>>> if everyone can please take a seat and
quiet down, we're going to start the meeting here
momentarily.
>> good evening, everyone,
and welcome to the regular session
of the martinez city council.
it is wednesday, july 16th, and it is 7:03 p.m.
please rise and join vice mayor howard for the pledge of
allegiance.
>> vice mayor
howard, can you please confirm that you
can hear me?
>> I can hear you.
>> okay. Great. Thank you. I couldn't
hear anyone giving the pledge
of allegiance. I just wanted to make
sure audio was
working. All right. Wonderful.
so, quickly, before roll call, I just
wanted to let
everybody know I'm calling in remotely
tonight
as many of you know. All of the council
do have day jobs so
I'm calling in tonight from rhode
island. I'm presenting at a
society of wetland scientists conference
this
week, so thank you for your patience as I run the meeting
remotely.
so, clerk, please
call the roll.
>> mayor brianne
zorn.
>> present. >> vice mayor jay
howard.
>>
present.
>> councilmember greg young.
>>
present.
>> councilmember
satinder mahli.
>> present.
>> councilmember
debbie mckillop.
>>
present.
>> we have two proclamations
recognizing the service for two of
our planning commissioners.
vice mayor howard, would you please bring
the council
down to present to tracey and sean?
>> this is an exciting day for all
of us.
I would like to
read the proclamation for tracey casella.
whereas tracey casella has been a
resident of
martinez since 1984, whereas she has
actively
served her community and whereas tracey casella
was appointed as an alternate to the
planning commission in june of 2016,
and whereas tracey casella was appointed
as a
regular planning commissioner on may
of 2017, and whereas tracey casella
was elected vice chair of the planning
commission in
february of 2020 and whereas her
nine-year tenure on the
planning commission, casella has
played a pivotal role in assisting
the city to
reach notable accomplishments, such
as the adoption of the general
plan 2035, the 2023
to 2031 housing element, the waterfront
marina
land trust use plan, the general plan
amendment for the vine
hill subdivision, and the amendment
to the
commercial cannabis regulations. Whereas
martinez community has greatly
benefitted from casella's service
and the city
of martinez will be forever grateful,
now, therefore, be it
resolved that the city council of
the city of martinez
does hereby recognize and express
appreciation and gratitude
to tracey casella's service on the
planning commission and her commitment
to serve the martinez
community. In witness, I
hereunto set my hand and cause the
city of the
seal of the city of martinez to be
affixed hereto.
>> thank you. >> yeah.
>> it's been an honor, really, it has.
>> you're welcome.
>> okay. >> that's it.
>> we've got
one more. We've got this handsome
gentleman sitting up
here, so we're going to recognize
sean trambley.
whereas sean trambley has been a resident
of
martinez since 1984, where he has
actively served his community and
whereas sean trambley was appointed
as an alternate to the planning commission
in april of 2017, and
whereas sean trambley was appointed as
a regional
planning commissioner in july
of 2017, and whereas sean
trambley was elected vice chair of
the planning
commission in january of 2019, and
whereas sean trambley was elected
chair
of the planning commission in february
of 2020 and whereas during his eight-
year tenure on the planning
commission, trambley has played a
pivotal role in
assisting the city to reach notable
accomplishments, such as
the adoption of the general
plan 2035,
the 2023-2031 housing element, the
waterfront
marina trust land use plan,
general plan amendment for the vine
hill
subdivision, and preventing
approval of a downtown gun range,
and
whereas the martinez community has
greatly benefitted
from trambley's service and the city
of martinez will forever be grateful,
now therefore be it resolved that
the city council
of the city of martinez
does hereby recognize and express
appreciation and
gratitude for sean trambley's service on
the
planning commission and his commitment to serve the martinez
community.
in witness
whereof, I have hereto set my hand
and used the seal of the city of martinez
to
be affixed hereto this 16th day of july.
congratulations, sean.
>> thank you very much.
thank you. [ applause ]
>> I'll also keep it brief
because people are here for a lot
of other reasons, but thank
you. It has been an honor, and I look
forward
to continuing to serve martinez in
a myriad of ways. Thank you all.
>> thank you, sean.
>> thank you again. >> thank
you, sean and tracey.
>> another photo op.
>> thank you guys. >> thank you.
>> all right. Our
next item on the agenda is public
comment, and I know that we have a
really big agenda tonight, and a
lot of people are here in attendance for
the presentation
about potential plans for the marina.
the public
comment right now is for non-agendized
items only. I understand that we have
one, two, three,
four, five speaker cards. By a show
of
hands, vice mayor howard, can you
check to see how many people in the
room want to speak on non-agendized items.
>> can you raise your hand?
>> that have not submitted -->> I
have three, four, five.
four. Three.
four.
>> okay, so, we have a total
of five plus
four and then maybe a handful on virtual audience?
>> give or take.
>> okay. So, because we have so much
we
need to cover this evening, I am
going to just reduce the public comment
time to two minutes so that way we
have an
opportunity to get through the public
comment tonight.
so, with that said, vice mayor howard, you
can
start by reading the names
and calling people up. For those people
who did not already submit
a speaker card, you can queue up once
the folks
who did submit a speaker card have
finished speaking.
>>
please come to the podium if you want
to speak on
nonagendized items.
>> but we're going to start with
karen collins.
>> good evening.
thank you for the opportunity to speak.
my name is
actually christine friel. I'm sharing
with karen collins.
first, we want to
sincerely thank the city council and the
public works staff for completing
the water project in
muir oaks. They improved water pressure
and additional hydrants have made
a huge difference for safety and peace of mind
in our neighborhood. And we really
appreciate your commitment to infrastructure
that serve
our community. But we also would like
to bring to your attention tonight
an
issue that's becoming increasingly
urgent, and that's the condition of
our private roads. These
roads were designated as
private decades ago before most of
us lived in the neighborhood and any
of you were on the board. And
today, maintaining those roads has
become financially unmanageable. Really.
and engineering assessments estimate the
cost of
repairs at over $1
million, and at the current rate of
dues collection, we are
literally never going to meet
that need. So, we're here tonight to ask
the city to meet with us to
come up with a plan that's sustainable
for our
roads. Thank you. I'll pass it over to karen now.
>> thank you.
>> good evening.
thank you for the time. My name is
karen collins.
I have been a resident in martinez
for almost 15 years, and
most recently, that last eight years, in
the development
known as muir oaks just south of highway 4.
I think falls under debbie mckillop's jurisdiction.
area. Yeah.
the road
issues go far beyond
inconvenience and is a public safety
concern at this point. Our
roads serve not just residents but
also fire
services, police, and city
maintenance vehicles. Their
deteriorating condition affects everyone's
access and
emergency response times. What
complicates matters further is that
the legal status of our
roads remains to be very unclear.
even the city, county, and
residents of the neighborhood have
different
understandings, which has created
inequities and legal gray areas that leave us
struck.
we are also seeing new
development approved in muir oaks,
bringing additional revenue to
the city, but none of that revenue
helps maintain the
roads that these new residents also depend on.
we respectfully ask that the
city meet with us to find a more
workable and equitable path
forward, whether that involves
clarifying jurisdictions, exploring
legal options,
or helping us create a
sustainable funding model. We are
here looking for help. And partnership.
we're ready to collaborate and find
a
solution that supports the long-term
safety and
accessibility of muir oaks and the greater martinez community.
I really want to stress my thanks
for your
time and attention to the development and
to this issue. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> good evening. I
don't normally come to these meetings,
but I had a
request, and I just walked in and
somebody said, this is
the period you speak something not
on the agenda.
>> I'm sorry, did you submit a speaker card?
>> you
know, I came in, and there were so
many people here, I didn't
see a card.
>> would you mind --
the clerk and the vice mayor are reading
out the people
who submitted cards, and then you
are more than welcome
to come back after those folks who submitted cards
speak.
>> get a card here. >> yes. >> that
would be great. Thank you. So sorry to
interrupt.
>> thank
you, mayor. Next, we have declan archer.
>> hi, hi namename
declan archer and I am 8 years old.
I
live in martinez and I love playing soccer.
when I grow up, I want to be a professional
soccer player. I'm here to ask the
city to
think more about soccer when building
and taking care of parks. Right now,
a
lot of parks have baseball fields
and basketball
courts, but not many have
soccer fields or with goals.
even the ones --there's a big --even
when there's
a big grass area, the grass
is too long, and the ground
is very dangerous to play on because
of gopher holes. And there are no
goals
to use. The
city maintains these parks, watering
the grass and
mowing the lawns, but it's done in
a way that makes the areas useful
as grass lawns, not quality soccer
fields.
for example,
hidden valley has a big field, but
no
goals, and the grass is rough.
yancy boyd park has no goals.
mountain view park has flat grass but
no goals, and the
grass is too long. Waterfront park
has
a big grass area, perfect
for soccer, but they're not set up
for soccer
either. The waterfront soccer field
has goals, but they're often locked
up
oror have nets. The grass is
also kept long and the field is full of
gopher holes. A few weeks ago, the
pine
meadow park opened just up the street
from
our house. Like many other
parks, it is --it has a large
grass area, but the grass is kept
long,
and there are no soccer goals. It
feels
like soccer gets
left out. Baseball fields are clean
and ready to use.
basketball hoops have nets, but for
soccer,
it's harder to find a place to play.
[ applause ]
>> thank you, declan. I really appreciate those
comments.
>> thank you, young man. You are clearly
after
our jobs in the future. That was nicely
done.
thank you.
>> yes. Next
up, we have william
frolich.
>> mine should probably go with
the agenda.
it should probably be moved to the agenda item.
>> okay. If you can see
me here in a second. All right, next, we have matt
reagan.
>> agenda item too.
>> okay.
all right. Next is richard anderson.
and just for the
record, those two names I called, they
are changing their comments to an
agendized item.
richard anderson, you can come up, sir.
>> I'm not going to be as entertaining
as the
young people,
but I have been requesting that the
city of martinez do a
building code inspection on my property,
my rear of my
property, for quite some time.
the city council and everybody, well,
a good number of people
in attendance right now have documents
that I submitted
again by email. What I would like to
do
is to have a code enforcement inspection
of my property, looking at city ordinance
violations, building code violations, penal
code violations,
health and safety code violations,
whatever is
possible. I would also like to have
the chief building official be the
person doing the actual inspection,
but if
he's not available, then whoever the
city might be willing to
come up with is satisfactory with
me. I
would also like to have officer
budda with the martinez police department
present as
a witness. That's all I can say is
I really don't
have much more to say. Since
I submitted this andand everyone that I
would
be here tonight, has there
been any decision made as to whether
or not a building inspection,
even if I have to pay for it, on my property can be done?
>> we don't answer questions during
public
comment. You have 46 seconds left if you
have any further comments you would like to make at this time.
>> well, since I'm hard of hearing, I didn't hear a word
you said.
>>
we don't answer questions during public
comment.
you have about 30 seconds left if you have any
final comments
you would like to make.
>> okay, using
my 30 seconds,
I submitted to the city of
martinez the reports of four expert
people, all licensed
by the state of california, regarding
structures that do not exist in my
rear yard. I would
like to be contacted by anyone, the
city manager, chief building official, anybody.
I cannot
get any response from anyone, and thank you
very much. Have a nice evening.
>> thank you.
>> I have no
further cards. For those who still
have public
comment for nonagendized items, if you
can please
line up at the microphone, and we can proceed
in taking the comments.
>> am I good? Hi. My name
is bernadette fernandez, I'm a business
owner and downtown resident.
now that we are in mid summer, I would
like to again stress the
importance of healthy trees to
the wholistic well-being of our downtown.
trees reduce temperature, they beautify
the space, they
deeply affect the mental health of
the people visiting downtown, as
well as the people who call downtown
home, whether they are on our streets or
in a home.
the
lack of trees that will mature into
shade-
providers impacts everything from
public well-being to our
recent parking discussions. Nearly
every issue downtown could be solved
by
fostering a safe, shady environment
that allows people
to use the farther away parking spaces, as well
as safely spend their afternoons in
our downtown.
rather than
leave immediately if they're at risk of heatstroke.
I know
that this issue has been previously
addressed, but I would like to request
that its priority is moved up. We
work really
hard on fostering a really nice community
downtown, and that's almost
impossible to do when
the very, like,
structure of downtown means that you
can not spend more than ten minutes outside.
our hottest months
are coming up, obviously. A tree can't
grow
to maturity in a couple weeks, but I
would love some transparency into what
is being planted, when it
is being planted, and what
the care looks like. Even the trees that
are
currently, like, outside of my store,
outside of main street arts
gallery, they look
terrible. Their leaves are a little
curled up, sad trees.
so, yeah. I just request that that
priority is moved up and
maybe that we could get some information
about when
that's going to happen and when that'll
change. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> final call for nonagendized item comments.
okay.
no one left in the chambers. I'm going
to move to the virtual
audience. For those attending virtually,
if you would like to make
a comment on nonagendized items, please use the raise hand
feature now.
all right, I
only have one hand. Jason, I'll ask you to unmute.
>> can you hear me? >> yes.
>>
hi, this is jason. These new updated
hours of
8:00 a.m. To 8:00 p.m. Of pickleball have
been
miserable. It is the
exact same high-pitched sharp sound that I
have to listen to for 12 hours every day.
it gives
me headaches and really affects my sleep.
to
add pickleball courts, especially
eight of them,
right next to homes, was a terrible
idea.
this has really decreased the liveability and enjoyment of my
home.
I
do understand that as a homeowner, I
have the
right to an environment that gives
me the ability to enjoy my home.
martinez
has failed miserably at providing this.
no one listens to the encouragement of quiet
equipment.
it is
always loud pops. In addition, no
one listens
to these pickleball
ambassadors. For example, I watched
a pickleball
player park their van on
glacier court. An older woman went over to
correct them.
this took a lot of courage, and
I do appreciate her efforts.
when she went to tell him to move
the van, he replied with, "thank you"
and
had no interest in following suggestions,
which
have done absolutely nothing to improve
the life of the homeowners.
people understand
that all these are, are weak suggestions with
no enforcement.
we actually have a
public health issue that myself and
my neighbors
have stated many times in past meetings.
these 90-day pilot periods
are way too long, and I recommend
completely
closing the pickleball courts and
moving them far
away in a park where the noise production is not an
issue to homeowners.
these courts need
to go back to tennis, because that
is what they were before, with zero
complaints.
thank you for allowing me to speak tonight.
>> thank you.
next we have brooklyn stout. I'll ask you to unmute.
>> can you hear me? >> yes. >> thanks
for taking my comment. I'm actually
at work, so I'm glad I
can do this. My family had the opportunity
to go to
pine meadows park the other day, and it
was quite lovely. I like that
it's brand-new, very accessible, very
nice park. The
bathrooms were great. One thing that
would
be definitely helpful, I think, for
everyone is
shade over the tables. And that can
just be a pergola. Doesn't have to
be fancy canopies. It can just be
a normal type of,
you know, like a picnic cover that
you see at other
parks. It was only 85 that day,
but I think we were only there for 30
minutes just because everyone was hot.
so, it would be
great if that
>> thank you.
I have
no further comments. That completes public comment.
>>
thank you, kat. Let's move on to the
consent
calendar. We have items --
well, on my screen, I have 2 through 11.
would anyone on
council like to --
>> this is the city council public
comment.
>> brooklyn, you're still off mute.
can you go on mute? Thank you.
all right. So, we have consent calendar
items 2 through 11. Does anyone on
council want
to pull any of these items for additional discussion?
>> none for me.
>> okay. All right, seeing none, I'm
going to open up
the consent calendar items to
public comments. So, if anyone in
the room or in
the virtualvirtual has comments
on consent calendar
items 2 through 11, please raise your hand now and approach the
podium.
vice mayor howard, is
there anyone in the room who appears
to have a public comment?
>> no. >> no?
okay. How about the virtual audience?
>> for those
attending virtually, please use the raise
hand feature.
I have no hands.
>> all right. Excellent.
back to council for a motion, please.
>> yeah, I'd like to make a motion
to approve
the consent calendar items 2 through 11.
>> second. >> all in favor, please --
oh, no.
can I have a roll call vote since
I'm remote?
>> mayor brianne
zorn. Vice mayor jay howard.
councilmember greg young. Councilmember
satinder mahli. Councilmember
debbie mckillop. Motion passes. All
ayes.
>> thank you
so much. Moving on to our first general
business item, the
item of the evening, receive a presentation
from
tucker sadler on a proposed vision
for the
revitalization of the martinez marina and
waterfront.
lauren, will you be --great.
>> I'll take
it from
here, mayor. So, good evening, mayor
and
council, members of the public and members who are joining us
online.
this evening, we're bringing forward
a significant opportunity for the
future
of our waterfront and marina, one
that builds on
years of community conversation, council
direction, and a shared desire to
transform the marina
into a safe, vibrant, and sustainable
public space.
tonight's presentation marks
an early but important step, a
conceptual vision presented by
tucker sadler that begins to explore
what revitalization could look like.
it is important to note that while we
are asking the council to consider
a motion to
enter into negotiations with tucker
sadler, with the intent to come
back with an exclusive negotiation
agreement, this
is by no means a final decision for
development.
it is
merely a first step in exploring the vision and a
partnership with our developer.
should the council authorize this
next step,
there will be many months ahead of
working with the city
council and the community to collaborate
on how to make
the marina and the waterfront a destination
that serves all of our residents and
tourists alike.
we understand that the community will
have a lot of questions. We've actually received a lot so
far.
and there will be public
comments where those questions are going to
be shared. We encourage them all.
now and of course ongoing. We will
not be able to
answer everybody's questions tonight,
and so I just
please ask for folks' patience. We will
be tracking
all of your questions, and we
do hope in due time, in future conversations,
which
there will be many more public conversations,
that all of your
questions will get answered. Please
note
for folks that folks here tonight in
the
chamber, we have an faq that's over
to --
right behind me on the
table near the
entrance. So, please feel free to
take one before we go. I'm just going
to
hold it up so you can kind of get a feel for
what it looks like.
tomorrow morning, we'll also have
a dedicated web page up, and there, you
can
find information about the project,
and then we'll also
have an interest form, so if you want
to continue to follow
along, get updates, I would encourage you.
and
again, this will be tomorrow, front, you
know, on
the city website, city of martinez.org.
can we turn to the next slide? Thank you.
okay, so, before I
turn it over to community and
economic development director jill
bergman, I want to
start first with, you know, what we've
all envisioned for a
long time. So, the
marina and waterfront revitalization has
been a
longstanding goal of the city council
over many
decades, and that really continued
with this city
council over the last couple years.
so, one thing I just
want to share with everybody here
tonight, and folks in the audience
might not know, but the last couple
years at
our city council retreats, we've started
the
retreat off with an
icebreaker that is titled "what do you
want the
headline for martinez to be in the
next three to five years?
" and it's a fun exercise, because
we get lots
of innovative,
creative headlines, but what seems to
stick out the last
couple years is that it always tends to be about the marina.
so, I
just put a few options up here. These
are pulled exactly from
the notes. Martinez welcomes new waterfront
and marina.
martinez secures funding for waterfront restoration.
newly renovated martinez marina opens to the public.
so, I just thought I'd
start there. Again, reinforcing that this
is just been
a long vision for us to bring you --
bring forward an opportunity to revitalize the
marina.
so, with that said,
I'll go ahead and turn it over to jill
bergman.
