City Clerk are we ready to roll? Yes I am. Okay we'll reconvene the December 8th Santa Rosa City Council meeting on item three our steady session. Madam clerk we do a roll call please. Yes. Council Member Dowd, Council Member Tibbets. Here. Council Member Sawyer. Here. Council Member Rogers. Here. Council Member Oliveras. Here. Council Member Dowd have you joined us? Yes I have. Vice Mayor Fleming. Here. Mayor Schwedhelm. Here. At the record show that all Council Members are present. Okay a couple reminders. Council Members please keep your audio on mute unless you're speaking. Staff will remain muted until meeting to speak. As members of the public join the meeting you'll be participating as an attendee. Your microphone and camera will be muted only today's panelists will be viewed during the meeting. If you're calling in from a telephone and choose to speak during the public comments portion of today's agenda. 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If you are calling in to listen to the meeting audibly you can dial star 9 to raise your hand. The host will then call on the public who have raised their hands. Public comment will be limited to three minutes and a timer will appear on the screen for the council and public to see. Once all live public comments have been heard the meeting hosts will then play voicemail public comments. If you provided a live public comment on an agenda item but also submitted an email e-comment or recorded voice message public comment your email e-comment or voice message public comment will not be duplicated read or played during the meeting. Additionally there are two public comment periods on today's agenda to speak on non-agenda matters items 13 and 18. This is the time when any person may address the council on matters not listed on this agenda but which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council. Great thank you for that. Mr. City Manager item 3.1. Item 3.1 housing investment opportunities for PG&E settlement funds. Claire Hartman interim assistant city manager presenting. Great good afternoon. Can everyone hear me? I get a thumbs up because last time I had audio issues. Okay okay well good afternoon Mayor Swellhelm and members of the city council. Tonight we are bringing you a study session and this is on housing investment opportunities. So this topic is one of many topics that came out of the public comments related to the use the potential use of the one-time PG&E settlement funds that had come that the city did receive as a result of the Tubbs fire three years ago. So this session is considered in a series of sessions as you consider options related to these funds and as you recall we've staggered these throughout your time and there are there's more to continue in the series. We started in September where we talked about the potential use of the funds to stabilize the city organization through the budget process. Next week we're going to hear a study session on wildlife preparedness and resilient city infrastructure and emergency response support and tonight you're hearing about housing investment opportunities. Next slide. So it's a study session so we're not looking for action tonight. I want to be clear the idea of the study session is really to lay some policy options on the table for you considerations and allow the public and the city council to ask questions about these opportunities. So the policy questions really tonight that we're laying out is should the city invest PG&E settlement funds into housing. These are special funds we've prioritized housing over the years but there's a lot of competing interests with the fund so but if so should you invest it in a regional joint powers authority the red we'll talk about what that is it's kind of a unique opportunity to invest in that way or and not just or but and or another opportunity is always our city's housing authority and funding money through that and investing in the long term through our own authority. Next slide. So this is the presentation outline. I'm just going to give a little bit of context but we're going to jump right into the two primary speakers or two sets of topics. So we've got Michelle Whitman and she'll be our next speaker following me and she's going to introduce what the renewal enterprise district is that's the red that you might have heard about. Followed by Michelle we have actually three speakers that are going to represent consulting firm called Forced Street and they are going to talk about the red housing fund. The names of those speakers are Eulise Lipens, Olivia Speck, and Daniela Greville. And then followed by the red housing fund presentation we're going to jump into the other opportunity that we're presenting tonight and that's Dave Gwine he's the director of housing and community services he's also the liaison to the housing authority and then we'll wrap up and facilitate some questions. Next slide. So just to set the context housing has been one of the top priorities for the city. Certainly in the last five years it's always been at the top tier so we've been addressing it in a number of ways over quite a lengthy time and we've been very diverse in how we've approached supporting and investing and housing it's not ever just been fiscal it's been programmatic it's been regulatory it's been you know frankly organizationally culture you know culture changes and programmatic changes. We focus on housing production we focus on housing preservation. In 2016 the council adopted a city's housing action plan and that sort of solidified the multifaceted approach that the city was taking to support housing and then in 2017 when the Tubbs fire did hit we were already in a housing crisis but the Tubbs fire certainly exacerbated that not only did the city lose close to 3,000 housing units in one night and we had the to rebound from that but we are also needing to rebound it not just in the recovery area but city-wide and frankly the Tubbs fire and the Nuns fire they exacerbated housing crisis throughout the county and so it quickly got us working with the county and looking at at housing as a regional issue. In 2018 the city and county formed the a regional housing joint powers authority and that sprung out of that and that's the red that's the renewal enterprise district and then fast forward to July of this year the city did receive the $95 billion settlement fund from PG&E and since that we've been conducting the community outreach on what we should do to make the most use of those funds and relate it to the opportunity the unique opportunity that is before you and so one of those topics that came out of the community outreach was housing it I would say it's not it wasn't the top topic but it certainly was part of the conversations as we accepted community comments and the county of Sonoma they likewise received a settlement and they have also gone through a series of discussions but in October October 6th to be exact the board supervisors went as far as motioning to make use of those funds towards the investment in housing and in particular investment and in the form of a loan to the red housing fund and it was a motion for $10 million on the contingency that the city matched that and then shortly after that action and we also heard from our own local house city housing authority and they submitted a letter of interest to the city council and they asserted that they're also ready to make use of the one-time funds and they're they're ready they have the staffing available and they have experience with processing funds so the whole purpose of tonight is to go over these two opportunities that have presented itself and to let you consider as you move forward in in evaluating the best use of the funds next slide so quickly just for context this is a chart that you've seen many times before quick summary in terms of meeting our regional housing needs which is our hna's regional housing needs assessment we've been averaging about 300 housing units per year we really need to have ramped it up to about a thousand per year to really meet those targets so we're we're fairly deficient in meeting our housing needs and then we are entering in the next year our new or next couple years our new housing cycle so it's going to be a new eight-year housing cycle and as many of you already know the housing numbers and needs are going to go up because we meet regional needs not just locally created needs and so our numbers in our current cycle were about five thousand they'll probably go up to about 6500 that's about a 30 increase but one thing to keep in mind is the county's numbers are going to exponentially go up and what it looks like is it could go up as high as 900 percent so what does that mean to santa rosa it means there's going to be a lot of pressure to build housing outside the city limits and that's an opportunity to work with the county to place those units in a more appropriate location next slide so what this slide reminds us of is the work that the city did in conjunction with some nonprofit organizations in 2015 and we worked with a consultant team called urban three and it was a focus study that really wanted to look at return on investment type data and so one of the things that the study found was that your best return on investment is downtown it's transit oriented development it's because it's where all the infrastructure is it's efficient to serve with police fire sewer water your roads and so it is really in terms of your investment you get the highest return and it's not it wasn't evaluating short-term it's evaluating long-term because as you know the projects get built but then over time the burden of supporting that does fall onto the city and so this is the and so this philosophy this this approach has been sort of inherent especially in the last couple of years where the city council has really initiated quite a few incentives for building downtown a lot of our housing action plan incentives did special service to downtown housing so with with that we're going to jump into the two presentations so our next speaker is going to be Michelle Whitman she's the executive director for the renewal enterprise district thank you Claire I really appreciate the introduction and city council I appreciate the opportunity to make the presentation to you today one matter of housekeeping and I probably should have been more clear about this if the clerk could elevate rich grows with enterprise community partners he has a small role in this presentation as well and if we're not able to elevate him we'll make do next slide please great thank you so if you'll indulge me for just a moment I want to begin with a vision statement from the county's recovery and resiliency framework because it's really a nice summary of what guides the renewal enterprise district both generally and with respect to the new housing fund we're here to discuss today and to paraphrase the red works to jumpstart a housing market that is affordable to area workers and where all of our community members have equal and fair access to a diversity of homes located near transit jobs and services in a vital economy next slide please so with that vision as a backdrop let's unpack the black box of what the renewal enterprise district or the red is really simply stated it's just a partnership of the city of santa rosa and county of sonoma that was created to accelerate the production of infill higher density housing near transit jobs amenities services and most importantly opportunities to carry out this work the red was formed to pair public funds with traditional private financing to shorten the time it takes to produce housing and finally by focusing on urban centered infill housing our combined financial resources can be directed at development that meets our climate equity and housing goals all at the same time next slide please so this all begs the question of when will we be seeing taller buildings with more housing in downtown santa rosa and other urban settings in the county well first we have a math problem to solve most developers across the spectrum of affordability are having trouble making their projects pencil out you'll hear more about why that is in just a moment but developer math is really the problem we're looking to solve for with this new housing fund next slide please so as we continue through this presentation we're going to we're going to share the steps in our work plan to create a housing fund including those listed on this slide but first i'd like to ask rich gross and it looks like he did get elevated from enterprise community partners to lead us off with a few insights rich will be followed by our consultant team as claire led with led into with this presentation from foresight street advisors both enterprise and foresight have been pivotal in the development of housing funds across the country including the san francisco housing accelerator fund each fund is different and designed to solve for a given community's unique needs are included so with that rich you're on deck great thanks and i appreciate your inviting me to this meeting i'm with enterprise community partners we are a national nonprofit organization in affordable housing and community development we work in a number of areas in federal and state policy we work in we have programmatic work throughout the country and we are we we work in capital we are the largest investor in affordable housing in the country um and we work deeply in california we have an office in san francisco and los angeles and i've been enterprise for 21 years in various roles i've worked with a number of communities that want to set up funds like like the red is trying to set up and and i can say that most communities want a housing fund it is you know the it's it's it's very clear that there's a housing crisis in california and the need to create public funds public private funds is really critical but most of them have difficulty doing it they don't have the capacity the the financial commitment the ability to invest public funds the market or the personnel and and that's that's what makes me very excited about the red and about what you're doing here the unique structure as a jpa is is really exciting um the potential for significant public funding is something that is not available in many communities and is really critical here um you have a leader in michelle who should give you tons of confidence she has guided this thing from the beginning and and i am personally very impressed by that and that that that's a real strength that you have there and then working with foresight we we've worked with foresight around the country we've worked on a number of projects i can say they are the best consultant in the country for developing community funds um public private housing funds around the country we've worked with them with a number of funds and so the the potential for success in this is is is very exciting to me and and i i'm i'm happy to help help we're going let me turn it over to foresight and they can go into more detail and i'm happy to answer questions later if you haven't next slide please so thank you richa michelle um my name is elivia spack and i'm joined by my colleague stan yalla graville and you leave this and we are very pleased to be presenting an overview of the red housing fund to you all today and next slide please so to just give you an idea of what we're going to be focusing on um we'll go through our project dynamics and work plan and then discuss a bit on capital raising as well as the funds formation next slide please so starting in february 2020 we started meeting with a variety of different stakeholders and from these interviews that really informed what was missing within the