ght say hey, I'm running this too cheap and raise the rent Or a tenant might say I can get a better deal over here. You don't really actually know what will happen It will interfere somehow um Anyway, I'm gonna try to read this I guess um We don't know what you're gonna do. So we'll just talk to the worst case here as for the data collection items content I see once again zero respect for citizen privacy as well as never before fees imposed on the citizen re with no Sure public benefit the justification is weak It doesn't matter if radical advocates want this kind of thing to wage a class war against landlords Who think tenants aren't going to be paying for it? They will end up paying for any cost of this You are supposed to be protecting citizens privacy not invading it We pay for services in this city and this is not a service a big brother disservice The idea that a sample of voluntary data collected is somehow not plenty useful representative It's not really supported by mathematical sample theory It's just a phony divisive pure conjecture to justify a kind of money grab of rental registration for all rentals And a total intrusion into really none of your business private data collection These kinds of public abuses of authority are all too familiar without this council Many cities like Santa Clara that are run a lot better than this one have adopted mandatory safety compliance by signature Places like condominium single volume homes are exempt from the usual commercial type rental inspections simply require owners to attest by signature very much Hello, my name is jeff vc. I wanted to talk about two things about the registration program first is uh I don't think it's I don't think it's possible to do without an exorbitant amount of money and here's the reason why The confidence of your data if you had a data collection program, you had 90 95 confidence as an example of your data That could be meaningful data, but I don't see how you can do that It's unless you start a group like the irs added. I auditing group. I'm serious about that How are you going to do that if you even if you make a mandatory in landlords They have to do like three years worth of back information. How do you how are you going to verify? It's correct You're going to do schedule ease bring them in and then what about all the subleasing that isn't is under the table Right ten at subleasing none of that's covered, right? You won't see any of that So I don't know how you can get a high confidence of data to be honest Without putting a huge amount of resources in and getting an audit program of all the landlords and I'm a landlord I'm not saying that's bad. I'm just saying it would be really cost prohibitive The other thing is if you're looking for like rents deposits number of bedrooms baths dollars per square foot parking laundry utilities yard Uh, which city it's in that information is available already It's called craigslist and zill I I personally do my own audits and I just did one last month And I did it for all the what bedrooms and two bedrooms in this area, right? And it covered like there's about 52 bedrooms and about 41 bedrooms And I got all this information and I guess all public and like in in zill they do a much better job of It puts, you know the square footage and everything But uh craigslist doesn't always do that all you have to do is respond and ask them and they'll tell you So any data that's missing and then craigslist you can build email you all the new offers all the new things coming on All the new listings. I get emails. They send them to me. I don't have to go search for it. They give it to me Craigslist doesn't do that. So craigslist. I just monitor it, right? And I don't use any listing that's over three days old because all the good listings will be gone in like a week Right and any re listings where they it doesn't they republish it and I can see it because I gather all the data It's the date is there all you have to do is have somebody do and I'll If anybody wants to see the data for last month, I'll share it with anybody. Thank you. Yeah Hi, I just wanted to um Try to get it something that I think is a it's going to be a little hard to kind of put into the right word So i'm just going to do my best which is this is a residential rental inspection service And in in part two here of the rental data recommendation. It says a compulsory registration program for all rental housing in the city And et cetera et cetera and I think you know one of the things that came out in the last issue on the homeless issue was that It was pretty shocking to hear that some of our city council members didn't know that there's thousands upon thousands of people living in the backwoods in parks in I mean We need data on that and that's not going to come from homeless people going into shelters because by definition homeless people are Usually very nervous about giving personal data because we have so criminalized homelessness And this is something I have found by extensive conversations You know, I don't know how many What i'm really trying to get at here is we have renters Who are able to afford rental units in Santa Cruz? But we have so many renters who are not legitimate renters renters who might be paying somebody to stay in a car on their property renters who are renting storage units to keep their personal possessions in Including survival gear Identity your driver's license your social security card. We have workers So what i'm trying to get at here is I i'm seeing a huge gap here I think we need to somehow find data on potential renters People who are in the market somewhat who are Renting its storage units people who are in RVs and vehicles and if this is compulsory, of course, they won't give it I'm trying to say there's a huge gap here. There's a Black market that we need to get data on somehow Currently the state of california has a five percent cap on rent Plus inflation this is something new and it will make a difference on the rent increases in our area Especially for the worst offenders This is something I think we need to see how it goes Before we spend over 280 thousand and five years just on software alone But we're delaying priorities our priorities are to get housing for people You know, there is a lot of information on craig's list there really is There's just such better uses for the money alameda and mountain view. They have the money. We don't This is a potential for harm because what happens is this gets rolled out There's so much attention to it before we know it landlords realize what other people are paying and then they're upping it They're upping that eight percent or more whatever Depending on inflation. They weren't gonna do it. There's tons of rentals around here that don't do market rate And they don't really want to but then there's a lot of attention thrown on it And they're like, well, I'm sort of silly for not Paying you having people pay this much. That's what people are paying Look, it's right here in the database and then you have more problems You're causing because more people will have higher rents And I just don't think we have the money for it. And I don't think we should push back other priorities. Thank you so much I've got a variety of scattered comments. I lived in the same house in Palo Alto as a renter for 44 years Um, I dealt with the owner of the property And I would get notes, uh dearly We're going to raise your rent $50 a month if that's a problem Here's my phone number. Give me a call The other kind of renter Is one in a larger place where there's maybe a property manager Towards the end of my landlady's interest in her property. She hired a property manager And he came up to me and told me, um, I'm going to double your rent in the next three years Rather than hitting I moved So I think that there are different categories of rent That needs to be dealt with and I would say that when you're dealing with a mom and pop Leave them alone When you're dealing with a developer A big huge apartment building Those renters need protection because they're not dealing with the actual owner of the property And then just as an aside Um In my business and building sometimes the homeowners do the decorating And we've had exterior doors and windows and craftsman style interior doors in american colonial a kitchen in um, uh modern and uh a spiral staircase in norland's wrought iron every one of those decisions was made Very intelligently and very thoughtfully But when you walked into that house You didn't know where the hell you were because it didn't hang together And I'm concerned that with this particular ordinance that you guys might be focusing in on Such a specific area and missing the big picture I hear from these people these people that there are big priorities that they're working on I wasn't here for the beginning. So maybe there is a purpose for all of this. I can't see it Yeah Mayor council members, thank you for taking the time to look at this incredibly important issue of housing We all recognize that housing is one of the greatest crises that it's currently affecting our communities My name is bradley. I've been a renter in this community for five years now, and I urge you to Uh address this I was addressed this rental registry. Um, what is it put it in place? We need to know what's going on in our community We need to know about the evictions about the people who are losing their homes whose rents are increasing rapidly In the 2018 election and in the general housing conversations that are happening in this community So many people are claiming that they know what's going on that they know what's happening here And we don't we need to understand the problem if we want to properly address it This is absolutely the number one priority that the city council should be looking at. We need to know what's happening in our communities Thank you Thank you Diddo on that Um, I'm Nancy cruzo. Uh, I want to Address that very same thing I read a lot of letters last night about the loss of privacy to land Lords and while I understand The the feeling Tenants have never had any privacy We tell everything from the day we go to rent place till the day we leave We are we're inspected My landlord had used to have me take down signs You know, there is no such thing as privacy for most Tenants I think we need this data collection. I think it's vital We live in a city that is one of the most expensive in the country Property here is is like gold We need to know what's going on with that property. We're we're attractive to global investors We need to know what's happening Uh, thank you for doing the work to get here. The details are not all clear. I'm happy to see I think compulsory is necessary because Looks like research shows that the other doesn't pay off Thank you Hello everyone. Um, my name is Madeline and I have been a resident from santa cruz county my entire life Um, so I know a little bit about the experience of living here And I just want to thank uh, first of all the planning department for that wonderful presentation. That was great Um, and I'm thoroughly convinced that uh data registry of some kind is Very important in santa cruz county. Um being a tenant here is not easy. It's a very uh difficult experience and there's a lot of opportunities for predatory behavior And I think that gathering data about the housing situation and uh tenant experiences here Is very important and can help shape housing policy Um, all those other items that were listed in the opportunity cost Could honestly, I think benefit in some manner from this data. So those Decisions could be improved By implementing this that's all I have. Thank you Yeah, everybody. Um, my name is Owen and I'm a rental in santa cruz. Um, not a rental or enter In the house. Anyways, um, so I'm also speaking in favor of the rental registry Um, so I was present during the conversations around the implement implementation of a just cost protections ordinance Um, and I remember one of the big arguments that came up against the ordinance was that We don't have data around evictions. We don't know if displacement is a big enough issue to implement such a far-reaching ordinance. Um So Here's the answer to that We have we can have a registry that will tell us whether or not this issue is actually as far-reaching as we think it is It'll allow us to craft really effective policy Um, I believe that effective policy is always going to be decided by very very thorough and nuanced data Um, and like people have said in the past, you know, we this data isn't going to be complete. That's okay It's better to have more information than less when coming up with local policy um And when it comes to the use of city resources in order to um Move this piece of this ordinance. I think that We know that housing is a huge issue. We know that Many renters Are impacted by the costs of rents here and the lack of available housing We know that 60 of Santa Cruz is impacted by the rental housing crisis. So I think that's Gives us a good sense of this being a high enough priority to put it ahead of the other items that y'all listed as opportunity costs, so I'm very much so and I'm much so in favor of it And I really appreciate the city planning department for putting together that Really really really good presentation And for um, you know moving ahead on this because I know there's so much to do So really appreciate y'all for doing that Thank you. Thank you Hey, everyone, uh, I want to speak in favor of the rental registry And also advocate for making sure that um We we allow for people to get access to the data without revealing any personally identifiable information about the tenants themselves um on top of that I I would like to Also speak in favor of of doing the inspections that are going around I've had friends that have left here that were Basically living in extremely boldy situations. The landlords aren't going to deal with they love that they can just keep Renting them out for a high price And not have to pay the consequences of it You know they've owned the properties since the the 60s or earlier and really Like a lot of this stuff needs to get fixed or addressed in some way I don't want to see something red tagged and for tenants to have to leave But at the same time I do want to improve their living conditions. Thank you yeah Mary Hesketh When we moved here, I I'm a landlord in other states and I was really surprised to look at the property data online and not be able to see who the owners of properties are And I Finally found that this was due to Just privacy concerns for the citizens and I Listen to this about all the data that you guys want to collect on people and I think where is the privacy You know, where's the privacy issue here? I mean, you're not concerned about privacy anymore Like you are with property ownership I think that the rental data collection is intrusive the rental inspections have a purpose to keep Units in good maintenance and order for tenants, but I am not clear as to the purpose of Collecting all the static except it would be nice to have it There are tenant protections already in place You know for evictions and such those can be reported I'm not even sure how those are going to be addressed with collecting more data So I'm just I'm just not sure what problem exists that this is going to address other than just wanting to know more which isn't necessarily Something that I think should be a priority for the city All these other things that you're foregoing or postponing seem to be more likely to increase amounts of housing for people which is what we keep saying that we need And I don't think that gathering this data is going to help that situation. Thank you Lynn Renshaw Santa Cruz together. I agree with the comments about data being available There's the American community survey Survey Craigslist Zillow what