>> thank you,
lauren. Good evening, mayor
and councilmembers and the public.
thank you for joining us tonight.
we're going to start
with why this project matters and as we
all know, the
marina and waterfront are key community
assets, and the council has
been committed to really making them
safe, vibrant, and welcoming for all.
and one of the things that I
would like to share with the community,
if they are not aware,
is there is a senate bill, which is
senate bill 1424, which was enacted
specifically
for martinez, and to support the
revitalization of the waterfront while
ensuring that the public
trust principles, which is
providing public access, recreation,
commercial
uses, and environmental stewardship,
remains central to how these state
lands
are used. So, that's kind of what we
look at when we look at
anything that we do at the marina moving
forward.
so, tonight, we're going to
have a discussion about a lot of items.
we're going to
be starting with the
infrastructure deterioration, how
that's really rapidly outpacing
the improvements that we have. Talk about
our long-term fiscal
sustainability for martinez's future.
we will
also acknowledge a pivotal changes
that have
happened in 2024, and how that really led us here tonight.
we will then see
the vision that tucker sadler will
be presenting, followed by having
a conversation
about what we're asking this evening
about the exclusive negotiation agreement
and the council making a motion to
enter into one, and then
we'll talk a little bit about the
benefits -- the fiscal benefits of this project.
so, right now, with the current conditions, I don't
think it's any
surprise to anyone about the challenges that
the marina faces.
this
infrastructure was built in the 1960s.
it was
a very valued asset at that time.
but we all know it's beyond the
useful life. Typically, marinas last
about 30 to 40 years. We're reaching about 65.
in addition to that, a lot of the
infrastructure that was
developed on the land, you have seen many closures
or removals over the years of some
key facilities.
the restaurants, the bait shop,
the amphitheater, dock f and actually,
recently, this week,
we are in the process of decommissioning
dock d
and e. There has been longstanding
deferred
maintenance in the marina, and a lot
of it comes back to, you
know, having the financial resources
to be able to continue
to maintain it in terms of what revenue
comes in. For those that don't know,
the
marina is a private enterprise fund,
which means the revenue
that's generated through the boats that are
out there and anything through the
leases and so forth
is what is put back into the operations of this --
of the marina itself.
and at times, we have to look
towards the general fund,
which lauren will touch upon. There
are also a great
amount of environmental challenges.
with sea level rise, we
are seeing much
more saltation come
into the marina, as well as more flooding.
we have king tides, as well as a lot
of negative tides as a result of that
as well. That creates a significant
stress on the infrastructure, as well as
dock access.
right now, the picture to your right
is an example
of this past year, the f3 has taken
the
liberty to try and create a temporary
dock to
be able to raise the elevation, so
during these
flooded times, the --so that boaters
could
actually access their boats four more
hours a day just by that one
simple thing. Where a lot of
times, the boaters would have to time
whether they're going in and out with the tides.
other
things that
we experience. Our
public works team --the tremendous
amount of illegal dumping that happens
at thethe at this point. We want
to touch on the future maintenance.
we know that the seawall
needs to be replaced. It's too short because of
the
sea level rise, as well as the break
water needs to repair.
it's in deterioration. And again,
a lot of the general
dredging, there's a lot of expectations
as to when that's going to happen,
and there's a tremendous amount of
funding that comes with it. Our last
dredging cost a million dollars, and
it only covered
the main dock fairway out to the ocean and a little bit of the
slip areas.
we have been in the process the last few
years, trying
to secure grant funding to be help
with the repair walls for the seawall, as well
as the replacement, but a lot
of those have fell short. As you know,
there's a lot of changes
when it comes to federal funding now,
so limitations and access to grant
funding is getting very slim.
general operations also become a major
stress with continual improvements that have to be
made daily.
I'm going to just go through this --
this one, I'm hoping I can --can you
hit the button
to make this go? There we go. Sorry.
so, this is just an example of, in
photos,
the deteriorating buildings, the closure
of some
of the infrastructure we have. Shows you a lot of
the illegal dumping that's happening,
things that people may or
may not see each day, the flooding
that occurs daily, and this is really
a good example of all the
saltation that is
in when you hit low tide, as well
as infrastructure that's no longer
being used. It really gives you a
snapshot
of behind the marina part as well.
so, we
have daylighted
over the fiscal year 25-'26 budget
process but
also in the last fiscal year's mid
year conversation, the
financial challenges of the status quo at
the marina.
and really, the message has been
how there is a significant growing
strain the marina is
placing on the city's general fund.
for those who might not
know, the general fund is what provides
our core
services, police, park maintenance, all
the
nuts and bolts. So, the marina enterprise
fund
is currently has a structural
deficit. The, you know, what is
a structural deficit? It means that
over a long period of time,
there's a trend where expenses
are exceeding revenues. For
those who have been in martinez many
generations, many years, you might
know that at one point, revenues
were coming in and it could fund things
like utilities
and operations, but that hasn't been the case for a
long time.
in addition,
over $1.7 million has
been used
from the reserves, a transfer from reserves to key
projects, and this is stemming over
really the last
few fiscal years. Those key projects,
most
notably, have included the dredging
that we did in fiscal
year 2023, along
with numerous other key and critical repairs.
but this fiscal year,
and into the future, we just adopted
our fiscal year
'25-'26 budget, and that
included a --just over a half million
dollar
loan from the general fund to the
marina enterprise fund,
again, to cover operations, utilities,
maintenance and repairs.
but going beyond into the next fiscal
year and for many more fiscal years
to go, at least over the next ten
years,
if we do nothing, we're looking at
$650,000 a
year out of the general fund, and
what does that look like if we keep
doing
that? We are looking at going below
our reserve goals by 2027.
and the challenge there, and
this is what we have been trying to
communicate over the last few months, is
that what
happens when you go below reserves?
we have to start cutting into
core services. So, positions,
job freezes, starts to affect park
maintenance, public safety, because
we just can't afford those basic services.
one thing I
will call out that even if nothing's
done over the next
couple years, regardless, we already
have to make an
estimated $1.2 million
in budget cuts over the next few years.
so,
again, just the --what we're trying to communicate here
is just a very challenging fiscal
picture for the city.
the status quo cannot remain, and
frankly, without putting us in a very
difficult position, but most importantly, we have a
revenue problem.
so,
even if you somehow cut off the --
or we
no longer have to loan the marina
any
money, and let's just say that somehow
went away,
we still are in a structural deficit because we
have a revenue problem.
so, there's still a need
for us to go out and generate new
revenue.
>> so,
what changed in 2024?
in 2024, the trust land use
plan that is required by the senate
bill 1424 was approved by
the council and subsequently approved
by the state lands commission and that
was in june. At that same
time, almar management, they gave
their 60-day
notice. They were managing the marina
for over 20 years and got bought
out by sun tech, and so they were
looking at liquidating some of the
things they were doing so
that, unfortunately, really abruptly
provided us
the --where we had to take over the
management operations.
one of the things
that that provide was us to be able
to gain a
clear view of the structural needs and
the
issues that were out there, not only
with how things were being operated
but just kind of getting a bigger
picture of, what do we
have ahead of us and how do we move forward?
and then, as well as, understanding
that we're not in the
position to run a marina, so we needed to
be able to start the
search to be able to find a marina
management partner.
while I enjoyed being a harbor master
for four months, I didn't
want to do it any longer. So,
the search for the marina management
began, and f-3, one of our
partners, who's also in
the audience, the harbor master,
they were selected to come on and
stabilize the operations
and if you have been out there lately,
they're doing a wonderful job
with refreshing and doing their best
to keep the marina going forward.
but as part of this operator outreach,
there's a
lot that we learned, because part
of this process was just
initially, again, trying to find someone to
be an operator.
well, we reached out to about ten
firms, five that
really kind of were viable and interested
in
having conversations, and they ranged
from being just
marina operators to also marina operators
and developers,
and through those conversations, much of
the information we received was about
the marina
itself. There was concerns about,
oh, you
know, taking on that type of a liability
and
responsibility where they weren't
interested at that point. They were
interested when we
started looking forward to maybe potentially redeveloping it.
a lot of this led to conversations
like, okay, what would
that look like? Is this something
that
your company would be interested in
doing?
and we received a wide range of feedback
related to the
financial feasibility and that primarily
was really led back to
the seawall and the break water and
the dredging. You
know, with that project being 25 to
$30
million to really, truly do all of
that, it was something that a development
partner couldn't take on.
that would be something that the city would
have to be responsible for in some
way for
them to entertain the idea of moving
forward. There was also a discussion
about
the trust land use plan itself and
how it really had
a limited scope. There was just a
minimal amount of commercial, so when
you typically are going in
and putting a $50 million new marina
in, I want landside development that's
going to support that activity and be
an attracter for people want to come here.
with that
feedback, that really was eye-opening
for us, and
it continued kind of some of the conversations.
one of the operator
and developer for water marina development
was safe harbor, and
they expressed the most initial interest,
even when they were out visiting another
property. They chose to come down.
they met with city staff. We looked at
the property
together with them, talked through the
trust land use permit. Or
excuse me, plan. Talked through, just
in general, the community, the assets that
are already down
there, how we wanted to really look
at how can
we, you know, build in with these
assets and also be respectful of everything.
and they showed initial interest and
went back and did
a pro forma. They said, let's take
a look
at it, we'll evaluate it and see if
it's something we can do. When they came
back to
us, they really said, you know, this
property is a spectacular
gem, but we really can't make it work
with just
the marina alone. It needs
landside development, and they said
that's something we don't do, but we
have a partner that we have done that
with, and that
is where the introduction to tucker
sadler began. And so, we
said, all right, let's have that conversation.
so,
we, again, that was -- it was all
kind
of this organic, you know, process of
trying to find out
more information to see where we're
at, see what asset we had, and see
where we could potentially go with
the vision for the marina.
so, with meeting as we met with tucker sadler,
same
thing, they kind of looked at everything
and said, you know, this is just a
spectacular gem as well.
but they wanted to really study it
further.
they wanted to study the community, they
wanted to study the plan, give
an honest assessment
back to the city. So, they took everything
to heart, and several months later,
came back to the city and said, we have
a vision.
we have something to present to you.
it's not necessarily what was
outlined in the trust plan. It takes
into account all
the things that were incorporated in
the plan, and it builds on
them, and it builds on, you know,
a vision that we see for this
community that we think would work
perfect for the community and being
size appropriate for the community
and
creating a transformational opportunity.
with
that, we kind of evaluated
it and knew it was time to bring it
forward to the council. With that,
we went
forward to the council in a closed
session to
have that discussion, and then the
developer did a presentation to
share with the council. That's one of
the reasons why
we're here tonight.
at that particular meeting, the council
was very
much about transparency, wanting to make
sure the community was involved as
part of this process and didn't want
to continue on the conversation with
the closed session. So, that
really allowed us to, you
know, move forward and tonight is
pretty much that
where we are moving forward to kind
of share that vision
with
the community. And also talk about
what
a public-private partnership would
look like and why
it's important. We all know the marina
is beloved, and the waterfront is
beloved, and it's declining. So, what
can we do
to really enhance that? We know that
the status quo is
unsustainable, and it really does
create a burden for the general plan.
the city cannot fully revitalize this
on
our own with grants or bond measures.
that's something
that is just, as we all know, that
takes a
lot of time and typically is piecemealing
things, and given
the scope of this project and the
decay on the infrastructure, it's not
something we can do on our own.
and the council was very much, as
part of we were going through the
budget
process, kind of recognized that as
well, and that's why we
started talking through the conversations of
public-private partnership.
and really, what that does,
it helps offer a way forward for the
community. It
brings investment, activation, and there's a lot of
long-term benefits that
are associated with it. As well as
private funding. One of the things that
was very
attractive about the conversations
we had
was this is something that would be a
private investment. There would be
no city
subsidies, initially, and that's a
very rare thing to have when
it comes to a partnership. As I mentioned
earlier, about a
lot of the conversations of the city
wanting to --coming
up with a lot of funding to help offset some
of the cost, this
allows us to go forward with a process where
we're not having to come up with the upfront
parts.
it also reduces the
risk and keeps the public benefit at the
center of the
project, which is really what is required
under the
senate bill 1424 that granted us
this lantd in
d in the first place. It's always important for me to
share that with folks because many people
think that we own the land
outright and we can do whatever we want
with it. We don't. It's been entrusted
to us. So, with that, and why everyone
is here tonight, I would like
to turn this overover
tucker sadler.
greg mueller. And have him walk you
all through the vision which he shared
with us and wants to share now with the community.
>> we can't -- thank you. >> there we go.
mayor zorn, council members, city
staff,
and community members, it's a
pleasure to be here tonight to let you
know
what our vision is for the marina,
but I have to pause, and I have to
say that the
vision has changed as early as about
ten minutes ago.
and that vision
has changed because two
young men walked up and said they need a soccer
field.
so, we got to figure out how to get these kids a soccer field.
so, that is the type of partner we are.
we are here to be
part of the community. We're not here
to impose something on
the community. We're here to create
something that is
going to be successful for all of us.
and that is what we are looking to do.
I want to be very clear about one
thing and that is, this is
a partnership, and we are not
owners.
we will not be owners of the land.
the land stays with the city because
the city has it in
trust. We will be long-term leaseholders.
as we're talking about this,
and as you're thinking about this,
we will not
be owners. Not of the marina, not of
the development.
we are the ones that are going to
develop it. We're going
to operate it through a lease. That's
how this whole partnership will work.
tucker sadler,
I am the ceo, design principal
and owner. I'm accompanied tonight
with
my partner and wife, diane
mueller. I have the privilege of being
in a
company that's been around for 68
years. I've owned the company for 23.
with my other business partner, art
castro, who has
been with the firm for 48 of the 68 years.
longevity is important in our firm,
and it's because of
the way we handle all the projects
that we take on.
we have development experience on waterfronts throughout the
country.
we helped reshape
the naval shipyards in washington, d.c.,
into
what it
is today. And the progress
we made out in washington, d.c. , all of a
sudden, the
nationals put their stadium next to
our
development. It spawns other things
to happen. And that's
what we are trying to do here is be
a
catalyst for the future of
martinez. We've
worked from one area --one side of
the
country all the way
to hawaii and as well as here in california.
we are used to working with
government agencies. Whether it's
fish
and wildlife or park
districts, the city's understanding how we have to be
partners in everything that we're
doing. We are advocates
for the community, and we want to
be a partner in the development.
our design approach is something that
we look at
from a standpoint of economic stability.
we
want to look at what is
going to be sustainable. Sustainable
in two ways.
one,
being environmentally friendly. We're
going to
be proposing a development that is
going to be as close to net zero as we
can get. We're going to
create ourour energy to help
run this project. We
think it's important. We're also going
to employ some new things that
help clean up the bay water.
as part of the redevelopment of the marina.
those are
things that we take to heart, because
those are the things that make it
be sustainable from
an environmental standpoint. But from
an economic standpoint, we need to
be able to put something forward
that creates an engine that supports
the
community, that supports the things
that need to be
maintained over the length of the development.
and gets to a point where
we don't have a marina that we're
all sitting here talking about how do we keep it from closing?
and
unfortunately, we're in a position
where if we don't do something --
well, actually,
everything that's in there right now
is going to have
to come out in a couple years.
I already broached on some of
this, our experience in working on the
waterfront. We are
the architects for the
rady shell in san diego. That
was a 17-year partnership working with
the city,
the port, the state, to turn a public
park
into a performance venue, and if any
of you guys have had the chance to
be
down to san diego to listen to a concert,
I
suggest you go and listen to it.
there's things that we incorporated for
the community to allow for a no-cost option
for people to hear the concert.
there is no
high fences around that
performance venue so that you can
walk around
the venue as the performance is going
on, and you can see the performance and
hear the performance.
as part of the agreement we made
with the coastal commission to allow us
to have that out on
the water. Those are the agreements
that we make with
the agencies to make sure that the
public gets
access and it's
not just one contingency of the
public that has access to it, that everyone
has access. That's important to us.
safe harbor is the reason why
we're here. They came out and took
a look at the marina, made an assessment.
they asked me
to come look at it and confirm their assessment,
which I did.
which means the
marina needs to be a total redo, as well
as
the seawalls. Now, part of the reason
why we have the silt infiltration is
because the
way it's designed, it actually brings
silt
in, and that's why the dredging now
is going to happen and we're looking
at ways that we can redo the seawalls
to avoid that in
the future, to give the longevity and a
better boating experience to the marina.
but in order for the marina to be
successful, there's got to be a reason to be there.
and that means development.
and so, they asked me to come take a
look,
which I did. And started to look at
different plans, which is what I'm
going to show you tonight is what we
came up with.
this is the
type of thing that will get a developer like
safe harbor to come out and invest
money in redoing the marina.
why is it important to have a design-
led team that's also a developer?
I'll go right to
the bottom line. We
know how to gain consensus through participation.
we shoulder design charets. We'll
be
doing that to show you how we can
incorporate everything and
be respectful of all the issues with
the
environment and trails and how we
connect and
how we weave this into the site that is out there
currently.
now the fun stuff.
there's a very rich history
here, and when I very first came here
and sat and
had lunch in downtown, it
reminds me of the town I grew up in
during the summers in minnesota. Spent
time in battle
lake, minnesota. It has the same cultural
feel. It
has the same warmth, the same
vibe that makes you want to stay and have fun and linger.
and that's what martinez has.
and it's got a rich historyhistory
sports, with joe
dimaggio. It's politically connected
with the way that john muir and
his writings and
his contributing to
what we have
nationally, and you've got great,
great roots, and we want to build
off of that. In fact, I want to figure
out a
way to get
the jolting joe displayed down at
the new marina. It
needs to be down there, down by the
water. It needs to be here in martinez.
we start out by taking a look,
and we look at our market, and we
look at what is
available to us. Where are connections?
how can we get
transportation to happen? Is there a
way to get a ferry service here that
could
connect to the marina? That's important to me.
as you look
at a marina, and you look at the land and
you look at where activities
come from, if we can draw
people into martinez by having a ferry
system, it will be more
successful to martinez, to our waterfront,
to our downtown, to everything that
is in the
future of martinez.
we also take a look at what is around
from hotels, amphitheaters, performance
venues, things that are operating and
where's the hole and what can we
fill to make this be successful? We
don't want to
put something down there that is being
done somewhere else.
we want to make --we want to make
creative
and have that opportunity
to really tie together
a successful place for martinez. Not
just the waterfront, but for
martinez.
when I first came across the bridge,
I flew in from sacramento and drove
down from sacramento.
this aerial that is there, when I
drove
across that bridge, and I saw this
marina from the bridge, I said, this
is
the calling card.
this is a successful place to do a
nice development that really is the
calling card for martinez. Come see
us, come be down here. You
can see it so clearly, and it's going to
be
an attraction that won't even need signage.
people
will just turn off the road and come
down there because of
that great view and the ability to activate the
waterfront.
you got
to remember, one of the things with
state lands is our responsibility is
to activate the waterfront by bringing
people to the water. That's what we're going to do.
we're
going to find ways to bring all ages
down to the waterfront. We want to
activate this because
when we activate it, it becomes some
place that's
safer, more fun,
and enjoyable for the entire population of martinez,
region, and the state.
and I say the state because we want to
do some things that are
going to draw
people here and make it
available to have the sport fields,
which we're not going to touch
in this portion of it, except I do
have to figure out
how to get a soccer field out here.
but
understanding that what regionally can happen and what
can happen at
a state level, to have tournaments
out here. I mean, most of the kids
play club sports now. We want to
be able to draw from nevada, from
arizona,
have tournaments out here on these
ball
fields, which are phenomenal.
but have a development that will support that.
and that's what
we're looking at doing. We want to
make it be the place for
people to come. We
did take a look at the tulip, and
we looked at the development opportunities
with it, and we started putting numbers
and if you look at this, you can see --
and I'm going
to advance to the next slide --actually,
you
know what? I take it back. I want to back up one slide.
when we look at this from an aerial
view, and you look at
the great natural preserve that is
to our right and to our left
of
this marina, that is phenomenal that we
have that already on
the water. There's trails and things that
we can connect to.
but what --if you look at this
and how it's highlighted, and you
look
at martinez, this is where the downtown touches the
water.
this is the
one spot in here where we actually
get
to touch the water. That's important
because we're surrounded by nature.
we're going to engage nature,
and we're going to touch that water,
and that's important. That is
one of the things that I was
so impressed with is that here's an opportunity.
surrounded by
nature, and an opportunity that we're
saying, here, this is where we want
to
touch the water. This is where we want to have
responsible development.
so, when we looked at the
tulip and looked at what
was
available, there's not enough
buildings out here to support the
redevelopment of a
marina, to support bringing people
out
here for --to activate your
ball fields. We need to have
a little bit more to attract people.
that the developer of the marina can have
an --
have amenities there that attract
new boats,
new
boaters, bringing back fishing tournaments,
things that
are going to make the marina active.
they need more
down there than just what we have.
this is a great starting point. It
hits all
the elements that we wanted to talk
about or wanted to touch on.
we just have to do it at a bigger level.
and we need to
take some of these parking lots and
reshape them and reuse them in a different way.
the things that I took from the tulip
as well is that we want to be engaging.
engaging in
the community, engaging in people
coming down there. We want
to engage the waterfront. Again, it's
about
engaging the waterfront. That is one
of
our responsibilities of this tidal
land is to be able
to touch that water and bring people
down there, give them
access to the water. That's what we're trying to do.
we want to elevate it. We want to
elevate the experience
to a point where people are drawn
here to come here,
to have festivals here, to enjoy
this marina and
really celebrate the asset that marina
gives to martinez.
we want to be
playful. We want to provide opportunities
for all ages, whether it's through
pickleball, paddleball, bringing the
kids down.
