Recording in progress. Okay, , uh, good evening. Welcome
to the regularly meeting of the petaluma city council and the petaluma community development
successor agency for monday, july 6th, 2026.
may we have our roll call, please,
al. Present. Kate thompson. Here to
carly. Here. Now. Here. Quint,
absent rebs. Here, mcdonald here.
and we do have a quorum. Perfect. Um, tonight we have a
close session, uh, a conference with labor negotiators, and I'd
like to invite our assistant city attorney, dylan brady,
to announce the closed session. Sure.
pursuant to government code section 5 4 9 5 7 0.6,
the city representatives will be peggy flynn, city manager. Brian cochrane,
assistant city manager. Linda lee, deputy city manager in charles
saka from sloan saka are outside counsel. The employee organization
is iaff unit seven and unit eight compensation plan. Thank
you. Thank you very much. Um, let's, um, look into public
comment on the item tonight. And, um, as always,
we have public comment available for the closed session.
and, um, I'd like to ask our clerk if we've received any prior.
we have not received any comments ahead of the meeting. Um, we do have
two people on the zoom call, and so I'll read out the instructions.
members of the public attending in person should bring their speaker cards to the clerk's
desk. Members of the public attending online should raise their virtual hand,
and those attending via phone should press darn nine to raise their hand.
we will hear in-person comments first. The mayor will call speakers to the podium, and
once those have concluded, I'll call upon remote speakers to unmute themselves.
we do not have any in-person speaker cards, and I don't see any raised
hands. Okay. Thank you. Um, with, with, uh, no
speakers and no one moving here and no hands up, we will close public comment
on the closed session and we will now adjourn to
closed session. We will return to tonight's meeting at 6:00 pm or
the conclusion of closed session, whichever comes later. Thank you,
mr. Mayor, are we ready to begin? We are ready to begin. Okay. And we are recording.
we're already recording. That's fabulous. Uh, good evening
and welcome to the regular meeting of the petaluma city council and the petaluma community development
successor agency for monday, july 6th, 2026.
um, as you know, uh, or may know tonight's meeting marks the return
of remote public comments, we'll, once again, be accepting both
in person and via zoom. This is in compliance with
sb uh, 7 0 7, which was an update to the brown act, california
open meeting law. And we're pleased to welcome the opportunity for even broader community
participation and make our meetings more accessible to people who can't
always join us in person. And we look forward to hearing from a wider range of voices
and to the increased engagement this will bring. Because this is a new
process. We ask for your patience as staff gets used to the technology
and works on refining things. And we know there's interest in rolling out
remote, uh, comments to our committees and commissions.
and we, uh, we'd like to wait until we've sorted all the bugs out of the council
meeting, trying to do this at the same, same time.
so as for our regular procedures, if you wish to provide a comment
tonight, tonight's agenda, um, and you're joining us in person,
uh, please fill out a speaker card, they're located in the hallway, and bring it to our clerk
who is right up here in front, as per our new
procedures. For those of you participating via zoom, please raise your hand
virtually when the item is called. And, uh, those
participating over the phone in zoom can raise their hand by pressing star
nine. The city clerk will provide these instructions during each
public comment period. And, uh, please do not raise your hand
right now. Uh, please wait till the item for when
we're doing comment occurs. And, um,
so, um, also please note we do our meetings in, um,
concurrent translation services and, um, in spanish in a
variety of other languages. And so to access translations online,
please use the link provided in the agenda and to, uh,
access the translation in the room, please scan the qr code that's on the wall
in the back, uh, to gain access. So
with that, may we have our roll call for the evening, please? Yes. Barnacle
present. Cater thompson here to carly here.
now here. Quint, absent trips here,
mcdonald here. We do have a quorum. Thanks, chuck. Thank you.
um, let's all rise for a pledge of allegiance,
which is two flag of the united states of america, and two
republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
just prior to this meeting. Um,
well, let me, let me go back to, um, let's also have a moment of silence here.
thank you. To start our meeting, I look up and down the, uh, dais
and, um, and see if any of the council members wish to change the
order of any of the business this evening. And, um,
I, uh, I note that our workshop is really the largest time consuming,
um, on, on the corona station area area. Um, and I suggest
that we bring our other shorter items forward. And I'd like, uh, someone
to initiate that. I'll make that motion. I'll second.
thank you very much. And, um, then,
um, let's see. And we, and for, for, uh, second clarity, let's have a roll call vote
on, on that. Thank you. Barnacle.
aye. Aye. Cater thompson? Yes. Di carly? Yes.
now? Yes. Shrives. Yes. Mcdonald?
yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. So we'll notice that in
the agenda there's a little switch going on there. And, um, we
prior, just prior to this, we had a closed session. And I'd like to invite our city
attorney to, uh, assistant city attorney to announce any reporter, at least
the topic of the conversation. Sure. Nothing to report tonight. Yep.
