ually be reducing carbon by growing crops actually, hopefully. And also we do have, you know, Pinto Lake and Mesa Village parks that are a different type of experience in a different type of park. They also have soccer fields and recreation that are within two miles. So this is a different type of experience, but we will definitely be going through a public process as we continue to move forward and we'll continue to take public comments and interest in what we do out there. Very good. Thank you. Okay, so no comments, entertain a motion. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve second by purchase. I'll second the recommended actions. Thank you, my friend. Please call the roll. Thank you. And for the record, there are no speakers on Zoom. Oh, excuse me. Thank you. Supervisor Koenig. Aye. Friend. Aye. Coonerty. Aye. Caput. Aye. McPherson. Aye. Thank you. That completes our morning agenda. We were going to have a long agenda in the afternoon. We're going to go into closed session. Are there any reportable items? No, there are no reportable items. Okay. Very well. Okay. We'll come back at 1.30. We will come back at 1.30. Good afternoon at 1.35 on December 7th, 2001. The afternoon session of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. These are going to be the next few items. They're going to be both happy and sad. But we're really happy for those who are being honored today. But we're sad to see them leave in our county family. The first of the issuance of a proclamation will be to honor Emily Bolly on the Deputy Director of Human Services. This proclamation, there's some short print here, because she's done so much. And so I'm not going to be able to say it all because I know some of you want to say it as well. But she hasn't been an invaluable part of our county family in a very, very critical time when we needed people to really step up and go the extra mile on when we had COVID, fires, whatever it might be. And some of the issues that we have faced in not including the pandemic itself. But she became an eligible starters and eligibility worker in 1990 and followed a series of promotions until she became the Deputy Director of Human Services, one of our biggest departments that we have in the county. She started, it really started providing direction to the South County Career Center, which empowers youth and families and single adults to strive for their goals and managed to benefits phone center there so people could have more communication on what and where to go and how to improve their lives. She really oversaw significant policy changes federal from the federal Affordable Care Act to some of the county's issues that we have had and the healthcare access and that affordable care act impacted about 80,000 residents of Santa Cruz County. So it's big, big responsibilities that she had and she just handled so well. It says she was nimble in her way, she does it, always sensitive to people and their needs. She really valued the partnerships in the mentor program within the county that provide the growth opportunities for county staff itself. So she had outreach to the public for sure, but it was within the county family itself that she had such a nice impact for so many people. She was working with partners to establish the Thrive by Three to create a strong foundation for counties youngest members to thrive and some of those that especially that had been negatively impacted possibly by in the immigrant communities that we had. For the role for the last 21 months has been crucial in reducing the COVID-19 infections to high-risk populations. She experienced and helped workers out facilitating the opening of over 18 shelters and leading the implementation of the housing for harvest program. And then when the fires came on, she assisted the evacuees and when they needed shelter and opened the South County warehouse where fire survivors could pick up their donations. There's too many things to mention and 32 years of great service, really talented sharing service to the people of Santa Cruz County. We can't overemphasize her value of what has been for us here. And I think at first, the first person that I would like to recognize to make some comments from the public is her supervisor, the director of human services, Randy Morris. He doesn't want her to leave either. Yeah, sabotaging has not worked. Thank you, Chairman Ferrisen and board members. And if you know Emily has I've gotten to know she actually hates the spotlight and likes to be the superwoman behind the scenes. So I'm sorry, Emily, but this is maybe something I need to do more than you want. So I am the human services director and with your permission, Chair McPherson, I'd like to ask that my predecessor, Ellen Timberlake, who's here in the audience and is who hired Emily into her position, be allowed to go after me. I think that's really symbolic to recognize what Emily means this community for us in human services. I started just under two years ago and I just want to share that when I got the position, the impact Emily has in the work of human services not just in Santa Cruz County, it's throughout the region and state. And one of my colleagues where I used to work said, oh, you're going to Santa Cruz. You'll get to meet Emily Bolly, the deputy. She's amazing. The place will run without you. You don't need to worry about it. And boy, did I come to realize that was true. Emily, this sounds a little bit staged, but I feel like this is really emotional important to say this. I do walk in a legacy of amazing leadership here in this county as a new member and you have 32 years experience. I'm just two years of sort of a blip in your career. And there's a motto that the Santa Cruz County Human Services Department holds, which is dedicated to making a difference. And there's an actual plaque in the office that I'm in now that has amazing people, Ellen and the people before her. And Emily, I look at that phrase and I was kind of thinking about what to say and that phrase of you. And I want to break down the first part dedicated and the second part, making a difference. Emily's dedication is unbelievable. It's palpable, it's infectious, it inspires people. Sometimes a little intimidating. You work 80 hour weeks and people are tired and you just keep going. And then making a difference. Supervisor McPherson, you just led a very, very small list and the list is unbelievable. For those who don't know, the Human Services Department helps almost one third of the county residents. And in Emily's tenure, she has touched many, almost 100,000 people's lives. As she promoted up, it became more as an administrator, but then in the fires and COVID, it was people directly. She spent many nights not sleeping during the fires, many nights setting up the COVID shelters and she is somebody who just drives out there and helps people when we don't have people to do things. Emily, I just want to share two quick stories. One is a work story in one family. I see your wonderful husband or at least you tell me he's wonderful except for something to do with a car, a carock and a bad color or something. Some story that's inside that, that was the only thing I ever heard you say bad about Victor. And one of your three daughters, all throughout your office is your pictures of your three daughters, Jillian is wonderful to see one, was able to make it here. Living out a country and you made it here. So, Supervisor McPherson, this is just one small example of hundreds. You mentioned one in the proclamation of program called Housing for Harvest. The quick story, which I think lifts up who Emily is, the human services department has been very strained this year. The services we provide, the COVID shelter system, the homeless office, we stand up, everything we did during the fires. And we have been really struggling throughout this year trying to figure out how to take care of ourselves so that we can take care of others. And at a very, very uncomfortable moment on a leadership team call, which I'm the director and Emily's the deputy. We had an opportunity to apply for this program called Housing for Harvest. And we actually almost made the decision not to. And as Emily's Supervisor, I said, I don't think we can do this. We are so under water, we are so overwhelmed. People are so tired. And when we are just about to make that decision, and for those in the room, just so you know what this is, this was a program the states and fed funded to help food workers, farm workers, mostly South County workers, if they contracted COVID, a chance to give them replacement income and housing so that they did not have to risk spreading COVID in their families. Very specific, narrow program, but one that would help the community, Emily lives in and loves. And I almost said, let's not do it, we can't do it. And Emily looked at me, which I only found out a month ago was because she was mad at me. Because she couldn't believe we would not stand up and find a way with the privilege we have of having food on our tables in the bed to sleep and even if we're exhausted, there are people who don't and you would not let me get away with that. Yeah, she's shaking her head. She knows she would not let me get away with that. And she said, Randy, if I do the application and you just don't ask me who and I pull a few people in, can I just do this? She said, okay. And somehow on Monday, there was a full application ready. Sorry, Victor. She probably spent the whole week and not talking to you. But there is almost three dozen people in South County who got COVID or exposed to COVID who got income and got services and are better off because of Emily. And it's a very small example of hundreds and hundreds throughout her career that I just wanted to lift up. She was not insubordinate. She was very angry. I didn't know until a month later. But Emily, you always looked out for the South County. You've always looked out for the most vulnerable. And we today, just so the board and community knows, we have moments now where we say, I'm channeling Emily and that's when we're about to say no. And we remember we can't say no because of what we have to do. The last thing I wanna say before turning over this to Ellen who hired Emily, there's a whole story behind that. Just a little bit about family, Emily. I apologize, Victor. I'm gonna talk about you for a minute. But as a family member myself, we always struggle giving to our jobs and trying to be there for our families. And Emily, one of the things that just has struck me in my two years working with you is you just tirelessly give. I don't know where you get the super woman energy. You just keep giving, you keep giving. And with COVID, I found out, Victor, you retired from a year of years and years in public service. And during that last year when you retired, the only time Emily and I could find to meet sometimes was at 7 a.m.  Next night is the first time I've met you. And when the meeting was really tense and difficult, Emily would text something and you'd go up half an hour later with another cup of coffee. But really I wanna highlight your role as mother, you have one of your daughters here, and grandmother. And I know how much you suffered during COVID, not being able to see your grandbabies and your kids who all sheltered in place. And one of the nicest moments I experienced was a few months ago when your oldest daughter, your two grandkids were in town and we were on a meeting and I could tell you were about thinking about retirement.    But when I see what I saw on video and I know how much love your family has for you, I hope you can walk away and take a pause and feel good about all you've given and just enjoy your family, you deserve it. And I'm gonna miss you. Former Human Services Director, Ellen Temberlake. It's nice to see you back. Oh, good afternoon, Chair McPherson, members of the board. I'm thrilled to be here this afternoon to help celebrate Emily's retirement and honor her 30 plus years of service to the county. You were destined to be a leader the day you stepped in the department. Supervisor McPherson, you went through the rapid succession of promotions. But when I step back, and as a person who's had the good fortune to work with you for many, many years.  Special to the department, respected and revered in the community. It's not the job titles or the promotions that inform me. You've got like this secret sauce and I'll tell you what I think some of the ingredients are. It starts with a deep and abiding love and commitment to our mission, to our staff and to the community. I think Randy, you alluded to that. I think about it like an Olympic torch. And I swear I have worked with you for years and I've never seen that torch dim, barely flicker. And when you couple something like that with the kinds of leadership qualities that you have of humility, you have amazing listening skills, dedication to collaboration, calm and patience. And never mind a really big brain. You can tackle anything that's complex and somehow find a way to synthesize it and give recommendations about what to do. And you round out that entire package of ingredients with endurance. Randy, it's like the Energizer Bunny. And I'm serious, anybody who's worked with her, it does not stop. When you combine all of those things together, it was no wonder why I immediately knew I needed to partner with you when you became the deputy. And I just want to say it's the best decision. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made. And I had three years to benefit that partnership with you and I will never forget it. But I want to echo I've been away from the department but I have been watching from afar. And I know that that secret sauce has shown brightly in the last couple of years. All the reasons that Randy spoke about and Supervisor McPherson spoke about. So never doubt when you walk away that you've made a huge difference. There's so many people in the community and so many staff past and present.  