meeting of the Santa Cruz City Council is called to order. Let me ask if the clerk would be kind enough to call the roll. Thank you Mayor, Council Member Newsom. Present. Brown. Here. Watkins. Here. Grinner. Present. Melancholy Johnson. Present. Vice Mayor Golder. Here. And Mayor Keely. Here. Having established a quorum we will begin today's meeting. We are initially going to be going into a closed litigation and personnel session. This would be the opportunity for anyone who wishes to address the council on those closed session matters before we recess and go to a closed session to make any comments you would wish to make. This is solely on the closed session litigation and personnel items. Seeing and hearing none, let me ask the clerk to and I will be doing this rather than myself doing it. I'm going to ask the clerk from time to time to communicate with the public about how they can communicate with us. Ms. Bush. Thank you Mayor. For members of the public who are joining us virtually or streaming now it's a time for you to call or raise your hand to speak. You can press star nine or select the raise hand on your webinar controls and you'll hear announcement when you are unmuted. Questions, comments. Seeing and hearing none we will recess into closed session. I will say there are two people who have joined us virtually so if I could, if either two attendees are wishing to speak on closed session please press star nine to raise your hand. Seeing and hearing none we stand in recess. The hour of 2.15 having arrived and passed we will come out of recess and close session and begin our afternoon session. Mr. Condati let me ask you if we have any reportable items out of the closed session. Good afternoon Mayor Keely, members of the City Council. Can I call roll? Very quick. Excuse me, call the roll. Councilmember Newsom. Here. Brown. Here. Watkins. Here. Brunner. Present. Calentary Johnson. Present. Vice Mayor Golder. Here. And Mayor Keely. Here. Mr. Condati. Yes, good afternoon Mayor Keely, members of the City Council. Council met this afternoon at 12.30 in closed session in the courtyard conference room to discuss the following items. Item one was a conference with labor negotiators. Item one was a conference with labor negotiators involving the following bargaining groups. Police officers association, police management, SEIU temporary employees and SEIU service employees. Item two was a conference with legal council concerning existing litigation. First item was a the matter entitled city of Santa Cruz versus service employees international union currently pending before the public employment relations board. There was no reportable action on that item. Item two was pending litigation in the third appellate district entitled grant park neighborhood association advocates at all versus California Department of Public Health at all. Councilmember Golder has recused herself from that item because she is a party. The remaining council members by a vote of five to one vote voted to direct the city attorney's office to prepare an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs and appellants in that case. Councilmember Brown was the the only no vote. Item three was a conference with legal council involving liability claims. The claims of Cohen, Hian, Liam, liberty, mutual insurance, Robert Fleck and Leanne and Hunter. There was no action on those items but they are also listed this afternoon on your consent calendar as item number 13. Item four was a public employee performance evaluation slash conference with labor negotiators. Council received a report from designated representative. Yours truly. There was no reportable action. Thank you very much. Let me ask the city clerk if you would be kind enough to read into the record the way that folks can participate this afternoon and this evening. Thank you mayor for those who are put either called in or participating virtually. I have put the instructions on the screen. Now you would call before your item please you raise your hand either by dialing star nine on your phone or selecting the raise hand option in your webinar controls and I will flash the instructions every now and then for as a reminder. Thank you miss bush we appreciate that. Let me ask if there are statements of disqualification that any member would like to or is required to make at this time on any matters on our agenda. Ms. Brunner. I have a statement of disqualification for item 24, 24.1 and 24.2 out of an abundance of caution. These these items are the downtown expansion area plan amendment revision and which relates to my employment with the neighboring district of the downtown association of Santa Cruz. Thank you for that. Any other member? Seeing none. Let me ask if there are additions and deletions. Do we have any additions or deletions? Yes we do have an addition of an item and I will refer to Heidi Lukenbach from water. Thank you. I'm on my way. Yeah we are adding a resolution to item six I believe on your agenda that addresses procurement items related specifically to FEMA requirements. I'm happy to speak more of that when that agenda item comes up if that's appropriate or no. Any other additions or deletions? Let me uh. Mayor I will defer to the city attorney but I think we need a vote. We need a motion and a vote on to add it. Yes and we'll get there. We'll get ourselves there. Let me uh me in order to move ahead let me make a couple of comments first. Every member here has uh and the public have observed the tremendous presidentially declared disaster that we have experienced. We've had our city manager declare a state of emergency and disaster. The governor who is in our county at this moment touring some sites has made the state declaration and the president of the United States has issued the presidential proclamation. I had the good fortune yesterday of speaking of receiving a call from the vice president of the United States offering assistance to our community. Uh any such help we may need whether it's a federal emergency management agency or others and she indicated that the administration stood ready to be of assistance to us and we appreciated that. I also want to say that uh every worker in the city of Santa Cruz uh every worker recall uh excuse me was called to duty during these past several days and especially during the cyclone bomb that hit our community and in order to respond adequately all hands were on deck and whether that is our police fire public works water department others everyone responded with the kind of deep caring and humanity that we've come to know and expect out of our city workers as well as our partners in local government the county of Santa Cruz uh other cities in our community as well as a number of nonprofits who stood up as we know they always do. What I'd like to be able to do at this point is uh is give other members I know this is unusual but it's an unusual circumstance if any other members would like to make brief comments about that uh certainly you will be acknowledged. Anyone wish to do that? Ms. Brown? I would uh I just want to put a fine point on the appreciation and recognition of our city workers who stepped in I know that's happening with public agencies around the county but they stepped in and under very challenging circumstances uh worked in you know in jobs that they're not familiar with and and and they've continued to do this during crisis um I don't want to sound like we're in perpetual crisis but you know multiple crises so um I just want to say you know and and the Parks and Rec crew I know that you um kind of just jumped in and were responsive immediately with the civic and Ms. Bond if you're out there listening especially uh who coordinates that uh that space thank you so much for being there and we really do appreciate you. Mr. Newsom. I just want to uh you know just reiterate that as well and just you know state my thanks for the work that the city workers did this past week uh as uh as a storm came in and how they handled the situation and how they stepped up and how they addressed it it was a really great job. Ms. Watkins. Yeah no I'll just briefly also extend my gratitude and thanks I think in these types of instances and these times in crises is when you see the best of people coming forward and not only do you see our workers prepared and willing to go and serve and do what they can do in their capacity but also just members of our community wanting to help in any way they can helping with sandbagging or whatever it is that they can do um you know I grew up in the county and I think the devastation is just it's it's unbearable to a certain extent having been a child being able to access a number of the places that have been destroyed that being said we're an incredible resilient community and we'll continue to do what we can to come together to support each other and these types of challenging circumstances and do what we can to recover from here moving forward so um yeah kudos and extension of gratitude to the entire community for for really rallying to support those in most in need at this time. Thank you. Ms. Brunner. Thank you for the opportunity. I would definitely like to thank Erika Smart our new communications director with the city who really jumped on board and quickly was able to get information out to our community in English and Spanish in this time of crisis I would like to thank our parks and rec crew for all of their work at the civic auditorium as the shelter and the freight depot building at the freight building at depot park as another shelter and our free guide who operated that and our entire community who came together in this time was remarkable thank you to the community foundation for providing disaster relief fund for anybody who needs it and to the family who donated a matching amount of seventy five thousand it's just an example of all of us working together in the most difficult time and as we enter into recovery mode and assessing damages you know the city we have our wharf I know that we have we will be assessing those damages we have damage on west cliff drive that will be assessed and other areas of flooding and I'm so glad that we had no fatalities thank you to our police and fire and the emergency responder crews I know there were several water rescues yesterday so with today's high surf advisory I would just like to remind everyone to stay away from the surf zones and the water and thank you to everyone for the last week of work during a time when our city offices were closed technically everyone did come together hands on deck so thank you thank you miss pruner miss collin tarry johnson thank you for the opportunity my colleagues have made a lot of the same things that I would make but certainly to city staff and parks and rec it was amazing to see everyone come together and work through the holiday week the partnership with the county and and county programs I know that we've coordinated with their EOC and the non-profits who were able to come and support the city or support any other locations that needed the support councilmember bruner mentioned community foundation also volunteer center is all still providing opportunity for folks who want to volunteer and help with the restoration of our community um and thank you to city manager matt huffaker for keeping us minute by minute up to date with what's happening and how we can contribute and support the efforts of the city thank you very much miss golder I don't have um anybody in addition to think other than I really do want to express my thanks to the staff who worked tirelessly in the months before this to clean up the benchlands because I think if that was part of the emergency it we could have seen a lot more loss of life and so having the foresight to have that encampments cleaned up and those folks relocated seeing that the the river reached all-time highs it was really a lot of a lot of work in advance of this that was also super helpful so thank you to the workers who did that work and thank you to everybody who came together in the community to help out those in need and I'm just happy that everybody for the most part was you know safe and healthy and um yeah very good thank you thank you all so very much what is the appropriate motion you're looking for sir here I need to explain the basis for the motion um due to uh threats to city facilities and infrastructure that came to the attention of city staff over the course of the weekend after the agenda was posted in the need to take urgent action to address the the critical immediate ones a resolution has been prepared that authorizes emergency procurement of goods materials and construction services during the existence of the local emergency what this is intended to do is to give city staff the ability to move forward immediately for some pressing needs there will be additional projects that come forward over the over time but in order to make sure that we get started quickly and that we comply with FEMA and other regulations necessary to hopefully get reimbursed for the costs um this resolution is being added the recommendation is to um is to remove item number seven from the consent calendar and consider this resolution in conjunction with the resolution that's in your packet for item number seven and in order to add this as a matter of subsequent need it requires a um a vote of five council members is there a motion so moved second by miss walk and this is second by miss calentary johnson debate or discussion oh i'm sorry excuse me i'm getting used to voices and uh so on not just the voices in my head but the actual voices okay thank you miss brunner for the second it's their debate or discussion seen and hearing none clerk will call the roll councilmember new some and this is uh this is to add to add i brown i what can i brunner i calentary johnson i vice mayor golder i and mayor keely i the item is added now further on the we are now on the consent agenda let me ask if there are additions and deletions in addition to the addition we just made any additions or deletions to the consent agenda i'd like to pull item number 14 at the request of staff is that correct funny i'm looking at item number 14 will be pulled and that item will become item 21.1 um no it'll it'll still be 14 excuse me it'll still be 14 we don't remember um when they get pulled oh we don't well this is very different than the board of supervisors all right it'll remain but we will take it up uh after item 21 further on the consent agenda miss calentary johnson item 12 item 12 it is uh it is pulled others did you need to have item seven pulled as well in order to have that added okay i'd like to pull item seven item seven others others on the consent agenda anyone with us today who wants to pull an item off the consent agenda i'm sorry to comment on the consent agenda please do please do um would this be the moment to come make the comment make a comment on consent agenda sure can you please speak into the mic that mic right yeah thank you want to um comment on item number 20 the laguna creek diversion retrofit project i live right next door to that project and so i um know it really well i walk that part of the creek all the time and um i've watched the work and especially the revegetation work and i just want to share with you because i don't know who who i should be telling this to if anyone but i'm just just a word to the wise um the revegetation work that has been done um flies in the face of um much of what how a forest grows um how trees should be planted in relationship to each other and to light and um so what's happened is that there little um groupings of redwoods and other plants that have been revegetated um where they have very little chance of uh growing and they have to be watered by water trucked in to laguna creek right where laguna creek is now i'm sure all of