ge operator change it was originally called Soulful and it went to Fox Den Incorporated in October January of 2019 the public notice went out shortly thereafter the planning commission meeting was held it was a unanimous approval of the planning commission there were five members that night and it was a 50 vote so the site is located to northeast Santa Rosa it's just east of summerfield road on the south side of Montgomery Drive as we come in closer you can see here it's part of a general plan designation block of properties that are similarly designated as commercial office and then the zoning corresponds to that office designation it's a commercial neighborhood zoning this is a site plan the trail house building it's a standalone building up at the front of the site Fox Den is located in the rear building the project was reviewed against a number of development standards parking noise odor security lighting the project complies with all of the required standards there are no exceptions or variances proposed and this is a floor plan the site a little unique in that it has an interior parking configuration this graphic shows that the circulation functions it has adequate backup dimensions and turning movements are appropriate and you can see where the lobby and dispensaries located the and similar uses spaces are at the rear this is a parking tabulation what this shows is parking for the whole site so it includes the calculations for the trail house use as well as Fox Den essentially the required number of spaces on site 22 are provided the hours of operation for both the retail and the delivery are nine to nine daily and this is consistent with the zoning code staff has received a number of public comments proximity to the Howard Park potential impacts for children visiting there potential impacts for nuisance problems also people have raised concerns about incompatibility with the trail house the circulation could conflict with the cyclists that frequent this site many bicycle oriented events also events for children and also issues concerning its proximity to the Kiwi place preschool playground and specifically safety concerns as well as having children being exposed to cannabis the appeal includes three points listed here we have received additional information subsequent to the the drafting of the staff report these three points focus largely on the use permit findings so the first one is indicating an incompatibility with surrounding uses the point two is indicating it'll increase traffic which will then result in an unsafe environment for children at the site and then lastly the issue is raising a concern with potentially the cannabis use being detrimental to the Kiwi's welfare as Claire mentioned there is a 600 foot separation requirement to schools the nearest school is the Herbert Slater middle school and it's approximately 1500 feet to the south as we look at the aerial photo you can see trail house at the front of the site the building to the rear is the proposed foxten Kiwi pre-school is behind that property it's separated by the playground this is an aerial photo foxten is to the rear of the site where the roll-up door is located as a discretionary action the project was reviewed pursuant to Sequa it qualifies for three exemptions negligible change in use negligible change in the building as well as the infill exemption so it is recommended by the planning commission that the council by resolution deny the appeal and approve the conditional use permit for cannabis retail dispensary and delivery business for medical and adult use at 4036 Montgomery road unit B I should note this slide is different than what you'll see in your packets as well as what is online the online version was a carry over from the planning commission action this will be updated online available to the public within 24 hours I conclude staff's presentation happy to answer any questions as mentioned chair of the planning commission is here as well the search site and I've council any questions for staff Mr. Rogers thank you Mr. Mayor a couple of questions particularly around the parking if you can go back to the slide on that and if you want to advance to the the site map yeah so one of the questions that I heard a lot about was about the adequacy of the parking on the site that you've got the five that are inside and we can talk about those in a minute you have the one additional one on the outside and then the remainder of the other parking spaces and one of the letters said that there's only really 20 parking spots on the site when in fact there's 22 that are required can you talk a little bit about the history of the parking on that site I know that there's some back history from when trailhouse was first pursuing this as well yeah so when trailhouse moved in or was proposing to move into that front unit there were different uses there was some vacancy in that back building that they wish to occupy the warehouse component that you see to the north there well the north of this slide that's probably the east the fox den parking garage their retail area and their office area that was occupied by electrical engineer company so it was different situation when trailhouse was moving in they came in through a zoning clearance and the city has a retenanting incentive when something's been vacant for a while and this is this front unit was vacant so they received the opportunity to move in with some parking deficiency it's allowed by right through the zoning clearance process I don't recall I can look up but so for example they had to study the site to see what the deficiency were or if they could comply with the standard parking requirements and occupy the site with a slightly more intense use they were able to do that by providing a summary that's attached to part of their zoning clearance and in essence they received a by right parking reduction to move in with 17 total spaces required for the whole of the center based on trailhouse use of the front the warehouse and the at the time the electrical engineer industrial use to the to the south there so flash forward to this application we review it anew and subject to at least what we do is we review the proposal for the new tenant and see first if they can meet their parking requirements and they did comply with the standard and they didn't request that parking reduction and I think that's the crux of some of my questions on this front on the parking which is is there precedent in the city where you have had a business that has a variance and then a second business that tries to come as well and in particular part of the concern is if the parking is deemed adequate for fox den there is still an additional cumulative impact between fox den and trailhouse and typically when we have these sorts of discussions do you only look at the fox den portion or do you look at the cumulative impact so what we would do is look at the entirety of the site and make sure that it functions adequately and so because fox den essentially got the reduction through its re-tenanting it was deemed that the number of spaces fox den is required is adequate for the use so the new use came in we did an analysis we compared it not with an exception but just directly to the code requirement it meets that code requirement so the analysis was really that we started with a baseline of what fox den was previously allowed to have they still have that excuse me trailhouse and then fox den was simply evaluated against the code requirement so we didn't look at it for any further exceptions or reductions I just want to make sure I'm clarifying so that I understand you look at one project at the time that the project comes in and then you look at the second project do you ever look at the cumulative impact of multiple projects as you go through it I think yes that's what we did so our baseline is saying that trailhouse has adequate parking as they indicated when they requested the reduction so that's where we're starting from so we're not adding any more to it we're looking at the new use we're saying what is the required parking it meets that so there's really no further analysis beyond that we feel that both uses have satisfied their required parking together okay I think I understand what you were saying I think the answer is both you've looked at it as a project to make sure it has adequate project parking for that project but then in the totality of that shopping call it a shopping center there's enough parking to satisfy both businesses that's correct okay can we talk a little bit about the five spaces indoors so did you have a question want me to just go ahead describe a little bit yeah so we definitely looked at this in in great detail as I mentioned we don't see this too frequently this came up early on in our pre-application meetings the chief building official was instrumental in those discussions this project as I mentioned it has been evaluated for circulation so are there adequate backup distances are the turning movements going to be safe the determination is yes that will occur the other thing is that when the project comes in for a building permit because it's an indoor parking facility it will require additional ventilation that you wouldn't otherwise have in an outdoor area we've invited the chief building official he's here tonight so if you had any further questions he's happy to address those as well in particular my questions are one is there an ability to make to make it a requirement that cars cannot back out of that facility because that is one of my biggest concerns is folks who come in and have to then back out and the diagram indicates forward movement through there the second is are those spaces sized adequately for larger vehicles I can't be the only one who parks in the compact space my car's a small car and gets annoyed when there are larger vehicles that clearly don't fit in the space next to me so as far as the circulation goes the graphic is indicating that it appears that the cars can come in and they can head back out I can't see the dimensions I'm happy to look at those further they look like they're all compliant nine foot wide by 19 deep so that's a compliant dimension it's not a compact space okay can you talk a little bit about the ADA access both the proposed space indoors and also the impact on the site the spot that is existing for trail house surely I'm going to actually defer that to Jesse Oswald chief building official hello thank you Jesse Oswald chief building official the the there is a slight change in the design I believe from what you're seeing here we've worked with the design professionals to refine it to ensure that the accessible parking space meets all necessary requirements one thing that is different than what you would normally see in a parking space for accessibility is that someone will traverse an area not quite behind their car or other cars but there is a door accessing to where they can enter the building right by the access aisle for the accessible accessible spot so for the existing spot from trail house one of the the letters discussed that if there was the additional parking spot added at the far end close to fox den that it would need to be restriped through the parking lot to make it adequate sizes on all of those and that might impact the ADA spot by moving it in a way where a disabled individual would have to come behind the car behind an additional parking spot can you talk a little bit about that correct yes so there is a specific requirement that a an accessible space occupant can't be required to walk behind another vehicle other than their own so if reconfiguration has to happen in any of those exterior spaces we will have to address that through compliance so if this moved forward and they had to make that shift they still would not be able to get their operating permit if they had not addressed the ADA issue and the parking issue they will have to meet accessible accessibility requirements prior to issuing that building permit we have to get compliance before we approve okay what are the other big concerns that I heard was about the flow of traffic and in particular safety for bicyclists who are coming in on if you go to slide 15 on the north end of the trailhouse site they come in one and Adele is that direction but two they come in through the the opening that's on the the back end of trailhouse on the north side and it creates a blind curve as folks are coming through the parking lot has that been contemplated and is there a way to mitigate that concern so the the proposal along with the accompanying traffic study was evaluated by city staff our city traffic engineering staff in particular and Rob Sprinkle is here as well so I'm going to defer this question to him. Welcome Rob. So thank you I'm Rob Sprinkle city traffic engineer city Santa Rosa I want to try understanding your question correctly so as you're entering through the the west of your side learning entrance cyclists rounding the curve going around the building is that the the issue yeah so whether from folks first coming into the parking lot or folks exiting from foxtend they come up through that corridor that is a little bit tight and they take a left in order to be able to leave bicyclists are typically coming into trail house around that corner and it's a little bit of a blind corner can you talk about impact and if there's a way to mitigate that impact so to me that's a separate issue then I mean that issue will exist regardless of this application there I'm not sure if there's a way to actually mitigate that other than having people drive slowly through the through the parking lot it's with the building situated where it is so close to the drive aisle there will be a site limited around that corner hey yeah and I do I understand that there's there's traffic issues regardless of the proposal there's traffic there's traffic flow issues regardless of the proposal I'm kind of asking about cumulative impact so with with more vehicles there will be more of an impact to to the location one of the concepts I had considered was actual well the reminder I don't think that would actually help this specific situation the bike parking location for the trailhouse is located it looks like is it located there to the east of the trailhouse or is the bike parking located maybe having the bike parking location basically closer to the front as close to the front of the building as possible will help mitigate that issue I'm not sure if that's where it is currently I'm I don't know the site layout specifically for the trailhouse so if if that's where it's located I can see that that would help mitigate the issue of vehicles not seeing cyclists with the one-way circulation it's very predictable on which way vehicles will be going through a site so that is a plus the way the layout is currently and I apologize I should have asked this earlier for you before we got to to council but do we have any data on any either existing problems where we've seen collisions there whether at that corner as cars are going through the parking lot or exiting from the trailhouse as it exists I have been not made aware of any and I haven't received any complaints from trailhouse relating to that and I haven't heard anything from the police regarding that okay and then obviously a substantial amount of the meeting the planning commission meeting was in regards to concerns over impacts to the preschool can you Bill can you talk a little bit about what in particular the concerns were about what impact would happen to the preschool and understanding that the preschool is not accessible from this proposed site was it general concern or were there specific concerns the concern from the preschool yeah well they are the appellant tonight they haven't had a chance to make their own statement I think we