Well, good afternoon everybody welcome to our 1145 a.m. Public portion of the closed session of the October 22nd 2019 meeting of the Santa Cruz City Council and this part of the meeting the council will receive public testimony Thereafter council members will move to the courtyard conference room for our closed session I'd like to ask our clerk to please call the Mayor council members Cron here lover here Here Here are there any members of the public who would like to address the council on our closed session session agenda Okay, please come forward and I'd like to invite up add firestone first for a four minutes as a presentation on behalf of his client Morning. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you about a claim that's being made by my client Against the city of Santa Cruz And these are some obvious quickly quick as I can we're not going to follow through on the presentation It's a little longer than four minutes My name is Ed firestone. I'm an attorney representing Kelly family there I own a small shopping plaza at 12 in the 1200 block of Mission Street There's a dry cleaner there since about 1968. There's still one there And it used a chemical called percler ethylene until about 2001 Everybody in the country used that chemical California every other state it's common and it's the one that you note and you smell when you get your clothes directly into your And you hang them in the garage because you don't want to smell in your home Dry cleaners commonly used to solvent and they were it was released in the process of dry cleaning clothes It was released both onsite and then as part of the process dry cleaning does use a little bit of water Most people don't know that to take out water soluble stains And they have to remove the water and the dirt from the PCE which they reuse percler ethylene is called PCE And as a result that was standard poured down the drain into the sanitary sewers And that's the practice that was the practice. They don't do it that way now But that was the practice 50 years ago 40 years ago and it's leaked The property owner didn't cause the problem. He's never run the dry cleaner that the family's never run the dry cleaner they've owned the shopping center itself and Well, they had didn't they didn't run the dry cleaner. They've taken responsibility for working on the cleanup They're working on mitigating and remediating the site itself right now The all work is being done into the oversight of the California regional water quality control board the Central Coast We're working with them. It's it's a voluntary process They've signed up to do that work as part of the process that began to look off-site and What happened was they found when they began to look out off-site They found that the sanitary sewer in the middle of Mission Street has leaked And there are levels and concentrations and what's called soil vapor that are present in the area It was released from the sewer at a sag at a low point. Let's see if I can find that picture I think it's this is how it happens. This is page seven of your handout the state water board Excuse me get a study in 1992 that said jeez are sewer lines throughout the state where they sag and Where they have bends are leaking dry cleaning compounds into the environment And this is part of that study called the iso study We know it's the sewer and I'll show you that This is a map of the area. This is figure one Figure two will show you the where the perchlorothaline is above What are called environmental screening levels in the environment in the neighborhood? And it's highlighted in yellow screening levels these screening levels Don't necessarily indicate any adverse effects on health through the environment But they do mean and the state looks at it that further investigation is necessary We know the sewer leaked because pce this compound degrades in sewers It doesn't degrade when it's in the normal environment and you'll see the pce on the property itself to the to the left-hand side of your page But I'm going to go to the next slide which shows one of its breakdown products and you'll notice This is called pce. It's one of fewer chlorine There's no oxygen in sewers and so the products break down there And you'll see that it's moving off site from the sewer, but it's not not on the site. Thank you Are there any other members of the community who would like to address the council? Okay, please come forward and you'll have two minutes morning my husband and I filed a claim on September 3rd with the city of Santa Cruz a garbage truck damaged our house He took down a power line and called this damage to wood paneling above our garage The weather guard and also the power lines We had to pay for an electrician to come out and do repairs before PG&E could do their repairs we also had to buy wood to replace for the wood paneling on our garage and I just wanted to know what the status was of that claim the damage was done on September Excuse me June 30th, and I filed the claim on September 3rd and I received a letter on October 16th Stating that I could show up today and inquire about what the status of the claim was On a second note. I wanted to share brochures with you. I'm a youth employment specialist. I do this as a volunteer in the community If any council members are interested in talking with me, please contact me I love working with not only youth. I recently started an inmate employment program with the sheriff's department So this is something I'm very passionate about. So if you're interested, please call me. Thank you. Thank you Is there any other member of the community who wants to address the council at this time on our closed session agenda? Okay, see none. We'll go ahead and adjourn to closed session council. I'm just assuming Patty that you'll Mention the process for the consideration of claims or you have yeah Thank you for that. Okay. Okay. We'll go ahead and adjourn to our closed session and thank you All right, let's go ahead and get started Good afternoon everybody. Welcome to our 12 30 p.m. session of the October 22nd 2019 meeting of the Santa Cruz City Council I'd like to ask our clerk to please call the roll Thank you mayor council members crone president whoever you're my ears you're brown here Matthew here vice mayor Cummings. Yeah, mayor Watkins. Yeah, and if our clerk could please lead us to the Pudge Lily So now is the time for us to have an introduction of our new city employees And I'd like to invite up Susan Nimitz from libraries to introduce her new employees. I have a whole bunch today I'm Susan Nimitz. I'm the library director today. We have Lauren Wishing And Lauren's joining us. She's at brand. Oh, no, she's in programming She was an aide so a temporary worker who's worked her way into a permanent job. We're excited to have her She was an archaeology major And she's contemplating grad school one of the things I learned with this bunch is Lawrence Lawrence married to someone in Parks and Rec and so is Essie. So I guess there's something going on Then we have Essie Barrasso Ramirez As he's joining us to and she's in graduate school at San Jose State to get her librarian degree she's Santa Cruz gal born and raised and She's going to be the branch manager at Boulder Creek and she's also married to Alex in Parks and Rec We have Cameron Cotan Cameron Cameron's also an aide that has worked to a permanent position Cameron's working at Brant's 40 right now and Is also helping with our team code combat? Programming so he's a great asset to the library and last but not least we have Angie Lyons Angie's going to become the branch manager for the Felton library She has her librarian degree out of UCLA and likes horses That's that for a random fact, but we're really exciting. We're getting lots of great new staff. Thank you. Thank you Wonderful welcome Okay, we have another New employee, so I'd like to please invite up our customer service manager Kyle Peterson to introduce his new employee The mayor Watkins and members of the council. My name is Kyle Peterson. I'm the customer service manager for Santa Cruz municipal utilities I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our customer service team. I lean done As you may know Santa Cruz municipal utilities is the clearinghouse for utility services in the city We provide water sewer and garbage utilities for inside city residents and businesses and Water-only utilities for outside city customers We manage about 25,000 accounts serving a hundred thousand people And we bill and collect about 70 million dollars a year and an additional seven million dollars in Tax revenue for the general fund We do this all with a frontline staff of six people so our customer service reps really need to know their stuff and Fortunately for us Eileen here really knows her stuff She previously worked at all of Hearst public utility district They serve water and sewer services to about 6,000 customers Fortunately all of herst is located north of Sacramento, so it's really hot Which means that Eileen has decided to move to Santa Cruz She's not new to the area. However, she grew up in San Jose with six six siblings And so now she has a number of nieces and nephews who are in the area and and she's happy to be close to now So between the new job the better weather and the family she's happy to be here and we're happy to have her Please welcome Eileen Wonderful welcome Okay, so now we're gonna go ahead and move on to our presentations and we have imagined a day without water Which is hard to imagine as our first presentation and we'll go ahead and invite up Heidi to Speak to the item. Is that correct? Yeah, she's coming. Okay. I Have a proclamation when you're ready and I am ready. I just want to thank you for Being supportive of the work that we do As you know, it would be really challenging to imagine any day without water and we're fortunate that at least so far We don't have to do that. Sorry about that. So I am very pleased to accept the proclamation Wonderful. Well, I'll just read a few of the where as is So whereas water is essential to sustain all life and Whereas Santa Cruz is two favorite beverages locally brewed coffee and beer would not exist without water and Whereas much of Santa Cruz water infrastructure dates back to before the safe water drinking act was passed and has outlived It's expected lifespan and Whereas all Americans are challenged to imagine a day without water on Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019 So now therefore I Martin Watkins the mayor of city of Santa Cruz do hereby proclaim Wednesday, October 23rd 2019 as imagine a day without water day in the city of Santa Cruz and I encourage all citizens to join me in Recognizing the privilege of having clean safe and reliable water. Thanks to your work. So, thank you very much And if you don't know what it would be without water look at the windows of the water department Which have some great signage on them So we had another presentation that was originally scheduled to take place today and That was the dignity health Dominican Hospital report, but it was postponed because there was a Staffing conflict for the presenter. So we'll have that rescheduled at a future meeting So we'll go ahead and move on to announcements and I have just a few announcements And then we'll move on to our regular agenda So today's meeting is being broadcast live on community television channel 25 and is streaming on the city's website at cityofsanacruz.com Our rules of decorum are on the window ledge to my left And it's my job to keep the meeting running without Destruction and we ask you to reflect respect your fellow citizens when you're inside and outside of our council chambers I'd like to ask if any council members have any statements of disqualification today Seeing none Are there any additions or deletions? See clerk So a brief oral communications announcement oral communications is an opportunity for members of the community to speak to the council on items that are not on today's agenda and Oral communications will occur at or around 7 p.m. This evening I'll go ahead and look to our city attorney at this time to report on closed session Thank You mayor Watkins members of the city council This morning the council convened in the courtyard conference room to consider the following closed session items First was conference with legal counsel concerning liability claims including the claims of Noah Jackal David W. Turner State Farm insurance company Jeremy Saunders and James J. Kelly Those items are also listed on your consent calendar this afternoon for council action It was one item of real property negotiations involving the real property at 125 Coral Street owners James P. Gillespie and Gene Gillespie trustees and Harley F. and Sandra I Gillespie co-trustees Council received a report from its negotiator and gave direction on that item.  I a ff locals one seven one six Council met with its negotiator, but there was no action taken Finally, there was one item of significant exposure to litigation and no action was taken on that item Thank you very much so now is an opportunity for us to hear from each other on The report out of actions at external boards committees and joint powers authorities meetings that have occurred in between our meetings So I will go ahead and see if our vice mayor can start us off with an update on the library Thank you very much. All right, so as many folks know we've had the subcommittee has been arranged to have more community involvement and engagement around The next steps with regards to the downtown library All the work that we've been doing can be found on the city's website If you go under city council subcommittees the downtown library There's a link where you can find the work plan and a number of the different documents They've been provided to give more clarity around this process and the direction the city is taking So far we've had three community meetings We met on June 19th where we had a discussion about library needs and a presentation from the D-LAC and We had a number of other stakeholder groups around seven community groups that also engaged in that discussion On August 20th, we had a discussion of the downtown parking district where this committee received a presentation from staff Around some of the downtown parking needs We followed that meeting with a meeting on September 17th where there was a vision for downtown discussion We had presentations from the National Development Council Progressive Urban Management Association and staff and we also had a number of community Stakeholder groups that were involved in that conversation as well To date we have had office hour meetings. Oops. Sorry to date We've had office hour meetings with about 20 community stakeholder groups where we've had 15-minute sessions where we can hear the needs of the different groups their stance on What they support in terms of a new library where it should go and different concerns from the community about the next steps with the library and With regards to the downtown library renovation cost assessment The subcommittee agreed to issue an RFP to assess what could be done In a renovation of the downtown library with the existing $27 million budget this RFP was issued back on June 26th of 2019 and Jason architect Was selected and approved to complete an assessment in early December So far the site evaluation has been completed. There's been preliminary meeting with with staff and with the advisor with the subcommittee and they've developed a preliminary cost model and to develop a preliminary floor plan and As far as next steps on October 24th We'll be having an update from Jason architects where they will give a presentation about the cost assessment and floor plans This is going to occur at 5 p.m. At the Loudoun Nelson Community Center and the public will be invited to