hasn't been mentioned is the city's own housing element which has a thorough inventory Of the units in town. It also has average prices for one bedroom a two bedroom So that data is also out there regarding the eviction data Santa Cruz local Compiled the eviction data A few months ago and showed a declining trend. So that data has also been collected Um I also agree with the fact that it is a misusing city resources to gather Data what would be done with this data? What would change based on this data? And the last thing that I want to remind you is that if Uh, well two things 38 items is a bit excessive. I counted the number of items requested on the data set And again by overreaching and doing something that's invasive You put more of the rental housing stock at risk because people will not participate at a certain point. We rely on Over half of the single-family homes Our rentals. So that's about 7,000 some Houses those could be sold for a million dollars people don't have to participate in the rental market So all the things that you do here. You should be very careful to protect the rental housing supply. Thank you I'm Cynthia burger with center cruise tennis association. Thank you for inviting me to this sarah If we had data we could indeed find out if what lynn said is true. So You know that would be helpful that that You know if if you do this then there won't be more rentals We don't know any of that those are just common threats thrown out there So how many cities currently That do or don't have rent control have data collection ordinances. I'm just giving my questions How has collected data affected their city finances? Where is this data ordinance on your list? It was already put off for four months And I didn't see a prioritization on that list and I didn't see the data ordinance in that list Where is The majority of renters the largest group of them are students from ucsc Couldn't to fund the 3di software expenses Couldn't you pressure community housing and other departments to subsidize all or part of the software If you can figure out how it's going to benefit students. I think rental data will benefit the parents who Students are calling me all the time about their students rental situations And I think if they had more data, they'd it'd be good for the cosigners All over town You're reaching out to the community about owner priorities like adu grandfathering in but another new law of much greater overall Consequences the tenant protection law. So have it can you do? Community outreach to renters. So don't you think that if you get established a rental data collection? Process and you'd actually that's also actually community outreach to tenants It's kind of hard to do community outreach to tenants because they're such a huge group And it is never done effectively, but if you had a data collection, then that's your way to inform You know have a central for uh for the 60 percent of your constituents Thank you Before you speak Is there any other member of the public who would like to speak to us on this item? You'll be our last speaker. Okay, um two things First of all, it's been about what eight months nine months since tenant sanctuary has been active and um I would believe I would hope by this time they would have some Not only anecdotal but actual real data as to what is going on in terms of evictions three-day notices Landlord issues and so forth that I think being tenant driven Coming from the tenants themselves would be um very valid data that I would think you'd want to evaluate before looking at spending Again, a quarter million dollars over the next five years Uh, so I'm surprised tenants sanctuary isn't here to weigh in I would really really like to see their their what what they've um gathered so far in the last Eight months. I believe second Um being an engineer. I really I'm kind of data driven. I like the concept of numbers and so forth And I'd be very interested in hearing this what what is going on actually in the city of Santa Cruz as far as a lot of these issues, but um The best source of this data is actually From the tenants themselves And it really it doesn't matter what the actual rent is who care, you know, one bedroom is 1200 dollars another one's 1800 dollars A studio might rent for 14 or 800 what counts and what's really important for this whole debate discussion and policy is rent burden I would like to see What the people are paying for rent, but then the tenants answer questions as to their income They're maybe that gross income netting with you know, the devil's in the details But it's rent burden. That's important To policy making and you need the tenants to drive this data So again, and I think I agree with Cynthia I think she was saying the same thing that it's tough to go and do public, you know community outreach for 11,200 units and who knows 15 16 000 tenants. I thought it was far more. I thought it was more like 20 or 25 000 but That kind of data coming from the tenant And what their rent would be really really interesting to have. Thank you. Thank you Okay, um, I'm wondering if we can bring it back. I know there were some initial comments that were made by community members regarding Some what was in the staff report today, and I was wondering if we may be able to address those first Sure, so um the one woman asked about The cost of developing in-house versus going to the vendor So that is something the subcommittee discussed. We looked at that at length. We don't really have An existing software product that's really well suited. I mean this is part of what you're hearing from the rental inspection service is that The product that we currently have that we're using for that service For lack of a better term. It's a very clunky. It's it's not designed to do something as nuanced as the rental inspection service and so asking it to do yet more and collect information about Specific units and then about events that happen at those in those units It would be nearly impossible to make our existing software do that So then we would be talking about building something from the ground up and if you want to talk about opportunity costs I mean that would just be there's no comparison to going with a vendor versus, you know Attempting to develop something on our own in-house once we drill down to you know the The type of data and what the objectives really were it became pretty clear that That would be you know a full-time One or two folks in it for like six months to a year to really develop a tool in-house so We quickly started looking for a vendor and we've identified we believe a very good one so What were the other questions and I think there was one more around the fee Which I think was covered that part of the outreach that we would be doing moving forward would be addressing The fees around and like how much those fees would be and maybe sure. Yeah, so I mean if you take the If you take the the cost of the software so there there so the cost of the software divided by the number of units that we have The ongoing cost is between three and four dollars per unit That doesn't that doesn't take into account, you know city costs that would be involved in administering this program So there would probably be an increment that would be about, you know staff time and administrative burden And again, it seems like the fee for this Program would be pretty low And that's that's an annual fee correct Well, yes, so so we could decide I mean again We could decide right now as I'm envisioning it. We're going to be paying our vendor annually We do our budgets annually. It seems to kind of make sense that it's an annual fee If all the questions have been answered I'd like to make a motion Actually, if I could there was one question that was asked if you don't mind before That's okay That I was hoping that because it was a question that I had too was which cities Which cities have these types of data sources, but don't have rent control? I think that was raised, you know, so yeah I haven't come across any others that that don't have some kind of rental Stabilization program and also collect data. I was not able to identify any Okay, so if I'm hearing you correctly, you're saying all cities that have this data system have a rent control Well, yeah, so elcerito. I just heard that from the audience. That's true. Elcerito They initiated a program with rent stabilization and rental registry And then they rescinded the rent control the rent stabilization portion of the ordinance So now technically they do have a program that is just Rental data and rental registry Um, and that program was just initiated in the summer. So it's hard to say how that's going I do know. I mean I talked to the staff person in the summer And you know, they're I don't mean to laugh they're doing it on paper, which is ambitious And um taking up quite a lot of time and it seems like that's really what's necessary in their community Given the population of who their landlords are as they have to do it in the mail with stamps and paper, which seems so It just is very labor intensive Yeah, but it was but it was designed because it was supposed to Mimic or it was initially it was initially created to go hand in hand with rent stabilization and tenant protections And then the rent stabilization portion was pulled back I'm gonna let I'm just gonna in terms of acknowledgement just acknowledge that councilmember browner ahead and then Matthews and then mires and I know that there some of this is follow up question, but I'll wait for questions, but I I'd like to be acknowledged to make a motion Okay, but I'll acknowledge your desire to make the motion and then I was interested in the first chunk only I just have a question um on the timing of our Updating our housing element. So I know that that's coming up And would we be gathering this kind of characterization data for that process at all? So i'm just trying to understand sort of Will we be looking at any of this information in terms of Again, I'm kind of struggling for Sort of the so just to answer that just briefly because I know it's getting late. So Yes Although, you know the Information resources are oftentimes aggregated. So, you know across the city for example and certainly You know something like this rental data collection Could have we give a much more fine grain set of information. So, you know, you it might be Citywide for some data sources. Maybe it's by census tract if you're looking at Some of the census data and so Would we look at that trend of I mean would we look for a trend like evictions or I mean, is that the kind of thing we would diagnose in our housing element? I know they're fairly I know the housing element is sort of, you know, it's done by according to state standards You know, so there's not a lot of but I'm just curious And again just a short very short Answer if possible you look at evictions Oftentimes the only data that you see is what makes it through the courts. There isn't information that's readily available that is You know what and maybe there is But you know, I'm not aware of good sources of information that say, you know, if a landlord says You know your one year lease is up. I would like you to I'd like to give you notice that, you know in 30 days Um, you need to be out. I I'm not aware of any good resources related to that and I think your question is what's included in the housing element and um Information about evictions is not included typically we do include um Point-in-time information about rents and point-in-time information about vacancy rates Those are part of the housing element But some of this other stuff about, you know, how long is the typical tendency in Santa Cruz? You know, how our rents Changing seasonally that that's not it doesn't go to that level of detail. I already is not counting. Okay. No, thank you councilman brown Yeah, so I was going to make a motion that included all of the elements that are before us For consideration, but I think given what I'm hearing maybe I'll just make a motion related to the rental data recommendations and then we can take the rental inspection checklist separately in a moment. Okay, so um I um, I just I will briefly say um I believe it's in the public interest to collect this data. I believe that Um, we need to better understand what's happening in our community. There are wild um allegations and you know statements made all over town and in this in these chambers about what's happening And then we say we don't have enough data if we say we need data, but then we say well data is gonna Hinder our goals. And so I just believe it is in the public interest to better understand this So I support a rental data collection program I also recognize the um workload challenges And I kind of wish we had had more of this conversation prior to bringing this to you That with the subcommittee um to really think about what Uh, a realistic timeline would be like It looked like for you all um, and so I want to make a motion that we direct this subcommittee to Work with staff to determine a realistic timeline for rolling out the program a rental data collection program And how this relates to other other projects including Directings or including community outreach and feedback efforts Focused on the type frequency and detail of rental housing. It's kind of in the staff Bonnie to help you that part um Timing for uh introduction of an ordinance to create a compulsory registration program and um Also, I guess the I think that it makes sense to Sorry, I'm commenting in the middle of a motion but um to Do that and then also to contract to consider Negotiating a contract with 3di or another appropriate vendor. I'll second that So we have a motion made by council member brown seconded by mayor Cummings and sure I just um I I'll if I if I may I just I appreciate the interest in wanting to sort of pause. I think My hesitation I think well, there's a couple things one I would say we did have a really robust community outreach and engagement process that I know council member brown You're involved with as well that led to a series of recommendations So for me the opportunity costs based on the community priorities that were shared with us that we were trying or are trying to implement But frankly haven't been Implementing many of them to really move the needle and housing in ways that the community said they want us to Is just too significant at this time personally Not but I also want to acknowledge that you know having been on council through the series of debates and the contentious discussions around rent control and and lack of information That one thing that stood out of the seppos report for me was that gosh There was this sort of nugget of common ground particularly around how do we get more information that we all believe and And I I don't I Don't want to lose that potential By saying that this could be the one thing that that's going to be that solution If we're if we're truly going to try to engage the community on this I think it'd be helpful to hear what Come out of a common ground there and I and I say that Specifically around this time because having been on council to see how divided our community got on that We don't want to miss an opportunity to to really have this potential for common ground and reconciliation in my opinion So I just am hesitant to say we are putting this community process with this solution Without fully understanding how important it is to really Massage that community process in a way that's going to hopefully lead to something that everybody can really believe and agree And find this value to the community And I say that having and I know that those who've been on the council with me before having lived through that It was it was hard to see our community so divided and I do think affordable housing is something we all share So those are