The hour of 140 having arrived and a Quorum having arrived clerk will call the roll Thank you mayor council members Newsom present Brown here Watkins here Brunner present Calentary Johnson present Vice mayor Golder is currently absent mayor Keely here a quorum having been established. We'll move on to Our next item, which is any public comment that folks may want to provide concerning our Close session that we will be going into in just a moment That is we have one item on closed session This is a claim against the city of Santa Cruz if anyone wishes to provide comment on that item This would be your opportunity to do so Seeing and hearing no one do we have anyone online? We do we have one person. We'll take that person. Good afternoon person online Hello Hi, I'm should I go? Yes, please do Okay, I'm Kathleen Gould. I'm here to speak briefly on this matter Before you today, which is cost to repair my car after a city tree at Grant Street Park dropped a large branch and fell directly on my car I was just informed to this Friday after closed business that the issue was being brought to you today And I only found out yesterday morning that the claim was denied So I haven't had much time to put together a counter argument I've been a little hampered because I'm not getting any return emails or calls But there are some extenuating circumstances that I believe will make it clear that the claim should be paid in Some cases a tree or branch falling may be considered an act of God or a natural disaster In fact, that's the reason I was given for the denial of the claim However, in this case the city should have known the tree was a danger because it dropped at least one large branch days before the incident with my car After the first big limb drop the city was aware There was an issue with the tree whether the tree is sick or experiencing sudden limb drop from the heat Which is what the risk manager claims Either way the city was aware of the likelihood and danger from the tree Which by the way is right over the pump track at Grant Park and likely to harm children if another limb drops While the first spontaneous break of the tree might be considered a natural disaster the second only days later the one that landed on my car Should have been foreseen and mitigated When city staff arrived to remove the branch from my car. He called the event a widow maker In fact, if I was seconds earlier, I probably would have been killed In discussions with the risk manager today. He simply said this kind of tree drops branches And that's just what it is Really 8 inch diameter 20 foot limbs are dropping right near the little pump track that kids are playing on and the park service response is it's just what it is Do you think that's reasonable? The city has a duty to exercise reasonable care and maintaining public spaces including parks This duty includes ensuring that trees within the city parks are healthy and pose no unrest duty unrest to the public If they know the trees are likely to drop limbs, they should trim them My claim was denied because he deemed the event a natural disaster When I first spoke to him and told him that the tree had previously lost at least one limb He said he would contact the arborist and park manager and get back to me The simple fact that the knowledge of the previous issue would cause him to reconsider his conclusion Makes it clear that a reasonable person would conclude that knowing about a problem with the tree and failing to mitigate it would be negligent Park service knew about the problem because they cleaned up the first tree if they fail to report it to the arborist That would be negligent if the arborist inspected the tree and found it to be sound and yet it dropped the widowmaker days later That would be negligent and if the city fails to accept responsibility for mitigating known safety hazards, it's negligent So when this item comes before you please overturn the recommendation and pay for the damage to my car that was caused by negligence This was not a natural disaster Tree gave a clear indication that there was a problem. The city failed to mitigate the danger thus resulting in damage to my property Again, the first limb drop could be considered an act of God. The second was foreseeable and preventable This is why you have insurance to cover the things that you're responsible for Last Friday I saw the tree and it looked like to me like there was a third limb that was dead and ready to fall Please act responsibly I do have some pictures, but I'm not sure I'm even on I don't know how to show them to you that show the two branches But thank you for attention and consideration and please realize that this was preventable and Not an act of God. It was something that you could have fixed after the first limb fall and I would like to get my car fixed Thank you Thank you, Ms. Gold for calling in and providing that input. Let me ask if anyone else With us wishes to make comment. Do we have someone else online? We'll take that person online. Good afternoon Hi, I hope you can hear me My name is Rachel Sotos and I would like to again request that the city of Santa Cruz Establish citizen led truth commissions to investigate every aspect of the COVID Excuse me, excuse me, so I'm sorry what we are on right now I suspect you want to call back in under oral communications. What we're on right now is any comment on our closed session litigation item Sorry, no, it's not a problem. Call back in will be on oral communications probably about 150 or so well that'll be in two or three minutes probably Now it's two o'clock, but right now we're on a separate item, but thank you so much Anybody else? We are going to adjourn into closed session. We'll probably be back out here in ten minutes or so Council is back in session following our closed session the clerk will call the roll Thank you mayor councilmember newson present Brown here watch cans here in Brunner Present Calentari Johnson as it vice mayor Golder is absent and mayor Culey here Quorum having been established will move on to oral communications This would be the opportunity for anyone to address us on a matter under our jurisdiction But not on today's agenda anyone who's with us today would like to do that As we are please come forward Nice to see you again, sir. Miss Bush while the gentleman's approaching. Do we have anyone online? We do good afternoon, sir Yeah, good afternoon. My name is James Ewing Whitman I have a public service announcement for the whole community and I'm going to give all of you copies of your city government about city managers and The citizens rulebook on page 4 it describes our juror has more power than the president or the Supreme Court on page 26 is our Declaration of Independence There's plenty of other good information there Suggest you guys read it because other people be talking about it Thank you, sir Bring up some other stuff What could I say that stays on subject? exposing the Delphi technique in public meetings warning Scientifically devised propaganda propaganda formula developed by the Travis stock and ran Used by intelligence agencies and their assets as a social act Such as social action groups from globalist foundations schools churches seminars in order to trick and control Your mind and thought outcome It's just kind of a process of what I'm witnessing with a great deal of the conversations So All I can say is it's been quite the learning curve. I'll bring up some other stuff later, and I'll stay on subject. Thank you Thank you very much We have one person online To we'll take the first one. Good afternoon person online Hi, thank you. I apologize for before my name is Rachel. So does and I'd again like to suggest that the city Established truth commissions for the COVID era the mayor Keeling and council member Calentari Johnson are joining the county housing for health Partnership underscores the importance. I think of such citizen led Commissions I ask that both mayor Keeling and council member Calentari Johnson and their staffs give attention to the dangers of corrupted regulatory agencies and The threat of an encroaching Biosecurity surveillance regime It's for good reason that the US Congress has just voted to defund the World Health Organization Remember when the top two for vaccine policy at the FDA Resigned well on top of so many other revelations. We now know thanks to FOIA requests that in 2021 the Biden administration lied about the dangers of myocarditis Given that only 2% of the population is getting boosted I think we all know that something is wrong and yet with few exceptions as in Florida Public health officials are continuing to deliver vulnerable bodies the bodies of the homeless of children and pregnant women To the pharmaceutical industry Because there's so much at stake I think it is time to leverage the wisdom of the community with citizen led truth commissions Lest we fail to recognize the errors of the past and heaven forbid commit worse ones in the future Thank you Thank you very much Second person online. Good afternoon three to This is good I don't mind that a lot of you look like you're not paying attention or communications. You usually don't so I'm not surprised by that Anyway, when evaluating possible council actions, I believe in today's world It is critical to analyze such for any alarming similarities for the strategic point of view of Revolutionaries actively pursuing the destruction of this country for them There are subversive means of internal corruption population Demoralization that they intend will achieve a critical mass of chaos and collapse Demoralization means getting the population to abandon their morals principles and values that they would normally strongly defend against through media propaganda as well as Infiltration of institutions and corrupting those from within Typically the useful idiots of those already disillusioned and angry can be mobilized with incendiary divisive narratives of race gender or class Oppression mixed in with progressive advocacy of perversion pedophilia with particular attention given to corrupting the minds of Voldemort children to their ends before they obtain critical reasoning skills Mixed in overdose of lethal drugs and normalization of drug abuse Clearly religion and strong families would oppose this so they seek to divide families Ritical religion and preach only a secular obedience to the state that they're also simultaneously corrupting They would use our own values of compassion and empathy against us They would eradicate national identity and values by allowing the invasion of open borders and protecting the invaders who don't share our culture With sanctuary cities they would seek to neuter the police thereby normalizing crime and violence They would keep the population in fear while promoting violence first becoming a justified morality They would call that and more of their targets of anarchy and justice among a great many other Demoralizing perversions of language they would censor opposing thoughts feelings would be replaced science and truth History would be malleable state entitlements dependence and selective discriminatory privileges would replace hard work and merit Calling it again justice equity and inclusiveness They would always seek to attack freedom liberty and the pursuit of happiness with ever more totalitarian control Yes, there are other real American antithetical injustices at work destroying the nation besides them meaning the deep state Are we globalists, but they only have traction because of a corrupt and immoral government You can choose not to do the dirty work of either Thank You mr. Philip anyone else in chambers wish to provide or Communications board do we have anyone else online miss bush? We're finished with oral communications presiding officer announcements I have none statements and disqualification anybody have a disqualification miss Brunner items number 25 and items number 26 as portions of them relate to my Employment with the downtown association of Santa Cruz Thank You council member any other council member have a statement of disqualification Thank You additions or deletions Miss bush there are no additions or deletions mr. Kandadi closed session report Thank You mayor Keely members of the city council. There was one item on a very brief closed session this afternoon That was a liability claim the claim of Kathleen Gould City council receive a report from its risk manager There was no reportable action that item is also number eight on your consent counter this afternoon. Thank you, sir You see Any actions on our council agenda no changes. Thank you so much We are in consent agenda for those of you unfamiliar with this We will be taking up items three through twenty one inclusive on one motion But in order to give people a chance to to think about that and to comment upon it What we'll be doing is first I will ask if there's any member of the council who wishes to comment on or Pull an item on the consent agenda Then I will go to the public for the same purpose and then back to the council So let me start through Brunner any items on consent? none, Miss Contard Miss Watkins sure I just have a brief comment for item number five certainly You can make that at this time if you'd like I just want to say thank you to my colleagues for now taking on this assignment and It was brought to my attention that there's one more meeting in December where the current Makeup of the committee will remain and there will be an orientation for all new members starting in February So if you want to come to the meeting you're welcome to but it will officially transition over at the meeting in February It's very good standing. Thank you. Thank you Miss Brown items on consent. Yes. Thank you mayor. I'd like to pull item 20 Such will be the order will pull item 20 on a couple of items on here on item for I want to thank council members Newsom and Brown for co-authoring this item Regarding public employee retirement system and their vast investment funds and asking them to Disinvest from fossil fuels. Thank you very much for your work on that And thank you for two council members who I suspect are going to going to support this item. Thank you for that On item 5. I want to thank you for your fine work on on the policy Board and you've done great work on the council. Thank you for letting Some other folks were see if we can fill your big shoes on that. Thank you so much On on item 9 and the finance director and I have discussed this repeatedly I Am comfortable with this investment management service contract Because I am assured by the finance director of that The basic principles in the law on municipal investment of safety liquidity and yield are Exactly in that order what we are Asking this contractor to engage in we're what we're not doing here is chasing yield This is not about seeing if some consultant can get better yield for us That's the least important part of managing public investment funds I do think there are other reasons for going ahead with this no one Thank you for bringing this forward with that understanding that we are not inverting or changing The priorities of how this public agency investments funds or manages its funds Thank you for that miss cavill. You're you and your team do an excellent job on all fiscal matters for our city Let me See if there's anyone With us today who wishes to comment on a consent agenda item or ask an item be pulled. Good afternoon again, sir Yes, good afternoon. My name is still James Ewing It's my understanding that council members or lesser magistrates can pull items off the consent agenda So I would like to pull off number three Which has to do with the minutes and I would like to pull off number four which has to do at the CalPERS and could I It's my understanding of those do this you just go ahead and comment on them We'll be glad to take your