Good afternoon all thank you for attending today's first council meeting of 2019 the first joint planning commission city council Meeting what I would like to start before I ask the city manager and Introduce the item because I think there is one new member of the planning commission I would like to introduce Jeff O'Cruppie who will be my new representative to the planning commission. So welcome Jeff Mr.. Said manager mr.. Gooner you can introduce the item item 3.1 downtown station area specific plan updates scope and visioning David Gouin assistant city manager present Great, thank you, and good afternoon mayor Schoethelm chair Cisco members of the council members of the planning commission 2018 was a unprecedented year in many ways it was difficult, but it was also inspiring I think we saw that people came together in ways that we could never imagined and so I as we enter 2019 What you have before you is a number of Policies a number of initiatives to carry on what we've been doing for the past year to bring housing address affordable housing address Urban densities Trans-oriented development Smart growth all the things that we've been working on for the past year You're gonna hear about today. We're also factoring in how do we recover long-term? So from a short-term standpoint, you're gonna hear items today such as density bonus that could take effect immediately As we move forward to bring density and affordable housing near transit in the midterm You're gonna hear about the downtown station area plan Which is coming up here in a second and that is gonna address things such as bringing housing and unlocking the housing units To our downtown core that we haven't seen realized in the long term We're gonna be giving you an overview of the general plan Which is going to help set the stage and give guidance to how we want to recover and look Into the future into 2035 and so all that's going to be happening over the next next year We're excited to bring this stuff to the council into the planning commission And we're gonna start off today with the first study session Which is about the downtown station area plan kickoff and to do that. I'm gonna introduce Patrick Streeter our senior planner Thank you So the purpose of this study session is to specifically speak about the downtown station area specific plan update So we do already have a downtown station area specific plan It was adopted in 2007 and the purpose behind it was to set forth a vision for for the city's downtown specifically in relation to the future smart station that was that was in development it was a 20-year plan period so 2027 was the the end date for that vision date for that plan So we're more than halfway through it and of the 3,400 roughly residential units that were envisioned We've realized 100 constructed residential units downtown. So far short of that that goal Some may have noticed the 375 unit number that was in the press Democrats article this morning That's the number of units that have been approved, but actually constructed units is 100 units Commercial floor area were a little bit more on track. There was 493,500 square feet of non-residential flurry envisioned We're a little short of halfway there with close to 200,000 square feet But the the message is that there was a vision in 2007 and we are falling short of that vision right now And that's the impetus for this update So Love technology Okay, I'll just use the magic touch I guess So earlier last year the council did set forth new goals and priorities and downtown development and downtown housing were Set as tier one and short-term goals for the council in response to that as mr. Geumann pointed out There's a multi-pronged approach taken by the city to try to address these goals one of those strategies is to update our downtown specific plan In that regard the city reached out to the Metropolitan Transit Commission MTC transportation Commission MTC And applied for a grant at which we received and that grant is to conduct this update Towards the end of last year the city contracted with a planning firm diet in Batia Who put together kind of a scope of work and are going to be working in concert with city staff in realizing the vision for this update So the downtown station area is not Limited to just the area around the downtown smart station and it's be it goes beyond even the downtown core It extends out Up to College Avenue to the north Our plan is to bring it out towards Brookwood to the east as well center is Avenue and then south see highway 12 and roughly west to Dutton Avenue Which you can go to the next one And another difference between the previous plan and this update the previous plan was looking specifically at the smart station and The policies and goals were developed around a half mile or walking distance to that smart station As part of this update We would like to bring the plan to be in line with our general plans vision for the downtown core Which brings it out to Brookwood and also means that the the plans and policies will be reflective of not just Walking distance of the smart station, but also our downtown transit mall, which is Another valuable resource as far as transit planning and environmental review So the scope for this update Involves the first task there's 10 tasks in total and those are in response to the grant requirements coming from MTC And the first is the project commencement and community engagement strategy. That's the purpose of the two specific plan related items that are on today's agenda Task two which is going to be throughout the entire process Or actually task three is throughout the entire process task two is what we're going to Take the next steps for which is developing kind of the background information. So a priority development area profile basically Figuring out what's what's in the areas around our our transit resources around our smart station around our regional arterial roads and Our other forms of transit also determining the existing conditions what the market looks like what obstacles have been have there been to the Previous plan that have not allowed us to realize that vision Task three is it involves the outreach and engagement. That's a major component of this entire update So it's going to be throughout the entire process is trying to get as many voices heard as possible Trying to extend the outreach as far as possible to really have a collaborative plan update. So It's going to involve not just the residents of downtown Not beyond just the 100 units that we've had in the last 10 years Beyond property owners beyond businesses. We want to reach out to potential future users of the downtown We want to reach out to residents of the city who are all users of the downtown And we want to have voices heard that don't typically participate in these processes So a lot of times people hear about a planning workshop and they roll their eyes and they're not interested So we want to use creative strategies to really Get as many voices at the table as possible and we do have a specific item related to community outreach and engagement which will be later in front of the council tonight task four is The development of our alternatives So using the background information using the voices that we've heard and the interest coming from our boards and commissions from our Electeds and from the community. We'd like to develop some alternatives So here are some different ways that the downtown can look and here's how the plan can look and then based on the response to those Alternatives will settle on a preferred plan and that would be presented for for review And that's what we'd move forward with as this part of this update and then we would develop the The necessary development planning for services and infrastructure. So how can we realize that plan? What what are they the important considerations in bringing that plan? To make it not just a plan but make it something that's feasible and something that's realized That will result in our draft specific plan Which again will be circulated for comment and presented for input We will update our zoning code and our general plan to be consistent with that preferred alternative and with that plan update We will conduct the necessary environmental review that's associated with that plan And then ultimately we will land on a final specific plan response to comments And that will ultimately be brought to the planning commission for recommendation and then to the city council for adoption And we have a very aggressive timeline as I mentioned earlier. These are top priorities for our council and for city staff So we are right now in the beginning steps of the process, but we do envision it Being a less than a year process With ultimately the final plan being developed by this summer. So it's it's aggressive It's going to take a lot of resources, but we've heard the message loud and clear that this is important Process and so so the city is taking the steps to realize this The schedule in addition to the lofty goals of the plan So with this plan I think as Patrick mentioned we're going to be moving fairly aggressively through this there are Opportunities for public engagement throughout this process But this this meeting today is really important from the standpoint of getting input from the planning commission and the council And to hear from the public as we kick this off. So this will be an important process in part step step in the process And so we're going to be looking to solicit feedback and we'll be here to help answer any questions and Gonna let you finish that off Yeah, that's a very good point is a lot of times when Plans specific plans general plans area plans are developed Many times our boards and commissions see the product as it's nearing completion So what's different about this process is that this is the very beginning. These are the beginning stages We have a draft scope we have goals and and We have an ultimate vision that we're looking for but this is the time that we can really get input From our from our elected officials from our boards and commissions We have another meeting with the cultural heritage board and the design review board in a few weeks And also as I've been saying throughout this presentation public engagement at all steps This is something that we're really pushing for as well And we do have we'll have a standalone website that will be available in the coming days But currently we do have if you go to SR city dot org backslash downtown update We have a landing page which gives updates on the process It also has a button that you can click to get on to the mailing list and then be given updates of the next steps So I'd encourage everyone to visit that site as well And so to kick off the discussion I think one of the things that we want to make sure that you're aware of what we've been hearing to date some of the barriers to development of downtown As we move through this past year of modifying policies reducing fees putting incentives in place and looking at city property We've we've seen that height Limitations are one element that is something that we want to look into as we update this plan What are those height limits? Why are they there and what is an appropriate? Way to deal with height in our downtown core The other item that's been brought up was parking So how do we how do we manage parking in the downtown both from a standpoint of encouraging? Creative uses of parking a car share other rideshare alternatives But also looking at other parking assets that we have and how can we more creatively use those assets? As we move forward and what kind of requirements do we want to put on development for parking? And then the last thing I think just to touch on is how we Calculate the impacts to traffic one of the things that MTC is Look asking us to look into is vehicle miles traveled versus level of service So again, that's an element that we'll be looking into as we move forward in the plan So those are three examples of things that we'll be focusing on as we move forward and looking for additional input as well So that concludes the the formal presentation Portion of the study session and the way we that that we envisioned The study session going was that now we would move on to questions from the planning commission in the council We can respond to those those questions. We have city staff here We also have the consultant firm representatives present as well And then from then on we can move on to Comments and that'll give us a chance to record the the important issues and topics that you'd like to see made a part of this plan Thank you pastor for that presentation So the course of order there that I have one question if you pull up the last slide that we had and then we'll first have Chair Cisco last questions from the planning commission. They'll come back to the council for any questions and open up to comments from the public So this is the timeline for this process. What would be a typical process? I heard you say the priority and thank you for recognizing that this is a priority for not only this council by this community What would a normal timeline look like for this type of a process? Typically, we'd look at around 18 months for this kind of process. So this is going to be aggressively undertaken. Great. Thank you Chair Cisco, would you like to questions? Commissioners excuse me any questions Commissioner Duggan Thank you. I've got I've got to and one of them is the staff report you mentioned that the feedback you got on Obstacles to building in the downtown area was You didn't mention what it was specifically and I'm wondering if it's the height limits and Was there anything else that was negative about the potential for building downtown? Yeah, I think that what we have been hearing are the those primarily the two parking and height Those are two things that we've we've determined Fees were another issue and also some of the policies in terms of how long it takes to get a project through the system And so we've dealt with those in another format. They're not It's not appropriate to put them in a specific plan. So fees. We have a fee residential fees Program in the downtown and we've changed our review process expedite permitting for housing in the downtown core So we've dealt with those two big hurdles and now this is the big one secret coverage Height and parking are the are what this will address and then my second question is I know we've got a Process going on right now where the master plan for the bike and pedestrian Plans being updated and I think it's coming forward to the Commission in February And has that been consulted as far as the downtown area and what they're showing as far as bike and ped improvements Yeah, so we've throughout the process been working closely with the the Department of Transportation Public Works and right now the the update does reflect the existing plan as well as our general plan and we have a component of this Process will be what's called a technical advisory committee and members of transportation public works as well as outside organizations like smart and Sonoma County transit and other other groups will be present at that table as well to give their input So ideally both of these plans would move forward at the same time and working with each other. Okay. Thank you So I just want to ask a little bit about the the prior projections for units and obviously we're off by many orders of magnitude and the recession being a major cause of that but I think that now we're onto Seven or more years of economic growth. We've got low unemployment. We have a lot of income inequality people are rent burdened so it cuts both ways but Have we thought about why that was so incorrect and what's going to be different with the Methodologies that are going to be used to make unit projections In