observe and Then kind of kind of wrapping this up. There's going to finish the downtown library renovation cost assessment scope You know, we're going to receive a finalized cost assessment and complete a full report with recommendations From the subcommittee to come back to the council on November 26 That concludes my report back on our subcommittee And I'd just like to mention that we felt it was important to bring this report at this time given that we initially anticipated to have recommendations to come back in October, but given the timeline for Jason architect to make their assessment It needed to come back We want to give a report out to the council now and give a timeline for when we should be bringing our recommendations back to the city council Thank you for the update and for the work and we'll look forward to having a discussion about this on our 26th agenda We'll go ahead and kick it right back over to you vice mayor if you have additional updates from other subcommittees I don't have additional updates at this time. Why don't we go ahead and make our way down and then we'll circle back around this way councilmember Matthews Okay on just a few items the measure you implementation working group, which is the city county jointly funded group to carry through on the Voter direction on UCSE growth Has appointed an advisory committee that has met There's been some Outreach for hiring an organizer. There is an RFQ that's open at this point. I believe Lee is in the audience If anyone has interested Possibilities for that position get in touch with Sandy or me that so that's proceeding The mid-county groundwater agency, which is the advisory group of a number of water providers districts and private well owners in the mid-county groundwater aquifer has held its final public hearing regarding a Sustainable management plan as required by the state so that now the final hearing was held a couple of weeks ago and that plan will now be finalized and brought forward and we'll meet the state mandated adoption for next year and downtown management corporation was involved with the Puma interviews regarding the downtown Vision and management and we have a couple of new board members. So that was the focus of our most recent meeting and then I'll just say I went to the open house for the Water Street housing on Saturday Donna attended that as well There were quite a few staff members and Andy Schifrin was there from Planning Commission and it was a very heartwarming and impressive Realization of some much-needed affordable housing was a really great event. Yeah, I Believe vice mayor had a couple additional comments Just wanted to make sure the public is aware because we've been receiving some emails that the library subcommittee has not come to an Agreement or any conclusion on how we're going to be voting on this item And so I just want the public to be aware that we are still Working through this process and using the data to come to an informed recommendation for the council so if members of the public have been concerned about which direction this is going and We have not come to a conclusion on where we're gonna where we stand on this at this point in time Your agenda which item was he referring to I'm sorry Library the library subcommittee. I had a bunch of folks asked me about the difference between a observation meeting and a Meeting where the public can participate the one next one at Loudon Nelson. Is there any reason why there won't be a public comment at that meeting? When we initially established this meeting with Jason architect We had established it as being a report out to the members of the subcommittee where we would be able to have an opportunity to report Given the amount because we didn't incorporate time for public comment. We don't We didn't calculate that into how much we're going to be paying Jason architect for their time on that day So had we had that initially we could have factor that into our agreement with them But we didn't so and it seems like if and members of the public are interested in tracking the work They can go online to the website to also follow through. Okay. Thank you Yeah, so I Am on the revenue and enhancement subcommittee council member Matthews and we are continuing to work on developing a Potential ballot initiative proposal To recommend to the council and we've had some productive meetings with members of the community interested members of the community on this and we will bring a Recommendation that will be forthcoming Sometime in the near future, but we have at least a couple more meetings that we want to Proceed with before we finalize you for your work and I'm my other one I don't have Reports on all of the committees and commissions I'm on but I would add that the regional transportation Commission Matt in early October and at that meeting we voted to move towards a contract for an alternatives analysis for the rail line so an alternative high capacity public transit option to Way our way the possibilities for how to use that the rail line in the future for public transit and We also talked about the efforts that are going on to kind of consolidate and clarify the Land ownership issues on the north coast to get that segment of the rail line going and it's kind of one of the most complicated pieces but one that we really want to Move forward as quickly as possible I'll go ahead maybe and see since I'm kind of going in the flow if City manager Martin Bernal wanted to report out on any of his work in the community as well at this time No, there's no. Oh, no, I don't have any report out on any of the Joint powers authorities that I'm serving on The public safety committee met on October 14th and We had a vigorous discussion on the bail schedule which I believe will be coming back to the council the bail schedule meaning What people pay for? fines throughout the city it is a Fascinating I just think it's a fascinating document in history, and I don't know the whole history and how different fines are charged different Why we charge a thousand dollars for this and five hundred dollars for that So it'll be coming back to the council. We also had a pretty vigorous discussion on four pieces of I guess I don't know if I call them gun legislation or a gun proposals or anti-gun proposals and If we would love to bring something to the council, but it just wasn't ready All of them were really interesting and two of them, especially I think the whole committee would have liked to move forward, but Through our discussion. It just seemed like we we could wasn't ready for prime time yet to bring forward the Integrated solid waste I just wanted to mention that it was a bummer that the governor vetoed the plastics the 50% content Recycle plastic and and really didn't deal with single-use plastic bottles either and I just don't understand it But I hope that we will continue our lobbying efforts The other one was the long-range development plan. We haven't had a meeting since the last one and The next one is December 19th. This is dealing with How the university will develop You know 2021 is supposedly when the long-range development plan will go to the regions through a couple different committees at the university That's the plan for now Thank you. Yes. So the only committee I'm on that met was the public safety committee But I will add some additional things to councilman Crohn's report So we did discuss the bail schedule one of the themes that I brought up as well as customer Crohn was the potential impact of the fee structure on low-income individuals and the potential detrimental impact that can have on their credit when their Items go to collections because we were noted that there had been a shift in 2008 I believe that moved things from criminal crimes to civil crimes which went to collections Also, there's the problem of citations resulting in Community service which then could be perceived as free labor By the poorest in our community also pointing one thing I brought up was from an article in August 2005 2014 about the issues in Ferguson with regards to the issue of the disproportionate impact of bail schedules on the poor There were also community members that came to spoke to speak about Their perspectives and their shared concern about that as well as the strange structure on some of the different bail schedules So I look forward to that coming back to the council also, I would urge us when we're talking about the proposals that were made around guns to look at it is a not anti-gun, but a gun safety Conversation of figuring out ways that we can make sure that people are Protected because there's an average in Santa Cruz alone an average of 20 guns stolen every year So that's something that should be on our radar Some of the proposals had to do with Figuring out where guns could be stored figuring out how guns could be tracked and figuring out ways that people could Be held liable for their weapons being used to cause harm or detrimental injury to another person so Really important conversations. I wish we could have moved forward on some of the gun legislation or proposed gun legislation But it does need to do have some more research done on the back end so that we can make sure it's implemented Holistically and responsibly I believe the next meeting is scheduled for December 4th, but we will give an update Ideally when that time comes. Thank you Let's see I share a number of these committees with other council members, so I think I'm just going to report on two Santa Cruz Metro, I'm not sure if council member Matthews followed that we met I would say the two highlights Is that the metro is starting to Ready for electric buses. There's a number of them that are being purchased as well as doing the planning work on putting in the charging stations, so Very excited to see electric buses eventually coming into being for our community So that's one thing of note. The other is the Pacific station project continues to Move along and be developed between the city staff from the Economic Development Department and also the metro staff there has been a significant grant that's been identified to pursue and What we'll be working together. I believe we might even see an MOU if I recall coming to the council at some point in the near future and So that project continues to move forward as well and then I will I also was there for the Public Safety Committee and agree with the report outs of my colleagues and The last one I'll just report out is the Cal working group we recently have Been meeting regarding the conditions on the beach as they were reported this year by Heel the Bay We did do a site visit last week with public works to look at some of the infrastructure and We'll be continuing to work out the next set of steps to address some of the bacterial Results that we've been seeing I'll also let the council know that the Cal working group Work will be premiered in a video that I believe is going to be taking place at Patagonia on November 7th It's a part of the Save the Waves National Film tour that's going on actually it's an international film tour. So the city will be prominently Disguired or work on the beach there in that in that film festival. I believe it's traveling to Germany and Ireland and Couple other places in Europe and then a several places in the United States. So if you want to see the premiere of that There's an event at Patagonia at seven o'clock on November 7th Okay, so I can't remember Brown and then council member Glover If council member Glover's Additional is related to I'll just wait because I just have a quick announcement. Okay council member Glover Thank you I just want to make a quick correction to my report back on the public safety committee in On December the 2nd at 5 30 p.m. I believe is the next meeting for the public safety committee Thank you for the clarification. Okay council member and I just wanted to put in a quick plug for the regional transportation Commissions elderly and disabled advisory committee. We are still seeking Participants members for that that committee and it's really important to us that we get that feedback We rely on our advisory committees to help guide us in the decisions. We make around Public transit in particular for elderly and disabled Folks so it would be really great if anybody out there listening is interested if you contact the regional transportation Commission office and or myself and we could help you with the get the application in Thank you, and then I just have a few brief updates One is the health and all policies subcommittee will have our final meeting tomorrow morning bright and early and that will anticipate having a set of recommendations before the full council at our first meeting in November on November 12th and The only other addition I really had was that the criminal justice council put on a girls and gangs conference earlier this month and there was a lot of research presented on the history of girls and gangs as well as a panel of local and other Women who came forward to share their stories with those who are present Speaking about some of the efforts that worked in terms of the prevention efforts that are happening now in Santa Clara County and ways that We're really trying to come combat the engagement of girls and gangs Through prevention and pro-social activities and mentorships, so it was a great opportunity to have community event focused on prevention and I think that's it since the last time we've met and reported back councilor Matthews a quick question on the Video about the cows working group. Is it specifically about the work of the cows? Yeah, yes Can we get a copy of that to link on our city website? I mean be great. Yeah, and spread that around. Yeah, the so the video be premiered at that event on this on the 7th and then the The gentleman who's made the video He is doing a cut for us that we can then use or you know have on the city website And I'd love to share it with Noah as well. Okay Thank you and thank you all for the work you do outside of city council So we'll go ahead and at this point move over to our consent agenda And those are items five through ten on our agenda And all items will be acted upon in one motion unless an item is pulled by a council member for further discussion So are there any council members wishing to pull any of the consent agenda items items five through ten? Hey seeing none. Are there any comments or questions from council members on the consent agenda items? I'm seeing none. Is there any member of the community who would like to address the council on our consent agenda? That's items five through ten in our agenda packet Seeing none, we'll go ahead and return back to council for action Okay, so we oh, do we have a Okay, please come forward and you'll have up to two minutes Just on number ten. That's the pipeline that would have 1220 close while they're doing that building thing Just support from the city council for us to be able to find somewhere else for them So just knowing that that's a priority for us. Thanks Thank you Okay, so we'll return back for action. We had council member I'm sorry we had vice mayor Cummings move the items seconded by council member Myers any further discussion Seeing none all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously Excuse me mayor Skipped item four the calendar. Oh forgive me. Are there any changes to the council calendar? Just the addition of the special meeting on the 29th. Okay. Okay, great. Thank you Oh, I did. Thank you. Any questions? Okay, go ahead And thank you for reminding me. I skipped over that one So at this time, we'll go ahead and move on to our general business portion of the agenda and first Item is the city cannabis children's fund Budget adjustment and we have parks director Tony Elliott here to present the item All right, thank you mayor. Good afternoon