Chair Jones Carter, it's exactly 430 and we're ready to get started whenever you are It is 4 30 p.m. And I am calling this meeting of the design review board to order Recording secretary, can you please call roll board member birch? Present Board member cook is currently absent, but he will be arriving shortly board member lip-tack present Board member Sharon is absent board member with rich present Vice chair Weigel is absent Chair Jones Carter present let the record reflect that all board members are present with the exception of Board member Sharon and vice chair Weigel Item to approval of minutes Does anyone have any changes to the minutes from August 3rd? My only comment was a question to staff we go back and forth about the amount of detail that's in the minutes And this was a very undetailed set of minutes. It did if I read them right. They didn't categorize so Every so often I'm just curious to check in and there was not a lot of our input that seemed to be captured, but In any case unless I've missed something completely Thank you for the question. Are you referring specifically to the Concept comments that were provided right or I don't have the minutes pulled up in front of me But I can I can take a look was there any any comment provided at all? I didn't see any and and it was just it was a meeting that had a lot of a lot of ins and outs about what we were Suggesting and questioning, etc. So I don't know if even the it was a thought on those conditional Conditional hearings or pardon me the concept hearings that maybe we just dropped the conditions that ended up in on the motion in as something as a baseline For the board to be able to review the conditions It doesn't necessarily need to be a play-by-play But if the conditions got dropped in that would tell us that our comments were captured in these Concept hearings so and that's you know, that's going into the motion So I think it's easy to paste into the to the minutes Just it's a thought is how to make it easy for for staff. So okay great We will discuss offline with our city attorney's office and recording secretary I know over the years we've moved to action minutes. So those are more concise, but there's probably a balance there So we'll follow up at a future meeting perfect. Thank you If there are no changes the minutes are approved as submitted Recording secretary. Do we have any public comment? If you wish to make a public comment on item 2.1 approval of minutes for August 3rd 2023 Please make your way to the podium if you're attending via zoom and wish to make a comment. Please raise your hand City staff your hand is raised is that I'm sorry. I was just doing that to promote for presentation sharing when we get there Gotcha. Thank you. Chair Jones Carter. We don't have any hands raised at this time. Thank you Item 3 public comment We are now taking public comment on item 3 non-agenda matters This is a time when any person may address the board on matters not listed on the agenda But which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of this committee recording secretary. Can you please provide instructions to the public? If you wish to make a public comment on non-agenda matters, please make your way to the podium if you're attending in person If you're attending via zoom, please raise your hand Chair Jones Carter. There are no hands raised at this time. Thank you public comment is closed item 4 board business a 4.1 statement of purpose Zoning code chapter 20 dash 52 point 030 f project review the review authority shall consider the location design site plan Configuration and the overall effect of the proposed project upon surrounding properties and the city in general Review shall be conducted by comparing the proposed project to the general plan any Applicable specific plan applicable zoning code standards and requirements Consistency of the project within the city's design guidelines architectural criteria for special areas and other applicable city requirements Item 4.2 board member reports. Are there any reports? I Would like to report from the waterways advisory committee which met on the fourth Thursday of last month the date I don't recall, but it was the fourth Thursday We were informed a creek week which is coming up next week very exciting September 16th through 23rd Many events they're posted online at the city at the city water And I just want to let everyone know that the underground tours are all wait listed and Because apparently they're the most popular thing they are wait listed, but you can get on a wait list so we heard about the creek week and We had a wonderful wonderful overview report from Amy Lyle about the Proposed the draft of the city general plan And had some very good discussion about that Amy then handed it over to Shari Meads So and I think we'll be hearing from her later Thank you very much Recording secretary. Do we have any public comment on item 4.2 board member reports? If you wish to make a public comment on item 4.2 board member reports, please make your way to the podium If you're attending via zoom, please raise your hand Chair Jones Carter. I'm seeing no hands raised. Okay item 4.3 none Item 5 department reports. I believe Amy has will provide a report to the board Thank you chair, I don't actually have much to report on I'm not sure if I may have mentioned this previously, but just to follow up on Board member Liptex comments Amy Lyle who? Is the supervising planner for the advanced planning team is she actually had her last day with the city today? so she's moving on to The town of Corda Madera, so she'll be the director there for their community development department And then Shari Meads who's a senior planner who will be presenting on the general plan item Item 8.2. She will be serving as that the staff liaison for the waterways advisory committee going forward and Just a reminder that we do not have our regular September second September meeting up the board So that will be canceled due to lack of items and that concludes my report. Thank you Thank you Do we have any public comment? If you wish to make a public comment on item 5 department reports Please make your way to the podium if you are attending via zoom. Please raise your hand Chair Jones Carter. No hands are raised. Thank you Item 6 statements of abstention. Do we have any? Great item 7 consent items. We have none Item 8 scheduled items. We're moving into the first scheduled item Concept design review Bellevue affordable housing 310 Bellevue Avenue Dr. 23-024 and We have a presentation coming Think thank you chair Jones Carter. Chris. They to me and senior planner and The item before you this evening is the Bellevue affordable housing concept designer view this is a Optional step that the applicant has chosen to take before submitting for a preliminary design review Which would return to the design review board at a future date? The project is located at the very southern edge Southwestern southern edge of the southwest quadrant of the city It's located south of Bellevue It's a little bit of hard to see but that light pink line Going down Jupiter Juniper Avenue and a little bit past the project site is the city boundary It's that vacant lot outlined in light blue and directly to the West is henhouse brewery and Directly south is a public storage facility And there are some industrial buildings surrounding the site Here's a close-up site aerial is showing a vacant lot with some trees and Some industrial uses surrounding there's one vacant lot across from Dutton Avenue The concept designer view for the proposed is for the proposed construction of 288 unit apartment complex and the lot is 9.72 acres The unit mix Consists of 181 bedroom units 66 to bedroom units 42 three bedroom units Arranged in nine three-story buildings with 469 uncovered parking spaces and The applicant is currently proposing that a hundred percent of the units be designated for affordable units There was a pre-application neighborhood meeting conducted on June 28th, and it was Well attended via zoom there was one person one individual in person Some of the concerns included I'll show a little bit later, but there's a corner of that parcel that the general plan is designated as retail business service It does allow for residential development, but there was concern There was a request that the applicant consider a small retail commercial use on that northwest corner of the project site Due to some lack of amenities on that side of town There were concerns with safety emergent emergency evacuations The potential impact of additional residents having to be evacuated along Bellevue concerns with existing wildlife and The elimination of some habitat for certain birds like turkeys and birds of prey There was concerns for the existing trees on site and whether those would be preserved a lot of concern over traffic in this area with existing congestion and What the impacts of this project could have on those are already impacted roads And then there was general support for affordable housing there was a desire for deeper affordability, so Having it 80% AMI and below and There's a concern over over concentration of housing development in this quadrant of the city and how that would impact the quality of life for existing residents one participant encouraged to hide bike storage and lower automobile parking and They they wanted better identification of where the bike storage would be on the site plans There's also concerns with general noise in this area with I guess a lot of parties on the weekends with audible music this as I mentioned before that this project would Would require a major designer view and beat would be back to before you at the designer view board So here's a general plan and zoning It's a little bit difficult to see but there's a little red corner on the Northeast corner of the parcel that's designated medium or a retail and business service, but the Majority of the site is medium density residential There is another medium-density residential site across on Dutton But it's predominantly surrounded by industrial designated parcels Because this is a concept designer view and the request today is for you to provide comments This item is exempt from sequel and the applicant has a presentation prepared And they are here in person And staff is available for any questions that you may have Are we going to move on to the applicant presentation? Okay Sure, we're just getting that pulled up now. Thanks Good afternoon chair Jones Carter honorable design review board members and planning staff My name is a friend Carrillo CEO of Gallagher community housing. We're a new nonprofit affordable housing developer based here in Sonoma County I am joined today by our development team Paul Barthelot with Burl June race consulting engineers Greg wonky project design Jennifer Lamoli our landscape architect and Nate Murn our architectural designer So if there's any questions or areas that I may not be able to cover the project team is available for questions Is staff presented to you the proposed project at 310 Bellevue is Proposed to be a new multifamily residential project consisting of a hundred percent affordable housing Currently our performance demonstrates at 80% of the area median income For the projected rents here the new rents in the city of Santa Rosa for family for it's up to family for earning about $100,000 a year The proposed 9.72 acre parcel we're going to go to the next slide, please is Flat and currently undeveloped The project site is abutted by Bellevue Avenue to the east a party to the north and Dutton Avenue to the east As planning staff shared already we are surrounded by a henhouse brewery Just west as well as storage master cell storage to the south The project site is predominantly surrounded by commercial uses already The general plan is stipulated by plan does designate this site as medium density residential at 8 to 18 units per acre We'll go to the next slide, please. This is slide 3 The project is intended to be as an infill project that will create a sense of community For the residents and the immediate surroundings Besides transforming the site the project will address the top community priority which has been identified as housing This includes housing for workers housing for first responders and