the materials that the council and the commission are going to get I Would think that unless the perspective and maybe the ideology or the inputs were different that we would end up with yet another projection that was not very useful to the decision-makers and For that matter we can expect another recession. It's the nature of the economy that we have in this country and Is there going to be any consideration given to making a resilient plan that's going to deliver units Even if market rate developers are keeping money in the bank That thinks about that to the maximum possible extent Yeah, commissioner admins and you bring up a great point that there's there's certain elements of development We can control as a city and we touched on those the permits the processing the fees The land use but there are things that we can't control There's a natural environment of the building materials labor labor cost and then we're not alone in that There's also one element that we found as we started this process about a year ago there's a perception and There's been a perception about five to ten years ago that Santa Rosa did not want to see this type of growth out there So when we started making the calls and visiting people in the Bay Area asking why are you not coming up here? They thought why would you don't want us up there? And so that was that's been a change that we've had to make over this past year to say no We we do want to see that type of development in our downtown core We have to get out there market it but from a standpoint of how do we attract the right type of developers to build the Right type of the housing that we want to see as a city That's an ongoing effort to your point about how do we make sure that the numbers realistic? I think what we were proposing to do is set a goal set an aspiration Set the policies in place to try to see what to give what we want because growth will happen And what we want to try to do is focus that growth where we as a council where the council wants to see that growth Which is near transit in the downtown core and so we're going to continue to push those elements as we move forward another piece of that is through that outreach process that we mentioned in addition to reaching out to the community and Residents and business owners. We're also going to be reaching out to the development community Both developers that we currently work with now as well as those outside to truly get an understanding of Why we haven't seen development in our city And then the other piece to the specific plan process is creation of a market analysis To try and get an understanding of what is the reality of what could happen in our city so that we can try to do our very best to create a plan that would be Something that could come to fruition Okay, great. I have a couple of follow-ups on that we're talking about the Community members who are going to be invited to take part in this of course the entire city, but there's going to be the advisory group and then These stakeholder meetings and you've mentioned That developers are important stakeholders in the process and this is a this is a process that's focused on a specific area of town but I Would expect and I think we all Have heard that those conversations about impediments to development and costs that the city can Reduce the conversations have been going on for quite a while And you mentioned a few policies that the city has enacted to go in that direction that the development community has requested so Perhaps the policy Could be changed on that front But is the do we expect to hear much new in the conversation? If I'm hearing you correctly are we expecting to hear new from the development community on issues? Yeah with regard to feasibility and cost the things that would be bottlenecks to development Have some of those not been spoken about No, I think you're right I think most of them have been put on the table and we actually we did have a study done by the council of infill builders did a Report on development and in downtown and what those barriers are they produce that report getting input from all over the bay area So that it's been fairly well vetted and it comes down again to the things There's certain things that we can't control and like I mentioned before materials and labor And so part of what our job is to figure out how to set ourselves up and be in a position to take advantage of When things do change are we ready to support the type of type development we want to see and there's there's people Businesses we're starting to meet with a lot of businesses that want to encourage a different type of housing unit in the downtown To attract and retain their employees and so they've they've come to the table so we're we're changing the equation by adding employers to the conversation adding the school districts to the conversation We're we're we're not doing things the same anymore. I think your earlier point about why haven't we seen this That's essentially a plan doesn't get development to happen But a plan plus active engagement and bringing people to the table to make something happens gonna gonna be the trick So we're gonna continue to do that. We're gonna continue to find try to find what those barriers are and work through them I'm as I've we've mentioned with the council and the planning commission if we don't get it right Or we need to see a tweak we're gonna come back to you And we're gonna keep keep updating it keep modifying it to make sure we hit that mark, but We're we're gonna take our shot and then do the best we can and get those housing is built and just to add to that One of the impediments that we have heard is the uncertainty So that is something that a plan can address specifically is that we're we're setting out a road map Basically for the development community to say if you're if you're designing something that's in line with this vision We're taking a lot of these steps proactively. We're looking at the environmental review now We're looking at the traffic impacts now the service impacts now So we try to remove that uncertainty so that their equations start to start to pencil out So it's it's one small, you know drip in the bucket of what it takes to do a development But it is that is one way that a specific plan can address that Thank you Any other commissioners have a question? Yeah, commissioner call you Can you talk a little bit more about the affordable housing and anti displacement strategy portion of this? And I just want to confirm and it's an assumption that the housing authority will have a lot to do with that because it seems like They're a key player in regards to that So the the housing authority will be a component of that technical advisory committee that I had mentioned earlier And it is it's it's in our scope. It's part of the process So so we'll be looking at at these initial steps where we're developing a background and needs assessment We'll take that into the equation and then based on feedback that we receive That's going to kind of model how how we're going to address those topics as we move forward Thank you anyone else Okay, I have One question which actually may travel over when you get to your general plan study session, but I've been talking with individuals that are interested in Climate protection and our climate action plan and asking about policies in this particular plan that May be strengthened or further Climate protection and I understand just the whole concept of transit orient development is is in line with that But do you anticipate any exploration of those kinds of policies being included in this plan? So there isn't there's not a specific Climate action piece of to the specific plan certainly through the environmental analysis. We will look at impacts to air quality and greenhouse gas emissions and You're correct with the the next item study session item, which is the general plan update You know one of the pieces of the general plan is our greenhouse gas section We do have our climate action plan, which is a separate document which is folded into the general plan through policies That climate action plan is in need of update, but at this point We do not have direction nor resources to do that update But it is something that we can talk about through that general plan process Okay, and then in terms of the market analysis piece and potential land use changes as that is done the specific to the Square Are you anticipating that that market analysis may take a look at? The the land uses around there which would seem appropriate. They're a commercial retail But they're not the ones that are that fill that need right now aren't activating the the Square at night, so are you anticipating any of the market analysis taking a look at that and as to how do we? Incentivize or recognize that we want we want more active uses, but the ones we have are in line with the land use That's there right now that's a very good point and Earlier I had mentioned that the 2007 plan was really focused on the smart station and it was sort of the one of the early attempts at Realizing the transit oriented development which looks at kind of townhouse development mom-and-pop commercial This plan we're expanding the scope to include our downtown core and really look at those those land uses in particular Which I don't think we're a part of the that original plan Okay That's all I've got Great. Thank you bring it back to the council questions from council members Go ahead Jeff Thank You mayor. Thank You David Quick question, you know we talked about outreach to the development community, which obviously goes that saying but Specifically what neighborhood or community advocacy groups? Or are you going to be reaching out to get their opinions on what this should look like as well? And we talked earlier David, but specifically about the folks You know who are kind of gathering to do this neighborhood by neighborhood throughout the city in anticipation of even the general plan update Patrick's pulling up the the next item that so we'll be talking about more about the communication or the community engagement component the next item First report item actually But you bring up a good point There are groups out there that are looking to engage Neighborhoods to get involved in these planning processes and we want to encourage that and we want to work figure out how to work with those groups and bring them to the table to help Influence and and provide information that we're not otherwise hearing so one of the things that this part of this plan the most One of the more critical parts of this plan is going to be Our historic neighborhoods and neighborhoods that have but the downtown so the downtown is surrounded by primarily historic neighborhood development and That that change from where historic neighborhood ends and where the downtown course Becomes is going to be very critical and that conversation is going to be really important to have both with those living in that neighborhood But also the downtown and so having groups out there that are engaging neighborhoods Pulling them out. We've also have our community engagement Director in the audience interim director We've been talking about creative ways to reach out to those neighborhoods and bring them to the table But that's going to be the most important part I think is Patrick talked about the community engagement piece without that conversation and without understanding Issues of the historic neighborhood and the transition needed to get to this that the density we want to see I don't think we can be successful. So we'll need to engage those groups as much as possible Great. Thank you. And my second final question is about affordable housing To you know, it's obviously been an objective of this council and I in the planning commission as well to create and Spur more affordable housing construction throughout the city Particular interest to me is mixed income communities in the downtown Area seems like a wonderful opportunity to start that especially with the environmental overlay incentive But can you remind the council the commission and the public and any anybody looking who is watching today? What incentives exist if you come forward with a project that has some composition of affordability built into it. That's a great point. So part of what we're building here is a Toolbox that we can put out there for development to achieve housing, but also mixed income housing So what we've done to date we have the high-density multifamily residential incentive program It's a mouthful, but there are basically fee incentives for all housing in the downtown If you bring affordable to the table those incentives are even more dramatic than the market rate So it's a fairly fairly dramatic drop in the fees if you bring affordable units as part of your project and Satisfy satisfy our inclusionary policy The second thing that you're going to hear later tonight again Layers in and ties into this is a density bonus program. So density bonus is another tool that We're putting on the table to allow developers to near transit in the downtown area Increased density if affordable units are part of that project Which will hopefully off the intent is to offset that cost of that Adding that affordable those affordable units with additional density And so those two the fees and the density layered on with the land use and the sequel that we're putting forward as part of this plan Are is geared towards trying to achieve this goal that we we haven't seen Calmer fine, do you have any questions? Yeah, thank you. I'm curious to know we spoke a little bit earlier if you think it'd be more relevant to talk to the The provision for affordable child care or child care in the this or in the next study session so we have Existing policies within our general plan that address child care and so I think in the context of the general plan update We can that would be a good time for that conversation to talk about what our existing policies are and whether we want to enhance them change them that type of thing and And I think though as well week what we can do is it with the downtown we can Rehighlight I get essentially what is available for child care with development projects That would be that would apply to downtown development projects Because I think there are things out there that I don't think many people are aware of and so it's a good point to Bring that back up and review it as we go through the specific plan. Yeah, and and Falling up on what I said, I don't think that there's any reason why we couldn't look at child care within the specific plan if We want to focus anything particularly to the downtown If it looks like we are lacking in child care in this particular area And we want to add policies to help enhance that and get more child care in the downtown area That would certainly be we have lost, you know more child cares and we've gained in the last year And I'm particularly interested in making sure that child care is near our transit So that our families can access it access it without incurring more vehicle miles driven And so we can also meet our climate action goals Okay Councilman Collins just to follow up on that I Support my colleague's suggestion that we integrate child care needs Particularly as we increase housing or family housing folks don't like to drive along distances to perceive child care So we we need to make sure we have child care where we're building housing In addition to the other good points that have been made. I have a couple of questions and I'm wondering it's it's not clear to me how we're talking about the anti-displacement strategies Do we have a set of anti-displacement strategies that are in a draft form? Are we it looks like we're discussing it Maybe even as early as the end of March beginning of April and I'm wondering What