city council. My name is Tony Elliott with the parks and recreation department Before the city council's request to appropriate the city's cannabis tax children's fund Torture programs to serve early childhood development and serve underserved youth in Santa Cruz The children's fund portion of the city's cannabis tax is 12.5% of that overall bucket Currently in our accounts after Last year's audited financial statements. We have $60,634 available to be Appropriated toward two different uses in May of 2018 this item came before the city council the previous city council And we received direction at that time for 50% of those funds approximately $30,000 to go to thrive by 3 Which is a program through First five of Santa Cruz County and David Brody the executive director of First five is here to speak to any details on that but 50% to thrive by three Which serves children? Ages zero to three so in parks and recreation we typically don't serve those young of kids So this is an effort to serve that need The other 50% would be to vulnerable and underserved youth as recommended by the city schools committee So again to summarize that the May 2018 council direction 50% to thrive by 3 50% as directed by the city schools committee So this past April of 2019 we met with the city schools committee Including a few council members and the city schools committee recommended that 50% of those funds The other 50% go to friends of parks and recreation for scholarships to underserved and low-income youth The city school superintendent Chris Monroe was not able to be here today But I believe may have reached out to the city council to offer her support on the recommended direction of these funds Also friends of parks and recreation our current board treasurer Holly Locatelli is here to speak on behalf of FOPAR if the council has any questions About the funds that would go to FOPAR and then be dispersed to Families with youth with different needs for for programs And then I mentioned already the 50% to thrive by 3 again in that bracket that we don't we don't serve very well through parks and recreation so Part of the original policy direction. This is council policy 12.16 12.16 Is that the these programs to which funds through the cannabis tax and children's fund are given that they be evidence-based Program so that's a big piece of what we reviewed in this is that these are evidence-based programs And so the plan moving forward if approved by city council today staff would report back to city council As part of the fiscal year 21 budget process to let you know how the process has been Based on these appropriations And with a recommendation moving into fiscal year 21 as well So again, so there's a lot of pieces here. I'm happy to answer any questions, but to summarize The request today for city council is to appropriate the city's cannabis tax children's fund of $60,634 to the parks and recreation department to be allocated as follows 50% to thrive by 3 To serve Santa Cruz youth ages 0 to 3 and 50% to friends of parks and recreation For youth scholarships for programs camps and activities through the parks and recreation department So with that happy to answer any questions or deferred to David or Holly with any questions. Thank you Thank you for your presentation questions from council Number Glover and then counselor Brown. Okay. Thank you So I love the the concept. It's great I was looking for a documentation about it on Friday and it didn't come in until later in the afternoon And even then there wasn't much description as to what the programs Are the selection process all that so you said that the money for the That was recommended by the city school committee and to go to faux pas would focus on quote youth with different needs Can you elaborate as to what that means? Yes? Good questions primarily underserved youth and primarily low-income youth So faux pas I may lean on Holly Locatelli to speak to this as well But we receive a number of applications from community members from families Who want their kids to experience the different programs and classes that we offer through parks and recreation? And so a lot of times those are too expensive unattainable And so faux pas raises money independently for scholarships to give out to different youth in the community So the faux pas board twice per year. They review those applications based on merit based on household income and different thresholds there and different different family needs Through that process. So faux pas then makes a recommendation based on how much money through the scholarship program is granted to support The various needs based on those applications. So it's an independent process from the city or from parks and recreation But we take those recommendations from faux pas and then apply Scholarship dollars as appropriate. So the money here this 50% approximately $30,000 That would Help grow the program. So faux pas already. I think Annually it probably varies but probably between 20 and $30,000 a year is what faux pas gives out in scholarships So this would almost double that program And last year there was more demand in that program than what faux pas could could pay out. So There's certainly a demand for these scholarship dollars If I could just briefly add in our April meeting also with the city schools subcommittee We learn from Chris Monroe and others that had they known there was this potential for extra resources to support some of the Vulnerable youth in their community. I mean in their school district They would have worked with some of the homeless families to help them enroll And so part of this also is saying not only do we have a gap of people who we know have access to being able to Apply for faux pas, but now we know that we can kind of reach out to these folks that are particularly vulnerable To help them along the way so that they now even know that they could potentially even access it and potentially have that Scholarship to allow their child to do it so that that built relationship will enhance it through the children's fund essentially also if that feels Reflective of our meeting. Okay. Great. Thank you. So It's an independent process from the city and parks and rec So how is the decision made on where the money goes also as they're a history or data set of Families or demographics that have been supported by the existing program that can justify the Impact that it's been having. Yeah, I don't believe we have that today, but we can aggregate that data Yeah, who received funds when and so forth. So I'll lean on Holly Locatelli to comment So so every year we have scholarships that go out in the big time we do that is the summer Program so we get the applications and we don't keep Records so much on because when we're looking at it, we don't even look at the program that they're Applying for so we don't give any bias to like oh we want everybody to go into junior guards or everybody to this it's strictly on income and Sometimes you know people only want like one class that costs $100 sometimes That's the child care for the family for the whole summer and they need both sessions of junior guards So you're looking at over $500. So in order to serve everyone we usually have to do a limit To make the money go as far as we can so we'll set like $300 so sometimes somebody doesn't need that whole $300 and they can get the program they want or They will get the first session that'll cover the first session maybe $50 of the second session of junior guards or another You know the older the kids usually the the more expensive the program gets or the longer at last But sometimes they won't do the second session because they can't Get the the whole other $200 together. So that's really heartbreaking the other Program we do every summer that since I've been there since 2014 as the city works with Mercy housing, which is Sycamore commons nary lagoon and We have 25 kids that get to go to free swim at Harvey West Twice a week for two weeks and that's something we've been funding to and that is a great program Some of those kids when they write the thing we've gotten thank-you notes from them First time they've ever been in a pool. It's just amazing and I would like to see this program grow To where instead of just free swim and introducing them to a pool We do swim lessons at Harvey West with them and then they know how to swim and maybe they want to do junior guards Thank you. I appreciate that and it sounds like it has definitely been beneficial for certain families Which is wonderful. My concern is in a community that is A majority white to make sure that especially in low-income communities Especially because of the cost of rent and housing which is unchecked locally to be able to make sure that we can Ensure that those dollars are going to make sure that people that are From traditionally underserved communities not just low income are able to have access to the funds So I just want to I don't know if there's a plan for a report back eventually with regards to where the money is going Or a more more robust, you know, do you know what you track with regards to where that money goes to? Programs of the parks and recreation for kids. Oh, I know you have to meet a Criteria for for how much wages the parent is using and depending on how many kids in the family It's very similar to the free lunch program. Absolutely. So I am we don't ask for Information like People of color. We don't do that. It's is a reason why that we don't do that It's for a nonprofit. We're not a government agency. I don't know why We could probably I mean, I don't know my question because you since you were receiving a An amount of city funds that could potentially double your budget to be able to do that kind of outreach ensuring that we're looking at Maximizing the equity distribution of that money and not tracking the demographics of the people that the money is going to while I can understand So if we're a majority Excuse me while I can understand while that Maybe an extra step to take but to make sure that within the distribution of the funds It's not going to say 90% white households and 10% non-white households So those are the kind of things that I want to make sure that we're on top of with this kind of money distribution and maybe if I could interject I think one of the things that we learned and And found from our partners meeting with the city schools committee was that there is a huge need of Access to our parks and bike programs for youth and for families that are struggling to live here and having that Relationship between the city schools committee the parks department and the schools will be able to really target and identify some of those folks to apply for FOPAR using the funds so we'll help kind of make that bridge in a way that hasn't previously existed. So I think it is sort of you know, it's We're building it as we go And there will be report backs on it But what it will do is meet a need and enhance a relationship to help get those folks who wouldn't even have had applied Or even thought that would even be possible for them to get there and with that how much respond really quick sure So I totally understand that and it's fantastic about the potential of what will happen My goal is that at least in the motion or in the action we take today that there is the incorporation of some kind of Tracking system with those report backs that intentionally looks at the demographics that are being served by the mind That's where I'm trying to go with this. I don't think that would be a problem Yeah, we can work with friends of parks recreation to figure out an appropriate way to do that And I think with the schools as well. I mean, this is a very collaborative effort with the schools as mayor Watkins mentioned We've learned a lot just with this opportunity and going through this process namely the potential lack of access for Spanish speakers to Even know what's available. We have not printed our activity guide in Spanish historically Which we are working on right now to do for the first time. So there's some there's some steps that we can take To make sure that people know what's going on and going directly to families and kids in the schools and not necessarily just wait for them To find our website or find our activity guide. So I think there's some proactive things that we can do but I think collaboratively with the schools We can work to to get those metrics again This has got to be evidence-based and I understand what you're saying about collecting that that evidence. Thank you Any other questions I have a quick question about the Thrive by three portion of your hair that's right by three portion of the funding I'd just like to hear a little bit. I know the program, but I don't know very much about the specific Services that might be provided through this particular pot of money if you could elaborate sure a little bit on what you do Thank You council member Brown and just for the record. I'm David Brody. I'm the executive director of first five Santa Cruz County And just for a little bit of education I think you're most of you or if not all of you are aware We are an independent County Commission solely dedicated to supporting the health and well-being of young children prenatal through H5 in the entire County. As you know Thrive by three was a fund started at the County of Santa Cruz, but we are the backbone of that structure of that of that initiative we Essentially staff and advisory committee that oversees the implementation of Thrive by three We oversee the entire evaluation of Thrive by three and then we also directly manage some of the program elements that are components of Thrive by three One of those elements is something that we call the early learning scholarship program. That's actually something we modeled off of A system in San Francisco that provides a range of different types of early learning scholarships to support Essentially the provision of high quality early care and education to city residents in San Francisco We took that concept localized it and made it specific to infants and toddler care Which is the most critical area of need for care both in the city and the county at large And have run program for two years now distributing funds to our early care our early learning community in support of services Over the last two years to somewhere in the nature of 275 youth and their families And so I think there's still some details to be worked out how we would implement this specifically But the idea is that we would leverage that early learning scholarship program and the various Sort of ways it can be implemented again modeling after what they've learned in San Francisco Specific to city of Santa Cruz infants and toddlers Families who are residents of the city Thank you for being here question comes from How would you characterize? first five and thrive by three is that a The county program or how's the city involved with it? So first five just to start there is again an independent entity In the county of Santa Cruz and our mandate is the entire county Thrive by three has begun as a children's fund at the county level with funds going towards a range of Services and system supports over the entire county our vision and goal is that anyone and everyone contribute to the thrive by three effort And that work is then organized essentially by first five because we obviously have this Service area in our mandate to make best use of public and private resources in support of the healthy development of our very youngest kids and their families thank you I have a question for Tony Tony there are other other programs because I'm understanding this is all going to go Into parks and rec and then parks and rec is going to distribute it. Are there other programs that you could point to where we contribute to county programs That's a good