housing for teachers next slide, please The project plans before you Demonstrate a total of nine three-story buildings with a mix of a hundred eighty one bedroom and studio units 66 two-bedroom units and 42 three-bedroom units The buildings have a total Footprint of approximately 187,000 square feet and the maximum roof height for all buildings will be under 35 feet The main entrance to the community will be along Dutton Avenue to the east with secondary access provided from Bellevue Avenue as well We are proposing both entrances to be gated The streetscape will be lined with trees and provide a new public sidewalk along the project's frontage Is expressed in the planning application and in the planning staff report? We will be providing on-site inclusion of 469 uncovered parking spaces Well above the parking requirement We're also proposing 80 bicycle parking storage paces places as part of the development The project's proposed parking exceeds the parking requirement of 396 parking spaces, which we find is a critical component for the family Working population that this project intends to serve in listening to the community's concerns We recognize that one of the leading concerns for developments in the Southwest community is parking and The impacts that developments in the Southwest have created for existing residents The site is designed with central amenities for residents to enjoy Those include a recreation center at the heart of the development a central playground playing fields sports courts and pet parks On the landscaping front we intend to use low maintenance and low water use with the focus on the landscaping plan Drought tolerant ornamental plants will be used for resource efficient and environmentally responsible development over its entire life cycle in existing large oak tree is Proposed to be preserved you can see it on the south side of the development here budding the pet park and the play field And it's intended again to provide shade to pets and pet owners in the pet park please note that the existing trees along the properties edge on the On the west and on the south of the project will also be preserved This was an item that came up in our neighborhood meeting and it's something that we've been We try to respond to to ensure that the trees that you can see on the west and again on the south the budding the storage facility Will be preserved and the main oak tree next to the play field Additional trees will be planted throughout the line both the frontage and the perimeters of the common areas and buildings next slide please Our intent is to create a true sense of community for residents throughout our project design Amenities and architecture. These are some of the examples of the proposed community amenities for the development Next slide please The next three slides present the building floor plans and unit floor plans All buildings will be sprinkled and the main buildings will contain a shared corridor Slides seven and eight will go to the next two slides Each apartment is being proposed as to be as efficient and designed to maximize usefulness This includes nice kitchens with pantries additional private storage and patios that will provide private spaces While also giving the facade a sense of rhythm and depth Several of the apartments are built out. Pardon me are built out for full accessibility other apartments will be adaptable for greater accessibility and Futuring and features that greater accessibility features pardon me will be added if and when needed by the residents slides nine ten eleven and twelve the next four slides Provide the building elevations. So we'll go to the next slide here So building elevations for the main buildings and the recreation building the overall architectural design For this project is rooted in contemporary craftsman style to create a fresh and inviting feeling There are once again nine total apartment buildings with three different apartment building types all buildings consisting of a coordinating color and material palette Colors are used to create breaks in the overall massing of the buildings and Gable Lens help to create breaks in the roof line The primary building material is cementitious siding consisting of lap siding and board and bat accents and wood trim and various Earth tones and slate blue the materials colors and generous number of windows harmonized together for the overall aesthetic That is consistent from building to building Matching metal railings are proposed at all upper-level balconies and all proposed windows will be in white vinyl frames The symbiotic balance of color texture and scale Convasive sense of permanence that is intended to be welcoming for residents in the community alike slide 13 Is we'll go a couple more slides We're back here to the site plan The pedestrian circulation and the site layout helped to find the central amenities of the project the recreation center the picnic area and the playfields Serve as a community hub once again with a family oriented demographic in mind our vision for the heart of the site as a Children's play area a pet park basketball and pickleball course for the residents and their visitors to enjoy That concludes our presentation would be happy to take any questions and or comments from the design review board today Thank you for your presentation, and I'd like to Welcome commissioner cook I'd like to open for public comment on this item recording secretary. Do we have any public comment? If you're attending in person and wish to make a public comment, please make your way to the podium I'm seeing nobody making their way to the podium if you're attending via zoom, please raise your hand It looks like we do have Somebody raising their hand here Colin McDonald. I'm gonna give you a prompt to unmute yourself Can you please state your name for the record? Yeah, I'm Colin McDonald the CEO of henhouse great Colin sorry to interrupt you you're we can't hear you clearly I'm sorry This is is this any better is the sound of this room just too loud that sounds better As I said, I'm the the CEO of henhouse burning company So obviously we are neighbors to this project and I just wanted to make sure that I got on the record stating about how Excited we are for this and how much of a development you think this is for the neighborhood and for the community You know We've seen a lot of the growth in our area of the past eight years of being in Santa Rosa And we're excited to see more of it So I just wanted to put it on the record how thoroughly enthusiastic we are to support this project and see it come to fruition Okay, anybody else on zoom, please raise your hand if you wish to make a comment Okay, I see Ali Lopez I'm gonna send you a prompt to unmute yourself. Please state your name for the record Hey, my name is my name is alexandra Lopez and I just wanted to say as a neighbor who's Around the corner on juniper Avenue We're also excited and hopefully it'll all go as planned And I also want to say thank you for conserving the trees that are existing already there, especially the oak tree Which is historic and landmark it's been there for a while I can tell so thank you for that again, and yeah, we're excited to you know looking forward to this project as well Thank you chair Jones Carter. I'm seeing no other hands raised at this time Thank you, and I would like to close public comment Are there any questions of the board for staff or the applicant and I'll start down here with Vic questions um I Recognize the value of the amount of parking that's that's being put in here. I wonder if There are there are opportunities for a few covered parking spaces and thinking about you know ADA for example people who you know might need to be in a covered space in order to get from their car or their vehicle to Their apartment, I mean I and this I'm this not an ADA requirement. I'm thinking At all. I'm just suggesting Something to think about and I also am very hopeful that there will be charging stations for the many many electric vehicles that will be Will increasing in Santa Rosa and across California? Very very quickly probably by the time this opens up, so I hope I hope that that's you know something that you Have you I? Guess if I'm asking a question. Have you considered it or will you consider it? Yes Yeah, you know obviously sustainability is a is a is a big component of all development And I know it's become a priority for the city council and and both and at the county level And we we do intend to include electric vehicle charging At some level I think that the the the challenge I think for for for that has been the adoption Particularly in working-class communities, but I think that there are efforts out there. They're incentivizing Greater transition into electric vehicle So we'll certainly be prepared for that transition on this site that may include stubbing or even including electric vehicle charging at some level for for both residents and visitors covered parking is is Not sure if I can make a commitment today, but it is something we'll look at too You know I should note that the the challenges with with development and building are very difficult right now You know we are proposing a hundred percent affordable Development and I should have stated in my comments. We're trying to do it without going after public subsidy Which makes it that much more difficult to do We're trying to demonstrate that we can in fact build Workforce and low-income housing without going through the multiple rounds of of of going after tax credits or or subsidy Which really limits what we can do on the development front, but it is something we'll take into consideration Have any more Vic Michael cook Good afternoon Following up on the covered parking Is is it not a requirement for cover parking in this development? So the code doesn't require covered parking for affordable housing. Thank you for the clarification I would also second just encouraging you look at cut some cover parking reserve parking For an affordable development and then did see That you had tandem parking in four different locations. How do you anticipate that being used? Make sure that I Respond to that correctly So you put you you noted the tandem parking on the it on north in a development Yeah, we have tandem parking by building the northwest corner and Then the northeast corner and then the eastern South southern southeastern corner You have compact spaces at the head and then you have looks like full-size parking Behind it. Not sure. I'm understanding the question so our is that in fact tandem partner Yeah, tandem parking When I asked great real quickly it is right Is there but I think maybe the question is how we program the parking with the residents around Can you come up to the yeah come to Michael I want you come up because I think it'll be helpful to explain how I think it's on the Operational side, right? Yeah, I Can stand it's okay Yeah, each unit would actually have a double space so that they could If the big car got home earlier it could be up front and the little one be in the back or you know, whatever but You know, you notice that the one In the back is smaller Not necessarily it would be first, but you would definitely have it for one household for two spaces Not mix them up and then all of a sudden your car is trapped in there Thank you, so there will be a reserve parking then for each unit. Yes So I have to go back and forth here And then with Additionally on the parking I think They said this is well the there is quite a bit of extra quote-unquote extra parking, you know above the city minimum for development are you I guess Do you think all that parking will be used? Can we reduce the parking? For it's a very good question. I think it's a question that We we kind of went through multiple times if you've if you've spent some time Particularly in this quadrant of the city Particularly in the evening hours and overnight I would say that most of the developments that have been approved in Southwest Santa Rosa are woefully under parked the challenge I think for Working-class families is that they don't have the luxury to depend on the public transit and transportation currently available So I actually don't think that we're over parking I think we're just right sizing the parking for when we