this is in some kind of compliance with some regulations but um but the bottom line is that the owner of that property where this work has been done intends to pull all of that out in five years when the project is no longer uh no required to to be maintained and um so i'm just wanting to let you know that that seems like a terrible inefficiency and maybe there's some way to intervene in those kinds of decisions and revegetation projects thank you thank you very much anyone else wish to comment on the consent agenda miss shendledecker good afternoon hi happy new year everyone um i just wanted to comment on item 11 the um the grant application for san lorendo river flooding and climate change um while i'm i think it's great that were that you're looking for funding to keep pushing forward on um climate change adaptation and mitigation and i'm really glad to see that there's funding in there for um rv dumping to match local enterprise grant funds i also just want to sort of flag that there's been 20 years plus of study of the san lorendo river planning we have people active in our community who have been working on um you know worked on the san lorendo river plan in 2003 and the recommendations for that were shelved the copy of it that's available online is missing some pages and there's to me that points to two things one that the the city hasn't taken seriously the work that it's done in past decades hasn't taken advantage of local knowledge and um resources uh person power that's been available to work on these these items and people are still on advisory bodies if you look up that document and see who was involved so it just i'd like to like to recommend that everybody take a look at that river plan from 2003 take seriously the recommendations that were made then which were informed by i think early knowledge earlier knowledge of climate change even if it's not mentioned specifically by that wording um and you know take some of that advice along with spending you know a hundred thousand two hundred thousand however many more dollars for yet another study um you know we do a lot of studies let's do the work too thanks very good thank you anyone else who's wish it with us today who wishes to comment on the consent agenda seen and hearing none the matter is back before the council and uh we're going to take up those items that were pulled so let's take a look yes you want to motion on the remaining sorry mayor you would do a vote to accept the full consent agenda agenda um calendar and then go to the ones that were pulled okay let's get a motion on the remaining consent agenda items motion yes i had a comment on 15 what go ahead uh so i have a comment on 15 finalizing sister city relationship between berets france and the city of santa cruz and i just wanted to say thank you to parks and rec tremaine head and jones and city attorney's office cassie bronson um for working on this finalization which wasn't quite uh ready by the end of the year and so with this um a new finalization i'm looking forward to um continuing a sister city relationship with berets france thank you thank you another item you want to comment on question on 18 is the west cliff drive walking path storm damage repair project completion i was just curious if any of the storm recent storm impacts um along west cliff drive are associated or impacted this project at all mary kaley uh member of the city council my name is roger spanggood i'm sorry you are recognized thank you um so the this notice of completion for west cliff is actually the last fema project from the last declared declaration in 2017 it held up fine it is not part of the damage uh that's currently going on in west cliff thank you for the question or comment anyone else as a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as amended those favors councilmember brunner i make a motion to approve the council the consent agenda did we have a motion on the floor yeah i have councilmember watkins seconded by councilmember brunner okay that's where i thought we were okay clerk will call the roll councilmember newson hi brown hi what can i um brunner hi calentary johnson hi vice mayor golder hi and mary kaley hi motion passes and so ordered we're going to go to item 14 which was pulled the member who pulled that item wished to open on it sure this item was pulled on requests of staff and i'll go ahead and power staff speak to it good afternoon good afternoon mayor and city council um on june i'm elizabeth cabell thank you thank you on june 28th of last year staff brought an item to council discussing the implementation of energy related improvements at three city sites the civic auditorium so cal front garage and harvey west ball park ball field at that meeting council adopted a resolution authorizing execution of an agreement with site logic for the implementation of the improvements with funding provided by a low interest california energy commission loan of three million and a tax exempt municipal lease loan of three and a half million the cec loan was approved in october for two point four million instead of the expected three million so the municipal lease loan that's brought before you today is for three point eight million instead of three point five million the scope of work and total cost of the project has not changed from what was approved in june but because the municipal lease loan amount is different than what was originally approved we need to have the item considered and voted on as a separate item of business and not part of the consent calendar so staff municipal advisors bond council and site logic are all here if you have any questions on anything members questions thank you very much we're going to take these one at a time is there a motion to accept under 14 as recommended i'll make a motion public comment public comment seeing hearing none i'll move item 14 a second motion and a second under discussion seeing the nearing none we will move to a roll call vote what we'll call the roll council member newson hi brown hi what can hi brunner hi calentary johnson hi vice mayor golder hi and mariculey hi item 12 on the consent agenda miss calentary johnson thank you this is um the committees and commissions for council members and i wanted to request um that um i serve on the downtown management corporation and i've spoken to council member brown about um swapping places there we're good yes good good further on this item i do miss walkins yes i apologize for not speaking to you in advance that i saw that i was removed from the farmers market board and i know that the farmers market board likes to be consulted prior to any kind of changes at the city level so i'd like to either request to remain and or have that conversation with the board prior to making this change okay uh why don't we why don't we go ahead you had a comment miss brunner and i'd like to recommend that uh council member walkins remain on the farmers market board and on and would that mean that somebody needs to who was indicated to be on here myself and you okay you're okay with that dropping off that correct okay further nope thank you and i would like to apologize to my friend miss brown who in my putting together of all of these requests uh i uh i made an error no matter how many times i read it i didn't see the error every time and uh miss brown is going to be our representative to the regional transportation commission i will be if the council approves this the alternate on the regional transportation commission i would like that without objection inserted into this item are there further questions or comments on this item anyone on the public wish to make comment on this i'm sorry mr newson a quick question i've uh or i'm just noticing that for the integrated waste management local task force i am listed twice as on the council or on the agency and as an alternate that's so good we're expecting let's make sure that's correct i've already fixed it that was the original but i've updated the the that's what we do to the new council members double and triple them up on things all right uh those those changes are made uh anyone wish to comment on this item on appointments seen and hearing none of roll call votes in order do we have a motion no it's a yeah this motion the second count our johnson seconded by Watkins roll call vote please council member newson i brown i what can i runer i fill in tory johnson vice mayor golder i maricule hi council we are on agenda item number seven and miss walkins did you wish to comment on this well i just wanted to see if there was any further discussion but we did hear from our city attorney and the logic you know behind this so i'm happy to just proceed and moving it after we have public comment if you'd like all right public comments on this matter seen and hearing none motion to approve is in order i'll go ahead and move it motion by miss walkins second by mr newson is there public comment seen and hearing none we will move or excuse me debate or discussion seen and hearing none the clerk will call the roll pardon me mayor just for clarity um the the motion is to adopt the two resolutions the revised resolution for item seven that was distributed to the council as well as the additional resolution that has been prepared for the emergency procurement the record will reflect that's the motion clerk will call the roll council member newson i brown i what can i runer i fill in tory johnson i vice mayor golder i america hi members we have uh we're now moving ourselves to the item that does require a uh a public hearing on our consent item number 21 that item is now before us let me ask first if there are any questions or comments on this item by members seen and hearing none we will go to the public we're in a public hearing at this point regarding item 21 a second reading and final adoption of an ordinance relating to the fire code anyone wish to make comment on that seen and hearing none the matter is back before the council and a motion to approve would be in order council member brunner i i make a motion to miss brunner miss walkins is the second debate or discussion seen and hearing none roll call vote what are we voting on um the second reading of that i uh brown i what can i brunner i fill in tory johnson i vice mayor golder i and mayor kewie hi motion passes we are on item 22 on our agenda this afternoon this is health and all policies progress report and work plan who will be presenting on this issue that will be me mayor i am tiffani wise west the sustainability and climate action manager thank you for being with us this afternoon you're welcome let me uh bring this up please and may i ask the clerk i need to both share the screen and turn on the camera is that correct all right here we are thank you good afternoon council members and mayor as i mentioned i'm tiffani wise west the sustainability and climate action manager for the city and i'm here to share with you today the progress on health and all policies over 2022 and the 2023 work plan i want to start by acknowledging the council members that um are on the health and all policy city council committee council member walkins collin tarry johnson and brunner and i also want to acknowledge our consultant nicole young of optimal solutions who's really assisted us with carrying out these work over the years so just to jump right into it um what is health and all policies and you know why is this an initiative here at the city so health and all policies really is an acknowledgement that local government decisions and policy making impacts community well-being and in turn evidence demonstrates the prioritizing equity public health and sustainability results in improved community well-being um this initiative started back in 2018 motivated by then mayor martin walkins um and really uh acknowledging that no one sector or agency alone can do this uh improve community well-being but it takes a cross-sectoral approach that yields multiple benefits for our community this initiative is aligned with the core conditions of community well-being where core stands for collective results of evidence-based investments which is a funding model uh partnership between the county and the city to achieve equitable health and well-being in the county um also there is broader support for health and all policies it is an international framework utilized by the world health organization the centers for disease control here in the united states uh the state of california has three cabinet level positions in the strategic growth council and there are a number of us and neighboring uh local governments that utilize this framework notably the cities of richmond gonzales and monterey county however each of these jurisdictions really operationalizes this framework in a different way and i want to share with you how the city has operationalized this framework um by sharing some of the highlights i'm not going to read all the words on the screen here but i will say that um there was a city council and um city department head committee that was directed in 2018 to evaluate how would the city operationalize health and all policies here at the city that resulted in in ordinance as well as implementation recommendations lots of training that's happened over the last several years we do include narrative language on how health and all policies have been incorporated in every item on agenda reports and subsequently in 2021 a resolution on race racial discrimination was also adopted that was very complimentary that actually reconvened the health and all policies um city council committee this past year we do have a set of community well-being metrics that were adopted that are aligned with the core conditions of well-being this past year we integrated health and all policies into the budget and that's a phased approach that's ongoing and began our work as a result of the racial discrimination resolution looking at diversity in recruitment and representation on our committees and commissions this next year as you've seen in your agenda report there are some other items related to single-use tobacco waste product options as well as carrying some ongoing work with the the equal employment opportunity committee and a diversity equity and inclusion effort so while we do track our indicator metrics I think it's important to acknowledge that systemic change and improvements to community well-being over time do require sustained effort over years and oftentimes we do not see shifts and improvements until the decadal scale so something I wanted to point out one of the major work plan items over last year that will be continuing in an implementation phase this year again coming out of the racial discrimination resolution is sorry um is a Santa Cruz like me uh value of representation representational uh government report and study that was conducted Santa Cruz like me was originally a partnership between Santa Cruz ventures and Santa Cruz county to understand what were the demographics of Santa Cruz counties um and now the city's representative bodies and really acknowledge that different lived experience can help inform and shape policy and governance to ensure our county is resilient resilient prosperous and equitable I want to acknowledge Maria Cadenas and Kayla Gomez from ventures I'm not sure if they're here um but they conducted our survey of all of our commissioners and committee members where we had 63 percent response rate which is very high so we know that the findings that we have um are representative of our committees and commissions um we surveyed folks on everything from gender age income veteran status education identification is differently abled race ethnicity and housing status um and then we compare the results of those demographics with the citywide demographics um the report also includes the county values for both