Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and call to order tonight's meeting of the City of Santa Rosa Planning Commission and ask for a roll call Please let the record reflect that all commissioners are present Okay Next we'll move on to the approval of our minutes. We have our January 23rd minutes any Corrections comments to those that's drafted then those will stand as drafted. We also have our February 13th Draft minutes any comments or corrections to those? Okay, so those will stand as printed as well So next we'll move on to public comments Which is a time for any member of the public to address the Commission on matters of interest to the Commission That are not listed tonight as a public hearing. You don't have to have filled out a card to speak to us I'm gonna go ahead and open public comments and And Mr. DeWitt, are you gonna be speaking under public comments? Okay, great last 22 years to always advocate For affordable housing, but also sound planning I was last here at your last meeting and I was taken aback by the way it was handled specifically because people who had come forward to voice a reasonable concern about some housing coming in on a rural road Were essentially given the bum's rush Now the reason why is because we came here and spoke with you and pointed out the zoning administrator Did not make the information about the case available during that hearing and then also pointed out that no minutes were taken of the meeting and no recording was taken of the Meeting so no one could actually be able to say truthfully and factually what it occurred The dilemma that we faced is that there's an appeal process that you have to go through to point that out But the Planning Commission held their meeting on that item before the time limit for the appeal was up The people came here and spoke with you and asked for a continuation It was said that yes that might be able to occur Then after public top comments were given they were told no as a matter of fact we're gonna approve it And we'll see you down the road And it was on the City Council's agenda for the next week So what's happening here is a rush to disaster capitalism? We're getting past that ethical approach Getting past that situation of where we try to balance things fairly and give the community a real chance to get things done The reason I'm mentioning this is those same neighbors appealed your decision that night to the City Council What's gonna happen today also is of interest to me also as a supporter of affordable housing but a fairness accountability and Transparency in all processes today. You're having a hearing Before the appeal process time is up at City Council next week It's already on the agenda and the preliminary agenda is saying it's approved So this is one of those things where you have to look at yourself each and every one of you in the mirror All of us here and say, okay, what do we stand for and what do we really believe in are we gonna try to get? Honesty and truth in a forthright manner and everything we do or are we just gonna try to work the system We're gonna try to go forward because oh we had a fire a couple years ago And the people affected most were ones in houses that shouldn't even have been up there Because people were told at the Planning Commission. It was a bad spot to put houses in a fire zone Anyway, that's all under the bridge in one sense so the question before me today When I try to come back perhaps and speak later in support of affordable housing is Will you folks be fair in what you do because it sure did not seem last week? Thank you Anyone else wishing to speak under public comment tonight I'm not seeing anyone rise to do that. So I'm gonna go ahead and close the public comment time and move on to Planning Commissioners report and any reports Tonight from commissioners. I have one the Waterways committee meeting Happened this morning. We took a look at the we got another update on the downtown stationery specific plan with a specific Opportunity for the committee members to look at the Prince Memorial Greenway and and and to offer up comments specific to the treatment of that within the plan so it was a good meeting and a good discussion I Also want to let you know that Commissioner Carter was in attendance to view the meeting and I will be appointing Commissioner Carter to be the Planning Commission appointee on the waterways committee beginning in March So that's mine Next is department reports We have no report Okay Any statements of abstention by commissioners I? Unfortunately need to abstain from item 10.1 as I have a financial conflict with both of the applicants. Thank you for that We have no study session this evening and when or any consent items and So with that we're gonna move on to our one and only public hearing this evening. I'm gonna let commissioner call you exit and That would be item 10.1, which is the Caritas Village EIR and planning project It is an ex parte disclosure and commissioner car or anything to disclose I've visited the site and met with the applicant as well as some neighbors of the project area I have nothing further to disclose Commissioner Duggan I met with staff to discuss concerns about the process I've met with representatives of Burbank housing and Catholic Charities twice once at the site and I've also met with neighbors of the The site and from the historic district to take a walking tour of the St. Rose district And I've got no additional information to disclose. Okay, nice chair weeks I also visited the site as well as meeting with the applicant actually twice probably over the last year and Did a very interesting walking tour of the neighborhood with two of the neighbors and learned about some of the buildings that both in the neighborhood that had utilized adaptive reuse of Some construction materials But nothing new to disclose Commissioner Peterson So I'm also met with I visited the site. I've met with the applicant twice over the past year I met with some neighbors Who live nearby the project and got a I think the same walking tour and learned more about the neighborhood? I also met with staff to Get an overview of the project and I met with councilmember Chris Rogers I Visited the site mess met with both applicants twice met with neighbors and also met with staff Okay, I also met with the applicants representative representatives twice probably within the last year visited the site toward the St. Rose neighborhood with the neighborhood leaders and In full transparency, I didn't know that Your color was purple. So this shirt means nothing Okay So and I have nothing further to disclose With that I'm gonna add We'll go ahead and begin the card is item Christian a two means a senior planner, but I believe staff will have a team approach beginning Yes, I'll kick it off. I'm Claire Hartman deputy director for planning So you are looking at a specific proposal tonight, but I wanted to put it in context in terms of Where we're at in terms of the city This project has come to us and so in unusual times we are in a housing crisis We have declared several emergencies homelessness. We've declared a homelessness emergency we've also identified Downtown housing affordable housing and addressing homelessness as tier one council priorities and as such that takes Quite a big context for the city organization when we're processing an application like this So when it is this proposal does include downtown housing does include affordable housing and does include Not only a homeless shelter, but homeless support services when you have such alignment with council goals and priorities and statements of emergency We take this proposal quite seriously. So we have prior prioritized the processing of this project now It has taken the course of a couple of years processing this project is quite complex the site itself in an urban context It's quite complex at the edge of a preservation district In addition It literally needs solar planning entitlements except for a hillside development permit So there's quite a number of actions that you're being asked to consider tonight And what it means to be prioritized is that each and every department of the city we align our resources and look to expedite the process meet all the requirements of public process, but really Align our resources so that we can get through Each and every steps quite a lot of steps to move this to hearing tonight In addition, we're going to go over we have a presentation of the entirety of the public process to date Like I said, we've been working on this for a better part of two years on there's been many touch points with the community several public meetings in advance of this formal public hearing that's set up for consideration and action Other touch points have been pre-application meetings or concept design review meetings and those are all available to the public One of the meetings that we did chose not to do in the spirit of Streamline the process is it's not a required meeting, but it's one that you as commissioners are used to Having and that is an extra public hearing that precedes this one and that public hearing is typically held When the draft EIR goes comes out publicly It's an extra forum if you will for the public and for commissioners to weigh in on a draft EIR so we that's a Currency meeting and what we've done instead is we followed the 45-day comment period Which started in early November and went through December In effect we did get one comment letter, so we didn't feel that it was Necessary to have that additional step But what I want to say to the Commission since you're used to having an additional step to comment to us is Tonight you have an ability to comment We also have an ability to act but don't negate the opportunity to comment on the draft EIR because it is a draft And you're looking at a recommendation so your role is to weigh in as The EIR moves its way through the process to the city council, so you Just because we didn't have that public meeting with in this forum doesn't mean you don't have the opportunity to comment and Then just as a big picture of what we're doing tonight in the whole of the process for a project like this of the scale is You're deciding if this project moves forward. Is this the right land use designation for this site? Is this the right land are these the right land uses in their proposal and under these conditions for this site And is this the level of intensity that's appropriate for this site? So it's the if they get to do this project the how the design Lucky for you. You don't have to weigh in on that. There's other review authorities in the city In fact, there's a joint review process that takes place with the design review board and the cultural heritage board They've already weighed in on a concept level this project as it moves forward Post city council review will return back to those boards and they'll to go through that process So but this is the fundamental entitlement. So these are the first actions So with that I'm going to leave it over to Bill Rose and he's going to talk about the rest of the presentation Thank You Claire chair Cisco members of the Commission. Thank you for being here this afternoon It's a pleasure to present to you the carrot house village project as Claire mentioned staff has been working on this for the better part of two years Given the scope of the project our presentation will be slightly different than what you typically see So I'd like to outline that we will begin with a presentation from Kristen a to me and senior planner She's the project manager that has been on this from the start She's going to go through the fairly typical process I'll be at a little bit longer than you usually see and we will focus on all of the land use actions That will be before you tonight. So those will include a general plan amendment a specific plan amendment a rezoning tentative map minor use permit and of course the EIR that's required is really the first step In addition to Kristen a you have the staff at the table including Ashley Crocker from the city attorney's office We also have a number of people from other city departments in the audience representatives from housing building engineering traffic fire and police They've all been fully briefed on the project and are able to answer any questions that you might have Sitting at the table with us tonight our representatives from stand tech consulting that is the city's EIR consultant and After Chris Kristen a concludes her presentation We will go right into stand text presentation and that will focus solely on the EIR The applicant team is here They have several speakers and they have a presentation and are prepared to present to you as well and Process that we've done a few times now at the planning commission that we think works Well is to after the conclusion of the staff presentation in this case also the consultants EIR presentation The applicants presentation and then public comment We would recommend that that would be a good time to take questions from the planning commission So with that, I'd like to turn it over to Kristen a for the staff presentation Thank you, Bill. Thank you chair Cisco members of the planning commission I'm Kristen a to me and senior planner with the planning and economic development department. I'd like to introduce the project Kira toss village The project site is 2.7 acres and is within the west part of downtown And it's bordered by 7th Street to the north a Street to the east 6th Street to the south and Morgan Street to the west The project is currently developed with Catholic Charities Homeless Service Center and Family Support Center and To give you a little bit of a context to the neighborhood to the north is a residential neighborhood Consisting of one and two story detached Residential buildings and a vacant lot at that corner of 7th and a that's currently being used as a garden and the south and east adjacent properties It's a three-level concrete parking garage for the mall. That's approximately 20 feet tall And to the west we have highway 101 the on ramp to highway 101 and a sound wall along Morgan Street the proposal is for a redevelopment of the city block and It's the proposal has two components is a it's a 126 unit affordable housing development known as Kira toss homes to be operated by Burbank housing Any comprehensive family and homeless support service facility known as Kira toss center to be operated by Catholic Charities? Kira toss center would centralize services and programs that are currently located on the site by Consolidating them into a single comprehensive homeless support services facility Totally approximately 46,587 square feet and three stories in height The project would expand its emergency family housing accommodate night and gale program participants and expand the transitional residency program The second component Kira toss homes would provide up to 126 permanent Affordable housing units plus two units for on-site managers and those units would be a mix of studio one bedroom and two bedroom apartments And half of these units would target people who have experienced homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness So this project has had quieted journey On March 21st 2018 Before the applicants submitted for their entitlements the city held a pre-application neighborhood meeting That meeting was very well attended with approximately 50 people There were several attendees that were opposed to the demolition of contributing structures within the historic preservation district as well as They were opposed to the overall scale and scope of the project Some felt strongly that the multi-story structures were out of character with the neighborhood Others supported the project and submission to provide homeless services and affordable housing Supporters also pointed out that