 11 a.m. City Council there are members of the public who would like to comment on items on closed session Now is the time to call and using the instructions on your screen This part of the meeting the council will receive public testimony There after the public line will be closed and inaccessible Please mute your television or streaming device once you've called in and listen through your phone your phone Please also know that there's a delay in streaming So if you continue to listen on your television or streaming device, you may miss your opportunity to speak all Council members are participating in this meeting remotely today And I want to thank the public for staying at home to you today's council meeting with that. I'd like to ask the clerk to please call the roll Thank You mayor council member buyers here Matthew here Brown Nice mayor Myers here and Mayor coming now is the time to call in using the number on your screen Once you've called in that you'll want to press star nine on your phone to raise your hand And once you've been asked to unmute you will be given two minutes to comment on this item public who are calling in on this item I'm going to now close the webinar to the public and I'd like to ask a bit on in the next 15 minutes or so when Matthews and vice mayor Myers joins us. We'll go ahead and tations City council members serve as board members on these boards which were created for the purposes of providing the city an instrument to issue bonds Annually board members are legally required to hold a meeting of the IDA and the SC PIFC These meetings are procedural and for the purposes of approving minutes and electing new board members And so with that we will thank you mayor directors buyers Matthews here Brown here Golder here Watkins vice chair Myers Here and chair coming the word a bylaws as follows the executive director Will be the city manager martin Bernal She finance officer be director of finance I'm really recommended motion by councilman Matthews Councilmember Golder I second by councilman Matthews seconded by councilmember Golder. There's no further comments I'd like to thank you mayor director Matthews I Brown Golder director Golder. Oh, sorry. It says my internet's unstable. All my kids are in school Yes, is there an eye right here I couldn't hear what you were asking me even the election of the officer so oh, it's I Watkins vice chair Myers I and chair coming Matthews seconded by councilmember Golder To approve the minute as submitted. I'd like to ask the clerk to please call the roll vote on this item Director buyers aye Matthews aye Brown Aye Aye Watkins vice chair Myers aye And chair coming which is the annual meeting the financing corporation director buyers director buyers. Aye I Matthews I I Golder vice president Myers. I Got him. Oh vice president my eyes eyes and president Cummings Here the motion the election of officers The motion would be to elect new officers as set forth in section 3.02 With Santa Cruz public improvement financing corporation bylaws as follows the executive director will be city manager Bernal Chief financial officer director of finance Krause President would be mayor Cummings vice president vice mayor Myers secretary treasurer the city clerk administrator bush Now I'm looking for a motion to elect the new officers Second again my councilmember Matthews seconded by councilmember Golder. I'd like to ask the clerk to please call the roll vote on this item Director buyers Matthews Aye vice president Myers Aye And president Cummings corporation Comment so if there's any members of the public who would like to comment on the minutes 2019 Santa Cruz public improvement finance corporation meeting now is the time to call members of the public who would like to Motion on the on item number four, which is the minutes that October 8th, 2019 Santa Cruz Public improvement finance corporation councilmember Brown I'll move approval of the minutes Brown second by councilmember Golder to move the minutes October 8th 2019 meeting And so I'd like to ask the clerk to call the roll vote on this item director buyers nine Matthews Aye Brown Golder Aye Vice president Myers and president Cummings Community television channel 25 and streaming on the city's website city of Santa Cruz Thank the public for staying home to view today's city council meeting If you wish to comment on an agenda item today and at the beginning of the item You are wanting to comment on using the instructions on your screen television or streaming device once you've called in and your opportunity to speak When it's time for public comment, please press start your time to speak during public comment We'll hear an announcement that you've been unmuted The time will then be set to two minutes and you may hang up once you've commented on your item of interest Thank You mayor councilmember buyers Matthews Here brown Here Boulder vice mayor Myers Here and mayor Cummings Acknowledge that the land upon which we gather is the unceded territory of the awasua speaking UP tribe The omelettes and tribal ban comprises the descendants of the indigenous people taken to mission Santa Cruz and San Juan Batista during Spanish Colonization of the Central Coast is today working hard to restore Traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma of October 3rd 2020 as water professional Appreciation week, so I'd like to invite our water director I think we have one of our Commissioners on as well and so if our commissioner could join us But what I'll do is I'll start by reading a few of the Whereas is further common eyes on surface water from the north coast and the San Lorenzo watershed For 95% of the water supply for nearly a hundred thousand residents of the city Live oak and other adjacent planning incorporated areas And whereas on August 16 2020 spectacular dry lightning storm ignited series of wildfires in northern California in northern Santa Cruz County known as the CZU lightning fire complex Do you lightning complex grew rapidly and threatened key water infrastructure along the north coast and in the San Lorenzo watershed our department staff members were Directly impacted by the CZU lightning complex parking 24-7 The event that the fire reached them one or more key transmission and or treatment facilities Tireless work will continue as they plan and prepare for their ongoing impacts to water supply and water quality Whereas during the week of October 3rd to 11th 2020 We celebrate water professionals appreciation week to recognize the essential roles of water professionals and water providers and their critical work Now therefore I just incoming mayor of the city of Santa Cruz do hereby proclaim October 3rd to 11th 2020 As water professionals appreciation week in the city of Santa Cruz and encourage all citizens to join me in expressing heartfelt appreciation For the ongoing dedication to providing safe drinking water and for their valiant efforts Protecting the key water infrastructure for the city of Santa Cruz and neighboring areas our department staff are going to be working very diligently this summer as we You know are continued to be faced with threats from debris flows And so I just want to thank everyone for all the hard work they do to ensure that we have safe drinking water In case you have any comments and I know again that one of our commissioners was on as well One of our commissioners would like to make comments as well. That would be an appropriate time. Go ahead Doug Thank You Rosemary. Thank you mayor Cummings vice mayor Myers members of council and staff and I On behalf of the water commission deeply appreciate the recognition and celebration of the extraordinary work of Rosemary and her team with only two months ago, although it seems like yesterday with the 2020 time dilation effect that these fires took place and We have plenty of things to worry about during that time, but in the face of evacuations loss of homes and property and The ongoing C-19 provisions staff as you pointed out work tirelessly to protect our existing infrastructure Protect the safe operation of our existing systems and now pivot to ongoing Planning and preparations to try to mitigate or prevent Future impacts on our water system, you know all of this to ensure a sufficient Clean and helpful water supply for for all of us in town and all the other customers of The water system this year in a particular. We're thirsty for things to celebrate It's refreshing to have something like this to be able to celebrate and I again on behalf of the Commission would like to Applaud Rosemary and her team for their outstanding work Mayor and council. Thank you so much. I Have a I'm blessed here with having a really great team and also a really great water commission and council and Colleagues at the department heads to work with we have had a lot of challenges this year I think our staff has demonstrated over and over again in all the time I've been here almost seven years that they can rise to these challenges and I just wish that it wouldn't be like coming One after another because it's pretty taxing But I think it's we're very lucky to have a great team and they work hard and we thank you so much for the Appreciation that you expressed here today Please continue to let us know how we can thank you. We'll do Thank you. It's in tribal band to accept this proclamation and to our where there's an item on our agenda today that is also I'm honoring the work that we've been doing with the Alma Watson tribal band and other members of our community to help Reshape our mission and we'll be and so we'll be voting on that later But but before that I'd like to read a proclamation on discrimination against indigenous population in the American Whereas the city of Santa Cruz adopted resolution number NS 218 5 4 on September 27th 1994 proclaiming October 12th to be indigenous people's day rather than Columbus Day becoming the third city in the United States to do So and whereas on October 25th, 2011 resolution number 28 or 2 1 Supporting the United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous people of the a wasa speaking indigenous people of this region and That the city as we know it would not exist were not for indigenous stewardship of these lands for millennia and the Unfree labor of indigenous people who built mission Santa Cruz and other foundational infrastructures of the city the many Contributions made to our community through indigenous peoples traditional ecological knowledge labor spirituality technology science philosophy and arts and the deep cultural contribution that Substantially shaped the character of the city And whereas on May 9th opted resolution number NS 2 9 2 3 7 Recognizing the Alma Watson tribal band as an historic Continuous tribe of the region within sexual ties to mission Santa Cruz And whereas on September 25th 2020 California governor Gavin Newsom signed a Native American ancestral lands policy Calling for new partnerships with California tribes to facilitate tribal access use and Commandment of natural lands and collaboration with tribes that are interested in acquiring their ancestral lands Whereas the city of Santa Cruz acknowledges the legacy of colonial violence exploitation Dispossession and attempted destruction of tribal communities in our region during the American Mexican and Spanish periods That forcefully separated tribal communities from the Santa Cruz area a traumatic process that continues to have many impacts on descendants and families And whereas the city of Santa Cruz is committed to combating systemic racism and supporting healing Equity accessibility and the local implementation of indigenous people's rights as our I just in coming as the mayor of the city of Santa Cruz You hear about proclaiming October 12th 2020 as indigenous people's day in the city of Santa Cruz Encourage all citizens to join me in reflecting upon the ongoing struggles of indigenous people on this land as well as their great resilience And to honor that honor value and celebrate their historic and continuing Contributions to our region and beyond I'd like to invite Val Lopez chairman of the Alma Watson tribal band to say a few words and In acceptance of this proclamation today Thank you very much mayor Cummins, and I'd like to thank The the the city managers and the other Person to work for the city of Santa Cruz and the guest today Thank you very much for this proclamation It's very meaningful, and it's not surprising that this comes from the city of Santa Cruz We've been working on relationships with the city of Santa Cruz for a number of years, and we're a very We're very happy with with the direction that we that this relationship is going You know I say that the city of Santa Cruz is Recognizing that our ancestors were not hunters and gatherers and That we very effectively managed and stewarded the land We were sustainable and Provided for all living things the wildlife and et cetera And we continue to work on that We also continue to work on wellness, you know It was in Santa Cruz that I first started talking about how perpetrators need to heal And a lot of people today. They'll say well, I'm not a perpetrator I didn't do that and we agree with you We totally agree with you what happened to us is not your fault, but you must recognize That you that you've greatly benefited from that destructive history that we experience And so every morning when you put your feet on the ground I'd like you to think that you're putting your feet on ground that was stolen from our ancestors and Work hard just as Santa Cruz is doing now Work hard to change the way that indigenous that our history is told Change the way that our land is being protected and taking care of and And reckon and also Know that we will work with the city on on Helping, you know get to the path where we could have a good solid Healthy relationship that can only happen when we have two healthy partners The city and the tribe we look forward to that date. Thank you very much Thank you Val moving on to our next Proclamation we have one more proclamation than I have another letter to read and this one will be presented to Ray can't see no the nation's largest ethnic minority Representing approximately 17% of the United States population There's in every sector of our society They contribute to our common goals the city where love and accept community bridges has been a catalyst for a brighter future for the entire community Including our Latinx community passionate staff and provides safe place ability and hope for the future Including application assistance community advocacy parent education Food and nutrition services after-school homework meet-ups and summer fun through bilingual Bicultural support on both a long and short-term basis through drop-in advocacy support Helping our community access resources and set goals to address issues such as employment rights landlord tenant issues Consumer issues and health care at October 15 2020 is national Hispanic heritage month in the city of Santa Cruz and Recognizing the lasting contributions that Latinx have made and continue to make to strengthen the fabric of American society and Ongoing support that community bridges continues to provide to our Latinx community With that I'd like to invite Rick can see no city council members city manager Martín Bernal as well as Assistant to the city manager Ralph just wanted to first accept this on behalf of everybody that works for community bridges Obviously, it's that their work their direct client work That really kind of should be highlighted in accepting this award I do want to just recognize how beautifully we started today's meeting by acknowledging the land we we are on As well as the staff's role and leadership and ensuring that we changed At least locally in Santa Cruz county how we refer To the Hispanic heritage month to be more inclusive of the actual Communities both using the word Latinx, which includes most indigenous folks as well and is more representative of a cohesive Namesake or the ability or the people that are actually living in Santa Cruz county By using that word Latinx versus Hispanic, which is really more characterization of Spanish ancestry and as representative of Spanish colonization, which is how we started the meeting so For us it's just really important to continue to do the advocacy work. We know the different disadvantages and marginalizations and the negative impacts that you know, unfortunately Your your position in terms of being Latinx puts you in and we know that a lot of that is a societal racism structural racism Inequalities in our in our communities and our structures and we are here to try to Level the playing field as much as possible so we can avoid some of those negative impacts That we know through health data and other realities in our community. So we are, you know, wonderfully thankful for everyone's acknowledgement of our work and partnership from the city council Everyone on this call for everything we do together To improve conditions for all people and but in this month in acknowledging our Latinx community And I just want to thank you again and all your staff for all the hard work you've been doing Throughout COVID. I know that you all have been really helping to ensure that people You know regardless of their sources so that you know knowledge and thank you for all the hard work that you all have been doing Recently contacted by our commission for the prevention of violence against women They sent us an article that I'd like to share with council members in our community council Since shelter in place order took effect in march to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 The number of reported domestic violence cases has increased significantly significantly in santa cruse county Extended time spent isolated with violent partners increases opportunities for violence In mandatory social isolation and fractured vital support networks that domestic violent survivors typically rely on Seek help or escape violence The commission for the prevention of violence against women needs your help to remind individuals feeling trapped that they are not alone The cpva w encourages our city leaders to make every effort to let community members know about this problem And to publicize the below resources for those in need of support There's a link to monarch services website, which is 24 hour free confidential bilingual crisis hotline And i'll read that hotline is the following it's one eight eight eight nine zero zero four two three two Again that number is one eight eight eight nine zero zero four two three two And national domestic violence hotline, which is one eight hundred seven nine nine one eight hundred seven nine nine seven two three three As october is domestic violence awareness month We must acknowledge that this pandemic has reinforced upsetting truths Social inequities related to health are magnified during a crisis and sheltering in place Does not inflict equivalent hardship on all people Interviolence can be physical emotional sexual or psychological People of all races cultures genders sexual orientations socioeconomic classes and religions experience intimate partner violence However, such violence has disproportionate impacts on communities of color and other marginalized groups Economic instability unsafe housing neighborhood violence and lack of child care and support services Can worsen already tenuous situations Learn more from new england journal of medicines a pandemic within a pandemic The cpva w commissioners are calling on the city to act now Please consider sharing these vital resources when you or this the santa cruse police department speak publicly Please make certain that these hotline numbers are highlighted on every city of santa cruse website as part of the cova 19 response Acknowledging domestic violence and its widespread consequences on our community is vital during this time during this crisis sincerely and simonton chair Delphine burns vice chair care madura commissioner mervyn maize commissioner Shannon maguire commissioner and beth thurman commissioner And i'd just like to let council members know and the public know that we will also be bringing A proclamation proclaiming october as domestic violence awareness ones at our next meeting a regular meeting community television channel 25 And streaming on the city's website city of santa cruse dot com If you wish to comment on an agenda item today instructions are provided on your screen We will provide these instructions throughout the meeting whenever we move into an agenda item that we placed up for public comment Please note public comment is heard only on items that council is taking action on and not updates or reports The items that will be open for public comment on today's agenda are numbered two four and 12 through 27 on our agenda With that i'd like to ask the council members if there's any statements of disqualification today I am disqualified on item number 25 Which has to do with the city's department of referral back to the planning commission and the conflict is because um My family owns property within 500 feet of that That's helpful To announce any admissions additions or deletions communications oral communications is an opportunity for members of the public Speak to us on items that are not on the agenda oral communications will start on or start during oral communications Please like to call on the city attorney to promote. Thank you mayor Cummings members of the city council city council met this morning at 11 a.m. The zoom to Consider two items of pending litigation on the first item It's titled martin herman versus martin herman and karen herman versus alexis jankins at all Which is a lawsuit pending in the santa cruse county superior court the council Received a report from and gave direction to the city attorney's office. There was no reportable action on that item On the second item the council by a unanimous vote Voted to join the city of chicago and the public rights project In submitting a friend of the court brief in the matter of apartment association of los angeles county versus the city of los angeles Which is a lawsuit challenging eviction protection measures adopted by The la city council in response to the covet 19 pandemic Again the council voted to join in the amicus brief and That is the conclusion of my report. Thank you. Happy to answer any questions Mayor and city council. I do have a brief presentation. I'm going to share my screen Uh with you Okay, um, so this morning Or i guess it's afternoon already I wanted to just provide you with an update on a couple of items First on the covet 10 Pandemic and where we are at the county and then just a brief update on a couple of homelessness related items Um martin. We don't see your screen share Oh, can you see it now the screen share button? Here we go mentioned a couple of updates on the covet 19 and covet 10 covet 19 update again homelessness In fact to covet 19, um The uh, as you all know, the state has a blueprint for a safer economy Where they keep track of the uh status of various counties and how they can reopen various Parts of the economy and it's called a blueprint for a safer economy And i'll very quickly here show you The way they they do this So basically they've got these risk levels that they Monitor and they look at positivity rates and and cases within a particular Category in terms of number of cases per hundred thousand And they they have these Four different categories The purple white spread the red substantial the orange moderate and the yellow minimal and At this point, uh, the uh county of Santa Cruz is in the substantial Category which is the red We have a positive positivity rate of 5.9 percent And so that is why we're in that category Based on what we've heard from the county and the health officer We expect to To stay in that category For the next two weeks and uh, they're optimistic that we will continue to stay in that tier for Longer period and perhaps possibly move down to a lower tier And so I'll just really quickly Just show you what that means in terms of changes when you move from one tier to the other And uh, here's this chart which compares the different tier levels Largely the changes have to do with uh, how much uh, Businesses or retail retailers or other sectors can open Indoors or outdoors in the in the capacity So as I know that we're in tier two, which is substantial Which allows some indoors for example under retail. There are some indoors, but uh with the limited Capacity at 50 percent and as you move on to the moderate tiers you see that that capacity increases and There are some that do open up, for example, the most significant one Or not worthy one is bars And gin, I'm sorry bars, which If we do move to the moderate tier three You can see right now they're closed. They could be open with modifications the other category that We have a lot of a lot of in Santa Cruz of course restaurants And you can see that right now it's open indoors with a maximum 25 capacity or 100 people If we move on to the next Category that capacity will increase 50 and 200 people So that is essentially how the the tier system works And so we may if we do move to the Next category The the orange tier see increased capacity at the various businesses Same with hotels Another major category in the city Right now they're open With modifications if we move to the orange, it'll be open continue to be open with modifications But the fitness centers will all increase capacity and they'll allow indoor pools So those are the main and in this chart is available at the california state that Website related to go with 19 is a residents or councilor selected to reference that Next just a quick update on homelessness And a couple of categories i wanted to review And that is with respect to some of the immediate items that we're working on Regarding the impact of homelessness and managing that and then a quick update on the longer term Work and efforts. So as the council is well aware, we we have seen a surge in encampments post the fires In part because of the fires and in part also because we Due to the fires we did have to clear out the some major encampments in the pogonet And so we've seen encampments flare up around the city particularly along the river And other parts of the city and we are working to address those as Work continues on on on the river and to refer people to shelters one of the things that we would like to do to expedite that process or to make it So that we're able to better respond to encampments is We've had a request into the county to to try a A pilot program where we would have bad what we call diversion beds a limited number of beds that would turn over Such that it would be available kind of as needed when police Or city staff is contacted and they need to refer individuals to shelter On a more immediate basis. And so we put in that request work in the county to try to implement that Because the challenge that we have is that despite the fact that we've added or the county had added quite a few Beds or shelter beds That they tend to be full and they tend to not be available Immediately and there's a waiting process that makes it difficult to address the immediate situations that come up And so we've asked the county to assist with creating a bed that can turn over on a more regular basis So that we can have that ability to assist individuals and to address the situations that come up The other media item is the the relocation of the bent slams management encampment, which is currently in a flood plain and needs to be moved in order to meet FEMA requirements for reimbursement As well as to just avoid any potential flooding that might occur There and so we are in communications with the the county on that and expect to bring Discussion with respect to that to the two by two committee And then ultimately to the council as appropriate back to the overall strategy and policy Focus on homelessness the county is bringing they had paused the their planning their system planning process As a result of the pandemic that was Done by focus strategies and that really was a review of the homelessness infrastructure the homeless system in our county Focus strategies has developed a series of models or our recommendations To improve the system to change the system to be more responsive To being able to assist individuals with getting out of homelessness And so those recommendations That they prepared are now slated to return back to the county And then to ultimately to the various jurisdictions in our county After they are presented to the board of supervisors on november 10th So that'll be at the the board of supervisors meeting on november 10th As part of that the process there'll also be some discussions and decisions that have to be made around the governance model And so that'll also come back after the november 10th as a policy decision That will have to be made amongst jurisdictions around The governance around the allocation Insiding of homelessness facilities and the provision of homelessness services As we don't really have a a an adequate model at this point We're using an out-of-date model that really wasn't intended to Simply apply for grants but not really of any kind of systematic decision-making model And then finally as I noted before we are looking to schedule within the next Couple of weeks the two by two committee and get that going again so that they can particularly focus on some of the more immediate Questions and decisions that need to be made particularly around the relocation of the bench lamp encampment And so with that i'm happy to Answer any questions you may have I would argue you've got these items for the city manager councilmember Byers Thank you, um two questions Where where did uh food not bombs relocate because I know we moved them off Laurel and front That's correct. Um, so my understanding is that uh, they have moved to parking lot 23 Which is the parking lot across the street on front street adjacent to the They now shuttered Taco Bell And so they're operating out of there. We did Just so you know, we did issue them a permit to operate there with conditions So they are operating in a permitted location and Can continue to operate there again assuming that they are able to meet those conditions And my second one, I think maybe you mentioned your last sentence when you mentioned the two by two Where we think There are a lot of people on the bench lands Where they're going to go So that is uh, that is uh, not Has not been determined. Um, and that is something that has to be decided It does have to be relocated as I noted because of the of the flood potential Yeah, so the question that is a question that needs to be sorted out as to Where that should occur And the timing for that has to happen fairly quickly. I think by at least the end of this month Although I think it could be But so we're bringing that to the two by two committee at the staff level. We are having discussions. Um, and We will present the The different options and considerations to the two by two committee and then as appropriate being bringing forward to the respective legislative bodies to to to finalize a decision there Well, if we're involved in the two by two or whatever, I I hope that They're looking at motels such a seems to me such a straightforward way To get people off the bench lands says that we need a few Good-sized motels to put them in it. It's working successfully in a lot of communities Okay, thanks Margeen Um to Catherine's point or council our buyers point. I I agree. I think looking at other locations and In the two by two committee. I'm I'm sure you've discussed this, but it's not Looking at sites that are not Perhaps in the city but are underutilized County facilities like maybe I don't know if fire evacuees have You know fully left the fairgrounds how that that's set up right now if there's infrastructure there that's being underutilized or other county facilities that aren't being used at the capacity that they could be used and maybe they could be repurposed and Reused for the individuals that are currently residing in the benchlands. Yeah Thank you mayor. Yeah, I guess I I'm gonna just try to Ask you Margeen to be a little more concrete about What you mean by conversations are happening about where people are going to go. I'm I'm just really concerned because I feel like the top It's pretty regularly when we come to the end of you know access to a site or funding And then we say we're working on alternatives and then it just ends up by default Going nowhere and so I guess I if you could try to Help me understand and I think the public wants to understand How those decisions will be made What what the timeline is like it does the two by two actually have You know, this is also for members in the two by two committee Have the ability to make those kinds of decisions if they make a recommendation Where does it go? I just want to understand a little bit more So to kind of assuage my concerns that's conversation going nowhere. Um, so I'd like to Sure, I'd be happy to try to answer that question I mean, ultimately because it is the county operating facility and funded facility. Ultimately Uh, it is really up to them to decide How to move forward. Um, I think you know, they have requested that the city consider Siting it in the city. And I think what I've heard from council members that they'd like to consider That it be cited also outside the city. So that is a point of discussion or But ultimately again to answer your question. Uh, it is really up to the to the County to Decide whether to either relocate it At a site that they identified or or some other side or to Close it down the facility I think I think the intent of the processes for us to provide them with the input And and to get our you know, your direction as well as the board of supervisors direction on how to move forward This general agreement that having additional shelter capacity is helpful In the extent that we can continue to have that and expand that but that's a helpful thing But the question is what where is the as you noted the location is always a sensitive and difficult issue But ultimately it is a policy decision For uh, various jurisdictions to decide I guess my question is sort of similar to council member browns in regards to kind of the process and timeline given that the winter months are upon us Sort of what is the sort of the anticipation of timeline? um for this to kind of be resolved So the uh, the council, I'm sorry the the county wants to resolve it before the winter season comes I'd like to move it. Um, and so, uh, I think the thinking is that That the two by two committee will have discussions. Uh, and then it's as appropriate Then refer it back to the legislative bodies no earlier than the november 10th meeting So it would be in november when it would it would come back as appropriate and by that I mean if there's some agreement that doesn't require council action And then we didn't have to come because ultimately again, it's really up to the the uh The county board supervisors in the county who to decide it's it's their facility. They fund it. Uh, they're responsible for it And so they don't need our concurrence one way or the other from uh decision-making perspective I guess I have a follow-up question to that mayor in regards to the impact if it were to be, um, you know, um You know finalized or if you were to sort of dismantle it then Then what is going to happen to the to the individuals that are residing there and that will impact the city? so I think um, although it may be a county funded program. We clearly have a stake in this, um So I hope you know, I mean, I hope it's just it's not sort of unresolved without, you know Falling through with what the potential impacts are For our city I'm sure you agree Yes, I mean, I think the uh, I mean clearly the the more capacity we have to offer people shelter The uh, the more though that we have to manage the impacts, um Although it is it is uh, it is something that does fluctuate somewhat. Um, we you know more recently I think in like part because of the fires we've had at the surge So the impact has just increased significantly despite the fact that we