you so choose um but i just don't want any uh signs just disrupting the viewpoints of people that are here for their meeting now i'd like to take the opportunity to turn it over to staff for the presentation great thank you um good evening mayor city council my name is amanda rotella i'm economic development coordinator i'm joined here today um by staff from the public works planning of order mayor um i just wanted to clarify the process tonight like staff presentation then just so the audience knows when they we might get to them and what the process is i think i just did that i wasn't going to repeat it right i'm going to say we're going to have the staff presentation and then after we hear the presentation i'm going to turn it over so we can have the group um anybody grouped we had several groups that requested public comment no questions then they'll go council i'd like to hold the questions until after the uh the public speakers on this and then we can have questions we'll get to them right yes absolutely thank you okay so that's that is the process and now staff please okay okay um just as i was saying um i'm joined here today by staff from the economic development office public works planning and the library so it's sort of a a group effort um for this presentation and we're here tonight to make a brief presentation on the library mixed use project and recommendations that have been detailed in the staff report we're aiming to be brief and concise recognizing that um there are a lot of people here who'd like to speak so we'll be moving quickly so we always feel it's important to recap past council meetings and actions um and we continue to touch upon the december 6 2016 meeting because council direction from that really meeting has really framed how we move forward um from including the creation of the downtown library advisory committee direction for um analyzing recommendations for a permanent site for the farmers market as well as developing a parking rates matrix for funding the portion of the parking um as part of the project we also met this summer june 12th and june 19th uh to look at the downtown some of the vision challenges and opportunities we looked at the parking rate strategy and also had a presentation from delac today's presentation um we will be looking at four areas first we feel it's important to really take a moment to reiterate the problems that we're trying to address as they relate to the library parking and housing um i think as city staff we see ourselves as problem solvers so we've been really focusing on the proposed solution the library mixed use project so we'd like to take a moment to really step back and and um focus on the reason that we're here today and the problems we're trying to address so we'll be doing some very minor touches on that we'll be looking at the um how we got to the proposed solution the library mixed use project i'll provide some feedback on the community engagement and feedback that's happened and then we'll get into next steps timeline and recommendation the big picture slide and we continue to bring this graphic up because we really feel that it demonstrates all of the components that play in the downtown and really the interconnectedness of those components and as we're looking at the big picture and how downtown is changing and growing we really want to be aware of how changes and growth are impacting across all of these pieces we really want to vibrant downtown with a strong economy and activated community spaces a downtown that's easy to access with sufficient park parking inadequate housing to meet the needs of the community and so there's a lot to balance and as we're looking at five to six hundred new housing light um housing units in the pipeline for construction in the downtown we really feel it's the city's responsibility to plan for related infrastructure to ensure that downtown not only survives but thrives so this is something that we've been keeping in mind as we move forward and now I'd like to bring up a library doctor Susan Nemitz to speak about the library hello i'm Susan Nemitz um in 2013 the library board put together a facilities master plan where they evaluated all the facilities of the libraries across the county um downtown has been a set of special problems and you can see pictures I know many of you have had the opportunity to see the library up close and personal so I won't go into much detail but if you go to the next slide the facilities master plan and Nolan Tam more recently found a variety of things that were wrong with the building ADA basic infrastructure pieces the whole building's dated and really an inefficient layout for doing modern library services I think the other thing that we faced in 2016 when measure S passed 23 million dollars was allocated to the Santa Cruz public downtown branch library and we were looking at the cost of construction for libraries across the Bay Area coming in at over a thousand dollars per square foot so we made the determination that 23 million dollars was probably not going to get us a state-of-the-art library so one of the things we just want to talk about because people keep asking is what happens if this proposal does not pass um the thing I want you to be aware of is that the measure S bonds fund expire on June 30th 2024 so we have a limited period of time in which to make these decisions and we are already kind of constantly closing the library itself or parts of the library because of aging infrastructure blowing electrical fuses pipes breaking a whole variety of things that have occurred particularly over the last three years and we'd prefer not to continue to do so and then I think probably most importantly though is we really aren't meeting the 21st century learning needs of the Santa Cruz community now we'll hear from Claire fleece there from the public works parking division hi I'm Claire fleece I'm the transportation planner for the city so for the parking portion of this project one of the things that we looked at is how do we make sure to address our infrastructure needs now and into the future and looking forward we know that we are going to be losing about 10 percent of our existing parking supply in the downtown our community in downtown both residents employees business owners depends on parking as one element of a thriving and sustainable downtown and we know that we're also planning for growth in downtown as Amanda mentioned we are planning and implementing the council's two-year strategic goal to entitle five to six hundred housing units in the downtown we also have recommendations in the downtown plan for how our community will grow and intensify in the downtown and specific recommendations from the housing blueprint subcommittee specifically related to parking and growth um excuse me I should have mentioned um that um earlier today council member Matthews mentioned that she has a conflict on this item and I'll just turn it back over to her I was so caught up in the moment I forgot to step down so we are having a lot of fun excuse me y'all it was not an intentional gaffe um these guys said what are you doing up here you're welcome you're welcome to sit and stay and watch that I will announce and I'll join the audience um I announced in the afternoon I have a personal conflict of interest because I own property nearby the parcel in question so I'm disqualified from participating in the discussion or the vote so my apologies to everybody thank you okay okay so uh bringing it back parking as one element of this project and of our infrastructure in downtown what we're currently seeing in our parking structures and our lots is hitting capacity many many times during the week incredibly common what this limits is the ability for our downtown businesses to continue to thrive to recruit and retain employees and to be able to grow into the future it's something that I know you heard in lots of letters that came in over the last few days um our wait lists right now for our parking structures are in excess of one year specifically we have 702 people waiting for 1384 permits you've seen this slide before but just to reiterate we are going to be losing a large number of parking spaces in the downtown 10 of our overall parking supply primarily these are in the southern portion of downtown and as we know we're projecting to have much of the future intensification and growth in our downtown be in that same southern portion so at the same time that we're going to be losing parking supply we're going to be increasing the demand for parking and infrastructure in our downtown if we do nothing we know that demands for parking in the downtown will exceed supply and it will limit our ability to implement the vision of our downtown plan it will also limit the ability to use our shared parking supply to implement many of the recommendations from the housing blueprint subcommittee and other of our housing goals being able to leverage our shared parking model to achieve those housing goals limits customer parking and it also really limits our businesses ability to recruit and retain employees and to continue to grow in our downtown so with that I'll hand it back over to Bonnie Lipscomb to talk about housing great thanks Claire I'm going to talk just for a few minutes about housing Claire and Amanda already sort of set the background for some of the recent city actions and over the last 18 months really intensive look led by a former mayor Cynthia Chase and by our housing blueprint sub committee council members really led to a number of recommendations focusing on housing as well as included in our two-year plan important thing to realize that we are all aware of but it bears re-emphasizing is that we're in the midst of a severe housing crisis a recent report released in September by California housing partnership shows that when you factor in the high housing costs in Santa Cruz one of the highest in the nation that our poverty rate has risen to almost 25 percent which is also one of the highest in the state more housing at all income levels is urgently needed more than 10,000 affordable units are needed in our county over 3,000 of those are needed in Santa Cruz finding sites for multifamily housing is extremely limited and that is where the downtown comes in we'll talk about that more in a few minutes and then funding for multifamily housing particularly affordable housing is limited it's extremely limited over the last 10 years with the loss of redevelopment the amount of state funding received in our county for housing has decreased by more than 16 million while homelessness has increased by 15 percent there is a direct correlation there we need to develop more housing in Santa Cruz as part of the council two-year work plan a stated goal is recognizing how housing is critically needed in our community in our downtown and that we really need to look at our underdeveloped and underutilized sites in the downtown which includes our surface lots for revitalization and potential housing development I want to talk just for a minute on Pacific Station because this is one of the projects that conceptually has been approved um numerous times over the last actually five years by council we do have over six million of redevelopment funds we've purchased the nonprofit insurance building downtown and this is the proposed site that we have been assembling to develop 60 to 80 units of affordable housing in downtown what this proposed mixed-use housing project does by creating a consolidated parking in the downtown it gives council the policy opportunity and decision to decide whether or not to actually take the parking that is required to be built as part of this project and put it in a consolidated structure by doing that we're able to save significant cost savings to the project it's a lower cost of parking delivery as well as to take that space that otherwise we would have used to build parking and convert that to additional units so this is a really important project for us in the downtown and we see the linkage between the two by being able to leverage the development of the other site to create more opportunities for affordable housing in our downtown this is just another rendering uh early stage rendering of of the pacific station project from the front street side so what happens if we do nothing uh current residents will leave Santa Cruz due to lack of available housing we already know it's happening now current residents will leave Santa Cruz due to lack of affordable housing options it's happening now some of the recent projects over the last five years we've been able to create have been projects like the tannery center that was a project that was created with with redevelopment funding a hundred units and uh that's publicly funded we need to be able to create more projects like this the potential in our downtown with our city owned lots gives us the ability to create future affordable housing projects in our downtown downtown is developed without substantial housing creation we know that because of our zoning laws within the community and because that Santa Cruz is largely built out the downtown has the greatest potential for us to develop a sizable amount of housing in our community and finally this limits implementation of our downtown plan plan vision that starts with the vision Santa Cruz you know more than you know 30 years ago to today with a recent plan amendments it is about creating housing downtown so how did we get to the proposed project um looking at the problems we're trying to address and really this started as Susan mentioned back in 2013 with the um the comprehensive facilities master plan uh process that the library undertook and then following that the approval voter approval of measure s funding and so after that uh at the December 6 2016 meeting council directed the formation of delac the downtown library advisory committee to really take a deep dive and look at the needs of the community to look at the options available within the constraint of limited funding and delac was asked by council to assess the options and then provide a recommendation back to council on how best to move forward and as you heard at the july uh june 19th meeting uh delac unanimously recommended option b which is to create um a library as part of a mixed use project on the proposed site and this option really gets a 21st century library facility with the desired square footage and and within the recognition of the constraints of funding additionally the downtown commission has provided a recommendation and the downtown commission advises council on all matters pertaining to maintenance and management of the parking district and the central business and improvement district and so they received a presentation on june 19th and you can see um what their recommendation included um constructing a new parking supply project um and the rest there and then finally the housing blueprint subcommittee as bonnie referred to um at the june 12th meeting council voted to support the recommendations laid out in the report and i think just the two here ones that i'd like to touch on the first one here analyzing city-owned parcels downtown with particular attention to existing service lots really looking at those sites that could be used for affordable housing development and then number four they're really directing staff to consolidate parking into structures to provide increased opportunities so we really see this project as the culmination of council direction and um recommendations from advisory bodies and really see this as a great opportunity to address three of our goals with one project and the city is really in a unique position to have the majority of funding identified and a site identified and so we're hoping to move forward so that we can create and reinvest in our community