the proposed project will change the landscape of a site that is bounded by a large mall parking garage and highway 101 and It will also fulfill an important community need on April 19th 2018 staff presented a conceptual design of the project to the joint meeting to a joint meeting with the cultural heritage board and designer view board and Then on September 10th 2018 the applicants submitted for their entitlements which include a general plan amendment rezoning Conditional use permit tentative parcel map and major landmark alteration permit on October 12 2018 staff mailed a standard notice of application to property owners within 400 feet of the project site at that time our noticing requirements were Not as Expansive as they are now that we only had a requirement for 400 feet But staff felt that due to the scale the project It we should have sent out a more substantial notice so on November 1st 2018 staff mailed a revised four-page color Notice of application to all property owners within a thousand feet and this is this was predating our current Postcard style notices that we currently send out on January 24th 2019 a notice of preparation of the draft EIR was sent out a Written comments to the notice of preparation are included as appendix a of the draft EIR and On February 6th 2019 planning stuff staff held a scoping meeting in the round barn to determine the scope of the required EIR That scoping meeting was also well attended with approximately 25 to 30 people in their comments And and transcripts are part of appendix a as well More recently on October 16 2019 staff presented a revised conceptual design Of the project to a second joint meeting with the cultural heritage board and design review board at this time we now required notices to property owners and tenants within 600 feet, but we kept our thousand foot radius For the noticing and the applicant was required to post onsite signage on each street frontage. So for onsite signs On November 15 2019 city staff mailed and posted a notice of availability of the draft EIR The notice was published in the press democrat And there was a 45 day public review period that started on november 15th and ended on december 30th 2019 For tonight's meeting Notices were mailed to all property owners and tenants within a thousand feet. We kept that expanded radius Onsite signs were installed on each street frontage. So four signs and a notice was in the Post in the paper The same has occurred for the march 3rd city council meeting. So it was a separate notice for the city council meeting separate signs on the property and a second notice in the press democrat The applicant is requesting the following entitlements. It's a general plan amendment a specific plan amendment a rezoning A tentative map in a minor conditional use permit At the time they originally applied a major conditional use permit was required But the code was updated to only require a minor use permit for an emergency shelter So the planning we're asking the planning commission to make a recommendation to city council for the following seven items to certify the EIR to A recommend adoption of the finding of facts recommend approval of the general plan amendment recommend approval of the specific plan amendment recommend adoption of the rezoning Recommend approval of the minor use permit and recommend approval for the tentative map If this project successfully Is successful tonight and at city council They would still be required. There are further actions required To construct the project There would need to be a joint meeting with the designer view board and cultural heritage board and the chp would review The major landmark alteration permit for demolition And also the new construction Because it is within the st. Rosa's torque district And then the drb would review the major design review permit for a new construction with the down within the downtown area And they would also look at the density bonus concessions The housing allocation plan concessions and the proposed parking reduction And for this meeting notices will be mailed similarly as they were for this meeting So owners and tenants within a thousand feet for onsite signs and a notice in the paper In addition a future required action is a conveyance of some remnant parcels on february 24th This week the housing authority took action approving conveyance of four parcels located on sixth street between a and morgan street to the city The city council will be asked to approve acceptance of the remnant parcels Reservation of right-of-way and transfer of the remaining land to catholic charities for development of affordable housing in compliance with government code section 5 4 2 2 2 That the property first be offered as a location for low and moderate income housing the app the project site has a quite a mix of Different designations on the site as you can see it's bifurcated north to south with different designations The general plan designates the parcels along a street as retail medium residential And the parcels along morgan street as medium residential with a maximum density of 18 dwelling units per acre The applicant the applicants request a general plan amendment to change the project's land use designations to transit village mixed use Which would allow for a higher intensity of residential uses within a quarter mile of a transit facility The transit village mixed use designation Requires a minimum housing density of 40 dwelling units per acre And there is no maximum density designation Or density requirement for this designation As part of the project excuse me the applicant proposed an attentive parcel map to reconfigure The block and subdivide the underlying lots into three parcels The two proposed residential structures the northern parcels Each with six three 63 units will be constructed on 0.69 acres and 0.68 acres And this will result in a density of approximately 91 to 92 dwelling units per acre and Currently the transit village mixed use Is the only general plan designation that would allow for this type of density As part of a general plan amendment we typically ask for questions um regarding Why a general plan amendment is appropriate in this situation or in each situation The current general plan limits the allowable density on the site The project site benefits from proximity to multimodal transportation And promotes several general plan goals and policies to encourage dense pedestrian oriented development in the downtown area As you might be aware We're currently going through a downtown station area specific plan update and the reason being is The original plan adopted in 2007 projected that by 2027 we would have Approximately 3400 new residential units and halfway through the planning period Only 100 units were developed with an additional 275 units approved but not constructed. So we're way behind And the council has um on their on their website has posted their council priorities Number one is recovery rebuild after the fire number two is a comprehensive housing strategy Three is open government task force recommendations four is downtown housing and five is homelessness So three out of the five directly applied to this project or sorry four out of five would directly apply to this project In fact a tier one city council goal Is for the city to bring a mix of affordable to market rate level transit oriented housing to support the needs of many city residents And affordable housing is of particular interest to the city And it's important to provide housing that increases walkability reduces greenhouse gases And create a better quality life and increases but traffic to local businesses the 2035 Center as a general plan and visions transit bill it makes used to be designed and oriented to create a central node of activity At or near the transit facility This project is a thin close proximity to bus and train Train travel Housing densities are required to be a minimum of 40 units per acre and there's no maximum density requirement for this designation Um, and then this designation would promote higher density For a for a project that's currently bordered on two sides by a three-story parking garage and a tall freeway sound wall The maintenance of the h district overlay would Also create an additional design review component for any new construction with a historic preservation district So it would add an added layer of review for any type of new development As you can see the parcels also have some mixed zoning The parcels along morgan street are zoned multifamily residential And the parcels along a street are zoned neighborhood commercial The proposed project would rezone the property site to tvm hsa To allow for the proposed multifamily dwelling units The tvm zoning district or transit village mixed use Zoning district is applied to areas again within approximately one quarter mile of transit facility and Is appropriate for a mix of higher density residential office and commercial uses And it's designed to be oriented as a central node of activity out or near the transit transit facility Similar to the to the general plan designation The minimum allowable density is 40 dwellings per acre and there's no maximum density The entire project site um as you can see with the dash h Thank you Is within the st. Rose historic preservation district In addition the parcels along a a street are within the station area combining district for the downtown station area specific plan And that s a district s a designation or station area combining district designation It is intended to enhance And reinforce distinctive characteristics within the downtown station area specific plan area And create environments that are comfortable for pedestrians The tvm zoning district is consistent with the transit village mixed use land use classification of the general plan The tvm zoning district requires that all new development within this area be a minimum of two stories Caritas center is proposed at up to three stories and caritas homes will range from two to four stories And the transitional housing emergency shelter uses are allowed in the zoning district with a minor use permit This project is within the downtown station area specific plan And as you can see it's got a mixed designation for this as well The parcels along morgan street are within the downtown station area specific plans historic residential sub area The parcels Along a street are within the downtown station area specific plans courthouse square sub area And those are two distinct Sub areas the courthouse square sub area is more of a commercial core For santa rosa and consists of a mixer retail office uses And it's envisioned to be developed into a vibrant mixed use area with new housing Um Whereas the historic residential sub area consists of the four historic preservation districts And this project is within the santa rosa historic district The downtown station area specific plan envisions the maintenance and enhancement of the existing residential character Of the historic residential sub area As stated before the project the proposed project which will range from two stories of four stories Would require a specific plan amendment to include the parcels along morgan street within the courthouse square sub area Since the development since the density and the height of the new development Within that historic residential sub area is limited to three stories So while the tvm Zoning district and general plan designation does not have a density limit height will limit the project um The overall height limits the density of the project In addition the downtown station area plan includes the provision of roundabouts At the intersections of seven street and a and six and a The proposed project includes the modification of the downtown station area specific plan to include the roundabouts at a specified 80 foot diameter Reducing the diameter of the roundabouts 80 feet would allow truck traffic to access the downtown plaza But they would not be able to make a left turn onto a from six or access the roundabout on a street and seventh The truck access limitation would be consistent with the pedestrian goals of the downtown station area specific plan These roundabouts would not inhibit emergency vehicle traffic at all First city code a conceptual designer view is required for the project With it within the historic binding district On april 19th before they submitted their entitlements the applicants presented a Very different plan. They had not yet acquired those two little houses on the south west corner And the chp and drb provided very useful comments The chp felt that it was a very useful and needed project for the city city, but they had reservations about demolition Of structures with an a historic district They also had concerns that the each district does impose a height limit And they wanted to make sure the project Was consistent with the size height rhythm setbacks roof shapes and texture of the district They also suggested that the applicant look at ways to Adaptively reuse the site And they felt the design should reflect the st. Rose neighborhood like it had always been there The drb commended the project for its 100 of affordable housing They also were conflicted with demolition of the structures But they liked that it was a lead gold building And they had a lot of positive things to say about the design Um, they wanted the residential portion To have a little bit more excitement But they thought the project The way it was designed It was designed in a caring way beyond barracks style housing That you would you might see in older Affordable housing projects and they liked the courtyards the central courtyards On october 16th, um, the the chp and drb reviewed the most recent Um project design and the chp Wanted the applicant to revisit how the buildings fit in with the historic district and They wanted them to reflect more on other contributors than the museum around the corner or the st. Rose school in the design and they still had Great concern over the demolition of the proposed demolition of the structures And they asked that the applicant work more with the st. Rose neighbors to gain more support They also felt if it is possible to go taller, but the building would need to balance With the historic district The chp also thought the project was a little bit more institutional In character and they suggested adding more detail Detail work as it goes up in height And to break up some flat surfaces The drb generally generally liked the project They wanted more of the character of the keratos center to carry over to the keratos homes Component and they had some They wanted the applicant to explore more ways to provide safety and security for residents And they wanted the two projects to be more connected um in some way To create more cohesion between the two components Um and to add some Lidliness to the homes component of the project These were the renderings that were presented to the chp and drb Here's the center entrance on six and the sixth and morgan street renderings You can see the parking garage on the sixth and morgan street image Here's sixth and a street Seventh and a street sixth and a street would be the center Seventh and a would be the homes component Here's seventh and morgan morgan street This is the boundaries of the saint rose historic preservation district and as you can see the project is at the southern most end of the saint rose historic preservation district And the proposed project includes demolition Of the existing facilities are all structures on the project site These are the two structures that were identified as contributing structures in the eir it's um The single family residents at 520 morgan street And a four plex apartment building at 608 morgan street Both of which were identified as contributors to the saint rose historic