my thoughts just want to um Kind of follow up on that because I think that what has been The motion that's been made Part of why i'm seconding it and supporting it as well Is because a big piece of that and it's in the first recommendation Is to do this community outreach. So Since we're not You know going recommend that going into the contract with 3di and we're bringing that back as a factors to consider That's also something that we're able to Incorporate into that community outreach piece And you know, I think I want to just you know reiterate again some of the statements that were made by the community Which it's hard to know what's happening to renters when we don't have data and I think that just you know as being someone who was actively involved in the rent control campaign and who later Then ended up running for council With part of that being on my platform is that if we continue to not have data on what's happening with renters within our community We're not gonna we're going to continue to see our community be divided because Rents aren't going down and a lot of the housing that's being proposed, especially as it relates to market rate housing is just you know more High rent housing and as we continue to see University grow we continue to see the impacts potentially from the tech community growing over the hill We're going to see that influence on our community And as we continue to see that those pressures our community is not going to get any better And so this is an opportunity in my opinion, which is why um, you know supportive of it is that we Are trying to address concerns that came out of our community around the people who said Before we make these big policy decisions. We need more data Um, I also want to address some of the comments that were made earlier because one of the pieces of this community outreach Is that we're going to go to the community and say what kind of data do you want to be public and what should be kept private? additionally There's an opportunity with this technology to have both tenants and landlords to be able to see What's being you know, um displayed in terms of what people's rent is And so if there's a discrepancy between the tenants and the landlords tenants can then contact the city and say You know, here's a copy of my lease. This is not incorrect Or you know vice versa from the landlord if we're collecting data on notices to quit for example It's also an opportunity or high rent increases for example And i'll focus on the high rent increase portion There's the potential, you know, depending on how these community conversations go for there to be a flag and say Hey, to the tenant your rent has been increased above the threshold That's acceptable in the city If this is going to make you move out you can then contact your landlord for The exorbitant rent increase violation so and and to I think something that came up earlier around Cities in california that have this technology how many of them had rent control In addition to this technology cities in california all have rent control now So I mean to say that Um, I think we we no longer have that as a comparison because all the cities are under rent control It's a way for us to then incorporate technology that's been used in other cities and has been proven to be effective To start tracking our rental market. And so that's just one of the comments I wanted to make behind this and um, you know, just really point out that this can Very much help us have a better understanding of how people and that rent burden Comment can also be incorporated in as a question in the survey that we have available to tenants. So um personally, I think that You know the intention of the motion is to you know, work with staff to see how we can fit this in But also address this really big concern about The need for more data and then have a process where we can reach out to the community And really engage with the community to see what is appropriate so that we can start Getting past some of these divisive issues that have come up in the past So I realized As others were speaking that I there was a final part of the motion that I wanted to make related to timing of Coming back to the council with a plan. Um, I'd like to try to do that quickly And so I if we could put in the motion, uh, Richard with an update To council at the second meeting in march that gives us enough time I think to have one meeting to try to hash some of this out. Um, so if that was that acceptable And um, and then I just wanted to speak to the question about rent burden because I think that is really really important Um, and I will say that there have been some data collection efforts there They've been very small sample, you know, small data sets very limited. Um, but what they show is that Huge percentage is the people who are surveyed in the no place like home survey And then an internal survey that graduate students have done on the ucsc campus that Huge percentages are rent burdened at, you know, 50 percent of income 75 percent of income levels So I think it is something that we should be trying to look at more closely and and get additional data on But I don't think that this is the the way to get that done I mean, it will be a piece of that puzzle that will help us understand Um, what rent burden looks like kind of more broadly what if we if we can actually see Um, have more information and aggregate that about rents and you know And then I also wanted to speak to the privacy issue because I take that very seriously and that is why we are talking about Being very deliberate about what kind of information would be made public and ensuring that We there's no legal ramification and then also just know You know, kind of ethical concern about that as well I mean, I think getting the data is critical and how we use it is You know, we're going to be determined in the future. I think Um, finally, I'll respond to the the point about well, you're it sounds like you're just collecting data for to collect it um, so why would you do that but We're collecting data because we don't know what the What is ha we don't know what's happening? And so there may be something to be done with it and we just don't know that until we Actually start collecting it. I heard somebody else mentioned. Well, we're going to be asking for back data for years That was not the intention either Was to start now we to get some kind of baseline so we can see what's happening over time So with that, I'll just others I would suggest that in your motion you add some element of assessing With some degree of completeness the information that is currently available on Santa Cruz rental statistics because People have mentioned a lot of different sources And of which is comprehensive, but collectively May be useful to know and they exist now I will be voting against this For several reasons For one thing the whole Proposal has morphed from the original proposal which was for a voluntary system to a mandatory one Since that suggestion was first made, of course, there's been state action which has put some Very clear limits on rental increases and just cause so some of the motivation that existed initially I think has Certainly lessened significantly Among my main concerns are that I'm not sure that we we really in time will be able to use this information For local housing policy. I'm curious. Maybe I'll ultimately be proven wrong, but I think that we are so much in the shadow of mega trends between Silicon Valley and the university Over which we have pretty much zero control. I read in the paper today or yesterday Silicon valleys and I don't know how many zeros are on this adding 100,000 square feet a million square feet of commercial space I mean someone out there may know it's a huge amount Housing not so much. So I think you know, we're just we're going to be The expectations that we will use this information At a significant level in the city of Santa Cruz. I think is Optimistic so I'm not sure there's going to be a specific benefit. I think also If carried out as described It will the the whole privacy issue How much is accessible to the public will be one more disincentive for the smaller and mom and pop Landlords to stay in the business and It was interesting to hear the stat Which I assume is in the ballpark correct but about half of our rentals in the city are Single family homes and those are the ones that we know are at risk of just going a different direction in the market So and also fundamentally I am concerned About what this will do to displace the things that to me are really important like getting to the adu getting to the Design standards getting to the parking requirement all these things that we have heard for Years these are obstacles to It's almost low-hanging fruit to freeing up some more housing. So For all of those reasons I will be not supporting the motion Make it clarification. Was that a friendly amendment? What was the suggestion take it or leave it? Well, it's we can I don't think we need to do it. We can just do it. Yeah Good point Is there any further comments? I If you could could you please read the motion again I'd like to get clarity on it because I am supportive of the community outreach kind of being built into this conversation And I do think that we're also putting the solution ahead of that process. So if we could split split it potentially I'd be open to that Well, I'm not sure how we would you mean direct the subcommittee to work with staff on rolling out a Community outreach and then everything else be separate. Yeah To work on the time I mean, you're you also meeting with them if I can my understanding is also to understand the implications for timing and Other opportunity costs, but if that is the first step, I I would be interested in supporting that But you would do not want that to include subcommittee discussion about an ordinance or a purchase agreement with 3di I think that could come back after the it could be informed by the community process That's why I think you're I feel it's conflating this the solution with the process So I feel comfortable with the process, but not necessarily already proposing the solution Not sure how we would separate it. I could just also just for the record. Maybe have that be reflected in my statement Yeah, that number one would essentially inform two and three which could come out of that community process But at this time I prefer that I'm supportive of that If that's easier So, yeah, would you so did you want me to read it again? Yeah, either way. Okay, so So the motion is to direct the subcommittee to work with staff To determine a realistic timeline for rolling out rental data collection program and how That program relates to other projects Including Community outreach and feedback efforts focused on the type frequency and detail of rental housing statistics that will be made available to the public Drafting an ordinance of an ordinance creating a compulsorily compulsory registration program For all rental housing in the city And establishing a fee necessary to cover the city's cost associated with this program and Three negotiating Or Join during I don't know if that's a word, but I'm negotiating a contract with 3di or another appropriate vendor In accordance with city purchasing parameters to deliver products and so on Direct staff to return to council with an update at the second meeting This is just editorial, but it seems to me odd to include the name of a specific vendor in something that's still that Penitive if you just say entering the contract with an appropriate vendor a contract with an appropriate vendor And we kind of know Oh, I had a question also when you say all rental housing in the city does that Apply to rooms and houses And one of the things that I would say is that um The 3di when we had discussions with them around Would there be an ability to Distinguish between different rooms and they said There's potential for it because if you can call a room a unit, then you actually have an independent unit Within those households, so but again, these are all You know part this would all be part of this community engagement process I just yeah, I just I I'm not going to support the motion this evening Um, uh, I I I guess I'm struggling kind of with A little bit of the cart before the horse In terms of really being able to do that robust community outreach And feedback effort, so I really appreciate that that is part of the process, but I feel at the same time also Creating a required rich a required program Um without that feedback. It just feels a little A little reversed to me. Um So that's I just wanted to state that Just want to make one comment about that because I I understand the concern But I want to remind my colleagues that we have had a pretty robust set of Public opportunities for the public to weigh in this has been on our agenda multiple times We did focus groups and my concern is that What I considered to be you know, the perfect becoming the enemy of the good is is where we're headed with that so I just think that kind of Diving in and doing the community outreach Along the lines of yes, we are going to This is our plan to do this and how should we do it is is a different thing than saying Should we do it or should we not do it because if that's the question for community outreach? We'll just keep having the fight about it forever So I kind of feel like at a certain point we need to make a decision I'll also add to that that we did do that community outreach Um already and we did have those conversations And one of the things that came out was that working through working with a vendor They informed us that the cities when they've rolled these out Um that the voluntary programs didn't work and so that it had to be compulsory because many people didn't engage And so I think that's the purposes of including that here And I offered just one last little piece of context Every ordinance that is initiated by your council Every time you give direction to staff to go forward and draft an ordinance that process Always includes community outreach The council has a community outreach policy that basically at the earliest point possible in the process We're doing robust community outreach on some scale And so I think the direction Coming at this point from the subcommittee Gives a little bit of extra Emphasis to that that we are focusing really hard on the community outreach and then specifically on this element of that drafting of that ordinance And this is all part of a typical process for developing an ordinance the ordinance isn't final The program doesn't exist until your council takes final action on that proposed ordinance So there is no program being created today You're giving us direction to go forward and draft one together with input from the community So um, I I think that's important for the public and for your council to understand that we are There is no program today. There will be no program tomorrow There will not be a program until an ordinance is adopted by your council I think I mean if I if I may I think one of the things that what we heard though Also is that by moving in that direction you redirected your work and as a result of that Some of the things that may have been on the radar in terms of the vetting that went through the housing blueprint subcommittee And other things that we feel could move the needle on housing Will not be attended to given just the reality of the fact that there's a limited amount of resources So I appreciate the clarity and I think there's also a broader understanding of the opportunity costs associated Further discussion Oh, there's a motion made by council member brown seconded by myself. All those in favor, please say aye. All right any opposed? No Set motion Yeah, oh, I'll be back on our agenda next time So that was um