testimony now. Let's start with number three. Please feel free to make your comment on that Well, I would like three minutes on each go ahead and you would like me to do it right now take such time Thank you so much. You're welcome. How about if I start with number four? In relation to the CalPERS, I mean I printed up. I'm glad I had the stuff with me It's quite a bit of paperwork here. Lots of pretty pictures, you know, and there's an incredible amount of propaganda I Know some of you have complimented me on being polite and that's not always accurate In 1892 John Rockefeller Rockefeller and a bunch of other criminals met in Geneva and decided How can we take the second most plentiful fluid on planet earth? oil and create scarcity So they created the fictitious term of fossil fuels So Almost everything else in here is somewhat irrelevant If I were to go and do a line item and I could I mean this is full of all kinds of pretty pictures and all kinds of propaganda but what is being pushed as far as sustainability and Let's say electric vehicles under what the norm is now lithium ion There's just this is an incredible amount of propaganda and I don't want to hurt or hurt or step on anybody's toes when I say This is mostly fictitious absolute bullshit Okay, that's you know, I I appreciate that so in an effort to Kind of dispel what's going on in the future. There are so many other options and I do think it's wonderful that Many different avenues to increase the financial health and wealth of the workers of this city are very important But I'm not in that much of agreement with this Yeah, I'm done on number four Now I get three minutes on number three you do This is great. How fun so it is So number three actually has to do with the minutes of the meeting and When I read the meeting minutes of the meeting on Saturday The mostly humor, you know There are several consistent Individuals that speak here some on the phone some in person I Would imagine that if I were to call myself a meat puppet or a fifth element being or something that would go into the official record So I was able to pull four items off the consent agenda number eight and number ten were very similar they had to do with The Entities and that's city and county managers that control all of you. I've provided you with a copy. I have other information and a citizen's rulebook Number 12 Had to do with More the frequency weapon stuff getting rubber stamp. It's a sip. Excuse me specifically more hardwired stuff and number 16 had to do with Me totally questioning the FDA and the EPA as far as their safety standards I have some new information that when this goes online There's up to three million gallons a day of treated sewage. They're gonna be going into the water table the reason I'm up talking about the minutes is Not only was that Nothing was talked about as far as what I spoke upon on eight or ten or 12 or 16 So I mean I could have I supposed come unglued but I have to apologize enough for putting my foot in my mouth I don't want to intentionally do it so I Just think this is a great opportunity and I appreciate being put on the spot I mean I want to talk on another item, but I do need to go back to work at some point So thanks for this opportunity Thank you again Good afternoon Hello, good afternoon. My name is Susan Monheight city resident I would like to request that From consent item number 25 the additional height of the hotel and the revising the revising of additional height criteria hang on just one second 25 is not part of the consent So when we get to that that's regular agenda not consent it's been pulled off the consent agenda It's not on the consent agenda, but but Consent public hearings like hearing right that'll be your opportunity when we get to that to make public Hearing not in the consent agenda and was it always that way or did it recently get changed? It was always that way it was always that way it's consent public hearings, which is just handled the same as consent When we get there that when you can comment on it. All right, and it's number 25, so you'll be going through 24 other things Thank you very much. You're certainly welcome. Good afternoon Mr. Ferrell. Good afternoon sir. Good afternoon mayor Keely and council members. I'm here we're short clarifying comment hopefully on the can the minutes of the last meeting specifically relating to Condition that was placed on the 925 appeal about Ceiling height being reduced from nine to eight feet. Yes We would hope that clarifying that to say Reducing the first floor ceiling height from nine to eight feet would be acceptable To the council because we feel that's really the area that's going to be affected in the building The neighbors just wanted to say thank you to the council for their consideration on the site Thank You mr. Ferrell Do we have anyone online? We do what we're going to do start toggling back and forth somebody online somebody in person So you'll be right after the next person online. Good afternoon person online Yes, I it's good again. Hey, I have three items also to speak to but it's two of them briefly I have a well I suppose a different point of view than the mayor on item 9 In that it would appear the finance department will get relieved at the job of managing investments of cash And a consultant will then be paid a minimum of $40,000 a year for five years and probably far more to guide that process And maybe you have found a financial advisor that will consistently beat the current investment strategies And maybe not since the reality is few advisors do beat the market the entry point in time for investment changes I do matter a lot the guest of their advice is quite similar to most all of the recent standard advice of fixed income Experts could have been saying for more than six months now That's time to extend maturities and additionally stated here to increase diversification Taking that advice early in the year would have put all those investments Underperforming even underwater that kind of advice applies more so to investors with money to invest that don't need it back Anytime soon and can wait out misallocations and avoid the buy high sell low scenarios Because they don't need to cash and they can wait for diversification to work to allow the various sectors to have their time in the sun Because they're not all synced up meaning enjoy returns of higher risk Which does apply to fat cat cities with the terms of their investment horizon But not so much to some for their need for safety, which I'm thinking you do even more And I would say I would categorize the advice as a fair Short-term gamble, but I think it will eventually need more management. That's not a buy and forget about it We are past an historic inflection point and fixed income investing a bond bear market and coming up very possibly Is a short head fake counter inflection and not as your opinion states that the rates are going to come back down and stay down That is a short-term guess it remains to be seen if they will be right or by how much or for how long and whether they Have the wisdom to unwind those trades before possibly being very wrong in a few years five years is a long time You extend maturities you ate the steak and anyone who says they know our interest rates are going to be in five years Is lying or rates over 10 or 12 or 13 percent looking out seven or eight years is somehow impossible Even as our money becomes rapidly and continuously ever more worthless Even the chart provided in your packet of future Fed action is outdated by their latest meeting Not so long ago who would have guessed the tenure bond would have breached five percent I don't care for their idea if it is so to liquidate all assets and invest all at once in the longer-term wide fixed income Diversity applications at this time entry points in time matter and there are forces besides short-term interest rates that work in all Those other sectors besides shorter treasuries this kind of snap diversification will require active management for a while And you mean time for a while and maybe forever will be taking on more risk I was amazed at reading you have 26 million dollars that you don't need anytime soon show events and eels not play out as expected Bottom line it looks like you are paying more to reach for yield taking on more risk And if you were capitalized like a fat cat city, I think for the entire five years You should publicly publish a comparison of what returns you would have had not doing this and Ask now if there are unrealized losses being realized when you liquidate Otherwise good luck, and of course it can't work out fabulous if these people are financial stages If I could speak to briefly two other things as item 12 the fee consulting analysis contract There goes the hundred forty thousand and I'm sure you'll instruct them to get your money's worth Noting the maximum possible cash cow public in every conceivable way one wonders if the staff does anything or do consultants do at all I mentioned comparisons to other cities never mean anything It's your actual costs and fair value of services to consider and of course nothing on it This says your cost versus service is optimal The recent jacking of boat rail rates a hundred percent was justified because some other cities were charging more comes to mind I never see any actions or evaluations that seek to achieve more optimal performance at cost Maybe the public would be better service you hire to consult for that analysis in the end hiring consultants is essentially adding staff and cost Sanically to me it seems all like plausible deniability being constructed for when the astronomical increases are announced How effective will this money be spent if they say you're charging too much in fees? Based on your phase one action so far. I'd say you don't have to worry about that I've put the odds of lowering fees at zero to minus no matter what the actual costs really are We'll see as item four I don't see any evidence presented that your ESG retirement investment ideas will result in a better financial Portfolio result for retired workers It's similar to the confusion and ignorance woke ideologies concentrate on rather than the real world Perhaps you should advise callers not to invest in companies that don't demand woke usage of personal pronouns or don't engage in diversity Hiring while you're at it There has been a lot of attention to ESG investing since 2013 and yeah Some evidence exists that these those have done well so far But evidence now suggests a lot of ESG performance has been because of the investment attention and subscription They have received that is to say momentum and that other factors related to ESG investments will accomplish the same and assumptions of continued Performance may be unfounded ESG funds may then be overbought and you know what happens next after that normally in the financial world If better investments end up having existed I wonder how the narrowing your investments will comfort ideological and shortcomings when When that if that happens will be to the retirees Thank You sir. Good afternoon. Hi. My name is Michelle Kibrick, and I'm here to speak in support of agenda item 4 The resolution on CalPERS divestment. I'm a resident of Santa Cruz, and I live in council district 4. I Am also the co-chair of the Santa Cruz Diane usur. Let's do this. Let's you make sure you get really close that microphone so make sure we hear everything Okay, I'm also the co-chair of the Santa Cruz Diana circle We're an interfaith climate action group that is affiliated with the national Diana Organization a Jewish call to climate action We currently have eight local partner congregation spanning several faiths Who all share a commitment to advocate for climate solutions and environmental justice? We strongly support the proposed Resolution urging CalPERS to divest from fossil fuels and invest in sustainable energy instead To save off the worst effects of climate change. We need to shift our energy model away from fossil fuels now Ensuring a healthy climate for ourselves and future generations is a moral imperative I want to thank Mayor Keely and council members Newsom and Brown and city staff for submitting this excellent Resolution for your consideration. Thank you. Thank you Another person online miss bush Good afternoon, sir Good afternoon, my name is Steve Palmosano. I'm a resident of in district six And I'm here in to speak in support of item for CalPERS divestment Thank you mayor Keely and council members Newsom and Brown for bringing this item to council Thank you to Tiffany wise West who works with such passion and integrity year after year He is such a local hero on climate action And what a joy it is to see you again, mr. Huffaker We work together for many years in Watsonville and I just have to say we are so lucky to have him as our city manager here He's an amazing individual so I Never thought that after 28 years serving the city of Watsonville including 10 years as director of public works I'd be on this side of the podium and today. I'm here as a representative of Diana the interfaith climate coalition as Faith groups we offer a number opportunity to bring people together based on shared values in faith and to heal the polarization that is so common these days and We come to you as partners to further our shared commitment in addressing the injustices caused by climate change Pope Francis released a powerful statement two weeks ago urging stronger actions on climate He writes our responses have not been adequate while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point He continues the most effective solutions will not come from individual efforts alone But but above all from major political political decisions on the national and international level It has been very heartening to make a request of the council to bring this resolution to CalPERS and to receive such a positive response from you all It is exactly how we change systems Your responsiveness gives us great hope. This is democracy in action. We are the building blocks at the local level As people of faith we honor what science tells us that what we decide today and every day for the next 10 years Will be will determine the quality of life for all beings on this planet for the next 500 years and Beyond we humans now hold more responsibility than ever in our history We are the ancestors of the next generations. That is why your action today matters so much That is why in April we wrote a letter to you encouraging you to increase the funding of the climate action program Now is the time to bring in more funding more staff and more legislative advocacy at the state and federal levels For the environment and for climate So today I thank you so much for bringing this important and powerful statement of the city's values and leadership on climate justice and I urge you to keep climate action as a top funding priority And I also hope you will send out a press release on this item One of the greatest tools in in addressing climate change is simply getting people to talk about it. Thank you Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for your input. Good afternoon, sir Good afternoon. I'm Robert Kibrick. I've lived in the city of Santa Cruz for the last 47 years And I'm a resident of council district for as a representative of the Santa Cruz Dianoo Circle and the Social Justice Committee of Temple Bethel I Want to register our strong support for the resolution on CalPERS divestment I also want to thank Mayor Keely and council members Newsome and Brown and the city staff for preparing for the excellent work they did in preparing both the resolution and importantly the supporting documentation Together these documents make a compelling case why CalPERS should reduce and ultimately eliminate in investments in fossil fuels while increasing its investments in