had this capacity So I think if it did close down people would be referred to existing facilities and they could potentially could be impact. There are hotels council member buyers Suggested hotels and that is uh, something that's available now, but we could some explore increasing capacity there as well um, so I think it's just a matter of really uh determining whether Uh, there is an interest in in uh continuing it and whether an agreement can be developed on a site That's appropriate. It could be that maybe it's uh something that is phased or where there's a particular timeline associated with them to come up with interim And then then then determine what happens next or or some kind of process like that So those are the kind of conversations that that need to happen so that It can be determined, but I think you're right that certainly It's likely that we would feel an impact if it were closed Sorry one more, uh, you know, it's interesting Our team city manager for 20 years. We wanted the county to get involved in the homeless issue And and they certainly are now of course they get the money and they filter it out So but I'm confused now if say we for instance not real but for instance The city identifies the motel 84 rooms 84 homeless in it. We do we have to get permission From the county. Um, yes. I mean we want to ask them for that money. Maybe be 20 million or something to buy it But is is there a tug of war between I almost think you and Carlos should be talking daily on this issue To make it a a win-win for all of us, but it seems it's so convoluted now for the city who gets the impact when anything happens the city is impacted And it's just sitting on the sidelines. It's just You know, why can't we have that done yesterday here? I don't know. Maybe I'm too impatient, but Anyway, I I think you get my question Yeah, I think a couple of things one is that the you know the availability of funds is a more recent experience in part because of the The cap the I'm sorry the state of California Obviously acknowledging that it's a major problem throughout the state and and and providing additional resources and then the pandemic on top of that has created a need to do that and Like I said, a lot of progress has been made. We now have Where we used to have, you know, 50 year-round beds in about 100 during the winter We now have about 500 beds that are year-round. So that's a pretty, you know, significant level of increase in the number of shelter beds available in our county just over a couple of years I think what's difficult is that despite the fact that there's been a lot of progress in that regard that We still see quite a bit of street homelessness People don't see a a visible or substantive difference And that is very frustrating. I think for everyone And and so I think that some of some of the things that I think need to be worked on that are important are there While we have more beds, there has to be more turnover of beds and more diversion I think everybody agrees with that. That's part of the the reforms that Focus strategies has recommended so that people can can be moved on to better situations and then additional beds provided on an ongoing basis so that you know, there's there's Approach to getting people in and then getting them out and then having opportunities for other folks to come in and go out And we just don't have that structure in place yet Something that I think is being worked on and that's why we're recommending a pilot program to just do 10 beds just a small number of beds to kind of get that going but as far as permanent facilities Those also I think do take some time to Develop because of the citing questions and also the funding. I do know that the focus strategies When they looked at the provision of facilities, they are recommending having Several facilities spread throughout the county recognizing that almost this is not just a Santa Cruz specific experience that you know homeless population come from throughout the county having facilities throughout the county would be preferable, so I think that long term that is the I think the goal but The challenge right now is how to how to better how to best manage it given the circumstances that we're facing more immediately and I just like to sorry for interrupting, but I'd like to remind the council that This topic is not identified on the agenda. It's meant to be a brief update by the city manager, but I recognize that this is a very important subject and Is of great interest to council members and it would be Perfectly appropriate to agendize it for discussion at another meeting It's on And in closing if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to me Again, I just wanted to give you an update on where we're at with this issue since it is an ongoing issue So I have feel free to reach out to me and let me know and We'll we'll get the two by two committee also scheduled so that there is that Process in place. Thank you No, no, thanks. Um mayor Cummings. I hope you might agendize this At some point there's that we're trying members to report out on actions at external boards committees and joint power authorities For future meetings, please come prepared to provide an update on any meetings or actions that have occurred since the last council meeting So the council and public can be informed. Are there any council members who'd like to report out on or boards that they've been on? Hi, thank you. I don't have a whole lot to report But I did want to let folks know that the area agency on aging seniors council and which I am on the The board for the area agency on aging representing the city is having an event on social isolation and The effects of you know of isolation on Seniors in our community and beyond and that event is happening next wednesday, october 21st 10 a.m. There is a zoom link that you can access if you just go to the seniors council website And look it up or ask me and I can give it to you if I can forward it to you But I think this is a really important issue. We've been working on it for a while. I know the ma did an exhibit in a Collaboration with the seniors council and other groups and so I just wanted to highlight this I think it's really important right now that we Stay on top of this and kind of think about what we can do So that's october 21st at 10 a.m. I zoom be a zoom. Thanks brown councilman matthews. I see you have your handrails yes, um I will mention on the downtown management corporation which is An assessment district funded by property assessments We um, of course as contract for the hospitality program downtown That's now transitioning to A national program called walk by block and the downtown association is coordinating that transition And also we are adding members To our board and that and we'll be the recommendation is even craig on a That has three property owners three business owners and three city owners. So That board to be changing And on the city county task force that started university growth There was a phone call recently with Community groups in berkeley that successfully challenged um It's in the process of challenging Who's the berkeley's growth plan? fascinating conversation and that task force is in conversation that He is a city group in University post community throughout the state um our Advocates hired Through the funds that both the city can allocate is Very energetic she's amazing and is working with the advisory group Which has About a dozen members from the community Who stay connected even though? um the university is in a diminished occupancy right now The going to do the process is moving forward. So in other words continuing with that on the um I think those are the two most significant ones. So in metro We um Focussed on rebuilding Moving towards rebuilding any pair of transit center, which will Greatly improve the ability to serve uh Transit And also the talks are going Very well between our economic development department and Metro planning staff the meeting weekly and moving forward with applications for Money for that project and site modifications so Commendations to the staff of both agencies for that I'll just mention also the mid-county ground water agency in terms of having developed its um The sustainability plan grabbers capability plan that's been submitted to the state Take up to two years to get profits But excellent work by that um agency and our water commissioner david staff that was one of the city reps Let's just elected to be like this in the best group for the coming All right, thank you for those updates. Um, are there any other council members like to make Have any updates that haven't been mentioned in another budget consideration Two by two committee has to have a field trip. We were joined by a state that have been heavily impacted by Homelessness, so we were able to those sites And then we were also able our hope is that moving forward will be able to work closely with our state That we have as it relates to trying to improve our situation with homelessness in the city is to coordinate collaborate and share information There was a need to requesting Involving the city of scott's valley resolution, which will allow the city to address health and safety concerns And provide and also just mention in the city of santa cruz It was a pretty productive conversation And one of the things that we Moving forward with like in addition to rental data collection a conversation around housing And what's come out of the housing blueprint subcommittee? And so I think that you all received an email from City clerk, but we're trying to see if we can set that meeting up in the near future so that we can have Further discussion with cdi receive updates on State legislation and then also receive an update on progress as it relates to the housing blueprint subcommittee report And with that I think that that concludes All the updates that I have on items numbers should have instructions on your screen for calling in Um, please remember to mute your streaming device and listen for the queue for any council members who would like to pull items Um from the consent agenda I'd like to pull item 15 Okay Pulling it for public discussion as well. I wanted to comment on that so briefly, but Sure. Yeah, I know that there's um a desire from staff and I was also going to make a few comments on that item in particular And so I think that that'll be fine to get comment on that item as well Now or or pull it from the consent agenda My understanding is correct. I think we can and maybe the city attorney can uh weigh in but I think that What I'd like to do is if the staff can make a comment And then if there are further comments from council members, we wouldn't have to pull it necessarily from consent unless there was A reason to pull it because there wasn't agreement on that item. Is that correct? I'll just say very briefly. Nothing Concurrent I just want to commend you and the staff and Now and all the others who've been involved in bringing it to this point because I think they have approached this and in a very very thoughtful way and been very inclusive in Engaging a broad range of people. So um the tribe to our staff to community members, uh, it's just been I think a respectful Serious concept that um It's a good model frankly Could have gone five ways, but it's been it's been a good model. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate those comments um with that I'd like to invite um parks and rec director tony elliott to maybe Provide just some brief background and context on this item and then if there's any further comments on consent items um We can hear those from council open up for public comment and then take action deliberation All right. Yeah. Good afternoon mayor and city council. Thanks for the opportunity I've got just a brief report here to provide a little bit of background. So Let me just toggle over and I'll read from that um So a little bit of the background on this As it relates to parks and recreation. So this summer during the protests and the a lot of the social unrest the mission bell was removed from Mission Plaza park the city park by holy cross And the state park's mission Santa Cruz was also vandalized and so what what that did it created a Really a community conversation. It was kind of a catalyst for a community conversation And so we we began to engage a number of stakeholders. I reached out first mayor Cummings and Friends of Santa Cruz state parks. We talked earlier in the year about mission plaza and the mission bell But we engaged a a pretty sizable group from holy cross Uh state parks a museum of art in history the moth And a number of different stakeholders friends of Santa Cruz state parks And really the the goal of the group was to start developing ideas around how to convey a more complete and accurate history Of the mission hills historic district or the mission plaza park area in particular Um and specifically by including the indigenous voice and experience um And this is not a new conversation. Certainly the the ma and the museum of natural history Uh mission Santa Cruz all have really important roles in conveying Um the the history of Santa Cruz including Um indigenous peoples in in Santa Cruz. So through programming through education field trips exhibits Uh, they all do a lot of this Already and then in 2019. I think the mayor will Talk about here in a moment. Um mayor Cummings and Val Lopez Worked together up at ucsc to remove the mission bell on campus and so What we're doing here and the this community conversation that we have entered into Is really a continuation of a lot of those steps the education And some of these steps related to the mission bells that have started historically and we're just bringing forth To hopefully continue at this point. So This resolution that's before the council. There's two parts. The first is to endorse The community's effort to update the narrative of mission plaza park in the mission hill area historic district So that a more accurate description or depiction of the history of the indigenous people of the areas included and then number two The second aspect of the resolution would be to direct the historic preservation commission To place an item on a future meeting To discuss the permanent removal of all mission bells from the city of Santa Cruz and bring Bringing a recommendation on whether or not to remove the bell For the city council to consider And the last thing i'll say i'll send it over to the mayor, but I just wanted to say that from the Really from the perspective of parks and rec and I think on behalf of the committee This community committee that's gotten together The goal here is not to replace one aspect of our Of our history with another But it's to acknowledge and include The indigenous voice and convey the history of Santa Cruz And as we've said in our our our mission statement of the committee Convey the history of Santa Cruz in a holistic respectful And immersive manner. So it's kind of rallied around that that idea But with that i'll send it may or send it back over to you for more context And yeah, I'll just say that this obviously has been before us for a lot of that conversation Was paused due to COVID-19. We're all trying to focus on COVID-19 response and really get ourselves wrapped around how we can get our community to function Under COVID-19 and kind of as we were moving forward and with a lot of the Parts of our history, you know, this came back up with the protests that happened at the at the mission And you know, I think everybody who was in that group really Acknowledged that there was a there is a way that we can tell this story. They're better in a more inclusive way reasons why they were Constructed as we've laid out and part of the agenda was, you know around tourism in california and just given the um The impact the negative impact of that can happen as people within our community We thought that it would be appropriate right now to Address this concern and bring it forward with helping to bring together so many amazing stakeholders to Bring this forward in a way that's very inclusive and is a way that's demonstrating healing As long as we opened it up for discussion I just wanted to add a couple of comments as well and say how grateful I am that this is happening moving forward and having grown up here in town and what I was taught as a third and fourth grader Is the same thing that we're still teaching in third and fourth grade now when we really do teach it from a um, I feel like a holistic perspective and what the experience was like For the indigenous people at that time and when students from santa cruz city schools visit our mission It's very different than visiting other missions throughout the state that are run by Churches the narrative is really different and it's super apparent when students are assigned that Mission report in fourth grade. I'm not the only parent that drives up or down the state take their kid on your own field trip So one of my kids had carmel and the other had santa barbara and both of those are not like san juan batista or santa cruz where They're really run by the the church still and so Even as fourth graders my kids could see the implicit bias that was you know being presented in those Preservation efforts and I do think it's important not to erase that history but I do think it's important to portray it accurately and So I think that this is not just For santa cruz. There's going to be kids that are coming on field trips with their own families from all over the state And can really get a different perspective if the mission in their local school district doesn't have that same sort of Narrative and then also for any international tourists that are interested in our interested in our spanish colonial past Or even you know people that move to santa cruz from other states and don't understand the Complexity of what happened. I think it's really really important. Um, and so thank you guys Yeah councilmember brown I just wanted to say thank you to the folks who have brought this to us a huge thank you to valentine lopez for Really stepping up and actually this this issue came to us earlier. I think it was in 2018 when I uh on my first two years on the council and we began to talk about it and then I was very happy to see that uh, you see santa cruz took this approach and was looking forward to This coming before us. So i'm really glad to Be able to support this today and um, and really really just want to uh, You know, I think that it's worth reflecting on, you know, the historical injustice and oppression that those Those bells represent to a lot of people and including myself Um, we uh, I teach a class where we talk about this and we my students just uh, just a few weeks ago We're kind of reading from a historical memory of of folks who Who whose grandparents and and beyond had um experienced and and they talk very intimately about what the what the bell What it was like to um to be to experience that to be in the missions to be kind of forced into this educational system And the conversion system. So I just think it's really really Wonderful that we are taking this approach and i'm glad to hear uh councilmember golder that our Local schools k-12 have a different approach to teaching about mission history My students at san jose state are from all over the state and they don't all have that experience So I can I can attest to the fact that it's it's wonderful that um, They that people get it early here in santa cruz. Um, so I guess we'll just leave it there I just really wanted to say thank you. Um, mr. Lopez for all of the works that you do And um, thanks, uh, director elliott and they are coming and everybody else who's been involved I'll leave it there. Thanks for the comments from council members We have team removing the mission bells is just part of the leftist cancel culture of history with historic artifact destruction Which is part of the leftist social justice agenda Fast-forwarding the reality of past morals or events into the current day where they don't exist as if they do Which they don't just two nights ago the cancel culture violent leftist morons celebrating indigenous people's day tore down the Lincoln and rosevelt statues outside and broke into and vandalized looted the organ museum of history in portland One difference between them and who wants this is that they want council to do their cancel culture for them Erasing evidence of the past will not change those events Nor does it make past events any less historic that people feel the full narrative of events and truths from hundreds of years ago Has somehow not been told after all that time is a mystery, isn't it? What part of history is missing exactly? Bye There are any other members of the public who would like to speak to us on items numbers 12 321 the exception by the number 15 Now is the time to call in Please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand and you will be given two minutes once you've been unmuted Other members of the public who would like to speak to us on items on our consent agenda I'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation So i'm looking for a motion for items numbers 14 through 21 with the exception of 15 that's been pulled council member matthews Council member walkins I'll second that motion Okay, number 15 Motion was made by council member matthews seconded by council member walkins. Is there any further discussion? Yeah, very briefly. I just want to note that item 21, which is a legal contract for the Graham Hill water treatment plant facility Is our our first venture with the design bill approach? um designed to build approach that the um um Public is approved as a to be charter amendment and with the project of this magnitude it um Tends to be very beneficial for Um, uh, such a complex project and a good model for the future just want to point out the voters approve that and they're now putting it into beneficial Great. Thank you. Thank you mayor council member buyers. I Matthew I Brown I Golder I Watkins Nice mayor mires I Like council member golder and i'll just say as it is this meeting who had some concerns About this item. She pulled this item as well. I just was wanting this to be on um Regular we could baby post want it but on a regular agenda so that we could discuss it to discuss it further Just because I don't really have any knowledge about the housing situation down there and i'm not sure if other members of council do but um, I just felt like It needed a warranted more discussion. Um, and that's so I I don't know council member math use or any for coming Mayor coming if you guys want to add to why you were thinking about calling it Also given the cities that were laying on this as well member matthews And then I also want to pull it right I would be the first person To admit that there are issues of local control in reference to state legislations I think you all know that and the league itself has been a really long advocacy over the leaders for protecting local control um, I did Talk with our lead representative about this. Um, and as I think I mentioned in the beginning my internet's gone 12 hours, so I haven't been able to get anyone Which is more than frustrating, but um I felt this was probably well intentions, but Being sure I tried to get information on this group. They don't have a website. It's not clear who the leadership is It's not clear what their agenda is When I read the material on their facebook page and what little I could find it seemed Um pretty um frightened and uh It was not clear to me what the motivation was. It seems to me that a lot of it was intended to Undo the kinds of state Direction that has actually been beneficial to the city and trying to begin to meet some of our housing needs and I think it's Particularly housing advocates that have had a problem with the the broad brush of this So I I would also favor favoring this um May turn out to be something we want on the agenda, but it seemed to me. Um, I was that is focused on Working to the league and it's established. I think it's been certainly being open to community But um, I feel not not ready I'll just say that I um heard from from folks as well about some concerns and I also heard from The organizers of this effort and I know that there are you know, I think it's worth mentioning There are many jurisdictions in the state that has um adopted resolutions like this and many others have it on their agenda Upcoming so it's not Uh, you know completely isolated effort. Um, but I do think that it's uh, it does Weren't some additional conversations so that uh, folks can feel comfortable about what is um, the intention of this and You know, I know that local jurisdictions have it, you know, it's not just housing and zoning and land use It's you know, unfunded mandates for all all matters Um, and you know concerns about the the way the state approaches that so um And I agree that many of those actions have been beneficial. So I again not intended to Um, try to to block that but I do want to um, I do want to I do hope that we can have that conversation And slash it out a little bit more moving forward Members on item number 15 Again on item 15 it is with some amusement That I find the progressive comrades of the city council are taking offense at the equally progressive leftist state Legislature who again is throwing in the towel on the housing situation The previously violated private property rights with rent control and is now overreaching again dictating the normal locally controlled zoning authority of cities Uh, uh, uh, now, you know what landlords feel like with leftist housing so-called solutions Anyway, since cities absolutely cannot violate superior state laws the county needs to be Council needs to be quite specific about exactly which laws you will be protesting or lobbying and should have proven actual local public of You know approval to proceed Uh, what's supporting the California cities for local controlled group actually means is a bit of a mystery to me As is the group itself as are your various threatened actions mentioned in this resolution in response to vaguely describe future state actions However, I do also strongly oppose the one way always higher density push of zoning to allow only higher housing density The single family, uh, you know A low density zoning is the best for families and the family unit is the primary safety net strength and individual Individual growth vehicle of our nation some sf our choice should always be preserved A related worry to me is the horror of what's known as agenda 21 Which is the ultimate globalist vision of no nations no boundaries one world authority regional authorities local authorities governed by mostly unelected people and largely held unaccountable by the people Now one globalist baby step toward that is this one way density push intended to empty the countryside and push all people Into ever increasingly dense urban centers where the people are easily Easier to do surveillance on control and land use zoning is a huge part of that If you can stop agenda 21 zoning that would actually be a good thing But i'm leary the california city's for local control isn't the proper path as it lacks It back a locally unelected activist organization. Bye Thanks scholar. Um, so i'm glad that you're already gonna table it I just want to point out that the same group some of their previous facebook posts and what they've been going on about is to Uh, like they've they've protested HOA's allowing renters There was a state bill that allowed for HOA's to Plane allow for 25 percent of units to be Rentals period Uh, there was lots of anti renter sentiment. I'm basically every housing bill has been opposed by this same group um I it would be really bad for Santa Cruz to associate itself with with this I understand the need for You know trying to take in community input Like fv3 30 is actually giving you some of that and saying hey Come up with objective standards figure out what you want to do But you do have a duty to build multi-family housing that's going to house a lot more people Um at many more incomes because right now that the status quo is that it is going to continue to get Wealthier and wealthier as a result of not not building not advocating for and some of the people that That did reach out to you and other council members because i've talked to other people in other jurisdictions Those same groups have also protested smaller projects and are not meeting their housing element that Santa Cruz is On some level you need state law So that good cities like Santa Cruz Not the only ones filling their fair share of housing and I know that I come and I come I speak they say Hey, you know, we really need to build this housing We needed here in Santa Cruz But cities like torrents Manhattan beach And Beverly Hills have not been meeting at the same degree like they're protesting the fact that affordable housing will get streamlined, you know Thank you all Good afternoon council members and mayor Cummings. Uh one. Thank you for pulling this item off your agenda consent agenda This is casey fire from the Santa Cruz county chamber of commerce A little background for you. Uh over a decade ago I lived down in what we called the south south south bay cities of Los angeles county of which these cities on your discussion item are listed And quite frankly not one of those cities has any indication of the housing affordability problems that we have in this county and in this city Going forward with this would require you to work with the local developers and the business community And others that are involved in housing and infrastructure development Simply put but putting an item like this on the consent item and calling it local control Does not create local control that creates chaos And this allows the local community to engage properly in any type of housing and infrastructure development projects Thank you for listening to my opinion Appreciate it Yeah on this item Look who'd like to speak to us on this item I'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation Council member matthews and you're you're muted I'd like to move to table this or it should be at the table Yeah, I'll second that and uh, I also just want to um Appreciate the comments from the members of the public And uh, I I'm very glad that we're taking our time to really look for this carefully I have I have some concerns doing my own research and Making some calls. Um this past few days I think this is something we really need to think through before you join it. Thank you Thank you There's no further comments from council members I'd like to turn it over the clerk to please call the roll vote. Um the motion before us. It's the table Item number 15, which was made by council member matthews seconded by vice mayor mires Thank you council member buyers Hi Matthews Hi Brown Hi Holder Hi Board pinch Vice mayor mires Hi For amendments to parking regulations for residential and non-residential property For members of the public who are streaming this meeting if this is an item you would like 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 staff or the council members Who brought the item forward I'll take public comment And return to the council for deliberation and action So with that, I'd like to turn it over to um senior planner sarah noisy and principal planner matthew van wa to provide the council with the presentation Thank you. Good afternoon mayor and council members. Um, so this item is one that um sort of brings together a number of different policies that have been Awaiting implementation in our various policy guidance document documents So there are some policies within the general plan Within the climate action strategy and then also most recently in the housing blueprint subcommittee report related to parking and so we've kind of taken a chance to um Bring all of those items together into one set of amendments to the ordinance. So, um, I will go ahead and Share my screen with all of you Um, and we'll go through this So I'm going to um, I'm going to give just a pretty high level overview And then we'll have time for questions if there's further detail Any of the members of the council would like to discuss And as I mentioned, there are several guide policy guidance documents that have Mentioned over the years Seeking to make some economies and create some more efficiency in our parking standards We also periodically get feedback from stakeholders and developers Applicants at all ends of the spectrum from those doing, you know, a minor home remodel or addition all the way up to Developers creating larger projects to add some more context and feedback on how these how our current regulations are actually functioning Um, so we wanted to take this amendment and use it to provide more options in meeting those requirements And then also reduce the burden On development in places where it hasn't really been Necessary or as effective as Anticipated I'm going to just run through all of our parking proposals. So I've categorized everything into I believe it's nine separate categories Um, there are lots of in some categories. There are several amendments that sort of implement the idea um, and one of the attachments to your item today was um A summary table that lists every code section and what that amendment is intended to achieve. So We've added some text to the code about electric vehicle parking and accessible parking because they're now in included in the California building standards codes and so We needed to update our zoning ordinance to match. We've also clarified and consolidated some of the existing standards Um relating to commercial parking and residential parking. We've added some cross references so number of the changes that you see in there are just kind of um, increasing improving usability of our code Uh, we've updated some of the commercial uses to reflect some more modern uses. So for example um, we didn't have um tutoring facilities in the parking uses chart and that's something that is now Uh comes up and they need a parking ratio So we've added that to the chart We've also gone through and made sure there are references in appropriate locations to the um Parking district one resolution, which is the downtown area because parking downtown is really governed by that resolution, which is under the sole um jurisdiction of the city council and that resolution in certain places supersedes what's in the the Unicipal code. So we wanted to make sure that um applicants are aware of that when they start um considering a project in that area um, number five, we wanted to create some consistency in the regulations for tandem parking so tandem parking is when um multiple vehicles park one behind the other and um state law for Uh properties that have accessory dwelling units. Um specifically calls out that Properties can go up to three cars in a row. So that's two tandem spaces and one regular space. So um, we're recommending that we take that um existing allowance for adu properties and apply it to all Make it available to all residential properties so that there's some consistency in our regulation Um, we're also introducing a process that sort of consolidates a number of existing um options and brings them all together in one section of the code. So currently using transportation demand management. So these are um Programmatic things that a development might do to reduce the demand for parking on a property Currently our zoning ordinance would allow a developer or an applicant to request up to a 30% reduction in their total required parking We're proposing to increase that to 35% Under this new process and we're proposing to add a few options and features for applicants. So first of all This process will be accompanied by a worksheet that really lays out all of the various TDM options and And assigns an amount of reduction that could be available for each of those Um, so as you can see here several of these are already existing in our code We already offer them and make them available to applicants. Um To use when they're requesting to reduce their um parking requirement on a project We are proposing two new options. So number one unbundled parking which