question. I can't think of any offhand a couple things I want to mention on this so the going back to the May 2018 council direction There was a friendly amendment added to that motion such that funds Going to thrive by three stay with kids and families in the city of Santa Cruz So I was a friendly amendment added in 2018 and for the council's consideration today to focus those towards city families and residents and the reason we I think bring this opportunity before City Council is simply because we don't provide this These type of programs and services through parks and recreation So this is probably our closest sort of governmental or quasi governmental Entity to potentially partner with to serve this need and an expert certainly in our community And if I can I'll just add if that's okay So I've been attending some of the thrive by three collaborative meetings So there's a oversight committee and David can speak to those that are sitting on those committees and somebody from the city would continue to Represent the city's interest in sort of to weigh in at that at that type of meeting But one of the exciting things about what I feel this offers for our community is we have as You've read I'm sure a huge need for childcare. We have a huge demographic of people who struggle to live here Who have young children? It's often more expensive to pay for childcare than it is to pay for your rent here And so for us to be able to leverage this existing kind of infrastructure But to reorient that in a way that's going to give back to our city residents trying to raise fair families here and have their kids In quality care is a really great opportunity and it's that leveraging similar to the older youth population that we're looking at trying to enhance here with these partnerships. So You know, thankfully we have this Administrative structure Emerging or evolving that we can look to be able to fit to meet the needs of our of our city residents as well Follow-up question when I asked Tony So if we had I mean, it's also sounds like Ms. Locatelli just said that some of the money that is apportioned To low-income folks that provides childcare as well It seems to me. I mean could you use if you had a hundred percent yet all this Would would there be the need there in the parks and rec programming? I Think to build on what mayor Watkins said we I would say that we in parks and recreation don't necessarily have that Infrastructure in place to to serve those needs necessarily We don't have expertise in or facilities necessarily in working with kids zero to three No, I'm sorry. My question was if you had the the whole 60,000 could you is the need there within parks and rec programs? That's a good question. I think as of now the data that we would share It would show that it's not there, but again, we have not done the outreach to the community as we mentioned We have not completely reached out through the schools We've not put Spanish language Flyers and information out so we think the demand is there But if you look at the numbers over the past say three to five years based on what has been requested and what we've given out We would that would not show that that full 60,000 is demanded, but we believe that need is there We just couldn't couldn't demonstrate it at this point. Thanks. I Mean, I'll just say there's a lot there's a lot of need here and this community especially for the needs of children and For the needs of young children particularly that's I'm worried about setting a precedent where we're going outside the city to fund a county program So that's that's my concern. I'll just sort of clarify the the the county infrastructure is the existing infrastructure with the players that know Early childhood that are going to help advise and use their infrastructure to Redistribute those dollars to specifically city kids and city families So we're essentially leveraging their infrastructure to best serve the needs of the early childhood kids in our community since absent having an early childhood Emphasis in our own departments. Yeah, so we won't be funding a county program We're using the county's infrastructure to help fund our families and kids for early childhood Exactly, so essentially it's really the infrastructure of first five which we are primarily funded by statewide tobacco attacks And so we're leveraging sort of what we've learned in the administrative process that we put in place Respective to thrive by three but more importantly the foundation of our administrative capacity That's been built for 20 years now and to be really clear I want to be direct about this our intent is to not take any administrative or Operational overhead on these dollars so every penny that comes from the city will go back out to supporting city kids and city families And that's what we're able to do because of our proposition 10 funding and our state mandate Thank you for that. Yeah Any other questions the only thing I would add before maybe we open it up to public comment is That building in the report back having the city schools involved being connected to thrive by three There will be ongoing conversations with the city in these different initiatives and the council will be made Kind of the aware of some of the outcomes and data and families the numbers of families and kids served as a result So I think it's I personally think it's very very exciting. So thank you very much Is there any member of the community who would like to address the council on this item? Please come forward and you'll have up to two minutes Hi, and thank you Pat Mello. I have founded a local cannabis business trade association I'm also on the board of wham the oldest medical collective And I also had the pleasure of working with you guys To create this program not just here, but also at the county I want to say that I'm really happy about, you know, the monies from cannabis business tax going to Thrive by three program. I'm also really happy about it going to our local parks and rec I mean they've had a I've been employed by them been a child in their programs and I've You know volunteered for friends of parks and rec and written checks for sweatshirts to them for years So I think it's great and fitting that it's coming back to them I also want to just acknowledge that when we had this conversation at the county There was a lot of folks who came forward saying that they would like a slice of this stuff As well just in relation to the thrive by three stuff. So there's a never-ending Need for this early childhood development stuff. I think that the child care piece of it Especially was, you know, we want extra revenue for that And that was a piece that in the county discussion We had about it where the didn't get as large of a piece of the pie as they would like And I think that there's, you know, so many legitimate claims to this money that we need to do whatever we can to You know keep having these discussions and I think this is we're talking about 12.5 percent of You know the initial pool of money off of a new Industry and idea called legal cannabis and so I think we need to both have the discussion about what to do with the other 87.5 percent of this money. I know it's going to the general fund But as a cannabis person I want new things in the community that the community can see concretely because of the change in Law and then I also want as much of it going to good programs that we can brag about But then let's also not forget that this money the tax rates are literally putting businesses out of business So let's have that discussion as well. Thank you Okay, we'll go ahead and there's is there any other members of the community who would like to address the council on this item Okay, seeing them. We'll go ahead and return back for action and deliberation council I'd like to go ahead and move the recommendation For funding as described with the additional request for a report that includes Information on the demographics and impact of the allocations second. Okay, so we have a motion by council member matthews Seconded by vice mayor Cummings. Did you catch the additional Recommendation to encompass some of the demographic data council member brown? Oh, I just want to make another comment as well I'm very pleased with this. This is our first year out of the chute for this so Obviously these are decisions we'll make on an annual basis I think allocating some to thrive by three Is is a good call that we'll come back to santa cruz county or city families I can't say enough about the value of the faux pas scholarships to the the families that have benefited from them particularly working families Who really depend on those summer programs? at a very affordable Cost the the scholarships make it possible whether it's day camps for little kids or junior guards for the older kids And the special interest activities for low-income kids, whether it's theater martial arts Whatever the those special Opportunities to develop their skills are so important. The scholarships have been maxed out in past years This will basically double the size of the opportunities Certainly a lot has been learned in terms of working with the schools for referrals But working with the community-based organizations the announcement goes in every parks and rec catalog We can do much more to promote it and having the capacity to To make scholarships is really valuable. I think this is this is the year we scale up I completely understand chris's point that there's Obviously more opportunities. So we'll see where that goes. I think this is a really good resolution for this year for our first year out Councilor Brown and then vice-mercans. Yeah, I just make a couple of quick comments. You know, I'm Pleased to be able to support this Proposal and this motion and want to thank The folks who came to answer our questions and One of the things that I was initially concerned about when I saw this come up was having been in the conversation with the city schools The city schools committee city dash schools You know my I had rec I had remembered that we were talking about Potentially more of that funding a higher dollar amount and that was just my recollection But and then I was a little concerned about the potential where the money was going to go in within the Thrive by three universe, but I'm really really Thrilled to hear that You're talking about using that money for direct program to serve Young young infants and young young children those of us who have been following this For many years have seen the evisceration of child care funding for For very young Infinite toddler care is the most expensive. It's sometimes more expensive It's it costs more than one can earn at a low age job So that you know that's happened to the federal and state level and this is a very small contribution that we can make to try to Boost whatever programs we can we've been able to hold on to and and expand upon So happy to support it And I guess I can just I'll just agree with the statements that were made by my colleagues because I was going to pretty much make the same ones But having benefited from Some of these programs as a young kid and being able to go to summer camps Which ultimately led me to go into a career that focuses on environmental protection. I think that providing Kids, especially low-income kids with an opportunity to get outside And and their families to have an option for child care in the summer is great The one thing that I would just like to ask or recommend is that if there's any Way we can get a report back on on The impact of these funds and these programs I think it would be great for us to be able to see how the funds were used and how the families benefited from them But I'm really happy with this being brought forward and having been on the committee. I'm glad we can bring this to our community Councilor Cronin then councilor Myers um Just want to remind folks, you know, I'm gonna support it because there's so many good so few dollars chasing so many good programs Um, but I just want to remind Newer council numbers of the politics of this and if you look at the dates here, you know, sandy brown and I Were at it We were working for the foster grandparent program the toddler center and the neighborhood child care center trying to get them more funding and Now we're expanding it and giving a whole bunch more money to a new program rather than shoring up the programs We already are supporting So I I'm I'm I'm going to support this, but I'm just saying that there's politics Going into this too in a previous council decided on these decisions and not the present council Councilor Myers and then vice-american I I just want to thank both faux par and the first five In just the partnership and the work of city schools to What it sounds like initiate a really strong program for the youth of the community so and the little guys So I just wanted to express my thanks and I'll be supporting the motion Okay, the one I will I'm I'm I'm thrilled and I too want to thank those that were involved as well as my colleagues and the one thing I will say is that this Action today doesn't preclude any continual funding that's already been prioritized through core other means This is a sustained set aside investments of the city and the city council for early childhood and prevention And I think it's a small step, but it's a step that hopefully will actualize in a in a time where we can have no child not being able to access our parks and rec programs for a lack of funding or Or families who are just struggling so Diarily to be able to live here and raise their kids here if they have young children So it's a small it's a small step to do that and it's um, it's not politics It's it's people and kids for for me. So um I'm thrilled and I am thrilled to see where this will go over the years And to hear a report back on the number of children we're able to positively influence So with that we'll go ahead and take the vote all those in favor. Please say I I any opposed Okay, that passes unanimously And thank you for being here No, I went to a concert. Okay. I haven't found scissors. So we'll go ahead and transition up here. I went to another one We'll go ahead and have the next item which is item number 12 And we have uh our planning director lee betler here Thank you mayor and council members lee betler director of planning and community development and The item before you right now is our direction to reconcile the general plan and zoning code provisions Particularly as they relate to our corridors Mission water ocean and so cal So our general plan was adopted circa 2012 after significant public outreach and roughly a seven-year process and one of the provisions One of the the key tenets of the general plan was development along the corridors and the council in the community at the time looked at the environmental benefits and the public health benefits associated with development along the corridors and selected to Concentrate much of the city's growth in those areas Fast forward a few years circa 2015 The city initiated an effort to rezone The corridors so that they are consistent with the general plan And that effort after about two years was put on hold And then in august of this year we received formal direction official direction from the council to stop that prior process In the interim time between 2017 and now there have been a lot of state law changes that have affected what we can and cannot do the housing accountability act has been updated Both with ab 3194 and with sp3 30 which is the housing crisis act of 2019 And both of those have significant implications on the work that we do in planning and the policy options that the council has We certainly understand many of the concerns that the community has expressed about New development and the implications of new development whether that's traffic