council members brown Council member crone voting in favor council members Watkins matthews and bisonary mires voting against with council member glover being absent Technicality Do we Rediscuss the whole thing next time or does it come back for vote with drew having? The one thing that you would need to do is to accept public comment Mm-hmm, but um in terms of the staff presentation, that's purely up to the council. Yeah That was just technical Did you want to move the other one? I mean I'm go ahead make the motion on the first item Um, and that would be modifying the existing residential rental inspection service checklist as proposed and If at some point it becomes fiscally feasible to migrate the record keeping for that program to online service That makes sense your motion. Yeah Sure resolution modifying the existing residential rental inspection service checklist as proposed And At such time if it becomes financially feasible Migrate that program to online record keeping I'll second the motion motion made by council member matthew seconded by council member Watkins Yeah, I'm not going to support the motion. I don't support the rental inspection ordinance Uh, and for the record the rental inspection ordinance has been a disaster for renters landlords graduate students and undergraduates as well In our complex Santa Cruz housing puzzle If the uc admin wants to help student renters it must significantly decrease its on-campus housing fees So Bring it to a vote All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, so that passes with council members Watkins brown matthews vice mayor mires the mayor voting in favor Council member crone voting against council member glover absent So At this point we're going to adjourn until a public comment Oral communications which should start on or around 7 p.m Oh, that wasn't much of a gavel All right, good evening everyone Good evening and welcome to our 7 p.m. Session ask that Good evening and welcome to the 7 p.m. Session the february 25th 2020 meeting of the city council I would like to ask the clerk to please call the roll Thank you mayor council members Watkins here matthews here crown here Weber absent crone vice mayor mires Here and mayor Before we begin I'd like to announce that we have set up overflow seating at the civic in the tony hill room At this time we'll begin oral communications Oral communications is an opportunity for members of the public To speak to us on items that are not on today's agenda If there are any members of the public who would like to speak to us on these items Please line up to my left and you will have two minutes to speak We request that you sign in to ensure a correct spelling of your name in the meeting minutes However, it is not required Out of respect of other members of the public many of whom are not accustomed to speaking in public I'm going to ask that the members of the public. Please refrain from clapping cheering booing hissing Or other similar types of behavior that might discourage all members of the public from stepping up to the microphone to have their views heard And um with that we will get started with public comment. And so you'll have two minutes Catherine Herndon santa cruz This is a letter I wrote to the city council On january 26th 2019 Dear council members and it's on the don't bury the library website still I was very happy to vote for measure s because I love public libraries I go to the downtown library and check out items regularly and often From the wonderful people who staffed the desk I never would have voted for measure s If I had known the funds were to be used to cast aside this building And destroy more trees land and sky with a parking garage How can we ever again? Trust the words of city ballot measures and promotional mailers This library issue strongly influenced my my votes First council candidates So now my hopes are somewhat renewed. I wrote that then now i'm scared again, obviously Everyone should go to watsonville and experience the vast concrete coldness Of the multi-level structure encasing their library A watsonville library employee came to one of our past council meetings And testified that exhaust fumes seep through the garage into the library Our downtown library has very easy convenient access on foot or wheels Parking is always available in front of or around it And it feels much safer than being inside a parking structure, especially after sundown It's a comfortable familiar and pleasant place to visit Just please undertake what we thought was going to be done When we voted for measure s Please restore the present building and our trust Thank you for the people and the planet Vote no on the recall save the downtown library save the ma'am, thank you market the The farmers market and the big trees. Thank you save our commons Hi, i'm deba marks and i live in the city The pro recall movement Is not a grassroots movement donations from the real estate industry To santa cruz united and santa cruz together to promote And fund the recall election total almost 80 thousand dollars the donor list reads like a who's who Of real estate and construction industry Does a construction company in arizona who donated four thousand dollars to the recall Really care about a personnel issue on the city council in santa cruz The recall of two legally elected council members Is really about punishing two progressive council members who care about neighborhoods and care about disadvantaged members of our community It is about real estate profits And promoting high density infill in the city Sadly this recall Movement is spreading all over the country to get rid of democrats and it's pretty sad and pathetic to see this political Revenge movement happening here in santa cruz I urge everybody who's watching this to go to the website stop the recalls Stop the santa stop santa cruz recalls dot org and get the facts. Thank you Okay, I am sorry to be here. This is not the way I wanted to spend any evening let alone this one The recall started immediately after the november election But then they found out that they needed six months to wait before they could get going By then we'd had the 12th of february perception speech Where in the former mayor? Gossiped about what people had told her That she was being bullied Not that she felt bullied but she had been told that she was being bullied This set up the emotional charges against two fine human beings Who didn't deserve the treatment that they have received from the other side? Up on campus chris and drew are being called out for molesting women and molesting children The recall is about money and development and there will be others after me and obviously before me who Have spoken to that issue Our former mayor winningly or not poured gasoline on a low level power grab over money and lit the match Stop the recall has played by the rules truthfully. We've had town hall meetings concerts contests We go door to door canvassing the dark side Has had signature gatherers harass people lie to people yell at people They've been told to leave by the police. They've been cited by the police And then we have ryan cuterty and his a-hole comment in the op-ed We are at a crossroads. We can choose community Or we can be a commodity Choose community Hello, everybody. I'm Sheila curio I wanted to share with you something I learned a couple of days ago that you may or may not have heard about that's Something that's of honor to our city um Santa Cruz's major achievements in the realm of climate action for the year of 2019 Attracted international attention last week An organization an international organization called the carbon disclosure project announced on february 18th That the city of santa cruz had been selected as one of the top 105 Worldwide cities noted for climate action in the year 2019 And hadn't been acknowledged in that way the previous year According to the cdp These 105 cities representing a combined global population of 170 million are leading the transition to a climate safe Future and setting an example for others to follow. So reading that I felt Extremely proud of our city Thank you Locally environmental groups have also been vocal in praising the climate actions taken by our targeted progressive council members In august the santa cruz climate action network posted on social media The council member glue driver was a quote visionary for his work as lead sponsor of santa cruz's green new deal resolution In august the santa cruz climate action network posted on social media. Whoops The santa cruz sierra club chose to oppose the recall of council members druglever and chris krone noting that they have Energetically followed through on their commitment to the environment a commitment that we chose to vote them for And affirming that both council members are important to the council majority that protects our local environment Having taken the lead in providing free bus passes to downtown employees Supporting our city's urban tree canopy Protecting the site of the downtown farmers market from development into a 40 million dollar pork parking structure And managing ucfc growth etc chris and drug's presence on the council is critical for the future of our city. Thank you Hi, i'm bret garrett and i'm just following shila with a list of some of the accomplishments of the city council in 2019 and 2020 Which i appreciate Raised the inclusionary zoning requirement for new affordable units in new construction from 15 to 20 Developers in the city of santa cruz are now required to build 20 of new housing units at affordable below market rates Secured funding for the warming center and reopened the national guard armory and 1220 river streets providing overnight services for people experiencing homelessness Stopped the corridors plan and redirected city staffs work toward affordable housing Introduced the green new deal resolution Appointed to a pro affordable housing planning commissioners to the city planning commission Free metro passes and jump by credit for all downtown workers decriminalized entheogenic and psychoactive plants and fungi Oral communication time right now has been changed from 5 30 to 7 p.m To increase access for working people introduced a proposal for the establishment of a beach flats improvement fund passed a resolution to support ucfc graduate students strike and the cost of living adjustment cola um And passed a resolution to support amamudsen tribal band in protecting their sacred lands of urus stack located in the santa cruz mountains So i want to thank the city council for all you do We must retain our democratically elected progressive city council in particular chris groen and drew glover who are under attack Please everyone vote no on the recalls. Thank you Hi, elise casby here. There's a business ethic quote unquote. It's called eliminate the competition It was uh refined and perfected by the bush family with their completely murderous and unethical business Practices in the oil industry in texas Eliminate the competition is one of the things that is absolutely wrong with our business climate today And with every other policy that we have repressing us in the united states The united states is under a massive reactionary wave It reminds a lot of us of what happened in the south In the 60s the civil rights movement had to Struggle through that repressive wall with non-violent civil disobedience from all walks across the spectrum Of ethnicities and beliefs and religious faiths to show the injustice of that It was a violent repression and this is what we're going through I have to wonder how violent the repression of the recall is going to get Will people be taken out? I mean, they're able to lie at every step Cynthia matthews martin walkins and donna mayers are not Refuting the recall are not repudiating the recall and in fact they favor the recall because they represent reactionary development and real estate business interests They are shielded from real solutions about the climate They don't know what the real solutions are And so they are absolutely a part of the recall movement I'm asking everyone in this room and every student up at ucsc To make sure that you register to vote on same-day voting if you're not already registered and vote on the third We absolutely need to create a future that's viable and where our community community voices matter Not just big money and ruthless mean untruthful dispiriting repressive Eliminate the competition Ethics Good evening, uh, marv lewis, uh, sand crews We are at a crossroads in the city as we all know and that crossroads I would define as Between money and power versus truth justice and compassion And what we have here is precious. We have a representative government that was elected by the people We do not have a government as of yet where special interests can come in and flood this city with a huge amount of money infiltrating social media and all print media and Grass roots and say that we need to dismantle this council for the good of our interest Which is developing this city which is selling the city and the answer is no The people do not want this And so I am asking as unrealistic as it is this evening that this council go on record And refute this recall that you come together and you make your amends And that you publicly say that you refute the recall and that you are going to stay together as an integral body Now granted that will most likely not happen this evening So I am asking the people of Santa Cruz to refute this recall because by refuting this recall we get to abide by The integrity of the process that we set in place when we elected all of you to this council and In the long run We stand to gain More than we are going to lose by watching this council be dismantled By an ill-directed maligned recall effort Thank you Thanks for listening to us Only rarely does a community have a public occasion to exercise collective political morality But that is the situation that we face in Santa Cruz now Next Tuesday voters will decide whether to recall two members of this city council This is a question that will reveal as marv said whether we have integrity as a community Proponents of the recall have engaged in a relentless Year-long campaign against drugweber and chris crone Some have repeatedly and falsely accused them of bullying and sexual harassment Charges that an $18,000 investigation by the city did not substantiate Recently a county supervisor used hearsay to label glover and crone and I paraphrase orifices for excretion His smear is of a piece with unsourced recall flyers at ucsc snide next door Accusations vandals tearing up vote no on the recall signs and slick mailers funded predominantly by real estate landlord and tourist industry money $155,000 and counting so far spent by Santa Cruz together and Santa Cruz united Far more than any individual has ever spent to run for a city council seat With a relentlessly divisive manufacturer of spectacle by opponents of crone and glover We are somewhere between cofka and groundhog day Santa Cruz deserves better than this. I have faith that voters in our community Want a city council where diverse voices represent the wonderful diversity of Santa Cruz I have faith that we will collectively affirm our political community and that it is above this mean spirited crusade To overturn a regular election. I have faith that voters will reject the recall I hope my faith is well placed. Thank you Hi, i'm carol polhamas. I'm gonna uh extemporaneously start my speech in a different direction So I see some of my former students here in the back of the room. You guys know me very very well Can I stop you for one second because we very much want okay I just want them to know because I see that they all have no on the recall signs that they are being misled They need to do their homework. Do your own homework. Don't let people tell