I know --I heard somebody complain tonight about the noise
of pickleball.
I agree with you. It needs to be in
a spot where
the noise isn't going toto interrupt people's daily lives.
but there's another sport that's out
there that is taking the world by
storm,
and it's called paddle.
it's played with a tennis ball. It's
played
in a court that's surrounded by glass
walls so
the noise didn't go out of it and
it's a softer
sound. I think what we're going to
see is we're going
to see pickleball start to move to paddle.
it's played on the same-
size court. It's almost identical.
it's just a better
sound, and it's more friendly to the
environment and to the community.
we want to find
playful playful for the kids to be
down there and all ages to be down at
the
water by activation. Whether it's
just
sitting in
an adirondack chair in a beach that
we'll create that is next to the
water that you can sit next to and enjoy
the setting
or a restaurant or
spend a night, do a night in
martinez, even though you live here.
come spend a night down at the marina.
we want to activate this marina.
this is how we believe we're going to be able to do that.
we are going to need to
reshape the things that are
out there.
the yacht club and the sea scouts and
the boat maintenance area, we're going
to need to redo them.
we are going to find spots for them to
be
relocated, and if you look on the
map,
number 5 is the sea scouts and yacht club.
we're going
to combine them together. They belong together.
that's where we're teaching
kids how to use boats and be a part
of a
yachting experience, and it has direct
access down to the docks to the water.
we
are going to also create
a boat storage area, which
is number 25, which is a
unique opportunity. It stacks the
boats that are in the marina that
may not get used all the
time, but need to be --want to still
be down there. There's a
place to store them above and out of
the water
so they're not deteriorating in the
water, but they're there so
when somebody wants to activate
them, they call, we take the boat off
the rack, take it
down, and we put it in the water for them and
have it sitting at
the dock, waiting for them when they
get down here. We
keep the boats from deteriorating in
the water,
and we have them in an area that can
be stored next to
a renovated maintenance facility,
so the maintenance
people can actually help maintain the boats in the
marina.
as we take a look at --as we
start to go down towards the entry, you
can
see that we've repositioned the
road coming in. We've widened the loop going
towards the water.
we are
going to put a amphitheater in
the middle. We have taken a look at
the market.
the market
would support a amphitheater. We have
partnerships with promoters that are
interested in
being out here. We want --if we
do it right, we will be
able to create a --an experience that
can be
used throughout the entire
year.
the amphitheater also provides an
opportunity at lunch. If you
want to go down there and sit in the
amphitheater and have your lunch,
and
somebody happens to have the notion
to get up and put on a little concert
and play
their guitar or put on
music, it's an opportunity for the
community to have
an element that can be activated on
their own, not
just by the concerts, but have an
opportunity to be involved in that.
there will be restrooms in
there. There will be
spots for restaurants that will serve
both the development around, as well
as the amphitheater.
as we go through the amphitheater
towards the marina, you can
see that that there a u-shaped buildings,
three
of them. And they're that way from
a standpoint
of what we're trying to do is brace
the energy coming off the water and it's in
an embrace as if you're getting hugged.
if you think about somebody embracing
you, their arms come out.
that's what we're doing. We're embracing
that opportunity.
we're embracing that energy.
we're bringing that into the development.
our connections to the pathways around in
the nature walks are going to be coming
through, right through this new
boardwalk. We're going to create
a boardwalk. There isn't a boardwalk
currently. We're
looking at 25 to 30 feet
of boardwalk that people can go walk
next to
the water, look at the boats, enjoy
the boats, sit
and have fun on the waterfront without doing anything.
there will be restaurants. There will
be shops.
there will be things that support the marina, but
there will be things that support
the life
of martinez, and that is what we're
trying to capture all in that energy.
those elements
that create that hug are the
hotels. We have a full
service hotel that will have meeting
space, ballrooms, opportunity for
people to have events down there.
we have two
extended stay hotels. The purpose
of that, having extended
stay hotels, is
that there are workers that come here
every week that go
to a neighboring
community to stay. We want them to
stay right here. Martinez
has something to give these workers
besides just a
job. This is a place to live and play,
and we want to
make sure that they stay right here,
and we have that opportunity.
and then, on the weekends, here come
those tournaments. Here they come.
we're going
to bring people in here for tournaments.
we're going to get them to stay here.
the basketball courts just got
redone. The volleyball opportunities
are right here.
we have camps. If you're going to
have camps, you got to have places
for families to
stay. This is an opportunity. There are
not
currently a lot of hotel rooms
in martinez. We need to fill that
void, and we believe that this will be
that void.
we are also putting in what we call
the plunge. If
any of you guys have been down to san
diego, there's an
opportunity on the waterfront called the plunge.
lot
of people don't like to get in the ocean.
they don't like to get in there, but
they like to be down by it. This is
a
indoor/outdoor facility that has
a swimming pool in it that does
swimming lessons, junior lifeguard
training,
but then it also has a
unique recreational opportunity inside.
it's got an obstacle course with blow-
ups that kids run up and down around
it and have fun and you can never
get in the place because it's always booked.
it's always
bringing people down there. The walls
of this building
open up so we have fresh air flow
through it.
it opens up to
sand lots that are on the outside.
they
have
adirondack chairs. They could have pickleball
or paddle ball
courts adjacent to it.
this all
is made
possible by trying to
understand what economic driven
responsible development is act. And
that's what we
are proposing. I'm going to show you one
other
item, and I can --I can't quite read.
I think it's 12 on the
bottom.
that is another sand beach. That is
away from the plunge. This is more
by the park. This is a beach that
allows you to
sit next to the water
in an adirondack chair.
maybe there's another beach volleyball area
there, but it's more of
a passive beach that allows you to
have your own time down there.
we want to provide activities that are
both passive and
active, so we can handle all the
needs of the community. One of the
things I
want to point out is that this is 70
acres that we are looking at, and we are only looking
at
touching the part of the waterfront that has already been
developed.
it happens to be a parking lot
now. Or buildings that are being torn
down and removed. We're not
going out into the preserve to touch that.
we are going to
actually augment the trails that are
in there
and make it more accessible. But we
are only touching the part that has
already
been touched. And we're only
doing it on 22 acres worth
of development. That's 32%.
we're
leaving almost
60% of the property -- I mean
70%. Sorry. Almost 70% of the property in
open space.
that's what we're trying --that's
what we're doing. We're not trying to
be --we're not trying to overdevelop
this. We're trying to be something
that is an asset to martinez.
the events that can
happen out here in the amphitheater can
be festivals that also touch downtown.
we want to be a
partner to downtown. We want to have
things
going back and forth where we're having
festivals in downtown
and at the waterfront and they're
two different elements of the same
festival. We want
to promote martinez from the marina
side and
downtown. We want to be very good
partners because
one, if it's good for one spot, it's
good for both.
if downtown's having a festival, it's
going to be good for the
waterfront. If waterfront's having
a festival, it's good for downtown.
and vice versa. If we
can have more people be here on the
weekends and stay here, it's good for all of us.
when we talk about access, what you're
seeing in
magenta is the access of how the cars
are moving through there.
the light blue
is the pedestrian paths that are going
through.
you can see that there's arrows going
in underneath.
we are going to take care of sea level
rise in a different way, in a way that I
have successfully done
it up and down the coast, by one --
we're going to create a little bit
of dirt so
it comes up. We're not taking the
dirt off
site. We're going to use it, and then
we're
going to put a parking garage that
provides the
opportunity to lift the development up.
a parking garage that will not get
flooded like the parking areas that are out there now.
those are the ways
that we develop in an environmentally
sensitive way. So we create
ways toto take unneeded trips of dirt
and hauling things away from the site,
but finding ways to use it
and keep it on site, keep
it where it is. The other thing that
we're going to be looking at, and
it's something that concerned me and
mainly because my son-in-law is a fire
chief down in san diego.
access out here. If there's a train and
the
access is cut off and there's something that
happens, whether we're
having an event at the fields or down
owe marina,
and we can't safely get
there, that's a crime. So, we are
going to find
a way to have a full
access at all times to this waterfront
so we don't
get cut off. It's important to us.
it's
important to the safety of the bay
front for
martinez, as well as all the activities that
are on the other side of that
train track.
we don't do
anything without using artists, and we
want to get
public artists involved. We
want to create opportunities to display
things,
whether it's a visual
art, whether it is a art that is
done through planting. We want to
find
different ways to have different elements
throughout the development,
and we have our own art walk that
people can
come down. If you come down at noon,
just walk through the art and enjoy
your lunch and sit in the amphitheater.
we want to create --or sit at
the beach and watch the water. We want to
create an opportunity to involve the
local artists. There's a great group
of artists
in this area, and we want to get them involved.
it's important to us.
art,
culture, that brings energy. That's
what we're wanting to include in this development.
this is what the marina looks like today.
you can see that one of
the docks is going in. This is an
older aerial, because there's more docks that are in
the water right now.
and you see a slew of parking.
we want to create that
and make that be something that is
more active, and this is what it
would look like. From the water
aerial, you can see how the hotels
embrace that
energy. The boardwalk is wide. Everything
is stepped
back from the water. To allow
for us to have better access for more
people at
the water.
and the connections to the preserves
on both sides, you can see the development
steps away from that to allow that
connection to happen near the water.
this is looking
at it from an --another view.
looking the opposite direction.
this is what it would look like from the other side.
the amphitheater,
the hotels,
the plunge, you can see
how it
very sensibly touches the
property and allows there to be more opportunity
for open space. You know, we
concluded somethingsomething
the development squaresquare that
is really, truly open space, and that is the
amphitheater.
that amphitheater's really
open space. It's actual grass. It
just means
that it is an active
and an opportunity for somebody to activate an open
space in a different way.
so, if we
take that out of what we're touching,
we're over 70%
of open space.
nothing is set in stone. This
is not meant to be --here's what it
is. This is our first blush of what
this could look like. You're looking at
the boardwalk.
you're looking at some of the shops that
are going to be down near
the boardwalk that support the marina, some
of the
restaurants, the hotels in the backdrop.
underneath the canopy, the one
building you're seeing, that is
reimagining the
boat master's building. We want to
make that into a building that's
accessible to the public through --
whether it's
a restaurant or
another opportunity, but we want to
reuse that building because it's out
over the water.
we think it needs to be something
that more people can
be out over the water, because it's
the only one that we have
that currently breaks
that barrier and is out slightly over
the water. We want to reuse
that, and we want to celebrate it with
everyone.
this is a view from the marina
looking back. That new
envisioned restaurant is on the left-
hand
side. You can see that there's multiple
decks. There's
multiple places to view the water,
to view
the development, to view up and
down the martinez coastline.
the reimagined marina
a little bit further out. You can
see the plunge. You can see the
hotels. You can see the things are
stepping
away from the water, that the buildings
near the
water are lower scale, and the higher
buildings are
placed behind them. Setting a backdrop up.
little bit further down, going out to
the jetty, that is going to
be improved. That boardwalk's going to
be improved all the way down there.
there will be a fence that we are
going to put in there because we do
not want people climbing down into
the
new rivetment that's going to be in
there to hold the newnew up. We don't
want people climbing down
in there and getting hurt, so we want to
be able to provide the opportunity
to see it, to
walk by it, but protect and
be mindful of all people that are
out there, because as
we get more people out there, it's
about accessibility,
and it's about accessibility to people
with all abilities.
which means
if there's somebody out
there that is blind, there's a barrier
so they do not go beyond where they're supposed to
go.
those are the things that we think about.
those are the things that we want
to make sure are included
in what we're doing.
this is an idea of the amphitheater.
you notice
the boat shape of it. It's
taking the boats, stacking them three
together to
create an amphitheater. This is a
marina
that brought us here, and we're going
to celebrate that marina in
a way of a form that will produce
sound, energy, fun,
excitement, hopefully
get the shakespeare festival to come back here
and be
a part of this amphitheater throughout the year.
I was talking
about how we make the parking work.
this is a quick
cross-section through it where you
can see we've
already lifted the earth all the way down
by the water.
we've got to lift everything up to
get it out of
the sea level rise, and then we use
the parking to
help create some of that lift
and that's what we're doing, and the parking goes
beneath the hotels.
that's
important, because when you put something
below, it gives you
an opportunity to do something
above it. It gives you the
opportunity to have more activities
above, and the cars are
no longer in your sight and they're
no longer an
impediment to what we, as a community, want to be able to
do.
this is the video. I'm going to be quiet and let
this play.
>> this is just
reimagining what that waterfront can
be and how martinez can start to touch the
water.
I want to end the presentation. I know
I'm
getting a little longwinded, but I'll
tell
you, I'm excited about the opportunity.
I'm excited to be here.
I'm excited about
the way that this community engages
one
another and the way
that they look out for what's best for
the community, and that
was true today when those two young
men
came up. Huge.
I wish more young young men stand up and ask for the things
they need.
that's part of the benefits of what we
are
about. We're about getting something
for all ages. We're
about creating things that are equitable,
accessible. We're about creating opportunities that
are
going to create revenue for the city.
to have the ability to have
more safety, more police, more
fire, more access, more
activities that really celebrate what it
means to live here in martinez.
we're going to be stewards
of nature, because we are going to
find a way to
work together, and as we touch the
water, touch those
parks that are next to us in a way
that creates better access and better
opportunities to really
enjoy that preserve that has
already been done on the water. Compliments to you for already
having that in place.
innovation. Innovation through the
way that we create energy. Innovation in
the
way that we store boats that are more
environmentally friendly and softer
and make it be more viable.
we are going to
be able to have
future-ready infrastructure in place
and make this be the place it needs to be.
this is just a start.
the na is just an engagement of us
talking with the city as to how we
get through this process.
it's been described to me
as, we like each other, so okay, let's
talk about dating a little bit.
let's see if we really like each other
before we get married, and
that's really what it is. That's really
what this is all about. It is an
opportunity to see if we can find
a way to work with the community,
work with the city, to come up with
something that is going to be
viable for all to get this done. It's
going to take three to five
months to get there. During that time,
we're going to start doing
all of our studies on the environmental side.
there's a bunch of studies that have to be done.
and we will
begin doing that from the transportation
side of
it, which includes the ferry, but
also includes
how we get access
across and over to the --over to the water side.
and then, we want to be ready to
have, as we get our development agreement put
together, we want to get our plans pulled together
so that everything's reaching the
point at the same time that we can pull
a building
permit and get started immediately.
we are privately funding
this, and the one thing I know about
private money is it does not
like to sit still.
that's why it will move faster. We
don't have to
wait for a grant to come in. We don't
have to wait for the state
to decide on whether or not we're going to get that
grant.
the private money wants to be put
in place, because it wants
to go to work, and that's what we're going to be doing.
I want to thank you
guys, mayor, council,
city, and the community, for letting
me present tonight, and thank you
for the opportunity.
>> thank you. So, what happens next?
greg
mentioned about the exclusive negotiating
agreement and what that means. This
kind
of gives you a little bit of an idea
of what that means. It
really grants the developer exclusive
rights to negotiate for the city,
so
we're not going to be going out and talking
to
anybody anybody else. It would be
us having the conversation together.
it's important to know it's not a
final deal. It is just the first
step to exploring whether this public
partnership will work, and it's feasible and can happen.
and
typically, what's in an ena is it
establishes
the preliminary roles, the responsibilities,
the deliverables and the timelines
that both parties have to
agree upon. Its
also requires both parties to negotiate
in good faith. It sets clear
milestones but does not obligate the
city to move forward with the final
project and typically, like greg
had shown in the last slide with the
timeline, then after that is signed and
agreed upon, there's that time frame between them
before you get to
the development agreement and that's
been going through the environmental
process and going through all those
things to say, all right, is this
going to work? Until
you get to the development agreement,
and that development agreement
really is the next phase of negotiating,
and
it defines all the specific project
terms, the
public benefit,
the long-term commitments, and what
would be in the operating
lease in which would be managed for
this property and the
expectations the city would have holding
the developer and leaseholder responsible for that
in the future.
so, that's something that comes a little bit later.
it's important
to note that as part of this whole
process,
like we had mentioned throughout this
presentation,
that should the council make a motion
to go forward
with exclusive negotiating, the community will
be a part of this whole process throughout the entire process.
we're just at
the beginning. And as you can see, it's a very
exciting
beginning, but we're just at the beginning
and there's still a lot of unknowns
and ways in which we need to move forward with that.
go ahead.
>> there's a
good reason why I brought my partner
with me, because she
goes, you didn't mention the unions.
we do so much work on the waterfront that it is, to me,
it's second nature.
we
can't do anything on the water without the unions.
everything
that we do is going to have
union labor. It's going to have agreements
with the unions,
and martinez is a union town. There's
no way we are going
to come in here and not do it with
unions.
I apologize for not mentioning that,
but I think
my partner for reminding me that, hey,
you
didn't say anything about the agreements we're going to have
with the unions. So, I apologize.
>> and I appreciate you
saying that, because it also, I mean,
again, as part of the conversations,
these
are things, when we talked about this with
the developer, about what's important to
our community, and this is a union
town, and that was something
we brought up really early on and
it didn't
faze greg at all.
it's something that is expected. And that was
the same when
we talked about all the other leaseholders that
were out there. How do we embrace
it
and pull it together? Thank you for pulling that
together or mentioning that.