preservation district in addition to The eir certifying the eir the project would require an approved major landmark alteration permit to allow For the demolition of the existing structures And for the construction of the new buildings within the saint rose preservation district Staff has received several comment letters and support of the proposed higher density near downtown and transit As well as support for homelessness services and affordable housing components of the project But we also received several Comments concerned about the project And the following um and uh he had comments regarding the following topics The first concern is with the provision of adequate parking and parking impacts to the neighborhood The downtown area specific plan does not require any parking for non-residential uses Therefore, there is no parking requirement for the keratoss center However, the applicant will be providing um 45 spaces when they're only required to provide 25 Um They also the applicant provided a parking study that concluded that based on the standard parking demand rates keratoss homes Would be expected to generate a peak parking demand for 49 parking spaces And the proposed parking supply of 40 54 spaces for the homes component While it does not meet city requirements would exceed the anticipated peak parking demand And the parking study further stated that given the site's proximity to local And regional transit together with the availability of adequate bicycle and pedestrian facilities It is anticipated that the proposed parking supply would be adequate And here is a parking chart So you can see the emergency shelter the number of spaces required by coder 25 and the applicant proposes 45 And for the homes component, they're they're proposing 54 parking spaces The next concern was with the historic value of the neighborhood and the demolition of historic structures And it's true the project involves the demolition of historic resources Resulting any significant and unavoidable impact Mitigation for the loss of these structures would be accomplished through preparation of a salvage report development of interpretive materials documentation of the historic resources And that mitigation would not reduce the impact to a less than significant level The next concern was with biohazardous waste such as needles And the mmrp requires that the applicant ensure that hazardous materials are properly disposed of by residents and visitors by obtaining a home-generated sharps consolidation point permit from the county And they're required to install a sharps kiosk at the project site The other concerns were with traffic and cumulative traffic The city's downtown station area specific plan is intended to create more opportunities for alternative transportation through walking and bicycling And the specific plan area contains a way to develop well developed pedestrian bicycle network and includes smart multi-use path The transportation improvements to affected intersections may include signal signalization or roundabouts that would enhance both vehicle bicycle and pedestrian safety Of which the applicants are required to pay their fair share for those improvements The other concern is with a potential increase in calls for service and public safety One of the unique components of the keratoss center is the project would include a medical service doctor's office That may help reduce the number of calls for service by providing trained medical staff who could respond to minor incidents on site And reduce the number of calls for service for medical needs The city doesn't anticipate that the proposed project would Result in the need for a new police station or fire station Nor the alteration of the exist of the city's existing police or fire stations staff is recommending that the planning that the planning commission by resolutions Certify the eir adopt the findings of fact a statement of overriding considerations Approve a general plan amendment to change the land use designation for a medium density residential and retail business service to transit village mixed use approve a specific plan amendment to include all projects All project parcels within the courthouse square sub area and specify the roundabout diameters And adopt a rezoning for of the project site to tvm hs a And approve a minor use permit for the emergency shelter and approve a tentative map for keratoss village With that I will turn it over to our environmental consultants Thank you, christine. My name is Elena Nuno, and I'm with stand tech consulting services I'm a senior project manager and I was the project manager for the preparation of the Environmental impact report and with me this evening is trevor mesenski our senior principal And we also have uh, daniel herrick our architectural history And i'm going to just briefly run through the introduction of The sequa process and then trevor will be picking up and going into the document in a little more detail so purpose of sequa is To identify disclose and consider the potential environmental impacts of a proposed Of proposed discretionary actions that lead agencies are considering for approval EIRs must be prepared pursuant to sequa guidelines Sequa requires that state and local government agencies consider the environmental Consequences of projects over which they have discretionary authority before acting on those projects and we've provided the public resource code citations there for you Briefly provide you with an overview of where we are at currently with the sequa process So as christine. I mentioned we had the notice of preparation that was issued And the scoping period that began that was uh, january 24th 2019 through february 22nd 2019 We held a scoping meeting on february February 6th 2019 at the round barn and um, we were able to get Uh, quite a few people and we had a lot of good comments and took some of that into consider Took those comments into consideration as we prepared the draft eir The draft eir was um issued for public agency review on november 15th 2019 and It circulated for the statutory required period of 45 days and that comment period ended or that review period ended december 30th 2019 We've prepared the final eir where we responded to comments that were received on the draft eir clarified a few Areas in the eir where we we noted that there were some revisions required to make certain things a little clearer And so you'll see that in the final eir where there's revisions to the draft eir noted um, and that was uh released on february 3rd 2020 and We're here today to present The draft eir to the planning commission take questions and uh, depending on your actions Uh, the decision on the eir would be made on march 3rd 2020 by the city council and With that i will hand it over to trevor Thank you, alina. Uh, my name is trevor mesenski as alina said i'm a Principal with stanta consulting and i oversaw the preparation of this document Excuse me. Can you speak into the microphone? Oh, i'm sorry. Is that better? Yes. Yep. There you go So one thing that i wanted to point out related to this seqa document is that um, it's not that it's uncommon But it's not as normal as you might see so the document which was prepared for this project was a focused eir What that means is that as part of the scoping process We prepared an initial study Which comprehensively looked at all the resource considerations, which are underneath the appendix g checklist criteria And we solicit feedback from the public as to which one should be included into the the actual focus analysis itself As alina mentioned during the public comment period for the scoping We actually received comments from the community which made us revise our approach and we adapted our approach accordingly to add additional resources Back into the analysis to address concerns that the community has raised Those were particularly related to hazards and public services Uh, and the nose of preparation and the initial study were included as appendix a of the eir So, um Given that this is a rather complex project as you can Hear christine went over all the entitlements that are specifically related to that What the eir does is it culminates all those to just start to discern The potential implications that the project will have on the environment to do so we prepared a number of technical studies to support our analysis These were studies that were prepared by the city are and and stand to consulting. They weren't provided by the applicant just to be clear There was an air quality and greenhouse gas analysis that was prepared There was a health risk assessment a biological resources evaluation an archaeological survey report a historic resources report a traffic analysis And a noise analysis and these are standalone technical reports Which are provided as appendixes to the eir in addition to the quantifiable and qualitative analysis presented And the more planning centric sections Okay, so there's a lot of text on here. So let me walk you through it This is uh, this is your eir in one slide What we're trying to convey to you here is simply that The impacts which are listed atop the page of the slide which are also found in table es1 in the draft eir Summarize those which have require mitigation So for air quality the mitigation which was prescribed as common construction control related to air quality mitigation such as Idling times dust control things of that nature Air quality impact three which also required mitigation was specific related to the use And its proximity to the freeway as a result of exposure from health risks from diesel particulate emissions So there's specific filters required for those buildings Bio impact one is a very common Impact resulting in two very common mitigations when you have potential for nesting birds And the second is related to tree tree replanting in accordance with the city's tree ordinance For noise the noise mitigation was normal construction noise mitigation measures related to times of exposure The surrounding land uses following the sea's noise ordinance And construction activity For transportation Because the site is rather constrained as we've talked about on either side with the modifications We prescribe the need to have a construction traffic management plan Which will control the staging and location of the construction activity Lastly the mitigation for hazards Are related to bio bio hazards related to Not only needles or paraphernalia drug paraphernalia that are in the area, but also there was Concern related to the age of the structures for asbestos and lead during the demolition and construction of the project The the item which is of a bit more Depth which are probably the most comprehensive mitigations that are presented in the EIR are related to cultural resources So with that I wanted to give it a little bit more air time here to present to you One is that there's four distinct measures. One is a salvage report This is a a common industry approved approach for trying to determine salvage related to the historic structures The second is a public report documentation also very common Third is interpretive materials and signage associated with the project and how to better represent the the structures which were impacted And the fourth is a compatible design approach We were glad to talk to any of these and dipped and kind of walk you through the analysis Which was presented in the document, but as a Five-minute overview on a few hundred pages. That's what you have before you this evening as part of a environmental impact report When we go through and we prepare the analysis the next step that we have is try to determine How the project's impacts can derive alternatives or how we can identify alternatives which would reduce our project's impacts So the the key thing for you to make reference to here is that the alternatives have to be formulated to reduce One or more of your project impacts. So for example, I couldn't say why have a better use in mind I just want to put a car wash here, right? So the idea is that you have to actually try to reduce an impact which was identified through the analysis In doing so, um, there is an exhaustive list of project alternatives, which were considered not only by the public, but we're Derived not only from the consulting team, but the city as well and in doing so we put together basically Alternatives which were considered and rejected from further consideration through the analysis and those are listed here There the first alternative was an increased density alternative an alternative site location Site redesign. So those were three that which we considered which we determined based on the project objectives And the impacts would not result in a lesser significant impact So the next step through the alternatives consideration is to evaluate alternatives, which would so which ones made the cut first day We're statutorily required to look at something called the no project alternative. So that is included in the analysis There was alternative to which is a site redesign An alternative three which is a partial preservation alternative There's a quick reference table for you Which I would tell you to start with in comparison these and those are on table five dash one Page five pardon me table five one page five dash 19 And it has a comparison of the impacts that would result from the alternatives compared to the proposed action So in in preparing a project that has significant unavoidable impacts Uh, the commission in the city is going to have to make three distinct findings Those findings are subject to our come from our sequo guidelines in our state statute Which require us to make three findings relative to those significant unavoidable impacts I won't read them here, but i'll just wanted to make sure that those findings find their way into something called A statement of overriding considerations. That's why the city has to make those so moving forward with the project and the environmental analysis the statement of overriding considerations the three findings in which you Have to make relative to the significant unavoidable impacts are presented here And they're also presented in the resolution We're happy to clarify any questions related to the environmental analysis or how this process will play out for you this evening and as City staff and elena had mentioned we have our architectural historian here And we're happy to just any other resource questions you may have Now i'll turn the presentation over to the applicant Oh, we have one It's on okay Good evening. I'm len marabella. I'm the executive director of catholic charities And i want to thank you for being here to consider this very important project for the city and and thanks to the planning commission Thanks to the city staff that's worked hard on this program And uh, it's difficult work and i want to acknowledge the work that goes into a project like this Santa rosa as we all know is in a housing homelessness emergency It was declared by the city in 2016 And this emergency affects us all And catholic charities is making progress We know it works getting people into housing as quickly as possible. We permanently housed over 1800 people in the past three years That's good, but that's not good enough More is needed. There are still almost 3 000 people are homeless in sonoma county and these are our neighbors in need For more than 30 years. We've been actively reusing a 104 year old hospital It's a family shelter and a two bedroom home as an engagement center We are limited by our physical resources and facilities The facilities are not designed to do the work we do The buildings are simply worn out They absolutely limit our effectiveness to put people into housing and we can collectively do better Kerry tass village is a unique solution That integrates the elements needed to be a