project to be the you know the type of resident for this for this community What we were hoping to avoid is to create The unintended consequences of having residents park outside of our immediate community And create pressures for the henhouse breweries or pay supplies or GNC auto bodies or You know adjacent developments that may be in the pipeline for the city So while the parking requirements, I think are a certain number I actually don't think that we're over parking the site if I can just be a little bit more direct I think we're just right sizing for the number of units Oftentimes Households depend on two if not three Cars to be able to you know get through today Through to today So I I don't anticipate that we are going to have a shortage of parking once the development is is Particularly with the pressures that you've seen in this quadrant and that which you may see further down Anticipating full annexation at some point for the more land community south of Bellevue Michael I hope I answered the question, but I you know, I think we're just right sizing the parking I don't think we're gonna have Over over parking for the developer. I'll be quite candid Less parking and more units is always better for the bottom line So, you know, this goes counter to what most developers will propose Most developers will generally propose a higher unit count and lower parking because it's expensive and you you can you can generate more revenue But we also want to recognize that we want to ensure that the residents have a good quality of life when it comes to parking their gas-powered or electric vehicle powered vehicles Thank you The play field on there is that Like gonna be a soccer field or is that just play a large grass area? You know as a soccer person myself I I pushed for soccer for full-on, you know Dimensional soccer field I got a little pushback just because the site isn't big enough So it'll be just a regular play field with grass, which you know, we hope will be used for soccer But it will not be specifically delineated as a soccer field So, um, I guess I'll stay outside of many's Usually what I've seen is you know projects this large that there's usually a pool or you know spa type amenity proposes or a reason that there wasn't one on this Well, I think one of the main reasons is that we're not we're not proposing a market rate development that Where you might see some of those amenities and I get you know, just to be to be quite candid it pulls pulls are expensive and they're also Lathered with liability and for the type of development that we're trying to propose to keep it affordable For for families. We did not include a pool So we looked at a play field. We look at a playground a play park pickleball courts, which you know I I'm I'm now a sucker for pickleball and sort of my kids and my wife and We want to you know provide Those amenities, but the pool was not something that made the cut again on amenities the Fencing I think it was mentioned narrative that there would be fencing around the entire project But I didn't see any of the site plans. I see the gate automotive gates, but I don't see any You know line worker fencing shown so so on that there so on the on the yeah on the On the south side of the property. You've got an entire wall Effectively lined on that side of the property by the storage facility. I believe we do have a fence Along that property line. I could be I could be incorrect, but if you fill storage if There is one on the south side right great and there's another and there is a chance and there's And on an house. Yeah, there currently is an existing fence along the property line between henhouse brewery and the West side of the development and I believe we've got some fencing just just for the gates Yeah, just for the gates to keep Want to drop it out in the evening are are are you proposing that we consider? Fully enclosing a full fencing the entire site or you're just trying to identify where we have fencing Yeah, just trying to identify where we have fencing just to know, you know What it's gonna look like from the street and the streetscape the gates along Dutton and Bellevue and Likely property fencing on the south side and on the west side with henhouse brewery with So it'll be open along Bellevue and Dutton Landscape that's the intent the intent is to create I don't want to call it an open campus But something that is inviting and not necessarily fully gated. Okay. Thank you And then just a slight layout thing and I thought maybe the city would be interested in this as a driveway on Dutton is offset from the driveway from across the street By like 50 feet or something like that, and I would think that might be a concern for the city with traffic Enturning movements. I don't know if you looked at trying to line those up Just board member cook. Can you what you're here and there? Yeah, I think that I think that's So right at the at the industrial park at Oak minor Right yeah on Dunn Avenue your driveway comes into Dunn Avenue Maybe 50 feet north of their driveway Yeah, we have not Engaged the city's public works department yet on on on that but Certainly consider the flow of traffic and how we look at ingress egress. I think this was Intended to create a greater spacing between that intersection and where residents would You know access to property The fear Would be that You know closer to that intersection you may create You know safety safety concerns or safety hazards particularly for pedestrians. They're potentially using that sidewalk But we would be happy to confer with the public works department on that. Thank you And then two questions on the buildings Did you look at going taller with the buildings and adding units? We did not we decided to conform to you know 35 feet and Again, I think part part of that calculus was Deliberate by the amount of parking that we're proposing for for the site There is a cost element That you know includes elevators that take a project from you know one area to the next so We did not yeah, we did not consider going higher and creating larger density on the site Even though I think we had the ability to do it. We want to provide something that you know is It's reasonable for the size of the property. Okay. Thank you last question For unit A and B it doesn't appear that there's any exterior space. I just wanted to see if that could be added It's the end units Think it's one in two It's the same. There's no decks on these That's correct. A's and B's. Yeah. Yep We're proposing those at the top the top floor is not the second floors What's that? Board member, could you can you is it? So I think on every floor and building one units B Do not have exterior space None of the A's and B's. Those are the four units on you know at the corners on the ends to Actually the E the ease do but the B's do not right and then building three The B's do not the ease do So just asking if that could be considered I don't I don't think that the A units in building three Have exterior space either Correct. Yeah, thank you Yeah, so the A's A units and B units and all the buildings do not have exterior space We'll take that comment back. I think I'm done Ernest Yeah, the only question I really have is Well, there's two that just clarification on it has Any of the study regarding the traffic stuff already come up. I know you mentioned it in some of the preliminary conversation I'm just curious About that considering that there's going to be another apartment complex proposed to the East future vibe apartments so we are we are aware of a an already entitled project the vibe of prop apartments on Along Dunn Avenue As I understand it will be required to do a traffic study As part of our proposal. So we're still have to go through doing that analysis So we are aware of both that proposal and you know is what without Sharing more than I should you know that development has not moved forward for build out yet and There is discussion that they may come back and ask for it to be converted back to industrial so I May be speaking out of line there, but that's Certainly be a consideration that we look at traffic and traffic impacts by adjacent potential developments and both residential industrial and commercial Got it and my second question was I believe you there was mentioned that the northwest was at the northwest corner was zoned as Do you mention it was a business use of some sort? Yeah, it's it's I believe it's a northeast Corner as identified by by the zoning We did look at the possibility of including a commercial component and if you if you've looked at the Developments that have included residential and commercial as part of their mix it doesn't always work and You know the last thing that we wanted was to have a vacant open commercial entity that had no use So we we we did not propose We specifically deliberately did not propose a commercial retail use We did here in the neighborhood meeting we went back to see if we could make something work and And that's not what we have before you you know our concern is having vacant commercial Retail spaces that you know go vacant for a long time and I don't want to point to any specific developments in the downtown core But there's one specifically near Mendocino Avenue that's gone vacant for I Think I was in high school. I'm joking, but it's been it's it's been it's been it's been an issue and we're You know, we're proposing a residential development and not a mixed use Got that. I think that's my only questions. Thank you And Michael yeah, the other board members Covered most of the questions that I would ask in comments that I'll make So I don't know that I have anything further most of what I was going to ask was asked and answered in the short term here Thank you It's my turn. I Know you don't have to do a lighting plan for this round But I would just Encourage you to make sure that there is ample around the play structures and the Pickleball courts and the basketball courts so that nighttime access is available for residents as well as during the day That's not really a question, but anyway And was there any thought given to varying the colors of the buildings And the reason I ask is if I'm a child and everything looks the same, where do I live? You know just just a thought We have not looked at at modifying the you know, the colors of the buildings But certainly appreciate that that that position you'll want to make sure that it's not just a A good feeling for the adults for for the kids alike We can see you next time on that one, so And then the trash enclosures I'm just curious is there I don't know what the Requirement is but it doesn't seem like there's ample enough I know that there are two locations But for the number of residents there it just doesn't seem like it's gonna be enough I Think we have more than just two trash enclosures, right? Or are we proposing I think we've we had Trying to remember the appropriate number there There's five. Okay. Well, I miss counted. Okay Yeah, yeah, there's there's a minimum of five chair trash enclosures But we'll for the for the next round we'll ensure to Make them very visible so that you can see specifically how many we've got I see them now. I'm sorry my oh, so No, no, it's okay. It's okay I mean that we had that issue at the neighborhood meeting around the trees that we were going to keep because we didn't specifically identify and also the bike the bicycle parking wasn't Demonstrated as prominently and and I was just told that on the color scheme We've got five different schemes for colors that will be considering great. Thank you Those are my questions. I Just wanted to say through the chair if I can just come back on the on the external space and the decks I think that one of the one of the challenges is Just the layout of the buildings and layout of the space is trying to you know identify or carving out I mean if you look at the size of the units The size of the units aren't very big And that also was intentional There's a construct of affordable by design where the one bedrooms two bedrooms were proposing, you know 555 755 955 square feet for the three bedrooms and the intent Is to create that affordable by design construct Not withstanding that we are going to be deed restricting these units at affordability levels at 80% of a mind