sustainable and renewable energy Please note that the fifth element of this resolution directs the council to encourage state legislation that ensures that public pension funds such as CalPERS are only investing in sustainable and renewable energy portfolios and are divesting from fossil fuels One such piece of pending legislation is Senate Bill 252 by Senator Lena Gonzalez Which has passed the state Senate and is awaiting action in the assembly in the next legislative session Assuming the council adopts this resolution today We strongly urge you but we sought to strongly urge the council to actively register its support for SB 252 and any related legislation in accordance with the provisions of this resolution Thank you Thank you very much Anyone else who is with us today wish to comment Anyone else online? Matters back before the council Ms. Brown you have asked for item 20 to be pulled Would you like to deal with that now? We can do the consent agenda go to your item. We'll do it that way All right, so we are going to take up the consent agenda items that have not been pulled Is there a motion to approve as submitted as? I'll make the motion by Ms. Brown second by Ms. Watkins Like if I could ask For clarification on the minutes does that work to make that clarification? I think that was the intention the clarification that the appellant asked for thank you Just on that note, I will confirm the conditions of approval We're worded correctly. We will just match that to the minutes. Thank you and I do like the idea of sending out press release on this Adoption of this resolution, so I would hope to add that as Direction as well Thank you Further on the consent agenda debate or discussion Satan here none the clerk will call the roll Council member or Newsome I Brown I I printer I Calentary Johnson I vice mayor Golder is absent and Mary Keeley. Hi motion passes and so ordered. We are my item 20 miss Brown Thank You mayor So this item is regarding a retain work to be done on a retaining wall on Archer Drive. I I Wanted to just provide a little bit of context for my colleagues here on this item and make a request and Possibly ask for some input from public works as well. So the The work is going to be done primarily funded through a USDA grant that the property owner researched and found and and I did talk with them quite a bit and also with Representative from the city. Thank you for being responsive and and actually moving through that process. They needed a government agency to officially apply for that Assistance there you'll see in the agenda report that there is an additional cost related obviously there will be additional costs related to the work and I just wanted to make a Recommendation and a request that we consider Making this a little more viable for the Applicants I haven't spoken with them since they got their project Kind of moving through the USDA process But it occurred to me based on what I know of their circumstances that that that is a major cost a hundred and four Approximately a hundred and four thousand dollars Since the retaining wall will protect bay drive from runoff and In the event of a future potential landslide It feels like the city benefit Would warrant some contribution from us as well and so I'd like to ask if we might consider a 50-50 cost split on that additional The hundred and four thousand this is in kind Contribution really because it's staff time. So there's not a an impact to the general fund I recognize that it affects your your workload in public works And so I wanted to just put that out there. It feels like that would be reasonable for us to share the cost on the the additional Expenses there so I see If the gentleman has a comment on this Thank you Kevin crossley city engineer I Would potentially challenge the statement that there's not an impact on the general fund and what I mean by that is that we do have A couple of city staff working on this One of them is a retired a newtons that's come back and works part-time for us and so That's a source of staff time Also, there would be an agent assistant engineer a junior engineer working on this. We haven't identified that staff yet We have fairly complex staffing form funding formulas in public works. So It's not quite as straightforward. Maybe as it may seem on the surface So I appreciate that and and I recognize yet. There is there's always a cost to the general fund I'm just but and it's interesting to hear that you will need to bring on a Additional staff for this project in particular Again, I'm hoping that we can see our way to some kind of cost share I see a director when is approaching the the diocese and I I just I guess I'd like to ask Is there a way that we could we could help reduce the burden on the property owner here? It feels like We're it's kind of a squeeze For this given that we're going to benefit at the city as well the public works of director is recognized Good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon, mayor members of the council members It's a great question with regards to the value of this project the the retaining wall that failed during the January Storms was on private right-of-way and that the failure did occur adjacent to the hillside on Bay Avenue The improvements that are being proposed at its retaining wall roughly a cost of 350,000 plus an additional cost for design Really is a major benefit for the private property owner versus the actual Public right-of-way our engineers went out and evaluated the slope on Bay Drive And initially found that it was stable and that the failure really occurred again on the private right-of-way Due to storm drains that were being clogged that caused too much head and pressure on that existing retaining wall And so as a effort on our part additional Is a response and request to evaluate whether they would qualify for this USDA funding We did dedicate some staff resources as Kevin mentioned and we are willing to dedicate some additional staff resources But really at the expense of the property and because as we view the improvement is much more on the private right-of-way sign And it is for Bay Drive itself So just another question then related to the the process for the the app. I understand I'm disappointed. I you know, I hope that the I imagine the work will will happen anyway And that would be a real risk to the city if it didn't happen. I think potentially in the future So and I do think that we're benefiting we will benefit so I think we should share some of the cost It sounds like you feel that what has been contributed thus far at the staffing Level and I do very much appreciate that because I wasn't sure that we were going to get there That that was a significant share of the cost. So the question I have then is In terms of payment you're asking for that payment up front. I believe Is there a way to just I just would hate to see this project Be delayed or there be problems kind of implementing because that is a big cost to come up with up front And I don't know if the applicants are in that position to do that But is if if they are not can they pay you over time? Is that a possibility? So the the current progress is the applicants seeking a loan to cover their cost share And it's in the full amount that they're going to be obligated to cover Our concern with setting up like a repayment schedule was that this is a fairly small project in the big scheme of things And so we're talking about a month like three month long project It put the city in the position of having to figure out how to float the project costs without any city Contribution to the overall Fund so it felt us cleaner just to ask for their share up front as a commitment that they're ready to do this project But you've worked it out so that they they have a way forward for that. Okay. Okay. Thank you I'll um, I'm disappointed, but I'll go ahead and You know, I was to approve the the item. I guess I'll make the Are you making motion I was going to wait Anybody else on this item members the council on this item Please do If I may ask council member Brown you brought up that there was significant risk to the city But what I'm hearing from public work staff is that? It's more risk to the private or benefit and less a risk to the city So absolutely Where what are you getting your information from? My information I was just suggesting a cost share that seemed like it would be reasonable given that there is public benefit And the city is in a position to Support I believe support infrastructure that helps You know defend mitigate those kinds of risks landslide in particular risks in this case for the city So I didn't have my information was simply that this is a project that is going to benefit the city because if that work Isn't done and the retaining wall further fails It will slide onto city onto public property and affect Bay Drive So we are at risk in that in this case Can you speak to that? Sure as Director Nguyen summarized the majority of the benefits are going to be accrued by the property owner There is going to be ongoing erosion and threat of additional landslides if nothing is done That that could put us in a stickier situation I would say legally that I don't want to speculate on that would be more in the city Attorney's domain then what the what the resolution would look like if we weren't supportive of this project moving forward Other council members questions comments, let me see if I understand this correctly There's a shared benefit here or there's benefit to the city has benefit to the private property owner private property owner and The city have gone and applied for this funding funding has been approved There are certain match requirements in that and if I understand council member Brown's point It is that given that there are benefits both on the public and private sector Perhaps the public and private sector should share this in some way What I don't think we've gotten to is the discussion is that a 75 25 is that a 50 50? What is that but I think she makes a reasonable policy point did I make a proposal please do We haven't recouped any staff time cost on this yet That was part of what we were intending to take out of the deposit that the private property owner was going to provide us what we could do is absorb those costs to get the project at this point and only Recharge staff time moving forward as a as a concession to a motion that affect miss Brown. Yes, there is Motion a second debate or discussion anyone wish to spy on this saying hearing none work will call the roll Council member of Newsome. Hi Brown hi Hi Helen Terry Johnson. Hi Nice mayor Golder is absent and Mary Culey. Hi motion passes this order. Thank you all very much We are on the consent public hearing for those of you unfamiliar with it. We'll be taking up items 23 to 25 We if you wish to comment on those items, this would be the opportunity to do so Asked of their comments on the council. Well, I'd like to pull item 25 I think that we'll have more to discuss there and and I have a comment on 24 24 comment question so Item 24 is the Beach Flots grant application. This is Into what I think there was confusion about whether or not council member Brunner should stay given she has to recuse herself So since I've been 20 25 Calling 25 We're going to take that separately. So now it's 22 23 24 You got it Okay comment on 24. Yeah, I so it's it's a comment and a question The Beach Flots grant application here is it's a large Proposal I'm very glad to see it and It is intended to address or create a process for addressing and engaging the community in Resilience and Other infrastructure and other improvements also trying to address a displacement of residents in Who who live in the Beach Flots area? We know it's a historically Underrepresented low-income community. It's why it we're eligible for this grant And you know, I given that we know displacement is already occurring. I feel it's really crucial that affected neighbors are fully involved The proposal at least the overview we've received is Kind of suggests that there will be CBOs and That are involved in this will partner to engage with the community. There will be community meetings But it's not really explicit about how that will be accomplished and I I would like to Just ensure that we really prioritize that One thing I'd really like to see and I'm not going to make a motion about this here But we've been talking for a while and the planning commission while back did suggests a Displacement task force an anti-displacement task force that we establish some kind of body to Work on these issues and I feel like this is a place where that conversation needs to be had in full So I'm I'm just you know, I'm not asking for a major addition here, but I would like for perhaps the staff to Give us as I think about this now. It seems like it would make sense would be to Provide the council with that engagement plan a fully detailed engagement plan Should we receive this grant so that we can be aware of how it's being implemented We can participate in getting You know neighbors involved and Council member new some this being in your district I'm happy to work with you when the time comes to you know, try to support that So just would like to see something so we know what that outreach and engagement is going to look like Who's involved? But I would that be all right with the council to ask for a report on that you want to add that is I would like to add that just as addition just a brief additional Without objection Added without objection Further on item 24 a mayor and council if I may I did want to just note that Tiffany wise west one of the staff on this project Has her hand raised. Oh, well, I'm sorry. Excuse me, please. We can just hear it now. Dr. Wise well Good afternoon. Yes. Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you mayor and thank you council member Brown for that question To your question about the CBO's it is explicit in the detailed application each of the CBO's roles in the project which include a Project advisory as well as connecting us to community and also both of the Major elements of the project do call for an integrated engagement plan Developed at the beginning of the project. So I think everything that you mentioned is covered I was not aware of the task force and if there's something, you know, clearly that is Related and would benefit this that is no problem for us to integrate. I just would be some details on this as Part of this 15-day review period We're able to make minor adjustments to our application based on the feedback that we do receive So I'd like to follow up with you to gain clarity on that task force so that we can Appropriately modify the application to include that That that sounds great. Thank you. Dr. Wise West. I'll follow up with you offline on that And so I guess if we don't really need to include additional wreck or I don't feel the need to but it would be great to get An update on that process directly to the council as that that work is being done So we just know how we can also participate and facilitate others to participate Thanks. Thank you. Absolutely. We did include also several checkpoints with council. Just FYI. We're on the same page there Thank you, Dr. Wise West appreciate that. So you have no additional direction on that Yes Mr. Newsome sir. Thank you, Mercury. I just want to make a quick comment on item number 22 I just want to thank director Lipscomb and development manager DeWitt for bringing this agenda item forward these properties Are in my district and they provide 68 housing units for extremely low very low and low income families and I'm just Really excited to see this agenda item and I just want to thank them for this Thank you, sir any further questions comments on the Consent agenda public hearing item I say what we have remaining on that is 22 23 and 24 We have pulled item 25 Let me ask if there's anyone with us who wishes to make comments on items 22 23 or 24 Anyone online we do let's go to the person online. Good afternoon Yes, this is good I'll come in on 24 I didn't have to scroll to the bottom of this item didn't know who submitted this Later there While the relative blight of beach flats and its proximity to potential flood damage of being real concerns and its redevelopment into something better seems a Most very worthwhile endeavor what is defined as better is sadly slathered here with leftist ideology and goals Not something I appreciate It's another example of worse I would say of taking the bribe similar to that reap 2.0 grant that seeks to destroy single-family housing forever Whether the public really wants that or not meaning taking the big outside money that creates questions of loyalty Yes, California is left essential and it's going into the waste bin of misguided blue states with ideologies leading to policies and economics that don't work evidence by mass homelessness normalization of crime and invasion and Freeride protected illegal immigrants by high taxes and fees businesses and public moving out of the state having truly un-American ideology ideologically and ineffective policies like price controls and forcing a homogenization and destruction of communities according to authoritarian state-conceived formulas That who suffers from a concentration of low-paying hospitality industries too many low-paying nonprofits a high concentration of government workers And embedded leftist educational indoctrination facility too much government Dependence as well as flat out too many socialist communists and cultural Marxist believers intent on installing their defective ideologies into repressive policy When affordable housing means price controlled housing That's defective socialism when removing barriers that perpetuate segregation mean destroying micro community neighborhoods To a lowest common denominator state that have collectively worked hard to achieve success and their version of the american dream When it is assumed there aren't immoral and illegal barriers to so-called protected classes to live in so-called Well-resourced areas defined as having some magic superior opportunity Due to physical location alone being denied to those based on a simple demographic reality And not on a lack of individual responsibility and achieving income success We have cultural marxists that work here and in sacramento to pushing their destructive agenda Throw in offensively a sumptuous buzzwords like underprivileged under served and representative climate justice Decarbonized housing and achieving equity as the effect of a concept as that is by funneling money to one-sided activist groups Again, I didn't have to scroll to the bottom to see who submitted this I can see why for their own financial interests various corporations are for this if the leftist garbage Ideology was removed. I would be a lot in favor of this You should send this whole thing back for a rewrite by a neutral not politically motivated unelected bureaucrat That doesn't have leftist ideology policy injection on the brain and give this sucker a left of bottomy But you probably won't I'm still waiting for you to acknowledge and write that resolution Descend to our congress and our recently appointed diversity gender placeholder senator Residing the last 19 years in marlin to stop increasing wealth inequality by their amoral and corrupt inflation produced by amoral spending That is the real cause of existential economic wealth inequality and waste Instead of the endless misguided ineffective social justice injustice band-aids being prescribed Thanks Thank you, sir For the comments on 22 23 24 We have another person online. Good afternoon person online Hello, good afternoon, mayor keely and council My name is like to provide a comment in support of item 24 central coast energy services community action board of sanacris county and community bridges Or organizations central coast energy services is a non-profit that provides utility bill assistance and home energy To look rockers and think those living in the beach flats We strongly believe that this project represents a vital step towards addressing the pressing issues of inadequate affordable housing and increasing climate change impacts on our low-income communities As concerned members of the community We believe it is imperative that the city prioritizes and invests in initiatives such as this one that can provide stability and security to our low-income neighborhoods and community members by Way of improving the housing stock and reducing climate inequities. Thank you so much. Well, thank you so much anyone else online One more person online. Good afternoon Good afternoon Yes, hello, um, this is judy young senior account manager with central coast community energy and I am here to comment on item 24 3ce Enthusiastically supports the city of sanacrus's pathways to removing obstacles to housing grant application And it is our intent to partner with the city on this important initiative 3ce is a california community choice aggregation load serving entity whose mission is to provide reliable affordable clean energy and electrification programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen our local economy In 2018 the city of sanacrus city council Voted to join 3ce via joint powers authority marking the commencement of our ongoing partnership The proposed bolstering climate and housing resiliency in sanacrus project further Further is our mutual goals of removing barriers to housing and promoting electrification in our community 3ce's governing boards have identified electrification as a strategic goal Recognizing that all electric buildings are cost effective highly efficient provide cleaner indoor air quality and substantially lower Emissions than buildings that use natural gas appliances 3ce offers rebates and incentives to facilitate the replacement of specific gas appliances in existing residences And to stimulate the construction of all electric new accessory dwelling units and affordable housing Understanding that electrification may present challenges for certain members of the community 3ce extends additional incentives tailored to income qualified customers In alignment with our commitment to these principles, we extend our wholehearted support for the city of sanacrus's visionary initiative And we are eager to participate in 16 quarterly meetings over four years offering our expertise and guidance in an advisory capacity Our objective is to facilitate the seamless integration of this project with 3ce's overarching goals, which are twofold advancing building electrification And investing in our underserved residential customers that form the backbone of our communities. Thank you Well, thank you very much. Anyone else online miss bush Okay, if I just might say that uh, mr. Huffaker serves on the operations board of 3ce I happen to have the good fortune of serving on the policy board and uh My way of thinking about this if we did everything else in the climate change space to try to address that issue and we didn't change the fuel type in generating electricity and the fuel type in Transportation, we're going to fail miserably as a world in that and so 3ce is An absolutely critical element in the Monterey Bay area for our climate change objectives So, uh, thank you to the staff person who called in on that further questions or comments. Do we have anyone else online? Okay matters back before the council. I do believe we have a motion and a second We will get one if you need one we'll have motion by mr. Newsom a second. Well, you just showed up second by the vice mayor. There we go Uh, uh, lest you think the mayor the vice mayor is late. She had she is a principle of a school here and Her official duties in both places have a tugged push-pull on it. So thank you for being here I know you had other matters, but there we do have a motion a second debate and discussion miss brown I just want to really send a shout out to dr. Wise west because I didn't say that earlier your work to Bring resources into our community for really really critical issues your attention to and commitment to Including affected communities in those conversations is really unparalleled. So I want to appreciate that before we take them Thanks Thank you councilmember all debate have been seized clerk. We'll call the roll Councilmember Newsom. Hi Brown I I Brunner. Hi Calentary johnson. Hi vice mayor golder. Hi and mary culey. Hi motion passes this water Item 25 has been pulled and we will take that item up now separately we will begin with a report from our planning director And we will proceed to pace after that. Good afternoon, sir Good afternoon mayor and council members and lee bell their director of planning and community development and As this item was on consent We don't typically have a presentation. We do have a presentation prepared If you would like to go through those i'm seeing some let me tell you I believe that this is Going to take some time. I think we are going to receive a fair amount of inputs. So let's have a Less than 10 minute presentation if you're ready to do so. I think that will help us set some context on this great Our senior planner ryan bane will pull up that presentation and Good afternoon mr. Dane. Okay. Thanks. Good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon So yes what we have before you is Proposal for downtown plan amendments so The downtown plan is is really a dynamic document that is updated every few years. So here we are again Kind of continuing that cycle So as part of the updates what we're attempting to do is to streamline the processes to minimize Unnecessary delays for uses downtown Updating standards that have proven to be problematic Ensuring consistency throughout the many sections of the plan and updating the plan to address recent state law changes So and just to add a little clarification we did receive Some correspondence over the last day or so and I think there was some confusion About what we're proposing or some of the proposals as part of this. I just wanted to clarify that We're not proposing to apply state density bonus to non-residential or commercial projects So commercial projects such as office buildings or hotels cannot apply density bonus and increase the height Or use waivers to development standards. So I just wanted to clarify that Also, we're not increasing the permitted height of buildings downtown With the exception of the limited structures that involve activated rooftop amenities, which I'll get to So the proposal went to planning commission on september 21st and planning commission recommended approval on a four to one vote There were two minor revisions one being that Removing the reference to the specific affordability amount since that It's now 20 percent. It was 15 percent. So we're just they requested that we just remove that So we don't have to amend it every time the affordability requirements do change In possibility in the future Also, there was some added coastal commission recommended language that I won't go into detail, but it's in the staff report So kind of going into just some of the general amendments looking to eliminate administrative use permits for ground floor supportive and transitional housing and small large family daycare As well as upper floor multifamily residential uses This would bring the planning consistency with state law and simplify and streamline certain residential projects We often get a lot of inquiries about different types of commercial entertainment Uses downtown and currently that's a little limited on How it's described So we're expanding that use to include arcades billard halls and or recreation uses So we're also amended the footnote to require those uses Have active ground floors is be visible from the street frontage to kind of keep that activity along the street frontage and downtown area Also for ground floor looking to amend The ground floor footnote for multifamily housing to include supportive and transitional housing and flexible density units To limit the frontage of residential lobbies and leasing areas in the ground floor in the pacific avenue retail district And to provide other clarifying language flexibility density Units were recently added to the zoning code So this is providing consistency with the downtown plan and also as I mentioned there we're limiting The uses of residential lobbies along pacific avenue to keep that that activity along long pacific um, also proposing to amend the regulations for hotels and hotels Eliminating language regarding location of hotels and prohibiting hotels on ground level frontages And along the riverwalk level frontage This change reflects previously approved changes made by the city council Back in 2017 that were inadvertently left out of the coastal commission's previous local coastal program Approval so we're basically updating that for consistency with what was approved previously um, also looking to amend the additional height zone criteria To remove language. Um, that is redundant regards to density bonus law which already allows an additional height waiver for height restrictions Also amending the additional height zone b criteria language to eliminate the language by including a concentration of new housing Um, the existing language is really as overly limiting as it only takes into consideration projects Um, that include housing which is not consistent with city policies that Encourage visitor serving uses in the downtown and specifically within the coastal zone Um, nor is it consistent with policies of the downtown plan and general plan that support a mix of uses in the downtown As a means of sport economic and cultural activities Um, also adding a section regarding rooftop amenities um such as gardens rooftop bars pools um Because really open space is very limited in the downtown area. So we wanted to be able to encourage rooftop uses um in the downtown area These basically would be allowed to be up to a 15 foot height Above the maximum height they have to be set back 15 feet and then would be limited to 15 percent of the rooftop area Um, also working with the parks and recreation department. Um They were looking at they've been looking at doing some amendments to the downtown area that Regarding amending tree species lists for more flexibility as well as tree locations. So that there's some language that's been amended To accommodate that as well So the amendments are consistent with the general plan policies They streamline both residential and visitor serving development and support overall economic development in the downtown It's also consistent with the local coastal plan That there are portions of the downtown that are in the coastal zone So there is an lcp amendment that is part of this and it's consistent with those with the lcp policies that are listed in the staff report There was an addendum to the 2017 downtown plan amendment program eir that's been prepared and is attached to your staff report Um, there's no new impacts than previously discussed and analyzed and no new mitigation measures And it does not include seek review. This I should note that this does not preclude seek review for any new projects that are going to be in the downtown So in terms of next steps, um So If they if these amendments are to be approved the edits will take effect in the areas outside of the coastal zone Um, but there are portions that um that are in the coastal zone that will have to go on to coastal commission for lcp um amendment approval So I won't read the entire recommendation, but basically staff's recommending that the council adopt the resolution approving the amendments As well as the resolution authorizing Us to go ahead and submit for the lcp amendment to