major part of the solution to this homelessness crisis in our community And by the way, kerry tass comes from the latin and means love for all Speaks to our to our mission There are two components of kerry tass villages. We've heard kerry tass center and kerry tass homes And kerry tass center is a family shelter Has children's program planned A doctor's office that addresses both physical and mental health needs Recuperative care for those who are ready to be discharged from a hospital, but they have no home And that's a program that's very strongly supported by our local hospitals A drop-in center to engage those in need of housing and to provide dignity services Most importantly all is focused on one theme permanent supportive housing solutions And we know how to do that We've engaged housing locators to find units for people work with landlords We've engaged housing navigators who work with the clients to be able to find suitable housing and be successful in that The kerry tass homes is the other component We're partnered with burbank housing to provide 126 units of affordable housing And about half of those are dedicated to the homeless people that have been homeless Or a threat of losing their homes and the remainder are for families and individuals with very low income For those who need it case management and stabilization services will be present to ensure success in housing Kerry tass homes directly addresses the shortage of affordable housing in our community Kerry tass village is a unique approach that includes all the necessary components to reduce homelessness It is a major part of the solution for this community Catholic charities and burbank housing are ready to go We have engaged the public in the neighborhood in numerous conversations regarding ongoing services in kerry tass village We have knocked on doors. We've held quarterly neighborhood meetings for many years Sponsored cleanup campaigns and much more This engagement and outreach will continue You have seen that we have schematic drawings done and we are now ready to start construction drawings We have site control Funding for both kerry tass center and kerry tass homes is strong. We've had great support in the community This is urgent Delays in the project jeopardize future funding streams and more importantly Delays our ability to respond to the emergency of people who are experiencing homelessness right now Every day we see the suffering of people on the streets who do not have a home Who do not have health care who do not have services? We want to move to a solution as quickly as possible It's about the people that are in need We request your support for the kerry tass villas project as evaluated by the eir and as recommended by city staff It's time to get it done I would thank you for your time And now I'd like to introduce our architect mike pyotok who will talk briefly about the highlights of our design Good evening members of planning commission Um, I guess I'll have to tell you folks to move it forward because I don't have a An advance or or can I do it myself? we Okay, next slide As staff has showed you if we go to the next slide, please It's not working. We're okay. I see you're showing two at a time It's the nature of the demonstration. Okay, if we can go back one slide then Yeah Um as staff has well presented already The the project really has two parts the parent housing which is on the north end of the site And then the kerry tass service center, which is on the south end of the site And the kerry tass home is being a two to four story building being the largest in the neighbor in the in the development We thought it would be important to relate it to the two large buildings that are already in the neighborhood st Rose and the museum The kerry tass center is just relating to the parking garages across the street, which really have not much architectural value next Next please Please Yeah On the left hand side the primary entrances into the facility to the north the the housing is from 7th street And then to the center of the family shelter enters from the right side on a street The main entrance is from 6th street at the center And then the day center is in the lower left corner at the intersection of morgan and Sixth we did the obligatory shadow studies We found that none of the shadows really cast very far Into the adjacent properties except on the shortest day of the year Early in the morning as do all the buildings and houses in the neighborhood cast shadows and everybody else But we had no shadow impacts on the surrounding neighboring homes Next the images on the left of the kerry tass center We try to show on the lower right image of the left hand cluster is the intersection of sixth and a It's activated by the families living above and the classrooms that are down below at the corner with some offices at the at the joint so that The there's a fair amount of street life there and eyes on the street On the left hand side You see the service center and the day center on the far left And the courtyard entry point for the folks who use the day center The upper two images on the right hand side of them That's the main facade along sixth street with the main entrance We've tried to give expression to each of the pieces of the program in a more playful inviting way But using natural tones that make it compatible with the area on the right hand side the housing In that lower right on morgan street You can see that we do go to fourth stories and we kept that more to the southern end nearest to the kerry tass center And the image directly above it and to the left of it. You could see that along seventh street We have only two-story townhouses More in character with the neighborhood And then set back from that is the four-story Apartment building beyond and as I said earlier These are meant to be contemporary cousins of the grander buildings that are presently in the neighborhood the saint rose and The museum the other two images on the top right are of the muse the former alley will be converted into A muse for the residents to enjoy Next And then finally one of the most important features of the development is the landscape And we're doing everything we can to draw the landscape up onto and in front every part of the architecture particularly flowering vines the colorful nature of the of nature Sends an important message to everyone in the neighborhood particularly to the homeless that this is an inviting place So that the image is on the right. It's a little hard to see because they're now smaller because they're two per Screen But there's a dotted line all across the ground floor facades Demonstrating that through trellises and green screens and other devices will be bringing the landscape up onto the building Both green and the colorful flowers that they will spawn And that's basically my quick Urban design overview if there are any questions we can go into further detail I have some images of the floor plans if you're interested in how the ground floor relates to the surrounding streets Good evening planning commissioners. My name is rebecca kendall And i'm the chief development officer with catholic charities And i've had the honor of working on this project for the last five years and have been part of the agency for about 12 years and I wanted to speak specifically to why time is so important to us in this project As you know caritas village includes the homes and the center And my colleague mark krug will be speaking about the homes after me But I wanted to talk about the funding streams for caritas center We've got three primary funding streams a capital campaign new market tax credits and public funding And I wanted to share some details about that funding that could in some ways be jeopardized by even a small delay in this process Regarding funds that we've already received. I am very Grateful to share that we have um over 125 people in the community have donated over 21.4 million dollars to this project And our capital campaign goal is 26 million and I want to Extend a special thank you to our campaign co-chairs who are here in the room today Vic trioni and greg steele. We're very grateful for their leadership it's one of the largest capital campaigns in sonoa county history And certainly the largest single effort to house people experiencing homelessness And these funds were donated to respond to the massive housing and homelessness crisis that we have which was Obviously exacerbated by the 2017 wildfires And one of our largest gifts is a two million dollar gift from the finley foundation and that gift requires that we begin construction in early 2021 And so that is one time component and then with regard to funds that we're still seeking Some even again even minor delays Could result in some pretty major losses of funding that frankly is already very rare and difficult to obtain For example in early march Both catholic charities and bourbon housing are applying to the federal home loan bank ahp Program and catholic charities is sponsored by a local bank luther bourbon savings And we're going to be applying for up to a million dollars in funding And that application is due march 9th. It's an extremely competitive grant Just a few points can make the difference between an award or no award and points are awarded For project readiness. It's taken into consideration So any progress that we can make in obtaining approvals will strengthen our application and frankly increase the likelihood that we're awarded In june, we're also planning to apply to a major national foundation for over a million dollars in funding Probably 1.5 million that will require us to have a signed construction contract And if our entitlements are delayed, it'll make it unlikely that we'll be awarded in time to break ground and that Could force us to take out some some loans that would be up against an uncertain source And in july we're applying to the state of california for infill infrastructure funding That also requires building permits at the time of application. So delays in this process could knock us out of the running for that million dollar potential And additionally, uh, you know as a fundraiser i speak with many donors and A number of them have indicated to me that they're really waiting for the project to be entitled Before they're willing to make a commitment to this project And frankly, it's important that we move quickly in the face of an uncertain economy and uh, and also with the worthy and Wonderful other projects in the community that are constantly seeking capital funds just like we are So we we feel a great sense of urgency in wanting to complete our capital campaign And finally we're in the uh, we're strong contenders for about seven and a half million dollars in new market tax credits Which represents about 25 of the cost of construction for this project And these are unique funds that are highly competitive and only offered once per year And if delayed entitlements push our project scheduled back We will lose these funds for another year and potentially have to put the whole project on hold while we wait to reapply And those are, uh, that's a critical level of funding for the project. Certainly. There's no question um, obviously most importantly what's The urgency really comes from doing what's right for our fellow humans who are suffering We know the city of san rosa has declared us declared a state of emergency We know homelessness and housing are the number one issues for voters for voters across the city and the county And karytas village. I truly feel and have had the privilege of experiencing. It's not just a catholic charities project It's not just a bourbon housing project. The community is asking for this and pulling us We've been feeling that all along and we ask you to please recommend approval for the project and I want to turn it over now to mark krug from bourbon housing chair Cisco commissioners, uh, thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening. Again, my name is mark krug with bourbon housing I'm going to keep my comments pretty limited to a narrow subject Which is the financing of affordable housing permanent affordable housing rental housing and specifically Phase one karytas homes rather than both phases and just by way of background Every affordable rental housing project except very small ones. It gets built anywhere in the nation takes advantage of One of two kinds of low-income housing tax credits federal tax credits The first kind is so called four percent tax credits And those would generally produce financing for roughly a third of the project total cost The second kind of tax credit is nine so called nine percent tax credit Those will Generate funding for about two-thirds of your total development costs And so either way you're left with a gap to fill and typically almost exclusively Agencies like burbank look to get five or six or seven Wards from public agencies state agencies local government to fill that gap I read an article a couple weeks ago that a typical amount of funding awards to get an affordable rental housing project done Was six and that rings true. So we have a lot of different funding sources to try to chase down What I wanted you to hear tonight is there's a couple of really kind of once in an Once in a lifetime opportunities coming up with funding to have timelines that as uh, rebecca was saying are really Are such that we really want to expedite this project So we don't miss these opportunities The most important of those two I want to touch on quickly and they're related to disaster relief funding in the first case There's uh in the federal Budget the current fiscal year federal budget is a one billion be Billion not million one billion dollars in nine percent tax credits earmarked only for california and only those communities in california that were impacted by 2017 and 2018 disasters, so it's an extraordinary amount of money and the the program guidelines have yet to be published We're actually expecting many days So don't have a lot of details about the selection process But we know because all of Sonoma county is included in those Eligible reasons that we're going to be very competitive locally for that billion And I wanted to put that dollar amount in a context because I know it's a big number But it's also a big state But when we're when burbank is applying or looking to get nine percent tax credits the highly competitive tax credits in the normal year year operations We compete in a region that's made up of six counties, Solano Shasta, Napa, Marin I forgot a couple but a bunch of local counties in the couple further north And there's typically in a given year 20 to maybe 30 million dollars in tax credits for that's six those six counties put together Which means at most there will be two projects awarded across six counties in any given year because of the 20 to 30 million dollars So contrast that to a billion dollars in tax credits is really extraordinary I mentioned that the Guidelines are not yes published, but we do know a couple things about this One is that there'll be four rounds of competition Spring summer this year spring summer next year and that's it So there's a kind of a limited window to try to chase down these once in a lifetime tax credits And unless the state It's their federal tax credits, but they're operated by the state unless the rules change Uh, if we're awarded tax credits and we accept that award Then we have six months to initiate Um construction and if we miss that we a lose the tax credit award and b if burbank was the applicant We would have we'd be in a penalty box for a year or maybe it's two years In other words in future funding competitions, we'd have to take negative points So it's a very serious matter to apply for those tax credits and be able to get in the ground in within six months Of accepting the