of those as well the findings that we there were several critical findings one is that there is critical over representation of zip code 95060 considered the west side of Santa Cruz um a higher that has higher income households there's no representation of young adults and low representation of those without higher education degrees and households under a hundred thousand uh dollars a year there's also critical under representation of people of color and renters so with that the Santa Cruz uh like me a city like me report that you see here came out with some recommendations which the city will be carrying out over this next year and I'm going to share those with you right now as well uh number one we will be forming a diverse and inclusive external advisory body to the health and all policies committee to guide the recommendation the implementation of these recommendations gaining input on targets for diversity potentially compensation and outreach to diverse peoples number two more training that's something that always arises um so in this case training for our committee and commission staff and chairpersons on the purpose of why are we looking at demographics and why are we trying to diversify um our advisory bodies um we also be touching upon interpretation and translation health and all policies itself um and uh getting input on some of these efforts number three um I'll be working with the city clerk Bonnie Bush on recruitment diversity translation and interpretation standards as well as targets one other piece of this was that we were to brief the mayor and council on the city demographics and the purpose of this which I am doing here today number four as I mentioned we are going to be evaluating setting standards for interpretation translation beyond what we have in place now which is on request um and we have a guidance document on that as well as targets for diversity and commissions and committees um and then lastly we're going to be working with the county to review the variances in our demographics conduct knowledge sharing share target setting approaches and work plans and identify possible opportunities for collaboration I think um the commission on Latino affairs at the county um I believe was the lead on conducting their Santa Cruz like me report and I think there are big possibilities there as well as in the human services commission and the women's commission we also could potentially invite Monterey county to inform the seeing as they've had health and all policies in place for some time with that uh that is my report to you and the recommendation is a motion to accept the 2022 progress report and approve the 2023 work plan as presented and is contained in your agenda report miss wise west thank you very much for your presentation today let me ask if council members have questions or comments on this item miss Watkins I don't have a question but I do have a comment I just want to thank my colleagues for their interest their work and um but also really want to give my sincere gratitude to you Tiffany for all your dedication and hard work I know this is one of many things on your plate um but I have heard over and over again that diversity equity inclusion sustainability and health and well-being is a priority for our community and these values are ones that I too hold very um close and what I think I feel really is the power of health and all policies is the fact that this operationalizes those values in a way that we can see as you said though in the long term really some change and so um I know that's a slow moving process but it's a critical process to really achieve some of the equity goals as well as some of the sustainability and health goals I would like to see Monterey county come I'd love to see how other jurisdictions have operationalized it I think we can learn from them and I'm sure that they can learn from some of the work we've done um I know that in the report we had areas in which we want to see growth in um and then actually that's getting me to a question if if I may I want I know that there was some funding and I've mentioned this to you also um city city manager Matt that you know having some sustained investment in this also matters so I know that there was funding for 20 000 do you feel that's going to adequately be able to meet the needs that we could see this potentially moving forward to address I do for this next year and the work plan the work plan was kind of tailored around what can we manage in terms of fiscally and um with our capacity so I do think that that can cover what we need to accomplish this next year I guess also then as a follow-up is I know that this has also been a place where there's additional items added to that so if that were the case such as the tobacco related research that we'll be doing um you know I think that we revisit the funding associated with that as opposed to additional workflow or workload so that you can have it manageable but also be able to you know achieve some of our goals thank you thank you if I if I may chime in just really quickly mayor um appreciate that comment council member uh Watkins and we are certainly sensitive to the number of priorities and um additional projects we've added under the health and all policies umbrella so we we do look forward to working through that with the council as part of the strategic plan process and certainly looking at opportunities for us to continue building out and I think achieving the vision that we have we've set forward thank you thank you Ms Watkins I think if if then if at the strategic planning process and outcome if it does look like that this is going to be integrated in more of an intensive way that we have this item come back for for the discussion and modification for potential additional funding supports so that would be a sort of informal happy to do that I would also anticipate part of that will occur in the course of building out the budget for fiscal year 24 as well and so more conversations to come thank you council member brunner thank you I just a brief comment to um acknowledge Tiffany wise west for all the work that um on this uh body we've really we set forth with some direction and to see it laid out in this report is really significant of what we've been able to address and I'm so glad you mentioned Nicole Young of optimal solutions and Maria Cadena's executive director of Santa Cruz Ventures for the uh a Santa Cruz like me report um because with that data it was so eye-opening and it's continuing to help inform our work going forward so I'm happy to see our work uh continue and um I'm happy to continue working on improving the equity and uh well-being of our internal systems and externally in the city so thank you thank you miss brunner miss con tarry Johnson I'd also like to acknowledge and thank my colleagues on this committee and Tiffany for your leadership and um for taking some big ideas and making it really concrete and succinct um I'm excited to see the recommendation all of them but certainly the recommendation of collaborating with the county and our committees and commissions I mean this is where we cultivate and develop leadership pipelines and and that's what informs us as a decision-making body um there's also hopefully in that partnership there's opportunity for us to talk about health and all policies in a in a bigger way with the county um you know they have human services department um health services agency the or three so there's a there's a lot that we can do and and hopefully when inviting Monterey um it'll inspire us as a county to do bigger bigger things with health and all policies outside of our city um I really um want to thank you councilmember Watkins for bringing up what it takes the resources it takes to do this work we've done a lot um with the resources that we have and I know that we could probably do a lot more because health and all policies we have these very specific actions that we do but it is bigger than the specific actions it's infused in how we conduct our business so thank you for your work and thank you for the presentation thank you councilmember councilmember brown well I'll also uh add my sincere appreciation to Tiffany wise west it's amazing how you keep all of the balls in the air and bring deliver us really really cohesive packages of information that are very useful for us and so on that note I want to just uh make a comment for the general public if you're listening um the report attached to this item is is so useful I mean I loved seeing it uh city like me report um you can find it there uh attached to the agenda item and I'm hoping we can get it out somewhere that it's more accessible for folks to find it on our website um because I know that we all express and and work towards uh inclusive representation and we talk about community engagement and wanting the public to really be involved in uh city decision making um you know new ideas generating new ideas all of those things and uh this shows where we're at and it it also provides some motivation to get involved as I was reading it I thought I want to I want to get involved in this this is a cool thing so um so thank you and I hope that uh folks out there will take a look at it and um happy to support moving forward um with the the process thank you further questions comments anyone with us today who would like to make a comment on this item this would be your opportunity to do so we also have a couple people um virtually with our hand good mr whitehead come on up good afternoon sir I'm I'm sorry I'm sorry excuse me I apologize I apologize I apologize good afternoon sir yeah I'm I'm Richard Richard of course you are I would just say that for a long time health doesn't start in the hospital starts in the neighborhood so I don't know you but I sure coming here didn't plan to talk but if we're we're going to see change I'm going to get your card and I'm going to read the report um I can't be back here but I'll be watching at five o'clock and I came because I just wanted to welcome you Fred because I believe in for the next four years we're going to see the power of what we can do in a neighborhood whether that's a neighborhood that I'd like to see on one block or what comes out of your plan it's obvious this was fantastic it didn't happen because I sure remember the county office and way back to your dad so those who don't know me I am the stand for change 84 year young but without going into all the details if ever we're going to see change it's to get to Cabrillo it's to get to UC to bring that voice forward and I know I've got advocates for youth power I've got advocates for a youth mayor because we've got to create a healthy Santa Cruz starting with the families and at least that one block where the warming center is getting out of there we've got people paying the 2,500 for a one-bedroom apartment so I will get your card uh what I represent is strategies they're based on that Cabrillo but I would recommend that you get to the Latino Affairs Commission and they meet every other month and make this known to them we have two representatives from the city of Santa Cruz so you know Fred President Obama Michelle got started as a community organizer look who's sitting around but let's not forget those who went before us so with that thank you for tying me I love Nicholas but you are Richard Lewis by the way my brother's back in Brazil as those who don't know that last name my brother Bob and Jack owned Lewis Volkswagen I'm proud of that but I'm more proud of what the city manager can do back over in Watsonville but as I said a prayer back 50 years ago with Father Ross prayer I'm still hanging on to so thank you for letting me remember our here so Lewis thank you sir anyone else wish to provide comment there are folks on line who would like to make comments yes thank you the thrust of both the summary and report you're being asked to accept contain the classic leftist and high up discrimination garbage it seems this venture organization wrote the report and as far as I know it's a political action group that seeks to install more Hispanic people into positions of authority at any cost led by two-time progressive political loser Maria called Dennis Dennis as a goal in itself believing no one else can represent that community unless they have their ethnicity or skin color never mind the qualifications the skill or the other views of other potential representatives it is clearly favoring a discrimination and assignment of unearned privilege the documents assume that there is something wrong with representation by people who have higher income or live in owned property or are well educated or are too white or could be more qualified when the compositional legislative or advisory bodies do not precisely match the many selected demographics or some of some community which they define as zip code 9506 so which is not in itself the city of Santa Cruz although using even the city of Santa Cruz doesn't make any more sense if you care about excellence the people of Santa Cruz or how well the city functions for its people instead of the summary and reports irrelevant factors further the false assumption presented as fact is that these disparities of demographics and representation must be due to the oppression of some pervasive white supremacy and no other for example superior candidate qualifications or voter wisdom their solution to this so-called problem is racial and other demographic quotas in reality for thousands of reasons people are and will always be different and not exactly equal except in their basic rights and the best we can do is assure equal opportunity to all to find life liberty and happiness with respect for all other individual rights before I go further I would mention this summary and report is then an offensive hypocritical anti-racist racist abomination I would identify Tiffany wise west and martin Watkins as primary and motivated instigator actors of this defective ideology and I request motion for their removal from the high up subcommittee and eventual repeal or rewrite of the high up policy in its entirety with apology by the council to prevent this kind of trash ideological abuse from being brought forward it can only lead to mediocrity at best I have read for years now the applications for commissioners and a good many I'd say were stably written in pencil and show no particular experience or knowledge and sometime make application to numerous commissioner openings as if it makes no difference as long as they get an assignment it matters who are representative advisors are and the city has no need for reports filled with leftist false assumptions false problem causes and inane brain dead suggested corrective methods to those or the supposed benefit from the people who believe in promote such things don't be telling anyone they have the wrong color anyone they're too educated or tell anyone they have achieved too much and that they can't represent other people thanks mr Phillips thank you very much and who is our next participant miss bush um we have Kayla Gomez thank you hello um is everyone able to hear me yes um ventures partners with rural latino working-class families in the central coast to build a prosperous and economic future for all whereas zip code race gender nor immigration status do not dictate income or wealth I would really like to thank the health and all policies committee for your partnership and especially Tiffany for your facilitation and your consistent support as we work to put this together this report I'm really pleased with the participation rate and as more cities begin to conduct this process it's my hope that it will only increase I also wanted to share that this report um and the county level report we published in 2020 are both available on ventures website um sccv online dot org and we will also