below so this isn't an affordable by design project, but in practice it is To some extent, and I think that's where we run up Board member cook with the challenges around how much additional space can we provide with what we're already working with? Anyone have any other questions? Are there any comments of the board for this our staff for the applicant? Vic has a comment to have a comment which I probably would have asked as a question, but I I skipped it I forgot it, but you know, I'm I'm on the waterways advisory committee and and you have a great opportunity to Recognize Colgan Creek and the path which is fantastic actually We did a field trip there Just just a little while ago and I don't I don't just Somehow or other think about it as an asset and And you might find that maybe I don't I don't know but pathways pedestrian pathways from project To the creek I don't know. I'm just It is a comment. We do have to start thinking of our creeks and waterways as assets for all of us and we have an opportunity, so thank you Michael, do you have any comments? Yeah So just comments following up on my questions I Like to see you come next time with a Tri-exterior space on those units that we discussed on the buildings on the ends I do believe that, you know, even if you're on the third floor, you know, just having some way to get outside Is beneficial and I almost wonder if it's not a requirement By the city and maybe that was a question I should have asked as well, but I'd really would like to see balconies I like the way they look from the you know when you're in the development on the streetscape and then also You know when you're a resident of the other unit, it's it's nice to have I would also like to just I Should have asked this again as a question, but the the trees that are on our onsite. I do see that the Larger tree was retained on site, but there are other trees on site oaks And just you know make that apparent that there was an attempt to save the trees that are on site And then my only other well, I do think the buildings, you know for being affordable by design They I like the look of them And I think you've done a nice job with the the buildings also the site layout I like all the pathways going through and the play field playground dog parks So I do think this will be a nice addition to the neighborhood and it was nice to hear from a neighbor and the Jason business that they support your project And then my last comment would just be Careful on the Just the irrigation in the well-o. I know we saw a well-o on there But with that large of a play field it does, you know Add up quickly and you may not be able to Have you landscaping throughout? And as far as I can tell on the plans that we've seen and concept here It is going to be landscaped a hundred percent, you know, wherever there's built not buildings of parkings So I would like to see that come back that way as well And then I'll finish with the comment I always make is just trees and utility conflicts You know electrical lines lighting poles You know what I would like to see is a fully figured out and coordinated plan between your engineers and your landscape architect that Confirmed that we'll be seeing the same amount of trees and the development was built as what we're seeing on the pretty drawings So That would be it for me Thank you Ernest Yeah, thank you very much for the presentation. I think it Teco getting to hear that the neighbors are supportive and called in Is it was great to hear In terms of the design looks great, especially since is an idea of affordable housing doesn't present as necessarily an affordable housing project which I think is Well done my limited comments would be Just the warning about The fencing and lighting plan. I know it's already been mentioned But boy these people love to beat up on fencing and lighting not being present for when you come back That will be a comment. So having it in there really goes a long way The only questionable item or maybe recommendation or suggestion I would have is I believe it's the Rear and front elevations I believe they end up being a kitchen and perhaps a bedroom It ends up being a bedroom closet if there's an opportunity to somehow Get something laid out where there could be an additional window on those rear and front elevations looking out the kitchen and looking out the bedroom having the the amount of Activities and playgrounds play fields. I think are great. I know we've had that comment before I think Chair Carter actually brought that up on a project before having ample Playfields, and I thought that was really good to provide a family environment Pickleball might be a little loud in an apartment complex, but that that's just what I've heard Outside of that, I think it's really well done and creates a great community Atmosphere, so it's great. Thank you Michael Great. Yeah, I want to again echo the sentiment that bringing an affordable community That's well designed like this to this quadrant as as you've said is is really needed in Santa Rosa I think it's a great infill project overall. I think that The couple of things that I had were the the site plan itself Minus what my belief that you're over parked the amenities that you do offer in the spaces that you do offer them are ample And and I think that I think that that's nice I think that the park up on the corner and the openness into the drive to the drive lane The project is fairly permeable and I don't think it's going to feel like it's pressing on the corner of Dutton and Bellevue and and so I'll say that I think that's a nice feel and I agree with you entirely on the retail Not being appropriate for the corner It you couple of us on the board are always asking for and a couple of other projects where I really believe there should have been Retail space that was taken out Much larger scale to these projects this this doesn't really fit and the project. I know that you're speaking of on Hillsburg Avenue Because it's really a case study for when you don't Want to do the retail because it has to have some synergy with more retail It's got to be connected a different way There has to be more front doors immediately adjacent You can make mistakes and so I think this would be a mistake and I think that keeping the site open on the corner and Not complicating this project or complicating driveways. It's it's a good choice I know what the public is asking for it would be nice to have the little bodega on the corner That gave you an easy way to take a walk for for something Late at night or whatever the case may be, but I think you made a good decision there I do think Again because I do believe moving into the parking You know we're at a time when Market rate developers and certainly a lot of affordable developers projects that are hundred percent affordable Are being asked to move into the future in terms of parking ratios and things like electric vehicle charging So on the one end of the parking, you know If there was less parking in the project I would love to advocate for more units But at the same time the pool amenity or some additional open space would be would be Great. So the parking is First priority would be could you add more units if you sacrifice parking second priority would be more amenities And and that's just a message that I think this board generally puts forward as we look We work in the in these Design and development realms and we see what's happening in Santa Rosa and other places So many developers are being asked to take that step into the future be a couple steps ahead You know we built the train We've we've you know, we're piping garages for Electrical charging Stations for the future 100% of spaces are getting piped for for that because that's going to be a wave that rolls over us in terms of You have a you have a massive uptick in the number of electric vehicles for sale even in a working-class neighborhood Those are going to be those are going to be used electric vehicles in Two years that you know they're going to find their way into you know this quadrant Which I agree with you has probably got less electrical vehicles per capita. That's just anecdotal. That's just me And I think you feel the same way about it. You've probably done your homework on it. So just I any anything that you know Anything that would prompt you to expand some amenities or add some units that involved reducing parking Is is going to probably be supported by this board and I know we're probably not necessarily the final action on the site plan But or we are the final action on the site plan here, right? Not the planning commission. Okay, so we are so we're into it But I would encourage electric chargers on day one and I would encourage Making sure that your future proof for it because we don't want to be building a project in 2023 and find out in 2026 that You know, you're going to be you're going to be behind the eight ball when people start saying where the vehicle chargers and We all know anybody who's who's been around the environment where there have been more electric vehicles And you've got an electric vehicle and you're finding yourself sitting at Codding Town Working on your laptop instead of being able to do it, you know in where you live or near where you live It's it's a drag so Let me see the requirements and Or so I'll give you the two that you gave which is always the lighting plan for a full-throated Major design review approval. We like to make sure that all the boxes are checked and so I'm going to be just I'm going to be Drew I guess in this case Nice lighting plan with photometrics and all the light fixtures so that we know what they are The fencing design we do need the fences elevated and called out on the plan That's that's really critical and I Support the idea of Dutton and Bellevue being mostly open with the exception at the entry point And and fencing the south and the and the west because they are really kind of Into out into the open there, but Dutton and Bellevue being open is really really nice And I'm glad you're not necessarily making this into a compound But we do need those designs As far as the planting plan Did and I probably should have been a question I just saw three categories of plants on the planting plan so far But I didn't see specific plants and those will that will be critical You probably will have Adam here and I know Mike will dig in just the same and they'll be helpful But I do think that it's going to be it would be difficult for us to really be Charitable about not having a planting plan with all the plants called out and you guys probably know that Fencing planting and then the other item and I'll tie two things together I believe that color boards are a requirement for major design review. Amy if I'm not mistaken And I want to comment on the color there are three color schemes that Relate to the residential units the other two color schemes are for the clubhouse and the trash enclosures So right now you got eight buildings You have three schemes three schemes for those units for those residential buildings is probably great I think I'm going to just intuit the comment that was made and my feeling was that the variations are very subtle between the buildings I You know, we don't need a red building and a blue building and a yellow building certainly, but I think an effort put forward to Get to what the chair talked about in terms of sort of recognition and you know Whether it's cognitive disability or being a young child or whatever that you understand your space a little bit through better through cues I think that some greater variation in color would be great And and again doesn't have to be radical But you know and then I think supporting that with the color and material boards that you would bring as one of the requirements for Major design review would really let us see that so Those are my comments, but I'm super supportive of the project I think you guys have done a nice job of creating something that doesn't Look like it was designed to be affordable housing. I appreciate that you're thinking about the neighborhood in the market I would just encourage you to future think a little bit because This quadrant is going to move forward. It's going to move forward and people are going to have There's going to be a variety of