing and I want right because I just feel that individual experiences often lead people to want to get involved in things like this like that's how people form their opinions and are able to um join committees like this or join local government to help other people who may be in their same position right so it's just um I think that that's a fine balance and and also not particularly objective thank you one quick question thank you for bringing this to us it's it's good information um but I think what we're we're looking for is people that not only can read but can use a computer have an email correspond and maybe zoom some of those types of things um stay involved and to be part of that okay yeah like I said I think this is an opportunity for this group to learn a lot about the police department like I said my my vision of is that it's it's it's a kind of a hybrid of even a citizens academy like I really wanted this to be you know have some some training involved with it implicit bias training then moving on to doing other tours of different facilities again just learning a lot about what you know what police department does what our challenges are um you know like I said as it's to different netcom all these different areas that like I said that not everyone gets access to right with that with that being said would would you be open to and including people from the council if they wanted to involve some of the training to see what's going on since it's a new program for us I quite honestly I'd be open to really the anyone that wants to put capitola and and learn more about capitola we want to you know for the focus is really the safety aspect I would I'd welcome anyone yeah thanks so had trouble with the mic there um I'm sorry I was probably on the slide and I overlooked it was there it was youth a part of the groups that you were going to do outreach to because I would be interested in having a youth member a student member on this in the same way that we do in our other boards and commissions yeah that's that that is that there there are some potential challenges with that as far as like when we're having the meetings access to certain areas like if we were to do a jail tour different stuff like that that may limit those things um but again you know what what the makeup is uh we clearly want some youth representation whether it's maybe it's something somebody at the school that's it's embedded in the school um it could be again the the core group itself um like I said there there would be challenges with that as far as what my vision is as far as the field trips or whatever that we wouldn't want to take because again some of those areas they're we're going to kind of pull the the current back on some areas that aren't always accessed and so and and then also um opening up um you know secured facilities and stuff like that so okay that makes sense thank you we can take this to public comments anybody in house wish to speak that's right jump on in i'm linda smith and esteemed mayor vice mayor council members and staff all of you um thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight the capitol of pd has heart it sets it apart from other agencies that i've had experience with excuse me even before may of 2020 i saw it and how our officers conducted themselves in difficult situations that i witnessed capitol has a reputation for being a safe and engaged community and many of our residents by homes here because of that maintaining that safe environment is the priority of capitol's pd and it shows i've been encouraged watching the current leadership develop our police department and believe that we are more we are a more welcoming and yet safe environment in capitol because of its leadership tonight's been shaky i apologize for the shaky i don't think the community is fully aware of what they do in the background to keep us safe while respecting the rights of all individuals and we need to do a better job of outreach so that all of the community do know and understand our pd better thus the advent of a chief's advisory committee there are people in capitol that are underrepresented people that feel uninvited or unwanted because of ethnic or economic differences or because of encounters with capitol police officers or other residents not like them there are also residents that have felt disenfranchised because of the movement of hatred against the police after the george floyd staff our capitol of pd heat is caught in the middle trying to navigate to a better police community relationship while facing issues of encroaching homelessness drugs and mental illness and ever changing legislation intended to bring more racial and economic equity but sometimes making it more difficult for them to do their job the advent of the chief's advisory committee is intended to provide better insight into how to keep us safe and move us forward together and i got that from my interview with chief dally i support the re-recruitment effort proposed by staff by assuring participation from underrepresented groups our pd will be much more successful developing new programs and utilizing emerging technologies that help identify bad actors and capture suspects when successful the effort will gain more citizens who want to protect capitol rather than do harm to it someone recently said to me some of our community won't listen because it's you that's doing the talking they need to hear it from somebody more like them i thought about that for a bit and i get it three minutes thank you we should be encouraging them but we need for them to come from our community thank you just kidding anybody else in house wish to speak okay i don't see anybody so here we go let's go online the first speaker has been i needed you'll have three minutes hello again guys uh we do have a fantastic uh underpaid but fantastic police force uh and this committee is a great idea i really suggest you all reach out to tyree richie he's like the obvious choice to be on this and in general the demographic uh you can have people who are very interested but try to make this committee not look like every other committee it's the same 30 people on every single thing i go to all these meetings you guys know who i am it's so sad our level of participation in civics right now and a lot of it is because it's unwelcoming this would be an easy way or a very easy commission or committee to just get a couple people on who aren't the same face as we see everywhere else and yeah look into tyree even lives in capitol a fantastic choice thank you thank you the next speaker um we'll have three minutes once they start i was just still wondering why choose around this a baby penis okay thank you there are no other speakers there okay great we will take this back to council um any comments um excellent report thank you chief deli and i first want to say thank you to all the applicants who did apply and to who are paying attention and who step out of their way to commit their time to our community it does not go unnoticed and i really appreciate them stepping forward um so there's just a couple points i want to make um it doesn't identify it on the police policy but i think having more guidance on ensuring that the BIPOC community that there's membership from all different um from all different walks of life the lgbtiq community um the youth representation groups i don't know and this could be a legal thing but if there was a youth voice could you invite the parents um when i think about diversity i think about the when we have the mobile home park item come and we just had such a great mix of people i saw it on your outreach there um there's a question about whether you live in remove the question about being a resident because it's not a requirement it says on the policy on the application i don't think that's important to add that to the application because you asked for the address anyways um in regards to the technical capabilities i understand i can't amend your policy this evening but today you you shared that you're gonna um post in english and spanish well when you get an answer in spanish and you you can't read it you know how are you gonna support them and in understanding the technical skills so i just want you to have a think about that and how you can encourage um spanish-speaking families to apply because it's going to be in spanish and then how you can support them to participate you know we have a wonderful police department who also speaks spanish who