 We're recording. You're good to start the meeting. All right. Welcome all. Thanks for being here. We're super excited for our first meeting of the general plan. Community advisory committee. We're really thankful that you all have applied or been appointed and we're excited to get to know you. And kick off this meeting and the process in general. So tonight will be a little bit of a mix of presenters. And so we'll as city staff introduce ourselves, the consultants will go through some orientation. And some different information, but we'll have plenty of time to kind of walk through your roles and how things will be moving forward. So with that, we also have translation available. Beatrice, do you want to mention that for the folks who are Spanish speaking and for the people who speak Spanish, there is a translation available. If you can help us by raising your hand through your Zoom button, with that we can help you connect to the translation channel. Thank you so much. And my name is Amy Lyle and I'm with the city of San Rosa staff and I manage our long range planning team. And so I'm going to actually introduce Michelle to do a role call for our CAC members and then we'll move through the agenda after that. Michelle, are you all set? I am all set. I would just like to apologize in advance if I mispronounce anyone's name and please feel free to correct me. If you could please just unmute yourself and say here after I read your name. Mike, can you come up here again at Shriver steen throat? Your Ali Soto. Here. Andreas vigil. Annette Arnold. Yeah. Dela Shay. Ho-mona Benson. Here Erica. Meekish. Here. Jen Close. Here. Lee Pierce. Here. Lisa Jocelyn. Here. Melanie Allers. Ehlers. Allers here. Michael Cook. Omar Lopez. Here. Patricia Thompson. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. Um, Retusia. Well, Meek. Here. Was that close? Oh, it was spot on. Perfect. Um, Ryan Tracy. Here. Stephanie Menari. Here. Steven Spillman. Happy to be here. Hugh Helm. Here. Anna Stevens. I'm sorry. You just corrected me. You got it. Hi, here. Perfect. And then Ann Barber. Barber. Here. Great. Looks like all members are present with the exception of. Michael. Cook. And. Andreas. Vigil. Great. Thank you so much. And just a note to the CAC members. We are waiting on a few more questions. From the city council. So we will have a few new members joining us. Um, hopefully for our next meeting. So with that roll call, thank you so much, Michelle, for doing that. Um, we're going to move on in the agenda. And, um, Wanted to give you a warm welcome from the city staff. So with that, I'm going to introduce Bill Rose, our, our interim. Deputy director of planning to say a few notes. Yes. Thanks, Amy. Well, I have the great pleasure to say welcome to everybody and to say thank you. Uh, what you're about to embark on is, I think one of the most important things that, that you can do for the city of Santa Rosa. So I see some familiar faces and I see more that I don't know. And that really is wonderful because this process works when we have a group of. Diverse citizens who care and who want to be involved. And I see that we have. So thank you very much. Some of the familiar faces will know that I've spent most of my time here in Santa Rosa closing in now on 15 years working in current planning, which is development projects. Somebody wants to build something they come through and they work with me. And often as you might imagine, because you see the news stories, those projects sometimes can create opposition or consternation. And people will come up and say, what I've often said is that's, that's great. That's the process. But what's even better is when people can be part of creation of the rules themselves. And this is exactly where the rules come from. Everything in the city comes from the general plan. All the zoning regulations have to point back and implement that. So, so this really is the, the heart of our regulatory framework. Um, and so. So this is really something important. And I just want to thank you all for, for being part of that. Um, I also want to say one other thing is that you have. An outstanding team, both with the city staff. With the consultant team who you're going to get to, to meet. In more detail here shortly and throughout this process. We're very proud of the team we put together. But we also have great support across the city. All of the executive leadership throughout the city and the different departments are very, um, much in favor of this process we're going through. And we also have political support. So, uh, and in these challenging times, we have a budget too. So that's always good to, to know. So I just want to say, thank you. Welcome. Uh, as Amy mentioned, I'm the interim deputy director of planning for the city. Any of you can reach out to me at any time. I'm pretty easy to find with a quick Google search. And I'm happy to answer any questions that I can. Um, also with us tonight is Claire Hartman. Uh, she's our assistant city manager. Uh, you see my role as interim Claire was me previously. She's now the interim assistant city manager. So we've had a little bit of movement, but, uh, suffice it to say we're, we're all on the same page. Um, Thank you. Uh, and with that, I am going to turn it over to Andy Gustafson, who is a senior planner in advanced planning. Thank you, Bill. And, um, yeah, I want to echo a lot of what Bill said, but I just a little bit of a spin. There's going to be so much to talk about in this. Time that we meet together as with the community advisory committee. I just wanted more generally say how that in working with. All the different departments and, and with the representatives from community groups and, and our consultant team, we're going to have a wonderful opportunity to exchange ideas and work through issues. Um, tonight. When we meet tonight, we're really starting or convening. A citywide public discussion on how we can shape the city. And in doing so, we're going to be able to. Be strategic. Be strategic. Be strategic. Be strategic. Be, um, equitable and how we meet the diverse needs and interests and goals of all of its residents and, and neighborhood. In neighborhoods. In the next couple of weeks, you're going to see announcements coming out. There will be a survey released. Um, there's going to be as much publicity publicity as we can get out to help to inform people about the general plan update. And also to foster and encourage engagement. Not just with the CAC, but with, uh, reviewing plans, asking questions. And, and meeting us in a number of public venues where we can get comments and feedback. Our goal is that we can activate a plan. We can create a plan. That is really based on public engagement. That ultimately reflects the hopes and aspirations of everybody in the city. In that regard. I'm very pleased with this CAC that. Was assembled. All of you who volunteered together. Really come together as a very diverse group that mirror the city's general population in terms of. Age, gender, ethnicity. Interest neighborhoods. So what we think we've. Are very, very fortunate to have. Come together with this group. We feel this will really help. Um, to ensure that we're going to hear. From all different perspectives. Opinions and roles in the city that will really help to make this general plan representative of everyone in the city. Um, I can promise you some of our conversations. Most of them, all of them will be engaging. Some of them will be challenging. And I encourage you to approach the issues. To listen to your colleagues. Um, with open heart and mind. And I think if you do so, you're going to learn a lot about your city. You're going to create connections. You didn't know, and, and out of this, enrich your time here as a resident. So with that, um, I'm very pleased to mark this moment with you and, and, uh, look forward to working with all of you in the future. And please call me if you have any questions. And ideas as they come up. That's my role. Um, I didn't stay at the onset, but I'm project manager. So my role is to make sure information flowing back and forth. Amongst the team member, the CDAC membership and other. Uh, Uh, public, uh, People are interested in the project. So with that, I'll turn it over to Dan. Uh, Amston, who project manager for our consultant team who will bring us through the agenda. That's good. Well, thank you, Andy. And, uh, Is a pleasure to meet everyone here. Finally face to face. So to speak in the zoom world. Um, as Andy mentioned, you know, we are really excited about tonight. This is a great milestone as project. Um, we've had discussions, our broader team with all of you. And, uh, you're interested beyond the CAC. And so a lot of tonight is a little bit of presentation, a little bit of background, but we really want to have actually kind of a fun interactive exercise here for the bulk of the discussion to learn more about all of you, but also, uh, for each of you to learn a little bit about all of you as well. So I'm Dan Amston. I'm the overall project manager on the consultant side for the general plan update. I'm with a firm called MIG. We're based in Berkeley. Um, And we're joined with place works and your vein associates and several other firms as part of, uh, this consultant team effort as well. Um, but I want to introduce the other key speaker here tonight, which is Michelle Gervais to do a quick introduction. She and I are going to help run through the discussion, interactive part of Smith's, uh, meeting Michelle. Thank you. I'll be brief. It's so exciting to see and meet. You see your faces. I got to speak with a number of you on the phone. And Anna Padilla is also on here. Uh, as well. So we're just delighted. I think we probably all share a real commitment to seeing democracy and action. And at a time, when the world is changing in bigger ways than we'd imagined, and we're all going to make sure it's for the good. So, um, you know, I, and I think understanding that. And diversity and a strong diversity. The stronger the diversity, the tighter our weave, you know, and nobody will fall through the cracks. So I'm very excited to see you all and I'll be quiet. I'll mention one thing. Uh, which is a mantra that I heard when I was talking to a friend of mine. And I heard this saying that people are down on what they aren't up on. And I thought that was really helpful to just really understand what we're all about, which is really communication. Uh, which is the listening. And I'll be quiet. I'll mention one thing. Uh, which is a mantra that I heard when I was kind of in one of your seats, I was a new citizen in Santa Rosa over 20 years ago and I was on a committee after just living here for a whole month. And, uh, and I heard this saying that people are down on what they're listening to. So I'm very excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. Which is the listening with the two airs and speaking with the one mouth. And so very excited to listen and hear, uh, as you all move out. And as you bring back in, this is really. An opportune time and a great team. So. And I love the city of Santa Rosa staff and, and electives and appointees have never been stronger and clearer and more forward thinking in my years of working with the city of Santa Rosa staff. Um, I'm going to do a screen share here just to get our presentation. Uh, up and running, but do want to also mention. Um, and we'll, we'll send this out. We don't need it. Uh, this isn't a test of memorizing who's who. Um, but also want to mention and recognize, uh, Beatrice, who is a senior planner with the city. Um, she's a key part of our team as well as Magali tell us. Um, she's the first division for the city. Uh, and Claire, the assistant city manager, um, who was also on the line tonight. And on our consultant team, we have a, uh, several other folks who are really core to this process. That you'll be meeting as we go through these meetings. Uh, on a Pedia is on the line as well. She's actually running the Spanish facilitation right now for any, uh, participants who need that. Um, and she's also, uh, is the overall principal in charge of the consultant team and really kind of the overall organizer ever. Um, and Andrea Howard of place