spaces like a new and modern library we can consolidate surface public parking lots to create more opportunities for higher and better uses and implement the council strategic plan of entitling new workforce affordable and market rate housing in the downtown now um one of the final pieces we want to touch on here is community engagement so this is a new piece that we're reporting back to you you provided direction at the december 6th and june 19th meeting to develop outreach plans and to connect with the community engage on the potential project so i've also printed the attachment which details all of the engagement that happened and it's on the back windowsill there and and i've provided an updated copy for you as well since engagement has been ongoing even after we've turned in that report so really it started with the delac process and the extensive outreach that they did as a result which included 12 public meetings that all had public comment opportunities and a really um well responded to survey over over 2000 responses and then over the past summer we have been working very hard uh to bring forward a multi pronged approach approach to our outreach on this project really with the goals of getting information out and engaging with new demographics really targeting especially the businesses and employees and users of our downtown and we really felt it was important to provide lots of opportunities and lots of ways for the community to get information and really engage um one of the first things that we did was set up a project web page that had information about all of the project components we also had meetings with small groups and one-on-one meetings which really allowed it just to connect with people and talk to them about their concerns and answer all of their questions and and really make sure that they had all of the information that they needed we also hosted a large um open house at the august 6 i know many of you were there and we made presentations to larger groups and community organizations and we're really proud to report that there have been more than a thousand contacts of community engagement over the last couple months and it's really been a priority of staffs and we've been working really hard um to really connect with the community on this important project here's some of the community groups that we've met with um business groups housing action now don't bury the library friends of the library um downtown management corporation you can see them there a lot of them are here to speak to you tonight and really um as you've heard there are a lot of concerns about this project i know many community members have spoken to you there's a lot here that will speak tonight and so wanting to be really clear about the feedback that we've heard so i'm just going to give a couple just a high level point out a couple of the pieces that we've heard sort of the most often um and just kind of quickly move through that so regarding concerns for parking um a couple the pieces that have really kind of stood out to me as i've been speaking with the community is this desire to see a plan for maintenance and safety in existing garages um this feeling that we shouldn't create parking because of the impacts on the environment and there's a desire to focus just on tdm and then this um nervousness around not everyone being able to use alternative transportation because they live far away they have multiple jobs or have children regarding the library some of the key pieces that have come up um is there's concerns about the library being part of a project that includes parking um concerns about management of the social issues in the library and and then also a lot of concerns about what's happening with the current library site if we're leaving and so um those have been kind of the big ones that come there and then just sort of our miscellaneous category um one of the things that we've heard from groups across the across the community is this desire to see more open spaces in the community more community gathering spaces and concerns about losing surface parking lots that are that could be considered a community space also a lot of concern about the design wanting a building that fits in with the community that matches the downtown feel um and really wanting to ensure that we're thoughtful about that and then this feeling about a shared vision and do we have a shared vision and if we don't how can we move forward on the flip side there have been support that we've also heard from the community and some of the top-through things that we've heard about parking is people are really um excited that the parking deficiency fees are going away businesses in particular are very excited about that and they feel that the parking rates changes are reasonable there's also those that support parking garage parking garage to replace the lots that we're losing and then this feeling that we want to make downtown viable for people to drive to because we don't want them going over the hill to shop or go to job so we can make it easy for people to get to downtown we can encourage them to not drive over the hill regarding the library the community is very excited about um the possibility of the library being a draw for families and a safe place for families and kids to be downtown and they're excited for our modern library with technological improvements and then finally um there are groups that like the mixed-use concept and they feel that it's a good use of the space and and efficient use of the space people are want any improvements that will bring more people downtown and especially the community is excited about the housing component and the possibility of including housing so that's sort of a brief overview of what we've seen as I said that that attachment that I've printed out and provided you with details all of the the pieces of feedback that we've gotten and I know you'll hear from the community here as well tonight okay now I'm gonna talk for just a minute about the the timeline and then briefly go over the actual recommendations um so the proposed timeline for the project is we've had a number of questions of how long will it take you know where are we what's the initial phase is that we would anticipate if if council directs us to go forward tonight to be spending about the next nine months in a pre-design phase and I'll go into a little more detail on what is in that phase in the next few minutes and then following that then following 18 to 24 months would be spent predominantly on design environmental review and analysis and engineering and then finally the actual construction period would be two years a little over two years and so the whole timeline is a pretty considerable length of time it we think that it will work well if we're able to move forward within the timeline of 2024 for the library bond so we are tracking on that we do think it's doable it is a little tight but we think it's it's possible to focus just on that initial phase if council gives us direction to go forward tonight I just wanted to break out a little bit of what that means and this is outlined a little more detailed in the staff report but over the next couple months we would select an owner's representative and I'll go when I go into the recommendations to talk a little bit more about what that is but this is an individual who would actually serve as our agent and and would be the main point of contact for the design bill team and really shepherd the project through and it saves considerable time and overall project management it's a model that we use quite frequently and then the next period starting in November we'd anticipate that we would release a request for qualifications request for proposals for design bill team select the design bill team and this would this would be a council action sometime in November December and then also as I'll talk about in just another minute we are proposing that we would move forward selecting an urban planning organization for a visioning and reuse of the library city facilities and I'll go over a little bit more detail of that in the recommendations and then this next significant period following that would be once the design bill team is in place and our owner's representative we would do a community outreach process on project design and we had considerable feedback during the last three months of outreach on just overall concerns of what the project will look like and really feel like that's a very important element of a public project of this scope to make sure that we're considering that we've had some preliminary just conceptual sketches that really are massing that we presented out in the community and there was definitely some concern of that particular architectural style so we felt like it was really important to have a deliberative process around design and so that on design as well as a community engaged effort led by a group similar to urban land institute or spur where they're working and visioning and helping us sort of look at the existing library site in the context of the sort of the broader downtown vision and our city facilities and giving us some ideas and opportunities for us to return to council for you to consider what the options could be in that context and then the actual development of some of the different architectural styles this is similar to a process we went through for the pacific station project where we had a very engaged community outreach process and what that felt like we're you know attending the farmers market and attending different holding different public meetings and different venues and getting a feel of what different sort of how design and look of what a project whether it's an urban field where it's a modern field or a more civic feel you know natural field all of those would be elements of design that an architect design build team could really help gauge with a with the community and then we would bring that back to you in a study session for your feedback for us since it is a civic city project on what design ultimately we should we should use to go forward with the project and then finally that would be presented to you in june and once that we would move into the next phase which would actually be the active design and development which was previewed on on this slide so now to the recommendations they are in your report the first one is to accept the downtown library advisory committee recommendations for a new library program mixed-use project and direct us to move forward with a project that includes affordable housing commercial retail and parking uses on the city-owned surface parking lot known as lot four and this we brought this up previously in throughout the presentation tonight and in some of the previous meetings and i'm sure you'll hear from a lot from the community on on this topic but if you look at the staff report you'll see that this report is actually across and interdepartmentally which we typically don't have this many departments on a staff report and that really just shows that we have almost every operational department engaged in this in this project from public works planning economic development with support from the city manager's office and of course the library are all working together on this project because it meets so many of the needs both of our city goals as well as the community the future health of our dead town is really dependent on that we're looking and adequately planning for this balance of needs that includes housing that includes us balancing parking to support our active businesses and residents our employees downtown our retail our restaurants and if we don't get that balance right as we're planning for the future a lot of these businesses are going to leave a lot of these office users are going to leave a lot of our residents will leave and we'll have a very different downtown in the future if we don't plan appropriately today we feel very strongly about this and this is behind the recommendation that becomes from from the multiple departments authorization to proceed with the owner's representative to manage the overall project and the design build team we do believe that going with a design build process saves significant money and funding at the city level this is a model of practice that we implement more regularly on projects in recent years specifically the owner's representative would work directly with the design build firm and by not having to go through multiple bidding processes we both save time and money on the project and believe we can have a quicker a quicker delivery regarding the parking rates we have three an ordinance and two ordinances and a resolution in your packet that involve moving forward amending the parking meter rates both for the downtown meters amending the parking and permit rates for the parking lots and structures and directing staff to work with the downtown commission to update the current parking resolution for a five-year phase out the specific reasons as identified also in the staff report are gradually implementing this over a five-year period which will give time both for our downtown employees businesses and residents to adjust to the prices over time and it also moves to the industry best practice which is to have the parking user pay for the cost of parking and this and goes along with the sunset of the parking deficiency fees as well and then it also allows and incorporated into the proposed parking structure is an annual transportation demand management so an alternative programs for the city to work with the existing programs in our public works and parking division and to work with businesses in the downtown and our area partners on programs to offset this transition and the choosing helping to choose alternative modes in the downtown and then finally the last two I mentioned when we were talking about the time the timeline but to have a deliberative process and have milestones where we come back to council and where we have to have you weigh in on after we've done considerable community outreach on the project design and return to you with options for consideration this is time again what we heard during the three months process is a lot of concern about articulation setback heights just the look and feel of the project and just felt like this was a really important element that we needed to include and then finally to initiate analysis with the land plan or planning organization similar to urban land institute or SPUR to have a very thorough process because this is again another area of considerable community input and with that that concludes the recommendations is just a repap if you want to come back to it when you're looking at questions later and with that we are concluding the presentation available for questions I think at this point that concludes the present presentation I'd like to take it up with the group presentations or group that have contacted in advance there were many of you and so I'd like to go to that first in the interest of kind of hearing from the public and then bring it back to the council for any further questions and deliberations so the first individual that requested was Rick Longinati for the campaign for sensible transportation then I'd like to then I'd like to call up if you please hold your applause and then also the Chamber of Commerce Casey Beyer so you'll be up next and you have you know I had originally provided four minutes there's so many groups and I'm I'm asking you to try and limit it to three if at all possible I mean I'll give you the original four I'll give you the original four but if you can limit it that I'd be grateful based on the number of requests okay good evening council members Rick Longinati time or thank you so I want to talk to you mainly to pose a bunch of questions tonight I think