I know greg touched upon a
lot of the fiscal impacts but it's
supposed to be benefits.
he talked about the fiscal benefits
that cities receive from
things like this. A couple ways in
which this helps, really, with the
revitalizing and how it benefits our
community even
more is really eliminates our debt,
eliminates
the debt that we have currently to
the city. Allows us to pay ourselves back
for that debt.
which is super critical, because then
that money can be redirected to the
other things that we love and appreciate
within the community.
the
developer, you know, would fund the
full marina and waterfront reconstruction,
and that includes the dredging and
the seawall, and then we'd work out
through our
agreement the terms of what responsible
share the city would take on
later and what that means is typically
what happens is
you --they put everything up front
and then as part of that process,
as part of our lease terms, we give
them --we give
reduced rent to allow them a little
bit of time to make some of that money back.
it's
a way in which the city is being financially
responsible, not having to
put that money up front. It comes at the end.
to be able to be our commit and our share toward something like
this.
one thing
that's very important for our community is it
generates
new revenue for this city. Like lauren had
mentioned, we are really at a point
where we do not have new
revenue and it is not in the interest
of the council to be going back and
taxing the voters more.
so, this
really --it generates a revenue source
and it comes through the source
of transient occupancy tax for the
hotels, sales
tax, possessory interest tax, and then the lease payments
as well.
and this,
again, if you know of all these taxes,
they also have
help augment other types of uses
when it comes to, like, our county and our fire and so
forth.
it also will support,
like I mentioned, the loan repayment of
the $1.7 million state loan that we have had for years.
that we
really want to be able to take care
of and be fiscally responsible. Another
thing the revenue
helps is it allows us to look at the
core services in
which we provide. We hear a lot about
wanting more ability to
have more police, have more officers that
are going to be downtown, be more
proactive, you know,
maintaining our parks and our infrastructures
and so
forth. When you have a source of revenue coming
in like
this, it really allows the council and
the community to look forward and how you can program that.
and
it really will also foster future economic vitality
throughout martinez.
typically, these
types of transformational catalyst
projects will
spur more interest in
our property owners downtown, revitalizing their property.
the vacant lots getting built on.
it also will spur a lot of interest
in retailers that we want to attract
to this community that people have
been asking, for trader joe's and
certain ones to come. There has to
be a
"there" there for certain companies
to come, and they
have certain profiles and segments.
these lead
to opportunities for our community and
the future of our community and not
just for us.
when we look at these types of things,
we're not looking at what's in it
for us now? We're looking at it for the
generations that are still yet to come.
so, this is an opportunity, as part
of this transformational
project, to really look at that. So,
with that, the recommendation that we
have tonight is
to ask the city council to make a
motion to authorize
the story enter into negotiations
for an
exclusive negotiating agreement with
tucker sadler.
and at this time, we
are available, both staff as well
as tucker sadler is available for
any questions you might have.
as before
you go into public comment and then
just kind
of reiterating what lauren had mentioned.
I know there's going to be a
lot of excitement and questions and
comments that are --we're
not going to be able to answer tonight.
we have eve, who's going to
be transcribing everything for us,
so it will be something that we can
have as part of this process when we start this process.
the qr
code leads us to the website, so we
would definitely encourage
you to share the website with others
should this motion go forward. We will have
a website that will
be dedicated to this effort so that everyone will always know
what's happening.
and so, I'll turn it back over to the council.
and the
mayor.
>> great. Thank you. Thank
you, jill and lauren
and greg for your participation and
the presentation this evening.
I know that the
council chambers are full this evening
of members of the public listening in, and
I assume many of them have questions.
we will follow
the normal process of what we do on
all
of our council meetings. We'll start
with questions from the
council, and then I'll open it up
to public
comment, and then we'll come back to the
council for thoughts and general comments.
I did want to reiterate the one thing that
was brought up kind of at the very
end of the presentation, and so I wanted to
reiterate that.
as we're asking
questions, as we're providing comments, I
wanted to
remind everyone what is on the table
this evening, what's on
the agenda this evening, is to consider
a motion
to authorize the city to enter
into negotiations for an exclusive negotiating agreement
with tucker sadler.
you are, of course, welcome
to ask questions about the design.
you're welcome to ask questions about
any phase of the project but I want
to make sure it's very clear to everyone,
we're
not approving a design tonight.
we're not approving a
development agreement tonight. We are only
potentially approving that staff can
move
forward with negotiating an
exclusive negotiating agreement. So,
so, we're very early on in the process
and this is just the first of many steps before we
get to what you see today.
so, with that
said, would anyone on council like
to kick off questions for staff or tucker
sadler?
>> sure. I just have a comment.
and a couple of questions. I don't want
to hog all the time.
I really want to hear what everybody else
has to say, but I really want
to thank the staff, because that was
a very straightforward report, and
they did all
the heavy lifting as far as daylighting all
the information and getting it out
there and getting us
educated and bringing a lot of you
into
city hall to get you educated on
what we want to do and all the
different options. I
really want to thank greg and diane
for being here, especially diane bringing
up that this is uniontown, usa, so
I really want to thank you
for making that important. There's
a lot
of stuff that I would like to ask
questions about, but really, as the
mayor just stated, what we're here
for today is to go into an
ena, right? And if you read --I hope
all
of you got a little --
right? And I just want to read it
one more time,
just because it's super clear and very easy to
understand.
what does an ena do?
it outlines preliminary terms, roles,
responsibilities, and deliverables
for each party. Establishes key milestones,
so that's
super important, and a timeline for
negotiations, which
you guys all saw the slide, I think it
was 21. I'm not sure. But it commits
both parties
to a good faith negotiation but does
not
obligate either side to enter into
a
final agreement. Right? So, I think
as greg was so
good and eloquent about talking about
this
project, it feels, like he said,
it changed ten minutes into us, and it's
a
living, breathing
plan, right, that we are all going to
have
a part of and input on. So, I think that
is one of
the most important things to remember
as a third-generation martesian, I have
been dreaming
about something like this. I didn't
even
imagine something this spectacular,
but for at least
30 years, and I think one other point
that I really
want to make is that to do
nothing, to do nothing will
cost us $20 million. So, get your head around that.
this is --
this enterprise fund
is bleeding money. Since I have been
on council, I want to
say it's $1. 7 million. Now,
if it continues this way, I want the
person to stand up who is going to
be prepared to start laying off police officers.
right?
so, I don't mean to be dramatic, but let's think about that.
that's really all I have.
>> thank you.
>> thanks. Go ahead. >> I'm sorry?
bueller? Bueller? Can I talk?
>> yes, of course. I'm sorry. I was
trying to let you talk.
but you guys --
>> I will defer to
you. You have something?
>> no problem.
>> okay.
>> no, go ahead. >> okay.
now that we've got all
that worked out,
first, I want to commend greg
and diane and the team
at tucker
for the amazing presentation.
I still have
the same emotional
reaction that I had when we
first saw this in closed session.
and I had the
emotion because we've lived here 24 years,
and it's always been the marina, the
marina, the marina.
we need to do something about the marina.
but nothing was ever done.
and nothing ever seemed to really
be
moving in that direction to
revitalize
this jewel that we
have and have a significant amount
of pride over. So,
to see the
presentation and the possibility and
what this could be
like for for new families coming
in to martinez, for many of our
children and grandchildren to
be able to
experience and benefit from this in
their own
hometown without having
to drive to monterrey
or saucalito
or tiburon or any other place that
has a marina but can do it right here right
now.
it evoked emotion,
because it's almost
like this thing could really happen.
after all this time.
so, thank you all. Thank you to
the --our
staff for your due diligence
and willingness and
commitment to also seeing the vision,
and I want
to remind folks, again, and it's been
said, and
it's going to be said throughout this
evening, this is not final.
this is not something we're etching in stone tonight.
this is the very beginning stages.
so, it's a vision.
and the beauty of visions is you think
big, and you think large, and you think out of the box.
but then you fine-tune.
you narrow it down. Because I'm sure some
of you out there
are, like, oh my god, that's too many hotels.
okay.
this is the beginning. Maybe it's one.
maybe it's two.
maybe it's none.
so, don't --you saw a vision. You saw a concept.
but this thing is going to, if it
goes forward, it's going
to evolve with your
input, with your feedback. With your historical knowledge.
so, again, this is a very
beginning, but it's a vision.
it's doing something that,
for so long, folks have said something needs to be done.
but nothing's
been done until now, and we're on this --
we're on this
critical precipice,
because to do nothing is going
to be devastating to the
city on the trajectory that we're
going now,
and putting money
into a marina that
is not sustainable in this current structure.
so, I would just
ask all of us, and you notice I said
all of
us, to
be open
minded, community-
focused, family-focused,
and collaborative. Because if we do
this thing
thing right, if we get this
right, this will be transformative to
this community.
this will be a
true legacy that we are leaving
for future
generations that will be unique to
not only martinez but contra costa county.
the bay area.
so, again, thank you,
staff. Thank you, greg and diane, for
bringing this forward.
>> all right. Thank you very much.
and I too would like to acknowledge
staff and tucker sadler. Thank you very much for
the
very informative presentation. I'd
also like to
thank all of you, ladies and gentlemen,
who have joined us
here in the audience tonight. Both in-person and virtually.
I think this speaks volumes to
the fact of how much our waterfront
and our marina
is a beloved
asset. And I very much just appreciate
folks taking time
out of their evening to join us here
tonight.
I think this is something
that, quite
frankly, I think at least certainly in
the four-plus decades that my
family and I have been living here, we have
been kind of waiting for.
and
I really do want to acknowledge the efforts
that
have went in
here, building off the tulip that many
in the community did participate in,
but also recognizing that there
were shortcomings there, and we need to acknowledge that.
that the status quo, as was said, is simply not sustainable.
and I'm glad that we're
having this conversation now and not
in a
few years from now where we're trying
to scramble and trying to figure out,
oh my god, how are we going to
avoid devastating service
cuts that we are seeing in other communities
throughout the bay area and the state
taking place now.
so, I did want to just pick
up on something that my colleague,
councilmember
young, mentioned. This is a starting point.
it's not the
be-all, end-all, right? And
so, the concept that we have
seen here tonight is just that. It's a concept.
and it's one that is going
to change, and so, again, I just want
to really emphasize thatthat this is
an
iterative process. It needs to be
done in partnership with
the community. That's
why, when we were first made aware
of this, I was like, all right, time-out.
we're not doing anything more
until we get all of you involved in this process.
it's really, really important.
and so, that's my --
that's our commitment. As a council.
we want to make sure
that we're being transparent, open,
collaborative. We want that input.
we can't do this
alone, nor should we.
this needs to be done in partnership with the community.
so, that being said,
I do have some
questions for staff and for the representatives from tucker
sadler.
if it's appropriate,
mayor, if I may ask those questions at this
stage?
so, the presentation
mentioned that a construction timeline
of three to five years for all phases.
assuming everything goes
on time, there's no delays, what have
you, but the staff presentation at
the
outset did paint somewhat of a dire
financial picture. And my question
is, even in
the best case scenario, let's say
we get all the
ducks lined up in a
row, we reach an
agreement, aware still looking
at three to five years before there's
any
type of revenues that are being generated.
so, what
is the plan in the interim to
help us tide us by, no pun intended?
do we have any thoughts? How would
we
begin to address that
financial shortfall? That was one question that I
had.
do you have any insights on
that?
>> so, you know, first of all,
we don't --we
haven't worked out the details and timeline of
said construction.
should
we move forward. And certainly,
one of the elements of
negotiations and putting together
milestones
and start dates and putting shovels
in
the ground is around closing things
down, right? So that construction
can start. So, that's kind of an element, I
would just say, is undefined right
now to the extent that there will
be, if things go
forward, based on that timeline, there
will eventually be a closure of things
down at the marina. Up until
then, however, to be
very clear, before construction starts,
before we start to kind
of decommission things down there, we
have to continue the
loans from the general fund
until, again, with hope that eventually we get to pay the
general fund back.
so, I hope that's clear, but as long as
we're preconstruction, we still have
to loan the general
fund money.
>> I appreciate your candor on
that.
so, I just want to make sure that
we're going in
with eyes open on that, that there
is still going to
be financial challenges ahead, but if
we do
nothing, the financial challenges will be even greater.
so,
that's why it's important that we
begin to take
the steps necessary to, you know,
keep that --the worst case scenario
at bay.
so, thank you for that, lauren.
so, for our
friends at tucker sadler, couple of
questions that came to my mind.
if I may.
so, the proposal, as you have presented
it here tonight, is
calling for up to -- it looks like three hotels, if I
understand correctly.
and candidly, I think that's just
a little ambitious, at least at the onset.
and you know, one of the things that
kind of
gives me pause, at least here, and I don't
know what the situation is like
down in san diego, but
certainly here within the bay area,
post-pandemic, we've actually seen a number
of
hotels falter for whatever reason.
they've gone
into insolvency. They've been taken over.
I'm just kind of
curious, you know, what sort of data
or
market analysis do you
have which would support such an ambitious development?
and
so that we don't meet the
fate of other hotels that
we have seen in the east bay and the broader bay area.
>> we've
done our own
little demand study, and the demand
for martinez is actually greater than what we've presented.
we will do a deeper
dive demand study that will support that.
whatever that study comes back at, that
is
where we're going to
end up from the standpoint of rooms,
because we will only develop what we believe can be
supported.
in regards to the
pandemic,
and having different hoteliers go
down
the state. It is not just in state,
it's
in several different states that that's happened.
we're on a cyclical curve
that's going the opposite
direction now wrote where you're going
to start see --in fact, we have two
new hotels going up in san diego right now that
are coming up because the funding
is now there. The support is now there.
there's people are traveling again.
and that is what supports the
room demand. And businesses are traveling
again.
that was one of the things that really
hurt
the hotel industry is that businesses were not
traveling.
they were doing everything
remotely, and everybody was through
the internet and teams and zoom meetings.
that's what happened, and that's why there
was such a bad crash
in the hotel market. That's starting
to change. It's going back the other
direction now.
>> okay. Thank you for that.
I appreciate that. I
look forward to seeing some
more of that data moving forward.
one of the other questions that was
touched upon in your presentation,
greg, was that --and you did --and
I
do appreciate you acknowledging that,
that currently, the
main entry and exit into the waterfront
area is
the ferry street railroad crossing
down there by the amtrak station.
which is notorious
for backups caused
by the union pacific rail cars, which, to
be fair, has gotten somewhat better
over the years, but it's still an issue.
so, it sounds like, based on your
presentation here
tonight, you don't quite have a silver
bullet in
terms of how we overcome
that barrier, because it is a concern.
it's a
longstanding concern of how do we
move
both people and first
responders down into that area seamlessly and without
delay?
so, just wanting
to see if you had
any additional thoughts in terms of,
how do we overcome
that? How would we go about doing
that? And the
costs associated with that, whether
that's an overpass
or some alternate access point, is
that something
that would also be fronted by you all?
>> so, it needs a lot more studying.
we
have not had the time to deep dive into how that works yet.
I did mention we would be doing a
full transportation study to get a
full understanding of what the actual
cost to do what we think we need to do is going to
be.
at that point in time,
we'll look at how we get it funded,
because I do think
it needs to be done at the same time as we
do our development.
and we need to be
able to open safely. So, we'll find a
way to get
it funded. I don't know what that is
yet, so
it can't commit to what that's going to be yet, but we
will find a solution.
>> okay. From my vantage point, that has
to be a priority.
all of this is moot if we can't move people in and out of that
site safely.
>> I think you heard me
say in my presentation that my son-in-law is a fire chief.
access for them,
access to get first responders
in to a spot to be able to help people
out, help
out if there's a fire, if there's
an
accident, if there's something that
happens at an event and
we need to get help down, we need to have that
access. I agree with you 100%. It is a priority.
>> okay. Thank you.
and
then, you
know, pivoting to
your stated commitment commitment
environmental
stewardship, conservation, and what
have you, so, this site, no
doubt, will generate some
significant
energy usage. You mentioned, I believe, at the
outset of your presentation, your
goal
is to try to get it as close to net zero as
possible, so is
the way that you do that -- are we
incorporating solar, wind energy?
what are thoughts there? As I
was looking at the
design, do the hotels have solar panels
on them? Do any of --
like, help me better understand how
we get close to
net zero.
>> so, solar is a
mandate by the state. Any new project
has to have
solar on it. But we're going to use
new modern technology that's been
used for
many years in europe where they actually use
the glass of the buildings actually
have small little solar cells in
them that you don't see, but it creates energy.
we're
doing that currently in some apartments
that we're doing down in
san diego. We're using that glass.
we will continue to use that glass as one element.
the
other thing that we have abundance
of up here is wind. And it doesn't
take a
large wind wind turbine to do it.
they're small.
wind-
generating turbines that are also --
I mean,
the size of a baseball that are put on
the
side of a building that are spinning that are creating
energy. There's
the ability to have smaller
turbines that are 18 inches high,
about a foot wide,
that create the same amount of energy as seven solar
panels.
one of the ther elements we're working with,
we're working
with universities currently, and we're
going to be deploying, at the maritime
museum down
in san diego, a pilot
project that
takes a --a tidal flow
in a safe manner that allows us to
create the energy with
movement of the water. There's a lot
of movement of water here.
it's constantly moving. We want to
capture that energy
that's part of the energy that the bay
is giving
us. We want to
use it. We're looking at those three
things to really
capture the energy and create it into
something that gets us to the net zero.
>> okay.
appreciate that. With respect to the
rising sea levels, the
king tides, which do,
as we saw from the photos, they come
and visit
us every
year, how --so, is your proposal
here, is it to --will this -- all
of
these proposed facilities, will
they be raised a certain amount off
the ground so even as
the sea levels begin to rise, the
king tides come
through, that the facilities would
be
immune from any type of flooding?
help me better understand that.
>> that's one of the things
that we have to solve. When I was out
there for the first time, one of
the parking lots was full of water.
so, can't have that.
we can't have a development that's full
of water. Part of
the problem that we have is the infrastructure
going into the bay and the
way that it
feeds back and forth allows for that
water to easily flow through
so that'll be corrected when we do
the seawall. We have to
raise the seawall up, because it's
currently
below where it needs to be. In order
to get us
up out of the sea level rise, we need to lift
that up a little bit.
the way that we do the parking
garages, the way that we handle that, we'll
be immune
to water going into them. So, those
are all things that we're
going to do to help protect the development.
>> okay. >> because
remember, ultimately, these are your assets.
we're going to be asees of
these assets. We're going to operate them
through a lease, but
ultimately, these are all going to be assets
for the city of martinez.
>> okay.
thank you for that.
the last question I
had, and I do
appreciate the inclusion of our labor
and
the recognition that martinez is a
longstanding union town, and
providing good union jobs has been
a
long priority for me and many on the
council.
and you know, I am excited about the
prospect in terms of the jobs aspect
of this, both during the
construction, but also the jobs to
be
provided once the project is fully completed.
and so, can you speak --
I mean, you did mention
it, that you have experience working with
labor unions.
can you talk a little bit
about, you know, how have you been
able
to bring consensus within labor, who
may not always necessarily see
eye to eye on particular projects?
you know, I know just
here, candidly, I mean, we have had
some
discussions around project labor agreements
here in this
chamber, that there are --
there is not a unanimous decision
in terms of
how those agreements should be shaped
and so I'm just kind of --I would
like to hear a little bit
more in terms of your background working
with
labor unions, because candidly, our
city,
our sister city here, concord, has
also --was also
looking at a very large project
at the former naval weapons station
site. They have had
to go through multiple
developers and one
developer came in, promised a lot
of things
and turned
around and said, I can't do this project
because I can't reach an
agreement with the unions. So I just
want to know, is this
something that you are committed to,
we're going into this eyes wide
open, like you are prepared
to work with ourour partners to
reach an agreement at the outset?
that's something that's really important
for
me.
>> absolutely. I was given the
opportunity to
meet with several of them to start
the conversation
to talk about
our commitment.
and we'll have conversations to iron
everything out. One of the things we do
is all our general contractors are
union
to begin with.
so, they automatically start to get the
unions behind them.
>> okay. >> it's
a matter of getting consensus as to
what --
who's doing what, what unions are
handling what trades.
it's getting everybody to be on the same page
and understand that one big project
with everybody getting fair wages is
better for everyone.
and that's what we're going to do.
we'll
building consensus. That's what we do.
>> okay. Thank you very much.
those are all the questions that I had at this time.
I'll turn it over to my colleague,
councilmember
mckillop. Thank you.
