 All righty, well good evening everybody and welcome to our 6 p.m. September 22nd 2022 special meeting of the Santa Cruz City Council, and I would like to ask our clerk to please call the roll Councilmember inventory Johnson President Councilmember Golder will be a couple minutes late Cummings Brown will be a couple minutes late Myers Vice Mayor Watkins here and Mayor Brunner will be absent. Okay, great Well, we'll just go ahead and get started So we will now begin our only agenda item for this evening and that is the report on the effect of for our downtown our future initiative For members of the public who are streaming this meeting if this is an item you want to comment on Now is the time to call in using the instructions on your screen The order will be a presentation of the item by our staff Followed by questions from the council at which point will then take public comment and then return to the council for Additional questions or comments, so we'll go ahead and hand it over to our staff for the presentation It is not staff. It is It's going to be Okay, we'll go ahead and hand it over to Kathy then to present the report She's not connected Okay, you might be having audio If you can hear us Kathy now is the time for you to join I Would say we can move on to something else We're kind of waiting on that Maybe she's trying to recon might be trying to log back. Okay We will wait patiently for her as she reconnects Thank you, do you ever contact that? Yeah, I think I'm surely Welcome Sandy Can you try talking? I think it was a little low. What's that? Can you try talking and see it? Yes? Can you hear me now? It's okay. Okay There she is. Oh Hello Hi, Kathy Can you hear me? Okay? We're at the point now where we're ready to receive your report and we want to thank you for that So I'm gonna hand it over to you Sorry, we're ready to receive your report. So Somebody gonna load it up. Yes, I can Okay, we have Bonnie. She's gonna go ahead and do that for you. Thank you Okay, um, am I controlling it or no? No So I'll just tell you as I need Pages change Yes, please You know, I can actually barely hear you Can you hear me now? Yeah, okay? I'm trying to get this to move to my other screen, but it's not going Okay. Well from my own So good evening, sorry sorry for the for the technical Issues here. I think I think we're under control now If you could move to the next slide, please Okay, so hi, I'm Kathy head. I'm a president of Kaiser Marston. I'm in the Los Angeles office I've worked for Santa Cruz over many years now We're a financial consulting firm that works primarily with city governments county governments, etc And I manage the firm's affordable housing practice. So I think that's why I'm here So I will go through my report and then I'm available to answer any questions that you may have So the first thing I'm going to start with is just a summary of What we understand the measure oak goals to be And they are to maintain the downtown library in its current location To define lot four as the preferred long-term location for the downtown farmers market And to improve the the lot for public gatherings and for recreational purposes And then nine lots nine city owned surface parking lots have been identified as housing priority sites by measure o And to the extent possible the measure has them Um to be developed with permanent affordable housing and to prohibit the construction of above ground parking facilities And the final primary goal, obviously the initiative is much longer than this Is that surplus parking revenue from the downtown parking? District should be prioritized and redirected for non parking uses And if we could go to the next slide, please I'm sorry. Can we move this? Yeah What's happened? Something's happened I can't see either. Okay Great. So now can we go to the next slide, please? Thank you. Okay. So the first Major topic then we're going to talk about this probably for the the majority of the time Is the kma evaluation of the measure o On prioritized housing sites and we could go to the next slide, please So what we did when we looked at the site is we considered a variety of Parameters that are typically associated with the development of affordable housing As I said, I managed the affordable housing practice for the firm. I've been doing affordable housing Policy work and transaction work since 1989 And so we've seen a lot of projects in that time and and we work with with cities all over the state of california and counties On transactions that involve affordable housing So we wanted to create some basic criteria That would um typically be used by affordable housing developers When they're looking for a site to to take on for an affordable housing project These are all ranges. There's definitely variations in in what developers would look for but they give us a good idea of the parameters to be considered When we're looking at the priority sites identified a measure o So i'll start with the site size It is generally accepted that 50 units plus or minus is the minimum size for a leveraged affordable housing project So for a project done by by a mission driven affordable housing developer Who's going to go out and get low income housing tax credits and get other state and federal funding sources? It's typical that 50 units is is about the smallest project I have definitely worked on smaller projects, but but it's not the norm The norm is 50 units or more to get both the ability to to get the leveraging sources But also to construct and operate the project on an efficient basis The next criteria that we looked at um is the minimum lot size that is typical for affordable housing development And again, that sort of plays into the 50 unit minimum just as a practical matter But also just something else to consider is in in housing element law The state has told you that a smite for the purposes of doing your housing element that a site smaller than a half acre is not considered sufficient of size to develop an affordable housing project And so they without substantial Evidence that a project can be built on a smaller site The state won't accept a site that's smaller than half an acre For use as a fulfilling housing element requirements The next criteria is the shape of the lot and so especially when you're dealing in small lots one of the criteria you need to think about is is How can I efficiently build a project with the appropriate access the appropriate circulation, etc? um to have an efficient project and so typically what you'll have is a rectangular site would be preferred over um An unbalanced site and then Ideally you'd have a site that goes from block to block to to create the maximum efficiency And in the locations you're not you're not always going to get block to block and you're not always going to get rectangular But you will you will want to look for then enough of a site size To to overcome those inefficiencies And then finally project height So project height is really important because it's not only a zoning issue It's also a cost issue and a physical issue in terms of what developers will do In terms of construction type And so what you've seen in Santa Cruz typically Is is projects that the affordable housing projects and even the market rate projects to some extent Are five levels of apartments Over a two level concrete podium So and the podium is used for commercial use and for parking use and then the The above is the residential If you get out of wood frame For the residential component you get into significant cost premiums that given the the leveraging sources like low-income housing tax credits Um who put cost efficiency parameters on their competitiveness Then you start to not be competitive to receive those awards and those are the major funding sources for affordable housing so The idea is is if you say you eliminated the podium Which is you know something that measure. I was looking for it implicitly by prohibiting above ground parking Is that's that's okay. You lose that putting but you don't gain any height Because basically you can go five stories in height with wood frame before you have to change construction types So if you eliminate the podium, you just have a five-story building instead of a seven-story building And so the amount of housing that would be developed isn't isn't significantly changed If we could go to the next slide, please So what I did when I was looking at this then is the criteria I applied to each of the housing priority sites in measure Oh was I said and and I Used them just as a as a measurement. They weren't hard and fast, but they were just the general criteria that I used Was the minimum project size is set at set at 50 units The minimum lot size is set at half an acre I looked for rectangular sites or sites that you know, maybe weren't rectangular but could accommodate adequate circulation and vehicular access and then I capped The amount of stories that could be built in five stories That was done just so that I could project on each site how many units Could you know in the range could likely be supported if those sites were developed with affordable housing? Now on the next slide, please so Looking at all the sites and there were nine sites is Identified three sites as potentially viable for affordable housing And the sponsors of the of the initiative also identified these sites as potentially viable sites Specifically they didn't say the other ones weren't they just said they they felt that these were the strongest sites and and I actually tend to agree Lots seven Is basically a little more than three quarters of an acre Given its characteristics We projected that it could be developed at about 140 units the acre at the top end And that that would support 109 units And it has the advantage of access is provided from two primary streets So that site Meets all the criteria that we identified on the previous slide Lot eight, which is located at the northeast corner of Lincoln and cedar streets Is 21,431 square feet. So it's just under 25 acres Looking at its configuration And given the height limits and circulation issues associated with the zoning and the site characteristics We projected that that could support approximately 50 units. So it just meets the criteria And that's at 101 units per acre To get to that density and that number of units You would very much likely need to use the the state density bonus, which is in government code section 659 15 And use the waivers and or the incentives and concessions that that density bonus statute provides Lot nine is very similar. It's at the northeast corner Yeah, I wrote it twice northeast corner of elm and cedar streets. It's a little bit smaller than lot eight And it's about 0.45 acres We still think it could get to just about 50 units and it again would likely need to use the section 659 15 density bonus Go to the next slide, please So now what I did is I took the other sites that were included in in the initiative sites And I identified the issues that we came up with for why we don't think these sites are actually Practical development sites for affordable housing. So I'm going to start with lot 11 and 27 They're what's known as the hotel site at the moment. They're part of of that site on front street The initiative groups these two sites together as a single parcel But they're not they're separated by three privately owned parcels and both lot 11 and lot 27 on their own are Significantly smaller than would be needed to develop affordable housing And even if you could combine them physically which you can but if you could it's still too small to accommodate an affordable housing project Just to give you a point of reference the pacific south housing project Which is cross street essentially Is on a 22 171 square foot site? So it's more than double the site size of lot 11 and lot 27 And that pacific south site had to be assembled With other parcels to get up to the 22 000 square foot site. So I've lot 27 particularly Is it's it's almost a flag lot and so it's on its own It's certainly not available and lot 11 is next to another city-owned site But that city on to the north but that city-owned site is dedicated to A peseo that grant money has already been received for and obligated to If we could go to the next slide, please Plus 26 a and b They're located. They're actually located just outside the downtown plan plan boundaries. So if you see that blue line The that looks like the end of a square up above the green That's the outline of where the downtown plan ends Um, these sites are part of a larger site that serves as a Santa Cruz police department parking lot The combined lot 26 a and b are a little over 7 000 square feet And so they're much smaller than the 0.5 Minimum site size we're looking for as a as a development site They're also constrained further by zoning requirements With with setback and height limits that would make it further difficult to develop affordable housing on that site And the cost to replace the police department parking spaces would be prohibitive Next slide, please The lots 14 and 16 are located adjacent to the existing downtown library site. So the blue Shape is the library and then the two green shapes are lot 14 and lot 16 When you combine those two lots together they add up to 15 812 square feet, which is 0.36 acres So it doesn't meet the 0.5 threshold But it's also irregularly shaped instead of rectangular And so that also adds to the inefficiency of its development potential As zoned it has a 35 foot height limit So again, you'd need to to develop it efficiently You'd need to use this section 65 915 density bonus to get the waivers and the incentives and concessions To get an