there are a lot of questions that need to be answered before the council takes a really big step such as approved the staff recommendations see if I can advance this okay so three years ago we had three consultants that the city hired to speak to the planning commission and the downtown commission and their message was to implement transportation demand management before building new parking capacity and the main concern there was the cost of new parking this was one of the can you see this you're not you're not seeing this are you let me go back there you go okay please there's the title of my talk okay so these are the three consultants that came to the park to the downtown and planning commission and their message was implement demand management before building new capacity it was largely sorry it was largely because of financial reasons the janice road says when you talk about that $30,000 fee per parking space no agency will make enough on user fees to pay for that space and she says everybody in the industry agrees with her basically these were the recommendations that came out just the price of parking to manage demand and so forth oh and by the way the bottom one you put all these things in place it's not a short-term process because it takes time to put all those things in place and see the results before you commit to building new parking janice roads mentioned $30,000 per space that's not what we're looking at here we're looking at $75,000 per space um so here's a question for you and i don't have the answer to that so a timeline so may 2016 i think the city did a very good thing which was to sign a contract with nelson-neigart to produce a parking strategic plan the finished plan was to be presented to the city over a year and a half ago it hasn't been finished and not only that but the work products that are named in that contract have not been published there has not been progress on that so here's another question what happened to that plan why has it not been finished and where are the work products we paid for that voters approved measure s in 2016 you all know about that december of that year against the advice of these consultants who spoke to the planning commission city staff proposed a 600 plus space parking garage and we all know the reason it was because the library could get a bigger bang for the buck if they become a tenant in a city-owned parking structure patrick siegman was the person who worked at nelson-neigart for nearly two years working on the city parking strategic plan i spoke to the city manager a few weeks ago and then he went to the good times to say that city misused his parking model and why does that matter i'm not here to get staff in trouble that's not my purpose but i'm here to say that there's a big consequence if we do not heed what siegman has to say and these other consultants so the city's doubling of parking rates is likely to result in around a 30 drop in demand what that means is a drop in revenue so substantial reduction of parking demand due to these increased prices or these three other things that we know are coming down the pike ride services drivers list cars or economic recession they could all reduce demand and reduce revenue could trigger a downward spiral where we have to raise prices again which would also lead to a lower demand the downtown's vitality is at stake here jeffrey tumblin just recently spoke to the rtc says particularly in a downtown environment too much parking is worse than too little parking the challenge is to figure out what's the right amount of parking and recognize that parking is an incredibly expensive asset we need to manage that capital asset effectively how about getting expertise here's our city's annual count of parked cars during the peak week i'll just finish up the peak week of the peak week before christmas if you look at this graph what in that graph tells you that there's an urgency to build new parking when we're down we're we're 2008 was the peak and we're down to thank you yes we're down below that thank you i'll leave this slide up i'm done i'll leave this slide up i think you need new expertise thank you thank you okay next speaker is from the from the chamber of calm from the chamber of commerce kc buyer kc buyer you're up next kc buyer from the santa cruz area chamber mayor terraza and council thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you tonight i will try to be brief but i want to bring in some historical context to the relationship between the santa cruz chamber and the city council and this community we've been around since 1889 1889 let me repeat that 1889 100 years later in 1989 we had a devastating earthquake the loma fredder earthquake that destroyed the downtown and it was the santa cruz area chamber in my predecessor john leiser who led the redevelopment of the downtown in fact it was the santa cruz area chamber that helped pay for the tents on the parking lots that you're talking about that kept businesses in play for 18 months while we were recovered from that i bring this in because it's about collaboration and partnership and we're not talking about just a parking lot many years ago about a dozen or so um the the chamber created a community fairs committee and i say community because it's not just a government affairs committee it's a community affairs committee that committee meets once a month it brings local elected officials public officials from all over the county to meet with business communities to find collaborative ways to work together and it was through that process that i sent a letter to this to this council on behalf of the board of directors of the chamber supporting this project the concept is right the dot the dynamics is right and the staff report is on mark you may recall in 2001 when we had a hiccup in the economy it was again the chamber of commerce that jumped forward to help local businesses with small loans to keep it in in place during the dot com i make that comment because also in that same time frame the chamber led a housing study and a transportation study lo and behold in 2016 was the business community and some people in this room that supported measure d that created the transportation sales tax that now is being utilized to create and hope bring hope and opportunity around the county let's fast forward again to 2011 in the city of santa cruz established uh the downtown beach trolley who did they partner with the santa cruz area chamber of commerce in 2012 and 2013 again in 2017 and again just last week the santa cruz area chamber led a delegation of folks from this community business people community leaders and public officials on tours to san lusa bispo boulder and the bay area last year and just this last week to lake tahoe what are the course reasons for those meetings to bring collaboration and partnership and to learn from how other communities work to improve their own community and i think it's been a learning curve think about it for a second 2016 when it never happened if we didn't visit santa barbara the work that then mayor chase led for a year on housing would never have happened if we didn't take her to the bay area and take a look at seven other cities and the opportunity to collaborate and learn from other people i make this point because your chamber is about an independent organization that helps work all cross pores with local elected officials with community leaders with environmental leaders with business leaders and we try to find a collaborative way to come solutions now let's turn to the problem at hand your staff may need to comment about this being a project that is very holistic in its sense it's a library it's a parking issue it's a housing program and it's about the vitality of the downtown if you take a look at this i call a library a community center it is the hub of your center with a good robust state-of-the-art 21st century library you bring people downtown whether they're coming by by bus or by car by pedestrian they're all coming because they want to be part of the vitalization of the downtown area i'm going to make one more comment just if you could wrap it up please i will on behalf of the chamber board of directors i urge you to support the recommendation of staff and move forward as quickly as possible on this project thank you next up is don't bury their library it's michael thomas and jean brockelbank and then we'll also have after that bob kegel representing santa cruz works we have a couple of slides to set up okay um if you could get no we've already worked with christina great we have to remove rick's first before we get ours there it is okay hold on one second we'll get the time um going where you start thanks okay i'm michael louis jean brockelbank take a look at this picture last month uh this two-story 44 000 square foot building was described by the library director susan emits as being quote so underutilized it was making her crazy she said that to us now does it make any sense to demolish this underutilized seismically sound building and haul it to the dump is that environmentally responsible culturally or financially responsible we're not going to demo the civic auditorium we didn't demo the town clock city hall or even these chambers just because they are old we know the library building itself belongs to the city and its residents but a building no matter how showy and modern does not make a library it makes a building that houses a library we respectfully remind council the downtown library does not belong to you it doesn't belong solely to city residents most residents who voted on measure s would never have voted yes had there been even a hint that the outcome would be the behemoth prompt project presented to council today no longer just surprise and shock people are disheartened and disillusioned with government if this council votes tonight to pass every recommendation handed to it by staff expect a collective anger to fill this room and permeate the community that sounds dismal so i want to share some good news here's the good stuff please listen i see rachel has left number one the city manager told the downtown library advisory committee at one of its meetings where we were that the parking garage is not dependent on the downtown branch being a tenant in that structure secondly the library director told the public at another one of those meetings it's possible to request and be granted an extension to the deadline for spending measure s bonds when she was asked if that was possible she said it's possible number three the same amount of money to build a new downtown library can be used to transform the existing library for the 21st century and last the city will receive at least another five and a half million from measure s even if garfield and branza 40 got half a million dollars each as they darn well should that means there would still be close to 28 million dollars for renovation of our downtown library what exactly that could that mean so let's take a look at this slide this comes from the committee's final report from nolan tam the consultants the city paid take a look at the this is the what's called the option a renovation and look what it includes it includes all site development costs a million 200 000 building construction for these things seismic work skylight replacing fire sprinkler lines is necessary replacing heating and cooling branch ducts replacement of two elevators retrofitted ADA bathrooms all those things that were described as why the current library is so horrible okay it also includes soft costs computers new computers and printers movable furnishings and equipment library graphics signage and public art another 1.2 million dollars or I mean another almost 2 million dollars and it includes escalation and cost for the start of construction so all of these things we're going to estimate it at 24 million but we now have 28 million so we can make a darn good renovation with 28 million dollars if you just look at this please table staffs recommendations tonight don't bury the library whether in a parking garage or in a landfill rachel i'm sorry you missed my presentation actually i didn't i was right in the back and we actually had a video and i heard everything great thank you thank you so much thank you council mr kegel uh representing santa cruz works then after mr kegel you're up santa cruz works and then um we'll have um tamara opposinger represented student group and then we'll have zack davis represented dmc good evening i'm bob kegel and founder and treasurer of santa cruz works i'm also the ceo of product ops and i want to thank you all for your service we believe it's time you start hearing from the companies on the floor above retail at some of that's on us we need to figure out how to reach out to you and we'd like you to reach out to us we believe as our elected leaders you're the stewards of our sustainable community you apply your foresight as you as to see what's needed and you take action accordingly a lot of efforts require long lead time so it's important that you take action early and often our job as business owners is to build strong firms that create sustainable employment for our teams i want people who live here to work here yet there are many things in our community where we need your help here are three number one housing is first and foremost even though the inspiring intent of major m is to help the little guy i'm quite confident passing it will cause the opposite to occur you need to understand the economic mindset of landlords and use that to your advantage the single biggest biggest action you could take to lower the cost as opposed to just holding to cpi is to help create choice for the tenant help create supply lots of it and do it efficiently downtown by building up not out number two the homeless challenges everyone knows it's a problem it's a very complex problem but we need to take bold action we need mental health facilities we need social workers we need constructive ways like the downtown streets team to help people reintegrate into our society but most of all we need real shelter not tent city i've had clients tell me they'll never visit here again because they were accosted by a homeless person downtown on the street or walking across san lorenzo to go to their hotel at the paradox that's a serious and a real problem for me an infrastructure i urge you to vote yes on the library project not only is a fresh new library needed we desperately need parking i've heard people claim there's no need that's just flat wrong there are 700 names on a list and over a between a year and a year and a half wait time that will impinge our ability to grow any of our businesses where are people going to park i've heard it encourages more driving and that's bad for the environment i call shenanigans driving over the hill for a job is bad for the environment if you do nothing we're going to lose approximately 300 spaces so the new parking lot is really only going to net 270 these are really important issues to all our membership and all the science and technology companies that we're trying to to build here we're trying to make this community sustainable for the people that live here as opposed to having to go over the hill and get a job and it requires a cohesive collaborative cooperative effort thank you for listening let's both ensure that you hear from those of us that provide good jobs and benefits and let's work and let's work together to create a better future for all of santa cruz thank you mr kegel okay tamra posner you can um and mike she can give her presentation on her thank you she can give her presentation on her own okay go ahead so for my bought mitzvah project me and my friend and my dad surveyed is it surveyed 40 random library users and we asked their opinion on the options for improving the downtown library