he community to weigh in so that we can get these objective standards as quickly as possible Absolutely Okay, council member brown I just want to remind my colleagues that the original motion was not to conduct focus groups I've kind of accepted that that is the direction that staff went the the motion was to meet with these representatives to discuss um how to proceed with um Reconciling the general plan with the zoning and that is not what's happening Um, and so I'm I'm concerned. I'm disappointed that we are Now in a situation where we will vote to move ahead with something that we're already going to vote to move ahead on at the next agenda item without Hearing from the folks who we in the original motion suggested we'd like to hear more from And they wanted to be involved in so I'm just gonna say I'm disappointed with that My understanding is that that is what's gonna happen is that there will be meetings With these groups and many and many more council member But in the motion is are we always you're saying option one is what you're gonna pursue? Yes, but why why do that what maybe option two is better and that's the I don't think that our focus groups or our people who are on these committees had gotten this information I would love to hear from them before we go out and spend money, which is the better Way to go and maybe they have an option three And we heard from save santa Cruz was here and said, you know, don't do this is what I heard The man the person from the executive committee say, okay. Yeah, if I may address that um to council member brown's point, um We did Everything we could to encourage save santa Cruz to attend the first meeting they opted not to attend That was their choice. That was their prerogative Also since the making of the motion state law has changed significantly there are new elements new There's new information that we have to be responsive to Again option one does not preclude Us from meeting with the save santa Cruz group It does not preclude us from continuing to meet with other groups If new information comes to light that does not preclude council from Reassessing their approach and taking a different tact that said at this point the most expeditious point moving forward Is to apply for the grant funds and move forward with development of these objective standards if we do not Act with haste the city will end up in a situation where we have no control over the built form and frankly From my previous experience in other jurisdictions buildings will be value engineered to the ground You will you will not enjoy the built form I would strongly encourage azure advisor to please move forward with Directing staff to develop the objective standards We will meet with the community. We will continue to have conversations with them and the council can then we will We're reporting back on a monthly basis on the conversations and on the progress at any time council can Modify that direction, but today time is of the essence. It is imperative that we move forward on the objective standards Well, I follow your logic, so okay I'm just trying to understand how are we moving forward on the on the objective standards You apply for a grant you meet with a couple groups again You share the information see if they have anything to input onto into this process Then it comes back to the council on november 12th. Yeah, well not november 12th We will not be able to be back november 12 for planning on coming back on the 26th For our next report for our next monthly report. So yes, we will be meeting with those groups However, we need to go ahead and apply for this grant And that's fine. That is fine applying for the grant. I support totally support that Okay, so so let me if I could i'm sorry I apologize for my density here. I don't want to make sure that we're being responsive to direction and I feel like Um Feelings in the room are indicating to me that we haven't followed direction So I want to be absolutely crystal clear on this. So when you say in the motion that you want us to meet with Groups local groups. I took that to be like a one-off meeting Were you intending for that to be more of a committee that we would establish a committee group of Some kind that we would meet with repeatedly. I just No, the intention was to meet with say sienna crews and other neighborhood groups, right to My understanding is many of the folks who came to the last meeting were not east side neighbors But i'm going to let that go to meet with save sienna crews and other neighborhood groups to discuss these changes If that took more than one meeting Then it could take more than one meeting the intention was not to set up a committee an ongoing committee of any sort I see. I believe vice-man Cummings wanted to speak to me. I think It is that there's already a meeting set up to meet with them like and If It turns out there's a need for more which I would expect that throughout designing this entire process There's going to be as I've heard you all mention Meetings with a lot of other community groups to understand. You know, what do they want within the community? right and The other thing that I heard from this is that there's two options. One's a general plan. One's um Creating these objective standards To make adjustments to the general plan that's going to take a lot longer Right in terms of being able to get these objective standards and if it's two to four years, for example, then any um Any developments that come in during that time? They'll only have to meet our minimum objective standards which have been adopted by the city So currently what we're trying to do is get some objective standards input from the community groups so that As developments come on board that we have some control over What those standards are going to be and then if from these meetings that you all have with the community It turns out there's another direction. We want to take we can change course at the time Absolutely, but currently we need to get some objective standards because it's absolutely currently a minimum Sure I just want to say to my colleagues that You know One of the things that I heard when meeting with Community groups during the campaign was the fact that there were certain developments that were coming in That did not meet any standards of what some of these community groups wanted And as a result there was a lot of pushback against what those developments are going to look like Now with the passing of sp 30 which wasn't in place back then When january 1st hits some of these developments that may not have any Look field design that is compatible with those neighborhoods will be able to go forward Until we get some objective standards put in place And so if that is going to if we're going to have to wait for a general plan amendment that might take multiple years That means that's the that time period when we won't have any control over the standards. So I really, you know Encourage the staff to engage with the neighbors so that we understand what their needs are and we can continue to Meet those needs, but I think that the longer we wait on this it's a concern because um We just that's more time that we don't have control Okay, councilmember clever and then councilor mayers and councilor crone Thank you. I just have to make an observation right now about the tone of this conversation It's really making me uncomfortable. Um, especially in the back and forth between the staff and the council members Uh, I believe that We're in the situation right now because of a failure initially whether it be of the previous council or staff or a combination of both To do the robust outreach necessary to make sure that people in the community felt like their voices were taken to consideration So while I can understand the frustration potentially felt by Certain members of the people up here You know and it's weird because I don't know can I say members of staff because Of the way that that energy is coming back here in response to the questions that are being asked Also councilmember brown and councilmember crone are obviously making it very clear that they have an interest and concern About the lack of community input and the steps take to get there So I think that we should be able to have an open and honest robust conversation of Challenging each other but not having this aggressive tone and hitting hands on the table Which we saw from some of the other colleagues up here the other day and a completely inappropriate outburst So I really I understand the importance of the Uh, the community engagement even in the the list there. I mean how many people of color are on that list in the community Uh outreach group that you participated in I know a lot of the names on that list and to my my personal knowledge I don't see very many if any people of color on that list with regards to the impact of having it on community So there is a severe lack of community engagement There has been a severe lack of development of affordable housing and in my opinion a lack of proactive movement towards community engagement effectively so I Well, whichever direction the council goes. I just want to put it on the record that this exchange and interaction I think it was incredibly inappropriate Okay, let's go ahead and we'll go ahead and take the vote. We have a motion by councilmember matthew seconded by Councilmember mires all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? So that passes with councilmember matthew's vice mayor Cummings myself and mires voting in support chrome glover and brown voting against Okay, so that moves us right along then to our next item, which is sp To state planning grant application item number 13 in our general business agenda And I believe you will item Okay, based on the conversation we just had I'm hopeful that this will be relatively quick All right So a little bit of background in 2017 the building homes and jobs act, which is known as sp2 mandated a 75 dollar recording fee on real estate documents And that is to be a permanent source of funding to increase affordable housing stock in the state So the planning plan plan excuse me planning grant program Indicates that 50% of the that revenue that's collected in the first years to be used for planning grants And those are grants intended to help jurisdictions update their policy documents to expedite facilitate expedite housing They are available on a non competitive basis to eligible jurisdictions And those are jurisdictions essentially that have been regularly reporting to hcd and have a housing element that is current and Basically, they're meeting their hcd objectives We are one of those so we are encouraging council to direct us to apply the funding amount is based on population And for the city of santa cruz, we're eligible for up to $310,000 and reverse reimbursable grant funding So the important thing to note is that it is reimbursable So we would outlay the funds initially and then recoup I think on a quarterly basis is generally for these type of grants when you report And applications are due next month So we have two options here for you. Um, the first is a expanded updates to the downtown plan The pros of this is that it's called for in the 2030 general plan to either or expand the downtown plan boundaries to up to River street up to highway one And or to incorporate beach south of laurel area into the downtown plan This could facilitate housing development. So it could be a potential win for this grant The cons are that it's not one of the five priority policy areas in the grant And so what those are in the grant are five types of applications that you could put in that are automatically going to be approved This does not fall into one of those what that means is that it makes the grant Harder to write because we have to do justification of why we believe this meets the priority policy areas Whereas something like the objective standards, which we'll discuss shortly Already qualified that is listed as one of the five types of projects. You can do that get automatic approval Additionally, since it's not a ppa the award would not be guaranteed while they're non competitive They do have to meet those certain requirements of demonstrating that you're Promoting and expediting housing development The other con is that unlike the objective standards. This project is not time sensitive Option two that we're presenting to you. This is Steph's recommended option. Um, oh That should not say that at the top you can tell I cut and paste it a slide Option two is a development of objective design standards. So please forgive that error The pros are that Development of these standards as we discussed with the last item allow city to retain some control in light of the housing crisis act of 2019 It will provide certainty to the community on final design and This particular Application type is identified as a ppa, which means it will get automatic approval Staff doesn't have to do any additional justification as to why we think it meets the standards The state has already said if you do objective design standards, you automatically get the grant So I see no cons staff sees no cons to this particular one So the fiscal implications The option one my estimates based on previous experience with similar types of projects Would be in the range of 250 000 to 500 000 option two would be somewhere between three to 350 to 400 000 Um, so again, we would be required to provide the funding upfront be reimbursed And if the if the costs went above the 310 we would be responsible for Providing the delta, but there is no match required for this grant. So that's another thing the grant is amazing It's it's what they call over the counter and as long as you have a current housing element You've been reporting to hdd every year and you're going to be expediting housing You you have the money. So it's a really great opportunity So the recommendation by staff is by motion to direct us to submit an application to hdd for sb2 planning grant In support of option one development of objective design standards And you can tell I was doing this quickly because we have two ones number two Would be to adopt the authorizing resolution indicating council support for the sb2 planning grant application And that is one of the things that is required by the grant is that council adopts an authorizing resolution Supporting us applying for the grant. So with that, I will uh, insert any questions that you have any questions Questions could you go back to that last slide? Option one was the expanded updates to the downtown plan. So I just want to be Clear on what Jiminy Christmas. Yes, you can tell I literally put this together like half an hour before this meeting. Yes I am so sorry guys option two development of objective design standards. Yes any other questions Any member of the community wanting to address the council on this item? Okay, seeing them. We'll go ahead and return back for action and deliberation Before we do I just want to say Sarah, you know, congratulations and thank you for Your professionalism your integrity and your hard work on behalf of the city of Santa Cruz. I hope that Hillsboro Knows how lucky they are and I hope you're received by that community with respect and are able to do the good work that you've done here There thank you, and your jacket is just awesome Thank you to be said And I appreciate that and I realized that I did get passionate on the last item It is something that is of great importance to me and I felt that the time is now to be very candid and very direct I can be very animated and yes, I did pound on the table, but that is That's the passion behind it. I care very deeply for this community And I I am very hopeful that the community is able to find a way to come together and to Continue to move forward and be the continue to be the great community that it is because this was not a decision That was made easily and I'm Sad to go So thank you very much Okay, councilmember brown vice mayor Cummings and then council Yeah, um I I want to add that Especially about the jacket, but no, you know, I I really appreciate your work and I In no way by You know wanting and advocating for neighborhood involvement in these conversations Am I suggesting that you don't have those or any of our staff don't have those interests at heart? So I want to just clarify that and thank you for your Your work for us And then I'll just move that we adopt a resolution directing staff To submit an application to the state of california's sp2 planning grant program second Okay, we have a motion by councilmember brown second All those in favor or and it includes all that necessarily Includes a recommendation, please. Okay. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously. Let's take a five minute break before the next meeting Oh, did you have a relationship to this item? Uh in conversational was going on and in in this I would uh I would like to just encourage us to have Uniform expectations and I can appreciate Passion in what's going on and caring about the community. Absolutely at the same time I know that I have received incredible Criticism for being just as if not less passionate about specific issues So I want to put it on the record so that we can be conscious about how we perceive and interact with people On this dais and criticize their behavior. Thank you Okay, we'll take a five minute break Okay We'll go ahead and reconvene our meeting and next on our Agenda under general business is item number 14 on our agenda And that's the introduction of ordinance amending building regulations contained in title 18 Of the santa cruz municipal code and adopting the california code of regulations title 24 2019 building standards code to establish minimum requirements to safeguard Public health life safety and general welfare. That's a mouthful And we'll go ahead and invite up our presenters or we have them here seated and uh, I'll hand it over to our uh planning director lea bowler Thank you mayor and council members lea bowler director of planning and community development And with me today is john mclucus. He is our interim deaf and building official And our building and safety team Does a lot of things that make this community safe our building official sometimes says if nothing happens We've done our job. So when earthquakes happen This team is making sure that the buildings stand up if there's a fire or other emergency They're making sure that they're constructed in a manner such that people can escape out of the building or that are talented and dedicated rescue workers can get into that building and rescue people They also do things like accessibility and making sure that people of different abilities have the opportunity to Get into and to move around in and to access all of our structures. And so They look at plumbing electrical mechanical structural and green building and every three years the state updates those codes and I'm going to turn it over to john To talk about the updates that have occurred over this year that would take effect on January 1st of 2020 and then i'll jump back in to address some reach codes When john is concluded Thank you. Mayor Watkins council members. Thanks for having us So we're introducing an ordinance to amend the municipal code title 18, which is our local building code And it is to adopt the state mandated mandated 2019 california building standards codes Title 24. It's also known as and those codes become effective January 1st 2020 As least said we do this every three years. So we're a little rusty The trail these these codes are based on National model codes which again have a three-year cycle the california codes Always follow like a year later because it takes them that that long to have their own public hearings And go through their own code process to come up with the california codes The code is published in july prior to the application the data becomes Valid and so it really allows us a short time for review Both reviewing the the code that we've got now and seeing what the new codes how they impact that And how we have to kind of meld everything together So we've gone through and reviewed the municipal code title 18 to reflect the new state codes And also to maintain consistency with regional modifications that have been made to those codes based on seismic design requirements in our region So Most of this most of this work is just updating the the code edition for one year to the you know to the Year that you're you know, you're in adopting There's a lot of cleanup Dining eyes and crossing teas and then we also adopt some modifications based on regional consensus between the local building officials in the bay area region Um Some of these things that we we modify from the from the california codes have to do with uh requiring foundations be reinforced for seismic and Previously we had We had disallowed certain types of bracing systems for for buildings based on kind of their failure rate in in past earthquakes We are actually introducing a new bracing system that we had disallowed in the past, which was the Portland cement or stucco system in one-story buildings Any modifications we make has to be justified to the building safety a building standards commission based on our local climatic geologic or Topographic factors and can only be more restrictive than the state codes are based on We've also uh in this In this ordinance adopted four new appendices now appendices are parts of the code that are Not mandatory but can be adopted by local ordinance to be as as part of the code and the ones that we have adopted at this time is The residential code appendix k Which is regarding sound transmission between multifamily dwellings This is a standard that's been In the code for all map multifamily dwellings except for two family dwellings Ever since the Ever since the residential code was split off from the from the building code itself And we're basically just restoring that Requirement to apply to duplexes The second one is again in the residential code appendix q Which applies to tiny houses? this is a new a new appendix and it what it deals with Dwellings that are 400 square feet or less and it provides for Reduced ceiling height requirements as well as Some direction on Sleeping lofts which are which is a little more advantageous than what's in the code right now The third appendix is Again in the residential code the swimming pool safety act This is basically just a recitation of whatever what is is actually just state state code right now And the only reason we adopted it is because we need to align our local modifications regarding swimming pool barriers With that act The last appendix is from the the california billing code and that appendix o is also a new New appendix and this applies to emergency housing Which are basically What we read to be kind of bridge housing developments. They give you some standards It's kind of a blueprint for what these might be They say, you know how and what they don't tell you where to put them Um So the purpose of this ordinance adoption is to comply with the state mandate Assuring that the most recent standards are part of our local building codes We encourage you to approve the ordinance to preserve the health life and safety standards for a built environment And protect our community I'll take any questions And if I could add just one thing Um Back in august when we were talking about the advanced planning divisions work plan The council had an inquiry about reach codes related to building electrification And we said we would do some research and be prepared to answer some questions For the council um today We did not get any formal direction from the council in respect to pursuing a building electrification reach code and so The update that we have today is that the Monterey Bay community power is developing Standards that could be used for the entire region and the the benefit of waiting on that is we can coordinate with them they will do some of the legwork and We can have our say but also If other jurisdictions in the surrounding area adopt those same standards If someone's building in the county and there's someone or they're building here or capitol or scott's valley They would have those same standards applicable. So there is some benefit to having that regional standard And should the council want us to pursue that we would request that you provide that direction today And we would also Just give you an update on the timeline of that. We expect roughly Six months until they Have those standards developed and that would put us sometime mid-year Of next year in coming back to The council which also gives our team some time to digest and train and learn about the new codes And we do have Some of our our technical experts dr. Tiffany wise west as well as uh curr hurley here in the audience Should council have any technical questions related to the building electrification reach codes Thank you for finding that opportunity for potential alignment I'm interested in that so when the time comes we'll look at some language for the motion. Great Is there any questions from the council for staff at this time? Is there any member of the community who wants to address the council on this item? Seeing then we'll go ahead and return back to council for action. Um, council member matthews by smear comings Um, I will put the motion on the floor as recommended To introduce for publication the ordinances as described And uh direct that the staff return I guess the the language would be when the timing is appropriate Regarding the reach code Modification is that following the Monterey bay community power? Yeah, that's what I mean development of the reach code So I'll put that motion on the floor. I'll second. Okay. I'll second the motion by smear comings I was gonna make a motion too Yeah, I I pleased to Be able to support this motion as well. I um, I do want to raise and I think it's probably Happening, but I maybe it's a more of a question related to the potential with the reach codes to Leverage funding through Monterey bay community power. I know that they're working to Create opportunities and as a the city representative that mbc board. I'm you know kind of following along with what the work that they're doing so um, just want to If tiffani since you're here, I'd love to hear just a little bit from you about that and anything else you want to Say before we move ahead. Sure. Good afternoon council members may are tiffani wise west sustainability and climate action manager So Monterey bay community power has come out with their electrification strategic plan Which does call for some incentives, particularly around new affordable housing Incentives for electrification and so that's something that I'm in constant communication with them about and how that exactly will look when it comes out as director Butler said that we're expecting that probably no earlier than six months four to six months approximately And I do think that that will Assist developers in transitioning over to this style of development Which for our region is truly the next transformational emissions reduction mechanism To in order to allow us to reach our share of the state's 2045 carbon neutrality goal And of course as we go forward with our climate action planning We could adopt an earlier goal to that but that will certainly be a primary mechanism Monterey bay community power itself was the first transformational mechanism to allow us to achieve our 2020 greenhouse gas emissions goals and this will be the next I just want to thank you for your work to Follow along with that process and um all of your work I know this has been something that we've talked about before and it's been it's a long time Not a lot. It seems like a long time coming, but I know you've been doing work along the way So thank you for thank you helping us move forward Any other comments, okay all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed. Okay. That passes unanimously. Thank you Okay next item on our agenda is item number 15 Which is the adoption of findings for modification of the 2019 edition of the california fire code and fire code standards Including annual supplements and state amendments in erota Welcome Afternoon mayor walk-ins council. My name is rob odi.  They stole my thunder So I won't bore you with all the details, but the process is very similar in terms of how Um california fire code is developed. It too comes from international code council national fire code and then the state goes through And very similar to building. It's all based on You know research and development that occurs throughout code cycles where safety concerns are highlighted and addressed obviously all These codes are there for the safety and protection of the public as well as the responders as well Um, so of course the reason that they're there is something did happen. And so I needed to be addressed um as a result We were proposing to adopt the 2019 california fire code edition with their amendments again, it's a three-year cycle over the last nine to 12 months um Myself and deputy fire marshal shields have worked with the santa coups county fire prevention officers to collectively prepare the ordinance um This is also in conjunction with the santa coups county fire chiefs cooperation And the effort was made or it's we recognized that Regulatory consistency between the various fire agencies in the county Minimizes confusion and lessens the impact on the public So again over the last nine to 12 months this group has worked together to bring you what we have today Um and their proposals. I just like to highlight A few of the major changes that we've made or at least suggested First in chapter three of the fire code under 19 of the santa coups municipal code There's an update for the violation of deliberate or negligent burning in open spaces currently it's an infraction and difficult for us to achieve You know any type of Just basically it was difficult with the infraction It carried little weight and dissuading and preventing these types of burning activities The other option that we had was to enter into the penal code And had this be a felony and we found that that was maybe too draconian too drastic And where the infraction obviously wasn't getting us uh what we needed in terms of providing safety for the community So we worked with the city attorney's office and bringing um the possibility of having it be a misdemeanor and um basically This allows the potential for fire code officials to have the ability to evaluate And determine the cause the intent and the severity of the situation and enforce the ordinance with sound judgment Which hopefully will prevent catastrophic wildfire event that threatens the city's open spaces And the residents who live adjacent to these sensitive areas And of course despite the issuing from the fire code official themselves the decision Was obviously deferred to the city attorney, which will have final authority on deciding the final outcome Should it go that route The next major change Is chapter 39 of the fire code And due to the rapid increase in the cannabis industry And the recent events over the last couple of years with uh, honey oil labs in the city With these businesses Coming into the city We the california fire code addresses the plant processing and extraction facilities So we've added a section that requires the extraction gas detection equipment in these labs To activate the building's fire alarm system if the gas levels exceed 25 percent of the lower explosive limit And again, that's just uh for safety of People that work in these facilities the responders and the people that live in the areas that