increased height to make it more efficient Or and more viable for affordable housing, but in essence the the site is too small And it's irregularly shaped So if we could go to the next slide, please So the conclusions for my evaluation of the priority sites Is that I agree with the sponsor that lot 789 could potentially be feasibly developed Um, my estimated unit counts are significantly lower than the sponsor's estimate, but again I think that's because I limited the height to five stories um What's important to understand and I think this is a really key point Is under the city's existing regulations these sites could already be developed with affordable housing So there's nothing in the initiative that creates an opportunity for these sites to be developed with affordable housing That isn't already there And in fact because the requirements of measure out are more stringent than the city's requirements Including the parking prohibition above the ground level The opportunities on these sites could actually be constrained By the initiative standards and I think that's important to understand but key is 789 can be developed with affordable housing today So I just think that's really important to understand My other conclusion is that the other six housing priority sites are not viable affordable housing sites And to make them viable affordable housing sites land assemblage of adjacent lots would be needed to to allow that to happen and If we are to use the measure of standards for general plan standards, etc For the public parking lot sites of city lots, but the regular zoning requirements for the adjacent sites Then you get a conflict in the zoning that makes it difficult to create a development That works and so that's a real constraint to the potential even if assemblage could be achieved Next slide please So now we move to the downtown library and affordable housing project Just going to do a brief chronology. I'm sure all of you were there for all of this So I won't spend a lot of time on it 2018 was the first time lot four was considered as location for a new downtown library 2019 the city council formed a subcommittee to evaluate the opportunities for the development and additional community outreach was undertaken at that time in 2020 after the subcommittee finished their work the city council Reaffirmed the lot core location for the downtown library and asked staff to explore reuse opportunities for the downtown library site So the existing library site And a plan for a permanent farmers market location on lot seven And at that time staff was directed to to undertake a community outreach campaign regarding all of these issues In 2022 the city commissioned a comparative analysis of the cost and amenities associated with the renovation of the downtown library If we could go the next slide, please So this is the comparison And this is a summary of the comparison and all of this is in the report with with more detail in the kma report But as you can see the total building area of the renovated library Is about 8,000 square feet smaller than the new downtown library would be unlocked for The new library would be lead gold certified at a minimum The outside planting area would be nearly twice as big Uh, there's no solar power in the renovated library um The fossil fuels and the renovated library are national gas natural gas Um, no fast fossil fuel reliance is required by the new the proposed new library So the cost of the library as as estimated in 2022 are 40.3 million dollars Or 1333 dollars a square foot for the renovation project And 40.1 million dollars or 1,053 dollars a square foot For a new a new library on the lot four site We could go to the next slide, please Okay, so looking at the potential measure o impact on the downtown housing development um It's I believe it's true that on lot four if measure o was enacted affordable housing could still be developed um And that's also a contention the sponsors of the initiative and I think that's correct um However, what that would require then Is that given the farmer's market would remain on the site in a permanent location The project would have to be completely redesigned especially since It would also wouldn't include a library or a parking structure. Um, and so since the project has incurred significant Design and architecture costs those two million dollars in costs that have been spent Are just lost So they they can't be recouped and the design can't be reused um The impact on the downtown the existing downtown library site is that site would not be available for redevelopment And if you look at that site combined with lots 14 and 16 the adjacent irregularly shaped lots If you put those sites together that could actually be an outstanding affordable housing site And including some public public use spaces So I do think that is a real loss To to the city is the opportunity to create that type and of affordable housing use on that site Next slide, please so under the assumption that the The downtown library and affordable housing project goes forward And that the downtown the existing downtown library site is redeveloped The net parking loss to the downtown area is So on lots for lot 11 lot 14 and lot 16 There's 218 public parking spaces that would be lost Not only that between 2018 and 2022 projects that were built on what had been parking lots Have taken away from the inventory 291 spaces And so that's a total of lost downtown parking spaces of 509 spaces And if the downtown library and affordable housing project goes forward it will provide between 245 and 345 parking spaces So then that reduces the net loss of downtown public parking spaces to 164 and 264 spaces Next slide, please Farmers market permanent location So these are just a few bullet points on what's been going on with the city and the farmers market representatives They have been Excuse me collaboratively working on a memorandum of understanding That's intended to result in a permanent home for the farmers market And to date the following actions have been taken by the city The city identified lot seven as the permanent location And the city has approved and secured approximately 1.8 million dollars to be used to construct permanent farmers market facilities It is currently assumed that the farmers market board Will take action on the final memorandum of understanding this fall And then next slide Okay, so now how does this impact funding issues So to date the city has accumulated over 30 million dollars to contribute to the project 25 million dollars of that money is you know, plus or minus 25 million dollars is for the library Um, it's estimated that 7.1 million dollars of funding Would be lost if the proposed project does not go forward and that's in the form of grants and and Assistants that have been committed to the project As it is proposed Talking about the affordable housing component of of this project the city selected a development team who's very qualified You have a local developer and then you have a large mission driven affordable housing developer teamed up Who have done projects all over the state? They've already worked out a plan to to raise 120 million dollars In financing low-income housing tax credits and and funds from the state's supernova and federal funds To fund this project They've created an inflammation implementation timeline that includes funding applications that would be started in 2023 And they've structured their proposed project both at scope and its income and affordability Restrictions to maximize the project competitiveness for these funding sources So you have a good development team who knows what they're doing and is is prepared to go forward with implementing the project as proposed Um, if you go the next slide, please Okay, so this is the last slide So there's a question of how measure o is consistent or inconsistent with the general plan and the downtown plan I think the first thing that's important is that the measure o I think by intent I mean, I think it's it's meant to because it's meant to change the general plan and the downtown plan Conflicts with policies included in the general plan the housing element the downtown plan and existing city regulations I I don't think there's an argument about that. I think it's meant to do that Um, some other issues though that I think aren't intended By by the parties is that in many cases the language is ambiguous and subject to multiple interpretations um The requirements really constrain the city's fiscal stability By prohibiting the ability to to develop commercial retail hotel and public uses on these priority sites Um, and as I've said before seven eight nine You can have lot seven eight nine you can still build affordable housing without the initiative and You can do it with the initiative, but it's just a matter of it's these other requirements that have I think probably are unintended of facts um Also, there's not an opportunity under measure o to consolidate the surface parking lots Into a multi-level parking structure If you could take one of the the city on sites and and provide a parking structure That would free up the other sites that then potentially what the appropriate land assembly could be developed with affordable housing and The what developers really want when they're building affordable housing or any kind of development but but affordable housing being the issue here is they want to know what the the Rules of the game are and what the standards are and they want to have as little uncertainty as possible in knowing what they're what they're required to do And this the language and measure o In addition to being ambiguous is also in many places is also prescriptive and restrictive Which creates an entitlement risk? Which really could deter quality of affordable housing developers from developing in Santa Cruz So I think all those factors together are the issues with the general plan and the down count plan and that is the end of my report Well, thank you Kathy and thank you for your work To present this report to us. It's very enlightening Now is an opportunity for our council to ask any questions on the report. Are there any questions comes from the Myers? I have a question about the old the existing library site and I think I heard you say and I think it's in the report Which by the way is very thorough. Thank you That so that Parcel combined with the two lots behind the two parking areas behind could create one of the largest Parcel set of parcels to do affordable housing on correct? Is that correct? Okay And that would be well over potentially a hundred units Depending on how much public use you wanted to put on it because as I read the what the community input had been Was they wanted affordable housing plus community uses? So yeah, I projected you could get even with the community uses about a hundred units on the site And when you Kathy when you use the word affordable, are you using it in the AMI? Sort of, you know, 80 60 30 I know that most projects have to be designed to You know to accommodate certain income levels and that kind of shifts as you put the deal together, but Um, are you using affordable kind of in that context of those of those ratios of I am and I'm using it In the concept of leveraged affordable. So particularly the 500 pound gorilla, which is the low-income housing tax credit So to be competitive for those low-income housing tax credits You're really going to have to have an area median income that the average is plus or minus 50% Of area median income, but you can go up to 80 and you can go down to 30 or below 30 to get to that average So I would see I would see a big range Of affordable but but not likely over 80 percent Okay, and you didn't I didn't see anything in any of the appendices or anything like that in terms of like You know beyond the loss of the housing You know, there's mentioned throughout the report of um, how much this could affect our actual Economic base coming out of the downtown, which is you know, pretty much our entire economic base for the city of santa cruz If you and that in the beach area, but it does say in the report multiple times that basically by limiting the land use To only housing with no ground floor commercial or anything else We essentially are eliminating that economic driver from our downtown completely So a shop owner who wants to move into a new a new space that just was constructed For their store that provides local local items for sale may lose out because we are not going to be building those spaces In at least in the city-owned parking in the city-owned lots downtown anymore if measure O passes, correct? correct um, and then I guess the last thing is um With regards to the general plan, I don't know if this question for you or maybe a question for our our attorney um, could we be potentially challenged legally as is either down zoning or losing um available basically available zoned land that could be used for housing tony So I know a lot of the state law You know, you can get trouble for down zoning your general plan basically essentially at least that's what we've been told Curious about whether or not this measure could be challenged if it was passed Uh, you know, I haven't looked at it from that specific angle But if a court found that we were reducing the available inventory of developable housing As a result of the general plan amendment Then that might run afoul of the housing accountability act or one of the other Recently enacted statutes. Okay, right. Um Kathy, do you have opinion on that? I know you're not an attorney, but I'm not an attorney. I'm not licensed to practice law I mean, I think you have sp3 30 issues to think of