with the money from measure s and if they would rather renovate the current building or build a new more modern building as part of a parking garage where the farmers market currently is having done this and previous research including talking to library staff i feel we should definitely not do this personally as a frequent library user i think that walking and riding into the library wouldn't feel as safe also the general atmosphere wouldn't be as nice and it's really bad to tear down a whole building and build a new one it's really bad for the environment plus where would the farmers market go and everything that we want for the library the um don't bury the library people said would be in it if we renovated it when measure s was voted people didn't know that the building was going to be rebuilt and especially not put in a parking garage so i think that we should just renovate it like everyone thought we were going to do and most importantly the results of our survey were that only three people out of 40 agreed with a multi-use building 70 percent of the people agreed to renovate we shouldn't spend 28 million dollars of tax money on a proposal that very few people agree with if you don't think that our survey accurately reflects the public's opinion then you can put this issue on the ballot and let the voters decide on it my dad's going to show a clip you can show the clip okay he's some of the average responses and if you want to watch the whole survey you can go to youtube and search up public survey of library proposals i would like that so much i don't think we need a new structure for children to be educated i don't think the addition of ipads and laptops and the modern library is necessary i kind of like where it's at and i think if it's tends to renovate it then we should definitely do that if the library in the parking garage would have more modern equipment would be newer would you prefer that or you would you still want to renovate this one no because um Santa Cruz has a has a mentality of um they're proud of the localness you know and the quaintness and their their weirdness if you will and um it's like modernizing it on an inside is like just keeping up with the times but a big old modern building somewhere else i don't think would for my taste would suit me in Santa Cruz i'd like the old with an upgrade new heritage you know what i mean so i would say for me i'd say expand this this is probably good enough as it is maybe a little bit more like maybe a second floor but uh there's the antique fair and the farmers market i i say leave that that would be my i would prefer this renovated rather than building a new one and i think you can make this itself a modern one i don't see why uh new building has to be done want to be taking their kids where there's a lot of cars being parked such so i just like this location i like the farmers market being where it is 100 against a parking structure with the library on the bottom it doesn't make sense at all i mean at least the library we should be on top it just doesn't make sense this is a fine building it's lovely you could renovate it i want it to be here and i want it to just be simple and wonderful would it change your opinion it would not be enough to adequately renovate thank you okay thank you okay zack davis representing the downtown management corporation zack davis yeah represent downtown then we'll have vivian rogers from the friends of the santa cruz library yeah after following zack davis from the downtown management corporation hello everybody um first of all thanks for uh putting this on i know you've had a day and admire your patience in stamina um i sent you all a letter individually hopefully you got a chance to read that um speaking for myself personally um but i in addition to being a father of three young children i also have a business downtown and i sit on the downtown commission the chamber board and i'm here tonight as the vice chair of the downtown management corporation patrick pindrell our chair couldn't be here but he drafted a letter on behalf of the commission and our corporation and i'd like to read that we did bring up this issue at our last meeting and held a vote on it the vote was eight zero with one abstention in support of the mixed use library project and this this letter reflects the opinion of the the downtown management corporation with regards to the specifics of the parking there are many mixed opinions about redevelopment downtown santa cruz and you can debate whether an existing parking shortage has been adequately documented however it is a fact that new applicants are told by the santa cruz parking office that there is approximately a 12 month waiting list for parking permits in the downtown this message can be a strong deterrent for businesses looking to move into the downtown and these businesses will often instead look to open a different part of town or out of the area entirely the permit issue that already exists will be further compounded in the future as the downtown parking supply shrinks with several lots that are currently in use will go offline uh staff reports indicate that it is not a question of if these lots will close but when all of the current parking permit holders for those closed lots will have to relocate to existing lots which are already at capacity and the effect will be even less available parking permits and spaces for those already working in downtown and a longer wait list for those looking for more from an economic and business standpoint this is extremely detrimental to our city's ability to compete with other communities there's absolutely no reason why we can't have a robust TDM program that sets an example for other communities while also addressing the immediate need with a mixed use project that will benefit the community as a whole these two issues are not mutually exclusive and can be addressed in unison i just want to say also um there is this need uh now that we've identified that the downtown management corporation has identified for parking for the economic vitality of our downtown has been mentioned before but we're also looking out decades into the future when i think many of us in this room will no longer be here looking for a library that is an example um that is a source of civic pride um for our community a resource for our children um we're looking for the ability to support the creation of affordable housing um we're looking to facilitate the creation of quality jobs and these are all things that will last many years in the future so when we're talking about cost we need to be not thinking so much about the cost right now but what is the the cost of missing an opportunity that is in front of us at this moment that will support the vitality of downtown for decades to come thank you thank you hey vivian rogers friends of the santa cruz library good evening everyone um my name is vivian and i'm here tonight to relay the hopes of the santa cruz friends and their board and their dedicated volunteers and i'm going to try to get it down to three minutes you were saying okay for nearly 40 years the friends have been working closely with the library staff and on behalf of the libraries to create the best community libraries in this county we were one of the major contributors to measure s and our friends sat on the committee for measure s at that point i can tell you there was not a single friend who thought their role was to limit the type of remodel or construction for any branch in the system in fact we were there to create the best possible libraries throughout the system at all of ten branches and tonight the friends are here and we're looking at you to carry on their tradition we're asking you tonight you have the opportunity to use measure s fund to its full capabilities we're asking you to vote for a library in a mixed use building on cedar street to provide the resources not only for santa cruz residents but the county as a whole my volunteers are looking for opening day collections they want to talk about increased spaces for computer labs teen resources and more programming for children and adults so they're going to be there are people here tonight who are going to ask you limit the measure s funds to a remodel only they say they support the libraries my friends ask how can they say they support the libraries when they don't support the needs or the request of the library staff their friends ask you to show your support for the library by showing your support for the library staff by offering them the resource they want increased space should show up the talents they have they want to provide resources for children and teen and adults here that we need in this very expensive community and when it comes down to it tonight the if you vote no for the library for this mixed use building the only loser is the library because tomorrow the plans will continue to decrease the parking lots plans will continue to create more housing downtown tomorrow the demand for increased parking will begin you will have visitors and electric cars who want parking spaces you will have employees who are carpooling who want parking spaces and you're going to have new downtown residents who may not even have a car but they're going to ask you for a parking spot for their friends and their relatives at that point they're going to come to you and ask for more parking downtown and you will have the urgent community support for that parking garage which you won't have are the resources for a 21st century library because at that point there will be either a small library half the size of that building right across the street or you will have 10 branches with less open hours less collections and less resources as we pay for the remodel so my friends ask you tonight please vote to use the measure s to its full capability please ask we ask you to vote for a best library possible for this community thank you thank you okay i'm gonna invite up robert robert singleton robert singleton from the santa cruz county business council and then chip will be up after for the downtown association and then the final organizational speaker will be shawner hebert from north cal carpenter's union hey robert singleton santa cruz county business council good afternoon or evening mayor and council members um i didn't have a chance to prepare a lot of remarks tonight so i'm glad we're going down to three minutes i'm kind of a rough and tumble earlier this this council session um i want to just say uh to focus on a different aspect of this project to me this project is always about is all is all about the future of downtown and the various the the concerted and overarching community vision that we have to make better use of our river levy to have a um more economic vibrancy downtown and then the key thing here is to me this is all about housing housing is fundamentally uh needed here in santa cruz if we're in the midst of the worst housing crisis we've ever seen um just published about two hours ago in the sentinel um a report from a state-wide organization found that we're short in santa cruz county alone 12 000 affordable housing units 12 000 housing units we have about 24 000 housing units in the entire city of santa cruz so put that in perspective that's a lot of housing that we need to build and there's not a lot of a lot of opportunity sites to build it and not a lot of funding available if we consolidate our parking in downtown planning for less parking overall which i think we no one wants to be reliant on the automobile we want to phase that part of our downtown out as much as we can and encourage people to take alternative means of transportation but provide providing the parking in one space and allowing for the the new developments that are going to take place here to make use of that parking to lower their on-site requirements to allow for more publicly funded uh uh projects like the nyac building or like the existing library a facility where i'm here to have more deed restricted affordable housing on site than what they otherwise could pay for through these projects that to me is the overarching win here and that's the major opportunity that we need to take we absolutely need as much housing as we can get and this is the best possible way to ensure that we get the highest number of deed restricted affordable units the closest transportation to have the few or the most opportunities to make use of alternative forms of transportation for those future residents and ultimately be helpful for the entire vision of downtown to again make better use of that river levy to help facilitate new investments in a better more effective library and ultimately reduce our reliance on the automobile by consolidating that parking so i urge you please move forward with this project please help downtown uh help us achieve that that overarching vision that we've all been talking about for years thank you very much thank you okay downtown association good evening mayor trazi city council members i am chip i'm the executive of the downtown association i'll speak quickly um our board of directors have spent most of the summer learning about the proposal hearing many uh uh impassioned arguments against an enthusiastic support for this proposal and ultimately voted uh seven votes to one with one abstention to support uh this project with some conditions and some concerns attached um i would like to note that in a survey of our membership resulted in uh just under 70 percent support for the delac recommendations and a little over 80 for the development of new parking to meet future demand you have the letter of support and conditions that raised by the downtown association board and i hope you have had the time to read it um and i thank you for the opportunity to cover some of the broad strokes this evening uh first i'll express the importance of a well-designed library downtown as many have spoke to already uh urban planners and private developers today all over understand the um the importance of libraries as an anchor downtown it's a unique anchor that it serves the entire community um i'm editing on the fly i prepared a five minute speech uh um so a new library designed with the 21st century in mind uh is an opportunity that we should embrace and the downtown association hopes and expects to be involved in the design process and the downtown association is also very supported over the opportunity this presents for development of affordable housing in the downtown core many of the people who work in downtown are traveling from farther and farther distances because of the cost of housing investing in transportation demand management so important without addressing housing affordability is like pouring water into a bucket full of holes and we need to stop the leaking the downtown association is asking you to include no less than 20 units of affordable housing in this project and take every opportunity to pass policy that addresses more affordable housing in the subsequent parking lots as they do come offline um you'll hear again this evening i'm sure about bolder colorado downtown that i'm very familiar with and have learned a lot from um and it's important to understand that in many ways boulder is an outlier they have not achieved their success particularly in transportation demand management just by giving employees bus passes but they've spent decades investing in public transportation systems bicycle infrastructure and recently partnering with lyft to create great incentives not only for employees but for shoppers as well santa cruz does a very good job with traffic demand management and yes we should strive to do more the downtown association board is asking you to increase the 300 000 annual budget for tdm future parking demand is more uncertain now than ever and understanding the recent potential loss of