And as you transition to this next phase, first of all, congratulations. It's great and you can't sabotage it because I won't let you. But as you make the transition, my hope for you is that that battery of yours gets a chance to recharge with your family with your parents and all your adventures. And I know there'll be a lot but what I know for sure is that as you move into this phase, that torch is going to continue to shine. It'll just be directed at something different. But I know you'll keep that love and that dedication because I see it all the time. You're my dear friend and I wish you the best. Thank you very much, Ellen. Before we have comments from board members, is there anybody in the public that would like to speak, a comment? Okay. Any Supervisor Coonerty? I know that you were deeply involved and thrived by three and one of many healthcare initiatives in the county. Yeah, I mean, I just working with MLA has always been amazing because she brings her fierce intelligence and energy to it, but she gets things done. And when she gets things done as sort of Brandy and Ellen mentioned, that means that hungry families have food, vulnerable people have shelter, people have access to benefits and insurance. We did these CalFresh outreach events that got more people signed up by zip code and targeting different communities at the height of the Trump administration when people were being urged to be afraid to access benefits they were entitled to. And MLA brought this just really tremendous ethic towards work and doing the right thing and getting the services to the people who need them the most. And it's always been a pleasure working with her. And I'm just grateful to have had the opportunity and to build some of these programs with her and know that they will outlast both her time at the county, my time at the county and probably all of our time at the county to serve generations of Santa Cruzans. Thank you. Supervisor Friend. Thank you, Mr. Chair and let me echo some of these comments. And also for those of you that have worked with Emily, you know that she isn't usually the most vocal necessarily within the room, but is generally one of the most effective people within the room. And there's a lot of cynicism right now across the country in regards to government and government's efficacy. And it doesn't, you know, it's people like Emily that actually remind you what is really good about government. The fact that she in some respects was a single person safety net for thousands of people within our community and was also a trusted advisor behind the scenes to ensure that the board was thinking long term. It's very easy as an elected official to focus on an issue of the day or to try and accomplish something as quickly as possible, but she was always looking at a five, 10, 15 year horizon of how to change the trajectory of poverty, of equity of access within our community to change the way that we fund programs and community programs and was an outstanding listener and an even better counselor in shifting the way that we thought about these elements. So a lot of what's been good in the last five to 10 years as far as what's come out of that department has her fingerprints all over it. And the community may not know your name, Emily, but there are a lot of people whose lives are a lot better as a result of your work. So as Ryan said, it's gonna well outlast your tenure here. I think that you've helped set us on a trajectory that's really going to improve outcomes in our community for years to come. It's something to be very proud of. Here, thank you, Zach. Supervisor Koenig. Thank you, Chair. Yeah, Emily, 32 years, it's an incredible amount of your life that you've given to this county. And I think we all owe you a deep debt of gratitude for that commitment to public service. We haven't had that much time to work to get Ellen said about that torch that you embody and the love that you share with so many people is so completely evident. And I wish we'd had a lot more time to work together. You're gonna be missing this county. Of course, by none more than Director Morris is gonna have to work a lot harder to keep up with the vacancy that you leave. But we wish you the best. Thank you. Supervisor Caput, and then I'll present the proclamation to her. Yeah, thank you for a wonderful job in the past. And especially for what you did for Watsonville, you and your whole department, Randy and everybody, the transition of the veterans building into a homeless shelter. It was a very sad time in our lives, but looking back on it now, it was also a very fulfilling and at times a happy kind of feeling how we help people and are continuing to help them get ahead in their lives. Anyway, that was heroic what you did. Thank you. I guess you have a few people on the Zoom that wanted to make some comments. Yes, there are two people on Zoom. Tamara, your microphone is available. I can call for Tamara. Hi, good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, great. Good afternoon, Chair and Board of Supervisors. My name is Tamara Vides, I'm the Assistant City Manager for the City of Watsonville. And it's really my pleasure to address you this afternoon in recognizing Hesana Cruz County employee like you all said and in my eyes, I have experienced her to be a champion for our community and all the residents of the county. Ms. Bailey, I want you to know that it has been a true honor to work alongside of you as a caring partner for so many years. Over the 23 years that I've known you and worked with you, you have demonstrated to be incredibly caring, committed, willing to work and to lead with the best interest of all the residents in our county. I agree that you have been an exemplary public servant. I know that you have worked tireless for all, but I really appreciate how South County always had a special place in your heart. You will be missed and forever remember because you have made an impact on the lives of so many. So I wanna wish you happy retirement, my friend, and congratulations. Thank you, board members. Helen E1 Story, your microphone is available. Good afternoon, Chair and Supervisors, I'm Helen E1 Story, Assistant Director of the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County. On behalf of CAB's Executive Director, Merlena de la Garza and myself, CAB wants to convey its heartfelt thanks and congratulations to Human Services Director, Deputy Director Emily Bally on her 30 years of outstanding service to and achievements on behalf of our community and wish her the very best on her upcoming retirement. Emily CAB has so appreciated your collaborative, creative, and truly dedicated approach to supporting our community's most vulnerable individuals and families, always with an eye to addressing equity and providing solutions to gaps in access and service to make our communities stronger, including during our most recent challenges of COVID and fire. And truly Emily, I personally appreciated getting to know you and working as a community partner alongside of you for 20 years now. And I'm in deep gratitude for all of the heart and head that you put into your work to provide greater opportunity for individuals and the parents getting back into the workforce, supporting themselves and their families to have greater stability. Your thoughtfulness, your advocacy and commitment has literally benefited thousands of our fellow community members over the years. You are so appreciated. We thank and honor you and we will miss you. We really wish you the very best on your retirement. We hope you enjoy your family and your adventures ahead and we'll look forward to continuing to see you in the community. Emily, best to you. There are no other speakers. And finally, we'll have a county administrative officer, Carlos Palacios, make some comments and I'll be coming down to it. Yeah, Emily, I just want to thank you personally for all that you've done for the county and for our community, especially my 20 plus years in Watsonville. We really relied on you over those years and I wanna thank you for that. Emily is the kind of person that could have been very successful in anything she did. She could have been a very successful business owner, banker or a real estate broker and she could have been very wealthy with her intelligence and her energy. But she chose public service and she's become wealthy in a different way. And that wealth is with the love of the community and the respect of the community and her fellow employees. That's a lot of wealth. And so Emily, I want to thank you because in truth, you are the role model for us as the public servants. We look to you as to what a public servant is and should be. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm a hot mess, so bear with me. Thank you, Chair McPherson, members of the board. Thank you for the proclamation. I feel blessed to have had a 32 year career with this county and in the human services department. I laugh because when I started with the county as an eligibility worker, I said five years and I'm out of here. But what kept me here all these years is my belief in the work of this county and the great people have had the privilege to work with over the years. Although I'm looking forward to the next chapter of my life and spending more time with my family, my husband who's here, my daughter who lives in Japan who happens to be here right now. And I'm gonna out you, Jill, that she's pregnant and will be having a baby in June so I'll have a new granddaughter so I'll be in Japan in June. And I have to share that when she first told me she was pregnant and due in June, I went, oh, no budget season. And then I went, oh, no, I don't care. I wanna thank your board, Carlos, the CAO's office for your leadership and support over my career. I also wanna express my gratitude to county and community partners for your collaboration and commitment to the community. The most rewarding programs and services I have been honored to help support. Were those that were done in partnership with you all, such as Thrive by Three, Housing for Harvest, the ACA, which was such a huge lift and the support for CCU Fire Survivors.  As deputy for the last almost four years, I've had the opportunity to serve with two dedicated directors, Ellen Timberlake and Randy Morris.  The reason I took this job was because of Ellen and then she left me. She's brilliant and I learned so much from her and I enjoyed working with her so much. I felt like we were such a good team and we were able to do so much together. And although we're not coworkers, we are friends and I look forward to coffee with you in the future. So thank you, because as you all may know, taking a position behind Ellen Timberlake is probably the most scariest thing in the world. And she really just let me bring me to the position and thank you, I appreciate that.  Over the last two years, it has been the most challenging in my career and being alongside you over these last two years as you're learning your new role. It's been a pleasure to see your compassion, your resilience and your dedication to this community and the staff. I can leave knowing that HSD is in really good hands under your and Kimberly's leadership, so thank you. I have lots of thank you, so I'm sorry. I also have to express my gratitude to the dedicated, amazing HSD staff. I'm constantly and unhumbled by how they show up every day for the community and for each other. Whatever, you know that you make a difference and you've made a difference to me and it's been an honor to work alongside you all these years. And lastly, I wanna thank my family, my husband and daughters because I couldn't have done this work all these years without their love and support and sometimes sacrifice. So thank you, thank you all. I truly, it's truly been an honor to work here all these years and thank you. Thank you, there you go, don't forget that. Yeah, now the second part of our happy, sad day is... Ms. Sheriff, I think we need to actually adopt that proclamation for the entire... Okay, yes, thank you. We're moving right along. Yeah, I... Proclamation? Okay, do you make a motion? Second. The conic, all the role, please. Supervisor Koenig? Aye. Friend? Aye. Coonerty? Aye. Caput? Aye. McPherson? Aye. Thank you, motion passes unanimously. Okay, our second proclamation is honoring Kevin Bowling on his retirement. He began his career with the county in January 2004 with a full head of hair, dark hair, I guess it says. Is that right? All right, whatever. And he brought his wealth of IT experience from as in the private, public and startup arenas. And in 2007, he became the director of the ISD and launched his strategic plan to replace all our cake, mainframe business applications with modern vendor and in-house solutions. And with the CAO and the Otter, he secured a multimillion dollar certificate of participation with the county and with the county council and the leadership of the business departments. He negotiated ironclad contracts and oversaw many projects and celebrated the mainframe's retirement by 2015. And he's not a patient man exactly. He's just determined and to make things better. And so he wanted to rid the county of its data processing or data processing and other terminology from the pre-internet area era and in partnership with personnel modernized the IT position descriptions. He took his public servant role very seriously and crafted civic innovations championed by the Board of Supervisors, such as ensuring Wi-Fi for the public and county buildings made possible by ISD's innovative trade deals with the ISPs. And in this day of COVID and the fires and so forth, it's just allowed thousands of people literally to have communication with their county departments, Santa Cruz County departments or the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and all the personnel throughout what we have here. And when he anticipated COVID would shut down the county as it has all the world, Kevin he led ISD to ensure the county services would not falter when the remote work became an overnight reality for county staff in August of 2020. Now is the time to let him learn to sleep through the night without a phone call by a side. And so it's with a great deal of pleasure that I issued this proclamation assigned by each of the county supervisors to Kevin Bowling on his retirement from Santa Cruz County. I would welcome any other comments from county supervisors. Comments. I'll start off. That's okay, Mr. Chair. Go ahead, excuse me. No, sure. I just wanna say that Mr. Bowling is one of the strongest advocates for the county to have equal access, be it in internet access for rural or disadvantaged communities or even a cell phone service, really against a bunch of corporations that make his life impossible. I mean, this is somebody who never took no for an answer was willing to go toe for toe with internet service providers and other corporate providers and really advocate on behalf of the county. He's definitely somebody you want on your corner when you're fighting for rural and disadvantaged communities within our county. And as a result of it, we've really been able to set the stage for improvements not just on the code section side, but on funding and some of the other elements that are coming out through the federal funding. He's really set the stage to ensure that there be improved access throughout the county. So I wanted to make sure that we didn't just talk internally about the improvements, which I know the proclamation focused a lot on. It's true that the county itself as an infrastructure has improved, but externally this community, that normally I think ISD directors focused much more internally, but externally he was always there to fight the good fight to ensure that people had access within our community. And I think that that, similar to our comments about Emily, really will well outlive his tenure as director here. And as broadband improves and as a cell service improves in the next couple of years, which it will do, a lot of it is because of the ground work that Kevin Boeing did and we owe him a great debt of gratitude for that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Coonerty. I don't know if you had any comments. Yeah, I like that you pointed out his lack of patience. And I think it's incredibly important in that leadership to recognize that these systems are big and hard and complex. And there's always an incentive to put off improvements or to do it in small pieces. But one of the things I've really appreciated about Kevin is he's taken on the hard projects and been relentless in pushing them through, which is one of those things that the public will not see, but will benefit from in security, in reliability, in access, in really fundamental ways. And so I'm just grateful for his service and I'm grateful for that lack of patience in the future policy of the county. All right, Supervisor Coonerty, he's our techie. I am not on this board. Thank you. Yes, thank you, Kevin. Given the pace of technology change, 18 years of service with the county is an eternity. And I'm glad that you weren't impatient when it came to your public service. Given that government tends to run about five years behind on technology and you started in 2004, I think it's fair to say that you brought our county into the 21st century. And we're grateful for that. I also appreciate your impatience when it comes to solving problems. And I think as a result, you've accomplished a lot in your time. And I'm just hopeful that we can find someone with the right balance of patience and impatience to take your shoes. Vice-Chair Caput. Well, thank you for helping our office out. We had problems and you were always able to take care of it and do it and the highest quality of work that's possible. So anyway, thank you. And