which is what I think you're you're talking about Which is if you down zone land, you you're not allowed to down zone land Now, right, right. Um, I so I think the argument would be Are you down zoning by this initiative and I I think that's gray You think that might be correct. I think it's gray. I think I think It's difficult to say whether you're down zoning it or not. I mean, I could argue. I could argue either side of that Okay, great. Thank you. Those are my questions Thank you, councilor meyers any other questions from the council at this time in regards to the report Yeah Thank you for um, this report Kathy. I had Some questions on and I've been receiving emails from many different people on this item And you know one of the aspects of this part of this project Is the parking And that's something that wasn't brought up in this report at all And one of the issues that one of the comments that people have been Reaching out to me about and maybe this is for somebody on city staff is that um, that there's a deficit in Our parking fund and the amount that we've been able to generate over the years And so just thinking about the number of different pieces that fit within this project and being that seeing that parking You know the ground floor of the affordable housing is supposed to be parking And so I'm just wondering if anyone can comment on our ability to bond and what that looks like Moving forward for actually being able to build the parking structure And they're nodding Yeah, I'm uh, clear global transportation planner and helpful works happy to take that question on In and I'm going to step us back a little bit so that I can step us forward to answer your question So in 2018 after the housing blueprint subcommittee council directed us to make a series of changes to our downtown parking resolution To enable more housing to be created downtown and use parking policy as a tool to do that And so we changed our parking resolution in a number of ways and one of the recommendations from that was to come back to council with a proposed rate strategy that would both Support the creation of housing downtown and support a new supply project At that time we adopted council adopted a five-year financial plan that included multiple rate increases on our On our lots on our meters for daily and for hourly As well as the multi-year increase in the cost of permits downtown for monthly permit holders We also sunsetted the deficiency fee over a period of five years. That is temporarily on hold due to covet Um, and we increased the value of our in-loon fees And the specific council action that came from that was that we were taking those We're adopting that rate strategy with one of the purposes being building a new supply project on lot four at the time that we updated that rate strategy, we had Put together a financial model that we had third party verify by an outside firm economic planning systems EPS And they verified that yes, our assumptions were valid. Yes, our plan in place was able to Bond for the project that we were considering at that time, which was a much larger project And that we we would have the ability to go forward 2020 kind of hit pause on that for a couple reasons one covid and things changed dramatically We since 2020 have been using reserves to cover our expenses. We've been spending more than we have been pulling in We are not We are not empty We had sound financial practices for years leading up to the pandemic Which allows us, you know, we call it a rainy day fund for a reason Allows us to weather this temporary downturn as part of the pandemic and we are seeing a comeback now At this time, we are updating our financial model considering the smaller number of parking spaces in this garage the Decision that councils directed because you heard so much community feedback about You downsize the size of the garage project the garage component of this project So we are working right now on updating our financial model to reflect what Rate strategy and what a bonding scenario would look like for this project under consideration at this time That will be going to the downtown commission and then coming to you for consideration I hope that answered all parts of your question. If you have other other pieces to that, please let me know I think that I think that helped a lot Um, thank you for that. The other question I had In part of what as and for full disclosure as somebody who sat on the downtown library subcommittee and we spent extensive hours listening to community input and and You know work to bring forth the recommendations for the mixed-use library project Spent a lot of time on this, but I wanted to ask about the constraints on natural gas in the old project that was mentioned One of the things that came up when we were having those meetings was that solar would be possible On the new project due to being a new development But not on the old one because the roof wouldn't be structurally sound enough to hold solar and so this was actually one of the first times I've been hearing that's reliant on natural gas and so I'm wondering if you could speak to Just how that factors into the old project The the current library I should say Okay, that's not me Um, thanks for the question councilmember Cummings. I think that would be best for Bonnie lips come who's joining our economic development director Thanks, Matt and good evening mayor and members of the council and councilmember Cummings I think that actually is is a question for our project architect and our team We do have an update on tuesday at the city council meeting And so we can both follow up after that meeting with a more detailed response. There is an answer to that But I'd prefer it to come directly from our architect team who's been working on both projects and is familiar both with the renovation of the You know existing library and that analysis as well as the new project So I'll defer that answer to him But we will follow up and provide that with you both an email and then at the update at tuesday's council meeting Great. Thanks. And I actually wasn't aware that we're gonna have an update on tuesday So that will help up probably not have as many questions and because I can ask them at that point in time Yeah, I think that Concludes my questions and I have some comments later, but yeah, I'll leave my questions there. Thank you Thank you councilmember Cummings councilmember brown Thank you. I um, I think my so my my big question was related to the parking Um, maybe I'll just follow up and and claire. Could you and maybe I missed it? um When that that new study You said it's moving through and it's coming to the downtown commission and then it'll come to the council This is an area that I really want to better understand because um, we're obviously In a different position where you know, and I think measure o was written with this Reference to a parking surplus that is really no longer the case. So things have changed pretty quickly and I'm glad to hear that Things are improving in terms of revenues, but I also am worried about the the potential there for us to be able to demonstrate The ability to pay on the bonds So, um, I'd really like to have that information as Sooner as soon as possible and I imagine you'll get it to us as soon as possible, but I just want to know when that might be Yes, we're working through it quickly right now. Um, we also What I forgot to mention, we have EPS economic planning systems on board again To after we go through our financial model for them to third parties verify it as well So they do tons of this work. So they will look at our assumptions They will go through everything that we did identify any potential flaws and potential downsides We'll bring that to the downtown commission. Um, and have hopefully a really robust debate at that point and really be able to bring you an informed, um staff recommendation about the financial side of this project Great. Thank you. Um, I just hoping to see Yeah, definitely. Um, and that since we're on parking, this is, um, I'm not sure this in clear. You you may be Called upon again. So I'll just I'll um, I'll do this one now um, that so the kaia's remersed in and thank you Kathy for the The verbal presentation. Thank you for the, uh, report It was very interesting to read and I did Learn quite a bit. Um, and I also ended up with questions. So another one and and so this is Maybe Claire. Maybe some maybe it It, um, was something that you talked about in your, uh, discussions with the folks in the community, um, related to parking demand We have, I mean, we've had and this I know this has been contested and fuller rising this question about parking demand, um And in the community and really since the nelson-nigard study was done that Adjusted maybe we don't need as much parking. We have a parking management. Uh, You know issue more than we have a parking supply issue But it's it's kind of an ongoing question for me. I don't it's not settled in my mind and, um, I did see that There's an analysis of the increased parking demand as a result of new development both low income Units and, um, you know the the market projects And an assumption that those are going to access these This parking garage or the the increased number of parking spaces in the downtown and I'm I'm still not clear by what mechanisms that would happen I mean, it's kind of asserted that that's the reality and the demand analysis suggests this, but I don't I'm having a hard time in my mind connecting how how that would actually occur. So if you could Give a little and so on I love this question and actually just this morning We gave an update on this topic to the downtown commission at their regular meeting and I can I can forward that along to you all as well but Starting at the beginning and working my way forward The Nelson-Nagard study is something that I love to talk about because it is so Misunderstood and used in so many of the wrong ways to say what it doesn't actually say The Nelson-Nagard study at the very end has a whole toolkit of potential options for us to undertake If you go through that toolkit, I'm happy to sit down with any of you to do so What you would say is we did it We did it we did it we did it we're working on it We did it and one of them that I cannot say we did is create a new parking supply project That is a verbatim recommendation from the Nelson-Nagard report, which doesn't get talked about So I want that to be abundantly clear to everyone. That was a recommendation Anyone who says otherwise has not read the report going from there to the next part of the question about Affordable housing projects downtown that are thankfully providing zero parking spaces on site Which allows them to provide a larger number of affordable units on their sites We since 2018 as I mentioned the housing blueprint subcommittee and the work that came as the result of that Council directed us to make a series of updates to our parking resolution Among those were the allowance to have 100 percent of a project's parking requirement be located off site The purpose of that was to maximize the number of units on the available building footprint that we could create And have the public parking supply provide that parking. We know that in doing so Overall, we provide a lower number of parking spaces because the peak demand for residential is during off peak hours and we are able to Have a more affordable parking product there where the developers are paying into our parking fund if it's a market rate for non-residential projects The second thing that we did as part of that was that in we updated our in-loofy And we had a tiered in-loofy that incentivizes affordable projects for parking requirements and state law has sort of changed how we do this before it was that Our in-loofy started at $5,000 for the per parking space for the greatest level of affordability And it goes up to $20,000 per space for market rate and non-residential projects So we set our financial model So that affordable housing providing the parking off site was the cheapest thing that they could do and provide more units on site Um, so intentionally we're getting these projects that are not providing parking on site So they can meet our goal of providing more housing units for people downtown And buying in to our shared parking supply that the city of Santa Cruz owns and manages The third part Of that question is where are these people going to park who are living in buildings that don't have parking? And that's a piece that we talked about downtown commission this morning as Stay tuned to come we right now are updating our Parking equipment system to a new system. It's about 50 percent complete. We're still working on rolling it out in Through our main through of our lots and structures That will use it and that will allow us to sell off peak parking permits So overnight residential permits or permits that go from 5 p.m. To 8 a.m. Or whatever we decide there To sell essentially uh booklets for parking so rather than sell a month at a time we can sell a booklet of say 10 10 per month so you can carpool the other days take transit ride your bike whatever it is But you get a couple days of parking per month at a more affordable rate Many of the other recommendations that we Intend to move towards that we don't quite have the ability to get but we're really excited to So by the time these projects are coming online We anticipate having that project complete and the ability to work through off peak residential permits Um downtown commission this morning also had an interest that they expressed in having some Uh potentially reduced price overnight permits for the affordable