or parking or building heights and we understand also that development is complex and dynamic particularly with the new state laws that are coming into effect and so We want to serve as staff as a resource for both the council and the community and navigating this regulatory framework and We No matter what the direction the council provides today want to make sure that we're having a broad community engagement process that Really seeks to Hear from as many people as we can out in the community And so with that I will turn it over to our Principal planner sarah Fleming and our senior planner sarah noisy To talk about the options that we have and some of the details surrounding the reconciliation effort Good afternoon, so we just discussed a fair amount of the background, but I'm just gonna so I'll move pretty quickly through these first couple slides so we received direction on august 27th to Stop work on any Efforts implementing the general plan and convene meetings with groups that have been heavily involved with that prior effort Um, we were also given some specific direction about how the new what the new project would include It would include goals to preserve and protect residential neighborhood areas and existing city businesses Encourage appropriate new residential and mixed-use developments specifically including enhanced affordable housing opportunities at appropriate locations along the city's main transportation corridors and Among a few other details allow the council to adopt zoning code and general plan amendments no later than november 2020 which Is the direction that's the direction we've gotten so A little bit of background about why there is a mismatch between our zoning and our general plan As we mentioned the general plan that we are under which the city is currently operating the 2030 general plan was adopted in 2012 based on work that happened from 2007 at least maybe beginning some of the background work before that up to 2012 Which created and established a vision for focusing growth Along the primary transportation connector connections through our city Which are known collectively as the corridors both in the document and sort of colloquially in the community Um, and there are policies throughout the general plan in all of the elements that really support this vision Of creating neighborhoods that are walkable that are equitable and produce a variety of types of housing That place jobs and housing in close proximity to each other so that we're addressing the needs of our community both for economic growth and for housing options It also specifically in order to sort of implement those policies created some New land use designations that had not previously existed in the city before that were specifically Called out for mixed use development. So housing when we use that term as planners We mean housing and commercial development on the same property um And then it the the maps that are in the general plan applied those designations to Several parcels in the city along those primary transportation routes that are currently zoned for commercial uses So they carry either um a community commercial or neighborhood commercial designation So the prior effort that was dubbed the corridors plan was based upon this land use pattern that was established by the 2030 general plan and sought to create new zoning districts to implement these mixed use land use designations in the general plan And as lee mentioned that work was paused in 2017. So, um, I wanted us all just so we all have the same frame of reference Here's our existing zoning map What this is showing is um, sort of that pale pink color Here this is our community commercial designation and you can see that this is kind of concentrated along ocean Soquel water and then it appears a long mission. It's a little bit harder to see a long mission because it's underneath the highway Indicator and then we also have this darker pink color. That's neighborhood commercial and we see more of that Um Up here along the top part of mission And then kind of scattered throughout in some other some other places So this is the zoning map that currently governs Development standards in the city Here's the general plan map that was adopted as part of the general plan. So this is looking at all the land use designations You know, the yellows oranges and browns are residential development and you'll see that a lot of our Um The area of the city is dedicated to Residential land uses and then again the the pink That this darkest Not the darkest but one of the darker pink colors is community commercial and again, you'll see that this is this is concentrated along our um These primary east west north south connections. So water street. Soquel mission street And then to a lesser degree here along ocean and then what's new with this general plan are these Partsals that are shown in stripes. So these are the mixed use designations and this is where they were Applied as part of the general plan process. This black line is a Pull in that's the next map. I'm going to show you it's just sort of focusing in on those So these are the parcels that we're talking about when we're talking about the mismatch between the general plan and the zoning ordinance these this is the The universe of properties that we're talking about have a currently a mismatch between the general plan designation and the zoning Just so that we're all sort of under having the same understanding of what we're talking about here. So um Currently the mixed use land use designations do not have any zoning code that fully implements those land use designations. So unlike Um, you know a general plan land use designation for low density residential We have r15 r17 r1 10 zoning that implements that general plan designation. So, um When development wants to happen in those Areas if a homeowner wants to add something to their parcel, they can go to the zoning code They can look and see what standards apply to their property That same level of certainty and understanding is not available on these parcels shown on this map so First step that we've taken in this process this as directed by your council We held a focus group was attended by about a dozen representatives of various civic civic groups that were involved with a prior effort um And we spent the first few minutes of that meeting sort of reviewing the old effort and sort of gathering any useful Feedback that things they felt that it was important for staff to know as we move into the next effort And and sort of hitting the high notes of what was What really had not gone well and what You know, maybe could have been useful out of that process and that was just really good background for our staff our team to have because None of us were involved with either the writing of the general plan or the prior effort to implement it so we are all still really getting up to speed about the The various pieces of this effort And then we spent the bulk of the meeting discussing How are we Going to achieve these goals that are established in your council's direction So there were several phrases that we pulled out to really discuss with this group and gather their points of view Preserve and protect existing neighborhoods for some folks that really came down to The physical structure of the neighborhoods like how how wide the roadways are how wide the sidewalks are How tall the buildings are the views that you can have as you move through an area How intersections are currently configured like really sort of Keeping our physical structure intact as much as possible And for other folks it really was about the character of the demographics in a neighborhood when they think about their Home and their neighborhood they think about the type of neighborhood it is they think about it as being a neighborhood of You know UCSC, you know faculty or a or a working class neighborhood and they want to see that character Remain for into the future so they so other people were talking about they wanted to have Options to have the physical structure changed so it could accommodate The equity that currently exists in their neighborhood so that it was about reducing displacement for existing Folks and for existing, you know for those demographic categories that they could continue to live in those neighborhoods So a variety of opinions families was one thing that came up someone talked about how Um, just didn't have any families with kids in her neighborhood anymore And that was the case all the way through the 70s and 80s and she would give them chalk to play in the Driveway and she doesn't have hardly any of that now in her neighborhood. So um, we also discussed appropriate mixed-use development and For some folks, this was really about Protecting parking managing cut through car trips and that could that could change the traffic pattern on an existing roadway and Really have an effect on a residential neighborhood as it accepts adjacent commercial development For for a couple people really was just about height and really specifically three stories limiting height to three stories as it backs up to a residential neighborhood And then for other people they talked more about, you know It's it's more about the building design and how it relates to the public sphere and how wide are the sidewalks and with a wider sidewalk A bigger building doesn't feel Inappropriate in in the same way or it doesn't feel out of context or out of scale with the way the public realm is happening talked about 360 design so that The view from the back of a building is also A view that's worth having So again a variety of opinions And then the last phrase that we really dug into was about enhanced affordable housing opportunities This one really brought up a conversation about addressing commute pressures both Inside the county and between counties. So we have Low-wage workers that are commuting into Santa Cruz who are unable to find housing here that works for them and the needs of their families and we have higher wage workers that are Unable or uninterested in living close to their jobs over the hill in silicon valley And so we have these commute pressures that are That we are accommodating currently on our roadways and in our city um We also then talked about a mix of housing types and and creating the type of housing That um is really needed to maintain those demographic characteristics. So if we have if families is a is a Demographic that we want to target. Are we creating housing? That's really going to meet the needs of families and are we creating opportunities for families to be able to find housing in the city And then for some folks Thinking about enhanced affordable housing opportunities was really about just the total number of restricted units like are we creating The right number of deed restricted units that are available to folks at 50 or less of am i Um, so there are a number of different ways to look at that and sort of collecting all of these points of view and figuring out a way to Address the needs that are expressed and come to some compromise That's the going to be the challenge of this process as we move through it Staff is going to have a lot of conversations with the public Because again, this is just one group of like a dozen people. We're a city of 70 000. So There are that many opinions about What's appropriate and how what do we need and what's missing so This is going to be the the heart of this work is going to be having these conversations and All of us collectively, you know listening to each other and coming up with agreements about where We want to go and what these how we're going to interpret these various terms so A lot of that work went into creating the maps that we have went into creating the general plan the general plan Creates a vision we espouse our values as a community. We envision what we want for the future We write it down. We use that to guide policy language. We write policies and those policies give us maps so All of that process was kind of done at you know the Just before the economic downturn, you know starting in you know, 2005 2000 between 2005 and 2007 and continuing up to 2012 And so then moving forward with these maps to develop zoning code that would you know implement the vision as established in the adopted general plan That was the goal that of That was the goal of the previous effort that was the goal that the community was engaged in and that's um We're going to have to re-engage with that at this point Given the direction that we have so just did one more little piece of context and then we'll get into our options. So as um As Lee mentioned the housing crisis act of 2019 was numbered sp 330 limits The city review of housing projects and it defines that term to it's essentially it's a mixed-use project It's anything that includes housing at certain ratios To the application of objective standards So an objective standard is something that it can be measured by anybody So a building height is 30 feet anyone we can all agree Will establish how we measure height from what point to what point on the roof That's 30 feet and we can all understand what an objective standard is It could also be something as complex as this I lifted this from the city of spokane, washington So it creates step backs and an angle at which those step backs can happen So that there's a transition from a single family neighborhood to a you know, this is Obviously a very tall building and this is a really big zone that they're working in a different context than we are but objective standards can be used to create a lot of articulation in buildings and Can really form design within A set of standards that we can all write down and look at and applicants know what they are neighbors know what they are planning department and Decision makers know what the standards are so As of january 1st, we are only going to be allowed to apply the objective standards that exist in the zoning code and in the general plan We can as we move forward through this process If we create objective standards Those standards apply to any project As soon as they submit a preliminary application. So basically like the sooner we can have Objective standards in place the more projects they will then apply to It also though then requires that within the city's general plan that there's no net loss of development capacity going back to january 1 2018 So the capacity that was accommodated as of january 1 2018 Which is the capacity that is accounted for in the general plan the development capacity Must be maintained throughout the city. So if the capacity is reduced on one parcel for example by reducing the height A similar amount of capacity would have to be added to a similar amount of acreage elsewhere in the city so Simultaneously those actions would have to happen at the same time So those are the requirements of state law that we're Now working in so Given that context The first option for your council to consider is that the project from this point simply become the development of these objective standards we would Use the existing general plan land use maps that are adopted as part of the general plan And we would create zoning codes with objective design standards and development standards that we could then Apply to those parcels that carry those mixed-use land use designations We're guessing at this point that the timing would be somewhere but a little bit over a year less than a year and a half And costs in the range of 300 to 450 thousand dollars and As Is made clear by the next item on your agenda. This is an ideal candidate for an sp2 grant it is One of the categories that's guaranteed to be approved So we know we could get some outside funding to help us do this because I mean the cost isn't going to change whether or not we get the grant like that's what this project would cost