is um When the purchase or lease of a residential unit is separate from the purchase Or lease of a parking space or spaces. So essentially this allows a a renter or a Purchaser of a property the option of whether or not they're going to buy Or lease a parking space one parking space two parking spaces And it really reduces the cost of someone who might not own a car and Might not have any use for a parking space that they are required to lease Or that's bundled in with their lease when they're renting a property And then also we're adding an we're adding an option for an applicant to bring forward a new proposal. Um, you know Technology is shifting a lot and the way that we travel is shifting a lot And so we just wanted to go ahead and write something into our code that would allow it to be More responsive as these new options come up So that um, you know, if there's a new opportunity that a developer wants to use We could take a look at that and and consider it and we would have an option already in our code That would allow us to consider it. This process does leave the option to require a study by a civil engineer or a transportation engineer to sort of demonstrate that the proposed TDM measures would actually work on the given site because um, you know, as you can imagine So like non auto use programs that things like transit passes um That could be extremely effective in some neighborhoods and really not very effective at all in other neighborhoods that aren't currently served very well by transit and so That we wouldn't want to give them both the same like 10 reduction or five percent reduction Whatever it is. So some of these are going to be very context specific And so by creating this process it gives us a tool and a way to to take a look at those and consider them Number seven we are proposing to remove the requirement for covered parking. So currently single family homes That do not include an adu Um are required to provide one covered parking space as a part of their required parking um This came out of the housing blueprint subcommittee report This was a recommendation to remove this as a requirement. This will allow These spaces to be used as additional bedrooms um And it also just reduces the um construction costs of new housing if they're not required to Include a garage they may still choose to do that. I'm sure there's Market for that. Um, but it gives it provides more options and it could make for some flexibility that um, Would currently be kind of challenging on some sites. So I'll just mention here Removing this requirement um triggers Or sort of removes the need for an existing process that's called a conditional driveway permit So you'll see in the strikeout version of your ordinance We're deleting that whole section because essentially that permit existed to um as a separate process To allow someone to park on their property without a garage So, um, we're deleting that and we're deleting all references to that permit type in the proposed ordinance um, so number eight We're reducing the overall residential parking requirements a little bit and simplifying the existing standards. So currently There are different standards for rental housing and ownership housing community housing projects are That's the term in our our muni code for ownership housing projects or condo projects Projects currently have um a guest parking requirement rental projects do not We also currently have two different standards for we have a different standard for single family housing With the same number of bedrooms than we do for multi-family housing. Um, we don't really see The logic or need for that. So we are proposing to move from this which is our existing um, these are our existing standards To this standard where we have one parking standards for residential uses regardless of type Um, and that standard is one space for a studio or efficiency unit one space for one bedroom And then two spaces for anything larger than two bedrooms So this is pretty similar with a step back for a moment pretty similar to this chart The difference is for those larger units. We're no longer going to be requiring Additional parking for units that are four bedrooms or more generally speaking, there are a few of those units and As we move forward even fewer of them are proposed in new development. So we feel that this proposed change is um Really quite incremental Also, additionally, uh, we're we're creating the same standard for guest parking for both Resid uh, sorry ownership housing and rental housing So, um for multi-family housing, it would all be the same standard We would require a guest parking requirement of 10 and require that all fractions be rounded up So that would mean that Every time you have a multi-family project you would get a minimum of one guest parking space even with a duplex so, um The way the current standard is written it if you use like a two bedroom and three bedroom multi-family project It works out the way it's written. Um, because it's one space for every four units rather than Her parking space. Um, it works out to be about 12 and a half percent That's like that's the math that we did So we're recommending a pretty modest reduction to a 10 requirement and then having that also apply to rental housing We'll kind of little cleanup things. There's this one on one of the images that is um, a little Misleading at best and inaccurate at worst. And so we're proposing to just delete it We've codified several of the standards for parking facilities that are currently only Included in illustrations. We're codifying them into the text of the ordinance. Again, that's the usability issue We've reorganized a number of things just to kind of make them Uh follow a more logical pattern and be easier to find And then I am going to have to read in this one change to the ordinance This was made at the planning commission and I I missed getting it into the published version of the ordinance So this is relating to parking lists Which are mechanical structures that can lift cars and increase the parking capacity of existing structures or space so, um It's in section 24 12 to 90.2 f which um on the Strikeout version of the ordinance is on page 17 So we're going to add a clause to the first sentence for the first sentence currently The first sentence will now read parking lists for stacked parking within parking structures She'll demonstrate how individual users can effectively access vehicles And then we're going to add a second sentence that states parking lists and stacked parking are not permitted Except within enclosed parking structures. So this is sort of our first baby step into this new technology um Parking lists are very common in some Places in some jurisdictions where land values are very high. We have started to see them proposed here in Santa Cruz they're not very common yet, and um, so we're just taking sort of one step and allowing them within enclosed structures At some point in the future We may wish to get into a further discussion about allowing them in surface loss and we're not ready to do that right now We recommend that So this language is now part of the staff recommendation today So we did conduct some community outreach on this item. We held a virtual community meeting for covet In july of this year. It was attended by about 25 residents And that conversation did generate some many interesting ideas for future work that the city might pursue on parking um Looking at geographically based standards. So rather than allowing individual projects to apply for a reduction sort of just Having different standards in different neighborhoods based on what we understand about existing transit access and the likelihood of you know People being able to walk to multiple trips within certain neighborhoods more so than in others Um, there was also a lot of comment about the the need for increased control of on-street parking. So Obviously when we make changes to the requirements for off-street parking, which this whole proposal is about Requirements for off-street parking. There could be some effect that is felt on the on-street parking resources We've tried we've done our best to set up these ordinances and this proposal so that um, those effects are minimized and we're still able to maintain safe and effective parking in our on-street Our on-street resources. So for example I'll just back up to um, those TDM measures Uh, some of them would require or only be allowed in places where there's a residential permit parking program in place and then those permits aren't available to the um New residents of the new project in order to ensure that, you know, if you're unbundling parking folks aren't just parking on the street Right. So we we thought that through and we think we've come up with a way to sort of regulate um Minimize the chance that that could happen Um, and again, that's something the city sort of continually continually working on and reevaluating is how we manage our on-street Parking resources and then there were also some ideas about how we manage our um road cross sections and Continuing the work that public works already does about pursuing More separation between modes of transportation. So really ensuring that bicyclists have safe um Places to ride especially in places where new curb cuts are starting and folks are moving in and out especially if there's um, you know, if it's structured parking and you know Picking keeping track of the visibility and ensuring safety for all of the different users of the road that are moving on all modes of transportation. So um Those were all really great ideas that came from the public on this topic. Um, we took this item to the planning commission in september um the commission discussed sort of striking this balance of keeping safe parking and um sufficient parking For all of our users and then also the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which that's where a lot of the policy guidance began was in um, this desire to change the modes of transit that are most appealing for more users And the comments that we got from the public at that meeting sort of were at both ends of that There were some that really urged the city to go much further than we have and I you know We concede we're taking an incremental step on this right now Um, and there were others that expressed concerns over their existing lack of parking in certain neighborhoods But they already feel really impacted. It's already really hard for you know on trash day, especially your street sleeping day um, and so those are you know, the issues that we're trying to balance here and um Accommodate in this proposal There will be you know, if this proposal is approved today by your council, there will be a second reading at the next meeting And then this is part of the lcp implementation program. So it would have to go to the coastal commission and um because of this for this reason and because you know coastal neighborhoods and the coastal commission has a very different view of um The need for parking and they have a different set of concerns and interests We're recommending that this ordinance be formally bifurcated, which means that it's split into and will be able to go into effect outside the coastal zone 30 days after the second reading and won't be in effect inside the coastal zone until the coastal commission Takes action on it. But we bifurcate it to allow it to go into effect in the non-coastal portions of the city sooner So just to go through our lcp and coastal act consistency. This is part of the analysis we have to do for any um Proposal or ordinance that amends part of our lcp our local coastal program um, there are several policies that speak directly to um A desire for parking reductions specifically in projects that include alternative transportation and so we feel there's really good support for um the the reductions that were or the changes we're recommending relating to um Creating new transportation demand management in new development Um, as I've mentioned a few times this proposal really is a we consider it to be a very modest incremental change to our existing ordinance which has Um been approved previously by the coastal commission Our goal here is really is to improve the efficiency of parking While maintaining adequate on-street parking resources. We we believe we've struck that balance um with what we're proposing And I do mention we mentioned in the staff report and I'll just give a little bit of context for this coastal zone parcels do tend to be smaller and so um, we specifically with this Change made to the about the number of bedrooms and the parking that's required for more bedrooms We think those four bedroom and larger three bedroom and larger homes are less likely to be built in the coastal zone because the parcels are smaller the the parcels just simply can't accommodate that much Building area and we actually we had gis our gis department run the numbers and It's a little bit over a thousand square feet or about 1300 square foot difference between um The non the parcel average parcel size a medium parcel size I'm sorry medium parcel size in the non-copal area versus in the coastal zone so coastal parcels are right around 5600 square feet median and non-copal parcels are 6900 median right around out um, so and I'll just The coastal commission approval governs how these when these um, this proposal would go into a fast inside the coastal zone They're of course interested in ensuring that there is adequate street parking for visitors that are coming to the coast We know that Santa Cruz has You know the best beaches in the state arguably and we get a lot of visitors and um, they need street parking you know in order to be able to access the coast and that is the um Mission of the coastal commission and that's the point of view they bring to all of their reviews So we have been working with staff and discussing with them Um, why we believe this is you know an appropriate action to take in all parts of the city Um, and we'll have to wait for their commission to take formal action before it can take effect inside the coastal zone Recommendation is that we introduce for publication and ordinance including the proposed amendments including that one I read in I have provided that to the city clerk To the Santa Cruz municipal code relating to parking regulations as recommended by planning commission and planning staff And then direct the staff to submit the proposed amendments to the california coastal commission for review following the second reading And with that, um, we're available for any questions. We have some public work staff On the line as well to help answering questions And mayor if I could um Make one clarification sarah. I believe thank you for that presentation. I believe that you mentioned the um guest parking is triggered at any multifamily Um, the way that we have it worded is that it kicks in for five plus units Oh, pardon me. I miss folk. Yes, so I just want to make sure the council was clear on that Five plus units so it would not apply to a duplex triplex or four plex. So it would be parked At the ratio mentioned. Thank you for noticing that. I apologize Hey, thank you very much for that presentation Um, looks like councilmember golder Do you have a question? I do First I want to thank you guys for your work on this. I've been thinking about this for A couple decades. I feel like now that garages seem slightly archaic as um, our housing problems Arise it seems that the easiest infill would be the conversion of garages to living space bedrooms or ad use So i'm super excited about this. I did have one question. Um, A few weeks back, we would I don't remember exactly when we were talking about like this mid Like mid density housing. So duplexes triplexes things like this Am I to understand so let's say there's a duplex or triplex and it Let's say it's each unit is two bedrooms. So then there's six bedrooms in a triplex Let's say so then do they need the two parking spaces or would that be six parking spaces? The per unit or per I'm just confused a little on that It's per bedroom. Yeah, so each of those two bedroom units would be required to have two parking spaces So they would need six parking spaces for a triplex with Two bedroom units tonight. Thank you I think that uh, for the most part, uh, councilmember golders question covered my Question I do I guess I have one other question though And that's related to the community input that you received because I think those are pretty spot-on in terms of the The observations and concerns and questions that have been raised and so I'm wondering um if there's any intention to Move forward with consideration of those geographic kind of distinctions among You know different neighborhoods because I think there are neighborhoods where this is going to have a much bigger impact Um potentially so, um, I'm just wondering how you're Intending to track that or follow up on that Um, but I also do want to say well, I have before I'll say thank you for all of your work on this You know we part of the housing blueprint subcommittee. We talked about this quite a bit I'm glad to see the change is coming. Um, but I do want to try to mitigate the you know people fears about what might happen here And so if you could just You know anything about that would be helpful. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so so first of all, um All of these all of the parking ratios. Let's just provide in context for folks. Maybe don't think about this all the time These apply as new development happens, right? So this is not going in and you know requiring anyone to remove any existing parking space if they're currently over parks I'll also just mention With the exception of very large commercial projects pretty much most projects are welcome to provide as much parking as they think is not necessary So, um, none of these would limit the amount of parking that we you know would allow a project to include Um, and typically residential developers are quite sensitive to the way that that affects the attractiveness of their project That wasn't your question. Your question was how are we going to get to? geographic standards, so the work that we're doing on The multi-family zoning standards. I think we'll start to touch on that. Um, I don't know that it will get as fine grained as potentially, um, you know, we could get and and and you know as someone who drives them parks in the city There can be a really big difference just from one block to the next um, so I don't know that we'll get quite to that level, but I think we will start that conversation and um, this is something that we've sort of, you know Taken in hand and we've you know mentioned and discussed with the public works department as well. So it's It's going to be a matter of um, you know prioritizing right and prioritizing the work plans for the various departments Thank you, but it will be part of the conversation. Yes. Yeah Are there any other council members or maybe we can move on to public comment regulations for residential and non-residential residential residential and non-residential property Once you've called in please press start. Can you hear me? Yes Hi, this is rick longinati and I'm not sure if uh, if bonnie has my slideshow available Yep, I would Will you receive your email and I'll ask bonnie. Do you have the slides and I know you have you requested additional time? So we'll honor that request Thank you Bonnie, do you happen to have his slides? I'm getting it. Okay. While we're waiting for bonnie I just want to thank the staff for putting together a good presentation and an argument in favor of reducing parking Requirements, I think it's an important step forward towards housing affordability and also reduced car ownership And I think that one important most important thing before you today is the legalization of Or the removal of the covered parking requirement Which will allow bedrooms to go into garages I think that is really a sleeper. It could be a big boon for housing more people with you know pretty low cost weighting To increase our housing supply So you have your um slides Okay, so bonnie, I'll tell you when to advance them because I'm uh, I'm not able to do that Um, so you could advance to the next slide bonnie The second slide here it shows that uh, there were parking counts by students of professor adam miller ball from ucsc They went around to different apartment complexes and they found a good third of these parking spots empty during the middle of the night Which shows really that our parking requirements have produced a surplus of a parking next slide, please So what's wrong with uh, we're requiring more parking than we need next slide Well, it has consequences It is an incentive to build luxury housing because we have high parking requirements That's the only kind of housing that will get built really It's an incentive to more driving next slide We burden renter households because these same students of miller ball They went through census data. They found that 55 percent of rental households own one car or less and yet Next slide Our two bedroom apartments require two parking spaces and that's uh, that's the existing code requirements They're not changing as a result of these recommendations So what we're doing is we're requiring renters to pay for more parking than they don't than they use next slide, please So my request would be to ask staff to bring back more extensive changes to the parking code starting with the downtown Next slide and why downtown because we already have protection from spillover parking Overnight parking you can't do in the neighborhoods unless you have a permit next slide There are many communities around the country that remove parking minimums altogether Uh and This proposal that you have before you today doesn't remove them. It just reduces them very slightly actually next slide, please So good question would be won't developers pocket the savings from lower parking requirements? And yes, indeed they will unless there's a way to pass the savings on to the resident next slide and that savings would be Unbundling which uh It's been in that, you know in the discussion for a very long time require new development to separate The cost of parking from the cost of building or lease space thereby making the cost of purchasing Parking real to the purchaser next slide So we we know from empirical studies that it lowers housing costs and it lowers vehicle ownership next slide Um, here's an example of a building in berkeley where there's unbundled parking There's 237 boats living there with just 20 cars living there next slide, please Um, we in santa cruz require We've required the Pacific shores apartments to supply every resident with a bus pass. We could do that with downtown for any new development next slide And uh, we could also ask private developers to exercise the local workforce preference to give local workers first first choice We can require that of any project that has city money in it Um, and santa barb is a good example and we've already done that with the tannery arts building local artist preference next slide Last slide is is my request that uh, since this is a very modest proposal today, but a step in the right direction To ask staff to return with a more ambitious parking proposal for downtown. Thank you very much And thank you very much. I sorry um, yes, um My name is kandace brown and I live in east morisee. I'm also on the transportation public works commission My concern is on a couple fronts. Um I can't find the uh language on the tandem parking. So I'm sort of going off what I was said just now But if that's done on every project Throughout the city Um, I think that that should be thought through a little bit more carefully Um, the only time that I've seen an exception where tandem parking was allowed Was where there was an office Facility very small where they could coordinate the parking in and out of those tandem spots You know 56 of our housing is for renters Um, they're not family members and they may Not be able to coordinate as you might think efficiently Parking in tandem situation. So to do that ubiquitously across the city I think you would need to put some language around it or be a little bit more thoughtful About just doing that you laterally I'm also very concerned That you've just stated you're going to put into the record something for consideration without proper notice or 72 notice for the public when it comes to mechanical devices As mentioned, these are typically found in very luxury Environments in very urban settings and they're usually managed with ballet parking What's being proposed on ocean street at 908 ocean street Could have hundreds of units In racks And they would be unattended and it's not really clear How that would be as far as safety concerns Um, and so I think that needs to not only be brought to very carefully But be completely separate consideration because it's quite involved in its consideration Also, if you strip out covered parking then you're essentially saying these mechanical devices could be In a surface lot because you're removing covered parking. So A developer could read that to me. Well, I don't even have to have my racks now In a covered parking area I guess I run out of time But thank you for the consideration of this. Thank you While we're waiting on our next speaker to unmute their device if anyone else would like to speak to us on item um Number 22, which is the amendment to parking regulations Now's the time to call in Please press star nine once you've called in to raise your hand And you'll be asked to be unmuted and once you unmute your phone, you'll be given two minutes You're being asked to unmute your phone and move on to the next caller because this individual Hi, can you hear me? Yes, good. Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Kelsey Hill. I'm a candidate for Santa Fe City Council I want to express my gratitude for staff for putting this together And I'll keep it short. I just want to encourage council to move forward with the matter of unbundling parking I know many families that are one car households. I belong to one myself And one of the most effective things we can do to simultaneously increase access to affordable housing while also acting on climate Is reducing requirements around parking for renters as an environmentally forward city I think unbundling is a great low impact step toward a carbon neutral Future for our community. So thanks for your time. Have a good day. Right Yeah So again, if the last four digits of your phone number are 1361 You're being requested to unmute your device. Hello. Am I unmuted? Yes, good. Wonderful. This is Jim Weller calling in I'm calling in to say that I applaud these uh, these changes I think that these kinds of Changes in parking requirements will go a long way to aiding in the feasibility of new affordable housing projects particularly multi-family projects and From a personal perspective since I'm now an accidental developer leading my church's multi-family housing project in development This will help us a lot in creating The financial capacity for affordability which we Aim to achieve. So I just want to say thank you and I hope the city council Approves this proposal You're welcome for action deliberation Council member buyers Not waiting for the moving forward And not waiting for the coastal commission Weighing in or not weighing in but yes, I guess looking For those neighborhoods who intersect with the coastal commission that is maybe one side the street is the one side isn't Do Do you think there'll be any issue there? Impact that one side of the street may have the burden where the other side won't have Um, well, so first let me let me say we do anticipate that these This proposal will eventually be approved by the coastal commission Our current experience with them though is that sometimes that can take several months even up to a year Um, so and still that is a limited period of time We're not talking about these not taking effect inside the coastal zone So given the pace of development and the modest nature of these changes Changes, uh, I I don't have that concern. Okay. So all I need to do here. Thank you Thank that's all near I'm supportive of this. I want to thank the staff for this approach as as we mentioned basically incremental Clean up some consistency, but also incorporating some current thinking Doing the way with the covered garage requirement and so many other Changes There are going to be impacts and I am particularly interested in pursuing the geographical impact issue because And when you just think about the different parts of town Sometimes it's already unparkable for the people who live there and further changes Um can make them even more so um Whether it's um areas that have a whole lot of student households close together or The older neighborhoods, particularly where there are Sometimes no parking facilities whatsoever. I mean, I think they're all familiar with this so I very much favor the A quick look at the geographical impact and perhaps some flexibility in there My understanding on releasing the required parking for multi-family is that it could be up to 35% Reduction impact we're having to get not And a case would have to be made that That was those reductions that any level are earned Regarding bike parking, I think And maybe this is in the detail and you're talking about I think it should be secure bike parking because You know, we all know a lot of people that have bikes Unsecure bike parking is of no interest to them because their bike disappears Um, that's something to consider Um, and for issue having to do with the unbubblings for multi-family is I mean, I I looked at that slide that was put up there. Oh, you can have parking for two and a quarter a month Well, my gosh, I get a parking permit from my street for $30 a year I could easily hit a pass on the parking Provided on site. I'm just going to get a $30 parking permit And You know, so and I came to recall in the past that's made the planet and none of this Oh, I specifically on each side approving. I think they were planned development Where the residents of those developments because the parking was reduced Because of these I'm just saying Environmental interest in doing that The residents in those units were ineligible for neighborhood parking So again, I don't want to I don't want to try and massage that thing to get but You can see how the game can be played. Sure. Um, I I'd like to respond. May I respond? Sure. Um, So let's just so with the unbundled parking. I think it's actually worth taking a little bit of a look at it So I'm going to share my screen. This is page 17 to 18 of the clean ordinance. So this blue highlighted text is the unbundled parking and um I just want to point out that this is only Oh, we can't we can't see your screen Oh And okay, you got to hit all the right buttons. Okay, not just half of them So this highlighted this blue highlighted section is the unbundling section of the code So I just want to point out that this is um Limiting The areas where unbundling would be permitted to places where there are controls on the street parking within 500 feet walking distance of an entrance to the site So that means there are either meters on the street. There's colored curbs Or there's a residential permit parking program and residents of the new development are ineligible for purchasing those permits That in order for unbundling to really work and be effective. You're absolutely right the cost of parking your car on site Have to be the lowest cost of parking your car if it's really going to be effective at reducing, you know, potentially demand for vehicles and then also really mitigating Offsite effects of folks parking So we think that 500 feet is a sign if is a sufficiently discouraging distance to have to walk Um, that folks would prefer to pay for parking on site That's our recommendation Also, Bonnie was reaching out it sounds like there might be some issues with your sound so I don't know if there's a window open or if you can speak closer, but Is it better? I am on cell phone. So I'm trying to Do it right. It's better Don't get in line. Okay. Do you have a window? Is there a window open? Our background noise Yeah, um I think the overall direction makes sense. I want to thank the work that's gone into it We do have a second reading, you know, upon closer examination of certain issues. We may see things that need further tweaking Um, but overall it's a good direction. I think there will be more impact. I would I would also say regarding on the transit access I think if you look at big trans big national trans we The sign of reduction for parking Related to transit closeness to transit makes sense if there's a really robust transit system And we don't have that here I sit on the metro board and I know how hard we are trying to just maintain core services Um, we do not have something like a a trawling system or a metro system that takes you anywhere in the world every 15 minutes So let's try and be realistic when we do transit oriented development Let's just put it in the same concept. So that's my final comment on that. Thank you a little bit more but I think one of the concerns that I have is that um You know, there's this unbundling of parking. But how do you ensure that by unbundling the parking that actually Leads to a lower rent Because I can just see that people are gonna, you know charge whatever You know, whatever the market will bear for that and then in addition to that if you want parking you pay You know, is there any mechanism that can allow for? You know ensuring that when you unbundle the parking from those Units that you're actually that there is a savings onto the resident I'm gonna, um, invite the planning director to step in and see if these fit as well. So, um, I mean, I think That's a fair point and I I also think that, um Renters have options and if you are comparing two otherwise equal Units and one of them is going to require you to pay for parking. You don't need Um, and the other one is not that's a choice that you get to make as a renter. Um And you know The evidence that we have from other places is that the market largely takes care of that And folks aren't willing to pay As much for a, you know an apartment and an unbundled parking space and they as they are for Just an apartment and the parking space that they need all in one number. So I think Largely, we're expecting the market to regulate that. I don't know that there's a great mechanism for You know requiring rents at a certain level the cost of parking at a certain level That starts to get a little bit sticky. Um, and you know as I think mr. Longinati showed some You know recent effects of Allowing that unbundling and the change that it made in the cost Um, and and those bear out the research across the nation sort of bears that out That there is a difference in in price and that it's, um, largely Managed by the market. So further add one thing. Uh, this is matt benoit principal planner. Uh, Sarah was talking specifically about market rate projects and uh, in regards to affordable products affordable restricted projects There there would be ways to control the pricing of unbundled parking So I guess just to kind of build on that then so for example, you know, like Right now it seems like parking with apartments is is all kind of bundled and so For some folks, you know, you rent a unit and you kind of just work out the parking with the rest of the people You share that unit with or You're signed a parking spot If now there's the potential to unbundle, I mean could Potentially someone who's currently renting and that has a parking spot could then their landlord say, okay If you would like to have parking you now need to pay an additional 200, you know, let's say dollars a month or What have you or Like how would that I know this is kind of nitpicky, but i'm just thinking about people who are Currently at parking who have an apartment We pass this and then They say we'll charge you, you know another x amount for that parking And if you don't want that parking then we won't charge you for it. So I was wondering like very good question. Thank you for