should let them make their own statement all right I would hope that they would address that any other questions Mr. Tivitz thank you mayor just two quick questions Vice Mayor Rogers touched on one of them for me and that had to do with the ADA when I did the site tour one of my concerns that did come up was the fact that I guess and under our code it's a 12 to 1 ratio for ADA as far as sloping is concerned and it looks like there is a pretty steep slope going up to the ramp of boxed in and my concern here and I don't know if we can speak to this because we're not the ones hiring the construction team or the ones doing the upgrades but my concern is that there is going to have to be an uprooting of the parking lot if you will to try to level this thing out and when looking back at the requirements you know it says that we're not to make anything that's materially injurious to surrounding businesses and to me that would be a clear one that would have a pretty big impact on existing parking on people's desire to go there on a Friday night park their cars and have a good time so from your perspective Mr. Oswald do you think that that slope is going to require major reconfiguration of that parking lot? So I want to clarify from vice mayor's question as well the existing parking spot the accessible parking spot may not have to be addressed this new occupancy will be providing their own single brand new parking spot so this parking lot as it exists so without seeing the full submittal I don't know that we're going to have to even do any work in the parking lot from this project's perspective. Okay thank you as for one of the other concerns that I hear coming up is that this is a family atmosphere and the trail house has kind of become a bit of a family atmosphere from what I can tell you know I think the implicit concern there is that people are going to buy cannabis inside and maybe go out in the parking lot and enjoy it do we have any fines or any kind of recourse in our cannabis ordinance today that would allow us to basically take measures to stop that kind of behavior but where the burden is placed on the on the retail outlet yeah so there's specific code requirements about no loitering and no there's no on-site consumption on-site within the building or on the property allowed it's not proposed as part of this it's a land use so if there are issues with operation of this permit as presented and conditioned it's a code enforcement issue so code enforcement can be called this is a managed property so we would our first step would be to work with the property owner and the tenants to resolve the issue and it can go all the way down the line to more penalizing processes to finding of nuisance and potentially revoking their permit if we had no compliance whatsoever but the first step is to work with them and also to be very quite clear about what we expect so you're telling me there is in fact recourse in the event that bad actions happen I just want to kind of get that out there because I wasn't too sure what our recourse was and I want to make sure that some of the people in the audience understand that there is recourse for them yes there is and the state license also requires compliance with their rules as well and so part of that is having security on the site and monitoring so there's a lot of layers of protection my third and final question recognizing that this is in fact private property and that the parking spaces are on private property on the use permit can we actually control who parks where for example is it a possibility to limit parking within the facility only leaving the outer parking spaces to the existing tenant so yes the decision maker in this case the city council does have the ability through the use permit to effectively reduce parking reconfigure the parking okay thanks these columns thank you mayor I have a couple questions I think can we see slide I think it's 15 there we go my understanding is that well first let me just ask is space labeled one considered a parking space and is the space outside the door of the warehouse which says warehouse on it considered a parking space and if they are they're unusually shaped spaces and the warehouse door opens into that one parking space so it would make the warehouse not functional to park there are they included in our count of spaces are you referring to the surface parking spaces both labeled as one one of them is labeled as one a surface parking space at the entrance to the indoor parking but not indoors and the other one is immediately across from that one where it says warehouse there's a there's a space yeah there's a I think it says number eight you go over from that one at the top it's the most upper right space by the word warehouse so it looks like you're referring to the parking spaces there in closest proximity to the building both the warehouse at the top of this slide yeah those are parking spaces they are counted as parking spaces although it would be difficult to use the warehouse if a car is parked there because of the configuration of the doors yeah so the car when it's parked there it will be close to where the roll-up door is but there's still adequate room to get into the warehouse okay and space number one is shall we say highly sloped and narrow that also meets our parking space requirements so the evaluation that we've done through the use permit process is to look at the number of spaces the dimensions of the spaces and to make sure they circulate safely the specifics as it relates to ADA requirements will be evaluated at the building permit base I'm actually not anticipating that one would be designated as an ADA related space but it is a difficult space let's put it that way it concerns me and I would like the traffic engineer to talk to me about it looks to me as if the door that you would enter with your car into the facility is a single door in other words that there's not room for two cars to pass each other entering the parking space in the enclosed area and so I'm trying to figure out how the traffic flow works if there's somebody in there trying to come out while there's somebody outside trying to come in how does that how does that work and did we did we look at that when we analyze the parking and traffic flow situation because it doesn't really look like there's room for in fact in the picture there's a car waiting kind of outside while their cars are backing up inside it appears to be about a 16 foot opening which is the same that you'd have for a standard two-car garage a standard car I've seen the scrape on my car so I'm not saying it wouldn't be tight and okay so you considered common common courtesy would be to take turns especially with the turning movements that the vehicles will be taking to get in and out of the location and how many cars are we thinking will go through that circumstance in an hour within the traffic studies during the peak hour time there'd be approximately 20 vehicles that would visit the site okay so we're talking about 20 people being polite to each other coming and going through this doorway I believe there's two other sites also or two other parking spots also designated for this the the exterior so right the one at eight that has the doorway so there yes so that it wouldn't be all 20 going in okay I also have a question about and I'm not sure I don't I don't think it's you I'm not sure who it is how do we define what the entrance is that has to have the view from the street for safety reasons if you've pulled inside and have parked is the entrance the door you've pulled through or where you go in after you've parked the code requirement that the dispensary entrance be visible from the street is the is the retail lobby entrance so okay so it's the retail lobby is can we see the earlier slide other direct can we see the retail lobby entrance I see the doorway for the cars but do we see the retail lobby entrance I don't see a mile so just to the left of the roll-up door about right there yes is where the front door of the lobby will be and that takes into account that you need to ramp up and have a five by five ramp there for the accessibility parking space going across there right so you have inside the building you have the accessible parking space then you have a personnel door so they have to come out the personnel door there has to be a five by five turning radius there that's in the parking space that is very sloped I'm just trying to understand the path of travel this looks a little different from one that I saw which had a door where the striped area is allowing the door opening and the exiting of the wheelchair so you pull into the wheelchair space you go into you're in the hashed area that's the landing then you have to exit a door that's in that area and go out where there should be a level five by five space which is in parking space number one which is not a level space then you make a turn you have to go across and go up to and have a five by five turning radius up there and we've checked that you can do that in those dimensions because I'm not sure you can do that in those dimensions so the actual dimensional needs for those spaces has not been evaluated they have not applied for a building permit so that's when we get into weeds okay so just sitting there with what you know if you're coming out a personnel door where the hashed parking space is it's not clear to me which way that door is going to go but it can go either way but you have to have a five by five level landing just outside can you have a five by five level landing in a parking space for the turning radius of the wheelchair before it goes up the ramp generally no okay so I have questions about whether that's really a parking space there will be some work and pencil sharpening by the architect that's going to be tough to do and that space slopes toward the building this way quite significantly I mean I wouldn't park a motorcycle there because it'd fall over yeah okay just I have I have a and just to be clear as the people are going in and out of that space some coming in and some going out 20 people maybe in an hour at peak a person in a wheelchair has to go across that doorway the the roll-up door yes there has to go across the roll-up doorway from this configuration that's what it appears so if it's so the people in parked inside can't see them as they are exiting from the building they can't see a person coming across I mean that's that's pretty tight line of sight for that person I would agree okay I just just making sure I understood that I have a question for the city attorney when I look at uh the c up findings c d and e which I'm not positive what the page number is on those it might be seven eight or nine maybe eight or nine the page 10 is marked but on our version yeah so there it is c d and e I have some concerns about c d and e and it's not clear to me that the basis of the appeal speaks to those items if I have a concern about the findings and they don't match the basis of the appeal what what's the what's the consequence do I have to make my determination on the basis of what the appeal specifically says on page 20 no you you you can look at those um six findings okay so I can look at c d and e yes and make a judgment for myself yes okay so I will be interested as public comments come in with regard to c d and e as well as with regard to the basis of the appeal on 20 thank you miss line thank you mr mayor so this question is probably fairly rudimentary but I'd like to understand how it is that it came about that that trailhouse needed variance on their parking requirements but that the proposed that the applicant which would likely generate more vehicle trips per hour than the existing tenant would not need one I think that the it's a difficult thing to understand and that's a good question well part of the what's different with this application than trailhouse is they're converting what was leasable space to a parking garage so that made a big difference in terms of their ability to comply with parking if they haven't convert converted that warehouse space to the five space parking garage it would be here with a parking reduction request to fit into the site but they are meeting their parking requirements by converting leasable space into parking and I'm curious to know in if this has happened before or how we deal with this when you know you and I spoke and you mentioned that trailhouse has a popularity problem that you know it's a great business and you know they're fantastic and they're really knocking it out of the park how do we address this type of situation where somebody is comes in and you know is the existing under item c you know so they are the existing use and they are exceeding their proposed parking limitations but they are beloved in the community I'm wondering if this has been addressed and how you go about dealing with it yeah so they they are very successful and we want them to be successful and at some point in time they may need trailhouse may need to reevaluate you know what they need to make their customers have a good experience it's a great problem to have parking is a resolvable situation if they have employees that are currently parking on site they can have an employee parking program or passes and whatnot there's a lot of things and we have staff that will help them find some solutions but similar to if it becomes a nuisance just like we talked about with this proposed use if there's a nuisance then there is code enforcement process but obviously we'd like to be proactive and work to solutions as opposed to looking at penalties the last question perhaps this is a question for the planning commission and I'm not sure thank you for your patience is there a way to holistically evaluate these these applicants and appellants rather than only using the criteria the six criterion laid out here because I can see how you could find for each particular one or not and you know depending on your perspective but I'm wondering if there's any accounting and forgive me for being a social worker but for just the feeling of the situation well the use permit process is to balance fit and compatibility and these use permits are operationally specific so you get to know what is proposed how it's proposed there's an ability to condition it to resolve issues potential operational issues and so that's the way the use permit process is set up is to make sure that a land use that we take pause with that's why we trigger the use permit process and it's not by right that we know that there may be operational issues that might have an impact if they go undiscussed so this use permit process allows the greatest public forum to discuss those potential impacts and to resolve them by either how the project's coming in coming forward or how we condition them and that's how this works thank you very much my last question is is there a way for the council to as we're not the the planning commission and don't typically deal with these types of issues is there a way for us to give direction to see a resolution specifically of the ADA issue and the safety issue in terms of the blind turn around the corner of the existing use and give direction to come back before we grant approval well issues of code compliance in terms of building compliance that occurs after the use permit so the what's being considered tonight is the land use is this a appropriate land use for the site assuming it will move forward through the process and through construction drawing review and plan check review it'll meet all of this city and state codes for safety and ADA and the like but this is the bigger question is whether it gets to land here and if it gets to land here by approval of the use permit then they move on to the next step and do the detailed work that Jesse's shop will run through with them