housing projects as well So we're going to be working through those scenarios and we'll be bringing you An updated rate strategy that's part of that as well. Did I miss any parts of your question? Um I Don't think so. Um, I think yeah, thank you. I'm I'm still I still just think about all the people who talk about how they can't get a permit and like the the um The the challenge is associated with the the way that the city delivers Residential parking permits or you know parking permits for down downtown residents. So I'm just thinking about how how it's going to work But I think that you've yes, you've answered my questions again Like I guess I'll just press um soon Uh on the study we talking like sometime this year. Is it going to be in spring or? For financial modeling is that any other modeling? Yeah, it will be before the end of the year We're working on we have the inputs to it right now. We're going to bring a range of scenarios a low medium high um so that we can say, you know here was kind of the starting point is If kovat didn't happen where we be at the depths of kovat where we be at some point in the middle of an anticipated recovery That's probably a conservative estimate There's where we'll be and so we'll be able to discuss those at the downtown commission and then and then here as well Great, thank you Thanks, councilor brown. Thank you claire for being here councilor michael I just have one more question maybe for um bonnie Because kathy you mentioned um in one of your slides that they're They're in the in the fiscal part of this where you outlined the different Um expenditures so far. There was a I think a line that said that Bonnie it sounds bonnie lips gum. Maybe our um housing A lead on the project had put together a basically a Method to get at the hundred and twenty million. Can you speak to that bonnie lips gum if you're still here? Just curious about losing that um Did you I think kathy was in your slide it sounded like there had been forward movement on Starting to scope how to get to the funding for the affordable housing um And I know that that housing isn't secure that money is probably not secured, but there was a part of the slide that mentioned something about um the work to date on putting together that um That level of funding bonnie and maybe just if you could just update it so the public maybe understands it a little bit more Yeah, kathy. Is there anything you wanted to add to your slide? I can talk in in general terms and based on the conversations we've had and sort of our funding strategy overall Right. Um the hundred and twenty million dollars is outside of the money that the city will have committed to this project Including the the land donation. Um, it's primarily um consists of low-income housing tax credits The competitively awarded low-income housing tax credits Conventional financing and then the state does a super NOFA now The state has all these different affordable housing funding sources that all conveniently used to have different deadlines That didn't correspond to any of the the tax credit deadlines So now they put together a super no super NOFA with all of those programs and so it's it's the um infrastructure program It's the um cap and trade ASIC program It's those programs. There's four or five of them and so the this project has been structured income and affordability wise and energy efficient wise To make it competitive for the super NOFA as well So those are going to be the major sources and then there's there's also a notion that um some project based section 8 Assistance might be available to the to the extremely low-income component of the of the tenant base That's that's the general structure of the financing As I understand it, they will start with applications to the low-income housing tax credit in in the beginning of 2023 That's right. You actually went quite into into the details. So that's great I will add to that all of this is predicated on us getting project entitlements So being able to apply for the majority of these grant applications Not all of them, but we need to be in a place where we have an entitled project or an improved project So, you know when we get questions about where are you with the funding and oh, you know You only have you know five million secured so far That's actually a considerable amount of money on the affordable housing side When we don't have the project approvals when it's not permitted yet to go forward So I approved to go forward and and and apply you know to the next level for these grant applications So I just wanted to to clarify that because we have our timeline in place That if we're coming to council, hopefully in december potentially january Then we meet all these funding timelines The whole funding strategy is based on when we're coming forward when we go through with the approvals at council And then making our funding application deadline So we're working really closely with the with the developer team On that in addition to that and the funding as part of the overall strategy I would add that we are in close contact with both our state and federal legislators and have had a lot of support and already have You know congressional earmark a federal earmark for two million for the project for the overall project But specifically because of the elements around the affordable housing for the project, you know as as I know you all know, you know, we've secured 51 million in affordable housing sustainable community grant and infill an infrastructure grant for our pack station north projects and sort of the combination of projects and we're staying really in close contact with hcd About this project and all the elements as kathy mentioned is extremely competitive And as we're moving forward successfully with those projects, we're really feeling like we're setting ourselves up well To be very competitive for the next no for round So yeah, I guess that was my last question really bonnie was you know, I think you know We watched you work your magic on pacific south pacific north and I know some of them are still, you know needing that funding, but You would use a similar I mean a very similar set of and I think super nova for folks who want to know what a nova is It's not a constellation. It's notice of funding availability. I believe Um, but it could be a new discovered star with that cool telescope, but um Yeah, so bonnie. It's really this process of really hitting at the right time, you know And and really understand how to put all this money together is how we we've gotten the at least the two Pacific station projects up and running right in the last couple years Okay, just want to confirm that that those that that money didn't fall out of the sky mysteriously, but that it's a very a very strategic and important way to put the projects together that make these successful and that They oftentimes are not necessarily Funding challenged only if they get stopped are they funding challenge to be honest? So Usually the the resources are there if you have the right kind of project that your community's put together. Thank you Great. Thank you. Any other follow-up questions from the council at this time. No, okay, see none We'll go ahead and move on then So in addition to public comment that we'll be hearing on this item We had five emails that were sent to the city council at the city of Santa Cruz calm And if you're interested in commenting on the report of effect for our downtown our future initiative Now is the time to raise your hand if you're virtually participating Either by dialing nine Excuse me by dialing star nine on your phone or selecting the raise hand feature in your webinar controls on the computer When it's your time to speak we will hear And you will hear an announcement that you have been unmuted and the timer will then be set to two minutes So members of the public who are joining us here in chambers and wanting to comment on this item We'll have you go ahead and please line up to the right of the dais And you will each have two minutes to speak. We did receive a number of Of groups who are interested in speaking on behalf of their group I'm going to go ahead and list them in the order They are on my script here and what you have been approved for is for three minutes to represent your group Um, so we'll go ahead and start with our first group, which is the Santa Cruz downtown association so if the member of the community who would like to represent the Santa Cruz downtown association, please come forward if in the audience And I don't see that person in the audience Bonnie, do you know who we're looking for in terms of who our participants are? Is it Zachary Davis? Yeah We have Zach, okay We'll go ahead and have Zachary Davis unmute and you'll be given three minutes to speak on behalf of the Santa Cruz downtown association Zachary Davis He has his hand there we go go ahead There we are. Can you all hear me? We can Excellent. Thank you so much. Yeah, so this is Zach Davis Nice to see you all virtually um I'm speaking as as mentioned on behalf of the downtown association. Um, I should also mention I'm a downtown business co-owner and a farmers market vendor um on july 21st the downtown association board voted unanimously To support the construction of this new library project And to oppose measure o and this was actually reaffirmed without objection at a meeting on tuesday of this week The downtown association members Have identified priorities of clean safe and welcoming for our downtown Let's start with welcoming a modern library with the amenities that communities have come to expect Will contribute to a thriving downtown business community Um, I mean I the roof deck Maybe my personal favorite feature um But as far as being something that brings people from all walks of life to our downtown This is a a fantastic project. It's visually beautiful. The amenities are fantastic My business partner and I developed our business plan in our downtown library I would love to be able to have this facility available to everyone safety People on our streets in our downtown make it more safe positive energy positive contribution. We just this week um We celebrated, uh, uncle poo You know, we've got if we have people in these 124 units of affordable housing Those are the folks that are walking the streets Those are the folks that are calling uncle poop that are reporting graffiti that are helping to clean keep our downtown clean and safe and welcoming I want to mention that the downtown business owners We we agree unanimously that the farmers market is a credible asset So we are thrilled to hear that the city has continued to engage with the farmers market Looking to work with them to build a permanent home that includes infrastructure that can support them So many of the food and beverage operators in the downtown use the farmers market as a source Um for ingredients. So they're fantastic um Finally, uh, I just want to say this this project as as many of you know, Justin mentioned the subcommittee I mean this project has been going on for a long time And I think despite the fact that it feels like a long time and maybe like it's it's dragged out It really does represent the best of community engagement of taking feedback Including from downtown association members Incorporating it into a design that has evolved dramatically from what was initially proposed And really reflects so much of what our community wants and needs So thank you so much for listening And See you all soon All right. Thank you, Zach So the next group that was approved for additional time is friends of Santa Cruz public libraries And we'll go ahead and have our representative from that organization come forward and that person is in person. So welcome Thank you My name is Janice O'Driscoll and I sit on the board of the friends of the Santa Cruz public libraries The friends of the Santa Cruz public libraries value the Fial role of the public library is a community gathering place and a bridge to information for every resident We seek the best collections services programs and facilities for the benefit of all And we actively advocate and fundraise for them We welcome the partial Kaiser Marston report on the impacts of measure o and we thank the city council for commissioning it We have read it carefully And we've asked this question Is the measure o proposed renovated branch The equal of the new library in the library affordable housing project And the answer is no The new library will be 26 larger than the renovated library And that space means more books more gathering areas for classes group work individual study and community led programming The new library will have solar power and no fossil fuel reliance unlike the renovated building The new library will cost 21% less per square foot Than the renovated building In the words of Kaiser Marston the proposed new library would be more success accessible and provide better educational opportunities to its visitors The additional community space provides the ability for multiple programs to take place at the same time Resulting in greater use to the community The reach of the new library is further magnified Given its proposed location in the downtown core close to the transit center So we see that measure o stops This larger greener fiscal Fiscally responsible library from being constructed measure o disregards The extensive and documented public process That developed the library affordable housing project And measure o diminishes The public library's role in our vibrant community With a smaller building that offers fewer services And fewer opportunities to its residents The friends of the library cannot and do not