you lies Okay, that's not why I came though. I came to say that I applaud the ucsc democrats for their work on campus They've had a broad range of speakers come to present on issues for the students and try to keep them well apprised of what's going on, which is awesome In that context january, I was invited to a debate about the recall and you'll have all surely heard about what happened With councilmember drew clever and a previous incident that I was not privy to But it was brought up again in question and answer and ultimately What happened there during the debate greatly influenced their endorsement of the recall of councilmember glover I want to recognize the ucsc democrats for standing up to say what happened was wrong And for having the courage and the conviction to issue a statement about why they led Why their experience led to the endorsement of the recall of councilmember glover The incident reflected poorly on not only him but also you and also me and anybody else who lives in the city I understand that this may not be something directly related to city business But since one function of the city council is to hold each other accountable when the city cannot I'm asking you to strongly encourage councilmember glover to issue an apology to the ucsc democrats for what happened It was really it was not okay I wish he was here tonight. I didn't know he wasn't going to be because I wanted to say that to him personally The recall is grassroots eight different neighborhood organizations started it do your own homework. Thank you Speaker My name is julie francis and i'm here to follow up on something that happened two weeks ago at city council Drew glover made a motion and the council majority put off taking action on a second substantiated harassment Against claim against him You have had two months to address this and you have just swept it away The public deserves to know all the facts surrounding this additional account of harassments It's unacceptable that the council majority is choosing politics over transparency of government To protect one of their own I applaud kevin grossman and all the city staff for going public with the harassment they felt Also at the meeting mayor Cummings said he was having a meeting with drew behind closed doors The public also deserves to know what happened in that talk Thank you for the time to speak speaker I am james ewing whitman I uh Got here late. I can't really talk about number seven the strategic climate or number 14 the small cell I left before the residential inspection because I had other stuff to do Oh, so okay about 35 years ago. I learned a really good strategic way to communicate with people It's called a one-minute manager. If you have negative observations You should say that one-on-one But if you have positive observations, you know, you can say that so it was great to see Mr. Bernal in his office area yesterday morning before nine And it was wonderful to see you tony walk in the streets today. That was great You know Santa Cruz is not an island It certainly seems like Santa Cruz is an island as I walk around and I communicate with people It's like people don't look up to see what's going on and I think that This is like its own place in the world that it's got its own biodome, but let me tell you about Santa Cruz island It's a little bit southwest of Santa Barbara Spent five days on a 38 foot motor sailboat never turned the motor on and after five days on this boat we went to Do our business on Santa Cruz island You know and I'm uh sitting down to take care of business And there was a bore that I was looking up to And I'm assuming it's a female because there were three smaller bores So, you know, I'm just kind of happy that uh my energy was positive enough not to be attacked when I was in a very vulnerable place So I don't know this recall is just unfortunate And it'll be interesting to see how the dynamics changed. I've spoken several times here I like and respect all of you, but I have some serious questions So thank you for your time Thank you Good evening Scott Graham. Um you know the recall is a Unbelievable situation here in town. We have a group that is going after Drew and Christopher for caring about homeless people for caring about poor people uh This whole thing about Harassment wasn't even a charge against them. The charge was gender discrimination, which was unfounded in the rose report so The recall the the pro recall people Have gone way out of their way to make up lies and have truths and just to continue This false narrative of what these guys have done In order to get them recalled when the real story is they want them out of office so that they can continue to build non-stop in this town For only the elite.  They want to build stuff for the yuppies and and From over the hill that work the tech techies that work for google and facebook and all these other high tech companies And so the question is Is santa cruz for sale? I say no No on the recall santa cruz is not for sale And so when you vote no on the recall vote no on chris no on drew vote. Yes for tim fits morris Vote yes for catherine byers Rene golder is a republican. I can't understand how the women's democratic club Could vote to endorse a republican replacement candidate. It's absurd. Thank you yeah Well, i'll be glad with the recall thing is over. I didn't think it would actually come to this But I guess it is But I don't live downtown so Or anywhere near downtown. I'm in soquel But i'm very concerned about that lot for parking lot and i'm also concerned that we have There's meetings coming up to decide what to do with this library beautiful library across the street and I don't want them to be secret meetings. We need to have open sessions so everybody gets to come And a decent hour like evenings, you know an evening Or two for these meetings so we can the whole public can have some input We don't want to lose those trees. They've been sequestering carbon for us for more than 200 years Thank you Pat kiddles santa cruz I often say things that are unwelcome here sometimes Members of the city council have interrupted me very rudely When I was only exercising my perfect first amendment right to speak without being interrupted Anyway, I'll get to the point here there's always a bitching and moaning about development and Well When the population grows there's going to be development. That's just the way it is if you don't want the population to grow Let me rephrase that if you don't want more development Then we can't have our population growing.  I'm told I'm a hater Or a xenophobe or all this crap if I say what I'm about to say today I had a very good rapport with an Iranian and a chinese fellow and I I'm in solidarity with both of them as they Are at odds with our government at any rate The point is we can't just keep growing and if the fact is that immigration is where our growth is coming from Then it's insane to have your sanctuary city policy which literally Invites everybody on earth to move here and be protected for doing it. That's the reality You don't want to face that. I hope somebody listening to me today hears that and has is It makes enough sense to you that you won't be Intimidated by these open borders people who at the same time demand that we cut carbon emissions And then invite the entire earth to move to its most notorious carbon emitter Grow up. It's not you got to make a choice Thank you I just like to see with the show of hands how many more people would like to speak during oral communications So just so you know oral communications is 30 minutes Generally from seven to around seven thirty Um If you'd like to speak to oral communications, I'm gonna ask again that you line up to my left and I'm gonna Can I see in the number of hands again because we have an item Okay, so if those of you who are still here who would like to speak if you can line up to my left I'll give you one. We'll we'll give you one minute because we have an evening item That's probably gonna take us well into the evening Hello council members. My name is sam Hughes. I'm a phd student at the university of california santa cruz I'm here to update you on the current graduate student strike as of midnight of tomorrow 85 or more of my friends and colleagues are set to be fired I know that 18 percent of them are international students Which means that they're going to be de facto deported because it is illegal as someone on a student visa to work for any employer Other than the university of california santa cruz I know that there's not anything you can do tonight because it hasn't been agendized But I ask for any of you that care about the issues that we're facing to please consider coming out to the picket tomorrow So that you can hear some of our stories And to please do whatever you can to pressure the university of california to provide us with a living wage eight percent of the graduate students in our department do sex work in order to afford getting our phds and That's the situation that we're living in and now we're about to be fired Thank you. Thank you My name is jasper thomas. I'm an undergrad at uc santa cruz and involved in strike activity Undergrads are currently encouraged to report ta strikers to the school via google form. Every other day, it seems the administration Is passive aggressively sending emails to the undergraduates and tending to turn us against our instructors and mentors This trend of misinformation is also present in the many communications related to the striking graduate students They tell them that the school is planning to do things for grad students But phrase it using copious loopholes and tell them to be content with crumbs in the words of andrew hosier burn Power has been cried by those stronger than me straight into the face that tells you to rattle your chains if you love being free I support the graduate students and their decision to cry straight into the faces of kletzer and larive and napolitano Telling them to give in and rattle their chains in support of a system that does not support them Please inform yourself at pay us more ucsc.com And i'm nancy cruzo and i'm Speaking about the recall um Out here it feels like a holy war Where repentance is required and characters are defamed and besmirched And it is hysterically growing And it seems to me That is very much about moneyed interests Not about the characters of two councilmen Who we elected And would like to have served their terms We do not feel that they have done the wrong they're accused of we do not And we feel that our votes are being stolen from us And it does feel like a war it feels like a crusade And i wish very much it hadn't happened because it must feel a a whole lot worse for to the two individuals and their families But so much of what has happened should have been handled internally Thank you I actually came here to talk about the circles and I I believe that's on the agenda tonight, okay But I also want to say that I am for no on the recall as well and I it's dumb dumb founding to me and friends of mine are on the opposite end of this and I myself have never experienced this so-called bad behavior From either chris crone or drew glover so I've been going around and handing out flyers in neighborhoods and it's been very interesting I think there's so much so many ways that we could come together Instead of be on a war I agree that some landlords are good landlords and they deserve to not have obstacles put in their way On the other hand I i'm really distressed about our city being overdeveloped Really fast and I think we'll live to regret it Thank you Well that concludes oral communications And now we'll move on to our public hearing item and which is our only evening item And is the 111 errant circle council consideration of whether to designate the property at 111 errant circle as a historic landmark And or to list it on the historic survey Historic preservation commission recommended that the structure not be designated or listed Um environmental determination exempt and so we'll have a presentation by ryan bain senior planner So I don't see ryan either So we'll take a maybe a two minute break to uh Allow people who are here for oral communications to clear the chambers and then to uh Allow our staff time to Okay And I think we can get started So I'd like to turn the meeting over to ryan bain senior planner To lead the staff presentation. Yes. Good evening. Um, we're here to look at 111 errant circle and give a little background um back on december 10th city council directed staff to Bring forward The uh historic designation or recommendation whether the site should be listed as historic landmark to historic preservation commission um being that there are actually two sections um for historic designation being both Uh the historic building survey and landmark We came back to council just to clarify if they wanted the hpc to look at both criteria And um you confirmed that you did Um and on january 30th, uh, we did take it before the historic preservation commission um and they considered the designation and recommended against listing on a five to zero vote In addition to the recommend the recommendation of the council to not list the property They also had some advisory recommendations. Um for the future project potential project um One is that If there'd be some open space at the focal point of the woodrow avenue view shed That there would be a historic interpretive plaques or signs surrounding the site to give um a historic perspective and description of the uh the development of this the circles neighborhood And that the street pattern um be the circular street pattern be retained um just to give just kind of a little timeline of the site Back in 1889 um was when the tabernacle the original church was constructed As part of um the religious encampment That's when also the concentric street pattern was developed for the uh the campers In 1900 approximately the the missionary baptist church that's a couple blocks away was constructed and still still present In 1935 is when the tabernacle church actually burnt down And then from 35 to approximately 55 the property was leased to the city for use as a park and In 1958 to 61 is when the current Garfield church was constructed um in terms of the historic building survey um in our zoning ordinance section 24 12 4 40 It establishes procedures and criteria for listing. There's seven criteria And just go over there real quickly. It has to be recognized as a significant example of a cultural natural archaeological or built heritage um It has to be associated with a significant person Uh or event or person a significant architect designer or builder Has to demonstrate some type of architectural significance Distinctive stylistic characteristics and has to retain its integrity Um As part of the uh submittal for the proposed project, um A department of parks and recreation primary record or dpr Was prepared by page in turnbull as a city-approved historic consultant And that was in may of 2019 As i mentioned as part as part of the application for the development of the site The report concluded that the church um building does not meet the criteria For listing on the national register of historic places The california register of historical resources or the santa cruz historic building survey um in addition to The dpr that was prepared by page in turnbull We also um had it peer reviewed By dudek, which is a consulting firm that we contract with to to conduct that peer review and to comment on the adequacy In consideration the level of the documentation And that the conclusions are well support and support in all applicable state and local regulations and dudek agreed that the subject property is not appear eligible for listing um should the council decide to um Proposed to list the site. I just wanted to make you aware