where do you plan on going for your return? You'll let us know in a minute, I think. See you here. Okay. All right. Thank you. Is there anybody from the public who'd like to speak? There you go. You can't wait. Mark. We're members of the board. I am to be McCann, Assistant IT Director. I'm delighted to have this opportunity to add to the well-written proclamations that honor my boss, my mentor, my colleague and my friend, Kevin Bolling, as he retires after 18 years of public service to the County of Santa Cruz. When Kevin arrived in 2000 and with me and Tammy Weigel forming his senior management team, we were faced with an IT department, position titles and infrastructure right out of the 1980s. Today, Santa Cruz County is at the forefront of technology on the state. This is thanks to Kevin's strategic leadership supported by the ISD management team whose exceptional skills and operational management led the department to complete Kevin's modernization vision and strategy. We've been in office 365 shop for nine years with email running in the cloud. The mainframe, as you noted, was retired in 2015. Our data center runs dark and virtual. The position descriptions no longer reference data processing. I would be here all day if I were to describe the many things that have been realized. One of the most recent dramatic achievements was the effective and timely response to the pandemic. We were ready when remote work was suddenly a reality. Being ready when the shutdown was announced meant at times we had to beg forgiveness for moving faster than the County thought appropriate because we knew we did not have time to wait to get the infrastructure and IT staff equipped and ready to support over 2,000 people who would be suddenly working from home. Kevin in this job and in his others has been always a champion of gender equality like the sheriff and DPW ISD is on admin review. This is a board mandated construct by which a department's racial and gender profile must mirror that of the County of Santa Cruz. We are on admin review for lack of women. I would like to point out that I along with Tammy and Christine are KB's direct reports on the extended management team where joined by Netta and Stacy then Matt Fred, Sean Archer and Tom. Kevin tips the scales in the wrong direction but maybe next time. You may be noticing how often I say we that is because that is exactly how this department rolls. In IT single points of failure can be disastrous and we have made it a point to have backup and redundancy which is remarkable in a department of our size with the breadth of services we provide and the responsibilities we have we trust each other's expertise and rely on one another to get things done. And this is the culture that Kevin has built over his 18 years with the County. This is personally the third gig with Kevin where I've had to say goodbye. Usually I just show up at his next job. This time that will be a little impossible. By now he knows I have deep admiration for his management style, his technical prowess, his skills with people and his ability to know what the next big thing is that latter ability extends far beyond technology. I treasure his guidance and friendship more than I can say. Thank you. You're members of the board. I'm Tammy Weigel. I'm the other assistant director and I'm on the technology division. I'm also the chief information security officer for the County, which is why I have my hair. Though as some of you may know or not know I started in ISD in 1999. So I've been with the department now 23 years. I am proud to stand here today and say that some of the greatest accomplishments for ISD and IT in general at the County have been under the leadership of Kevin as director. Kevin, during your tenure the department has implemented so many amazing technological initiatives which are far too many to mention in a short speech. What I want to thank you for is the support and guidance over your almost two decade career here in ISD that it's allowed our employees to continually provide the technology and solutions that have improved the way the County provides services and citizens as well as creating agile teams that can respond to any emergency or event. Under you we have grown as employees as well as a department into an organization that was often years ahead of other County IT departments in California. Under your leadership, our department continuously leveraged our amazing talent and resources to always aim for ambitious goals with successful outcomes. You will be missed, but you can happily retire knowing that you made a difference in your leadership here in ISD and the County of Santa Cruz. So on behalf of the network, CIS admin, telecom and radio teams, best wishes on your well-earned retirement. Now go and relax knowing that I will not be calling you at 1 a.m. in the morning when the network goes down anymore. Thank you. Thank you. I'm a man Mark Stone. Thank you, Mr. Chair, board members, members of the public, and especially my friend Kevin Bowling. We've been friends, colleagues for a long time and I've watched you grow and grow this department, this agency from a time when you were working with a board that I could probably generously describe as a bit letic and into one that, into a County that truly does lead in its information systems and information technology. I've worked with a number of IT departments in both public sector and private sector over the years. And I think Kevin, you have built one that is absolutely exemplary. And one of the reasons and one of the things that I truly admire about you is it's not just you. It is Tibi and Tammy and the rest of your team. In fact, I always think of you and Tibi as a bit of a dynamic duo because you were hand in hand making the changes in this County that were desperately needed. Recognizing that in the public sector, too often IT projects had been outsourced and governments didn't know how to build the capacity to do IT projects, which leads to overruns and fraud and all kinds of problems that we constantly see in the newspapers, you built that capacity here. You shook this County away from Fortran and COBOL and mainframes for God's sakes and into something that is truly modern and dynamic. And I hope to continue to call you friend even though I know I'm going to be hearing from you when the legislature does things in the interest of the Public Records Act that made your job here a lot harder. But I always knew you could implement and you could take what we were trying to do making information available to the public and do it well because you have these infrastructure here but more importantly, you have the team to be able to implement what it was needed here. And you built that, you and TV built that. And as a former board member, I greatly appreciate that as well as our ongoing conversations. So I know Santa Cruz tends to be on the short end of the stick so I took all of the broadband money that was going to come your way and had a resolution done.  Evan, did you come up? Come up so I can at least present this to you because it may be all Tammy sees a broadband money. I don't know, let's see if we can work on that. We're not there. And I think you learned to fight the AT&T's and the others who are trying to deny access that you have been desperate to give people in Santa Cruz County. And I think you learned those skills working with a reluctant board and a board that did not understand what you were trying to do. So the system, the team you have built here, you and Tammy and TV have built here is nothing short of remarkable. I'm always in awe of you and your team. Congratulations on your retirement. Thanks Mark. I think there's some more speakers here. All right, good afternoon chair and board of supervisors. I'm Nicole Coburn, assistant CAO and I'm joined by my colleagues from the County Administrative Office. I just, as a team, we wanted to say what a pleasure it's been to work with Kevin. I personally have worked with him for eight and a half years now. He was probably, I think he was one of the first people I met when I joined the office. I was initially his analyst and then subsequently became his supervisor. And it's been quite an adventure. I think we've, there's countless things we've worked on together, whether it's been broadband, the My Santa Cruz County application, new applications, new systems, lots of emergencies. Your team was just amazing when we had to go remote and implement a hybrid work schedule. And I can't thank you enough for all you and all of your staff did. So it's been an incredible ride. I can't believe it's coming to an end at the end of this calendar year, but I just wanna thank you for your service to the County and it's been a real pleasure working with you. And I know Melody also wanted to say a couple of things. Kevin has another one of your former analysts. I wanna remind everyone that Kevin has always been relentless about security. The County handles a lot of very sensitive information that and interacts with a lot of other systems with the state, with other agencies. And Kevin has been relentless about making sure that he protects that information and that people are safe when they give that information to us. And so I just wanna acknowledge that because I think that's one of your most important accomplishment. To say, you've always been so fashion forward. And so we all dressed in honor of you today, Kevin. I just wanted to say that I was in comments, then we'll have Kevin come up. That Kevin is the fashion leader in the County and he's the only department head who could get away with wearing a sweatshirt to work. And I always just said, fine, Kevin, wear whatever you want, sign with me. And thank you, Kevin. I really do appreciate your professionalism and the great confidence you showed in bringing the County forward all these years. And especially during COVID, I'll say that you were ready and I appreciate that. We have a few more people on the phone too. Nancy Gordon, your microphone is available. Thank you. I wanted to take a moment to express my congratulations personally to Kevin on, as you've heard, his multitude of accomplishments. And I am ever so thankful and grateful to have worked with him and seen his leadership and vision up close and personal. He has always had a deep commitment to service. IT, like general services, is geared for operations. So it's 24 seven people calling you as was alluded earlier at one o'clock in the morning for whatever's going wrong. And he always did it with a wicked sense of humor and a sense of urgency and a complete understanding of the significance of whatever was at stake. He was exemplary in his strategizing, oftentimes going above and beyond to get the kind of effective and progressive results that have resulted in the system that we currently have in the County operation. Most importantly for me, the bridging of new technologies and their integration into County work was a huge accomplishment. The public safety communications network is his baby. That wouldn't have happened without Kevin's work and his team to be and Tammy and the rest of the gang. And his foresight and commitment to the kind of advanced preparation for all levels of disaster. Because the one thing that is consistent across the board in disaster operations is that the communications don't work. Your response won't work. He has truly made a difference for the organizations within the County and the citizens. I am really, it's overwhelming to think of what he has accomplished. And I am very, very grateful that I had the opportunity to work for him and I wish him well, as well as the team that he's developed and led over these years. Thank you. Thank you. There are no other speakers. Okay. Kevin, would you like to say a few words? I'd like to say that you're cutting out. You want to stay for item number 19. We're going to have a study session on wireless communication. Yeah, I think I'm going to pass on that. You're not going to be here for that? Okay. Well, all right. We'll get along without you somehow. Okay. You know, Emily, it's not fair we go last. That makes it a lot harder. I got up this morning trying to decide which one of my two dozen hoodies to wear. And I thought, I'll just change it up and put a jacket on for the last time. Thank you, Chair and Board. It's been an honor serving you and the residents of the County for the past 18 years. As was said, a slightly less than half of my career has been in government. The rest was in private sector and startup. And if you don't know the biggest difference between the two is in the private sector, I worked for companies that had a single focus and it was really easy to align IT's goals to that focus. At the County, it's like, I'm providing service to 30 different companies, all with different needs and not enough staff to handle any of it. So it's a little bit different. I was going to retire last year, but with the pandemic, my staff asked me to stay for one more year.  My department's dealt with fires, network outages from fiber cuts, getting 2,000 staff ready to go remote in the weekend during the pandemic, moving off the mainframe, installing new large apps for the jail, sheriff records, probation, planning, property tax, financials, converting a mainframe payroll system to a new web-based one. As well as just dealing with the normal day-to-day complexities of running an IT department here. You can't leave without saying some thanks, so I'll try to be quick. I'd like to thank Susan Mariello for hiring me as director and Carlos for allowing me to continue when he became CAO. Thanks to Nicole, who started as my CAO analyst and later became my boss. And thanks to all the board of supervisors I've worked with over the years. Including the ones back when Mark was here, and it was a little bit, a lot of it's, except for Mark. Thanks to those that really helped me in the beginning when I first came in here. Dana McCrae, Pat Bush, Mary Tucker, Chief Deputy Don Bradley, Susan Perlman, Cecilia Espinola, Gal Pellerin, Nancy Gordon, Mike McDougal, Terry Cobbs, Donia Torres-Wong, and Ajita Patel. Gal helped me get settled and made a big difference in the beginning. Special thanks to Sean Saldavia, Mary Jo Walker, Edith Driscoll, David Zweig, and all the staff of the auditor tax collector and assessor's office for working together to replace the most complex system the county has. And if you can't guess, that would be property tax. Prior to coming into the county, financial systems were the hardest to replace. And let me tell you that was so much easier than the property tax system. Thanks to my family, Michelle and my boys, Michael and Steven, for putting up with the long hours in the evening and in the middle of the night, phone calls from Tammy. And both were guaranteed. Steven's here with me and the others are all remote in Santa Barbara, including Michelle who's watching our granddaughter Eva. Thanks to all the department heads over the years and there have been a lot of them. Thank you for working with us. And of course, thanks to Timmy, Tammy, Christine, Netta, Matt, Fred, and all the staff of my department, including those that have left, like Ed Huff, Masa Kamai, and Dennis Thomas. My success has been because of their dedication. I've been blessed with a wonderful management team over the years. They've made the job really easy. IT is a frustrating career. None of you know all the work that's done to keep the county running, as well as the after hours, weekend, late night work that's done by the department. They are my family. I'm gonna miss them. In a wild ride, people ask me if I have plans after I retire. I don't know what they are yet, but I'm looking forward to taking the time to figure that out. Thanks. Very good, thank you very much for everything. And just a tremendous people who have helped Santa Cruz County be as good as it is, and it is very good because