okay. Thank you very much. And, um,
one of the, um, fun things we do here, um, my council meetings
is we, uh, pay certain respects, uh, and, and, uh,
and honors. And this month the proclamation that we have is
for our park and recreation month. And it
reads national park and recreation month, um,
for july, 2026. And I'd like to invite
our park and recreation staff to come forward while we, uh, do this,
the right day
support. Okay. Whereas the
city of petaluma recognizes that parks, trails, recreational facilities, playgrounds,
open spaces and community programs are essential to the health, wellbeing,
and vitality of our community, providing equitable opportunities
for people of all ages, abilities, backgrounds to connect, play, learn, and
thrive. And whereas since 1985, the national recreation and parks
association has celebrated july as national parks and recreation
month, recognizing the dedicated professionals, volunteers, and community
partners who enriched lives through parks and recreation. And
whereas the city of petaluma parks and recreation department serves
as a cornerstone of community life by creating welcoming spaces and
meaningful experiences that strengthen connections, inspire active
and healthy lifestyles, celebrate diversity and foster a deep sense of belonging
for all those who call petaluma home. And whereas exceptional
stewardship of parks, recreational facilities, natural areas, and public
gathering spaces, the department protects and enhances the city's environmental
resources while preserving these treasured places for future generations
supporting biodiversity, climate resilience, and the health of our local
ecosystem. And whereas petaluma parks and recreation brings
people together through innovative programs, camps, aquatics, sports
arts, cultural celebrations, volunteer opportunities, and community events
that encourage lifelong learning, wellness and civic engagement
and social connection. And whereas the city of petaluma
proudly recognizes the outstanding dedication and creativity and service of
its parks and recreation staff, commissioners, volunteers, and community
partners and program participants whose collective efforts make petaluma's
parks and recreation system a source of pride in one of the community's greatest
assets. Now, therefore be it resolved that I, kevin mcdonald, mayor
of the city of petaluma, together with all the members of the petaluma city council, do
hereby proclaim july, 2026 as national park and
recreation month in the city of petaluma and encourage all residents to celebrate
by, in joining our parks, uh, participating in our recreation programs,
connecting with neighbors, and recognizing the vital role that park and recreation
play in creating healthy, inclusive, and thriving community.
thank you.
thank you. Uh, mayor, council members, vice mayor, city
manager and community. I feel incredibly fortunate. Um,
again, my name's drew halter. I'm the director of parks and recreation, and I'm fortunate to
accept tonight's proclamation on behalf of this incredible team.
uh, each july we are joined by, uh, hundreds of other agencies
taking a moment to celebrate all things, parks and recreation, um, which
recognizes the more than 160,000 full-time, uh,
employees and recreation professionals. And over a couple of hundred
thousand more seasonal part-time, uh, employees, uh, that,
that call this industry their own. Um, you know, these are folks that
all show up to maintain our parks, keep our recreation centers open, steward
our history and traditions, uh, and, and offer places to create community.
so this year's national, um, parks and recreation theme is, is the
power of, and we get to fill in the blank, you know,
and, and that really is special for us because it really does showcase,
um, all the unique ways that parks and recreation creates
impact at the local level. Um, you know, for example, the power of
play. You know, the power of community, the power of belonging, of connection,
of nature, of wellbeing. You know, what has always been fascinating to
me about parks and recreation as a core service is just how
multifaceted, uh, our days can be and how broad
range of activities, parks is in spaces we get to support from one moment
to the next. I am biased, um, being
in petaluma, but I feel petaluma takes this challenge to the next level.
you know, not many parks and recreation agencies can start their day, you know,
checking in preda laps, swimmers, and then finish their evening,
you know, tucking in livestock at the fair. Um, so
while today is certainly a celebration of parks, you know, it's just as much a celebration,
you of the incredible, passionate, hardworking professionals like
those that are beside me tonight, uh, that show up each and every day to make
their community a better place to live and play in. And I want to call
it particularly, um, tomorrow marks the 40
year anniversary of two city of petaluma employees, jim
castle, our parks maintenance supervisor, and ron roski, our parks
lead supervisor who started on the day together 40 years ago to
tomorrow. Uh, all serving petaluma uniquely in their park
system. So this year, definitely a, a special call out to jim, uh, and
ron who couldn't be here tonight. 'cause they're, they're putting, um, you know, cream on their knees
or something, . But, but, but you know, that just goes to show just
kind of the dedication and passion that we have uniquely in petaluma couldn't be prouder of them.
so thank you for the team and thank you for everyone. Yeah.
and, uh, as they return to their seats, uh, I think council just wants to give a shout out for
all the work going on right now in parks, um, having successfully,
uh, pulled off another fare for petaluma. That's a big deal. And,
um, also having run the fourth, the, uh, uh, fireworks for
the fourth. These are big over and above kinds of items that the park and rec
department pulls off. So thank you very much.
now we move to general public comment and, um, per
our regular procedure during general public comment, the public is invited
to make comments on items of public interest that are within the city
council subject matter jurisdiction, and not listed on the current agenda.
public comments are limited up to three minutes per person, and depending on
the number of persons wishing to address the council time will be allocated in equal
shares totaling no more than 20 minutes per our new
procedures. And as a reminder, we will be, um, accepting public
comments in person as well as via zoom, uh, as per
sb 7 0 7 in person and remote commenters will be granted
equal time. So if I have more than 20 people wishing to speak,
the first 10 in person and the first 10 remote speakers with
raised hands will be accommodated. Zoom tracks the order of
the hands that get raised, and we, we will be working from that
zoom generated list in order for zoom
and in-person participants to know if they are in the first
10 or not. The names of all 10 speakers will be
announced. Um, before we start, additional comments will
be heard after the last business item of the agenda. And if there are
less than 10 of each in-person and online, we will fill
from the other pool to get up to our, our 20 speakers for the evening.
we will hear in-person comments first, and I will call the speakers to the
podium. And once those have concluded, the city clerk will call upon
remote speakers to unmute themselves and make their comments.
so, um, let's go over to the city clerk to,
uh, help us out with this next piece. Yes. Uh, we
did receive 23 public comments ahead of the meeting, and those are posted on
line. And I also wanted to let the group know that there are
nine zoom attendees. Uh, so at this time, I
will start a 32nd clock for general public comment. And during these
30 seconds, members of the public attending in person should bring their speaker cards to my desk.
members of the public attending online should raise their virtual hand,
and those attending via phone should press star nine to raise their hand.
speaker request received after this 32nd clock may not be
accommodated.
so the clerk has advised me that there are, uh, two speaker hands up and
I believe she has handed me 18 cards. And, um, my
question back was, is that all the cards or you, you have some cards remaining.
we have 29 total cards. So I have the rest of the stack, and this will be okay.
so if I read your name, you'll be in the period right now.