work in the areas around these facilities The next major change In light of the devastating wildfires throughout the state in both in the past and currently We've wanted the state has adopted chapter 49 Which provides for minimum standards to increase the ability of a structure to resist flame intrusion Or burning embers during a wildfire for areas identified as wild urban interface or the wooey Which have been determined by fire code officials Within these areas Good construction requirements that are identified in the california building code chapter 7a california residential code Construction r337 And california reference standards code chapter 12 through 7a Apply to all new construction in these areas And all new materials that are used for additions and remodels in uh for homes in these areas So those are kind of the three major changes that we've proposed And so in summary the fire department is recommending that the city council adopt the 2019 california fire code as submitted for the attached ordinance And with that if you guys have any questions be happy to answer them for you Thank you for the summary any questions from the council at this time Any oh do you have a question just a quick one you mentioned it's on our page 15.2 Bolstering vegetation management. Can you just talk about that a little bit? Yes, that falls under the chapter 49 as well. So in conjunction with public education Community organization through like the firewise program that we have with various neighborhoods in the city And as well as enforcing codes vegetation management is a huge part of that and what the code actually Sites is it gives us within those areas recommendations that residents Can sort of again mitigate hazards around their home Those areas are defined as zero to five feet five to 30 feet and 100 feet and it gives them recommendations on how to trim grass shrubs and trees around their homes So those are advisory is that correct it will be enforceable And that will be on On privately owned and yes By any currently the city has a weed abatement program for vacant locks But this expands that a little bit into the wui areas where we can actually enforce these Mitigation efforts within those regions specifically into the wildland interface And does it impose additional expectations on the city itself? That's just a question. It may increase our inspection. So the inspectors may need to go out and Do periodic checks to make sure that they're complying but in terms of cost Of what we've done along the upper part of the dilavia. That's all part of the effort. It's similar Yes, but that was like on us to do the this will be on the residents themselves or the property Or both yes, and we are getting a lot of grants to yeah, we're working with you know, very fire safe council Cal fire for different grant funding for these projects and what these do is allow us To develop those community groups like fire wise where we're Along with them doing the work in their neighborhoods to fortify their homes and prevent the spread of fire We're doing the same work. So it definitely works in concert with each other Very important work Question comes right over. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for the the presentation y'all Fire safety is incredibly important, especially with Climate change and all that stuff that we've been dealing with Just wanted to get some clarification under the area that talks about negligent burning From an infraction to a misdemeanor specifically citing the number of fires 150 open space fires within the last 18 months all being human caused In your opinion, I just for the record that Were those human caused ones predominantly from people that were living outdoors? That all the data that was collected was by way of our reporting system And there's a new app that we use where when we go out and respond Regardless of who the person was they may or may not be on the scene still We're just documenting the cause and the origin and that typically is out in those open spaces Okay. Yeah, just because my concern with that shift from an infraction to a misdemeanor Since we do have inadequate shelter service and especially as we enter into the winter months where there may hopefully Be rain right but just in case of there's not and people are trying to keep themselves wars potentially in open spaces the impact of their criminal record if they Neggently or unintentionally Start a fire because they're trying to either cook or stay warm because of a lack of access to services And then the impact that could have on them not only financially but also and potentially becoming incarcerated if It gets charged to the certain level of severity. I'm not yeah, I understand your concern Which is why currently you have either infraction or at times we've gone down the the felony route Which has obviously has much more of an impact on those individuals So with that we tried to find some middle ground and we feel as though again It's just another step in that ladder But also the big point big part of it is is that we're really looking at the cause and the intent just with like any felony arson we're looking for intent and so this would be if it's accidental if it has to be something where again The circumstances were such that it was accidental not intentional or not repeated behavior. That is a threat Again, the fire code official Would definitely take all that into consideration prior to issuing that Including the time of year. So, you know, it's not going to be as impactful in the winter when there is rain versus You know in the next couple days where we have low humidity high wind event and heat Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that we at least set it out loud so that we could provide some sense of Comfort for people. Yeah, and we were sensitive to that and just trying to find some middle ground That would sort of be beneficial to both sides of that And then ideally figuring out ways so that people don't have to use open flames to stay warm in public spaces Which is the ultimate fire safety go, right? Yeah, absolutely Unless there's no further questions. Is there any member of the community wanting to speak to us on this item? Seeing them, we'll go ahead and return back for council action I'll move the staff recommendation second We have a motion by vice mayor Cummings seconded by council mark lever any further discussion Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. All right. Any opposed? That passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for your time Thank you for your work. Thank you And next on our agenda is item number 16 and that's the resolution calling an election to be held on march 3rd 2020 and We'll go ahead and oh is this mr. Kandadi introducing it Yes, I will introduce this item Um The item before you is a proposed amendment to the city charter relating to public works construction And this item originated um several months ago in discussions That my office was having with the water department, which as you know Has several really huge infrastructure projects coming down the pike that are anticipated to be Um awarded and constructed within the next several years. So there's a very long term View here towards getting ready to do a lot of major infrastructure projects Um, the proposal is an amendment to the charter I'm going to do this slide presentation in reverse Um, that's too far Currently under the city charter And there's a red line draft in your agenda packet It states that any public works Or improvements costing more than such amount as may be prescribed by ordinance shall be executed by contract And That all such contracts shall be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder after public notice and competition And the lowest responsible bidder is a term of art in the construction industry and it implies That the contract will be awarded under the traditional design bid build method that you're accustomed to seeing when The staff comes to you with either a request to approve plans and specs and authorize that a project go out to bid Or to award a contract that has been Put out to bid and the way that process works is that A team consisting of engineers and architects and designers will design the project and prepare project plans and specifications for it And then when the project Design is approved then it will be advertised for bids and construction companies will come in and bid on the project And under the the current law So long as a construction contractor is qualified to submit a bid And the bid conforms to all of the plans and specifications Then the city is obligated to award the contract to the lowest bidder In in recent years a lot of different jurisdictions state entities cities other public agencies have been looking to What are called alternative project delivery methods and the most common example of those is the design build method And the design build method essentially entails Putting out a request for proposals from qualified design build entities And those typically will get together and include architects engineers designers and construction firms And once a and a preliminary design is done and once that um request for qualifications is sent out then the uh, then the the city in this case would Send out a request for proposals to the entities that it determines Meet the qualifications to do the project. So it's um, and then Uh, the request for proposals will more explicitly set out what the basically the primary objective of the project is And some very preliminary design and engineering work And then we'll accept proposals from the different design build entities Then the city will take those rank the proposals on the basis of the most qualified The cost certainly the timeline proposed for construction And in a design build contract the maximum guaranteed price for the contract And what has been Observed in these types of projects Is that oftentimes they result in a lower cost in a better product and in a faster delivery because it's done in one Phase as opposed to the design the bid and the build phase So the recommendation here Is that we amend the charter to authorize the city to award construction contracts Um, based on these alternative design Alternative project delivery methods Uh, if it's approved by the voters then that will provide us with additional Flexibility in approaching some of the more complex and larger Public works projects that will be coming before you It will ensure that all of our existing contracting standards like prevailing wage and reaching out to Uh minority owned businesses and women owned businesses and all of our other policies are adhered to But just in a different, um delivery package I see Heidi and marker here and I'm sure we'll be happy to weigh in if you have any questions or comments But the recommendation is to adopt the resolution placing this on the march 3rd primary ballot Any questions from the council at this time? Councilor connoisseur Yeah, I was just I maybe I was mixed up. We're not like just setting the date for the election 2020 But we're just putting we're putting this issue on that election That's right. We we would be asking the county elections official to consolidate this measure on the march 3rd primary ballot with the other election matters And when we say fiscal impact is it is it cost the city something to put this on the ballot? It does but this isn't the only ballot measure that the city is Putting on the march 3rd ballot you you just recently approved the The charter amendment for the school district And it does not cost anything additional to put more than one Ballot measure on the on the ballot. Um, so it won't result in any additional cost that you wouldn't already occur by virtue of that other item And there are Multiple benefits from this approach including Savings of time and money and so forth so and this has come to us at the request of the water department So i'm going to go ahead and move the recommendation before oh before you do it. Let me just see it Is there any member of the committee? We'll have that and then we'll go ahead and okay You'll have up to two minutes Good afternoon scott graham. Um, I don't have any problem with changing this process and how You select a Firm to build something My question about this particular measure is because it's a charter amendment How does it interface with the amendment that was changed? When the d-cell People got it got their um charter amendment on there And made a requirement that any project over a certain dollar amount had to go to the public to be voted upon Is this going to change that or is that's going to interface with it? How how is that going to happen? That's what I want to know. Thank you Any other members of the community? Then we'll go ahead and return back. Do you want to go ahead and try to Yes, that the um initiative that was adopted with respect to the d-cell project will not be affected by this at all Okay Yeah, so I'd like to go ahead and put this um Move the recommendation before us to put this on the ballot. I'll second it Okay, motion by council member matthew seconded by council member mires any further discussion Okay, all those in favor. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously. I do have a follow-up to this too. Uh, typically when Something goes on the ballot at our initiative um, we designate a process for Responsible party to write the ballot arguments in favor and to have to designate signers. So I'd like to also I can make that a motion that we designate to the mayor the designation of a Responsible parties to work on the ballot argument and signers committee If that's agreeable to people that's that that's fine for me. I've done that before Okay, I'll I'll second the motion any further discussion All those in favor. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously. Good. Thanks for thinking of that ahead of time Thank you. Okay, so this um Nice planning vice mayor. We're going to go ahead and adjourn our meeting until the evening session Which we'll begin with oral communications at 7 p.m And for those who may be watching at home and planning on joining us this evening We do have the tony hill room available for overflow if needed So we'll see you back here at 7 If I could get your attention, please Thank you very much All right, I appreciate your attention Thank you very much If I could ask you to quiet your voices and or to take your conversations outside if you prefer to keep talking I'm going to go ahead and call to order our evening item and I'll ask our clerk to please call the roll Thank you mayor council members crone Happy to be here Clever here Fires here brown here Matthews here vice mayor coming.  