be hosting an open webinar in February to take a closer look into the report where we'll go through each piece of a Santa Cruz uh city like me and we'll have a q&a and we'll also be sharing information and details for how to join on our website and through our social media uh again thank you so much for everyone who participated in this process and special thanks again to Tiffany and the health and all policies committee for your work I do hope that this process will be replicated through the central coast uh thank you so much miss Gomez thank you very much miss bush is that complete our folks who are calling in from outside it does thank you miss Watkins yeah I'm happy to move the recommendation which is a motion to accept the health and all policies 2022 progress report and approve the proposed 2023 work plan motion by miss Watkins uh second second by miss bruner and miss callantary johnson simultaneously wanted to make that second uh further debate or discussion seen and hearing none we will move to a roll call vote council members Newsome I brown I Watkins Bruner I callantary johnson I place mayor golder I and mayor Culey I passes and so ordered members we are on item number 23 this is an item brought forward by brought to you by uh council member Newsome and myself this uh matter relates to the downtown library affordable housing project and uh related activities uh what we will do is I'll make some opening remarks of mr. Newsome or other members which wish to make remarks such will be the case then we will seek input from the public both in person and online uh the issue here from the perspective of myself and mr. Newsome is that uh we are new to this and we're both quite interested in in the project uh there was a matter before the parks and recreation commission on this issue and appeal and uh the uh without respect to how the commission dealt with this issue it is uh my opinion mr. Newsome can speak for himself and suspect will uh is that it would be helpful to have these matters brought together when the uh larger set of issues are in front of this council for consideration so that is why we have brought this forward and uh the the action that uh we would appreciate you taking after we've received some input mr. Newsome do you wish to make any opening remarks sir uh no I do not thank you uh summed up thank you let me ask if other members have questions or comments before we hear from the public let me invite the public to make uh any comments you have let's start with the folks who are here anyone who is with us in chambers today wish to make a comment it looks like we've got uh we've got a couple of folks who will do that if you don't mind what we will do is let's hear from you and then what we'll do is hear from someone who's online then we'll hear from someone who's here and we'll alternate back and forth good afternoon good afternoon and thanks for the time um my name is lisa ekstrom please vote to approve this request from mayor kealy and council member newsome to reconsider the park and recreation commission's denial of an appeal on december 12th it's clear that our heritage tree ordinance is designed to incorporate a heritage tree prior to a final project design it's also clear that this consideration was not included in the design process for the project for lot four except as an afterthought paraphrase joni michael don't it always seem to go that we don't know what we've got till it's gone we can and should save some of these heritage trees that we can thank you so much thank you for being here today miss bush would you ask one of our folks online to come forward thank you uh good afternoon my name is matt ferrell i'm here today representing downtown forward and we want to thank mayor kealy and council member newsome for combining both these issues for a single consideration by the council and i also um in following the lead of council who has been thanking city staff for all the great work they've done i want to uh thank leslie keedy for the work she did in reviewing the heritage tree permit ordinance requirements around this particular project and say that i have had the opportunity to work with leslie for over uh 20 years and i find her to be uh a consummate professional and a true advocate for the preservation of our urban forest so thank you very much for your time thank you mr ferrell good afternoon good afternoon again mayor kealy and council members um well i'm i'm here to talk about trees um but i barely got here from bonny dune today on account of so many many trees being down nine of them on smith grade my road and um it really made me appreciate the trees that are still standing i'm grateful that this uh item is on the agenda today and i hope the council will take a step back and clarify the process it needs to employ to move forward uh on the library garage housing retail project stated um as are slated for lot four i specifically urge the council to follow the heritage tree ordinance that states the heritage tree can be removed only if and i quote a construction project design cannot be altered to accommodate existing heritage trees or shrubs close quote so far that hasn't happened there's no evidence in the correspondence or records of meetings relating to the lot four project that the city ever asked jason architecture to consider saving any of the trees on lot four even though a drier dryad arborist independently assessed those trees and concluded that none of them was recommended for removal no matter how disposable any of you feel trees may be the heritage tree ordinance is there to assure that every step be taken to preserve them if possible it falls to you to take every step and one of the first ones would be to ask jason architecture to assess what trees could be accommodated in the design of this project since none of them on their own would be recommended for removal this would be crucial information to have for the february 28th meeting when this project would come back to the council for final approval so i thank you for that consideration thank you for being here this afternoon miss bush do we have someone else online thank you hi can you hear me yes hi lyra philippini here thank you mayor kealy and councilmember newson for requesting a council review of the parks and recreation commission's decision concerning the heritage trees at the slot for project i very much support this coming to council at a future date but i am concerned about the timing as noted by the arborist reports many of the trees are worth saving unfortunately the public record shows that there's been no consider consideration of our heritage trees and associated ordinance until an appeal was filed but now that the design has gone this far the majority of the trees located near the interior of the project footprint makes them poor candidates for possible incorporation into a design alteration however a few of the trees along the perimeter could be incorporated into the project with alterations to the design and program square footage for instance a reduction or elimination of the commercial space component i greatly hope you will consider asking the architects to follow the heritage tree ordinance and ask them to undertake a design modification to incorporate at least some of the perimeter heritage trees for instance it would be lovely to have a front facade of the block long building broken up a little by a possible library entrance patio framed by the large and healthy liquid ambers with hope for an outcome that honors and brings together our community i thank you thank you very much we'll now hear from the next person who's with us here in public good afternoon good afternoon thank you uh council members and mayor kealy um my name is susan kevaleri i want to also uh support the idea of bringing this issue to the council at a later date um we know that know that right now we have been suffering from flooding in our area lot for is a lot in the flood zone and i would hope that the city council might ask for an alteration of the multi-use library garage housing project in order to save some of the heritage trees these trees absorb a large amount of water during rainstorms their large canopies provide shade and cooling during times of heat and they counter the urban heat island effect most importantly they absorb a lot of climate heating carbon in their large woody structures again please save some of the big beautiful trees on lot four for our health and climate resilience thank you thank you very much for being with us today miss bush anyone else online all right we'll go to the next person online good afternoon hi fred geiger long time senate cruise resident i wanted to appreciate the fact that you are going to look into this matter further it is important as you're fighting out to a lot of people too well actually see the city council which is a lot making body consider actually obeying the law um you know as a taxpayer it's very irritating to see when the council becomes arrogant and decides they could do whatever they want to do and then ends up having people take them to court uh the recent wharf plan is a good example and then the taxpayers are stuck where they believe is a 77 thousand dollar legal bill when the council finds out that they actually do have to obey the law so i'm encouraging you to take a good look at the heritage tree ordinance it does require designs to be modified to accommodate heritage trees i'm sure you all would say in public oh yes i support heritage trees here's a chance for you to show us that your talk is actually activated in actions thank you thank you sir good afternoon good afternoon council members and merit you i'm pleased i'm pleased to be able to speak today i'm also addressing the issue of removing the heritage trees from law four and i do support the effort to putting it forward to council so please consider in the meantime keeping some of the heritage trees on lot four in the design of the library garage housing project planned for that location the consulting arborist for that project said that five of the eight trees were worthy of preserving the city of santa Cruz heritage tree ordinance clearly directs all building projects to include existing heritage trees in their project design if possible the easiest solution would be to include the two liquid ambers at the outer edge of the project it would be non-trivial i mean it would be trivial not non-trivial they would take up less than 2000 square feet of the design the architects have included in their design 10 000 square feet of commercial space it is possible that they could alter that please follow the heritage tree ordinance and include some of the trees on lot four thank you thank you for being here today miss bush someone else online no we have nobody else unless somebody wants to press star nine to raise their hands but as of right now we have nobody very good good afternoon good afternoon my name is phyllis actually my new name is joy phil taube green leaf and i just turned 80 years old and i consider myself an example of a healthy heritage tree um i think flexibility is one of the the key facets of intelligent human behavior i know that the architects who made this plan which includes a child care center and a library are also well aware of the climate crisis that our world is in right now every tree is important we are here to advocate for the heritage trees if some of them were even baby trees i would still be here advocating for them there's going to be a children's center what a wonderful educational opportunity for children my former um profession was early childhood education trees what trees give us as human beings what trees give the planet are so important for children's education so there you're going to have a child care center and you're going to be able to say to the children we changed our plans we grown ups because we know how important trees are to your health to your life to our planet earth so i want to say to you please not only because we have a sensible ordinance but because we understand the climate emergency that human beings are facing in the entire world every tree that is healthy is important please honor the trees and i want to refer you all to the wonderful song that the banana slug band wrote many years ago and they sang it at many music festivals all over the country it's about what a tree is for us and it's called i'm a tree it was written by the banana slugs let's honor our santa cruz tradition and planet earth don't cut down any of those trees modify the architectural plan and honor our children and our planet thank you well thank you for being here good afternoon we'll hear from you first then we'll hear from someone online good afternoon hello my name is roland sear and i want to appreciate you all for thinking about something really important it is not possible to assign any kind of weather event to climate change but what we're experiencing right now is to in complete agreement with the predictions that our climate scientists have made and they also have pointed out that there will be worse than what we're going through and so it is upon us to think about what we can do to keep things like this from happening now one tree won't save the climate change issue that's ridiculous but this is a an incidence where we can act locally while thinking globally and uh every tree particularly the grown trees that we have in lot four are the best machine to remove carbon from the atmosphere we will not be able to save ourselves our civilization by just uh stopping to emit uh co2 into the atmosphere we'll also have to remove co2 from the atmosphere and climate and trees are the best way to do that grown trees much more so than little saplings uh they will eventually grow up and rise to the level of grown trees but these trees need to be preserved this also means that the city has to be much more vigilant and much more determined to think about how what we can do about climate change we have a climate plan but if we look at the trees that have been felled in the last few years it's ridiculous we're not doing enough and it's upon you the council to tell the administration to stick with the laws that we have on the books and follow the the laws that we have and put some bite into our policies what's happening now is happening uh with less than 1.5 degrees centigrade warming this is less than the goal that we have set ourselves if we don't act by the end of the century we will have five degrees centigrade warming and i'll leave it to your imagination to think about what that will look like for the world and also for us here thank you for your time and for your consideration miss bush we have someone else online we're going to be right with you we're going to hear from someone online then we'll be right with you thank you miss bush we have someone online thank you welcome if the phone number ending in five three four seven can yes i can you hear me now yes we can thank you this is sentient math use and i'm calling in to support the action before you to continue the the two items to a consolidated hearing many of the speakers have suggested that the city did not follow the heritage tree ordinance um in the issuance of the permit but in fact the conditions and the process were strictly observed including detailed arborist reports uh they made the findings that justified the permit as you know that was appealed to the parks and rec commission with a very detailed and long hearing and the parks and rec commission denied the appeal is understandable particularly that the newer members want to consider this anew um it makes total sense to consider that item the tree removal permit in the context of the entire project the historic tree ordinance does not require that that a project be redesigned redesigned to protect heritage tree particularly one or more than one