and if you don't hear a name, that means that when we open public comment at the end
of the meeting, that will be your name will be called at that point. So
the, uh, speakers and the order, um, for tonight's
in person will be, uh, calvin antes, uh,
joanna arango, renee salvato,
gloria mcallister, eric vasquez, kat
nrao kirk lot, uh, nazar ahmad,
antonio jimenez, uh, alana feldman,
eric leland, dennis pokay, jennifer boyle,
tina yonkers, mark kimberly, susan
hussey, kaitlyn quinn, and hayes, uh,
swan hasser. So those are our in-house. And
with 20, we'll be setting the clock at 20 minutes to one
minute per person for um, cards. And,
um, two points. One, one minute goes fast. Um,
you know, you'll be shocked how fast it goes, so please try and get right to your point
so we can hear you. And then second point is
if you have, um, more that you wish to add, you can email it in
and it gets to become part of the record that way. So, um, our first
speaker, as I noted, was, uh, kavia walta to
be followed by joanna arango.
hello.
hello, uh, my name is calvin. I'm a petaluma resident here with a coalition
of other petaluma residents. There's a few of us, as you can see.
um, I'm asking you to pass an ordinance for no cooperation with ice immigrations
and customs enforcement preventing the use of any city resources for ice
unless ordered otherwise by a judicial warrant. Uh, a binding ordinance
is the moral, legal and logical next step from the 2025 resolution that this
council passed, it would build trust between our immigrant
neighbors and the public services intended to serve them. Such an ordinance
is constitutionally protected by the 10th amendment, and similar ordinances have been
well practiced in many other cities around the country. Let's stand up for our
immigrant neighbors and join the other brave jurisdictions around the country who have already taken this
step. I believe other members of my team have already provided each of you with a draft
of this ordinance, and now I hope you will listen to other members of the community
who have similar sentiments. Thank you. Thank you.
so, good evening. Um, on a decorum basis, we will say,
start, you'll see the clock. Sorry. We're gonna ask no applause to the end, or no
cheering or jeering or, or, you know, we'll maintain the quorum so the speakers can have
their minute and, and make that point. And so our next speaker is joanna
arango, to be followed by renee, uh, al
sdos sdo. Si. Thank you. Good evening,
everyone. I'm juana arango from oaxaca, mexico,
and I'm here with, uh, with alma libre. We
are part of sonoma county sanctuary coalition. I've been living in petaluma
for 29 years, and I feel very fortunate to be here
as a petaluma resident. I want to represent my community. We, as immigrants
feel fear to speak up, however, we highly support this
new law. I personally support a new law of no collaboration with
ice in petaluma, because I will feel safe.
I would like to respectfully ask all the members of our city council to please
pass this new law so my immigrant community can be
protected from ice. You should not
say god bless america if you don't care about your neighbor.
peace to all. Thank you. Thank you, renee zeto to
be followed by gloria mcallister.
good evening, renee cevo with the sonoma county sanctuary coalition.
due to trump's enforcement practices and repression,
there is an entire community in petaluma living
in terror and extreme emotional distress. That is why
most of them are not here. There's nothing more frightening
than being forcibly separated from your family, than
potentially being indefinitely incarcerated in, in
inhumane conditions. Studies conducted by
the immigrant legal resource center, as well as other,
uh, well-respected organizations affirm the obvious
that immigrants don't feel safe dealing with local officials,
especially law enforcement. There is no trust,
and that puts everyone in danger when people don't want to
report crimes or serve as witnesses to crimes. Thank
you very much, gloria mcallister to be followed by eric vasquez.
good evening to all of you. My name is gloria
mcallister and I have lived in peta since 1990.
I'm also a lead coordinator for pet los mutos.
it breaks my heart to see our immigrant community
grow fearful, so fearful that they feel unsafe
participating in their own cultural celebrations. Their
children ask why, why can't we go out there to,
to enjoy our culture? It's time to help our immigrant
community return to their tranquil lives. They deserve peace,
they deserve protection. I urge our council members to pass a citywide
non cooperation ordinance. Now, important
immigrants are low ab their law abiding citizens.
they are our neighbors. They are our friends. Les
recognize their contribution for making our petaluma
much better. Le they deserve kind and fair justice. Thank
you eric vasquez, to be followed by kat zaro.
good evening, mr. Mayor and council members. My name is eric vasquez, and
I stand here today in solidarity with our community, urging you to place
a non-cooperation ordinance on our agenda so migrant workers in this
city can stop living in fear. If this federal administration
has taught us anything, it's that we can no longer afford the niceties
in the face of clear threats to our neighbors livelihoods. It was
this council just last year that first took up a resolution protecting
our immigrant neighbors. Unfortunately, it wasn't unanimous.
that hesitation was rooted in the fear that protecting people
would be a liability to our funding. Those fears
didn't come true. Our county sued the court sided with
us, and petaluma still stands. A non-cooperation
ordinance takes that hesitation off the table. For good.
dozens of cities and counties have already stopped sharing resources with
federal administra immigration enforcement. Thank you. Thank you
kat nazario to be followed by kirk lot.
hi, my name is kat nario and I'm a granddaughter of immigrants, the
fought against fascism and imposing force and a threat to our civil liberties and freedoms.
this town is riddled with an unjust displacement of first indigenous peoples. And
the chinese laborers who built the railroads, shaped the rivers and tended to our land
when they were deemed no longer valuable, they were forced out. This isn't a
distant past. And in this last year, the leadership acknowledged the hard work of those
families and the wrongs of displacement by dedicating a park and erecting a plaque.
the immigrants currently in this community is what keeps it going. They grow our food,
they create our wine, they make our restaurants, stores, schools and communities run.