that. So The property owner would have to apply for a permit from the city in order to have Have that option they would have to be applying for a permit of a parking a parking plan for their project And they would be making this proposal. We want to unbundle the parking Typically they would do that because they're seeking a reduction in the number of parking spaces. So for existing projects um The benefit is like it's a little bit murky, you know, they're not if they already have the parking and they already have the units like they're not Going to be reducing the number of parking spaces, but perhaps they're Viewing this as a potential revenue stream and they just want to go ahead and unbundle the parking so we would have to review that and and then um You know, it could the the requirements of that would have to exist in the neighborhood So there would have to be controls on the street parking. There would have to be um, you know, something that would um limit the options of folks living in the unit to be able to park on the street if that if they opt not to pay for um, the unbundled parking space and And then potentially that could happen and it would be, you know, again a matter of like What's that unit worth to you if you now you own a car or even two cars? And now all of a sudden you can't park or you can't afford to park both of them on the property um You know, again, I think landlords and tenants are going to kind of have to figure out how to balance those different desires Um, lee, do you have any thoughts you jumped in like maybe you had some thoughts? Thanks. Yes. Um, so Sarah's kind of getting the um issue correctly when she was getting at This provision would actually allow for new development to have reduced parking By having unbundled parking if the certain criteria are being met There is not a prohibition on unbundling parking right now. And so We have conditioned that in certain projects because of concerns of the neighborhood, for example When there haven't been parking controls in close proximity and that's one of the reasons why we put this limitation on The parking controls within a 500 foot proximity is because um, you know, if there's a free parking space right out on the street then um You know, it's it's not very likely that someone is going to uh pay to park um on the property itself, but Landlords can do this now. They we don't have a condition that says, you know, you have to you have to um Assign these parking spaces to these individual units. We say you have to have this number of parking spaces and The landlords and the tenants work that out. And so, you know, they may be doing this right now And there is not a permit that they would have to get from us for just doing that. Um, unless we've we've conditioned their project to not allow it and then, um If if a redevelopment was occurring, that's when they would have to come in and through the permit process They could seek a parking reduction to do that. And so that's part of that distinction there Well, thank you And then I'll just state before moving on. I want to see how this all rolls out I do have concerns that having spent a lot of time living in beach hill and in issues, um, especially student residents and then you have certain times in the year when there are parking restrictions in place and then you just have It's really and it's really difficult to find parking. So I think that understanding the impacts on neighborhoods is really going to be Important as we're moving. Yeah, once again, I think my question was pretty close to answered by uh, mayor Cummings Mayor Cummings questions, um, I just want to stay say again that I I too have concerns about uh, the unintended consequences potentially for, uh, in particular for low income residents Um, and so I I just want to make sure that we have a way to Um, you know to to be tracking this to be, uh, you know, taking it into consideration in as we move forward I mean beach hill and beach slots. Absolutely. There are parts of the east side where I think this is really relevant in the beach area Along on the west side as well. Um, so I I just I just want to because I think there are other tools We can use as well in tandem with this to try to get at those Uh potential challenges and um, you know and make it, uh, you know more equitable Uh and allow for that continued Um, well, it's not really continued affordability But just to allow people who who may need their cars and don't have the option of not, um Having some access to parking near their homes. Um If it's cost-removative for them, and it's not really a choice anymore and I'm speaking in particular tenants, you know The situation for tenants. So um, anyway, just to reiterate that concern and um, hope that we can hear back as this is implemented and um See if there's other things we can do to help Make it a smooth transition that council members member would be willing to make a motion Uh, so we can continue moving forward with our meeting Thank you. Um, I'm going to go ahead and miss the recommendations for us and uh Get the language specifically introducing for publications or none including the proposed amendments Etc and directly staff to submit the proposed proposed amendments to the californ coast commission for review following the second reading I'll second that motion. Thank you Okay, so we have a motion by council member matthews to move the staff recommendation um seconded by by smear mires There's no further questions or comments from council members. I'd like to call on the clerk to call the roll call vote Thank you mayor council member buyers I Matthew Brown Golder I What can Vice mayor mires And mayor coming Motion passes unanimously While other council members are joining on uh bonnie. Can you take a look to see if her audio is better? Okay. This is the test I'm connected by my cell phone Is that any good There's just Cynthia there's just almost like a A background noise like you're we have a window open with a lot of traffic going by or something I just don't understand that at all Because i'm in my study I me Okay, I don't Should I switch to um Computer audio and see if that's any better It's usually not Um, go ahead and okay, right now. I'm on the computer audio. Is that better? Can you talk? I am talking Now you're not getting it I am now, um, but if there's still the background noise, but it doesn't matter It's both audio sources have that same background noise. So I don't know I'll try and speak clearly and close to the source And troubleshoot this separately I don't I don't understand it Yeah, I think that's probably a best way to move forward at this time So the other thing that occurs to me is that as I mentioned My internet is down completely cruise i o is to put so that could be Part of the problem today Yeah, so we'll give it like one more minute. I think we're just going to have more buyers will Join us again in a second um I'll give her one more minute though to join but and uh And we just get colleagues can join us without missing too much the next Yeah, yes You would like to comment on the screen The order will be a presentation by staff and returns council for action and deliberation Good afternoon mayor vice mayor and council Let me bring up the presentation here. All right. So today we're talking about the 2020 regional early action planning grant program Um, and as a state application I'll refer to it as a reap from now on reap And just for some background on this, uh, the state has approved a series of grants very recently All all directed towards supporting housing production In cities across california And so recently we had the sp2 grant which we're funding the objective standards project with And then just in may we also took the leap grant Uh, which was which were Directing funds towards the housing element update primarily And the leap grant is very similar to the reap grant the leap grant is the local Early action planning grant And then this is the regional early action planning grant The only real difference there is that the the regional part of this really refers to Of the associates and the association of the area of uh, Monterey area governments administering the grant versus the state itself And again, the the main requirement for these grants is really to show that they're supporting housing production in some way And so the the reap grant itself is non-competitive and the city of santa cruz is eligible for $300,000 for that funding and like I said, it's administered by ambag And the application is due in a few weeks at the end of october here the grant project itself In regards to really Figuring out a way to support housing development in the city. We thought a lot about the project being expanding the downtown plan boundaries And really the main reason for that is that we've seen lots of success Given the the recent 2017 amendments to the downtown plan Increasing some of those development standards and we've seen how much that has spurred Housing development in the area and we really feel like there's there's opportunities Adjacent to downtown that might also see that same kind of success if we expand those plan boundaries And again, this is very early and we don't have defined boundaries by any means We're really seeking to explore areas southwest and north of downtown But staff feels especially strongly about the opportunities south of downtown in the south of oral area And this would certainly have a public process To determine this boundary as well as a further council meeting to to get additional Feedback and buy-in on that boundary And then really once we have have that boundary in place. That's when we would bring on a consultant To really do All the other work involved in in expanding that plan So this again is very early and that's really just a Grant application at this point So there's going to be a lot more opportunity for for input and engagement in the future on this on this project And also point out to that a few other important important areas of coordination are The parking district and whether that will expand As well as the beach and south of oral plan those those two Could be impacted by the expansion of the downtown And we would certainly be coordinating further on those and and how those would work together with the with the downtown plan expansion And then of course the the grant too would also cover The sequel clearance needed for any expansion of the downtown plan And so with that staff recommends The authorizing the city manager or designate To submit an application to ambag for the replanting grant And this concludes staff's presentation. Thank you All right, thank you very much for that presentation. Are there any questions from council members? On this presentation The item before us Yeah, thank you for the presentation and Support moving forward with this grant opportunity. I heard about it. I think I asked about it our last council meeting or the budget Session and so I'm glad to see us moving forward I do have a question though about because you know every at this point it I understand it's a grant proposal. It's uh, you know There is some flexibility in how the money is spent and all of that And it's pretty wide-ranging, but I am just wondering if you could Talk a little bit more about the Community input portion of this. I you know, I raised this because I think that Um, if those of us who are around long enough to remember 1998 and the the beach area plan and south of laurel plan Uh, know that uh, there was significant community Outcry about that and a concern that there had that people had not that the council and leadership had not been listening to the public so I just want to try to understand What that You know public input if there's a format or if you have a plan at this point or even conceptually How that will go? I think that the concerns over gentrification in the downtown Are uh, you know, there will be just as important for folks south of laurel and Towards the beach area. So I I just want to Try to get a sense of you know, how we are going to include the public How are we going to make them feel included in the decision-making around this and you know kind of The potential extension of the the downtown area. I think makes sense in a lot of ways And you say that their way their possibilities for doing that at the north and south ends of the of the downtown, but This agenda report we've received and we don't have the application that is an actual proposal Which I imagine if you're anything like me those proposals end up happening being finished right before they're due but it would be helpful to See uh to hear more about that because I think you know saying that we may expand the downtown boundary but then primarily focusing in on Uh, the beach area south of laurel In the agenda report suggests that that's that's where we're headed. So Again, um, I just want to I want the public to feel like they actually are going to have a say in this I guess and so I'm wondering if you could talk more Yes, uh, thank you. Thank you councilmember brown Uh, you raised a lot of good points. There are sensitive areas very close to downtown as well that we want to be uh, you know thinking critically of as we go forward in this expansion process and And really with that the the grant application itself is due soon But that typically takes up to six months to even see those funds So there it's conceptual at this point in terms of what our outreach would be But certainly in that time frame alone, there would be a community meeting process You know several even depending on what we're hearing from the community As well as further council buy-in prior to any decisions being made And and that's at the very minimum You know, we we see this certainly is we're working closely with these communities and And having community meetings to really fine tune Not just what those boundaries are but also the areas that we have to be more sensitive to and and going into the into that expansion knowing that They might not have The same development standards as as other areas of the plan So there's that can be there's going to be that level of fine-tuning as well That we'll be working on Prior to formally starting the process with the consultant And then the consultant process would be finding fine-tuning those details even further with the community In terms of what those development standards are in adjacencies and things like that So we don't have a specific Community outreach and engagement plan yet, but it's certainly something we're going to be Working closely on going forward prior to even receiving the grant and and once we get the grant funding as well Moving forward with that both before the consultant and with the consultant Thank you So can I just have a quick follow-up in terms of when do you anticipate and maybe it was in here and I just missed it Anticipate hearing back about this grant I know it does take time, but is there a Some sense When we'll know about the funding Yeah, we've we've already been coordinating closely with ambag on this But i'm not sure how quickly they'll move because They're administrating administering the grant from the state. So we're applying to ambag and then ambag will be working with the state For our elite grant for instance, which we applied for back in june We have not heard back from the state yet on the funding. We've received updates that our applications being looked at But given that time frame right now, it seems to be about six months out before we Before we get approved from the state So based on that it might be a similar time frame for this grant application as well Yeah, thank you for the presentation and um, yeah, I just have a couple of questions regarding I guess just sort of the decision process that planning Has gone through just with with regards to sort of how to utilize these funds. So my understanding is that I believe in two or three years. I can remember which but we're we're We're to begin our regional housing needs and housing Housing amendment updates right for the for the general plan in the next two two years. I think it is. Is that correct? 2023 So this the work that you do here Obviously will play into that overall city analysis in terms of the various sort of districts that we're looking at for for producing housing and and in Am I correct in that that the analysis that would be done through this grant? Would it be specific to a certain kind of housing or would you be looking at all types of housing? So in other words, um, you know, would this grant help us understand? Um, you know very affordable, you know, low income to you know, median income or workforce types of housing or is it specific to To, you know, market rate housing. I'm just trying to get a sense of what what the analysis can include Yeah, we don't have specific details on on what that expansion would be like We've we've just seen that, you know, the increase in development standards and and uh capacities for housing and and office space in the current downtown area through that 2017 process Have yield have yielded positive results And this is just at the very beginning of that process where we think there are areas Uh near downtown that could yield some more successes Um, so I we haven't gotten into the details yet of what kind of housing that would be Or what percentages of affordable we're looking at and things like that Um, but but we do see, you know, uh a process of fine-tuning those as we go forward And and learning more about what the community wants and what we think can happen in that area And uh working more closely through the engagement process Yeah, I would seem uh, that's great to hear it would seem that um with our rena goals Still hopefully in reach within some of the affordability Um affordable um projects we we're lining up It seems like this might be a timely way to sort of tie a number of different efforts together Um, and and certainly having uh the availability of a sizable grant to do all that would seem to be very efficient and helpful For the community to understand all the pieces coming together. So Um, thank you. That's my those were my question Members at this time of the public So there are any members of the public who would like to speak to us on item number 23 Which is a 2020 regional early action planning State planning grant application Now it's the time to call in Once you've called in using the numbers on your screen You'll want to press star nine on your phone to raise your hand And once you've been acknowledged, you'll be asked to unmute your phone And you'll have two minutes to speak three on our agenda Please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand And you will have two minutes to speak opportunity for the public to weigh in moving forward as it relates to The expansion of the downtown zone if that's to be appropriate by the community And so with that I'll go ahead and move the item. Um It's on the staff recommendation, which is To move a resolution directing staff to submit an application to the association of monterey bay area government So the state of california regional early action planning grant program To contribute funding towards the project to expand the boundaries of the city's downtown plan I'll just saw your hand up next I'll second that and ask the maker of the motion if he would be willing to include in the direction Uh report back the reason I was asking about timing for hearing about the grant was to try to get a sense of when would be an appropriate time for a progress report from the planning staff and so i'm just uh, you know, thinking that Based on what I heard, um, you know a report back in january of 2021 about planning You know kind of some some more detail around the planning so I guess a progress report on downtown expansion planning efforts and Community input opportunities It by the second meeting in january My understanding is we're voting on a we're voting on the grant directing the grant the grant application today, but Just councilmember, um Brown can you read off? I'm sorry. I didn't it sounded like you're asking It the intent of the um amendment is to sort of get a broader perspective on that area of downtown Is that not alive? Well, the intent is to get a progress report on uh, the Planning it yes the the planning but I'm asking about that because the grant explicitly is about um, you know, it sounds like at least I don't know having not been able to look at the The contents of a proposal, um, but from what I read in the agenda report that the Um, you know the intention is to use these funds For that planning process and so they are linked together in that way Um, so I I just want to I'd like to hear more given that what we have is high level conceptual as um as matt kind of Suggested in his presentation so that we can hear what how this is going Um at the council level and the public can get an update, you know at some point before You know too much time goes by and things start to Um get solidified So it's really just the my most my it would be in addition to um direct staff to return to the council with a progress report on Uh downtown expansion planning efforts I'd like to leave it there, but I can say under the grants You know the grants if you want it to be connected directly there But I just think that just getting a report because work is already clearly happening. It's going to happen So it's a progress report on downtown expansion planning efforts By the second meeting in january seems Reasonable time frame. I guess all um I I'd like to just make sure it kind of understand from the I guess I don't know is uh director media economic development director body let's come and maybe we I'm just I'm just trying to understand sort of their availability to do that work To to provide that that progress plan. Do you mind if I just hear from staff real quick on that? Thanks councilmember brown and councilmember meyers In terms of how much progress we've made by that point in time Given the other you know the objective standards push that we have as well as the start of The preparation for the housing element which Will be happening. You know, we'll be receiving that grant as matt mentioned in the next couple of months. Hopefully I don't know how much progress will be made at that point We can certainly report back to you and and tell you you know our thought process at that point But we will absolutely be back in front of the council before Any decisions are made in fact the council will be the ones making the decisions in terms of uh, hearing the community feedback that we have received and then the recommendation that We would be making in terms of where to Expand the downtown be it Or both And at that point in time, you know, we would we would have more information But we can we can certainly report back and just give you our initial thoughts If if that's what you're if that's what you're thinking I just don't know that we will have at that point Actually engage the community quite yet I guess that's partly my point. Um, is that Often things come to us Once you know kind of after the fact the process has occurred Whatever the process is that staff undertakes and we get a recommendation to move forward on something that We may not necessarily have been tracking and so I just feel like have it again I'm not asking for you to do a whole lot of extra work But just to provide a progress report on where things are at with that planning process in relation to the fund the grant funding It's something we can certainly do it. I I just want to be upfront I I don't know that we'll have actually made a whole lot of progress in terms of actually doing anything But we can certainly articulate our thinking and share, you know the application and the status of that If that's something that the council is interested in And Bonnie, I don't know if there's any perspective I know downtown is both planning But there's economic development as well and some of some of the efforts downtown or if you have any issues with Or time constraints or what have you I'm not sure Bonnie's on today Clicking through to see if she's wondering I see Her she's on yeah Go ahead. I'm sorry, mayor I was remember Matthews raised her hand But if the I don't know if Bonnie's not available if there's somebody else from Economic development who might be able to speak to that if not, maybe we can hear councilor Matthews comment. Yeah, certainly. Thank you there Okay Yeah, my thought was that January report that might be Pretty high expectation given the issues that the planning director mentioned, but but just to improve the motion regular reports back to council on the status of the Process and I think that's what intended is key checking that critical point And I'll just mention. I mean, I I think that What it sounded like to me is just getting processes at because You just want to understand in January, where's the grant for anything, you know, it's super detailed with Key dates and you know, who's big stakeholders are but just understanding where everything is at um, given that it's early October and Hopefully, you know time has gone by that maybe we Are going to receive the grant and there's some planning moving forward, but that's kind of how I'm understanding it as well Yeah, if I can respond. Yeah, I'm happy with maybe we'll just provide a to To try to come back by the second meeting in January just to give I mean, there's there's holidays in there Who knows what's going to happen with covet this winter? I think maybe let's just maybe give them as much time as possible and I'm fine with accepting the amendment. Thank you If I could just say one more thing about it, you know, I I totally understand the concern and I you know and it's also a little bit awkward to kind of Just guess, you know to have shot in the dark Yes, about when a good time would be for report back but I just find that if we don't have some Deadline that sometimes it doesn't happen and it's totally understandable because there's a lot going on But I just feel like when there's a date then we sort of Are better able to track it That's the only reason why if there's a date that would be preferable for Director Butler or I don't know Director what comes here that I'm happy with another date, but I just want to make sure that we get something mayor if I could perhaps just If you're interested in getting an update prior to us engaging the community about Where We may want to expand we could provide an update to you in advance of rolling out that outreach effort And so that way if it's if it's marked when we're doing that we could provide it to you in February or but It it keeps us from coming back and not having a whole lot of Work that's done And interim so if that would be acceptable then I mean that I think would work for us I don't know if Matt had anything else or any other thoughts to add Yeah, no, that sounds good to me too I would support that The seconder would be amenable Can we can we put the potentially put the time frame to To prior to any to the community outreach component I've described Let's just say prior to the community outreach component regarding the downtown planning efforts And that would be a little bit of a we've got a we've got a goal They are sort of we want to hear before that starts is is really the intent the maker is the seconder okay with that Absolutely. Yeah, I think prior to initiating The community outreach component Great I just want to say how excited I am to see this part moving forward. I think this is the The logical next step of what we've been doing And over time I mean I'm going back to the first downtown plan and the earthquake recovery plan and then the downtown Plan revision more recently Our housing blueprint Looking at the expansion of downtown in fact of the downtown boundaries was to some extent envisioned by the Puma project for the Council members remember the consolidation and possible expansion of some of our assessment districts downtown for providing services and unfortunately We all know history intervened and that that project did not move forward But the potential has always been there. We are beginning to see the revised downtown plan come forward and There has been for decades really the desire to Create a more robust connection between our downtown and the beach area And these flats as well and particularly for those who are concerned about affordable housing This needs to present one of the real opportunities. We've seen some of our most significant Affordable housing over the years occurred in our downtown area just off the top of my head Um Sycamore, Nueva Vista Pacific station phases one and two the library master plan riverfront at the north end. I mean and by looking at what's been happened and some of the Let's just call them opportunity sites in a possibly expanded downtown Is just a tremendous forward-looking opportunity and you also talked relatively recently about the future of the warrior in Santa Cruz. It's just another part of it. So I just see it as a A wonderful opportunity to look to our future now and very happy to support the motion Those are comments The motion we have before us is to adopt the staff recommendations The motion was made by vice mayor meyers seconded by council member brown And in addition to the motion To roll call vote on the item Thank you mayor council member buyers I Matthew I Brown I Boulder I What can Vice mayor meyers I And mayor coming 24 public hearing for subdivision and zoning ordinance cleanup amendments Uh, it's aid 20-005 for members of the public who are streaming this meeting If this is an item you would like to comment on now is the time to call in using the instructions on your screen You'll need to press star 900 phones to raise your hand And once you've been acknowledged you will be asked to unmute your phone And you'll be given two minutes to comment even for presentation Good afternoon. Um, this is Catherine Donovan with the planning division And I am speaking from my office wearing a mask. I I hope that you can hear me Yep, we can hear you Okay, so, um, this is the cleanup item We do these cleanup items we try to do them annually although we missed last year And the reason that we do them is that there are always a number of Issues with the with our ordinances To keep them updated we we want to keep them consistent with state law We want to make sure that there is internal consistency with the ordinance And we also want to improve and streamline our application processes Clarify the language and concepts In the ordinance and remove any redundancies and then sometimes we just want to improve the ordinance itself as Best practices are developed and as General planning thought and cultural norms Change over time Sometimes there's a need to make changes to the ordinance to be consistent With what's happening in the real world This this cleanup item includes a large number of Relatively minor changes and so I'm not going to go over each and every one of them I'll mention some of the specific items and I'm happy to address Any particular items that you may have questions about The ordinance updates the subdivision ordinance to comply with changes in state law and also to allow that Catherine can you Catherine can you start interrupting can you share your presentation? Are you not seeing it? Or we're not seeing it. No, okay Let's try this again. Thanks. I'm having trouble getting my zoom to open Catherine. Let me know if you want to share it Okay, let me just Okay, can you see it now? Okay, now we get to the nitty gritty um specific amendments include updates to the subdivision ordinance and those are both to Bring the ordinance into compliance with changes in state law and also To allow the city If an if an if there is litigation over a subdivision map and the applicant requests that a stay Um during that litigation that would allow the city to grant that stay for up to five years um, we're also proposing revisions to the design permit findings. We currently have 16 design permit findings which that the generally cities have about five four or five so Having to go through each of those findings for every design permit can slow the process down. Many of those findings are Redundant because they're covered in other sections of either the zoning ordinance or or other City requirements and so we're basically just removing redundant findings from The requirements We the ordinance would also um allow The process for a half bath in an accessory structure without requiring a public hearing And also to remove the design permit requirements for structures or additions that are 120 square feet or less And 15 feet in height or less One of the updates would be to update the home occupation standards Um They would allow one non resident employee We're increasing the number of trips per day that would be allowed And we're clarifying that employees working from home Um Are not they do not have a home occupation unless they are independent contractors But if they are actually employees like when i'm working from home, that's not a home occupation Other changes include Updating our density bonus ordinance. There's a Cause in the state law that says that you can't require reports that the Applicant is not would not already do our Density bonus ordinance requires a pro forma in certain circumstances. And so we've just added pro forma or other Documentation Just to cover us in that case um We're also making some changes to our Latest revision to our adu ordinance um The changes from last year that were approved in january of this year um that went through the state the state changes were uh in Some places were somewhat ambiguous or contradictory and Our we made the best interpretation we could um, but when we sent our approved ordinance To the state housing and community development department hcd They had some differences of opinion Of on how to interpret those code sections So we've worked with hcd to revise our ordinance and those revisions are in this In this cleanup item Um, we also currently have something called a hardship exemption For under grounding utilities. There's a requirement that when you do development that you underground utilities However, if there's There's this hardship exemption, but what we've found is that The hardship exemption is so broad that it is um undermining our our The the requirement itself and so what we're proposing is to replace that exemption within and loopy And that would allow that fee would go into a fund and then um, the public works department could use that fund to um underground A whole neighborhood at a time Which which they do um Occasionally do We would we are also proposing to revise the standards for duplexes on corner lots in r1 districts r1 5 districts that this is something that is currently allowed but the um standards we feel are Are don't always make a lot of sense and so we've revised some of those standards And we are also proposing to expand the Cannabis retailer hours They're currently limited to 9 p.m. And to go to 10 p.m. And this is something that we um asked direction from council at last year And this was the current direction council gave and unfortunately with Everything that's happened in the past year. We were not able to bring this to you until this time and also um This was in the ordinance when we took it to the planning commission But we realized that um, it would make sense To make an additional change to allow existing retailers To expand their hours automatically to 10 p.m. Without the need to modify their use permits And we checked carefully to make sure that um, all of those retailer use permits Would currently allow The the retailers to be open at um 9 p.m. So that we wouldn't be Expanding significantly and and that is the case excuse me um When I was reviewing this The ordinance last night getting ready to form for this public hearing. I realized that um There was an internal inconsistency that we had not caught and this has to do with the the parking Ordinance that you just heard earlier today. Um, and that ordinance Proposes some changes some that would require an administrative use permit And the language of the ordinance was that the administrative use permit would be um at an administrative level and not require a public hearing