and if they can't make it work then they may have to make adjustments and they may be back in a use permit amendment process but we will do everything we can to help them make it work so that they can continue thank you thank you for this I have a couple parking questions also so I heard you the responses to the vice mayor's question about by right to incentivize occupancy of that building by right they could have a parking reduction is that a city of Santa Rosa decision or some other entities decision the by right portion are you talking about the parking reduction that the trail house received so it's a it's a staff determination it's a parking reduction that the code allows the director or his designee to enact and so that evaluation was done there is a zoning clearance and the particular zoning clearance actually goes through and it explains the evaluation process the calculations and how those that result was achieved so if we did not need to incentivize the occupancy of that building what would have been the parking requirements just for that same type of business if we didn't need the incentive if they didn't get the reduction it was a 10 space reduction so that it was reduced by 10 spaces correct okay you've read a lot more of these parking studies than I have but it's the first time I've read where they are encouraging the first fox stand employee to park in one particular space which to me is kind of a red flag if we're all being equal why would they want an employee to park in one of the specific seven allocated spaces it sounds like that may be a problem spot can you share with me your thoughts on that well it may be a problem spot it may be a solution opportunity as well and so one of the things that we look at when we're looking at parking reductions we often will look at other factors that support that parking reduction proximity to transit operational characteristics increased bike parking trailhouses of bicycle oriented use so by its very nature it is likely to have more bicycle patrons arriving via bicycle other infrastructure that would encourage walking things like that you also have a scenario here where you have one property owner with two buildings and two businesses and so perhaps there are operational characteristics that between these two businesses and this landowner they may result in something that would achieve a workable parking solution off-site parking transit vouchers there's a number of other ways they might be able to to get there if you pull up slide 15 I think is the best view of it they talked about the line of sight on the exit side so the east exit ramp and they talked to cars are parked there and it sounded like there was a suggestion well if you just read curbit that will give you a much better line of sight and that kind of concerns me for safety concerns it sounded like the traffic consultant was saying as you're exiting you don't have that clear line of sight onto Montgomery and again I recognize that that hasn't been the case with trail house but we're increasing the number of trips by almost a thousand percent and I'm just wondering how you interpret that and excuse me I actually have a solution potentially for that that would go through probably the building department when it comes through is to actually change the circulation direction to go the opposite direction and the only reason for that is that as you're exiting at the westerly if you were exiting at the westerly location there's already a hydrogen and red curb at that location so that would mitigate the problem without deleting the parking space so that that's a potential was that discussed at the planning commission that was not those are all the questions I have stand by Rob I just want to follow up on that thought so if if the traffic circulation made the opposite way then the car going into the lot into the internal parking structure has to make a left turn in to get in correct they would have basically a better view of all the stalls that are there prior to making a turn okay that's interesting thank you okay any additional questions for staff Mr. Tibbets really quickly one of the things I thought of too is a potential solution for and I'm this is me asking your opinion Rob is installing speed bumps in the back and could we make that a condition of of the permit somehow is there or I mean how would that translate into the building permit process because I mean it's already there cars are already going around it pretty quickly and they could use them now frankly but it could be it could be something that could be suggested I'm not sure if that's to the building through Jesse's operation if that's on site specific would the I think the council could include that as a condition of approval or it could be a suggested condition where staff is to examine the feasibility of installing the speed bumps okay okay with that thank you staff for the presentation thank you Madam Chair of the Planning Commission for hanging with us here would you like to make a invite you to make a presentation good evening Mayor and council members Patty Cisco Chair of the Planning Commission here to tell you about our process on this item the Planning Commission heard the item on January 24th we had five commissioners present all had visited the site as was done here Claire Hartman began our staff presentation going through how our ordinances came to be the specifics as to the 600 foot setback from schools and zero setback from preschool so we typically get that narrative for the education of both the commission and the public in presenting the project the applicants representative made the following kind of key points that this will be the furthest east dispensary that it's a small-scale project fit for the neighborhood commercial zoning there's no on-site consumption there's it's a women's business the representative cited our economic vitality policies so making the point that not only does it comply with our land use policies we're furthering general plan policies for economic vitality for land use and livability by placing the business in an area that's walkable pedestrian friendly transit-oriented and obviously bicycle friendly the representative described work his work with the neighborhood concerns described you know what you've heard here in order to accommodate the parking sacrificing internal square footage to accommodate the parking talked about the neighbors concerns particularly the preschool's concern about existing security issues with homeless the negative activity along the alleyway alleyway in the back part and that the applicant representative is making sure that the security plan for this project also takes care of that and they make the whole area secure for for all businesses around there public hearing was about one and a half hours members of the public citing concerns of the proximity to the Kiwi preschool traffic and parking issues the concerns pertinent to you tonight on appeal issues of crime concerns of impact to the trail trailhouse as a community focused business conflicts with their very community-oriented family-oriented events other members of the public spoke in support of the applicant vouching for her integrity challenging misconceptions about the clientele of foxten and noting that cannabis businesses are also very community community focused post hearing the applicant representative responded to public concerns by noting that a lease agreement negotiated with trailhouse allowed the right of first refusal to that warehouse space which they did wave and they were made aware that it was going to be leased to a cannabis use and that there are items in that lease agreement I think you have a copy of it that lend responsibility to the landowner to appropriately mark what trailhouse parking spaces are sort of to help modulate who's who and what's what the representative noted that this project does have code parking and the trip generation to and from the project is less than significant and likely to be even less than reported because of the delivery service he cited that on an anecdotal basis I think they're trying to get cannabis businesses at large are trying to get more statistics to to show that it's the delivery services actually reduce vehicle miles traveled because you have your customer come in once decide on their product and then the delivery services can be you know one car coming and going to to make those deliveries and the applicant representative also cited that the applicant herself is very community minded and socially responsible indicated that the property and the school would benefit from the increased security and when staff before and after the public hearing re-recited how ordinances came to be that our ordinances are in compliance with state law regarding the setback choices that we made during our commissioners discussion commissioners acknowledge the emotion in the room that dislike or disagreement with the setbacks as established but also and noted that you know it's tight parking but we're making their findings that the the project met the policies for the city for the land use policies we had similar questions about the ADA the slant et cetera and and like you we were told that those are coming at the building permit level and that you know we were looking at our land use responsibilities so again the planning commission noted the considerable outreach and review and adopting the policies that we have that it that it's our job as commissioners to be applying the policies that we have and we noted that putting these businesses in place has been a city council priority and to have the businesses equally distributed throughout the city again this was the furthest east that we have only the second east application that we've had at that point and that it was a particularly walkable transit friendly area we found that there was really no exposure of the business to the Kiwi preschool as there are no doors or windows on the rear of the building that would give the children any exposure to that business even without the setback being a concern and agree that there will be increased safety to the school and the area in general so the planning commission could make all of the findings and we voted unanimous from the need can't talk unanimously in favor of approving the conditional use permit so if you have any questions be happy to answer them thank you chair so let's go for the presentation counseling questions for the planning commission or no thank you patty you have a question for staff one of the interesting features of this application that I think did come up at planning was the interest in being delivery or delivery only it's my understanding that we cannot say it can be delivery only at this time because of some earlier policy decisions is that correct yes that's correct that's not a land use type that the city decided to permit is delivery only retail I would hope that the subcommittee might reconsider that thank you Mr. Isamir thank you Mr. Mayor and on that note I know that there was state law that was passed that I think addresses this and I think we have on our work plan for this year to revisit it to to bring that into compliance I'm not sure if Claire if you can can speak to that well the as the ordinance was developing the state law was it's a moving target exponentially changing and we're we were moving forward kind of concurrently with it but one of the acknowledgments through the process was just the various forms of cannabis retail enterprises and the different license types that we're formulating at the at the state level there are three distinct retail well maybe there I guess there's four there's the cannabis retail event that we have at the fairgrounds that's a different type of retail event retail license that's unique we have the type 10 which is the storefront dispensary which may have delivery or may not then you have a a micro business which we do allow which is allows retail on site in conjunction with and under one operator other land uses like manufacturing distribution so sort of a maker space type of enterprise and then also the delivery only model and some cities chose to go that route but the city of Santa Rosa evaluated those options and at the time we wanted we did not permit the delivery only model and the the reason in terms of discussions that I can recall was that we we were looking to have this industry sort of out front with storefronts like other retail establishments and so we were sort of emphasizing that as a characterization and at the time we did not include that that license type but it's something that the city can certainly look at when we eventually we will need to make sure that our ordinance is in total compliance and is exact fit for our city so I can see at some point in the future we'll revisit our ordinance and make some amendments and I appreciate that and I know the chair of the committee is not here tonight but he'll obviously hear these these comments as well I do know that the state law and it's a little bit in flux is whether or not cities have to accept delivery from facilities so I think that that'll be something that we look at Claire could you talk a little bit there was a mention of the right of first refusal and I've heard varying through letters varying issues about whether or not the trail house folks signed off on it knowing that this was what was coming yeah I can speak to that hopefully public comment or in the appellants presentation that'll be addressed hey there being no further council questions at this point this will go to the appellant presentation Kiwi Preschool and Child Care Center Mr. Mayor if I may just one quick clarification there was a question about the dimension of the parking spaces interior of the building and it does look like three of the spaces their numbered three four and five are at the compact dimension size eight by sixteen great thank you so if you could please identify yourself you have 10 minutes for your presentation Pamela Stevens attorney for Kiwi preschool and daycare and we first wanted to thank you for the time that you've spent on this as we know you were provided a lot of materials some of which was very technical prior to this evening's hearing Kiwi's appeal addresses a lot of new issues for the city and we understand that there's not a roadmap we appreciate the staff's efforts as it surely must be challenging to evaluate a proposal that has been amended so many times such as this one the parking the traffic and the A to A issues that have never been effectively addressed by the applicant is what is the major concern for Kiwi and the surrounding businesses including trail house now you will hear from an architect and a traffic consultant that are both very familiar with the location you'll also hear from trail house owner Glen Phant who will describe how FOXSTEM's high-intensity operation will overwhelm the location I do want to quickly clarify for Councilwoman Combs that Kiwi's appeal is brought on those standard C, D and E I apologize in our written materials I think it was confusing because we listed it as one, two and three but that is in fact the basis for Kiwi's appeal it is an admirable goal for the staff to try to make this work but due to the serious unresolved issues you will hear further about tonight Kiwi's appeal should be granted and we are happy to assist you during your deliberations if you have any further questions that's why our experts are here tonight and the first one that you're going to hear from is architect Michael Schwartz I'm Mike Schwartz I'm the architect that worked with Trail House in 2016 to build their project can we queue up slide 15 you talk about that in a minute I'm familiar with this site which is small and has intensive bicycle, pedestrian and vehicular activity my concern is that it's not a good fit