I know this community will protect them with everything they've got. So whether this council
chooses to cooperate with ice or not, the and to be there
on the right side of history or the wrong, I know this community will protect them,
come hell or high water. Here is the moment to protect this community in real
time. Show you've learned from the lessons of the past instead of dedicating a park
and a plaque in 50 years down the road. Thank you so much. Thanks. Thank
you kirk locke, to be follow.
uh, thank you, uh, mayor mcdonald and members of
the council. Uh, as you well know, I've been in business here in petaluma
for 41 years, starting august of, uh, this month, next month.
in that time, we've seen this community grow. We've seen diversity
expand. Uh, it wasn't always that that case at
one time there were a lot of chinese actually helping to build, um,
petaluma, and yet they went away because of the 1882 exclusion
laws and anti-chinese sentiments. We don't wanna
see that happen again with any other immigrant communities. I think it's
our responsibility as citizens of, uh, petaluma to make
sure that we fight for our immigrant communities. Immigrants
are the ones that built the us. Our 250
year anniversary would not happen
if it wasn't for immigrants. And they come from all over the world.
and we need to continue to inspire future
generations. Thank you of immigrants. Come, uh, thank you. Thank and our next speakers,
naar ahman, and, uh, to be followed by antonio jimenez.
hello, mr. Mayor. Uh, city council members. Um, my
name is naar. I graduated casa grande. I went to school
in kenworth in the old campus, by the way. And I graduated
in mcdowell school where my parents live down the street
from where I went to elementary school. So I'm from
this community and, uh, I represent a bunch of
organizations, uh, the north bay organizing project, jobs of justice, uh,
healthcare workers for peace, equality, and community empowerment.
I'm a healthcare worker, but most importantly, I represent seven,
seven generations. My great-grandmother,
my grandmother, my parents, my cousins, and their
children. So seven, uh, we're part of this community.
and, uh, what, what I'm gonna say is, uh, I'm, I'm really busy
and, um, I'm not gonna stand by and watch as,
uh, detention centers are being built on top of japanese internment camps
being built on top of bureau of land management. Thank
you. So, uh, I yield my time to the next person,
and antonio jimenez to be followed by elena feldman.
good evening, honorable counsel. Tonight I stand before using the alias antonio jimenez.
because I'm a child of undocumented ignorance and I feel for the safety of my family. If I
were to show my face while I tell my story. I grew up in the ammo administration when
even the first black president meant a record number of deportations of my people. I grew
up in the california of the early two thousands when undocumented immigrants couldn't hold the driver's
license. And myself and my siblings feared every like it might be the last time we ever
saw our parents. I grew up feeling inferior in my own country, my birthplace, because
I quickly learned that some people deserved more protections because of the color of their skin. It's
never been about legality. Speeding is also illegal and might add more recklessly
dangerous to others. If the retroactive punishment for speeding 30 years ago was the relinquishing
of your fourth amendment rights and being kidnapped and shipped off to a concentration camp, would you willingly
accept that? Because you shouldn't have broken the law. My family has been paying their taxes in
petaluma for decades, and I'm right there behind them. I urge you to adopt a
non-cooperation ordinance and be on the right side of history. Thank you.
thank you elena feldman to be followed by eric leland.
hello, my name is elana, member of the sonoma county
sanctuary coalition. I've been a resident in the petaluma community
for more than 22 years. I'm here this evening to speak on
behalf of my immigrant community, the hands that harvest the
food on our table, the hand that hold those of our sick and
our elderly when they're in nursing homes and hospitals. I'm here today because our
community is under threat. The very people who sustain us are
living in fear. The constant threat of ice, ice, the
domestic terrorist organizations spreading across the united states,
fueled by hate, corruption, prejudice, and lawlessness continues
to grow, attaining new facilities to cage human beings
in inhuman conditions, kidnapping our neighbors with no
due process, no judicial warrants, hiding their identities
behind masks, armed with guns, tear gas, batons, perpetrating
violence with no remorse. The whole world is watching. How is this happening?
thank you eric leland to be followed by dennis
posade. Hi, my name
is, uh, eric leland. Um, I served on a, uh, uh,
committee for, uh, public safety, uh, in town. And
I'm a legal observer trainer. Um, it's, it's important that
we all understand that all of us here, everyone in the daes, everyone behind me,
um, works together for community safety. Public safety is community safety.
we keep each other safe. You may not be aware, but there's literally
thousands of people in this community doing various mutual aid and support
for, um, each other, uh, in this town on a daily basis, right,
because of this crisis. So I urge you to put on the agenda,
the non-cooperation ordinance at the soonest possible
moment. And for all of you this time, not most
of you, but all of you this time to support that ordinance when it comes up.
thank you. Thank you dennis
ske to be followed by jennifer boyle
test. I, okay. Um, thank you for allowing me to speak.
um, I'm dennis ske. I amm from petaluma. Um, I,
uh, I'm also the grandchild of immigrants.
and, um, I, uh, I treasure most of my one grandmother
that, um, um, when she sent my dad to school,
the first day she got a letter back from the teacher saying, amal can't even
write his name. Uh, she sent a note back saying, that's
why I'm sending him to school. Probably not quite,
uh, spelled right. Um, I was coached all throughout my
career, you know, it wasn't like it is now. Uh, but, but, uh, you know, I was told to
lie low, don't make waves. Um, and, um, um,
do the best you can. Uh, I think that's a slavic thing anyway, uh,
but, uh, have, uh, great respect from my grandparents. And I'm pretty sure
that none of them were educated. They were so uneducated at that point in time
that, uh, that, that someone committed a mistake in the progress. And
thank you. Thank you
jennifer boyle to be followed by tina yonkers. Good evening
mayor. Sea council and staff. Um, diverting a little bit
off the topic, but
onto, we have experienced for some time
now the weaponization from large bad actor equity
mobile homeowners against the most vulnerable
mobile park residents here in petaluma. The unfair
consumer business practices, the imbalance of wealth and weaponizing
the fair market increase application, the weaponization of
the closure conversion process mandated by state
law ab 2 7 82, using the legal systems for
frivolous lawsuit, one after the other. And of course, the
strategy of bringing down any resident who stands up for
their rights must never be rewarded by any city
or country. We remind all of the
thank you. Thank you, tina yonkers should
be followed by mark kimberly.