Support measure o's dismissal Of the public library and the life of this city Thank you Thank you Okay, we'll just go through all of our groups here So we'll go ahead and on to our next one, which is Santa Cruz for real solutions If that person's here, please come forward matt come come on up and you'll have three minutes as well Thank you very much. My name is matt ferrell. I'm speaking today for Santa Cruz for real library and housing solutions A community coalition of housing health services child care and environmental advocates Who have joined to oppose measure o I'll focus today on the parking impacts of the project which have been discussed In the in the presentation earlier and their impact On access and equity for downtown residents workers and visitors As mentioned earlier, there are three affordable housing projects which have been approved for downtown and are moving forward together these Three projects will provide 262 accessible housing units But there's a problem Again, as you heard over the last four years 291 public parking spaces have been removed to accommodate these projects And other projects downtown and for the very successful downtown parklet program By 2030 We expect that they'll be as presented earlier this evening 509 spaces lost downtown The parking that is proposed for the mixed-use library affordable housing project Is replacement parking. It's not new parking. It's replacement parking that helps address Especially needs in the south portion of downtown Measure o prohibits replacing this parking It will have disastrous impacts on older people disabled people people who live far away Or our neighborhoods with poor transit service And parents who have to deliver children to daycare or school on their way to work It will also hurt the people who live in these units 62 of these new homes almost 25 of them are three bedroom units. They're going to be families in these and it's very I think it's very unfair to tell people who are going to live in these units That they won't need a car or they won't need a place to park. It's just not fair And this also impacts the employees who are going to be working at dientes and community health care We support the go Santa Cruz county program already the city spending $300,000 to support alternatives Alternative transportation Including free bus passes in e-bike We need a focus balance approach to mobility downtown and we need to support equity and access And I want to thank you for this report. I think it clearly presents the problem Okay, thank you mad okay All right to interrupt if we can take about a five minute break. We're getting um Messages about audio in here. Sure. Sure. Okay. We'll go ahead and then have a five minute recess for that to reset. Thanks, Bonnie Well, thank you all for your patience as we reset our audio I think we're up and running again We're going to do our best to speak directly into the microphone so that there's no um audio issues Moving forward. So we've had three of our Approved groups who are speaking for three minutes and our next one on the list is housing for santa cruz county And I see don lane Moving forward here. Hi done. Welcome and you'll have three minutes Hold on done You don't need to put the slide up right away. I'll I'll measure but you need to have it handy Yeah Thanks, bonnie You have a lot of things. What would we do without you bonnie? We appreciate you bonnie. We really do You take your time. All right ready We're ready first. I want to thank you so much city council for commissioning this report from keiser marston As many of us working in the field of overall affordable housing No, keiser marston is one of the state's leading experts on affordable housing finance And municipal finance an excellent choice to analyze a ballot measure concerning a municipal building paired with affordable housing I highlight keiser marston's credentials because their report does actually need to be compared with the report Prepared by well intentioned partisans from measure o without any expertise in creating and financing affordable housing Keiser marston's thorough analysis shows that measure o holds out many false promises about affordable housing Many of the sites Hope measure o suggests as affordable housing sites are clearly not feasible No amount of lines on maps or nice drawings of buildings or numerical guesses by Measure o proponents can overcome the facts and analysis Provided by people with actual affordable housing expertise On the screen that you I have a slide with some of the key lines from the analysis that are particularly important for people Trying to address our affordable housing crisis For instance, you can see measure o constraints development on Potential on some sites other sites are not large enough and too costly And on one site redesign would be required resulting in loss funds and years of delay The next slide you'll see Some of the provisions block the new library thereby eliminating the potential for another 100 unit site They reduce it reduces potential development For other affordable projects and it limits future affordable heling affordable housing opportunity sites What this careful analysis shows is that measure o will be a real setback for affordable housing It's not just a weak spot here or there Impediments to affordable housing are woven into many different aspects of measure o It's not surprising that virtually all the organizations in santa cruz county that have a significant focus on affordable housing are opposing measure o They agree that measure o will move us in the wrong direction These groups include how the housing authority housing matters affordable housing now Mbep's housing program new way home santa cruz yinbi and housing santa cruz county Most importantly this report makes clear that 124 very low income apartments will be blocked This would be a real tragedy for those 124 households and a real loss for our community as a whole Thank you very much Thank you don So we have three more groups who've been approved for three minutes and we'll ask our next to come forward and that's campaign for sustainable transportation Okay Welcome Good evening council members and staff My name is rick longinati from campaign for sustainable transportation I'm reminded of the john mated keens quote. He said When the facts change I changed my mind What do you do sir? Well, the facts have changed around the city's ability to finance a parking garage The city cannot execute its plan To issue 30 year revenue bonds to finance the garage while the downtown parking district is running deep deficits These deficits occurred in each of the last three years in spite of a doubling of parking rates that began to go in effect in 2019 Parking districts suffered a record four million deficit in fiscal year 2022 The budget projection is a three million deficit in fiscal year 2023. That's a guess of course for this year So it's recovering four million debt to three million debt if you extrapolate out It will be 2026 before revenues meet expenses two more years 2028 Before the parking district could demonstrate that it can pay On the revenue bonds for the parking structure. So 2028 before we have a project at best so The housing that we're all looking forward to is not going to happen So if you want housing to happen quickly you would go with measure o A glaring omission in the kaiser marston report is the failure to mention the city's $100,000 nelson-neigard parking strategic plan Nelson-neigard concluded i'm going to read directly The most fiscally prudent approach to accommodating additional demand Modernized parking management and better aligned parking prices to the cost of building and maintaining the system Uh, you folks wouldn't know that yet because you haven't seen the nelson-neigard Study and I would make that the first order of your priority You're being asked to consider an investment of tens of millions of dollars Putting the city in debt for 30 years and you should have the the information that you need Kaiser marston silence on the nelson-neigard report perpetuates the city's lack of transparency The suppression of this report means the city council can't make an informed decision and I think we have a Uh an issue of trust in this city. I think The alarm bell went off with the failure of measure f and we ignore that To or to the peril of city government. Who who is to gain if people lose trust in city government? Well, lots of people are going to lose And this is on your watch folks Every other measure of sales tax or any other kind of measure has passed with flying colors in this city Apparently the people don't trust what's going on Thank you All right Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to our next group who is approved to speak for three minutes And that is our downtown in our future. Is there a member from that group here? Okay, please come forward I commend to you our supplemental impact Uh report that is in your packet. My name is john hall co-chair for yes on measure. Oh, yes on measure Oh, unfortunately the agenda report And the Kaiser marston report have central inaccuracies and flawed conclusions Thus, they should not become a public source of information I therefore respectfully ask the city council not to accept the report unfortunately The errors stem from incorrect premises because the premises are incorrect conclusions drawn from them are invalid That is basic logic. Also, the reports are highly speculative Just search through them for the uses of the word possibly maybe might Could and so forth here. I'll focus on three issues First both the Kaiser marston report and the staff agenda report wonder about the measure o wording Requiring affordable housing to the maximum extent feasible But the term has clear and general legal meaning the requirements to be fully and I'm quoting From a legal dictionary the requirement to be fully implemented constrained only by the physical limitations of the site practical considerations Engineering design and reasonable considerations of financial costs and environmental impacts The term is used in city ordinances and governmental policies across the us This failure to recognize standard legal terminology leads to significant invalid statements in the report Second the Kaiser marston analysis confirms that a greater number of units of affordable housing Can be built through measure o than on lot four Note that nevertheless Their analysis considerably underestimates measure o's potential for affordable housing development They posit a necessary lot size of a half acre. Although the presenter today kathy head acknowledged that Smaller lots are possible and so forth. So we see this already in santa cruz. There are Affordable housing projects in santa cruz that are smaller than a half acre that are successful Third the reports base their conclusions on a misreading or rather an insertion of meaning for word Wording that can be found nowhere in measure o itself Kaiser marston flatly states the city's ability to include ground floor commercial uses would be prohibited on the city-owned lots identified in measure o But there is no such language in measure o this invented reading of the measure yields false Conclusions concerning everything from the inclusion of commercial space and child care facilities to quote-unquote barriers to the production Of affordable housing including I would mention on the library renovation with Combined with affordable housing in the parking lots adjacent to it with the library annex They don't provide an objective standard. Uh, the public is rightly disappointed I urge the council not to accept the report santa cruz is better than this I hope thank you your time is up. Thank you So, um last group approved, but certainly not least is our democratic women's club of santa cruz And we'll invite you up to come and speak. Hi carol Do I need to move that? Yes, please My name is carol fuller. I'm co-president of the democratic women's club of santa cruz county We're the largest in the oldest club in the county. We're over 60 years old Um, I want to thank you for commissioning this report and urging you to accept it And I really am grateful for a very short summary because I saw the actual report And it was nothing I was going to plow through it seems pretty clear to me that This is a really fine public project. It's beautiful I had the occasion two years ago to go to salt lake city to do a road trip And I had an extra morning before the plane left and my friend and I went to the salt lake city library Which is glass all the way for five stories with a beautiful rooftop garden. It was spectacular and I think we have the possibility to have something equal here And it would be a destination tourist I went I went to the Seattle library for the same reason That I'd heard it was a spectacular public building and we have a chance to have something like that I have visited the felton library the bolder creek library The capitol a library and the la silva beach library and they're just really wonderful and they're unique unique designs to their site The children's furniture is all custom and they aren't cookie cutter They're beautiful buildings and I think the citizens of santa cruz deserve something like that And I um, I worked on measure s. I worked hard on measure s and every every delay that we make Costs us money. You saw how much lumber is going up how much labor is going up We're losing money. We'll have to have a capital campaign to make up for all this lost time and the housing is to me, it's It's unconscionable to not provide this kind of housing in a project like this and as for parking I just personally want to say I turned 80 this