that under 15331 The listing would be exempt So based on the dpr 523 report prepared by page in turnbull In addition to the peer review conducted by dudek The 111 errat circle property does not meet the criteria for listing On the national register the california register The santa cruz historic building survey Or as a city landmark The hpc reviewed the documentation and agreed with those conclusions And recommended the council that the property not be listed And therefore staff is recommending that the city council Not list the property at 111 errat circle on the city's historic building survey Or as a city landmark I'm available for any questions And I also wanted to mention that christine at dykes of page in turnbull A historic consultant to prepare the dpr report is here for any questions as well Thank you for that presentation. Are there any questions from members of the city council? Ryan, I didn't quite catch. Could you go back a slide? You were mentioning section 15331, sorry that one. Yeah, what is that? Oh, that's under cqa. That's just under cqa. Yeah, if It's questionable if this is considered listing is really a project under cqa, but If just to cover it if you decided to list it There is an exemption under that section. Okay, great I did actually have a question regarding the page in turnbull report and that's one of the things that's listed in the Is that for Certain properties to be considered It's the building that property is either a building site Or object that kind of fits some of these criteria And i'm just wondering if you might be able to speak to because it sounds like there has Been a lot of emphasis on the building, but i'm wondering if you could speak to the site itself As whether or not it's considered a historic site I might have christina speak to that but just Essentially when it comes to a site Normally it's it's the structure that really conveys the historic significance to the site That that gives that significance. So Just designating a vacant site Really isn't something that would be That would be done and in terms of a listing Is my understanding of it, but I might ask christina the same question came up at the hpc meeting as well So maybe she could speak to it a little more eloquently than i can Good evening council members What ryan said is is historic preservation practice that In order to List a property on a historic register you must Show that there is historic significance as well as historic integrity You need both of those things and integrity is the ability of the property to physically convey its significance And that relates to The location in the setting as well as the design and the materials And um workmanship feeling and association These are concepts that are outlined by the national park service and our Standards that we that we use in historic preservation analysis So it really does still come back to The physical building or features on the site Even if a property is found to be significant in association with events or people instead of its architecture those that reason for significance still must be Conveyed by what physically is is on the site currently Any other questions from council members Seeing none, uh, we can open it up for public comment If you would like to comment on the item that's before us I'm going to ask again that you please line up to the left and you'll be given two minutes to speak And before we get started, um, I'd like to invite up brett packer From circle of friends who reached out to Um the mayor's office and requested four minutes of extra time So you'll be given four minutes to begin public comment on this item I Hi, I thought we're gonna have a little more time and so with three of us we're gonna present together Um, but I'll do the four minutes and then they can Talk individually Um Hello city council and um, thank you for your service and hello community and thank you for showing up. This is important Um, my name is brett packer and I'm a member of the circle of friends And I lived in santa cruz. So it's since I went to cabrillo in 1983 I've raised three kids here. They've all gone to school in local schools and currently I have one at pcs and two at cabrillo To make a living I build and remodel local homes um with a small company I initiated this project over two years ago with my fellow circle of friends as a way for our families And the families of my friends to be able to build homes for our families and live here In this very expensive town where we wouldn't be able to live here and build homes Have homes in on the west side if we weren't doing it this way um We're all working together. It's a sweat equity project from this planning process right on through the building projects And then we'll be living there together in a co-housing situation Somehow we scraped the funds together to purchase the proper property And started down the road to create our co-housing community Before we actually purchased the property we met with the city officials the staff numerous times To confirm that the r15 zoning would support our project which we were told it would Engle family homes and also To confirm that It was not listed as a historic resource resource We were told that it wasn't that old and then it was not listed And we were actually told we didn't even need to do a report on it at that time So we moved on and purchased the property. We worked with the city staff We worked with all the city departments met with all the council members met with our neighbors at the circles and on multiple occasions had meetings With the neighbors along the way the city staff encouraged us to have a historic analysis done Just in case any questions were raised. We hired one of the most respected firms in the state page and turnbull To prepare an analysis and they concluded clearly that the property did not meet any of the criteria listed And the city subsequently hired their own consultant Dudek to review our report and dudek agreed with the page turnbull report In december of 2019 Our planner ryan finally told us that our application was complete And he's ready to schedule us to go before the planning commission Which would have been the normal trajectory of our project as we moved through the process We were very excited. It had been two years of a lot of hard work Um A few days later we were surprised to find out that we were taking an unusual turn Um, and that some of the city council had Decided to send it to the historical preservation committee To get a reading Another reading on whether It was historically important and should be listed Um So we had the historical uh preservation committee committee meeting on january 30th And as you know, the historical preservation committee voted 5 to 0 against listing it Additionally, they specifically noted that it was unfair to the applicants To try to have the property listed after we had put two years of effort and great expense into the planning process At the hpc meeting a show of hands revealed a very strong majority of the full house to be supporters of our project And against having it hijacked as a historical listing Of the 75 letters sent to the hpc for that meeting 60 were from supporters of our projects only 15 were from the opposition Is that saying have three seconds That's yeah, your time is up. All right. Thank you. Thank you I'm going to remind the community that out of respect for time Um, if we are clapping that's going to make the meeting go on longer We're clapping after each individual who speaks so I just like to ask that you hold your applause And we'll get through all the speakers and we can make our decision and then you can applaud at that time. So thank you You'll have two minutes I'm ross gibson city of stark preservation commission, but recused on this issue when this uh Site was advertised it was called the heart of the west side And it's not just because it's the center of the west side It's because it's always been the heartbeat of west side community activities the The center area had been designed as the focal point of the entire circle's neighborhood It was the uh, uh, this is a poor neighborhood There's small lots no backyards to speak of And so the community commons was the place where everybody had a front yard so to speak There are no sidewalks on the Commons because it invites you to enter or leave the property from any point now The problem that we have is that it's never been Understood in context with the neighborhood itself because if it wasn't just a zoning issue It was a human issue a neighborhood issue It was showing that the neighbors are stakeholders that they're actually going to lose something When this project comes into fruition. It means that you have to go outside the neighborhood to hold a meeting to Engage with certain community services and so forth At the historic preservation commission. I felt that there were some deficits in the In the They did a good job laying out some of the issues but the things that were left out were like the section on neighborhood setting from the preservation plan And it it hits all of the aspects as a as it relates to the neighborhood Now obviously it's a budget building And the reason for that was it's a poor neighborhood and the congregation needed something cheap But I think the solutions that they created were quite Astounding to be able to preserve the open space in the middle and have enough room for services. Thank you Evening council and thank you so much for this opportunity to speak my name is Barbara Benish. I've lived in the neighborhood about six years I'd like to acknowledge also the land of the almond moonson whose Land we are actually discussing tonight and acknowledge their Original presence in this neighborhood As we know the land was not owned by our first people's nations It was shared and it was stewarded by them. It was a community place And what we're trying to save is not just a building for a particular religious group or a building itself But what we are talking about is the site and the place and the community It's been a place for generations for all kinds of learning activities athletics Growing healing spaces and this is what we are trying to preserve we Some of the things that were said earlier by brett and it's unfortunate that we've all come to this place because we all know each other And we weren't really consulted as he said And if the original historic report was By page and turnbull was by their group Then I would question that and I did read the report and if one of my undergrads did that report they would not get a very good grade The commons what we are talking about here is a very inarticulate messy democratic place It's not something we can put a dollar amount on it's something that is Invaluable if we lose this commons that is so unique to santa cruz. We will never get it back again I appreciate these people on housing But it doesn't have to be in the center of this community that's been there for over 150 years Thank you Yep Hello, my name is freya sands and I live on wilk circle I had a plan but then it got changed because I got nine pages of handwritten notes from on the On the station area of gordon mildrum a minister of the circle church and This place has been a Wonderful place for me personally and many other people, but I will read you just a little excerpt from them From his work From the time that the old tapernacle burned to the ground in 1935 We've never given up the idea of erecting another building on this site Further it goes we Always stipulated in the original deed that the property was always to be used for religious purposes So we waited to keep very much alive our hopes of gaining the circle property for a new home for the garfield park Circle church and finally A big wonderful sanctuary Was dedicated and stands fitting to the monument of the courage determination Loyalty love and devotion of the members of this church Who helped bring this fruition to fruition starting on up to over 6 1958 The day after our groundbreaking ceremony was held on the after our morning worship service We are moving forward if that is not history What is thank you very much for your service Hello, my name is april now block. It's my first time speaking at a meeting. It's a very important issue for me Um, I started attending church in 2007 at disciples of christ church at the circle Prior to this I received my ministries through tv preachers, which encouraged listeners to get involved in community fellowship Although I have gone through many trials I'm grateful for that first step taken on easter sunday 2007 when I walked down to the circle church Pastor steve was the pastor of a very small congregation of mostly elderly people Who had been members for generations and the homeless population Which seemed to be a passion of his I full heartedly jumped in and helped wherever I felt there was need Cooking for the homeless remodeling a shower cleaning the buildings running fundraising community outreach craft holiday fairs Creating the newsletter and being on the board in the process I got a very clear picture of the church and surrounding community These are my observations the church did not have enough discipline or able-bodied people to properly execute the idea to Help the homeless and the mental health issues which come along with caring and helping them Two the attempts made to draw the community into help failed The neighbors rightfully so were unhappy with the poorly managed homeless situation at the church I sat through the meeting of the historical society with a heavy heart Finally, the neighbors were standing up for the community green space Property, but it was appearing to be too late. I left that meeting wondering why there was no community posting Absolutely none when the property was sold To a developer Now two years have gone by with many dollars spent The meeting you are having tonight should have happened two years ago. Why was the community not notified? Why why did these people not let us know? I now work a job in redwood city caring for the mentally ill I recently attended an ecu summit where study was reported on about green space in communities When greed and space is taken away Mental illness goes up in our community. Please do the right thing for caring for our community as the whole body We need to bring people together and we need to help mentally ill all of us Included, thank you Hi, my name is sue powell. I live on wilk circle And I've been there for 36 years. I'm here to speak in favor of historic preservation For the circle church as a local historic landmark. I have a letter that I would like distributed And then in addition, I have petition signatures. I have Paper petition copies of paper petitions from 251 people that have signed in support of not demolishing the circle church And I have an online petition with 1512 signatures of people not wanting to Um To have the circle church destroyed Online there's 15 12 1,512 only 1478 printed so but that's still a substantial number So we have 1,763 people in the city of santa cruz that do not want this church destroyed And in addition, there's another 87 people who sign that are from the county and the other people Have connections in town their families of residents And I'm running out of time in my letter I touched on five important points about the historic preservation commission Decision about not giving a historic designation Probably the most important that you could consider. Hopefully is that The criteria for a local historic landmark was not considered by the historic preservation commission They only looked at the state and the national registers and the criteria for those So it's possible that the city council could Designate the circle church as a local historic landmark and I hope to read my other comments I'm also very concerned that Ross Gibson was asked