works who is, uh, my, my co-project manager on a lot of things. This is a, a big and complicated projects. So we have a lot of resources to pull here. And then lastly, as we'll meet through the process, Carolyn, we have a lot of, uh, we have a lot of, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, both community engagement specialists. Uh, but Jamila also runs our firm wide equity and inclusion studio as well. Uh, is a really key team member. As we think about inclusive ways of engaging the community and really, you know, casting this broad net of community engagements to go through this. So what I mentioned, the other folks here as part of the process. Also just a quick sort of zoom orientation. And Michelle and I are energized and excited, which means we'll be going through presentation and present a lot of stuff. But if you have questions or comments, um, if you want to either right, raise your hand virtually, uh, with this little icon at the bottom or at a chat, uh, we have members of staff who will be monitoring that and we'll let Michelle and I know when there's a question or a pause point. Um, tonight, you know, it was really a kickoff and talking about this process, talking about the importance of the CAC, uh, as Amy mentioned, we are going to have interactive exercise to get to know each other. Um, which I'm very excited about cause I want to learn a lot about all of you. And then at the end, I'm going to wrap up with, uh, sort of a second presentation on really just a big overview of the general plan and what are some of the key milestones as we go through this process or really this journey over the next several years to create, uh, the next iteration of this milestone policy and regulatory document for the city. Uh, and as you notice on the bottom also just chat is, is right next to the hand as well. So for a quick agenda review, um, we're going to talk just briefly about the community advisor committee purpose and role. Um, we have members of the community here in the public as well, but also just a nice kind of reminder for all of us of the importance of this committee, and also just the role and process that we're going to be going through here during our subsequent nine to 10 meetings over about a year and a half. We're going to go through this, uh, CAC member introductions where we'll call on each one of you to, to provide some insights and some background in your interest. And then the overview presentation, um, for the members of the public who are attending tonight, just want to mention, we're also going to have a, uh, reserve some time at the end for public comments as well. So with that, I will pass it back to Michelle to talk a little bit about the CAC purpose, the role, really why all of you are, are here with us tonight and starting this journey. Well, um, again, to, um, can't say enough about the importance of diversity. And so the point is that you all, and we'll get to hear more from you about how we hoped that we reached every general corner of interest, of place, of background and, and not even just so much of what is, but of what we can anticipate maybe. And so, um, when we have some introductions that you all get to do for yourself in a moment, uh, we like you to just, this is about yourself and, and what you would like us to know about you, uh, why you have this interest and, and willingness to commit time and what it is, it would be a natural touch point for you. So we make sure that we are covering the bases. And if we see a gap that it gets filled. So be thinking about that while I just go over some of that. Um, it's not housekeeping, but it is just a good reminder of hopefully what you heard in your interview and that is number one thing is active participation. We really do, uh, thank you because over the next months, years, uh, we'll be working together. And, you know, uh, showing up is important not just for the team, but because you're representing people and you're going to learn things to take back out to people. So participation is key. If it doesn't work out for you, just let us know. There's no wrong answer there. We just want to make sure that we fill that spot. And, um, and so please do stay involved. Um, and you'll see, uh, I don't know if you could see this. I can't, I had to print it out, but I think active participation was on that list there. Um, you will be getting updates. You'll be getting materials to read so that we can all stay informed and on the same page. And they will be available to the public as well, because transparency is key. Uh, this is the whole point is to engage people. There are no secrets. Um, and so we want everybody to hear the same thing so it can inform ideas and we can, uh, talk about them together. And in hearing the same thing, that means that we take time to listen to each other and that there is equal participation, inclusivity, uh, and a respectful engagement. I'm a terrible interrupter. So, uh, I'm going to be interrupt, uh, protecting that it for myself. We want to make sure that we pass the baton of fuel. So everybody gets a chance to, to hear. And then the Brown act is something that, uh, you may be familiar with Dan. I can't see you right now. And that's something you wanted me to touch on, or maybe that's, I think the city. But the brown, the bottom line is it's that it's a, a transparent, a fair, a well-noticed public process. And that there aren't sidebar meetings and so forth. Everything we do will be together. It will be noticed to the public and they will be available to come participate. So just, and in this, and, and we're being recorded. So know that. And, um, and I know it will, will all be our best. And, um, There's a little bit of stack there as well. Uh, if folks can mute just so we, uh, everyone can hear clearly. That it's just a graph of the organizational framework. Um, all of you should have already received it for members of public. It's also available in the website as well. But as Michelle mentioned, you know, it's this structural document. And we'll go through a few slides here as well. Uh, these, these are Brown act meetings. This is a Brown act committee. We're not, uh, set up or designed or anticipated to make any. Formal actions per se is more conversational as a committee. there is the brown act component, which really means we're noticing all the meetings and the materials and doing a quorum at the beginning and space for public comment as well. So again, this inclusive process as this is a very public accessible and interactive discussion. So let's make sure we covered everything. Yes, you are serving as a liaison of sort to your the constituent group of your, really if you're choosing, we just want to make sure that we make sure that we're covering them all. So you can tell us more about who that that group or groups are that you think you might be best most naturally inclined to represent. Again, your job will be to encourage participation throughout the process. We'll have ideas, you'll have ideas of how to engage people. We're open to your ideas on things that are more formal that we could include. The project team include the consultant team that you just met in the city and providing ideas for consideration and preparing the general plan update. Again, that's the rich stew of discussion. The decisions will be made by others, but we're here to bring ideas together, talk about them and provide feedback to the consultants and the final decision makers, which will be ultimately city council. Next, again, getting the broader understanding of our needs. The key topics and issues in a constructive manner, that's where we'll get really rich. Sometimes those key topics and issues are the dicey ones, but we're all here for the good. We know that. So we'll be working through that together. I really enjoy that. These courageous conversations are what we all need more of. And then in the process we'll find that common ground. Next, so we talked about attendance. We talked about participation. The operating principles are listen and respect and share. Review meeting materials and documents in advance. We'll all do our homework. It won't be overly burdensome. It'll be really interesting actually, but we want to be prepared. And then consider the technical information. Dan, you might want to touch on that, but there are how many chapters there's, you know, from air quality to zoology. There's every type of technical information that goes into a community is what will be coming forth through the general plan. Yeah. There's going to be a lot of data, information, analysis is prepared throughout this effort. And one of the key roles is CAC. You are all the experts in the community and liaison community as well. And as we go through this process and start to understand information, but also develop and analyze alternatives, feedback, you know, are we hitting the right things? Is everything being addressed? Are there other things we should be aware of? So we're not asking anyone to be technical experts or verify any data. It's more of, does this seem right? Does this feel right? Is this meeting the needs and the topics that we're discussing? So I think we covered, again, most of this, which is to listen and to engage and to be prepared and encourage others to share. Only one person speaking at a time. That's going to be really interesting to try out on Zoom. Can't wait till we're all in person. But we'll do our best, concise and respectful. Cell phones must be turned off during the meeting. Well, just like at home, home schooling, right? And then inform the city staff in advance if you're unable to attend. Again, we want to make sure that if you have any information to share, that we'd be sure and pass it on to you. So here's the fun part now. And I think if we are all sure that we have our mute on, then those who are speaking will come to the front with the yellow screen around them, right, as the speaker. So please make sure you're on mute. And then we're going to go one by one, I don't know, a minute, two minutes, what it takes. We'd like to know, here are just three starter questions, but you can generally tell us what you think you want us to know about you. So that's number one. What do you want us to know about you? And integrated into that, why are you interested in this? And so that we're making sure we cover all the bases, who slash me, how would you go about contacting the natural touch points in the community, the constituent groups that you are most closely aligned with? And there's no wrong answer to this. We again, we're just looking to always make sure that we're doing the best job of navigating the whole community. And so we jump in though real quick. I might be taking notes on this sort of virtual board here, questions, comments as well. So for everyone participating, don't feel like you have to take notes or remember this, we're going to encapsulate all this. But I think I'm actually going to turn off the screen share here, because I think we want to see everyone and have everyone see each other. So just want to mention I'm going to take some notes, but let's keep going and let's do introductions here. And so I'm going to ask you, Dan, I think we all see different screens. Do we all see the same order of screen? I don't know that we do. I wonder, Dan, if you can go through that wheel and start with, should we start with the A's? That sounds good. There's a double A for Aaron. Sounds good. You're used to that, I bet. This is Aaron. Yes, I'm very used to that. If we do first names, I wouldn't always first, but if we do last names, I'm usually towards the end. So should I kick off with that introduction? Would you be so kind? Sure. So I think what I'm going to say is what I want people to know about me. I think some touch points in relation to the general plan. And then was it also talking about how I would help distribute some of this information out into the community? Yeah, or who might be your natural affiliations? Okay, great. Well, hello, everybody. Great to meet you all virtually. My name is Aaron Schreiber-Steinthorpe, but yeah, I guess I've been in Santa Rosa about five years and now I'm raising a family in Santa Rosa. So I feel very grounded here. I love this community. I