>> I want to
say thank you
to greg and diane for your vision
and for coming to martinez with this idea.
and thank you to the staff for bringing
it to
the council at the closed session, and
I just
want to say that all the council was
united at closed session when we saw
this.
we said, as satinder said, stop right now.
our community --this is a community
asset. This is
part of martinez, and so we wanted
to make sure
that all of you understood what this
was
and that we're here tonight so that you can
understand
what this is. This potentially could
be
a legacy project, as
my fellow council members have mentioned.
I love all your comments. This is
something that we really
have to think about. This is something
not just for
us, but for the future generations
of martinez, for
our youth, for the survival of our
city, financially, for the type of
life we want to have in martinez.
we want to have a safe community.
we
want to have good police officers
that protect our community. We
want to have enough revenue to be
able to support the lifestyle
that we have in martinez, and this
is an
opportunity to think about how this could piece that together
for us.
so, I wanted --
just I want to really stress how much
time and attention
our city staff have put together over
the last month or so to be
able to get this out to our community.
I know
they met with many community groups.
many of you out
here tonight, to let you know about
this, so that we could encourage people
to come here tonight, either in the
council chambers or online. I think
earlier, we
had over 85 people listening. This
is a
really, really big and monumental
decision
for the city
of martinez, and it's not just us up here.
this is your city. This is your marina.
this is your decision as well. I know
a lot
of you waited a long time. We have been
here for several
hours, and I know you have questions
and concerns. This is
a lot to wrap your head around, and you may have future
questions and concerns.
and we will continue to have outreach
to our community so that everyone
is
apprised of what is happening and
no
surprises. This isn't something that's
going to be, you
know, a surprise. This is something
that if you are engaged and you want
to know
about your city and you want to take
part in something revolutionary, this is the
opportunity.
I can't think of anything larger than
this that I can think of in
the history of martinez other than
maybe when the bridge
was created, when ferry service was
retired and we had
a bridge, and that was in the 1960s.
I think it
opened in '62. I think that was the year I was
born. Long
time ago.
this is something really amazing
and it's not going to just touch the
city of martinez, it's
going to touch the entire county and
beyond. Even the state. People will
come
here because this is going to be an
amazing --if we decide we want
to go in this direction, an amazing jewel for this area.
we've wanted ferry
service for a hundred years and people
want to take the ferry
and go to the city, take the ferry
and go places.
this is a potential way to get there.
this is going
to revolutionize martinez and downtown martinez.
I know a lot of
my council members have had great
words to say. I want to hear what you
have to
say. I want to hear. You have public
comment. You have lots
of questions and concerns, so I would
like
to make sure we can turn this over
to you, both in the council chambers
here tonight and online so that
people can ask questions. I'm sure
people have concerns. This is a big, big deal.
a big deal.
so,
I'm going to allow everyone
now to have their opportunity to ask questions.
take it away, vice mayor.
>> I had some questions before we
move
to public comment.
>> of course,
bri.
>> I didn't ask any at the beginning.
sorry, jay, to cut in line.
>> thanks, bri.
>> it's going to my seat.
so, most
of my questions are for greg. Before we
open this up to public
comment, I just wanted to clarify
a few items from
your presentation. So, you did make
reference to a safe harbor. My understanding
that safe harbor would be your partner
that would do the marina
infrastructure repairs. Where along
the project timeline would
the marina
repairs
occur? Do you anticipate all
of that parallel?
>> it would be parallel.
the development will happen in a parallel
track. It has to
happen in a parallel track because of
the way that we
have to raise the site up. The marina improvements have to
be done at the same time.
>> okay.
and then, the many
of my colleagues have made comments
about this being
conceptual design, a vision. The
ena process is not really
going to have much comment on this
design, but if the
ena process goes smoothly, and
we approve moving into a development
agreement, in your experience, in
other
cities, how much does a conceptual
design change from your vision to when
you finally finalize that development agreement and start
moving forward with permitting?
>> I have never had one
get
developed exactly how I started out with it, the
vision.
>>
okay.
>> like I said, when I walked
up tonight, it changed
when those two young men asked for
a soccer field.
>> already changed.
right. Got you.
okay. We already have
a soccer field. It just needs some improvement.
it's just around the corner from the baseball field.
noted.
noted, declan. The
one question --I know we've sort of
talked about sea level rise a
little bit. You've talked about building
up the
seawall and for clarification, sometimes
we use the
word seawall to refer to the marina
infrastructure, the
outside, but you're referring to actually,
like, the rip rap. That's the seawall you're
talking about building
up, right?
>> yeah, the rivetment.
stone edge. Yeah.
>> okay.
so, I have had some people since the
agenda went live talking about the
stability of building a hotel down at
the waterfront, you know,
people are concerned about sea level
rise, so can you
just speak to the
geotechnical nature of the design that
you do? This is clearly
conceptual now, but what kind of geotechnical
input do you get when you build something down at a place like
our waterfront?
>> we will
go to full
geotechnical reports on it. We have
preliminary stuff given
to us and looked at. We need to get
better information
to have and understand what that is.
more than likely we
will end up with caissons and a matte
foundation to support it and be able
to handle
the seismic activity in
the area. Very similar to what we
have to do everywhere along the coast
of california. So, all
of that will be in the next phases
as we start doing our due diligence
further. As we go through the
ena, we will get better information
is what we need to do. The foundations
will be secured. They will be seismically
to code
and we are looking at the
new codes coming out so we will always
be current with regards to our
seismic response.
>>
do you have to do anything special
for an underground parking lot? I
feel like that was one of the components
of the questions I received from folks.
>> so it is the way in which the lower
level of the
parking lot is handled.
and the way we do not let the water
infiltration come up from the
ground because it's
liquefaction which is
what oppresses up on that. It's a
matter of having enough weight on
top
of it to hold it down so we do not
have a look faction pushing a.
we waterproof it in a way that will
not allow water to
come through.
>> only a few more questions.
so the
had mitigation
and restoration of the dewatering
ponds
as part of the assumption of the plan.
so, can you just speak to what your
assumptions are , the dewatering ponds
is
the area
you are not proposing, the open space
you are not proposing to develop.
are
you anticipating that be
an independent project or are you
looking at that
as a mitigation project for your project?
does
that question makes sense?
>> yes
it does. I am
not sure at this point if it will
be a full
mitigation project for what we need.
we will have some influence
on that. We will be contributing
to some of that as well.
during this negotiation we are going
to
find out
what
our full mitigation needs to be. We
have to go through that full eir
process to find out what we have to
mitigate. So it will be determined
through that process, and if it comes
out that that is our mitigation and
we have to improve it.
>> thank you.
lastly, the one thing you mentioned
near the end of
your comments was with respect to
these hotels, this infrastructure
that
would be part of this project would
be something that your organization
would lease from the city was how
you worded it.
what is your expected timeline? I
realize
we are still in vision mode,
but in the future, when your lease
from
the city, you decide to break that,
would that look like for martinez?
we would
just out right on the hotel and we
would operate it, how does that
work?
>> during the lease there are
certain things that we will be
required to do. And that will be the
way we have to maintain.
we have to invest money over the time
of the lease to make sure that
the asset stays at a high level.
if we get to a point where
ending our lease
, let's just throw out a number, let's
say it's
a 50 year lease, and in 50 years we decide
, we have operated the hotel long
enough, we are not
interested in operating anymore, still
in very good condition, still great
asset, we would
help you find a suitable operator
to come in and start operating the
hotel and take on a new lease.
>> okay.
those are all of my questions right
now. Now I'm
going to go back to what councilmember
mckillop said,
take it away,
vice mayor howard, if you would like
to call out names of people from
the public who submitted speaker cards
or you can call on people by name
and they can come out, depending on
how many speaker cards were submitted.
>> I have
one question before we jump into speakers.
earlier in your presentation, greg,
you mentioned the configuration of
the actual marina.
there has been criticism over the
years that the way we configured our
marina, the opening facilitation comes
in and there
has been a lot of talk about the positioning
of the
opening of the marina, the mouth,
where boats actually should be entering
. And having been
in an italian family that did fishing,
I
am fifth-generation italian, they
all came here from sicily and fished
all these waters
and there people here in the audience
who fished in these waters that know
the
waters, that no the way the currents
flow and it's part of their dna of
being a artesian. That is something
I have been asked about and there
was
concern we don't want to make the
same mistake again. You did mention
you're studying
that and that you had, or maybe not yourself,
but safe harbors was aware.
I want to make sure we don't overlook
let and
look into
or tapping into
some of the expertise that is here
in martinez the could talk about some
of the natural flows of the water
in the river. We have the creek,
and how that comes together so we
don't make a mistake
and affect the environmental makeup
of
the geography here in a way that would
contribute to some sort of future
problem
in the marina access again.
>>
that is one of the studies we would
be doing. We
do have a maritime engineer
that we employed to do the studies
and
hydraulic studies to look at the flow
of the water, look at where it
needs to be. We do that in conjunction
with safe harbor because
it means a lot to us
on the land side as well.
we are
providing the access to the boats
with the understanding of exactly
how we're going
to do that and how to do it safely.
and again, good point, we want
to make sure we avoid another type of
catastrophic
event happening.
so, during these opportunities we have
the ability
to reach out to the community, we
definitely would like to hear from
the fishing industry
here. And those that know these waters.
they can give our engineers insight
to
things that they may not be able to
see just on maps and just through
some of their studies that they do. But
we
will definitely make sure that is
addressed.
>> okay, thank you, I
appreciate that.
>> okay, we're going to start with
the speaker cards that were submitted.
first up we have beverly.
>> hello, and beverly,
I am one of the owners of power
sports which is the basketball facility
adjacent to the marina. I'm extremely
excited
about this as we host
tournaments weekly
, every weekend, pretty much
through the year. That range anywhere
from basketball tournaments to gymnastics qualifications,
these
are things that people rent out and
people come from all over the country.
and they need a place to stay. And
right now we are sending them to
the creek. It be great to have them
in our backyard. And,
in between
pretty much when the people come they
are here for the entire weekend
and they are looking for something
to do in between their competitions.
or their
games. It would be nice to be able
to send them over to the marina
to walk around on the boardwalk, go
to the restaurants. Shop. Keep them
local, keep
the money here. So I am excited about
it. The only thing I agree
with the you mentioned, it would be
great to have an alternate way to
get
over to our area because that is always
a concern. So, thank you.
>> thank
you. Next I have tim.
>> all right, good evening. Honorable mayor,
vice mayor,
council members and staff, and the
executive director of the contra costa
construction trades
council. I want to speak tonight in
favor of the council moving forward
with
the ena.
it was an exciting presentation, I
think the benefits are
evident, the potential evidence have
been well articulated. Both the project sponsor,
your staff and several of you have
commented, obviously this is step
one in a long process, that has already
been mentioned,
but the benefits are evident. I think
what is also evident when
you look at the project is all the
various components, a lot of
different components a lot
of different areas of work that need
to be done.
and our members of our 20 affiliates,
other members of
the contra costa
building trades stand ready to do
that
work. We are excited to hear the commitment
that was made tonight
by tucker sadler and your support
as well of union labor. The other
issue
referenced was working with carpenters.
we already reached out to them and
look
forward to having a good partnership
with them. Working on a collaborative
nature on
an agreement with the project sponsors
and all of you. And working shoulder
to shoulder with them on this project.
it does take skilled hands to build
a project of this nature. I think
speaking
directly to councilmember young's
comments this has the potential
with union labor
on it and the benefit and input of
the community of being not just
a crown jewel for contra costa
county but really the entire bay area.
we are excited to be part of the
process and look forward to working
with all of you. Thank you.
>> thank
you. Next is desmond.
>> thank you. Desmond.
I came up here to read something for
kevin bacon, he is a member of the
marina and
a long-term resident of martinez.
he is not here, he's flying for work
right now.
I will go for it. Some of
what has been talked about today has
already been covered.
but this was already written and I'm
not going to edit it on the
fly. So,
my name is kevin bacon, am and
longtime martinez resident, boat owner
and am on the board of directors for
the martinez
sportsmen's
clubs. Since I'm out of town I'm sending
this written letter in support of
exploring
the prospect joint venture between
the city and a private developer to
reform the
marina area into a more prosperous
economic water recreational destination.
contra costa county encompasses 716
square miles. It is home to
19 cities with a population of over
1 million residents making it california's
ninth
most populous county.
out of the 15 cities in
the central and west county, only
one city has the benefit of
the marina. With gateway access
to california's largest rivers, bays
and even the pacific ocean. That one
being the
city of martinez. With its boating marina
that has been around since
the 1920s,
of the 15 cities in central and west county,
of the
ninth most populous county
in california, only martinez has
existing commercial recreational waterfront infrastructure
and is the only city eligible
for any of the marina
grants offered. Transforming
a marina into a thriving economic
hub involves
a multifaceted approach balancing
economic growth with the environmental responsibility
--
>> time is up.
>> but that's not
even the first page.
>> [ laughter ]
>> I'm sorry. >> you can
get submitted for the record.
>> the
given the time, he did send it
in. On my behalf, thank you for all
of your effort, it's very exciting.
time to be a martisian. Thank you.
>> next I have connie miller.
>>
connie miller. Thank you for
the council and is it greg,
for your presentation.
I have lived in martinez for 46 years
and I spoke 20
years ago to a council about,
you know, we were supposed
to revitalize martinez
and we
had people from other cities talking
against it. They shouldn't have any
say because
they don't live here. But when I scan
the qr code there
it said
martinez, bay area's hidden gem. That
is exactly what it is. I used to say
it's a diamond in
the rough. And it shouldn't be hidden.
this is our chance. I think you all
agree
that we definitely want to make
our community
a place that draws people
here. Because like he said, and I
have always said that, we are the
only
community that has water, of all these
cities, danville, orinda, we have
the water. But we don't polish it.
we
don't take care of it. And yes, the
train problem, I have waited over
an hour many times either on one side
or the other. If you have a heart
attack on the side
of the tracks you are dead because
are not going to fly a helicopter
over to get you. That definitely needs
to be fixed. When I
moved here in 1979 I believe there
was a restaurant boat
in the marina. Someone who lives here
probably knows.
yeah, there was a
boat on the water the people could
go dying, tiburon
has that restaurant on the water
the people flock there and it's fun
on
a nice sunny morning to go for brunch
or something.
so yeah, I think everyone is for
it. This is the best idea. Finally,
maybe I will live long enough to see
it happen.
>> next is stephen.
I apologize if I pronounced steven's
name wrong.
>>
good evening mayor and city council.
and residents. Am a proud resident
of martinez and a journeyman
of local 34. I am here to
voice my strong support for the proposed
marina project including the hotel,
retail, recreation space
and marina facilities. This project
isn't just another job site, it's
a chance to
build something meaningful in our
own backyard. For work is like me
working close to
home means, this means no more long
commutes or working out of town. It
means spending more time with family,
being present at the moments that
matter in doing
work I love. Union jobs on this project
will offer minimum wages, full family
healthcare, retirement security,
the kind that let people buy a home,
raise kids and stay rooted in
their communities.
these are just paychecks, they are
pathway to
better life. This is more than just
a waterfront development, it's a real
opportunity
to control the --grow the workforce.
it will create hands-on training for apprentices
working
side-by-side with seasoned journeyman
who can pass down the knowledge, skills,
standards and that define our trade.
that is how you build a
strong workforce through real experience
and union values.
we have a responsibility to make sure
these opportunities
that are open for everyone
. This project gives us a chance to
bring more women into construction,
a field where they historically have
been underrepresented. But
where they belong. It gives veterans
a path forward. When they return home.
a
career where there discipline,
work ethic
and teamwork and thrive. It opens
doors for people of color who deserve
a
fair shot of high-quality jobs that
offer growth and security. The marina project
will be a place where people from
all walks of life come together
to build, grow and succeed.
and we create long-term jobs, only
during construction
but in the hotel, retail and marina
operations. Generating academic activity
that stays right
here in martinez.
is a union member --
>> time is up.
>> I urge you to support this project.
>> [
applause ]
>> next is chris.
>> I will raise is up. Good evening,
mayor, vice
mayor, staff, members of the community.
my name is chris and I'm a local resident.
I am also proud member of northern
california
carpenters union,
local 34, the martinez waterfront
project is an
exciting opportunity for the city
of martinez new york I asked the council
to approve the exclusive shooting
agreement with tucker
sadler. Nql for your service.
>> [
applause ]
>> thank you. >> next
is william.
>> hi,
and bill,
I'm going to modify my statement a
little
bit based on the presentation. Am
a california licensed geologist and
engineering geologist. I'm not
looking for work. But, we did talk
about sea level rise and that
is real. In 1850,
1852 and again in 1860s there were
major floods
. About 1 billion cubic yards of sediment
washdown from
hydraulic mining. The waterfront used
to be at about the train tracks. It
is now
about where we see it today.
they have added extra sediment. Those
sediments are considered under consolidated.
they are compacting under their own
weight. So it's not like typical
payment. This is sediments deposited
later. So a
significant portion of this relevant
project will need to consider these
sediments. If you just build
a nice foundation but don't address
the underlying sediments
that land is sinking under
its own weight. You had buildings,
that will continue to cause it to
sink even
more. So you kind of have two things,
what are coming up and land
going down. So that will be a very
significant how to address the land
surface
actually subsiding under its own --
that was one of the main things. The
other, I'm going to pitch. At a small
boat launch, a small kayak launch
and
maybe for kayaks and paddle boards.
maybe sunfish
side sailboats, that would be a nice
addition to the waterfront. That's
it.
>> [ applause ]
>> next is matt.
>>
mayor zorn, council members, I'm here
representing the
bay area council an organization comprised
of the larger employers
in the area. Our mission is to make
this region
the best place in the world to live
and work. Our office is actually
on san francisco bay in a 100-year-old
ferry boat, you're welcome to visit
us. It is public
access as part of the bay trail. We
are very excited about this project.
I'm
not a martisian myself but I look
over my back fence into martinez.
I am particularly and personally excited
about this project.
one thing we as an organization are
very bullish on is ferry
boat service. We created the water
transit authority and
over the years and it's
getting the site connected to the
regional ferry service is mission critical.
it has been described as
an economic engine, this is the fuel
that will get the engine going. So
we
would urge that whatever the project
ends up being, that there is a physical
component to have eight ferry terminal and
a part of the financing mechanism
to subsidize
the ferry
operations, that is required as part
of the ferry expansion
plans. I don't know if
councilmember molly remembers, I was
on vacation, texting
photographs saying
this looks like martinez. Except it's
full of
tourists and their hotels in the waterfront
is activated.
>> I do remember that.
>> dude, you got to see this place.
it
is what martinez could and should
be and will be if this project moves
forward. We approve the agreement
and hope this comes as fast as possible.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> next is
joey.
>>
33+ year resident. I just want
to say I really want you
to embrace this ena , take care of martinez
, it has brought
so much joy to the community to have
this waterfront , you know,
I don't know how to
say it, it's going to bring so many
jobs
and so much
needed money to the community
that we can enjoy. I just want to
say, my vote
is yes, please do it.
>> [ applause
]
>> thank you.
next I have samantha.
>> hi. Before I begin,
I am
with the sea scouts and one of the
entities that will be probably
most affected by this development
phase. I was hoping to be so bold
as to
ask for the full three minute allotment,
totally okay if it's no. Something
to
ask for an extra minute.
>> unfortunately
we cannot.