of them. So we appreciate everything they have done. We are going to move now to the item number 16, a jurisdictional hearing to consider a appeal of application number 18-1-1-2-1. An application to demolish and reconstruct an existing single family dwelling as outlined in the memorandum of the Interim Director of Planning. However, so I'm gonna open the public hearing, but there has been a request to postpone the item by the applicant, and I'm gonna have the staff elaborate on that. Then we'll call for a vote of the board to postpone the item until the January 11th meeting of the board. So if you would please. Thank you. Hi, Sheila McDaniel, Project Planner. The plant submitted an email to the clerk of the board requesting your board. Is that on? Yes, it is. Okay. Sorry. So as you noted, the appellant submitted an email to the clerk of the board requesting that your board continue this item to a later date due to a family emergency, preventing them from being at the meeting. So in order to allow due process, staff recommends that your board continue the matter to January 11th, with re-notice to the appellant applicant and the planning department, and then also noting that it would be appropriate to allow the applicant to speak if requested prior to a vote, and then also note that should your board vote to deny the continuance, staff will present the item. And that concludes my comments. Okay. Is there any reason to open the public hearing at this point? Then we could, I guess if some people have been here, but we will not be making a decision. No, I wouldn't open the public hearing, but it sounds like the applicant would like to speak before your vote, before your board considers whether to postpone the item. Okay, we'll do that. Okay. Good afternoon, Chairman McPherson and members of the board. My name is Chris Fawney, I'm the applicant. And so I understand that the appellant has requested a continuance for a family emergency. We ourselves had a family emergency has been going on for the last month. And we drove all the way back from Orange County on Sunday to be here at this hearing. We've been through a circus for the last six months on delays, appeals. This has cost us an extraordinary amount of money to deal with the process that they have put us through. We don't believe there's any basis for jurisdiction taking as far as what they've proposed. And however, if the board does choose to postpone the hearing to the 11th, I would like to ask for a couple of items. In order to maintain the integrity of the process and given what we've already gone through with these folks on appeal, I would like to ask that the board make it clear that we are freeze framing where we are today and that we're hearing that on January 11th. It's not a time for the appellant to use to come up with new items to add to the record, et cetera, that we are freeze framing as of today. Second, with any sort of delay, there's money involved. We are paying for the staff of the county to work on this project. We're not the one asking for the delay. If the appellant would like to postpone it, we would ask that the appellant bear the cost of the delay and that we don't be further burdened. We've already spent tens of thousands of dollars going through appeal to zoning administrator meetings, et cetera. And so that's where we are today. We've, you know, we're also afforded certain rights and that is to a speedy hearing, et cetera. And this is not the first time that the appellant or the appellant has asked for a delay or a continuous, et cetera. So that's our request. And if the board so chooses to hear it, we're ready to discuss the jurisdictional hearing and move on. I would also like to ask if the appellant is on the line today on Zoom, and they are available that we do move forward with the hearing. Any other comments from the public? Yeah, move it back to the board. I did a call for a road to postpone the item until January 11th, the board. That'd be correct. Council. Sorry, I'm sorry for the interruption. Lisa Roberts has raised her hand to speak. Okay. Lisa Roberts, your microphone is available. Second call for Lisa Roberts. Here we are. Can you hear me? Yes. This is Lisa Roberts. Thank you, Chair and Board for listening to me today. I represent the Vonnies in this matter and I'm on their behalf of strenuously requesting that the board deny this request for a continuous. This is not the first time that appellants have asked for a continuous of a hearing. This is kind of par for the course in terms of the campaign delay that is the purpose of this appeal. A continuous was also requested of the planning commission and the request was unanimously denied by the planning commission. Approval of the project was also unanimously given. The due process here is not a concern for Mr. Hallam or his wife who had ample opportunity to present what they need to present to support their appeal and they have presented absolutely nothing. A half page of unsubstantiated and non-specific statements of why this project should be delayed. The real due process issue relates to the Vonnies and the fact that they are once again being prevented from going forward with a project that is not only legal and approved but is vastly supported by the community with the community very, very anxious to get them going on this project. I believe that the code sets forth when this hearing should be held, it should be held today. Thank you very much. Thank you, chair. Yeah, I mean, I'm also disinclined to award a continuance. I mean, this definitely seems to be given materials, a strategy of the appellant and I think we should resolve this today. Any comments from other supervisors? I'm in agreement with holding the hearing today. Thank you, hold the hearing today, okay. Advisor. Okay, thank you very much. Okay. Mr. Chair, I think it would be wise in this point to just ask County Council on their take in this position. I definitely can empathize with two different situations here, one, family emergencies or family emergencies and two, the fact that we have a very specific process outlined for jurisdictional. As a reminder also, the only thing that's being considered before us is whether to even take jurisdiction, not necessarily the merits of an appeal, but I would like to ask, and those and the information on whether or not we should take jurisdiction has been submitted by the appellants, but with that said, I would like to ask County Council for your opinion in regards to either continuing this item to the 11th, obviously if that were to happen with remarkable clarity that the hearing shall occur on that date with no additional continuances or whether the Board can take action today or should take action today. Thank you, Supervisor. Yeah, it is within the discretion of your Board to grant a continuance from the legal perspective. I'm looking out for the County's best interests in addition to at the same time in conjunction with the applicant's interest and to grant a continuance right now is something that the courts would typically do. They would, any time somebody asks for an emergency continuance because of a family emergency or something like that, courts will typically grant that kind of a request and the Board could potentially be creating an issue could potentially put simply turning a nothing issue into a something issue by not granting the continuance and by abusing discretion on a procedural basis. And I understand and I also empathize with the applicant to the extent that it's another month delay but should the Board make an incorrect decision on this, it could turn into many, many more months delay by creating an issue that someone could go to superior court on and sue the County and sue the applicant and hold up the project further. And I know it's frustrating but it's my legal recommendation that the continuance be granted so that we can ensure that due process is afforded to everybody in the proceeding and that the Board could make clear that this is a one-time continuance for a family emergency, a declared family emergency and that the appellant needs to be prepared to proceed on January 11th, either through a surrogate or in writing and that there will be no further continuances. That was my question. If we could make some demands on if we do continue it but do we have any other questions from the Board? Well, Mr. Chair, I will make that motion. I definitely hear what Supervisor Coonerty and Supervisor Koenig are saying and I can empathize with that very strongly but I'll make the motion to continue this item to January 11th with that clarity that this is a one-time continuance in honor of it being a family emergency and that the appellant shall be prepared at the January 11th meeting either through a surrogate or in person or through writing to participate that the Board will be making a decision at the January 11th meeting in regards to whether or not to take jurisdiction. And do you have a motion? That's a motion. Second. Second by Koenig. Please call the roll. This is for continuance to January 11th with no other extensions allowed in essence. Thank you, Supervisor Koenig. Aye. Friend. Aye. Coonerty. Aye. Caput. Aye. McPherson. Aye. Thank you, motion passes unanimously. We move to item number 17. Public hearing to consider application 21-10-18 in phase two, design review of the proposed architecture and related site plans for the portion of the Atkinson Lane plan unit development, including minor variations to the approved standards as allowed and determination that the proposed project is consistent with the adopted 2009 Atkinson Lane EIR and the 2014 addendum and amended MMRP and take related actions as outlined in the Memorandum of Interim Director of Planning that we have a Planning Commission Resolution, a Planning Commission Minutes of October 27th, Planning Commission Additional Comments of October 27th and the staff report updated from the Planning Commission October 27th. So with that. Good afternoon to all of you, those who are here and those of you who are not. I just wanted to quickly add that the MOU that we would be taking an action is included in the package at attachment five. I don't believe that it states that in the letter but I want you to make that clear. What am I doing? How does this work? We have to figure out how to make this advance. Here we go. There you are. So the proposal as before your board today is for the review of the architecture and the related design plans for the second portion of phase one of the Atkinson Lane PUD is also known as PIP in phase two and it's going to be on County APN 04822109 which is located as you can see on the northern edge of this city. What am I doing? How do we go? So the proposed project includes 80 units of 100% affordable for rent housing that will be accessed via an extension to Brewington Lane in the city of Watsonville. And it includes also an emergency vehicle access which will be over the adjacent city parcel APN 01923601. The proposed use of the site which is for high density housing and the number of total units that are allowed have already been approved under the provisions of the Atkinson Lane PUD which was approved in 2014 as ordinance 5183 and are therefore permitted by right. However, before the proposal can move forward it requires a design review approval by your board to ensure compliance with the standards and conditions that are set out in the PUD. Before discussing the project further I need to backtrack just a little to provide you with a brief history. Oops, we've gone the wrong way. I do apologize for my lack of technical. So on June 9th, 2009 pursuant to application 090114 the Board of Supervisors approved the Atkinson Lane PUD originally as an ordinance 5048 which allowed for the construction of a total 200 units on two parcels APNs 04822109 and 04821125 which are the parcels shown here in green. And they were together known as the Atkinson Lane site. And the approved project also included a general plan amendment and a rezoning and a riparian exception. At the same time, the board also certified an environmental impact report and that did for the Atkinson Lane PUD site. And this document also covered an area that was potentially going to be annexed into the city of Watsonville. And there was a specific plan developed by the city to cover that area. Following the approval, there was litigation brought by the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau and this resulted in a settlement agreement. And the terms of this required that the county made modifications to the Atkinson Lane PUD and also prevented the city of Watsonville from using the EIR for the adoption of the city plan area. The settlement agreement didn't result in any change to the approved multifamily residential use or the 20 units per acre density on the county parcels that are within that entitlement area. Subsequently, on May 20th of 2014, in accordance with the terms of the settlement agreement, the board adopted an addendum to the 2009 EIR and an amended MMRP reflecting only the county entitlements area, which included the four parcels that are shown here, two that constitute the Atkinson Lane PUD site and two additional parcels that are within the city of Watsonville. The board also adopted an ordinance rescinding the original Atkinson Lane PUD, which was ordinance 5048 and approved a revised PUD, which is what we're looking at today, ordinance 5183. Under the revised approval, the EIR amendment and MMRP for the Atkinson Lane PUD, all potential impacts for the project were fully analyzed, including those related to public services and utilities, water, conservation, potential congestion and traffic impacts, agricultural resources, et cetera. And this EIR and all of the attachments are available online if you need to review those. You have to push this thing very hard to make it work. Together with the approval of the EIR addendum and the revised MMRP, the board also approved application 131265, which was for the first portion of phase one. And I need to go back. Here we go. Which was for a development of a 39,754 square foot apartment building with 26 of four-door housing units on County APN 048 211 25, which is shown here outlined in solid red. And concurrently, there was a separate application filed with the city of Watsonville to construct 20 units on the adjacent city parcel, which is shown with a dashed red line. And it resulted in the development of a 46 unit housing project. Again, with a hundred percent affordable for rent units. And this was known as Pippin Orchard's Apartments or Pippin One. And that project was completed in 2018. The project before you today represents the second portion of phase one, Pippin Two, which includes the development of an additional 80 units which is shown here in yellow, which is the portion of APN 048 221 that lies outside of an interim 200 foot agricultural buffer. The final phase of phase or phase two, which is shown in before units that have been approved by the Atkinson named PUD. But this can only be developed once the farming operations on the adjacent parcel cease and the ag buffers no longer required. All of the proposed residential units together with a community room, shared open space and parking would be developed within an approximately 3.5 acre portion of APN 048 22109 located within the County of Santa Cruz jurisdiction. No structures are proposed on the remaining portion of the parcel, which includes an existing wetland and it's associated riparian buffer zone and within the 200 foot interim ag buffer, which is across the northeastern portion of the parcel. All three buildings, buildings A, B and C as shown here are oriented to run parallel with the rear boundary of properties along Atkinson lane, which lies to the northwest. I do not know what is happening where. Here we go. The proposed residential development includes three separate, three story structures