think we live in such a beautiful place and while we keep going through natural disasters, I think it's still a great place to live and somewhere where I want to be invested in what the future looks like. I think some details about me, I'm originally from Chicago. Right now I work in sustainability for wineries and I think I'm very interested in the sustainability for the city of Santa Rosa. So just trying to figure out ways that we can plan that are really thinking about the future and trying to make smart decisions that actually benefit the city and the people that live here and make this a great community to live and work in. So probably most of my touchpoints would relate around that, but I think it sounds like the general plan's comprehensive so there's probably going to be a lot of interesting things we get to learn about and I think in terms of how I would kind of connect with the community. I think my family and friends here are definitely people that I talk with. I think through my work, which is Jackson Family Wines, I connect with a lot of people and then I'm also pretty active in a number of different local environmental groups. So those are all groups that I think I could help distribute information from and also get feedback from. Terrific. That's a perfect model for an introduction. Thank you. That was great. Why don't we go to Anna Stevens next. Hi, my name is Anna Stevens. I have lived in Santa Rosa for 44 years. That's my entire life. I've grown up on, I've lived basically in the Roseland, St. Rose neighborhood for most of that, but also over in Roseland and so I've had a pretty good mix of the downtown feel. I'm actually not sure how I'm going to touch point with the community. I think I was asking earlier like what is recommended. I think I would be really communicative with my personal neighborhood. We have a neighborhood group of emails that we're always trading with and asking questions. So I would probably do something like that. I'm very social. I have, I would probably rely a little bit on social media. Talking to friends and family to see where they're at emotionally and what they think. Acquaintances, going out, talking to people. I think that would just be the best way for me to get in touch with the public in our community. That's it. That's great and just so you know we'll have ideas and we'll ask you for ideas on way to integrate and yeah it's not a one-size-fits-all but great. Yeah, thank you. Hey thanks Anna. Ann Barber, how about you go next. Hi, my name is Annie Barber and I'm a native of Santa Rosa and my parents were native of Santa Rosa. So we've been here for a while. I've seen a lot of changes as time has gone by. I was interested in this group. Tom Schwenholm asked me about it. I am a board member of Coffee Strong and I have learned a lot about the city in the process of our rebuilding and we have a great network whether it's social media or just the neighborhood quite frankly to disperse information and discuss information with and so I think I would handle it from that direction and I think my I think a lot of my interests would be in the homeless and climate control that type of thing. Thank you so much very much. Thank you. How about Ali Soto next. Hi, sorry about that the Zoom kicked me out. The first question was something that I wanted you guys to know about me, right? Yeah, I think I'd like to share that I've been here in Santa Rosa since 2001. So I went since the age of five so I practically know the whole town. I've been very, how do I say, very excited and interested in what community action can do for people and for generations and I think it's a nice thing to see people of all ages communicate and come together to talk about the growth of the town. So I like to interact with people. I really like to know where the town is headed, what direction if we are being progressive and we're being I don't know a very welcoming town and just just to be moving on the right track I guess just being progressive and being positive and welcoming. I don't remember the second question or was it just one question? No that's that no that and then if there's anything else you'd like to know you kind of covered it actually but maybe about your natural touch points if there and you and I spoke at some length so I remember but for the others to know but about where you move out and connect to. Oh yeah well I've moved around through the whole town I live practically everywhere so I know like most of the neighborhoods some of the low income areas or just some of the schools and I don't know places and people that may require more help or communities shelters, food banks or schools that just need maybe a little bit more funding or stuff like that but yeah I think I've been able to meet a lot of people in this town a lot of different situations and backgrounds so I think I'm very I don't know excited of just wanting to see how I could work for them and how I can communicate what their needs and wants are for the town. Terrific thanks so much. Annette Arnold. Hello I'm Annette Arnold and I lived in Santa Rosa for a little over 30 years now and recently I took a position with the South Park Community Building Initiative which is through a non-profit of St. Joseph's Hospital now Providence and what we're trying to do is engage local resident leaders in our neighborhood which I represent South Park and to engage them into making changes that better our community and working together so that we have a support system and that we can once our program with St. Joseph is done we are capable of taking care of ourselves and knowing how to deal with the processes to get changes done that we want in our neighborhood. On a personal level I have never been involved in any kind of politics before and I for the last six months have been inundated with it and I really am finding it very interesting and I love that I can have a say however small but a little bit of a say in what goes on and I hope to contribute to the plan by a few specific areas that I'm interested in one is representing my neighborhood which is an underserved neighborhood and another is to bring resources for younger people because I think there are very few things like that here in Sonoma County and that's why I think a lot of kids are getting into trouble and also to support the creative community because I've been involved with that community for like 20 years and I just I love the people and I think it's a great thing that we offer to the people here in Sonoma County and the way I have a touch points are here with the community of South Park. I have extensive contacts here and then I'm on a couple other boards like the community health board and the police, the new one, the new police ambassador program so I can be meeting people through those programs as well and that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Can I just mention your point of what you're doing through the St. Joe's program about uh working with developing a community voice and how to really train citizenship right? I mean citizenry is a better way to say that's what this process is part of as well or what we like to flow from this so um so excellent point. Glad to be here. That was great uh Delashe. Hi, I'm Delashe Carmona Benson. She, her, Aya. What I'd like you guys to know is that I'm Afro-Latina. That's very important to me for both sides Afro and Latina. I'm involved in many many things in this community. I am the SRJC president of the student body. I'm also the president, co-president of BSU. One of my favorite hats that I wear in this community is the newly found group that's called Black Excellence which is Black Founded and Black Operated with Black Voices. So that's what I would definitely be bringing to the table but along with that I'm also involved in nine other community boards and community councils besides this one and at SRJC I'm in 14 communities. As you guys were talking I was writing them down. I was like oh my goodness I need a break now. So I would be bringing that. I've been in Santa Rosa for 15 years. I live in Roseland and so of course I get to drive through a neighborhood daily that I need to scream and bring my voice to and I'm also a public speaker. I'll be using that platform as well as my social media and all my contacts on on social media. What I would like to bring to this committee and what I'd like to just really emphasize in this committee is what I call aid, advocacy, inclusion, diversity and equity and I think that Santa Rosa is really lacking that and we really need to bring that. But with my position at SRJC and in the community I work with a lot of youth so I'm going to be bringing the youth perspective to a lot of the things like homelessness like basic needs and that's really really where I want to hit on the basic needs and housing and that I say that I too just came from Chicago so I know that I know that Aaron said he's from Chicago so you already know we got two Chicagoans in here. It's about to go down so it's good. Wow you are quite a big time for this. That's amazing. Thank you. Next Erica Mikesh. Hi my name is Erica Mikesh. Civil engineer by trade and so I have an engineering brain that likes to problem solve and that sort of thing but I figured out kind of later in life that I really enjoy talking to people so any excuse I have to call somebody on the phone and learn something about them like I'm all about that. I've been doing a little bit more of that at work and I've just really found that that's like what lights me up is being able to talk to people as opposed to just staring at a computer doing CAD drawings or engineering drawings. Before COVID I biked my son across town so I live in the junior college and he goes to Cesar Chavez which is in Roseland across town almost every day so we're very familiar with like the homeless issues on the bike path so yeah I definitely bring a biking perspective and then for work I do a lot of resource conservation and we serve all of Sonoma County but one of the things I've noticed is we really don't serve the city of Santa Rosa and so I'm curious on how to integrate that into the general plan. I think that's about it yeah I would say as far as outreach I love calling people on the phone so. You'll get a lot of opportunity thank you very much. Thank you. It's great and as we're noticing there's a lot of backgrounds perspectives on this group which is fantastic. How about Andres Verhill next? How's it going everyone can you guys hear me okay? I'm using the phone and I've done it before on Zoom. All right great so like Andres I work at Redwood Credit Union I started there about a year ago and it's always been something that kept in back in my mind that I want to do something for the city whether that's you know something like this or you know running for office or even working for the county itself. I've always been you know interested in how the city works things like that something my dad kind of pushed on me to do our duty I guess as citizens he always taught me that it was important to vote because it was our voice and if you could do more always do more so that's me you know this is me trying to do more. As far as outreach goes I'm a lot of word of mouth I talk to a lot of people every day it's kind of my thing. I'm also very big on social media and I'm going to say I'm big on social media but I use it you know religiously that's kind of my newspaper if you you know want to think of it like that. I am involved in a lot of groups as well whether it's in my congregation over at the resurrection church my alumni association J.C. some of us stay Rosen that's one thing I should have mentioned earlier I'm from the Rosen district I've been here all my life went to all you know K-12 I'm very proud to be here and very proud to be able to do my part so that's it for me thank you. So nice to meet you kind of face to face after talking yeah glad to have you. Thank you. I will mention we are hoping to all meet face to face here during this project at some point so we'll get there but the virtual is working pretty good. How about next Yvette Miner. Hello I'm Yvette Miner I'm originally from South Central Los Angeles I've been in Sonoma County 29 years been in Santa