the coastal commission and i'm available for any questions Thank you, sir. Let me ask if there are questions by council members to begin this round conversation miss brown Thank you mayor. Thank you for the presentation. I I do have a couple of questions. I have comments which I'll Make later and I I believe there are members of the public who May also generate additional questions, but I so I just want to ask now on the The rooftop amenities item, uh, or or element of this Is aside from the height increased height allowance. Is there anything that we are Isn't this I guess I'm just asking isn't this already allowable rooftop I mean we have rooftop amenities on buildings in the downtown Already, and so I'm just wondering if there's anything in addition to the height increase that that would deliver That is being changed here from our existing guidelines Yeah, I don't think there's anything that prohibits rooftop amenities currently But it would allow for some for that 15 foot additional height just for for certain minor structures Gotcha. Okay. Thank you I'll leave it there for now. Thanks Other questions or comments to start with around the dias here Okay, this would be the opportunity for anyone who would like to provide input or testimony on this item Miss bush. Let me ask. Uh, do we see yet that we will have anyone online? We do miss monheit. Why don't we start with you and then we'll toggle back and forth in person and online Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Susan monheit. I'm a resident of Santa Cruz the city of Santa Cruz So I just heard a couple of things run by first of all, I'd like to state that That the description as it is in the agenda Is not Give citizens adequate understanding of what this Proposal is I heard the words flexible density is now on the table to approve for downtown I think flexible density is a really bad idea. It is creating the densest housing in I believe the county Um near or on a gulf something that would have been slated for about 50 units now gonna hold Maybe three times that amount I know we want density around the transit hub But this making unlivably small dense units is not the way to do it I think I heard no sequa will be required in any further developments downtown. Was that correct, sir? No, could you restate that? I'll tell you what you can ask those questions through me and I'll be glad to Okay, so I believe I heard there would be no further sequa downtown, which I would object to Um Those disclosures are important for the public and 15 feet additional So how about we do this? I think you had a question to me about that question I'm gonna stop the clock. I'll go to the uh, your time is not being. Don't worry about it. You're you're gonna be fine Thank you, sir. Yeah, sorry if there was a Discommunication so what I was saying was there was a secret that was done for this for these amendments And then what I was clarifying is that? Because the secret that for these amendments has been done does not Exclude new projects that come downtown. Those will still require a secret review Thank you for that clarification. Please proceed. Hey, missed one word there 15 Now this is confusing. Are you rezoning the downtown to allow 15 additional feet on any structure that's downtown? And shouldn't the 15 additional feet been accounted for in the building proposal for the new hotel, which would since Floors are about 15 feet. This would be effectively a 13th story Wait, I may know eight stories. It would be effectively another story. Okay, so that sounded like a question I'll direct that over to staff um, it's As proposed with the amendments There's no additional height being permitted outside of the amenities section that we're talking about and Just to clarify those are for minor structures There's limitations where it has to be set back 15 feet no more than 50 of the rooftop area 15 foot height um, and those are for those aren't to be For housing or I should say for uh conditioned space. It's basically for A covered area for like either be a rooftop bar or in a seating area for next to a pool or something like that. So more of a than a many More than yeah actual enclosed space I don't know if I would consider that an additional story per se, but it could be construed that way I suppose Thank you. Please proceed. Okay. Thank you Um Well, um, mr. Lee Butler caught me on the way in to protest that This is not about applying density bonus laws to Hotels downtown, but there's a question in my mind because This amendment would remove The inclusion of necessary two affordable units In order to allow it to increase the height 15 feet or 20 feet and then on the slide it said density bonus So please explain that Got it Understand the question sir If I fully understood that question, but You want to speak to that? I have to I had to say it really fast so, um Right now the findings associated with the additional height Include a provision that state that the additional height findings Require a concentration of housing Which a concentration of housing is some number of housing units, you know, that could be two three four units So if an office building or a hotel Wanted to come in and go from that 50 feet to 70 feet in height They would have to have a concentration of housing meaning some portion of that building would have to be Dedicated towards housing that proposal is recommended to be removed from this For the reasons that Ryan stated in the presentation, which we can go through again if the council has questions regarding that and then with respect to the density bonus the There is one section in this that removes a reference to density bonus However, that is immaterial It has zero effect on residential commercial hotel office it Is in the additional height zone and it says The additional height from 50 to 70 feet can be accomplished if You are on a lot of a certain size or if you have a lot if you have development on either side or One other criteria and then it also says or if you're applying the density bonus the density bonus applies Regardless the density bonus if you have a residential project that is providing a certain level of affordability Whether or not you are seeking that 50 to 70 foot height exception density bonus applies to either one of those And so it's actually just confusing to have that reference to density bonus in that section So that's being stricken. There is no other No other implication for density bonus in these changes and as many of the people who are writing in were Concerned about that there was some kind of application of density bonus to the hotel That is a separate project that is not before the council today that will be at some point in the future that as no bearing on Density bonus that hotel and density bonus have no connection whatsoever Thank you, sir Ms. Bond hide here's what we're going to do just to please come up. I have 19 seconds. Yes Yeah, I wanted to make sure you knew you had more times so go ahead I have another question. What is the land on which this hotel is being proposed not city property that should have been slated for housing A near a metro station and then shouldn't affordable housing criteria apply stop the clock Sure That I think someone from economic development might be here to answer that question, but I'm not involved actually Oh, there's Catherine. Thank you. Catherine Hi Good afternoon council members of mayor the property in question is under Discussion and review for use in a very specific project not and We certainly know about the surplus land act and look to our City attorney to advise and to monitor that we're following it But that again is specific specific to A particular project and not to the agenda item at hand, which is the general plan amendments Thank you. Ms. Mitch Ms. Bond hide my last four seconds I propose and encourage the city council to not raise the height of the building and have that 15 feet be included in the height That was already proposed. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you very much Do we have anyone online miss bush on this item? We do we'll go to the person online. Good afternoon Hi, this is rick longianati Um folks, this is a measure to change the existing downtown plan The downtown the existing downtown plan calls for housing Along the east side of front street 60 percent Of the building square footage should be housing and that was written at a time I guess when we thought we had a housing problem and now we're changing policy um I I don't see a justification for that Um, and more over there's a senate bill which is sp3 30 Which uh says that it prohibits a jurisdiction from downsizing property for housing Unless the jurisdiction concurrently up zones other property To make sure that there's no net loss in residential capacity citywide I don't see any proposal To concurrently up zone another part of the city and yet we're losing capacity On the east side of front street, but according to this proposal So I don't think these downtown amendments would be legal Thank you Thank you very much anyone else who's with us. Please come forward and while that gentleman's coming forward Do we have anyone else online? How many? What okay, good afternoon again. Yes. Hello. My name is still james ewing um So yeah, I want to comment on 25. I took some time to read number 26 and that's why I stayed but Looking at it again That is temporary So there's no reason to stay and comment on this But what I find interesting about 25 and although I haven't read every single word that's in it There's something that's repeated three times. So hey nobody's brought it up except sandy brown kind of did so downtown plan amendments related to removing public hearing requirements one Downtown plan amendments include but not limit to removing public hearing requirements Third time downtown plan amendments related to removing public hearing requirements You know, this is some general thing that uh Kind of reminds me of black rock, you know, it's uh really another layer of removing The people that actually live here The people that actually voted for you city council members Where you guys are under the control of international organizations and you guys are like puppets so I'm glad I stayed. I'm trying to be as polite as possible, but It's repeated three times removing the public's public hearing. So What else is going on here? That's enough. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir I think that I would ask you About that point because I think it does the way the gentleman Has articulated it does give that impression So on this these amendments that you're talking about with regard to public hearings How are we assuring the public that their right to make comment on projects and that kind of thing Is not somehow being taken away from them Yeah, I think for most projects downtown a design permit is still going to be required So there will still be some sort of there will be a type of review for any projects downtown and I think basically the idea is just streamlining residential And encouraging residential downtown But uh, yeah, just with these amendments is not to say that there won't be any review whatsoever There still will be some type of permit required And so let's go to the some type of can you expand on that? Thank you, sir Most downtown projects have a variety of entitlements included with them some are density bonus those always have a public hearing Sometimes there's maps associated with condominiums those always require a public hearing We also have our community outreach policy So even if we have a project that's just a design permit that could be administratively approved The public is afforded that notice through our community outreach policy and then they can appeal that On up and have a hearing on it. So what we would Generally, I think general conception would be that that Projects I don't think people think of you know one house someplace whatever it might be We're talking about downtown and and and projects and I think what that Creates in people's mind is some multi-story multi-something something there and I think the Comments that gentlemen made wanting to make sure that the public is not Disenfranchised from being able to provide its input comment in a timely manner That could then affect the project That's right. And and the other point I should make too is right now a lot of these residential projects have a use permit Requirement that really doesn't make sense. I mean Most of the discussion around these projects have to do with with design and and that's being covered under the design review We're really not going to be in the position of revoking or modifying a residential project Under a use permit So, um, it's it's just sort of superfluous process. Thank you for that. Appreciate it. We have someone online is that correct? We'll take uh The next one online then we'll be with you. We'll toggle back and forth a bit. So good afternoon person online three two One good afternoon. Hello. Yep. Come on mom forward. Hi. We'll we'll take you in a minute. Please come forward We'll take you person online be ready to go when we're when we call on you Go ahead. Hi. My name is allison buctor. I've been here about 23 years And I have two um things I'd like to say one I'd like to have more public input So when the gentleman before me mentioned it was three times mentioned in here I would ask if you could please take that out And that you could have a more public input. I know that I filled out a survey Do September 1st about what kind of amenities around the 12 story buildings? No one ever asked whether The public wanted 12 story buildings at all. So when you have public outreach, I'm wondering Whether you're asking us do we want to rezone our city or not? Or do you just want trees along the street because there's two different things there? And so I would ask urge this council to Listen to the public and I you we haven't heard very much chances for public Feedback we haven't heard that very much as much as is pop it. It should be done. Okay. The second thing is We do need more housing and I'm not sure there's a huge need for more hotels. Maybe I'm wrong But there's a lot of hotels being built. So I to the I respond to the man who came in through zoom Um, is it illegal to be doing more housing? I mean doing more doing more hotels when we should be doing more housing So even though this project is still in the already in the works It doesn't mean it's a done has to be a done deal what we need is more housing not hotels So could the could the lawyer answer this whether the The new law that the man on the zoom requested. Is there somebody here that could answer that question? Let me ask if the planning director would be willing to address that if you just give him a second at the microphone Thank you. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you We are well aware of the housing accountability act and take it very seriously including our obligation to follow it at all times The a hotel is a permitted use right now. And so what the caller was referring to is a footnote under the multifamily housing requirements So right now you can build a hotel there under the proposed regulations. You can still build a hotel so We are consistent with the housing accountability act and um, this This change Really in that amounts to whether a hotel can build from 50 feet to 70 feet And this would allow for a hotel to build between that 50 feet and 70 feet A Residential developer could come in onto that site and also propose residential. That is not what has been proposed But again that matter is a separate matter So we are not reducing any capacity because a residential developer could still come in and Um and develop a residential project there. What we're talking about is whether or not a Uh commercial office or a hotel could build between 50 feet and 70 feet Thank you That won't be taken out of your time feel free I just want to urge the city council to um be building To be approving housing affordable housing and general housing rather than hotels Thank you. Thank you so much person online. Good afternoon Good afternoon. Hi Hi, good afternoon. My name is Candice Brown. Hi um The point I want to make is actually this is supposed to be about updating and streamlining the general plan And minor changes, but here you're making a dramatic change in policy by Entering the idea of visitor serving and you don't define it. So it's so general in nature But it could include in entertainment venues. It could include additional hotels Are you still there? Yeah, it can And also it um A wide range. So the fact that it's not defined in itself is problematic Uh, the existing housing could be turned into air bnb's because that could be visitor serving um Everything along that riverfront could be changed to visitor serving because you've introduced that now into the general plan and that would have a wide range of um impacts, especially when it comes to traffic parking You know, probably many things I haven't even thought of Also, as far as the height if you allow the height to go from 50 to 70 and on the rooftop on top of that to the initial 15 We're talking 85 feet um I really cannot believe that we're building a hotel across from the metro that we've built 205 luxury condos next to the metro We continue to ignore students, which are 30 percent of our population Families people that want to walk and live downtown that we've talked about for years and make it a walkable community We're not doing that when we're inviting Uh and introducing this idea of visitor serving This is your dramatic change and it should be discussed more widely and should not be introduced Into this particular agenda item today. I think you should take it off the agenda. Thank you Thank you Good afternoon, Ms. Carrillo I I can't I'm not hearing very well. So I don't know exactly what's been said but I Understand that we're all wanting more housing that's affordable for the people who live and work here And what I see reflected what it seems like is reflected in the movements that the city is making Is that the value is different than than what we're speaking? Because when I see the development that's going into the below laurel street um, and it's displacing Residents who are mostly probably renters and it's probably one of the more low income areas of our city. So We're just placing a lot of people and we're putting in unaffordable market rate mostly Condos Where do those people go? I Envision them either leaving the area or being on the street And then when I see that we have I'm mostly referring to the hotel When I see that I What seems to be understood is that if we build on city lots or county lots and we work with Non-profit low-income housing developers. That's when we can afford to build housing. That's really affordable So when I see that the city is Selling these two lots That could be affordable housing. Maybe even giving priority to the people who are displaced Below laurel and and we're And I have heard and I don't know if it's true that In that area legally the city is supposed to be offering that those lots for Housing development before they make another decision on the sale of those properties if that's all true um, it The the actions are not matching the words And it really it really disturbs and concerns me and I've been watching that property for years because I was a credit union member And we as credit union members were supposed to be having some say in What they did, but we didn't find out about the sale till after the sale was through was not Of conscience, so I think that's what I want to say Thank you. Thank you miss curio. Anyone else online miss bush Let's take that person out. Good afternoon person online Hi, thank you for taking our calls and our comments I want to support the people that just came before me addressing the inequities Of putting a hotel in this prime location We need to see more efforts from the council and the planning department to seek out Developers and nonprofits who will build what we need affordable and low-income housing We continue to see council and staff prioritized corporate Corporate priorities And it's very discouraging and very angering to us To see that our voices are are like being placated You hear what we're saying But your actions are not living up To what we expect of our servants Please Find a developer that will build affordable housing its city land in prime location By the transport system. Thank you Thank you so much. Anyone else online miss bush All right matters back Before the council I'll move the step. I'll move the staff recommendation. There's a motion on the staff recommendations. Is there a second? There's a second Would you care to open on that? I would I would just like to say that While I appreciate the public engagement there was a lot of inaccuracies that people were saying and just some Facts that people were putting out there that just weren't true and so actually of the of the properties Or the units that are going to be being built in the next five years that we recently got a presentation on Of the 2722 31 percent of those are affordable We recently got back from a conference in san franc's or sacramento and council member bruner and Calendary johnson and whatkins and I talked to council members from all over the state And we were the only city that we talked to that's actually building our own affordable housing There's people in this room that have laid the foundations to build The mixed-use library project pack station south pack station north and a number of other developments that are going in To address housing affordability in the city The downtown redevelopment in my opinion has been Essentially deferred maintenance since the earthquake. There's a lot of Properties that could have been using Of redevelopment and so I really appreciate the work that's gone into All of these projects. I'm excited about the hotel I'm excited to share Our town with people and having a hotel downtown to me just makes sense So i'm very excited about this project and is what's before us today Thank you. Madam vice mayor Mr. News Thank you. Markeigh and I support the agenda item as well The agenda item is about a whole host of issues other than The hotel and it supports economic development in downtown and by extension our small businesses in downtown and We'll eventually result in more tax funds and provide more jobs. I would like to add Uh In addition to the motion though and this is kind of in response to the concerns We've heard about affordable housing in our community. Um, and I was I wonder if miss bush could put that up Or the amendment the amendment Thank you So I support the motion, but I'd uh Like to add the following language or um insert Section two for additional height zone b insert new subsection f at the end of page 81 An f affordable housing public benefit fee for non-residential projects And you know just states an application for additional height. It's voluntary Because an applicate applicant requesting additional height is receiving a benefit in the form of increased height and intensity And to ensure that non-residential projects which are granted additional height reasonably contribute to the city's need for affordable housing Non-residential projects that are granted additional height shall be required to pay an in lieu public benefit fee And the amount of five dollars per square foot of gross floor area Occurring above the 50 foot base height limit I heed the additional gross floor area occurring within the project on levels That exceed the 50 foot base height limit and the fees shall be paid prior to occupancy of the project and all fees provided Collected under this section shall be deposited Into the city of santa cruises affordable housing trust fund There there is a motion is there a second? Excuse me, so be you're accepting that Let me ask if there is Yes, that'd be a friendly amendment. Yeah, of course. Okay. It's accepted. It's agreed. We'll the second Very good. All right. Uh, so it's open on your motion to amend there. Thank you sir. Uh, so, um You know, we've heard a good bit of comment and we received a good bit of correspondence about concern about affordable housing in our community And as councilmember golder Our vice mayor golder has pointed out. We are doing a good. We are building a good bit of affordable housing in our community and I think this This added language This addition to this motion. I think will help address these concerns and provide Help provide more funds for building affordable housing in our community And I Do want to add You know this this amendment is about a whole lot of a whole host of other issues than the hotel But I I do want to add that when the cell the properties that were discussed comes before us That I will be pushing for if the cell was to go through I'll be pushing for those funds to be placed into the affordable housing trust fund as well But that's a whole another conversation of if that will even occur If I could also be certain I declare just asked if the notation that was previously on the bottom was part of the Friendly amendment and the answer to that question is no All right. Thank you sir Thank you for the opportunity to comment I'd have I'd have two comments on this particular item One is If it pleases the council, I think moving it to an alternative location where we are specifically Discussing the additional height would Be a better location so basically taking this and Shifting it to another location where it's just easier to to find with the additional height provisions I can Let you know what that section is It would be Hold that I should have opened that before I got up here. It would be Subsection B Um And then roman numeral 6 on page 73 It's under the additional height zone or excuse me that is that's for additional height zone a So if you wanted to add this to additional height zone a we would add it there as well Should the council choose to do so for additional height zone b it would be subsection b roman numeral 7 on page 79 Let me pause here make sure that we understand that This is essentially where to place this item You have any objection to that Is that clear to you miss bush where we're placing this? Yes, so so first for additional height zone b it would be subsection b roman numeral 7 On page 79 of the document Vii And and it is it's in the it's what I sent you so if If it pleases the council for for subsection or excuse me for additional height zone b that would that's where it would be placed Um, if you care to add it to subsection to excuse me additional height zone a As well, we also have a section Um where it could go for that We're just going to hold here for a second The question was whether There was a desire for the council to add this to and other section. Is that correct? That's correct. And the effect of that would be the effect of that would be essentially so the additional height zone b The east side of front street between Soquel and Laurel Subsection or excuse me additional height zone a is essentially between Pacific and front streets it extends farther north as well So this provision should should a project seek to Pursue the additional height It would also Have these provisions that is it's it's slightly different and then the base height is not 50 feet. I believe it's 55 55 thank you. Let me ask this question, mr. Butler. Is what you're saying here that For some kind of policy continuity purposes That would be the preferred way to go If you are recommending that an additional height zone b I would also recommend that it's also included in a Mr. Newsom, you all right with that? Yes, second of the motion. All right with that Without objection we will that will be added And as a friendly amendment on the motion, thank you for your assistance on that for the debate or discussion Let me start with miss Watkins and we'll go to miss brown miss Watkins Yes, thank you for the presentation and work and I am definitely supportive of the added direction I just have a question like if In an example project downtown, how much would that generate? Just that I mean if we're I don't what do these numbers translate to So that's going to depend it'll be a project by project basis and depending on a number of factors One how large the lot is and then really most importantly what the amount of square footage is above the The 50-foot height limit, but if you had for example Say 50,000 square feet, then you would be around 250 thousand dollars for for that That trade-off and that would go straight to our affordable housing trust fund great Thank you. And then the other question I had is um I know there was comments around the public feedback and the process around Checkpoints, but what I heard was there's additional Opportunities for the public to weigh in so the removal of supliferous Engagement is is not removing the public process But essentially streamlining it in existing ways that we already move forward with public input. Is that accurately capture? What was described That's correct. The use permit Would not be required and I think eric was was mentioning this, you know use permits are often for uses that You know you're potentially going to have some type of impact and so, you know noise or fumes something of that and and then if you end up violating that you can revoke that use permit For residential uses. We're not going to Revoke the use permit and say you can no longer use these units as residential units. And so having a it's actually something that We're working with hcd on as part of our housing element to remove the use permit requirements for Residential uses in general. And so as we were updating this It was an opportunity for us to look at those and say hey We we don't need the use permit requirement. There aren't we're not we're not conditioning the residential use as we would Some other use that that may have those Potential impacts on the surrounding community. Okay, great. Thank you for that clarification. It's important for the public Just one other comment suggestion is I know this comes up a lot and I know we've had a lot of conversation I know we've done policy around public engagement and criteria and thresholds But I also have seen such confusion also ensue beyond that actual, you know action So I don't know if there's a way for us to really think about how we translate These types of policy scenarios and uses To a lay person trying to track how they can weigh in and win and what types of projects And I know we have a table. I was looking at it online But I think it's really challenging, you know for the average person and it's a it's a con like a continuous issue that arises here so maybe in terms of potential Marketing folks or people who are, you know skilled in that area an opportunity there And I'm looking at our city manager because I think that's maybe an opportunity appreciate the comment councilmember Watkins and yes, it is a inherently complex topic getting more complex by the day As sacramento signs another 60 housing bills that were Deciphering So that's something we'll continue to work on. I do think there's some work we can do to disseminate it for the broader community That's that's more consumable. So I appreciate the comment and we'll work with erica smart or communications manager and our planning team To continue doing what we can to make this work more approachable Councilmember brown Thanks, uh, so I first I'll uh, just want to Echo or associate myself with the comments of councilmember Watkins. I think that uh, you know, we get these um, kind of packages of amendments that Have a lot in them and can be very confusing even for those of us who have been immersed in this or semi-immersed