current development landscape within santa rosa and then also informed the types of investment products that a new fund could provide that would catalyze and build development and so this information is summarized in a report that we produce the options and feasibility assessment and we are of course able to make that available to any city council member who would like to read or review it um going into phase two we've really been focusing on capitalizing the fund and identifying our capital partners as well as evaluating legal and management structures essentially what we need to operationalize the fund um we're targeting a fund launch in july 2021 and we understand that that's a bit quick but if we stick to our timeline there's no reason to think that that's not possible um i'll turn it over to daniella now to discuss the fund products next slide please good afternoon everyone my name is daniella um so i'm gonna talk a little bit about the loan products for the developers so we spent a lot of time earlier this year talking to local stakeholders to figure out why infill development wasn't moving forward downtown and in other urban areas despite there being a number of projects that were shovel ready and the finding was that the existing financial products available weren't meeting the developer's needs and so the products we've developed are highly responsive to what we heard is missing in the market and these are new products that don't currently exist so the first one is a subordinate loan for affordable housing um although there are um long term residual receipts loans available from state and local housing agencies and there's always a need for more funding this product is designed to be a low interest loan with required repayment um and it can work alongside those existing funding sources to fill in that last gap of the project's capital stack the second product is a subordinate construction loan for middle income and market rate housing a big challenge for financing infill development in downtown santa rosa is that this product type hasn't been built before in the local marketplace so there's no comparables for the banks when they're underwriting their loans and so the result is that projects are receiving smaller construction loans and they need and they're unable to move forward so this is a subordinate construction loan that would cover approximately 10 percent of the project's total cost and this loan really is the key missing financial piece that is not currently available elsewhere so by issuing a subordinate loan for just 10 of the project's cost that in turn unlocks the remaining 90 of capital both debt and equity from traditional financial institutions that really has been sidelined to date and the final product is a mezzanine permanent loan so if necessary all or part of that subordinate construction loan could convert to a subordinate permanent loan for middle income and market rate projects and it would be behind the bank's first mortgage it would also have required monthly payments and it would be due at the end of the loan term or sooner if there was a sale or refinance of the property and lastly the fund and the products are really meant to be flexible and responsive to the market needs so after a loan is repaid those funds can be recycled into new loans of the same type or if the fund chooses it can create entirely new products that are responsive to future market needs next slide please so now I'm going to talk a little bit about the terms for the city's investment into the fund so we are requesting 10 million dollars from the city if the city invests in the fund the county will then match that for a total of 20 million dollars which is immediately immediately doubling its impact and with 20 million as just a starting point the fund could initially invest in four to five projects which would result in 400 to 500 new units of housing I want to reiterate that this is a loan it's not a grant so the funds would get repaid and returned to the public agencies at the end of the term it's also really important that these public funds be as flexible and as low cost as possible so that the fund could then in turn provide low-cost loans to the housing developers these public sector funds would also be subordinate to any additional funds we raise from private and philanthropic capital I'm in terms of the interest rate in the term we're proposing a 20 year loan at zero percent interest with an option to extend and I want to clarify that that zero percent interest rate is the rate to the fund when the fund loans the money out to the housing developers they will be charged an interest rate so we want to keep that rate as low as possible so the projects can be financially feasible and finally just in terms of geography the fund will support projects around the county that meet the red criteria but we do expect that many projects that will be ready to go when the fund is first launched will be in santa rosa so with your investment there really is an immediate opportunity to make a significant impact to the city itself I'm going to pass this on you can go to the next slide I'll pass this on to Ulysse. Thanks Danila, thanks Olivia, thanks Rich and thanks Michelle so as Danila was setting up with the prior slide there's various terms associated with the proposed public investment public loan to the fund that really are critical to achieving an investable structure for the fund which means that on top of the public sector investment we are going to try and also raise additional resources for the same purpose alongside the public sector on foundations and philanthropies from corporations and other local employers and stakeholders from financial institutions and what that additional money can do is alongside the public's investment make the fund that much bigger that much more able to do even more projects so just to give a sense for the kind of scale that can be achieved over time in similar funds that we at 4Safe together with Rich and with others at Enterprise around the country have worked on I'm in San Francisco we took an initial 10 million dollar investment from the city and county of San Francisco and that fund within just a few years very quickly in fact is an over 200 million dollar fund that's already invested over a quarter billion dollars into the city of San Francisco elsewhere in New York and Los Angeles in Baltimore we also have funds that have terrific track records of taking an initial investment of 10 or 20 or in some cases 50 million dollars from the public sector and transforming that into a significant impact that's just leveraging the resources within the fund itself which means as Daniele was describing it that's the 10 percent of project development costs that the fund would be financing in addition to being able to leverage more resources within the fund itself with the kinds of products that we're proposing to provide at the project level there would still be more additional leverage in the form of additional construction loans that otherwise wouldn't be made in the form of additional equity that can be invested in projects that otherwise wouldn't be able to be invested in those projects next slide please so i'm going to go quickly through this slide in the next one at this point in the development of the fund we are of course seeking to capitalize the fund we're also evaluating different options for how the fund could be structured from a legal organizational governance and management perspective and i would just say some of the key considerations there are the structure of the fund needs to be investable for the public sector for philanthropies for private funders for others so that we can leverage that private invest that public investment with additional resources in all cases we seek to create funds that are self-sustaining that pay for themselves over time without any further grant or other funding from the public sector we look to structure these funds so that they provide their services in a cost-effective fashion so that all of the functions that a fund needs to provide whether underwriting, fund management, other things as well are done at a high quality and for as low a cost as can be achieved and lastly also a very important consideration is just the mission alignment of the fund mission alignment with the red here is of course a critical consideration next slide please so alongside setting up this fund at the red some other options that in the past we've used to make the funds as effective as they can be some options are a subsidiary of an existing CDFI CDFI organizations like Enterprise that sometimes can set up subsidiaries that are the fund other options as in the case of the San Francisco Hasn't Accelerator Fund are to create a new 501c3 and there's other options that we would evaluate as well and that's going to wrap up this slide let's go to the last one. Thanks Helice just to wrap up we are of course available for any additional questions or discussions should they rise we are continuing to reach out with prospective investors to gauge their level of interest with the fund as well as continuing to evaluate the legal and operational structures that you just touched on so that is our presentation we are of course happy to take any questions later on in this session and if it's the pleasure of the city council this is Claire Hartman if it's the pleasure of the city council we could take questions now that's particular to the red housing fund before we move into the housing authority discussion. Yes Claire I'd like to see if we do have any questions and we do have one and then we'll do our last question and answer period at the end so first up Mr. Sawyer you have a question. Thank you mayor and thank you for this presentation I'm curious you know we start out with assuming that we went forward with the county's offer and taking 10 million and and creating 20 right off the bat what are the costs involved of the fund formation and we'll just honestly with that so what what is after these things have to cost some money I would assume that they're not that the found that the formation does not come at a small cost what would we actually end up with if we were to get the 20 million and then have to move and then we of course would be moving forward with the formation of this of this body or this tool what's the cost of the formation. So I'll start and then I'll turn it over to foresight that that's okay council member Sawyer you're right it these things don't create themselves and there is a price tag and we've been really fortunate to have community support for this we've the original options and feasibility analysis that was included in your agenda packet was funded by the community foundation the costs of creating the fund the phase two work plan so far we've had we've raised a hundred and five thousand dollars toward a hundred and fifty thousand dollar price tag to create the fund we've been doing some financial modeling about what it'll take to support the fund in its first year or two before it is paying its own freight and I will pitch it over to foresight to talk about at what point a fund like this is paying its own freight. Sure um so the real answer is just we need to be making loans quickly in order to quickly get to that self-sustaining point and we're fortunate as we know from the analysis we did in phase one leading to the final options and feasibility report there are many projects that are shovel ready that are ready to go and thankfully we're also moving quite quickly so far with respect to the process with the county and we're fortunate to be here as well speaking with you today we're hopeful that we can move quickly to a july 2021 closing date for the fund proceed to underwriting deals and you know get to self-sustaining much more rapidly than would normally be possible that said there are some costs associated with getting to the closing point and getting those first deals closed there's a hundred fifty thousand dollars that michelle already mentioned there's costs just to you know for us to work on this for for legal counsel to chime in when appropriate and there will be cost on an ongoing basis to provide the fund management services loan underwriting services and things like that but those will be paid for out of the actual activity of the fund so hopefully we'll be able to move quickly and rapidly get to the self-sustaining point so just to continue on that point um in your experience i mean we've been talking a lot about 20 million dollars so if you do you have a sense are you are you prepared tonight to give us a sense of what we would on the day that we are we have done the formation of this um tool um and it's impressive but i'm curious as to on the on the day that we start to go out to the community and and look for opportunities to participate with them how much money we would actually be beginning with it can't be too much it can't be 20 million because we're gonna there will be expenses unless unless those expenses are expected to be raised by private dollars so i'll jump in again quickly before you lease feedbacks um councilmember Sawyer the red as you know i think you know is funded through a grant from the Hewlett Foundation we do have a line item in our budget a $250,000 line item in our budget that's set aside for a housing project that $250,000 is realistically a half a door in a housing project um it if we're not able to raise grant funding to cover the initial operating costs of the fund i will likely go to the red board and ask to have that money repurposed to pay the overhead of the fund perhaps as a loan to be paid back so that the fund on day one with its 20 million dollars is ready to start making loans thanks michelle hi mr rogers you're next thank you mr mayor so one of the things that we're very cognizant of is that these funds that we're talking about are public funds that were given to us for for a specific reason or for a specific purpose we all have talked a lot about the value of creating housing in our community so i don't need to go too far into that but there are housing projects that we're talking about that are not um nonprofit projects so what is the expected rate of return on a project from some of the developers that you talked to that might be accessing this public fund i'll let the foresight team take the lead on that one yeah are you asking what the rate of return for the developers is yeah for for their investment um i don't know the exact answer but when we discussed with them you know primarily you know you they're taking out loans and then they're taking out equity so loans you're just repaying that interest you know to the lender on the equity side the developers are really been looking for as cheap low-cost equity as they can find because the returns are really going to the equity investors which right now aren't even double digits and that's why this product is really necessary because they can't find investors that can even invest for the rate of return that the projects are delivering okay i appreciate that and that's a a number that if we can get a little bit more clarity i would appreciate it i'm nobody's going to argue with developer getting a reasonable rate of return but if we are talking about finding that final 10 percent having that other number which is the rate of expected return on the investment i think makes it a lot easier for us to have that conversation with the public just so that we're being very clear that this isn't we're not mining developers pockets and we're not you know that we're getting those moving and then one of the things that was brought up was how quickly we could get established and that the self-sustaining comes from funding projects and