good evening. We remind all those
arbitrators resulted in zero rewards once the
park opened up their books. Using the mnio
standard method of discernment, little woods park owners
serve the residents again on july 3rd with
a fourth attempted arbitration increase. Does it make sense
that three years with this applied attempt to close the
park, three appeals to zero awards they received,
received in the past three arbitration attempts a new lawsuit against the
city, as well as other lawmakers against the city that would attempt
their arbitration even take place. These large
equity owned owners warned all of us that
we do have to keep up with their demands or they will litigate
or, or will be forced to submit to their actions. Thank
you very much. Thank you, mark kimberly to be followed by susan hussey.
mark, are you in the house? He was.
okay. Um, susan hussey to be followed by kaitlyn
quinn. Susan, are you in the house?
are you susan? No. Okay. No. Susan going once,
twice. Thank you. Um, caitlin quinn,
hello to, to be followed by. Hi, uh, uh, swan haer. Thank
you all for the time. I am here. I'm not here speaking for anybody, but I am a school board
trustee with petaluma city schools. Y'all, we did this so long ago in petaluma
city schools. It's really not that hard. It's pretty straightforward. No one should be cooperating
with ice unless there's a judicial warrant. That's just common sense. I fear.
um, it's not radical, it's not leftist. Um, I'm also the president of planned
parenthood, northern california workers united. We have seen a huge downturn
in our patients coming to see us and getting necessary. Healthcare people
are terrified. And if this little thing that takes you all 15
minutes can make even two people feel safer, isn't that worth it? Yes,
it is. So I thank you all for your time and I know you'll do the right thing. At least most
of you I have not a lot of faith in a few of you .
thank you. I swan hauser.
four days ago, the sebastopol chief of police told a concerned
resident that ice is law enforcement. If this is accurate,
ice should be held to the standards of other law enforcement agencies, but it's
not. Instead, lawlessness and contempt for human life
appear as standard policy within ice. Brady tillett wrote
from the california city detention center that the rule of law does not exist
inside detention for me or for the countless others I've met during my
time in ice custody. Ice is not law enforcement.
the eighth amendment of the constitution protects every prisoner's right to get
medical care. Yet again and again, we're faced with direct reports
of medical neglect across ice detention facilities. Ice is
not law enforcement. I think this council values
the law, especially when the law reflects our collective values of inclusion, diversity,
and respect for all residents. We are asking this council to place a non-cooperation
ordinance on the agenda for action as soon as possible and to adopt it into law. Thank
you. Thank you. Okay. At this point, we'll move over to our
remote, uh, callers and I'll ask the city clerk to bring in our remote callers.
yes. The first speaker will be jennifer k. Please
go ahead with your comment. ,
I just got the unmute notice, but this is not jennifer k this is darren kuson. So,
um, I'll jump into my one minute and get it outta the way. Just following up on the hotel
incentive program that was discussed at our last meeting, uh, morgan
hill's similar tot rev share incentive program was referenced
as kind of a model. And it was interesting digging into that. It was actually a developer
partnered with appalachian as the hospitality group that rolled that out
in morgan hill. And, you know, if they've brought that idea to petaluma,
great, let's assess it. But in morgan hill, they did get hard cost figures.
so in that instance, it was mohi was the name of the hotel in morgan hill that
needed a rev share agreement. And they got firm cost figures
on what the hotel needed, how much gap there was to fill with the tot,
uh, rev share agreement. So if we are gonna do the same thing and jump
into the, you know, appalachians plan, let's make sure that we demand
good cost figures, uh, as well. Thank you.
the next speaker is alan w
please unmute yourself and make your comment. Hi. Yes, thank you. My
name's alan wolves and I'm a lifelong sonoma county resident. I'm requesting
that you as soon as possible, agendize and then pass a non-cooperation ordinance
with ice against ice. Dozens, if not hundreds of cities and
counties in california, including the county of sonoma and santa rosa, have taken
this really important step to protect their community members from this lawless fascist
organization. I don't need to go over all the systemic abuses
that ice has committed against both undocumented and documented residents
who they just suspect of being immigrants. We have to do everything
in our power to stop this abuse and protect our community members. The
trump administration announced four days ago, they're stepping up work site immigration enforcement
operations. So the time to do this is right now, please
show your community that you care about all of its members. Thank you.
and that concludes our online, our zoom participants,
and then that closes, uh, general public comment.
and, um, with that, that brings it up to council comments. And I think I'm just gonna
add a, a little editorial note right here, um,
regarding ice out. I, uh, I appreciate you being here.
I appreciate the meetings I've had with dennis and the other leaders of, um, the,
uh, the effort and, um, and,
and, um, clear clearly. Um, one I and I,
I look out in the audience, I see many of my friends, um, who I've chatted with about
this. And, um, we're all very concerned regarding
protections for the immigrant communities in california. I mean, and
frankly, for our own basic civil rights. Um,
it's a horrible state we're in right now in response to
growing concerns about the federal government seeking to entangle states and local
agencies and immigration enforcement, um,
in ways that do not comport with the law. The state of california legislator
has recently enacted an, uh, bill, uh, s sb five
80, which will require california attorney general to, to develop
and publish model policies that demonstrate how state and
local agencies should interact with immigration enforcement in a manners
that are lawful and consistent. And we've been invited to,
um, join into that conversation with them. I think this
has gotten statewide attention that this needs to happen on a statewide level.
and, and that's an important part. Um, I think
I it's fair to say, um, you know, we see you, we hear you
this, um, past weekend, 4th of july, big opportunity for
speech making. The mayor gets to make speech. And I just wanna drop two of the quotes
that I used in my 4th of july at our, here in our petaluma
historic museums, um, event. One was jesse jackson.
america is not a blanket, one piece of unbroken cloth. The same color, the
same texture, same size. America is a quilt. Many patches,
many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven together and held by
a common thread. And the other one that I left with was
americanism, is a question of principle of idealism of character.
it is not a matter of birthplace or creed or line of descent.