for a second retail use and I'd like to start off by thanking the City Council members who visited the site personally and met with the Trail House staff it's one of the best ways to appreciate the unique characteristics of the location and its use this site has non-compliant features that predate the Trail House use the Trail House made some site improvements to mitigate many of these deficiencies but they were not completely eliminated and the impact of these shortcomings will be magnified with the presence of a second retail use Foxton currently has four design variations in their application they do not address issues including accessibility concerns that I think would need to be resolved to meet code requirements now normally these issues might not be addressed until later in the project development process but on this site it's my opinion that it's important to identify them early in the process and propose solutions that communicate the design intent I'm just going to call attention to a few of them that I think are bigger ticket items such as building entrants and egress accessible path of travel and other maneuvering concerns that have not been adequately addressed it's noteworthy that pedestrian path of travel has not been provided from Montgomery Drive to Foxton and that's evident on this slide they're not showing how anybody gets how pedestrian gets from the street to the primary entrance to Foxton on an accessible path of travel if we go to the next slide this floor plan slide 16 this floor plan does not show the floor plan that's predominantly used in the updated drawings the updated drawings have less vehicular circulation space in the lower parking space than what's shown here and the walls actually encroach on that turnaround space another thing that's not addressed in this plan this is the only plan that indicates a second egress which would be required by the occupant load and to have an egress through a parking garage they would need a 44 inch minimum with aisle with fixed physical barriers which is not indicated there this parking garage is going to functionally alternate between inflow and outflow which has been discussed but that's also going to have an impact on onsite congestion and shut down circulation on the windway drive aisle which would impede access to the entire site so in closing trailhouses become a force multiplier for the outdoor community in Santa Rosa and a neighborhood gathering place this unique business in a neighborhood currently impacted with traffic and parking issues is on a land parcel that cannot support another retail use is currently proposed I'd be happy to answer any questions during deliberations and would like to introduce Colin Brigette who is a traffic engineer from TJKM thank you Hi Colin Brigette TJKM Transportation Consultants we're consulting from that work extensively in this area we had an office in Santa Rosa for about 15 years longtime on-call consultant to the city I'm going to focus on parking in terms of how it's going to operate as you've discussed the five parking spaces are indoors and the most unusual aspect is that that's a dead end parking aisle which is very unusual for a business use and it's especially unusual here because of the high rate of turnover that's expected given the traffic volume each of those parking spaces with those five inside spaces each one is expected to turn over every 15 to 20 minutes now that's a high rate of turnover even compared to other retail uses the only comparable type of business that really has that rate of turnover would be a a convenience store like a 7-11 so if you can imagine a 7-11 with five indoor parking spaces in a dead end aisle it just wouldn't you wouldn't see it right the dead end parking aisle is something you'll sometimes see with an office use where people park for four to eight hours you might see it with apartments where people park for eight hours but you wouldn't see it with turnover 15 to 20 minutes the second point I'll make with regard to the number of parking spaces the the provision of seven spaces is based on the city code and it's important to note the city code requirement is not specific to this use originally when the city adopted the the cannabis ordinance in 2017 the the rate of four spaces per thousand was simply the default retail rate it was not based on any data for how many spaces would be needed for this type of use because at that time there simply wasn't any data today in 2019 there actually is data and it's cited in the appellants letter the the actual number of vehicles expected would be about double about 12 spaces minimum for peak demand and potentially up to as many as 30 vehicles Hi, my name is Glenn Phant I'm the owner of the Terrell House I want to thank you guys for coming and making time today I've come today to speak out in support of the business my family and employees have built in May of 2018 I made an agreement with my landlord to let them use their warehouse for a cannabis related project the size and scope of which was significantly different than the current plan before you today the current project poses many serious traffic parking and safety concerns that I would not have agreed to at the time it's a completely different plan with Terrell House we created something unique the community center never yet seen an outdoor retail my business and our city has gained international recognition for it we combined a successful bicycle sales repair and rental business with an overwhelmingly popular tap room and cafe Terrell House does not fit in any model in any book I've seen the traffic reports and rebuttals but has anyone bothered to observe our parking lot I have and it is continually busy and usually full throughout the day our neighborhood will be unduly affected by the vehicles and traffic created by a business brings hundreds of more cars a day through a parking lot I appreciate that you all visited the site how many cars did you see how many bikes did you see how many kids did you see did it seem safe add the traffic from another busy business to blind 90 degree corners a narrow one-way drive in an indoor parking garage and this is a recipe for disaster I want to be clear I'm not anti-cannibus but this new enterprise's financial heft and sensational sensational media shouldn't override serious practical impacts to the safety of our community this project is about my landlord trying to shoehorn a busy retail business into a commercial warehouse with limited public access and parking combining up to 200 visits by bike per day with an additional 400 visits by car this project will create an incredibly dangerous situation I urge you all to consider the problems associated with this project and encourage the applicants to find a more suitable property in Santa Rosa thank you is that the end of the appellant presentation yes it is thank you council questions for any of the appellant presentation I had one question for Glen you said the second amendment to the commercial lease agreement it was vastly different than this project can you share with us how it was different we talked loosely about a delivery-based service and never about a parking garage and that's what we talked about you know I that was what Scott pitched to me and that was what was discussed I was okay with you know I don't think either of us knew the rules or laws in Santa Rosa yet at that time and it was that's what I was agreeing to I was okay with it I mean it makes sense if it was delivery only to try and put this behind us is is insane I mean we we are the parking lots full almost all day long I just I don't I don't understand where the car is going to park thank you do you have a question also council member combs I believe the traffic engineer I have a question for in addition to private vehicles and small delivery vehicles supplies and materials and product has to be delivered can you tell me it was that addressed in the did you do any looking in the dress the impact of delivery in terms of a larger delivery vehicle well the so the data on the number of vehicles that becoming and going would include delivery vehicles and so in the peak hour of operation for this site there'd be expected 25 vehicles entering 25 accident so that includes delivery vehicles it wasn't taken into account in terms of needing a specific parking space I think the expectation would probably be that if a large truck needed to make a delivery they would have to either park on street or perhaps block an aisle okay thank you okay any additional questions okay thank you so I'll move to the applicant presentation Fox 10 representatives you have 10 minutes thank you Mr. Mayor I'm going to attempt to address some of the concerns that we've heard and then lead most of my time to questions and then hopefully public comment again thank you all for your service I know it's been now almost three years since we've started working on cannabis and Santa Rosa and many of those hours have been spent here in this chamber fundamentally this is a small dispensary with a 980 square foot retail sales floor that is focused on a delivery service model where customers are able to come in see and work with a bud tender on choosing the products that they like and that they want to be able to order and have that direct personal interaction but then be able to sign up for reoccurring delivery services so whether they're disabled and it's inconvenient they have kids and we prefer to order or the myriad of professional reasons that we can't always make it to the store this is intended to be a service model that is delivery focused it's under 1700 square feet and total square footage at the time that the lease addendum was signed in May of 2018 there was a clear understanding on the city's rules they existed we knew exactly what they were it was very clear in the lease addendum that trial house signed that the treatment term of agreed usage and I'm quoting here means the use of the waived space as a recreational cannabis dispensary a recreational cannabis dispensary in the city has always been a storefront we didn't have our first delivery operation until alternative started using delivery in 2018 with the creation of that license type by the state we have been able to gather additional data on the traffic of our existing dispensaries in Santa Rosa that data shows that the it rates that the original trip generation memo was based on were higher than what dispensaries in Santa Rosa see and and also that delivery service did see a reduction in trips as we were presuming at planning planning commission we would see all that data is included in there and when I'm done with my comments I'll have Daly and Whitlock our traffic engineer available to answer your questions as a part of the neighborhood focus the Fox and applicants did significant outreach and asked me to do significant outreach we attempted to contact the Kiwi preschool upon receiving no responses to our outreach we sought to find their approved plans make sure that there was good integration with what they had said to the city that they were doing in their operation and then after the planning commission hearing through representative for seas we were had a meeting scheduled to sit down and talk about their concerns which was also canceled after tonight if we're able to move forward that commitment to outreach and working with our neighbors doesn't end as a company we believe in good working relationships as an industry we believe in good working relationships with our neighbors and I believe that you have seen that prove time and again by the operators currently in the city of which the ownership operates one the largest manufacturing facilities in the city and has proven the ability to work with the city and their neighbors that same commitment will happen after tonight regardless of where the council is at or where the city is at because that's the right thing to do when you're a neighbor in a business is to work with folks we've worked with trailhouse to come up with parking solutions the lease addendum goes all the way into the details and making sure that THC and cannabis infused products are not going to be considered a competing product to trailhouses products that they serve in their cafe and pub that isn't just a please sign off on this lease that is a real effort to make sure that we anticipated the integration of these uses on the same site I do want to address some of the items that came up from council's questions one to confirm the door the roll-up door for site lines is not 16 feet it's proposed at 20 feet so larger than that double card space four feet larger than was responded to by traffic the traffic department we're very interested in the reverse flow idea this is exactly the type of conversation that we like to see in the building permit process where we can have the engineers and engineers and the building officials work with our team in order to come up with these types of solutions and we look forward to getting to that point but we that is a significant expense to an applicant to do prior to knowing that the land use and the entitlement is appropriate here we have submitted additional variations on our plans because of public comment as conceptual site plans and conceptual points to show that there are options and that there will be solutions that we can work with there's space to make the surface lot wider so that the slope the council member combs is referencing that the parking spot and one of our attachments that was sent over the weekend shows that we can adjust the planter for that that will cause other changes and adjustments that need to be made for pedestrian flow and ADA flow and that back and forth in that conversation is incredibly important and we want we look forward to getting to that point where we can submit building permits and actually work on those details with the building and planning department here today though we're talking about neighborhood commercial property we're talking about 1600 foot dispensary with a 980 square foot retail floor that intends to provide delivery services hopefully serving the communities of Oakmont Bennett Valley and the other eastern neighborhoods when people come in they're going to be professionally greeted they're going to have a nice clean safe environment they're going to be showing products they're not going to be allowed to consume and then they're not going to have to return because they'll have the delivery service to rely on I do want to reference that there was reference to a thousand percent increase in the trips on the site we did address that in our response memo that was solely based on the warehouse occupancy not on the site as a whole the increases to the site is well below 50 percent in overall traffic when you consider all uses on the site so I do want to call that to attention that is covered in our response and I believe that was all of my notes that I gathered from the council at this point I'm available for additional questions daily in Whitlock with W trains available to ask I answer any specific questions about our traffic memo and I I just want to end by saying that there are lots of alcohol serving uses in this area there are at least two that serve alcohol on the same parcel as the Kiwi preschool including trail houses a pub cannabis is not an unsafe mix of use but we're not even talking about a consumption operation here we're talking about just a simple retail operation where you come in and you buy and you leave and we are hearing about parking we're hearing about traffic I think one of the key things that we're also hearing about is fear and the best way that we're going to be able to educate folks and give them the experience that this industry is not dangerous to them is by them having the opportunity to experience a compliant retail facility that's able