And that was included in one section of the ordinance But there are actually two additional areas of the zoning ordinance that discuss when you need a public hearing for um Use permits and so this The proposed additions would um Make corrections to those additional section one of them is section 24 04090 And we you can see in red what we're proposing to add that it would just um The administrative use permit Would not require a public hearing if it was a temporary use Um for variations to parking design requirements and the number of parking spaces And in half bath it half baths and accessory structures um So that is one of the changes the other is in the section on administrative use permits Where it states that an administrative use permit um Is required to have a public hearing Except again if it's temporary For variations in parking design requirements and the number of spaces and perhaps An accessory structures, and I know I just I just wanted to reiterate to Catherine That those that those changes Were are consistent with the planning commission recommendation Planning commission supported that change in the one section that we presented to them And it was just merely an additional cleanup. That's the the same language needed to be added to these two other sections Oh, so that that's the only change we're really making here Thanks And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer Are there any council members who have questions at this moment in time hearing none? Guess what we can do is we can Turn it over to members of the public So if there are any members of the public who'd like to speak to us On item number 24, which is subdivision and zoning ordinance cleanup amendments 820- 0005 and 820- 0006 Now's the time to call in on your on this item If you can call one of the numbers that you see on your screen once you've dialed in please press Star nine on your phone And you will have up to two minutes to comment on this item I'd like to bring it back to council for action deliberation. Uh, what I just want to thank the staff for You know going I'll go ahead and move the recommendation and want to second your Appreciations of staff. I know one of the most frustrating things to applicants on any grant planning process is where the ordinances are unclear or in context in complex if one another so This may not be a sexy item, but it's I'll motion my counselor Matthews council member Second that motion and echo the cost of appreciation to our staff So the motion by council member Matthews seconded by council member Watkins to move the staff recommendations It does look like there was one member of the public who raised their hand to comment on this item So I'm going to open public comment in case the call vote on this item Thank you mayor council member buyers Matthews Hi Golder Hi Vice mayor Myers Hi And mayor coming Before we begin this item of the public who are streaming this meeting that 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 staff We will then take public comment and return to the council for deliberation and action Given the amount of comment that we previously heard on this item, uh, public comment Make sure that you guys can hear me Yep, we can hear you Great, and I'll share my screen here Okay, and you guys can see that Yeah, it looks like it's a presenter of you, but um, but it's oh it's coming through fine, so Okay, I'm not sure I should change that or I'll leave it for now It's fairly just fairly quick if you have Ryan you should change it if you have notes I think just stop share Stop share share screen Yeah Share oh, there we go Is that a little bit better Uh Now Yes Okay, great. Thanks. Um, if you recall, um at the august 25th City council meeting the the council held a public hearing to preliminarily consider a proposed general plan amendment local coastal plan amendment And to let me move this forward here if I can And it looked close to plan and rezone 101 felix to accommodate, um, 80 new apartment units, uh, in an existing 240 unit cypress point apartment complex um, the purpose of the hearing um in august was for the council to Consider the project from a policy perspective Um, specifically whether or not a a general plan amendment and zone change are appropriate at this location In order to give direction to staff And the applicant as to whether they should continue with the process of the application The council considered the information Provided in the staff report listened to testimony from the public And after discussion by each of the council members passed a motion To have staff bring back a resolution denying the general plan amendment and rezoning Pursuant to state local laws council approval of a general plan amendment or rezoning clearly requires planning commission Applying commission recommendation prior to the council action At that time in august Staff believed that the council Could deny a general plan amendment or rezoning without planning commission recommendation Since no change to the general plan or zoning, um, what occur However, following that meeting, um, a municipal code section was identified that requires that all General plan and rezoning requests go to a public hearing before the planning commission Before the city council can take the final action as you can see here in section 2406.0 30 So as a result, um to comply with this municipal code section Staff is recommending that the application be referred to the planning commission For public hearing at the next available hearing Based on noticing requirements um We're looking at november 5th as the plausible planning commission meeting So, um, that's a recommendation and i'm available for any question Wanting to clarify. So this is more of a procedural vote. We're not reopening this can of worms at this time Thank you I just want to get some clarification That was to be come that was an application for a new development That would need to go through sequa and then the application after going through the the sequel process would then go to planning commission And then after it got went through the planning commission it would then come to council For approval of that application. Is that a correct? You're right. Yes Ryan I can weigh in on that Um, no council is not taking action to approve the project Simply referring it to the plan the planning commission is not an action that would trigger trigger a sequel review before you could take an action that actually constitutes A commitment to approve the project then you would have to do a sequel analysis, but not um merely to provide preliminary feedback Or to um refer it to the planning commission for potential future action The action to send it to the planning commission through all the steps and then the sequel approval go to the planning commission for Approval of the application I'm just trying to understand because it seems like What we've done sequence in terms of how a project would normally come before the city council And so now i'm just really confused with Yeah, you know what what we are required to do versus because it seems like what we can do today is just What um has put us in this sort of predicament is that The matter that came before you in august was intended to gauge the council's sentiment and Uh, not necessarily to take a final action. So the council has given direction um that it needs to undo to restore The status quo prior to the last council meeting if the council merely um You know direct staff to proceed with the normal planning process for this project and communicate to the planning commission um the council's current Sentiment as expressed by the minutes of the august I think 27th meeting then you can you can do that by motion I think I might have tony just missed that last point Okay, we were not given a project. We were asked to weigh in on the general plan amendment Which we did Right, but the but the problem was and what we overlooked the last time around Is that before the city council can take action on a general plan amendment It must be referred to planning commission for a recommendation. So the council can't Take action to deny general plan amendment without following that step as specified by your zoning code I'm this is kind of a different question There's been times where maybe it was only on appeal That the council can just bring something to their Agenda Overlook commissions and overlook planning commission and we just want to take it on Could this apply in this case? I mean, I I think there is precedent for Let's say a project applicant to come before the city council To float a concept and to get council feedback before the formal process is completed And and that's essentially what was Uh, it's what should have occurred in this case, right? No, I'm thinking of something that we say we just the council How you do it, I guess the emotion is something made to to skip a code skip the commission's Way and just immediately take it to the council Whatever findings we had to make in order to do that, but I think it was just a move things along and I'm not there's a word for it when We just I'm not not recalling a specific of that although That sounds Like something that that has occurred Well, it just seems that we already respect to The the application that in this phase of the process with respect to a proposed general plan amendment Well, it seems a perfect case That this might work for the But for the fact that your code requires the planning commission to weigh in Well, that's what that that's the point. I'm wondering if we have higher jurisdiction that we could do that, but maybe I'll Maybe you'll oh your code also specifies council member fires that if the planning commission were to make a recommendation and if the council on it on a zoning Uh on a rezoning application or on a general plan amendment and the council Um Is interested in taking a substantially different action than it's required to refer it back to the planning commission Yeah, no that that I understand that as well Yeah, yeah that that that I understand That's all Okay, thank you. I just want to clarify here, uh, because and I have some comments. I'll make later Just want to clarify that um As I understand it the original staff report for august 25th Uh was asking us to um express or express a willingness or a non willingness to um consider the amendments the general plan and zoning amendments that would be required for this project to move forward um, and so I so my understanding is that um What you're asking us to consider today is something a little bit different and that is To go to the planning commission specifically about The project without going through the whole application process that you were trying to Ask us to signal to the developer whether or not it would be worth moving ahead And now what I see is um Uh proposal to move it to the planning commission And it it's likely I I think it's likely that they won't um Here they will not make a decision on this project without seeing Uh the The project application and environmental review. So I'm just having a hard time understanding Why it is that um, we are being asked to do this now when we weren't asked to do this on august 25th I don't believe it. You know, I get the confusion around the resolution, but we were But there was a lot of confusion that evening and so I'm just trying to understand how we and we're we're here now kind of after the council voted to express it um You know, it's unwillingness to consider it We're now being asked to Kick the can down the road it feels and kind of just wait. I'm not sure why we need to Wait, so again, just to help me understand how it is that We can I mean and tony maybe this is a question for you So that was kind of a comment, but here's my question We do that today. Can we just do what? At least I am making the motion intended to do At the time on august 25th. Can we do that today express our? willingness or unwillingness to move ahead Um, I think the council may Uh, take a vote today to refer it to the planning commission with the councils I suppose recommendation for denial So you're saying we we have I don't know you're telling us that legally we have to refer this to the planning commission today because I guess only um You only have to refer it to the planning commission Um, I suppose if you take no action today, then the application would still be in process and the Applicant may continue to pursue the application. So I suppose formal action to refer it back to the planning commission Is not necessary. I just think it makes for a cleaner record given the direction that was Uh provided by the council at the last meeting Maybe if I could jump in, um I think what we were trying to do at the last meeting was um in many respects to address what council member Byers was Commenting on which was you know, if if the council has Really big concerns about the project and isn't going to be supportive of it Then let's hear that sooner rather than later Um, where we made a mistake is we believed that The council had the ability to just outright deny the application and we subsequently Learned that we had to go back to the planning commission In in order for the council to formally deny the application to speak directly, I think to your question council member brown I think that the council has really two options right here The the recommendation was That you have before you is to send it back to the planning commission So that it could then be brought back to you for a formal denial Consideration because the council can't formally deny an application until that planning commission recommendation occurs As uh, the city attorney kandadi Mentioned you aren't compelled to send it back to the planning commission right now You could say you've heard what we said and you can proceed. Should you wish to do so? So that would be another option the the uh, council can just say You heard our vote It's up to you whether or not you now want to proceed with the uh, sequel analysis and Bring a full package back in front of the planning commission at a later date So does that help clarify a little bit? Okay, and and apologies for the the confusion related to this we were we were trying to be helpful in coming earlier and Recognize that we did create A great deal of confusion as a result sitting and commenting on item number 25 on our agenda Unmute your phone Please that's to comment on this item with the exception of brine may unmute your device Hi, thank you My name's elissa barns and I Am a resident of neary street. I live about a block from the cypress street apartment My main point today is just that I feel this whole confusion sends a really wrong message to the public Because we did work very hard to have our voices heard and to a um State that we are not in favor of this project So I would like to ask that you do deny this motion Although I do hear that there's very little that can be done I do feel that this is a case where the big money is bulldozing through their plans And that we've been around the block on this we've argued our points. We've let people know That this is a really Designed plan that would be a strain on an already too Uh densely populated neighborhood. So my request is can we allow the vote to not spot rezone stand? um In in in future things and I know the protocols and everything but just It makes me as a public community person feel that There's no way to make my voice heard without endless, you know, uh laboring and I Just would like the city council to Deny the motion and to keep the spot rezoning Vote as a solid vote. So thank you. Those are my comments Okay, thank you. I'm a resident of cypress point. I Agree 100 with elissa's points And I just feel that It's it should be a moot point. It was already voted down prior And I don't understand like elissa says why this has to continually be brought up and I agree. I think that they the developers are just trying to bulldoze this through I really really really do not want this to occur and if it does It will force me to have to leave And I really like living here I'm a taxpayer just like all of us. So again, I I'd please respectfully ask for this whole project to be And that the previous vote stands Thank you You're being asked to unmute your device Questioned over a week ago to have extra time for the sierra club of santa cruz Is that possible? Um, the only email I received was I think it was yesterday Now I'm emailed it to bonnie and you may are coming Of page letter in two minutes if you like but just tell me yes or no Yeah, I did not receive the request for additional time. I'm looking back to my emails right now and I'm sorry. I didn't receive it How strange? Okay. I've mailed it to bonnie bush and you okay our chapter has 6 000 members Um, we sent you a 12 page letter. It includes a biological assessment Of nary lagoon and in short the sierra club supports High-density intel in appropriately zoned areas However, the rezoning of this parcel would present significant issues Three of them are the location of this parcel is not within or adjacent to the areas where high density infill should be focused According to our general plan second The parcel is located in close proximity to fragile wetlands and a riparian habitat Third spot rezoning should never be used as a development tool We view rezoning one parcel As undermining the careful democratic process of our general plan of our local coastal program And of the open space management plans Given all these conflicts to the guiding principles of the santa cruz general plan We urge you to oppose the proposed rezoning in order to protect nary lagoon and uphold our community's vision and values of truly sustainable development spot rezoning undercuts community planning Resoning one parcel in a neighborhood undermines effective planning It reduces the careful process in which all parties are working together for the benefit of the community Not just the benefit of one particular entity seeking to rezone Proposed zoning designation conflicts with the general plan. There are several points. We've outlined them on there about And how also spot rezoning Quote here spot rezoning has all the hallmark characteristics of institutional mischief And it's often found in cities where the city council and the planning commission are controlled by the real estate board All the natural resources that would be affected And may I just in some on conclusion I heard the lawyer Tony Cattati right there say that you could override the planning commission So I hope that you will actually take that as Catherine Byers sandy brown Asked about and just in Cummings and you override the planning commission. There have been several hearings on this You have heard from the public. We feel heard Please listen to all the people speaking and override the planning commission Deny this project now. Thank you Yeah Hello I'm good afternoon. Hi. I'm sondra ivany and perfect timing to come right after kyrsha and the z era club Every point that she made including the institutional mischief and definitely got our attention. We have definitely Many many people in this neighborhood have learned a lot about how government works and we're very dismayed To see this happen I'm not going to even I'm just going to add a few more things to the sierra club the parking the safety the overcrowding the social justice issues Targeting an already dense neighborhood of renters the bad management the potential flooding Along with the being in the flood zone with the climate change. Okay. I'm going to move on to this piece of it We in neary lagoon were we're very uh in uh saved neary lagoon We're very concerned about what the resolution meant. Was it a vote? Was it uh, um, just a sign-off Was it a majority? What would happen in a tie? We had many questions about this. We're not attorneys I address my questions to um Ryan bain who forward them on to the attorney and Here we got last week. I think it was last thursday I could be mistaken about the date six weeks after that october 20 that august 25th meeting We got the note from uh from we got I got the email directed to me personally Which of course I've shared with everyone since I'm speaking for everyone when I write to the uh To the planning department and or the attorney um, and uh, so the attorney gets back to me saying oops We made a mistake. We left this part out You know, I just really wanted an answer about what a resolution was who votes on it Is it a vote? Is it a sign-off? We already got a majority. We already voted We had a lot of questions about that And then to come back and hear from the attorney the and to hear this this jargon Um planning commissioned and I I'm quoting from what the third point was on this that you already saw on the screen before Can I just read this what the attorney wrote? Which is completely inscrutable. Would that be all right? Go ahead and then I'll thank you. It's you can maybe even put it up on the screen because it was showing before Um, we have no idea what this means You know planning commission quote planning commission denial of any proposed amendment Shall terminate the proceedings in the matter unless an appeal is filed Or the application was initiated by the city council in which case the planning commission action Shall be a recommendation and quote and I was just asking about the Um Finalizing the the vote that we took and then I got that. Thank you very much Or did just our 2294 you're on the line Good afternoon Dear esteemed council members first off. I don't know before for affordable housing And spot rezoning is one of the worst solutions ever. Please uphold and deny the rezoned vote of august 25th um Please maintain the character's character of our neighborhood and uphold the hard work of 40 general plan staff individuals Over eight city commissions and over a dozen consultants These individual people and commissions laid out a plan for the future growth and development of the city Please respect and honor their hard work and stand behind the general plan and keep Santa Cruz Santa Cruz This project not only violates the 2030 general plan, but also wishes to exercise invalid Authority such that a spot zone creates or can An outside developer wishes to dismantle and step on the city of Santa Cruz a general plan You might ask why is spot rezoning so bad? Well It could be an invalid exercise and authority So an outside authority such as east bay developer coming with money and say this is what we want to do And the planning commission sees that's okay. We're going to do it no more general plan no more Santa Cruz It's discriminatory against other home and landowners It is not planned. It's sloppy not well thought out not for looking and primitive It splits communities people from the outside of the community have too much power and alter the feel vibrancy and lifestyle General plan wants to keep Santa Cruz Santa Cruz Usually done when rezoning is at odds with the city's master plan such as an outside influence developer wanting To do something that is not planned for And it may be ruled arbitrary capricious and it makes unjustified exceptions Please make good decisions or use the city's Santa Cruz 2030 general plan and honor and respect the work of many individuals created document to keep Santa Cruz the way it is Just stand by the general plan. Don't let somebody come in and say this is what we want to do This is how we want our city to look Even with even if it's with a dangling care of affordable housing We can't build ourselves out of you know out of the situation we in Just by building more building Thank you. Thank you mayor Cummings. Can you hear me great? Good afternoon. Thank you for the time I'm bryan riff bell from braddock and logan the owner of cypress point apartments. We've owned it since 2005 Just uh, there's a little way here. There's a lot of uh A request for an amendment to the general plan is being mischaracterized. I think that's spot zoning spot zoning singled out a Parcel of land for use that's totally different from the surrounding area Our request is to change the general plan designation from low medium density to medium density Not high density medium density the current low medium designation only allows for 178 apartment homes Versus the 240 apartment homes that exist today So no change from current use and amending the general plan to allow The existing density What is there today is not spot zoning far from it. Uh, this is this amendment really would undo A common practice in the 1980s that lowered densities through general plans Which is one of the root causes of the housing shortage And it's helped perpetuate social inequalities We're not bulldozing anything. I just heard that no tenants will be displaced not removing any existing units The proposed 80 units are in five new residential buildings mostly in parking lots In the pool area far from the lagoon Interestingly enough though, there was a study here on today's agenda. I think it was item number 22 Unrelated to our request that highlights our parking lot as significantly underutilized. This is consistent with what we've Uh, our own parking council was projected what was shown in the traffic impact study Uh, you know, some of the there's been vocal opposition suggesting that we are under parked and creating Overcrowding and parking on the streets It's far from the truth There's been a lot of attention given to this save The lagoon We love the title. We're 100 support of a protecting area lagoon. It's a beautiful city park an amenity for the residents of our project Our proposal will have no material impacts Our proposal won't have any Material uh impacts to the lagoon the the public currently has and will continue to have Access through our property to this beautiful sanctuary There's no limit to the number of people that can access the lagoon through our property So the new 80 studio in one bedroom Apartment homes that we are proposing will not materially change the amount of car or foot traffic to the area The save the lagoon piece is filled with misinformation. I know uh, it's it's it's got 202,900 signatures or 800 signatures. I'm one of them. I you know, I just wanted to see what what's uh, what's all the hooplet's about Uh, you know, I understand the primary authors are from the adjacent community and understand they don't want to see uh development next door and uh more foot traffic coming from our property Through the lagoon to their property, but again The new 80 units doesn't have anything to do that doesn't governor that it doesn't govern that There is a significant amount of people who go through our property. We provide the public access access There's a public ride away that that goes through basically public uh an easement that goes through our property And around the early going all the way to blackburn street right behind the townhomes They're very upset by this. They don't want to see this foot traffic behind their townhomes And that's the whole impetus of all this Uh, these things, you know, it's the the trees. We're not we're not destroying any trees along the lagoon You know, where the trees go and the replacement trees of the trees that we are going to have to knock down Um, what will be remained to be seen and you know, that's not finalized But we'll be replacing two to one every tree that we knocked down is it is either There's nothing that's older than our existing project the original developer planted those trees to say that they're You know a couple hundred year old redwood that that's that's just not the truth. That's that's not there But regardless, you know, we're we're proposing 20 affordable On-site and the only project that i'm aware of that's having the inclusionary truly inclusionary housing So when you fact in no reason this is able to be done is because we own the land When you factor in all the cost to build the land value is effectively zero So there's 24 20 affordable requirement is actually perpetuating. There are no projects that are proposing that but ours And just lastly real quick the design of project that truly has an inclusionary project or inclusionary element like this Included of the units that we're developing versus segregating a hundred percent of market rate a hundred percent Of below market rate and a hundred percent affordable projects You know, it's basically segregating people by household income And I don't think anyone wants to perpetuate that but that in addition to not allowing the higher density or the existing densities today is I mean Oh, that's going to my time. Thank you, mayor. Thank you Hello Honorable city council, thank you for allowing me to speak again at this additional hearing I was present at the august 25th meeting when lee butler stood before The council and all the public attending and said that the purpose of that meeting was to Give the developer a sense of whether or not the city would amend their general plan and and allow rezoning of the one-on-one Felix Street Parkville to make a decision if they wanted to spend more money Sandy brown moved to ask that that vote which was taken to deny a general plan amendment Be finalized put into code. Whatever it is you do to finalize it So I say let's say city staff time energy and money Let's save the developer time energy and money and let them know in no uncertain terms that the city council does not intend To amend their general plan. Let's finish that And set the resolution forward I'm hearing circular things from city council and the planning department here about Why this has to go back to the planning commission? I certainly Am just I would advise doing nothing. I think that message needs to be sent to the developer That the and what we're so this I'm asking the city council to recommend to the planning commission to deny The the project so that the planning commission can remit recommend back to the city Council to deny. So that is what I'm asking for um, I I I understand how desperately the City staff wish to see this project come forward and I do not understand that This delay seems to be designed to Delay now brian got to talk more than this for a minute. I'm gonna I'm gonna finish my thought And there's only one there's a new city council seated I will say that while only the developer has only requested ad units Currently re-zoning that parcel would allow 265 additional units plus 35 percent more or 93 additional bonus density units Which brings it up to 307 which is now in high density So you've effectively doubled the amount of people who can live there. Thank you Hey, look. Hi there. My name is Oh Thank you, mayor My name is alex nearson. My partner and I are residents of and homeowners in the laurel neary neighborhood just north of the project site And I would urge you today to deny this motion and eventually dismiss permanently the proposed development at 101 Felix My main concern about this project is that in an effort to shoehorn as many replacement trees Onto their property as possible developers are resorting to unsafe locations above a gas transmission pipeline Here's what I know a PG&E gas line crosses 101 Felix along its northern boundary It's buried underground and 21 foot wide easement And as a transmission pipeline, it's larger and operates at a higher pressure than common distribution lines, which enter our own Property owners are responsible for keeping the area above transmission lines readily accessible so that PG&E can inspect Test and patrol the lines Nevertheless developers want to plant 10 new trees within or right on the boundary of that pipeline Even at maturity even more of them 15 trees are likely to have root zones that significantly encroached into the easement And this is a problem because tree roots damage the protective coating of pipelines, which can lead to corrosion and leaks Tree prevent crews from performing important maintenance work and trees threaten safety because they block firefighters access during emergencies Now PG&E already struggles to maintain safe gas pipelines without added obstacles from property owners For example, PG&E was convicted of six felonies connected to the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion, which killed eight people And then they continued to false pipeline records for years after that explosion PG&E pipe inspectors have also been historically understaffed KQED reported that in situ inspections of 1950s era transmission lines in Santa Cruz Were only completed in 2015 and only as a direct response to the San Bruno disaster Please let's not make their job any harder Protect rural nearing neighbors and dismiss this project. Thank you Thank you in terms of the public who would like to speak to us on this item who have not spoken already Um, we have time for one more comment. So if you would please fresh. Hi, thank you for letting me speak I urge you to deny this Project now the vote that was made on august 25th should hold And I believe that this there's there's found a loophole in this procedure That seems to be an opportunity to kick the can back and forth back and forth and to keep giving this developer Hope that this project will will happen and it's wasting everyone's time Since the procedure went out of order The vote on the city council should still stand as the vote to deny this project and I don't really understand all this procedural stuff But if it has to go to the planning commission to have it completely finished then recommend Denying it and then let the vote that you've already had hold We've already been through. I've been to all the public hearing I've been to the planning commission hearing. I'm I'm ready for this to be Complete and you guys voted to deny this project We should not have to go through another vote and keep rehashing this project This this area does not need more density. I don't care if you call it moving it to medium density It is high density already There are four or five people living in each of those apartments because they can't afford a single apartment by themselves And most of them have cars And I beg to differ about the parking situation. There is never any parking when those apartments are full. There is never any parking There is not a lot of walk foot traffic around here because they don't have complete sidewalks But i'm going to go back to what I really want you to do which is to deny this project today It has already been voted by the council to do so Please stop kicking this back and forth back and forth because of a procedural loophole I as a public field Uh a little Dismayed thank you. Thank you Hi, uh, this is Judy Grunstra. I do not live in that area, but I have been following it. It's just I just aghast at the incompetence that this is Reflects of the planning director or planning staff. It's unbelievable. These are highly paid Uh individuals and to bungle something this badly waste Council's time. It's ridiculous. So please Your numbers have spoken Everybody's spoken. You shouldn't have to waste your time on more deliberation on this. Thank you And I have a couple questions and then council member brown is here hands raised. So I'll acknowledge you but I just had a couple questions for clarification for the city attorney I think that Number of members of the public and none of the comments we heard was that members of the public ask will we dismiss Permanently and we'd permanently deny the application but by within a year permanently Well, the question is whether or not It can be reapplied for within a year or whether or not it has to A year has to pass by before a reapplication has occurred and I'm gonna ask the Planning director to help me out, but I believe if it's denied without prejudice, then if they can reapply Or if it's denied with prejudice, they still could reapply but I don't have to wait a year That was something that we talked through at the last meeting. Um, and the denial with prejudice is applicable to the Development applications themselves not to the general plan amendment and rezoning So, um, they could apply for they could reapply You know, if it's denied they could reapply the next day Yeah, that wouldn't necessarily be a smart move on their part because they they know the outcome, but There's nothing that would preclude them from doing that Great. I just wanted to be clear for the members of the