housing types available as we go forward. There's a lot of projects approved and Want to make sure that you know these projects all have are as viable in 2033 as they are in 2023 or 24 when they get built so but again, thanks for bringing the great start forward and help the comments are helpful Ernest I'm making up one more comment. Yes, you can Sorry not to be nitpicky, but just because I look at this stuff all day You have your accessible parking spaces to mention that 17 foot depth when you to minimum of 18 feet the only reason I want to point that out is If the parking standard is 18 foot depth and All the parking spaces are a foot short. You're going to lose a couple feet across All the parking lots which may impact some of your Numbers elsewhere, so just want to make a note of that Thanks Maybe we'll get to that less parking spaces We just lost parking for parking, but you know make it work Thanks Ernest. Thank you My comments are will be quick because everybody has said what I'm thinking But I again, I want to thank you for a really nice presentation and the fact that the project is a hundred percent affordable is admirable and the fact that yes, it does not have to look like it's Affordable to the residents that live there, so you should be commended for that I would like to champion for some covered parking bike parking So I'm a biker and I don't want my bike outside all the time so if you can somehow fit that in and The only other item I have is talking about the amenities and the dispersion dispersion of them Like the playground area is located in one corner and but there are children that live throughout the complex so if you can maybe add another one closer to the sports area Basketball court or wherever just spread that out a little bit more and I'm gonna second the Comment about covered parking for some people if possible It is not a requirement, but it's nice to have and I think that is it for me anyone else have anything else to add and Mike didn't mention this, but he always talks about trees in the Bio Bio retention don't do that on your landscape plan Thank you very much for your presentation and This item is for discussion and direction only so no action will be taken on this item, and we appreciate you coming today Thank you. Thank you chair. Thank you board and staff Item 8.2 is a study session draft general plan Santa Rosa Santa Rosa forward and we'll have a presentation by Sherry means Good afternoon chair Jones-Carter and members of the design review board as mentioned I am Sherry means I'm a senior planner working as part of the team that is Updating the city's general plan so tonight. We're just going to do a presentation about the Step in the process that we are at which is the draft general plan really exciting time for us This all just get started There we go so as you know as as Part of planning is looking at the built environment. It looks at land uses it looks at where we're gonna put housing You guys see that we just saw that How does housing interact with the roads with the schools with all of the public? Services and stores that are required to make a neighborhood so that's part of planning and that's part of what the general plan looks at But the general plan also looks at the social fabric of a community what makes Santa Rosa liveable? What increases the quality of life of its community members and so we look at things such as education parks transit climate resilience environmental justice Anything that has to do with the city of Santa Rosa the general plan touches on it as you'll see as we move further into the presentation So this is an exciting time for us as mentioned City has a current general plan that was adopted in 2009 That looked out at a planning horizon year of 2035 So since it the existing plan was adopted in 2009 Think of all the things that have changed in this world In Santa Rosa, we've had wildfires. There's been the pandemic. There's been a mini recession There's been social unrest and recovery so it was just time for us to look at and and Evaluate what we have in the current plan that we want to continue and bring forward and what other new moves Do we need to make to address all of the challenges that? that we face So what is a general plan many of you probably know this so this may be just for the people in the audience But the state of California requires every city county jurisdiction to have a general plan and In that general plan are a requirement for nine elements or Topical matters subjects chapters you could look at it anyway Those are indicated here on the screen most of those have been a requirement for a while a new Requirement is an environmental justice chapter Which is wonderful and we would have done it anyways, but just to let you know that those are the requirements to look at the Kind of the bare bones minimum of what makes up a community This tells you where we're at in the current general plan update process And it kind of looks like we're in the middle, but we've actually put in a lot of work already The process started about three years ago in summer 2020 Right before you know right in the middle of the pandemic so that kind of slowed things down a little bit but what we did first was we had some Meetings with the community to talk about what type of an engagement strategy and how we could engage the community So that we were reaching populations that previously maybe weren't at the table or felt they couldn't be at the table And to really listen to what they wanted to see as the future Of Santa Rosa through growth and change. So that's how we started with things. We developed what's called a community in involvement strategy part of that was creating a community advisory committee made up of outside stakeholders that serve as Sort of champions for this process and help us with the engagement and getting the word out about the different phases that we that we incur also Created a technical advisory committee made up in initially of internal staff So it was leaders from all of the different departments So we made sure we had subject matter experts that could review our current general plan and then help us create new policies New actions new goals again looking forward to the year 2050 We also now have engaged a lot with an external technical advisory committee looking at different agencies or groups of people that have Technical knowledge and subject matter expertise for things that We like to think staff has but we really want to hear from people that have boots on the ground doing this work So social advocates for youth superintendents of schools Climate and environmental groups just a wide range of of different people that can give us perspectives So then we said well, what are we starting with what's our baseline? So a whole bunch of technical Studies and reports were done looking at demographics market Analysis all of that type of stuff and that was part of the existing conditions analysis and vision From that we said, okay, this is where we're at. What do we want to do? Moving forward with land use and housing and where things should be built and and infrastructure investment So we I'll explain more about that later, but we developed three Land use alternatives and I'll explain more about that later We then developed through again a lot of community outreach Input from the council planning commission. We developed a preferred alternative That leads us to where we are now now that we know what the community wants to see how are we going to get there? So that's the in the nutshell and these are important milestones the same stuff But these are the actual work products These are the documents that were created through this process to date All of this is online on our website and I encourage you To look at any of this for the background information The existing conditions report like I mentioned is really technical. It's really meaty I encourage you to read it But if it's just I don't want to read all of that kind of thing We have what's called a briefing book that is more of a snapshot a little bit of a Executive summary if you will and I'll cover some more of this information as we go through the presentation So again one of the first things we did was to establish a vision a vision for this plan a vision for the community through the year 2050, which is the new planning horizon and so through community input through planning Commission City Council we Captured words that people spoke to us that that Shared their aspirations for the city their goal for the city their minimum requirements for the city that they expect us to consider and Work towards so I'll just go ahead and read what how the words on the word flower ended up being combined into the vision the the Basic standpoint for where we start with this project Santa Rosa is a diverse equitable and sustainable community built on civic engagement that empowers everyone to provide and support equal affordable equal and affordable opportunities to obtain good housing Education and jobs to enjoy vibrant cultural events and arts and to live healthy lives in Resilient neighborhoods that adapt to social and environmental change So as I mentioned we went out to the community with these three different Alternatives of how we envision the city to to reach the growth potential that that we anticipate through the year 2050 and the existing general plan Already anticipated a whole lot of housing that we have not yet realized So we didn't need to generate a whole bunch of new housing, but we wanted to Figure out where would it best be placed throughout the city? So that's what these three different alternatives show the first one would have been Called established corridors. It's really focused most development most everything in the downtown Corridor and we just not too long ago adopted the town downtown station area specific plan So this really would have focused everything on just those policies those goals those actions that are already in place The next alternative number two was neighborhood main streets And it builds on the established corridors meaning that we still envision a very dense livable Walkable important downtown area, but also recognizes that there are already areas of the city that are ripe for investment ripe for housing or infrastructure or transit additions that can make those areas complete neighborhoods so that the goal is that people would be able to Achieve all of their their daily needs within a very walkable bikeable Area and then the third alternative is called housing everywhere It's kind of status quo kind of what the general plan now is where it's just housing everywhere without necessarily having a true goal of the best way to look at the growth of Santa Rosa's sustainably equitably and holistically so after going out to the public and again having feedback from the council and planning commission What really stood out was they wanted a combination of alternatives one and two so again keeping that built up downtown area, but also then Creating these areas that would be complete neighborhoods and this map is is super hard to read on the slide It's just up there for illustrative purposes, but you can see it really well in the actual documents So that gets us to where we are we we developed that preferred alternative now The charge is to develop the goals policies and actions that will get us to implement that vision and So the general plan as I mentioned has nine Required elements by the state and we've combined those nine elements into chapters We've we've put together Subject matter and topics that have synergy together that working together can achieve the greatest good and we also have the What we call optional elements that are not required by the state But urban design historic preservation and art and culture are so important to our city and the fabric the social fabric of Where we live that that also has a chapter the housing element is I'm pretty sure you guys may have heard about the housing element when it went through its process But it will be part of this general plan, but due to a different time frame requirement by the state It has already been adopted by council and certified by the California housing and Community Development Department earlier this year And we're not anticipating any changes to