making these agreements faster is there any consideration for once somebody is approved for the loan how quickly they have to actually break ground and utilize it so i'll start off and then foresight can add to the answer there the renewal enterprise district board of directors is very sensitive to project readiness that is a part of the reds criteria they originally when we last had a criteria discussion said they want projects that receive red funding to break ground in 180 days they can extend that under extenuating circumstances but that was the direction given by the redboard and i'll see if foresight wants to add something to that there i mean i think one of the things that's great here is that from our outreach it sounds just that there are many projects that are close to being ready to go they're just missing that final piece so i think if we move now we can those projects are still there we can make them happen if we wait those projects may move sideways and become less feasible going forward okay thank you so much yeah thank you before i go to mr tivitz uh because i i do want to provide an opportunity for mr tivitz and vice mayor phleming who are on representing santa rosa on the board make any comments or any additional questions i just want to say it's very appreciative of the foresight you know the testament one of the report the 24 page document has a lot of information that i think is going to be like a roadmap to how the reality of this will occur so thank you for all the time and effort that went into that so with that mr tivitz thank you mayor um i was going to ask a clarifying question to i think assist with with mr soyer's thinking which is a good one and you know how much overhead or administrative costs will the city of santa rosa be contributing to and michelle what i'm hearing you say and please correct me if i'm wrong is that we have a line item for 250 000 that's essentially carrying this effort so far so it's reasonable to assume that you know assuming the red board would approve this it's not going to be an administrative cost of more than 250 to 500 000 out of this fund could you kind of give us maybe a worst-case scenario yeah so um actually let me clarify so far this project to date has been funded by grant funding we've got a community foundation snow county grant to do the um original assessment we've gotten um and it'll be on your red agenda on december 17th the acceptance of a $90,000 grant from kaiser a um $10,000 grant from brink housing a $5,000 grant from rebuild morphe foundation and we and that fundraising effort continues we're trying to cover uh these costs not out of that line item councilmember tivitz but out of um grant funding that we're raising as we go along because we want to preserve that maybe it will be used as a grant to a housing project maybe its highest and best use will be to cover the overhead of the housing fund until it is self-sustaining so um i hope that clarifies what i was really trying to say it does well i'm hearing that you're saying it is private financing that's gotten us here and as a board member i can certainly attest to that we've got it from a number of sources i was hoping to try to pin you down on more of a number though you know is it going to be 19,500,000 worst case scenario that's going to be available for loan making since that is the request before the council today um but if that's if you don't want to speculate on that just yet because i recognize there are a number of variables that's fine but my takeaway is that our our plan as a board is to make sure that we continue to you know fund or fund and provide for this through continued grant making with private organizations like Hewlett Packard or Community Foundations Sonoma County okay so um we did we intend correct me if i'm wrong force life team but we intend that the 20 million dollars in seed funding that capital will be granted out it's not going to be used to pay the overhead of the fund not granted out it will be received right we'll be loaned out we anticipate that the full 20 million dollars would be all lending capital used by the program to make loans um to developers for housing projects yeah okay and none of that would be used to pay for any administrative or other costs and i'll say as a board member you know i will do my best as one of four to see to that because i think it's important that we go in with with that number the other thing i want to say that just as a kudos to this team that i'm excited about is that this is the first time that government is actually providing loans where conventional lenders are not and that's what i think is so cool about this this isn't a loan like a lot of government agencies historically do which is you know you have to repay the the amount 30 years or not if you're an affordable project we'll just renew your terms and you don't have to pay so the taxpayer did get a project but they didn't get that capital and back for another project and this seeks to accomplish this so i just wanted to highlight the importance of that you know as as far as the renewal enterprise district is concerned the other thing is is chris i did run numbers on the loans you know you were concerned about the rate of return for for the taxpayer if we loan out 20 million dollars at 2.5 fixed interest the rate of return the net profit returned over the 20 excuse me it would be a 30-year term that's what i calculated is eight million four hundred and forty eight thousand dollars so that's more capital becoming available to the red fund to do more projects so i just wanted to share that number with the council and thank you michelle and tom thank you thank you tibbetz vice mayor flin yes thank you mayor a couple of things here from my end one is that i appreciate all the questions from my fellow council members in the presentation from director whitman as well as the forces street team and one of the things that i hear bubbling up from my my council members is about the potential cost and i always like to turn that on its head and ask what is the cost when we don't do this especially since a mixed and diverse housing stock is a really essential part of our economy and while we have our housing authority which is really quite adept at providing one type of housing you know it's it's not in a position to do certain things and so i was wondering michelle if you could speak to the leveraging capacities that other housing accelerator funds in the region and perhaps beyond have been able to access through this type of funding or seed funding from governments and what that signals to the private sector i appreciate the question and i've really appreciated working with vice mayor Fleming as the chair of the redboard with all due respect i think that question will be more thoroughly answered by the foresight team so with your permission i'll turn it over to them of course so i've just pulled some of the numbers here um so i think just tallying up public sector investments for four different funds that foresight has worked on is around san francisco in new york city in los angeles and in baltimore those four funds collectively have public sector investments totaling 88 million dollars they currently have total capitalization of over half a billion dollars and in the time that they've been around which is the longest one has been around for new york city was founded in that was the first of these funds it was in 2006 that one's invested already half a billion dollars um the san francisco fund has already invested a quarter billion dollars um an aggregate across the four funds there's been a total investment of over a billion dollars um and that's created over 20 000 units created or preserved new units or preserved units thank you mr leap it's just for you know more ease of like uh information processing can we focus in on san francisco and you said they've been able to leverage a quarter million dollar to fund what was the investment um from the government in order to secure that quarter million dollars in private funding sure so initially they um so that fund launched in 2017 with an initial investment of 10 million dollars from the city and county and in 2019 they upsized to 20 million dollars recognizing the value that that initial investment had provided them okay so same amount of money as we're talking about from rjpa getting a quarter million dollars in funding right that's helpful to hear thank you um and then my next um you know question is more um for or maybe it's more of a comment and it's around fire resiliency and the type of housing that the the red is really set up to build which is infill and housing in the urban areas and as we look toward attracting folks who might typically live in more suburban um or hilly work wildland urban interface areas um one of the things that particularly excites me about the red is that we may be able to reduce demand for that type of housing that is more fire prone and hopefully attract people downtown and then as um you know my fellow council members as you all saw earlier my last pitch to you would be that um that the economic aspects of building in this infill housing development are are really great in that without um doing something with a joint powers agreement we will not be able to leverage uh the eifd and i was wondering michelle if you could speak at all to the potential of having an eifd so the potential for an eifd was something that was presented to the red board in april 2019 before i came on board and there was interest on both the city and county sides of the coin i came on board at the end of july in 2019 and tried to pick up that ball um we immediately went into psps's um red flag warnings the eocs were opening just about every other week it seemed like and then we had the kinkade fire all of that is a strain on capacity both at the city and the county so um kudos to claire and risa that eifd ball is has been picked up and they're running with it they did the city they did the study session for city council as you all know um the red is getting a study session on uh december 17th on eifd i've talked with um the county administrator and they're willing to do a workshop of which is the board of supervisors version of a study session in march um so that the eifd concept is alive and well and would be another resource to catalyze that infill building that we all want to see downtown great thank you that's the extent of my questions i appreciate your presentation great thank you so you know their hands up claire day are you going to continue the presentation yeah we'll get back to the presentation um and we'll move into the opportunity with the housing authority and dave guine yeah good afternoon mayor schwedhelm vice mayor phleming and members of the city council good to see you rich gross and michelle and the foresight team you know i was asked to present on behalf of the housing authorities letter of interest should the council decide to invest one time funding in for the production of affordable housing and consider using your existing housing fund the council received a letter from the housing authority when media reports indicated the board of supervisors approved funding for this purpose as a match proposal to santa rosa the letter was intended to remind the council of the existing partnership with the housing authority which the council formed in 1971 so we're approaching our 50th year anniversary so let me take a moment to review what is currently in place to accelerate housing there's an existing lending infrastructure that does not require additional administrative costs should new one time general fund resources be provided we call that plug and play we're doing that with the community development block grant disaster recovery money the housing authority has an existing portfolio value of 120 million dollars as an inventory of over 4 000 units in an average annual investment of five million dollars and what that investment does is it retrieves a return of about 15 to 20 percent annually up to around 750 000 dollars which is immediately recycled revolves into the housing trust to help new housing projects the next fiscal year the council may recall in 2016 the housing action plan that provided three million dollars of general fund money to sponsor both market rate and affordable units to spur spur production at that time and that was operated by the housing authority the point here being is that by far the bulk of our resources to assist our very low extremely low households which with long loan terms but we can adjust those terms based on the direction of the funding source to operate more towards moderate market rate and have shorter terms the housing authority is currently reviewing applications for the community development block grant multifamily program for presentation to the joint city council housing authority committee at the end of december of note is the council executed the agreement with the state at the end of october and now the following week the housing authority was soliciting proposals to the point we're reviewing them now you know within a 60-day time frame we currently have a pipeline we call it of affordable housing project developments under way that are sponsored and fuller in part so for example we have four developments totaling 188 units under under development currently three of which are in the downtown behind those there's another 12 developments somewhat funded waiting for approvals etc seven of those are in the downtown downtown station area plan or primary development area so the point here is is that the your housing authority sponsors developments for infill development smart growth things of that nature next slide please so as just mentioned the housing authority sponsors developments in the smart growth priority development areas and they also leverage products under various terms and conditions to occur for a variety of funding sources it comes down to what is the direction of the lender or the person providing the funding is it to support supply extremely low low very low is it to provide moderate market rate any of those market types any of those loan products can be produced through the housing trust but again certainly the focus of most funding sources that come from federal and state resources are to assist our very low and low income neighbors and that as a result of that our terms are 30 years with residual receipts notes because as folks know the deeper the affordability less likelihood of repayment at the higher the affordability into moderate market greater the ability for for return on the investment and repayment of loans so it really does depend on the city council's public policy goal do you want to invest in low very low moderate market the the message here is the housing authority has those tools and the staff to to implement that right away and then lastly the housing authority offers a range of investment options including project based vouchers through the section 8 program to assist development but here i list the four primary categories such as production if you were to resource the housing authority could go into acquisition rehabilitation we also do home ownership programs if there's a resource for that and then finally special needs facilities such as homeless facilities if you wanted to consider a further investment into say san jones hall carat house village other nonprofit groups that are trying to achieve those goals so that was what i was asked to do is just quickly go through a couple slides just to remind the council that certainly you have a tool that exists with a no additional overhead or administrative costs that you could certainly insert the resource to we can get going right away and i didn't