parking in downtown district the downtown association board asked that the city complete a parking demand study to determine the appropriate scale of the project before moving forward and finally the board of the director requested the city work with the downtown association to develop a comprehensive community-based vision plan such a plan developed with aggressive outreach and broad input would inform development goals funding priorities and policy decisions a downtown vision plan is different than an area specific plan a vision plan provides a roadmap for the evolution of downtown santa cruz a framework that integrates downtown housing jobs mobility historic preservation public open space retail infrastructure arts entertainment et cetera i'll conclude by saying there's both great support for this project and great reservation among our members as an organization we hope you fully support this project and we also expect that you hear and address our concerns however you decide to vote on this matter your collective decision on this project will have great impact on our city for generations voting to support this project is very important to the downtown and its stakeholders and paying attention to the details of this project is equally important as always i thank you all for your service and for the opportunity to speak today thank you chip the last speaker group organizational speaker is shan hebert he's the norcal carpenters union uh from the norcal carpenters union and uh if you can look for three three minutes i'm going quick i thank you mayor and council members um i've submitted some uh comments online but i wanted to be here and speak to you personally um sympathy that i'm work while we're sympathetic to the concerns of the proponents of uh alternative modes of transportation i'm here speaking on a segment of the workforce that doesn't have the opportunity to avail themselves of those modes of transportation i'm speaking on behalf of people that have their jobs that are transitory in nature they carry heavy tools they have odd hours and so these are people that don't have the opportunity to commute by bicycle so uh we're talking about spending a substantial amount of taxpayer money on this project and uh we have a chance to uh to achieve some significant savings by addressing multiple needs with one project first the existing library is not a viable candidate for retrofit attempting to do so would result in a higher per square foot cost and it would limit the scope available for the project and reduce the innovative possibilities for a new 21st century library second while we have a burgeoning tech sector in santa cruz we have to admit to ourselves that it's not the main driver of the economy here and i don't see it being so in the foreseeable future while we have a love hate relationship with tourism we have a tourist-based economy and the simple fact is that people don't come with their families from merced on their bicycles we need to provide parking for those people so that they can have a rich tourist experience here in santa cruz spend their dollars downtown and third finding a way to incorporate affordable housing into this project we can take a tiny step towards addressing our housing crisis not just by addressing the supply side of affordable housing but by addressing the demand side as well this project on a city parcel would require prevailing wages and it allows workers on that project to be building affordable housing at workers that don't have to go home to affordable housing we we often look at the opportunities that we have to create affordable housing and we overlook the fact that the contractors that are doing that work are sending workers home with poverty wages to subsidize housing of their own and we have a chance to stop that cycle by including housing in projects like this so uh the construction workers that i'm talking about have a transitory nature they work project to project and these are good middle-class jobs with training and benefits and it's one of the last stepping stones to the middle class for people without a college education excuse me so these people that live on a project a project basis are counting on projects like this going through so i think when we fix our gaze on long term and we don't look down to the people that live short term to short term to feed their families i think we're doing them a disservice and uh i urge you to uh support this project i support this project our members support this project and i urge you to concur with the recommendation of the planning commission thank you thank you okay that can that concludes the group presentations this evening i'd like to see a show of hands of how many individuals would like to speak to this item if i can get some counters and um i there are some outside um okay so let's count first inside oh i mean like over 20 20 and outside is there anyone uh yeah exactly so i would assume 30 then two okay i'm gonna go one and a half minutes um for public comment per person um so if you could line up to my immediate left here line up to my immediate left and alisa are you going to speak on this okay well we'll figure that out are you are you going to speak on this item you want to go ahead leet kick it off go ahead alice go ahead you can you can begin alice you can begin okay you can begin somebody can begin my name is uh cat steel you might have known me as catherine but the older i get the shorter my name gets uh thank you city council members for being here and having us be here i want to start with we speak and i read and report some news stories about downtown Santa Cruz could you speak into the mic is sometimes am i in it now yes you are okay reading the time how do we actually define downtown or outline downtown and i'm not asking you to answer that question i'm not even going to answer it myself i would just start by saying a few years ago two gentlemen came and talked about how they reduced the need for single occupant vehicles on university campuses one was from uc santa Cruz the other from stanford my immediate reaction how does a university campus relate to downtown santa Cruz took me several weeks to get around and get through my own brain to think what if i was to think about santa Cruz as a campus it would be huge it would include a lot of departments industry commerce residential cultural arts recreational government transition transit public transit uh and then you might even look at the river and the geography geology what i thought it was initially and all the time i worked here was uh basically town clock to a loud and nelson center thank you i did come up with an idea of a campus your time your time is up great i want to pass these around to all of you so that you can see please do hand hand it to the clerk and we'll take a look at it great thank you and also before at least you go are there any parents here with kids i see a lot of young kids that might have to go to school i'm going to ask that you guys maybe give them cuts in line so that they could speak first so if you are a parent with children that like to speak like to give you some advanced opportunities to speak thank you for that mayor appreciate it yeah yeah okay no i'd like the parents with kids to go now if you don't mind at least um so if you have if any other parents any other parents with kids that need to get out early see them falling asleep hi my name is dr tear martin um i am one of the 10 professionals who volunteered to be a part of delac and we unanimously recommended the multi-use project however i am here um to speak on behalf of my kids an eighth grader and fourth grader um who up to this point growing up in santa crews have have felt very little connection to the downtown library one of the things that struck me about the delac meetings was when people usually over the age of 55 spoke about their connection they felt growing up in this community to the library how wonderful how privileged my kids have not had that opportunity to feel that kind of connection of a safe space the older they get one's an eighth grader one's a fourth grader there is really no space for them in the downtown branch and so for them when we talk about going to the library it's like can you can you just run in and pick up what we ordered online right for me i have a professional opinion in support of this project but as a parent i worry about this city's kids growing up without that connection what does that mean for our future what does that bow to our future citizens who will be voting in five years six years seven years if they have no connection to a place of learning collaboration knowledge and and and really empowerment and self-fulfillment my fourth grader i'll say really quickly up it up thanks has to access internet and computer and computer work every week for her homework think of those kids who cannot afford that in their homes right thank you so much thank you next speaker please elise yeah thanks i am submitted comments by email earlier and i have hard copy i want to give to the clerk i just want to say for the people here i am an activist i have spent a lot of time in santa cruz observing city council observing various governmental bodies and i just want to say the so-called housing blueprint subcommittee is absolutely atrocious for the utter and complete and lack of truly affordable housing it is a developer scheme top down also in a few years ago a ceo named alex cliford was hired to basically take apart our public bus company he left a destroyed bus company in illinois where he is the people he was supposedly helping to public transportation really uh don't like alex cliford it was a big public scandal but he was brought in here specifically to privatize and take apart our public transit system that is exactly what he has done people need to know this please start researching who these people are okay so i can't go through this whole thing tonight but i did want to say those two things because most people don't come to enough city council meetings to really understand what's truly happening in santa cruz so this whole scheme starting with measure s being deceptive yes it was very deceptive and there's a reason for that martin burnall bonnie libskin and a few other people and certain librarians want to make sure that they get a so-called state-of-the-art parking garage combined with the library i want to say i'm in favor of a mixed-use library this is a hazard to children's health to combine a garage with the library i wish i had more time i don't unfortunately don't buy the cell job this is atrocious thank you leis next speaker please next speaker go ahead you can go thank you i'm colonel terry maxwell and i want a government that respects my tax money that provides efficient services that addresses legitimate needs of the community and is honest in its dealings and its representations to its voters and taxpayers that has not been the case with measure s i voted for it the seventy some million dollars because sure i'm for libraries guess what i went to the orientation meetings i evaluated the current library and with mark lee i've been very assiduous about becoming informed i was bamboozled i was conned you never intended to just renovate the library like you said that was more than implied in the resident request for the seventy million dollars from us in addition to that i bought things for the defense department and i know that your current library could be renovated for nine to fourteen million and currently meet all of the needs you need including at an extension out the back of it and perhaps adding as much as one to two additional floors in addition to that i did a walk around survey twice a couple of afternoons and what instance i found night there were 24 people at the library using it 19 of them were homeless when i asked them who they were this is not what the bonds were for i'm sympathetic to the homeless you want to provide more bathrooms space for them and showers renovate the old building with extension outside facings you get in for a nickel bathrooms and showers that's what you ought to do and by the way you will serve this the taxpayers the voters of santa cruz city should remove all of you from office thank you sir abomination of their money thank you miss thank you sir next speaker mr ferrell good evening my name is matt ferrell i serve with zack on zack davis on the downtown commission i'm here to urge you to support the proposal of the recommendation before you i worked for the public works department as the parking manager from 1985 to 2007 and during that time we did a number of parking studies about parking demand downtown and those parking studies were very uh helpful and fairly accurate and forecasting parking demand i think that uh the proposal before you is one that will help meet the existing demand for employee parking that is currently a met downtown while also giving us the opportunity to improve our transportation demand management plans please support the staff recommendation thank you for your time thank you matt next speaker please hello my name is martha dexter i served on the delac and i'm currently chairman of the santa cruz library advisory commission in 2013 when i served on the library joint powers board i had the privilege of approving the facilities master plan for the library system it pointed us in the direction of dramatically improving all the branches and led to the successful measure s campaign in 2016 new libraries are already becoming a reality in felton and capitol and joined with the beautiful library in scott's valley to bring our system into the 21st century now is our chance in santa cruz recognizing that measure s funds alone can't provide the funds for a truly modern library i urge you to support the mixed use library project proposed for the lot at cedar and lincoln this is our path to a new library with expanded community space a larger children's room dedicated teen space and increased collections including space for like local history and genealogy please don't settle for less than the best through a mixed use project such as this all the measure s funds will be used for library design and construction no need to spend precious dollars on demolition of the old building on temporary space during construction or on building the structural foundation time is of the essence the measure s funds must be used to complete the project within the next six years this is our chance now for the best library money can buy a true destination in downtown santa cruz let's build a library we can all be proud of thank you next speaker please sir you can go good evening my name is john hall i'm a resident of santa cruz a professor and someone who loves libraries i could repeat the many other comments voicing opposition to building a so-called mixed use library underneath the parking garage but i want to raise a different issue my fundamental point is that the proposed project lacks any reasonable connection to an overall vision for the core downtown area of santa cruz a point made by the downtown association speaker if we want a holistic vision for the city core we want to think about what it will look like 50 or 100 years from now 160 years ago landscape architect frederick law ohmsted designed central park in new york he called the park quote a democratic development of the highest significance in santa cruz we lack the sizable undeveloped open spaces that manhattan had in 1868 but among ever fewer underdeveloped spaces we do have parking lot number four as well as the adjacent pearl alley parking lot number eight across lincoln lot number four is now the site of a vibrant farmers market wonderfully set in the western afternoon sunlight what should the city council do to fulfill ohmsted's vision of creating civic spaces within urban areas i submit that the council