that so it will be also incorporated as part of this general plan and Also, something really exciting is that the city has a community-wide climate action plan and Recent studies have shown that the best way to get to Implementing those measures is to have them Interspersed throughout the general plan so you will see in this general plan a lot of stuff that addresses climate greenhouse gas reduction You'll see that already, but then we're also creating a standalone greenhouse gas reduction strategy that will update and replace the existing climate action plan and That will be included as an appendix to our general plan Part of the general plan process we developed a couple of really important new maps that you guys may not have seen before the first one shown here is our equity priority areas and this looks at quite a few metrics that have pointed to areas in the city that have suffered from lack of investment and they are Areas where people are more vulnerable to the effects of How the environment has built or air pollution that type of thing and it includes several different metrics, but primarily what we can say for sure is that it is the areas with the most People in poverty and the highest percentage of people of color so you'll see throughout the general plan policies specific to equity priority areas and equity priority populations which are the the community members that live within them and Then another important map is our areas of change and that kind of goes back to what we were talking about in terms of the preferred alternative showing these areas of the city that we anticipate through either increased housing or Improved infrastructure we can create these complete neighborhoods which will help to get people out of cars and just to really improve quality of life so now I'm just going to do a very brief overview of each of the Chapters that deal with the quote elements of the general plan and chapter two is the land use and economic development chapter it Incorporates a lot of our previous policies from the existing general plan related to land use because as I as I mentioned We don't need a ton of new housing units compared to what the old general plan said We just need to move them around and put them in in the in better places economic development we're looking at really incentivizing and encouraging neighborhood level Opportunities for people micro entrepreneurialism Where folks are able to maybe make a living right either at their home or in in spaces very near and people have said Well, what could that look like and there's so many different opera different things But one of them we heard from somebody that I thought was really exciting is having a space where it can be rented as a Dance studio, but also be used for Instagram posing which people make a bunch of money on Maybe even have a kitchen where people could do you know kitchen work out of and that type of thing So it's kind of looking at shared spaces at a more neighborhood level so that's exciting about that chapter and then chapter three looks at Circulation it looks at open space. It looks at conservation and greenhouse gas reductions So that's a lot of things to put together, but as you can probably envision in your mind they really work together with the overall goal of making Santa Rosa a more active transport people using more active transportation methods or and or transit and Reducing greenhouse gas emissions. So we've made a bold step where things will be prioritized based on that the hierarchy would be first white Walking in pedestrian infrastructure second trans transit infrastructure and third would be single occupancy vehicles So that's a bold thing that we're hoping to Get feedback on another thing which has been controversial even within our planning department is banning new drive-thru uses So we'll be interested in getting feedback on that as well Fourth chapter is again, that's our optional elements which are urban design historic preservation and arts and culture And I don't need to tell you guys if you live here You know that we have some very rich history and cultural vibrance that we really want to encourage and some of that has to do with things like planting strips and trees and and that type of thing and Helping to incentivize people that own or live in historic properties To be able to keep preservation Chapter five is safety climate resilience noise and public services and facilities So all of those are required elements except for climate resilience The this chapter really looks at the hazards that Santa Rosa is I Don't want to say prone to Exposed to if you will and our emergency Management, how are we going to you know educate our our population and protect our population mitigate some of these hazards So that's an important piece of it Then it also goes into public services such as our water wastewater storm water police and fire Noise is just one of those required elements that kind of fits nowhere, but everywhere So that one's thrown in here too not a lot of change to what's in our existing general plan there But the climate resilience area is looking at how to Adapt and anticipate changes related to our changing climate so you'll find some things in there That are new for the city And we look forward to getting any feedback on that So health equity and environmental justice. This is a new chapter For us again environmental justice is a required element But this this chapter really looks at focusing on the health of our Santa Rosa community members and it Charges us to look at every policy every action every development with a health in all policies lens Because as we know there are so many things that the built environment impacts in terms of health and so this is really looking at ways to Prioritize areas where there are maybe a lack of sidewalks or people can't safely walk their children to school There aren't covered bus stations. So they're sitting out in the rain waiting for the bus that type of thing We just want to make sure that we've captured everything that we can think of to help Grow this community in an equitable sustainable and and healthy way So we have a survey out right now It'll be out through the end of September and I encourage you as well as anyone you want to share it with to Take that survey. There's some general questions sentiment about how do you feel about this this this and this but then also Open areas where people can just say what they feel like we've gotten right what we've gotten wrong what we need to tweak add or In some cases people have said we need to get rid of some of the policies. So Encourage you to do that Again, I mentioned the project website everything that I'm talking about here all of those documents the survey The next steps all of that can be found on this really rich robust website www.SantaRosaForward.com So I encourage you to go on there and take a look at all the the good things we've been working on next steps, so We're gathering all the community feedback.  We've done we've held In-person community outreach Workshops in each of the four quadrants of the city. We have a virtual one coming up next week We've done pop-up events at places where We go to people that like I said may not sit in a room here to hear these things. So we've gone to say Matote food park Santa Rosa junior college welcome day. We were at the community wildfire readiness Fair I think I'm saying that right Really, you know cultural events where people gather where people will hopefully talk to us And give us input on what they would like to see happen over the city We've also done a lot of youth outreach in this process where we actually With the consultant firm that we're working with Created a curriculum for Montgomery High School students juniors in a government and civics classes Where they learned about planning the profession We're able to meet young planners planners of color And they learned about the planning profession. They learned about what is a general plan They learned about the general plan update and then they worked in groups self-selected groups They chose a topic from the general plan one of the areas, you know, whether it was environmental justice climate Any of those things and they did a bunch of research They did a written paper and then it all culminated in presentations before city planners there were Several different days where we would went where we went and heard their presentations and it was really illuminating you can see all of that on The website the the feedback they were very thoughtful and and really amazing comments We're hoping to continue that and and do it at other schools as well. We also had a Engaged with our arts in public places folks and our arts Department Tara Thompson has been a huge, you know person to interact with We worked with a group called Kim's in creative created an art installation based on feedback from youth and it's like puzzle pieces that fit together that we had a art installation at old at the courthouse square we had a hip-hop artist Visit with youth in juvenile hall and met with him over a period of time Created a song and a video which I think has been finally released this week So if you haven't heard or seen it, it's really pretty amazing and it's a it was a bold way to reach Group of people that sometimes just don't engage or don't even know how to engage So anyway, so we're collecting all of this feedback your feedback. We're going to all of the boards and Commissions we've gone to the waterways advisory committee You guys will be going to planning commission city council cultural heritage board Just anybody you can think of that'll listen to us and we're also meeting with neighborhood groups that want us to talk to them and Gathering all this feedback Trying to coalesce it all into you know, where do we go from this draft that we have now into a final general plan which will be brought before Council and planning commission for final adoption the beginning of next year. Also, we are doing a EIR for this progress this project It will be looking at obviously the environmental impacts of the policies included in the general plan 2050 So that should be released I Want to say late October it might be sooner than that and that will be open for Public comment as well and then probably through January and then as I mentioned earlier the greenhouse gas reduction strategy That'll be coming also out The first week in October and then we'll be bringing it to a climate action subcommittee meeting on November 1st that'll be strictly Focused on the climate peace and the greenhouse gas reduction strategy. So I've talked enough What we want to do is hear from y'all if you have questions comments suggestions You don't have to have them now if you haven't had a chance to look at stuff We're hoping you will and feel free to send any comments to go back to Santa Rosa forward at srcity.org or to me I should probably have had a slide with my name on it But I'm sharing means so as typical city emails go it's s M e a D s at srcity.org so Smeads at srcity.org and That is the end of my presentation So I would love to how do I stop share stop share? I'm so used to a touchscreen at home that it's so weird to not have one Anyways, thank you for your time and for listening Thank you very much for the presentation Does anyone have any questions? Yes, we will have comments afterwards No Okay, I Love the energy and the passion and the commitment on the city's part to move the the new draft of the general plan forward I I Have a degree in planning. I've been in design and development Since I was 22 years old Yeah, exactly. Thank you. No, it's third just about ten. So I Get I understand a lot of what goes on in in this community and other communities. I sit on the developer side, you know land landlord owner side mostly as a consultant in a specific field I follow things through being on this board 99 and you know 9.75% of the community does not have much understanding of what goes on around them and It's not a criticism. This is a very technical This is a very technical process how it gets done it takes experts For for John Q. Public. It's jays. Where did this big building come from? How did this land here? Why are they approving this? There's too much traffic and boy, we had the fires We can't build