to recuse himself from the historic preservation commission meeting by the chair And I was hoping that the city attorney would take a look at that to see if that was really something that should have happened We think he should have been able to be on the commission offering his historical insights He's thank you. Well, thank you so much Hi there. My name is Matt. I'm on. I'm a resident of d4 street for the last 15 years Um, and I'm here to speak against the listing of the site in the historical survey Um, I believe that the significance of the circles as a site is as a Gathering of a community, uh, which is symbolized by the circular shape of the neighborhood and I think that um that Uh, significance will be maintained under the new Usage that's proposed as a co-housing site. I know that Brett is planning to provide a community space there such that um The opportunity will still be there for the neighborhood to gather And to appreciate the significance of their neighborhood and and my neighborhood as well. Thank you very much Hi, thank you My name is nada milkovich and I also live on the west side. I have two adult children That grew up on the west side And I support the circle of friends development project I'm in favor of following city guidelines and zoning in favor of the change that is necessary and important for our city The applicants have worked diligently through the planning process for two years working closely with the city staff On the basis that the circle church not be listed as a historical resource For the city council to list it at this point is totally unfair to the applicants We desperately need housing in santa cruz and the circle of friends is a group of local families. These are not big developers And they will be providing much needed housing for our families I've studied the application. I've helped Brett for a couple years now and I um I see it as a very fair and he's been playing by the rules Um, so please do the right thing and allow the circle of friends to continue this project I encourage you not to list the church as a historical resource um It might have been nice at one time But uh, we can still have a community space for the neighborhood that does not have to go away Thank you for listening and thanks for Doing your job Good evening. My name is akua parker After the historical preservation committee decided in a unified vote five to zero not to list the circle church And turnbell and dudek conducted separate reports and reviews concluding the church did not reach the criterion to be listed as historical It would be negligent to ignore these unanimous findings The 2013 historical building survey conducted by the city and the hpc did not list the circle church and frankly It would be hard to miss This council sent this project to the hpc to get their recommendation The recommendation is very clear. I encourage you to maintain the integrity of the hpc and to not list the circle church We don't have a dilapidated church crisis. We have a housing crisis As a young person born and raised in santa Cruz I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to be heard in local politics This weekend I was canvassing and imploring people to not support the recall as I find it a necessity to have diverse and progressive voices on our local city council As someone who grew up playing volleyball in the circle church I understand the sentimental value of the building, but sentimentality is different than historical value I along with many others face the reality of not being able to live in my hometown due to Astronomic cost of housing The future homes at the heart of the circle will play a part in solving this problem I look forward to the community space the circle of friends will provide A space for dance yoga and a game of volleyball I thank the council for their time and urge them not to list My name is willow record The fact that we're still here questioning whether or not the circle church should be deemed a historical site is shocking It is a building that was built in 1961 and numerous assessments have all assumed it not worthy as a historical landmark It feels like we're a scene in a west anderson movie about a quirky small town that is blatantly Disregarding evidence and trying to call something what it is not I was born and raised in santa Cruz and played basketball and volleyball in the gym of the circle church all throughout elementary school And junior high as a high schooler. I hung out on the lawn with friends some of whom who are no longer with us It is a sentimental place. Yes, the circles themselves are an important part of the west side community. Yes However, the church is not the pinnacle of the atmosphere that the circles create on the contrary It is pretty run down and underutilized I've always wondered why the central point of such a beautiful area had to be something so forlorn Years ago. I remember talking with friends about how amazing it would be for the lawn in the front to be a Big community garden instead What the circle of friends aims to do with this property is exactly that to make it beautiful Something that we can be proud of to have a community garden in spaces where people can gather and interact with one another Contributing affordable housing in a time where it is desperately needed And at the same time making something aesthetically pleasing and useful as a community space If we stop the circle of friends in their tracks A larger developer will undoubtedly purchase the property Someone with corporate lawyers and deep pockets who will have no problem proving that this site is not historical at all Because it is not if we want to maintain the integrity of this town The solution is not to edge out locals who want to beautify it This unique quality of Santa Cruz will be lost if we wait until big real estate moguls come to gentrify it until it is Unrecognizable I am grateful for the circle of friends and others like them who wish to contribute to the community while maintaining its beauty and integrity. Thanks Hey there.  Why thank you I'll just read what I have I guess Um, so when I first heard that it was bought I totally like my heart totally sunk You know I was thinking like shit just big gnarly ugly money project going in and I was actually super Surprised and stoked at who you know like the kind of group of people that ended up getting it I think we're like pretty lucky actually that that turned out to be that way um, and I think kind of the like the main Thing is that like as long as the church remains the way it is It's just going to be like an irresistible target for All kinds of developers, you know, and it seems like pretty obvious that the highest bidder is going to win out in that situation and like pretty much of this Historical listing right now seems like pretty shaky.  So I really um I feel like we kind of have as a neighborhood caught a Lucky break really in like getting people who actually live here and actually care and actually want to build community instead of you know what um Frankly, I assumed was going to happen to it when I heard that it was bought So thank you Good evening. My name is Henry Hooker. I've lived in Santa Cruz for 30 years I agree with the unanimous decision by the historic preservation commission that this church is not historic The proposed housing should not be further delayed Santa Cruz has a housing crisis Nearly 28 000 people work in the city of Santa Cruz 72 of those workers 20 000 people Commute to those jobs from outside of the city Lack of affordable housing in Santa Cruz means more cars on the roads And we see the disastrous effects the disastrous effects twice daily on highway one 40 of all the greenhouse gases in california Come from transportation So housing policy Is ultimately climate policy We the citizens and leaders of Santa Cruz Need to come together and welcome more residents in all of our neighborhoods Workers would have a chance to get out of their cars and bike or walk to work Santa Cruz would be a leader in addressing a statewide problem I urge the city council to reject this delay attempt I also urge you to move quickly on all projects that provide affordable housing in the city of Santa Cruz Thank you Hello, Santa Cruz city council. My name is Philip Roper. I live in Watsonville and work for Caltrans In Santa Cruz as a transportation surveyor I'm friends with Joe combs in this circle of friends group I've worked for many civil engineering and land surveying companies in Santa Cruz and the Monterey county The parcel where the proposed construction will begin has not has been determined not to be a historical site But for some reason this is still up for debate My friends do not have the ability to pay for an environmental impact report Which will be the next step for this project if their property is designated a historical site Historical site is determined using evidence in a detailed report These reports have been created by page and term bill as well as the company of the city of Santa Cruz chose dudek Both of these companies determined that the property is not a historical site My father is jeff roper of roper engineering. He has worked on many projects in the city and county of Santa Cruz I've seen many many projects become delayed or fail While in the permitting process one project I worked on with my father was delayed 10 years He walked the site or we walked the site when I was a freshman in high school And when I graduated from college we started the boundary survey Public opinion from neighbors in the area that enjoyed biking and hiking on the property was the main reason this project took so long to begin Private property should be as such private. No one should no one wants to own property in a city Nobody wants to own property if the city can deem it Apart for its citizens this property cost my friends three million dollars Where was the outcry when this parcel was up for sale two years ago? This is probably the only shop my friends have at owning a home in this area Treating them as a developer trying to make a profit on this project is unfair and untrue There are a lot of hurdles that the project still has to cross in order to break ground Please do not let the public outcry create an extra impossible step for this development process Just because people have fond memories of the parcel that was in the past. Thanks Hi, my name is hillary martisious and I live On walk circle and I do not want to see this Circle church demolished and I believe it is historical because it isn't just a building. It is a it is a History, it's a history of a place when there was nothing out there on the west side There were people who came there and broke ground and designated it for a purpose It is historical. It has always had its purpose It can remain in our community. It can be used for different things But it doesn't have to be housing. I feel sorry for people who are maybe going to lose on this case I feel sorry for them. Yes, but there are better places to build housing than in that center of our neighborhood Our neighborhood is precious to us. We need a Another area like a louden or something or use it for what you want to but it's not an ordinary space It's not just housing. Thank you Hi, my name is rocky peak So historic preservation punted on the question of whether or not to designate Herit circle as a landmark What would you expect they're an advisory committee? They can't make a big decision That represents the best interests of all the citizens of santa cruz You cancel make the decision to benefit all the citizens of santa cruz Not just a small handful of developers and their buddies Historic preservation also made a recommendation. It was illegitimate because they considered arguments about housing supply Housing supply is now within their jurisdiction The argument that this project would improve the housing situation in santa cruz is absurd The 12 mcbanjans that will be built on this site will be a detriment to the housing situation santa cruz These 12 mcbanjans will raise the median home value in santa cruz Which will stimulate further speculative buying and further speculative development Driving out low and medium cost housing This project is not in the public interest. This project represent a public injury The project would come at the cost of the public of desecrating a landmark That stands for a culture the cultural heritage of inclusiveness and common ground By now you've heard the sob story of these of this vision of a fantasy commune It's not your obligation to enable these people's ego dream It is your obligation to protect the interest of the people of santa cruz by designating this property as a landmark You need to look no further than your own general plan of 2030 for the significance of this property on Thank you. Thank you Good evening city council. Thank you for your time. My name is cindy bacon I am a local midwife of 30 years within santa cruz And I have retained an office at 504 and a half errat circle across the street from the church and next to circle market For 23 and a half years coming on 24 actually Um, I have great concern for the families of santa cruz obviously by my Life's profession and I have delivered many babies within that circle neighborhood It is a working class neighborhood and I speak very strongly against this site being destroyed and turned into housing That neighborhood for the mental health of its citizens as has been previously stated requires open space Requires a place where people can go and have classes We have an autistic school that is currently there and as people have earlier spoken here tonight Nobody in the community was aware that this property would change hands. We question the legitimacy of the minister and how this all went about the change in the bylaws of the church We feel completely aghast aggrieved and disenfranchised of that as community space that had two schools regularly has weddings All kinds of community events it literally functions as the heart of the west side neighborhood And yes, I am privileged to treat the direct descendant of the minister who founded that church and believe you me It was founded for families for children for the health of the west side of santa cruz What can be more historical than the entire west side shaped around a piece of property was never meant to be I agree Luxury homes 12 homes are going to solve the housing crisis in santa cruz crack me up I compare it to the project near ocean street extension that has been delayed for years one and two Small bedroom houses that are close to the freeway now We're going to put 12 homes in the middle of the circle and call this a solution a solution to housing and traffic No, i'm sorry Hi, my name is patrick katie. I live in capitol and I teach math in watsonville I'm here to speak in support of housing at the circle church property and hence Against historical designation for the site while i'm sympathetic to community members concerns. I'd also ask the council To weigh the region wide impact of continuing to block housing in santa cruz Everyone knows there's a housing shortage in this region in this state As a public school teacher. I see the impacts of that Housing shortage and the students I serve many of whom face housing insecurity and homelessness When they leave my classroom um I don't think there's a solution to this shortage that doesn't involve building all types of housing everywhere And compared to the scale of the problem. I know this is a relatively marginal decision But I'd ask you to consider whether you want to make it marginally worse or marginally better I'd also ask you to consider that across this region In rooms like this localities find justifiable reasons to to block housing I just asked the council to consider those who are Going to bear the cost of those decisions In your designation. Thank you