should table the staff recommendation indefinitely in order to give serious consideration to closing off lincoln street between cedar street and pacific avenue creating a permanent farmers market and fair space ringed by parking to be used by vendors or market fair days and the general public thank you sir thank you thank you next speaker please thank you should pop right out yeah thanks check can you check it just to make sure the song hello one two three yeah okay hi again um can you hear me yes okay thank you um i want to let you know that uh i owe a lot to the library okay i learned english at the library in santa cruz library um when homeless i have a refuge for me and my children at the library um my children participated in many of the projects that the programs that the library offers and now my grandchildren are being also using the library um most of the time when i got there to use the library um as an adult i don't find any computer available because it's a lot of demand mainly by homeless people who needs also to find refuge and do job search or house in search but the upstairs the children is always almost empty okay so it's misuse that area and i know because i have been there in the other hand i don't really want to be in your shows today because it has been a long day and very difficult issues but i want to let you know that sunday i went to the um saturday to the rise uh march in san francisco where about to almost 50 000 people gathered to look for what's going to be the future for climate change and um i'm going to say that if you are going to be building more parking space for more cars who are going to be produced more carbon dioxide you are in the wrong route of this progress so i hope that you take that into account thank you thank you thank you uh next speaker please pauline sales santa cruz climate action network um very fast yes affordable housing yes tdm yes increased parking fees no this garage now you may not know yet but yesterday governor brown signed sent bill sp 100 setting a new 100 clean energy goal and issued an executive order establishing a new target to achieve carbon neutrality both by 2045 carbon neutrality means no emissions basically to be simple here now that means gasoline vehicles have to go away completely there's going to be helped to get there the state is going to have to help cities counties get there and so the spiral that mr longinati talked about about first of all you reduce the you increase the price that cuts down some of the parking we get the uber and the left and that cuts down well there's going to be a whole bunch of this maybe um subsidized electric bikes subsidized electric vehicles money for a fleet of a decent fleet of electric buses whatever 2040 2045 is 22 years after when this building would be completed and it'll be obsolete and a financial burden please don't build it thank you next speaker please next speaker i'm james meccas um my siblings own two businesses downtown and i have part of a commercial building santa cruz library patron for more than 60 years as best as was still considered the best choice for insulation and flooring when our current library was built i look forward forward to a new library and i think making it more accessible and connecting it to parking is a good thing we desperately need more parking downtown particularly lower pacific and many business owners and customers agree uh parking is a basic requirement if cities want both community friendly core and business revenue for programs because local business rarely succeeds when relying only on nearby customers planned affordable housing below cathcart will add hundreds of residents cars and only a portion of that parking is required on site even if many ride bikes they will likely leave their cars at home while they ride those bikes just as many do today the shortage of parking below cathcart was considered acute 50 years ago little has been added since lot number 12 at pacific and maple for example had 20 spaces when it belonged to mcmahon's furniture in the 80s it has 16 spaces today after remodeling that lot will now disappear altogether along with two larger lots on front street near the warrior's venue another 106 spaces behind the red church will become senior housing all lost parking my brother has a business at 901 pacific he buys permits for employees to park in any of 10 spaces three blocks away but often those spaces are already taken by all-day local residents with no metered spaces for customers thank you mr. mckis thank you next speaker please good evening my name is bonnie belcher i represent the antique fair i think you just got an article passed around uh from the sentinel saying what a great asset we are um i think most of you are also well aware of my position with regards to the antique fair and the proposed library parking garage project from my letter that i submitted in my um presentation at the june 19th city council meeting however i feel compelled to reinstate the necessity in my priority for the antique fair to stay in its present location on the hundred block of lincoln and lot four where we have been for 15 years should the project unfortunately go ahead i request the continued use of lincoln and parking lot eight across lincoln from lot four and at affordable parking deficiency and meter fees there are many people who depend on this show for their livelihood and i want to be able to continue to provide the optimum location for them to sell just see there are a few other points i wanted to make one of them was of course about major s and people not being aware that that would involve the possible moving of the library with a garage on top um it seems that um unlike it's unthinkable in my generation that a lovely building that used to have the ivy covering it would be abandoned and it would become a garage excuse me a library with garage on top with its inherent noise and pollution problems i urge you to rethink this project and look at other alternatives before making a done deal dishing one of my big questions is why do the two items have to be linked surely mr carnegie would not be amused and neither am i thank you next speaker please hello my name is keith gudger i want to thank the mayor and the city council for this session i'm sure uh this council has asked the city staff for the recommendations for parking and they have recommended the mix use structure before you this council asked the downtown library advisory committee to explore options and after considerable deliberation they unanimously recommended the mix use structure include the library these dedicated people both staff and committee have carefully reviewed the issues and are in favor of the mix use proposal including the library i am hoping that you will follow the recommendations over the years our family came to many programs at our downtown library it was always a challenge to find parking and navigate the streets to get to the current library a new library with attached parking is a wonderful idea that makes it easier for families to use the library the new location is much closer to the transit center making it easier for those with limited mobility also by approving this plan you can improve access for those with limited mobility families teens job seekers and future generations of santa cruzans allowing them to all take full advantage of a modern library please vote to approve the mix use structure thank you next speaker please thank you i'm adam illard ball i'm a professor environmental studies professor at ucsc and i've also got 20 years experience in transportation policy planning and economics much of that on parking and i'm here to urge you tonight to reject the parking garage proposal and give the rate increases time to work before committing to this irreversible decision and conduct an independent evaluation a year to 18 months from now how well these rate increases are working to reduce the amount so why first of all this is really risky we're in a new transportation era we have uber or lifts now jump bikes and santa cruz within the lifetime of this parking garage will have driverless cars they don't need parking downtown and so it's disturbed to see that there's no risk analysis in the staff report there's no analysis of what happens of parking revenue craters as it's happening in many cities across the country already um and what happens to the general fund then and secondly the garage is unnecessary and it appears that the staff analysis underestimates how much these rate increases will serve to reduce demands and the fact that there's a waiting list is just shows that people are waiting for subsidized cheaper parking it doesn't mean that there's a shortage of parking by itself in downtown um so i urge you to manage the supply before build pouring concrete 75 000 um dollars are space will buy a lot of demand management and a lot of affordable housing downtown that will be a much wiser use of this large sum of money thank you mayor thanks thank you next speaker please hello thank you for having me and thank you for considering this project and i want to urge you to approve the the plan before you i think it is the right strategy um to bring a 21st century library a family friendly space to downtown and i think more projects that consider creating a downtown that everyone wants to go to all the time must be at the top of our mind and i just i hope that you say yes thank you next speaker please jane bar eating housing we submitted written comments earlier in support of the staff staff recommendation if adopted the city council will be demonstrating that they are implementing the downtown plan consolidation of the library with parking and commercial uses at one site will result in more efficient use of the site as well as allow the reuse of the light of the current library site and other surface parking lots which are the least efficient use of sites in the city this is important for affordable housing development at is is is it is increasingly difficult to find housing sites and a new study out from the california housing partnership demonstrates that the sanacris county's affordable housing needs have grown significantly when factoring in high housing costs sanacris county's poverty rate increases from 13.8 percent to 24.8 percent one of the highest in the state and key findings were renters in sanacris county need to earn 50 dollars and 96 cents per hour it's which is more than four times the state's minimum wage in order to afford the median monthly asking rent of $2,650 finally sanacris county has an affordable housing shortfall of 11,873 homes we urge you to to act in regard to your earlier actions in for the downtown build sensibly build up and i think this project can lead to more affordable housing thank you thank you next speaker please evening council members monoconic i live and work downtown i have shared with you an amendment that considers both the recommendations of our hardworking staff as well as the values of our passionate community this amendment ensures that the community sees a design option for the library that includes the magnolia trees it also directs staff to seek the bulk of new parking that they predict is needed at the county building on ocean street i've done some research since the last meeting when i first suggested building the parking lot at the county building supervisors cunardy and friend both believe the county would be supportive of a joint parking project the county's new general services manager michael beton is motivated to solve the county's own parking shortage and is actively trying to set up a meeting with our city manager to discuss a poll posted on next door showed 60 of respondents agreed that this alternative should be studied compare that to the good time straw poll that showed that 100 of respondents opposed the current plan the new parking lot at the county building will do far more for our city's economy than one that crushes downtown downtown residents and workers will use it because it's within the one half mile radius transit planners use when placing new stops visitors can easily find this parking from ocean street it is adjacent to the river levy and will connect to the sanctuary trail it will spur reinvestment in the ocean street corridor visitors can park once for the beach and be shuttled around and back to their cars by way of downtown encouraging new discoveries and last minute pizza and ice cream stops best of all downtown visitors will see one a downtown that we locals are proud of one that reflects our values and the beauty of our community thank you next speaker please Doug Erickson here as a teenager i always knew i was going to be living in a million dollar house i just didn't know that it was going to be 1200 square feet on a street that hadn't been paved in 50 years my name is Doug Erickson i'm the founder of the santa cruz new tech meetup i'm also part of the santa cruz works cruise hacks and an angel investor in multiple companies in santa cruz how many people quick poll are tech workers either in santa cruz or over the hill hey mr erickson if you could just face us okay a couple here right that's my this is the point as a community leader and tech professional i think about this all the time how do we how do we grow business how do we uplift this community here and i also work 60 hours a week like most tech professionals we can't come to these wonderful meetings we can't always show up to all the local issues but as a community leader i'm asking you to to vote for the mixed use library project on behalf of the many frustrated tech professionals here thank you thank you you may not you may not come but you're always welcome you may not come to all the meetings but you're always welcome yes next speaker please josh steven city of santa cruz resident i had to look at that presentation earlier and something really struck out to me the there's a recurring theme that's all play placed in that and it's cars cars cars cars cars even when depicting the pacific station model there wasn't a single bus there wasn't even a bike in that picture this just caters and caudals this primitive mode of transportation that we should be trying to move away from enabling this project only enables more driving it does not support our public transit services it doesn't support the fact we just started getting jump bikes and bike shares throughout the town it just it goes off tangent and it also raises the question what are we doing with our other parking garages we have two parking garages in this city how hard is it to add on another level or just simply remodel one of the ones we already have in existence we need to be making use of our land that that what is supposed to be put on that land maximize the use of it not just destroy and rebuilds all willy nilly i i support all the other raises and ideas but i do not support the idea of a library on top of a parking garage thank you thank you next speaker please good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak my name is jack nelson i'm a retired land use planner and environmental planner i worked for the county of santa cruz the sierra club sent you a letter i hope you saw in your packet of materials today i'm the chair of the sierra club's transportation committee here but i'm speaking now for myself and i want you to know about a certain kind of grief that i have to carry around with me it's it's an obligation i have because i'm a student of climate change and that's my job tonight is to bring that into focus a little further um i heard it mentioned early tonight in the presentation that all these different city departments were engaged in this project but there was one that was missing so the city has a climate action coordinator and when i spoke to tiffany wise west she told me no she was not in her input was not sought for this