Is that acceptable for you, ma'am? No I invited you up. Please and please for the safety of our community Maybe so the the fire chief has asked that we don't line up against this wall for egress exiting And so if you're lined up go ahead and ask that you have respect for our fire marshal as he makes his announcement To ensure the safety of our community. I'm respectful for you. Please be respectful back. That's all I ask, right? So if that welcome remain clear if you're lining up to speak I'll allow you to stand to be in line to speak We're at capacity now and I ask that that doorway stay clear. That's all I ask Thank you very much. Thank you Okay So as I um said before this is our um evening session of our oct 20 october 22nd 2019 meeting of the santa cruz city council And um before we get started I'd like to let the community know that we did reserve the tony hill room over in the civic auditorium for overflow For this evening's item We do have an evening item that will begin at 7 30 p.m Before we start the evening item, we will have time for oral communications So i'll go ahead and open up oral communications And oral communications is an opportunity for members of our community to speak to us on items that are not listed on today's agenda If I could get a sense of how many people are here for oral communications Okay So we will have um 90 we'll have 90 seconds for oral communications in hopes to be able to hear from everybody We have a limited time because we have a uh evening item And so we'll conclude oral communications at 7 35 and hopefully be able to hear from all folks who are wanting to speak to Us on items not on today's agenda I just want to remind those in the council chambers and outside of the council chambers That um we have rules of decorum and it's the responsibility of the Chair of the meeting myself as mayor to ensure that no matter who you are or the expressions you have That you can do so without intimidation or harassment I ask that while you are here in council chambers that you respect your fellow citizens and you respect the process We hope to have a process that we can hear from you as well as some time for us to deliberate And no one should feel intimidated or threatened for expressing their views before us So if I do see you Not abiding by our rules of decorum I will give you a verbal warning if I see you continually Disrupting our council proceedings. I will ask that you leave the chambers I think that we all want to have this process unfold as respectfully as possible And so I ask you to um respect the process while you're here participating in council So with that said we'll go ahead and open up oral communications. Um, you'll have 90 seconds. Please step forward 90 seconds says two In a minute It's not It's not set. I'll wait till it's set I have 90 seconds and I will start it But 90 seconds regard to go ahead. It's it says a minute. I haven't started it yet. So go ahead and I started Okay, we'll I need a little head Okay, well have anybody who wants to go first for the 90 seconds, please come forward. You have up to 90 seconds Okay That says one minute. It's okay. My name's james ewing whitman I found that my found youth is actually doing research Had I actually found the research that I thought I had read I would have submitted some stuff to the da And I hope to find that information because I think there's a couple issues So I want to say that I wish that I was addressing eight-year-olds because I find eight-year-olds Very engaging and kind of really easy to discuss and dialogue Because I think our society on a whole is facing some really strong problems And if they were up to me and if I ran the zoo I would recommend that everybody be familiar with four books So briefly one is climate crash where they go all over the world and they do ice core samples They go back only 600 000 years what they discover is dramatic climate change doesn't take centuries It takes five to 20 years. It's a good book another book is called a short history of progress by Ronald Wright It describes what?  It's got to be one of the funniest books I've ever read two books two stories of note Our goose up kills the water monster and the dogs hold an election Really enjoyed reading that with my book. I have 30 seconds Fourth book is a short history of progress written by Howard zinn. There's only about one paragraph out of the 10 000 that describes the society That was found in the Caribbean islands where that society had No marriage no jealousy no greed and was run by women and when those women Wanted to create a child they invited whatever man they wanted in to their tent Guess what in that village situation the men raised the children everybody got along pretty well Which is not how I see our society. Thank you Good evening I listened with interest last time To the presentation on renaming the pedestrian bridge And the art project and I was very moved by greg pepping's Presentation I think it's lovely in all ways to do that I would like you please to make it a pedestrian bridge to make it safe and comfortable for people to walk on It isn't because there are many bicyclists and to a lesser extent skateboarders Who will not get off their wheels and walk through the park and across the river on the bridge As the very small signs tell them to do And it's become even worse because of jump bikes There are many elders who use that bridge to walk from Dakota avenue To trader joes and bookshop Santa Cruz other places downtown So Can you please call it chinatown footbridge? The lettering could very easily be chinatown footbridge also put Consequential signs With uniforms and fines attached. Thank you very much Should I just start? Yeah, hi, my name is josh mohinsky Um, I'm a homeowner and a landlord and I want to tell you about something. I'm really concerned about um Our community is falling apart rapidly as people are being pushed out of this community because of rents And there's something that's making it speeding it up right now And I think it's a bit of an urgent situation with the rent control that's coming in january 1st There are landlords all over the region all over the county that are evicting people right now So Those of us who are doing render advocacy work are getting information people are calling us Continually saying we're about to get a notice. We just got a notice and it's especially for section 8 tenants right now And you'll hear from a bunch of them coming soon But this is something that is urgent and you can actually Do what other cities have done in um, california where they've implemented the um Uh the just cause portion of the statewide bill early and that will be like a rent freeze We'll protect us from that sort of chaos where landlords freak out And they're really terrified um, and they evict people and so we have dozens already. I mean that's I expect it'll be a lot more soon But there's already dozens of people that are about to lose their homes in the next month and you all can act On that and really make it a much better place to live. So Thanks for thinking about it Before we have our next speaker I just want to make an announcement that this was brought to my attention earlier today And it will likely be agendized for our upcoming meeting um for our special meeting next Tuesday Okay, okay, please. My name is lee brokaw and I think it's appropriate to Make a comparison to this particular council's administration to the loma pre-aid earthquake I think that 30 years from now this will be remembered as the watkins fissure I had a chance to go to the commission for prevention of violence against women and I was much surprised On the 9th of october to see a motion to implore mayor watkins to re-agendize the censure for councilmember crone and glover I read from the vision For the commission for prevention violence against women to end sexual assault sexual harassment domestic violence in the city of Santa Cruz through prevention programs and public policy mission to collaborate with local stakeholder partners and law enforcement to ensure best practices to respond to and prosecute violent crimes against women purpose To make ending violence against women the highest priority in the city of Santa Cruz To ensure collaboration with other public private agencies to support existing programs support the development new programs as needed To facilitate meaningful citizen participation in the work of the commission To continue to work with law enforcement to develop strategies for the sessful prosecution and conviction of crimes of violence against women Nowhere in there Is their censor of council members as part of the agenda? next speaker Hi, my name is salise casby. I'm here to speak about the Today is the last day on the first phase of the recall The recall Has been one of the ugliest and dirtiest campaigns that I have seen in my life. I'm over 60 I've been in politics for the last 25 years I am going to call on council members mires watkins and matthews to come out publicly and denounce the recall The recall drumbeat started after the november 2018 election and it was directly because we had finally gotten a progressive majority on council And just in comings has been mostly progressive and we were counting on him Especially in the area of renter protections and thanks justin for what you've done there I just want to say that at the march 13th meeting of the santa cruz together The complete strategy was mapped out by the pro recall people including Picking on drew because they perceived him as vulnerable using justin because they saw him as inexperienced They mapped out their their costs and they've gone over cost There is a rumor that the recall has been 16 to 50 dollars per signature in the last few days The amount of deceptions and lies that have been promoted from the media such as the sentinel is has been abysmal I'm asking the council members In good faith to denounce the recall I'm carolin ronzano, and i'm here tonight to speak to you about the circle church But there's a couple of things I want you to know about me first My daughter and her fiance are currently living with me because of the housing affordability issue in the city So i'm aware of that problem. I'm aware of the need for housing And also I don't subscribe subscribe to a generic anti development philosophy But I do believe that the circle church is a unique one-of-a-kind city icon that should be preserved I would like the historic preservation commission as an unpaid neutral party Be allowed to review and comment on the historic report that was prepared for the developers for the arid circle proposal Currently they are really hamstrung by the planning department I have tried twice to get this on their agenda At the last meeting I was advised by the commission that the only way To have this item added is through the city council and that is why i'm here tonight. I hope you can focus on me Yeah, can you pass my time please if I could ask that you please keep your voices down? We're going to do our best to hear you when you want to speak and This woman here deserves your respect as she speaks and addresses the council as well Okay, so maybe we could close the door or something like that if the voices in the hallway couldn't keep it down. Thank you fire marshal Thank you. Thank you very much Okay, so there is no specific language in their bylaws or the zoning ordinance that restricts them from reviewing any historic report So I would like to reform a request that the council agendize a discussion About allowing the hpc to review the arid circle proposal in historic report and I hope this can be a formal request I don't really know what the process is This center has served as our neighborhood as a spiritual center community center in park for over 130 years I believe it deserves this consideration Thank you, and please it's important to us. Thank you Hi bruce thomas 18 year resident of do4 street. I've been here before i'm representing the do4 neighborhood And with some we're kind of exasperated One i'm passing around a petition that we a group of us submitted to the city council and the mayor and city council one year ago Over problems that came about with um and a lot of them to do with delivery trucks servicing the blaze pizza And the starbucks at the intersection of do4 and mission street Of the highlighted problems in the front of the page none have been addressed Some efforts were made to paint a curb the real problem germinated when there was no loading zones designated and two businesses were allowed to go into this former bank building So here's the latest. It's a real concern and this is why we're exasperated We came here in august to um say that the report that was filed by the planning department That said things were addressed is incorrect things There were problems we identified in august double parking trucks during the day Unfortunately in the last three weeks we have double parking happening again at the other location right outside the starbucks and it's a traffic safety hazard Is blocking half of do4 street the entrance from mission And i don't know if that can be seen and it's also this is a car having to drive a wrong way to get around the truck It's happening every night for three weeks in a row. I've called the police mayor Watkins I've sent you two emails. I've cc'd the city manager's office and i've been regular emails to the transportation department It seems to be the city is is condoning this. It's a traffic safety hazard. Please help us address it Is the vixby barson eviction scene on the agenda tonight? I'm sorry. No. No, okay. I'll address that Nicholas whitehead i'm a volunteer with an organization that helps immigrant families And in the course of that i've met dozens of families Or my colleagues have met dozens of families who have been severely harmed By the laissez-faire policies that prevail in the city as regards rentals When people are working two jobs And have medical bills they're in a state of exhaustion and i've seen a lot of this so these people are being evicted from barson and vixby You know we need a fund we need a fund That will subsidize their rentals until we have that protection at least of the state starting january first I suggest that that the funding for such a rent subsidy should be coming from Outfits like blackstone and other large corporate entities that are taking over the housing in our area That would be one way to do it I met a 68 year old Woman in a wheelchair in scott's valley who told me She couldn't afford the increase in her section 8 housing when a new owner Took over in in the city of santa cruz and she was made homeless personally told me now She's at the at the shelter on carol state. This is all wrong I'm here to talk about the same thing essentially. So my name is clinton, uh, my clinton strong I'm a volunteer counselor with tenant sanctuary Uh a couple weeks ago I received a call from a section 8 tenant on vixby street who was getting a no cause 60 day notice to vacate And I basically had to tell her she has no rights in the situation And she told me she and her middle school aged daughter will be homeless within that time period okay, and The legislature just passed ab 1482. So a just cause eviction bill for the state and we Can debate the merits of just cause eviction all day, but essentially it's already the law All that that's happening now is we have a giant three month gap where anyone can get evicted We should immediately pass the just cause eviction portion of ab 1482 within the city just to prevent this exact scenario And we don't have to make anything stronger. We don't have to do measure and we don't have to do our own just cause eviction But we need to plug this gap in ab 1482 as soon as possible Thank you And briefly before you speak up. I just want to remind those who are here for that Topic that this will likely be added to our next meeting, which is a special meeting next Tuesday to be discussed Okay, go right ahead Um, hi, my name is erin and I also rent here in santa Cruz And I think it's important that the city council take emergency action to protect tenants from these no cause evictions I've already seen many of my neighbors forcing to cars or into streets when we could when we could be protecting them right now Our state lawmakers have failed to act to protect us between now and january 1st So all I ask is that you please take action immediately. So no one is evicted during the holiday season Hi, my name is jesca. Um, thank you mayor for communicating that agendaisement, but we're already here So yeah, I just felt like I need to give an update since the last time I was here and brought this up Um two more tenants from that complex have already been evicted Um, one has packed their belongings to their van. I don't really know where they are right now Um, another couple is living in san jose even though they continue to work here and look for housing Um, if that means anything, it just means that every day without action means another person is running out of time Um, it was the legislature's fault for creating this loophole But I believe it's our city's job to pick up the pieces and make sure that no one else falls through the cracks um Renters living in some of our city's, you know, very few last affordable multi families now have a target on their backs Um, and I feel that we can do more and that we can do better I'm hoping that you'll prioritize this issue before more renters are forced to leave My name is john balisteri.  