want to sound like i'm coming as an either or we just claire and i talked this through we really wanted to present this as an option for the city council but make sure you understood the full breadth and scope of what the housing authority can do thank you so um we can go into the next slide but um i'd like to give davin opportunity to do questions that are specific about the housing authority and then we can broaden the discussion if you will so are there questions for mr guine or myself um about this this other opportunity that we're putting on the table all right thank you claire uh mr tivitz is your hand up you're on mute thanks yes it was a um dav thank you uh two questions for you first is relating to the dr money you know and i might have missed the boat the memo on this and if i did i apologize but you know back from 2017 we were supposed to receive i think it was about 49 million for housing that was supposed to come out of the dr funds did we get those funds yeah so the the city was awarded 38.4 million dollars for multifamily housing production it took a while for the federal government and state government to travel to us but the council on october 27th approved that standard agreement so we could start implementing and soliciting proposals we did that the following week they were due last week and so staff is reviewing those this month december to be in front of the joint city council and housing authority review committee by the end of the month the goal of council member is that our recommendations and proposals go but then back to the state for their final approval and we want to be time we want to be timely with that because then the developers are lining up for a series of other loans and financing in the in the calendar year i appreciate that dav yeah i remember that council meeting um that my memory does serve that far back fortunately but uh i didn't know if we actually got the deposits but i appreciate kind of you letting us know or at least me how that process is going to look and when we actually have money in our bank account to give out um if my follow-up question is relating to home ownership program um can you tell us a little bit about how that would work and how funded or underfunded it currently is sure so it would work two different ways one is what we call self-help or sweat equity developments typically through an offer profit developer that's the primary way the others with down payment loan assistance but there are there aren't any resources currently for us to do that to help home ownership or to help families buy a home right now it's just a resource question well i i appreciate that you know i'll save most of my comments for the end about that um thank you sure hey mr jim is mr rogers you're up next dav just a little bit of a follow-up on the first questions um so what i'm basically hearing from this one of the takeaways that i'm having is that one of the benefits of going through the runual enterprise district is that we would be giving out loans for projects that haven't been or can't for whatever reason get qualified by a bank for that uh last 10 percent that they need for their funding or or at least not enough for them to be able to get it and i'm also hearing that it'd be an opportunity to leverage private investment and commingle it if that's the way that you want to think about it so that private and public monies are both going towards these developments can the housing trusts do both of those things or is it going back to your statement about a public policy is it the direction that the housing trust has from the council and from its organizing documents that prevent it from being able to do those two things thank you council member it comes down to what is the direction of the folks providing the funding for housing so what i was trying to make clear is is that most of our federal and state and local resources are directed to help very low and low income households that's certainly the bulk of our business model but for example in 2016 when the council provided three million a general fund it could go to market rate and so that's what we tried to do so the point is is that if you wanted to provide resources to housing you could consider the housing authority the housing trust and just be clear on what the direction is on what you're trying to achieve if it's market rate gap financing equity bridge loans whatever it might be so if if i can make sure that i'm hearing correctly so it's not necessarily the construction of the entity that would be loaning out the money but more the parameters that have been put on that entity that there's a difference between the red and the housing trust in what their mandate or guiding principles are well i don't if i'm following the question council member i don't know if there is a distinction if if the council ultimately decides to put funding towards housing we would listen to you and follow those directions and implement those into to developments if i'm hearing you correctly yeah okay i think i understand thank you hey council any additional questions mr sure are you good i saw your hand was up you're on mute chris asked the question i was i was curious about so i'm i'm good to go but my freak my screen just froze there for a minute thank you and now you're back great okay uh claire back to you let's we have a couple more slides i think that will open up for more discussion and public comment okay yeah we're going to end on this slide i think um so really what we wanted to bring you and dav hit it on its head is we wanted to bring you options um you've heard about the red housing funds especially when the county made their their offer public um it's out there but we wanted to balance that with the existing opportunity through the housing authority and frankly there's probably many other opportunities that you know we could bring to you and so we're we're here just presenting sort of two obvious opportunities that are timely and a little different um and so basically uh what's before you is an opportunity to invest in housing you have you have very special funds available to you you have a lot of competing interests so if housing is something you want to invest in we've given you two solid opportunities to pursue um doesn't mean that you won't get additional information if you do pursue one of these opportunities we could certainly bring back more details um as you need them and as you as you create um that direction again we're not asking for direction tonight we wanted you to make be informed and and just consider these things so you know as you can see on the slide there's a variety it there's no way to like put this in a simple matrix so that because both of these funds can be adapted right the red housing fund has a lot of its framework set up but the criteria is currently in draft that the criteria is quite good for red housing fund projects to be located and funded for downtown santa rosa including the county's investment so you know that's solid um but there's additional criteria that could be added like timeliness of construction and things like that so that has a adaptability um we taught we i think we heard from both opportunities about administrative ready readiness two very different concepts um but both could be resolved right um and then also leveraging so i guess the one key difference here is you do have this unique opportunity to couple a couple of upper match the county's offer and they offered the ten million dollar loan uh we don't always get that opportunity to match up and also the um interest that was expressed to place that housing in the downtown santa rosa so that is that is a unique opportunity so with that i'm just going to leave you with these considerations um and it's um before you tonight all right thank you for that claire so we are going to now uh take public comments on item 3.1 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand you'll have three minutes um madame zoom host would you facilitate public comment on item 3.1 i can't turn a little appear before you for the convenience of the speaker and the viewers the first speaker will be acknowledged and invited to speak please make sure to unmute your microphone when you're invited to do so your microphone will be muted at the conclusion of your comment or at the end of the comment period the first public comment will be from Gregory followed by diane. Gregory i have enabled your speaking permissions can you please unmute your microphone and confirm you can see the timer on your screen yes i can thank you please identify yourself for public record if you choose to do do so and your time begins now my name is gregory farron and as most of you know i've been trying to house a lot of the people in the extremely low and very low categories um and the housing authority has been a very effective partner in trying to do that what i'm worried about and what i want you to think about is whether or not either of these choices um is going to make it easier or harder for me to continue to do that um i know the dr funds are coming in and they'll go to the housing authority but i'm worried about all of you abandoning the idea of trying to use public funds to try to help the most needed um we're all and i understand because we lost a lot of upper-income houses fascinated with red and others to try to help the middle class well the middle class is in need of a lot of help and i'm not trying to diminish that especially since it was their houses that built that burned down that have given us the PG&E money i can't claim anybody uh you know dropped a bunch of money on us for low-income housing but i'm worried that the city is going to abandon the energy enthusiasm and even uh flexibility to be able to build those houses that need the subsidy i don't want this city to turn into um you know in a in a car model i want some Volkswagen bugs i don't want a whole lot of Porsche Cayans i'd like to be able to have something that people can afford and i'd like to have your consciousness stay on how hard that is when everyone wants to build upscale housing downtown we're beginning to go from a uh an east east city upper class at a west city poor to in my opinion kind of central city up and for the rich and everybody else on the outskirts of the city and that's that's not looking like progress thank you Gregory the next comment will be from Diane followed by Brian Diane i've enabled your speaking permissions can you please unmute your microphone and confirm you can see the time on your screen thank you thank you please identify yourself a public record if you choose to do so when your time begins now hello um i am Diane test vice chair of the Santa Rosa housing authority thank you for holding this study session i support the efforts of the city in the county joint powers agreement for the regional approach to housing production for the renewal enterprise district red a fairly new entity the responsibility of establishing a housing fund putting together capitalization legal structure management and operations all involve startup strategies that will take some time to implement before projects and units get built the startup responsibilities will be required for the county's loan of ten million dollars to the red there's an important difference between red a startup and the timeline required to get up and running versus the existing structure of the Santa Rosa housing authority the housing authority has existing staff expertise and resources to deploy the ten million dollars from the city share of PG&E funds in a timely and efficient manner without added administrative staff the existing housing authority project evaluation process includes a review committee of city council housing authority members to keep the city council informed if the city council agrees to allocate PG&E funds for affordable housing the important question then to the city council is it willing to entrust the city's ten million dollars of PG&E funds to red in addition to the already ten million dollars pledged by the county of Sonoma or will the council allocate its ten million dollars to the city housing authority a respected trusted and experienced affordable housing provider i'm hopeful that you can appreciate the differences thank you for your consideration thank you Diane the next public comment will be from Brian followed by Robert Brian I've enabled your speaking permissions can you please unmute your microphone and confirm you can see the timer on the screen yes thank you i see the time uh brian Lynn Sonoma county alliance and uh i just wanted to give my support to the red commitment and matching the county's commitment and we don't get opportunities like this often and the red has gained some great grounds in the last two years and and i think we need to support them wherever we can and just a point of urgency it can't be done fast enough and i know the bureaucracy can push things out now now but the sooner these decisions can be made and and funds made available the better for all as it was even related in the last call thank you thank you brian the next public comment will be from Robert Robert i've enabled your speaking permissions can you please unmute your microphone and confirm you can see the timer on your screen i can see the timer thank you please identify yourself or public record if you choose to do so when your time begins now good afternoon i'm bob geiser i'm co-chair of the southeast greenway campaign committee we are requesting that the council consider using some of the pg&e settlement funds or the other programs and sources that are being discussed today to help purchase from caltrans the 9.7 acres of the greenway property the zone for housing development at medium high and medium densities the subsequent sale or transfer of this land from the city to private housing developers will give the city the ability to lure the per unit land cost and allow many new affordable housing units to be built directly implementing the city's housing goals the three parcels zone for housing development all have direct access to main streets bus service and nearby utility shopping and services two of the parcels are zoned from medium high density of 18 to 30 housing units per acre that can be mixed with limited commercial uses the 4.7 acres at the intersection of the highway 12 freeway and farmers lane could be developed with up to 142 housing units at four more stories and the 1.2 acre site on yulupa avenue north of home could have another 35 dwellings at the medium high density a third parcel at the end of valet avenue could have 67 attached two or three-story units at a medium density we believe that these housing development sites meet the criteria that the council is considering for funding intense development in central locations the property has been vacant for many years and is ripe for intense infill uses finally the city of santa rosa already has an existing agreement with caltrans that gives the city the first rights to purchase this land this is a unique opportunity for the city to help meet the community's housing needs thank you for your consideration thank you rubber the next public comment will be from luke luke i've enabled your speaking permissions can you please unmute your microphone and confirm you can see the timer on your screen yes thank you and good afternoon council staff in santa rosa my name is lukelyn anglish with generation housing an independent advocacy nonprofit working to increase the supply diversity and affordability of housing in sinema county i want to start by talking about some of what the red will mean for the future of our community particularly to younger synomens so generation housing hosted a youth and housing