and so It is an opportunity right now We have an opportunity to get some outside funding to support this work Which is a really good option So option two is to amend the general plan so to Redistribute the growth potential to other areas of the county and sort of move away from the vision that was included in this general plan to really focus growth into a few Limited locations and look for other areas in the city that could Receive that growth potential So This would involve an extensive public outreach process the outreach process and the and the public participation involved in developing this 2030 general plan was extensive. It was broad. It was deep. It was long and so A major amendment deserves that a substantial amendment of any kind really deserves that same level of engagement with the community They have a right and an obligation responsibility to participate in Efforts like this and so really as a result of the The community outreach that would be Our obligation the timing on this would be really Different it would be at least two years if not much longer I mean this effort to get to this point of the general plan was a seven-year process that included the economic downturn So there was like some slowdown But a a significant amendment of this document would be a very big undertaking and I would have an appropriate appropriately Large timing impact and cost impact The recommendation on our staff report was that your council accept the monthly report on the general plan and zoning ordinance Reconciliation effort and consider options for bringing the two documents into alignment And we are now adding to that recommendation that by motion your council direct staff to pursue option one as discussed And we are here if you have any questions Thank you for your presentation. And I believe council member meyers has a few questions Yeah, I just have a couple of questions It looked like on the map um the blowout blowout map sarah that you showed us of the mixed use designations So it looks like there's three categories of those. Is that correctly? Yes, that's density primarily That's about density and use so the that yellow color says mixed use medium density 10 to 30 dwelling units per acre and it also includes a floor area ratio of 0.75 to 1.75 And then the orange is the mixed use visitor commercial, which is um Anywhere from zero to 55 dwelling units per acre. So in that zoning zone district, it is mixed use and Residential uses would be allowed, but as envisioned in the general plan it wouldn't include general any residential units by right That would be part of Providing some some benefits to the community so that and that's the what the general plan currently says is details are in the zoning ordinance Optimistically written at the time so and then that final brown category is the mixed use high density Um, which is 10 units to 55 dwelling units per acre So it has that same upper limit as the visitor commercial except that this one anticipates that residential uses will always be included And is it only these? New land use designations that need to be um Wedded with the zoning there's there is another any other designations that we made in the general plan update that Don't aren't correlating right now. Is it primarily this this focus? So in terms of what's on the maps and the land use designations that literally aren't implemented by our zoning This this is the extent of it. There are other policies in here that Require us to make certain changes to our zoning code that also haven't been implemented But they're not they're not things that you would map In the same way. It's not a land use designation that doesn't have a zoning code And I guess just one other clarification I think For a bit of history in terms of the timing I just happened to kind of go back and kind of look through a little bit of the history around our general plan and It's always good to look at what the state policy was looking at when you make these major revisions. I think So there's two significant laws that were passed right Right during the right before we started our planning or general planning process One is the global warming solutions act of 2006 Otherwise known as ab 32 That was a pioneering law by the state of california that basically set this entire state of california off on the path Of mixed use development walkable to communities reducing Our time in our cars and that was really a fundamental Piece of legislation that then sort of found its way into our local planning The other is the sustainable communities and climate protection act of 2008 Otherwise known as sp 375 and that's where we really started to look, you know at the transportation and the regional transportation aspect housing and then development And I don't think that we can think about where we may head without really understanding where we came from and those two pieces of legislation Nationally even worldwide are looked at Around the globe as significant pieces where california made the step To really determine that we would become a more walkable Community and so I just I think that that's some good context to put in and I thank you for all your work and reaching back out to folks And I'll just end there for now bisoner Cummings Could you all speak to I mean just looking at this map and just thinking about you know how we have been discussing equity so much All the high Density development is on the east side And all the mixed use Is on the east the mixed used visitor commercials on the east side as well And it looks like that runs down ocean street the ocean street corridor But can you speak at all to the fact that There's no that there's just such a strong disparity between the highest dense housing versus Medium And how it's split you know between the east side and the west side because that seems like if we're discussing equity That's not very equally distributed sure so so what what you're not seeing on this map is existing housing and existing development and so the development so We're not showing the density that's already included downtown right which is west of the river Um, which is not an insignificant amount of density so That's just as a piece of context. I I haven't done the analysis to look at like how is our Housing density currently distributed east to west. I I honestly can't answer that question today Um, what I will say is that you know as a planner looking at these maps as you know coming in late to the process Um when I look at the parcel sizes that are available Along soquel and I look at the parcel sizes that are available along mission street I would have a hard time arguing that given those existing parcels that you could Have a site where it would be appropriate to allow the amount of density that's envisioned in that mixed-use high density On a small site that's going to create some kind of really narrow Really tall building or it's going to require a lot of site consolidation Um Secondly the other the other piece that I'll add is that the mixed-use visitor accommodation Is envisioned as part of the ocean street plan which was Which is an area plan the ocean street area plan osap is the acronym we use for that Which was a pretty extensive effort with that neighborhood a long ocean street to plan for Commercial uses along there and specifically for visitor accommodations because that's our main route in off the highway You know and connecting to the boardwalk. So there is There are a lot of sites that are already hotels and are and are Sized appropriately to be hotels and to be visitor accommodations Already in that corridor and given how wide the street width because the other thing to consider here is the street widths So yes mission street is a state highway It's the narrowest of the three corridors if you measure curve to curve So Building heights have a different effect on a narrow street versus a wider street. So that's The orange that you see along ocean street is really called for in that ocean street area plan Which um was an effort with that area with that neighborhood that is on both sides of ocean street So, I mean so those are those are my observations as a planner I wasn't involved in the decision making that came to this what I can tell you is that It was it involved a lot of community outreach and a lot of effort and um, and this is the maps that were Written and created as a result of that of all of the policy language that's included. So Director about there may be one and to respond to this as well. Uh, thank you mayor In addition to the parcel sizes and the street widths those were certainly considerations and very important ones that dictate where Building sizes can actually fit and the implications for the the feeling of the street We have done some analysis because we we heard that Loud and clear about, you know east side versus west side And so I can forward the council this information because i'm going to Give you a fair amount of information right now, but In our general plan the development capacity on the west side of the San Lorenzo Is Over 1700 dwelling units on the east side. It's about 1480 dwelling units Now if you take the downtown out of those calculations the number of west side residential units drops to approximately 1100 units and in early 2018 there was a project that was approved on Delaware Avenue for 248 residential units that weren't anticipated by the general plan. So that gets it up to around 1400 Dwelling units outside of the downtown on the west side, which Is comparable to the 1480 on the east side of the river. That's just one piece of the puzzle when you look at Commercial square footage on the west side of San Lorenzo roughly a hundred thousand square feet more office The east side actually is planned for roughly a hundred thousand square feet more and then back on the west side again The industrial square footage on the west side is planned for 357 thousand Whereas the east side is only 25,000 and we've actually entitled 400,000 square feet on that same Delaware project that I mentioned earlier on the west side So it's it's not as simple as looking at the map right here and saying that Oh, there are more colors on the right side and higher densities on the right side, which would be the east side in this photo And so there there is a lot of complexities to it and I just wanted to to raise that but Um The comments by sarah are absolutely correct just the configuration of the lots oftentimes dictates the the development capacity that can be accommodated on them Other questions. Thank you for that explanation the one other question I have so do these colors then represent properties that have where the property owners are interested in developing these types of Units or is it just that these are potential? Sites for development in the future Just trying to better understand. Yeah, because it seems like there's specific properties that have been identified right, so okay, so um Looking so it might be actually be more useful to look at this general plan map and it's Like messy so it's a little bit hard to really drill down here So this map represents as we're planning for the future. So as we were Doing this analysis, you know in like 2010 with the community where are we going to focus development potential between 2010 and 2030 and This is how we are going to focus our various land uses um This has I don't want to say it has no bearing on what the land owners want to do But that is not a primary driver of developing the policies that guide these maps So the parcels that are identified and Redesignated are not Redesignated based on any expressed interest from the property owners. I don't even we don't even know the property ownership Status of a lot of them. Um, you know some of the things that you see here that are missing You know this big empty space here along ocean. This is the county building So that's why it's not shown as Visitor commercial because that's not going to get redesignated. So that's why it's left out of the map um There are there are a couple a big existing, you know, this is where you know right aid and Whole foods are so they're already really heavily commercial and warrant envisioned to change at least during this You know to sort of 2010 ish time period through 2030 So the places that are redesignated um here are These are it's based on A variety of things as I've said community values And then looking at places where development is likely to happen based on how old the existing buildings are and how they're currently utilized So there's some analysis done about the value. That's already Are there properties that are sort of underutilized relative to like the current market? and typically As general plans are designated you would try to focus your redesignations on those areas that are likely to develop So that as new development happens You're getting the vision that you've articulated that your community has really um rallied around so that's sort of A little more background on that. Did I fully answer your question? Thank you Yeah, thank you for the presentation and the Laying out of options. It's helpful to Be refreshed on the history I did want to ask This is a question that kind of just is based upon Some of the feedback that you summarized in the agenda report that we received Related to the focus group And so In particular with respect to um You know what staff what should current staff know about the previous process and elements Of the previous effort that worked versus non-starters The first sentence says in response participants mentioned that in many ways the previous effort felt predetermined As if staff and consultants had made many decisions in advance of discussing the topic with the public so that sense of non-inclusion I think needs to be that's the reason that I Um brought this back to the agenda to ensure that there was More of an opportunity for The public to be involved and in particular neighbors So I guess neighbors on the east side those who would be most affected So not the developers who are looking at it and are smart about you know, how how to make this work and But the people who will be most impacted so Um, I guess I'm making a comment here But really I would just want to ask a question based upon your since you were not involved in that Previous process, you know, if you've thought at all about how you intend to proceed to try to avoid that in Whatever outreach is done based upon What the ever option we which way we choose to go? Is there any kind of Reaction to that? Sure. Yeah. No, that's definitely something we've been talking about in terms of You know really starting with why we're doing this effort because And not to cast any aspersions on my predecessors You know, I from everything I've seen they did a really fantastic staff work and I think that there's Always room for improvement around helping the community understand our processes and understand that you know, we did this general plan For seven years and we had a hundred community-wide meetings and we had really broad participation and We and we are trying to address climate change. We are trying to address our community green belt We're trying to address commute pressures. We're trying to address a growing student population. We're trying to address affordable housing and mobility and Economic growth we're trying to address all of those things and this is one little piece of of that broader vision And these are the maps that have that were adopted and so We are going to start typically we would anticipate this is you know general plan 2030 here. We are it's practically 2020 Typically you would start about five years before Your general plan is scheduled to like expire quote-unquote To you know restart that process and create a new vision and we will have that opportunity in five years And in the meantime what without zoning code All we have