We're not ready. Come on time to move kid get out 72 years old My birthday we offer you three grand and move out today Sorry, I can't do it. We need some help. Thank you very much Hello, my name's laura and I'm here for the same thing and I just want to second what they said My name's steven case. I've lived in santa cruz. It's uh off and on Since 1969 I've lived in my present location for 30 years and I'm being evicted and it is a horrific Experience is nowhere to go It's difficult to move out of town. It's difficult to move out of state section eight is difficult to navigate They can just not renew section eight The just clause doesn't really matter, you know, it's just a matter of time Uh, the bottom line is is that of course santa cruz is a cash cow and uh You should really do something to help people Get out of town reestablish themselves elsewhere. It's a very daunting thing. I'm 74 years old and find it difficult So there should be more uh, assistants I think thank you Thank you Hi, I'm nicola. I am a former resident of vixby street and I'm really upset about the evictions that are happening in lower ocean Um, I think we need immediate protections for these next three months Um, and to not do so is to be complicit in ethnic cleansing My name is Helen Bradley I've been living here in santa cruz since 2001. I came here from nashville I've been real sick Since I've been here and I go to mhk. I'm here to To represent mhk. I've been going there for about going on 17 years now and um I want to talk about the food bank, you know, we they give us foods We get donations there But it would be better if we could get our donation from second harvest. It would really help us out We have a lot of homeless people that come there and I myself used to be and now i'm back again being a um diabetic but with the food that mhk was furnishing for us and uh, it made me not a diabetic I got my diet together But now we don't really have enough food and mhk We would really appreciate if you all could look into getting a help for us. Thank you very much Thank you Hello, my name is nick bodsky and I'm here for the mental health client action network, which is also mhcan I'm a peer support worker. I help those who are homeless are with mental Illness issues going on in their life um It's the month of october and with that it's uh time for our special permits to be amended And we just have a few requests that mhcan is asking for The first request is going to be um second harvest food bank a delivery once per month Anything really helps us out one delivery per month is Little to ask for but it would be a huge difference for our community who come in and rely on us for you know food for the day at times and um That's in regards to second harvest and I also want to ask or um amend The special permit for us to not have a security guard. It is very intimidating to our clients that go there Some are fearful of security guards for a variety of reasons We've only had 29 emergency police calls at our location most of which were hang ups or medical related for our senior staff and clients and It's just really not needed our neighbor grace commons They've had 100 plus emergency calls and they aren't required to have a security guard. So Um, if we could have that uh told to the planning departments, that would be amazing. Thank you Hello, and how do you do my name is grace butler and I'm here as well on behalf of mhcan mental health client action network and the mental health community There are some amendments that we were asking because our use permit Is in october is when our special use permit is up and um, I live at grace commons which is on the same is on the same parking lot as uh As mhcan and um, there's really not a necessary any kind of necessary for security guard He sits he sits there and he just waits for something to happen and nothing's happening. Um, it just seems like a way I we would pay for it if it was we pay for it It would be if it was necessary, but it's not really necessary So we're asking if you could take the security guard and put him somewhere else where he's really needed And also as far as the second hard harvest food bank mhcan is a day program that provides solace for a lot of homeless people a lot of mental health people especially the mental health people and having a place to cook and to eat is is fundamental and Having a food bank delivery just just once a month would really be beneficial in in every aspect makes it Makes them feel a little more. Um, how do you say independent? So we're asking if you could you would consider those two amendments and also i'm With bixby apartments go go with their housing. Thank you Gary richard our old mayor council people i'm concerned about your constant Move to set up a parallel government a cog a council of governments through ambag it's made up of sexual rings and old espionage rings For instance, we've got uh bruce mcpherson who was elected as the santa cruz representative He was not avoided by anybody here. This was done from the top down Cogs he counts the community TV doesn't it show a thing this is bruce mcpherson received tens of thousands of dollars from a triple chinese communist Eight Here's another one. This is supposed to be Diane feinstein's cabbie. This is 40 years ago. He's been in charge of her office in santa cruz If people don't know panetta gate, they better start understanding leon panetta gave military and policy information to a communist spy Whose monument is on the courthouse steps when leon panetta was head of the cia.   This is Israel did 9 11 And it's christia for bolin who has the website With an avalanche of documentation and evidence both Circumstantial eyewitness, but more importantly a scientific and Forensic evidence that is real did 9 11 Why did israel do 9 11? Well That's a long story, but it boils down to israel wanted the united states to fight Wars for israel in the mid east to enable israel to take over more territory Trump is enabling that process. He's Certainly in israel's pocket his chief funder is a shelda natelson A multi-billionaire who made his money In the sleazy enterprise of gambling Uh, I think the democrats are any better. Nancy Pelosi said this is almost a direct quote. Nancy Pelosi said Even if the u.s. Capitol crumbles into ruins Our top priority will still be to support israel. Can you believe that? Look it up. I'm not making this up We've got to confront the israel lobby by far the most powerful and intimidating force in american politics. Thank you next speaker and i'm going to be concluding um oral communications at 740 so uh, you'll have up to 90 seconds and we'll go ahead and stop and hopefully you'll be aware of the people behind you If you want to keep your comments brief Okay, carrot philip santa cruz. Uh, this is the press release from santa cruz united probably our sod I'll hand it in in case you didn't and uh, it basically says that the people are not fooled by The anti recall groups who just lie about everything and uh, it's a pretty overwhelming statement And it basically the spanish translation is hasta la vista You know, so i'm gonna hand that in later But I also wanted to talk about socialism. You're earlier today. We saw a perfect example how all of you are pretty much, uh well Socialist mass creating is nonpartisan city council members some worse than others And uh, in particular when you start talking about not protecting the health and safety And individual rights of people but talking about design rules central planning for downtown Not listening to the private sector who it's their money their property And and deciding for them what they're going to do with their money their property Now you're on dangerous ground Okay, and I would like to read a little bit of the uh, I would point out that the kato institute Kato institute released its 2019 report on what americans think about welfare work and wealth I suggest you read it some of the headlines I don't have too much time for but uh, 50 of democrats say trump has soured their view of capitalism versus six percent for republicans 47 of strong socialist sympathizers say violence against the rich is sometimes justified And uh quite a few others very eye-opening. Okay next speaker Okay, um First of all you need emergency action to deal with the renters tonight You could do that if you want you've gotten testimony tonight of evictions you hadn't heard about until tonight So take action tonight Secondly mh can needs true and real support so that they can Return to a policy of being able to serve the people that they served three and four and five years ago You've already heard speakers on that crowded shelters are full Waiting lists are long disabled senior and other vulnerable people have returned to sleep next to the post office fence on water street As they did two years ago after being driven from city hall Two years ago chief mills directed a substantial number to san lorenzo park in the spring of 2018 A fraction of those were admitted to the expensive and restrictive river street campground run by assistant manager Susie o'Hara last fall o'Hara and the council betrayed that population by evicting them for the winter Authorities herded them to ross camp. They were then driven off in may to the imaginary non-existent shelter fabricated again By o'Hara with the help of the watkins minority and vice mayor comings defection from the progressive majority In berkeley survival campers at the where do we go campsite are standing their ground berkeley house residents have come to their rescue We need to do the same here. We can expect less than nothing from the watkins comings council And its staff worse cynical financing for police and ranger raids a council that locks bathrooms against the poor Can't be counted on for kindness or rationality. Thank you next speaker Hello, um, my name is charlie vaskey. I wish to thank you for agendizing emergency renter protections Though ab14 is a great victory for housing advocates There is this loophole and until it goes into effect in january tenants can and will be evicted And according to journalist mats levin from calmander's prominent lawyers are recommending Two landlords to evict now and raise rents where they can As we've heard this is happening in santa Cruz, but it's also happening across the state Um, one other thing that you might not have heard yet here tonight Is that today los angeles's city council unanimously 14 to 0 past emergency renter protections And with that they have cancelled 60 day eviction notices. I urge you to quickly pass similar measures here. Thank you I'm keith mckenry and uh yesterday I was getting my mail in the evening at the downtown post office and a young woman came to me And told me that she had just lost her apartment And she had spent the last couple of nights sleeping in doorways downtown But had found the safety of the men at the camps outside the post office reassuring And um, she just had her birthday uh for 45th birthday Homeless on the streets of santa Cruz And it's very clear if you go around outside that the the eviction at ross camp has resulted In hundreds and hundreds of people seeking shelter In our doorways including many many women who are losing their their homes as a result of the the vicious Increase in rents that are happening and and other Efforts to drive people back out of their homes and into the streets The other thing is is happening is quite she lost her car Or did not have a car to live in but many women Tried to find sanctuary in a vehicle But are unable to pay Registration and so on and then the city tows their home And then they end up living in a doorway downtown and then they get to go and live with a group of guys For protection and we heard this all before with ross camp. So we told you this would happen It happened it is happening and in more and more people are joining the ranks of the Of the unhoused I'm going to go ahead and see how many people are here in line at for oral communications items not on today's agenda You'll be our last speaker in the glasses then with the gentleman with the gray shirt So we'll have four more. Go ahead. You'll have 90 seconds. Hi. I'm tom fordham. I live at 123 bixby The apartment complex where people are being evicted. Um, I live next door to steven case Who just spoke and john belastere? and I also know that That my neighbors There was a married couple who were working more than 40 hours a week each and they Now have no place to live. They've just moved out a couple days ago. Um, I Just think that um An emergency Um, I honestly believe that uh, that just uh, a few months would would would help an awful lot of people An awful lot of people who are going to have a really rough time if they don't get a little bit of emergency help please Marilyn Garrett and thanks very much to keith mchenry and food not bombs for all their decades of work helping The unhoused and hungry I'm going to refer you to another city council member and the mayor of nevada city california renette senem She did a presentation on why the rush to 5g and she says 4g in part And 5g in the public right of way is a corporate and hostile Takeover of our public right of way and with no concern for public health and the environment And dr. Merkola Berlin article. I'll give you the 5g war technology versus humanity We should focus on preventing the deployment altogether We should focus on preventing the deployment all over the This is dangerous microwave millimeter wave radiation Join with the mayor of nevada city california renette senem And joining the opposition to 5g and also sign on to the international appeal To stop 5g on earth and in space Thank you Hi there monica maguire santa cruz county 22 years and We just had a really wonderful meeting with the mf santa cruz emf aware santa cruz group And it was excellent and most people didn't get to learn about it So I wanted to make sure it was available to more than just all of you My husband dr. Carl merit spoke and gave more up-to-date information and People looking up this website will be amazed at the incredible amount of information that is available about 5g And why we need the precautionary principle and I want to make sure that that's understood by everybody as well as asking that People understand you have been looking at it from the standpoint that you have and we're so grateful that you have Taken that precaution already to put off the decision and it's going so great that way Additionally, there's more to talk about with the homeless issue I believe across the county and The entire county needs to be involved and one of the other great ways that you've already worked on Is bringing in the people wisdom group here, which i'm a part of and the Center for wise democracy so people wisdom.org I know most of you know about but everyone else who doesn't yet Please do look into people wisdom.org It's exciting to have ways that we can bring everybody together and have even opposing Difficult conversations lead to unity and creating ways that we all see ways to go forward and Hopefully assist you in your very difficult jobs with All of these topics. Thank you so much You'll be our last speaker Anything Darius Mosineen. I just want to mention There's an enormous amount of confusion regarding rent control evictions a AB 1482 the statewide rent control law does not apply The jurisdictions with existing