public that you know, we don't have any control over permanently denying applications for Development in the city. So I just wanted that to be clear to go before the planning I think it's also go through the actual process and part of that it sounds like earlier Sequa The application would have to go to the planning commission They then have to make a recommendation then the application would come to the city council and then at that point We could deny or approve the application to be clear. Um We looked at the state law regarding general plan amendments, which which appears to say That a planning commission hearing is required before you approve an amendment and so that's what the the miscommunication that the last meeting was based upon but our code clearly states that a public hearing Shall be held by the planning commission on all proposed amendments Um at the last meeting in august There was an opportunity for the public to weigh in and for the council to gauge public sentiment about the project But uh, in addition to Hearing from members of the public Our processes have to be followed in a way that's fair to all parties concerned And that's called due process and and that's why while it would be tempting to To to take final action based on the discussion at the last council meeting We simply can't do that in a manner that's consistent with our due process requirements Previous council action on august 17th. I can't make a motion, but I'm happy to share that language Yeah, I I was I have some comments and then I I was prepared to make a motion If we want you want us to work off of yours. Mayor Cummings that's fine with me. Um, I did send it to Bonnie. Um, so The motion that I am hoping to make in just a moment is um one that I wish I had made six weeks ago I wish I had um taken uh the time to get some outside council on this about how to proceed So that we didn't end up in this kind of situation Um, but I kind of trusted that staff was giving me the um, you know information on the best way to go here. Um And so as I understand it once again, uh, the staff brought to us to give the developer a sense of whether It was worth their time and energy to pursue all of the steps necessary to Um, get an out and get a project approved this this particular project or one like it And that includes the general plan and zoning changes and we could quibble about whether or not this is spot zoning or not You know, it's based on our different understandings But regardless, it's a it's a proposal to zone outside of a regular process for general plan amendments. So to me that single single spot zoning a spot general plan amendment and so While I I get it that we did not deny Uh, the project today I believe we do continue to have the right to express our intentions and And I just want to you know, I'm not going to go into the substance of reasons why I haven't talked about it last time I think members of the public Provided a lot of good points here that I would I would echo but I won't And for the sake of time. So it really does feel like You know to me as well as members of the public who have spoken that it is before us again Do a procedural loophole that's really intended to get a different outcome than the one That that we voted on on august 25th And countless people have weighed in I don't think it's appropriate to keep them hanging to keep them in limbo If and again with the understanding that we cannot make any final decisions today I um, I do have a motion and um, you know, mayor coming I don't know if you've sent it to bonnie or how you want to do this But if you want to put it up, I'm I'm prepared to make a motion right now and I will I'd like it to be up so that we can be clear about what it is before We have Just more discussion Okay, so, um So this is pretty close to the motion that I had intended to make. Um, I also wanted to include though Um that we um not send this to the planning commission at the application to the planning commission at this time um I so because so if we could include So in the motion, um That the council not refer Uh the um application cp19 dash 0176 for the property at 101 felix street Uh to the planning commission at this time And I guess so in terms of the order, that's fine. I had that first but um That's fine. So my motion would be then to that the council express its sentiment Uh, that it's not in favor of the projects based on concerns regarding, uh, uh I guess I would say since we may end up quibbling over the definition of spot zoning, uh regarding uh general plan and zoning amendments outside of the regular I think outside of the regular procedure procedure Regular procedures Yeah, and they so the integrity of the general plan is implicit there, but it's you know, I also works for me And so the importance of projecting quality of life in the surrounding neighborhood As reflected in the previous action. Yeah Um, so that's my motion You're muted also I was trying to change it to the other view where I could raise my hand with the button. Um So I just had a question and maybe someone from planning can answer this regarding we've been talking about, um spot zoning or rezoning outside the general plan amendment period, um Is this something that happens? Often or not often like how rare is this request that the developer is bringing just out of curiosity If anyone can answer that sure. So thank you council member golder. Um, you know, we get requests, um Less frequently I would say than other cities um for general plan amendments Um and rezonings. However, it is a it is a normal process. Um, you know, I In with respect to the motion itself, um, I would You know, I would word Smith the first clause um, because um, you know the regular procedures. This this is a regular procedure that um Can happen that is provided for in the Uh general plan. Sorry in the zoning ordinance and as part of the general plan um So, you know, we've we've had, um General plan amendments and rezoning approved by the council and uh, or at least one that I can recall In the time that I've been with the city for, you know, the past three years It is less frequent than what we see in other cities and sometimes You know, the the general plan looks at the city as a whole and so, you know, sometimes the the general plan um, isn't necessarily looking at at individual properties, but um Uh upon closer inspection, um, you know, I change one way or another. Um, maybe deemed uh, acceptable by the council and and there's a process to do that And that's what we're uh in the midst of right now is is going through that process So does that answer the question? Yeah, thank you. I just was curious. Is this something that's completely, you know Yeah, I appreciate it so the answer is it and I know I had to leave it really from the august 25th meeting and And heard some of the testimony before I left and also since then have had the opportunity to um to tour the location And to um speak to the developer and I still have concerns about this project. So I'm comfortable with not with with um Not necessarily refer I'm comfortable with the potential options I just been trying to understand what this means as compared to referring it to um The planning commissioners. I don't know if Tony or Lee you want to kind of specify the specifics on what Take this exact action this afternoon Well, I I can take a crack at that. Um, I think uh, what this Essentially does is it reflects The council's viewpoint on the project but does not take Does not reflect any action that the count that the council is taking With respect to the application. So I I guess my only concern about it is is that it suggests I mean essentially gets my concern about it is that the The statement that the council not refer the application to the planning commission at this time Is essentially can amount to saying that the council take no action at this time um And and so I I I guess I I think that's a little bit Confusing, but I I don't think it has any particular legal significance And I would say as far as next steps with this motion um, I think it would if This motion moves forward it would send a clear message to the developer Here's where the council stands and They would have the option do they want to at their own risk proceed with spending money on the additional sequel analyses that are necessary to to move the project forward and Should they choose to do so, you know, they'd be doing so at their own risk the sensitive to the you know the Questions around wording and director Butler you raised about the regular procedure So I'm um, I'm gonna ask If we could if my other second to the motion would consider Taking out the motion that the council expressed its sentiment that it's not in favor of this project based on its concerns Regarding the integrity of the current general plan so just take out that piece before the integrity So yeah So because I think that the integrity of the current general plan it kind of gets at that point So if that would work for you mayor Cummings, I would just propose that change before we vote Yeah, I was actually going to ask for a similar change because I think that if there's I don't see why that would be a problem outside of the looking against the increase in density It was a confusion came in and through they can do that but they have to go through Sequel analysis the application the planning commission before it comes to council and it seems like That they go through the application and then get approval from the planning commissioner What have you developers would go through and even go through the sequel process that they can come to council Get approval on that on developments and then you know have an understanding that there's not a risk at that So I think that we don't want to set a bad precedent with this Yeah, I just want to um Just thank uh well Just sort of chime in here. Um, I did do a tour with the neighborhood last weekend. It's very helpful I'll be supporting the motion. Um It this has been incredibly uh confusing process and so um I do think that um We have created um quite a complex situation with People feeling like there was a decision made And in just overall I think um, you know Having predictable development proposal actions and deliberations is something that our community is really Really uh holds high and I think we just have to recognize and hopefully Provide a little more guidance in terms of how we we do this kind of These you know this kind of potential step. Um, if it ever comes up again But um, I will be supporting the motion and just want to thank the neighbors As a neighborhood for providing me an opportunity to visit with them last weekend. So thank you Thank you There are comments by council members at this point in time application cp 19 that thank you mayor council member buyers Hi Matthews is disqualified um brown Hi colder I'm gonna say I but I also just want to say that I um I I don't think that I mean, there's parts of this that I don't agree with I don't know how I can Express that Hi councilmember Watkins Nice mayor meyers Hi And mayor coming Um dinner break is member Watkins to join us for members of the public who are streaming this meeting If this is an item you want to comment on now is a good time to call in Using the instructions on your screen The order will be a presentation We will then take public comment and return to the council for action and deliberation And with that, I'd like to to the regulations of beekeeping on residential and non-residential property Our planning interns Ethan ablar. Hello again council members and mayor members of the public We're happy to be here this afternoon early evening to discuss the city's regulations for beekeeping and And our proposed amendments to those so this is an item that was brought to our attention um a little over a year ago by some beekeepers that the existing ordinance adopted some point in the 80s um was really quite burdensome and um and problematic for beekeepers and you know Understanding how important pollinators are in all parts of the environment including the urban environment um planning staff really wanted to um Have the opportunity pardon me had the wonderful opportunity to have a summer intern help us out with this work this as you can imagine with Some of the other staffing issues the city has going on It's unlikely we would have been able to get to this particular amendment as much as we wanted to So we're really grateful that Ethan um was able to be here with us this summer and do a lot of the background research Work with the um group of focus group of beekeepers that helped us with this process We're so glad he's able to join us again to do the presentation from the east coast so um a little bit of background the current um Requirements for beekeeping require an administrative use permit which has an associated fee um in excess of $2,000 Also um hives are limited to no more than two only allowed on single family properties And they require a step back of 20 feet from any property line as you can imagine that might eliminate that eliminates a lot of property from uh potentially being eligible as um for beekeeping and then the administrative burden on beekeepers is um Significant, I mean that's a large fee for essentially a hobby activity So we had some goals for this amendment. We wanted to promote safe beekeeping practices We wanted to reduce that financial burden on beekeepers. We want to support healthy beehives We know that that's really important both for um domestically kept beehives as well as their Wild counterparts, and then we wanted this ordinance to really just establish some best practices for folks if they may be new to the hobby if they may be um neighbors not familiar with um You know what might be a best practice if their neighbors are starting to keep these We wanted um the community to rest assured that the standards that are in the city code are really going to protect all interests And so with that, Ethan will take you through the highlight the high points of the ordinance Thank you sir, and good evening council members. They're coming um Had mentioned in an uh effort to lessen the financial burden for beekeepers as well as for the city Uh staff is recommending an elimination of the permit requirement for beekeeping in the city of San Diego um in addition to that staff is also recommending an expansion of beekeeping uses beyond a single family zone to be accommodated by commercial multi-family um and public key swaps With the addition that for beekeeping uses on these lots staff is recommending a new consent practice through which beekeepers are required to obtain the written consent of the property owner Uh on which the bees are kept and part of that process also involves supplying uh explicitly written notice to neighbors within certain radius The hives In addition staff is recommending that on these lots uh the hive owners themselves stencil their names and contact information on the hive boxes In addition staff has Recommended a series of best practices the goals of which are to regulate hive placement in such a way to encourage bees To disperse on the properties On which they're being kept before potentially encountering members of the public In the first in the series of best practice recommendations Is that of a constant on-site source of water to increase the likelihood that bees will only seek out water on the properties that they're being kept and not neighboring properties um Next uh staff is recommending a 10-foot setback from pedestrian rights of ways as well as front property lines The goal of which is to create a volume of space through which bees can disperse before leaving their hives Um staff also believes that a six foot barrier can be a proper accommodation to substitute to this 10-foot setback With the understanding that a six foot barrier is not possible to construct Given the standard pieces building load on front property lines so That six foot option is not An alternative for front property lines. However, for the rest of the property it is Staff is also recommending for other mitigation strategies that being elevating hives Attempts at setback from property lines The aforementioned six foot barrier or orienting hive entrances away from neighboring properties and towards the properties itself Because of geographical variation in the city staff Seals it's only practical to recommend two out of four of these mitigation strategies, which we still believe to provide A safe barrier for the bees to disperse in addition for community housing projects And equivalent properties such as townhounds and condos There are additional setting requirements, which are essentially setbacks from other properties Which brings us to front yard setbacks, which is really the area that staff It's the one area of this ordinance, but staff was not able to reach a full consensus with With the beekeepers that we were so happy to consult with in the development of this ordinance And in addition the planning commission Recommended a three foot setback For hives on front yards However, in trying to accommodate this into the ordinance itself staff was unable to Unable to find a way to Conform this three foot setback to what we consider to be best practices For bee dispersion before encountering members of the public For example, a three foot setback Does not do enough to prevent bees from being exposed to noise disturbances or physical disturbances on the street Um, this can potentially agitate bees and increase the likelihood that they will encounter members of the public In a more agitated as opposed to adult health state Um, as I mentioned before a six foot fence, uh, is not allowed to be constructed on front property lines And therefore the volume of space that staff is recommending elsewhere on the property cannot be met through a Shorter three foot setback to some property lines um And lastly, uh in developing this ordinance staff consulted with a beekeeping expert Uh, uh, UC Davis who stressed to us the importance In successful urban beekeeping, uh to have positive relationships between beekeepers and neighbors and while it is of staff full Bullies an expectation that almost every beekeeper in the city of Santa Cruz cares deeply about not only the health of their hives, but also the health and perceived safety of their neighbors Uh, staff still wants to take a somewhat cautious approach to establish a sort of minimum, uh Setback from which if there was a more inexperienced beekeeper who is keeping bees closer to the front of their properties um Did any potential fall out from that as far as uh neighbors Pursued safety and neighborhood relationships with beekeepers that that could be avoided with a longer setback Which is as I mentioned before a 10 foot setback from front guards um so Staff is formally recommending to the city council, uh to introduce some publications and ordinance amendment To the Santa Cruz Municipal code section 24 12 650 as recommended by staff. Um, thank you so much and now We'd be happy to take any questions for that presentation Um, I'll turn it over to uh, vice mayor meyers who has their hand raised questions Yeah, I just have a couple of questions. Um so with the so the restriction or sort of the I guess, um It looked like the planning commission had offered the three foot setback Sorry, my dog is going to bark and I have a bee in my office. So that's pretty great. Um Uh, so I mean if I do this it's because there's a bee in my office. Um I'm just trying to understand a little bit more about Um, how we ended up with the 10 foot and it was is it primarily because of other existing code on the books um And I guess my other question is um in speaking with some of the local beekeepers as well as others other bee folks um So many times the hives are So dependent on the conditions on the property. So moisture, you know wind exposures, you know The warmth of a particular location. Um I'm just curious how many of those sort of environmental factors maybe came into the discussion either with local beekeepers Um, just trying to understand a little bit more how we got to the 10 feet rather than the three I'm just looking for a little more clarification on that. Thank you Sure. Yeah, I'm happy to um dive into that. So, um We so 10 feet actually comes from a document that Ethan found from the University of Oregon um, and it identifies 10 feet as the As Ethan was mentioning sort of this volume of space that like as these leave their leave their hives from a Point they move out in all directions, right? And so when you get to a point of 10 feet distance from the hive entrance um The determination from University of Oregon was that you've sort of reached this point where the bees are dispersed to a level That's similar to what you would find almost anywhere, you know, you know, I walk through my garden I see bees here and there to my knowledge. I don't have a hive on my property So I'm not seeing a big concentration of bees and so that's kind of that's where that 10 feet comes from But that um in the one source we were able to find Um now what happened with the planning commission recommendation and the beekeeper's recommendation two things number one Uh staff made a little bit of a mistake. Um, and I will just own that. Um We were talking about this 10 foot setback Beekeepers had some concerns about that and wanted something smaller And so we tried to come up with something sort of on the fly We said maybe three feet you wouldn't no one would bump into that from the street As we thought about it more after the we ended up taking that I'm sorry We ended up taking that to the planning commission and sort of recommend, you know, presenting it to them as an acceptable option um As we were preparing the city council report We were looking for more backup for that point of view to sort of support it because three feet is really quite a small setback if you can imagine someone who might be less comfortable with bees three feet might Seem a little intimidating. So we were looking for sort of support for that We were really unable to find it and then sort of the last piece that really sort of solidified the recommendation for me was our conversation with Professor Niño from UC Davis Um, she is a bee expert. She is one of the you know references that was provided to us by the beekeepers And that was um included with the packet as at the end of the planning commission report Bees in the neighborhood And she really just has a more conservative approach And that is more protective of the public and of the hives So It seems we want to come up with something that's reasonable We do want to provide an accommodation for these beekeepers So that they can perform this hobby in the community perform this environmental service And we have to be considerate of All the users of our city streets You know front setbacks get a lot more activity than side yard setbacks typically you can't go to six foot barrier there to have bees go up and over In terms of like Could we just consider every parcel like a the unique case? I mean that's a that's a permit process, right? That's kind of what we had before we didn't really have lots of criteria that we would consider but Anytime you want to talk about considering something on a case by case basis that's creating a permit process And we're trying to really avoid that and just set standards say like here meet these standards You don't need a permit from the city Your neighbors can feel safe and secure that you're doing the right thing You can feel safe and secure that no one's going to come and tell you to remove or move your hives So that was really you know a core piece of the goal is to move away from a case by case consideration Thank you. No, thank you for that question and for the response. I maybe have a question more for Tony, I don't know as if for example, we have these parameters in place and Somebody who's highly allergic to bees in a multi residential area or in close proximity to a neighbor Who has um, you know, it's keeping bees. Is there a legal liability associated with this type of policy? I don't look at it as a as a legal liability for the city because The city is only oblique there is only liable for a dangerous condition of public property But it might create a situation where there's liability Of the property owner or of the or of the person who's maintaining the hive um the fact that I mean these ordinances are are fairly typical or some cities don't regulate beekeeping at all and You know the fact that a person who's sensitive to To bee stings might encounter a bee that's maintained up by a hive would not create liability for the city Council member Watkins Yeah, no, I I I think so. I I guess it would just be then if If there is beekeeping happening that isn't necessarily adhering to the parameters set within the ordinance um, how will that Be upheld or sort of how will there be compliance sort of checks or how are we'll just be sort of Or maybe that that doesn't matter if it's so similar to other regulations that the council adopts on a large variety of broad Our large variety of topics this Circumstance came into came to the attention of city staff that there was a Beekeeping operation or an apiary that is is not Maintaining in accordance with the requirements of the ordinance then That would be a code enforcement process that would be initiated in order to rectify that Initially outreach and an attempt to gain Voluntary compliance and if that didn't work then more formal Enforcement measures could be taken council members um, I wanted to ask I'll tell you early Sometimes ordinances have some statement of legislative intent in the beginning Not all but many do and I wondered about just putting something Just a statement here along those lines, which is kind of reflected in the staff report Along the lines of the purpose of this ordinance is to encourage environmentally beneficial holiday beekeeping ensuring the use of best practices with a focus on the safety of neighbors beekeepers and healthy bee colonies Intended to minimize conflicts between neighbors And the I mean something like that What's the legislative intent? What any any thoughts on that? We can do that I think that I think that's some fun Okay, and the reason I mentioned that is that There there has been some discussion which we'll get into I think when When people call in and we have our discussion about Which restrictions are? You know make sense or required how many of those In combinations you need That basically no one cares more about the health of the bee colony than the beekeepers probably And um Want to allow some flexibility with the idea that of course I just ask that question we can Hear people's commentary and then come back to it the council members who had questions Because they kind of want to do their thing and just as much as you want to be yours But you know again like safety around people getting stung by bees. I think is an important piece with this, but Um, there's no other comments from for public comment So if you're a member of the public who would like to comment on item number six 26 Which is an amendment to regulations of beekeeping time to call in using the numbers on your screen Once you've called in please press start you're being asked to unmute your phone. Thank you This is Donna Gardner and I've been working closely with sarah and it's so nice to see you today My husband and I were local beekeepers and we're the ones who started getting this put into motion And I want to first express so much appreciation to the council and the planning commission sarah Ethan everyone who's been so diligent and conscientious to update this outdated amendment our policy that we've had I want to first quote directly from doctor Alina El Nino's Look or her publication bees in the neighborhood best practices for urban beekeepers She does not specify an exact setback She does say placing up highs is an important consideration for responsible beekeeping Especially in urban or suburban areas where people live in very close proximity To avoid unnecessary colony disturbance Hives should be placed in a quiet area of the lot Alternatively high can be placed eight feet above the ground on rooftops Hives are best placed as far away from neighboring properties as possible as well as from roads sidewalks trails and other pedestrian right of way Hive entrances should face in a direction so that bees leaving the hive fly across your property If necessary, you may redirect flight flaps up and away from neighboring properties by using barriers such as Shrubs fabric or fencing She doesn't specify 10 feet for a reason and it was What has already been addressed which is that lots don't conform to this in our community and It's really using best practices I was I was also hoping to address the allergies to bees to a levy sorry, unfortunately We only have two minutes for public comment. I just want to be mindful Any other members of the public who'd like to address the council on this item? Please call in And once you've called in please step star nine on your phone And you'll be given two minutes to speak to us on this item Okay, I'm not seeing any other members of the public who wish to address this on this item And so with that I'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation Council to present council members who have any questions or without them in commotion On this item refer to the comments by some air markers Thank you mayor. Uh, yeah, I I have to say I'm still not convinced about the 10 foot setback from the With in with regards to the front yard setback I the front property line I I do worry with some of the non conforming lots we have in town. I just feel like this might be I it just seems like a it just concerned about How this is interpreted and how it goes forward? And I think I think to the extent that that our local beekeepers Have been up and doing The good work of providing pollinators in our neighborhoods And really really not really understanding and not really receiving really any complaints. I think the You know the ability to encourage people and not intimidate them And and most importantly provide the the ability for The property owner to place the bees in the most successful area that they can for for the bees I I feel like Item F is a little bit repetitive found through the intent in g and h with regards to Especially g where it's specific to A pedestrian right of way including a sidewalk public trail or street where no sidewalk has been constructed that there's very specific Intent there to to achieve that that setback there From the pedestrian right of way. I'm not of course is is the 10 foot there So I have a motion. I'd like to just make to see if we can Potentially make make the intent of the ordinance a little bit less cumbersome from a property owner And I believe bonnie. I sent this to you a little while ago as I was looking through this um, so I'd like to make a motion to Make the following change changes to Ordinance of the city council the city of santa cruz amending apiary regulations in chapter 24 point one two of the municipal code to strike item f From the ordinance and make the following change to item h which will of course become the new item g If item f f is struck Uh, and that change would be that in the first line all apiary shall be maintained in place in a manner That encourages beasts to disperse rather than concentrate before potentially encountering neighbors Aunt or other members of the public And that this requirement may be achieved I'm going to strike by any combination of two or more of the following strategies and again just try to Try to lessen the complexity um, I would make a change that that that line would say this requirement They may be achieved by any of the following strategies recognizing best practices um regarding with with the four listed there That is my motion I'll make a second Seconded by council member golden can can we leave the motion up? I just want to have it for reference so speed over And then uh, I would just like to recognize council member mafias and council member walk-ins alive You are alive. We can hear you I would like to add a statement of legislative intent the per and I'll email this body The purpose of this ordinance is to encourage the environmentally beneficial practice of beekeeping in santa By ensuring the use of best practices with the focus on the safety of neighbors beekeepers and honeybees The ordinance includes guidance to minimize conflicts between neighbors and the general public while supporting healthy bee colonies By the straightforward legislative intent by the Make an emotion second of emotion What do you think? I'm sorry. Yes, we're naming that acceptable. Yeah. Yeah, sorry. Yes on the same page um, these proposed amendments would mean that A beehive could be placed right on the property line and could face into the neighboring yard I just want to be sure we're taking that into consideration Would be right along could be along a sidewalk someone could bump into it There's potential noise And safety impacts as I believe that situation Can you describe to me then with regards to how does So I'm having trouble with the way that f and g work together um so My understanding of what g is trying to accomplish is is to To provide that 10 foot setback from from any pedestrian access But that's not what So I guess I'm confused. Um in the order, um on the intent here Yes, um understandable Um, I bonnie if you could stop sure I could share my screen and could walk through it Okay, so I'm sharing this strikeout version of the ordinance. So, um, we're talking here. Um, Vice mayor meyers is referring to subsection s and subsection g so, um Perhaps like going back in time. We'll make this a little more clear We started off with subsection g and we said Adjacent to a pedestrian right of way. We need some kind of a barrier or protection between pedestrians unsuspecting inattentive Texting pedestrians and behind okay, so no one wraps their dog around it. You know, there's no So no one crashes their bicycles stuff like that So that could be achieved by a setback or it could be achieved by being behind a fence This was something that the um beekeepers pointed out to us initially We were just proposing a setback and they were like, well, what if it's behind a fence? I mean then the bees are going to have to fly up and over before they encounter anybody and that Would essentially achieve your the same ain't absolutely a good point. They're absolutely correct. Um typically, uh, the You know What we read in the literature about positioning hives is that if you really want them to like fly over a barrier It has to be like actually kind of close to it So that's actually that we took that out so forget I said that but anyway So you can either have next to a pedestrian right away a six foot fence You could have that on a side property line So a side or rear property line that has a pedestrian access can have a six foot fence our code prohibits it our code limits Fences walls structures that are in that front yard setback to 42 inches in height So there's no way to provide that same level of protection to pedestrians crossing in front of a front yard setback So that's why there's two separate sections um The wooden the front yard setback sara typically be Do we have front yards that are typically not bordering streets sidewalks or even areas where there are no sidewalks? I'm just trying to I I still believe that s is going to dissuade people from potentially becoming interested in this because some people That may not be Doable or you know on smaller lots or substandard lots there may be may not be that room. So I'm just trying to I'm trying to rectify Trying to imagine a lot that does not We're a lot that's faced a front yard lot a front yard Area that is not facing sort of that The pedestrian condition that we're trying to solve. I guess that's what I'm trying to Trying to understand sure So there are plenty of properties that don't have an existing pedestrian right of way They don't currently have a sidewalk, right? And still people park along streets So by definition a front property line faces the streets So people park along streets. They do walk along streets even where there's no sidewalk