award The second funding source. I want to talk about that's also federal disaster related Is a program administered by HUD Been around since the the core programs have been around since nixon was president and that's the community development block grant program Or cdbg The city and the county and the city of petaluma receive pretty modest amounts these days every single year But because of the federally declared disasters of the last few years There's going to be a special award of 30 about 38 million dollars For projects their rental housing affordable multifamily projects in the city limits of santa rosa So that 38 million is going to go just to that small category of projects and caritas homes fits in rather perfectly That program is being administered rather than directly by the city It's being administered by the state working with the city and again, we're waiting for you know some details But we expect the application Window for that 38 million dollars to be I think in the next 60 to 90 days As far as I don't as far as I know I'm not sure if there's one or two funding rounds, but either way There's you can be roughly, you know this one year opportunity to get what would be Rough numbers 10 or 10 times or so what the city would typically have in a given year So it's an extraordinary a second extraordinary funding opportunity with with tight deadlines Two more real quick these are you know Funding programs that we're seeking to close the gap and and get caritas homes phase one built There's a program run at the state level called mhp, which stands for multifamily housing program It's bond funded their taxpayers approved of 1.5 billion dollars in bonds. I believe in 2018 So that program it will be winding down next year because the bond proceeds That make up that program will be spent probably in the next year So there's another opportunity that could very old fade away in a year or so And then lastly, uh, rebecca mentioned the federal home loan bank of san francisco ahp affordable housing program Um, we also will choose We also try to get funds from that program and that has an An application period only once a year in in february or march So if we can't make this round as rebecca said, we have to wait a whole nother year So i'm not going to go into More there's a few other funding programs that we're looking at but I wanted to have you have the benefit of the information That there's some kind of once in a lifetimes Opportunities that we're looking at with short windows And so that's why we're so concerned about the timeline for this project And thank you for your your time and attention And I think the last speaker is genuine homes from catheterities Good afternoon commissioners well be second to last But uh, we are as we are kind of winding down Our presentation I just wanted to give a little bit more context and and understand we've had the privilege of getting to meet with Each and every one of you and certainly understand the decision that lays before you And just kind of give a little bit more context about how we got here and and why this project is so important Not just to what we're hoping to accomplish But how it will really impact our entire community Especially on this very real crisis that Sonoma county is the state of california and the nation are facing when it comes to homelessness You know in sonoma county. We have actually moved the needle on homelessness We reduced homelessness by over 31 percent over the last several years and catheteries alone last year was mentioned earlier How 650 people with over 1800 people in the last three years Those are incredibly powerful numbers and it's not enough Caritas village would not only let us do what we've done and learned and the lessons we've learned It could potentially help us double those numbers really making the dent on the issue of homelessness That our community has been asking for and we've been trying to do with the limitations that surround us in our current facilities And in one example of a project that we did which I think is probably one of the most Impactful things we've done in sonoma county so far to move the needle on homelessness Is the palms in and much of the components that we have done At the palms in we're asking we're looking at replicating here at caritas village And there's some really valuable statistics and evidence that have come from that project For example in the first six months the residents who were living at that facility We saw a 77 reduction in law enforcement interactions among the population of 56 reduction in ambulance Transportation's and a 45 percent reduction in inpatient hospitalizations and this was for our community's most vulnerable individuals Additionally in that first year of the project We saw a 23 reduction in veterans homelessness a 20 percent reduction in chronic homelessness and a 16 percent reduction in homelessness in santa rosa So we know Things that work and when we put people in supportive housing with on-site supportive services We know that people can actually be housed Stay housed and we can mitigate the negative impacts on the community when it comes to This issue and caritas village is exactly what we're trying to do is to bring the on-site Supportive services through the center coupled with the expansive housing that burbank is going to be leading And really duplicate the efforts and magnify it on a whole new scale for our community I just want to talk quickly about also the when we started this journey several years ago It was really important for us to engage the surrounding community and the neighborhood And just want to highlight a little bit of the efforts we've been able to accomplish in that arena So just a couple of things is we try to go above and beyond just even the required community outreach that this kind of project Asks of us So we've done things like have held over seven neighborhood what we call knocking door days Where we went and talked to neighbors knocked on the doors and we talked to over 200 people over those seven sessions We also had six neighborhood cleanup days where our volunteers came together and did cleanups in our surrounding neighborhood We had weekly coffee chats where both Burbank housing and catholic charities were available to just listen and talk and engage with people who had questions about the project And we had over nine neighborhood meetings over a period The last couple of years including four that we Adding four that we also hosted in both the west end and in the st. Rose district So we all know that this is a crisis We just saw this crisis unfold on the Joe Rudotta trail And one thing that was very astounding about that crisis in and of itself was that Population was only seven percent of our entire county's homeless population So when we talk about homelessness as an emergency We need to really understand that that was a very small amount of all of the human suffering that are is being faced in our community And when I talk about homelessness as an emergency what I mean Is that 50 of people who are living on shelter have a physical health issue a mental health issue and a substance abuse issue all at one time And over 90 of the women who are experiencing homelessness Will face some sort of sexual assault in their time living on the streets And the most astounding is that people who are experiencing homelessness are three to four times more likely to die prematurely Than people who are housed So when we talk about it as emergency those are the real statistics and the people that we see living out on our community So for us any sort of delay really translates into The people that are living in our community that we are trying to serve and we're trying to get to Living unnecessarily on the streets even longer And so we that's part of why we have put together and worked so closely on trying to streamline everything we can do To make this project work in the ways that we've learned the lessons of impactful homeless services over the years And I would say that this is probably the number one thing that the community and our city and at our county level Is saying we need an answer and this is the answer caritas village is the answer in our minds I've been doing this work for over a decade and I feel extremely confident the project design around how we support these individuals through this project Is going to double our efforts around ending homelessness in our community So with that i'm gonna let miss wallace kind of conclude and give a few brief statements I know we're kind of getting to the point where we're going to move to the next part. So thank you Good evening. My name is tina wallace legal counsel for the two applicants bourbon housing and catholic charities We wanted to thank you the commissioners from your disclosures at the beginning of the meeting We appreciate that you've spent a great deal of time Talking to staff talking to neighbors and listening to the applicants And as you've heard from the applicants tonight In detail there is an emergency situation for our community. There are exigent circumstances And there are extraordinary once in a lifetime funding opportunities All of these things benefit our community. They benefit the project and they benefit the applicants We therefore in light of the time pressures that the applicants are experiencing and the emergencies that are present every day in our community We ask that you make your recommendation on this project Tonight and that there be no delays that could hamper this project We hope that after you carefully consider all of the materials that are before you The staff testimony our presentation and public comments that you will recommend approval of the project As was set forth in the staff report However, if you are unable to reach that conclusion And four of you are unable to recommend approval of this project tonight to the city council We respectfully request that you Deny the project and again that that decision be made tonight And we say that with great appreciation for all of the hard work that everyone has put into this project in closing We do have quite a large crowd here tonight So what i'm going to do is in lieu of having everyone who is supporting the project and the audience speak tonight I'm going to read a list of names And that would be in lieu of those people speaking for three minutes each So if you're in the audience, please listen carefully. And if I call your name If you could just let the uh chair know that you don't need to speak because your name has been read I think that would be appreciated Going to require a different pair of glasses Oh So apparently some of these folks will be speaking tonight just to be clear But i'll go through the list of names and again in an effort to expedite the hearing and not have all of our supporters speak for three minutes um The first supporter is alex hartman Anna jean Ann paneno audrey shell Beth ryan Betsy tim Kathy trioni That's et phoning home katie flowers chris graybill connie kinesen bruce kinesen sindy yoxal dale flowers denis rosati dorine van lewin lewin eddie denin emily theson and terry theson fred wiele or wiley jicina aguiere greg steel hunter solio s o i l e a u joe tembrock julia peranto kathleen johnson lissette sual lia benz lina hoffman linda setterholm maggie Fitzgerald Marianne etchel allen mary finne mary heaney michelle osman melinda mesayo nancy moran natalie trim oren theson rickard mac richard mackintosh rosalie solgie shea russell deeter judy deeter saskia garcia sharon van huvel susan haze tony abraham trey tyler hayden victrione willard richards mike solivan johanna james jonathan so edden eden trainer dorothy beady lisa anderson and jennifer finn i apologize if i left your name off this list it was purely an accident and if i mispronounced your name but thank you for your support and thank you to the commission for your consideration we do urge you to approve approval of the project as it was set forth in the staff report and to do so tonight thank you thank you and that concludes the the applicant's presentation okay and um as mr. rose said i'm gonna ask the we just hold our questions until after the public hearing here so uh this is a public hearing tonight if you've been here before you've heard me say all of this before so please indulge me again i'll be calling your name in order of the cards received you will have three minutes to speak move to one of the podiums i will call the first name i will also call the second name and begin to queue up so that we're not waiting a long period of time for people to move from their seats to to the microphone that just kind of keeps things moving right along you as miss wallace said if you uh hear something that uh somebody is saying that you agree with and you don't and your card is in here and you don't choose to speak when i call your name you can just let me know you choose not to speak and um and that you agree with the prior speakers uh i request that there are no audibles um definitely if you agree with something that a speaker says please raise your hand we can see that we can see that you know where the consensus is in agreement of what's being said if you don't agree with something please don't boo you can put a thumbs down but no audibles that uh interrupt our process here um we'll go ahead and and have the the public hearing we're up here carefully listening to you i'm recording the questions and concerns and at the conclusion of the public hearing we'll have staff the applicant respond to those concerns and those questions before we get to our questions once the the public hearing is closed again please don't or if you hear somebody speaking to to to an a subject please don't call out any other questions again wait till you're at the microphone and at the conclusion of the public hearing um no callouts as we're answering questions if you think of something else please just let us do our process and listen because probably whatever question might pop up we'll get answered in the course of our process here um i don't know that anybody has asked for that but i also don't allow people to see their three minutes to another speaker so i'll call your card and um you get to speak but you don't get to go i want to give my time to that former speaker so that they have six minutes and don't allow that so i think that concludes all my rules and regulations appreciate your uh tolerance for that and um so i'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing tonight and we're going to begin with peter rumble followed by ananda suite followed by dwayne duit good evening commissioners peter rumble from the senator was a metro chamber uh appreciate your time appreciate your consideration of this important project as you know and as you've heard homelessness in the housing crisis have significant negative impacts on our local economy and our businesses not to mention the individuals uh dealing with homelessness the chamber recognizes the need for housing with wraparound services for those experiencing homelessness is a crucial piece of our community challenge and caritas village will double the number of people who find permanent housing each year and help alleviate the homelessness and housing crisis in our city and in our county making sure that our neighbors across the economic spectrum have a permanent affordable home is good for santa rosa good for sinoma county good for business and again good for that individual the righteousness of this project frankly uh is not in question and the thing is in terms uh we all know what the solution is to our housing crisis we all know what the solution is to homelessness it's only when the question of implementing these solutions is called do we end up in contested hearings uh and debates and that isn't to say that we shouldn't have an open and frank conversation about things we