week. I look like I'm mobile, but I have serious Um, neuropathy And I I do live on the bus line I can in two or three blocks I can be on a bus and I can come downtown I have done it a few times But there's a limit at how long I can actually be on my feet now So, um, I know you don't have to be 80 to have mobility problems But I mean it's coming for all of us at one form or another. So this is a good report I urge you to accept it. This is a fine project It has everything for it. And by the way, I lived on maple street 34 years ago before I moved out to the west side in a house that was built in the late 1800s had no off-street parking And when I came home from work quite often, I had to park a block away I mean, it'll be a disaster if we don't have more parking and so I you know personally I just But it's just foolhardy, you know in a perfect world We'd have great public transportation that ran every 10 minutes, but we don't actually have that so Thank you Okay, and that concludes our public comment from groups So we'll go ahead and look to our attendees who are participating with us virtually And then we'll go ahead and get to our members of the community who are here who want to speak as well So we'll start with Amelia conlin and Amelia. You'll be given two Minutes to address the council on this Walter hello, mayor and council members. My name is Amelia conlin And I signed on to the no on o campaign because I am in my 30s My partner and I make more money than we ever thought we would five years ago And it's become abundantly clear over the last couple years that we are not going to be able to afford a house in sienna cruise And that we need to make other plans It's What what I see when I look at measure o Is a measure that stops an affordable housing project in favor of Plans that doesn't deliver on what it promises and constrains the ability of the city to build affordable housing in the future And I think that we need to be doing everything that we possibly can to build as much housing and as much affordable housing In the city as as we can and I think everyone here agrees on that Including the authors of this measure And really the question is how we get there. So I urge council members members of the public To support this project and vote no on no. Thank you Thank you Now we'll look to our members of the community who want to address the council for two minutes And now would be the time for you to come forward and speak if you like Oh, sorry. I'm going to rotate back and forth. Is that yep? I'm going to be going back and forth for for those who are participating virtually and her in the community I'm going to alternate so we'll have our committee members come forward And you'll have two minutes to address the council. Welcome. Thank you Good evening. I'm whitney ramos policy manager with the santa cruz county business council I'm here to express our success. Excuse me. I might just pause you for one second if you don't mind Please lowering the mic. Thank you Um, I'm here to express our support for the city council to accept the report of the effects of measure o We thank you for providing the public with this third party analysis on the true impacts measure o is expected to have in santa cruz One of the first results of measure o would be to prevent the construction of 125 units of affordable housing and a better downtown library This project was developed over many years through round after round of public outreach and stakeholder engagement We at a santa cruz county business council were one of the many community groups involved in that long process And we have appreciated seeing the design developed with community feedback Now measure o tries to undermine those years of public process and start over They want to ignore the input all the input that took place on the affordable housing and downtown library project And section seven c of this report authors state measure o directly conflicts with many policies included in the general plan Housing element and the downtown plan Which highlights that measure o aims to silence the community voices that were part of all of those processes as well Not just this affordable housing and library project Opposition to measure o includes a widespread and diverse community support including organizations focused on affordable housing education local libraries non-profit healthcare business and economic development and political organizations Opposition to o includes affordable housing advocates affordable housing now affordable housing authority housing matters and others why Because as the report and these organizations conclude measure o is bad for affordable housing Let's build affordable housing now not maybe later Opposition to measure o includes local library advocates friends of the santa cruz public libraries and others Why because measure o would result in a worse library in every way Business organizations oppose it because it's bad for local economy and bad for business. Thank you Thank you Okay, we're gonna rotate now to our um online folks. Is that okay for you bonnie to go back and forth? Or is it more challenging? Okay, gotcha. Okay. We have um next who is in our waiting room online is john sears So john you can go ahead and unmute yourself and you'll be given two minutes Okay, john you can go ahead and unmute yourself you can unmute yourself either by um Okay Hi john john sears your next you have two minutes to address the council Um, if you can please unmute yourself and you'll be given two minutes You can either press star nine or just hit the unmute button if you're participating on your computer Not sure here. Okay Why don't we go ahead and move on and we'll come back to john then we'll go ahead and lower his hand Oh, there we go. Okay. Hi, john. Oh, that was you Never mind Okay, we'll go ahead and go to our next virtual participant and that is a person calling with The phone number ending in five three six two. You can unmute yourself now and you'll be given two minutes as well You can hit star nine to unmute yourself Uh, bonnie, do you think they're not hearing me? so Move on to the next one. Okay. We'll come back to you too. So we'll go. Oh, go ahead. Yes. Hi. You have two minutes Yes, we can hear you. All right Okay, great. The sound is not good this is judy grunstra and I urge you to consider the Report presented by our downtown our future. It addresses other things beyond the consultants including the environmental cost And um, you know all that concrete is uh detrimental to the environment putting down mature trees is detrimental and um I had to take issue with don lane talking about the city moving in the Right direction. I see this project is moving in the wrong direction as do many other citizens. Um Uh, I can't I find it hard to believe that you don't see the value in the community space That could be a real gem in downtown for residents businesses and visitors So there's so many aspects of this. Uh, why measure f Measure o would be good for the community. Um And yes, the city's delays in uh, proceeding with the renovation several years ago has cost taxpayers several million dollars in the escalation cost That does not appear in the report Um as to having a inferior library Jason architects were given a 27 million dollar budget for renovation if they had 42 million dollars like the mixed use library has been allocated They likely could have designed a library with green building features and upgrades So it's really not a fair comparison Um, and uh, there's many other aspects, you know your health and all policies Measure o would support that as well as a community space Mostly aligns with the individual and community well-being Open space in an ever denser downtown will be increasingly important and provide benefits in terms of physical health mental health Social health and economic health these benefits are well documented Also, how does a steady flow of cars into central downtown streets? I could go on and on uh about the Could you hold extended public outreach? Sorry to interrupt you, but we'll go ahead and I have to have you and um stop talking We have you now at your two minute time Thank you for calling Okay, so now we'll go to our community member here in public to come forward and you'll have two minutes as well As the city's representative on the library advisory commission I urge you to accept this report The Santa Cruz public library system strives to provide equity and access But measure o hinders these goals According to the impartial impact report before you today the downtown library an affordable housing project Would enable the new library to be quote larger in size over 25 larger And would be able to provide more amenities and services to more people than renovating the existing library These findings are not surprising to me at all Over five years ago. I was part of the delac and we concluded Unanimously after a deep dive into the facts that are echoed in this credible accurate report presented tonight That the downtown library an affordable housing project was the only solution that balanced and appropriate square footage With a fiscally responsible price What is important to understand is that losing almost 8 000 square feet in library over 25 percent as measure o would mandate Is a loss of books for kids. It's a loss of free programs for seniors It's a loss of tutoring rooms for students that 8 000 square feet represents us having the capacity to have local history and genealogy in the library 8 000 square feet affects the amounts of books the library has Not just downtown but system-wide and not only would we have less library It would still result in and I quote from the architects A low to medium quality facility and will lack many of the amenities the public has come to Expect in a modern library The library advisory commission understands the devastating effects of measure o and unanimously quote Opposes any ballot measure that will further delay the development of a beautiful and vibrant community asset. Thank you Why don't we since you already have it set up here bonnie? We'll go ahead and have one more and then we'll transition over how's that sound once you come forward and we'll have You speak to the council in person. Thank you. You'll have two minutes Thank you very much city council members Um Reading through the impact analysis report there were inaccuracies Studied throughout as well as important emissions and that affects the report's conclusion So I hope that the council will also accept the supplemental report that uh has been submitted Covering including environmental impact was which was completely missed in the commission impact report When proponents for the let for project talk about potential millions lost if measure o wins in november I can't help but think about the overwhelming public opposition to this project since The very Beginning since the first dlac meeting This is documented If our concerns had been truly addressed back in 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 and yes 2022 This year we could very possibly be enjoying a newly fully renovated library right now right across the street Instead the city has pushed this unpopular project along spending large amounts Of money time and resources We could very possibly be looking at even more affordable housing units in process right now Instead trying to sell the lot for a project to the community affordable housing was only added as a final enticement That's also documented By now the issue of trust in the city government is truly in our faces Measure o comes from the voices of the people This proposed project on lot four is one of the most expensive And complex projects ever considered in our city This will be the first and only time the community has had To be able to vote on it. Thank you very much Okay All right, we're going to go ahead and transfer back to our folks who are participating Virtually and I'm going to remember to speak up because I know we're having some audio issues and I apologize for that So we'll go back to john sears john. You'll be given two minutes I'm going to go ahead and have to interrupt you when we hear the two minute bell because you won't be able to hear that So we'll go ahead and allow john sears to address the council at this time for two minutes You can unmute yourself john star nine or unmute using the feature on your computer No well We'll give you another few seconds and If it does come back around we'll go ahead and try but I think we'll have to go ahead and move on to our next Virtual attendee and that is susan are Susan you can unmute yourself and you'll be given two minutes as well. Go ahead susan Great. Thank you so much. Um, you can hear me. Is that right? Yes, we can hear you. Thank you so much. Thank you Um, I'm really disappointed in this report the Kaiser martian report I have read it and I just want to start by saying we all love the farmers market in the library And then it's important to focus on what makes a vibrant downtown as well as housing opportunities This is a project that's gone on partly Based on meetings that gave the public a two minute survey at the end of the meeting and counted that as public input um groups such as the business association or the friends of the library or even the dwc They made their decision based on what their boards wanted not on The people who support them um The dwc. I actually went to that meeting and there were two very brief The presentations on either side No debate It was as if they had their minds made up already. There were so few members present to make that decision so I do question the the Kaiser martian report as I said Uh, and the city's assumptions that