that are not in good health or good candidates for being moved it simply requires that the process be observed and that the requirement that a tree be protected is not absolute there is the consideration that protection be considered if the project can be redesigned without compromising the project in this case the tree removal is necessary for realization of a very complex project which it should be pointed out has been designed with the most state-of-the-art and forward-looking environmental sustainable climate conscious characteristics so uh in in short i support the action before you uh and bring all these issues forward at one time uh uh before the entire council thank you miss matthews thank you for calling in good afternoon hi i'm susan worth living so cal in a leaky trailer in a senior trailer park i'm deprived of people of all ages except for seniors i'm telling you i don't know where we got this crew of seniors to tell you the truth but nonetheless i am i am just mortified that we even have to think about this that we have to worry about those trees and our farmers market it's the only thing that i've ever found that was a community and worth living in this area for that farmers market and the lovely library the the carnage library i can't believe that they're just gonna put that in the landfill how wrong is that and synthia matthews we know owns a lot of property around here and excuse me she'll never confess excuse me for just a moment if you would stay on point that would be helpful thank you we need to move this ahead to a to a later date and a later time so people can be here well thank you very much miss bush do we have anyone else on there's nobody anyone else we should testify on this item good afternoon is there anyone else on the phone you you have the floor yeah good afternoon i'm jane doil and some of you have seen me here numerous times i'm afraid this time i'm not quite as well prepared as usually because i've been out of town and i'm just catching up on some of what's happening about the heritage trees i'm also very impressed by what everyone else has been saying a lot of the points that were in my mind frankly have been made about what this will mean in the future what it means right now um when i was an undergraduate i actually studied forestry and have a personal place in my heart for trees so there is that is carrying me forward a little bit here but i want to bring up something that i haven't heard mentioned and i think it's one more arguing point for santa cruz to be very representative of what the county wants the county has just released as far as i can tell just released a climate action plan and part of the idea of a climate action plan for the county is how we can make a difference how we can for example increase the amount of carbons equation i can't even say the word anyway you know what i'm trying to say um and i think that if you think about when you're trying to decide if this goes to the planning commission and so forth that we do want to be carrying forth what you just talked about in the last item health in all matters and trees are very contributive contributory to our health as we know i'm not saying anything that everybody in this room doesn't already know what i'm trying to do is hope that i can influence you to support going forward and giving us more opportunities to um advocate on behalf of the trees which can't do that for themselves so thank you thank you very much miss bush still no one else online that's right nobody else good miss shendl decker good afternoon again i also don't have a whole lot to say that other people haven't said already especially roland and jane um i i would just put in another voice for balancing the needs of our environment and the people who live in it and balancing the different policies and um priorities that we've come up with as a community so if we want climate change mitigation if we want uh library and affordable housing you know we have to make some compromises and so i appreciate that this is back on the agenda and i hope that um it isn't just a sort of symbolic um process that ends up with a sort of just reaffirmation of what has already been um decided um because i i do think the trees are significant as roland said they're not the only trees but they are significant trees they're significant to um not just carbon sequestration but the the um mental health of people and as other people have brought up when you have a school or a library or senior housing across the street when you can look out the window and see a tree there are very different outcomes for your your mental and emotional social well-being so we cannot look at the trees just as simply like um you know old-school environmental conservation that's just blind to housing justice um or label it as just nimbyism anti-growth nimbyism it really is about balancing our very own needs within our own bodies as complex environmental beings um so that's it thanks thank you very much let me ask if there's anyone else who wishes to to provide testimony with the sign do you wish to testify okay okay i think i think that's what you want to say all right mayor we do have another caller one other person online let's hear from them good afternoon we can hear you good afternoon good afternoon can you hear me yes thank you very much um my name is julian greenside i wasn't going to call in but um i was listening and when i heard um the statements from synthia matthews i felt i had to call in to make a correction uh miss matthews is correct in saying that there is that the requirement to accommodate heritage trees into a building site or into a project is not absolute that is true and the city has a resolution three conditions that allow a heritage tree to be cut down with respect to those designed to take it down however she is incorrect in saying that um the project design being altered uh is only if it doesn't compromise the project that is inaccurate if that were the case then developers um bringing a project forward that there's a heritage tree on site would simply say oh we can't uh accommodate that because uh it would compromise the project no the resolution states clearly that a heritage tree can be removed if the design cannot be altered to accommodate the tree not cannot um be altered if it doesn't compromise the project so we come back to the question of that's quite an absolute statement in this regard the question is can this design be altered to accommodate um some of the trees now that's not how it should have worked should have worked right at the beginning since the city was the developer saying to the architect that uh we need to accommodate some of the trees so designed to do that but that didn't happen and the public record shows that quite clear there were no conversations about heritage tree accommodation so now we're at the end of the line with a design which should have accommodated them but it's better late than never and there's a chance now if you direct staff to direct the um developer sorry the architect to make a slight um alteration suggestions have been made then it will be possible to have the best of all possible worlds preserve some of the heritage trees and have a project to be proud of thank you thank you miss green side appreciate your participation on the else online there are nobody else nobody else who's with us wish to make further comments back before the council mr. new some moves the recommendation second by the vice mayor under debate and discussion miss brown so so i'll look left look right um so i just wanted to make a comment about uh the the requests from the community uh that that really goes beyond what's on our agenda here and and i want to say that i i support that i support uh asking our the architects to to consider ways to incorporate um the trees um and having been involved for uh much of this the length of this process of developing the library uh project i'm i have asked the question of the architects it's been informal i was on the library subcommittee um and was involved in conversations with jason architect um the uh so i have a pretty good sense of what the answer would be were we to take that action formally here today um and and i think the answer would be no it's it's not possible um but i would like to find a way to have the conversation about um i know that that folks have talked about some of the trees um maybe not being as um uh maybe being a little bit easier to accommodate and it is something that's of interest to me i will do what i can at this end to follow up with those conversations with our staff um but i i just want to say um clearly now uh that i'm not i don't have uh um a lot of optimism that we're going to be able to make a major change to the project um as much as i would like to see that happen so um i feel a responsibility to say that here um because we are um i imagine going to move this decision to a future meeting and i agree that the council um and i want to thank my colleagues for bringing this to us because i do believe the council um should consider all of these uh in tandem and that we should have the final say this is a major project it's a city project and um i will continue to advocate uh at this end uh as as i can so um thank you and i'll leave it there thank you miss contrary johnson great thank you mayor kealy and councilmember newson for bringing this before us um i think councilmember brown kind of got to it i wanted to articulate and clarify for everyone listening that this item is not to at this point um overturn the parks and rec decision around the heritage trees this item is for us to consider all the permits all at once um as it pertains to the downtime library and affordable housing projects i wanted to clarify that for all of us and everyone who's listening thank you thank you very much miss brunner thank you uh thank you councilmember newson and mayor kealy um it makes total sense to align um consideration and action of all of the permits for this development uh to the same upcoming meeting and i would like to just um suggest that uh several of the the community points and concerns um be addressed or be considered at that meeting um when we hear all of these permits at the same time i think that would be very helpful to have some informed data thank you thank you let me ask if there are other comments further debate and discussion saying in hearing none clerk will call the roll councilmember newson hi brown hi what kinds hi brunner hi calentary johnson hi vice mayor golder hi and mayor kealy hi motion passes and so ordered just before we recess until we come back in an hour and five minutes for our five p.m. item uh a couple of comments by the chair since our regular business is is is finished for the afternoon session i wanted to take a brief moment and share with my colleagues with the public and and those who uh and city staff as well in terms of presiding uh it is my thought that uh that the way a way to preside at in such bodies is to be fast but fair not in any way to shut off debate discussion here on the dais nor to shut off any of that with our members of the public who who participate i do think that it might be helpful and i've discussed this with colleagues uh before being seated and with the city manager and others since being seated that i think it would be helpful as a matter of custom and practice going forward uh to do a couple of things one is to ask staff to limit their public presentations to 15 minutes if they believe that they need longer they can make a request of me or or the city manager and we will make decisions on a case by case basis uh let me tell you what underlines that uh i don't believe this is a good place to use the army way of educating which is to tell people what you're going to tell them then you tell them then you tell them what you told them uh that works well in the army i'm not sure that it works necessarily very well here i'm going to work on the assumption that both members staff and the public have read the item and that it is unnecessary to have a complete repeat of what is in our staff reports and in our packet uh i'm not sure that that serves a particular purpose i do understand that there will be times where there could be excuse me where there could be appeals and other items in front of us where we are required to have more complete presentations but i think a summary presentation by staff is it can be quite helpful and maybe can expedite the work that we have i want to be very careful that you understand what i just said i didn't say the staff reports aren't important they're critically important but they have an opportunity to write about that we have an opportunity to make calls and talk to people so does the public before we have our hearings and before we have our sessions second item is that i think it would be helpful as a matter of practice if what we were to do here on the dais is that we have an item we get the staff report we ask if there are any clarifying questions not speeches disguised as questions but actual legitimate inquiries that you couldn't have gotten the answer to before the hearing so i would encourage you to ask as many questions as you can prior to showing up here uh next it does seem to me that what is very helpful after having gone out to the public and received their input either through a formal public hearing or the opportunity to comment is if when the matter is back before the council that what we are debating and discussing are motions so as the presiding officer the first two words i would like to hear out of your mouth when the matter is back before the council is i move now you can move whatever you want no restrictions you can move the staff report as is you can move your own motion on what we should do you can move the staff report with six amendments to it that you would like to see but the first two words need to be i move and in that let me take another step or two it would be helpful if the motion is stated in its entirety first before you wish to make comments so in other words i move the staff report with the following two amendments this amendment and this amendment there it is if we get a second then you can open on your motion and we can have all the debate and discussion that is helpful for us to have so i'm not trying to close that part down but what i would like to do is instead of having a salon have actually debate and discussion on motions because this is an action body that's what we do is that we take action so that would be helpful if you would do that the chair will certainly the presiding officer will certainly recognize motions to amend and substitute motions so we're clear on how i see that and if i need further educating on this please tell me but a motion to amend is essentially i agree generally with the motion but there are these items which i would like to amend contrast that with a substitute motion a substitute motion is in my way of thinking about it and hearing and presiding a substitute motion is there's no fixing this motion you can't there's no way that you can amend and amend good enough for this motion to be what the member would like to see it be so motion to amend motion to amend is i can generally agree with this if these amendments are adopted substitute motion as i see it is i can't get there from here and i'm offering a substitute motion so in terms of how we will proceed that is uh how i as the presiding officer would like to conduct our meetings i do have a sense that what that will do or i'm the intention behind this is to make sure that we get our work done in an expedited expeditious fashion without in any way reducing eliminating debate and discussion on this dais or with the members of public if you have any question on that at this time i'd be glad to to respond to it and see if that sounds about right for folks sound