are you working with to get to the anti-displacement conversation? It's a particularly difficult nut and What kind of data are you looking at with regard to displacement policies and displacement? issues within our community So there are I don't believe Affordable housing and anti-displacement strategy was prepared for the first specific plan so we're kind of starting from scratch with that one, but it is part of the Grant requirement and something that we want to see as well. So it is typically done in concert with the creation of the Existing conditions report and so that is something that the consultant is will be working on with their subs To address those issues and so we will be reviewing that and ultimately the document will be uploaded on to the Specific plan website for the public to review. This is a particular interest to me because of the work I've done with the committee to house the Bay Area the CASA work And and I'm very interested in Doug's work at Berkeley on on Displacement and the threats to concern about displacement in our area the new CASA compact has an overlay map that gives Certain areas of our city Some time to do certain things because of the likelihood of displacement in our area So if we need to take advantage of those things that should be included in in the look here I I have a question about the appointment of the advisory group in in general, I like the council to Make appointments of advisory groups. It's just sort of a general sense that I have that You know council knows folks who may have an important thing to say and and I'm sure you know folks also but it looks to me as if the appointment of the advisory group goes to the director and So I'm wondering if we could Talk about whether that's what we as a council would like to have happen and or if we could perhaps make a recommended list For the director to select names from and I would ask that we carry that conversation into the report item because at that that item is all about this Discussion and we can talk about the recommendations and I think that's a great idea. Okay Is this the appropriate time or is another time the appropriate time to talk about One of the issues that's been close to my heart for a long time Which is that we should limit new fast-food drive-throughs in certain parts of our city like the downtown Just is that conversation for the downtown station? Where is that for the general plan? So similar with the daycare issue it certainly could be for both if there is a particular interest in Considering whether we want drive-throughs in our downtown area and that's certainly something that we can look into as we go into our visioning process But again, it also is also a city-wide question and would be a great one for looking into us or we update our general plan Okay, so both places maybe We have a fabulous old look on our fourth street In in both fourth streets As we move this forward Is there an interest in preserving that sort of in Initial entryway, you know and have a multi-story building immediately behind an older building or is that in this conversation? has the Cultural Heritage Board made any comments about one of the buildings I'm aware of is that we have a crest building that I think is under beautified We have what is it kind of a fantastic facade on that crest building. I would hate to say First I am thrilled to increase density and height downtown. I think growing up is exactly what Santa Rosa needs But I would not like to lose some of the historic facades that we have How do we have that conversation within this context? That's a great point and one of the reasons that I actually The consultant team that we chose to work with is that they have on staff historic resource consultants So a component of this process will be a historic resource inventory to to map out what exactly we have So that's a step of our existing conditions and then we'll also be looking at adaptive reuse and and how to how to move forward with development while also catering to the to the resources that we have and I'll lastly add that that the specific plan is a vision document as well So so this is our opportunity to say this is the vision we have for downtown. This is how it should look and Next week we do have a joint session with the Cultural Heritage Board and Design Review Board So they'll they'll have an opportunity to weigh in. That's a good plan I'm glad to hear that I'll look forward to watch it with that being here So it's televised and we can watch that all right. I have two other questions We've talked about a market analysis and I may not have fully understood what the scope of that analysis is in the past That has tended to focus on retail and I'm wondering if this market analysis will include leakage or a further understanding of what what our market is what our market could be Will we be including other ass what what are the aspects of the market analysis we're talking about? Well, I think Deferred a Patrick on what's in the scope of the work But just just so you're aware from a economic development standpoint We also have parallel efforts going on doing market analysis for Development to the points you're talking about what is it? What's the true cost development the leakage? What what can be sustained in the current marketplace? So that's go that's we're doing that as well But there's also and what we should be providing that we aren't providing locally that we could do I mean we have a lot of places that use bottles, but we don't make bottles That's a poor example, but it's the kind of thing. I'm talking about so The was called out in the scope for this project is a market demand analysis and it has several key components One is a residential market analysis. We also have a commercial market analysis and a land use and employment forecast Okay So maybe for the general plan we may want to look a little further afield In terms of especially the use of our industrial sites, but that may be a general plan And I think I have asked for an update on the housing action plan I'd like to see how this integrates with our existing housing action plan and the process project Progress we have made on our housing action plan because I know we've done an awful lot And I'd sort of like to see how this ties in if we could get something that addresses the housing action plan Yes, a summary of the housing action plan elements and the stat current status is being produced right now And that'll be sent out to the full council in anticipation of the goal setting and again. Thank you for bringing this forward I I really am excited to hear about this and to see where it goes I have also talked to a couple of folks in the downtown One of whom requested that when we look at Brookwood, which we are not there yet That we look at the far side or the east side of Brookwood and make sure it is included in downtown It's just to pass on a request from a constituent. Thank you Vice mayor Rogers Thank You mr. Mayor first I want to appreciate your comments about cultural heritage board and working with those individuals I think the downtown station area is Likely to have a lot of tension where we're talking about building up and understanding that it either a buts or includes Many of Santa Rosa's historic neighborhoods and the more input that we can have in coordination between those entities to relieve that pressure I think it's going to go a long way particularly in this planning process I'm going to tip my hand a little bit where I'm really interested in the city going is Some form of form-based coding where when we have Projects that come in that are appropriate within the zoning and have a level of affordability and have net zero energy Or whatever our punch list that we determine is that we are able to streamline and take a lot of the politics out of the development and To me a critical part of that is making sure that in this process The community feels heard so that when things are deemed to be appropriate for being built that they've been involved in it as well I'm a bit concerned though also happy about the truncated timeline if we continue to do that community engagement as well Is the community advisory board going to be a part of this strategic effort? Understanding that they have finalized their strategic plan for the year and that they're bringing that to us Or do we need to engage them as well and get them involved in this process? So kind of similar to what we did with the Roseland specific plan annexation We did visit with the community advisory board numerous times to give them updates And we also worked with them and they helped us do our outreach going door-to-door knocking on doors getting people to come Into our meetings so they will definitely be a part of this process. Okay, that's great I understand that many of our cap members have been briefed on it I just want to make sure that they are being utilized to make sure that neighbors understand what's happening as well and are brought to those meetings as Well, so I appreciate that Director, I heard you talk a little bit about the lower fees in the downtown particularly for affordable And I asked you this question and I'm gonna ask you in public Do you feel like you have the authority outside of the downtown area plan for that same type of program of lower fees for affordable units At least to begin looking into information to bring back to the planning commission and the council about that at this point No, we've We've been focused on the downtown the downtown has been the priority and that's where the policies and fee reductions have been So anything outside of the downtown We do have a housing action plan and we're following that as the guide post for city-wide so things like density bonus and Other policies So if that if that's something we want to look at city-wide We would need to look at what the impact that has to The infrastructure funds that those support and what that means long term for all the other issues that the city has going on in terms of Roads and infrastructure needs so it's not something we've we've focused on again. The focus is downtown yeah, and I appreciate that I am Interested in giving you the authority to be able to do some of that research to come back to us and talk to us About what that will have particularly as we're focusing so much on downtown and learning what's working and what's not working Some of that is appropriate to do outside of that downtown area as well. So I am interested in giving you that authority Go ahead So one of the things that we will be discussing over the upcoming weeks is some opportunities including How do we use our assets in the downtown? But we we also need to have a very very direct conversation about the condition of city facilities and You will see in a presentation next week that I'm going to tip my hat That I will be taking the council out On a tour of the conditions of the facilities as they exist already Because we need to really address our facilities and take care of ourselves. We have not done that in close to a decade And we were running into useful life issues for with many of our facilities. So We all want to be champions of the housing conversation We're champions in the downtown We need to sort of test the market as it relates to that But this is another topic that I'm going to be bringing towards the long-term finance committee How do we finance our facilities and our own infrastructure? Because it is getting as you saw in presentations early late in the middle of life Last year and we're reaching a crisis point as it relates to our city facilities So be prepared for that invitation council members. It'll be coming in the next few weeks I need to show you firsthand the conditions that exist out in the field. Thank you Understood and then director I ask you pretty frequently about the feasibility of bringing a grocery store to downtown Is that going to be addressed on the planet all? Yeah, and I think this is a great point and we talked about child care facilities and services needed when you start to bring residents to an area and Grocery stores is definitely one of those so grocery stores Other services that are needed to support people living in a downtown core So that's going to be something we'll look at we're actively in process of trying to recruit and figure out where appropriately places like grocery stores can go and then also how they can be incorporated into proposed developments and Directly related. I think we have seen malls across the country failing Some creative things that have happened not saying that that is for sure going to happen continue to happen in communities But we obviously in our downtown station area one of the most massive pieces of Building that there is the mall Have there been any additional conversations about what could happen if stores continue to close their Perhaps the grocery store if that was able to be brought into it. Are we engaging with Simon in those conversations? Yes, yeah, so we've reached out to them and we are having conversations Simon obviously has lots of property all over the state of the country And so this conversation is going on from a standpoint of housing groceries other types of uses and so We're working on that and as Patrick mentioned this is a visioning document So I think part of what we need to do is envision what do we want our downtown to look like The mall is in our downtown. How do we want to utilize that understanding that we have some vacant spots in there? So Talking with this corporate Simon is going to be the conversation We need to have to understand what their goals are as well, right? And then my last question is about the parking. I'm really interested to see sort of what you bring forward on parking But I would hope and I'd ask that in your analysis You also provide information to the council on what you're hearing about the sellability of units in an area That has a reduced parking requirement So I think it's great to have a walkable community if the reality of it is that people are gonna have to park on the streets How are we going to mitigate those impacts and is it going to be harder and thus? More less desirable for people to build units in downtown if they don't come with a parking space For most of us who do have to commute even if we're using public transit most of the time And it's an interesting point I think part of the discussion that we want to have is how do we want to deal with parking? A lot of times Our codes requirements don't reflect reflect reality in terms of the market. And so one of the conversations is Potentially have a parking maximum or something that would set a bar but to know that development Development all the developments we've been talking to recently they have a market ability to them And they have to have a certain number parking spots And so what we want to do is look at how do we develop a plan that provides us the most flexibility to be as creative As we can with people as they start thinking about how to make their project work Knowing that there still is a need for parking, but how can we do that slightly differently and just add to that? I think it's important to keep in mind that we're not just looking at Parking minimums and maximums a number of parking spaces. We're looking at alternatives to on-site required parking So where where can we leverage the existing parking facilities? Where can we leverage shared parking? How can we make that easy for a developer to see how that pencils into their project? So not just the the base numbers of a number of parking spaces on your site, but also how does parking work throughout the downtown? yeah, and similar to my questions about the smart site being developed an Understanding of where the parking is going to go if it's not on-site and how that's going to impact the neighborhoods that already have cars