for a while So helping the public understand what these changes mean is really important. I think when we see Proposals like the one before us without that and also Potentially with it because uh, once it's clear what we're doing there will be, you know responses to that too but I think that's really important that people need an opportunity to Understand and weigh in when we're making these kinds of changes In this case, I feel like You know, yeah, it's it's kind of billed as is cleanup and Minor and much of it is there are you know, there's a lot in here and It's Some but you know the the level of significance depends on one's perspective as well And I and there are some items in here, which I I believe will result in significant changes. And so To the extent that we are Clear about that as we move forward. I think that it will also help the public When we do not Engage critically and meaningfully And we make changes that seem to counter the what many community members are telling us We know that that results in You know a level of dissatisfaction and pushback that Is can be a very uncomfortable And so it's incumbent upon us to try to make this process a little bit more Cooperative and So I in that spirit I am going to support the motion today but I want to um I want to make a couple of comments about that The you know with the downtown plan and the last round of amendments that were adopted in 2017 I was on the council. We were both on the council at that time I didn't support the overall package because of some of the elements in it and that included the Rezoning or the the shift to allow for a hotel at the corner of laurel and Front street That is not what is before us today. We are looking at a general Plan amendments and the local coastal program However, it does Bear on that site and so I think that's why there's been some conflation in the comments that we're receiving Today because it will have an impact And I look forward to having that conversation when the time comes I Will say that with this change, you know, we've been we've been told we need density We need to really focus on housing. We've got a pro housing designation. That is the reason to Allow more density and height in our downtown and across the city and this seems to And in fact some of the language that's being removed If you look closely at the red line does take out words like priority for housing in some places So we are making a change here that will result in less potentially less housing in the downtown And I believe that it's critical that we have When there are developers who are going to benefit from changes that we are making that are voluntary on our part as well That they make a contribution to help address our affordable housing crisis And while this is a perhaps a small amount right now I mean 250k based on the last costs I've seen for an affordable unit is about half a unit Right. It's not very much money, but it will Give us an inroad into You know working with Developers who are not building housing or are going to forgo some other housing for other uses to get some benefit from that So I'm I'm kind of reluctantly supporting it today But I want to be really clear that what we're doing is In some sense undermining our own Priority that we've we've said we have So and it's it it has potential not just for this one site but across the downtown so Um, I acknowledge it and I'll uh, I'll go with it for today, and I appreciate Uh council member nuisance Uh amendment to the staff recommendation or the addition Thanks Miss brown miss calling tori johnson Thank you. Um, I'll also associate myself with council member Watkins comments and council member browns. Um in terms of the Accessibility of the information Right through the packet right through the correspondence and I was definitely left confused. So I connected with um lee butler and matt huffaker to Pull it apart and understand it, but clearly there was some confusion by community members. So um, yes, so more Not transparency, but just accessibility of the information in a digestible way I I am curious about council member browns last comment about undermining our own commitment to affordable housing I don't see that clearly so and we can talk offline, but if you can share that with me, I would or you could share it here um, I'd like to to see that because I don't see that clearly and Um, you're right vice mayor golder that we heard over and over again that our commitment to Building affordable housing in the city being a contributor to affordable housing is being recognized across the state Um, we've gotten the pro housing designation. Thanks to the great work of our planning and economics development department We're one in six am I getting that right across Oh, oh, oh one of the one of the six percent to meet our rena goals including our very low income low income So, um, I see our commitment and um in action I see it in the units that we're providing in the community And I think this uh agenda item is a step towards that took me a while to get there to understand it But I got there and understand and I hope the public does now too, but it's a step towards that So I will be supporting this Recommendation I appreciate the amendment from council member new sim I think it listens to and adds what the community what we've been hearing from the community So it's responsive to that. Um, so I'm looking forward to supporting this The vice mayors recognize I just wanted to also address that comment because I I Hear what you're saying, but I think I disagree a little bit and that I don't think it diverges from what our goals are in that adding business and Hotels where you can get transient occupancy tax contributes to our general fund which enables us to pay our staff A living wage, right? Like so it's all connected. And so if we just only built housing Then I see we're not doing our job. And so I do think housing is important, but we have to think about the whole Economic web in order to keep our city Financially sustainable. So that's just my thought on that Thank you. Madam vice mayor miss brown. You were referenced. Yes, sir. I will Since you asked So, yeah, and I I don't disagree Vice mayor golder with your point about What those other uses and other kinds of development will do? I guess what I'm saying is we are We allow additional height due to density bonus and the the Impetus for that is getting more housing Here we are extending The ability to increase height to non residential projects We're not getting more housing out of that. So we are forgoing the potential for housing on those sites um, that's So I do believe that in some sense it it It strays from maybe it doesn't completely undermine, but it strays from what we say is our overarching priority And again, I recognize that's a matter of perspective My perspective is that any new development where there will be a benefit To the developer We should be doing everything we can to get affordable housing out of it And in this case it's it would be through fees rather than units. So, um, that's just kind of where I'm coming from I don't mean to say that we're like contravening our you know our goals, but we are Straying a little Further debate or discussion Seeing here none. Click will call the roll Council member is nuisance. Hi brown Hi What can I runner? It's right. This is disqualified ourselves. Um, calentary johnson. Hi ice marie golder. Hi marie kealy Hi motion passes and slaughtered What we are going to do is take a very brief recess I know that those of you who are here on item 26 or I know my goodness, but if you would just give us five Let's let's take 10 minutes. We'll come back at 10 after four and we'll hop right on item 26 Santa Cruz city council is Back in session following our afternoon brief afternoon recess. We are on item number 26 on our regular agenda This is a metro downtown transit center interim operations plan and approval of plans and specifications and related actions Good afternoon. Good afternoon mayor council members. I'm norm daily with the economic development and housing department I'm here this afternoon to uh produce or Give you a a look at the interim operations plan. I'll provide some context and some background With respect to the nexus with pacific station north project And then I'll briefly go through the motion before you any actions associated with it So the interim operations plan is really under the umbrella of the pacific station north project relocation of the existing metro transit center is necessary in order for the pac station north project to proceed On the right of the screen, you can see the location of the existing metro center What the interim operations plan does is move the transit center operations over to the left to the area that's Really defined by the trader joes and cvs parking lot the galleria the wells fargo bank And that's where the temporary operations of metro will move to when the plan is implemented So just a brief recap of the pac station north project It's a rendering of the developer's presentation So it's a transit oriented redevelopment project with 128 units of affordable housing And the project is a collaborative arrangement between the city for the future housing eden housing and metro And all of those players together were able to access the multiple funding sources that we see here on the screen on three of those are Directed city Sources of funding and there's also state and federal Money is involved as well as funds from metro So pac station north provides 128 units of affordable housing 32 of which are extremely low income units 63 are very low and there are 31 section 8 project based units and there are two manager units And it includes a new metro transit center. So this this rendering shows the affordable housing project with the ticketing center of metro on the ground floor So the interim operation plan itself is a temporary of the existing metro center And it's necessary that it's relocated in order to meet funding requirements associated with the date of the start date for the pac station north project Demolition of the existing metro center is projected for early february 2024 And approval of the interim operations plan today will allow the temporary operations to be put in place on or before february 1st and once the new transit center is completed the Traffic the temporary traffic patterns that we're talking about today will be restored to their pre project conditions There's a bigger look at the plan that was developed in in conjunction with the city and kim lee horn are Consulted on this and we'll talk more about this as we get further into the presentation, but basically the interim operation plan is Bounded by a soquel avenue to the right of the screen Front street to the bottom of the screen river street off to the left and then river street south at the top Key elements of the plan include a temporary revision to the transit circulation patterns associated pavement restriping A clockwise transit circulation around the area that I just described And there's a conversion of river street south to one way southbound with a contra flow bicycle lane for bike access and then a front street Shared bicycle lane to facilitate bus movements a bus station service and bicycle movements and finally Metro will have a ticket sales and call center At 603 605 front street, which is just about across the street from CVS So before you this afternoon you have a motion with six different actions First is to adopt the resolution approving the plans and specs And providing design immunity to the city Second is to direct staff to review impacts of the plan on parking revenue with the downtown commission The third action is to direct staff to return to the transportation and public works commission with a plan update following its implementation Fourth would be to authorize the city manager to enter into a lease agreement with metro for the ticket sales call center Fifth would be to adopt a resolution admitting the fy 24 budget Allocating metro funds to the pacific station north project for implementation of the plan And the sixth and final action would be to authorize the manager to enter into an MOU with metro the project developer Which would define roles and finance and commitments Particularly associated with the implementation of the plan So i'll just run through each of these actions fairly quickly So the first one adopting the resolution approving the plans and specs As I mentioned it provides a design immunity for the city and its employees Uh public work staff has worked with our consultant in Developing the plan and approving the elements of the plan The city traffic engineer has reviewed and approved the plan as being consistent with the city's standards and applicable state laws The traffic engineer will also Have the ability to install traffic control devices and post-appropriate signs and markings Indicating those stopping zones no parking areas and restricted parking areas related to the plan And this resolution author authorizes removal of unlawfully parked vehicles during the plan's implementation So our recommendation is that you do indeed adopt the resolution to approve the plan and that would become The immunity aspect would become effective immediately upon adoption The second action is to direct staff to review the impacts of the plan on parking revenue with the downtown commission Uh in order to install some of the elements of the plan There's a reduction of on-street parking spaces that's necessary So it's uh prudent to review the impacts on the revenue parking revenue over the two-year interim operations plan And uh, we would analyze that and look at any budget impacts And get back to the downtown commission. So our recommendation is that you direct the staff to do just that Third action is to direct the staff to return to the transportation and public works commission with the plan update following its implementation Little background with the tpwc in uh, september. They carried a motion to reject the plan But it also recommended that the council approve the plan With the following changes which we have incorporated into the plan. So adding a contraflow bike lane on river street south On we've improved the river street south mid levy access at the pedestrian bridge over the river Uh, we have removed on-street parking on front street and river street south for better bicycle and bus car interactions And we have maintained the accessible parking spaces Uh, that motion also directed the plan to be returned to the tpwc with uh to evaluate operational details once the plan's commenced There was a second motion from the tpwc Which uh, I recommended that the council direct the tpwc to review the downtown parking garage rates To determine if uh, the loss of parking spaces during the plan had any large impact So we will review that data and report back to the downtown commission Uh, the plan was presented to the downtown commission in late september No action was taken, but they did request that uh adequate outreach be performed security be provided in the plan area And impacts to the downtown parking district be evaluated Our recommendation is that you direct staff to return to the tpwc with the plan update Um Fourth action was to authorize the manager to enter into a lease agreement for the ticket sales and call center Which is going to be located at 603 605 front street in the city owned front street garage The lease is under negotiation The tenant improvements will be by metro And market rates will apply per city policy Lease direction is expected to be two years Interim period operation Uh, there will be an option to extend if the new metro center needs additional time for completion So we would recommend that you authorize the manager to enter into that lease agreement Fifth would be to adopt a resolution amending