about right to you okay very good uh we have finished our afternoon's business we will be here again at five o'clock but between now and then we stand in recess let me call the evening session of the santa cruz city councils meeting on January 10th 2023 to order clerk will call the roll thank you mayor council members newson uh president brown here what can's hearing greener president calentary johnson president vice mayor golder here and mayor keily here having established a quorum we will move to oral communication this evening this would be an opportunity for anyone to address the council on a matter under our jurisdiction but not on tonight's agenda uh let me ask the clerk uh do you have folks who will be calling in we do let's start with this gentleman here under oral communication then we'll go alternating back and forth good evening sir i'm steve osreth i live in santa cruz on north pacific um i want to uh the issue that i want to raise i don't want to have a discussion about it but i would like just a one sentence answer to the question that i will ask about it from one of the council members if i may um the issue relates to the fact that the current council and all the councils recently have represented only about 50 percent of all the citizens voting and i would like the council to be willing to arrange for a discussion with at least one member from our group who have some practical uh alternatives to the current voting method that would allow many more citizens to be uh well represented in the council and uh i would like therefore to ask the somebody on the council now to answer this request uh at least answer my question in some way please how we deal with that so that we're clear with each other so oral communication is not an opportunity for us to engage in dialogue with you i think what will happen based on your testimony or your oral communication this evening is somebody may choose to reach out to you but we're not going to engage in a back and forth with you on this it doesn't comport with rules yeah i recognize that by my first comment saying i was not expecting a discussion but i would like an answer okay now you said it twice members on that issue please because i would like to give the opportunity for the council to display its interest yeah i understood it the first representative of as many citizens as possible excuse me i understood it the first time you said it and i clarified what we can do and not do so thank you for your testimony well i know you can do this you there's no restriction on you doing what i'm asking you to do i'm not going to debate how we proceed with you i've told you how i'm just a citizen so thank you for your communication thank you for your communication well i i wish you hadn't responded in a more simple way body bush we got somebody else online can you hear me yes we can all right sounds good job yeah my name is hector marine i wanted to just you know first off i'm start off with this entire you know meeting and saying that you know i hope y'all are remaining safe throughout these times and these storms i hope y'all are y'all that y'all and your families are being safe because i know it's really hard for the storm right now um but yeah i quickly wanted to address two matters i think one matter was um the facts that we should have a much more open democracy throughout our uh throughout our county and throughout our city right um the one thing that that we can debate on several things and ongoing about several efforts when it comes to housing uh certain planning developments etc but the one thing that we cannot argue and i believe we're all on the same page is having a representative democracy so i wanted to second the voice of steve bosworth that's that that that seeks to expand all that message of having that direct democracy so we can ensure that every voice is counted and that every vote is counted on i feel like it's something that we can all agree on i'm latino as well so when i was engaging with several folks throughout our community they all feel like voting is a waste of time within the latino community because it doesn't go in the efforts of latinos and bifog folks so i hope and i invite the council to sort of have this sort of um engagements with us the constituents with us citizens and with us the organizers to expand on this democracy um the second matter that i also want to address is the uh is the uh downtown development project that's going on um i appreciate fred kilis efforts and limiting the story um story if i could just take a second here that is a matter on our agenda this evening so oral communication is for those matters under our jurisdiction but not on the on the agenda this evening so if you would like to call back on that item after oral communication when we get to it we'll be glad to recognize you for comments on that item at that time thank you yeah of course yeah of course thank you sir i appreciate you thank you good evening miss shendl decker hi everybody um i would like to very briefly just say i agree with steve and hector that i would i that i would like us to have community conversations about increased representation um but that's actually not the larger comment i want to address right now um i would like to sort of harp on about um our emergency response in in relation to people who are unhoused but i'm actually not even going to harp on about that i'm going to point out to everybody that our city and county emergency plans do not adequately address really like nuts and bolts of how to help people who are invulnerable at risk or um you know people who have functional needs and access issues in our documents it's pointed out as this like little like you know insert like side note like these are communities that need extra help in case of emergency right there can be complex trauma physical or mental issues transportation poverty um of service animals of children elderly all sorts of issues issues that all of us in this community either have experienced are experiencing now or will experience some time in our lives so this is something that affects all of us and should not be a little like chocolate chip in the corner of a cookie of our emergency response plans this should be fundamental central to all of our emergency response plans and it needs to be really communicated to the public that we are working on this and taking it seriously we had these floats a year ago and i don't see anything in our documents that advances our emergency response planning for people who are vulnerable or at risk i don't see anything that says that we have consulted with those communities so i'd like to see a million times more action on that thank you miss shindal decker anyone else do we have other folks online there let's go with that good evening good evening um hi my name is sabina holber i'm a resident of santa cruz i wanted to call today about two items in regards to the storms the first is regarding emergency shelter i really can't believe that in a city with as many unhoused folks as we have that there wasn't a basic emergency shelter plan in place before the storms hit the civic center opening was incredibly helpful to get people into safety but it was extremely frustrating to see it closed down by matt huffaker right before yet another atmospheric river hit our town all other shelter available was full or inadequate for example tents are not adequate for people during storms like this they need real shelter and they need to be able to stay for the duration of the storm not kicked out at 8 a.m arbitrarily while it's still raining the council needs to come up with a real plan for emergency shelter that can be enacted immediately without all the scrambling that was happening this past weekend that scramble time makes it harder to actually take care of folks and increases the possibility of loss of life i'm seeing that 17 people have died across california during these storms and a couple of those people were unhoused i know of at least two in sacramento the second item that i'd like to talk about is west cliff drive it's time to close west cliff to cars the pedestrian and cycling path needs to be pulled way back in preparation for future inevitable erosion that will just keep happening all year long even in great weather we've been seeing the walking path and cliffs erode and fall into the sea at this point it's hazardous one of the best days of the year last year was during open streets on west cliff i took my kids we hung out with neighbors and we thoroughly enjoyed all the space available removing cars from west cliff will make west cliff a safer space for all and i really hope that you guys take that up in the next few sessions um thanks for the time bye miss holbert thank you very much anyone else wishes wishes to address the council under all communication miss bush do we have additional folks online we do yeah let's go good evening good evening um from i missed the beginning but this is public comment for items not on the agenda so it's not the time to ask about comments about the uh development plan downtown it is correct that this would not be that time so uh miss van hoa if you would like to call back in to make comment on that that would be fine otherwise you can continue now providing comment on any item not on our agenda but under the city's jurisdiction um let's see i think i have a okay here i just returned from middle by the way my this is darian most need um i just returned from italy where uh they seem to be in love with uh qr codes over there and i i got a i got a parking ticket parking ticket and they had a qr code to pay it and i as much as i don't like it it was extremely the convenient and i would suggest the city look at doing qr codes on their parking ticket i think that would increase the um um collection because it's very convenient just take care of it right there no phone calls no letters no websites to plug into it which and it's a simple a simple qr code uh in addition to that i got another comment while i have three minutes or a minute left uh i noticed the bench land is completely stripped of grass and of course that's the weather you're going to be redoing it may i suggest that you look into uh use a artificial perf that there's a football field that up in meadow park that's going to be redone and frankly i just bought rolls from another football field for 150 dollars the dollar a square foot that i'm going to do with my low low low water landscaping at one of my properties and this is an opportunity to put really high quality industrial strength artificial turf in the bench land for a very um a very attractive price anyway but um i think you know where to reach me if any if there's any interest so thank you and i'll get back to you on the next agenda agenda item very good thank you so much good evening all right thanks a lot hi i'm abby um first of all um this i'm talking about the emergency what happened with um the last few days when the shelter uh the civic was opened i want to commend whoever was running that shelter it was i did not hear one complaint for those of you that know me i am i am full of complaints every houseless person i spoke to that or that was there really appreciated it so to be kicked out a few days later during the rain was horrible which i was there when they were being kicked out so um took a few notes when they were being kicked out i was told that they were going to be given other opportunities for other shelter places this is what they were given they were given this one page and these other resources so i took a person in my house that's been staying there since since it was closed and she's called every single one of these numbers now she has also a phone but most people don't no one called her back until yesterday afternoon so this was uh excuse my language bullshit um so this did not help at all so i don't know why you're saying that this would be taken care of people um so it's taken her five days to get a phone call back she still doesn't have any housing um i drove her to cabrio so she's getting shelter there i went to the vintage church where there's supposed to be um a shelter last night and they told me well there's no evacuation so obviously it was just for house people but people that are out with with no with no housing at all aren't considered an emergency this is inhumane very inhumane i wish you would rethink how you do emergency we've been having this way too long where you should have something more organized thank you thank you mrs bush okay thank you uh this is uh garrifell hey despite uh well before i say anything else i i was very impressed with the new mayor putting his hand on the constitution when he took the oath of office and i hope he keeps it there that was fabulous anyway despite the hotel tax increase and massive fee increases routinely voted through by the council i can't imagine the long feared scenario of yearly growing deficits won't materialize soon enough very possibly if there's this year's budget plays out as expected and there will be no funding available except to defer and raid capital improvement projects until like a bad landlord the place gets condemned for lack of maintenance i would make the point government cannot or should ever try to do everything and and that it is not in itself or should operate irrespective of the economy and population size as a growth industry and again i would mention it should provide only what the pervasive consensus will of the people is in wants needs and that they are willing to pay for and that and no more in some future years perhaps there will be 2023 the public might pay less if so the government should adjust in kind doing things like agreeing to no furlough provisions in union contracts defeats those needed adjustments running the reserve balances down to zero leaves the city open to disruption vulnerable and emergencies to first maintenance and makes borrowing money difficult it seems like a budget item badly needs to be installed to rebuild reserve balances over a reasonable period of time until the target balance is achieved that cannot be spent except in extraordinary circumstances which need definition that means a will to cut waste and expenses needs to appear when the balance is achieved some say 16 percent of your operating expenses those rules of one and why that balance can be spent i suspect also need examination and not just because thank you very much anyone else with us who wishes comment on oral communication miss bush anyone else one more yes good good evening retchie good evening can you hear me yes okay great um i wanted to just kind of go through a couple issues um the first uh we where abby was bringing up the notion of people getting a paper and then having to call a bunch of numbers to figure out resources i brought this up in a meeting actually with um councilmember calentari johnson which is that we can very easily make this entire system better by just having a google spreadsheet that has public view access and write access only to the service providers the service providers can effectively just write where the vacancies are and then the public can just see it and then the public doesn't have to call and do this back and forth and waste everyone's time and just make unhoused people literally like seek out their own services and then this also cuts down on the need for case managers and case workers we could cut a whole layer of just wasteful bureaucracy out of just the discovery of whether services are available by having a google spreadsheet for people right which costs nothing um so i really encourage really encourage the city and the county to coordinate on just making that little tiny change because you'll save money everything will be better for everyone and we'll actually have an understanding of what our service capacity is which we don't