rent control. So the emergency rent control that Was enacted way back in February of 2017 or and then Or 18 and then extended is still in place Five percent seven percent two-month relocation. It's still in place AB 1482 will apply to those units that are not covered under The current rent control in santa cruz city So just to dispel a lot of the confusion the existing santa cruz city rent control laws supersede AB 1482 and At the risk of sounding like i'm making a commercial For the folks that are getting eviction notices that are on section eight from pixby I have a two bedroom available now And I have a one bedroom available in two weeks to a section eight tenants. So if you want to talk to me outside I'll be out there. Thank you Okay I'm going to go ahead and um, I'll go ahead and get your attention here We're going to go ahead and close oral communications for this evening. We have one item on tonight's agenda It's a public hearing item for 190 west cliff drive. It's a coastal permit design permit special use permit Etc that will be before us before we go ahead and jump right into that item I'm going to go ahead and allow for maybe a five minute Sort of transition time for those who are here to speak during oral communications to find their way out And those who are here for this evening's item to settle in so we'll go ahead and have About two or three minutes for that transition to take place So if you're here, uh, that were if you were here for oral communications, you're welcome to go ahead and leave at this time If you're not staying for the evening item Okay, if I could get your attention, please If I could get your attention, please again. Thank you very much All right, we'll go ahead and reconvene our meeting if I could get your attention If you want to continue your conversation, you're welcome to do so outside of council chambers We're calling our evening session back to order Before we get started. It looks like I have a question here Yeah, absolutely. So, um, thank you. First of all, um, the Situation that's going on over at Bixby Street. We can't talk about it too much But um hearing from so many people in the community, especially after the motion I made two weeks ago for us to be able to do something to protect them Which is exacerbated over the last two weeks. I really think it is in our It's our duty essentially to enact an emergency movement now tonight if possible And then if I wouldn't like to turn to the city attorney and find out if there's a way For us to take action tonight on figuring out ways to protect people from further displacement And at least ease the fears of there being potential evictions between now and two weeks from now The problem I would see is that I've only been given the language this evening I haven't had a chance to review it. Um But I I have spoken to council member brown and I do think we'll have something available for the council on the 29th meeting that the council if there's support for it could enact as an emergency measure My question is is there um, is there a process in which tonight we could do it? Is there an emergency like I think with the emergency movement that takes five votes? Is is that possible to do tonight or? Um procedurally it is But I'm From what I've heard most of the tenants have received 60 day notices Um, and so I think there's time to put this together by the 29th that shouldn't affect tenants who have not You know if the notice just went out at the beginning of the month when the governor signed I understand that timeline except that in the last two weeks more people have been have left They've been physically moved out of the the property since uh, since those two weeks ago when I made the initial motion Which we failed to move on so is there a way tonight that we could do it? And if so, can you just elaborate for us what that is? The charter provides and I can look that language up real quick here I'll just for the delay Wasn't planning on doing this everyone. That's why an ordinance declared by the city council to be necessary as an emergency Measure for preserving the public peace health safety or property and containing a statement Of the reasons for its urgency may be introduced and adopted at one in the same meeting if passed by at least five Affirmative votes, so if the council could put together emergency findings Um to incorporate into the draft language, which merely mirrors the language of The state statute that was recently enacted by the legislature and if there's support on the council for For adopting such an ordinance as an emergency measure then it's conceivable that you could do it as an emergency Thank you. So before we move on I would like to make a motion to enact an emergency measure based off of the evidence provided tonight by the individuals that made the statements About their imminent displacement as well as the evidence from the last two weeks Of those that have been displaced physically from their location of residents to enact The language that was I guess is there that mirrors the state language I don't know if that's the right way to frame it but There's a motion by council member clever Second by council member crone Mr. Condite, can you read the Policy again, please. Yes. This is not an agendized item and if it's going to be on um a future meeting Um Any ordinance declared by the city council to be necessary as an emergency measure for preserving the public Peace health safety or property and containing a statement of the reasons for its urgency Maybe introduced and adopted at one in the same meeting if passed by at least five affirmative votes as I am thinking about it However, I would note that um The brown act requires different emergency findings and so I would need to review those findings as well before um before we could Move forward because I think For instance, the council could call a special meeting on 24 hours notice and have something in effect by tomorrow If that's the pleasure of the council We also don't have an ordinance before us to review So I think i'm confused as to whether or not we could pass an ordinance We haven't written or have before I share that concern But I've been responding to the council members questions with regard to whether as a As a legal matter we could adopt such an ordinance as an emergency But I agree with you that um, I don't have that ordinance ready for you to adopt right now It's been prepared in a draft form That mirrors the language of state law Practically verbatim So it needs to be incorporated into a format that Applies to the city As opposed to applies statewide okay consumer leverage, so um I would be happy to change the motion to prioritize of the scheduling of an emergency meeting tomorrow October 23rd and I understand in order to discuss this review the submitted language and Discuss the implementation of emergency action Specifically because we wait another week even who knows what's going to happen people are living in fear They're being displaced from their homes and I think it's our duty as elected officials to take action As soon as possible, which sounds like tomorrow is the day Okay, vice mayor Just like to say that Myself and council member brown met with a number of the tenant advocates who've been working on this over the weekend And they brought it to our attention and asked if we would Contact the mayor and get in touch with her to get this on our emergency Meeting that's coming up on the 29th We went and spoke with her today Expressing their concerns, which is why she was mentioning that we are working on trying to get this on on the 29th I think that I'm very much concerned about the Situation that these tenants are in I've gone by big speed and spoken with them have been in constant contact with the advocates um I think that for many of us currently Bringing this forward tomorrow would be problematic for a number of reasons I think in particular the fact that many of us haven't Finished drafting this language Many of the council members haven't read the language that's being proposed and so I think that some of my other colleagues as much as I want to see this move forward as quickly as possible I think that many of my other colleagues on here probably would not be in support of this And if we're able to move forward at the pace that we're going and have this on the 29th There might also be potential for retroactivity of this and so I would just State that as you know, why I'm probably not going to support this right now. Hey, mr. Kandavi Yes, um, just to clarify having reviewed the applicable provisions of the brown act The council cannot take action tonight. He would have to be on 24 hours notice at a minimum That makes sense comes from our brown and then comes from our government well, um As much as I would really like to do this tonight or within 24 hours I have to say that it's not possible for me to be present tomorrow for a vote Which makes it a challenge to get the votes. I imagine one and two, I think The language that we have provided to mr. Kandavi does not include Some additional language and I um that I heard in our oral communications related to the nullification of prior notices which would require a little I think a little more work and Could protect people who are have already received those notices. So My preference would be that we sort it out and Have it prepared to To consider on the 29th Given this information. Yeah, not two weeks. No appreciate that given this information Do you want to withdraw your motion at this time? um No, I'm going to maintain the motion for a 24 hour emergency Meeting for tomorrow. I can understand the perspectives of my colleagues. However, uh, we could have acted on this two weeks ago when we failed to at least two people have been Physically left for their homes They're homeless people are living out of their cars right now because of our failure to act And even if we need to spend five hours sitting with an attorney Reviewing the language and figuring out what the ordinance needs to read like We should do that in order to protect the residents of our community Which we have failed to do since we were elected and since I was elected in November And that's unacceptable in many respects. Okay, so the motion before us was The original motion was to make the emergency findings and to make that policy decision this evening Given the information that's not possible. So the new motion if I understand you correctly is to schedule an emergency meeting within 24 hours Is that correct tomorrow night? Is the seconder of the motion still supportive of that? Yeah, and yeah, let's call the question. There's a lot of folks waiting This evening's uh agenda item Okay Unless there's any further discussion, we'll we'll just go ahead and take the vote all those in favor. Please say aye. Aye opposed No So that fails with councilmember brown Matthews vice mayor Cummings myself and mires voting against and councillor crone and clever voting for Okay, we'll go ahead and move right on then to our Regularly scheduled item this evening and we'll invite councillor Matthews Would it be fair to say that? To just give public notice that we fully intend to agendize this We fully intend to agendize this this was to be as aggressive as possible on retroactivity and other protection Totally fair to say that. Thank you for that. Absolutely And that will be that was brought to my attention this morning as I mentioned There's been conversations around drafting the language that will be on our We happen to have a special meeting scheduled for next Tuesday And so that will be incorporated into the agenda this and so that was agreed upon. Thank you very much May I just add also that we are following up with any of the bixby residents There are particular circumstances issues that we can be of assistance between now and Whatever situation they're in that's coming forward as well. I appreciate hearing that. Thank you very much Can I ask a real quick question on that? Sarah Fleming actually is who is I've got some contact information about some residents So if they want to talk to it's plan department Sarah Fleming is the person she reached out to At one point, but yes, so people have issues or concerns that can reach out to staff And we're happy to assist them in whatever way we can So any of the members of the community who are here on behalf of the bixby situation they can reach out to the city Planning department Sarah Fleming is available to support you at this time. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Thank you for that Okay, so we'll continue this discussion And a week from today and at this time now we'll move forward with the evening item Good evening mayor and council members. I'm lee butler. I'm the director of planning and community development for the city And tonight we're talking about the 190 west cliff drive proposal The property there at the corner of bay street has served as an underutilized surface parking lot for A number of decades now. It was formerly the site of a hospital From 1924 to 1967 and that building was demolished in 1980 in the mid 2000s The city council approved a new conference center development on this lot and the dream and hotel across the street But that decision was appealed to the coastal commission who never acted on the project after the developer withdrew that application We're here now 14 years later and We have another development proposal before you It's a mixed-use project containing two levels of subgrade parking ground floor commercial Can I pause you for just one second? If you have a sign in the back, please lower your sign so to not obstruct the view of the people behind you So if your sign is being held up, could you please lower your sign? No higher than your shoulders to not obstruct the view of the people behind you Please continue of course It's a mixed-use proposal with two levels of subgrade parking ground floor commercial and 89 residential condominium units Some of the things that we've heard in the community a lot of them relate to the affordable housing portion of the project and so I wanted to touch on that for a moment There are 11 percent of the base projects units Proposed as affordable to very low income Residents and that is those making 50 percent of the area median income The project is eligible for a 35 density bonus and a height waiver pursuant to our local ordinance And the allowance of which is mandated by state law We saw a number of comments from the public about this project not having enough affordable housing And I want to clarify a few things related to that So state law expressly indicates that for density bonus projects the percentage of affordable units Is based on the base project in this case the base project is 66 units And that is the number of units that's allowed without the density bonus So the percentage of affordable units that's required to achieve the density bonus is based on the 66 units Not the 89 units that are proposed with the density bonus This is state law. We don't have discretion over applying the density the affordability requirements to the 89 units We've also heard that the density bonus and our affordable or inclusionary housing ordinance should be additive or stacked on one another So that the number of affordable units needed to qualify for the state density bonus Should be above and beyond the already required inclusionary housing units There is a case law that applies to the city It's latinos unidos versus the county of napa and that expressly precludes this stacking of density bonus and inclusionary And so we have to treat those together And aren't able to to stack them on top of one another During various community meetings and in written public comments We've heard from many individuals in the community regarding this project On the support side of things we've heard About the