shouldn't disrespect we should honor people that we disagree with and that isn't to suggest that people who have a different opinion than mine are bad or uninformed i can assure you that i'm generally the slowest guy in the room most of the time but there always will be a reason to vote no particularly if it means change the change contemplated by this project in my opinion is someone who lives and works not far away uh in no way diminishes from the sense of the historic area indeed the change brought by this project enhances the physical condition of the area and of course that is additive to the fact that the project will change the lives of hundreds of our fellow community members uh i'm an optimist and the quality uh in me continues to believe that we'll move forward to the solutions that we know are needed and that we know are righteous i'm certainly bolstered by a stash recommendation to approve the project and i encourage you to keep this project moving forward for the benefit of all of our residents for all of our businesses for our city and our county and hopefully keep me an optimist thank you thank you mr rumble and i did um forget to indicate that when you're up there you can watch the timer is moving along it will show you how much time you have left i'm a very strict timekeeper so when it gets to the buzzer that's it so really kind of pay attention to that and understand that um i will stop you at the end of three minutes okay next is ananda suite followed by dwayne duit followed by terry knoll good evening commissioners my name is ananda suite i'm the vice president of public policy and workforce development for the santa rosa metro chamber um housing homelessness in the housing crisis are having significant negative impacts on the economy and our local businesses as peter just said the santa rosa metro chamber supports policies and and projects that bring wraparound services and programs to the solutions in addition to the human toll on those experiencing homelessness in our community and the emotional toll and all of our citizens and this type of project just being the right thing to do homelessness is a significant drain on our local economy it impacts tourism and employee recruitment it impacts local retailers it needlessly strains vital law enforcement services and a virtual emergency response resources and it places an extreme burden on our healthcare network keratoss village's inclusion of on-site medical care will reduce that burden and cost to existing emergency rooms clinics and ambulance transports in terms of neighborhood impact the project offers significant improvement to the existing site and research demonstrates that permanent supportive housing not only restores the lives of homeless individuals and is a highly cost effective but can also lead to steadier growth in property values for nearby residences the county and city are facing real economic challenges as a community we're not in a position to turn away real opportunities for action catholic charities and burbank housing are two organizations with expertise and a proven track record of successfully implementing solutions to homelessness and the housing crisis there is a significant cost to doing nothing and a significant cost to letting an opportunity like keratoss village pass us by i urge you to support keratoss village and the lasting improvements it will make to our community thank you thank you dwayne duit followed by terry null followed by daniel wine seg not seeing mr. duit okay so terry null followed by daniel wine seg and just state your name for the record to start please daniel windsvig with the snowman intersections coalition okay all right we all agree that our community needs more housing and must do more for our neighbors experiencing homelessness and who are precariously housed keratoss village is a project we needed a decade ago we needed ever more today and we can no longer delay debate or deliberate the nuances of vital projects that will address the dire needs of our community that are growing daily this project will help hundreds of our neighbors begin their journey towards health and contribution at the individual level and the community level i'm strongly in favor of this project and appreciate the collaboration of these two significant service providers as they work together to address the health and housing needs of our community i'd like to thank everyone who has come out here tonight to participate in this decision and i also want to recognize those who aren't here tonight whom we haven't heard too much from and those are the folks that are going to benefit most from this project this project's going to impact us all but none as profoundly as those whom we are not hearing much from in these processes most of us have the privilege of stable homes and we thus have the ability to respond to the community issues before us our ability to respond is a responsibility to those who do not share this privilege our neighbors without stable homes lack them for a myriad of reasons and have a myriad of needs to get them housed and in good health regardless of their situations we owe it to our precariously housed neighbors to create more options and opportunities to heal recover and find stable dignity affirming places like caritas village will be to call home i urge you to support this project thank you great thank you lisa landress followed by denis rosati followed by chris gravel hi that was a very nice rollout everybody did it looks like a beautiful project i'm sorry it has to be so tall in that historic neighborhood but that's all by the wayside my only concern moving forward is i've driven that block at the behest of many many residents of that area and the lack of monitoring and the lack of upholding of their conditional use permit at the navigation site at 600 morgan street has really been disturbing i'm up to 21 days driving and i haven't driven one day where they weren't in infraction in that so i love the i love the project i don't like the managerial stewardship that's going on at 600 morgan street there is a massive amount of concerns there and there's lots of documented footage of it so in moving forward i would like that to be a consideration that that use permit be tightened up because the one that's on record for them now only sites that they need to have one person to manage hundreds of people and i could tell it's a five-person job on any given day i've waited 10 minutes for people to just stop blocking my car at there i have video footage of it i have still photos as do other family members and residents i don't live there but i started driving there because so many people weren't getting action on their complaints on it so i love the building i love housing for people but i do not love the stewardship that's going on there with the clientele in the navigation part thanks thank you denise rosati followed by chris grable followed by scott johnson hi thank you madam chair members of the commission my name is denise rosetti i'm representing myself here today but also speaking to some legacy i left behind i had the opportunity to work on the downtown station area plan whenever it was going through the city process um and worked with literally spent hundreds of hours on that project worked with hundreds of citizens here in santa rosa and residents and i was just reflecting that it was about 13 years ago that we approved that project here in this very room and sometimes we make plans we're really good at making plans and it takes a long time to implement them but i was going through the staff report the last couple days and i got a little teary-eyed thinking about this change to transit density mixed use etc and this is i think this is the exact kind of thing that the city needs i think it's a great project it fills so many of the needs that are in the community checks a lot of boxes with the affordable housing obviously being a huge part of what our advocacy was in that station area plan work lead gold for the project i had the opportunity to serve the city on the santa rosa green building advisory committee and this level of environmental design was exactly what we were thinking about and had in mind when we were going through that process as a community there's a plan out there somewhere on the shelf you could dust off and check it out the station area plan called for parking to be unbundled and promoted transit use and bike and pedestrian orientation you're seeing that here in your proposal before you and then finally i just say there's so much community support for this project i've heard a lot about it i've toured the site myself i think they just done a really standout job and reaching out to the community 21 million raised from the community big known donor names trioni i know the jackson family winds are also a donor and it's obviously filling a need and hitting the pulse in our community so thank you so much for your consideration and i would just encourage you to say yes to this project and and see the implementation of our downtown station area plan thank you thank you next is chris gray bill followed by scott johnson followed by oran decent good evening chair sisco and vice chair weeks and members of the planning commission um first i just wanted to express gratitude that we have a project like this uh that's big enough to actually make a difference i think it's it's the first big thing and we need a lot more of these big things but it it's i think the first thing that would really really accept the challenge and says you know what we can't just do a little bit here we can't do a little bit here we've been failing for years really addressing this issue and homelessness and and precariously housed folks and i just wanted to show gratitude that we're even at this point where we're making a decision about something that actually meets that that need with with some courage and leadership i just came from los guilicos village where i i'm i'm on the site team and a number of the folks behind you on the wall are currently residents of los guilicos village they're going to need somewhere to live it's a temporary site we hope that it will be less temporary than april thirtieth however there needs to be permanent homes for these folks and they're right behind you and i encourage you to look at their faces before you vote tonight um the last thing i wanted to say is i hope you understand the the urgency i think you do but in in the position you're in i think it's it's rare that this is the case but it really is a make or break of being able to get this project across the finish line through feasibility given that the funding availability of these tax credits that we know are necessary to build these projects these nine percent tax credits especially the disaster the disaster tax credits that have been promised to us that a lot of us have been fighting to keep in sonoma county and in fire affected communities it's really critical that we recognize the urgency and the fact that it's a make or break we there's a lot of you know perfect before the good that happens um in planning process but i think we really need to recognize the dire urgency and commitment encourage this required to just move this forward so that it can even have a chance at that level of funding that we have never seen in this community that can really make a huge difference and do something uh worthwhile and and again big enough to actually make a difference so thank you thank you scott johnson followed by oren thieson uh good evening planning mission my name is alex hartman and i'll be reading on the behalf of scott johnson in his words i'm a business owner at six w nine street and a homeowner not far away on clover drive homelessness is a critical issue in our community one that is terminally underserved by public and private efforts one of the reasons it's underserved is because of the difficulty involved in getting any additional services approved anywhere in the city in this case protecting historic resources seems to be the most likely palatable reason to deny yet another project designed to help our most at-risk citizens protection for historic resources gain ground during the large-scale quote urban renewal ethos of the fifties and sixties at the time there was a crisis of whole-scale destruction of historic buildings and neighborhoods though the the protections that were enacted were largely successful however that crisis has passed and we are faced with an even greater crisis the crisis of housing affordability and homelessness a tool which helps solve one crisis is now being used to exacerbate another caritas village is well designed for its purpose well situated for those who need it and the services it will provide are long overdue to deny this project continues the pattern of doing nothing at hope things won't prove now we as a community need this project as a longtime member of this community and a business owner in the neighborhood i am fully committed supporter of this project scott johnson thank you great thank you uh next is oran theson followed by jan kuzman followed by vic trioni well hi um i've been developing and designing around sonoma county for 45 years and i've done a lot of historic restorations and we won awards from sonoma county historical site and west county's historical site we also build the smart growth projects and our winter town green uh ran a went a a bag award for smart growth um i took the time to study this project and walk the neighborhood and take a took a look at the old houses and the old buildings there and i they're not really worth restoring or saving and i don't think they're worth moving either uh and i studied this project and the location this is it rose to the big city and this is downtown it needs big buildings high density and smart growth and this is a really well designed smart growth project and um i just hope the planning commission can move this song as fast as they can because we really need it thank you thank you uh jan kuzman followed by vic trioni followed by rovin cleaves good evening my name is cindy oxal and i'm here to read on behalf of jan kuzman kuzmar and her husband david we regret we cannot attend this meeting in person but we will both have work obligations during this time we have been living at the little house on the corner of seventh and a for nearly six years we love living in close proximity to downtown santa rosa and enjoy being able to go out to dinner happy hour or a movie without having to get in a car living across the intersection from catholic charities we have seen from a short distance the number of people that they serve with many more in need sleeping in their cars or on the streets nearby we are grateful for the leadership that catholic charities has taken in helping families and individuals in need but there is clearly so much more work to do we have witnessed firsthand the limitations of their current facilities which are outdated and no longer work well to provide services to those in need we have seen children getting ready for school outside on frigid mornings sleeping in a vehicle because there was not room at the current location to house them or their parents we support the caritas village project because it will allow catholic charities to help twice as many people find a place to call home this new facility will provide increased privacy for those seeking services as well as improved safety and security for staff neighbors and the community the end result will be that more people are permanently housed and provided desperately needed services as neighbors to the project we look forward to additional benefits including improved pedestrian safety with improved sidewalks and safety lighting i urge you to support this vital project our county city and neighborhoods are facing real crisis of homelessness and housing