Rosa for 24 years. Some of the things that I do in the community have brought me all the way from Rona Park to Santa Rosa to Windsor you name it I probably had a little hand in it here and there in some point in my life. I'm a part of Rosen CBI the original CBI group here community engagement building initiative here in Santa Rosa we were the first and so through that process learning about the community as a whole and bringing forward you know steps to the community and learning how to motivate the community to do things to make a change in the community was one of the key things we did in Roseland. Our goal was to help with youth crime so many of the programs that we did in in Roseland was in relation to that in my spare time you can find me teaching Seventh and eighth graders community engagement but due to COVID I'm not doing that right now so we pivot in our school district. I'm also a part of a host of entities which I will not name but my range is wide and I can rate it can be teachers it can be parents it can be the boards and commissions that I'm a part of. I have a wide range and a wide outreach so that's what I'm bringing to the group and I want to see the communication that the city has or any government entity has with the public improved and so the only way to do that is to be a part of a process where you can say hey this is not going to work for that community that is not going to work for those people in that area you need to do it this way and so if we can bring those voices on to this board and really share in the experience of what Santa Rosa will look like in the future will be a better place for all of us because then we all will feel like we have a voice. That's so key I saw thumbs up I saw everybody nodding that's exactly right thank you so much. Let's go to Jen Close next. Thank you it's so interesting to hear everybody's stories and I should have given this some thought but I so I Jen Close I'm the executive director of generation housing a one-year-old housing advocacy organization here in Sonoma County and I grew up here went to school here and then and during that time also spent significant periods of time in Chicago and Chicago land because of divorced parents and so I know that that will that area well I spent about 15 years away from Sonoma County when I lived in Los Angeles mostly on the west side and went to UCLA and then went to law school in Bloomington Indiana fantastic progressive college town sort of an island in Indiana and I was just thinking that there are a couple things I think that have made me really interested in how cities can engage people and give people opportunities and and what gives cities a pulse and and and and also how cities can be fair or not and and one thing was just growing up my parents were both local journalists press democrat and so we were just kind of brought up to to care about what was going on and pay attention was going locally and then I went to Brookhill school uh elementary school and when I went there it was a perfectly diverse and so that was my view of the world and then I went to Herbert Slater where everyone looked like me and I just looked around said hey what happened and that was super impactful so there was that and then the the other other couple things is when I moved to Los Angeles I had a boyfriend who is it worked for city of Los Angeles and he had a master's degree in city planning and to help me get to know Los Angeles at night when there was no traffic we would drive around the city and because you could really make you know get around and and get over and he would tell me the history of why is South Central depressed you know what happened the auto industry left like why why is this area like this why is this area thriving why is this area not and that was really fascinating and then in Bloomington I lived five blocks from law school and that's where I said I'm never going to live anywhere again where I can't walk to work and that was you know the boy life on foot and on a bike is just such a better way to live than in a car and that's just me personally but in any case I'm really passionate about being thoughtful and intentional about community planning and making sure that it is equitable and that people are engaged and that there is a a beating heart of every community and I think it there can be one and and Santa Rosa um I think this is a good time for folks to come together who care about that for Santa Rosa I'm excited to be here you've done a lot for Santa Rosa for the good so it's really great to have you so thank you so much Jen uh next we'll go to Lee Pierce Lee you're you're Mike uh gotta find your I think you're still muted is there you go there you go I'll get all righty good evening everybody and thank you staff for putting this on if this is one of the most important jobs that anybody can have in a city because we're kind of speaking from a diverse voice congratulations everybody on signing up uh we're speaking from a diverse voice which is so utterly important in terms of how you want yourself your kids and your grandkids to live uh in this community therefore one of the touch points for me and and concerns that drove me to this process besides Michelle Gervais twisting my arm behind is um I want to see more youth uh involved in everything we do in terms of planning this city and what like we need a grocery store downtown or another school over here or there we need affordable housing those are the kinds of things that we elders we seniors did a good job on getting us to uh I'm now 73 years old so uh and I grew up here in the north bay uh St. Elena so I know what it's like to be in a small town but I also know what it's like having lived in the greater bay area for a little while during my adult life I'll know what it's also know what it's like to have a bigger city uh that uh acts like a big city and has conveniences that young people enjoy and can come here and live and go to work and recreate the whole thing so we at some point in the process have to keep our ears attenuated and our brains to we're not just designing a city for us who are here today we're trying to look out for the future that's in our transportation moving moving transportation affordable housing and talk about the homeless problem let's think ahead and look at situations like that also let's look in our business uh sectors where I come from now as the president of the north bay black chamber of commerce uh which extends uh throughout the whole north bay and I even serve on a silicon valley uh board with 10 uh black black chamber presidents we all meet monthly and try to align our uh initiatives and things that we want to work on as a culture so that's definitely a touch point uh and we go all the way as a matter of fact to friday I'll be on a call with the u.s black chamber of commerce and Sacramento and the whole thing so um the point I want to make here is let's consider a diverse group as the city has apparently done uh with this group and I'm proud of that uh but also let's make it transparent let's let's and the city has identified that I noticed in some of the materials I looked at that's an important thing let's let people see why we need to do certain things so that they can come along willingly and spread the message and I'll take responsibility for going back to the chamber groups that I've worked with spreading the word and asking my board and other folks to do the same thing uh but I'm also going to be really seeking young voices and the chamber is going to be bringing some young voices on to help us design a museum that will touch into some of the things that the city might benefit from in the end so I don't want to take up too much everybody's time but that's that's uh my primary stuff well you're so great to be here and a terrific mentor for for many so thank you my pleasure let's go to Lisa Jocelyn next hi it's a real pleasure to be here with all of you just hearing the breadth of experience and knowledge and excitement and energy that all of you have is very exciting to me and I'm looking forward to this process I've lived in Santa Rosa for 23 years um I am getting involved I'm wanting to do this because um I'm at a stage in my life now where I'm transitioning into retirement it's actually kind of being forced on me right now I have been a non-denominational minister working as a wedding officiant for the last 33 years in Sonoma County and the so one of the touch points that I have is the live event industry and looking forward to how to being able to work with them in this process I also was a community development specialist for the city of Eugene back in the late 70s and early 80s and I was responsible for working neighborhood improvement projects and it included a lot of citizen participation now I left that because I became ill and I so one of the things that I would have you know about me is that I have been ill now for well over 30 years I guess 40 years or so and one of the things another touch point that I can bring is liaison being a liaison with communities like the MS Society and the American Cancer Association and the Crohn's and Colitis all these support groups also I have working with the elderly community in Oakmont and other places like that and also the church that I attend I can be a touch point engaging with them so basically to bring it full circle I'm just at a place in my life where I have some time and this seems like a really wonderful way to give back to my community and I'm very much looking forward to the process thank you we're very lucky to have you and I'm sure your scope will be really in helping us facilitate even these meaningful conversations so thank you let's go to Melanie allers next hey everyone I'm Melanie I have been living in San Rosa for five years I grew up in Windsor went up to Portland Oregon for college and couldn't stay away from Sonoma County so had to come back and I work in the wine industry now and and involved in the community in softball through you know just community softball through the parks and rec program as well as I play indoor soccer and do community theater so those are my sort of touch points into the community and I saw myself sort of wanting to be a voice for young people like me I got married a couple years ago and want Santa Rosa to be a place for young families and how can we make that an affordable place and what do we want that to look like for for the youth so that's that's my sort of capsule of info and I'm excited to be here you represent a lot of people who are here and who want to be here so thank you thanks next let's go to Omar Lopez hello everybody my name is Omar I to start off I want to say that I've been in San Rosa since 2013 my parents and I moved here and since then I've been solely building some community relationships as of right now I am a senior at L.C. Allen High School I am the student board member with Santa Rosa City Schools so I get to sit in on their board meetings and cast a preferential vote and aside from that I've been able to get more and more involved in our community you know politically and just community-wise and so that's one of the greatest things is just getting involved with the community and getting to know so many people and specifically in the area I live I live right across from Roseland but I know uh Roseland very well and so that's one of my biggest points of contacts is that neighborhood and also the high school community is being the student board member I have extensive connections throughout them and so that's what I look forward to bringing to these meetings is just a young student perspective looking someone who wants to stay in Santa Rosa but the current situation makes it a little bit challenging for me so hopefully working to change that that's definitely one of my objectives well you and Melanie and Andre and Allie and all of you actually you don't just represent your own you represent parents with kids and they want their kids to get to stay so you guys are really important to the discussion thank you so much up next Patricia Thompson hi um my name is Trisha um I grew up in a park but um I've lived in Santa Rosa for the last five years um we are I went to college in Sacramento and