affordable housing that the project is providing we've heard support for the development of the site and for the commercial amenities On the concern side, we've heard about traffic and parking and noise emergency vehicle access Water availability cliff stability building height and various other issues We appreciate those concerns. We take them very seriously and it's understandable that the community has these concerns When we went to the planning commission, we had over 1200 pages of documentation for their review And we've provided additional documentation to the council here Environmental review has been conducted as part of this project and it's it has been a thorough review We have prepared technical reports including but not limited to recent reports on traffic noise vibration Geotechnical analysis archaeology stormwater control and various other subjects As a result, we've incorporated various standard measures into our conditions of approval as is typical for new development projects Our team has carefully analyzed the project proposal and as detailed in the staff report We believe that the project meets the objective standards set forth in the city ordinances And there are some new state laws and effect that have implications for projects that meet objective standards And we're happy to talk to the council about that in more detail if you have questions about it later We've had many departments and outside consultants working diligently on this application We've got a team here with us this evening Ryan bane is the senior planner who served as the project manager on this Eric marlatt our assistant director of planning and community development oversaw the work Bonnie libscomb will be with us our economic development director christ neider our assistant director of public works We have stephanie streelo with dudek and associates. She led the environmental analysis team And then we have several attorneys who are with us as well in addition to our City attorney tonic. I'm daddy. We have serena teller She's an attorney with remy moves manly who advises us on sequa issues And we also have barbara couts an attorney with goldfarp lippman who advises us on density bonus and inclusionary law So with that I will turn it over to ryan bane to talk to you a little bit about the details of the project Good evening Kind of go ahead and get started What we have is a 2.2 acre project site that's located on northwest corner of Bay street and west cliff drive To the west and to the north you can see we have a mobile home park To the north and to the east we have Hotel uses as well as and then to the south we have Multifamily townhomes or condos Um as you can see there is a mix of Visitor serving commercial and residential areas that characterize the beach area to the north of the site And mainly residential uses that are found to the south of the project site As you can see this the site is currently an at-grade parking lot with associated landscaping So as lee mentioned the proposal is for a four-story mixed-use project two levels of underground parking commercial space a public plaza and 89 unit residential condominiums in terms of what's involved with the entitlements We have a design permit coastal permit special use permit Density bonus and coachment permit and tentative map both the density bonus and tentative map require council approval therefore And the planning commission made recommendations to the council The project was heard by the planning commission on on august 15th Where they recommended approval on a 3-2 vote in addition to The approval there was some direction given by the planning commission Regarding augmenting the secret checklist as well as some added conditions of approval In regards to the secret checklist They wanted it to incorporate a noise impact analysis that also looked at vibration impacts So that was prepared between the planning commission and the city council meeting tonight Also, there were conditions regarding trying to The feasibility of moving some of the trees that are on the site as well as some conditions regarding opaque deck railings Providing an internal traffic management plan as part of the conditions of approval That the project be lead gold certified to ensure energy efficiency And access maintaining access to wi-fi for the clearview court mobile home park adjacent to the site And i'll i'll touch on some of those items later in the presentation So the subject parcel general plan designation is rvc regional visitor commercial Um, this designation applies to areas That emphasize a variety of commercial uses that serve santa cruz residents as well as visitors Mixed use development is strongly encouraged in rvc district. So that's something that this project meets The beach area which is um is to emphasize visitors serving commercial uses such as hotels Motels restaurants and amusement parks as well as residential and mixed use developments in the beach area neighborhood Um, the flora ratio that's listed and are allowed in this general plan designation is from 0.25 to 3.5 This project comes in at a little over two. So it's within that range There are numerous general plan policies that this project's Meets and upholds. I don't want to go through all of them, but i'll just read a couple of them that I think are key Um One being in neighborhoods near visitor areas give priority to uses that serve both visitors and residents Encourage higher intensity residential uses and maximum maximum densities in accordance with the general plan land use designations So those all of these policies are being met by this project Um in terms of economic development policies A couple key ones encourage development of year-round business and visitor activities resources and destinations That can also attract and engage local residents Encourage the development of new lodging facilities particularly those targeting a higher end market and those providing additional visitor amenities So the project is meeting those as well Um couple other ones provide for residents daily shopping needs in local serving neighborhood commercial centers With the with the commercial portions of the project that are included that that meets that policy Also support the development of neighborhood gathering places in conjunction with local serving neighborhood commercial Again with the plaza the public plaza that's being proposed in the commercial Amenities that are being proposed that meets that policy The project is also part of the and included in the beach and south the Laurel comprehensive area plan It's specifically located in the beach commercial sub area of the plan That includes the Santa Cruz boardwalk motels beds and bed and breakfast and commercial uses This project site was listed as an opportunity site for residential in that beach and south the Laurel plan And it maximizes development potential for an underutilized infill site, which is currently a parking lot Excuse me Some of the policies that are listed in the beach and south the Laurel plan The project meets all of these policies I don't want to go through all of them, but certainly Mentioned multi-level large-scale development To ensure general upgrading of entire beach area, or i'm sorry multi-level large-scale to optimize use of opportunity uses Locating parking lots to the rear structures and wherever possible underground. The project does that as well Also includes balconies terraces and courtyards in similar outdoor spaces In regards to the zoning district it's rtb per this zoning district Uh, it's kind of unique to this parcel. Um, the history kind of behind it. Um, it was Zoned this as part of the beach and south the Laurel plan when it was adopted in 1998 My understanding is that there was significant public input as part of the adoption of the beach and south the Laurel plan And a lot of that public input Did not want to have any hotel Rooms on this site So this this zoning was basically crafted specifically for this site and Basically limits it to ancillary hotel support facilities and residential development so, um Let's see So the the purpose of this overlay district is to establish and control uses to ensure development Which protects neighborhood integrity and supporting appropriate uses and the goal of the district is to limit the future development Of hotel or motel rooms in the district but to allow ancillary hotel support facilities As well as additional residential development so what's being proposed here is Amenities for a larger hotel the dream in Which a lot of larger hotels common amenities are fitness gyms spas restaurants Cafe and small retail components. So that's what's being included as part of this project Um, this this kind of shows a good Um layout of the general uses in the area as you can see in the to the north of the site Um is mostly beach commercial Um to the south is mostly um Is residential so this is kind of a Right in between It's a transition area and so the proposed mixed use of residential and commercial really is a good hybrid For that transition area Just kind of going through some of the different levels of the Of the proposal. Um, this is the the lowest floor. This is mainly for hotel and commercial valet There's there's 200 there's 217 hotel Stalls it's going to be replacing the 216 that are currently on the site So these this will be available for the commercial and and hotel That are me visiting the hotel and visiting the site The level p1 parking is strictly for the residents of the of the proposed Project So they'll have assigned parking as well as also provides a bike storage and general storage for the residents At ground level Kind of just to give a general idea of the site plan layout We have west cliff to the east base street to the south Um, there's two driveway entrances Along the west and north The coastal plaza and commercial areas are all generally open to west cliff and adjacent to the hotel While um, we have the guest parking here to the rear Also along the south along the base street. We have multi-level units that basically mimic the multi-level Town homes that are directly across the street This is level two, which is mainly all residential. There's a fitness and yoga for the residents As well as a pool here's on the level three It's also courtyards that are available in open space for the residents And we have level four the same thing Then on the roof, um, there are proposed roof decks Um for access That access the uh, the top floor units The subject of rooftop decks was discussed At the planning commission hearing There are as you can see there are roof structures proposed that extend above the roof height of 47 feet Including stairway housing For access to those decks as well as Trellises that house photovoltaic panels Also, there are safety railings for those rooftop decks Our zoning ordinance does have a section that allows architectural features to exceed the height limit And additionally the beach in south the laurel plan calls for flat roof buildings to incorporate porches and window overhangs trellises Walls and are to basically enhance articulation to to avoid a bare box appearance So staff Thoroughly analyzed the wording of this section, which is discussed in detail in the council report We concluded these elements fall under the height limits modification section of the ordinance and would therefore be permitted We've found that rooftop decks really are an efficient way of providing open space for multifamily projects There's been several that have improved have been improved at city projects in the recent past and The interpretation was discussed at the planning commission hearing and the majority of the commissioners agreed that with staff's interpretation and supported the open space on the on the roof So this is this is a look From west cliff across from dream in the proposed building has been designed In a cup Spanish colonial style. It's consistent with the previously listed beach in south the laurel area plan design guidelines This is a look Looking toward the ocean from bay You can see the overall massing is broken up by some architectural treatments including decks and trellises and overhangs Utility Installations and enclosures storage units and parking are all Within the building and so they're all screened from view So just a quick look at the north and west elevations And then here is a site section So the maximum height of buildings in the rtb zone is 36 feet However, as I mentioned, there's a there's a density bonus that's being requested as part of this And as part of that density bonus The tools are to incentivize affordable housing And deeper levels of affordability One incentive is that the applicant can utilize a waiver or a modification to development standards And if those standards would physically preclude construction of the density bonus project For this project, the applicants are proposing a waiver to the district height Standard to allow for an additional story Bringing the overall height of the building to 47 feet This height will be similar to the multiple family residential condominium complex across bay That is 48 feet in height But we'll obviously fall well below the dream in Which is approximately 83 feet in height I was I was also just going to mention so While the neighboring 20 foot tall hotels to the north as well as the the mobile homes which are generally I would say approximately 12 feet in height Are much smaller in scale The proposed structure does maintain a 25 to 28 foot setback to avoid looming over those adjacent structures Which is about double what the required setback is So in terms of the zoning development standards as I mentioned the maximum height is 36 With the density bonus height waiver. They're proposing 47 feet the setbacks are all being met or exceeded Ostry parking is all being met or exceeded as well as the open space requirements Another There's other standards as well that I'll have on the next slide, but This was also discussed discussion at the planning commission meeting was The interpretation of a section of our ordinance regarding the setback for a third story element As you can see here, this is taking a look from the West elevation looking down bay street toward the ocean you can see the first and second floor here Have a have us about approximately eight foot setback and then the third floor is setback And it's I think seven feet or so so this is the section that was discussed in terms of the and Kind of discussed about the interpretation of it About third story element being Step back from the two-story element by at least 15 feet from the property lines out the streets. So The section is poorly written and we're not very clear and we discussed this early on in the project and and Part of as part of the review process So we provided a detailed analysis of that wording in the staff report and staff has concluded that this third story element maintains a minimum 15 setback from the property lines that border the streets. That's how we're interpreting it They're providing a 15 foot 9 inch. So it's certainly meeting that setback Um, and as I mentioned the third story story is step back from the second story Um in terms of landscaping There's currently a total of 55 trees located on the project site 17 of which are heritage trees pursuant to our city regulations They are the project would retain five existing trees In place as well as save a mexican fan palm which will be moved to the plaza The project's proposed tree and planting plan will include a total of 33 new trees on site. Um, so this More than exceeds the two-to-one replanting ratio Uh with 24 and 36 inch box trees And uh additionally A conditional approval has been added at the request of the planning commission That requires applicants to look into the feasibility of moving some of these trees based on Their condition In regards to