parking along the streets Okay, may I follow up to that? My other my understanding in addition to whether the unit will sell is whether it can be built if we Often we have a parking limitation that everyone is happy with and agrees to do and then the bank won't loan with that level of parking So if you can provide us with information about how we can Assist in finding partners within the lending community. I would be very interested in hearing that Thanks, ma'am. Sorry Thank you, ma'am. I'm curious first of all, thank you for this aggressive timeline and I think it's important on a number of levels What goes along with with the an aggressive timeline at times can be breaking log jams And so I'm curious What your plan is for breaking those log jams and they can happen in a community setting can happen at the council setting What your plan is to who will it go to first and then how will that process unfold if you need kind of a person or a group? to policy makers or a board or a commission to Allow you to move forward because in an aggressive timeline moving forward rapidly is going to be important You don't have months and months to work on on single issues And connected to that is what is your plan for giving us? Progress reports if you will what's the what's the what's the timeline for progress reports? so our intention is to Utilize the downtown subcommittee as a basis to have some conversations as we move through this program Again to have that regular check-in at a more frequent basis than a council meeting would allow So that's our intention is to utilize that forum It is a public forum and there are three council members on that subcommittee And then in terms of updates that can come in a number of formats either through memo updates or if directed a different approach But I think we'll look at the timeline and try to figure out and work with potentially the subcommittee on how often should we Show come to in front of the full council to give an update or if it can be via email or Notification All right, I don't have any question. I do want to thank you for taking the time to meet With some of us individually to kind of answer some of our questions. I find it very helpful This is just the starting point of a lengthy conversation So we'll move to public comments, and I would invite anyone who's interested in speaking please fill out a speaker card There's another opportunity we have some of our consultants here staff is here It's a great opportunity to share your thoughts on this plan. So our first speaker will be Susan Hildreth followed by Peter Rumble Hi Susan Hildreth interim director Sonoma County Library So I really want to Give you accolades for going through this process. I know it's a tight timeline But I think it's an exciting one and I'm here to offer support from the library particularly We have a key facility here included in the downtown area And we want to make sure that we're involved with you envisioning what we could do for the community and How we can we really have great access to community members to be involved particularly in your community engagement Which is on a tight timeline So we're happy happy to help by bringing some of our customers into the discussion And also if you'd like to use our facilities or share information through the library We're happy to be able to participate and support you in this exciting effort. Thank you. Thank you Peter Rumble followed by Steve Earlbaum Good afternoon council just really echoing the same words of encouragement gratitude and support Your staff have absolutely been tremendous to work with your movement on the downtown specific area plan is a critical piece in moving forward the the talk that we've had over the last year or so and Just Kind of hit on some points that I've been hearing in conversations Both data as well as anecdote This isn't necessarily Building homes for people to you know move out of Bennett Valley or RINCon. This is homes to connect and Maintain our current workforce the workforce of the future Also critical and attracting and retaining business here You know so the data from Bay Area Economic Institute say we're significantly Under housed in this type of housing downtown anecdotally, I have some of the major employers telling me that You know their employees can move to other locations throughout the state or the country or internationally frankly And it's this type of housing that their employees want so I really Encourage you to continue to move forward Expeditiously and we are here to support in any way possible. So, thank you. Thank you Steve followed by Terry shore Thank You Mayor Schwedhelm and members of the City Council and the Planning Commission I'm speaking for the Sierra Club and for the Transportation and Land Use Coalition and We are very supportive of what you're up to here It's not going to be easy Producing a walkable Compact downtown With access to groceries has been a goal for a long long time We want to see it happen. We appreciate the expeditious approach Good luck Thank You Steve Terry followed by Ray Morgan Yes, good afternoon Mayor Schwedhelm Planning Commissioners staff members of the public my name is Terry shore I'm the regional director for the North Bay for Greenbelt Alliance and First I just want to thank all the Commissioners and staff in the City Council for moving on this This is a really exciting way to kick off the new year with a really ambitions vision for the downtown of Santa Rosa and this is really the you know bread and butter of Greenbelt Alliance In Santa Rosa and around the Bay Area to support these kind of projects So I hope you will view us as a partner and an advocate going forward I just wanted to quote something that Councilmember Jack Tivett said to me before he was a council member when we were sitting down and talking about the downtown You know Do we want to have a thriving walkable exciting downtown or do we want to be like Stockton? And I'll never forget that because I'm like yeah, that is exactly what we're talking about And I'm really excited that everyone here is moving in this direction Greenbelt Alliance was happy to have supported the MTC grant with a letter to get the finding that you need to move This forward and do the secret document I hope that you will consider Greenbelt Alliance as a possible member of the community advisory committee or the technical advisory committee if you think that we would provide Some benefits to the city in in in that role I also would like to say that we do bring a regional perspective To the discussion as well as the local discussion Greenbelt Alliance has had an office in downtown Santa Rosa for at least 20 years or maybe more I would also like to thank the council members and the commissioners who brought up some questions about You know the climate action plan and addressing our climate action affordability and Displacement we would really support more discussion including those important issues moving forward In any case Greenbelt Alliance plans to be and to engage in this help you with community outreach and be a partner So thank you very much. Look forward to an exciting couple of years ahead Thank you Ray followed by Deborah Hello, my name is Ray Morgan. I am a resident of the station area. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity I've got a couple of things to say about kudos for the city of Santa Rosa one was Approximately one year or right about the time that the fires were happening after 10 years of stopping Rob sprinkle and everybody else I finally got a little bit of action on 3rd Street We changed it from two lanes both ways to one lane both ways with a turn lane bike lane and parking just like you loop And everywhere is also on the east rich side of town. It has made a Tremendous difference on 3rd Street now on to my criticism number one transit oriented is the first thing you people put Into all these things the transit center has it was put in Traversos went out of business Pacific title out of business still an empty building next door sears now out of business The smart train was put in there is no bus center or connection at the smart train There is no and track bus connection at the smart train There is no Airport or connection at the smart train that ends up way over on the veteran center somewhere There is no parking garage at the end of 5th Street, which was a high-rise 2009 plan that was floated which I would love to see at the end of 5th Street right against the Santa Rosa Creek There should be a huge high-rise at the end of 6th Street Playhouse there to accompany all of the out-of-town Residents of Sonoma County who would love to come to downtown as well as use the smart train Okay Developers when I was going to the development plans back in 07 08 and 09 every single developer asked for a variance on the General plan and the plans for a variance to decrease their parking requirements none of them went through none of the developments went through And second of all where will all of these people you're going to house work There has been a concerted effort to stop and deter industry in the north of 9th Street area there is a concerted effort to put nothing but housing on the south of 12th Street bounded by Sebastopol Road area getting rid of all of that industry there hey Housing's great. Where are these people going to work and now you don't have commute systems to send them We're out to Dutton to your industrial area where there is no on ramp from Belvedere on to the freeway You have to go to her and or Todd both of which are overloaded and cramped right now The city is shot down three different attempts by the Stewart company to develop the cotton building in the last 10 years Employers Sears is closed the transit says the center didn't help them railroad square shops are empty Regularly how many wine bars have we seen die shuffles ice cream parlor PJ put that in a year or so ago He just closed doors last week the restaurant underneath the Santa Rosa hotel still empty the the train Depot has no Depot no concession no ticket no nothing So That's Three of the four things I wanted to comment on I live in the area. I would like to see a show of hands How many people in this room or thank you for your comments there? Debra followed by Efren Curio. I Resonate many of this former Discussion with this speaker Deborah Tavares with stop the crime.net. I have a couple of questions, and I may have missed the conversation about solar at adaptability here with the new Environmental increase in walkable cities and new construction Why I'm bringing up solar and I'll pass this out for all of you to see when I get down there is There is a letter from Congress dated January the 2nd of 2019 and it's from a congressman out of the 6th congressional district in Minnesota He's talking about how the Harvard scientists are now looking to explore solar dimming To mitigate some of the effects of climate change So how would solar dimming affect the solar production that I see on a sign out here That you're in allegiance with and an alliance with with the Department of Energy My second and most critical comment is about the low e Windows the low e windows I have seen firsthand start fires You can type in low e windows and fires, and you will see a Cascading amount of reported fires for many many years not only throughout the United States But in Europe as well if if there is a requirement For these green energy windows it must be known that they start fires recently I had a family member who lost a home in Fountain Grove. They repurchased a new home that was under construction in Skyhawk moved in only a few months ago and just prior to the Thanksgiving red flag warning they stayed home because they felt uncomfortable about the atmosphere the conditions and the unoccupied model home right next to them caught on fire and At the time no one knew why the backyard had seemingly exploded with both the mulch and the back wooden fence as long as well as Climbing up the wooden support post to the second floor deck It was determined a few weeks later after the developer cleaned out all of the burned rebel that it was in fact the windows Now when you type in low e windows and fires you'll find that they start fires and burn up neighbors houses It depends on how the concave windows In the afternoon or when the sun shines on them because they concave the sunlight Beams off of them much like a magnifying glass and starts combust they become combustible and Fires so I think this is critical. You almost lost a brand new area in Skyhawk That is now lived in by many Survivors that had to repurchase because of the low e windows, so I would certainly consider this a an important Notification to all of the rebuilds look into this, please Thank you. Efren followed by Nick caston Okay, good afternoon mayor Schwedhelm council members and planning commission staff first and foremost thanks to staff for the amount of work that they have put forth in really reaching out to business owners and various Stakeholders throughout the downtown core. I think that it's important for the council and for the city to continue to reinforce The downtown is a unique cultural business entertainment and civic center for the region with an abundance for housing and housing opportunities the creation of Principles that will guide this plan are something that need to be embedded in the future conversations you will have with the public Creating a 24-hour downtown With a focus on residential development with an integrative mix in commercial Civic cultural and entertainment attractions. I think would really create the energy of the vibrancy that we want to see our downtown core have We need to transform downtown from what it is currently now as a collection of destinations You look at downtown. We've got the plaza. You've got 4th Street. You've got railroad square Councilwoman combs mentioned on the east side Brookwood There's an opportunity to provide a uniqueness and really collect a downtown as being a singular destination for the city We need to enhance the attractiveness for investments downtown, you know We talk about the various obstacles and barriers to development You're hitting on some of the high points as a long density along looking at going up but we need to find a way to Invite investors to look at downtown as an opportunity For a long-term viability there and by doing that I think a major principle of how you look at this plan moving forward has to include Forging public-private partnerships In high-priority initiatives or high-priority areas. I think railroad square presents the most Present priority to create those public-private partnerships But you also need to have Principles that are guiding the implementation of those plans Once again, thank you mayor Schwedhelm. Thank you planning commissioners for your service and real Thank you to the staff for continuing to drive this effort so that we can see collective progress across the board Thank you friend, you know our final card Nick caston Thank You mr. Mayor By a way of history I just like to say that when I moved to downtown on Humboldt Street between fifth and seventh our nightlife was the old Vic and that was it It's been replaced by you know restaurant over brewing and bunch of other folks So I think we should recognize that we've actually had quite a bit of a success in the last few decades I mean revitalizing downtown and we're taking it to the next level. I just want to and there'll be many more Comments, I'm sure as we go through this process, but on three things that I hope will influence how this process unveils I appreciate the very quick and ambitious timeline that staffs laid out I would like to say that the goal should be that the timeline for projects coming in under this Plan is more important than how long we spend on the plan And what that means is having