webinar last night which included a youth panel of high school students and young adults from our community and hearing what they had to say about housing in our community for them was really enlightening the panelists unanimously cited first-hand accounts of displacement in their families due to the high cost of housing several high school seniors applying to college mentioned researching housing options here locally and determined that they'd have to leave synoma county for college i grew up in synoma county as well and know if the start stories are far too common the labor market and housing market are especially difficult for young synomens to navigate with careers wages and savings accounts still being established in terms of solutions that this youth panel provided they cited the types of projects that will be supported by the renewal enterprise district that are both affordable by deed and affordable by design those studios and one bedrooms well-suited for the younger workforce to occupy uh in our downtown and our younger work workforce is well poised to be an economic engine for downtown san rosa younger residents of synoma county are especially attuned as well to the dynamics of climate change as we will have to deal with the continuing consequences above all else and we recognize that infill housing is also not the easiest to accomplish but it's in a necessity for fire resilience and a vibrant downtown the renewal enterprise district is a unique opportunity to lower some of the financial hurdles specific to infill housing by establishing an infill specific self-sustaining fund that will continually build desperately needed homes right where we need to put them in downtown san rosa the strong potential to build uh thousands of homes in downtown san rosa has been discussed for my entire life it's the reason why i love cities it's the reason why i studied urban and city planning and it's the reason why i came home uh to work on the downtown stationary specific plan uh to work as a planning commissioner in the city sabbatical and now to work for generation housing and as someone who's been excited about downtown san rosa my entire life i can say confidently that this this the renewal enterprise district is the largest opportunity that i can think of to make that long dream a reality and i also dream of a cinema county where all generations of current and future synomens can remain return or arrive here that vision can be realized when the city council votes for our future and acts upon the unique opportunity presented today to establish the renewal enterprise district thank you thank you luke the next public comment will be from asus followed by jen asus have enabled your speaking permissions can you please unmute your microphone and confirm you can see the timer on the screen yes i can see the i can see the uh the clock there thank you please identify yourself a public record if you choose to do so when your time begins now yeah uh good afternoon everyone my name is i'm the policy and advocacy director here for generation housing and just want to follow up on on my colleague luke's comments here as well and and encourage the city to help accelerate the pace of housing production across the affordability spectrum by allocating a portion of the pgne settlement funds to fully see the red's housing fund this is an opportunity to advance the city's tier one priorities in both climate change and affordable housing by investing in the red housing fund and centering housing and infill sites we can reduce things like vehicle miles traveled reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase access to more walkable neighborhoods and by investing in the red housing fund and and really importantly matching the county's existing ten million dollar allocation we can advance housing and equity goals by increasing the production of affordable housing mixed income and mixed use projects that are more integrated and that are near jobs and amenities in the core of the city so we want to ask respectfully that the council use a portion of the pgne funds to invest in seeding the renewable enterprise districts housing fund thank you he says pardon me the next public comment will be from jen followed by ananda jen i've enabled your speaking permissions can you please unmute your mic and confirm you can see the timer on the screen yes hi thank you i can thank you please identify yourself for public record if you choose to do so when your time begins now thank you good afternoon mr mayor and honorable council members of centers of staff this is jen close i get to be the ed of generation housing here following up by uh to my comments made by my colleagues hisses and luke um we are here to advocate for more and more diverse and more affordable housing um and and today i want to start by thanking your service there is never enough money to fund the needs of a community and the decisions on where to direct resources are often the weightiest so i appreciate um today that the staff and council members have repeatedly referred to the pgne settlement funds as one-time funding indeed these are one-time funds this is a singular opportunity um but there is also a singular opportunity to make these more than one-time funds to grow uh this money it's an opportunity to move the needle on the city's most significant needs and you're going to do this no matter how uh you choose to direct money towards housing um housing the housing prices is ranked on top of the city's listed needs for years and this is a singular opportunity to make progress on that challenge to get home built but the renewal enterprise district revolving fund offers a singular opportunity to grow these one-time funds into more money to make them more by building the housing we need not just now but through a fund that can operate in perpetuity forever and to make them more by investing in the kind of housing construction we need is infill development that will help act as an economic engine to to spur our economic recovery and to make them more than one-time funds by investing upstream in the kind of housing that will keep folks healthy um and and living um in a way that that helps our city thrive and helps our residents thrive and and ultimately uh increases our economic um prosperity in the city so i think that the best way that you can invest this money uh today is a way that leverages it that makes it more than one-time funds that makes it a fund that will serve us uh for for years to come and that's in the renewal enterprise district and i wish you could do that thank you thank you jen the next public comment will be from ananda followed by ben ananda i have enabled your speaking permissions can you please unmute your mic and confirm you can see the timer on your screen i can thank you please identify yourself for public record if you choose to do so and your time begins now great thank you good afternoon mayor schwethelm and members of the council my name is ananda sweet with the santa rosa metro chamber you all clearly understand in this conversation that our housing crisis is an enormous threat to our long-term economic um success and recovery an investment in the renewal enterprise district's housing fund will meet a critical need and it's a tremendous opportunity to take advantage of a vehicle that will maximize and leverage this portion of those pg&e funds while providing the flexibility that's needed to meet the diverse and critical workforce housing needs by meeting our housing needs in these key ways and we'll taking advantage of an opportunity that will continuously create jobs and stimulate the economy an investment in the reds fund represents the opportunity to make a meaningful investment in our community and our economic recovery thank you thank you ananda the next public comment will be from ben then i've enabled your speaking permissions can you please unmute your microphone and confirm you can see the timer on your screen yes i can see it please identify yourself for public record if you choose to do so and your time begins now thank you my name is ben laroye i'm the special population programs director for santa rosa community health where the community health center that serves santa rosa's low income population first i just want to really applaud the city council for making housing and particularly affordable housing a top priority in the healthcare sector we've had a mantra for decades that housing is healthcare the pandemic has just revealed in stark terms that housing is not only a primary driver of community health but also community education the local economy and our community's resilience to states of emergency so with that in mind i really do want to encourage the city to allocate pgne settlement money in a way that leverages not only the county's conditional allocation of funds to the red but also invest in a revolving loan fund that can transform this one-time funding into something more sustainable in addition to matching the county's conditional allocation to the red i'd really love for the city council to please also consider additional resources for the city housing authority and their great work in supporting affordable and subsidized housing in the city for our residents most in need thank you so much thank you ben the next public comment will be from the lupa co-housing i've enabled your speaking permissions can you please unmute your microphone and confirm you can see the timer on your screen yes i can thank you please identify yourself a public record if you choose to do so when your time begins now yes my name is thea hensel and i am co-chair of the south east greenway campaign i would just like to applaud the city for maintaining the urban three principles embedded in all of the city documents i think we all realized how important the vibrant downtown is and i also want to follow up on what my uh co-chair partner mentioned earlier about the property owned by the state of california and caltrans the property that we're addressing is a little bit under 10 acres and we do feel that it's infill it's not downtown but it's in a vibrant part of the city of santa rosa and we hope that you'll consider a portion of the pg&e settlement money going towards the affordable housing distribution across the city and not just focused in one or two neighborhoods and we think that that's the best strategy going forward the attractive location of this property that we're talking about on yuluba farmers lane and vileo is attractive for supplemental funding and credits uh and we have been told by affordable housing proponents that this is necessary for a project to pencil out it is near grocery stores shops schools multimodal transportation and churches all vibrant to a walkable neighborhood we also think that it is attractive for developers because we can offer safe bike transit recreation both passive and active community gardens that participants who are interested who live in these developments can participate in it'll have picnic areas and it's also being surrounded by six schools provides opportunities for education so we hope you'll take it into consideration thank you very much thank you the next public comment will be from ali ali have enabled your speaking permission can you please unmute your microphone and confirm you can see the timer on your screen hello i can see the timer thank you please identify yourself a public record if you choose to do so when your time begins now hi yes i'm ali gaylord the director of housing development for midpen housing in santa rosa good afternoon mayor and city council members i'd like to thank you for your careful consideration of how best to use the pg&e settlement funds and i ask respectfully that you the city work in alignment with our shared priorities and values to invest and prioritize funding for affordable housing i know that there are many competing priorities for the pg&e settlement funds and i ask the city council to prioritize allocating funding towards housing as dav bine mentioned the pg&e settlement funds don't have programmatic requirements that the federal or state housing programs have and therefore is much more flexible funding that can address city priorities as determined locally funding the red or the housing authority is not an either or proposition it should be a both and through seating the ten million dollars as a match to the county's commitment for the red housing fund the city has a unique opportunity to leverage these one-times funds with the county allocating further funding to be administered by the housing authority will ensure that housing is locally funded and prioritized for the lowest income and most vulnerable residents these investments will give affordable housing developers the assurance that the city is prioritizing housing and will further the city's ability to leverage state and federal resources to increase the efficacy of each local housing dollar i would ask that the city council be clear that the policy goals of these housing investments should be allocated based on criteria that will support the goal of more lovable and vibrant sanarosa specifically infill housing it's a particularly important criteria given the ongoing fires the city has seen in the wildland urban interface and according to the youth truth 2020 student survey everyone agrees that affordable housing is the most pressing community wide need in response to the fires these long-term foundational investments in housing development align with just and resilient recovery and i ask that these goals be supported by the city council thank you and we're taking public comment on item 3.1 housing investment opportunities for PG&E funds if you are participating via telephone gov star 9 or raise your hand via zoom and i'm not seeing any additional hands raised or my public comment are you okay if i move along to record a public comment please do thank you session item 3.1 Dwayne DeWitt from the Sonoma County Housing Advocacy Group this is a interesting opportunity that's presenting itself it needs to have further public involvement especially because the renewal enterprise district is essentially a closed black box type of organization in which the taxpayers have little voice the same also perhaps could be said about the city's housing authority which is a top-down their way or the highway type of approach and doesn't really address the true level of affordable housing needs for the city of Santa Rosa for decades the housing authority has not been able to keep up and keep pace with the need for affordable housing at the very low low income levels by always shifting everything to moderate we essentially get market rate housing built without providing for the people most in need and that's the extremely low income the very low income and the low income residents of our city these funds could be utilized in such a way to help end totally alleviate the homeless problem at least for those long-term Santa Rosa residents we'll never be able to stop the transients that move in and apparently take over our parks but i believe if you were to work with the community on these investment opportunities there could be a true community empowerment approach to getting the affordable housing that's needed for the lower end of the spectrum of housing thank you thank you mayor that concludes public comment received all right thank you for that so we'll bring it back to council again this was this study session was information only and a lot of information was provided i really appreciate all the presentations council are there any final questions or comments you'd like to make on this item mr tivitz you're on mute jack so close thanks hi i i know that we have a lot of decisions to make in the