then lived in Miami for a short time and was inspired by their community involvement um and that when we moved back here I wanted to try and get a little more involved in Santa Rosa um I have a one-year-old and then I'm nine months pregnant right now so I'm also a little winded talking congratulations thank you but I wanted to start getting involved so that I can make sure that this is a community that I'm excited to raise my daughters in and um I'm a board member of the Santa Rosa Mothers Club um my family is here my husband's family's um all local and we want to make sure that it's somewhere that our daughters can stay and that my young sisters are still in high school and um college and that this is a place they can afford to live in um so I'm just excited to kind of get to know everybody and learn more about the different areas of the community that I can be of service we can't wait to meet your second daughter too then yeah you'll get an excuse if you need to duck out thank you thank you great uh up next Rituja Bomik hi everyone um my name is Rituja um like Omar I'm also a senior in high school and um I've lived in Santa Rosa my whole life although um I have moved around um a lot of different neighborhoods mainly in the northwest and now um I'm in Rickin Valley um so I'm I'm happy to get to know like different sides of the town um so community engagement was actually not a really big part of my life until the Tubbs fires um that is something it's an event that is really important to me because it displaced my family um and it's something that we're still kind of recuperating from but at the same time it is what introduced me to um a lot of opportunities to engage with um people in the community I started off volunteering with the Red Cross and um that um exposed me to actually a lot of our senior communities we worked in a lot of mobile home parks um doing like fire alarm installations and um one thing I realized that was missing from our emergency response was inclusion for seniors and connecting them to technology so um when I was a sophomore I reached out to a bunch of different mobile home parks um and since then I've had a job working with a lot of low-income seniors and making sure they have mixle as well as um like addressing their other tech problems um kind of like a all-rounder technician um and it's a job I really love um it's a community where I have a lot of context in um so I hope to bring that to the council and another um the aspect that's really important to me would be cultural sensitivity um I was raised in a Bengali household um but I lived in mainly Hispanic neighborhoods so um engagement with our Spanish-speaking community is also something that's super important to me um but yeah I'm excited to work with you all to bring neighborhood equity to um all of our neighborhoods in San Rosa. You're a gem or a tuja from having gotten to know you through the interviews and others as you all are and I just would say one thing that I think is interesting about Santa Rosa and Sonoma County like too many places increasingly there's been a lot of hardship and and um you all have stories that you say so graciously and but I think out of this where the compassion and the generosity of spirit and the focus on what matters is really coming more and more evident into the surface so I I'm really excited about the all these crystals coming together it's just going to be wonderful thank you. Great up next uh Ryan Tracy. Hello I'm uh I'm Ryan Tracy I um actually didn't move to Santa Rosa till September 2019 so I'm a rather recent transplant but quickly I appreciate a lot of those attributes you described Michelle locally and just what a beautiful place and I've immediately decided you know this is where I want to sell down I have a three-year-old this is where I want to raise him this is where yeah I want to retire I'm I'm very confident so um before this I actually lived 11 years in Bakersfield which did give me some perspective you know of you know a community that really prioritized growth over over some other you know some other you know less less tangible drivers like it makes me appreciate some of the decisions that that have been made locally and some of the trade-offs that need to be considered when when putting together a general plan I'm a I'm an engineer I love I love maps I'm so it's kind of and I'm also a political junkie so this is kind of a perfect nexus of those those kind of interests it is my my first foray into public service so we'll see how it goes um as far as connections go the um I'm most of the other time I lived in Santa Rosa has been during COVID so you know unfortunately you know developing my social network you know might not have happened as quickly as I like so I actually see this as a good catalyst for for starting to try to develop those connections um I do work for Sonoma Clean Power who is you know very heavily involved in the community and I mean we have a lot of close relationships with customers that I plan on leveraging but yeah welcome just what we need thank you so much we could meet more often if you're really nine to but some busy schedules okay uh of next Steven Spillman hi I'm honored to be part of this group which is committed to enhancing Santa Rosa's future it's really a great challenge I grew up in a small midwestern town I first attended Purdue then Kansas State University in architecture after graduating I designed hospitals master plan communities mixed use projects as well as retail entertainment recreational mixed income multifamily projects later I earned an MBA in finance and investment I joined a Chicago real estate firm where I was responsible for developing and redeveloping urban infill and adaptive reuse projects in New York City Boston Cleveland Chicago Milwaukee Dallas and Houston my wife and I wanted to live in Chicago so we loaded up a U-Haul moved to Orange County and started looking for jobs where I eventually continued developing similar projects that was an eye-opener politically and otherwise um one of my focuses during the past 10 years was volunteering for Mission Viejo that's an Orange County city of about 100,000 people and there I I served on the planning and transportation commission for six years chairing it twice while leading the commission's update of the general plan and all of its elements I also chaired the investment advisory commission and the pension funds board of trustees and the water conservation committee and all those were great they were fun challenging as was my six years on the design review committee and at times on the traffic committee after being on the city's community services commission which was parks and rec health and welfare for juniors and citizens seniors excuse me and the orange county register our voters committee as a two-term chair I just believe in voting is important I resigned in order to make my family's dream come true and that was joining like-minded Santa Rosa community and continuing to give back education is a passion of mine I believe education provides folks with more life's choices I've been an instructor at UC Irvine a national land use workshop instructor a project management trainer and watercolor instructor at a community college and I like mountain hiking gardening cooking I've got board games traveling just generally exploring learning and volunteering so as the new kid on the block I hope to bring a fresh perspective grounded in a variety of land use experiences and a passion to work with a wide variety of folks to help in any way I can to make Santa Rosa's future as bright as possible for all walks of lives I must say this is really a great group of committed folks you know we can accomplish great things for our community and I'm looking forward to working with everyone in this group thanks for having me wow just wow right well the new kid part I would just question new kid to Santa Rosa but a very deep bench of experience for me so thank you and I'm still listening my battery it it's plugged into an out of charger so if I duck out I'm still here I'm just looking for a server away from my kids okay I'm here uh up next uh Stephanie Maniri hi everyone my name is Stephanie Maniri um it's really good to see a lot of familiar faces and some new faces here um what I want you to know about me is that I am the daughter of immigrant parents so my parents immigrated straight from their countries um their home countries to Santa Rosa my dad is from Venezuela and my mom is from Mexico and so they they met here in the 80s and then I was born in the 90s so um and I've been here in Santa Rosa um specifically southwest Santa Rosa and Rosalind my whole life um I went to Cook Middle School and LCL in high school and then I went to college um in San Rafael I went to Dominican University um I have an undergraduate degree in public health and a master's degree in health policy and law from UCSF um and I've never moved away um I I've always lived here and commuted and have worked since I was 15 um and I also um sit currently on the Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education um I I have a really big passion for equity in our a lot of our different institutions but specifically in our education system because I was one of those students who was told I would never go to college and that um maybe I should go to go to the JC first as if that's a really bad option um and so so I just there are a lot of things I want to change about my community um but I love my community I'm invested in my community I bought my first house in Rosalind um last year and so I'm very committed to staying here and not moving away because if I'm going to invest resources and time into something it's going to be where I grew up and where my parents um have have been trying to lay roots down in so um that's that's a little bit about me I work at an organization called Latino Service Providers I'm the director of programs there and I run a youth community health worker program um so I also have a really big interest in mentoring youth and um and providing opportunities for leadership for them and um helping them realize that um you know we we can't be voices for any particular communities we can uplift the voices of of our neighbors and our community members um but we need to really be conscious about um power dynamics and in our local politics and and in our the way that we do community engagement and community outreach so that's a little bit about me thank you I love what you just explained about how to lift voices not speak for others that's just beautiful and I have to say whenever I get down I'm going to think of you all this is you bring such hope for the world so thank you who's next all right so next is Hugh Helm Hugh I think you're on mute can you unmute your microphone please there you go can you hear me now yes perfect thanks hi everybody my name is Hugh Helm and I uh am a resident of Oakmont Village I'm a retired attorney I've lived in Sonoma County for the last 35 years or so the last 22 or 3 have been in the city of Santa Rosa um I um originally from Ohio uh but came out here because I love the the weather and the country and the politics and the people and everything about it and I've loved it ever since I have during my legal practice I served as a law professor at um Empire Law School for 15 years volunteered for lots of organizations and such as well as practice law and since my retirement I've been primarily involved in volunteering my time for environmental organizations I've been a docent and a land steward for a Buvery Preserve Lovagoona Foundation Sonoma Land Trust so environmental issues are important to me I'm a road cyclist so I'm so bike trails and bike friendly roads are important to me and so I'm looking forward to working with everybody here and hopefully we can come up with something that will help manage the future of Santa Rosa so we'll all have a better future thank you thank you you you really landed in God's country then didn't you for out year-round cycling yeah you're right thank you well great well thanks everyone I think that is everyone uh at least on the list that I have if we missed anyone first I apologize but if you want to unmute and introduce yourself I think