that's teddy roosevelt. So, um, I think, uh, I,
we hear you. And with that, I'd like to, uh, have council comments. Start with council
member cater thompson. Thank you. Um,
the mayor and I signed an agreement to, um, put this on, uh, an
agenda. And so I'm assuming we're gonna be,
we will be moving forward with that. I'm not sure when it's gonna be on the agenda. I'm
kind of curious about time timing and maybe we could have a conversation
about that. And I think I'm just going to leave
that as my comment. I mean, many of us are
actually, um, children or grandchildren of immigrants. They came here and they, they
left their country for the very same reason why many people left their country
because they were, they were not welcomed. And
my grandmother came by herself three years later. She went through the siberian
rail through japan into seattle, and then to minneapolis
where he worked at the shipyards. And then they all moved to
petaluma in the early 19 hundreds. Um, immigrants,
we've made this country and we wanna continue being part of it.
and we don't wanna be separated out. Um, that's who we are.
we're in horrible times right now. I mean, even soccer
can't be played with the horrible person trying to
make the rules . Um, and we can fight this and we need to fight it locally,
but we also need to fight it at the state level. 'cause the state needs to get on
parity with the cities, um, and start working with us. And another point
is I also graduated from kenilworth, the old one,
along with you. And, um, let's see, a few other things. Um,
the mobile home parks, when people talk, they're being terrorized,
um, by these corporations trying to buy up these parks, kicking people
out and just taking the land. And so we're
all in this together, and we will bring this back soon.
um, and I do want to, you know, reiterate that it's important that we do work with the state, see
what their language is so we can incorporate that and incorporate our language also in ordinance.
thank you. Thank you.
decorum, please. Um, councilman barnacle.
uh, thank you, uh, mr. Mayor. Thank you everybody in the audience. Um, I hope everybody
had a, um, a pleasant long weekend. Um, I appreciate council member cater
thompson and the mayor bringing forward a, an ordinance, uh, request or an agenda request item.
um, certainly look forward to supporting that. Um, I appreciate, uh,
everybody who's here tonight. Um, most importantly, I appreciate all the work you're
doing outside of the city hall to keep people safe, make people feel safe as to the extent
that you can. Um, and while I'm not always there with you, I'm very
much appreciative of you and, um, uh, moved by your story, by the
stories I'm hearing and moved by all the work you're doing. So thank you very much.
um, on a, my report out from some of my other, uh,
committees, um, planning commission met, uh, a couple
weeks ago, and we, um, adopted a commercial
sort of streamlining pilot for one, one parcel where an owner wanted to,
um, basically make it easier to bring in, um, more smaller tenants.
um, I think it has, uh, applications for other parcels, uh,
throughout the city. Um, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that rolls out.
um, and we also, uh, um, adopted
a resolution recommending to the council to allow pools and spas at,
um, the, uh, the scott ranch
property, um, where they're, uh, the 28 units that are there. Basically every
other single family home in petaluma is allowed to have pool spas, hot tubs, things
like that. But not those 28 for some reason. Um, and then,
uh, on sonoma clean power, we opened up the business
one stop shop, which, uh, really happy about. Uh, it's, um,
up at five 30
e street in santa rosa. And this is, um, a loan that the, uh,
sonoma clean power made to, um, uh, a group
of people, but really led by, uh, he, hector velasquez, the executive
director of the hispanic chamber of commerce of sonoma county, to create
a one-stop shop, really focused on multicultural, um, business support
services. Um, a lot of, um, it's sort of fitting tonight, but a lot of,
uh, people who, you know, english is their second language, it's tough to make
sense of permit applications and things like that. And this center is basically a
place where you get sort of, uh, white glove services with
business advising formation, licensing and permits, loan readiness, access
to capital marketing and visibility. Um, they have a green
room where you can go in and film your commercial. They've got, uh, workshops
and clinics and a coworking space. Um, and so it's just getting off the ground right now.
um, but really excited about it. And it'll be working with our economic development department,
the chambers of commerce around sonoma county and things like that to really, um, bring
more, uh, business support services for early entrepreneurs.
um, and their, their tagline is, entrepreneurial spirit has no color, gender, or
ethnicity. It has fire, passion, and resiliency. Um, so I really,
I'm proud of that investment that we made. Uh, and then the final thing, um,
we finished the fair thank you to all the staff who work there, um, and helped make it
possible, and all the patrons, um, I think I saw my first ever mosh pit at
the petaluma fair . So, um, that was cool, uh, first for everything.
um, and also, I just wanna say thank you to council member now for, um, really
just going above and beyond. She was there volunteering for like a week leading up to
the fair, at least, um, to, uh, bring,
you know, basically revive this, this long unknown
little parcel of a flower garden and just being everything,
uh, like mrs. Petaluma or miss petaluma in terms of, um,
loving the fair and, um, really bringing the spirit of it.
and I think the, the energy and the commitment to, um, community was
ever present, um, with that. So thank you very much.
yay.
council member shrives. Uh, thank you.
um, just for the folks out there, my father was an immigrant, and my, uh, on
my mother's side, her, her parents were immigrants and, uh, had similar fears
when they arrived. Um, so yeah, so I feel you. Um,
also, I went to the fourth, uh, uh, celebration with
the bell ringing at the museum. And one of the, the most interesting and inspiring,
uh, statements was by a brigadier general who actually lives here in town.
and one of the things he talked about, he's also a historian, and basically
brought up the point that there was like over 50 signers on their declaration of independence,
and most, if not all, suffered greatly through
the war. And afterwards, many losing their lives, kicked
outta their homes, went bankrupt, everything taken away from them.
and they were on the run and had had to, uh, be out in camps, in, in various ways for,
uh, home, basically homeless for a while. Um, so lots of suffering from, from
the process. So just that was inspirational here, that, that these, our folks, our for founders,
um, took it upon themselves knowing that that was going to happen to them, but they
did it anyway. So yeah, we need to take action. So one of the
things I did, um, well, I went to, um, a workshop on, uh, ai tools
and, uh, and they said, oh, government could really use this. It was by, um, a, a,
a stanford, um, professor type person. And they said, for regulations,
permits, data searches, reviews, and the like, and even ordinances. So
I went to this morning and I asked ai about, um, can
you create an ordinance, ordinance for ice? And,
uh, so I did, um, and I found out more information. Turns out
they have recently doubled the number of, uh, quota
for ice to capture right now, uh, doubling on a daily basis, like
2000 people quotas now is being set. The other thing I found out
is that, um, the detentions are anywhere from a month to
over a year, and that over 90% of the folks are
actually deported. So it's really sad and bad. Look at what they're doing.
similar to brown shirts of nazi germany. Really terrible.
so, um, anyway, so I asked, uh, a google ai
to come up with, uh, an ordinance, uh, particular for petaluma to
help strengthen the ordinance that was already supplied to us. So I have that here.