caritas village is a worthwhile step towards improving quality of life for all sincerely jennifer kuzmar great thank you thank you victrioni followed by robin cleves followed by robin stafani good afternoon i spent many hours in front of the commission here 45 years ago that's when i had hair and and i was involved in for-profit housing projects but since i've since then i've seen the light as rebecca mentioned greg and i are the co-campaign chairs of of this project the raising funds and it was kicked off right after right after the fires of 17 where we had a five million dollar lead gift from tipping point with tipping point raised funds in san francisco through a number of uh or rehearsals of a number of music events and we were very fortunate when they came and saw a caritas that they were uh really interested and had a lot of support and that kicked us off so we have raised as rebecca said about 22 million we're about 82 percent of our goal and and i'm very confident we'll reach that we'll be coming out shortly with a grassroots campaign with with the support of our of the people in the community we've received uh 10 uh seven figure requests uh from different organizations and individuals and including the memorial hospital and kaiser permement day and we're working on the third hospital as we speak uh caritas is a is a one-stop shop uh it provides it as rebecca said it's not just providing home but it's it's planning home uh over the last three years about 650 individuals have been placed every year in housing through the uh through the catholic charities and this will be focused in in caritas uh santa rosa community health clinic will uh will drive the clinic that will be there and will have the um uh a facility there that will take people that come out of hospitals into in the nightingale program that when they released from a homeless person released from the hospital it has no place to go they go back on the street they were back in the emergency room this is the facility they will get them uh ready to find out to find a home and to live a normal life so i think the i've given a number of um of tours over the last two years and i think the most uh the best thing is when people see the family support center and the compelling need that we have and it was it was right in the press democrat today the picture of the the young mother and the two children they had no place to go caritas will provide that i'm very passionate about this and i i firmly believe that this project will move the needle and thank you for your comments uh robin cleves followed by robin stifani followed by dale flowers good evening my name is lissette sull and i will be reading on behalf of robin cleves who cannot be here today unfortunately hello i'm robin cleves and i give permission to lissette to read my letter i have lived at 730 morgan street since 2015 it is one of the homes on the st roes preservation district's walking tour it is a queen and cottage and is called the john schroeder house and was built between 1904 and 1907 i moved into this house sight unseen from washington state because of its charm being right along the freeway and very close to several shelters the neighborhood has its challenges but i love living here as an emergency room registered nurse working at kaiser permanente in san aroza i care for many homeless people regularly they're individuals with stories and burdens they're all someone's sister brother daughter son mother father i treat them all with compassion because they are human beings deserving of respect it is easy to label them the homeless problem but this takes away the humanity of those that struggle to get through life compassion is a strength that allows us to understand others and see that we are more alike than different as a registered nurse i want to help those in need and that is what catholic charities and caritas village will do catholic charities helps people due to catholic charities current facilities their resources are limited this new facility will allow catholic charities to house and help so many more people in contrary to some opinions i do not believe caritas village will increase the amount of people in need of help to congregate in the neighborhood with the larger facility people will not need to hang out in the streets as they will be accommodated within the building itself catholic charities is the embodiment of compassion they see others suffering and are motivated to relieve that suffering they need this caritas village in order to do so i fully support this as a registered nurse and a longtime member of this neighborhood thank you thank you next is robin stafani failed followed by dale flowers followed by eddie d good afternoon my name is robin stafani and i live on west sixth street and my business is located on west ninth street essentially bookending the west end neighborhood i moved to the west end in 2007 with my family looking for a place where i could build a future for my family in a livable walkable downtown neighborhood and i've definitely found that in the west end i'm here to support the caritas village and i echo a lot of the reasons that you've heard tonight all all great points and why we need to do this and why it's the right project but i thought i'd also share a story a personal story so when i moved to the west end my younger daughter and i were driving past the mission and we saw the line outside to get in and my daughter said look mom a concert and i said uh no honey that's the line to get into the homeless shelter and she said homeless shelter what's the homeless shelter and i said well that's a place that you can go if you don't have a home and you can go in and you can you can stay there and as i looked in the rear view mirror i could see the gears turning in her head and she said i love my new neighborhood and it really it made me proud frankly that that was the impression that she had of of that um fast forward 13 years and now i have another young child um and when we uh drive through walk down our our streets in our neighborhood which we often do um she commented to me mommy we should not be letting this happen when when i explained to her why people were living on the street um and uh she said i think everyone should have a home at which point i said me too and i want to share that story because i think that it really embodies the hope that our family feels for our neighborhood and our community and we see the caritas village as something that will help solve the problem and be a step in the right direction and possibly create more energy and almost a renaissance to our neighborhood in support and solving the problem and i can't wait to take her to the groundbreaking or one of the activities that happened to show her how we as the leaders in our community can work to solve these complicated projects um i understand the concerns i live them day in and day out however my concerns are are deeper for our neighbors that are in need and deeper for the legacy that i want to leave for the future so please support caritas village please do it now thank you thank you mr. finally next is dale flowers followed by eddie d followed by rosalie looks like sul bit shea good evening commissioners my name is dale flowers i serve as pastor of first presbyterian church the fourth oldest church in this city organized in 1855 our faith community cares about the history of who we are we belong to the mcdonald historic district as well as where we live we also care deeply about the 3000 neighbors who are without home or shelter our community of 700 members and friends are personally invested to help address the life needs of some of the most vulnerable members of our community we give financially and serve as volunteers with catholic charities we partner with this organization for three reasons we share a similar value and conviction that people matter and it is important that we address their personal worth with dignity secondly their approach to address the challenge of homelessness is done on a strategic level they work for long-term solutions while not overlooking the immediate need of each individual and third they offer a comprehensive approach rather than a band-aid fix to help people thrive and live better just two weeks ago i received a letter from um from susan goren chair of sonoma county supervisors asking for my assistance as a community leader to address the homelessness crisis by finding suitable sites for housing and shelter of these citizens the ideal type of property that they listed included five criteria i won't read them to you because you're well aware of them and this project meets five i mean meets um they they listed six and it meets five of the six the only one it doesn't meet is ready for immediate occupancy so for this reason we who support the construction of caritas village think it is just such a site and and it is our hope that you will give your approval thank you thank you eddie d followed by rosalie silviate shea followed by lina hoffman good evening my name is eddie i'm here to speak on the behalf of catholic charities as one of the regular volunteers and a former participant in their programs before i began i respectfully request that i not be videotaped and audio recording is fine catholic charities has been a part of mine of my life for over a decade they've been there for me each time i needed them and i love giving back to them every week as i volunteer i can't tell you how much catholic charities has done for me i was a victim of a very brutal attempted murder my my life has changed forever i found myself at the lowest point of my life i became a resident at sam jones hall where i worked alongside the staff to rebuild my life at a time when i had burned most of my bridges and had no one who cared about me they respected me in a way that made me feel special again in addition to the basic necessities like a roof over my head and food on the table they gave me my self-confidence back they helped me rebuild my credit and apply for jobs i had bad teeth i was so embarrassed that i never smiled catholic charities arranged for a dentist to fix my teeth now i volunteer every week at 600 morgan street where we fight to help our homeless neighbors restore their dignity in a way housing brings housing brings it's hard it's hard work and the men and women seeking care at 600 morgan street are looking to do more than than survive they are coming to catholic charities just as i did they want a new and better life but the current facility is failing it is so hard to do the work we we need to do and do it well that's why there is an overflow onto the streets i believe caritas village will finally make it possible for us to achieve our goals it will be a safe place for our clients to receive care and get on the path to housing it will be it will be a facility that staff and the clients can be proud of at catholic charities i feel a part of a family i want the best for my family and the people who who we serve please consider caritas village so these angels can make an even greater difference in san rosa i want to thank cc angels catholic charities angels for allowing me to be participate in their programs and to and to have a roof over my head and because of them i'm alive today and it takes a village just to get me through the day because i wouldn't be here without them i'd be dead so because of their help they restored hope in my life they brought my family back together and because of that i'm allowed to be able to see my two twin grandchildren that are gonna be born soon and i have permanent housing now for five years thank you catholic charities thank you but don't clap i appreciate the sentiment and i understand but we gotta keep to the rules okay thank you eddie next uh rosalie's with shea and then followed by her is alina hoffman and then joel lily and thought yes my name is rosalie sulca chay and i come to you as a homeowner in the saint rose historic district for over 40 years i have seen many changes take place in my neighborhood we move there as a very ordinary family my husband a roofer and i became employed as an account clerk my children and us had access to public transportation to the proximity to the santa rosa junior college to the wonderful businesses my children working at the grateful bagel my son delivering newspapers for the press democrat we are a very ordinary family i want that wholesomeness in that wholeness to continue in the end my neighborhood the house across the street from me in november of 2018 two bedroom one bath 1220 square feet sold for 647 thousand dollars some of my children could never afford to live in the neighborhood that i live in now i want the wholeness to continue and i ask you to support caritas village project because i feel strongly that it contributes to the wholeness of the neighborhood it respects and provides for all groups in our neighborhood not just the ones having 647 thousand dollar homes i am yes a bit sad by the demolition of some of the historic structures but the moving of two of them is a compromise and i think everything will be done to salvage so i ask you to support this project to give a wholeness to our neighborhood that it's so well deserves thank you thank you next is lina hoffman followed by joel i want to call you joel it's joe lily and thal and then jackie center and i'm not seeing lina hoffman so joe lily and thal i guess i'm up then i want to take this opportunity to thank the planning commissioners who took the time to meet and walk the neighborhood to view examples of compatible infill projects and adaptive your use of existing buildings i also want to say that i'm not opposed to catholic charities having an updated facility for having additional housing added to the saint rose preservation district both can happen along with preservation since 1990 when the saint rose historic preservation district was formed there have been numerous projects both residential non-residential that have been successfully completed by adaptive reuse and new infill and by following the guidelines for building in historic districts the applicants are asking to demolish an entire city block of our preservation district mostly of known contributors to the district the general hospital a four-unit apartment building and most of the bungalows on morgan street are part of the fabric to make up the district the fact that these structures do not are not eligible for federal or state historic registry shouldn't matter there's still local contributors and i would argue that most of the buildings in san rosa's eight historic districts don't rise the level of the standard of being for the federal or state registry but they're still important one of the reasons for demolishing for demolition stated in the hour is trying to save them would prevent the applicant from reaching their objective what about the city of santa rosa's objectives stated in multiple documents on preserving its historic districts one example is a santa rosa general plan 2035 adapted by the city council and it says general plan policies tribes strive to ensure long-term historic preservation in santa rosa by encouraging preservation of historic structures as well as their surrounding setting in areas of new development and redevelopment by discouraging the demolition of historic resources if the project moves ahead as planned it sets a dangerous precedent not only for future development in the san rosa's preservation district but for all eight of santa rosa's historic districts ire is the planning commission not to approve a plan that says total demolition is the only way to go how about a win-win where catholic charities gets a better facility where some housing is added to the san rosa district and the preservation district gets to stay intact thank you thank you next is jackie's center i don't see her she did