a bulletproof environmental impact report document that we can rely on when we come in for parking reductions For traffic Considerations and for all the other elements So please don't let the approval of this plan in a speeding matter Impact the innovation that we will need in the environmental documents to actually get the projects approved Because there's a matter of controversy in the past the downtown area is the one area of the city where we have a lack of all-age affordable housing the vast majority of the affordable housing units in downtown are Restricted to 55 and up or persons with disabilities We need affordable housing for people of all ages in the downtown area specifically And this was a major part of the controversy surrounding some of the past proposals in the downtown area And I encourage you to specifically make sure that it's clear that we're looking for all-age affordable housing in the downtown area and lastly In 2007 when we're going through the first round of this and I'm actually at the point in my Career now where we're revisiting plans that I remember us creating There wasn't really any controversy around heights. I think we received one comment from the Cherry Street neighborhood That was concerned about height limits everything else was about major those parks grocery stores and a lot of the comments We heard today as ratting in more units. So let's let's not be cautious around heights and density downtown Let's be bold about it. Let's get rid of those restrictions so people know that we're open to those types of considerations in this area and You know not let them read things into the fact we put in 14 stories in some areas when I'm sure everyone been perfectly fine with 16 or 18 So thank you all for your work. I hope this will be a fun and quick process Thank you for the comments fun and quick. I like that So we'll bring it back to the planning commission and City Council chair says can you solicit final comments? Any final comments from my commissioners? commissioner weeks Feist your week sorry I just wanted to say that thank you for bringing this and one of the things that I'd like to see is What which I've heard before is flexibility and discretion for staff I think mr. Caston got it right when he said be bold and Also in the original plan. There was a identity and character component that I think Really? Goes to some of the comments that mr. Carrillo Mentioned and I would like to see that beefed up if we could and Robert's wrote not to be overlooked. Thank you So my comments are sort of more general and I think it goes to the the sense that this is a vision document I think it's key that as it's being prepared as these hopefully new Interest groups new stakeholders different voices that we don't normally hear from are brought in That this is truly a sort of visionary document that it does propose big bold plans that allow things To stop being goals and to start becoming reality You know, I hope that the goal in another 10 years isn't to still have a grocery store downtown for instance and I think as part of this I Just want to say I've been very impressed with planning and economic development staff's vision in responding to the fires and implementing the cannabis ordinance and I will continue to put my my faith in Staff and the city to to really think big on this and really Make some progress on on these goals to make downtown a really desirable destination Yeah, as one of the two commissioners here including that chair Cisco who was actually on the planning commission when we did the first plan And now we can see what did or didn't work. I do think we have to be bold on this one And I do have some specifics, but I do Think a grocery store downtown in the Sears site, perhaps we've seen how Whole Foods kind of helped Cutting town maybe a grocery store at the downtown mall would help things there. Not that I think they need that much help I do think childcare downtown close to residences and Work sites is a great idea And I think we included this in the previous plan, I'm not sure but if we had a map included of opportunity sites downtown Parking lots that could be redeveloped. I think that would be super helpful and Instructed because I think there is some tension with the historic neighborhood Residents that maybe their houses will be next and then the big buildings to go on those sites But to show where we really envision the taller bigger housing structures would be a lot of help in the plan I'm all for shared parking I think there's ways when you see lots that are associated with businesses and they're Roped off and you can't park there after hours if they could be shared with residences after hours. That would be a terrific saving of paved parking lots I support having residents of historic district and neighborhood groups and maybe a bike Pedestrian group on either the community advisory committee or the stakeholders group to weigh in on their points of view and I think Being one of the people on the planning commission who lives very close to the downtown Area and I regularly walk and bike downtown. There are lots of broken and missing sidewalk segments If part of the plan I know there was mention in The document about doing a drive-by and looking at the current features if part of the plan was to assess areas of missing and broken infrastructure and with a mind of Connecting those missing links that would be great I Would also love to see a prohibition on fast food drive-throughs downtown. I think that should be included in this document because drive-throughs Increase the you know surface parking and car traffic Let's see and also is if this might not be the right document to include this in but if there's a plan to incentivize re-tenanting of the empty commercial spaces downtown That would be a real help. It's there's nothing like going downtown and seeing a lot of empty storefronts that have not been rented in years and let's see and Also, I'd love to put it put in place if there was a mechanism for cafe and restaurant owners to to request parklets even if we had seasonal parklets to take over maybe one parking place and have an outdoor place for people to sit and and Hang out downtown. I think that would be a real boon especially with our climate and That's most of it. So thanks staff and I'm Excited about the the aggressive timeline, but I think you can get it done. So thank you Thank you, it's really exciting that this process is gonna start and a lot of it started behind the scenes so thanks everybody for your work and In advance for all the hard work that's gonna go into this in the next few months If I if the mayor would indulge me, I would speak about this for the next few hours and go point by point With every policy. That's not a request to everybody. Stay calm So I'll just try to keep it brief I Think that you know broadly all the things that we want everybody wants out of this policy are good quality of life and it's simply put and What the city needs and what most people want at least in the city and I think really everybody at heart is justice and So with quality of life everybody has spoken about it before but it's it's how many amenities can you easily access That doesn't mean just how many are near you, but how many can you afford? Whether you can balance the other things that matter in life besides going somewhere and your ability to go to those destinations so a neighborhood where Nothing I Can't think of one memorable good neighborhood in the world to where you can drive 35 miles an hour through it without stopping and 100% of the time park exactly where you want to go I'm speaking about parking. I'll just take a second the concerns that you hear are the Impact on business from not having enough parking the active parking and how obnoxious it is to have to drive around looking for a spot the expense of either paying for parking or funding parking and The traffic that is created by people queuing around. I think that all of those extremely legitimate Concerns will be helped by reducing parking will be helped by road diets and lowering speed limits I think that you know, we're not supposed to deny climate change. The evidence is there I think the case is very persuasive for all of those policies making things better for all the people who are concerned about those things so I would encourage everybody to be open-minded and Consider all the evidence that might be out there about Policies that haven't been tried over the years Not here and not many places that are being reconsidered now because it's understood that they create neighborhoods where people want to live Just to the point of justice and inequality we think about what it does a neighborhood with amenities provide and you see San Francisco and cities like that that are totally unaffordable a lot of it is to do with The wages that are paid there, but you know attractive neighborhoods where people can walk our amenities Because they're so rare But they we have an implicit tax on everybody in the city based on the way We've built it where you'd need a car to drive everywhere To get to your job and pick up your kids and have an hour of private time to relax is a luxury And it's it's incredibly difficult to even pull that off people are burdened People don't have time people are living paycheck to paycheck. So not only the density bonus strengthening that Consideration of affordability and economic equality in connection with every policy is Critical So I think that we can make a lot of these changes that are going to actually be beneficial for all the stakeholders the residents the businesses Financially for the city to be fiscally responsible It's it's so exciting to have an opportunity to make all of these things happen at once Yeah, I have a few comments like commissioner Duggan and councilmember Sawyer I was a part of the original plan and And as mr. Kaston stated it Well, it wasn't without controversy. It took a long time the heights weren't really the issue I'm really excited about this timeline. I'm excited about this opportunity. I think a really a really good vision was created When this plan was created It may have been a bit naive in terms of how it actually would work with the market. So I'm really Interested in the results of the market analysis How do we Determine that tension between Services and density, you know, we get people come in at the planning commission all the time saying well The general plan says I have a grocery store here and I don't I can't walk to services Well, you have to get the density in order to support the services so And vice versa, so I'm very interested in how we can tackle that and really get some hard and clear information About going forward One of the issues that I had with the former plan It really was all about getting Housing up along along the railway even though it did include The fact that employment supports transit also if you look at the land uses in the existing plan the employment opportunities Like Maxwell court like the Roberts Road area were Wiped clean and made into housing or housing that could be mixed use or encouraging mixed use of mom-and-pop shops and I think one of the one of the Scoping issues will be to look at like really what's the reality of that? How do we shop now and how you know how will that work? It's a great vision I would love that but it isn't happening and in fact our more building which was approved prior to This particular plan was very exciting first mixed-use building in the city and The retail never took off and so it's being converted to housing. So that's what I'm really interested in is I Think the timeline is aggressive But I also think it's doable because we're really tweaking the vision to looking at where the obstacles are what the problems are and how do we go about fixing them and And And I don't know if land use changes will occur. I really would like Specifically the Roberts Road area and the Maxwell court area looked at With a different view like what are the potentials there? As well as housing because for the Roberts Road area Years ago there were pretty grand plans for that area There was possible that the the particular landowners Brought their Properties together that was the proposed site of the human services building at one time. We had Individuals from Like a triple-a baseball team wanting to come in I see that as a spot that could be an Attraction for Santa Rosa like the Performing Arts Center To get something more on that side of the railroad tracks that can be utilized Closer actually to to the depot. So I'm hoping that we can take a look at Looking at that beyond just the housing And and Maxwell court also We do need employers and I don't think the mom and pop shops are going to be able to do that So that's a particular interest of mine But other than that I'm really excited that this is coming forward and I know how hard our Our staff has been working on on getting this to come forward. It's exciting that it could actually be done by By August and and that it's going to be commingling with other tools that will Provide opportunities for housing and I think there are developers waiting for it to happen And are excited to come forward with some projects. So that's my comments Great. Thank you start from the side any comments Mr. Olbers Thank You mayor. I do want to thank staff for what you've done here. I know this timeline was not arbitrary I know a lot of thought was put into it And I appreciate the work that was done by the staff and preparing this I think that considering where we've been the last couple years there truly is no place to go but up So I'm really optimistic about what's going to happen. I'm looking forward to the next steps and I Council member Sawyer and I had our downtown subcommittee meeting last week We pretty much put them on notice that they're gonna be very engaged in this process And I think they're eager to do that So we're looking forward to that. I really see where we are today in 2019 really has a big housing Revolution and it's great to be a part of that and I know that the communities will be very excited about where we're heading and Really and thoroughly engaged in the process. So thank you for all the work and I look forward to the next steps. Thank you Councilman sorry Thank you mayor, and I do want to echo councilmember Oliveris's comments about staff You know, thank you very very much for identifying the reality that the plan did not do what we had hoped that it would do And then bringing it forward to the council and get engaging that the professional Staff to help guide this in this next plan and how lucky you are that ten years ago the the council With its final product you showed you all the things not to do In this in this particular plan. So all of the many of the mistakes have already been made There were good things in the plan as well, but I think that we we learned a lot and I think it's very very exciting and To have to identify that that we had made them some mistakes and that to recommend to the council and I appreciate the council support as well for Willing to take a look at the plan redo the plan bring it up to the to the you know the 21st century and Go forward with something that will truly create A 24-hour experience and something that we could that the entire region could be proud of. Thank you Mr. Tibbys. Thank you, Mr. Mayor Two quick things one is I wanted to echo what commissioner Duggan said about the parklets I think those are pretty cool and I remember when I worked for the economic development board did a little research on their impact on small businesses and there was a Significant impact positive one that the second one is a little bit more serious You know when we look at that map of where the specific area plan is going to be We're not just talking about the downtown which is predominantly retail