>> I will talk
quickly. My name is sam, and with
the sea scouts and the
key adult
leader. For those in the room the
don't know what
sea scouts are we are specialized
branch of scouting america the focus
is on
teaching today's youth safe recreational
boating, maritime trade skills and
life skills. For 93 years
our proud institution has martinez
and the greater community about safe
boating
and maritime trade in our mission
is to continue the legacy for many
years
to come.
many of the youth leave our program
pursue a career
in the maritime field and for those
that don't they leave as a lifelong
passion
for the water and important skills
the better the world community. Those
trade skills we
teach directly translate into a wide
variety of blue-collar jobs and as
you know
blue-collar jobs helps make the world
go round. Our program
has shipped many youth into adults
with experiences in a wide
variety of trades such as maritime,
law, engineering, construction, coast
guard and more. I cannot
stress enough the importance mariners
have on the global trade as well as
importance
of her blue-collar workers.
you may be asking yourself, why am
I talking about the maritime industry and
community when we are really talking
about the martinez master plan and
the two are
one and the same. We all in this room
have a shared and vested interest
in the water and the different industries
it serves, recreation and business.
we understand
as part of this change we may be asked
to move to make way
for industry and tourism in our ask
a simple. Let us be part of the
change. Retained the valuable space
where we grow great people. And if
it's a plan
to move us to make way for the changes
it's of vital importance we retain
our training center for our
youth wherever we move too. And a
place where they can learn things
such
as welding, engine work, woodwork,
a place where they can have class
centers and
teach about important skills. Time
is a.
>> thank you. >> [
applause ]
>> if you cannot complete your
comments you can email them.
I will make sure it gets to the city
council and
staff members. You can take one of
the city clerk cards on the table
over
to the side. Next we have kelly webster.
no kelly?
>> I can be
very brief. I think this is a great
idea. I
love it. The one thing I noticed in
the pictures,
and granted those are not exact buildings,
is that we
have a beautiful historic town and
I would like to see the materials
used to
create the buildings reflect that
in some way so
that when you come from downtown into
the marina it's not like a
time jump from a beautiful old town
to a
super modern waterfront.
that's all I have to say.
>> [ applause ] >> thank you.
next is
r. Robertson.
thank you.
>> read robertson. Yes,
a couple of things,
to greg, I actually have been to the
national stadium
and to the peer you designed
and the district of columbia and it's beautiful.
I took the ferry over I think
to virginia
down the potomac. Very nice work.
I can endorse greg for that. My
second thing,
I guess, you brought it up, my mom
is one of the contractors the built
the concord martinez
station 30 years ago. I remember being a
much younger kid
walking around in a hardhat thinking
this should be a nice place to
build houses. You can just be here
and
walk and go to the city. And there
has been nothing there.
the concord city
council demanded
I believe a wall-to-wall contract
labor agreement and it drove the car so
high nothing was
built in the thing is going to be
built there. People have lost their
political careers because of that.
the recent one was the mayor. I mean,
I'm
not saying anything bad about the
unions, I'm just saying
you need to extend extreme caution
with that. Because they have nothing
there. And there is nothing coming.
eatable job in virginia. And just
kind of, that is my
cautionary tale.
>> [ applause ]
>> next
is rick.
>> good evening
mayor zorn,
council members and staff. My name
is rick, I am with carpenters local
152 of
the norcal carpenters union presenting
roughly 2800 members here in
contra costa . I'm here to express
my support
for the city to enter into a negotiating
agreement with
tucker sadler to design the future
of the martinez arena and waterfront.
for far too long the city has had
to utilize the
general fund to cover the cost of
marine operations. And much needed
minutes. Just to
keep it afloat. Especially after
elmar management left their post as
operations director's. The area is
no longer sustainable and is in dire need
of a complete restoration. According
to
the developer the proposal requires
no city
subsidies are nip city
necessary with all improvements funded to
private investments along
with federal funds.
tucker sadler has verbally
committed that the construction of
the project will be done using some
type of labor
agreement ensuring that the construction
will be done by union trains
people bringing
much-needed work, opportunities, to
the unionized residents of martinez
and throughout contra costa county.
an agreement of this type
makes it a
win
win win for the developer, the city
and its residents. I urge you to enter
into an exclusive negotiating agreement
with tucker sadler to start the design
for
the future of a fleet revitalized
martinez arena and waterfront.
thank you.
>> next is dennis mccarthy.
>>
good evening, I am one of
the managers
of universal sports academy which
is a
city-owned facility on the other side
of the tracks, I guess one of the
first things I would say is that additional
access to that area would be
much needed for a variety
of reasons. The other thing I would
say is I have been a high
school soccer coach at la habra for
seven years. I also have been on the
board of the
soccer association and young
santiago that spoke earlier is not
wrong, there
is desperate need for additional facilities
in
martinez and I think that , sort of
a revitalization
of the waterfront
, bringing in hotels, revitalizing
the whole area would be great for
the city. I
can tell you that I have spoken to
lauren multiple times,
we have people believe our facility
at 8:00, 9:00 and 10:00 at night and
there
is nothing to do. I also, it is a beautiful
hidden gem of the city and
people are looking for things to do.
so the more that can be brought to
the community I think a better. I
would also
say that there is a massive
sports travel organization
groups that come in.
three hotels would be nothing to fill
for those events. I think it would
bring a lot
of dynamic energy to what is
really a beautiful city. Reminiscent
of the
east coast which is where
I'm from but I've been here for 17
years, you can
do me now, I live in pleasant hill,
but spend about 85% of my life
in martinez. Thank you for the time
and I'm looking forward to this project.
>> [ applause ]
>> I have no further speakers.
>> did they all booed
him for being in pleasant hill?
>>
there was no booing.
>> we love
everybody.
>> just checking.
>> I have no further speaker cards.
if there are additional
people here in the chambers tonight
that would like to make a comment,
please go
ahead and start lining up to the microphone.
>> good evening
everyone. Great, having met you. And
of course, --
I cannot stress how much
this project excites me.
too often this whole
idea of revitalizing the marina has
been something we have all talked about
and have yearned for.
and the moment I saw your timeline and it
said three to
five years, I told sarah, my god,
I could still be alive!
apart from that, I cannot
, I cannot
support samantha's comments more as
a see scout mom whose son went on
to join the navy and now works for
military sealift command.
yes, the see scout's offer an enormous
amount of opportunity for young people
to go into highly skilled
trades at the completion of their involvement,
so keep
them there and thank you so much.
>> thank you.
>> hello.
vice chair of the martinez
diversity and cultural commission.
I wanted to say, from a cultural perspective,
I
am in full support of this. I think
it's a fair proposal.
the money we are hemorrhaging as a
city, there's a tendency to think
let's plug the gap. Good enough. I
think there is time for good enough
and time for admission.
it seems like this is time for admission
judging by the amount of
people we were able to bring out.
I think the presentation we received
was one
of ambition. So, I voice my support
and voice my hope that we continue
with that ambition and look to make
this the hidden jen we know martinez
to
be. Thank you.
>> you want to take the rest of her
time? Just getting.
my name is joseph burton. They are
pretty much
good what they do.
I am so happy to be here tonight.
I want
martinez to thrive in every single
way possible. We can't be ignorant
and say
that we can't do things, city council
is right, we have to do things. We
have to grow. We have to
economically build in our city
, but we can't be ignorant of the
things we are already facing, like
we have
a homeless problem, we have a litter problem,
I know it's not a famous and popular
thing and
we have people that may not agree,
but with this development will come
more people, which is okay, because
we want people to come to martinez. We
want people
to experience the waterfront, but
what about the protection of the waterfront?
what about the birds of the air and
things that a lot of martinez love
to experience.
one thing I don't like to see on the
ground is litter. I don't like
to see a trashy city. Actions speak
louder than words
. A man
without a vision will definitely parish. But
what I want to ask
is, as people come in and we build,
I am down for this, I love amphitheaters,
I
love people, some of you might know
me already, I'm joseph. A people person.
how are you going to protect the waterways?
when we already have a
problem detecting our waterways. As
we continue to expand and grow people
come into
the city, 27 seconds, was going to
be responsible for cleaning up the
plastic,
the micro plastics, the more people
to come in, we don't have
that mindset are
just going to throw plastic on the
ground right next to the
waterways. Is going to be responsible
for that?
that is one of my questions for them.
who is
going to pick up the trash? Because
obviously people are not responsible
it comes
to these things.
>> time
is up.
>> that is all I've got to say.
>>
cheryl grover.
lifetime resident of martinez and
I will
tell you
that is 75 years but
then you would know how old I was.
nevermind. Okay. I do want to
say I fully support the comments made
about making sure that their areas,
at
least some part of this hotel structure that
resonates with the historical
martinez theme the we have
spent many years building on that
team. And had billboards
that said it and so
forth. But also, in my travels I have
been
envious of the hotels
in other beautiful cities, especially
historic ones, where they have rooms
and areas for weddings.
we are at the county seat
. And one thing you can get is a
marriage license, and if you want
to get married
in downtown martinez, you stand on
the corner in
the little bush,
it's like, it's not what it should
be. It would
be really nice to have a beautiful area
that would also, in a hotel, that
would be for the guests, for the
reception, for the wedding itself.
if you're
going to do that let me know how long
I have to keep waiting
for him to bring me down the aisle.
>> [ applause ]
>> hello,
thank you mayor,
council members, city staff.
everyone is supporting it so that
is wonderful. So
I will not go on and on, just quick,
but I would
be remiss
not to stand up here and tell you
do you have
full and strong support of downtown
martinez, we could not be
more excited about this. I know the
small businesses and all of the people
who work downtown are just very excited
, we have people close to tears when
they are finding out this week.
I think it's important to share and
make sure you know you
have our full support and that we
want you to move forward with this.
thank you.
>> [ applause ]
>> hi, my name is colleen
and I have been a resident of martinez
for 27 years now. My husband was
a teacher at the high school. I'm also
an employee at the chamber of commerce.
I have been begging anyone who would
listen to me for the last 13
years to please bring a hotel down.
so three of them
is awesome. I am so excited and they
couldn't support this more. Thanks.
>> [ applause ]
>>
hi, bri.
miss you. If you don't know,
I'm tony.
also known as the kite man of martinez.
born and raised in minnesota
. You betcha. For
25 years
I have cleaned up
a little chunk of sand or dirt you
want to turn into a volleyball court.
my heart broke and there's a
puddle thereby stand whose cleaning
it up. I challenge you
, come out and fly with me. Fourth
of july
the last 10 years I go to the city
of alejo because they invite
me to fly the kites for the city of
alejo's mad
hatter parade . I put up a big display
of kites along with
vendors and food vendors. Cool. I've
been approached by
bri as one of the people to do
a kite festival here.
not enough space, really. In three
weeks, for the third
year in a row I go to san mateo as
their lead
kite flyer. To put on a kite festival
in san mateo.
right there on the water.
why can't we do that here? Instead
of turning my patch
of ground that I've been flying kites
--it looks cool for flying kites on
their, I give kites away to people
and it's fun to see
people come back with their kids
10 years later saying, I remember you.
it's like, my legacy,
I had an unhoused individual ,
gave him a kite couple years ago
saying it will bring you
happiness. When year later he came
back and says,
thank you for that kite, I lost all
my stuff but I still have
my kite. You know, things
like that. Look up google,
kite man of martinez.
is part of martinez. Don't get
rid of me. I will take you
kite flying. Night kite flying.
okay?
>> your
time is a.
>> thank you.
>> conceptual.
easy fix
for a kite facility.
>> I totally encourage you to go night
flying, night
kite flying with tony.
--it's amazing.
>> hi, how's it going?
my name is keith,
I'm a resident here in martinez.
fairly new by
martinez standards. 13 years I.
I own states coffee that has been
10 years. Also knew. Anyway, didn't
even
think I would be here tonight, my friend
, we
were on his boat about a week and
half ago, fell in
love with the community, we've been
friends for a long time. I ended up
buying
a boat a couple days ago. Wish
me luck. Anyway,
the downtown,
the marina, it's very exciting to
develop, I think we are really excited
about that. I echo what everyone is
saying, it's been a long
time coming. Being a family man
to two boys, raising
them here, just my knee-jerk reaction is
the public access,
I think, you said it's a moot point,
I agree with you 100%, I
just feel compelled to say that has
to come with
it. An overpass has to come
with the deal.
to meet that is a make
or break, it can't
be, we are going to do this and develop
it and figure it
out later. They go hand-in-hand.
all the other things, the hotels,
all this other stuff, that's all going
to get ironed out in the community
is going to rally together and we're
going to have many meetings, we all
rallied together and the last time
you saw me here was about the gun
range. So we're going to have many
more conversations. Have no doubt.
all the council
people here are doing fantastic job,
mayor
zorn, big fan. Thank you for your
time. Again, that access has to come
with this deal.
is very important.
>> time is a. >>
thank you.
>> good evening city council, my name
is mike.
I am with sea scouts, you've been
hearing a lot of
sea scouts tonight. It's because we
have been entrenched in martinez for
93 years. What
I would ask , currently we have
a space that is 223.7
feet by 160.
the minimal training size
we require for
our youth. The development physically
and mentally
within that zone helps these kids.
we put out quality
youth the go into the maritime industry
, but we also have our oddballs the
become
doctors and lawyers. But at the same time,
we
are developing that need, right now,
in the nation, for
seaworthy vessels and programs
,
is there for that purpose,
it's a great job. Please invest in
their youth. Please invest
in their future. Thank you.
>> [ applause ]
>> I am erin,
president of the martinez chamber
of commerce. I just want to
echo sarah's sentiments that the
excitement level we feel for this
project is boundless. And, I
know that
together we are going to do the best
we can
to make sure the business community
rallies behind this concept and whatever
it becomes
. We will put everything into helping
make this successful.
we can't wait. We are so excited for
this. Thank you.
>> anyone else in the
council chambers for comment on this item?
okay. I have no one further. I'm going
to move to the virtual audience.
I'm going to call for a
show of hands, only once. For those
who wish to make public comment on
this item, please
use the raised hand feature now.
all right, they are streaming in.
while they come in we will start with ann.
>>
can you hear me?
>> yes. >> this is
ann
mobley. It's a very nice concept and
I hope
it happens in my lifetime.
I have a few comments I have to make.
one is, how do state
parks come into this? As
martinez gave half of the land in
the marina are they part of the agreement?
the other thing I wanted to
say is the sea scouts and martinez
yacht club should not be in
the same building. We love the sea
scouts but the kids are the
sea scouts
and the adults are it martinez yacht
club and I think
they should be two separate buildings
and two separate entities. I wanted
to
know also has the railroad been contacted
regarding development near their
tracks? Also, has the contra costa
water district
been
contacted about providing
water for the new development? I know
contra costa water sells raw water
to martinez water and I'm wondering
if this might require
a new water treatment plant. Is very
high limit for hotels regarding
the airlines and their routes? Again,
talking about the overpass, we need
the overpass is
a must. I heard
the gentleman talk about a museum honoring
joe dimaggio. It would be great
if you could build a museum for us.
also I like the idea of
the harbormaster
building is a restaurant. I
been saying that friday how many years.
also I'm not sure about hotels near
the railroad because they're also
lots and lots of noise
with that. But, overall I'm hoping
this can be
and this can happen, it is been way
too long.
and martinez needs something like
this. I just
hope it's not all talking pictures I
hope it really happens. Thank you
so
much.
>> thank you. >> next I
have amy. I will ask you to unmute.
>>
hi, my name is amy.
can
you hear me?
>> yes. >> great. I have
lived in martinez for about
eight years. I love this town. As
many of us do. A
couple of things, I just want to add
some comments food for thought for future,
for future planning discussions, a
lot of the talk has me thinking about
our community
and some of the things
sound really expensive in terms of
you have this new boat
marina
with
stacking votes, you have shops, you
have concerts going to potentially partner
with an outsourced promoter, I just
wanted to make sure we keep in
mind our community the currently lives
here
in making sure we are not going to
be priced out of what
is happening.
and eventually happens down there
and that we
think about the people who live there
currently. And the we don't just
make it a super fancy place that none
of
us can really afford to go down into
that. Also,
maybe consider not putting a bunch of
chain restaurants or chain
shops in there. One of the things
that makes us unique is are downtown,
are small businesses. We want to do
things that are going to connect
the marina with main street and what's
happening downtown because it's blossoming
, and trying
to thrive. Yeah I know it has it struggles.
those are my main things .
just trying to keep in mind
our current
community. All of it sounds super
exciting, I always thought there was
so much
unused potential down at the waterfront. I
just hope it
reflects the community. Thank you
so much.
>>
thank you. Next I have
iphone 152,
I will ask you to unmute.
>>
good evening. My name is matt,
I am the owner
of the albatross or was the owner
of the albatross,
the longest restaurant
at the marina. Unfortunately
it doesn't exist anymore.
I
have a few concerns, I'm very excited
about having this project, the only
thing
is because
I was at the
albatross for 17 years, the biggest
problem is the train. You need to
put
the overpass before you start the project.
we had two incidents I
remember, maybe greg should think about
some sort of medical emergency with
that project
because you bring in three or four
hotels with 280 rooms,
you're probably looking at close to
500 to 1000
occupancy. And
then the regular people, you have
over 2000
people and sometimes the train that
is over 20 minutes to half
an hour. It would be life-threatening,
so you need to
think about that. Secondly, I'd like
to mention to you, my job now I work
as a supervisor,
I
do advise different businesses, since
martinez is my town and I've been
here 46
years, I think it's a very ambitious plan,
is one of the councilmembers said,
this project probably be
have a billion-dollar project , at least,
four to $5
million and you need usually
45% cash. I hope the city will
verify that money before signing a
contract for 50 years
and finding themselves entangled for
at least if the job is not done. I
hope the job gets
done and eventually having
a beautiful marina at the
waterfront. I wish
you the best of luck, greg. I hope
the city does their own
due diligence to make sure there is financing.
and talk about the financing
a little more. We know the job can
get done,
they're not going to start a job
and that be able to finish it. Thank
you very much. Have a good night.
>>
thank you. Next is craig.
>> okay, thank you.
I hate
to be
debbie downer here tonight, I always
seem to
be debbie downer
in public
comments whatever the issue is, to
be perfectly honest, following these issues with
the marina over the last several years,
90% of what I
heard and saw in this presentation
tonight is pie in the sky, completely
unrealistic. The reason I
say that is, we went through a long
process of, a visioning process
of a marina and developing the land
trust plan
and multiple public meetings, we went
through the idea
of the hotels and amphitheaters, we went
through why the previous amphitheater
failed and we went through the pros
and cons and feasibility. That was
a
years long process when the community
was heavily involved,
now we are basically being
told, were going to throw that out,
we're going to bring some guy from
san diego who
doesn't north city and he's got everything
figured out.
is the impression I got from the presentation.
he has it all figured
out. We are going to have pickleball
despicable courts, some fun things
here. I'm sorry, martinez is never
going to be a
regional destination the way this
plan envisions it. I remember 20
years ago
when antioch and pittsburgh were doing their
marina stuff and they
were like, pittsburgh is going to
be a
regional destination. We are going
to build a bed-and-breakfast
. We were laughing, I was in journalism
at a newspaper
and we were laughing about it, it's
pretty is going have a bed and
for some people are going to flock
here. I don't think there is a
bed-and-breakfast, I googled it and
couldn't find it.
what we focus on having a functioning marina
with some simple basic amenities to
get us started
to stop the drain on our budget and
go from there. Because what
I am seeing
is
pie in the sky stuff that is not at
all realistic. That is how
I see it. Every time I hear about
ferry, I know people aren't realistic
because of her that 30 years.
>> time is up. >> be realistic, thanks.
>> thank you. Next I
have abby stinson. I will ask you
to unmute.
>>
hello, can you hear me?