we have all the CAC members I think we're good we're good okay I know this is a big group but why everyone was doing introductions I didn't want to show that Ana Padilla has been helping me out here and this is the composition of who we are as a group pretty amazing you know as we all heard this last hour or so there is such a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives and interests which is really exciting and is hugely valuable to this process but also as we further engage with the community so again thank you each of you for your time here and Ana did that I think that was kind of cool all right there we go will you be sharing this Dan is this something we'll get to see absolutely okay so usually in the in a physical world we're usually drawing on butcher paper and creating all these wall graphics we do this here in the digital world as well so this is something that will be going out to the whole group and also publicly available as well at the end of the session so with that let me transition here a little bit to our our next part of the agenda and we want to spend a little time of just talking in a little bit more detail about this project Santa Rosa forward and as staff mentioned earlier Bill and Amy and Andy as well as mentioned from a few CAC members this is a really big project but a tremendously important project and general plans are this strange weird esoteric thing that every city and county has they're big documents their policy the regulatory documents and most people I'm a general plan practitioner most of the time when I go to new communities most people have no idea what a general plan is and that's fine but everyone knows how it affects them and impacts them and the best way of thinking about it is all of our communities are planned to some level where homes are located or should be located other buildings stores parks schools roads all these features that comprise what we know as our city are are planned at either a detailed level you know sometimes there's master plan communities or more of you know how do we rehabilitate or transition older neighborhoods or downtown through economic development or whatnot but there's always intentional actions that go into that and so in this graphic just thinking about where schools are located relative to homes relative to parks and open space obviously we're not starting from scratch this project by any means we have a a very large robust integrated community so a lot of the discussions we'll be having is how to make things better how to address core needs where facilities or services need on neighborhood level so the the most important part about planning which is this process over the next few years is thinking about the people you know a city is not just a collection of buildings we all interact we all need to move around we need education jobs safety places for entertainment yes we have a photo of a whole bunch of people hanging out you know the center of downtown in COVID things have changed and just the the interactions of folks is really important mobility is going to be a big topic as we go through this project and think about how we move through the city how that can be improved so this general plan update process very intentionally working with staff we did not want to call this a general plan update we wanted to create a name or title to this that better resonates the importance of this but also is more tangible to the community so we came with Santa Rosa forward one of the ideas is you know bouncing forward from where we have been with fires disturbances homelessness economic impacts but really this process is a chance to revisit and rethink planning policies and programs cities do not update their general plan every year because this one is a tremendous effort but also general planning practice and also state requirements is you know every 15 or 20 years it's good to take a really big refresh and look at these goals and policies but as everyone discussed today you know how to improve Santa Rosa for everyone and how to really make this a process that results in this outcome of positive change so this is a a complicated diagram and we have this available on the website and we'll send out to all of you but this is really sort of distilling what this three-year process is going to be and the takeaway is there's a lot of stuff that takes place during a general plan update it's it's actually like four or five different projects all sort of folding into one we've just finished up the consultant team and city staff going through a city profile and existing conditions report we're going to be saying that out to all the CAC members and discussing it in more detail at our second CAC meeting but once we get this good understanding of sort of the core existing conditions we're going to be moving into a visioning process with the community and with virtual workshops and other engagement events here sort of March April May ultimately going as you can see here in row D to alternatives and this is land use or physical alternatives but also policy alternatives in different ways of thinking about economic growth and access to education moving to a preferred alternative and ultimately a draft plan because this is a planning document and regulatory document we also need to conduct an environmental analysis consistent with the California Environmental Quality Act so looking at potential environmental impacts of some of these land use reporting policy decisions as well but what's very key in this process is all of these items circled in red these are all the CAC meetings that we're going to have during this process and really all these key touch points as we go through this process I have a question yeah to save it's got her hand up thanks yes that my question is in regards to the name change you said it's going to be Santa Rosa forward so when we see this in the future let's say in five years is that going to be the name of it or they're going to go back to Santa Rosa general plan updates or is that just for this time period great question so we branded this project for three years the document itself can easily be called Santa Rosa forward you know the next general plan that is something you know definitely to be considered as part of this we do have a project website that's Santa Rosa forward.com which could in several years actually become the general plan in a digital format as well so we're not we're not bound by the title general plan it is that type of document but the the name can be very specific to the city okay I'll keep pacing here but more questions or comments just let us know and I'm set up now to where I can I can see the the prompts so I'll do a pause um so very very very core to this process is our community involvement strategy and this has been something we held workshops and some virtual meetings uh I know some of you attended both other folks who had the community last summer to really think through the engagement and involvement strategy as part of this project one we want to really identify or even remove barriers of participation and this is an interesting challenge because we're starting this project right as COVID hit and stay at home as well so there's obviously digital barriers and digital divide within the community as all communities have and so we're looking at multiple ways of getting information out but also taking in ideas as well both physical and digital throughout this process we want to leverage a lot of the existing local social media networks they're already used they have a lot of users hugely important uh we've set the bar intentionally very high on this project and by we I mean the city but also consultants but also the CAC as well we want to have the most inclusive and equitable participation of any general plan um and I mean that genuinely we we have some pretty strong metrics that we are going to hit in this project on how we are engaging people and how successful um and some of those metrics we may not hit so as we go through this process we want to talk with all of you are there different methods or opportunities to better improve uh how well we're reaching the community and of course collaboration uh as we go through this process and very engaging workshops and events and surveys to really build interests and ideas and partnerships on the strategies that folks are starting to pull us around and also an an interest in community planning um and intentionally that's not city planning community planning how can we all work on this together to get the outcomes that we want we know Santa Rosa Latino service providers many other groups are already a fantastic job of this so we want to again really build on the great energy that already exists some of the great methods tools techniques as we go through this process um so our overall strategy this is both a document but also a process we want to be authentic and equitable on uh how we deploy all these different engagement techniques uh inclusive and flexible as well it or woven with equity and who has access to what information how can we improve equity throughout the community as I mentioned we like to use these words high touch and high tech we're not relying on just physical we're not relying on just digital it needs to be a combination of both to reach the whole community and as much as we can reduce jargon so it's clear I'm a planner by trade I am addicted to acronyms abbreviations and jargon but all of you will help me and no doubt uh ask me to clarify if I do use any of those things through this but for the broader community uh really understanding at a very clear level what this project involves and that includes translation and how we're translating materials and different documents as well and reducing jargon to that process ultimately creating this framework for growth development and community design but a very respectful process as well so these are the sort of guiding principles on this overall uh pathway to engagement I do want to note that the beginners project Kaiser Permanente provided the city with a wonderful healthy community's grants that is providing funding for both uh engagement to underrepresented communities but also the development of very robust healthy city policies and actions as part of this process so they're a great uh partner in this effort really helping to bolster some of the engagement activities that are a part of the project and Latino service providers is also a key partner with the city as part of this they they also receive the grant from Kaiser in addition to the city again to really broaden this outreach broaden youth engagement and really create this bigger focus on inclusion and healthy community activities throughout the project so initially through some surveys that were done a couple years ago by the city by also uh what we have heard from some of these initial discussions and other information the city has heard a lot of meetings as well some we're just calling key topics uh this is just a starting point but just thinking about what are the things we we really want to focus on but think through as we go through this process general plans could be sometimes overwhelming uh because it is all encompassing we can address almost any topic uh really within the general plan but one is thinking about housing and ways to increase housing for all what does that mean that's it's affordability and access but also different housing types and sizes for families versus young adults versus seniors you know making sure there's that range if there's ways through policy to reduce barriers to home ownership or rentals and also front and center in San Rosa and almost every community homelessness and housing people who are unhoused and strategies around that as well will be key and these are pretty big baskets obviously there's a lot of things below them but also thinking about uh retail and shopping and dining and entertainment um retails changing and the formats of retail are changing how we get goods is always changing but also opportunities to create entertainment districts or a variety of activities increasing outdoor dining uh as well as i mentioned mobility is is always an important topic in a general plan to