and commercial as it currently stands with limited Residential there's a lot of residential in that area and when I look at that map I notice in particular that there is a large number of working-class households In that area and so when what we're talking about doing here today, although magnificent and absolutely should be pursued We should as you are based on your staff report go into this I'd wise open about gentrification and what those impacts can have on these particular neighborhoods and You know, I'm fine with the technical advisory committee taking on just about everything in this process going forward But one thing this city council has done its best to do in the last two years is really try to look at policies that make sure that we mitigate displacement and give everybody a future in Santa Rosa and I would like the question of the anti Displacement policies to come back to the council speaking personally. I don't know if my colleagues agree But there's a lot of things that we can do particularly Correct me if I'm wrong Dave, but the housing authority had more at one time looked into a home ownership home buying program But I think last time I checked in on it It was just unfunded at this point And you know, there's no better way to mitigate against displacement in my opinion than turning people into equity sharing Homeowners in their community So looking at policies like that and others that make sure that everybody gets to go through this transition with us So I'm just going to put my plug for that There's one meaning comments you don't have No This comes Thank You mayor and I really want to thank staff for Achieving this grant. I mean it wasn't immediately Obvious that we would have the resources to do this kind of dive that we need to do and that we would be able to Resource doing it this rapidly. So I very much want to thank you for for achieving The grant that you that we have managed to get Clearly a key element of this is that what comes out the other end? Downtown development needs to be predictable So folks who apply Will know if it's going to flow through or if it's going to have a barrier or and they can choose You know as one of my colleagues talked about form-based codes At least moving towards something where people understand The sequel is fully taken care of for this Example or that the that the design review board already Okay, is this or that cultural heritage likes this particular light fixture on an exterior porch As we move those things forward The individual builder can say I want the predictability and I'm going to build it as you as you have said you want and Go fast or they can say I want to do something more Unique I don't like the phrase more unique because you can only be unique Deciding that they want to try something different will take a little longer I think we we just really need to Whatever comes out the other end of this it needs to be able to be Predictable for the builders I think that's a key goal, and I'm not really hearing As long as we have strong community engagement Strong engagement of the neighborhoods. I don't hear any disagreement on on our council for that I think we have an amazing unanimity around Moving things forward in such a way that we can get this in a predictable way I started on council You know around the time that this was coming forward was when I got the idea I might like to run for council You know seven because I was concerned about making sure that the neighborhoods that the leaders of the neighborhoods Of the folks who live here now got a say in this process So I'm still very concerned about the community engagement process. I know that that's coming forward I Also want to make sure we're talking a lot about affordability It is my experience that people do not understand What the technical term the term of art of affordability is if we can start talking about it in terms of? What is the salary level of a teacher? What is the salary level of a back-of-house restaurant worker? Is that in the 80% zone? Is that in the 60% zone? Who's housing are we talking about building? Is it the senior who is living on their Social Security retirement? I strongly support the idea that we want as I think was mentioned by a previous planning commissioner That we want all-age affordable housing I strongly support that concept, but it's helpful in talking about it If we talk about the term of art in terms of who's housing it are we talking about building and I Think it's sort of a buzz phrase right now, but we haven't talked about the missing middle and That has two elements the missing middle is the folks who are at 150 to 200 percent of area median income who also can't afford to live here and Who don't meet the criteria for the term of art affordable housing? When I started The process of looking at housing homelessness and affordable housing I had a lot of objections to the missing middle because I was afraid what would happen is that's all we built But we we can't also neglect them We we need that missing middle housing and oftentimes that housing is the two three four five story housing that might Be the buffer between a single-family residential neighborhood and the 1416 story downtown building so I think we I would like to hear how that's going to come forward I think that missing middle piece is at least one of my goals as well as the predictability goal And I just again I'm really aware of how united our council is for Having an up vision downtown and for As I think one of the speakers said literally taking it to the next level, so thank you very much for doing that Vice mayor rogers Thank You, mr. Mayor. I'll be really brief I actually woke up this morning in Sacramento overlooking the capital and in the backdrop There was a crane that was swinging in their downtown building something and I pulled out my phone And I took a picture and I sent it to councilmember Sawyer, and I said when do we get our crane John? So I'm really hoping he gets to see that over the next couple of years as well many of us at the dais grew up in Santa Rosa it's time for the city to do the same and If we're going to be accused from time to time of being dense. I hope this council will own it and make it so I'm just anxious to hear if councilmember story had an answer when are we gonna see that swing So again, I want to I want to thank staff It's kind of interesting hearing these comments for me. It's kind of like the chicken and the egg It'd be great to have a housing, but we're not gonna have housing until we have downtown grocery store Well grocery store folks to say and I'm not gonna build a grocery store until we have housing So it'd be great to see how we kind of resolve that and incentivize it. So we need it all like yesterday I also want to thank the consulting team some would say I do the short straw others would say it was a great Opportunity sit through a day worth of interviewing six or seven consultants along with city staff to hear the presentations And I'm very confident with the skill set that's present and one of my key Interest is making sure the community input is heard and listened to so and I think that's just not a Responsibility of the consultant team is all of ours and when I say all of ours not planning and city council everyone in the chamber And the millions listening at home Spread the word. We're interested. This is a great opportunity and it's gonna be fast-track This is not gonna be there is a window of opportunity here, but that's huge for me It is a window of opportunity So my expectation will be we're not going to have anyone in this chamber at the end of this process saying I never knew about it And that's going to take some active participant from every participation from everyone in the community Not just staff not just the consultants and I know we they've got a great resume At least the community outreach with what we did in roseland because I did hear that and that was great Hearing some people come in and say I mean I don't like what you did But I felt like I was heard and that's for that community engagement. That's what I'm really interested I want people to feel that they're heard and we're in this thing together So I really appreciate the efforts and with that is there anything else Mr. Grun you'd like to say? Nope. That's all. Thank you very much for all your your input With that I'll adjourn the special joint meeting of the city council and planning commission And we will take a brief recess to rearrange the chamber. Thank you We reconvene our city council meeting city clerk announcement roll call Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of council member Fleming's You're correct. She's not there. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. McGlynn Item 5.1 general plan 2035 update David guin assistant city manager presenting Thank you. And again, uh, good afternoon. Mayor Schwedholm and members of the council This second study session, um, it has to do with the general plan updates So different from the previous study session, which focused on the downtown This is to talk about the general plan update for this entire city What the city is envisioned to look like in 2035 The reason we're bringing this to you tonight is for twofold one is to show the What What the downtown specific plan is and how that differentiates between a general plan And what the general plan is and second is to give an overview of what a general plan update a comprehensive update Looks like and how is it different than what we've done in the past Part of this is the fact that a comprehensive general plan update is a massive undertaking We have it takes every department in the city. It's going to take the entire community To pull this off and lots of resources and so going into council goal setting We want to make sure that the council had a full understanding of what the general plan is and what it entails as we look at embarking on that in 2019 Can I interrupt you briefly? Absolutely I just want to make an announcement for everyone in the chamber that apparently we're having some technical difficulties with the televising of this Hearing so it is going to be taped, but it is not televised live as we speak But it will be up and running as soon as we fix the technical challenges Great. Thank you So with that, I would like to Turn it over to our senior planner Andy guffason who will give this presentation and both myself and Supervising planners Jessica jones will be here for questions. Thank you very much members of the council and mayor The general plan is a as david said A comprehensive document. It's a vision of the city and it informs how the city proceeds with a multitude of projects Including public and private projects infrastructure planning how we develop our neighborhoods and downtown commercial areas It is general and it's distinguished in that way from a specific plan like the downtown plan It lays out broad goals and Implementation measures. It doesn't go to form-based type design, but it does talk about Intensity of development. It is built on community engagement. It is built On past experiences and it responds to current challenges It is used for us to help define what will be our Desired outcomes our goals in the community So the general plan update would Always look 20 years in the future our current general plan looks out to 2035 it was adopted in 2009 So now 10 years later. It's time to revisit the the plan and we would be looking forward to 2045 As our planning horizon It's our opportunity in the update to revision our goals to go back out to the community And ask how have recent events and trends shaped our ideals our expectations of what the city should be It allows us to look at Issues like streamlining development review and and also it's an important opportunity for us to integrate recent state law changes Some key events that have occurred in our community in in the last 10 years is a ongoing and persistent low production of housing and and increased difficulty with housing affordability and also homelessness In last year alone. We had a number of events including a really positive event with the annexation of roseland Which brings in a community that's going to be pretty dynamic and additive to our Our city and we need to look at how we integrate not only the physical Form of that area Building increasing development in in that area or how development might change over time And and how circulation works and integrates with the city We will also be looking at How do we cover from the tubs fire disaster and and What what are we doing? What should we be doing to help build neighborhood resilience? I think the images on this particular side are phenomenal because out of disaster What we're seeing is a lot of neighborhoods getting together and start to build that resilience and the general plan will build upon that kind of Neighborhood engagement and opportunity. Let me point it. Okay. Thank you We've also had some changes in in services Or or activities in the community We have smart train that has come in that does change the dynamic downtown in the railroad square areas I've mentioned the annexation You you talked about the downtown specific plan update These are all significant Things that we can respond to in the general plan to help reinforce these additions to our community The red area on that Exhibit does show a designation of a portion of roseland that Has labeled it a disadvantaged community and that's a designation that came out in 2016 on the state by the state that establishes that this is an area that's burdened by Disproportionately burdened by lower income households concentration of environmental pollution and In some cases lacking infrastructure And i'll speak a little bit more about that designation The general plan is For some a highly structured document it is A document that's required of all counties and cities in the state We do ours Fulfills the state's requirement generally in terms of its form and its needs to address a number of topics or elements The that are listed there housing obviously is a very present one The housing element which this council has considered in the past years Is an ongoing element that gets updated but we have all these other elements also including Circulation land use air quality safety noise. They are all topics that a general plan must address and in our The challenge that we face when we update our general plan will be to Look at these individual issues and Be able to analyze our current community setting And then look to how do we wish to influence The the outcomes in these various topics in a way that they all work together. So one important linkage will be How we work with Our land use to implement new environmental justice policies That are now required because we have this designated disadvantage community in in our city We need to look at how we're going to use land use policy Or our public safety policy to provide infrastructure that might be Lacking in in that particular that portion of roseland Area, or we may be having to look at how we might provide better Pedestrian and as well as vehicle access in that area in our traffic and transportation circulation plan So the the general plan elements Although there are different topic areas all have to tie together and and reinforce one another to Support a common goal and vision I list here on the on this slide sequa vehicle miles traveled That is a unit of measure that is now required for environmental analysis in Preparing a general plan which really gets at the issue of how do we reduce travel within the community? So people are not so dependent upon their vehicles and in that way Reduce greenhouse gas emissions This is an important measure because it really gets at the core of how air quality might be improved not only in this City but also in the state to help to meet its