I'm gonna pass it over to legal so they can take a look at it and maybe make,
make what you suggested stronger.
okay. On, um, other business, um, north bay watershed,
uh, reuse or so, authority has decided to, uh,
rename themselves to north bay water resiliency authority,
change the word resiliency so that we can start working on,
um, collecting water, distributing water, and,
um, and then reusing water. So, uh, they're expanding their, their mission tremendously.
so the resiliency is, is crossing over into other missions of generalist
water supply and as well as the mission that I'm also on the north bay
watershed association. So sea level rise, groundwaters water supply.
um, so there's gonna be more groups working on, um, our current issues, uh,
all around water, uh, in combination with sonoma, uh, water
agon open space. I happen to be the, uh, vice chair of that at the recent meetings. And there
we had just converted over to zoom meetings there also. And, um,
there was a grand jury report by the sonoma county grand jury giving
huge praise to ag and open space about what one of the best organizations we
have here in the county, delivering on the, the taxation monies that we've been delivering
and how it's being used and how that staff is doing a great job of
preserving agriculture, which also adds to our improving our water
supply here in the county and our watersheds. Um, there was another
meeting, um, in town here at the downtown, uh, about the vacancies. And
so a citizen group has come together, so to be aware of that, and they're going
to help, uh, the city along. Um, and there's lots of discussions, pros and cons
of carrot and stick, um, approaches to how we can change vacant lots,
maybe even vacant stores into more productive units here in town. So there's a stu uh,
a citizen effort to help out with the city on that. Um,
and then finally the aquas community is, uh, um, developing and, uh,
that's why they asked me to join. So I've, I'm a subcommittee there to help, uh, out the, the
new aquas community to create more community and better relationships here in town.
so I'll be supporting that effort here also, in addition to the other duties I have.
um, so that's the report I have today. Thank you, council member.
now. Um, thank you mr. Mayor. Um, for my council liaison report
tonight, I have two committee reports. First, the public safety advisory committee
had a presentation and discussion regarding the petaluma
police department's annual military equipment use, which the report
will be given to the city council on august 3rd. And the public is welcome
to national night out, held at our fairgrounds on august 4th,
where they can see and ask questions about our military
equipment. Also at our public safety meeting, the subject to petaluma
having four flock license plate readers were brought
up once again. So tonight I bring the subject to the attention of the city
council to possibly have on a future agenda
for discussion. As a reminder to all that, the pet police department's
policies are on our city's websites. The sonoma county
homeless coalition has had a few meetings in the last month. The director of
health services gives us updates to the committee members regarding
the changes happening in funding and consolidating services,
mental health services act, which then set in
june. The goal is to minimize the impacts on individuals who depend
on these services that are being impacted by the federal pets. On
a positive note, I wanna thank our city's park and rec staff. I
think most of them have left drew still here for not just the wonderful
2026. Fair thank you council member barnacle, because
I couldn't have done it without staff. And our, uh, contractor
dibel, um, I, the wonderful 2026
fair was put on by our staff. An awesome
firework show was put on by our parks and rec staff. So thank you
for a great show over the weekend on saturday.
and I heard lots of, uh, positive comments regarding both
from community members. Awesome. After the museum's
annual bell ringing, I stopped in at numerous local parks and took
photos because those were locations to see the fireworks,
all the parks looked amazing and lots of community enjoying them, praising
how well our parks looked. So like
the song saturday in the park, it must have been 4th of july.
thank you, city staff. Thank you to the mayor and council member cater
thompson this evening for the announcement of a future agenda item regarding
ice. It is very close to my heart. My ancestors
were the blue eyes, spaniards that came up through mexico and built the missions
and were the early californians and hard workers, and were not appreciated.
my other ancestors were also farmers, irish and swedish.
life was not easy for these people. And we wanna go into
the future making it easy for our community to feel
safe at night and the day. Thank you very much. Thank you,
vice mayor. Good evening, everybody. First at airport
commission, we did have a conversation about non-air airport uses and,
uh, storage at the, uh, at the airport, um, to try to kind
of better assess, you know, a lot of stuff from the city is stored and used there. And so the
airport commission would like to know kind of how that, how that balances
out. Um, that conversation's gonna end up coming back, uh, 'cause there
was not a clear ending to that conversation. Uh, I'd also like to congratulate
the, uh, pendulum area pilots, associations, and, which are all mostly commissioners.
and everybody else in that group, uh, for their big airport bash, they had a couple weekends ago
and they had a little over 2000 people out to the airport. Lots of little kids
out there to see airplanes, um, you know, enjoy the aviation community and see
what it's all about. So they did a great thing there. Uh, they have
completed step one of the taxiway project, the first five
day closure of it. There's another one coming up later this month. And then the taxiway
should be finished. Uh, business can resume there, runway's open.