to operate provide a safer environment and show and prove through actions that cannabis is not something that should be feared but should be welcomed as a new use in Santa Rosa does that conclude your presentation yes it does council questions miss Gomes can you have the traffic engineer address the same question with regard to circulation entering and exiting the facility and the larger delivery truck that services the dispensary so the deliveries for this particular use are all going to be smaller vans if you stop and think about what the product is you would have in a large truck you would have such a tremendous financial investment in one truck that's why they probably don't use them but it is just going to be just like a Sprinter ban so there are no large trucks anticipated for the use so the circulation is basically the same as it would be for somebody driving a suburban which is a passenger vehicle so the loading and unloading time consideration in that yeah as a matter of our operation the receipt of cannabis product deliveries will be done not when the store is open we don't like to get too into detail and security plans for the for public purpose but we do have a unique opportunity with the parking situation to be able to handle deliveries differently than other retail outlets and so they wouldn't be done at the same time as customers and to open hours Mr. Javits thank you mayor nick thanks very much for your presentation and all your work you know sounds like you are trying to be for the most part of delivery business but give people the opportunity to come in and have an experience in the dispensary and look at things I mean realistically how many hours of operation does it take to to kind of fulfill that goal and the reason why I can I'm asking is you can probably infer from my question is we it's it's pretty clear to me that we are dealing with some pretty significant traffic and site impacts as a result of this and you know and I do want to get to a place where you know both parties are satisfied and moving forward but I think it means we may be doing some some chopping up here so the for hours of operation we need to be open as much as available under the code for the convenience of of customers when they want to come what the delivery operation does is it reduces the overall demand across all of those hours for folks that need to attend that come to the facility to actually see and work with a bug tender so we still want to be open during the convenient hours for people when they're getting off work you know during the day basically follow the code for hours of operation how it works out though is that then they come they experience it and then they're able to sign up for delivering they don't have to come back again so similar to flower delivery operation or a pizza parlor you don't you don't always go back when you're ordering your your your next order of flowers or pizzas you're going to make the phone call and do the convenient choice and I'd say a lot of folks have gotten used to that we chose to sacrifice interior space in order to meet the city's parking requirements because a parking reduction because of the parking reduction already received by trail house seemed to be a step too far to ask for from the city and because operationally at seven spaces you know we had good faith that we'd be able to handle our employees and have plenty of parking available for customers that were coming to experience that sales model we looked at traffic and you know very early on made sure that we were meeting the standards by this by the city and in part by sacrificing an interior space for parking it also makes a smaller retail facility which generates less traffic demand which got us down to the far under 50 trips that the city considers to be a significant impact meeting the code was important for this application because it's also any side proposal that's going into an established neighborhood and and we knew that by meeting the code it could add a extra layer of confidence that we weren't going to be getting away with anything or causing any undue impacts because we were actually meeting the standards and didn't need the same reductions that the neighboring business is needed this one me yes thank you I'm curious to know you say that people will likely end up signing up for the delivery service and I do hope that you're right about that I know from my own experience my pharmacist would deliver medicine but I am too I don't know busy to get around to signing up for it has your client proposed a plan to incentivize or make it more besides the convenience factor get people really encourage them to use that service and instead of driving once they and functionally work toward making their business more of a showroom than a retail outlet we haven't discussed specific operational incentives from an operational standpoint however delivery customer takes less staff time and less resources to serve so those types of operational considerations and incentivizations are definitely going to be a part of their business plan and marketing what we have been able to do and a daily and can speak to this in a little bit more detail is actually get some real traffic counts between from between a dispenser in Santa Rosa that doesn't have delivering a dispenser in Santa Rosa that does that dispenser does offer delivery doesn't offer any incentives for their delivery but you can already see in the data that they have less traffic generation than the one that does not offer delivery so you know starting from there that we see in the data that there's a trend in that direction adding marketing incentives is something that we're definitely committed to doing because that's the model we're heading towards because it's more efficient way to serve our customers thank you I just want to follow on that one because I was also the assumption I'm hearing you're making is that delivery will it's easier than people having to show up and I know there's probably some proprietary information with this but are you planning on charging for delivery because to me that's the cost benefit analysis some people say well if you charge and I have no idea what there would be in some of the industries that you mentioned some new charge for it some of this included so the intent for in Santa Rosa deliveries with because we're the furthest east to Napa we haven't fully discussed things outside of the Santa Rosa area for this but the intent in Santa Rosa is not to charge delivery fee okay thank you Mr. Vice Mayor thank you and just as sort of on that same line of questioning will folks have to come in to sign up for delivery or will you have an option for them to do that on online they'll be able to use phone or online council any additional questions all right thank you for that presentation okay we've got several cards here and I'm probably going to butcher some names so I'd like to ask that we all consider that all pronunciation is original and correct so I will open the public hearing and everyone will have three minutes first up Travers Ebling followed by Nick Allen and if you are starting to move up both podiums are allowable Travers thank you guys for your time today and for considering this issue I suspect it's pretty challenging to be in your position making difficult choices deciding between competing interests my name is Travers Ebling I run the Wolfpack Trail Riders Club this is an after school kids mountain biking club community sponsored rides that gets kids age five to fifteen on their bikes out exploring the trails of Howard Park Spring Lake and Anadel these rides less started about three thirty the last two to three hours and the kids in the adult trail guides regularly ride five to twelve miles it's pretty impressive for seven eight-year-olds out there doing it they have a great time and they clamor for more the trail house has been a really gracious host for this mountain bike club they loan kids bikes they perform safety checks they fix flat tires all at no charge kind of speaks to the community minded nature of the owners the clientele the trail house is really the home to the Wolfpack I won't really speak to the irony of that the Wolfpack home might be right adjacent to the fox's den you can just imagine you know how that's going to work out and but I'm not really even here to talk about kids and cannabis I mean that's a whole big cultural conversation I don't think anybody here is really anti-cannabis what this is really about is you know making good choices for a city following the rules that your commission has and you know I think the planning commission did you guys a disservice bringing this question up to you they didn't seem to follow their own rules and the required findings of D and F you know specifically says it's even in bold that you would can't grant a permit if it's going to constitute a nuisance or be injurious to the public interest or materially injurious to persons property or improvements in the vicinity as someone who frequents the trail house runs a kid centric club out of there I don't see how moving forward with this conditional use permit is not going to be material injurious to trail house the site's unique in its access to the North Bay's mountain biking trails allowing a traffic intensive use at that site whether it's cannabis whether it's pizza or donuts or whatever is really going is radically going to change the feeling function of trail house I don't see how the thing that I do there it would be able to continue in that situation I'm not trying to be sensational I just don't see how 20 30 cars per hour is compatible with a bike shop and kids bike shops people who do most people ride their bikes but when you show up in a car you usually have a bike with you that you have to unload in my case I show up with a van and I have five or six bikes to unload five or six kids you take that through the parking lot into the trail house it's total mayhem just as it is now so it's it's going to be a problem it'll probably kill the thing that I do you know a dispensary is also not your average parking lot my experience I visited a few those places are traffic intensive too as the traffic engineers said there's lots of turn lots of turnover it's about excuse me it's much more like a 7-11 thank you Jeffers I appreciate you guys Nick Allen followed by Kimberly Mullen my name's Nick Allen I'm a special education teacher here in Santa Rosa and I have a child a four-year-old that attends Kiwi and I'm very concerned about this this youth permit I keep hearing tonight that Kiwi is in back of this facility that is not true but the playground of Kiwi goes beyond that southwest corner I stood in the my daughter's playground and brought my tape measure this afternoon it was four and a half feet until I could touch that southwest corner of the building I just don't understand how the city ordinance in 2017 included youth facilities and schools and by 2018 it was the wording was changed just to schools and only included K through 12 you know I don't understand where my where my daughter is less deserving of safety than an older child I know that one of the council's goals throughout this this process has been to more closely align the cannabis rules with other state county and other city ordinances and I just feel like this you know accepting the the setback but then allowing it to be a zero foot setback does not it's a giant leap in the wrong direction as far as alignment with other with other cities and the state the standard seems to be a thousand foot setback to youth facilities schools and daycare and I also would urge the city attorney to look at the tender recipients portion of the state law which requires a quarter-mile distance from any daycare school or you know older person's home site care site I'm not concerned about the the people going to buy stuff at the dispensary I'm concerned about about the crime it brings in we all know that this is a cash only business and a five minute search of the press democrat and local articles brings up many stories about daytime armed robberies abductions homicides you know especially with delivery services so I think the confined indoor area of this site this proposed plan as well as the delivery service creates a great risk as far as violent crime and robbery not necessarily patrons of the of the service I just think you know we've heard a lot about the other meaning how the the proposal is neighborhood focus and caring of the neighborhood if that was true the first time they visited this site they would have realized that this is an inappropriate site for this business thank you thank you Kimberly Mullen followed by huya clifton thank you for your time and service my name is Kimberly Mullen and I'm a 20 year resident of Santa Rosa I'm a mom and I'm also a volunteer for a high school mountain bike team of about 30 plus riders I'm here to tell you tonight that I'm not afraid of cannabis but I am afraid of traffic and I am opposed to this business going in behind the trail house I'm concerned about the traffic flow parking lot safety and how the trail house business will be impacted by this dispensary the parking lot is barely functional for this thriving business and it's difficult to navigate the traffic flow is not actually predictable there and even less predictable are children who are on bikes I'm worried about safety of young children and high school students who often meet at the trail house to start in their rides in the parking lot before the trail house came along my family and I would actively go to neighboring cities to spend our leisure time and our money sorry I'm very emotional about this we don't feel comfortable at many Santa Rosa locations but we do at the trail house since trail house has come along I've found a place in Santa Rosa where I feel safe and I enjoy spending my time my children start and in their rides from the trail house where they have access to a bike mechanic and the opportunity to gather and talk with accomplished cyclists I don't know if you've spent much time there but the trail house is a very special place it's an important part of our community I've observed co-workers knitting groups college students elderly citizens hosting grief counseling meetings business meetings everyday athletes and world-famous cyclists at this location I've also met women who come from all over all over Northern California to join the well attended bell joy ride I've seen these out of town women return to Santa Rosa to host their own meetings and bring even more folks to our town which generates revenue for our city from athletes to groups helping each other in a time of need the trail house is a valuable resource for our community of people working their best working hard to be their best self please put safety first don't move forward with this dispensory at this location thank you thank you who we had Clifton Pope followed by Nancy Richardson yes mayor and city council members my name is who you pop I'm the owner of Kiwi preschool under the current plan Fox Stan would share a boundary line with Kiwi's playground I understand that K through 12 schools in Santa Rosa are provided with a 600 foot setback from cannabis retail operations Kiwi simply requests the same 600 foot setback as any other school a setback of 600 feet is necessary due to traffic and safety concerns Kiwi's been in operation for 28 years has educated more than 2000 of our community's children our license was issued under the state of California and permits Kiwi to have an attendance of 90 students our teachers are credentialed in early childhood elementary and high school education Kiwi teaches a standard curriculum which includes transitional kindergarten school age I'm extremely concerned about the safety of Kiwi's children based on Fox Stan's traffic study that I saw