coming months um and but this one i am particularly excited about because i think you've heard me say time and again i i just so want to see the city make some investments and this is an investment on so many fronts it's it's money that will get repaid to the entity it is money that makes money and it's money that's focused towards a priority of the city in this case housing um you know i'd like to to see us when the time comes to look at just doing 10 10 million to the renewal enterprise district so we can obtain that county match but i'd also like to see us entertain 10 million to the housing authority um if that 39 million dollars in d r money does in fact go through then i'd like to tailor some of that housing authority money more precisely to our other priorities such as homelessness and permanent supportive housing or homeless dedicated housing and also home ownership you know i think it's such a shame that we as is government as we look into housing and we seem to be hyper focused on affordable and predominantly rental housing and i think that's a good thing um obviously all housing is a good thing but um ownership home ownership in particular is i just think important it's poverty ending it becomes a financial tool for families they can do refinances home equity lines of credit help pay to put a kid through school have a place that they can age into as they get older and not be worried about things like eviction um so i i hope that we can consider that you'll hear me talking about it more as we go through this process um and the last thing i guess i just wanted to add for whatever it's worth is you know i i think my personal struggle going forward through this process is going to be having to make decisions between repairing a sidewalk in a neighborhood that was affected by the fire because i think we certainly have a responsibility to do that but also making these investments in the community that's going to make it universally accessible for everyone and in that i was trying to think about that how was i going to come down going going through this process and this and while the sidewalks are certainly important i think that what makes a neighborhood is not a sidewalk it's the people who live in that neighborhood or the routine that somebody has when they drive into town on their way to work in the morning who you know who did they see behind the counter at the coffee shop and that's what we're talking about here and i'm watching a lot of people leave Santa Rosa right now more than ever and so i hope this one-time money can help stem that flow of people that exodus of people out of here thanks for the opportunity to speak mayor hey jack on mr. Dowd you had your hand up i did and i i want to re-emphasize what some of the council members have said and also the public in that uh i support us the city as a city moving forward i see us as doing a collection of different things like red and then also housing authority funds um to support and i and i while i appreciate the need for affordable housing i can see it across at least to moderate housing pricing in the whole package but i also want to be sure that there is absolute total concentration on the fact that this is not one-time funds but rotates back again and again and again that can be used to really help um our community get back on its feet and so i'm just saying just just watch that and guide it thank you thank you mr. dad mr rogers thank you mr mayor i did uh appreciate the comments that everybody had earlier and i do uh definitely know that one of the things we'll be talking about is how all of our interests is a city aligned and i did just want to remind the council and and for our new council members who are coming in that what was mentioned sort of briefly today is the new rena numbers that are coming down the regional housing needs assessment numbers uh and there is a parallel conversation that continues to happen at the Sonoma county transportation authority level about how the cities in the county can continue to collaborate on that housing production and just because i know many of us are very strong supporters of community separators in our urban growth boundaries what that means is that we're going to be having difficult conversations about either changing those principles or i think what's much much more likely is the city is going to be asked to take on a lot of that workload that claire mentioned for the county not just santa rosa but other cities as well because that's how we're going to both retain those urban growth boundaries those community separators that people value and also meet those regional housing needs assessments so i know we're not making any decisions today i am definitely waiting to hear the presentation next week on the community wildfire protection plan and where some of the this funding can be utilized but i do think that housing will be a good investment for us not just as a priority for for housing and for homelessness but also from a climate perspective as well great thank you vice mayor yes thank you mayor and i once again want to thank you know dave wine claire harpman and force of team and michelle for your presentations and i i want to challenge a couple of things that i've heard over this one is that you know that the housing authority and the rural enterprise district exist in black boxes as the chair of the rural enterprise district i want to assure all listeners that we are a brown-acted body and that we do all of our work out and open in the public as does the housing authority and that we invite and welcome community participation in both bodies the second is that that this is an either or while you know we have limited and certainly one-time initial funds coming through from pgne the way that i'll be approaching looking at deploying these funds will be in terms of if i were managing a mutual fund or an investment portfolio and looking for what things will bring us the greatest return on investments so that we have economic resiliency going forward for generations and so while not every project and every every initiative will get funded i i hope that it won't be interpreted that one thing is less important than another and i really don't want anyone to get the impression that something like homelessness is somehow less important than providing low moderate or even you know market rate housing that what is really important here is that we have the ability to provide for our future for all of the residents that make up the community which includes people of various different incomes but most importantly the ability of everybody regardless of their origin to live a sustainable and independent and self-directed future where they have equal access to opportunity so those will be my principles going forward and and with that i'm sure my council members will join me thank you thank you mr alvarez thank you mayor thank you for the presentation not from both uh thanks to the red and also david for overview of the housing authority and some of the options there i would encourage you as you move forward to explore options for the housing authority as to whether or not it can it it may be able to implement some type of a revolving loan fund there as well so i don't know what the limitations are but just consider being creative as you move forward thank you mr alvarez mr soyer thank you mayor i would like to echo councilmember oliveris's comment because i think it's this is the first time that i have heard a good discussion around what our own housing authority not only does but what they are capable of doing so it was really important to hear that and thank you i think everyone for their for their presentations i know much with with more clarity now the the product which is red and also more about the our housing authority and their willingness and ability to be creative thank you thank you mr soyer in my final comments you know i really want to applaud uh city manager and staff one of the things that this council did with the settlement dollars we wanted feedback from the community and feedback we have received directly from the community uh this was a great example of a community need we got a lot of information now to mow over before we make those final decisions sometime next year and i know next week will be another feedback opportunity related you know to our fire department so i really appreciate all of the information that is being provided to council so that we can make the best decisions that we believe will be in the best good of the community so thank you for all this information it's a lot to consider um and claire did you have any other information that you wanted from council or any final comments no i think uh i think we we did a good job discussing with the options were great thank you okay uh since council's been at it since 130 we're gonna take a recess until five o'clock and to let everyone know as is has been the practice with the council we will try to do our public hearings as close to five o'clock as possible so when we do reconvene we will be starting with item 15.1 our public hearing so we'll recess until five o'clock thank you madam city clerk are you ready to continue yes i am okay we'll reconvene the december 8 2020 santa rosa city council meeting uh can we please have a take a roll call yes councilmember dowd here councilmember tibbetz here councilmember soyer here councilmember rogers here councilmember oliveris here ice mayor phleming here mayor schwaetham here let the records show that all council members are present okay thank you since it is uh five o'clock and it has been the practice of this count council to have public hearings as close to five as possible we will now jump to item 15.1 the public hearings so this is uh general plan amendments are considered three times per year in accordance with the general plan policy so we have three of such items today and uh so council is aware and anyone who wishes to make comment on this we'll be handling them uh in the following order first at 35 75 minisino avenue that will be uh public comment or public hearing will be opened and closed then we'll do the same on item two which is yolanda industrial project and item three tnl micro cannabis facility um madame city attorney would you like us to vote at the end in one motion on the three separate ones or do you want us to stop and vote after each presentation sorry i had a little technical problem there um i think just given the complexity of these of this package you're going to be in a better position to vote after each item but i would ask that you simply make clear as you introduce that this is all all three projects are components of the 2020 fall uh general plan amendment package so okay great um then before i ask for uh expartee disclosures mr. city manager did you want to introduce who will be making the presentation for our first one yes the first presentation will be um amy nickelson senior planner okay thank you amy before amy starts your presentation on 35 75 minisino avenue i'll just go around uh each council member and ask her if there if you had any expartee communications uh mr. dowd i i met uh for a briefing with uh effort choreo and the project manager on this course and we discussed some of the elements of it such as ingress and egress to the project and that type of thing but it was just informative thank you mr rogers thank you mr mayor i uh also met with uh mr choreo and the applicant to discuss uh and no information was presented in that meeting that is not public in the staff documents thank you mr sire thank you mayor i also um had a conversation over the telephone and met with mr choreo over the length of this project and uh but nothing new was learned other than what's in the staff report in this presentation thank you mr olivares hey mayor same disclosures as the others i did have a meeting with the project representatives no new information thank you mr jivitz no communication and vice mayor funding same as most of my council members i met with uh mr choreo and uh did not learn anything that is not present in the information that's available to the public thank you and i too had the same meeting with mr choreo and kathy the project manager everything that we discussed is in the record so with that um we're ready for the presentation good evening mayor schwedholm vice mayor flumming and members of the council the item before you is part of the fall 2020 general plan amendment package and it is specifically for the project of 35 75 mendesino avenue next slide please the project represents up to 14.5 percent of the city's market rate housing goal by the year 2022 and 9.8 percent of the very low and low income goal next slide the uh approvals before the council this evening would allow for the development of up to 532 units of which 162 would be dedicated for low and very low income senior households the project also includes a one-acre park with public access in addition to necessary improvements for the residential development next slide please this graphic shows the proposed site plan and also the location of existing and proposed transit stops and proximity to the project site the high frequency bus stop located on bicentennial way is just 0.2 miles south of the project site and there are a number of both city and county bus stops located along mendicino avenue the project does include a proposal to relocate the existing bus stop on the west side of mendicino avenue a little bit south shown on the graphic in orange and that would be abutting the senior housing component of the project next slide please the approvals before the council this evening include a sustainable communities environmental assessment or a ski and this is required for sequel compliance a general plan amendment and rezoning are also requested in addition to approval of a phase tentative map a design review application for the affordable senior housing component has been submitted to the planning and economic development department and action on that design review entitlement will be following council's action this evening design review for the market rate component is forthcoming once a market rate developer has been identified next slide please the project site is located at 3575 mendicino avenue and this is just south of the mendicino overcrossing and east of highway 101 the site is located within one of the city's priority development areas or pda's called the mendicino avenue corridor and these are areas where increased residential densities are envisioned based on proximity to high frequency transit next slide this graphic represents an aerial of the project site from february of this year this is the former site of the journeys and mobile home park which was impacted by the tub's fire in 2017 during that fire event 116 of the mobile homes were destroyed the remaining 44 mobile homes which are shown on the slide here were removed from the project site in july following council's approval of the journey's and mobile home relocation impact report next slide the slide represents a number of the project milestones just a few items to note are the pre-application meetings that were held in february which included both a neighborhood meeting and concept design review the waterways committee waterways advisory committee also reviewed the project based on the proposed stormwater outfall into rustle creek and the environmental document was circulated for public review on september 28th the planning commission held a public hearing for this project on november 12th and at that time the commission made a recommendation of approval to the council for each of the four entitlements next slide please the project includes a general plan amendment from mobile home to