have now um and so i don't really have a whole lot of time to go over the second issue so i'll just kind of leave it at that uh so that it's the focus is please make this incredibly simple change otherwise i'm just going to go organize and talk to all the service providers and just ask them to do it myself right because that's all we're really trying to get out here all right thank you thank you mr misler anyone else online there are no more anyone else with us this evening i'd like to provide moral communication to the council seen here none we are on agenda item that is brought to us uh this evening uh by council member nuesome and myself the way we'll proceed on this is that uh we will provide brief presentations then we will ask for a brief presentation from our city planning staff who has reviewed this and provided an attachment of their own on this with that information we will then go uh out to the public looking for public comment on it it will then be back before the council for debate discussion and action so let me recognize my colleague mr nuesome for opening comments thank you mary kealy uh so the agenda item uh that we will consider tonight reflects the feedback i heard during the past campaign i consistently heard two things as i knocked on doors and spoke to residents of my district one uh the people wanted more housing especially affordable housing but two they did not want buildings that were too big for our community i did not speak to a single person who wanted 17 story buildings in our community the proposal that we will consider tonight is a good faith effort to obtain these goals and i am very happy to partner with mayor mary kealy on this uh agenda item i think this is where the past council was heading uh on this issue so this agenda item i think will make that correction that direction clear of where the past council was heading this proposal tweaks the current downtown expansion plan south of laurel by creating guidelines for building heights the total number the amount of total housing and the amount of affordable housing in this plan specifically this proposal calls for no single building in the downtown expansion plan project to be taller than 12 stories it also calls for 1600 dwelling units in the downtown expansion plan and it calls for 20 of all residential units built in the downtown expansion plan be affordable housing just to further quantify that last point this plan calls for 320 units of affordable housing to be built in this area middle class and working class housing in our community housing for say teachers social workers construction workers and park workers in our community now it should be noted that our city operates under a different regulatory environment that it did in the past due to state legislation and this plan therefore uh directs our staff to accomplish these guidelines by establishing policies that to the maximum extent possible will attain the goals uh outline uh in closing i just want to give a reminder that our discussion this evening will be the first of many on the various projects uh in the downtown expansion plan south of laurel there will be plenty more opportunities for public input on the various projects that will propose in this area this proposal will be a guide to those discussions though by limiting the building heights in the area and providing for the maximum number of affordable housing units possible in a financially viable manner thank you thank you council member mr butler you recognize for a staff report the camera isn't working good afternoon mayor and council members i'm lee butler director of planning and community development and i have with me sarah noisy she is the director excuse me project manager um for the um the downtown plan expansion and uh senior planner with our team um i'm gonna frame the issue a little bit and then speak uh briefly to the specific items that um have been brought forward by mayor kealy and council member newson so building heights are controversial in nearly every significant project we work on in the city whether it's 35 feet and three stories or 16 stories and 175 feet as was considered and as is being currently considered for one building in this downtown plan expansion area people have strong feelings about where we should grow and how we should grow and anecdotally at least most people are of the opinion that we should not be growing out into our open space areas so hoganip and de la viega or expanding into our agricultural lands to the west so the area where we will develop is generally fixed and at the same time the state is bringing strong mandates for how much cities must increase their planned housing capacities and for very good reason for many years california cities have not provided adequate housing to meet the needs of our population and that has led to many of our societal ills so the state has stepped in and has not only increased how much housing we must plan for what we know as our rena or regional housing needs allocation but it has also increased the implications of and enforcement of not planning for sufficient housing for us our rena numbers increased by five times between the past nine-year cycle and the upcoming eight-year cycle so we need to plan for at least 3,736 units to be able to be built in the city between 2024 and 2031 so to meet those goals we will need to roughly triple the rate of development that we have seen over the past seven years and with the state housing growth mandates it's not a question of whether we plan to grow it's a question of how we plan to grow and that's one of the things that we're talking about here this evening since growing out into our green belt is not an option growing up is what we must do and that growing up does not come without heartache and we hear that regularly we heard it for this particular item in much of the correspondence whether it's concerns about traffic or parking or shadows or about community character all of these factors need to be balanced along with other factors like employment capacity and alternative transportation options have to be balanced with the fact that or the residential capacities called for by the state we need to plan for those so before the council tonight are some very important policy considerations for the downtown plan expansion and we'll reiterate all the points from the staff report but I'll touch briefly on the three main ones and also along I'll note how density bonus needs to be considered so the first is the number of stories the second is the number of affordable units and the third is the total number of units in the plan area number of stories of course is directly related to the total number of units and the policy direction under consideration and the mayor and councilmember nuisance report contemplates a limit of 12 stories inclusive of density bonus as stated in the staff report developers have a lot of leeway when it comes to density bonus and how they provide those additional units that are allowed by state law but if the council is desirable is desirous of a 12 story max then staff can work on policies that would make that the most likely outcome when a 50 density bonus is applied and I think that's the the approach that we would need to take with this is looking at an anticipated 50 density bonus as we would likely see with projects coming in this is really a policy decision for the council balancing the factors like community character and community sentiment with things like this being in close proximity to the highest concentration of jobs in transit in the region so the council also needs to consider that if there is a reduction here that that delta of units is likely going to have to go elsewhere in the city because we do have to plan for that 3,736 units and so though that's a key policy consideration that the council will want to think about in making this determination the second policy direction that's under consideration is the total number of affordable units and staff can create policies that call for a total of 20 of the units being affordable inclusive of the density bonus the question is really whether the projects will be viable at that affordability level and if this is the direction of the council to have 20 of the gross units as affordable we will have to work closely with the developers to consider and study and evaluate a variety of potential compliance paths that can allow for the policy to be implemented in a way such that it does not become a barrier to housing because an outcome that we do not want is that we do not get the affordable units nor the market rate units and finally the council is contemplating as part of the recommendations from the mayor and council member Newsom the maximum of 1600 units in the plan area the state has invalidated growth caps so we can't put an outright cap in the plan but as noted in the staff report we can craft policies that in anticipation of all the projects utilizing a 50 density bonus we would likely result in a 1600 unit maximum we as noted above the number of stories clearly affects the total residential capacity in the plan area so we will need to study that in a relationship and report back to the council on our findings and I want to point out that we do have some caveats in the staff report with respect to 100% affordable projects or small units and so forth and I'm happy to answer questions about those if you'd like but again the shifting of housing to other areas of the city is another key consideration here we can however put in policies that would limit the would likely limit you to 1600 units in the area if that's the council's desire um finally we noted in our gender report that we recommend and Mayor Keely and council member Newsom also recommended that we continue to study 1800 units in the environmental impact report or EIR this is not the last time the item will be in front of you studying 1800 units in the EIR provides you with flexibility for future decisions for example if through the rena allocation process and the site's analysis of where intense where additional housing capacity is added if it's determined that it would be beneficial to include additional units in the downtown plan you would have the flexibility to do that if you are studying those 1800 units also 100 affordable projects could use the density bonus allowances for unlimited density or smaller unit sizes as I mentioned so those factors could actually get us above the 1600 units even if we're targeting the 1600 so continuing to study the 1800 units is important and that would in no way preclude you from approving the plan policies that include an anticipated maximum of 1600 units when this comes back before you at a later date with that I'll turn it back over to the mayor and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have Mr Butler thank you appreciate your the brevity and the focus on your staff report thank you let me ask if members have any clarifying questions based on what the staff has said is there any clarifying questions you'd like to ask at this time okay let me let me invite members of the public to to provide us with testimony you can start by lining up over here and I suspect we are going to have some folks on the phone is that correct miss bush so what we'll do is alternate we'll start with someone who is here presently then we'll go to the phone come back to someone we'll alternate back and forth so whoever would like to lead off on this good evening good evening good evening council um my name is uh hi martiega uh i've been a resident since 1969 which there was a year i was born um i'm in uh support of expansion and housing more than anything affordable housing because everybody looks out for the homeless you know i i i'm with them too i'm not against it but nobody's ever looked out for the diminishing middle class right at this time of diminishing wages mass inflation nobody speaks out for us my son with the masters he had the mood of the fresno area to attain a home he could rent he could keep on renting but we he wasn't able to purchase the home here so this this will do two things for three things this job i believe will provide livable wages for the working men and women that are going to construct this job another thing it's going to be hopefully local hire to provide jobs to the local men and women of this area which um is really hard to attain because we don't want to build so i've been uh doing the mega commute for 30 years which i'm not crying about it i'm happy but i love my area and i would love to work locally so yes i support this job for the economic benefit that is going to bring here locally hopefully we have local hire to spend those dollars here in santa cruz and thank you very much for your time thank you for being here let's go to someone on the uh who's calling in thank you miss bush okay thank you i do not believe the state and m bag suggestions for housing expansion take into account that people are actually leaving california in droves maybe it's the high taxes the toxic political environment and no matter they are leaving the only driver for population growth is now illegal immigration and birth death but that is now coming up short so great is the exodus there is no growth it's a false narrative i'm trying to envision 12 story buildings perhaps without parking and what that means in congestion and a reduction in quality of life bigger buildings didn't make separate system more affordable bigger buildings didn't reduce LA's homeless population it all just made for more congestion you can be part of that density madness or you can try to manage it more sensibly a reduction from 225 feet to 175 feet tells you people don't want the high skyscrapers and 175 feet is still quite tall it also math it is a mathematical fact that the law of diminishing returns applies to making housing affordable with each extra added story affordability comes from lower construction costs which matter more in the end you are responsible to the people of santa cruz and if that means measures should be taken to mitigate authoritarian non local mandates where possible you should and if that is the way the people i see little appetite for really tall buildings here as as the cost is self-admittedly uncertain that's not a plus either unless some of these tall story buildings are 100% affordable this 2080 split is just more the same assuming an unlikely endless supply of people that would like to live in santa cruz i doubt these structures will do anything really to provide housing for service people who might perhaps be commuting from elsewhere as there will just be more people of service and more service people needed and the housing ratio remains unchanged but more congested this threat issued that if the density isn't created downtown it will go elsewhere in the city but that didn't set well with me when i first read it i see no acknowledgement that the fiscal immorality of the excesses of the federal government's debt bomb and zero interest rates are the primary reasons responsible for inflation of asset prices housing construction costs and rental prices a future with a higher percentage of renters doesn't sound like a better future to me but that will be the result unless there are also condos built along with rental apartments thanks thank you very much good evening the president the presenter of the plan so far very clear and precise i only want to emphasize that if it was only possible to meet the housing quota by having 16 floors then because of the existential price crisis for the homeless it would be worth it but of course if you want to reduce it to 12 that could also be accessible if it is part of a comprehensive plan force that in other ways the needless need will be met so what i would like to be considered is to have not only uh piece by piece presented at separate times but each