are based on it such as measure oak or inhibiting ground floor parking or commercial use If they and and you can make this kind of mistake in the report. It doesn't give me confidence in the rest of it um I want to add that there's a great deal of parking that people don't know how to use People aren't used to using the parking garages that already exist I used to drive around waiting for you know finding that free parking spot I don't do that anymore because times have changed And I use a parking garage now I urge you to look carefully at the mistakes in this Kaiser martian report And to accept the report that our downtown our future has made I do support measure. Oh, thank you so much Okay, thank you Susan. We'll go to our next in-person attendee and we'll have you come forward and you'll have two minutes Hey everyone, thanks for having me. I'm Kyle Kelly. So I used to be really conflicted on this project Um, I generally want to see less parking. I want to incentivize more transit more active transportation Um, and at every meeting I've actually pushed for having more bike parking having more cargo bike parking and reducing the amount of parking Overall and we've actually seen that happen It's now only 240 parking spaces and there's now more bike parking than there is car parking Um, the reason I was conflicted is because well, there was housing and I'm really I'm really happy about the housing going in And it's the main reason that I'm a no-no. I want to see the project go forward Uh, I want to see the new library I have kids my kids have friends not everyone has access to tons of books at their home And they really need a full-fledged library for them And not just for when they're little but as they grow older and they become teenagers and much older So I'm really thankful that the city put together this analysis Um, I'm especially to note that there's nothing stopping us from building affordable housing on the rest of the lots that are available But we don't need a ballot measure to do that and we have been doing Pacific station south Pacific station north Uh, the Calvary church lot like we keep doing it and we can keep on building affordable housing And I'm really proud of the community for coming together and for getting all of this done. So thank you Thank you. All right. We'll go ahead and go back to our virtual attendees I can get a sense of who else would like to speak here this evening. Um, who's here in person Maybe by hand Okay, looks like we covered mainly our you can change your mind But I think we'll go ahead and have our virtual attendees at this time go forward and then we'll come back All right, we're going to go ahead and we'll leave john until the end and we'll go ahead and go on to our next speaker Which is uh, lira filipini Lira, you'll be unmuted. You'll have two minutes and I'll have to interrupt you if you can't hear the bell Hi, thank you. Can you hear me? We can hear you Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you can. Yes, thank you Hi, lira filipini today. I'm going to stick to talking about the report itself Instead of why measure o is a better option for our community and our future Of utmost importance in assessing this impact report is that it contains many significant factual errors Those factual errors are then used to draw inaccurate conclusions Considering the limited time allowed it to address the errors. I'll simply give a couple of examples The report's accounting of what the mixed-use library would cost is based Is basic yet a huge error error. Sorry, it discusses and promotes a net zero energy mixed-use library with solar power and green roof While then presenting a cost model for the version that does not include the solar power or green roof An important side note is that the city can't afford the mixed-use library version being promoted currently In part because it has not been awarded the 10 million dollar state library grant this year likely because the grant is more aimed at critical infrastructure library renovations on housing The report falsely claims that not allowing parking or commercial on the ground floor lots in measure o Would make it harder to build affordable housing and that it would also have a damaging fiscal impact on the city Measure o allows both parking and commercial on the ground floor Verifiable by reading sections 4b and 5d of the measure Affordable housing is prioritized on levels above the ground floor leaving ground floor use completely open Though the report agrees with measure o on the viability of three of the lots designated for affordable housing It then uses local code generalizations to limit the number of units that could be built on those lots While promoting a unit count for the mixed-use project that goes way beyond those local code generalizations Due to the new state housing laws Those same laws and the same generalizations should be applied to both scenarios and they were not I'm barely scraping the surface with the huge inaccuracies and contradictions contained in this report It's astounding that the city is spending nearly twice what was approved by council for a report that should be objective Lira your time is your time is up. So sorry to interrupt you based on a foundation of factual errors Thank you for your time Okay, we'll go on to our next speaker now And that will be mbap your um if you can unmute yourself. You'll be given two minutes Good evening. Can you all hear me? We can hear you Wonderful. Thank you. Good evening. Alyssa Kroger director of strategic initiatives housing and broadband with Monterey Bay economic partnership mbap's housing initiative supports projects that reflect high quality design Higher density housing serving all income levels and in appropriate locations near jobs and other amenities mbap supports the downtown library affordable housing project This project fulfills broadly shared community goals of a first class downtown library affordable housing and a multimodal vibrant downtown It's intelligent use of available space in a prime location is in line with our recommendations Excuse me advocating for infill development to optimize land use for housing community services and climate resilience This project could also serve as a model for mixed use higher density proposals in our region Measure oh if pass would terminate the proposed downtown library affordable housing project along with the difficult to secure grant funding included with this project It would effectively halt 124 affordable units already in the pipeline that would assist the city in reaching its arena targets I would keep a green space modern library with resources for all a child care facility And a parking component from benefiting the greater community I'd like to thank the city staff development team and all who support this project for their leadership in promoting sustainable affordable housing and livable communities Thank you Thank you Okay, our next speaker has the phone number ending in 3031 You can go ahead and impress star nine to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes Go ahead I think it's outrageous that the city has paid over $20,000 to muddy the waters on this issue I had a friend that worked for the city in the in a parking garage And she got deathly ill from working there and It's permanently disabled to this day um So you're building affordable housing in a parking garage I call it the final solution housing project because you're going to be killing low-income people by by having them exposed to auto exhaust And I think you better think about clearly because you're looking at a large lawsuit for something like this to happen You're better off building the low-income housing away from parking So that people can breathe clean air not not somewhere where they're subjected to cars coming and going constantly all day long um And it's outrageous that you're you're wanting to have Market rate housing projects use public parking as parking for their projects this is abominable um also there are nailable solar shingles available that could power the old library with a complete solar system Without adding any extra weight to the building so, um Any of these kind of things that they've been talking about not being real Possible because of the uh design of the roof of the old library is ridiculous um So, you know measure o is like the best thing that could happen right now because Obviously the city council has not listened to the public when for the last seven years Pardon the interruption your timer has gone off. I know you can't hear it But um, thank you for your calling in and our next speaker is grace stinson grace. You're welcome to unmute yourself and you'll be given two minutes Hi, everyone. Um, I'm grace former affordability and equity correspondent with lookout Santa Cruz and currently a part-time campaign coordinator with no one oh um I I'd like to explain why I joined the campaign following nearly here of covering the project as an unbiased reporter and Why the facts encourage my support of no one oh I first learned about the project from one of the odos founders rick langanati who Said that his group wanted lot four to be a permanent home for the downtown farmers market Um soon after publishing that piece. I connected with the farmers market executive nesh dylan who told me Uh, there are people out there advocating for the market to be somewhere, but that's them. They're not us We will decide where we end up Since that article was published. Uh, the project has changed a great deal and more facts have come to light odouf continues to advocate different issues that align with their mission but don't align with the facts So permanent home for the farmers market No need for parking downtown saving magnolia trees I want I wrote a total of 10 articles about this project as it transforms which currently includes a 38 000 square foot library child care facility 240 parking spaces outdoor green space and 124 units of 100 affordable housing for members of our community making 30 to 50 percent of the area meeting income My job has and continues to be to report the facts and this project has changed a great deal since measure s was passed There's no denying that Um, but that was in large part because of community feedback from people like rick john hall Lyra philipini bob morgan and the rest of the odouf However, they don't believe that the changes changes have been enough I would implore you to ask If this project is stopped, what are the solutions? um, as john told John hall, excuse me told me during a heated interview earlier this year In regard to what the odouf plan would be if a yes on o was passed the city can quote figure it out The city has worked to determine the best use of these funds and this project reflects that effort. Thank you Okay, thank you All right, john, we're gonna come right back to you and see if we can have you unmute yourself You'll be our last speaker if yes um, you'll go ahead and unmute yourself Using the feature on your computer Or your phone, but I don't think you're on your phone. So go ahead and unmute yourself if you can And it's not responding. Okay Okay, we'll go ahead and lower his hand then at this at this time I'll go ahead and check one last time to see if there's any other members of the community who are present here this evening Who would like to address the council? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and close public comment at this point And um, we'll go ahead and bring it back to the council We're being asked to accept the report on the effects of the our downtown our future measure o initiative And maybe we can get a motion on the table to keep us going councilmember miers or councilmember I'll I'll move to accept the report on the effects of the art Excuse me accept the report on the effects of the our downtown our future measure o initiative And I've just got a couple of comments. Okay, great. I'll hold second Okay, so we have a motion by council member miers seconded by council member golder Returning to you for comments and then council member brown. I see your hand raised Um, I just have one more question for staff. Um, I've heard a couple of different things about the farmers market I just want to confirm that the farmers market At least in my knowledge of the last several years has never Requested that they remain permanently on lot four, but I may have missed a meeting So i'm just trying to ascertain if that ever happened And bonnie I see you go ahead Thank you for that question councilmember miers. Um, and I did um It was we've had several meetings. Um, just frequently over the last few weeks We've been working directly with the farmers market and um, no the farmers market has not taken a formal position Saying that they want to stay on for they have never um stated that publicly and in fact, we've been working regularly with them Not just this year, but since 2018 on alternative locations while we have focused the majority of time on lot seven We also have you know per council direction looked also at the existing library site in the future And I know that's something that they're they're interested in and still having as an option out there So no they have not taken a position that they want to stay permanently on lot four Thank you. My other question. I don't know if I have anybody from parks here, but um, we did an extensive outreach and analysis effort when we wrote a rewrote and I accepted the parks master plan for the city of santa cruz two years ago Um, including doing a full inventory of all parks, um open spaces community gathering areas throughout the whole city um And through that extensive process actually no one came forward and