transit village medium the transit village medium land use designation is intended for properties within a half mile of a transit facility and requires residential densities between 25 and 40 units per acre the proposed project is consistent with this land use designation the project also implements a number of general plan goals and policies especially those related to housing by providing housing for special needs groups in addition to locating a high-density housing project in close proximity to services and transit helping to achieve a number of the land use and climate change goals and policies next slide please the project site is currently zoned rural residential with a resilient city combining district as the council recalls the resilient city combining district was formed following the tubs fire to streamline the rebuilding process for those fire affected parcels the proposed rezoning is to transit village residential and this is consistent with the proposed land use designation the resilient city combining district would be applied going forward as well and a senior housing combining district would also be applied to a two and a half acre portion of the site this is the southeastern portion where the 162 senior units are located the project does meet each of the development standards in the transit village residential zoning district except for vehicle parking there is an allowed concession from development standards if a project is consistent with the city's inclusionary housing ordinance and i'll be speaking more about that later on in the presentation next slide please the project has been reviewed in compliance with the california environmental quality act and a sustainable community's environmental assessment has been prepared i'm going to take just a moment to provide some background on this type of secret document since it is new to the city there is a senate bill that was signed in 2008 senate bill 375 and the bill essentially provides the framework for a sustainable community's environmental assessment for sequel compliance the intent here was to align land use development and infrastructure spending with greenhouse gas reduction mandates this bill establishes the concept of sustainable community strategies and also transit priority projects the regional government of mtca bag has created a sustainable community strategy for the bay area by the document called plan bay area and this document also has a certified eir next slide please just to walk through some of the benefits of a ski a document for sequel compliance there's not the need to describe or analyze any growth inducing or greenhouse gas effects from cars and light trucks and this is because this document is relying on the sustainable community strategy eir which was prepared for the region it also does not require analysis of impacts to the regional roadway network that were previously analyzed a ski is similar to a mitigated negative declaration that the council is familiar with except for the following reasons one is that cumulative effects that are mitigated in a prior eir so the plan bay area eir are not considered cumulatively there again there's not the need to reduce to repeat that analysis i previously mentioned the substantial evidence not fair argument applies and then in this case because the city doesn't have a policy in place the council adopts this document when typically the planning commission would be able to do so next slide please in order for a project to qualify for a ski eir it must be considered a transit priority project and this is defined as a residential project or a mixed use project with 75 percent being devoted to residential uses the project site also must be located within one half a mile of a high quality transit corridor and be at least 20 units per acre included density of at least 20 units per acre excuse me in addition the project must be consistent with the state sustainable community strategy eir and the plan itself and the ski must incorporate all feasible mitigation measures performance standards or criteria within that eir finally it must be concluded that all impacts are less than significant next slide please the sustainable community's environmental assessment for this project was circulated for public review on september 28th of this year there were a number of mitigation measures identified and those are shown on the slide here no written comments were received during the public circulation period however the city did receive written correspondence from the federated indians of great and rancheria on december 7th and minor modifications were made to the ski a resolution mitigation measures and the mitigation monitoring and reporting plan which have all been revised and are included as attachments to the staff report in addition there is a minor revision to the tentative map resolution which reflects comments from great and rancheria next slide please this graphic shows the proposed site plan the affordable senior housing units are located in the southeast portion of the site there are three points of ingress and egress onto mendicino avenue and the only public street off of mendicino avenue ends in a roundabout there is also the one-acre public publicly accessible park and this is located central to the project site next slide please this slide shows the proposed phase tentative map it is divided into two phases with the first phase shown in yellow so the first phase would include the senior housing component which consists of three separate lots and also the public street the map in total creates eight lots one would be for the park and the remaining lots for the market rate development next slide please so this slide shows the proposed private park with public access the park includes both active and passive recreation spaces which would be made available to residents of the community and also those members of the public the park does represent a 100 credit of park impact fees for the senior housing component of the project and would also represent a 45 credit for park fees for the market rate component next slide the project is in compliance with the city's inclusionary housing ordinance by providing on-site affordable units if the project develops to 532 units then 22 percent of the overall unit count would be provided as deed restricted affordable the inclusionary housing ordinance does allow for affordable units to be concentrated in one area of the project site due to funding and phasing and that is the case with this project the project also includes a request for a concession from vehicle parking spaces and the applicant has provided the demonstration of cost reduction that is required the zoning code states that the city shall grant a concession and unless the city can make a written finding that either the concession does not result in cost cost reduction that the concession would have an adverse impact on public health safety or the environment or that the concession would be contrary to state or federal law the planning commission and planning staff have not been able to make any of those findings and as a result have found that the concession concession should be granted next slide please in response to a public comment received early in the project review process the applicant provided an emergency preparedness plan this plan outlines the roles of emergency coordinators and available resources and also necessary measures to be taken in the event of a number of emergencies this plan also includes building evacuation and shelter in place procedures next slide in response to Kaiser Permanente which is located immediately south of the project site and their concerns that the parking provided as a part of this project might impact the parking on Kaiser site the applicant was able to redesign the parking layout and and added 84 additional parking spaces the parking counts reflected in the staff report do indicate these additional 84 spaces but i wanted to provide this graphic to show that this was based on a public comment received next slide please this slide shows a number of public comments received during the neighborhood meeting and as the council knows there have been many comments received in support of this project and those are included as a part of the staff packet next slide please with that the planning commission and the planning and economic development department recommends that the council by resolution adopt a sustainable community's environmental assessment and by resolution approve a general plan amendment changing the general plan land use designation from mobile home to transit village medium introduce an ordinance rezoning from rural residential to transit village residential with a resilient city combining district and senior housing combining district and by resolution approve a tentative map for those parcels located at 3575 Mendocino avenue next slide please that concludes my presentation and city staff are available to answer any questions you may have the consultant that prepared the environmental document is also available for any specific questions on the ski a document thank you great thank you for that presentation amy bring it back to council any questions on that presentation i am not seeing any amy will the applicant be making a presentation also yes okay why don't we move to that then miss massie i have been able to speaking permissions and what can prepare to advance your slides on your behalf oh good afternoon good evening members of the council larry florin ceo and president of urban housing i'm just going to introduce this item our rock star a project manager karen massie will be doing the bulk of the presentation so you won't be hearing from me thankfully for all of you but i actually wanted just to take a moment to thank the city staff that have been working with us on this project now for three years now every project sponsor stands up and says they really want to thank the city staff but we really really want to thank the city staff we broke new ground in so many areas and your staff was at our side every step of the way in terms of getting here to where we are right now and and we literally could not have have got to where we are we're actually from our estimation we're at about the second second phase after the closing of the part this this step and then the next step being the financing which is going to follow soon thereafter and we could not literally have done it without your staff so right first first and foremost thank you thank you thank you to all of you to us this represents the reason why Burbank is an existence this this particular project as a 41-year-old locally based non-profit affordable housing developer we really feel as though our mission is tied to the community here and that community of Santa Rosa and in there was after the tubs fire we really looked at ourselves and said what could we do as an organization to participate in the recovery and the rebuilding and lo and behold this project came into focus for us the the property owners of the former now journey zen mobile home park were fabulous to work with and they have been incredibly supportive of what we're trying to do here but and without all this pulling together there's no way this is what we think recovery looks like in the best of all worlds bringing back what had been but better and that's what is represented by you here today so with that i'm just going to introduce Karen massi who is senior project manager at Burbank to take you through the details great thank you so much larry good evening mr mayor members of the council as larry said my name is Karen massi i am the project manager we are very pleased to be here tonight i want to echo larry's sentiments i'm pleased to be able to present this important fire recovery and housing project to you all staff has been tremendous in the last three years and we really appreciate their efforts and support in getting us to this point tonight next slide please i'd like to introduce the members of the team that i have here with me this evening you've obviously met larry here tonight i'm also joined by effin choreo with burbank housing as well as and silverberg from related california we're also joined by the property owner ramsey surei too as well as the team of consultants following project approval the property owner will take the project to market to identify a market rate developer for the project next slide please i also want to acknowledge the many organizations that have supported the prior residents in this process over the last three years you're seeing many of them on the slide in front of you now this has truly been a collaboration and a collaborative effort and there's been wide support for this project which is demonstrated by the almost 20 letters of support you have in your agenda packet tonight next slide please the 2017 Tub Spire was the first in a series of disasters in our community and we were faced with a steep learning curve to align resources to adequately respond to needs this has been a long process as larry shared our first year was really spent focusing on the prior residents trying to obtain funds to help support them and also determining what to do with the future of the park 2019 was spent after finally receiving direction from the state and federal government 2019 was spent beginning to issue housing assistance payments to the prior residents and issues and discussions regarding closure of the park also began this year saw formal park closure as well as the middle of our redevelopment application and we're optimistic that in 2021 we will all see reconstruction of the site began next slide please we also wanted to be able to share with you that with the help of many of the organizations here today our prior residents have restabilized almost 60 of them have either purchased or rented a new mobile home moved into affordable housing or renting an apartment in or near Santa Rosa we have received 26 letters of support from prior residents for the project and we're happy to also share that 32 of those prior residents have inquired about being placed on the waitlist to move back to the site next site several key project objectives guided development of the project site we wanted to make sure we designed a project that advanced the city's housing and recovery goals rebuilt a more resilient and safer community create a created a healthy sustainable community and maximize the city's existing infrastructure investments next slide please the project before you tonight advances the council's top priorities of housing and recovery it will rebuild 17 percent of the units lost in the 2017 wildfires it also maximizes the site's location in a priority development area near high-quality transit and near six of the county's major employers next slide please the project also aligns with the general plan goals and objectives it proposes a compact development pattern of high density and affordable housing with a variety of housing types on one of the city's major arterials next slide please the project also achieves housing action plan objectives it increases affordable housing provides housing for all ages and incomes accounts for almost 25 percent of the city's housing goals and will rehouse our prior journeys and residents next slide please the project also seeks to leverage existing investments it will maximize existing transit opportunities as well as utility infrastructure and create greater synergies with existing amenities in that area next slide please the project also rebuilds a more resilient community as many of you may know the prior mobile home park was built in the 1950s and most of the coaches were from the 1960s and 70s many of them didn't have many fire and