think about how we get around the community and um oh my first jargon word multimodal but that basically just means a lot of different ways again around walking biking taking transit wheelchairs other modes of transportation how people interact with the physical environment but i think importantly as well autonomous vehicles this is going to be a 25-year plan and autonomous vehicles very well maybe cruising the streets of San Rosa during that time period so thinking in advance some of our mobility decisions around that community amenities and services um this is another key thing that the city's heard through a lot of initial surveys and other feedback as well relationships between law enforcement and neighborhoods but also fire department response times and where those fire stations go and staffing levels uh San Rosa has great park and open space pretty good access for all neighborhoods but there's additional opportunities as well of thinking about the type of amenities and services and of course education at all levels and how people access that and have exposure to it as well economic development and i would say inclusive economic development a key focus as well retaining businesses that are doing a good job and how you support those businesses help them grow especially local and minority owned businesses and there's a lot of ways you know through policy the city can be very supportive of that attracting excuse me attracting new businesses or new industries maybe strategic may make a lot of sense help grow the local job force and job skills as well um diversifying jobs again for the local community and uh improving access to employment all key issues of the general plan so i mentioned that the Kaiser grant uh was focused on healthy community policy this was already a big focus of the city of Santa Rosa before the grant but community health is really something that in the last decade plus but especially last few years has really come front and center in planning especially general plans you know how are we thinking about improving safety for everyone creating more walkable neighborhoods access to healthy foods parks and recreation increase access to health care anecdotally around 20 years ago we worked on a general plan for the city of Richmond and they were 85 000 or so residents at that time and there was not one grocery store in the entire city limits at the time the general plan created policies to change that and to encourage grocery stores and access to healthy foods in 20 years that has dramatically changed so that's an example of really taking a focus at at community health but also equity and access to those facilities and services as well um and environmental justice and social equity is incredibly important and the way the plan is structured the types of policies in it making sure that people of all races cultures genders ethnicities incomes backgrounds everyone's treated fairly in a respectful planning process but also the outcomes of this process and how that the policies are developed as well and supporting disadvantaged communities with resources programs and facilities they need so again this is uh a lot of work to do over the next about two and a half years or so i don't want to overwhelm anyone most of the work will be consulted on the staff side but we're looking to you to one help us better understand the community but also get the word out bring ideas in as well as we go through this and one of the reasons why we have you know this multiple phase processes we take a very big important process and break it down into kind of bite-sized chunks so each one of the cac meetings is focused on one of these key milestones either a document or point in the process so we also want to use your time efficiently as well as we go through this and just something i want to highlight here at the end so that's kind of the big overview as far as next steps or some immediate steps we just put together what we're calling a briefing book but basically we as a as a team of consultants and staff have prepared and it's available now a very large compendium of existing conditions so an inventory of facts data information analysis and this is called the existing conditions report it's very comprehensive but we produced a summary of key findings or key takeaways and then also this briefing book which is about a 10 page highly visual executive summary almost of existing Santa Rosa so we're going to ask cac members to review really the briefing book and the key findings feel free to read the existing conditions report if you want more detail and more information but in particular be thinking about the briefing book and key findings and some of these key takeaways we're going to have our next cac meeting we're really going to talk in more detail about the existing conditions and sort of the existing city character and structure and design in early March we haven't confirmed the date yet but we should be able to confirm it this week so stay tuned for an email from Andy and city staff about this next meeting but the big thing or the big charge from today's session is help us get the word out great discussion today about all these connections everyone has on the cac and that's really where we need your help in the near term is getting the word out about the project and one of the key ways to do that i'm going to try to do this through zoom here here we go we have the project website up and running and this was launched a few weeks ago sanarosaforward.com this is going to become sort of a one-stop repository of all information specifically about this project so we can coalesce it in one place but it's also very accessible for the community as well definitely encourage you to go on the website get familiar with it but a few key things we are going to have news blasts and people can sign up for emails but we have a section about with information on documents or publicly available so the first one that literally came out in December 2020 as i mentioned is the existing conditions report our detailed community involvement strategy is there as well what may be very helpful as you have discussions with folks in the community is about the project page has a high level of review what is a general plan and our schedule but we're also updating and adding these frequently asked questions so who is the cac what do they do does the general plan update address environmental justice that kind of stuff so we're trying again to get a lot of access to ideas information disseminate out there we have a page dedicated to all of you so we're going to keep updating this with meeting information and other materials and also important to this overall process and last thing to mention as well it's all translated into Spanish which is very key as well so as you're reaching out to folks if there's members of the community who are more comfortable or need to access information Spanish the website as well as all of our key engaging materials will be translated as well hey Dan we have a question from Yvette yes my question is in regards to the strategic plans that we have in the city there's a couple different ones is that something that's going to be addressed in the general plan or is that two separate things that are those two separate reports uh I'll start like in regards to like the downtown specific plan and the rosalind specific plan are those a part of this general plan or is that something totally different uh it's uh it's a really really good question so the specific plans for downtown rosalind uh technically they implemented the general plan so the general plan is sort of a higher level overarching policy document both of those have been recently updated and they are in effect as adopted plans right now as we go through the general plan process ultimately the new general plan will be adopted um probably won't have many changes to the specific plans but there may be a few that come out of the general plan at which point they would be amended to be consistent with the general plan so it's sort of a structural process but the general plan and the policies in the general plan do need to be shown consistently in specific plans. Stephen would you like to ask your question? Oh yes thank you um a clarification and then a question um help me understand each of our roles it's my understanding that each of us on this committee has a constituency if you will you know a group of people or organizations that we're to reach out to engage explain the general plan concept encourage them to give feedback and then bring that back to the group is is that generally what our individual responsibilities are? Yes and then in in in my case it's the land use community so I'll be reaching out to people who are interested in land use that might be low-income housing advocates, real estate developers, architects, property owners, people who are interested in in land use. What resources will each one of us have to be able to accomplish that? That is an excellent question so through each one of well there's several things one we're going to have a lot of engagement materials and notification materials and flyers sort of like you know stuff that you can just send out or you know point people to the website for information but as we go through each one of the engagement modules for lack of better term you know the the one coming up is going to be on visioning we're going to have a lot of workshops, a lot of meetings, a lot of surveys each one of these key engagement parts of the project we're also going to have materials prepared as well and information so in a sense we're almost going to be giving everyone a packet of content and some survey questions and some information as well so it will vary probably depending on where we are in the project but one it's trying to get people aware of these opportunities for engagement but two also helping them engage as well either bringing them into these workshops or surveys or actually doing a lot of times we do these sort of workshop toolkits so for instance if some of the folks in the CAC work with homeowner associations that have medians or other groups that have medians you can actually run a mini workshop and have the same sort of questions or feedback that you can bring back to the group as well so there will be a lot of information at your disposal as we go through this process and each one of these be engagement events so if if i wanted to reach out to the urban land institute or i wanted to reach out to brokers or homeowners associations or low income housing advocates to have them put together a group of folks where we could have a zoom meeting to discuss issues and what's important to them each one of us with their own constituency on this committee will have resources such as yourself in the city to help us make that a reality yeah and i think it's going to be a bit of an iterative process as we go through this because the the goal here is the CAC as broad of a net as we can from an engagement standpoint there is also a tremendous value especially around some of these big workshops to have a lot of people in the community together hearing each other as well so it's a balance between let's have meetings with small groups get their ideas in but also hear it as a big group as well and especially in our near term covid world the the small groups are going to be a little bit more important because it's a better way to hear people more one-on-one like you just you know described in some of these situations so if i'm going to reach out to let's say the architectural community get two or three prominent or maybe a low-income architect in an office architect or the same thing with developers maybe a large developer a moderate income housing developer that type of thing together in different groups and try to moderate a zoom meeting with them to get their feedback is that generally kind of what my responsibilities would be on land use and i have jumped in for a second i think what we're talking about for cac members and their touch points to the community they don't have to be formal to let's say a particular sector or let's say a special interest group we recognize many of you in your professional lives and your work in the