greenhouse gas emission goals That's a complete change and emphasis or approach from Looking at how we might reduce congestion and intersections, which really is a measure of personal convenience and delay We can have policies for both, but we must reconcile This vehicle mile traveled measure in our general plan and that's a technical change that will implement in this update process There are a number of significant issues. I've touched on some of these and you're aware of many of them already The downtown specific plan for instance is striving to intensify downtown development It that'll touch upon housing and land use. We already spoke about the rosalina annexation We wish to incentivize all housing market rate and affordable housing. The general plan provides us a platform to do that Very important from our experience in 2017 will be to plan for avoiding hazards and how we Might reduce hazards and it's not just fire. It's also flooding. It's it's also Earthquake seismic events and and it's not just physically trying to avoid but also How do we prepare a community for these inevitable events so that we can bounce back And build into our community community resilience The general plan is it's citywide, but it's parcel specific. So we will be looking at How each land use or how each parcel is Is designated in terms of land use how we wish neighborhoods We hope that neighborhoods will be evolved and developed over time and We will be looking at citywide policies to help to ensure for instance that Every one of our citizens will benefit from environmental justice have access to shopping or a host of other sort of community goods and benefits that we hold as Very core to our city vision our principles So we'll be looking at housing commercial development industrial development intensity of of land uses and connectivity transportation throughout the city And as was mentioned previously, this is an all hands event that diagram showing all those topics No one department at the city owns that diagram There are departments that play significant roles in each or several of those Topic areas. So when we go through this update process We'll be engaging everyone in the community everyone in the city in his departments as well as our uh partner agencies at the local regional and state level to work through The general plan so that we understand that the regulatory context that we're working within The community that the soft issues, you know, the social issues that that We're we're living with and and come through this process where we can formulate goals based on good information Bring those goals out to the community and have them reviewed and shaped by the community And as this goes forward, we begin to define alternatives and and a preferred approach to How our vision is going to be stated what our city is going to be looking like I want to call attention to the right side of the diagram the green Sequa arrow That is the third rail. It's very very important in this process Throughout our community engagement and throughout our analysis on a technical level We need to be mindful of of how our plan will develop the city in the future and what environmental effects it'll have and The third rail aspect of is that once we develop that plan and we have reconciled the sequa issues We have a very solid foundation upon which that plan can be implemented by city projects and by private investment and and development That sequa document becomes a foundation for other analysis that will be Conducted to for environmental review on the project level. So that's an very very important part of our effort here um This diagram is just simply a schematic to show that There are these steps And and it will take a three-year probably two we're going to say three-year time frame to move through this The one long bar across the top that's community engagement That's to reinforce the idea that it starts in the beginning and it ends with community engagement with constant touch points throughout the process As we're analyzing the community setting we're sharing that and informing the neighborhoods about issues in their in their situation in their place as we consider alternatives we're going back to the neighborhood and and constituent groups to get feedback on proposals or policy directions that will be formulated and then as we come to the process or the time when The planning commission and then ultimately the city council Um, will consider and take action on the general plan. Um, we will have Behind us here in the audience a group of people who are educated in the issues have participated in the formulation of policies and hopefully will be here to be able to Clearly Identify their concerns so that you can take action knowing that you've heard from everybody on the on the issues Um This is level of effort the intent here is just to kind of show roughly What we think will be the allocation of effort to get the whole thing done The big part of it is going to be public engagement That's going to um, as I said run from beginning to end And it'll be a substantial part of the cost not only in terms of effort, but also in terms of price Um, we do envision going out. I think you heard today with the downtown specific plan The idea of reaching out to folks that don't normally come to hearing and speak up We wish to use technology. We used to Reach out to groups that don't necessarily perceive that this is the thing that matters And go to venues where we can help to educate and inform people that Through surveys and and through other ways of collecting public opinion What they're thinking about what they're hoping for and and what what we might help attain for them through the process the other big part of Of this is you see sequa which i've talked about already But also the community vision and policy framework with a comprehensive update We're not throwing out our current general plan, but we are really rethinking it We are going beyond just simply updating our current general plan to comply with state law We're really looking at does this framework work for us now It's we have a different set of issues in front of us in the next 20 years than we had in 2009 So today we want to be able to go back to our general plan And really think what kind of a general plan plan framework do we want? And that gets at how we is it a paper-based document that lives on a shelf or does it live on the internet? Where people can use it to actively pursue a particular topic of interest and help them resolve How they might best engage the city to implement let's say a neighborhood change or issue The you know engagement can happen at a number of different levels and and What we've done here. I think from what I understand is we've done a really good job of involving And I would say collaborating with community We need to get into the collaborate box completely if not empower the public through this process where When in the future we've adopted a general plan and a project comes in in a neighborhood It's not a matter about the neighborhood coming and go why this project why this intensity It'll be an issue of yeah, this was a tough project or this is an important project And we understand that there are a lot of issues to reconcile and we had that conversation and let's work it out It's not about no. It's about how so I think the engagement Where we fall in in in this continuum Is is going to be a really important thing in the goal setting process with the council in february Financing is always a big issue. We do have funding that we collect ongoing with building permits specifically allocated for advanced planning efforts such as the general plan and I'm going to say that it's Financing this will be an ongoing challenge and we will work to get grants to augment that So next steps in february you will be doing goal setting and then then it's a matter of supporting those goals with a commitment to budget and once we have that in hand We'll prepare a scope that's commensurate with council direction and prepare an rfq rfp to the development community And begin the process that in this spring My hope is that in the summer we'll be able to report that we've selected a project team and that we will commence work on our data collection public engagement and outreach That concludes my presentation and I if you have any questions or comments, I welcome them. Thank you Thank you any for that presentation Director gillian could I know you had shared with me both of you did how this Fits in with our previous presentation and our later presentation Can you just again outline how each of these steps and what you're trying to do by Informing both the council and the community about the processes that we'll be following Sure. Yeah, the previous presentation, which was the downtown specific plan is a focused effort for the downtown area It's more in depth more a deeper dive more specific of analysis of the downtown and sequo card Evaluation what the general plan is is city-wide and that's going to be at a much higher level The work we're going to do on the downtown specific plan is not lost that information in that work will then be Incorporated into the general plan Just as we did with the rosalind there was a rosalind specific plan They'll be looked at but that a lot of the work and engagement that was done there will be brought forward as part of that as well So what we're doing today with the general plan is to give an overview Because it is time to update that we've had significant events It's time from a standpoint of it's been multiple years And our other Part of our cities and agencies are embarking on an update as well So the county is looking at updating their general plan and a few other cities in the region are also doing it So it's a good time to work together. Look at this regionally. How are we intersecting? and moving forward together so this report really is to Kick this off give a heads up understand what the general plan is what it consists of the level of effort So we can have a more informed discussion when we set council goals Thank you, mr. Simu and I would just like to add that this is going to be in it when we sit down together To do the goal setting. I really wanted to have this Topic brought forward in this format so you can start to think about it How you're going to do what what are you looking for in the general plan update? What specifically items you want us to investigate? How you want us to go through a community engagement process? Because that's going to shape sort of the budget the scope of the project Staff commitment, you know, what what resources need to drive so that as we get into the budget process We can better understand what council's vision of this particular Enterprise is you saw we we we want to Fulfill that vision. We want to move the engagement needle from where we've been sitting which is informed More towards the empower but with with that comes resource commitment And and staff time commitment the things you've heard But I want to have a dynamic conversation with the council about how we want to prioritize how we want to tackle this We've gotten lots of feedback from Individuals in the chamber about how this should be approached And I need some clear direction. So as we go into the planning process and the time allocation and the resource commitment We have a real good idea of what council's desire is and how we can meet that objective Thank you that's helpful for setting context ran back to council questions Mr. Allish Thank you, mayor my questions are more specific to the roseland area We went through a long process Decades long Of annexing roseland and we finally accomplished that and that is a good thing and I think the outreach And engagement that process that we use there were were very beneficial My question is What do we need to do to assess their level of readiness to participate in this effort that they're used to a different process So I think we need to find a way of assessing maybe through the connection. We've already had before Is do we need to do do anything more before we really dig into this to make sure that They understand what this is the historical pieces of our general plan and how they're going to be engaged So we kind of I guess in a sense catch them up with the rest of the city as far as the level of engagement So I guess the question is how will we assess their level of readiness to participate? The onset of the program will be marketing news Information surge through a variety of channels is what I envision To get at precisely that point a lot of people don't really connect the dots about a general plan amendment And how it matters to them or their community And this is an important first step in our reaching out to the public is We're embarking on this program. Here's what we wish to accomplish. Here's what we've done in the past. Here's how we're at a protest now so I I think We're not going to assume we're walking into communities that understands what this means We'll be bringing forward a proactive education on Introduction to the general plan and how they might participate And to follow up councilmember. I think that's exactly the question. We want to take a more deeper dive on the in february specifically on where are those areas that you want us to Maybe focus on to prepare for this process that might impact the timetable the The process we undergo and the investment of the resources. So that's exactly what You know, this was sort of an educational space to get more into that conversation and see where council wants us To direct the energies of this process and how to shape the process Over the next the initial phase over the next 18 months Thank you Other questions miss combs Thank you mayor Really excited that we're gonna do this. I it's time. You're right. The timing is is a good time now to be doing it With our Significant changes in the community Both the annexation the fires the relationship with the county. I think we've seen a lot of transformation And it seems like it's a good time to to have our plan reflect that so I really thank you for that I do have a couple of questions Looking at I think it's slide 11 not so critical that we go to that slide but You mentioned the sequel on the right side and you mentioned that it is the third rail one of the Things I'm looking for to come out of our sequel Is that again? We facilitate predictability for folks who want to do a land use after we've completed this project this process How can we make sure a project can move forward more rapidly if we have a full discussion now During this process. I'm hoping it will eliminate some of the Barriers that sequa can present Later By taking care of them at the beginning where we are. So can you clarify for me how much Pre Sequel work can we do to offset the amount of sequel work that a developer has to do later? Um So What comes to most immediate mind is uh traffic In our community is always a major issue with development and By doing a robust land use review So we can accurately characterize intensity of development throughout the city and understand our streets and roads We can develop in our sequa analysis a very clear Traffic modeling impact assessment so that when a future project comes in that conforms With our general plan land use designation and fits that density That sequa traffic analysis is reduced substantially and In some cases we can use and leverage the Sequel exemption for infill development with a current general plan and we begin to In we begin to build that predictability so that There's less uncertainty for a developer to come in. So I want the developer to know both what is and isn't okay So that they have predictability. I'm not suggesting that everything's okay. Just correct that they should understand what is and isn't It's very important to me That as we do the