write some things on her card which we'll put in the record uh so next is jeff uh colon followed by susan haze followed by matthew reid chair sisco vice chair weeks commissioners and staff i wanted to start off by just thanking all of you for the time and dedication and care that you've devoted to this project um my name is jeff colon i'm the chair of the board of trustees for providence st joseph santa rosa memorial hospital and i'm here this evening representing the hospital and our ceo tyler headon um we are here to express our strong support for the caritas village project which will provide permanent supportive housing with on-site supportive services and affordable housing units for our most vulnerable residents at providence st joseph health we believe health is a human right everyone deserves a chance to live the healthiest life possible especially those who are poor and vulnerable but it's not easy to take care of your health when you don't have a safe place to call home our founding sisters understood better than anyone that housing and health care are inextricably linked and have ministered to the needs of the homeless since their earliest days in the tradition of our founding sisters st joseph devotes resources activities and services that help build lives and care for the underserved and disadvantaged providence st joseph health has seen the impact that stable housing makes on health and the unfortunate health outcomes for persons without proper housing housing in our own community needs assessments keep telling us that homelessness and inadequate housing are key needs in santa rosa and throughout our northern california region chronic homelessness is a major barrier to health in every community in which we serve that's why we launched a new initiative called housing is health and are committed to partnering with others in each of our communities to support and invest in affordable permanent housing for those who would otherwise be living on the streets we commend our partners catholic charities of santa rosa and burbank housing for their unwavering commitment to helping address homelessness and housing instability in our community and improving the quality of life for our most vulnerable residents santa rosa memorial hospital believes finding a solution to homelessness is a moral imperative and we strongly urge the planning commission to approve this project thank you for your consideration and support great thank you susan haze my name is susan haze i'm a 25-year resident of the west end neighborhood i live near the teen center i'm also a board member of the west end neighborhood association i'm a volunteer with catholic charities through sam jones outreach at morgan street and other small projects i'm also working our end for the past 50 years and i work part-time now in home health it's been brought to my attention that there is some negative feeling about the proposed center the close experience i have had with the homeless indicates the need for more coordinated services that carry to us will accomplish the homeless folks in our area are here because downtown areas offer more further help than welfare no matter what city you're in we are fortunate to have groups that care the redwood gospel mission feeds and overnights people san francis appall serves lunch daily morgan street homeless center provides food and much needed case management to help and house family support center feeds houses and provides case management for those with children many churches provide occasional overnight stays and dinner santa rosa offers the best support it is able to do caritas village will consolidate some of these services and continue to work for appropriate care and placement jesus said the poor will always be with us and if all of us are not part of the solution we're part of the problem neighbors should not hesitate to report to the police or the catholic charities any issues or problems immediately we are all aware some behaviors are not acceptable lastly there's always an invite through catholic charities to tour any site and and discuss issues functioning in the residents with staff members if you have any questions or concerns let them know and the and and information time can be arranged many thanks and please support this appropriate cause with an open heart thank you thank you next is matthew reed followed by denise hill yes thank you matthew reed i'm a 700 morgan street residents in fact i'm the guy that before catholic charities extended the mailers out to a thousand feet i was the only one getting them uh yeah i just wanted to say that i'm hearing a lot of kind of common ground here as far as we want this built i'm obviously in support of it too as a working class person myself i understand and have been close myself to you know getting injured on the job no health insurance or crappy health insurance you know and you know you miss one paycheck you miss another paycheck and then you're out on the street nobody wants that okay so i hope and and in in that same vein that that we all are when we're getting together and you know involved in building building this that uh it's uh that's uh understood and appreciated that those people who are that morgan street neighborhood that residential neighborhood that is kind of in the thick of it that this building of caritas village uh truly ultimately alleviates the rampant loitering and vagrancy and and howling at the moon in the middle of the night waking me up and you know and all the cars out on the streets with jacked up and oil getting poured in the in the street and you know environmental issues like that and health issues and needles and human feces and the whole smear uh so to the extent this gets built you know i i hope that i'm all for it i certainly hope that uh you know it's also appreciated that it alleviates that that is to say we don't have both um a increase in the population of residents on on morgan street uh and nothing changes uh with respect to all of the other um i'll just say eccentric things that go on i'm in that neighborhood on a daily basis uh i would also submit that you consider um a size of this building of the caritas village that can be reasonably and fairly managed by the good uh people at catholic charities many of whom i know and would consider friends and i have spoken with them in neighborhood walks too and stuff and they express their concerns and about that as well um that uh you know so items like 24-hour security and property managers on the on the facility and all that i just would want to make sure that the funding for this also you know includes that and so that it be built in a manner whereby um you know all that can can come to you know can be managed effectively thank you very much thank you next is denise hill followed by peter stanley followed by vasco yorgov hi um it's a 30-year resident of the saint rose neighborhood uh and i think after touring around with each of the planners uh on the planning on the planning commission members um i think you can understand why we love our neighborhood it's a really nice little tiny neighborhood that was one of the first historic districts actually the first historic district formed in 1990 so 30 years ago that historic district was in effect because it was felt to be the most endangered area for being destroyed by development due to its location uh so in 2015 catholic charities who had been leasing the properties purchased the properties on the block that we're talking about for this project they were aware at the time that this was a historic district and neighbors voiced their concerns about the fact that they might destroy buildings and yet they put through a proposal that is that states it will destroy all historic structures there was no olive branch to the neighborhood and even though they say they've met and offered meetings lots of comments that were directed at let's not destroy so many historic buildings to do this project have been ignored so we don't have a problem with the catholic charities uh caretas center being built i will echo matt's concerns though that the caretas center navigation center has got to have better controls and guidelines and management than what we're seeing now at 600 morgan street which is very lax in a constant issue in the neighborhood for the last two years at least um we do have concerns about the caretas homes and the fact that they would destroy so many historic structures federal state guidelines for historic districts list as best practices for new building to be infill around historic structures and currently uh i don't believe that you can even find anything that addresses destroying an entire block of a historic district in any federal guidelines or state guidelines so what we're looking for here is a win-win we're not looking you know currently it's a win-lose uh the historic district loses the historic structures lose and a win-win would be some of those historic structures get saved ideally more than just one or two so that's what we're looking for and we hope that we will see that happen thank you so much thank you peter stanley followed by vasco yorgoff chair sisco members of the commission thank you my name is peter stanley i'm with archeologics i'm a downtown business owner and a resident of santa rosa for over 40 years um we've been hearing very eloquent uh speakers tonight talk about uh the need in the desire for solving a lot of the problems that we've had in this community for a very long time i spent six years on the other side of that dais and i spent a lot of time with you and i understand the problems and the difficulty of having to come up with these decisions but i wanted to give a land use context to what we're talking about here because these problems came a long time ago we thankfully put urban growth boundaries into this community decades ago and we knew at that time in the conversation we were having at that time was that we were going to have to intensify development closer and closer in town what we did over the next 30 years is we built subdivisions single family small out subdivisions that did nothing to bring affordable housing into our community we stand here tonight and we look at this crisis that we have in housing and then we look at the crisis and about homelessness and we can trace all of these things back to very good decisions maybe we made it one time but they have these unintended consequences and so i would propose to you that we have now or potentially a land use crisis in this community because we are starting to erode the edges of all these opportunity zones i'm encouraging you to realize through this 2007 specific plan and the amendments that we're putting in place now and the great work that the city has been doing is that if we start to erode the intensity of development opportunity in the downtown 10 years from now we're going to be having this exact same conversation you have two excellent organizations who've been in this community for decades and catholic charities and burbank housing and all they're asking is that this community is to please give them 20th century solutions tools to solve these 20th century problems that they have this is a critical problem that we are never going to solve if we keep worrying about diminishing these edges of our communities if this is going to make us all of our better community and we need to be compassionately looking towards this and finding very sensitive projects as the one michael pyotok brought forward and the one the catholic charities and burbank is they are two excellent providers they will be here in our community part of our community in solving this problem and i encourage you to please push this forward bring it to council let's get this done thank you thank you that's go your golf hi um so for full disclosure i'm a burbank employee but i'm here speaking as a resident of the west end um everybody before me spoke incredibly eloquently so i just want to highlight my own experience living in the west end um every day i walk to work uh through downtown and unfortunately i walk by my neighbors and fellow human beings who um aren't as lucky as me and don't have a roof over their heads um they're incredible kind people um i've gotten more smiles and more you know little pleasant conversations with my neighbors who happen to be homeless and i have with a lot of the other folks um so i just think this is a really incredible opportunity that we have here um and as a resident of the west end i'm really excited that i get to be a neighbor to a project like this so that's all thank you thank you that's all the cards that i have on this item uh you don't have to have filled out a card uh to speak on this item so if there's anyone left that's wanting to speak just go up to the microphone and again please start with giving your name and you'll have three minutes one two and three so i don't know if any of you know that wonderful little story called could you give your name for the record for doreen i'm doreen venluan i'm okay yes i don't know if you know the wonderful little story called caps for sale it's about a man a peddler who is uh wandering through his village and he's trying to sell his caps for 50 cents so i'm wearing three tonight and he gets into some monkey business but hopefully we're not going to um i'm first of all here uh as a survivor of domestic violence and uh if you could erase about 27 years from me um and see me as a 40 year old mother with three little children who uh with great terror ran away on the streets thankfully had a uh old old motor home i ran out off with and um you know i'm so grateful that there were services available to me and my children we ended up in a six month shelter that took us with the three kids and we lived there and helped they helped through the structure and the safety the accountability that they provided to uh allow me to put my life back together again so while i didn't live under um an overpass i came really close i had five hundred dollars in my pocket when i left with those three little kids i'm grateful i can stand here today i'm also here to represent uh saint uh i'm sorry church of the incarnation and that is in the heart of um the saint rose district and we are committed to helping the homeless we survive we provide uh open table on a weekly basis each sunday morning the homeless come and there's a hot wonderful meal for them we give them gloves and hats in the winter time and coats sleeping bags things like that but we know it's not enough it's just not enough it's something but it's not enough and so i'm here in lieu of our rector who is on a paternity leave right now and others who do support this our church is all about providing soul care and this is soul care as well as physical care care and then lastly i'm here as the very recent past president of the redwood empire chapter of the association of marriage and family therapists we are 380 strong and uh we uh thank you miss lou and you ran out of time but i think we get where you were going okay um yes would you like to speak certainly please state your name and you have three minutes yes my name is greg steel i am fortunate to serve as a board member for catholic charities and also has been pointed out earlier this evening as the capital campaign co-chair along with victrione i think we would all agree that homelessness and affordable housing is a crisis the question isn't that the question is what are we going to do about it and i think you have in front of you tonight an opportunity to help us move the needle and move the needle in a significant way we need two things to address this problem obviously one is more affordable housing that's obvious the other is more adequate services and support for those that are homeless or those that are at risk of becoming homeless and i believe that keratos village is the most