anything else, you know forever. We're done I've made this joke a lot about getting into arguments with people at cocktail parties I don't always win, but I'm always right. So I I'm curious I'm going to make an effort to try to put this out to as many people on next door In my area, I'd like to just you know I'm getting to a question. I'd like to encourage the board to do the same thing my my question is and I just You're in your energy around this is great. How many people have really participated? I mean how much of the public it sounds like you've really put yourself in some great places and exposed The process to people. I'm just curious if there's some Benchmark, we would love to hit before this is done that we get more people involved. I Don't have specific numbers the website does have updated engagement numbers. I just don't remember them off the top of my head It is a good question. We have been Not only capturing numbers, but capturing demographic information so that we know areas that we may be missing For example, we know we've done Pretty darn good capturing the youth voice now, which is really unheard of we've done pretty good with Spanish speakers One of our community meetings was held strictly in Spanish. Well, that's not true It would have had English translation if necessary all of our other meetings offered Spanish translation all of our materials have been in Spanish and English we Have worked in close partnership with Latino service providers and so that's been important but there are areas that we're still trying to improve our reach and We do an analysis after each step of where where we're missing those groups and so one of my Fellow workers on this project be a trees. She's actually at the Listening session with a couple of our council members. So she's not here with me But she is the real dynamo with community engagement and she is monitoring stuff and saying okay We need to go here. We need to go here. We needed to go there Which is why she's not here tonight. So According to our most recent stats here, we've held over a hundred events meetings active activities and surveys We've reached over 4,340 community members 80 plus community groups organizations and neighborhoods and Individual community members comments and ideas are over 21,540 Great, that's that's impressive compared to you know, what I would imagine just based on What comes back to us often about this is the is the our media outlets You guys are advertising Events and media outlets and can you can you broadly cover? platforms like next door and others yeah, we have been working in close partnership with our Community and inter-governmental relations office zero Communications and they've been helping us post things on all the social medias Next door we did a press release. We actually paid for an advertisement that would flash from Spanish to English in the press Democrat so we're really we really are trying to you know reach as broad of audience as possible But again sharing stuff with your networks is super helpful We put stuff on some of us have posted stuff on LinkedIn that has been reshared And and so we really are trying to get the word out, but we're very open to other ideas and suggestions Great. Well, thank you again for the passion energy and it's great to hear the numbers actually Where they sit right now? That's some people and we'll be able to you know, eventually say well You had your opportunity and well, and that's exactly what we're trying to do here We're trying to give everyone an opportunity to review stuff. So they don't say well, where did that come from? That's super important to us Thank you Does anyone else have a question? I do kind of have a question just for my own knowledge There's discussion of equity and It falls into a couple categories, but I realized that I looked up what the ADA transition plan was for Santa Rosa and was dated 2006 and then I kept digging it looked like there was an RFP put out to amend it So if there's an update to the general plan and we're talking about circulation. We're talking about equity Accessibility falls in a number of these items. How would the development of the updated transition plan fall into this? if at all I don't have specific information on that I do know that we actually had a comment from someone that said that every new development every unit should be ADA I don't think that that's a feasible thing, but I can look more closely into this a lot of this relates probably to building code standards Jess, I'm looking to see if you have any more information Yeah, I mean I can look into that and I'm happy to it's a very good question. I know we we're trying to create Areas where people can age in place and and things such as that, but you're right that Yeah, the the reason I question it is it if there is a potential that the ADA transition plan is going to be amended The consultant that was used before I believe is the consultant that is Being used for this general plan Meg. Oh, I believe they do a lot of the transition plans interesting There's an RFP. I know the person that was who did it probably retired if it's the same person, okay? But if there's an opportunity then my question is Would there be an opportunity to see some kind of? Tandem effort since there is going to be outreach there the transition plan is going to require the same amount of A lot of the same questions as what the general plan might be doing in vice versa Yeah, I'm not I'm not going to lie not familiar with which department is heading up the ADA Transition plan efforts. I can try to find that information out and and see if there's some type of synergy that can be created If nothing else, maybe we could include a policy that says to implement the ADA transition plan I just don't know. I don't know much about it and I apologize for that Not at all. It's um, I think I'm gained more in the comment at this point to to go along with that So I'll I'll it's all important. Oh, yeah. Yeah for sure. Okay. No, it's great. Thank you very much. Thank you I had just a couple questions So on the engagement well, I think four over four thousand people is admirable and you know Getting people excited about this kind of thing is really difficult and we have over 175,000 people in our city So we're talking about less than a percent And so I would highly encourage more unique engagement like you said the pop-ups You know next door like we talked about up here You know, I Don't go on next door a lot But I do see a lot of messages come out of next door and a lot of people that are involved in a lot of different things So it'd be nice to maybe try to get more You know, I don't know paid engagement there and then you mentioned youth and I'm also on the school board for Rankin Valley Union school district on the east side town and I believe I put the planners that are working on this and touch with our superintendent But I don't believe she ever heard anything. So, you know, that's elementary-aged, but I you know, this is Santa Rosa 2050 You know, we some of us may not be in Santa Rosa anymore and 2050, but they may Because I also think you know Was mentioned about diversity. I think Diversity in age as well, which you know at the moment, I believe we're going the wrong way And so getting the youth voice I think has to be really really important And Then you know, I read through all the goals the executive summary. I've read the whole document before The executive summary, you know some helped me remember a lot of the details It seems like there's a lot of the goals in there are very You know Things that I don't know that the city has a lot of control over like for example, I Think one of them was talking about like health food stores, you know a closer proximity to each other or you know Restricting fast-food restaurants from being within 300 feet of each other or something, you know, that was one of the goals or actions and You know For me like the healthy, you know having more healthy food stores. How do we define healthy food stores? And then how do we Get more healthy food stores. How does the city actually create more healthy food stores? I don't know that that's something the city can do Other than zoning properties for retail But it's it's not something that I feel like we could Create or or have a beat so as you know for me that the question is just There's a lot of goals in there There's only so many people That work for the city And so much that can be done. I mean, how do we see This planning out do we prioritize Goals, how does how does the general plan? Move forward from after adoption, I guess That would be a question, yeah So if I might through the chair a couple of responses So we have reached out to every single superintendent of a local school district And they were invited to be on that external technical advisory committee that I mentioned that we had a Virtual meeting yesterday with I've also offered to meet a cohort of superintendents So that's in the process to where we'll literally have just a small group of them that may have you know Different ideas or things that they want us to think about that they didn't choose to share in that larger tack group setting and I did forget to mention the coloring book I can't believe we forgot to mention the coloring book. So we developed a coloring book for Kids from seven years old to 14 years old asking them to I should have brought one It's really cute and it it gets to the heart of what makes them feel safe What makes them feel happy what they want to see Santa Rosa look like and all of those were Many of those were given out at summer camps They are being used in school districts where we're collecting them back and people would get a $10 gift card If they brought it back and the reason we were doing that is we wanted to capture that feedback So it's all being scanned and that will be part of the information that Is used as as important Goals and then I think one of the policies you might be thinking about is where we're trying to require smaller convenience stores to have fresh produce And that was one of the ways that we were trying to get more healthy food in areas Maybe that there isn't so and you're right. It is a ton of work And council decides what we do and what we prioritize So the next step after we get everything settled is is using the actions and goals and priorities to develop sort of a A strategy of what we think will be long term short term Which departments would be responsible for implementing them and that type of thing so Yeah, we're we're lofty we have we have high expectations of ourselves But it's actually less than the current general plan which has 700 So we tried to make it a little more concise, but we didn't want to give up on all of our hopes for the city So how that plays out ultimately Will be above our pay grade, but there will be thoughtfulness put into it Thank you. I have one more question. Yes, please The old general plan Was pretty vague in a lot of what it said, you know, like we see before the designer view board and planning commissions at the council Uh Different interpretations of goals, right the same exact goal and uh, it is Interpreted two different ways one way by the city one way by the applicant Um I know that it had been mentioned I think I even mentioned in one of the feedback things like is there a way to make these You know at least land use planning land use stoning Goals more concise more detailed To where maybe there's only one interpretation Um, it just it seems like it it creates more Difficulty in getting things approved When they're pretty vague and maybe not so detailed Yeah, so one of the other steps that we'll have to go through is um zoning code amendments to Implement all of the things that are included in the um general plan So we can definitely look at that. I know that's challenging for us too And so that's why we have zoning code interpretations to be like no, this is what we meant And when we're writing code, we think it's so good and then we look at it after the fact and like oh I can see why they don't understand what we're talking about here. So We'll definitely try to be more mindful about that and I'm pretty sure we'll do a whole round of engagement around the zoning code Interpretation, so I'm sorry the zoning code amendments So it'll