community engagement piece That the community understands the traffic discussion Uh, I also am concerned that the community often doesn't understand when they see some designation and forgive me I myself sometimes mix up What's zoning and what's general plan? So keeping what's zoning and what's general plan clear is very helpful I'm hoping we can do that um But i'm also concerned That in the community folks don't um They're going to need specific examples Of what can be built on a site labeled x Um, so the good the bad and the ugly right for site label x So as we do the planning The public needs to have really concrete understanding of what it is we're talking about and i'm i'm i'm I guess i'm asking you Can we do some specific examples of what is included in the classifications with a typical photo from around here? Are we able to do that kind of thing? And certainly we can the general plan um Not only relies on words, but illustrations and diagrams and and they're they're important components of communicating the message So it's often that um, if you go to somebody and say I want to see one next to you They don't really know, you know, whatever designation commercial is means They don't know what it includes and doesn't include But but I do want to add that The rapidity of change that's going on in the marketplace right now is going to be very very difficult to Articulate all types And so i'm going to give you an example of what we know is coming is is Huge advancements and 3d printing based upon The ability to print metal So what's going to what what i'm understanding is going to be happening is that actually Manufacturers manufacturing sites may have multiple uses But getting us to be able to articulate that fully is going to be a difficult So you're it's going to be a balancing act between certainty and in some flexibility because the market is under such Change and such stresses With the with how quickly Technological advances are coming. So I do want to I do understand how to express to people what the range can be And that we we have limited ways to forecast some of that change Even in the midst of this environment, so we have some industrial sites some light industrial sites What's the difference? What's what's What goes in where the commercial sites? There's several commercial designations folks don't understand What those differences are Obviously we can only predict what we can predict. It's hard to predict the future The the other question I have has to do with the financing part which was your slide 15 We have a very sales tax based city But in the general plan Will we be looking at how we fund our city? As we move forward with the general plan Generally not The general plan specifically At the state level requires a number of elements and we looked at that previously Finance is not typically a part of it Our general plan does have an element that talks about I forget the title of the chapter, but it looks at fiscal issues If we if we plan All single-family residential housing everywhere We as a city can't go forward Single story single-family residential housing we could plan that The way that I've seen this sort of described And as a city we couldn't afford to be a city So I want to make sure that we've planned in Fiscal accountability that what if it's built we can afford it And that it will generate the incomes we need Yeah, and I think I think you're hitting on a good point Similar to the urban three analysis we did for the downtown and what what impact that has on And why were you focusing on building downtown that that type of analysis definitely could be done in looking at What what are the pros and cons of decisions we make of certain types of land use and like you said Is this a single family? What does that mean for us? What's the liability to the city long term? So absolutely. I think that could be looked at it concerns me particularly And again, we're talking about projecting into the future. What's what's the future going to look like? What i'm hearing from My children and my children's friend is a kind of minimalist approach less shopping owning less If we're sales tax based and we design Without taking into account the fact that by economic necessity or environmental necessity We may not have access to sales tax funds like we used to because people don't have the money Or the inclination or The environment doesn't doesn't isn't served We need to think about that as we plan And i'm wondering how we incorporate that kind of projection into a general plan that we're using And i think part of this is going to be looking at as andy mentioned What is the the base case? What are where the trends and i think as you're touching on the the trends of more service oriented type of retail versus a A product Sales of goods type of thing where you can shop online and do other things So those are the types of things that we'll be looking at in terms of access to services What does that do from an economic development standpoint? But economic development is going to be a key part of this as well Okay, so when we talk about the financing section I'm I'm eager to hear from you how we can afford to do a good Projection so that we're projecting the future fiscally as well as Land use and they're kind of interrelated and and councilmember even if that's not this is again the sort of information We're going to need To understand how how you want to how the council wants to envision the community for 2045 And some of these elements may not play directly into the general plan process But if they're going to be critical to decision making and and I think they are We're going to need to figure out how we get that information To you to help make that decisions and those potentially are cost centers and timing issues about developing that material For making decisions. There are lots of ways to approach a general plan update And and some of them can be minimal and some of them can be more wide ranging I think i'm looking at a at least fiscally wide ranging Approach and and that's that's why we really want to have this conversation and you know even We don't want you to stop today. I mean you can ask questions today But these are some things that we're going to want to know As you go through the process of of goal setting. What are you looking for in this process? What information do you need to make sound decisions? So that we can put together what we think meets those those requirements As best as possible. Thank you very much and thank you if I could just quickly also add We do have an economic development vitality section of the The general plan and that includes all kinds of policies on maintaining economic vitality Throughout the city and so that is something that would certainly be a part of this update And we can make sure that those policies are on track and adjust them as necessary Thank you, and I appreciate that the fiscal section might really have been targeted toward how to How do we afford to do the general plan? And I appreciate you're allowing me to sort of stretch what that financing meant. Thank you Vice mayor rogers Thank you, mr. Mayor In particular one of the things that i'm interested in seeing in this discussion when this comes back to us with Call it a final product or a draft product is really Discussion around which areas of the city will end up becoming legal non conforming uses in the adoption of the plan as well Because I do think that that presents a specific set of Issues for us down the road trying to actually get to an implementable point of what we are envisioning here And to councilmember combs this point in particular when we're focused so much on housing today There is a tendency of housing to push out industrial space And if you run out of industrial space and have to create more that shifts your general plan around as well So I'd like to make sure that we have sort of an understanding of those components I also uh, and I assume that there's going to be some discussion about Additional layers that come into this as well. For example, we know we have Priority development areas. We know that we have the federal opportunity zones that whether intended or not those designations are going to shift what types of Uses are going to come into areas that may or may not be compatible with what we envision For the general plan and are largely out of our hands So I'd like to understand a little bit better how those are going to shift how we are doing our plan to account for it Any additional questions? Ms. Lemme Thank you very much and thank you for your time earlier today and going over this with me briefly One of the things that you mentioned during our meeting earlier in the day is that you had sort of and I see this here in all hands On deck approach when you and when we worked to annex roseland And that while people may not have gotten everything they wanted they did feel heard and What i'm particularly concerned about is What worked and what didn't work in terms of getting people to the table from all walks of life in particular working families This meeting we're having right now is at 4 32 p.m. Or 4 37 p.m. At any rate It's at a time when most people are are working and I don't see too many people with small children in the room and And will become annoying about it at some point. I'm sure but Help me to get people who are working families at the table in these conversations And so i'm wondering if you have any specific plans to make it accessible for For working folks to participate in in a way that accommodates their their work schedules and Maybe perhaps unruly children. I wouldn't know anything about that Yes, so that is a particular concern to us and something that we thought very carefully about when we did the roseland specific plan project Obviously, we can't control when council and commission those types of meetings are But what we can control is when we do our workshops when we hold our Various events pop-up events You know meetings with stakeholders those types of things and so What we tried to do with realsland that worked really well was Hold multiple of the same meetings at various times of the day various days of the week You know sometimes it was on a Saturday in the morning, but you know, it might have conflicted with soccer So, you know, we held others You know during the week after work So it was we tried to Provide for all of those different opportunities But in addition to address, you know, the working families that have kids and other obligations We did provide childcare at all of our At all of our various events which we would do for this process And we also also provided when The meetings were either in the morning near breakfast time or lunch or dinner time. We provided food Which was a huge benefit to those coming in Other ideas that I know have been floated around for the specific plan process is Creating a workshop that would involve the the youth and the younger kids You know getting them out drawing in their future. What do you see and so have them draw something? So there's all kinds of different ways that we've used and new ideas that we're going to be working towards to address all those issues Thank you And you know, my daughter has made a list of things that I'm supposed to to apparently she's got a whole a whole plan as well But one of the other things I was wondering about is I'm assuming that the technical advisory committee and the community advisory committee Are going to be unpaid positions volunteer positions And I'm wondering if there will be any specific outreach to make sure that we have People who are raising children at the table and how we're going to make that possible So yeah, so for the community advisory committee, we definitely want to reach A broad range of people so that as many different groups are represented For the technical advisory committee that is generally made up of technical experts that are either city staff members from various city departments or staff members from other Local and regional agencies that support the city. So, you know folks from our public works department people from the Sonoma county Transportation authority those those types of folks are what make up the technical advisory committee And also just want to clarify to the technical advisory committee and community advisory committee that we've talked about tonight are focused on the downtown plan We're we're very early in this general plan discussion. This is the first time we've even talked about it In front of the council. We have a ways to go part of it. It's just to to see the idea Give the council a breath of what's what's going to be involved But all the discussions about how we do a community agent and what type of community groups Advisory groups all that hasn't been decided. So that's still open for discussion Down the road if we look at some of the steps, you know, we have a lot of steps to go But I think that these are the type of things that we'll want to bring up and as the same manager mentioned during the goal Setting if we can determine that level involvement that'll help us understand the scope that we can bring back to you in terms of the resources Needed to accomplish that Thank you for your consideration of all these things I I believe that we share a similar vision in that when we have all kinds of different constituencies at the table We have a much broader and more vibrant outcome. So thank you Mr. Schwerer Thank you, mayor, I have a curiosity question and it's based on My experience in the last time that we went through this process And I don't remember city resources being an issue the last time that we did this it probably was it's always an expensive process Is there a is there a way or a value in doing what might be considered a general plan update? Light Where you target certain parts of our general plan that are really vital to to spend a lot of time updating But others that perhaps Could be handled in a different way whether they are touched on and not necessarily Where the where the dive is not quite as deep Where the where I'm just thinking about the resources that we are stretched thin and general plan General plan updates are not inexpensive to provide And take a great deal of time and energy and then they're very valuable Would would in certain parts of this plan if they were to be identified Would would it be valuable or would it compromise the document too much? In certain areas to go light in the deep in in the dive The the level of effort From my expectation would be would vary amongst all the different elements Um Because some are rather stable for instance potentially characterizing the environmental condition We know pretty much where the flood zones are and And that's not going to require it so much But it's those areas that have changed and that have Resulted in they're part of the sort of the critical changes in the community such as the fire hazards issues We would go deep so what i'm saying is in our scoping of this project When we come back and I imagine we would with our scope to get authorized part of the budget We would we would talk to that we would say these are the five elements that we have to dive deep into in order to reconcile Critical issues that this community is facing now these other elements can be touched lightly Because substantial change has not occurred and we can just simply revise them to help to ensure that their policies Are supportive of the most important issues we're trying to to face so When we say comprehensive update that's sort of rationing rationing out of level of effort throughout the elements is is part of the process Any additional questions? Okay, move to public comment first speaker will be susan hildreth followed by myles burgeon Uh, good evening, uh mayor and council people susan hildreth again interim library director For the snoma county li