so much Thank you Hello, my name is jim snook. I'm a 39 year resident of the west side interestingly That's almost two-thirds of the time that building has been there and I don't think it's historical or architecturally significant And I'm also a former member of the city housing advisory committee And I do believe advisory committees can make significant decisions and advice and We don't we there are very few places in the last 40 years the few empty lots we have have disappeared There's very few places to build housing. I think this is a good place. It's consistent with the zoning It's consistent with the neighborhood like say I've lived near that site for 39 years and I don't have any problem with putting housing And I think it's an appropriate and logical use and it's a misuse of historical Of the historical process to block it and by the way on an aside I think recalls are a bad idea too just for the sake of a few people here Yeah Patricia and I've been a resident in Santa Cruz for 29 years 17 in Santa Cruz and 12 in felton And I'm in support of the circle of friends project These are not mcmansions that are going up. These are individuals who've pulled their money together to buy properties They can build their homes That frees up rental housing when they go into their own homes and you know, I understand the sentimentality of the neighbors because There was an oak tree that was taken down at a ensignal elementary in menlo park where I went to elementary school It had a bench around it that people sat around And you know, it's gone And every and just seeing it gone was really hard for me because it was part of My childhood memories and my childhood growing up at that school So I understand the memories and the attachment of the community Um, you know gatherings they've had there but the property has been sold and according to your Statement you can only add it as historic if the historic preservation Commission recommends that And they have not they've said it's not historic landmark. It's not historic building if you're going to get into the site issues really There were all alone tribes all over this prop, you know area there before that there and then after that You know Spanish rancheros and I don't know how you can decide issues out in the entire county of Santa Cruz becoming a historic preservation site because really they've been Building and you know modernization going on for you know decades and centuries So just to try to bring the site into it just seems irrelevant Unless you're going to take the whole county and you know reason on that but um, I just Feel that you should uh Keep the integrity of the ordinance that you have set Because it doesn't meet the criteria for historic um designation Otherwise you compromise the integrity of the ordinance is that the council has set in place And then thank you. Yep. I am Jim Allen young. I live on errant circle Across the street from the church been there almost 30 years Uh raised two kids in a little tiny house. I love our neighborhood Uh, we've got the two markets. We've got you know a couple other churches in the neighborhood, which are great We've got our little library. We've got garfield park but I've never considered the church to be Something that belonged to me in the way that the library does when the city wanted to shut down the library Huge outcry. That's what motivated the community You know, we took part in that as well, but I've never considered the church as being something that belonged to us personally It was always the church um I was happy to see that it was being it's been being used because it needed to have some income generated to be able to be Maintained because there was a long time when that wasn't happening. So the fact that it was being used we've used it To first daughter's childbirth class was there Kids using the gym. I mean, we've been involved in the use of this site as well But when I realized the site was being sold and I knew it was going to be on the market I was really happy to see that the people who actually purchased it were local And that they were going to be bringing Housing into our neighborhood that fit our neighborhood. The type of density Is respectful of who we are as a community Uh, I just look forward to one day having them as neighbors across the street. So I would ask that you Encour with the historic commission's recommendation and not list it as a historic site. Thank you Hi, my name is zaya packer and I've grown up here my whole life I've spent 19 years here And I work five days a week and currently live in a chicken shack in the back of my dad's house and I could not afford To pay the exorbitant prices of rent around here right now And I just think that as a city we need as many houses as we can for people like me who've spent their lives here And want to continue living the beautiful city that they love and It's not fair to the people who've put in Hundreds and hundreds of hours Into this project And now all of a sudden this is just one more way to delay it And it's It's a This issue is a representation of what we can be as a community And I think that we can take a step forward and Turn that church into something beautiful and real I've biked past that church thousands of times growing up around here and it is a big gray rectangle That has a lawn covered in dog poop and that is all it has ever been and I don't see that there's any reason for it in any way to be historical. Thank you Hi, my name is William lands um, I'm here to discuss, uh, the historical significance of the circle church And uh, actually the lack of it if the facts presented by the circle church By the circle of friends who wasn't enough I will speak from my own personal experience Uh, I attended good shepherd school and was greatly informed and participated within many parishes within the community And circle church was never been a part of that broad band of churches I participated in or learned about I have never seen such the importance significance of circle church And I've never seen it as something of historical value to say is to be a historical site is an appendement to the housing crisis Uh for the sake of being an appendement I'm 17 and we'll see the problems such housing crisis And within my childhood have seen such housing crisis as it has forced me to move to multiple places within the community Uh, the circle church the circle of friends housing group and other local voters with their roots in this community You're fighting from my future and uh and uh people Trying to preserve the church are fighting for their past. Thank you Yep, I wasn't my name is Jess Reeves I wasn't going to speak today, but I didn't see many Young family parents who live in the circles here So I just wanted to speak for a number of my friends who have really young children And we're the future of the circles and I spend most of my afternoons at circle church talking to other Parents with my dog Going into the gymnasium playing with my daughter And I just want to make sure that the property Is kept as a community resource because as soon as we take these community resources away from our community We don't really get them back. There's not The city isn't going around buying up private land for people to use again It doesn't really happen that often so I just really want to see it preserved And the historic goal of the church in our sort of secular society Isn't really that strong anymore But I was raised Catholic and it I'm really missing that as part of the community and that actual property provides as a community space For me and my friends and lots of other people that live in the circles And I wanted to say that you know all the different businesses that are opening there Like I kind of had in my mind even before the property was sold that one day I would open a small cafe or something like that and one of the small properties along the side of the church that's working right now And you know that that's not going to be a community space for people in the future I'd also like to speak towards the fact that it's not really High density low-income housing if you put 12 units on there If you guys do decide not to keep the church as a historical site It'd be really great if you made it so that it was a actual low-income unit And made sure that's not just 12 units but maybe Why not put two level apartments in where people could actually afford to live and stay in the community? Thanks very much Hello, i'm carolin ronzano And thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight and thank you for the opportunity to bring this issue to the hbc We appreciate that Unfortunately, the hbc failed to uphold their responsibilities outlined in their bylaws An article 2 it states that the historic preservation commission was established to protect the city's historic and architectural resources They did not do this the ruling was based on them asserting a verdict of what they deemed fairness Which is not within their purview to decide They cited that it is happening too late in the process and referenced a bait and switch The reason this is happening so late is because of the bait and switch pulled by the developers When purchasing the property the realtor representing the group assured the pastor and his realtor that he would maintain it as a community center Which was a criteria that was important to them And this is referenced in multiple sentinel articles around the time of the cell It was not until almost a year after the sale that the developers Disclosed to the community their true intention of a housing development for the property This is when the community started to organize The pastor has recently said that if he knew that they were actually planning What they're planning would have not sold to them and it was almost two years after the property was sold that that The historic report was made available to the public There was not a lot of time to respond to that if this was a year ago It would be completely different verdict that during the hbc Evaluation the commissioners noted that the historic report minimizes significance of the church's qualifications were stark designation It excluded key reference material and they referred to the historic report as patronizing I want to what i've circulated to you is during this process. We've discovered that The circles does Qualify as a historic district. This was told to us by charlie duncan who is Approved city historian It was represented by the planning department and their Report and also in a letter from page bull and turner to brett packer the same conclusion Please consider that we're making your decision. Thank you Good evening city council I am one of the developers one of these big nasty developers My name is jinny stone and i'm a lifelong santa cruz local I was born and raised here And i'm here with my friends that we call ourselves the circle of friends partners Two years ago. We joined forces to fulfill a dream of building not only affordable homes for our families But an intentional community We are teachers builders firemen nurses small business owners Some of us are and our first time homeowners and none of us have experience as developers We had the crazy idea that together we could afford what separately we could not That is to stay in santa cruz as homeowners on our beloved west side By working together these last two years We gained not only the goal of our objective but a deep connection to one another the land we bought And the greater west side neighborhood Our project follows its r1 5 zoning designation to the t we ask for no variance We are building homes for our family not four-story condos for maximum return on investment Given the space we will provide significant housing with the least negative impact to the neighborhood possible For the last two years. We have met more than weekly. We have worked closely with city officials We have poured our life savings our sweat our heart into this dream We understand the significance and the importance of the property and we know the responsibility we take On in curating the site Please respect our diligence in adhering to the process especially in the issue of historic designation This is one of the first items we looked at and asked about before acquiring the property Anyone familiar with our project knows we have more than adequately shown that the church is not historic Please follow the recommendation of the hbc and do not list as historic. Thank you Greetings city council. My name is robin stone and I have been a resident to santa cruz county since 1971 I raised my children in santa cruz and I have worked as a public health nurse for the county of santa cruz Since 1989 I am currently semi-retired My daughter has been involved with the circle of friends co-housing community since its inception I have gotten to know the members and have been very impressed by the thought and integrity That has gone into creating a sustainable intergenerational community-minded housing experience These are hardworking people Many of whom were born and raised in santa cruz and all of whom contribute in various ways towards its betterment I have also witnessed the applicants jumping through hoop after hoop for the past two years To comply with the planning process and be responsive to the needs and concerns of neighborhood residents One of these hoops involved preparing three reports, which were very viewed by city consultants The reports clearly concluded that the church circle does not meet the historic property criteria However, at the request of a small vocal group of community residents who have strong Emotional ties to the church and are trying to derail the project The city council agreed to send the project to the historic city historic preservation committee To review whether the circle meets historic property criteria and make a recommendation They unanimously concluded that it does not meet criteria While it is sad and unfortunate that the neighborhood group and circle and friends Have not been able to come to an agreement on how to move forward the project has been delayed for too long The neighborhood residents are not able to buy the property The circle group does not have the resources to let this go on indefinitely All the roadblocks that they haven't had to endure are creating unfair hardships In the face of trying to create an exemplary housing solution Thank you Hi, I'm um, Holly Ikra. I was a student at UC Santa Cruz. Um, and I lived in Santa Cruz for six years um, I wasn't planning on talking tonight, but I kind of wanted to speak on behalf of um, like my friends and Colleagues who grew up in Santa Cruz and utilized this space Most of them so when I first I moved back this year and um, I learned about the project They're trying to save the circle church or I learned that it was going to be demolished and um And uh, so I started like reading into it like reading all the different historic reports and all that stuff um And I was just kind of and I was shocked and so I started sharing about it and all of the people that I know also didn't know about it and Couldn't imagine anything else going in that space that wasn't designated for like a community amenity um So I think that it's important to keep this space a community center and and And possibly revitalize it as it was um, utilized like in the past for um Different community benefits. Um That like have been talked about tonight um, and also When it was created it was intended to be a community space Like by the original people who put up the church and all that so Thank you. Thank you Good evening council members My name is Caitlyn wild and I have lived in Santa Cruz for 21 years I currently live on the west side on on arid circle and I am one of the members of the circle of friends As you can see we're very passionate about this project and about t