project she would have liked to have been consulted but she wasn't and i know because of the grief that i see when i think about what's going to happen in the 21st century on climate change i know that people don't want to think about it so it's just my job to bring it to you and um ask you to not make a 21st century library be part of continuing carbon emissions in santa cruz county uh thank you your time is up next speaker please investing in a library is one of the most progressive acts a community can make libraries are free and are one of the greatest class equalizers for our society when my husband was out of work when my son was a baby the library was essential for our family to thrive nowadays people depend on libraries not only for books and children's programs like we did but for computers printers wi-fi and a free and safe place to meet with tutors or classmates as a member of the delac and as a progressive i looked at the estimates i studied the numbers i was not manipulated by staff reports or architects and i had all the information that i needed to make an independent and informed decision as a progressive i still came to the conclusion as did every single one of the members of the downtown library advisory committee that the only way for santa cruz to have a modern library is to include it as part of a mixed use structure otherwise the cost will run more than 10 million dollars over the allotted funding or you will be denying people in santa cruz the chance to thrive social justice and the fair chance to have a modern functioning library in our city thank you thank you next speaker please i'm kandace elliot the human resources manager for the glass jar and board member for the santa cruz downtown association and i've done quite a bit of outreach in the community about this project just educating people on what it actually is and i've found that when i talk to people and explain the points and that a lot of people are moved to believe that it's an awesome thing for our community and so thank you for taking the time to listen to all of us tonight i know you guys have had a really long day and and i appreciate you all okay thank you next speaker hello i'm susan cavallieri i live in santa cruz um in all the discussion of the 21st century library and i did not hear anything about what's happening to santa cruz in the 21st century with climate change the un secretary general antonio gutteris uh said today according to the new york times that climate change is the defining issue of our time we need to shift away from dependence on fossil fuels building a parking garage is going to make people feel as if driving is okay we all need to be part of a new way of living on the earth and we need help from our leaders to do this we need a better better bus transit system separated bike lanes car pools have to be financially supported and we cannot think about building the five-story parking garage thank you thank you next speaker please next speaker thanks hi i'm sally arnold i've been a santa cruz resident since 1976 um i sent an email comment to you but tonight i just want to start with everybody loves libraries nobody likes climate change and for some reason then a great new library has been hitched to a climate change increasing parking garage they need to be separated they're two separate problems they got their own potential solutions they're different we need to uncomfortable them in this current debate i want to talk about the site if you want to build a construct a multi-use building with or without parking with or without a library i believe the site you've chosen is a poor one the corner of Lincoln and cedar is an ideal location for its current uses surface parking farmers market other community events it's in the heart of downtown but it's on relatively quiet streets so pedestrians can easily access it and the space is shaded by the beautiful heritage magnolia trees on the other hand the proposed site for the new farmers market on the corner of front and cathcart is a busy intersection it's loud it's smelly with car exhaust it's difficult for pedestrians to access it is not a space in which people want to linger outdoors i suggest that you improve the current farmers market location to be both surface parking and a permanent event space build your multi-use building over on front street if the library really needs to move they can move in there don't add a parking garage downtown it's just going to induce more driving that's going to create more greenhouse gases and nobody wants that i mean really i think if we think about principles we all like libraries we all hate climate change thank you next speaker next speaker please x speaker jim jensen santa cruz resident uh since 2001 i want to come at this from two different directions one i live work eat and play downtown and secondly 20 225 years ago oh my god i've gotten old i worked at that building as a clerk for the downtown branch library now even though i live work play and eat downtown i walked here after seeing a particular comment i do occasionally drive and i will spend probably 15 minutes around and around and around trying to find a parking spot um that's probably not good for the climate now as for the um working at the branch 25 years ago it was a hole even then we were closed for two weeks for asbestos the elevator is antique the bathrooms are inadequate and last year thankfully the sewage system backed up for may 4th so i got to do my star wars selfies in front of the city hall where there was some sunlight instead of inside the building so we have the option and i definitely hope that you accept the staff report to either spend x amount of money on a new library and a parking co-collected parking garage or more money to basically polish a turd thank you thank you next speaker please one two uh okay we've got four we can still go good evening um i'm dan speltz i live just outside the city limits but i'm a regular uh uh user of downtown businesses and the and the public library i want to echo the concerns about climate change um this is the current issue of the union of concerned scientists quarterly and um this is the economist and an august issue of the economist uh dealing with the fires not only in california but around the world this is dealing with the impact on coastal real estate in the united states as a result of sea level rise um climate change climate disrupt pattern disruption is a serious uh uh concern so what we need is not a parking garage we need bus transit um and just to give you some figures the the metro santa cruz eco pass would cost three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars there's four point five million dollars in the parking fund um there are four thousand people working within the parking district uh if you take sixty percent of those people who drive in single occupancy vehicles and only ten percent of them only ten percent were to use the eco pass that would save two hundred and forty parking places that's more that's a back of the infelope sketch but that's more than the two hundred and twenty two that we would lose thank you thank you next speaker please my name is diana farm with midpen housing corporation we're a nonprofit affordable housing developer uh we need to keep in mind that this development is part of a larger plan that will make the downtown a more diverse space that would provide access to members of this community from all walks of life in addition to a more modern energy efficient library we will be gaining affordable housing housing that many members here can agree is much needed in this community when i'm not at home here in santa cruz i spend my days at the watsonville civic center civic building home to a library superior court city offices a parking lot and midpen's offices um it's a great asset to the downtown we are close to everything it's easily accessible and it's accessible to peoples from many members of the community both young and mature students and lifelong learners and a variety of groups that use the space for a variety of reasons um the library spaces in particular the library is not buried it is visible to pedestrians and it fits the community very well we hope that we can get something like that here in santa cruz so please approve this development thank you thank you next speaker please good evening thanks for the opportunity to speak my name is steven sveet uh i'm in i've been an urban planner for about 30 years i wanted to address the civic discourse on this topic i i um i listened to a speaker that was brought in but from the transportation commission earlier this week jeffrey tomlin many many of you know him uh among the things his big messages were he did refute the idea of building new parking um and that and said that more parking is worse for a downtown than less it's better to have a deficit he pointed out that both san francisco and oakland city governments are actually decommissioning some of their parking structures to address the vitality the growing vitality of those cities and replacing that storage space was something more useful but i'm not here to talk about that his other message was when a topic is so divisive in a community when the vision isn't clear and by the testimony tonight i think that's evident we have like a very split situation the some speakers have talked about decoupling the projects because there's a lot of issues swirling together he said it's time to regroup and really clarify the vision for the community and i think that's where we are here in santa cruz tonight as evidence by we only have two minutes to speak so let me hurry up when the voters are measured for voted for measure s none of us had any inkling that we were voting for a new mix so-called mixed use but really parking garage car storage library combo on another site uh just this week if i didn't finish with this one more comment two million dollar remodel of a 51 year old bank building beautiful building on river street santa cruz county bank what the numbers seem off how can we not renovate this library go up another floor for 10 times that much which is 20 million 10 times that much so something we should thank you slow down the decision and regroup thank you sir thank you next speaker please thank you all for your time i know you've had a long day and i want to start by saying i strongly agree with what sally said a few minutes ago that we all love libraries we all hate climate change there's a point that we can all agree in the middle of all of this my name is lisa ekstrom in the presentation from the city we heard repeatedly about if we do nothing i'm pretty sure that no one here wants to do nothing however this proposal's version of doing something creates more problems than it purports to solve many of us who support the library who love the library want it brought into the 21st century in the current location not in a parking garage we do not agree that this proposal is the only optimal option for the library i really do not buy it i urge you to reject this proposal and take action to create better solutions let's make a great renovation of the downtown library for 28 million and address our transportation issues sustainably thank you so much before the next speaker goes is there anyone who's seated who who's going to want to speak that hasn't spoken already anyone who's seated in the in the pews or outside no okay everybody lined up who hasn't spoken yet should be on the left's hand side and please continue hi um my name is satya orion and i live in felton and i spend a lot of time at the library i love it here what i want to talk about tonight is the soul of santa cruise which is the reason i moved here 20 years ago i've lived in santa cruise a lot of that time i learned today that on september 12th 1966 our lovely carnage library was demolished 52 years ago i wasn't here then but i feel very sad about that and i feel especially sad that that might happen to this library i personally feel that this library could be renovated for the amount of money that the 28 million dollars if we can renovate the civic auditorium for 20 million dollars i can't see any reason why this library couldn't be renovated for that same amount of money excuse me pause please sir that's your warning you can't speak out of deter time okay you have a warning sir okay you have a warning okay please go ahead you can leave then please thank you i'd like to have some extra time because you can leave then sir thank you please please continue sorry for that interruption yeah okay so i i spend a lot of time walking around this town please start yeah i got rattled by that yeah so this someone said to me today about the the carnady library it was made out of bricks and it probably would have fallen down in the earthquake which might have been true but it would have had a couple of decades before that happened this library has been found to be seismically sound it could be renovated and so i want to say again the soul of santa cruz the location of the farmers market the beautiful trees that are there has anyone looked at those trees that would be killed to put this building when i walked out of here the last meeting we had that i've sang at actually i looked at our library out there our beautiful library and i'd encourage everyone to look at it when they leave tonight and also to the parking garage that you can your your time is up but i lost some of my time we paused your time actually okay well we could add three more stories to the parking garage down the street thank you next speaker please good evening uh michael st with campaign for sustainable transportation uh long evening let me try to summarize the reasons for not building this garage with a library underneath number one the study requested and paid for by the city to research the possibility of even needing a garage was never completed number two it was recommended to try all tdm policies before building a garage not completed number three 24 of downtown employees surveyed by the city said they would consider driving if their free bus passes were made available number five uh raising the parking rates has shown to reduce parking demand that's being ignored number six the failure to include our sustainability climate action manager in the process was also a mistake and number seven being the most important is climate change project of this magnitude will create significant greenhouse gas emissions not only in the construction phase but also by supporting and encouraging single occupancy cars for now and in the future until these areas have been completed and tried this project should be tabled and maybe revised to not include the garage thank you thank you next speaker please susan worth so cal i am just speaking on behalf of those beautiful magnolia trees they are probably around 200 years old and they they can't fight for their own lives and that beautiful farmers market that's like the best thing our community does i can't understand why you would just want to put an ugly square fascist-looking building with no overhang in the middle of that parking lot and take away all that beauty and community i just don't understand how you can vote to do that so please don't thank you next speaker good evening council my name is drew mire i've lived here 20 years my wife and i're raising two kids i've served two terms on the historic preservation commission i'm currently a board member on the coastal watershed commission and i have commuted the hill for 15 years until about three years ago when it took a job with amazon here one of the first few employees let's not forget the big picture climate change is an irrelevant conversation when 20 000 some people are commuting over the hill every day simply to be able to live here we have to look at the bigger problem of an economic base that allows people to afford to