and said that lot four was the perfect place for A community gathering or plaza or what have you? um So therefore it didn't ever show up into the parks master plan and um as far as I understand we probably also Um to the extent that I've been on council. We have not had any group or organization come forward to uh request the you know quite costly Basically a conversion of that spot into a park or gathering place place, correct Okay, thank you. Um, those are my two questions for now. My comments are just um, I'm supporting the report tonight I think it uh, it does reveal a number of the issues with the um, measure o um, and also I think most importantly it really, um points out the the Misconception that a lot of people have in that you can build housing portable housing just about anywhere um, I think the report does a really good idea a really good, um analysis of what Makes a lot developable for an affordable unit um, and it Really lays out the kinds of um analysis that needs to be done to successfully Complete an affordable housing project. We have several going on right now. I think there's about 264 units under development right now Um, plus some additional units that will be built as part of market rate approvals so far and Those projects I think are speaking to the commitment of the city to continue to provide housing for the residents that are here And the folks who will need that housing into the future Um, but I think the report was thorough. I think it was um, well Well documented, uh, and I appreciate the general plan Um analysis as well The general plan was developed over 12 years. Um with many many workshops a lot of outreach Um, it's been on the books for a number of years and essentially this um measure is trying to rewrite um Really the the general plan objectives for downtown without really having any kind of public process whatsoever So I think it's really important for Citizens of Santa Cruz to realize that this really will change the general plan. It will eliminate parking It'll eliminate a lot of things that make our downtown viable for both businesses and the people that live there so I'm pleased with the report and um, thank you for the for the analysis All right, thank you councilmember meyers councilmember brown Thank you vice mayor Watkins and uh, thank you for um to the public really, um, it was it was good to hear from folks Uh, uh, your reactions to this report and we did receive a lot of Uh, written comment as well Um, and so I just wanted to make a comment here about this report, which is um, you know It does have a lot of information in it. It's um, you know I'm not My criticism is not about um, the level of expertise or The diligence of the preparer of this report. Um, it's it's really about, um, you know this What I have what's been said by members of the public Um Throughout this that there are omissions. There are assumptions that are made that are can be critiqued that can be looked at in a different way and I believe this report Does offer a perspective Um, I think the odoff the supplemental report that we've received provides Another perspective it provides additional information Um, not taken up by Kaiser Marston or or maybe was um Not explored, you know as fully And you know, I just think that we ought to be acknowledging that there are there's analysis and their perspective is not covered in the Kaiser Marston report And um, so I want to um, I'm going to ask I'm going to um Try here to make a Friendly amendment to the motion although I I'm I'm not hopeful that it's going to be friendly, but um I um, I would like to so I guess I'll just propose the and I didn't type it up, uh, bonnie, but it's very short um So I'll just say it um that in it so in addition to accepting the Kaiser Marston report that we accept the measure Oh supplemental impact report as an additional basis for considering the impacts of the measure Okay, so there was a friendly amendment by councilmember brown to accept the measure o Um supplemental report as part of what we're receiving this evening and that is brought back to the maker of the motion Yeah, I appreciate the request. Um I think I the the supplemental report Has been published with the agenda packet just for the public So it is in the agenda packet as far as I understand bonnie. I remember seeing it when I Downloaded all my packet So for the public the supplemental report is available if you click on the agenda report for tonight um, my my reason to not accept the friendly amendment really just relies on um You know the basically just the professional qualifications that are offered through the Kaiser Marston group um, and the um Basically, you know the the capable Uh, you know professionally trained folks who who basically produce that report. Um, I believe that that Firm has very high qualified um, both economic uh folks as well as planning and other folks most of those Either have a AICP Um types of certifications. So I at this point I think the supplemental report is certainly available for the public to look at but not comfortable with the friendly amendment So I'll reject it. Thank you. Okay, so that was an acceptance Okay Did you have any further comments council member brown? Um Nope All right, it's time. Okay I'll I'll I'll hold them back. Okay. I'm good with that. Thanks. Thank you Any additional comments questions before we conclude this evening council member calentari johnson Great. Thank you vice mayor and um Thank you to kathy and everyone who made this report happened there the report provides clarity if there wasn't clarity before and um clearly Outlines that measure o Is in direct conflict with our guiding documents and our policies um, it outlines the fiscal impacts that it would have in our community and it outlines how it would kill a very important project that as um, Zach Davis articulated it really well That what we want as a community and what I've been hearing from community members is a safe welcoming and clean Spaces to be and I think that um I don't think the the report Shows us It's not me right this microphone isn't working. Okay The report shows us that it would kill that it would kill our um a 21st century of environmentally responsive library affordable housing units and much much much needed child care as a mom They're not they don't need child care anymore, but they did and um our community deserves that So I appreciate the clarity of this report and I am looking forward to accepting it Thank you councilmember Cummings I just want to um, thank Kaiser Marston for putting the putting this report together and I also want to thank The art on town our future group for submitting their supplemental report. I read through both of these very extensively and took a lot of notes and um, I do and Um full disclosure again, I sat on the subcommittee and for Spent a lot of time reviewing the two proposals for the renovation of the current library and the mixed use project the Agree what we concluded on and what was written in the Kaiser Marston report was that um That when comparing the two that this would be a more environmentally sustainable or sustainably built project It would be cheaper and would have more square footage Um, and that's one of the reasons why After hearing comments from members of the public. It's one of the reasons why When we came to our agreement, I I moved forward with voting on this option. I will say that um the The the report that was sent to us did have some I was concerned with the fact that it did not propose um any analysis of the parking and the cost of parking Which is at nor the cost of any commercial space nor the cost of creating the child care Which I don't think is going to be in the library And I think that's what many people are really concerned with is the feasibility of financially being able to build the whole project Because as time goes on and with inflation as we've seen with cost of labor cost of materials is the cost to continue the increase People get concerned with our ability to actually feasibly construct this project And so the fact that this will be on our agenda next week I think we're going to have an opportunity to really start diving into that But given that this was supposed to be a report on measure o and the impacts I was disappointed in the fact that we didn't have any information About financing on the parking structure, which is a huge component of this project Um, I do want to point out as well that there was an error in the report that was brought for by kaiser marson Which was that um, it said that the library subcommittee had returned to counsel with its recommendations for um A library parking garage at no point did we ever vote on a library parking garage the city council on June 23rd 2020 returned with recommendations for a mixed use project that was library parking and affordable housing Um, and so I just wanted to make sure that that was clarified in the report Because that was another Point of concern for me that that was actually not something that the council ever took action on I will say though that in response to some of the things that I heard regarding construction on lots I think one of the big reasons why some of the lots especially those that are kind of non conforming and smaller where you can't build Affordable housing have been included is because while the city can build On many of the lots There's no guarantee that any lot in the city will be used for affordable housing And we see that currently with lots 11 and 27 Which are being proposed to be sold for the production of a private hotel Uh, I think many people in the community are concerned with the direction the city is taking on the use of public property Which is why they've included that in their um measure Um, I haven't taken a position either pro or against this measure. I am of strong support of affordable housing I think there are a lot of arguments on both sides. Um, but I will be accepting the report I'm a little disappointed we couldn't accept the other report as well But given that it's part of the public record, uh, the public will have access to that report and um, I just look forward to seeing how this plays out in the community. I'm hoping that, um That we can come do some kind of good agreement on this in the end. Thank you Council member golder Thank you. I'm gonna keep my comments brief, but I just want to say thank you for bringing this report and um, I make I'm thrilled with all the information in there. I agree that it provides clarity to the community. I want to thank everybody who worked on, um getting this Library mixed-use project to where it is at this point. I was a little disappointed when I saw a measure o um, qualify for the ballot. I think, um That you know, not everyone has the luxury to like why ride their bike or walk in our community. That's really, um Parking is critical and it's a small component of this really big and beautiful project that is, um It's taken years to get where we are and I feel like this is almost another stalling technique by people that just don't want Santa Cruz to have nice things and they're opposed to that for some reason and they Say they're progressive, but never want progress and it's just disappointing and kind of a waste of of the valuable time and as time goes things go up in price and and so it's just Yes, it's gonna cost more and this is another reason why it will eventually cost more so, um Yeah, with that i'm very Proud to support no on o and i'm happy to say our kindergarten class took their first field trip ever Um to the newly renovated garfield park library, which is one that nobody mentioned It's also beautifully been redone and I can't wait till we're here seeing like a ribbon cutting and then at events where No one even mentioned that a lot of it's an equity issue and that having that 8,000 extra extra square 8,000 extra Square foot of space is a spot where community members who live in shared housing People don't always have their own bedroom or their own space where they can read and study and think and having a library Is a beautiful space where? anybody's welcome to come and use that space for You know learning using the internet looking for jobs whatever they're doing and it's it's a beautiful thing and we deserve A beautiful space. So thank you All right, well, I um thank my colleagues for their comments and thank the community for coming out this evening And those for participating virtually I too am in support of the report. I um believe that we have a lot to gain and benefit from With moving forward with the mixed use library. I've supported it the entire time I've been on the council and continue to do so But I encourage ultimately our community to really do their work as engaged citizens to really look into what this means And to really do fact checking to assess all the different bits of the analysis And the impacts this could have on our community not only currently but in the future as it Is proposing in terms of changing our general plan. So with that, we'll go ahead and take the vote and um, thank you all for your participation Thank you. Uh councilmember a commentary johnson I Boulder I Cummings I Brown No Myers I Vice mayor Watkins. I And mayor brunner is absent. Okay, so that passes with a six in favor and uh one Out absent and we'll go ahead and adjourn five in favor. Oh, excuse me five in favor one opposed and one absent Sorry about that. Thank you, bonnie So five five in favor one opposed council member brown opposing and mayor brunner absent Okay, thank you for the clarification. We'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting and uh, thank you for participating in our special meeting this evening