be a good time to get eyes on it and truth test it whether we did as good as we thought we did writing it Very important One one more quick question. It's an add-on to to yours mic. I'm assuming that the design guidelines which this Board is really essentially beholden to the guide design guidelines those will be rewritten because I'm looking at the goals and I read the goals around the urban design portion of of the draft general plan here and The design guidelines don't match up and you know, I think that Don't tell anyone. I know we're in a public meeting, but there's a number of things in the design guidelines that we regularly Throw out the window 20 years after they were written they were written for a much different kind of development than We're experiencing now much different types of projects and and they're really based around single family homes and And a real different vision of downtown Then has grown and so we've grown out of those design guidelines I assume that beyond zoning amendments And maybe the design guidelines are the fruit of a zoning amendment somewhere That the design guidelines will be rewritten as well and as a as an outcome here I think the city is recognized or at least the planning and economic development department as well as y'all have recognized that those do need to be freshened But how that ends up on staff's work plan Again, that's more of a council direction Jess, I don't know if you have anything you want to add to that Jessica Jones our deputy director of planning is going to join us at the table Good afternoon, uh chair members of the board Jessica Jones deputy director of planning So I think sherry basically covered it, but um, you know, one of the things we do try to do with any of our policy development documents that we put together whether it's a specific plan or the general plan is um amendments to any of our other policy documents zoning code other sections of our municipal code where we have inconsistencies with the implementing plan You'll for those of you have been around for a while you would have seen it with our Previous specific plans we would bring forward not just zoning code amendments, but design guideline amendments Creek master plan amendments and the like So for this particular one, we are specifically targeting updates to our zoning code to ensure Consistency with our general plan and our zoning code And then we will also look to any other of our documents including the design guidelines to see if there are Real inconsistencies and in that case, absolutely. We will be bringing forward amendments to that For any wholesale changes to the design guidelines. I know we all know it's it's an old document It could Do for a refresh and would probably be very consistent with the goals and policies of our housing element To make things, you know more streamlined and easier to process in particular our housing projects But as sherry mentioned something like that that's a little bit more intricate and is going to take more time Is something that we would need to look to the council to get a priority to do something like that And have them identify Resources for us to move forward with it Thank you Anyone else have a question where I asked mine So you mentioned that um housing did not need to be modified from the previous plan Was there anything else that needed to be I'm just curious if the plan uh, the current plan goes to 2035 and Were there any shortfalls that Happened in the previous general plan? Yeah, so I probably didn't articulate that very well. Um, there are a ton of changes From the previous plan some things did Stay at the level all of our Internal tax members so you know heads of departments workers in the departments that touch all of these things went through all of our existing Uh general plan policies and goals to see what should be carried forward and the housing element was Redone and has to be redone on an every eight year cycle. So that will be refreshed every eight years It just so happens that this was a year that that had to be done Anyways, so it happened already and is just going to be added to the general plan as was adopted earlier this year Does that answer it? Yes. Okay. Good. Thank you And then the other question I have is um, is there any merit to looking at the portrait of Sonoma county? Well Redoing the plan because some of the statistics in that document are just incredibly terrible For our county Yes, so that was absolutely considered when I mentioned that there were several metrics looked at in terms of um developing equity priority areas and populations portrait of Sonoma absolutely was considered as was Calen virus screen areas of highest Pollution and that type of thing because yeah, it's We've got some work to do Okay, if there were no more questions, I guess we can move on to comment Start with you Michael Uh I think the questions I asked for pretty much Comments, so um, I think I'm I'm good Michael Yeah, I have said I have a handful of specific things that I started to dig into and I don't know that they really need airing tonight. I'm gonna follow up and send them in as I dig in a little bit deeper One broad comment And this is something that I've been on for some time is that I recognize that we're trying to stay transit oriented. I recognize that smart the smart stations downtown Are are probably the center of the the universe now in terms of where we focus our energy But the east side gets a pretty light touch so far in terms of changes and improvements and updates Um, if I'm reading the transportation the transit plan, uh, correctly Uh, pretty much dies Before you get to calistoga road Well before you get to calistoga road and you know, I mean the reality is that uh, there are there are You know tens of thousands of homes over there that do have Uh Kids who would take advantage of transit individuals who adapt and become more transit oriented even from that distance I just I'm not and I'm looking at the even the development Heat heat zones if you will in the new plan And uh, they're just not very geared toward the east side makes sense. We want to stay near the near near town However, like I said, it seems like the transit element It it doesn't necessarily need to follow the same pattern because you've already got established communities that are underserved by transit right now Which changes opportunities for that community To even get to downtown, uh, even if they're just making a trip that doesn't go any further than than downtown So that was my my my one comment was I realized the heat zones right down 101 downtown doesn't go out too far Really covers the the southwest and southeast And up into the and up into the northwest, but the east side still gets a fairly light touch And I'm just going to look a little deeper into that and maybe make some further comments about it as we go So but again, I I can continue to tell People that I come into contact with that very smart Not not politically motivated creative planners are looking out for you and You know, I think that there's a there's a perception that maybe this process is political Or driven by greed people see a building get built. They think that that's somebody grabbing money Um, I'm just going to continue to tell everybody you guys are doing a great job and I really appreciate it. So thank you yeah, so uh I I made the comment A version of this comment at the waterways advisory uh committee meeting But I think it's I think I've actually developed it a little better now and I was talking about scenario planning and um thinking You know asking whether it hit, you know, to what extent it had played a role In the development of the general plan The draft of the general plan whether it could play a role As the plan is finalized But it now also occurs to me that it could it could play a role in implementation When you have a strategic plan and you implement your plan you you need a plan for implementing Right and that that it it actually could play a role in that and then I was thinking about different Really different kinds of scenario planning and like my first thought had been something along the lines of like What if we project out to 2035 It's not very 10 years away, but it's really really close and we have um and increase in the average temperature of Two degrees Fahrenheit, you know, what does that mean for santa rosa or three degrees or Whatever it might write that so like climate science based scenarios with specific timelines and what would that mean for various parts of the general plan So there was that kind of thing and then you know, so climate science Scenario planning, but then I was thinking what about Something smaller something not quite as systemically large and I mean just the idea of what if What if single all single occupancy vehicles By 2040 were zero emission zero greenhouse gas all of them What does that do to our transit plan like are we still committed to reducing cars if they're You know like and why and the answer is I mean there are some really good reasons to reduce Car trips, but if it's not greenhouse gas anymore, what is it right like and and you know or what if You know these so we're getting a little science fictiony here as opposed to climate science Um, but yeah, I mean we're talking about vehicles That fly single occupancy planes, right? I mean like you know, that's been approved FAA I think approved like a pilot anyhow. I mean, I don't mean a person pilot. I'm the pilot of this kind of vehicle What would that mean for transit? What would it mean for All of the I mean, you know, what would it mean for santa rosa? So I just It's coming I don't know that that's necessarily coming But I do know that um that california is out in front with respect to zero emission single occupancy vehicles And that should make a difference to our general plan So um scenario planning that's my comment Thank you very much. Thank you um Let's see. Um, I don't think I had anything else to add um The only other outreach thing I was thinking about was um, I know this is uh, not political but um, You know reaching out to churches Is is a good, um option for reaching some of those individuals that Won't necessarily Go on to next door or some of those other sites, but um Go to certain places every sunday. So Thank you. That's a great suggestion. Sure And with that Chair Jones-Carter started an interview We didn't open up the public comment period. Yes. I noticed that I was like I didn't close it because I didn't open it Let's see are there any, um, let's see we'd like to open public comment for item 8.1 8.2 8.2. Thank you Uh, so we don't have any attendees in person. We do have a couple over zoom Um, if you wish to make a public comment, please raise your hand Chair Jones-Carter, we don't have any hands raised I would like to close close public comment Sorry Lost my paper I mean The meeting of the design review board is now adjourned Thank you very much for your presentation. I'm so sorry. I didn't say that before


I think you have to admit in more recent years DeFasco is still quite active in research and they're doing some very interesting things, but they are now a part of a worldwide metal arcelore DeFasco group and so they have you know less impact I would say even locally and Stelka was sold to US Steel basically some serious problems so I would say that that's true of the mineral industry in Canada in general there have been so many purchases of Canadian based companies by global firms and I'm talking not just about the steel companies I'd say aluminum for example has moved Alkan labs in Kingston no longer function Stelka research has gone eco you could you can go right across Canada name one metallurgical company after another and they've been purchased and they've been in many cases downsized the research capabilities that being moved somewhere else and so I see it as a very unfortunate set of development and I don't see how you can reverse that what's just happened yeah and has it effect the the numbers in the program it's affected the opportunities for our students in Canada especially absolutely I mean where would you go so I really see that as a very negative and I could launch into a diatribe against it but I really is I think it's affected our students and their prospects and in fact what we do