is uncertainty So we are obligated to allow the level of development capacity that's envisioned by this general plan The only parameters that are set in the general plan are a floor area ratio and a residential density So it doesn't make any comment on like the ratio between residential development and commercial development These are our commercial areas. We want to make sure we have commercial development. It's still viable in these places We want to talk about Design standards right so that As these as buildings are built Some handful of these buildings will might get developed in the next five years 10 years We want to have some certainty around how those are going to fit into the existing context There's going to be a fair amount of conversation discussion education both in both directions with the community around this it's That's definitely something that we're talking about. We want to make sure we understand the whole scope of concerns And we want to make sure we understand the whole scope of you know, the reality of the restraints that we're working within So that we can have a really informed and productive process with the community because I yeah, that is definitely on our radar Yeah, and I'd like to add, you know, we've talked a little bit about internally What happened with the last process, you know with us not being here We we didn't know and um, I think at least what I've settled on is that from a planning perspective The zoning ordinance update was simply an implementation Of the general plan which had gone through an extensive public outreach process So I can completely understand where the community Where these changes were happening might feel That they weren't heard and I can completely understand where the planners at the time thought that they were simply Implementing what was already in the document and there was a disconnect there in terms of Where we were at in the process and so I think the education piece is critically important Making sure that we're all on the same page, which was part of why we wanted to do this Preliminary kind of overview at the beginning. Here's the guiding document. Here's the vision. Here's the principles. We're working to implement that And making sure now that the state has said you have to do these You know if you want any control basically over your built form of housing you have to implement Objective standards making sure that as we're developing those we are working very closely with the community to make sure that we're talking about The colors the setbacks the materials all of the things that they're going to want to see for their neighborhood And so if the council does choose option one to move forward with we would Open up an extensive process with the community and whoever whatever consultant We were to hire to help us with that to make sure that We are implementing what the community vision is but helping them understand where it's coming from And we'll just one quick follow-up question related to the Development of objective standards. I mean, isn't that something that And I'm going to support it when it comes before us at the next agenda item That will want to do for the city writ large and so it's not really specifically about this The corridors or the that area of town, but Right so objective standards review and establishment will happen kind of independently of this process anyway. Yes, so um the Grant funding for the sp2 grant, which is the next item that you'll hear hear about shortly that's specific for creating objective standards for housing related projects. And so what we would be proposing is Anything that is a higher density than a single family home Would be what we would be looking at in terms of creating objective standards for so you're talking about lots of sections of sea bright Where you're seeing areas that are zoned as rl I believe any of this kind of orangish color with a primary focus obviously most immediately on the corridor on You know the corridors areas to you lack of a better term And then also Focusing secondarily on The higher density residential because those are the areas that we're going to Very likely see the most development on in the near future I have one last question. So, uh, is there a meeting sketch? I know save santa Cruz was not Um, did not participate in the meet the last meeting that you had the focus group right And I know that their concern was related to wanting to Wait until the to see the outcome of sp3 30. So is that is something happening now or is there a meeting schedule? We have a we have a second focus group scheduled for monday the 28th So we'll be meeting with save representatives of save santa Cruz as well as several other community reps Yeah Question Is uh, would they be the same community reps they're on this page, uh 12.9 Uh, I believe what you have there are the reps that attended the previous right focus group So we're in we're inviting new people. Oh, could you tell us who they are or what groups there? Um, sure so we're we're again inviting two representatives from the Corridor's advisory commission. We're inviting um, a represent another representative of a different transportation organization We're inviting another affordable housing developer. We've invited a business owner to this meeting And in addition to save santa Cruz, we've invited another group of neighbors from the east side Who's the transportation where it would um ecology action who invited a representative from them And um, are you asking us today? Uh in pursuing option one you're saying this council is going to um Uh approve 300 to 450 thousand dollars that would you're asking so the funding would be approved with the next item Um We're this is this is an estimate So we haven't done the whole scoping of exactly the contents of the item So we would have a firmer budget when we come back to with a rfp to release to you know Solicit a consultant. We would have a really specific budget, but it is tied together. Um, you know the the budget would be in that range And um the next item on your agenda with the sp2 grant would address at least a significant portion of that Right. So with the next item, um, we'd be suggesting or staff is recommending that um, you the emotion Direct us to apply for an sp2 grant for The objective standards in the amount of three hundred and ten thousand dollars. That's the max we can get for our community Based on our size and then um any delta between that and what the final cost would be Um would come from the long-range planning advanced planning team budget And if we found that we needed more than what we have in our budget We would come back at that time with a mid-year budget request adjustment And I'm still understanding why not pursue the other option two over option one What's the so At your council's discretion, we could launch into an amendment of the general plan You know part part of what we're responding to is the direction that really wanted this done by november of 2020 so You know the Timing and cost of that effort to update the general plan would be really significantly different. So that's that's the Balance that your council is going to need to strike Did you run this by the group that you met with that this is what you were going to you're planning on doing? Uh, no, we didn't we didn't discuss our recommendations with the focus group We wouldn't have had them yet because part of the recommendation came from the conversation that we had with the group And then we take that information back. We synthesize it. We compare notes and then move forward with coming forward with a recommendation for your council Does it say in the what was the council passed something about the general plan amendment? Um, what the motions the motion does not explicitly say that changes must be made to either document But it suggests that changes could be made to either or both documents The general plan or the zoning ordinance. Could you point that out which one it is like i'm not finding it There was there was five things. I think it's is it is the motion in the background number three Direct planning director is first to carry out discretion to meet promptly with representatives and other conegers terminated Agreement on possible changes to the general plan and zoning ordinance. Yes, um, but you're choosing not to do that What we are recommending Is that we make changes to the zoning ordinance? Um to implement the vision in our general plan given the context of sp330 um, that seems like the Responsible way to spend our time effort and money that said um, and we wanted to be responsive to the uh One of the other pieces of direction. I don't have it in front of me, but what's which was to come back to this meeting with policy uh recommendations and so since we didn't have an opportunity to meet with save santa crews um to Share any additional thoughts before this meeting. We're coming back with a recommendation as requested. Um, and if this council would Like us to go back and consult with the two groups again Before your decision that is entirely or prerogative. Um, but we were working to address Competing pieces of the direction as requested by this meeting I just last thing I'll say is um Do you or actually it's question. Um, do you have to have this motion passed before applying for the sp2 grant? I don't think so. No, because that's what I would know. Okay, because I'd prefer to get more input from those two groups, but Any other questions before we open it up to public comment, okay? We'll go ahead and open it up to public comment for any member of the community wanting to address us on this item And you'll have up to two minutes Good afternoon. My name is Aldo Joaquino I'm one of the members of the executive committee of um save santa crews And um, we first of all want to thank you for your action on august 27 Um to terminate the corridors plan and do no further work on this project to quote from your action um, and also um, the fact we want to thank you for setting out the objectives of what The further work should be which are to preserve and protect residential neighborhood areas And existing city businesses That's priority number one And priority number two is to encourage appropriate enhanced affordable housing So we are very pleased with that and we were a little shocked to To read in the otherwise acceptable staff report the recommendation to setting to concrete a particular option That's what brought us to the barricades in the first time We don't want to go and fight people who have made up their minds already The purpose of this community involvement effort is to discuss things first and come to conclusions later Not to conclude first And so we strongly recommend you that you do not adopt the proposed Option suggested by the staff or any options at this time. It's way too early We are Committed to working very hard on this. Well, we have appointed six members from the executive executive committee Of safe Santa Cruz. There are people with a wealth of experience talent and ingenuity and We are committed to do this in an expeditious manner We have a meeting scheduled with the staff For um, october for next monday october 28th Your time is up Are there any other members of the community who would like to address the council on this item? Seeing them, we'll go ahead and return it back to council. I actually have one question With the with the two options option two Is a Is recommended to be two to four years and then you suggested that within five years We'll begin the planning efforts around the next general plan amendment. So in the interim time There would not be any changes to the Clearly not any changes to the zoning or or any changes whatsoever because of the the state legislation But there wouldn't be any changes to the objective design standards either. Is that correct? unless council would like us to undertake two projects the Option two We would still need if The city if our council wants to have retain any control over what the built form will look like on residential properties moving forward We're going to you're going to want to Direct us to create objective standards It will it time is of the essence with that essentially because as of the beginning of next calendar year Unless we have something in place Any project that comes through they only have to meet what we already have in place right which which is pretty limited So very limited the objective standards that we have in in place For these mixed use designated parcels are we have a floor area ratio and we have a residential Density we don't have a height limit. We don't have setback standards. We don't have any design criteria No colors. No articulations. No materials. Those are all the types of things that If we we will have no more discretion as a as a jurisdiction unless we have them in writing in our code Okay Okay, okay. Thank you. Okay councilmember cron and then council member Myers and then brown and then that was Cynthia was before yeah, that was my sense too of uh, what uh, mr. Jekinos that I thought were you know It's a good staff report, but I think we're moving in a direction that is away from getting public input So I would make the motion of accepting the monthly report of the general plan and zoning ordinance reconciliation effort and to reconvene both zoning reconciliation focus groups and share this Materials with them and get you know input from the group and return next month to the council Okay, we have a motion by council member crone. Is there a second second second by vice mayor Cummings Okay, council member matthews meyers then brown I'm going to speak forcefully against that. We've heard that time is of the essence on this the and the staff explained to us the history of How of our general plan development? Which had a great deal of community input. I'm probably the only one around it remembers that and you know one of the difficulties of long complicated processes is People move on and forget the the chain but when you look at that general plan development and the degree of the diversity of Participants on the general plan committee the incredible number of community outreach Processes that were in place that led up to that Consensus unanimous adoption by the council at the time Certainly the economic Recession hit us big time, but then there were also as council member meyers mentioned state legislation with increasing awareness of climate change climate impact and the the real trend to housing The need to provide housing and here we have the state legislation just going into effect Underlying all of this is I think the the concern about what our community looks like and feels like to my mind, there there is such a need and Imperative to deal with housing mixed use projects are the wave of the future But the one thing that we won't have If we don't act on option one Is is really any meaningful? impact of The direction on design community design and that is what's so important to the community so I would much prefer that we give staff direction to pursue option one apply for the amount of funding that could reasonably cover the costs of doing the Objective standards without those we are just going to have to take what comes at us and we're not necessarily going to like it So I'd much prefer to have the the effort go in the in the short term to the objective standards that give us the Meaningful community input corridors throughout the city What do we want our development projects to look like there's nothing That forces any owner of a small parcel to do anything with it if they're happy with their Their structure their their use on that parcel they can continue that as long as they want But we do need a map that reflects community Standards on what it looks like and I think that will get us the kind of protection we want for Our our neighborhoods and also give us the