each containing a mix of one, two and three bedroom units together with private decks, common and circulation areas, storage and utility rooms and parking. Building A would be 23,876 square feet and includes eight one bedroom units for two bedroom units and for three bedroom units, as well as a multipurpose room with a learning center that includes a kitchen with computer workstations and offices. Building B would be 36,348 square feet and include eight one bedroom units, 10 two bedroom units and three and 10 three bedroom units and building C would be 45,982 square feet and includes 16 one bedroom units, 10 two bedroom units and 10 three bedroom units. All three buildings include parking at the lower floor, which for buildings A and B is accessed at the northwest elevation and for building C from the southeast elevation on the downhill side of the building. This is the restriction. Here we go. As required by the PUD, a minimum of 40% of the total number of units are required to be affordable as defined by county code. And as they say, these will be 100% affordable. And in addition, as required by the settlement agreement, preferences to be given to providing affordable housing opportunities for farm workers to the greatest extent feasible. Of the proposed 80 units, 39 of these units will be set aside specifically for farm workers and that represents 49% of the total number of units, which will then be set aside for farm workers. For the most part, the proposed project has been designed in accordance with all site standards set out in the PUD as shown here in this table, including the required building height. There is however, one minor deviation from the specified height that I'll discuss in more detail with the next slide. In addition, the project will comply with the required standards for the provision of open space for residents in each unit includes a minimum 50 square feet private outdoor deck area. And the project also provides a 12,800 square foot shared community garden. The development will mostly be located within a roughly level area lying behind the rear of homes along Atkinson Lane. However, the land falls away towards the wetland area along both the southeastern and southwestern edges of the building site. The architectural design of the proposed buildings incorporates articulation of wall planes and varied colors and materials to break up the passads. All sides of the buildings, including the side and rear elevations have the same vocabulary of forms, details and materials and have been designed to convey an image of quality and durability. In addition, the structures have been designed with varied building heights, including raised staircase towers at the building entrances and with peaks and gables that will break up the roof lines. Further to minimize grading and blend into the adjacent wetland habitat, building C has been designed to step down the slope where the building site drops off along the southwestern edge of the building site. Lighting for the proposed development has also been designed to prevent spillover glare into the adjacent residential and habitat areas and to minimize night sky illumination. So as I mentioned, the project includes one minor deviation from the specified standards in that a 264 square foot portion of the staircase access tower at the southwestern end of building B exceeds the 37 foot height limit by up to a maximum of six inches. The portion of the tower element that breaks the height limit which is shown here in the bottom right of your screen represents only 2% of the total footprint of the building and is required because at the southwestern end of the building, the land begins to drop towards the wetland area, resulting in an increase in the height of the structure when measured from the grade below. To address this additional height, which doesn't affect the overall concept or density of the project, a minor variation has been included as allowed in the Atkinson Lane PUD. And it should be noted that the tower itself doesn't extend any taller than above the ridge than the matching tower at the other end. And it won't have a significant visual impact. And it's also aesthetically desirable that the building has vertical elements that break up the roofline of the proposed structure. It's gone one too far here. We go back. Back. Other way. Other way. We go back too. Okay, here we go. So color is an important element of the project. And the design incorporates a palette of strong natural tones with more than one predominant color along with accent colors to accent the building elements. And as required by the PUD, the chosen colors are compatible with natural elements like brick and stone. It's worse. Landscaping is using drought tolerant species with permanent automated drip irrigation will screen and soften the proposed development in views from surrounding neighborhoods. The proposal includes a varied planting palette which is used to distinguish between the life surrounding each of the three buildings and the associated parking areas. There are specimen trees and accent plantings that are also used to define common areas of other focal points and the pedestrian environments throughout the development including around the wetland area are distinguished by paths, lighting and plantings to provide greater separation between the existing homes along Atkinson Lane and the proposed development. Buildings A and B have been set back beyond the landscape parking area and an interior driveway which in addition to providing physical distance will help soften the views of structures by tree planting that is in the landscaping. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. We'll go back one. Who now? I will continue. The community open space has been cited to maximize views over the wetland area as well as to the adjacent farmland and the hills beyond. It's also centrally located within, gosh, it's within the parcel so that it'd be accessible to future homes that will be developed within the interim ag buffer area during phase two and will therefore be at the heart of the Atkinson Lane PUD development once all remaining units have been constructed. The area includes children's playground, a play lawn with seating, a patio with tables and chairs and a paved stepped amphitheater that will allow for outdoor community events. I really wish that I could do this. Nothing, it's not working. There anything. The site of the Atkinson Lane PUD includes an existing wetland habitat that encompasses areas of seasonal wetland and a freshwater marsh that are fed by an ephemeral or intermittent drainage running through the North, roughly Northwest to Southeast from Atkinson Lane. Associated with this wetland habitat are areas of Willow and Oak Woodlands with patches of coastal blackberry and scrub vegetation. The remainder of the Atkinson Lane site where it's not already developed is made up of non-native grassland and all of the development will be in this grassland area. The riparian exception was included in the Atkinson Lane PUD which approved a buffer of 50 feet from the edge of the delineated wetland area. And it should be noted that although it's shown on the plans that were submitted that the approved 50 foot buffer doesn't extend onto the city owned parcel where the emergency vehicle access will be developed. And within the city jurisdiction there will be a 30 foot buffer required to the adjacent ephemeral drainage. And so the ephemeral vehicle access road does comply with the riparian requirements from the city in that it's entirely outside the required buffer. So as designed and laid out the project conforms to the approved riparian exception and there's no development other than drainage dissipators which are specifically allowed that will be in that riparian buffer area. Parking and circulation. The primary access as I have said is from a new collector street which extends northwards from Brewington Avenue an existing city street that currently terminates at the southern prophecy line. In addition there's a temporary emergency only access that connects to Atkinson Lane. The roadways have been designed in accordance with the requirements of the PUD as modified by the city of Watsonville. The Brewington Avenue extension will consist of a 60 foot wide right away containing two 12 foot travel lanes one in each direction. And will once completed include four foot bike lanes between the travel lane and parallel parking eight foot parking stalls city standard curb and gutter and a five foot six inch sidewalk on both sides. However, the bike lane parking stalls and sidewalk on the Easterly side will not be developed until such time that the interim agricultural buffer is no longer required. This standard differs slightly from that set out in the PUD which required a 52 foot right away and included six foot sidewalks but didn't include parking on the Easterly side of the road. So to allow for this change of further minor variation the PUD standards is requested. So with the implementation of traffic calming measures on the Brewington Avenue intersection and also improvements to the intersection of Freedom Boulevard and Cresview and payment of fair share improvement fees for the upgrade of other intersections in the vicinity as required under the Mitigation, Summoning and Reporting Program. The proposed project will address all potential traffic and circulation issues in the area. Parking for the project includes a total of 137 spaces of which 97 shown here in yellow are covered spaces and they're located within the three proposed buildings and there are 40 shown in orange that are uncovered spaces located along the project access road and driveways. This is fewer spaces than required by the standards included in the PUD. So therefore, as part of the design review approval the board may consider a reduction to the required on-site parking standards where the number of spaces provided is based on an on-site parking plan prepared by a traffic engineer. So in support of the project a parking analysis was submitted that evaluates the parking study for the proposed housing based on a number of alternative sources. These include parking rates for apartments published by the Institute of Transportation Engineers or ITE, alternative parking requirements that are allowed under the county code for density bonus projects and the observed parking requirements that other affordable housing complexes that have been developed in the county by mid-pen housing. So based on the findings of this report the 137 spaces provided will exceed the number of spaces required both in accordance with ITE standards which would be 105 spaces and with county standards for density bonus projects which would be 128 spaces and it also exceeds the number of spaces required based on the average parking demand at similar housing developments which is 102 spaces. So therefore the report concludes the 137 spaces will be adequate to provide enough parking for the development. Then in addition to vehicle parking there will be a total of 96 bicycle parking spaces 80 of which will be within lockable designated bicycle storage rooms and there'll be an additional 16 that will be unassigned spaces located around the open space and adjacent to building entrances. So the parking therefore meets all of the other standards for parking or exceeds those standards that are set out in the PUD. So in conclusion, the Atkinson Lane PUD allows for the by right use of the subject parcel for residential high density development at 20 units per acre subject to the approval of design review permit by the board that ensures compliance for the conditions of approval of the PUD. It also allows for minor variations to the approved standards where these do not affect the overall concept or density of the project. So as proposed and conditioned the project consistent with those conditions of approval for the PUD are set out in ordinance 5183 and the project also complies with all the other provisions of the adopted mitigations monitoring and reporting program for the 2014 EIR addendum ensuring that all potential impacts from the development have been addressed and that the project therefore complies with the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act. Staff therefore recommends that your board therefore take the following actions after conducting a public hearing on the Atkinson Lane design review confirm staff's findings that the proposed design and layout of the project are submitted by application 211018 is consistent with the 2009 environmental impact report and the 2014 EIR addendum and with the adopted mitigations monitoring and reporting program for the Atkinson Lane PUD and approve application number 211018 for the proposed design and layout of the 80 unit 100% affordable rental housing development known as PIP in two based on findings of compliance with the Atkinson Lane plan unit development ordinance 5183 and with the conditions of approval as recommended by the planning commission. Now, there's one further item which is to approve the memorandum of understanding between the county and the city of Watsonville and midpen housing and authorize the CAO or their designee to execute the MOU on behalf of the county and that concludes my presentation but I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for getting through that. That was hot. Do you have any comments? Supervisor Caput? You bet. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. We'll go over some of the terms here. There's 80 units, right? And some of the terms are very good. Extremely low income. Very low income and low income. I mean, that's wonderful. Now, when I talked to Ambag, they never heard of a category extremely low. Is that a new term or is that just something that we came up with or you came up with? I can respond to that one, Lizanne. There used to be a category that was called extremely low for the purposes of the arena. Ambag works from a place of combining extreme. You don't see in that arena of the RHNA the term extremely low. It's been combined with very low. Okay. But there are different steps or categories of income, right? Extremely low is less income than very low. In a program where there are both, you're correct, extremely low is less than very low. That would be good to talk to Ambag, because like I said, when I talked to them, they never heard of the term. Yes, I did hear that exchange with Ambag, yeah. All right. And you tackled the problem I had with the traffic going from Burlington. So my understanding now is then before it will go, Burlington will go into the parking lots of the facility, but it will not shoot through the development and then people can't use it as a shortcut to go through Atkinson. That's correct, yes. Okay, that's fine. And the only thing I didn't like really was I like more open space, more room for kids to run around or even families to enjoy and go outside during a nice day in the summer. The concern I have, the only concern I have, and I hope I can vote for this right now, is you put in there phase three or is it phase two? 90 units and it's potential future development. So the Atkinson and PUD was originally approved for 200 units. First, that was broken into two phases in the PUD. There was the initial, let's see, it would be 104, 106 units was phase one. And then the final part would be the part that's being built within the interim ag buffer. But phase one ended up being broken down into two sub-phases. So phase one, which is- Phase one is the 46 units. Yeah, so Pippin one was 26 units on the county property and the 20 units that don't count as part of the Atkinson Lane PUD on the city parcel next door. And then this development rounds out the second portion of what can be done as the first phase until the ag buffer goes away and that's the additional 80 units. Okay, well, what I'm getting out to is that if we're voting