>> yes. >> yes,
I
am abby, I happen to live
down at rangers wharf which is on
the
marina side
of the railroad tracks. So well watching
this presentation and fully understanding
that we do need to do something
as increasing revenue streams and revitalizing
all of the marina areas ,
I can't help but also be slightly
cautious because I am
marina adjacent and what would be
the east bay regional park side.
and the traffic is very much an
issue. People coming and going, they
already get confused,
they already get backlogged trying
to get in
and out of the marina. I am on the crossing.
are crossing gets blocked
substantially more than the
ferry street crossing.
that is a big concern. Also in talking
about
obviously they need to lift the
land on the marina side, that then,
water displacement, if we are not
addressing or having the east
bay regional park side of the marina
be addressed, I live on
the creek
kevin bacon is
my neighbor, he is on the creek and
I am across the street.
things like this is we are addressing
future flood plans and every thing
else, I
feel like I need to also be cognizant
of the fact that we do
have residents who live not only at
the marina but down
here at the waterfront and although
we are not being factored into this
part of the plan, these
are things that do need to logistically
be addressed. I think it
is great, very ambitious.
and I get pie
in the sky and then you work back
down, shoot for the stars or
shoot for the moon and land among
the stars. I would need some
additional reassurances
that we are going to be dealing with
the traffic
and we are going to be dealing with
the transients and were going to be
dealing with as another person said
the letter.
>> time is a. >>
thank you.
>> next I have deborah white.
>>
hello mayor, city council,
good to see all of you, even though
you can't see me. I
think this is a wonderful thing. I
am the director of
grace episcopal church up the
hill in martinez. My folks are all
very
excited about this. The only thing
, I just wanted to make sure I remind everyone
that
one of the values expressed
in the presentation was equity, accessibility,
and reflection of the social goals
of the city and committee of martinez.
those
goals include making sure that
everyone is included and that there is
housing
available for everyone. And
so my hope is that this revitalization
will also
keep the city council and mayor accountable
to all of the wonderful
and faithful agreements you
have made to be a leader
for everyone. And to include thoughts
about that
if this moves forward. And I thank
you for always having that
faithfulness and kindness. And for
this proposal.
blessings, everybody.
>> thank you.
>> next I have jillian.
>> hi. This is been
a really interesting evening and,
mayor zorn, you are really impressing
me. I do have a few questions. I know
this is
a public and private partnership.
I am wondering, first,
what funds we are talking about since
a lot of funding that was available
before the big
bill are not going to be available now
. Grants
and other kinds of funds are not available.
I am curious what happens
if we
don't get federal funding or state
funding that we are going to
, that we are
counting on. Second, I want to know
, I
am sure you will be looking at, I
am trusting you will be looking at
what
the city of martinez is on the hook for
if there
are economic downturns
or things don't continue to go as
planned. And the third thing is, am
curious why we would go to somebody
in houston rather than somebody in
california. California has a lot of
very specific
things like and a lot of requirements.
so I am curious about why you would
do that. I think if
this turns out really well it will
be a real gift to the community.
but I have seen communities really suffer
if they haven't really taken care of
themselves fiscally.
thank you so much and good luck.
>>
thank you.
>> next is
constance.
>> hi,
I'm wondering if everyone can
hear me?
>> yes. >>
evening. Two points I wanted to bring
up for the
city council to remember. Currently
are parking at the marina
is free.
with a parking garage, I am assuming
there will be parking fees. Wondering,
for residents here who really enjoyed
the marina daily
and frequently, what that will look
like for us, driving down there and parking.
obviously I get it, we need the
revenue, there probably will be
parking prices. But to kind of
keep that in mind for residents here
who enjoy it.
another
thing I was thinking that came across
recently, we just had the fourth of
july,
at this town we enjoy our fireworks.
what does that look like with
this agreement
is something I would like the council
to
consider as well. And discuss. And
note that the city really enjoys that.
and we hope we would be continuing
enjoying that in the future. Thank
you so
much for your time.
>> thank you.
next I
have trevor race.
>> hello, can you hear me? >> yes.
>>
thank you.
I just wanted to say I have some conflicted
thoughts
about the presentation we saw this evening.
on one hand I'm very excited, but
in reality
I'm excited about the excitement I
heard from the community. And honestly
not so
much about the development vision.
I think it is concerning to
me that
there was
such a lack of use of the significant
amount of public input we have already
seen envisioning for the marina.
I am honestly not concerned about
the development in general. But
by the lack of how the vision presented meets
the special nature of martinez and
what
this community is interested in seeing
out there. I think there are ways
to do
balance and responsible development. And I
just didn't see that in this particular
vision.
I'm not saying we can get there I
think there are definitely some concerns
I have.
for a designer that spoke of valuing
public input,
the multiyear public engagement process,
that doesn't seem to make sense to
me. There
was a market lack
of a number of components
that were such a big deal to
so many community members. Small boat
facilities. Public interpretive educational
elements. The cultural facilities.
green
infrastructure, ecosystem restoration.
and for the development itself there was no mention
of how the
hotels and retail would be designed,
built, or partnered with in ways that
would match
what makes martinez special. Where
were the historical
elements, the recreational elements?
finally, the last
thing I will bring up, chicken is further down
the line, the vision was well
vetted by
regional regulators. It's concerning to
me I heard no
mention of whether this vision is likely
to meet the requirements of the state
commission, how --
>> time is a. >>
thank you.
>>
last hand for the night is donna.
I will ask you to unmute.
>> hello, can you hear me? >> yes.
>> actually I am glad I followed
the person that I just followed.
am a resident of martinez for over
50 years. I background is
all in planning. City planning. I
was the first project planner on the
public-private partnership in contra
costa county with the bart system.
so I am well aware of that. This is
a good vision
. But, it's not unlike several prior
visions that
we have had for hotels and restaurants
and amphitheater and all of the like.
so, I would like
to see in any
future reviews a summary
of what was presented in the past
and why it didn't fly.
I think that would be important.
obviously the access to the site
will have a major effect on the development
of
the property.
my last question is, I would like
to know, I heard
a lot about southern california developments.
but I would like to
know if there is a development in
our area
, in the bay area, that we can go
to
that we can see that these people
have done.
that is it for me.
>>
thank you. I have no
further hands.
ringing it
back to mayor zorn.
>> apologies, I
couldn't unmute. Thank you so much
for all of
the comments. I felt like
,
it felt like a very good conversation,
even though I recognize it was a one-sided
public comment. But I just want to
voice my
appreciation to everybody. We had
almost all
positive comments.
and for those that were not 100% positive,
they were supportive
with very well thought
through critiques. So I just want
to thank everyone who had those very
good critiques.
they are all constructive criticism,
they are all things
I think we will be able to discuss
and incorporate is
the process moves forward, if we
are to vote on this, if we vote in
favor this evening. I think they
are all very valid questions and comments
that I am interested in getting answers too.
I did
want to open this backup
to a few comments from council. There
were
a lot of great comments from the community,
and so,
if anyone on council wanted
have tucker sadler respond to any
specific questions you heard, please
let
me know. I can see all of you, by
show of hands does anyone
have follow-up russians they like
to hear an answer on? Yes, debbie.
>> go ahead. >> so, thank you all
for the comments. A lot
to reflect on. One of the biggest
concerns we have is a council and
as a community
has stated the access . I know you
mentioned there was going to be
thought and
decisions about creating some sort
of remedy for the access.
I know you probably have a lot of
the
things you can share, or maybe can't share.
but I think to make everyone feel
a little more reassured that that
is a critical element, I'm looking
for maybe some
sort of
, I don't know, something you can
share with
us about different possibilities,
different things you have considered.
what has worked in the past, just
brainstorming so we have an idea you
are considering some feasible alternative
for transportation over
the tracks.
>>
will I don't have a solution I can
provide tonight. We
are committed to finding a feasible
solution to having a permanent access
across
the tracks. It's important, it's imperative,
to
the success of the project. And as
we have heard,
those who already have operations
on the other side of the
tracks, it's imperative for them to
have that as well.
>>
with the mrc property be something
we could
potentially discuss that with is another
partner since they own a lot of land
along the shoreline? That would be
the refinery at the marina vista exit.
just to throw that out, a lot of land
there.
that potentially could be
utilized for transportation methods.
>> we
would be open to all types of partnerships.
looking at the best way,
the most
feasible way to get it done, yes,
absolutely.
>> I will
add on that that is an area when
we're looking at the options, we have
kind
of looked at that is a consideration because
we
will come up with a creative solution,
>>
thank you.
I know that in years past there was
some discussion, I think many years
ago, about having access to some of
that
land so that sort of the s turn
in the
way we currently enter into the downtown
could be different. I think
outside
of the box, maybe other alternatives
we are not considering that we need
to consider, all types of strategies to
look
at transportation needs thank you, greg.
>> anybody else have any questions?
I
have just one
or two follow-ups from public comment
this evening.
go ahead.
>> thank you very much. Again,
I want to sincerely thank everyone
who took the time to be here tonight
for your comments
here tonight
and for your critiques. We need that
input. In order to make this
a successful project. But,
I do have one question,
I just want to offer some additional thoughts,
it has been talked about, martinez
being a hidden gem, we
have been hidden a little too long.
and
so this is our opportunity,
this is a once in a generation transformational
project that
is before us here. And,
it deserves every consideration
. And,
you know, I have been fond of saying to
folks in
the community who I regularly come
up
to me, you know,
yes, we have our challenges, just
like any community does. But
here's the thing, if you get so fixated
on challenges
you lose sight of the opportunities
right before you.
and ladies and gentlemen, this
is a huge opportunity for us.
I will make no
apologies for dreaming big. Because
we owe that
to not only our current residence,
but
those that are to follow.
and, years from now
, I believe, in my heart of hearts,
this process the
we are embarking on here tonight will
be a pivotal
turning point for the better
in our community. I do generally believe that.
now it is not to say
that there
are some hurdles that will need to
be overcome. And we can do
that. That is what
martisian
do best. We come together when we
have to figure out a solution.
and, I believe that
greg and his team
will come forward in good faith and
that we at least owe it to ourselves
to at least explore this idea
a little further.
we are not saying again to what
the mayor said at the outset, we are
not making a decision here
tonight that this is done, we
are having a groundbreaking ceremony
next week. That is not what we are
doing. What we are saying is that
, do we
want to take a little further?
you know? Based on
everything I have heard here tonight,
and the comments I
have provided
and been provided, I like to explore
that a little further.
but I will definitely have some questions.
I'm going
to pose hard questions along the way.
and I will just say this
right now, we need to figure out
the access point issue. For me, that
is a dealbreaker.
we've got to figure
that out. Because the rest of it is
secondary. As far as
I'm concerned. It is
really, really important.
and so I just want to be transparent
and up front.
right now.
I hope that, I take you at your word
that you
are committed to putting forward and
coming up with
a viable solution that works. I think what
councilmember mckillop mentioned
here, reaching out to the team at
mrc
is something that should absolutely
be on the table.
and then,
to some of the comments, some of the
commentators here
tonight, I do also believe that the project
does need
to reflect the historic
character of our city.
we are ,
you may or may not know this, but
we are
celebrating our sesquicentennial,
150 years
since our city
was incorporated.
and,
that is a huge source of pride for
many in our community because we are
and historic waterfront community.
and the development
that takes
place, whether in the immediate downtown
whether it's here, should honor that
history and it should
reflect that. I definitely would like
to see
, I think there is ways to blend
some of that historic character in
the fa?ades in the way the buildings
are designed.
works for san diego and what worked
for you down there may not necessarily
work for us.
and so, I really appreciate what you
said
at the outset about how your approach
is
really one that is really rooted in
committee dialogue and honoring
the history
of the town.
and so, that is something that is really
important to me
because I think for too long in our
community you know, any type
of development
, it's kind of an either or proposition,
right?
it's kind of like, when we look at
the downtown for instance, it's always
like, going to build these huge monstrosities. Well
no, you can do
good development responsible development projects
,
mixed-use, but you can design the
fa?ades in a way that honor the
historic character of the community.
and I don't, I reject this notion
that
it's either or. You can do that, a
lot of small towns have figured that
out.
only income for --california other
parts of the country. So that is something
I really want to emphasize here. To
please understand
that this is a town that does deeply
value
its history and I appreciate
the comments that were made by cheryl
on that. And so, again,
my sincere thanks to all
of you.
and folks, this is going to be the
start of
a process. Like what councilmember
mckillop said,
we need you as part
of this. That is why we felt it was
so important
, we are
going to engage this community, we
wanted to be an open
and transparent process. And committed
to it. I know all
of us up here are. There's going to
be a lot of time for
that input as jill and lauren stated,
at the outset.
we're going to have a website up.
there's going to be ample opportunity
for public input.
and lastly, I would just say, I too
share the concerns about
the the were expressed because, yeah,
we went through that process
, it was a good process.
but unfortunately,
as we saw here tonight, and as was
said, we
have a revenue problem. And the
t-lip incorporates
a lot of wonderful elements I hope
will make it into
the final design. And again, I want
to
stress that,
I do want to brush it
aside, I know your presentation talked
about some of those elements. But
there is
seriously something in there I want
to see
, having an education center. Something
that recognizes the contributions
of the indigenous peoples
who inhabited this land long before
any of us were
here. We need to have that.
I don't want it to be just completely dismissed.
but, we also have to face the reality
that, again,
we have a serious revenue problem here.
and we don't have any other
viable options before us. That is
just the reality.
I am at least willing
to tonight at least give the green light
to it
and say, hey, let's see if we can
make
this work. I think we
owe that to ourselves and to future
generations of
martisians. Those are my thoughts.
thank you very much.
>> you have any
follow-up questions
for staff or tucker
sadler?
>> no follow-up questions,
just a couple of comments.
and I appreciate all of
the comments this evening. Here, and
online, I appreciate the concerns
that have been expressed. Like my fellow
councilmembers stated, they're going to
be challenges.
but let's look at the upside. Because here's
the thing. As
tucker was going through the presentation,
I wasn't really
necessarily thinking about the end product
of the waterfront.
what I was thinking about
was that because we have this waterfront,
our businesses on main street
are thriving. There is so much activity
in our immediate downtown
because of the waterfront. Businesses
are booming.
the vacant buildings
that we are so comfortable in seeing
are now occupied.
and it's so busy downtown
I don't even have time to go over
to
the waterfront. Because restaurants
and music
and things are popping.
that is what this is about.
this is not about abandoning
our core. But it's
about enhancing the overall
community
yeah, we've got to figure out access.
but we
are going to get there.
but the time is
now. This is a can that has been kicked
, again,
I've been here 24 years, and that
can has been kicked
and I am sure the can was kicked prior
to me.
the time is now.
and I challenge everybody
for all of the reasons why
we can't and we shouldn't
be doing this, come up with a reason
why we can
. And I'm going to
tell you the reason why we can is
because if we don't,
we are going to be on the news for
a bad reason
because we are a bankrupt city.
none of us
want that. And we
can talk and
we can say, this is --but at the end
of the day,
if we don't have services,
we don't have a city. If we
don't have safe communities, we don't
have a city.
if we don't
have services,
we don't have trees, we don't have
beautiful signs saying welcome to
martinez.
and I am reminded
, when I was campaigning and I was
walking in
my district, I met this family,
brand-new to the committee, two
small children, I said, what brought
you here?
they said, we were living
in sunnyvale. We were on our way to
napa
and stopped in martinez
and fell in love.
and we moved here. And by the way,
we are still commuting to
sunnyvale. To work. But we came here
because we love the city.
it seems and feels like a place
for us to raise our families and raise
our children. That is what
we want.
we don't
want to just talk about a marina,
because we have been talking about
a marina
and people come down and say, the
marina? We want people to come
and say, oh my gosh, how have I missed
this? So
just think about the upside.
we can always come with reasons why
we can't. We've got to start looking
at the class
have full. And I have been here long
enough where folks
thought about
not wanting a downtown
, pleasant hill. And what has happened?
it is bustling. I remember
when folks
in the old walnut creek was opposed
to the new
walnut creek across mount diablo because
that was going to kill her businesses.
what did it do? It created foot traffic.
for those businesses on the
other side of mount diablo. So it
can work.
but we have to be open
and thoughtful. And yeah, we can challenge
and push and
pull but at the end of the day, it
benefits all of us.
not just council, all of you. We want
your input. We want to hear from you.
you want to
say that yeah, it's important
we maintain the character of our wonderful city.
yeah, we want you to say we need access
points. We
didn't say is, I want us
to be , I want us to be the bocce
ball capital of the world.
where we are international, where
people come from all over the world
to compete. Think about that.
think about hotel occupancy. Think
about revenue. Thick
about restaurants. Who benefits from that?
all of us.
so, I am in support of moving
down the road and beginning
these discussions and negotiations
and pull and push.
because it's for the betterment of
all
of us, everybody will win from this.
this
is an and conversation.
it's not an either or. It's
not us versus them.
it is an and conversation. It is all
of us in this together to
make our city better. Thriving.
a destination point
for us and people outside of
our community.
we have got a couple thousand county
employees down here
every day. They don't always stay.
but guess what,
if they have a reason to
stay they are going to stay. Going
to take their clients out. The going
to
have cocktails. They are going to
shop. The shopping, someone brought
up retail, I
want those retail locations at the
waterfront to be filled with local
business owners. I'm
not talking about bringing in eight
ruth chris. I want local is is is
down there benefiting from that.
just like downtown right here.
so it is
a visionary.
some folks are going to feel uncomfortable.
but, the
beauty of visionaries ,
often times folks can't always see
the vision.
but if you just
lean in, and you see the outcome,
and it's like, oh,
I got it.
wow, this is beautiful. Wow,
look at my kids.
playing and engaged. Look at the community.
look at our fireworks, they
are now on steroids out there. So
let's think
outside of the box. It's okay. We
will
get there. But
it will be to the benefit of all of us.
>> that is wonderful. I want to piggyback on
what my colleagues
have been talking about, the access.
honestly it's very important. If we
came in
from marina vista and then went down into
the ballfields area, that area, we
are
starting out at an elevated plateau,
just
a thought I wanted to throw out there.
it's interesting
because my phone is absolutely blowing
the. All these
people watching right now are
adding all these great ideas.
and, yeah, I've got
to agree with everybody, the historical
park is so important to this town.
another thing
I really want to ask all of you is,
you have to be are
ambassadors. You have to go out into
the public and help us sell this.
because not everybody
is getting to see this message. So
we need you to be
are ambassadors, we need you to spread
the word. Go to your
bocce ball teams until everybody about
it because
this is very exciting for our
town. Like I said we have been waiting
decades for something like this. I
can't wait to push this forward. I
do kind of want to lift up all
of the other council members and mayors
and all the fighting they have done
over the
years trying to do something. I feel
very grateful that this is landing
in our
lap and this is organically
found
us. It did happen through some strange circumstances.
right, and then all of
a sudden omar went away and all of
a sudden we realized this whole
marina is 30 years past its shelf life.
I do want to thank everybody.
and it's time I like debbie to make
a motion
if she would like to,
being our longest serving councilmember.
I think it would be an
honor and, thank you again.
>>
before, debbie, if you're comfortable
making that motion, before you do that
I just had one
quick follow-up question I wanted
to make sure got said tonight before
everyone went home.
we got a couple of questions about
the tlup approved in the past
and how
this design is not completely aligned with
the tlup that was approved before.
jill or lauren, can you
speak to your understanding of conversations
you have had
with california state lands and east
bay regional park's, have they
had an opportunity to look at this
, have
they given you any feedback?
>>
thank you, mayor. The proposal has
not
been shared
with them except if they are online
tonight, we did provide
them with a link to be able to watch
this. He also did reach
out to have conversations prior so
we made sure
we were kind of asking all the right
questions
as we were going along. To make sure
some things are being proposed would
be acceptable. Some of the
things we learned were that , the
trust land-use
plans are easy to amend.
they are and initial guiding documents
it happens all the time where documents need
to be
amended especially with visionary
type plans. For this very reason when
you look at
things that comes down to the economics
and these things can actually come
to fruition.
so they are aware, we have been in
contact with them. As well as
east bay regional parks, they were
one of the stakeholders we reached
out to
because we were mindful insensitive
to the parks surrounding this property.
and their
team was
supportive of the vision and supportive
of what is happening. They were excited
to
be included and definitely wanted
to --their goal was to get people
to the
parks. Get people to the water. That is
kind of what they communicated to
us,
anything that does that, this is fantastic.
we will definitely be working with
them
closely as well.