piece be presented as a comprehensive plan to meet these housing needs thank you miss bush thank you we can hear you i think if you speak hello there hello this is derrius again question i have to have a building in critical part of the downtown development plant expansion uh it's in three of the scenario three of the five scenarios i believe the warrior stadium goes right through half a dozen tenants living rooms in this building my question is have what is the process for acquiring these properties what is the process if other own other owners refuse to sell are you prepared for eminent domain is there other alternatives of course i don't expect answers to these questions on this this venue but as somebody that's impacted as well as 18 tenants many of them on section eight um i would like to have this dialogue with somebody in planning thank you thank you very much good evening good evening mayor city council and uh community my name is tony other i am the senior business age of carpers local 505 located aptars service in santa cruz county as well as a senior business agent for monterey county carpers local 605 and the carpers of santa cruz county fully support this project i'm speaking on behalf of those hundreds of members and um as it is written right now to compromise on the height density as well as affordability that was crafted we support that as well we look forward to working with the city as well as uh santa cruz warriors and building this project uh looking over the next hundred months i'm sorry over the next months and years to bring this vision into a reality for the city of santa cruz and one thing i do applaud about this project a lot of times we look at affordability as well as affordable houses sometimes we scheme up we seem to forget that the people that build in the houses not getting paid a livable wage with this project there will be a livable wage that will be paid to the members that are building this project i'm also a member of the builders trades and i got some of my constituents here as well and uh in addition to that uh health care will be paid by the building of this project and not just health care for the members but therefore their families as well so we're looking at projects being built this project will help not only the carpenters but the members of the builders trade as well as a whole as well as the communities because they can put that money back into the community which helped the community and not only it eliminated the burden of the city as well as the county trying to provide health care for those intervals that don't have it so we definitely support this project and i appreciate your time thank you thank you for being here this evening we appreciate it miss bush someone online liara filipini here again good evening and hello hi um i hope you all will support mayor keely and councilmember newson's amendment to the original downtown expansion plan and that you will request changes to the study parameters of the associated eir the part of this new proposal i find most compelling is the 20% inclusionary requirement to be inclusive of density bonus this would be particularly helpful with our community's need for affordable housing considering how few affordable units are now proportionally being proposed in most market rate projects after the addition of a density bonus as you know mayor keely's proposal also indicates a 1600 maximum for the number of units it seems important that this maximum of 1600 be the focus density studied in the eir not the 1800 proposed by staff i'm hoping that council will provide further clarity for the community and direction to the staff for the eir study on a couple additional elements of the new proposal for instance what number of 12 story buildings would be permissible please set specific number and their locations and heights as was done in the original proposal additionally what is the actual height limit to be set for these 12 story buildings will it be 120 feet assuming 10 feet per floor please set a solid height limit for the study and associated proposal the reduction of heights from 17 story limit to a 12 story limit is a much more sensible proposition though still one and a half times taller than the current tallest building in santa cruz which still does impose many associated impacts to our infrastructure carrying capacity health and safety so i do remain concerned about our infrastructure's ability to withstand this magnitude of growth as well as the possible dangers associated with flooding earthquakes liquefaction and evacuation capacity for this proposed density increase for such a small area however i strongly support the sensible changes to the plan being proposed by mayor kealy and councilmember nuisim and hope for clarification to the details thank you thank you miss philippini for calling in good evening mr barron how are you good my name is frank barron um long-term uh city resident and um retired city planner um i want to thank you um mayor kealy and councilmembers for this opportunity to comment on mayor kealy's proposed revision to the downtown plan expansion um the current proposal approved by your council back in june includes one 17 story building and three 15 story buildings in the south of laurel project area on the plus side mayor kealy's proposed revision would reduce the maximum height to 12 stories but on the negative side it would not place a limit on the number the number of massive 12 story buildings that could be built nor would it place any limits on the building footprints as does the current proposal this could result in the whole south of laurel area being covered with hugely out of scale and out of character high rises twice as twice as tall and massive as the ugly behemoth that's going up right now um at the former taco bell site imagine that twice as tall is that and twice as massive the overall impact of the mayor's proposed revision would likely be far worse than the current proposal despite the lowered height limit a better approach one that would accommodate most of the downtown plan expansion projects objectives including this 1600 new units with 20 affordable and a new warriors arena would be to um instead of having a blanket area wide 12 story height limit lower the heights of the currently proposed four tallest buildings by five stories each that would lower the single tallest building proposed building from 17 stories to 12 stories and lower the other three adjacent tall buildings from 15 stories to 10 stories inclusive of density bonuses then keep the remainder of the south of laurel project area at the currently proposed height limit range of between five and eight stories inclusive of density bonuses um if your council were to adopt this scale backed scale back hybrid approach i think you would find that opposition to the project would virtually disappear or nearly so however there will be considerable opposition if either the project is currently proposed or mayor keely's proposed revision with this unlimited number of massive 12 story buildings goes forward given that this proposal counts constitutes the biggest most significant land use change in the history of santa cruz one that will forever change the character of the city and and due to recent state laws cannot ever be undone your council should carefully consider how you how you will want to be remembered thank you mr barron thank you very much miss bush someone else online yeah thank you mr lane good evening good evening my name is don lane though i'm connected to a handful of affordable housing organizations i'm speaking speaking tonight as an individual i don't envy you sorting out the challenges of this item item but i'm happy you're taking it on because it presents an opportunity to make substantive project progress on meeting our community's housing needs especially the affordable housing needs we have the goals are really worthy achieving 20 or more of affordable units within the planning area moving us toward greater housing density in the proper location going high enough without going too high and facilitating a permanent home for our beloved warriors i especially encourage the idea of council and city staff working with the property owners to create a development agreement that meets our community's goals and avoids running a foul of state rules and objectives please don't overlook the possibility of having the property owners provide a substantial piece of land in the expansion area to an affordable housing developer as a way of maximizing the opportunity we have in this zone i also want to put in a word for not overly limiting the number of housing units downtown to meet our affordable and workforce housing needs and requirements downtown is our best location i think putting the council's good focus on affordable housing and on concerns about height together with the city staff's diligence in complying with state housing law and city planning processes can actually lead to a very good outcome for our community we continue to make great strides in meeting our housing needs and maintaining the diversity and inclusiveness that's essential for our healthy community let's keep it going tonight thanks very much thank you mr. lane good evening hello council members my name is kasey vanden huvel i'm the president of the modern a sand cruise building trades council as well as the representative of the sheet metal workers local 104 i'm here tonight and tonight you're going to hear me say two words housing and jobs and throughout this discussion you're going to hear housing and jobs through my public comment right now we're worried about how the horizon of the downtown area is going to look and right now that horizon does not have housing or jobs so i look forward to that change to have housing and jobs available for our residents this amendment hits square smack down in the middle of where we want to be not too high not too low let's go right in the middle and let's move forward so we can provide these residents with good working construction jobs and long-term jobs in that commercial real estate we also need to provide housing that's the number one issue we have here in Santa Cruz and how do we do that we are a dense little city here the only way to do that is to move up so i support these recommendations to the expansion and i support housing and jobs that is so important to the city and its members of my union so please move forward on this action and let's get started on this project thank you thank you mr vandenhove miss bush someone else online there is good evening the person who is calling in good evening i will let you know it looks to me like maybe that person has muted they're still muted yeah if the person with the phone number ending in 5542 can hit star six unmute yourself i'll tell you what well that person's figuring that out let me recognize our next speaker good evening sir good evening worthy mayor worthy council members in your city staff great job on uh what you did in your report there real good job uh mani panero's my name i'm the ceo monterey san criss county building construction trades council we are in full support of this project it's important it turns into a viable economic engine for the city of santa cruz you need housing you need good jobs with great health care great livable wages not only that you start young people in their career not all kids are going to go and get a two four six eight year degree this gives them an opportunity to work here we want to work with the city here we want jobs to stay here put that money back in your community that's where it belongs so get this project going we're here behind you thank you and hope to see it break round soon mr panero thank you so much for being here have we got our person online set up to go now yeah i just went to the next person we'll go back to that very good good evening uh good evening mayor and council member my name is jesse bresto with swanson builders and i wanted to um call in in support for the staff's uh original recommendations for the downtown expansion and the the reason being is um when it comes to rena numbers and the original 1800 units that are being proposed um we have an eight-year cycle to to and to get these right and if we uh try to limit those amount of units it's going to be spread out throughout the city and it's uh my opinion and i would feel that a lot of planners would agree with me given my professional background being in planning as well that the more concentration that you have in a downtown and more walkable area with the transit center and um services and jobs and things like that the better uh you know mission street water street soak health street that's where these other units will end up being allocated and they're not as it's not as walkable areas so you know we have one shot at it and i really feel that um allowing the higher density in in this location would be the best thank you mr. bristow appreciate your testimony good evening hi my name is christia darum i'm a resident of santa cruz for the last 42 years and much of that i've been an educator of low income students and families and spanish-speaking families so i want to quote from jame jacob's book the death and life of american cities if you don't know her she fought diligently to preserve communities and neighborhoods and faced really destructive ruthless development projects in new york city she quotes building cities we have the capability of providing something for everybody only because and only when only when these ideas are created by everybody with the input of those who will live there so i'm urging you to oppose this 12 stories the 12 story development i think that if you compare i've done some research personal research i traveled through europe on my bike mostly for several weeks last summer and you see that beautiful cities create beautiful experiences that's why people are drawn to this town it's a beautiful city it has a lot of open space and nature and the buildings are of human scale they provide a lot of space and sunlight not dark cold canyons right now i'm about to switch my bank because the community credit union it is very difficult not only getting there on a bicycle which is my mode of transportation but as i stand there during a sunny bright day i'm in a dark cold canyon and that experience is not going to draw ucse students or more tourists to our town also i want to question the state data i'm very familiar with the regional housing need allocations and other cities are fighting this that the allocations have been the numbers have been overinflated if you do if you look at similar cities of our size and our population throughout the world we're talking europe and the us the majority of buildings in those cities of that population are not more than five stories so i want you to get our input i want you to consider a lower height limit and i also want to question just for other educators and teachers because i've been here before and they've said okay we're gonna have 20 percent affordable housing and then the housing is actually not affordable for these educators not affordable for the police the prices are just not truly so how can you guarantee that local workers these gentlemen here will actually build this how can you guarantee to us that the people who work in our town will get the housing because they aren't currently now many of many educators police have to work you know drive from selenus and watsonville and that is adding to this extreme weather for those of you who don't you know understand it carbon driving puts more carbon to the air and is causing more flooding more historic fires in our future more historic droughts so um yes streets must be attractive thank you thank you very much someone else online yes good evening person that was the same person who wasn't good evening come on forwa