kind of vitality along the the commercial corridors that we've talked about so I really think it's a mistake and and particularly the idea that this would only go back to a very small number of people when So much of what led to this point and so much of what the community imperative is is to really act on housing and act on community design Councilman Myers than council member brown Yeah, I'm struggling with the motion as well. Um I just have a question about the objective standards process. So I'm assuming Um That would be an extensive process uh with the community correct. Yes, so we would be hosting workshops Making sure that people were understanding both From a from a Perspective of what you know what could be done on their property currently but also, you know the aesthetics all the things that come along with that so It's a little bit of a dry term, but um, it sounds like basically One of the things that I know was in the corridors Work was a design review process, which I think has been something um or along those lines but you know being able to participate as a community in in Understanding what things are going to look like once they've been designed and so this objective standard sort of gets us to that to some extent it's not going to Get us um to the detail level, but it will give us a lot more Availability for people to become involved in in any proposal that might be in their neighborhood Whereas right now we really only have two standards and that's the flora or ratio and The density is that correct? So right so what this essentially would be would be so we would first off Recommend that we utilize the funding to bring on a expert in developing these type of objective standards We would work with them. Sarah would manage them from the ap team We would then do a series of you know once they've developed some some concepts and some ideas for us to kind of flesh out with the community Or I you know let me not speak to how the consultant will do their work But we will work very closely with the community to develop those and essentially that will be the That design review because once those are in place That's essentially the design review. So it wouldn't be an ongoing design review board but it would be the chance for the opportunity over the next 13 or so or the community over the next 13 or so months to Codify What that design expectation is for the community which could be amended in the future But that essentially every project that came in then would be Beholden to those colors materials setbacks Finistrations articulations glazing whatever it is that the community wants to codify In terms of those standards for every building that comes in in those particular zones So I would just request my colleagues that made the motion to to reconsider to to really look at the importance of my understanding in in some of the some of the Problems with the corridor was that People had felt they had lost their voice and really understanding what something would look like once it was in their neighborhood and so My understanding what you're describing and I assume architects and other folks who do this kind of design urban designers People like that would be part of this this group that you would hire So, um, I mean, I think this is an important step Towards what I understood from many community members That that I think we can we can do right now And uh, I just I would request that we I can't support the motion because um at this point I feel like this is a very important step We have a grant deadline. I believe And we have funding that could offset that cost At savings to the city And I just I uh, I I hope my colleagues would reconsider and and try to work on this together Actually, we have vice mayor Cummings, then I'll go to you. I thought I was next Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, so you can't swim around and then vice mayor Cummings. I have a follow-up clarifying question. Um, I'm hearing conflicting Time frames here because I'm hearing that these objective standards would need to be in place by January 1st of next year But I'm also hearing a 13 month time period Pending a grant application And so I'm a little bit confused about how if we don't do this today We're going to miss a deadline that we're going to miss anyway because we're going down this road for a longer process Yeah, very good question. Um, I had the same question when I read the sp2 grant staff report so So what what us what the housing crisis act of 2019 says is that starting on january 1st 2020 If we don't have Whatever objective design criteria we have are the only criteria we can apply to housing projects. So You know some places that's heightened setbacks and parking ratio For these mixed use areas. It's you know a development density and a floor area ratio And that's sort of all that it is For any given project when they apply The objective standards that apply to that project are whatever standards are in place in the code At the time that they submit their preliminary application So you are correct during the duration of time that it takes us to complete this process We won't have any objective design criteria as soon as it's done We will have objective design criteria in place and then anything that comes in after that will be subject to those criteria So it's not there's no way to have those in place by january 1 It will take some time it deserves to be some kind of a community process with a lot of involvement and there will be you know We will work as expeditiously as expeditiously as possible with the consultant team And we want to make sure we have really good community engagement and that we engage with the people who you know Live here use these places work here All that everyone kind of gets to participate in that yeah, and I think the reality is anytime the state changes the laws there is a Growing period growing pains, right because often it's a very quick turnaround, right? and I mean even just to do something like the adu ordinance it's Which is pretty clear in terms of what the changes are It's something that we are going to be getting in by the skin of our teeth Just because of the process that it takes first reading second planning commission first reading second reading, right? So the reality is it's unavoidable that there may be some projects that um get in before we're done and We should not let that deter us from acting with all due haste because the sooner we get started on this the sooner We'll have them in place Which will then be the sooner that the community will be able to regain control over the bill form Um, I had a follow-up question and I just lost it. Oh, uh, so and the with respect to uh, what I heard something about of a concern about This potentially impacting our ability to get funding But I also I think I heard you say that that's not the case that this that if we do not make this decision today if we wait for two weeks or until after or whenever at soon after Community groups have weighed in Will we be in danger of losing the potential for funding so the grant funding is due next month or the application is due next month. Um there is If we if the expectation is that um, we meet with the groups and we report back at the next council meeting um And then submit the grant That leaves a very little time for the grant writing. I don't know if this council is aware, but this is my last month with the city Um, I am leaving. I've accepted a position as the planning director with the town of hills hillsboro, california So um, thank you So, um in terms of resources just when we're talking just practically, um There may not be a body to write that my goal was to get the grant done and submitted before I left Um, now you do not necessarily have to apply for the grant and that is entirely up to the council If that is not something that you want to apply for Um, but the reality is is that to meet with the the group to be able to get a staff report together To come back to have this council make a decision and get a grant application in is a almost impossible feat Can I just ask a clarifying question because what I'm what I'm trying to get to understand is if You are precluded from developing a grant proposal for objective design standards for the city Without the decision making the decision about specifically the corridors and how to proceed with the corridors today I don't think so. No the way the grant application is worded that it would apply to all um, you know housing projects. So Thank you. Yeah, you could do that. You could do that without that by smear comings and then council For clarification. What is the timeline around Around the um creating the objective standards so Like around a year Little probably a little bit over a year. Honestly if we were if we were in contract right away. Yeah, our aim is to meet the november 2020 Expected timeline that was in the motion that would be the goal Now that would be a little bit of a reach Oh, yeah, definitely is going to be a reach and we wouldn't be able to commit to that until we you know To an actual date until we have Confirmation that we've received the grant number one and number two that we have Somebody under contract because they're going to really tell us Given what we want them to do what a reasonable timeline is but we would really push to have it done in 12 to 13 months And would these objective standards come back to council for a final approval? Yes Yes, they would be an amendment to our zoning ordinance, which is a legislative action So they would receive a recommendation from the planning commission and then come to your council for final adoption So if I understand correctly, there's an opportunity to meet with For example, save sankers some of these other groups who haven't had a chance to weigh in They can then weigh in during that process And then the final recommendations are going to come back to us Next year sometime Assuming that council has directed us To go ahead and pursue the sp2 grant for the objective design standards And and just to answer your other question about process I mean this the community would be involved We wouldn't be limiting ourselves to groups who were involved with the fire effort which currently for our focus groups We've been limiting our scope to just people who were involved that we've been able to find correspondence in the record, right? so I think there are a lot of people that are really interested I get you know an email Every other week or so from someone who wants to be involved, but They weren't involved previously and so I have not included them as of yet I think there are a lot of groups that weren't maybe represented in the fire effort that would want to be involved Deserved to be involved and so yes, there would be a broad community outreach safe Santa Cruz I would assume have be heavily involved. We would certainly reach out to them among other constituents to be participants in this process and And really guide it, you know What are the important features that we want to address in here? And what are the objective standards that are the most important to codify and to be clear? Should the council direct staff to pursue option one that doesn't preclude The city council from moving forward on other options related to the corridors not corridors There are reconciliation, right? However, what this does is it sets in motion The ability to start to provide certainty for the community in terms of the built form As quickly as possible And then if I heard correctly earlier you all are meeting with safe Santa Cruz and some other folks on the 28th Yes on Monday, we have a second focus group pulled together. Yeah, I'm going to withdraw my second Council member come It sounds it sounds to me that she can do the grant she can start the grant She doesn't have to wait till after that meeting like I don't believe right. Is that is that true? That is correct if I get the direct if we get the direction from council and all look I would like these groups to input into this process they're talking about and I don't feel like they're given that Have had that chance to do that. That's that's why I'm Thinking that this is the motion to go forward with and then come back to The council at our next meeting I'll second it to so we can continue this conversation because I'm quite interested in we want to call the question Okay, so we have a second by council member brown with draw by vice mayor coming Call the question motion by council member matthews. Is there a second to the call the question? Second seconded by council member mires a vote to call the question all those in favor. Please say aye. Hi any opposed no That passes with council member Matthews vice mayor Cummings mires and myself all those in favor of the motion on the floor the motion on the floor is The original motion by council member crone now seconded by council member brown Statement of that do you want to restate your motion or do you want to state the motion that you have in the record? But I captured if not, okay, would that be more My motion is to accept the monthly report on the general plan and zoning ordinance reconciliation effort And to reconvene both zoning reconciliation focus groups and Share the information that the materials that we have before us with those groups and return to council with the report back Next month and I might add also just that it doesn't mean that we can't pursue the grant That is our next item. Um in the meantime, okay So all those in favor of the motion. No, we can't discuss the motion as my understanding. Is that correct? That's correct. There's been a motion Adopted to call the question. Okay, please say aye I Opposed no that fails with council member matthews vice mayor Cummings myself and council member mires voting Against and council for crown glover and brown voting for Okay, well that moves us on then to the next item. I know Oh, sorry Okay, forgive me, okay council member matthews and then I'd like to move that we accept the monthly report on the general plan and zoning ordinance reconciliation effort and given the imperatives of Time and Cost that we direct staff to move forward with the Option one which is establishing mixed-use zoning districts concurrently with development of objective design standards for housing projects We have a motion by council member matthews. It's second and seconded by council member mires And I will add to that that they fully engage the focus groups currently established and embark on a Very broad public outreach process Except those Question I ask one clarifying question. So as we had met with these As we'd had these meetings we had not envisioned that we were creating a group Like at this point we were just intending them to be focus groups to sort of like Initiate this process and I'm hearing some kind of conflicting direction about what the role of those folks We've already invited is meant to be No Mine well, do you want to say? I'd like to speak to that. There's a meeting already set up apparently honor that meeting But um, I think this defines the direction of the council and we understand that the entire Uh design standard process objective design standard process would be a very broad process into the future Okay, so it's vice mayor coming from then council member brown my my understanding from that is that that's somewhat will Cover what I feel that council member crone was trying to get across which is Taking what's been recommended in this report going to the groups having discussions with them because ultimately My sense is that some folks felt like during the first process They're what they were hoping would come out of these design standards within that corridor plan Was absent and this is an opportunity for those groups to be able to weigh in at this meeting To continue to weigh in and then for other groups within t