community may have those already and we heard a lot about those but you should feel free to to reach out you're a free agent you're not bound and the most important and the most beneficial thing that can happen is as cac members you're spreading the word and if an opportunity comes up with a specific group like a group that's involved in land development that might have a focused discussion i think we would very much welcome the opportunity to have that kind of conversation but we're trying to structure the cac so that when we have these different milestones in the general plan project we will have your voice come to the table give us comments and feedback and your voice may actually be an amalgamation of everything that you've learned your colleagues in a in a particular field so i think Dan's point this will be iterative well we're learning this is a very broad net that we're casting and and i think we'll just have to approach scenarios like you present as they come up and see how it has to accommodate them and then who do we work through specifically if i come up with a few ideas that i'd like to have a discussion with three people then who would i go to to help you're always you're always welcome to approach me i'm as project manager i have to play the role of a the traffic director so it's always important for me to be aware of of these sorts of communications and i will get out of the way to make sure you get to the right resource um and and i don't know that we pointed it out but we do have um sr forward as an email that you can write and it'll get to the team and we'll be able to respond back to you and forward it on uh your questions or your suggestions to to the team member or it could even be a specific staff member in this city who uh works in that specific area great thanks andy thanks dan for your guidance on that so it helped clarify things for me thank you great great questions uh that yes i just wanted to do a little clarification because in the past i've done um some focus groups and listening sessions and so is that something that you're expecting us if we have an opportunity to do a focus referral listening session to bring that kind of content to what we're doing so let's say we have a group um like when he talked about uh general plans um and some of that if we have a group that is capable of giving us feedback on a particular issue that we're focusing on in the general plan so we can say hey we want to do a focus group and we're going to take down the information and bring that back to the cac or if we wanted to have one of you come in and say and facilitate that is that something that's available to us as well yeah on the first part in particular um when there's already scheduled meetings um you know focus group can be specific but when i mentioned HOAs like a lot of time HOAs have scheduled meetings it's uh usually a fantastic opportunity to then present uh general plan ideas or topics or questionnaires as well because we're going to the the people you know they're already committed to a meeting that's already scheduled we can find ways to support resources for all of you for those meetings um and as Andy mentioned you know focus groups or specific discussions and pulling in staff or consultants that's something you know that's definitely an iterative part of this Andy again will be the the gatekeeper because we need to we need to have a point person organizing all of this as it comes in but uh this discussion right here is the perfect discussion our first cac we want to get your ideas as well of you know how can we further this engagement effort um so this is this is great and I think uh you know we'll keep keep thinking through ways that we can support get these materials out uh as these groups these smaller groups start to form that you're all involved with yeah i'm very encouraged by these comments because what i've seen now are is kind of like these pop-up events that are happening that that could through your connections you're going to you're going to create an opportunity for us to maybe do a deep dive into a perspective and i think the challenge for us will be how to uh structure that so those comments flow into let's say a specific project milestone our next one coming up is visioning and and maybe you know that we have a pop-up group that might come up let's focus next on visioning um and kind of keep it in sequence that way that would be helpful yep that's a really good point it is uh helping the community work through this sequencing so we have these different phases we're we're moving through this process but a really important way of thinking about it is each phase builds upon the last one so as we move through this we need to move through it as a community as well and um getting people engaged sooner rather than later is a is a key part of it Dan just a quick thought and Andy um we had started early on uh which is a spreadsheet of different community groups and different outreach organizations and um because you know we're looking for a healthy redundancy with overlap we don't want to waste people's time but at the same time we want to make sure we covered everybody so um to the extent that there are organizations that you want to be sure are alerted to opportunities or to whom surveys are shared and so forth um maybe we could ask that people send those contact uh leads to I see Michelle starting to nod maybe I don't want to beat Michelle or to whom that would be that we are collecting um just just a map of Santa Rosa organizations who would that person be well that would be sr forward at srcity.com would would be a great way for you to send when you think of it xyz organization it's the contact information a little description and we can then pull it into our our list our database yeah populate our community network um database excellent I was I was texted a very important point that I want to mention as well when we started this meeting uh Michelle did a quick head count to do a quorum so we are a brown act committee um and what that means is for each one of these meetings we're going to make sure we have a quorum uh there'll be a formal opening by city staff and then we'll have our discussions but what also means is because we're a brown act committee there's limitations on uh committee members talking outside of these sessions um because the the idea between the brown act is we're discussing input ideas here in this public venue as well so I did want to mention that I don't know if anyone staff wants to provide more detail to that as well but going out with groups with your own groups and connections and bring information in is the goal we just need to limit uh CAC members uh like five or six of you having your own workshop with folks we can't do that because we need to have that through the public venue if I can just add Dan what the words that he should have added to be anywhere to each other so we are ambassadors but if you want to get information to your colleagues on this committee run that through Andy as the project manager so we can handle that thank you Charlie and Charlie again uh with place works another the the key consultant we need on the project as well so I think it would be this is can get uh nuance pretty quickly um we probably should send out to the committee members guidance on communication so that um you can refer to that because otherwise it's really easy to be tempted you know it tempted to call a number of your committee members here and engage in the conversation so I think we we should send some sort of a one page guidance regarding Brown Act um yes please really good follow up uh Steven you have a question yes well no just to expand on that uh I think that that the one page Brown Act synopsis will be great because it fundamentally means that you can't get more than two city council members off-site talking about something that's coming before them or planning commissioners can't get together on their own and talk about something that's going to be on the agenda and that means we as individual members of this committee more than two of us cannot get together and talk about it or if I talk to us another member of this committee about something and they talk to another member about it we are now in violation of the Brown Act so we need to be very careful to make sure that we're not talking to each other outside of the committee meeting you said out loud what we all could hear but we're all muted and that yeah yeah it's called it's okay it's a serial meeting you know it's that game of telephone it's an it doesn't serve people well in the long run so we'll we'll do it together we'll all go out and then we'll come back in and we'll equip you with what's you know we're sharing and you'll equip us with the names of you know organizations that we can help push it out to you're still unmuted in that just to be careful what you say all right well done any other any other questions from the CAC members all right well this is a great first meeting I'll pass it back to Andy and staff though I know we have a few members of the the public who are on this zoom as well excellent thank you Dan and that was a great presentation and you know overview of the general plan but I think the highlight of the show is hearing from you it it may personally for me a tough day really great to hear your story so thank you it was really nice so I wanted Michelle who is running the zoom meeting here behind the scenes make this now time available for public comment so those of you who have either called in or participating by zoom if you please raise your hand or I think it's press star nine if you're on the telephone and we'll recognize you and turn and you'll have three minutes to comment I'm not seeing any hands raise if you have any questions or comments go ahead and raise your hand now if not we will move on past public comment all right see seeing done Michelle I can I would ask a question in Spanish just in case there's someone who's a Spanish speaker excellent no hands I think we are safe to move past public comment okay I don't have the benefit of the agenda in front of me and I assume it's now time to bring it for closing comment so really I must thank you all for attending this first meeting I truly am excited to be at this moment behind the scenes for many months we've been working to get to this point and to be here tonight and realize we have such a great group is a great it portends great things for for the project as I mentioned at the start you will be seeing things announced in the community and don't be surprised join in if when you see the survey released please participate tell your friends about it use use and and distribute the the Santa Rosa forward email address you can search on that and you'll pretty quickly come to that site that's going to be a really great place to catch information to learn more as this project progresses and always you can reach out to us at sr forward at city of sr excuse me sr forward at srcity.com that email will get to us or you can you can call us if you go on the email excuse me on the website you can get our phone numbers so we I think as Dan mentioned we'll send out an email shortly with a date in March for our first substantive meeting tonight was a great over orientation and an introduction next time we'll really get the fight into some substance of planning general plan issues so I look forward to that is there anyone else on the team here that wants to add to a closing comment if if not candy yes the email address is actually um at srcity.org not dot oh sorry we posted on the on the chat anyway so if anyone wants to know what the what the email is it's on the in the chat Lee did you have your hand up you did from oh you're muted yes thank you I did have my hand up but the question was answered it was about the dot com versus dot oh thank you you can always email us directly as well but that is uh the joint account that we all check regularly so with that um I will adjourn the meeting at 8 0 6 that's pretty darn close to our end time and again thank you so much for joining us this evening and we look forward to working with you thank you thanks thank you staff thanks everyone thank you very good care thank you