life safety systems that were required today we have met extensively with fire marshal moon and assistant fire marshal hardridge to ensure that we have designed a project that is as safe and resilient as possible we designed the project to exceed the access requirements by providing three points of access we have improved site and building safety by providing connections to the city's water system and on-site fire hydrants designing buildings that will have certified alarm systems and fire sprinklers backup power sources in the event of power shortages and also incorporated fire resistant building materials as well as fire resistant landscape design and materials and finally we have emphasized readiness and preparedness by preparing an emergency response and preparedness plan for future residents so that they can know where their evacuation routes are and how best to respond in the event of an emergency next slide please finally the project supports community health and wellness it creates a diverse and inclusive community that encourages outdoor activities through the use of public and private green space and promotes socialization and engagement a health action plan is also being prepared for the project to address issues related to health including isolation access to preventative care and transportation issues that are common to our senior population next slide please next steps for the project after council review this evening we will move forward with director level design review this month we are also applying for state and federal funds we recently responded to the city's notice of funding available for cdb d dr funds and our hopeful will be selected to receive some of those funds concurrent with that we are undergoing the design development and preparation of our construction documents all with the goal that the affordable component will start construction by next september september of 2021 with regard to the market rate component the next steps are that the property owner will take the project to market to identify a market rate developer and we're optimistic that we will have a new partner in early 2021 next slide please we have reviewed the mitigation measures and revisions that staff has brought forward and agree with that with them and with that we are happy to try to answer any questions that you might have thank you camera and larry for that presentation council any questions from the applicant not seeing any thank you very much okay i'm going to open up the public caring which will be an opportunity for members of the public to make comment on this if you are attending via zoom please raise your hand and if you are calling in via telephone please dial star nine madam host would you facilitate the public comment of this public caring we'll do down timer is before you for the convenience of the speaker and the viewers the first speaker will be acknowledged and invited to speak when the countdown begins please make sure to unmute your microphone when you are invited to do so your microphone will be muted at the conclusion of your comment or at the end of the countdown timer the first public comment will be from luke followed by ananda luke i've enabled your speaking permission can you please unmute your mic and confirm you can see the timer on your screen yes thank you very much and hello again council staff and esteemed public once again my name is luke lindenbush with generation housing i'm here to reinforce the comments made in generation housing's letter of support for 3575 medecino avenue and strongly encourage the city council to approve this vitally important development and its rezoning from an objective technical standpoint 3575 medecino is a slam dunk for all the prior reasons well presented thank you to everyone at burbank housing and senior planner amy nicholson for several years of dedicated work to ensure that a formidable project could emerge the respects the legacy of the site and also thank you to the rest of the application applicant team for work on a project that has been known by no means easy but that is incredibly easy to support for the scale of the benefit that it will bring to santa rosa from a more holistic standpoint i adhere to the old saying that a society or in this case a community can be judged by how it treats its elders at the planning commission hearing on this item i spoke to the personal importance of this project as my own grandmother lived in a santa rosa mobile home much like those that were destroyed at the former journey's end and i know that i'm not the only community member for whom the destroyer of this affordable housing option for seniors was one of the most viscerally difficult losses of the tubs fire 3575 medecino reflects an undeniable opportunity to reaffirm that santa rosa is a place where seniors of all incomes can live and thrive this proposed transit oriented development provides more affordable homes for seniors than stood before with abundant access to senior specific needs including medical services after phase one the residents of nearly 400 market rate homes delivered by related california will benefit from a central location near jobs ambitious projects like this like 3575 medecino create conditions for our community to live intergenerationally and are in line with generation housing's housing's mission to create more more affordable and more diverse housing in sinoma county thank you very much once again to the council for supporting 3575 medecino thank you luke the next public comment will be from ananda followed by kevin ananda i've been able to speak in permissions please unmute your mic and confirm you can see the timer on your screen i can thank you please identify yourself for public record if you choose to do so and your time begins now hello again mayor schwet helman members of the council this is ananda suite with the santa rosa metro chamber i'm here to express the metro chamber's support of the redevelopment project at 3575 medecino avenue as you well know santa rosa was facing a housing shortage before october of 2017 when our crisis was magnified overnight including the loss of the journey's end mobile home park the proposed redevelopment of this site aligns with the city of santa rosa's fire recovery goals and this project represents the exact type of investment that we need in santa rosa while addressing our critical housing shortage santa rosa's housing shortage is the greatest threat to our long-term economic and cultural success it's impeding business growth and causing economic community health and environmental damage as our residents struggle to access adequate housing or are forced to commute long distances the result is increased air pollution and traffic congestion growing inequity and reduced productivity housing is one of the largest challenges for local employers who need to recruit and retain employees in order to stay and grow in santa rosa the development of both affordable and mercury housing is vital to address these challenges and an increase in housing near transit retail and major employers will bring tremendous returns to santa thank you so much to the applicant team and city staff for work on such important project placing high density housing at this location is exactly the type of development that we need in our community and we urge you to support this project thank you thank you ananda the next public comment will be from kevin have been able to speak in permission can you please unmute your mic and confirm you can see the time on your screen yes and thank you please identify yourself for public record if you choose to do so and your time begins now thank you my name is kevin riley and i am a regional representative at green belt alliance green belt alliance is one of the outreach partners mentioned tonight by karen macy and we are an environmental nonprofit that encourages both the protection of open space as well as directing development and growth into our existing communities we endorse developments in the bay area that help further these goals by providing an independent validation of smart infill housing master plans and mixed use projects and after careful review green belt alliance is pleased to endorse this project uh this the the proposed journeys and project that was being discussed here tonight you know given the current coven 19 crisis it is more important than ever than ever before to make sure everyone in the bay area has a place to call home and has a short commute to work this project has an impressive commitment to deep affordability with its 162 senior affordable units which represents about 30 percent of the affordability for the project as you well know this project site is located within a short a short walk or bike ride from the bicentennial way transit corner which has several bus stops it has direct access to existing bike lanes furthermore the reduced parking paired with 160 bicycle parking spaces mean that this project will encourage a walkable and vibrant community in santa rosa for residents across the income spectrum by also providing a public one acre central park this project carries a host of other environmental and quality of life benefits everything from having a place for children to play to being a stormwater bioretention area and every city in the bay area must play must play their part to increase the housing stock and make sure the local workforce can afford to live in places that are close to jobs and schools parks and services and we need to spend more time with our family and friends and less time in traffic congestion i believe this project is is can really help the city be able to do all these things um we need to improve the social fabric of our communities and reduce the climate damaging greenhouse gas emissions produced by driving and also spend less time in our cars and more times with our friends and family the journey's end project is kind of a climate smart night development that we need in the bay area right now to meet our housing goals we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and we're going to make sure that local residents are able to grow and thrive in their own communities as housing costs continue to rise we hope its approval and its success will inspire other cities and communities around the bay area to redouble their efforts and grow smartly thank you to the development team and the staff for your support and please uh support this project thank you thank you kevin the next public comment will be from linda linda i've enabled your speaking permissions can you please unmute your microphone and confirm you can see the timer on the screen okay i do see that and can you hear me now linda i can thank you very much please identify yourself for public record if you choose to do so and your time begins now i am i am linda adrian i'm a former resident of jurean san um i'm probably going to cry because i always do when i talk about it i miss not having a home um i wish we could get the senior apartments built as soon as possible they're going to be built by verbank housing uh i only have actually one complaint about it is that almost all of the apartments are single one bedroom apartments and and most of the at least half to a third of the homes and juries and were two or at least two bedroom because it's only having one bedroom that means a senior cannot have a caregiver live with them unless they're going to share the bed which would be terrible um that that's my only complaint is that there's not enough two bedroom apartments so seniors can have caregivers stay with them otherwise i wish they would build it as soon as possible so i could have a place to live anyway has to be thank you very much sorry thank you linda again we're taking public comment on 15.1.1 the first project under this public carrying item 3575 minisino avenue republic comment raise your hand via zoom dial star nine if participating by telephone here i'm seeing no additional hands raised for this item are you okay if we move on to the recorded public comments yes please do thank you point one dwayne with roseland regarding 3575 mendicino avenue this proposal states this will be a transit oriented project because there's a bus stop nearby but this is a case of cod fraud transit oriented development cod the idea that people are going to utilize transit in mass is not occurring any of the elected officials and various highly paid staff members feel if you just build it they will come but that is not the case many people prefer to use private vehicles it's very important that you not engage in cod fraud and not call this a transit village because this is essentially going to be a high-density project next to the freeway next to a road that people will be using their cars on it's important that there be honesty in the city planning processes and that there be honesty and the public policy of elected officials agreeing to certain stipulations and then those things not occurring so this parcel 3575 mendicino avenue the former journeys and mobile home park should not be considered transit oriented development and just be considered regular development but because it's next to a high rise hospital building it could also be high rise and have higher densities without utilizing cod fraud thank you mayor that concludes public comment on 15.1 and i'm seeing no additional hands raised for this portion of the public hearing all right thank you for that we'll go ahead close the public hearing and i do want to thank linda's comments i never have to apologize for passion for a project and i know you speak for many of the former residents and journeys in that i've talked to so thank you for sharing your thoughts so with that are there any additional questions from any council members on this project not seeing any uh mr rogers you have this item thank you mr mayor i will first start with the resolution of the council of the city of santa rosa making findings and and approving the sustainable communities environmental assessment and mitigation monitoring and reporting program pursuant to the california environmental quality act for the 3575 mendesino avenue project assessor's parcel number 173-030-001 and 173-030-001 file number prj20-002 and wave for the reading of the text i think i saw mr alvarez lips move first um so we have mr rogers second on mr alvarez uh because i how many additional motions will you be having mr rogers on this item uh looks like there are three more mr mayor okay so if would anyone like to make a comment before we put it to a vote on this first resolution if i may mr mayor i did want to i to get clarification that you are referring to the amended resolution that was updated today yeah correct the revised resolution that was in the packet thank you okay we have a oh mr sire go ahead just just want to say you know this looks like once it's completed this is going to be the crown jewel um or the jewel in the crown of bourbon housing i just want to thank everyone involved this is a this appears to be an incredible project and it's at the gateway of santa rosa i think it'll it'll start people's um one appreciation for our city as they travel in either direction thank you for that mr sire okay we have a motion in a second madame city clerk can we do a real call vote please yes councilmember dowd hi councilmember tibbetz hi councilmember soyer hi councilmember rogers hi councilmember alvarez hi vice mayor phleming hi mayor schwedhelm hi that motion passes with seven i's okay uh next i will introduce an ordinance of the council of the city of santa rosa amending title 20 of the santa rosa city code by reclassifying the property for the 3575 mendicino avenue project located at 3575 mendicino avenue assessors parcel number 173-03