>> by the way, one
of the things, again, this will
be a later conversation,
but
that greg has talked with us about is
that east bay regional park
district will actually benefit from
this project because there will be more
connections built
and also
improvements to the trails, especially
those around the bordering areas.
that was something the very much peaked
their interest. One more thing I will
say too is that we spoke with every
official from federal
, state to local, we did that outreach.
as you know those are the
folks that often opus advocate at
the state level when
we are trying to champion our projects
.
and across the board everybody was
in support of this project, even
though some could make it here tonight,
they absolutely were very interested
and supportive.
>> great, thank you. With that,
I will hand this over to my colleagues.
if anyone would like
to make a motion.
>> I will gladly make
a motion that we enter into an exclusive
negotiation arrangement with
tucker sadler.
>>
debbie can you restate that. We are
entering
into negotiations --we don't actually have
--
>> so, I
will say that again.
make a motion to authorize
the city to enter into negotiations for
an exclusive negotiation agreement
ena, with tucker sadler.
>> I will
second
that.
>> >> mayor zorn. A roll
call vote.
>> vice mayor howard.
>> yes. >> councilmember young.
>> yes. >> councilmember malhi. >> >> aye.
yes.
>> councilmember mckillop. >> aye.
>> motion pashas.
all ayes.
>> [ applause ] >> based on
my
understanding the outcome of this vote
is that staff will begin negotiating
with tucker
sadler . We have a meeting in july and
we are actually taking the
month of august off as
we every year do. We should expect
a draft
coming to us probably
at a september meeting, is that the
approximate schedule the people
should expect?
>> possibly.
it's doable.
september or october.
>> okay. Great.
thank you. All right,
thank you, everyone, for participating.
I know it has been
a very late evening. I want to remind
everyone I am three hours ahead
of use with later for me. But that's
okay. So thank you for joining us
this evening. I would like to take
a five-minute break before we go into
our last few items on the agenda.
it is
10:45, let's regroup a
few minutes before 11:00.
thank you.
>> can everyone begin to take their
seats?
I'm not sure if anyone can hear me,
but if you can, let's get ready
to take on last few items on the agenda.
>> everyone, please take a seat. We're
going to resume the meeting.
>> let it show for the record,
vice mayor howard is ready.
>> we are not able to start until
we have a quorum on
the dais.
>> you may start. >>
oh, good, it still recording?
excellent, thank you. Hold on one minute.
all right, our next item, general
business item number two, adopt a
resolution approving
a general obligation bond
tax rate for fiscal year 2526 property
tax roll.
june,
I see you on camera. I assume you
will be leading off today?
>> actually I'm going to turn over
to my accountant, courtney butler
for
this item.
>> good evening,
mayor and council members.
I am presenting the recommended general
obligation
tax bond rate for fiscal year
25/26 property tax roll. In 2008
voters passed measure
h which allows
the city to issue up to $30 million
in bonds to improve our parks, library
and
swimming pool. Since then the city
has issued three sets of bonds and
refinanced
two of them to reduce interest costs.
these bonds are repaid through the
property tax base
on the value of each property. In
fiscal year 25/26 to cover the cost
of the debt service payments of
$1.3 million the tax rate is 0.0167
four
$100 of assessed property value.
tonight's action is for the city council
to approve this tax rate and authorize
staff to submit this tax rate to contra
costa county. And now I am here to
answer any questions.
>> that is
great. Thank you for the presentation.
it was even
shorter than I expected. Does anyone
on council have any questions for
courtney?
I'm sorry, I can't see if
they were shaking their heads, were
there any questions?
>> know the were
not.
>> all right, I don't have any
questions. Let me open this up
to public comment and we will see
if there is anyone in
council chambers. Vice mayor howard,
let me know if there is anyone raising
their hand to speak.
>>
negative.
>> we you check the virtual
audience please?
>> please use the
raise hand feature if you like to comment on
this item.
I have no hands.
>> okay, all right,
let's
bring that back to council
for a motion.
>> I like to make a
motion to pass
a resolution as the city council of
the city of martinez approving
the general obligation bond tax rate
for the fiscal year 2025 through 2026,
property
tax roll
in directing submittal to contra costa
county.
>> second.
>> roll call vote please.
>> mayor zorn. >> yes. >> vice mayor howard.
>> yes. >> councilmember young. >> yes.
>> councilmember malhi. >> aye. >> councilmember mckillop.
>> aye.
>> motion passes. All ayes. >> wonderful,
thank you courtney
and jen. All right, we have one more item.
we are now convening as the board
of directors
of contra costa county sanitation
district number six.
full public hearing for contra costa
este six
adopting the resolution of the written
statement and
district diagram and
assessments for fiscal year 25/26.
who will be presenting on this this
evening?
>> public works director.
>> good evening
, mayor and council members.
and member of the audience.
this procedural requirement in order to levy
assessments on the
tax roll is to hold the
public hearing for the
contra costa county sanitation district
number
six . The rates have
not changed. For the last
three years
we adopted an ordinance three
years ago that said the rates at
$24.50 per year. This will be the
last year those
were assessed. Total amount assessed
for the upcoming year is
$150,100.
so by holding the public
hearing and then subsequently adopting
of the confirming resolution,
we will allow the levy of the assessments and
next year's
tax roll. Open for
any questions after the hearing.
>>
have we received any protests or
any comments about this?
>> no. There
is no increase
in rates so there is no
protest to vote on this.
>> I see.
gotcha. Okay, and then,
I am still concerned and I'm going to
read to
you what you wrote in the fiscal impact
that
there is no impact toward general
fund. If
the proposed rate. If the
resolution authorizing on the county
property tax bills is
not improved
and alternate funding source would
be required. I am
reading that to mean if there is a
major failure or something of the
infrastructure in
este six the rate of $24.50 is not sufficient
or
I'm sorry,
$150,100 per year is not sufficient
to make any major changes. Is that
a correct reading
of that statement?
>> it is. >> okay.
this is definitely something I know
we had multiple years
of protests because we tried
to raise it. So I'm just acknowledging
the staff report
and acknowledging
that you have alerted us that this
is an issue. I also
recognize that the community is not
interested in raising the rates. But,
I just want to acknowledge that this
has potential
moving forward.
any council members have any questions
or comments?
hearing none, is one
person in the audience
have any comments on this item?
>> negative.
>> any one in the
virtual audience have any comments
on this item?
>> please use the raise
hand feature. I have no hands.
>>
go ahead.
I like
to make a motion to pass the resolution of
the city council of
the city of martinez. Constituting
the board of directors of
contra costa county sanitation district
number six approving the annual written
statement and confirming
the diagram an assessment for the
collection of sewer service charges
on the
county tax roll for the 2025 through
2026 fiscal year.
>> second.
>> mayor zorn. >> yes.
>> vice mayor howard. >> yes. >> councilmember young.
>> yes.
>> councilmember malhi. >> aye.
>> councilmember mckillop. >> aye.
>> motion passes. All ayes.
>> great, thank you so very much.
we now reconvene is acidic council is
the city of martinez in the next is
a report from the chief of
police. Do you have any updates?
>>
thank you,
mayor. Just one update, council member
malhi requested an update
regarding concerns of traffic issues
on ambra
and c
street. The police department has
conducted extra patrols out there
between
april 17
and june 30. There was a count of
133 incidents of us responding
out there.
eight of those resulted in traffic
stops. There were four citations issued
and
four warnings were issued. So we do continue
to patrol in that area regarding the
concerns that
had been raised. And we are also collaborating
with public works regarding longer-term
engineering-based solutions.
>> I
am
sorry, can you clarify, alhambra
and c street
is, which intersection
are we referring to?
>> it's a crosswalk
intersection with a rapid flashing
be
could lights. It's by
the hospital.
>>
when people get off the bus and walked
to the hospital. When people call
you the police are
able to in real-time respond that
quickly
and then issue citations? Can you
give an example of what you're talking
about?
>> I didn't explain it. We've
been doing extra patrols based
on concerns. It's not responses
to it. It's because they been out
there doing the extra patrols to look
for violations.
>> I see. Thank you for the
report out.
council member malhi, I appreciate
you asking for
that. I would like us to circle back
--if you have another
question, I'd like to circle back
on this because I think that crosswalk
seems problematic and I am
not sure
--I am not sure
that citations
will necessarily produce the outcome we
are looking for. But I will happily
be proven wrong. So, chief, if you
can give us regular report outs and
if
it turns out that increased surveys,
or increased patrols don't
show a reduction in issues, then maybe
we can circle back and identify some
other solution for that crosswalk.
it's the
only crosswalk that looks like that in
martinez. That's why I am
a little nervous about it.
>> yeah, just to clarify, as I understand
it from
the city engineer, that location
is already set for an engineering-based study
is one
of the safe streets for everybody
or safe streets for everyone grant.
I think the next update will be, what
is the result
of that.
and obviously enforcement continues
to be and then of
course education which I think
is being taken care
of in part by the committee case with
the hospital. I believe there's also
a
sign posted out there reminding the
strings of their duties when crossing.
it takes everybody
working together. The driving as well
as pedestrians.
>> great, am glad to hear, I
had forgotten that was identified
as part of the
safe streets for everyone. That is
exactly what I was going to suggest
being our
next step. But we have already done
it, that is great. Did you have a
follow-up question?
>> thank you.
thank you, chief,
for that update. I do appreciate it.
I just wanted to, you know,
the resident who initially
flagged this concern
, has, I believe,
they work at the county hospital,
but she did reference
that one of the doctors at the county
hospital was actually hit by
a vehicle
and that apparently, this is not an
isolated incident.
apparently there have been other incidents. Chief,
you have
any data to support that? Are you aware,
have pedestrians in fact been
>>>
there? Have we had first responders
go out in response?
>> there have
been collisions there
but in terms of it being attributed
to one particular issue, that hasn't
been established. I'm sure is part
of the
engineering study it will make available
to them whatever
data they want and they will be able
to look at it and determine what
recommendations they may have.
>>
yeah,
I would very much like
to get some continuous updates on this.
given it's a very highly trafficked
crosswalk that
is used not only by residents, but also
, you know, county employees, those
that work at the hospital, patients.
and I believe it is also next to the
teamsters hall
as well.
so there may be --and also its adjacent
to the
high school. So there is a good mix
of folks who are traversing that
area. I think it warrants our attention
and I look forward to getting some
additional updates as far as
proposed solutions. Very much appreciate
, chief, the work
of pd to at least get out there and
step up patrols in that area
while recognizing the fact that there
are some traffic calming mitigation
that can potentially be
undertaken there. So thank you.
>> great, next up is update from the
city manager. Acting city manager,
do you
have any updates for us?
>> there
are none.
>> great. Since I know
how involved you were in setting up
meetings and
doing outreach for tonight, thank
you very much for all of
your efforts, I was really happy to
see how
many folks divided input
from, not even
people here tonight, but people who
met with you earlier
to answer some questions about the
agenda and all that kind
of stuff. We just got a lot of
really positive feedback so thank
you for all of your efforts. All right,
no appointments. We do have a few subcommittee
report outs.
one is the sustainability subcommittee
the debbie and I
serve on.
debbie, any chance you have the agenda
in
front of you? Because I can't remember
all the things we talked about.
>> yes, I do have the agenda. The
first item was a presentation from
the contra costa county climate leaders
which was --
>> that's right. >> told us
how we fared in the assessment of
our climate leadership.
then we also had a report out
from the
eco-awards programs. And their plans
for doing additional
recognition for individuals and businesses
that do
good work in sustainability.
and then we also heard a staff report
on the
bag and food
wear accessories and condiment update.
those are the three evidence.
--items.
>> just a quick update on
the last one
for this meeting, we had, right before
the
vacant to vibrant workshop, so we
got cut a little
short at the end. And so the discussion
of single-use plastics
and what was the other freezing in
that item?
>>
food wear accessories.
>> food wear accessories,
we just barely scratched the surface
and so we asked for carrie and michael
to bring that up at
a subsequent meeting. We will talk
about that again, we didn't make much
progress on
that topic. That's great, thank you.
anybody have any outside agency or
subcommittee
report outs not listed on the agenda?
>>
I attended the
transpac meeting
last
thursday, july 10, one of the items
that was shared was the
contra costa transportation authority
integrated transit plan. This was
a presentation
really designed
, the plan
was designed to provide technical
and planning guidance with a clear
vision
for delivering
a robust transit network that connects
all major activity centers
and regional hubs in contra costa
county. So,
we were shown plans across
our five
counties. Central county action plan,
tri-valley, so across contra
costa county and timelines, so
far the discussion was looking at improving
our arterial ways
, connecting mobility hubs in our counties.
increasing express lanes, part-time transit,
so having buses during certain designated
times. Have the ability to go on the
shoulders, like the 680.
gave a full-blown presentation and then
next steps , as I'm getting to the
end of this, getting
input from
transpac and then coming back with
policy proposals to suggest
action plans based on
the different regions and corridors
. And then
delivering an integrated transit
plan. Countywide.
that was the majority of the
time last week. That's all I've got.
>>
thank
you for representing martinez at the
mayor's conference this past week.
much appreciated.
>>
yes, thank you. That was a spirited meeting.
>> all right, the last item is city council
comments. What we go
--actually, I know, debbie, are you
still interested in closing at the
meeting this evening?
>> yes. >> how
about I will start and we will
go down the line and then debbie you
can have the last comment. I
will pass the gavel to you and you
can adjourn the meeting after your
comments.
so I just wanted to thank st. Peter
and paul church, they had the
mediterranean festival over the weekend.
thanks for coming out. I want
to thank you for initiating that contact
a year
or so ago because it wasn't totally
on my radar before. I really appreciate
the we have
now started this tradition for council
to go to that festival. It was great.
and really fun. And the food was great.
I wanted to
only comment at the very, very beginning
of this meeting, we had some folks
from comment that they would like
to have some conversations with staff.
I understand staff
have already been in touch with one
of the women who spoke. And so
I just wanted to check with staff
and make sure you are good to
continue those conversations
with those folks and don't need
any additional guidance from council.
>> that
is correct.
>>
okay. All right, great, that is it
for me.
>> that
is great. So
the one thing I wanted to talk about
is, let's all remember it
is coyote season.
until the end of august. If you love
your cats and
dogs keep them inside at night.
>>
just again, I want to say
thank you to the staff for the marina
revitalization plan.
again, you all brought
this forward
and now
it looks like we are at least in the
beginning stages
of having
some real conversations about transforming
the marina. So again, I can't
thank you all enough, this is a heavy
lift. The
exciting part is the work is really
going to start to begin.
thank you all for making it happen.
>>
thank you very much.
just a couple of quick
shout outs, the pine meadow ribbon
cutting ceremony and fourth of july
,
thanks to staff and all of the
volunteers who helped
make those events successful and possible.
very much appreciate that. Another great
parade
, so thank you very much.
and, I did want to
also just highlight,
for my colleagues and staff in
the community, for those of you who
may not
be aware,
safeway/albertsons
and kroger have been in negotiations
with u of cw including
you of cw local five here in martinez.
yesterday
and informational eating was held
at the safeway in pleasant hill.
and,
so, it is certainly my hope and
I know
those of you, that the safeway will
negotiate
in good faith and pay their workers
a good living wage. With
benefits. I hope that an amicable
solution can be reached in the near
future
to avoid a strike . No
doubt we have
two locations in our community.
will certainly be impacted by that.
I definitely
do not want to see that happen. I
encourage safeway
to do
their part and do right by their workers.
that is really, really important.
other than that,
I don't have any further updates.
one question I did have about an upcoming
meeting, it's my understanding
the council will be
in the meeting, lauren, with the diversity and
cultural
commission? Is that still on the books?
and if so, do you
have any information in terms of what
that is going to look like?
>>
yes, so I will look over to eve,
jump in if I am miss communicating
this. So our joint
council and diversity and cultural
commission meeting is next thursday,
the 24th,
at 7:00. 6:00. 6:00.
it will be facilitated training
and kind of getting
to know one another. This is a new
commission reporting directly to the
council. We are still kind of determining
the location because
we wanted to have more of a unity
center feel,
but we unfortunately, the
senior center
--tbd on location.
we might have to stick here. But yeah,
it will be a facilitated discussion
around
the principles of diversity, equity,
inclusion and belonging
is a new commission really kind of
starts to take off from here.
>>
thank you so much.
>> here we are at the end of the evening.
we have
one person in our audience. Thank
you for sticking around.
I just wanted to say
that tonight I think we did something
miraculous. I think that we set the stage
for an amazing future for martinez.
I am proud to be
part of
this, with all of you, with all the
staff. And they just want to
thank the staff for your outreach
and your dedication to this. It has
been
quite a journey. And we just started.
and so I am looking forward to
the adventure. And the journey. I'm
very excited about developing
our waterfront , both land and sea.
very exciting. I also attended
the mediterranean festival.
I went there late but it was amazing.
I actually was
dancing late into the evening. It
was a lot of
fun. It was great. But on a more
serious note,
I have the honor this evening to close
the city council meeting in the
memory of harriet bird. I brought
with me
a picture
of harriet, I wanted
to put that out there. So people can
see her.
and I had something prepared, partially
from her obituary and partially a
little history about
harriet bert.
she was a longtime martinez resident
and integral part of our community.
so harriet bert, very proud
and active resident of martinez, california,
passed away peacefully on may 6, 2025
in san antonio, texas, she was 85.
she was born
in alameda to harold and jean bert,
both
devoted schoolteachers
. Harriet inherited
a lifelong passion for education,
civic engagement and public service. Harriet
began her
teaching career in martinez jr. High
school in 1962. She was hired
by principal john spade, many of us
might remember him from junior
high, he hired harriet
to replace a longtime educator
, mary gillespie. And the funny thing
is, harriet was a graduate of fresno
state university where she roomed
with her fellow roommate, sheila,
another longtime martinez resident
and that was the connection of how she
kind of
found martinez's to her roommate.
and john spade came down and hired
her. She spent 16
years at the martinez jr. High. A
couple years she went to australia
and
taught. The last 10 years of her teaching
she taught u.s. History to many, many
of us martisians and a
lot of kids remember miss harriet
bert. In 1978 she moved
into the school administration and
she
continued to
lead the administration with clarity
and compassion
until 1980. And then she began a new
chapter as an educational consultant
traveling across
the u.s. In canada for 15 years and
she taught classroom management and
behavioral
workshops to fellow educators.
harriet also shared her
talents as a journalist with the martinez
news gazette. Many of us remember
we
had a newspaper in town called the
martinez news gazette. She wrote with
sharp insight
and wit that was
--endeared her
to so many in our community. Later
in her career harriet brought her
intellect and dedication
to public service and she served on
this city council. She was a
city councilmember, planning commission
member, she worked with the california
public utilities commission and her
commitment
to improving our community never,
never wavered. She was deeply engaged
in our community.
she was in active member
of many civic organizations
including the american association
of university women, the boys and
girls club,
the optimist club, the martinez education association,
kiwanis, lions club, and the martinez
historical society. And that is just to
name a
few. You can see how active she was
in our community. She will
be remembered by her incredible intellect,
her razor sharp wit, her larger-than-life
presence, her lifelong commitment
to education, equity and civic life
leads a lasting legacy that will continue
to
inspire generations to come.
and we had a celebration and of her
life
this past sunday and the family has expressed
the request
instead of flowers that you make a
contribution to the
martinez historical society or local
educational nonprofit
in her honor. With that, I want to
say thank you to harriet for
all that you gave over the years to martinez.
and we are closing this meeting in
your honor.
and in your memory.
>> this meeting is adjourned. Thank
you so much and have a
lovely evening.