might be able to help translate on zoom or or be there to to support those families um and i think that's it i think this is a great idea moving forward and i love all the next steps and i really appreciate all your hard work on this so thank you yeah i just want to echo that i think this is um these are great next steps i'm i'm happy to see the list of organizations and kind of community groups that you're planning to do outreach to um i appreciate that the eight that have applied and and i think that we're going to have additional applicants and it's going to be a really good group of people thank you um yeah i also want to thank you andy for this great job it seems like a super cool initiative um really glad to see this moving forward i would say um again kind of based on my earlier comments that i would like if we could remove the maybe technical ability language obviously understand like yeah they have to be able to apply go you know meet follow through you know basic skills um but i just wouldn't want to turn people away based on that language of technical ability because that is very vague that could be open to interpretation we could be turning people away who would be some of the best candidates for this role because they feel like they may be under qualified um and again i would also advocate that when interviewing to deciding who joins this committee that you wouldn't completely get rid of applicants if they do come in because they are passionate about something that they personally experienced because i think that's how you get some of the best insights is people who have been wronged by systems and are trying to change them and then my third comment is there's any possible language you could use to encourage if not youth members young adults you know 18 to 25 i think oftentimes people in those age brackets don't feel comfortable you know joining these kinds of committees and maybe need some extra encouragement and would prove to be valuable voices thank you um i know i shared some of these ideas earlier but when i think about the the flyers and going in english and spanish not many people know what advisory means and it was really clear in the presentation today and so even just including that on the flyer of like what is an advisory because so many of these people have not had access or awareness to you or the police department and so this is their first time being able to be with someone so powerful um and so they just might not know what their the opportunity is or if there are limitations or what the heck an advisory is so to your point councilmember peterson of just like just being really clear on the advertisement being clear on the application um and if we're going to do it again in english and spanish making sure that there's some sort of language in there that says you're going to support them during your your meetings so um yeah thank you yeah i just want to say thank you for coming and presenting because i know i knew nothing about this and it's exciting to be excited about a new program i think it's awesome um and yes thank you to all the applicants that have come out and um continue to dedicate time to our awesome city um i do i really like this list um you know you've got cabrio in there and latinx and um i do think um oh the diversity center is on there cool okay um also i do did it is it i'm sorry is it required for them to be a resident of capitol or are we using this sphere so we're we're going off the sphere of influence and i think there's a slide yeah aptos capitol soquel live oak i i think that's important as well i mean we're such a destination for all of our neighboring towns that i think um outreach around us would be helpful as well especially because you know some people might live there but work here types of things um and i got you on those uh food service people i can definitely do some outreach there for you for sure so just let me know what you need from me and um yeah i'm excited about this program and um i i don't want to make it that like somebody on council has to be on it or anything like that but i'm super interested in like doing you know um tours and stuff too so if any of that stuff comes about let me know yeah that's cool um the academy part would be good and ride-alongs for absolutely everybody and so on and so on but all the good stuff for sure um you have a question person go ahead i i'm done yeah thanks is it possible will there be any kind of like flyer or social media that we as council members can share into our networks as well yeah absolutely okay awesome thank you thank you welcome that please okay okay i have a question so it says to broaden the scope to allow for capital a sphere of influence and julie could you pull up that map again because i know the lafko sphere of influence but here it also says aptos capitol soquel live oak in the staff report yes yes so we we did pull up the the map and i wouldn't say that it represents aptos you have to look i think the sphere of influence kind of flows more into you like a tiny bit of pleasure point area pleasure point which to me seems a little bit arbitrary when considering who actually utilizes capitol considers that a part of their home i mean capital is only about a mile and a half so i would personally advocate for including aptos capital of soquel live oak in the sphere because really this is like a you know kind of an abstract bureaucratic map it doesn't really encompass our you know sphere of influence thank you well i guess just for a better direction too like when we think about the woman's center or um like other nonprofits they those executive directors or that staff might not be in the sphere of influence but they support people in our community so um i guess i would just caution with using that of as a driving force to um when looking at applicants because i think it's just really important that um when we look at educational programs like boys and girls club they're housed in live oak and if you're looking at you know like different types of folks to have input but their kids are from here you know so i i definitely agree with you council member peterson about thinking expanding that into the live oak and just in general thinking about the agencies that serve rather than being exclusive i would almost um consider also having people that work here you know we're having business owners that could live across the country why not include people that work here every day spend the majority of their days here contributing to our community can we clarify that business owners are currently on the list people who own businesses in capitol people who own businesses in capitol can live anywhere in the world and still be allowed on this committee so what i'm saying is just as a contrast that you know we should consider allowing people who work here every day on the committees we should we should allow people that work here every day on the committees and be without getting too into the weeds of like you need to be a business owner with a brick and mortar company that operates here 80 of the year like without going into that level of detail i do think there should be solid ties to the city be it that you work here every day you're within the sphere of influence and i and i see your your point also um councilwoman brooks about that might mean that you're solid tied to the city is that you work for a non-profit organization that has a number of clients here in capitol and i don't again without getting into the weeds i think maybe we can just give would the council feel comfortable giving general um suggest suggestive direction to the chief to prioritize those with a strong tie to capitol and leave it up to his judgment at that point or would we need to go more prescriptive than that i'm comfortable i'm gonna see what you come back with and we can if if we don't feel that that's what you've presented then we can have the conversation again but i trust that you're gonna do an excellent job great isn't enough direction for you okay thank you thank you for this thank you so much for bringing that back to us um and that's all we need right for that one okay great thanks so much chief um okay as stated before we are going to move everything else to the next meeting uh eight b from this evening nine c and nine d will be continued um thank you everybody for bearing with us this evening and we will adjourn to the next city council meeting on november 9th 2023 at 6 p.m everybody be nice to want to know