the fy 24 budget allocating metro funds To the pacific station north project for the interim operations plan itself Uh current cost estimates to design and construct the plan uh is $500,000 Additional costs as yet undefined will exceed the 500,000 Metro would fund any additional costs as they are identified So our recommendation is that you adopt the resolution amending the fy 24 budget The final action is to authorize the manager to enter into an mo with metro and the pac station north developer Defining roles and financing commitments for the interim operations plan itself For the future housing and eden housing the developers of pac station north Are under an existing previous mo u at the city and metro to develop the project For the future housing and eden will actually construct the interim operation plan elements as part of the pacific station north project And in order to accomplish that a secondary Memorandum of understanding is required between the parties to define those roles and financial contributions Our recommendation is that you authorize the manager to enter into that mo with metro the project developer for Defining the finance commitments and roles for the plan I wanted to just touch briefly on uh city review and outreach for this the interim operations plan in late august the fire department Reviewed the plan itself and had no comments or concerns Also in late august we provided the plan to the downtown association for review. No comments were received at that time In early september we previewed the project with the police department traffic specialists. He had no comments or concerns Later in september we took the plan to the transportation and public works commission who reviewed it And we received their comments. We've incorporated a number of their comments into the plan Public works staff also posted flyers about the plan in advance of the tpwc meeting In late september the downtown commission reviewed the plan. We received comments from them And also in late september, uh, we provided the plan to visit santa cruz for review We haven't had comments to date on that Uh staff from economic development and housing will continue to do more outreach to downtown businesses adjacent to the plan area And we'll work directly with the dta to provide additional outreach opportunities Metro has uh provided or will provide additional outreach Um maps and posters posted notices at the existing transit station all affected bus stops Uh, they'll include mention of it in their headways publication Uh, they'll use their social media platforms to provide information about it They will have a plan website Uh, they will distribute to the city and county email lists Information pertaining to the change to the changes in the plan And all that material will be available in english and spanish per their limited english proficiency policy Excuse me. They also have more outreach efforts planned this fall as part of their reimagined metro and the rapid corridors project Which will inform the public of upcoming changes to downtown operations as a whole So again, we're back here to this uh, the major outlook for the project I'm going to turn it over to or back to the council first We have matt starkey from public works here to respond to questions and we also have Um members uh from metro their executive branch and some frontline staff here as well to respond to any questions Thank you very much very much appreciate that Let me ask we will move around the dais here. Let me ask if there are questions miss colin tarry johnson Thank you. Thank you so much for the presentation and I just want to acknowledge And thank the team. Um council before us Metro staff, I know a lot of work has gotten into getting us to this place And bringing us a new metro center and 128 Affordable housing units back to the last conversation we're having so this is really wonderful I wonder if you could speak to um the implementation timeline Of getting us to the groundbreaking for the transit center Yeah, the funding uh The funding mix for the project requires that The existing metro center Be vacant by february 1st So our intention with the plan is to have the interim operations area up and running No later than february 1st preferably a few days earlier That's it. That's the question I have for now. Thank you. Thank you My goodness Well, there we go Let me ask if uh anyone who's with us today in chambers would like to make comments on this item And let me while you're coming forward. Let me ask miss bush if we have anyone online Yes, one person just right there. Okay. Good afternoon again, sir Yes, good afternoon. My name is still james ewing and the clerks forget that I wasn't going to speak on this. I mean I made copies of it and stuff and I read through it And in my idle time I saw on the second page if a if approved by city council on this october 24th and at the end Anticipated to require a two-year construction period traffic patterns will be restored To pre project conditions. So it's like hey That's one area where the cost of progress And I did stay here a couple additional hours to endure Commentary like you guys are little pieces of string on a kite being Moved around and stuff by a really focused agenda And I suppose I'm a glutton for punishment to keep witnessing this Provided you guys with a copy of our Declaration of Independence And how powerful individuals can actually be I mean I could have provided you with Another excellent article about city managers, but I only have a couple copies So I guess I'm just here as a witness and You know, I didn't want to put my foot in my mouth any more than I normally do Because when I realized that that stuff was temporary At least something being rubber stamped here is temporary There's a lot of things that are going through here that I think are really challenging for The present and the future So that's enough. Thank you Thank you, sir. Well, I also wish that you know, I hear all this bounce back You know and some other people can you know, it seems like Citizens will say stuff and then there's all these other comments that come in And I don't really get in rage about anything. I have compassion for situations, but uh it really I don't mean for this to be an insult or anything But I have compassion for all of you because you guys are really being controlled by the city manager And he isn't wasn't elected By the citizens that voted for you and I think that that's actually a really important distinction to make So thank you. Thank you. Yeah Let's go to the person online and then we'll hear the gentleman from smart. Good afternoon person online Hey, can you hear me? Okay. Yes Welcome. My name is ron goodman and the current chair of the transportation and public works commission Um, I just wanted to say we got some great community feedback about this plan And the commissioners had great suggestions. We had some problems with the plan as it was which is why we rejected the plan initially But with the incorporation of the new suggestions into the plan I can't obviously speak for the entire commission, but I'm personally very supportive of the plan I think it really shows our city's commitment to alternative transportation And it very much prioritizes like pedestrian and transit So I want to say thank you to staff and I encourage you to support this Well, thank you for your service on the commission and for your input to the city council on this item. Thank you, sir Good afternoon Good afternoon. My name is brandon freeman. I'm the general chair person of smart local 0 0 23 representing all bus operators Some dispatch schedulers and supervisors for santa cruz metro fixtra and para cruise Um, first off, I want to thank you guys for listening here And I really want to extend some appreciation to the city staff who has received this from us and helped us get through this We've been working on this for multiple multiple months um I want to assure everyone here that we looked at multiple options and this area was no one's first choice But there was no real first choice. It's something that we have to get through. It's not something we want to get through But we kind of need to focus at the goal at the end end here, right? We're talking about building a world-class transit system and we're talking about matching that with the housing Our hydrogen projects and all of the other things that we're doing. This is a major step in getting that done The number one thing that I always hear about this plan is why do you need so much space? I'm going to answer that The reason why we need so much space is because currently in our transit center We're kind of cordoned off from the rest of the public, right? We're inside of our own space This allows us to control it and keep it safe When we're talking about going to a more public area where there's a lot more pedestrian traffic There's a lot more bicycle traffic We need that space to ensure that we can see properly when we're pulling in and out of buses To make sure that we can make transfers appropriately with you how you having to walk across the different parking lots and things that there are With this plan, whatever bus you're on will be able to drop you next to the bus that you need to get on So that's why we need so much space It's for the ease of access and the most important thing is the safety of the public as we operate in this area It will take away some parking. I know that that might be difficult for some of the businesses there I'll remind you that the average sedan may bring you four people. I'll bring you 40 and I'll do this every 15 minutes So we'll be increasing the foot traffic for these businesses And I hope that that leads to an increase in their business Because ultimately this is a step in making our entire community better and that's only done when we all work together So thank you for your time. Obviously I support this plan Thank you very much, sir Anyone else online miss bush? We'll take the next person online. Good afternoon Hi, good evening Good evening. Um, yes, my name is kens brown again, and I'm also on the transportation commission. I also wanted to Validate what run had to say there was a lot of deliberation Um, and we were quite concerned about safety and parking and the effect on the businesses So we did try to come up with solutions to affect that But one of the compromises that we had to make was on the parking So I just wanted to point out that um, and it was brought up by Newville coast to the south side of the commission that um, she thought that the parking would be A big impact because the on-street parking is a lot less expensive than the uh, And that's why we were suggesting that there might be some way to affect the rates during this period So that people because of equity and accessibility issues Could have the opportunity to come down to how to not be affected by the parking rates if that was an issue for them So I just want to point that out I also am very glad to see that many of the changes that we had suggested were made because it was tremendous concern about The intermingling of bikes and buses in the same common lane And they widen that and also the contrapo and there was also some crossing issues with the pedestrians Which were also fixed. So again, really great work I know that there was a little bit of pain from the staff and we made some of these recommendations But I really appreciate that they took them in fully and I thank you again for all the work that you all have done Thank you. Bye. Bye. Oh, and congratulations on 128 affordable the thing in it's fantastic job Thank you. Thank you for your service on the commission. Good afternoon, sir My name is Daniel Zaragoza. I am the operations manager for Senators Metro And I just want to say thank you for considering this item um the the temporary transfer center and The roundabout will be very important in the way that we Move people here in the county It'll help us move our buses It'll help us move people And I just wanted to say it's a very important location for us and I'd like to um Say I appreciate everybody that worked on this project They made it safe for our operations and safe and convenient for our ridership So, um, I I just want to repeat that I'm very grateful to everybody that worked on this project And I look very forward to seeing new housing here in the county I look forward to seeing a new transit center a modern transit center Where we could implement our service changes. We want to make our service more reliable faster and More frequent for the public. So I just wanted to say thank you Thank you for your very kind words in your comments today anyone else online Former mayor and council member. Good afternoon And now downtown commissioner Here to speak supporting the item ahead of you. It's just a huge huge huge step for our downtown Um, it didn't just start a few years ago It started a whole lot of years ago And it represents so much work by so many people for so long um I have attached in my comments going around the list of the members of our commission the downtown commission is a great commission It is experienced. It is committed. It is diverse And they have brought great conversation to this topic particularly so this item the interim plan for metro um was um Brought to our commission as was mentioned uh on september 28th. It was not agendized for action It was just for information information, but we had a very detailed discussion staff was very helpful Um, this is obviously complicated. It will be be very confusing A lot of people have had to make some compromises in coming to this point But let's all remember as others have said this is a means to an end It's going to be a bit grisly. It's a means to an end And it's so consistent and fulfills so many of the plans that the city's been working on for so long Our downtown plans our housing blueprint our economic development. And this is really key to all of them As I mentioned, this was brought to the downtown commission Although we were not able to take a visual action We had a thorough discussion and agreed on all of these points that I just want to present briefly to you and Please keep them in line The first was the need for Really robust communication. This is going to be so confusing. Distressing is going to get people you know Angry etc All the changes, but um, we have so many partners metro city ucsc key player half the riders are from from ucsc so ongoing communication about what's happening and why it's happening Um, the second big concern is for loss of parking Transportation public works acknowledge that it's really real for our downtown businesses And people may say well, there's still spaces in the parking lots now, but you know as well as we know The surface lots are going away the For many of them for good reason. They're being used as a public resources to build affordable housing Um, and that affordable housing hundreds of units is going to come online in the next couple of years with as you know No parking and it's already starting to drive people crazy that idea. So that Concern for loss of parking affects the businesses the downtown workers the visitors and the residents and I I don't have much more. You're just fine Um A real concern for public safety around this move It's no secret that the front street and riverwalk area has had a pattern of some pretty unsavory activity. I'll put it gently Um, and this is simply not tolerable for the relocated metro center And so here again. I think it's it's all hands on deck to make this a metro center that is safe In both appearance and reality And appealing to all its users Um, that is not going to be easy But I want to put that on the table and this is a concern that was also expressed by the downtown association I know that um, the metro Had went and spoke to the dta social and legislative affairs committee quite