on this today, I don't want my name used where I'm voting yes on phase, the 80 units. Yes. But I don't want the 90 units even in the reports. It's the first time I heard about it and that draws up a whole different thing with the access roads. The access road, I'm assuming would be Wagner or would it be Dolores or what would it be? When those units are developed, they will come from Brewington. They are part of what was originally approved as part of the original 200 units for the Atkinson then PUD, but they're not part of this approval. I only mentioned them just to round out that how the 200 units will eventually be allocated. This application is purely for the 80 units, it's not actually for the units themselves, it's for the design and the layout of the project that is put before you today for these 80 units. Now phase three is something down the line that years from now, it's for probably the next generation. So I don't have to worry about it, but I don't want somebody saying that I gave the okay now. I go back to when we originally, I was on the city council when we first came up with the idea with Medpen and we've gone through all these phases and there's another phase four that is out there too, right? And phase four is the one we looked at where it's like three hundred and fifty, 450 homes, but that's something way in the future. Yes, I think it's important to realize that. That was there was a specific plan developed by the city of Watsonville, which you're talking about and under the settlement agreement, none of that can be included in part of this. So all that was approved back in 2009 was the 200 units with the original Atkinson Lane PUD. And then there was a revised PUD also for 200 units that was approved in 2014 pursuant to the settlement agreement that took out that specific plan area and any consideration of that. Okay, when we vote on this, can we drop the references to phase three? Because we haven't had neighborhood meetings on phase three. I just like I'm getting, like I said, I don't want my name used in the future where they said, oh, Supervisor Caput said, yeah, phase three was okay. No, there will be a separate future application at such time as that land can be developed for fate for the design review of phase three. Okay, so how do we handle that where we don't mention phase three, the 90 units? That's a whole separate project. I have a suggestion, Supervisor Caput. If you look at the description of what's before you today, recommended action number three, that clearly states that this is a design review for 80 pre-approved units of rental housing. So it makes it fairly clear that this is a constrained application only for what's here. And if there's some discussion in the couple of hundred of pages of staff report, what governs is right here in the front. And so I think you can have a comfort level that this is only for those 80 units. Okay, so we're voting on the 80 units, the 90 units. We're just doing design review for 80 units that have been previously approved. So we're looking at the design of the buildings, the siting to make sure they're out of the riparian area, that kind of thing. And that's the full extent of today's project. We're not approving anything on the 90 units. No, we are not. All right, I would have appreciated it if you didn't even put it in there. I think we could have been more clear. So thank you for that. Because people were always arguing about that. Yeah. All right. And I'm all for affordable housing. And I love the fact that there's a category now extremely low income because that's the community I represent, a lot of them. I'd like to see it spread out throughout the county. I don't wanna see all the affordable housing and all the credit for the county going and coming from Watsonville and South County. So there's three districts that have stepped up in the past and they've got some affordable housing. So I'm asking, I'd like to see North County actually step up and do some affordable housing also. So what I'm getting at is I don't want it to be all in Watsonville, the Aptos area and even the Live Oak area have affordable housing that's been built in the last couple of years. But I haven't seen much coming from the North County and you know, you've got to help out too. Thank you. Anyway, that's my comments. Okay, be careful on the 90 units. We're gonna, I don't wanna stir up the neighborhood. If I do have a problem on the wording on that, I'm gonna have them call you. That would be fine and we can discuss more as well. All right. Supervisor Friend. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you staff for the presentation. Look, this has been a 20 year process. There's been litigations, been through laugh codes, been through city and county discussions, measure you. I think that it's hard to imagine a project maybe other than the Aptos Village project that's gone through a longer process just to make its way toward completion. So I think this is a very valuable and solid project, supportive of the item before us and supportive of building additional affordable housing. I agree with Supervisor Caput that there's been a lot of affordable housing built within South County. We'll point out in defense at least of one of my North County brethren here on the board that the city of Santa Cruz just approved a few hundred units as well. I mean, there's a lot of affordable housing being built within the county. It's just not enough. Realistically, there just isn't enough. And you can see with the most recent rena numbers, the expectations are sky high and the realities are much lower about what can be done, but this is what's before us here. And this is one of the reasons why, if it takes 20 years just to get good projects off the ground in our county, then it's very difficult to meet the needs of the community. But what we have here is a good project. It's been through a lot of vetting to say the least and I'm looking forward to supporting it today. Thank you. Any other comments from board members? I'll open it up to the public. Anybody from the public here would like to speak? Come on up, please. Good afternoon. My name is Joan Goldman. I am a homeowner of the Brewington-Crestview Division and I am asking that you delay approving this plan because if you will go back to the map, you will see that the Brewington Avenue that's existing right now is not capable of carrying the traffic from these 80 units. Supervisor Cabot, I know you can visualize that Brewington Avenue. It is a brick wall on one side with no sidewalks. So there's only one side that has homes with sidewalks. So although your design is very pretty with your bike lanes and your walking lanes, the truth of the matter is when it gets to the existing Brewington Avenue, there's no capability for it to handle that. Pippin III, which you're concerned about, but Pippin III would extend Atkinson to Eastlake. Eastlake has the infrastructure to handle that traffic. We do not. And until we lost the audio on the internet, so we're just gonna get the mic on. It just came back. Thank you, Mr. Ciaio. Yeah, 13 years ago, we had neighborhood meetings about the project, but it also included a phase four, which is 400 and something units that would go from Hula Hand all the way to Atkinson. Right. And there was gonna be a road shooting through from Hula Hand to Atkinson. Exactly, and that's what we... I like to stick to that. That's something to be argued way in the future. Okay, let's just... What I'm saying is the existing Brewington cannot handle 120 or 30 vehicles coming from Pippin II into the Crestview subdivision and then on to freedom, which you already know is overly congested. True. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else who would like to take comments? Good afternoon, Supervisor McPherson and members of the board. My name is Sarah Newkirk and I'm the director of the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County. The Land Trust's mission is to protect, care for and connect people to the extraordinary lands that make this area special. We're not just concerned with natural lands here either. We have a focus on agricultural land as well and are committed to preserving the county's rich farming heritage. As you know, the deficit of farm worker housing in Santa Cruz County has reached crisis proportions. I've heard it described as the single most significant impediment to long-term viability of farming in the county. Because a pillar of the Land Trust's mission is to conserve working farms and other working lands, having a sustainable workforce is key. One of the Land Trust's flagship projects is our Watsonville Slough Farm. There were demonstrating the compatibility of agricultural production with wetland protection, along with, we hope, soon recreational trails. In 2018, we had to demolish four single family dwellings which were dilapidated on the property because they posed a significant risk to their occupants. But we made a commitment to replace that housing stock. And when the opportunity came to make a contribution to the PIP and II project, we jumped at the chance. And I'm pleased to let you know that just last Friday our board took the step of approving a $200,000 contribution to the project. When PIP and I was completed in 2018, over 2,500 people applied for the 46 units it created, illustrating the extraordinary need. PIP and II will provide 80 units of which 39 are set aside for farm worker families. It won't solve our farm worker housing project, but it will have a meaningful impact. The Land Trust of Santa Cruz is proud to support this project and strongly encourages the board to approve the application and other staff recommendations. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair and Board of Supervisors staff and members of the public. My name is Luis Preciado and with MEPEN Housing Corporation. We have prepared a PowerPoint presentation and I'd like to know if we can bring that up or if you would like to hold for more public comments or if we can still have an opportunity to deliver our presentation. Well, I think we've had the presentation that we need. It's pretty well explained. I think we're fine. Thank you. Well, I'd like to take the opportunity then to thank you today for considering our proposal. And I also like to thank the Planning Commission for supporting our and recommended our project on October 27th to be heard today. I also I'd like to take a moment to thank Lysanne and Justin Sussaniese and all the County staff for all their help and guidance throughout this process. It has been a long process and we're happy that we're at this step now. And we're hoping that we can count your support for the design review approval today. And I also want to thank the County Santa Cruz for its leadership and advocacy and securing an allocation of disaster tax credits for the County Santa Cruz and for supporting shovel ready projects like PIP and phase two to be prioritized in the competition of the disaster credits. As you may know, this created an opportunity for many projects and the County to apply and move forward to help rebuild the much needed housing units after so many homes were destroyed by the recent fires. And lastly, I want to thank my design team who are also joining us remotely and are ready to answer any questions from these by our creative and beautiful design and the wonderful spaces that they have created for our future families. And I'd like to thank all the supporters as well that are joining us either by phone or in person to speak in favor of our project today. Thank you, sir. Any other comments from the public? Is there anybody on the phone? Yes, I have 11 speakers via Zoom. Alicia Webster, your microphone is available. Did you say 11? 11. Good afternoon, members of the board. My name is Alicia Webster and I am a housing advocate for housing choices. A nonprofit organization that works to create housing opportunities for people with developmental and other disabilities. We serve Santa Cruz County residents with disabilities by helping them to find and maintain housing from our office in Watsonville. We are also partnered with MidPen to provide on-site supportive services for residents with disabilities at Pippin Orchards so that they can remain stably housed. In 2018, Pippin Orchards phase one provided a preference for six apartments for people with developmental and other disabilities who needed coordinated on-site services to live successfully in affordable housing. Housing choices help more than 100 people apply for the lottery for those six units. For a person with a disability, most of whom rely on SSI with a maximum of the payment of less than $1,000 per month or work part-time in low-wage jobs is extremely important that they have access to deeply affordable housing in order to avoid the harm caused by homelessness or displacement. All of the six households were fortunate enough to get an apartment, continue to live at Pippin successfully. In the three years that have passed since Pippin phase one opened, the need for affordable and inclusive housing for people with developmental and other disabilities has grown significantly including here in Santa Cruz County where we receive several hundred requests for housing support services every year. We strongly support mid-fans leadership in the intentional inclusion of people with disabilities and affordable housing and urge your support for Pippin Orchards phase two. Thank you. Hunter for community advocacy, your microphone is available. Please state your name at the beginning of your comments. Yes, this is Natalie Herondine, the executive director and the attorney for community advocacy. I'm here to speak on behalf of the Pippin phase two project. Everyone knows that there's a huge housing deficit in this area, especially for farm workers, the Center for Community Advocacy trains farm workers to form and lead community-based communities to advocate for improved housing health conditions. Having more affordable housing available to our community members, particularly our farm workers who struggle to find affordable housing is the best way to affect their housing and increase the overall well-being of our community. And a lot of work has been put into this and a lot of planning. And for this reason, we ask that the Board of Supervisors approve this. Thank you. Carmen Herrera-Manser, your microphone is available. Good afternoon, honorable members of the Board of Supervisors. I'm Carmen Herrera-Manser and I'm resident Watsonville and also the executive director for Bajaro Community Development Corporation. Today I'm here to request your support for the approval of the Pippin housing expansion. Now more than ever, it is important for the Watsonville community to have affordable and safe housing available for our work phase, our workforce, our under house and our own house population. This development will help us move forward to the goal of promoting growth as a truly equitable and inclusive community. I urge the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors to support the Watsonville and South County community by approving this project. Thank you. Mayor Jimmy Dutra, your microphone is available. Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. Jimmy Dutra here from the city of Watsonville. I just wanted to speak on this topic as it lies right outside of my district, District 6 in Watsonville and will be annexed into my district. I have deep concerns about the traffic issues that will increase on a road and infrastructure that was built for a lot less cars to be traveling on. As one of the people spoke earlier, Ms. Goldman, there is a brick wall, a lack of sidewalks, lack of lighting on that piece of road that is gonna be turned into the project. So I also have a great concern. I don't, you know, Mr. Caput saying that this issue of phase three will be the next generation. So you don't have to worry about it right now is really concerning to me and should be concerned to everybody in Watsonville. These issues, as leaders, we need to be thinking about the future and how these projects will be affecting us. And as you know, there are hundreds of homes around this area and many people, you know, are not happy with the way that this decision is gonna be moving forward. There was no EIR done. There was no traffic plan done. And to pour salt into wounds, the county gets to keep the Rena numbers. You know, we in Watsonville and South County, we deserve to be heard. If this housing was only gonna serve as South County residents, that would be fine, but that's not how it happens. There are lists that all the whole county gets to get on. People will move into these properties from all around and it will not just serve South County. Farm workers, again, if there's federal money involved, only documented farm workers can fill in these housing. So there's a lot of things that, you know, we're pulling the wool over people's eyes. We need to be transparent. This road, if phase three is gonna come in and it's gonna come in off of Eastlake Avenue, if it's gonna come off Eastlake Avenue, then I suggest that that road be built now. That would solve a big problem so you can get this housing built. So thank you very much. Rafael Hernandez, your microphone is available. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Chair McPherson and County Board members. My name is Rafael Hernandez from Monterey Bay Economic Partnership. Mitten Pen requested our support for the design review for Pippin Phase Two. And I'm here to speak in favor of the project and ask that you approve the design. We evaluated the project, including receiving input from regional housing leaders and the end up board executive committee before approving the development for endorsement. As you likely know, McPen housing is one of the largest, most trusted nonprofit developers, owners and managers of high quality affordable housing in Northern California. And they have over 50 years of experience doing this. The proposed Pippin Phase Two, I won't go into speaking of the merits as we saw the thorough presentation on it, the 80 affordable units to the high environmental standards, et cetera. But this project is the continuation of a multi-jurisdictional collaboration between the city, the county and Mitten Pen to build more highly needed affordable housing for the community. In 2014, the process with the Mitten Pen, the county and the city of Watsonville began to offer Pippin Orchard's apartments and the 46 affordable homes that that provided received over 2,500 applications, which demonstrates extremely high demand for affordable housing in the community. In 2019, the Santa Cruz County Board formally endorsed the Farm Worker Housing Study Action Plan to address the housing need. And we appreciate your continued leadership in making progress toward meeting these local housing needs and ask that you approve the design review. Thank you very much. Jonathan Pilch. Good afternoon, members of the board. Our organization, Watsonville Wetlands Watch, of which I'm the executive director, has a mission to preserve and restore and foster appreciation of the wetlands of the Pajaro Valley. We've long worked with, or have been associated with this project. Members of our board served on the Atkinson Lane specific plan technical advisory committee, and we've been working with Mitten Pen on some work to develop a vision for environmental stewardship and public access trails within the Pippin project. As you saw, the project contains important wetland and riparian habitat areas, and we feel that the project has carefully addressed the environmental concerns and has a strong vision for public access for future residents and environmental stewardship of sensitive environmental resources along Coralitos Creek and the Watsonville SLU system. We look forward to partnering with them on the development of environmental restoration projects and public access projects, youth engagement work, and we encourage support or offer our support of this project. Thank you. Donna Murphy. Hello, I'm Donna Murphy, speaking of support of the Pippin Affordable Housing Project. For several years I have been involved with the housing team of COPA and worked with colleagues in both Watsonville and Santa Cruz and everywhere in between to support more affordable housing and to keep families in their housing. Everyone with compassion for those struggling to live here will celebrate this project. It will create 80 units all for families living on less than 60% of the average median income, and 39 of those will be dedicated to farm worker families, such a vital part of our regional economy and putting food on our tables. If we cherish a diverse community where young and old laborer and professional can live near where they work, this is a type of project needed to supplement our inadequate housing supply. Thank you for moving it forward. Anin, your microphone is available. Good afternoon, Chairman and members of the board. My name is Janine Roth, I'm with Santa Cruz EMB, and we advocate for more affordable housing to meet the needs of the growing population of our county. We want neighbors of all ages, cultures, and incomes to make Santa Cruz County their home. And Pippin Phase II project is really an opportunity to address an extreme lack of affordable housing in the county, as you've all already mentioned. There is community support for this project, and I wanted to draw your attention to the petition submitted urging your approval of the Pippin Phase II design, recognizing that not everyone can take time in the middle of the day to provide comment. I wanna amplify a few comments of the community voices from that petition. Bennett says, please vote in favor of this housing development. Dedicated homes for farm workers and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, this is a project that's providing critical support to those most in need. We are so far behind on meeting our rena goals. We desperately need this affordable housing and much more. Elizabeth says, our county urgently needs more homes for low income families, farm workers, and other residents. It's shocking to me that so many of our neighbors are waiting years for scarce affordable housing opportunities to open up. You have an opportunity, an incredible opportunity to help 80 households have a brand new place to call home. Pete says, please approve this awesome project. I remember at the grand opening of the first part of Pippin Orchards, the emotion in the faces and voices of those who were lucky enough to get permanent housing. It was incredible. Housing changes people's lives. Sharon says, disabled, waiting for housing. Thank you. There is a great need for housing. I'm praying for a beautiful space that is affordable. Thank you. And I'd like to just close by saying that Sharon is like the hundred people that Houses Choice had mentioned and the 2, 2,500 families that applied to live in Pippin Orchards phase one. What a great opportunity to build on mid pen success with Pippin Orchards and at 80 additional homes to meet a huge demand. Vote yes on the project design review. Thank you. Nathalia Olivas, your microphone is available. Hi, my name is Nathalia Olivas. I'm the community organizer with Regeneracion Baharo Valley Climate Action in Watsonville. I'd like to urge the board to approve the design review for Pippin phase two. Watsonville is already on the front lines of climate impacts and we need to ensure that residents are properly prepared to face these impacts. This means we need to provide affordable and accessible housing to residents many of who are underpaid and facing housing insecurity and homelessness. Market rate housing with only a small percentage of affordable housing only threatens residents by increasing housing prices and driving gentrification. We need 100% affordable housing projects like this one to meet the needs of our low income and differently abled residents. I'd also like to add that our organization works to get people out of their cars and into the shared transportation that will lower greenhouse gas emissions. As part of building truly sustainable and equitable communities, we need to prioritize people and their well-being and not cars. Like the rest of the state, Santa Cruz County is facing a life-threatening housing crisis and this project is part of the solution to this crisis. Again, please vote yes on this project. Thank you. Gretchen, your microphone is available. Thank you. My name is Gretchen Reagan-Hart and I work with affordable housing now, supporting affordable housing wherever we can get it in the county. I think we all know that Mid-Pen is a great developer. They're good managers and this project is well-designed. But I wanted to speak to you today because I also live in the neighborhood. I'm a Watsonville resident and I live just down the street. Brewington is the cross street for my street and I think we can handle it. I think we can make whatever adaptation we need to make to this. I walk my dogs around that area all the time and it's really quiet most of the time during the day. I think we can overcome this obstacle and I urge you to please do so. Thanks. Housing Santa Cruz County, please state your name and convenient of your comments. Good afternoon. My name is Don Lane and I represent Housing Santa Cruz County, a coalition of more than 40 organizations and hundreds of individuals dedicated to one goal, creating more affordable housing opportunities for individuals and families living and working in our county. Our organization is truly countywide with more than one third of our governing board, either living or working in the Pajaro Valley. As you know, there are literally thousands of essential workers, low income households and vulnerable individuals struggling to either find or sustain housing in our community. Their struggle is the entire community's struggle. Without them, our community will not thrive and there's only one way to improve the situation. Say yes to the creation of affordable housing throughout our county. These apartments are already proven to be needed based on the number of rental applications received in the first Pippin Orchards Project and proven to be a good place to live based on the stories of the families who live in Pippin Orchards now. Please vote yes today to approve these new homes for the families that truly need them and continue to find other opportunities to say yes to affordable housing throughout our county in the months and years ahead. And as a footnote, I'd like to just note Supervisor Caput's comments about the balance between North and South County. And I want to mention to him that right now in the city of Santa Cruz, there are more than 500 affordable housing units approved or funded or in process in the city of Santa Cruz. So both ends of the county are doing their part and I hope that we will both continue to do that. Thank you very much. This is the last speaker, Kyle Kelly. Your microphone is available. Thank you all so much for having me. Thank you Board Supervisors. So I'm Kyle Kelly. I support this project and urge the Board of Supervisors to approve the design review. Apartments like these making affordable apartments to residents that really need them will help alleviate a lot of issues that families are going through right now. This allows them to be able to not have to pay as much in rent as they would before, allowing them to spend their money on anything else they need to put more money into savings and to just generally raise their quality of life. And if we raise the quality of life for the people that will call these places home, it'll actually raise the quality of life for everyone. So thank you so much for the design review. Thank you. I had one last person joined. Casey Beyer, your microphone is available. Thank you, Chair McPherson and Board of Supervisors. Casey Beyer from the Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce. We're a countywide organization that's been in existence for 132 years. When we pull our members, the number one top issue is access to affordable housing. This project has been in process for a number of years. Supervisor Friend mentioned 20 years. And I think that's one of the reasons that we have housing crisis not only in Santa Cruz County but throughout California. I urge this Board to pass and approve this project. Thank you. There are no other speakers. Okay. Right. What was the public hearing and return it to the Board? Yeah. Do you have any more comments? You bet. I'll make a real quick comment. I want to thank you for all the thoughts and everything you put into this. One thing is almost everything we've done affordable for extremely low income is rental. I'd like to see in the future that we actually have some homes that they can buy, affordable homes per sale. So that they can enjoy the American dream also of home ownership. So anyway, I don't want to see a community of only rentals. Okay, let's go to the future to worry about. Any other comments from the Board? Supervisor Friend. No, Mr. Chair. I'm prepared to move the recommended actions. I should look at it. And capital seconds. Okay. Any other comments from the Board? Motion approved, recommended actions. Please call the roll. Supervisor Koenig. Aye. Friend. Aye. Coonerty. Caput. Aye. McPherson. Aye. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. Okay. We will move to... Oh, pardon me, Chair. In our excitement, we forgot to take a vote for item 15. May we please return to that? That's a proclamation for Kevin Bowling. Oh, sure. Okay. There's a motion. I'll move the proclamation. Okay. Second. Second. Please call the roll. And this is to approve the proclamation for Kevin Bowling. Kevin Bowling. Kevin Bowling. Yeah. And for first and the second, we'll call the roll. Supervisor Koenig. Aye. Friend. Aye. Coonerty. Aye. Caput. Aye. McPherson. Aye. Thank you, Chair. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Item number 18. Public hearing to consider amendments to the Santa Cruz County Code chapter 13.15. Regarding noise standards for stationary emergency standby generators, adopt resolution, affirming amendments are consistent with the general plan and exempt from CEQA, adopt ordinance of the Board of Supervisors of the County and Santa Cruz Amending Santa Cruz County Code sections 13.158.020 and 13.15.050 as outlined in the memorandum of the Interim Director of Planning. We have a CEQA Notice of Exemption, a resolution and noise ordinance amendments. Ordinance amending Santa Cruz County chapter 13.15. And 13.15 edits, strikeouts and underline. Mr. Carlson, are you going to be presenting? I will, thank you, Chair. Thank you. So this item proposes changes to Santa Cruz County Code chapter 13.15 noise planning in order to facilitate installation of emergency standby generators in residential areas. The existing ordinance requires for a permanent generator installation that noise levels not exceed a maximum exterior noise level of 60 decibels at the property line. Sound levels from these types of generators generally exceed 60 decibels. And some installations could meet the standard just based on an adequate setback in the natural noise attenuation based on an adequate setback from the property line. However, other installations could not meet the standard without including some kind of additional noise attenuation measures such as an enclosure or barrier to reduce the noise levels to the 60 decibel standard. And this has caused problems in the permit process. Recently, the Board of Supervisors recognized this issue and based on a desire to facilitate these installations directed the planning department to amend the ordinance to reduce the setback requirements and or increase the sound level standard at the property line to facilitate permitting of these types of projects. So the amendments propose increasing the noise standard at the property line to 65 decibels, thereby reducing the required setback to meet the standard. And I'll note that the county's normal standard for residential noise exposure from nearby land uses is the 60 decibel standard. Therefore, this represents a relaxation of that standard. But we feel that that is appropriate recognizing that they're temporary and episodic use during power outages only. The proposed changes also include a table of setback requirements to make it easier for applicants and plan checkers to determine the setback requirement for a particular situation and generator type. And we recognize this change will help in some situations by substantially reducing the setback requirements compared to the existing standard. There will be other situations that will require some sort of additional noise attenuation barrier to meet the standards and the ordinance continues to allow for this. Our recommended actions are to hold a public hearing to consider the proposed amendments to the county code chapter 13.15, adopt a resolution that the proposed amendments are consistent with the general plan and exempt from CEQA, adopt an ordinance of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Cruz amending Santa Cruz County Code sections 13.15, 0.020 and 13.15, 0.550 and direct the clerk of the board to schedule the item for final adoption at the next available board meeting and publish notice of adoption as required by government code 25124. And that concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions. Thank you. This is a public hearing. Is there anybody here that would like to speak to this item number 18? Have anybody on the phone? There are no speakers on soon. Okay. I'll return it to the board, close the public hearing and return it to the board. I wanna thank Supervisor Coonerty for working with my office to originally to bring forward these recommended changes to our grants and thank the planning department for working quickly to bring this back to the board as well. We wanna make it really easier for our residents to obtain safe generators as backup power in this era of increasing power shutoffs. It's a really a health or you could even extend it to life and death issues that people, some people have these generators available and able to work under some unforeseen situations like our CZU fires and so forth. I think it's an important improvement to allow a safe living environment for many of our residents, especially in the mountainous areas. Is there any other Supervisor who would like to comment on this? The President. Mr. Chair, I'll move the recommended actions. Okay. Second. I'll second that. I'm a Supervisor McPherson. I appreciate your comments and completely agree. Thank you. Okay, thank you. And thank you for working on this with our office. Thank you. We have a motion, please call the roll. Supervisor Koenig. Aye. Friend. Aye. Coonerty. Aye. Caput. Aye. McPherson. Aye. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. Okay, we're going to move to the last item of the day, item number 19 to conduct a study session on proposed amendments to the Santa Cruz County Code 13.10.660 through 13.10.668 regarding wireless communication facilities and take related actions at that line in the Memorandum of Interim Director of Planning. There's an existing to propose code amendments, crosswalk attachment B. 2021 Santa Cruz County Code 13.10.660-664. Mr. Carlson, are you going to be presenting on this again? I'm up again. You're ready to go. Thank you. So the Board of Supervisors has previously directed staff to develop an updated wireless communication facilities ordinance to more clearly state the rules and remove as much ambiguity as possible. Staff will present today a draft of an updated wireless ordinance in order to solicit board input and direction. We anticipate modification as a result of discussions today. And further preparation for the public hearing before the Planning Commission. 25 years ago, the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 was enacted. The law was intended to promote competition and reduce regulation and encourage the rapid deployment of new telecommunications technologies. Regarding wireless communication facilities, the law includes a provision preserving local zoning authority, over placement, construction, and modification of wireless facilities. But with certain limitations, including that local governments shall not unreasonably discriminate among providers of functionally equivalent services, shall not prohibit the provision of personal wireless services, shall act on wireless applications within a reasonable period of time, and may not regulate on the basis of the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions. Therefore, our local zoning authority can address issues such as siting, design, and operational impacts of wireless facilities, including designating zone districts where they are allowed height limits, screening, and camouflaging standards, and addressing physical impacts of placement and operation of these facilities, such as vegetation modification, grading, lighting, and noise. The county is prohibited by federal law from regulating on the basis of the environmental effects of RF emissions. Five years after the 1996 federal law, the county adopted an interim wireless ordinance, and two years after that adopted the wireless ordinance that remains in effect today, 20 years later. Over that time, as we've processed permits for these facilities and technology has evolved, various additional federal and state regulations and legal rulings have been issued to keep up with technology and streamline the local permit process. While our local land use permit process for wireless facilities has attempted to remain consistent with these updates, our local ordinance has not been updated accordingly. Additionally, our experience with individual permits over the years has demonstrated the need to substantially edit and clarify the ordinance, and a new ordinance to replace the existing ordinance. The new ordinance would clearly communicate the review process, and the process will be in alignment with the requirements of federal and state law. As noted earlier, federal law states the local government shall not prohibit the provision of personal wireless services and shall not unreasonably discriminate among providers of functionally equivalent services. This means that we must allow our wireless service provider to substantially reduce a significant gap in service, even if service is available in the same area by a different provider, or the gap be reduced in the least intrusive manner. And that has typically been determined through extensive alternatives analysis and certain applications. The FCC has also mandated shot clocks, which are very aggressive timelines for communities to act on certain types of wireless facility applications. And technological advances in experience with the wireless facility installations have led to new definitions and requirements in federal and state law for small cell facilities, modifications to existing facilities, and installations in public rights of way. The new ordinance includes updated provisions to address this evolution in federal and state law and interpretation of the law by the courts. Comparing the existing and proposed new ordinance is detailed in the crosswalk document attached to the board memo. And I'll just highlight some of the major changes here. Currently, co-location is only encouraged and in the new ordinance it would be required unless an exception is approved. The list of prohibited zone districts would remain the same, but there would be some additional exceptions listed, including a small cell wireless facilities, co-locations and modifications of existing facilities. Exceptions to co-location and in prohibited zone districts could be considered based on an alternatives analysis that documents substantial reduction of a significant gap in the provider's coverage in the least intrusive manner. The new ordinance includes new height standards applicable to these facilities with a requirement to minimize height and allowance for exceptions to the height based on the same exception criteria. Whereas the existing ordinance requires processing all new wireless facility permits at the zoning administrator level, the new ordinance proposes different permit types based on the type of wireless facility. Basically, a discretionary permit would include public, including public noticing would continue to be required for new non-co-located wireless facilities, but other common types of facilities would be processed as building permits or encroachment permits issued by the Department of Public Works. Standard public noticing would be required based on the type of permit. The current ordinance requires public noticing 1,000 feet around the project site and the new ordinance would reduce that to the standard distance of 300 feet for a project that requires a public caring. And the new ordinance includes new sections addressing wireless facilities in public rights away and modification of existing wireless facilities. The different shot clock timelines reflect the nature of certain types of wireless facilities, pollocation of these facilities and eligible modifications of existing facilities, for example, have the shortest timeline for the county to act on the application of 60 days. By definition, these types of facilities can generally be constructed with minimal to no visual or operational impacts subject to certain criteria addressing height, size, design and color. The draft ordinance contains placeholders for these criteria or other criteria to be developed prior to the planning commission hearing on this. Due to their minimal impact, these types of wireless facilities are appropriate to process as ministerial permits, meaning a building permit only and this is reflected in the new ordinance. Additionally, the new ordinance would allow ministerial processing new wireless facilities on existing commercial, industrial or public facilities, including schools. And I'll just point out that this is a picture of Wilson Tire in downtown Soquel and those what look like maybe air handling units and heating vents on the roof are actually wireless facilities. The new ordinance includes a section specifically addressing modifications of existing wireless facilities to fully and accurately reflect provisions of federal law that apply to these types of projects. These types of applications are called eligible facilities requests, which is defined as a modification to an existing facility that does not represent a substantial change to the tower or the base station. There are detailed criteria defining a substantial change in the federal law and in the ordinance. The key criteria is that any proposed modification must be limited in dimension and must not defeat the existing concealment elements of the existing tower or base station. And in this photo, I'll just point out the wireless facility on the Ben Lomond Firehouse is in the top of that tower on the building, that was actually a new facility, but a modification of that could be processed as a building permit if it was in defeat that existing concealment elephant, essentially if it was inside of that existing shroud. It has also become increasingly common to see small cell facilities on existing infrastructure in the public right of way. And the new ordinance includes a section specifically addressing these types of applications. They would generally be processed as encroachment permits by the Department of Public Works, provided they meet the definition of a small cell wireless facility or represent modification of an existing facility that qualifies as an eligible facilities request. Requests for other types of wireless facilities in the public right of way would not be processed as encroachment permits and would require a development permit process by the planning department. The new ordinance would include objective criteria for review of encroachment permits for these facilities to ensure minimum standards to minimize impacts of these facilities in the public right of way. And again, the ordinance contains placeholders for those standards to be developed including but not limited to standards for height, size, design and color. And again, staff intends to present the full criteria to the planning commission, including any input from the Board of Supervisors. So overall changes in the new ordinance generally consist of clarifying language, removal of repetition and an overall, overhaul of the overall structure meant to facilitate more efficient administration of the ordinance. The provisions for ministerial or encroachment permits will provide a more efficient process to comply with the shot clock timelines in federal law. Certainly there remains many discretionary aspects of some of these types of applications and an effort was made in the new ordinance to provide language that will also facilitate more efficient processing of discretionary applications for wireless facilities. In conclusion, staff has recommended the Board of Supervisors conduct a study session to review the proposed amendments to the Santa Cruz County Code requiring regarding wireless communication facilities including receiving public comment, provide feedback to staff on the proposed amendments and direct staff to conduct environmental review regarding adoption of the proposed amendments pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act and direct staff to present the proposed amendments with incorporated feedback and refinements as needed to the planning commission at a public hearing for their recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. And that concludes my presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much. Very much needed connectivity to the internet. It's really essential, especially for our rural residents and those senior citizens in our county. I've long been a champion of revising the process and I think to connect these folks and I think it's good that we're moving forward with this and I especially want to thank our, I now retired IT director Kevin Bowen for pushing forward on this reform and the planning department for delivering the first draft before Kevin retires from the county actually officially, I guess. But thank you very much for moving forward in this process so quickly. Any other comments from the board? Yes, thank you, Chair. Agreed, it's long past time that we update this ordinance and I'm excited to see it moving forward. I'm particularly moving to ministerial review and the majority of cases is going to be a really help and help get a lot more cell coverage in our county. Really my primary concern is just around ensuring that these facilities are able to stay online in the case of emergency. I'm aware that the CPUC required, I think they're gonna vote last year, July, 2020 that within 12 months, all cell facilities be able to have 72 hours of backup power. So reading to the ordinance, it looked like right now there's a placeholder in terms of our objective design criteria, right? Just sort of, was that height, color, size, design? I just wanna make sure that as we move forward into finding those criteria, that we're ensuring that nothing would interfere with the ability of these facilities to be self-powered in the case of emergency. Thank you, we'll take that into consideration. Any other Supervisor Friend or Coonerty? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a number of thoughts on this and I appreciate Supervisor Koenig's comments on that. I think we should actually require the 72 hour backup as required by both the PUC and Senator McGuire's bill as something that the Planning Commission should consider. I mean, obviously we're working on