traffic A project traffic analysis was completed by pinnacle traffic engineering which evaluated impacts to seven intersections um, the analysis evaluates impacts With proposed installation of a signal or mini roundabout at the west cliff and bay street intersection Um, all the study intersections are currently operating within the acceptable Level of service during the weekday pm peak hour based on city and cal trans standards Except at this bay and west cliff intersection, which is currently operating at los e Um, the intersection would operate at los b during the weekday pm peak hour with the installation of a signal and at los a to b with installation of a mini roundabout The city's public works department requested A qualitative evaluation of the pros and cons between a signal and a roundabout from a traffic consultant and They determined that they would recommend that they do the the mini roundabout Based on a few of these Reasonings reduce flows and delays slower, but more consistent traffic flow They feel it's safer than a signal better pedestrian experience And less greenhouse gas emissions um Coastal permit as I mentioned is part of the entitlements for this the The project protects coastal resources such as views. It's not located in any sensitive habitats Coastal access will be improved with road improvements The plaza will provide public access And the ancillary hotel facilities will provide new visitor serving amenities Special permit is also part of the entitlements This is required for all hotel support uses and cooperative parking I should mention so we have the market hall food services the cafe spa retail So those all fall under the umbrella of a special use permit Which provides all of these provide important visitor serving uses I was just going to mention that Alcohol service is not included as part of this special use permit One thing that we discussed after the planning commission meeting in regards to special use permit is in the future what type of Uses could potentially come in down the line. It may not always be a cafe if that goes out or something like that So we we're proposing to add a condition of approval that kind of addresses that So staff can have some leeway in terms of If someone comes in with some type of a use say You know sort of board rental or something like that We can propose to send that to the planning commission for approval Also under the special use permit is The cooperative parking facilities So the parking demand accounts for all uses at the hotel as well as the residential units Which qualifies it for reduction for cooperative parking So the shared use cooperative parking facilities reduction accounts for The parking facilities at a single site can use for multi-purpose trips So folks that are visiting the hotel Also are using the amenities as well as residents that are there using the amenities So there's a there's obviously a cooperative overlap there between the uses The planning director touched a little bit on on density bonus But i'll give i'll kind of go over some of some of the details So as aware to address california's need for affordable housing The state enacted the density bonus law in 1979 to encourage a provision of affordable housing using this by offering a combination of benefits developers The amount of the density bonus is based on the number of affordable units at each income level that are included in a project And to determine whether a project qualifies for density bonus The percentage of affordable units is based on the maximum number of units That would be permitted under the city's zoning code or base density Which in this case is 66 Projects providing a higher amount of affordable units at a deeper level Affordability are entitled to a range of increases in density ranging from five to 35 percent So the additional units The general idea is they help offset the increased costs associated With the increased number of more deeply affordable units In addition to allowing more market rate units to offset the cost of providing affordable units They'll also provide a variety of tools that can help Utilize to make projects physically or more economically feasible including waivers as i mentioned they're requesting a height waiver To allow for those additional 23 units In this for this particular project they're proposing Eight very low income units and two low income units Based on that 35 density bonus as i mentioned which allows an addition of 23 units I should mention that cities have very limited discretion when reviewing Density bonus applications and are required to approve these if they if they meet the affordability requirements Lee touched on the stacking that this was discussed at the planning commission meeting Um, but as you can see there's there's case law that does not allow the stacking Of both density bonus and inclusionary units There was um quite a bit of community outreach for the project. Um even early on there were Before I think they even had an application with the city There was outreach from the applicants um as early as i think june of 2017 There were two community meetings or Organized that the city was involved with one on december 3rd Where there were approximately 150 members and then on a second one on july 10th Where there were approximately 60 attendees In addition to the community meetings a project well-plated was created and posted it on the city of san jacuzzi website That allows for members of the public to submit comments Um and uh Staff planning commission subcommittee and we all attended these meetings um environmental review um Again, we touched a little bit on this. I know there's been a lot of discussion about whether an er should be prepared um Really the purpose of sequa is to analyze a project Determine the impacts and mitigate any potential impacts Um Sequel also discusses streamlining that process whenever possible So we've done the full analysis of what would generally be included in an eir And determined that the existing environmental documents already provided an adequate analysis of potential environmental impacts um Sequel also allows the lead agency to avoid Repeating analysis that were already provided in a certified general plan eir For development project that is consistent with the general plan, which this project is um We have public resources code 2108 3.3 And that's a parallel sequa guideline provision section 15 183 that provide for streamlined environmental reviews for projects consistent with the general plan um that was certified and so The application of sequa will be limited to effects on the environment Which are peculiar to the parcel or to the project and which were addressed as significant effect And were not addressed as significant effects in the prior environmental impact report Or which substantial new information shows will be more significant than described in the prior environmental impact report so An effect of a project upon the environment Shall not be considered peculiar to the project if a uniformly applied development policy or standard Will substantially mitigate the environmental effect As I had mentioned the planning commission there was discussion of Our request to have a noise study prepared That that noise analysis and vibration analysis was prepared Following the planning commission hearing um The study touches on operational noise generated by the project as well as noise and vibration during construction activities um Based operational noises associated with the project as well as construction noise and vibration are Are predicted to comply with the city of san jacuzzi noise standards And will be required to do so for uh for the conditions of approval So based on the secret review, it's been determined that the city's general plan ERR as well as the city city's uniformly applied development standards Have adequately addressed the issues and no further environmental review is required um Following the planning commission We did go over a few um conditions of approval that we thought might be appropriate to be added um Given the level of discussion regarding construction impacts Uh new construction hours a new construction hours condition has has been rec been recommended to be added Also condition number 22 Which has reference to excavating materials Excuse me, it basically reads that Let's see The condition originally read that excavating materials should be Not allowed between the hours of 7 to 9 a.m And 4 to 6 p.m. Due to peak traffic hours on weekdays However, after further discussion with our public works department It was determined that the restrictions on hauling will likely extend the project excavation to more days and be more costly So with p.m peak hours generally being greater Recommending that the a.m peak restrictions be removed and that the condition be Revised to read that hauling will be allowed from 7 a.m. To 4 p.m. So that's a recommendation that staff has provided um another condition That's we're proposing is Let's see So the city's municipal code allows a 10 reduction for non-automotive use programs So the applicant has prepared a transportation demand management plan That aligns measures to be implemented including provisions of on-site bicycle parking free employee passes Among other strategies and among other strategies So we did receive some questions About the transportation to manager management management management plan From vice mayor Cummings and based on those conversations are proposing to add this condition to ensure the success of the program Basically it kind of quantifies the The requirements of the transportation demand management to make sure it's working So therefore staff is recommending that the council acknowledge the environmental determination Uh approve the coastal permit design permit special use permit density bonus requests to exceed height encroachment permit for street and intersection improvements and tentative map for the proposed project Based on the findings and conditions that we've provided And i'm available for any questions Thank you. Thank you for your presentation I um failed to mention when we first started the item that what we have before us is a public hearing for a land use application This is not an appeal. So I want to just sort of explain to the community and those in the chambers the process So we've had our staff presentation Unless there's any burning questions from the council, we'll go ahead and have the 20 minute Applicant presentation and then at which time we'll allow council members to ask any Clarifying questions and then we'll go ahead and open it up to the public I know members of the community as groups requested additional time Since there isn't an Appellant or there's nobody appealing this it would just go to our our general process around group group presentations Which is four minutes for group presentations if members of your group want to Take kind of the torch as you if you will And in final kind of comments in terms of the presentation if you weren't able to complete it within the four minutes That's been a common practice. So you're welcome to do that. So again, we've concluded our Uh staff presentation. We're going to go ahead and open it up to have the 20 minute up to 20 minute Application presentation at which time we'll go ahead and go to our group presentations So do we have the applicant ready and prepared for up to 20 minutes to Make their presentation Good evening, madam mayor and members of the city council. My name is cam baboff I'm the founder and chairman of ensemble real estate It's the owner and of do you mean and applicant in this application Um, first, I want to thank the staff for the hard work the last several years in Calmly in this application getting it to this point And second, I'd like to thank Excuse me the city council For considering this project We love santa cruz as most of you know We're happy to be here tonight to present this project and take the opportunity At this time to give you a history of the our ownership of the dream in and my colleagues will Get into the project descriptions Um, as most of you know, we purchased the dream in Um, which at the time was called the coast hotel in 2006 Um, the property was in a very bad physical condition and doing poorly We saw the potential and the uniqueness of the property And went about our plans to make these badly required, uh, improvements We closed the hotel in 2008 and then in 2009 And completed a top to bottom rebuilding and refurbishment And then with the community input and a lot of involvement We restored the original name, which was a dream in I won't go into the suggestions of names, which was we had a lot of funny suggestions at the time One of them was yeah, I won't go into We are we're very proud of our ownership and stewardship Of this very important community asset, which is the way we view this this hotel And we continue to improve me improve the property as demonstrated by another major refurbishment in 2017-18 and the addition of the jack o'neill bar and grill earlier this year We were also very proud that the dream in provides 175 full-time union job Where we were the only union hotel in santa cruz And we routinely support a number of community and charitable organizations in santa cruz While providing more than over 1 million 1.8 million dollars in to t taxes Which is almost 18 percent of the entire to t collected by the city of santa cruz We're committed to the city. We're committed to the community in the long term And that's why we're here presenting this housing project for your consideration um I think we are staff and You know headed by tyson south has worked very hard to engage the community over the last two to three years with several meetings numerous that i've attended some and we have worked To incorporate the suggestion changes In response to the community to concern um at this point um Unless there's any question i'm going to turn it over to my colleague tyson sales to go over the particulars of the project Thank you very much Thank you. Let me see how we switch this over to the presentation. All right Okay, there Okay, just technical difficulties. Sorry Here we are Thank you to the Thank you, madam mayor and the city council members and i'd like to thank staff for doing a thorough job We're pleased to speak here. I'm not going to take the full time I'm going to reserve any additional time to the end to a rebuttal. I'm going to speak for about 10 minutes We're here to provide a brief recap of the project and then to address some of the most salient points specifically the outreach process housing affordability sustainability And traffic improvement measures So this is a view of what the project will look like when it's complete instead of a parking lot It's a collection of four-story buildings with a variety of materials and I wanted to highlight the One-story commercial building in the front is actually going to be made of rammed earth A lot of which is going to come from the site itself We have an open ground floor with a big plaza. So it's a highly articulated design Very special one-of-a-kind site context Um a highly sustainable not a big block The project has been designed to align with the beach and south floral Area plan general plan and coastal plan and staff has an excellent job of pointing out This is a brief timeline of the project project progress our efforts actually began four years ago With uh initial discussions informal discussions and involved considerably over time with dozens of studies and reports done in response to a thorough planning process the Community outreach the first large meeting which was done prior to submitting application was in 2017 We did some visioning exercises back in 2016 with meeting various stakeholders local retailers makers bike groups transit groups affordable housing groups and a few neigh