which estimates that Fox Stan's business is going to generate an additional 400 plus car trips a day I do not see how this will be possible under the layout of the existing parking lot and there is there is already not enough parking for example after close observation it has become clear that many patrons of the trailhouse bike shop use our private parking spaces in front of Kiwi I know this because they have bikes on their cars we enjoy a good business relationship with trailhouse and do not make an issue about this typically but it concerns me that there will be a severe shortage of parking as the existing parking spaces clearly are not sufficient to accommodate the existing businesses in this location I do not understand how Fox Stan's traffic study states the anticipated increase in traffic of 400 more trips a day is not viewed as being significant I also do not think that Fox Stan in its report to the planning commission demonstrated that it will be a safe enough business to have on the property line of a school housing up to 90 children from age two through 12th grade the mere fact that security required at all times clearly implies this business has the potential to be an unsafe environment no other business surrounding Kiwi is required to have security personnel and alarm security present this is a strong message that cannabis dispensaries are not compatible with Kiwi preschool my research has shown that since 2017 and 18 cannabis dispensaries have been approved in Santa Rosa two men robbed a dispensary near the Santa Rosa airport at gunpoint on 8477 another dispensary was robbed on 51618 thank you for your comments Nancy Richardson followed by Greg Pope my name is Nancy Richardson I find myself in a somewhat strange position at the age of 74 being an advocate for Kiwi preschool no I do not have any grandchildren at Kiwi but I do have a granddaughter at Montessori school on Summerfield road and I do know a thing or two about the difficulties that young working parents have finding quality preschool for their little ones after the public comment section is over today and when you begin to deliberate I really hope to hear your positions on one whether or not you think a preschool is a school and whether you think students at preschools are a protected class of people to be clear I'm asking you to state your views in public during the deliberations I think the owner of Kiwi who just spoke the parents of the Kiwi students and the many citizens who signed their petition deserve to know how you feel what your position is I hope you realize that this is a community concern as evidenced by the fact that over 400 people signed Kiwi's petition in a relatively short period of time I support Kiwi's appeal team in everything that they said I look forward to hearing your positions thank you Greg Boat followed by Andrew Kramer thank you council I'm a third generation Santa Rosen and I was very fortunate to grow up here and living in Montgomery Village and riding our bikes everywhere Howard Park was our playground Spring Lake was our playground and we were afforded a community of family and safety we are concerned if something happens we may not be compatible with Foxden there is no way Kiwi can relocate so the community will lose a child care service which is desperately needed if you think you have a shortage of housing in the community you ought to try finding commute or affordable housing for a child care center which needs playground accessibility I hope that you guys will consider that future generations will still have the safety that I was afforded as a child I still remember the slogan Santa Rosa was the city designed for living I hope you will consider that when you make your decision thank you thank you Andrew Kramer followed by Noelle Tomba hello my name is Andrew Kramer and I came to kind of speak in support of Foxden I live over in the east side of Santa Rosa I can have been at Valiary to be specific and if I want to go find cannabis my medicine that I've had a prescription for since I was 18 years old if I want to go I have to end up going all the way to Roseland I have to go all the way to Sebastopol I would just really like to have access close to where I live I also was kind of curious too because I noticed there are really aren't very many over on the east side or any that have been approved yet and I noticed that the median income is over 25 percent higher than pretty much all the other areas they've been approved of so I just kind of want to bring that to everyone's attention as well I've been to many different dispensaries over the years and I you know I mean you could bring up a couple cases where you maybe have heard something bad but in all actuality I mean having on-site security especially with Kiwi Day School and they're talking about all the homeless people that they'd had kind of in the loitering in the area and how they'd already had safety concerns I'd think that having you know having security cameras and having on-site security guard all the time would help to mitigate those a little bit so just basically just kind of want to speak in favor of it also you know I could see where people you know definitely want to protect your children make sure they stay safe you know having them ride bikes in a parking lot is the most safe place also but just wanted to kind of speak in favor and say that I could imagine them being good neighbors and yeah thank you thank you Noelle Tomba followed by Evan Conklin hi I'm Noelle Tamba I am a parent of a kid at Kiwi and basically the whole reason I'm here is because we're in a unique position in terms of the fact that my daughter just moved from Maryhill preschool over to Kiwi Maryhill just closed due to other issues and the fact that Kiwi is here you know I think my assumption is that the reason that that ordinance doesn't include daycares is because basically parents assumably have a choice and you know in Sonoma County as was mentioned earlier there's really not a lot of child care options and a lot of people are in a position to choose what's close what's there my daughter is doing really well at Kiwi but putting a dispensary that close bordering the preschool makes it really difficult for parents to make a decision and there are parents that are going to look at this as a stigma whether you like it or not I have no issues with dispensaries it really makes no difference to me but I don't know if I'm in the majority or the minority in that opinion and my concern is also the safety of these kids and there has been a lot of armed robberies there has been a lot of things because these are cash based businesses and I am a compliance attorney in the banking industry and until the banking industry wraps their head around the cannabis industry and figures out a way for them to not be a cash based business and not have so much cash on site there's going to continue to be this crime and that has nothing to do with the people that go to this place that has nothing to do with the owners of this business I have no concerns with that my concern is the fact that inherent in this business there is crime it does turn into a new sense there is a safety issue for these children and that is not addressing all the traffic issues I've been in and out of the parking lots it's not an easy thing to do but I think or my assumption is when the city made the decision to hold daycares out of that ordinance that they did so because there is some sort of choice that parents have you're not required to send your preschool or to a preschool you're not required to go to the school that's closest to you you can send your kid wherever you want the problem is is that's not really the case especially with such shortages in child care Kiwi is necessary and this new business is going to directly impact that preschool and part of the things you guys are supposed to be reviewing in those six steps is what impact it has on the current existing businesses and it will have a big impact in my opinion the other thing like I said is safety and basically just trying to make sure that these kids are looked after so that's the whole reason I came today and thank you for your time thank you Evan Conklin followed by Carlos Perez hi everyone Evan Conklin parent if you couldn't tell I am in a unique situation prior to Maryhill preschool closing I was following this topic rather closely my wife and I have been longtime fans of trail house love it we try to walk there because the parking there is horrendous if you didn't know and we were put in a unique situation that 8 30 a night we get an email from our preschool saying hey don't show up tomorrow we're closed and we quickly had to scramble and find child care and a preschool for our children and Kiwi preschool had only two spots open and we managed to get one of them so we're very fortunate with that we're super happy that we got in there we heard great things about it and the fact that a marijuana dispensary is going in was a bit of a concern of us so I started looking into a bit deeper and I was surprised to hear that the city staff decided to focus on quote unquote education with changing from the state standards of including preschools and not including them I don't know if anybody on the city staff has children but education starts before you go into kindergarten and that's not just a personal opinion I think there's been quite a few studies on that I also think that there's a number of items relating to trailhouse that are or sorry the the spot and how it affects trailhouse that should also be looked into I'm not just saying think of the children I do not think that another high traffic spot would go in there very well for retail purposes the fact that they had to kind of push five parking spots into a building to make it work smells kind of fishy to me and for everybody here that has a house with a garage I don't know about you but I can't park any cars in my garage and if I'm running a retail shop and I get a bunch of boxes in I don't want them taking up space on my my showroom floor so I'm going to find a place to put them momentarily of course I'll get back to it next week and unbox things but I think that's something to be concerned about and I know that the lawyer for the people wanted to put in the dispensary made up a point of there's been talk of bums and transients going through the alleyway behind Kiwi preschool which is a concern of mine but when push comes to shove I'd rather have a straight bomb rather than a straight bullet behind my kids playground so thank you thank you Carlos Perez followed by Anthony Keaton Hi my name is Carlos Perez I am a local business owner in Santa Rosa I'm a friend of Glenn Fance and we're also business partners and co-board members on Kingridge Foundation a non-profit that we founded several years ago for to serve at-risk youth our businesses together have done a lot of work to raise awareness and money for charities in Sonoma County to date that's been over 3.2 million dollars that we've given to both at-risk youth organizations which is our primary focus as well as victims of the firestorms of both the Valley Fire and the Tubbs Fires one of the biggest fundraising events that we ever had took place at Trail House in a setting where in the situation that's being proposed today would not have been able to take place what Glenn's created is an answer to a community need it's a gathering place where it's created opportunity for people to come together in a way that they never have been before and it has the potential to live on and thrive in that way and to see something come in and potentially impact that in this way with the traffic that's being proposed in this space just makes no sense and it makes no sense whatsoever that we can look at those diagrams and not put motion to it and reason with the fact that you can't double the traffic going into that space it's impossible if you've been there on any given day you know that you can't add more to it you know the reality is you're going to have people trying to figure out how to park in a cramped space it's tough enough as it is already you can have multiple cars coming in and going out and now you're going to be backing out into the street you know I fully support the arguments that the preschool has because I've got kids myself and you know I run a nonprofit with several others that supports at-risk youth and it's a huge problem in Sonoma County and nationwide you know this this is not the community that I think we've worked really hard to to build here is to not take into consideration the hard work and effort that's gone into creating something like this and try to fit a square peg into a round hole you know trying to argue that a delivery service is going to take over visitation doesn't make any sense if I were running that business I'd want to have both and I would have no incentive for prioritizing delivery over having people come when I can have the best of both worlds I don't think that that argument holds water it's it's a nice play to try and solve that idea but I don't think it's going to work out that way so thanks thank you Anthony Keaton good evening I'm followed by Shane resume and good evening I'm Anthony Keaton thank you mayor and members of the city council I'm a lifelong resident of Santa Rosa I'm also a small business owner and homeowner and I love Santa Rosa and the community that we have here everyone was in that community and I support Kiwi in the trail house and agree with the statements by Kiwi attorneys and others in support of this appeal the trail house is a community hub for hikers bikers beer coffee enthusiasts and just your entire family my family frequents the trail house since we discovered it last April when we all started mountain biking together and it was a place that you could easily fit in and visit with everyone as everyone was welcome there it's also been featured in several articles as one of the best places to visit here in Sonoma County as we do have some of the best trails in Annadel and Howard's Park and Spring Lake it serves Santa Rosa and it also serves travelers from far and wide you'll see it featured in several YouTube videos of very prominent members of the mountain biking community who do come and visit this area as it is right now it is very busy at the trail house during its entirety of its operation I went there today with my wife and son we happened to walk there and it was very busy it was the parking lot was already full and it just adding another business to this area is just going to further impact their ability to conduct their business and it's also going to create safety concerns for those frequenting that whether it's pedestrians bicyclists or people who are coming by vehicle as mentioned earlier by a gentleman in a non-related matter he was talking about the pressure of traffic concerns that we need to address within Santa Rosa it also speaks to this increased traffic pressure you're talking about adding more pressure to an area that already has traffic as an issue there on Montgomery Drive and also within this parking area and more traffic does correlate to more accidents within the area and that could be vehicle versus pedestrian vehicle versus bike or vehicle versus vehicle or vehicle versus property it could greatly impact your traffic congestion within the area and we already have talked about the parking the suspensory is not a good fit for this location there are plenty of other locations on the east side of Santa Rosa that could fit and would allow them to serve the east side of Santa Rosa as it has been mentioned that it needs to be done I do ask that the applicant and the representatives reconsider the decision to continue to push forward after how much community has come out against this proposal and if they do not I ask you the members this distinguished city