And that and that is different than being a pedestrian right of way So a pedestrian right of way Could pass any property line a pedestrian right of way could be at a rear property line if you're adjacent to For example the trail along brand supporting creek. That's a pedestrian right of way Because it's a rear property line, you could have a six foot fence between your hives And the and the trail, right? So Because there are conditions for pedestrian rights of way could be on any property line And we know pedestrians will always interact with a front property line We felt the need to have two separate standards Because you can't have a six foot fence as a mitigation on a front property line So the only option is a ten foot setback if you're going to you know, just be choosing between those two Placement conditions I'll also just add That the staff recommended amendments do provide A great deal more flexibility for high placement on a residential lot than than most cities that we looked at For this language And in if there is a case where a property can't make a high placement work based on these conditions We've still allowed for creative language in the amendment to allow for High placement on public property with with consent from the city as well as the commercial properties as well So there there are options for peaks per set aren't able to place a hide On their lot even with these very flexible requirements Okay, um, I'm still I guess I'm still not convinced. I feel um, I feel like we're uh unnecessarily sort of Making this complicated for folks. Um I think I'm gonna just keep my keep my motion live And and let's see if if we we can if there's agreement with the council if not then at least we tried Unless there's any other council members that have have thoughts on how to How to I I Yeah, I'm just Just worried that we're we're needlessly restricting kind of this these um The ability for folks to try to try to do these things in their yards and Um, just stop there Some other walk-ins wants to facilitate more of these types of opportunities I do feel a little bit of a hesitation With not having the setback. Um Because one I'm I'm personally really allergic to these and two I also recommend recognize that there's constraints in terms of what could be You know in place, but I I also don't really understand how many um, like maybe just how many Folks really fall into that category and if there is an exception to make it easy for them to um To have a creative solution Um, that we can possibly compromise to integrate that exception into the ordinance. I don't know I mean, I'm just not sure like is it 20 is it 50 or is it five? I just don't really I don't really know that Um, the level of people that really fall into that category where this wouldn't work personally. Um, Maybe staff has more insight into that but I fully understand and the interest in wanting to facilitate more of this happening and um, want to help do that as well without kind of putting any kind of um Loose regulations that could harm neighbors and pedestrians walking by potentially I don't know staff if you want to clarify that in terms of your Suggestion in the ordinance has kind of a creative solution option for the folks that might not fit This is sorry. Um, your question was about um A solution about this front yard area Yes and specific to what um, vice mayor mires would suggest was suggesting um changing in the ordinance I don't know how many people would fall into the category where that would be An impediment for them to be able to move forward with beekeeping and if so, could we identify in the ordinance? uh non bureaucratic Way to get solutions, you know established for those for those folks or neighbors Oh, I mean, maybe maybe that would be I don't you know, that's a great question. I don't know how many Folks are in this Venn diagram intersection being on like a highly constrained lot being really interested in wanting to keep bees You know really not having any other alternative site in a side or rear yard My my sense is it's probably not a ton of folks um And there probably are a few you know out out there because we certainly do have some lots that are constrained and You know front yards would be the only one that might not be shaded by a building right because the front yard setback A front yard property line. There's not going to be another building adjacent to it I think I think we're on coming from is it's it's not just the setbacks It's the actual climatic conditions on someone's lot as well as you know exposure to wind. I mean, it's Bees don't I mean they you know, I mean how and where you placed your hive Hopefully to be successful from what I understand is You know, it's really kind of dependent on uh, and I understand the concerns certainly about protecting the public but When you when you take the 10 feet plus you potentially look at the actual layout of your lot exposure to wind moisture Um, maybe a tree that you have, you know, it just continues to constrain I think the success of potentially a home beekeeper trying to have you know, a couple of hives and so um, just trying to kind of look at the big bigger picture around successful kind of You know, some some jurisdictions as as Mr. Kundadi mentioned they don't have any restrictions, you know, some cities really just sort of Let people sort of sort of do this. I think that the people who are interested in bees are a group who really understand also The the potential dangers of bees, you know, and they you know, they're trained to handle these animals You know, they're trained to really understand how the bee bees are behaving Many of them do plan Even vegetation and where they place them so that the bees are moving up You know, so I guess For me, it's really about, you know, how does someone properly do this in in the sense that they have success On their lot and I think when we start drawing lines to sort of Kind of try to and I think in my opinion, it seems like our intent where we have some protections for pedestrians As well as best practices around Around how you should really cite something on your property. It feels pretty thorough to me between g and h um, and that was really my interest in f was um It may be a small amount of properties that are experiencing that but when you do draw 10 feet Um, and depending on how your lot works and your exposure and different climatic things, you know It could you could prevent someone kind of someone someone could throw up their hands, you know And it's just it's just trying to kind of look at the objective of Again trying to provide success for folks who might want to get into this Reading I want you things to point out. Um, we have a very old ordinance on the book That has actually never been used but has been widely disregarded There are many many many many many and, um Maybe one complaint that we know of over over time um And I think that just speaks to the state are locating the hives in a way that Worked for the bees and it's not a public nuisance. Um, I'm aware of the allergies I just my next door neighbor kid did the er when he went into Shock with a bee thing. He happened to get it riding his bike across town Our school bees all the time. So we live with bees and um by large If people have biologies, they know that and they're prepared for it But by large they're a really necessary part of our environment as we know increasingly so I think for the first reading I'd like to give this a shot And I again I want to appreciate all the work that staff put into it and Ethan and Beekeepers, I think it is true that many cities don't regulate it at all And that was partly my interest in putting in the legislative intent is both that we protect Community safety to be keeping a change of language from hobby to practice No, I just wanted to say I appreciate the context of the The optimal space for it to thrive as opposed to sort of the parameters around Safety because I think that's kind of a different mindset to approach it Um, but then I just wanted to see if Lee had anything to say I saw that you kind of popped on here in terms of You know the ordinance language and what's the most appropriate kind of And the thing that I was looking at that I was Trying to digest as I was seeing the revised motion is that relationship between f and g And you know what I'll do I will go ahead and Share my screen here quickly. So we've all got the language in front of us So in f they're saying uh, no hives shall be maintained less than 10 feet from the front property line in g It's specified and that's the uh section that counts member Myers was proposing to delete and then in g It was uh specifying that there's a setback of a minimum of 10 feet from the pedestrian right of way And that includes a street where no sidewalk has been constructed and given that You know, this I see I do see this as somewhat of a compromise sort of a middle ground because The property line oftentimes is set back from the sidewalk and so that Creates a larger burden on a property owner If you know, they're setting back from the curb for example, the property line could be five feet or so towards the inside of that property and Really what we're trying to address is a separation between the pedestrian and the The hives So I do think that you know, this Can meet that intent of providing that separation and it's not pegged to the property line that that could you know Create if we just had this and there was a setback from the sidewalk or the street You know, it could be 15 feet setback from you know, the curb So I just wanted to point that out as far as something that that I realized as as we were coming through this conversation and and thought it may be helpful for the council to consider Further questions and comments from council members at this time Hearing none. We have a motion by vice mayor meyers seconded by council member golder To adopt the To introduce to introduce The ordinance for the city council, the city of San Cruz amending aviary regulations and chapter 24.1 through the municipal code um deleting item f um and then deleting item Yeah, I'm sorry, bonnie that Yeah, that strike through can can go away Which one? Uh in in h2 Sorry, I that was in the original language, but I I believe that That probably should stay in because now we've changed it to Any of the following strategies uh along with the friendly amendment by councilman matthews and A legislative attempt to the order to see that also feel like Any g that I think we'll probably get to the Um safeguards that we're hoping to have in place regarding them Be hot to be too close to sidewalks. So if there's no further Um questions or comments, I'll turn it over to the clerk to please call the roll Council member byers aye Matthews boulder aye vice mayor meyers aye and mayor coming Aye That passes unanimously and we've got about a 10 minute break until Uh But um, yeah, we'll be back here at around 5 30 everyone be happy All right, so what's that uh good evening and welcome to our 5 30 pm session of the october 13 2020 meeting of the city council I'd like to ask the clerk to please call the roll Thank you mayor council member byers Looks like she just stepped away um Matthews here boulder here Watkins here vice mayor byers Council member byers is back as well oral communications For members of the public court stream in this meeting if you'd like to call in To comment on something item that is not on the city council agenda now at the time It's calling using the instructions on your screen oral communications isn't uh, sorry And if you're interested in addressing the council, please press star 9 on your phone to raise your hand Once you have been acknowledged and asked to unmute your phone. You will be given two minutes Can you hear me? Sorry about the car accident? I hope that It's easy. Um, my name's surge tag. No, uh stepping up Santa Cruz I'm a consultant for homeless services Helping with the county with design and policies in your shelter I'm also on the county's mental health advisory board I've been heartened this year that through every new adversity through the pandemics through the fires through the chaos of federal Direction and misdirection that we faced each new challenge with compassion funding and long hours We've all worked harder than ever before to take care of each other except in one way It disheartened me listening to the discussion the grand jury reported at the last city council meeting There was no acceptance of responsibility in the city It was all blamed on the county the county's responsible for services the county's responsible for homelessness the county the county It disheartened me listening to speeches from friday's homeless encampment tour Again, it's the county and the other jurisdictions that should take our homeless Those who live here those who families are here those whose friends are here Those who get services here like there's something that is worth less than everybody else who lives in the city of Santa Cruz The city of Santa Cruz should take responsibility for the lack of compassion with which we treat the homeless The Santa Cruz police enforce ordinances at the direction of the city council Constantly forcing people to move whose crime is being so poor and living in such chaos that they cannot afford a home When we admit that the way that the Santa Cruz police department the rangers in the city treat those without houses Is why they do not want to be a part of the system of the county services Then we can move forward to help them We need to take responsibility that the debt that they rack up from the unpayable tickets of blocking a sidewalk or sleeping in a Place where someone complains makes them unhousable housing navigators try to house House people using section eight or people try to get jobs and get into a program that can help them with a deposit But when the landlord checks does a credit check and they owe ten thousand dollars They're denied and we continue having that person on our streets It goes well It never goes well to disenfranchise a part of our population whether it's color sexual identity or orientation socio-economic status mental health diagnosis or substance use diagnosis We should get on the right side of history compassion to solve the problems and we do have problems can help us move forward I'm sorry that it's only that the activists yell and demand a judge I'm sorry that others honk throw things judge and demand that the homeless leave Santa Cruz There is a middle ground As burns with everything the new shelters are low barrier keeping rules for safety and being flexible to solve people's needs I believe they are safer and have less calls for service because of that Working together is more efficient blaming and ticketing throwing more and more ordinances and judgment does not work anywhere Thank you You have two minutes. Hi, this is Garrett again I would like to clarify that there is no free speech right that involves vandalizing littering proclaiming or taking possession Of the historic clock tower as a sacred altar to anybody It contains historic artifacts and was dedicated already to the bicentennial has many recycled uses as public property and deserves that respect And protection from communist sda or anarchist or other inspired BLM sympathizer appropriation If their goal is to provoke the police by inappropriately claiming possession and vandalizing this public property They should have perhaps that confrontation If the city has a problem with protecting any property we need new leadership The definition that police or the united states itself is systemically racist to essentially hunt black people Or that there is no justice in the united states is a monstrous lie Destroying america with violence and lies is not justice But is is dysfunctional revolution and is the chaos of anarchy It's time for the guilt brainwash to stop supporting the BLM by throwing the i'm virtuous two 30 dollar BLM yard signs and clock tower propaganda in the trash Then vote the progressives out in november or submit to anarchy This election is not a referendum on trump's personality But a referendum on the longtime far leftist radicalization of the democratic party by decades of very unamerican lies Told by media press educational systems socialist anarchists and communists If biden wins he will be steamrolled by the far left and if he is even allowed to serve out his term The supreme court will be packed and converted into another far left political branch And two grand democratic states added to reclaim the senate permanently installing the far left into power And the 240 year experiment and a free people will be over and the united states will become and everyone is equally Poor socialist has been country. It will be big government little people I personally am voting no on all the propositions because raising taxes has always seemed to result in a bigger more costly no more effective government Lastly, I'd mentioned the purpose of the city is to provide public services available to everyone not left to special interests There's zero justification for partisan social justice warring on the city council And limiting your function to providing those services at value respecting the trust according to you by the people In light of the fact it operates as a monopoly of force and function is appropriate thanks We'd like to address this during oral communications If so now it's the time to call in on your phone. Once you've called in, please press star nine To raise your hand And you will be given two minutes members of the public who would like to address this on this item we're going to Go ahead and break until 6 p.m. For our last item on our agenda, which is the park's master plan 2030 environmental impact report councilmember walk-ins, but um Maybe while we're waiting I can just read a few make a few announcements So for members of the public who are joining us We're about to begin our final item of the evening, which is our park's master plan 2030 in our environmental impact report For members of the public who are streaming this meeting This is an item you would like 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 staff Um followed by questions from council And we will then take public comment and return to the council For action and deliberation on this item The presenters this evening are going to be Noah Downing parks planner Travis Beck Park superintendent and tony elliott director of parks and rep creation And with that, I think I'll go ahead and turn it over to our Parks department for the presentation this evening Okay, good evening, uh, mayor Cummings Vice mayor mires members of the council. I am Travis Beck Superintendant of parks Well, I think we can all agree that 2020 has been a trying year for all of us For those of us in parks and recreation. It has also been an invigorating year Because we have seen how much our community depends on the parks that we steward And on the services that we provide Even during the strictest weeks of the lockdown people flooded into our open spaces and beaches Even when we closed our parks and amenities within them people continued to use them And this validates what we have always felt Which is that it is critical that we maintain our parks well And then we continue to invest in them And that is why we are so energized to be before you this evening To discuss the parks master plan 2030 and the associated environmental impact report Now many of you know very well that this process has taken a long time And since the master plan was last before the council We have an entirely new leadership team within the parks and recreation department But as we on this new team have gotten to know this document, which we to some degree inherited We've really been impressed with the quality of it With the thoughtfulness behind it and with the thoroughness of the public process that underlies it And we feel very strongly that this document will give us the guidance that we need to continue To invest in our park system So that we can better serve our community through this pandemic and in the years beyond So i'd like to turn that over next to our park planner Noah Downing who has been with this process from the very beginning To bring everyone up to speed on how we got to where we are today Some of the key content of the plan and what we're looking for its next steps Noah Thank you Travis. Good afternoon mayor vice mayor city council members members of the public I'm very pleased to bring forth this item today The city hasn't had a city-wide parks master plan since its first one in 1973 There's been various efforts and initiatives throughout the years, but in terms of a city-wide Master planning effort it's it's been quite a long time Um, so it's part of this process The goals of the project were you know one to implement the general plan There is an action to create a parks master plan To conduct a comprehensive outreach effort to identify needs and desires of community and park users To identify and assess existing assets To create a feasible vision and goals to prioritize community needs to generate policies and actions to support goals And to create a resource document for the general public There was a lot of community outreach But thought this was a great opportunity to check in. Um, we did both quantitative and qualitative Outreach there was a community survey done by god be research Which was statistically valid in 2015 and really that was just trying to get a baseline of user preferences later on in the process We actually did a similar survey and um on more specific topics and Specific park assets that kind of arose through the process. There was also qualitative outreach We did community open house meetings We passed out questionnaires community events community facilities went out on the weekends Just trying to get an idea of who's using the parks and and you know what what they would like to see in them We had an online present presence with questionnaires and emailed comments We posted signs and all of our parks for numerous months with links To that there were joint study sessions with parks and rec commission and city council There was a parks master plan subcommittee that was formed with numerous meetings that were held on specific topics We held a parks and recreation department wide staff meeting to collect feedback from our staff that are in the in the field, you know, sometimes for You know, I've been working here in decades and just hear day in day out from different park users and you know After spending so much time have ideas of their own. So we really wanted to incorporate their feedback into the process We had city staff meetings with other departments and shared assets I had specific stakeholder interviews and then Really brought in feedback from other meetings on park related projects just to make sure that The planning effort was current From all that we created a master plan vision And that is to create a quality park system that connects the surrounding green belts to the pacific ocean Preserves and protects our natural heritage Enhances cultural and recreational environments and provides a diversity of experiences We really brought in the outreach and the needs assessment and emerging trends Analyzed it and really saw some overall themes that we're developing and then created goals policies and actions That were grouped within those themes In terms of the draft parks master plan which released in february 2017 What went into it was public input and analysis of existing plans guidance documents demographic Data existing conditions benchmarking of comparable communities. We evaluated specific site characteristics and limitations or opportunities We had to identify our facilities and site furnishing Conditions and and evaluated, you know, whether or not repairs were necessary. Looked at statewide recreational trends Had discussions with supervisors who managed the assets Really brought in direction received from other planning processes as well as feedback received from decision makers And then in terms of the overall themes that emerged Good governance design excellence play community health and interaction stewardship and sustainability and accessible and connected community and and just formulating partners partnerships In just some examples There's a there's a goal and a policy that design renovate and maintain parks to be attractive and functional Prease longer-term use optimized space and enhance the unique identity for each park um You know just trying to look at parks over time sometimes Parks are become outdated and are piecemeal and just trying to make sure that the end result is creating a sense of identity For the for the neighborhoods or surrounding areas. They serve To renovate maintain playgrounds create more unique and interesting play experiences. We've received ideas You know universally designed playgrounds and members of all ages and abilities can Play on the same playgrounds together or using more natural features to create more interesting playgrounds So, you know, a lot of a lot of great ideas and examples that we currently don't have in our park system There was one to protect maintain and enhance habitat features that are important to native wildlife and plant communities ideas that are incorporated in the plan You know to to consider even our urban parks taking out unusable turf area and creating more of the pollinator parks and and Trying to create more wildlife areas or habitat When the draft was released we um Wanted to ensure that there were other opportunities to vet the ideas There was a joint study session with the parks and recreation commission and city council We held five additional meetings with the parks and recreation commission discuss specific recommendations of the plan We formed a technical advisory group to improve the conservation and stewardship section And then on uh, september 25th 2017 the plan was unanimously accepted or recommended For acceptance from the parks and recreation commission pending environmental review and then back in october of 2017 The city council unanimously accept accepted the draft pending environmental review So we we started the the CEQA process um There was an initial study mitigated negative declaration and circulated we didn't Identify any significant impacts, which couldn't be mitigated. We received some comments We revised and recirculated that document. We received some additional comments In city staff at that point in time determined that an eir would be prepared for a full public disclosure of potential impacts and mitigation measures um Despite that there weren't any uh impacts that that we found that could not be mitigated to a less insignificant level We circulated a draft eir We received the comments and the final eir, which is part of this item includes changes made to the draft eir To address comments as well as responses to comments It was prepared in accordance with CEQA as a program eir And then all elements of the master plan have been evaluated in the eir In terms of some of the potentially significant impacts, which were identified impacts potential impacts of nesting birds soil and erosion impacts and water quality impacts the mitigation includes conducting pre nesting surveys prohibiting uh Drones course in sensitive habitat areas Implementing site design and erosion control measures as part of projects and limiting trail use or implementing trail closures during the rainy season to address impacts It's part of an eir process um We evaluate uh different alternatives There was a no projects alternative with us the parks and recreation department city moving forward with no master plan We evaluated a reduced project alternative where there would be no exploration of a drone course No exploration of new trails and daylight being a park and poignant open space beyond what is already specified in their respective existing master plans And then there was a modified project alternative where the city would clarify A clarifying language to further ensure new development avoids impacting nesting birds that any drone course would avoid Since the habitat areas and wildlife and a site design and erosion control measures to ensure new development avoids impacts and uh an erosion hazards and Are located just adjacent to wetlands or streams So in august on august 3rd that we Brought an item to the parks and recreation commission. There was a split vote At the meeting the commissioners discussed various ways to try to find a compromise to bring The item forward one idea was just to create an ordinance to ban all drone use another was to prioritize Meattenance of trails instead of evaluating new trails when the trail study moves forward at a future point in time And then another idea was to remove all policies and actions regarding off-leash dog use the drone's course or trails Due to the split vote the parks and recreation bylaws require the item to be continued It was heard again on september 14th And there was another split vote It the bylaws then With another split vote the item failed for the bylaws In terms of the item tonight as part of the secret process requirements In adopting the parks master plan that city also needs to certify the final eir And then adopt the finance effect and mitigation monitoring and reporting program And I just wanted to kind of provide an overview of some of the benefits of the plan I mean the first one is it implements the general plan That is a specific action It provides a guided framework and is intended to be updated over time to remain relevant It identifies community needs and provides goals policies and actions to meet them It helps the city prioritize projects and allocate funding staff time It facilitates community engagement and transparency as projects move forward Maintaining a plan is actually required to meet the professional standard from the commission for accreditation of parks and recreation Agencies so presently we're not meeting the minimum standard And it helps the city pursue grant funding So at this point i'm going to turn it over to director tony elia All right. Thank you. Noah and thanks to travis. Thanks to a mayor and city council As well, I just wanted to touch on a few of those points in a little bit more detail And i'll send it back to know here in just a moment to summarize our staff recommendations for the city council this evening, but To start I just wanted to mention In the context of the city's budget crunch that we're going through Right now the master plan really serves as our as our north star so despite the challenges financially The the modifications that we're having to make within the department or our services and so forth As a result of of tight budgets. This is really the document is giving us that That guidance that overall sort of north star for the department and in a way the north star for For the community as well. So we've tried to be very transparent very clear And this is a really high level document. It's not we don't have a lot of specifics at this point, but it's a very high level Sort of living document That can help guide us into the future Especially during some some tumultuous financial times There are opportunities, especially with the parks master plan. Noah mentioned And opportunities regarding grant funding and at this moment in time there are Likely more grant opportunities for parks and recreation than ever before We have prop 68 funds available through the state of california The land and water conservation fund was passed By the congress Earlier this year and that is an appropriation of 900 million dollars per year for parks and rec So there are grant opportunities that are out there, but having the master plan in place Number one Primarily opens that door for us to apply for those grants. It puts us in a position To be able to apply to be eligible and to be as competitive as we can be For these grant funds that we will we will need moving into the future Noah also mentioned capra accreditation Our national trade organization the national recreation and parks association Accredits agencies parks and recreation agencies all over the country And it's a best practice To have a parks and recreation master plan in place Again as a guiding document for who we are and what we do and how we develop and evolve the park system over time And and then also You know as it relates to our operations and as we talk about fiscal sustainability The services that we provide to some degree through Programming active recreation and passive recreation Opportunities that helps guide us on all of that. So through our national trade organization and In our pursuit of becoming a nationally accredited agency. It is a best practice To have a master plan in place So just wanted to add a little detail to those And finally as superintendent back mentioned at the beginning of the presentation This has been a long process and this I just wanted to I wanted to thank The mayor and city council and as well as previous Mayors and city councils who've been a part of this I also wanted to thank the parks and recreation commission And the community as well the feedback that we've received through The mitigated negative declaration process through the eir process that helped Make this plan better to get that feedback from the community. So I wanted to appreciate that feedback And then here on the call as well is Our consultant from dudek, uh, stephanie streelo city attorney, tony kandadi and darcy pruitt And just wanted to acknowledge their work and support on this as well It's been a team effort over a number of years. I just wanted to appreciate Everybody's efforts that have gone into this and with that i'll send it back over to know it Summarize the staff recommendation that we have for the council this evening My apologies With that staff recommends the city council adopt the following resolution a resolution Certifying the final environmental impact report a resolution including findings of fact and a mitigation monitoring and reporting program And a resolution approving the parks master plan 2030 staffs available for questions presentation and Again, thank you all in the community for all the hard work that went into What is an extremely extensive document that I think it's going to be as our parks director said it's going to be a Good document to help guide us as we're moving into the future Um with that, I'd like to turn it over to Any council members to see if there's any questions for our staff council member buyers? You're muted as well Thank you park staff for the presentation. My question goes and I think one of the It mentioned drones. Whatever. Can you go back to that one? Sure. I think was the commission was the title or something Uh, okay, that's it and band drones in the city. I understand that okay prior to the maintenance of trails Instead of evaluating new trails when the trail study moves forward Of course, I'm asking the question because at one time there's a lot of buzz and a lot up and down about More mountain bike trails So would you update me where the commission is or where the staff is on that? Yeah, so there's an action in the plan which, um Discusses conducting a trail assessment and it would you know evaluate existing trail conditions and maintenance needs as well as Um a potential to evaluate new opportunities So that's the way of So interpret that your priority is to Um provide maintenance on the existing trails The the study would um be done in such a way where we would try to evaluate in the end product would hopefully have some better Newer design standards associated with it. Um, have an idea of where some of these use conflicts are occurring Look at some of the signage needs that need to be updated in there And really just thinking of it as a as a comprehensive look at our trails Because you know the the major one in Pogonip, which doesn't allow bikes Consistently There's a bike or two on there. Okay. So when when is that all happening looking at the trail plan? You called them. That's your way you called it other Currently isn't uh a date of of the study, you know the one thing that um You know, I could I could throw out there. Um, just to kind of help facilitate Discussion is you know, when we