buy the scarce housing that we have until we are able to build our way out of that which is not likely to come in the near term so we have to attract people who can afford to live here and those jobs are very difficult to come by communities that can support livable walkable functional downtown living have libraries and parking garages in the heart of them i don't love the change changes the factor in my life and in my job every day santa cruz has to look further and we have to bring the people that can afford to live here now to buy the houses and build the communities that we're going to have in the future please vote in favor of this project to drive us in the right direction thank you next next speaker please hi thank you guys for listening to everybody my name is erica and i want to express my support for moving the downtown branch to a mixed use facility um the downtown library does not represent this city santa cruz is a very artistic place full of life education science and community resources and our downtown branch needs to represent that according to the world health organization cities will hold 70 percent of the world's population by 2050 and as this expansion happens local leaders planners and citizens alike must take this into consideration to make logical decisions these multi-use facilities serve economic growth social cohesion and overall quality life santa cruz needs to be a people-oriented city and the library should be a community learning center in our 21st century downtown library should contain so much more than books it is clear that much of the arguments against this facility are to do with the parking and a certain attachment to the downtown branch and i've even heard some things expressed about not wanting a 21st century library and to me this line of thinking just doesn't align with today what we need to move forward with as well as what santa cruz should represent so i hope that you will move forward with this project thank you um before the next speaker whoever has the sign in the back if you keep it down below your shoulders i i thank you or stand against the back wall so it's not blocking people behind you please put the sign down thanks please go ahead david rosen if you're speaking to the mic please my name is david rosen and i've been living in santa cruz and working in different places here for about 15 years and uh i don't like the idea of putting the library on the first floor of a parking garage uh i like the library as it is now and i hope that whatever the decision is that it uh benefits the community and then it turns out to be a very nice renovation or new library i certainly have used the library quite a bit uh to educate myself and uh to read and to use the computer lab and things like that and uh it just seems to me that there's going to be noise issues uh in any place that i've lived or worked before where there has been a development like that where the upper floor is noisy and creates pollution i mean it just seems impractical and so i don't support that but i do value the suggestions that have been put forth for instance comparing this community to boulder now i lived in boulder and i took the hop the skip and the jump which uh traveled down broadway street in boulder uh i took the bus to denver denver international airport for eight dollars and i really think that there's a lot more that can be done with uh public transportation with uh keeping in mind that they're okay thank you thank you for your comment next speaker please next speaker next speaker thank you hello everyone my name is susan renison i live here in santa cruz thank you for listening if you'd pause for a moment in order for the um camera operator to get your sound you need to speak into the mic very good like this yes please thank you so much thank you everyone thank you um this is a huge proposal as we know and it can be difficult to go against staff recommendations um i urge you however to do so or at least delay making this decision i work in a mixed use building i work at the watsonville library the library is a tenant in that building it's subject to the demands and requirements of other tenants we've experienced two leaks closures because of fire alarms going off in other parts of the the building uh noise from the upstairs smells drifting in from subway and design restrictions that have impacted the library use to the present day it's um really hard been hard to to make that plan work um and of course we're glad for uh healthy friends of the library group and as a librarian i realize the prestige of a good library and being a librarian however it doesn't mean that we're always right or that we have all the answers um we would not have less of a good library with a remodel rather than a reconstruction safety comfortability connection a good use plan these are important whether we remodel or have a new library and they could be in our new library please do not approve this project use our money to remodel instead thank you thank you next speaker hi um it is my own opinion that uh the only improvements that need to be made to the library are in its collection and uh programs uh there need to be multiple copies of leviathan and the republic as well as a copy of the maha brata um let me think um as it is upon mine as it is upon myself to visit there every day um let me think the parking structure seems to survey um we need uh more low-cost parking also there should be more emphasis um also the program and uh and uh collection would be uh non privatized non privatized non privatized improvements exactly um anyways spending should be more focused on public space and homelessness there are rooms at the elm street uh church that are not being used there are rooms at the salvation army that are not being used when there are homeless people downtown who are being harassed by police um that sleep on the ground every day um the tent city is a joke you have to wait two months to get in there and the facility is gross to say the least um you know there needs to be like a free clinic here hphp is not helpful okay thank you oh yeah no problem thank you next speaker please hi i'm peggy dolton is um uh longtime over 30 year resident of santa cruz um i'm an ardent environmentalist i really enjoy clean air and sunshine and clean water and uh because of that i really feel that we need to have more housing downtown we need to increase the density downtown and for the people who've been speaking about the environment it's really a matter of timing we need to get rid of those parking lots so we can put some housing downtown we do that by consolidating the parking in one structure then eventually we get rid of that structure when we don't need it anymore but we can't wait for the housing so we have to do it now my concern as a downtown resident who's who lives across the street from the site and i work across the street from the library i couldn't be more affected by this uh by this decision so i have to say what do i think is right for the town that i live in and i have to say it's the environmental decision to get that density do the mass transit improve the environment go and go forward but i want to ask i hear over and over that it it's a possibility to build a beautiful structure let's build a beautiful structure let's have a lot of you know greenery i'd love to save those trees make sure the farmers market has a place to go there are a lot of issues that i want to make sure get covered i think the last few projects the city have done has done have been good ones and parking garages are usually very ugly so let's make a beautiful parking garage if that's possible thank you thank you next speaker please my name is carol fuller and i was a member of the measure s committee to for the new library and so here we are with this possibility before us i also worked on measure s i was also on the measure s committee this spring for a quarter cent sales tax in the best of all possible worlds we could have parks we could have public transportation we could have all kinds of things that would make life better we could have not a housing problem and not homeless but it isn't what we have we have to work with what we have the city already has to cut at least two million dollars this year from its budget as i understand so you have to work with the framework the beauty of this project i think it's a good project i will urge you to support it is a lot of citizens who had no axe to grind looked at it looked at everything they came up with this plan they liked it the city staff supports it and i i'm urging you to go forward with it and and five more years when it's built and the beauty of it too is that we can have a library until this one comes online if you try to rebuild the present library which all the staff tells us is inadequate you'll have no library for probably three years while that process goes forward so i'm in five more years i will be over 80 and i think i'll move into that senior residence across the street from the new library and i can do it without a car thank you next speaker please hi my name is mica yelts i'm a relatively new employee of the friends of the santa cruz library and i don't see the library the way other people here have seen it i see it as a obsolete antiquated building that doesn't serve the purposes of the community and is certainly not adding anything to ascertaining a building or a surrounding community with the 21st century needs that our community has so i ask you to approve this proposal thank you very much thank you okay um before you begin uh is there any member of the public that's here that hasn't spoken to this item is there any member outside or at the overflow in the library community room if anyone's over there keeping track do you have anyone over there that can report back in okay great so sir you'll be our last speaker of the evening okay last public speaker thank you good evening my name is marvin lewis longtime resident of santa cruz you have an obligation this evening both the public health and the fiscal health of the city of santa cruz so this decision is weighed with some import the proposition proposition 65 is explicit regarding enclosed parking structures it says warning breathing the air in this parking garage can expose you to chemicals including carbon monoxide and gasoline or diesel engine exhaust which are known to the state of california to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm do not stay in this area longer than necessary now this forms the basis of a potential class action suit on behalf of staff and patrons of the library in regards to public health effects that would have a potentially substantive effect upon the fiscal well-being of the city of santa cruz now due to the risk of a misplaced vote concerning your decision um they're relative to the aesthetics the cultural implications and uh most importantly uh the fiscal well-being and the public health of the city i urge you to put this decision before a public vote so that the public at large can make a decision as to what type of environment they want to expose themselves to when they are visiting a library thank you thank you sir that concludes the public testimony portion of this item so i'm going to bring it back to the council for um questions deliberation and action so that we can kind of move forward on this um i'll start over here to my immediate right um which is council member crowned thank you i'm on your right i'm on david teras is right my immediate right uh i have a few questions uh for staff first of all thank you to the public that was we have obviously a diversity of opinion out there and uh it's what seemed to me like an unresolved community uh right now um question for the city attorney uh bonds expiring in 2024 is there no is are we under a gun do you know if we have to spend that money by 2024 or is there a history that we could ask for more time if needed um i have not researched that particular topic i'd be happy to look into it report back to the council perhaps um economic developer director has some further information susan nimitz library director uh last summer i asked our bond council the question and they said we have to have made substantive progress on a project and in some cases they will do extensions i did ask him to define what substantive progress meant and he said that's not fully clear thank you a couple more questions um asbestos removal is there asbestos in there now and how much and where and is it is it um potentially hazardous or is it enclosed in something where it's not getting out to member crone we have done asbestos removal in the building before what we have left is our columns and our flooring and it is uh it is a process to remove it i do not believe the public is at risk or we would close okay that's what i was wondering um the you know that i didn't see anything that might be in in in the documentation we we got i did go through it fairly well especially the letters to the to the to the project but i don't see anything about the homeless challenges that several people brought up and i'm wondering what the game plan is um i mean a person used uh you know his random survey of 19 of 24 people uh but i i do i brought my kids there when they were growing up for the last 20 years um and there was a obvious you know homeless presence in the library and i'm wondering either what the strategy is going into the future or what other cities are doing to confront are they just accepting that task as part of the library task that homeless services council member crown it's a it's a great question and a complex issue we've been working really actively with the city for the past two years um i agree with what people are observing the library a huge number of our patrons are experiencing homelessness um but i would say it's children it's college students um and it's some of the traditional perspectives we have about homelessness um when i came on board we began to work closely with the city it was right after the day center had closed and we definitely saw a significant increase um in both patrons experiencing homelessness and um and in incidents in the library we also have done surveys where our community members have expressed their um feelings of fear um that they don't feel safe in the library so we've gone with a three prong approach one was we developed a code of conduct and we have been um following that clearly we worked really closely with the staff and our security guards to ensure that there are behavioral expectations and if people don't meet them they are asked to leave the library um often for periods of up to a year um the second thing we did is we created some services within the library for people experiencing homelessness that are using the library in appropriate ways i think the third thing we've done is really work with the city on the citywide strategies about how we deal with homelessness and you know it's everything to um how we deal with campaign enforcement um how we do with deal with bathrooms live public libraries around the country have a legal obligation to serve the entire community and they also have a moral obligation to do so so we believe that um people experiencing homelessness are welcome within our walls what we ask is that they use the library as a library well stated i i really appreciate those uh those words um i don't know how much you've gotten into the tree issue but how many trees are slated to be cut down and during the whole nelson niger not nelson um the uh nolan tam sessions with the delac was there any sense has nolan tam ever saved trees before and built those trees into the project council member i think that the tree research has been going on in the city i'm gonna turn it over to bonnie if that's okay thank you we did reach out to leslie kitty the city's arborist to look at the trees