council that were elected by the community and for the community to disapprove the suspensory at this location thank you for your time and consideration thank you Shane followed by Frank Armariata Hi my name is Shane Breschen I'm the general manager of Trailhouse I'd like to read a letter from Johnny Egger who is a 25-year veteran with Jolotti construction and helped bring the proposed property into compliance for Trailhouse my name is Johnny Egger a union construction foreman who has worked for Jolotti construction for 25 years these statements are my own and not the concerns or views of Jolotti construction company I'm writing to you in regard to the conditional use permit application for Foxten at 4036 Montgomery Drive Sweetby the following are my personal opinions about the projects which were obtained as a worker on this site Foxten will face accessibility issues on this site specifically regarding accessible path of travel from the public right-of-way Montgomery Drive sidewalk to their entrance with difficulty regarding the American Disability Act based on my knowledge of this lot and the slope leading up to the warehouse at the rear of the site it will be at worst impossible and at best and incredibly invasive to the existing tenants Trailhouse to remedy additionally traffic circulation and parking on the site are already strained with one business it is difficult to see how a second business can coexist on this site without increasing the danger of collisions between vehicles pedestrians and cyclists the impact review needs to be re-evaluated to prevent a serious accident which is in everyone's best interest I urge you to reconsider this use permit based on site sustainability and keeping projects to the high criteria of the city designs and standard books thank you Johnny Egger Jolotti construction thank you Frank Arminata followed by Forrest Johnson thank you for hearing my thoughts here council members my name is Frank Amarata just a couple of things I'm actually in kind of a unique position only in that I know the applicants a little bit and I'm friendly with them and I can understand their their perspective a little bit I'm also very good friends with the owners of Trailhouse I've known them for years I'm also a regular visitor there but I just like to say just a couple points number one is if this weren't the type of business we're talking about let's say I had an application for a bakery and it's going to be delivery and it's going to be an onsite place and it's in that exact spot and it's going to be hundreds of visits a day plus all the traffic and I only get those five parking spots inside the garage and I get the other two and you really need to tell me that that would even ever even get to the application process that would have been denied immediately that's just not there's way too much traffic way too much density furthermore that size of that garage my understanding is something like 2,300 square feet so it's about the size of an average U.S. home so you mean to tell me that dozens of cars an hour possibly hundreds of visits a day that they're going to go in and out of a spot that's essentially the floor size of the average house I just I'm befuddled frankly I don't understand how it ever got that far and also I'd invite any of the members of the council or the city employees if you have a relatively nice car with shiny paint I invite you to I will pay for your adult beverages you come into the trails you park in that spot that's in the upper top right which would be right next to where the house which is the south East spot I invite you to park your car there come on in I'll buy your beverage your choice hang out for a couple of hours and tell me if you're going to take me up on that that's the only point I'm going to make there Lastly this is something I see quite a bit I also go there to do a little bit of work on my computer and the employees they actually go into the warehouse in that same south east spot many many many times daily to go get supplies with that blind corner there I can tell you myself honest to God I've almost been an ornament twice already from that blind spot so that's with the existing traffic that we have right now now again imagine if we all the different percentages are bandied about whether it's 100% 1,000% 500% the point is is that it's already at capacity and just as a citizen and just kind of looking at this and seeing all this information I'm really frankly befuddled that this ever got this far it's just not there's way too much density and there's just simply not going to be enough room for everybody who wants to get there on the daily buses that's all I have to say thank you thank you Forrest Johnson followed by Kailin Wheeler hello there um I'm going to keep this pretty short as many of you know had gone over to the trailhouse you've you've seen you've seen what it is you've seen the traffic I'm not going to beat that up too much but as council member Fleming kind of just touched on and not to get too touchy-feely but the feeling of it all just it just doesn't quite work I know that doesn't go into the logistics and the all the paperwork at all but it just doesn't quite feel right and um I do agree with the uh I support the appeal for Kiwi and the trailhouse so thank you thank you Kailin Wheeler followed by Craig Lawson Hi there and thank you my name is Lynn Wheeler and I am a mother of Wolfpack Riders nine-year-old and 12-year-old girls um I'm also a business owner in Santa Rosa and I drive by trailhouse at least eight times a week to take my daughter to ballet in the same shopping center so I'm familiar with the the amount of cars in the parking lot and around and the rest of the parking lot there I also ride our bikes to trailhouse at least twice a week on the weekends which are so happy to have found that place and I also think that the dispensary is detrimental to the safety of not only the children but all the users of the space given the agreed upon increased use of traffic and need for more parking and even if you can make the traffic and parking numbers work it doesn't make the location safe and right so I want to close by say I support Kiwi and trailhouse and agree with the statements by Kiwi's attorney and others in support of this appeal thank you thank you Craig Lawson followed by Amber Street Mr. Mayor members of the city council Craig Lawson One Valley Lakes Place I've known Scott Bagel of the applicant for about 20 years he's a pretty special guy is born and raised in Santa Rosa he's my son-in-law and he's also the father of my two grandchildren it was interesting about a year ago when Scott came to move the idea of a distribution facility I said look if you're going to do that make sure you check out the regulations and he did he hired one of the most preeminent consultants Nick Katzen and they looked at it and did their homework he started with the process of an application in April of 2018 had neighborhood meetings in June of 2018 and finally a public hearing of the planning commission of January of 2019 staff and the planning commission determined rightfully so that the project was compliant prior to granting a conditional use permit the planning commission or city council on appeal must make six required findings proposed use with the applicable zoning district and applies with all provisions of the zoning code and city codes the proposed use is consistent with the general plan and all consistent plan the design location and operating characteristics of the proposed activity would be compatible with existing and future land uses in the vicinity the site is physically suitable for the type density and intensity of use being proposed including access utilities and absence of physical constraints granting the permit would not constitute a nuisance or be injurious or detrimental to the public interest health safety convenience or welfare or materials is the injurious property or improvements of the vicinity and the zoning district which the property is located and the project has been reviewed and is compliant with the California Environmental Quality Act for traffic noise air quality the six findings speak for themselves the complaint the planning commission reviewed this proposal in depth and agreed with a thorough staff report that this project was consistent and compliant and should be advanced I trust that you will rule the same and deny this appeal thank you thank you Greg Amber followed by Joanna Cedar hi my name is Amber Strife and I am a resident of Santa Rosa I'm here today to discuss my concerns for the traffic in parking and the large safety issues related to the increased traffic with allowing Foxden I'm the organizer of a women's mountain bike group Bell Joy Red I organize monthly women's mountain bike rides led out of trail house these rides are women specific and are open to women of all ages from 14 to 100 plus women from all over Chico Santa Cruz Lake County Mendocino County the East Bay and beyond drive to Santa Rosa to attend these rides I've been putting on these rides monthly for the past two years on any given month we have anywhere from 40 to 100 plus women who show up to participate that's approximately 1200 women who have participated over the past two years these rides have grown our women's cycling community and have brought business from all over to the city of Santa Rosa leading these rides out of trail house has helped foster a sense of community and provide women with the fun supportive and most importantly a safe environment to ride mountain bikes the safety of the woman attending these rides as well as anyone starting a ride or visiting trail house is a huge safety risk with the increased traffic if Fox 10 is approved we start our rides from the left hand corner that we were over there discussing near the roll-up door there's a blind corner as already discussed on that side of the building where someone circling through without paying attention could easily hit someone change the flow of traffic the opposite way and the building is still has the same issue as a blind corner on the right hand side it logistically makes zero sense to approve a business that will highly increase traffic volume to an area that already does not have the space to handle such volume not to mention the already minimal parking availability currently for trail house allowing this high volume storefront to move forward in this location will be putting riders pedestrians and driver safety at risk allowing this business to open under the concerns that have been addressed today is pure negligence to the safety of our community thank you Gina cedar followed by Tiffany Boggola good evening my name is Joanna cedar longtime resident of Sonoma county credentialed teacher k through 12 in social science and in health education I submitted comments in writing and I'd like to augment them here tonight I think a lot of what's going on here is based on an assumption that a cannabis dispensary is somehow incompatible with a park or a bike shop or riding groups of men or women or children or mixed or restaurants or schools but saying a cannabis dispensary is a risk does not make it so I'd like to draw your attention to a dispensary in Sacramento called a therapeutic alternative it's been in existence since 2019 it has a bunch of ancillary businesses associated with it is it is directly adjacent to a Montessori school with whom they've worked happily and gracefully over the last 10 years I'd like to also correct the record about crime the institute of labor economics printed in or published in May that they're they studied 58 counties in California and they recognize no impact on violent crime with the existence of a dispensary and a decrease in property crime they concluded that dispensaries helped to reduce crime by reducing vacancies and augmenting security even police quarterly yes police quarterly analyzed dispensaries in Colorado and Washington and concluded that they brought an increase in clearance rates which means they were able to solve crimes because of the increased security the Denver Post also reported that dispensaries were the victims of fewer robberies than banks because banks are where the money is so I would encourage you to deny this appeal I know that the proprietors of this business will be excellent community partners and I thank you for your time thank you Tiffany Baggala followed by Betty Lawson thank you Mr. Mayor and council members my name is Tiffany Baggala and I am one of the property owners at 4036 Montgomery Drive the proposed site for the foxtand dispensary I have a five-year-old son and a two and a half-year-old daughter that are both in preschool and I have friends that have children that are attending Kiwi preschool as a mother first and a businesswoman second I would never want to do anything that would put children in an unsafe environment the cannabis dispensary patrons that I know are business professionals doctors lawyers soccer moms and children using CBD to help with seizures I am really hopeful that the negative views associated with the unknown for some people around cannabis will soon change for the better my office is currently located in the warehouse where the proposed dispensary will be so I'm really familiar with the day-to-day at the property I know the location can safely accommodate the foxtand business and integrate with Trailhouse through the agreement that was made between us as the property owners together with the Trailhouse last year when we began the process thank you for your time thank you thank you thank you Petty Lawson followed by Deborah Crippen hello and thank you Mr. Mayor and Council members my name is Petty Lawson and I am a resident of the Oakmont community a business owner in Santa Rosa and most important a Grammy to three pre-school age children I have read the appeal specifically in regards to parking and wanted to share my own experience as I own a flower shop here in Santa Rosa where I have no parking no parking oh that just kind of I have very limited street parking outside of my shop we get walk-in traffic that stay for about an average of 10 minutes and the rest of our daily orders are deliveries 80 percent of our business is delivery we load our van with multiple deliveries at a time to reduce the numbers of trips that we have to take that we have to take to reduce the traffic and greenhouse emissions I also thought it is important to share with you as I am an Oakmont resident you might be surprised to know that there is a very large percentage of residents there that use cannabis both medicinally and recreationally and they are excited about the proximity of this dispensary especially especially the delivery component I encourage you our council to vote in favor of the proposed foxten dispensary Deborah Crippen followed by Leah Murphy Deborah Crippen I am a business owner at 4331 Montgomery Drive so just a block down from the trail house and the proposed foxten and I just find it really interesting that when trail house talks about increasing their traffic and their issues that no one that's not a problem but they are concerned about another business having traffic issues my business is in a shared parking lot which I have my own parking but there is shared parking there are a lot of parking issues but we work it out among the business owners we figure it out my I happen to have staff parking on my property but some of the other businesses don't I think if this weren't a dispensary there wouldn't even be a discussion here the you know I just just today spoke with one of my neighbors about the dispensary and our neighborhood on the west side and she was saying we don't have a dispensary I said yeah we do and she said I and I said yeah but you'd never notice because you don't even see people going in and out that the impact I drive by that dispensary