move forward with these projects, uh, we're going to be you know working with the parks and rec commission Um, as well as the city council to help identify, you know, what Uh, the overall scope of these projects are Okay, and it may or may not trigger a EIR I think it really depends on you know, there's a couple steps in the process one is conducting the study And then the second is initiating a process if there's any improvements. Um, Okay that are moving forward at some some time. So You mentioned Pogonip. So If it's some future time there was Indication from the council and community to initiate a process There is an existing master plan. There would have to be a public process. You would have to look at the environmental And You know make that determination Based on on where it is and I guess the feedback that you're hearing And if I may add one comment to that just big picture One of the items that we discussed with the parks and recreation commission and quite a bit of detail Is the difference between a program EIR and project level sequel And so whether it's trails or whether it's new pickleball courts or any amenity I think that's a key difference here that this is a program level EIR again really high level broad themes, but once we get to um, even any thought of pursuing, uh, the trail study or any specific project That of course is subject to go into the commission and the city council for direction approval budget appropriation Direction, uh, and then that project level sequel for the project in question Thank you. Thank you both of you and you answered my question. Thanks Fires and then council member brown Yeah, tony you mentioned that um, we um that you were wanting to have us, um our city parks department become accredited Um, and can you just speak a little bit more about that process? How long it takes? What kinds of I I've been through an accreditation program for a lamb trust and that was extensive and took almost two years So I'm just curious a little bit more about what that looks like. Thank you if you could just describe. Thanks Sure, uh, so you're right on so a national accreditation for parks and recreation agencies is a two-year process There are 151 different standards across 10 different chapters Those include everything from the basics in terms of master plans strategic plans mission statement vision values budget and so forth, but it gets into public safety plans Excuse me marketing and advertising plans recreation and leisure studies Revenue policies any number of details. I'd be happy to share that with the council or the community. Um, it's called the acronym is capra capra um And a number of different standards that really cross a variety of departments. It crosses into the police department Uh in Santa Cruz, it would cross into marketing and promotions and communications that would largely Fall under the city manager's office. So it's really a collaborative effort across the city In a number of different factors that focus on just the the top level of of organization professionalism In planning, especially as it relates to Financial sustainability over time Thank you. That's helpful to hear and very excited. I think That is yeah, that's a great a great outcome. I think our parks department has always been the unsung hero so parks and parks and recreation so Excited to hear more about that. So thank you for the more detail Well, first, I just want to say thank you to our parks and rec staff and the parks and rec commission and everybody who's taken time to Move us through this process I want to just ask one question because I'm still trying to understand Uh the Concerns coming from the parks and rec commission and I I think I I just want to or some members of the parks and rec commission so I and my so from my read and again I'm I'm my I'm interpreting to the best of my abilities based on my my background is that the The so the program out of here is high level conceptual kind of covers the whole the whole magilla, but their Project EIRs would occur in Cases where there's work to you know specific work to be done that requires and not kind of an environmental review So then that would be in tearing off of the programmatic EIR as I understand it So but then what are the the pathways forward from there and how does the? How does that work with you know, so so for so I guess what the the thing that I'm trying to understand specifically is if um, they're the project specific EIRs will study potential impact But then we in the programmatic EIR are saying that There's either no significant impact or less than significant impacts with mitigation Then it's kind of like we know We're saying we need to look Uh, you know, we need to look at what is the potential environmental impact But we're also saying we know it's not going to be significant enough to require um Anything that it could be dealt with with mitigation So I get if somebody could just help me understand how that how that squares i'm just again I just want to make sure I know what um What's going on here Stephanie do you want to hop in here? Uh, sure Good evening mayor vice mayor and council members. Stephanie Stuela with D-deck I'm prepared the EIR and yeah, let me try to give you a quick overview. The program EIR is um Looks at the whole of the entire project. So it's looking at all the policies all the various recommendations the various policies that um Suggests looking they're considering new uses or expanded uses not only trails but off leash Dog areas community gardens athletic fields And then it also provides specific recommendations for individual parks and facilities. Most of those are relatively minor So the EIR on a program level looks at those and what kinds of impacts could occur From new trails or some of these new uses and then it looks at The policies and actions that are in the plan that direct the city to not locate projects and sensitive habitat Um controlled drainage. So there's not erosion problems from a program level Those measures serve to mitigate the kinds of impacts we're looking at in the absence of a specific project in a specific location So further down the road if there's a specific project in a specific location Then we would go and look at the master plan EIR and see What kind of mitigation measures and what measures are in there, but then more importantly under sequel We'd have to look at a project level analysis based on the location and design But project at that point in time. So it's a little bit more specific than you can really, you know You would still have to comply with the actions and measures that That are in the master plan that seek to avoid or minimize impacts You would be looking at it at a specific level project level when there's a known location and type of project Does that make sense? Yeah, oh it does and I'm just I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it, but I think so. Yeah, thank you Thank you. This is so complicated From council members at this point and Don Hang on I'd like to open it up to public comment So if there are any members of the public who would like to speak to us on this item Which is item number 27 parks master plan 2030 and environmental impact report Now it's the time to call in Once you've called in please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand And once you've been acknowledged unless you've Contact the city earlier you'll be given two minutes to speak Once you've called in if you'd like to comment on this item Please press star nine on your phone You will be unmuted when it's your turn to speak and you'll have two minutes All right first speaker. You've been unmuted Hi, good afternoon mayor and council members. This is john poholsky. I'm a board member of the shanty cruise pickleball club Um, our club is thankful for being allowed to participate in the parks master planning process Where you feel our voices were heard And the plan shows a lot of work by tony travis and no on the other parks and rec folks. They're always working hard Our club is very excited to see the plan finalized and that pickleball is on the list of projects We're very much looking forward to begin executing on the plan working with parks and rec and the sea to see our dream Of permanent pickleball courts come true and bringing the drive of pickleball to shanty cruise Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak Yeah Okay, next speaker the last four digits are zero six nine three you're on the line Hi, this is rick ride and the president of the board of san jacuzzi Shakespeare And i'm very pleased to be addressing the council tonight and i'm calling to express our support of Both the parks master plan and the eir Uh, I think that the the public deserves a master plan after many many years And scs is certainly very pleased to be part of the new master plan and it will help us to know that we have a place In the plan and part of the future vision and values and direction And i'll just say that when we built our theater now Five years ago if such a plan had been in place It would have really improved our ability to build infrastructure and support the city And our patrons and To um to improve the use of the parks within the city So I hope that this will move forward. I certainly encourage everyone to approve it It's been a long time coming and I certainly support all those folks in parks and rec that has um Worked so hard diligently to pull this thing together Thank you Hey, next color Hello, can you hear me okay? Yes, good evening Good evening. This is gene brockelbank I have been working on this master plan for years have great deal of respect for park staff. Noa downing especially There is controversy to this master plan The park's master plan has been consistently challenged because it allows adding new mountain bike trails in pokinip especially This is in conflict with the existing pokinip master plan This should have been Deleted from the park's master plan. It wasn't This conflict has been identified for the past four plus years to parks Which refuses to acknowledge that the pokinip master plan is the rule of law right now To overturn the pokinip master plan will most surely require an eir But city park staff will no doubt find a way to say no eir will be required If I was a member of the city council I would vote no on approving this master plan for the reasons i've given Thank you Hey next speaker that's for jizzo Hello here on the line All right. Hey, sorry about that. Uh, matt the young here with mountain bikers of santa cruz Uh, hello, mayor and council We've been engaged with this process since almost day one in terms of getting the community engaged In the process out to the meetings taking the surveys and whatnot and uh, You know It's it's been an amazing amount of work and public input that's gone into this plan staff has done a amazing job at Driving this thing forward despite some challenges and changes in staffing and Covid and and threatened litigation. So it's been amazing to see it come to this this far. It's really encouraged council to accept staff's recommendations um, I think we heard it from from uh, from tony and No, and tribe is how how much they really need this right now with the challenging budgetary climate that This is really a path forward for them to seek some creative means of funding for different, uh, parks and programs. So Um, on behalf of mountain bikers santa cruz and the community just, uh, encourage you guys to accept staff's recommendation and Accept the plan So thank you very much Great. Thank you. I've been asking for additional time Um, on behalf of active recreation coalition and so The next speaker Mr. Tom. This is mr. Thank you for granting the extra time. I've been Working with parks and rec for more than 30 years to get sports fields in the city of santa cruz I was on the green belt, uh, master plan feasibility study and we did an additional study sports fields site evaluation and needs in 1994 and determined we need A minimum of 20 acres at 10 multi fields That was after a year-long study with in which every independent sports league Participated 100 participation led by woody book out um, and I've been doing records requests and Speaking in front of council for 30 years to get the more sports field and I find this, uh The parts master plan to be deficient And and fairly flawed in in many ways and and I'm going to just hit a few of the worst ones um One is that there is a When it talks about finding actions and programs to find new fields and new facilities Park zoning has no criteria and no divisions For for what's appropriate in any particular area and that's one of the reasons every time we try to do anything in any part There's an endless debate Yeah, an endless vicious debate and it's very difficult to get anything accomplished um Active recreation coalition are uh, we're all about places to play for adults and youth Safe places play you use the word ample in the number one goal for Parks and recreation ample recreational. I'd like to see a definition of ample We are our study our year-long study Studied every single season the overlapping season in the need for every month and it was different for every month And came up with an average and needing 10 new multi-purpose fields at 20 acres The city wants to go out and buy new land the price of land down Santa Cruz is Two to two and a half million dollars acres for usable land if you look at Riverside There's a Riverside or Riverview park. That's what they pay for their little half acre park That's what that's what the value of the industrial land is on the west side If you want to see a proposal that I did That was covered by the good times Uh, the article to look up is a west side proposal talking all about a proposal would not cost the city at dimes Simply in ordinance giving credit could be credit For any private developer who puts active recreation facilities on their land and make that credit transferable I've worked. I raised three sons. I've been in every city park I have a map of google map of every single possible field in every field in the city And they're size in their condition. I offered that to the city. They didn't take it back when the previous Recreation took as I was Director with morrow was there. I applaud Noah's work. Noah agrees that there's some severe definitional problems I addressed those in detail in an article I sent to the city everybody in the city several times. It's called Parks versus no open space. What are we talking about and talks about all the definitional problems in in our zoning and in our parks The city if you look on the city's general plan use General plan use map and you'll see that the the state parks and the city parks are the exact same shade green That's the confusion in the in the use and the mission of those two different parks urban parks They have a entirely different mission in use than the state parks White house field originally bought for over 13 million dollars Back in the 70s Was offered to the city It was offered to the city and they didn't disclose the price. I found it out later 1.4 million dollars. That's showed you how much they wanted Okay, it would make a wonderful initial parking to drill for a couple of ball fields Uh, but the city lost their lease because they bought in dodgy I'm down here for comments. Can I address? Uh, just one one sense of Susan Striello I'm sorry. I got it. I'm gonna have to cut you up here, but um, you know, we gave you extra time and I appreciate well of the public who would like to address us on Item number 27 if you called in and you haven't had a chance to speak Please press star nine on your phone to raise your hand and you will be given up to two minutes to speak You could unmute Is that me? Yes, it is. Good evening. Oh, thank you It's a bit complicated this way Thanks I'm julian greenside and I am a commission member for the parks and recreation commission But I'm calling just to express my personal view Not representing the commission or any other commissioners. I did vote no on approving this Um EIR the parks master plan and the reasons were pretty straightforward there are There's much to really appreciate about this parks master plan All of the local parks and all of the the care for safety, you know, that's terrific. However, it includes A number of controversial issues Um, the technical downhill trail for mountain bikes Um, off-leash dog parks parking lots drone course Now what I voted was take all of that out And I'm happy to support this but it wasn't taken out and each of those was determined on this program EIR To have less than significant impacts. We can't have it both ways If you're going to defer studying these till later Then the best you could say is we don't know the impact at this time But this parks master plan says we do know the impacts and they're less Than significant and we can mitigate them. So that was the basis on which I said I can't support this plan You know 90 yes, but that's not Accurate nor scientific So I just wanted to call in and say that was the reason that I couldn't support it If that could have been taken out those controversial issues I did later that would be good. Thank you Further members of the public would like to speak to us on this item If so Now it's the time to call in and press star nine on your phone to raise your hand If you haven't spoken already and you will be given two minutes Members of the public who would like to speak to us on these items. I'm going to close Public comment and I'll bring it back to council for action and deliberation I did have a couple questions wondering if maybe somebody From park staff could kind of speak to Some of the comments that came up around The off-leash dog use drone cores in some of the trail Comments that were brought up And I guess my specific I guess one of my questions is if those for example, if there was moving, you know in the future the proposal to create an off-leash dog park somewhere or drones course would That then kick in additional environmental review process for the specific the specific areas Under study or where they'd be proposed for that's how I am more or less interpret interpreting this The answer is yes, we would evaluate sequa. Um This depending on the location though, if it's a small off-leash For example, if it's a small off-leash dog use area at an existing develop, let's say a community park um It it it may not raise To a level where you know an eir is required If there would be sequa review, we would analyze that but it may not necessitate A full environmental impact report standing this as well. So thanks for the clarification um councilmember byers And my sir and myers and councilmember brown councilmember byers you're muted. I'm not sure if you were trying to speak I haven't yet, but um It's an impressive document for sure. It uh It's just a lot in it. But what I need is the speaker. I think uh the early speaker that talked about the pogo nip and the uh, that they're The management plan of the pogo nip forbid mountain bike trails And I might have been on the committee that designed that but I didn't even think there were mountain bikes back then So I wonder if um the head of parks that could speak to that or help me on that Yeah, of course. Uh, no, do you want to go ahead and explain? I'm happy to jump in here as well I guess if he if he could repeat the question is it is it whether or not the question Hey, I I was surprised that there's something in the pogo nip plan which I forgot or didn't know and if so I know there's a mountain bike trail now on pogo nip Which is extremely controversial And um, so I guess I'm asking is that true there is in the pogo plan Language forbidding it and if so, where are we on that and of course that will lead into One of the places that silence and the rest of the document is addressing mountain bike Yeah, so so there, um Was an amendment to the pogo nip master plan to allow for the mm McCrary trail To to be added it is, you know a real You know in in parks and recreations eyes, it is a very popular trail For both hikers and mountain bikers In terms of the parks master plan, it's a guidance document It does not override the pogo nip master plan There is an advisory recommendation and that's on page 4.2 dash 71 And it says exploring modifications to the existing master plan and under that it talks about conducting a Trails assessment to evaluate existing trail conditions and use issues and identify ways to improve access recreational enjoyment In connectivity And the assessment will help inform the determination of whether or not future trail modifications or improvements are appropriate and and so Yeah, the idea behind the master plan is We did receive a lot of input from you know Uh different um interests and a lot of mountain bikers did participate and we didn't want to Uh rush forward and and propose a bunch of trails But we did think it worthy to evaluate it and see if not just for mountain biking But as well as hikers and horseback riding if there are additional opportunities and during that process We would want to and it further explains Evaluate how we could create clear maintenance standards identify use conflicts and solutions And develop a signage and educational program and then there's some other things but And then it says evaluate potential environmental impacts and mitigations through the secret process That is something that at the end of the study You know, we would need to receive Direction there would be a public process of whether or not even to initiate an amendment the amendment If initiated would be another public process with additional opportunities. So it's not anything that the parks and recreation department is um I mean, it's it's unknown But the the one thing that you know, we do think is all this is to kind of conduct the study Hear from on different user groups and really spend the time In staff time and resources And hear from the decision makers of how we should move forward Just to final when was that the amendment to the pogona plan? Is that specific to the prairie trail? Or was it done before? That was the amendment prairie trail. It was okay But it's just an amendment for that particular trail not Correct, okay Just for all those mountain bikers I'm on the land trust board and we hope this spring to start All of fires may have affected but but I hope this spring to start working on our San Vicente Open space in which we'll have 35 miles of mountain bike trail Separated by the for the pedestrians So hopefully we'll get started on building that and that should have such a wonderful impact on mountain bikers 38 miles of wonderful trail To FYI Yeah, thank you If I may just add one other comment on the the page in the master plan that Noah referenced Page 4.2-71 the first recommendation that's in there and this is just to know his point The first recommendation is to continue to implement the pogona the existing pogona master plan So that's literally the first recommendation in there and then what Noah talked about was Additional exploration that could be done down the road but again to Noah's point that The the master plan doesn't Override the the pogona master plan, but really it bolsters it up in this context to say Implement the existing pogona master plan as a recommendation number one Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, mayor Yeah, I uh You know, I I guess I'm just reflecting Sort of on the the the length of time and the um, yeah The importance of of really having the city complete this long journey to getting to a master plan as it was mentioned We haven't had a master plan for our parks programs park areas and for since the 70s and You know the one thing that I think is really being shown in california is that you know Our environment is becoming, you know, one of our largest drivers of our, you know, economy and You know, there's there's various park regional park districts and various park districts around the state that I've really Really gotten to the level that I think director elliott is is looking to see our park park parking rec department get to which is Really impactful and meaningful um uses and availability of our parks for Not only just city residents, but for county residents and actually for many many people from the bay area come over here too. So um, I'm really excited about getting the package through tonight and I think The programmatic eir While it does not assess each and every impact for every possible project Or action or policy in the plan. It does provide that framework Um, and of course for projects that are done project specific activities There will be additional sequel analysis. So I think that you know, this programmatic Eir is it is important because it does provide the city the ability to When applying for grants and things like that it provides the ability to say yes, we have a secret document that is that is adopted Um, so I think it's an important policy strategic policy Decision that we have to make tonight to to really make our our parks department competitive with other parks departments around around california frankly, so I realize and I recognize the concern from both the public and uh in my fellow council members about whether or not We really have the proper sequel approach, but I I do believe that This is a solid approach and um, I trust that our department Will do the appropriate sequel specific analysis as projects get, uh, you know proposed according to the plan so I guess I I just feel like this is a really important decision and it's a critical time for our parks department. Um There you we've missed a lot of grants. Um, and and during the time that this has been underway. Um and We'll we won't be competitive In grants moving ahead in the state of california without these these sets up the set of of uh outcomes tonight that are Part of the staff recommendation So, um, I just want to thank the staff for all the time that you've put in. Uh, I was a member of the parks commission during part of this Um, there was a lot of public outreach. Um, our parks department is just a stellar situation a stellar uh Piece of what we are as a city and I I do think that we have the right um policy framework with to work with tonight to move this ahead And um, I would be willing to make a motion, but I I would like to hear from other other um folks as well. Thank you Thank you, and I'll note that. Um And when time for a motion to come back to you So is there any other are there any of the council members who'd like to become this item council member brown? Thank you. Yeah, I just want to say a couple of things. Uh, I um I guess I so speaking to the controversy. I want to recognize that that's there and that Kind of everybody on all software from all perspectives Um, it's coming from this love of and pride in our park system. It is an incredible incredible park system we have and um, you know, and we struggle to maintain what we've got and um, you know, and I talked with director, um, ellie about this, uh, the I can't remember if you said the the it's like, uh 1980s Porsche or something and it just it needs some an oil change and some other things But um, and so I do think that, um, you know, we have this amazing amazing system. It's you know, Jewel really all of the parks And so but and the controversy is really because people care. It's also because I think there is, uh, you know, uh a lack of trust among members of our community about the, um You know the potential for, uh, this kind of programmatic, uh Document to be used as a way to, you know override more in in, uh, Environmental review among projects. Um, so but given I I just want to say that and I say that to You know with the hope that, uh, the that we will Take this seriously and, um, include the community and, you know, robust, meaningful ways Um, and the parks and rec commission, uh, when we get to the point of looking at any of these specific pieces of the master plan I think it's critical to to do this now because we do, um, you know, we do want to have access to those uh funding opportunities And um, and so I I am going to support this but I I just want to I want to call out that, you know, this controversy exists it's not going to go away and um, and it's because we care and it's because You know we sometimes Where it's going to go. So, um, just with that I'll um, I'll leave it there and uh, look forward to supporting the motion Council member Matthews Walk in and then have a couple comments profoundly thanks everyone who has And their hands on this thing over the last five plus years Many many parks commissioners many council members many staff members and a huge number of the public And I think we all know when we look at this or we think about our parks and the facilities what an incredible variety From little tiny pocket parks, great big open spaces, uh serving such a variety You know ours is not a system with just a few ball fields. It's amazing and that's uh reflected here so, um I have really nothing but appreciation. Obviously, there will be specific projects specific issues that need to be ironed out, but this is a great um Master plan, which is exactly what we needed. I do want to say it was a topic of discussion last week It's the topic of discussion often um, it's woven throughout the parks and rec master plan that one of the things we need in order for our parks um, uh, Particularly to be successful is that they be safe and obviously it's a real challenge for us um in both reality and perception People do love their parks and I think as as we go into the tight budget years ahead, we're going to have to um Acknowledge the need and find ways to respond to that for both environmental um and And safety issues so that we do get the full range of parks, so um Councilmember Watkins and I just too want to thank our staff and um sort of taking us back down for Elaine having served on the council at the time When there was a lot of very strong opinions on both sides of many issues as it related to the master plan and to get to this place now with um, clearly, uh Incredible foundations for our community to move forward also areas where we will revisit and refine over time, but um having memories of some of my first council meetings Having this item before us to tonight and seeing all the work and community engagement that's happened in between that time frame is um Is noticeable and so appreciative and I am really thankful that we'll have this document in place To seek outside resources to ensure that we're upholding such value treasures in our community and um, so when the time comes for a motion I'm happy to second that and um, also just want to extend my gratitude to our parks and wet commission for their work and thought into this as well Councilmember Golder I also want to extend my appreciation to the um people who came before us to bring this document forward um, I think I echo what another person said and that the um controversy controversy comes from everybody loving the parks And I also realized that without this document in place Then we're ineligible for much needed grant funding and with this grant funding I am Super sad still and sick about uh last meetings vote to eliminate the rangers program and I would love to see um I know we Voted to have five cso's remain with the police department, but I would love to see some funding If um, if possible, you know, I don't want to I put Towards the idea of like, um Or Faith and I think that having um the rangers Maybe back with parks if money came out of the grants that allowed that where they could take more of an interpretive role and um people informed and safe and I I'm not quite sure how to articulate it, but I just um Know that we all really care deeply about the parks and open spaces and in order for us to enjoy them for generations to come We have to protect we have to preserve them and we have to keep them safe and clean. So Yeah, I guess I'll just you know Echo my final thoughts, which is that you know, I think When you think about Santa Cruz, it's probably one of the most environmentally conscious cities I would say, uh, I've ever visited in the states. If not, you know, one of the most environmentally Conscious cities in the world and I'm always blown away When um our parks and rec director mentioned and I think it's you know, we're one of the we have per capita Some of the most parks for a city I think it's in the entire country or something to that extent, but I'm always blown away By how many parks we have in our city and just given, you know, how difficult it is to even build an adu I know that we are a community that really takes our park seriously Um and that wants to do our best to protect our parks and you know, I just want to again express My gratitude for all the people who for all the years have helped us maintain our parks and keep our parks And also who've done so much work on this parks master plan and for it to come down to just a couple things where there Um concerns, I think that as we move forward, you know, there will be opportunities for more community engagement for more input And I think that's going to be the appropriate time But you know, given that this could help us get more funding to protect our parks I think especially given all the cuts that we're taking right now I think it's really important that we try to take a document that has been, you know Over half a decade in the making Bring it forward and then we can try to work through some of the minor issues as they come up And so again, I just want to express um my gratitude for all the hard work that's gone into this And um by smear mires, if you are prepared to make a motion I think that uh, unless there's any further Comment or discussion, maybe we can move forward with that At this time. Oh and you're muted by the way I know would you maybe you could put the slide up just with the with the motion I've got it in the staff report. Just maybe though for the public. Um Yeah, and I want I just want to echo um the mayor's comments. Um, you know, it's this is this is something we should be celebrating. It's um We all hold our parks gear. We all we all Want want to see what's best and um, I think um, our staff has have really navigated through um Just a really comprehensive planning process, you know, thousands of people have have been involved in this through the surveys. Um There's been a lot of input at meetings and um, so yeah, I again just want to thank our our staff Um, Noah has been through this through the beginning and Tony's kind of bringing it over the finish line um, but uh again just a great job and and and also to all the um parks commissioners and capacity councils who identified funding to to take this step and to modernize and and give our parks um parks and recreation department a master plan that um can really guide the future for how our Our community can use our parks into the future. So, um, I'll go ahead and make a motion Uh recognizing the staff recommendation that the city council adopt the following resolutions a resolution certifying the final environmental impact report A resolution including fact finding the fact and a mitigation monitoring and reporting program And a resolution approving the parks master plan 2030 And so a motion by councilmember or vice-mayor mayors think councilmember walk-ins mentioned wanting to second that motion I'll second the motion So the motion made by vice-mayor mayors second by Councilmember walk-ins to adopt the staff recommendations Uh, if there's no further discussion, I'll go ahead and turn it over to our city clerk to call the roll call vote Thank you mayor councilmember buyer It's a wonderful. Yes. I'm so proud of our parks and parks department all these years and yes, my vote is yes Matthew uh enthusiastic. Yes Folder and mayor coming I'm definitely in so thank you all for your hard work on this. This is incredible anything or Just thank you. Thank you guys. We'll get on some great applications tomorrow morning on the baking I want to thank members of the community for joining us. I want to thank all of our staff for joining us this evening council members and with that um, we'll just continue to enthusiastically encourage everyone to go out and vote We still have to even to go Um, but it's one of the most important