quite often and I rarely see you know and in fact for years I thought they were closed but they're not so you know the thought of everyone thinks of dispensaries as high crime as issues and I've seen that in our case in our neighborhood that's not the issue and I would you know think that you should uphold the planning commission's decision to let this business go forward thank you Leah Murphy followed by David Harlan hello my name is Leah Murphy I'm a resident of Northwest Santa Rosa professionally I've worked in health care and public health for over 15 years does a cannabis dispensary belong next to a preschool well under the local control given to cities and counties under Prop 64 it depends on what your local jurisdiction decided within their cannabis ordinance Cloverdale and Cotati have setbacks from dispensaries to daycare facilities schools parks and libraries Sebastopol has a 600 foot setback between dispensaries and K through 12 schools just like Santa Rosa but it's also capping the number of dispensaries allowed in the city at seven so the chances of being right next to a preschool are slim and the other five cities in Sonoma County Sonoma, Hildeburg, Petaluma, Windsor and Roanart Park aren't letting any dispensaries in so it won't happen there yes it appears that within Sonoma County only Santa Rosa may deal with a dispensary going in right next to a preschool what else is happening in Santa Rosa related to the cannabis ordinance Santa Rosa City Schools unsuccessfully appealed what they saw as an inappropriate setback between a dispensary in a school a few weeks ago and in my neighborhood in Northwest Santa Rosa we're seeing over concentration well we will be seeing over concentration of all types of cannabis businesses with 47 pending and approved applications to operate with within a one mile radius well most cities in Sonoma County and in California have responsible cannabis ordinances Santa Rosa has an extremely lenient pro industry ordinance that went as far to change the city code to treat a cannabis industry the same as any other business the ordinance allows all aspects of the cannabis supply chain to operate in Santa Rosa was no limits on the number of cannabis businesses or true density caps by neighborhood and no setbacks to residential communities daycares parks or youth centers what's most surprising to me is that similar lenient ordinances similar to Santa Rosa were tried in Colorado and they didn't work out so well in fact Colorado warned California before Prop 64 was legalized to be careful and here's a quote from John Jackson Colorado Association Chiefs of Police I implore you not to become intoxicated by the projected revenue amounts and the promises made by the marijuana industry that you lose sight of the inherent community and social costs we have found it to be incredibly expensive to create from scratch a regulatory system that can adequately address public health and safety and meet the needs of the industry many residents are rightfully questioning Santa Rosa's cannabis ordinance and the lack of setbacks and density caps many of us voted for responsible legalization which I believe means yes welcoming the industry with reasonable setbacks and density caps and the slower thoughtful approach so we do not repeat the mistakes seen in Colorado thank you thank you David Harlin followed by Callie Lawson hello my name is David Hazelup Mr. Mayor and Council I am a resident of Benda Valley on the east side I'm also Bologna amputee I use cannabis medicinally and having a dispensary on my side of town would eliminate my need to drive across town when I need my medicine and having a delivery service would also give me something that else to take advantage of when I'm not able to leave my house I visited many dispensaries over the years and I feel it's important to share I feel safe for going to dispensaries as I do your neighborhood liquor store the negative stigma around cannabis is really unfortunate and I encourage the Council to vote in favor of the Fox dispensary thank you thank you Callie Lawson followed by Don Winkle thank you Mr. Mayor and Council members my name is Callie Lawson I am Santa Rosa born and raised I am from Benda Valley I am a mother of a preschool age daughter and I'm here to speak in favor of the proposed dispensary when I was thinking about this opposition the first thing that came to mind was the opposition against the SAY Dream Center a few years ago in Benda Valley the entire opposition was around this fear of the unknown fear of the unknown of what were the homeless youth going to do they were convinced that they were going to bring crime to Benda Valley this feels somewhat the same this fear of the unknown this negative stigma around cannabis I myself am an herbalist I make herbal remedies based off of thousand-year-old plant medicine and I have many clients on the east side of Santa Rosa that have to drive all the way across town just to be able to get their products some of the examples of clients I have a man that suffers from gout who lives in Oakmont where he gets CBD patches for his flare-ups a mother to a four-year-old who suffers from lupus she utilizes her CBD oil to subside pain and inflammation I also have a patient that is a cancer patient who has been fighting skin cancer naturally without having to use the intervention of chemotherapy specifically because he can utilize a dispensary to have a dispensary in close proximity to specifically these three people along with the option of safe delivery would be extremely beneficial especially for all of my clientele in Oakmont even more so having a preschool age daughter myself and knowing and understanding what this dispensary entails as far as safety measures and everything else that they'll follow the environment that they will create I would have absolutely no problem sending my child to a preschool located near a dispensary thank you thank you Don Winkle followed by Charles Font Lou I heard in the comments I heard one mention of a thorough staff report and I wanted to address that issue specifically in traffic the traffic engineer was seemingly kind of unaware of where the bike parking was but more importantly I don't think he was aware that most of the bikes are actually parked inside the trail house not outside and those bikes are they go into the trail house via three locations primarily they weren't in that was not addressed secondly I wanted to address the fact that we keep referencing the parking garage and you know it isn't really a parking garage that we most like most of us think about when we think of a parking garage it's a warehouse with some parking spots added to it so in effect it's an alley so people there's one way in and one way out so we all know that the parking lot is over impacted so it's just a matter of what degree it's uh that it's over impacted now we're going to add hundreds of more cars a day if they all come in and they exercise common courtesy and they all come in one at a time maybe it'll work out but in more likelihood it's going to come in and go in groups and what's going to happen when two, three, four, five cars are all trying to origami their way into that warehouse and um and not make it it's going to create a big mess in the back that's going to back up around the corner all the way into Montgomery Avenue that's going to create not only a private nuisance but a public nuisance which is one of the prongs on the on the approval process that we've discussed in the past so um in addition to that it's currently going to create a safety hazard it's not a matter of how much or excuse me it's not a matter of if it's a matter of just how much so that's really the decisions you guys have to seriously consider is how much risk is the council willing to take on is if they go forward with this process secondly there's been a great deal of discussion about delivery and that's great but it's it's very speculative and my position would be that given its location its most easterly location it's going to draw not only from Oakmont and Kenwood and Eastern Santa Rosa and Bennett Valley but Napa and Sonoma and Calistoga and other places and um I don't think that was adequately addressed and I think it's been the whole delivery idea has been kind of used to mitigate that idea and in addition to that the close proximity to the trail house is actually going to make it somewhat of a destination because it's a kind of a two for one spot you can go and buy whatever product you're interested do at the dispensory and also stay around and have a beer and a hot dog so that is somewhat counter to the whole delivery operation it is all about traffic and that's really the focus of this thing it isn't about cannabis it's about cars going through a parking lot thank you very much thank you Charles Fant followed by looks like Ross Bale hello my name is Charles Fant manager of NorCal Bike Sport Glen's brother I wanted to say I support Kiwi in trail house and agree with the statements by Kiwi's attorney and others in support of this appeal also wanted to say that when you have something as special as trail house in the community environment that it promotes that it should be nurtured and taken care of and I think what I could urge the council to look at that best illustrates this are the pictures of the trail house after the fires of last year I'm new to the area and I had no idea what brothers and friends were building I was unfortunately deployed overseas rack of gas someone brothers building and stuff and as soon as I saw the pictures from the community and how they came together at trail house after the fires I started to kind of wrap my head around what he was actually building and what what it was it was something that looked like what is a lot of time reserved for community center or church the people coming together in a state of emergency was really awe inspiring and I'm so proud of my brother and what he's built thanks for your time Ross Bale followed by Matt Wolfinger hello I'm Ross Bale I'm a resident of Santa Rosa I'm a patron of the trail house and I bring my kids there um it's clear from the presentation that the planning commission gave that there were a number of variances that have been granted to the Fox Den it's also clear that the character of the owner of Fox Den was taken into account and I understand that that's Mrs. Scarlett Raven I haven't heard or seen from her here nor did I see her at previous meetings that I've been to and I just think that's interesting I do however see members of the Candicrapped Corporation here and my question to the council is can we count on this group and the financial backers of the Fox Den to respect the development of this project here in accordance with the environment and the character and the safety of this neighborhood thanks thank you Matt Wolfinger followed by Clarin McCarthy good evening council members I want to speak to you again about something that I've talked to many of you about already and that is parking I actually handed the clerk some papers I don't know if they were handed out but it is basically a replica of the image you see on the screen right now Ms. Combs actually addressed the issue I want to talk about could we flip to 16 for a second so this was briefly discussed but as you can see on this particular design of which there are many that do not match there is a door that exists the parking garage directly into the parking spot there proposing outside now a point of egress from a building such as this will require a landing that parking spot does not work and I would appreciate if you could re-ask the commissioners about the validity of that particular parking space now can we go back to 15 so Ms. Combs referenced this but the warehouse and the planning commissioner who answered this had some slightly incorrect information there is a rule up door into the trailhouse warehouse but there is actually a fire door right next to it which again exits right into that parking spot next to the warehouse so both of those spaces cannot be parking spaces as this is proposed and this is in fact the third iteration of their parking plan because we have constantly pointed out their inability to create a plan that matches city code this is a third plan that doesn't match city code at what point do we accept that this is I don't want to say impossible because that's a difficult word to prove but an extremely difficult parking situation another point I want to point out about the parking spot next to the trailhouse warehouse do you see the trash enclosure right behind it that only has 16 feet six inches of backup space now center was a city code for a standard parking space requires 26 feet I would have hoped that whenever some of you were there that you could have seen that trash enclosure has been impacted three times by cars and that's not even a parking spot there right now now I know some of you there saw that people parked in that space and we try to put a cone up to stop it but that trash enclosure has already been impacted three times and that is not a parking space and it's taking into the account I think this was mentioned by the architect but the entire site exists as an existing condition there are no parking spaces on this site that would match current city code no parking space has sufficient backup space every parking space has 22 feet or less so I have a hard time understanding one how we're getting to this point where staff is actually saying that there are 22 spaces when 22 are required when in fact there are only 20 spaces as their current plan is proposed and this is their third attempt third to make that a reality so why are we trying to squeeze more parking into a plan into a site that has significant traffic issues already now we've talked about the parking and safety arguments quite a bit tonight but I I can't get over that three attempts no success thank you Matt Claren McCarthy followed by Dave Townsend Hi there thank you for your time my name is Ciaran McCarthy I've been a good friend and business associate of Dennis Hunter for many years and I can truly say he's one of the most conscientious and compassionate community members I've ever encountered I think it's very interesting to see the fantastic endorsement of driving under the influence in the close proximity to children and it sounds like you've created a very special place and there's a strong synergy between the craft brew and the cannabis community I would like to have you consider what would have happened if the reverse was the case and Trailhouse was trying to come into a very special situation that a dispensary had created and I'd also like you to consider the traffic outside of an average Starbucks on a busy morning I think if you want the cannabis industry to survive and thrive and San Rose and Sonoma County there has to be a level of cooperation and bravery and on a very side note as somebody who formerly directed a analytical testing lab I have seen the medicinal impacts in a benefit for children who have suffered for severe severe problems and their parents may greatly appreciate closer access I strongly encourage you to allow this dispensary to go forward and embrace the positive change that it can bring thank you Dave Townsend followed by Merlin Davis I'm Dave Townsend I'm a business owner here in Santa Rosa and a lifelong Sonoma County resident and a supporter of the trail house and Kiwi preschool and I just wanted to reflect on what Ms. Fleming was saying about the feel of this whole situation I'm a frequent patron of the trail house in the mornings in the afternoons riding bikes with my kids etc it's been very clearly stated that it's nearly impossible to have any retail business at this location number one but the feel of this whole situation that Frank brought up is the fact that this is a square peg in a round hole