and, um, over at parks and rec, we received a presentation
from an eagle scout who wants to do a project and adding a, uh, batting cage out
there to one of the little league fields. And so he's been working with staff on that,
and that's a project that looks like it's gonna happen. So that's pretty cool. It's pretty ambitious
for that, um, for that little guy. And then, um, you know, I'd like to thank
staff for getting through the fair. I know they worked very hard, um, long extra
hours to make it happen and give that to the community. So thank you for that. At
ag and open space, um, probably the biggest highlight from that, that john didn't mention was
the board of sups. They, uh, passed a resolution to support the ag
industry and further a, uh, you know, kind of a working economic plan
to help them and ensure that that, you know, is prioritized and, and those,
you know, farmers are taken care of in the county. And then, um, hope everybody
enjoyed the 4th of july, and thank you again to parks and rec for the fireworks. It was a great show.
hope everybody was able to enjoy that. And then, um,
you know, I know there's, uh, been a lot of rising concerns about data centers
around, and, you know, I'm going to be, um, you know, if it
needs to be a council discussion, I think it should be. But I'm gonna be meeting with staff to try to
work out if that's even possible here. Um, what steps can be taken
and then, you know, if we're all good, we're all good, but if it needs to come to council, we'll have a
discussion about that. And then I do appreciate everybody that came here tonight. And
I do believe that everybody sitting up here wants the best for our immigrant community.
and I think that we're very fortunate to have our police department. Um, they work
very hard. They work very close with everybody, and I know that they care about
the immigrants a lot as well. So, thank you. Great point.
thanks for doing that. And I know, um, all the chiefs are on board, um,
and, and they get the same message we do. I mean, it's, it's,
it's ice that is not policing that we need to worry about. I do want to
note my liaisons and other appointments. Um, jan, uh, june 29th, I attended
a five year anniversary of the petaluma office, immigrant immigration institute
of bay area. I was there five years ago when it opened. And the big change is how
many more lawyers they have doing that civil rights work. They just won a
case in san francisco federal court. An immigrant was arrested during his citizenship
hearing. I mean, when you tell these stories, it's just powerful. Um, on
june 24th, um, I led a, a discussion with the assistant city
manager with los cen, um, our, uh, community, uh, latino community
for, uh, latinx leadership. And they brought together in our council chambers,
uh, quite a few to hear a status of the city. Um,
uh, also attended the a api, uh, coalition in the north bays, uh, event,
uh, with my friend kirk lott here. And, um, and it's
just important that we constantly network and see and be seen with each
other. And that's how we get further. I attended a county
food convening and as a council member now mentioned, federal cuts are
coming, um, this year. And the food is gonna be a crisis as
both snap and calfresh are, are, are gonna be reduced, and that impacts
the poorest. And, um, so the county is trying to step into that space.
um, and I also spoke at the petaluma lodging associations and,
uh, they appreciate hearing more about what the city's economic development programs
could be because as we know, costs are outpacing revenue right
now. Um, I got to, got to mc the
santa rosa symphony here at our library. That was kind of fun. Um, I
also, uh, help with the chamber's leadership graduation class. And then,
um, um, there's just so much going on here. I'm glad to hear
all the praise for the fair this year. And I want to thank the city manager as well as
staff for that. And with that, uh, do you have anything to report tonight?
I'll keep it short, but I wanna recognize our community. We see you, we hear
you, and we stand united with you. And you can hear that from our council. So thank you.
um, also want to, um, announce that this wednesday
at six o'clock here in council chambers, uh, staff will
be holding the howard street improvements community meeting. Um, next year we're
gonna be replacing sewer and water mains upgrading curb ramps and reconstructing the
pavement on howard between a and west. Um, so we are,
um, gonna take this opportunity to, um, improve the safety and accessibility
for all road users on howard. And, um,
we're excited, reengage the community. Hope that you, um, can
either be at the meeting or, um, share your
feedback online. And, um, translation services
will be available upon request. Thank you very much.
thank you. So, uh, now, and let's not break the decorum. Thank you for being
here tonight. We're gonna move into business items if, uh, you wish to, uh,
exit. Thank you.
okay. Um, moving on to the consent calendar for the evening.
um, I take a look at up and down the diets
and see if anyone wishes to pull any item from consent calendar.
and seeing none, we'll move to any questions on the consent calendar,
um, or comments might I say. And, um, I think it
is important to note that we added that future agenda item that, uh, council member
cater thompson. And, and I think we've all heard that's in
the works time, time uncertain, but we're looking forward to it.
uh, question vice mayor. No, that's, did you wanna talk about your,
um, not at this time. Okay. So, um,
let's, uh, open it to public comment and I'll ask the clerk if there was any comments
on the consent calendar. We did not receive any
comments ahead of the meeting. I'll note that there are eight people in the zoom meeting.
uh, and at this time I will start a 32nd clock.
whoops. Oops. Uh, I'll start at 36
o'clock. Members of the public attending in person should bring their speaker card to my,
if they have not already done. So members of the public attending online should
raise their virtual hand, and those attending via phone should press star nine
to raise their hand. Speaker request received after this
time may not be accommodated.
sorry about that. My, I lost my mic. Uh, we didn't receive any cards
and I don't see any raised hands. Okay. Thank you very much. And that
closes public comment on the consent calendar, looking for motion.
I'd like to move items one through six on the consent calendar. Thank you. Motion by
shrives. Second and second by cater thompson.
and with that a roll call, vote please.
barnacle. Aye. Cater thompson? Yes. Di
carly? Yes. Now? Yes. Shrives? Yes.
mcdonald? Yes. Motion cares unanimously. Thank you.
and, um, if you were, uh, here at the beginning of the game, um,
you would've noted that we've moved our workshop, which was listed as the next item,
uh, down in the order. And we are now moving to, um, public hearings
matters for the consideration. A resolution awarding a design build
contract to alton construction for the petaluma public safety project. And
I'd like to in invite george gogan, uh, project manager to,
uh, come on up.
just gimme a second. I'll try to set this up.
and for a project this size, we have the honor of having two chiefs in the room. Thank you for being
here. Wanna
make sure he does it right, .
alright. Uh, good evening, mayor. Council members,
uh, staff and members of the public. Um, tonight we are asking,
my name is paul gagan, um, senior project manager, oma public works.
um, tonight we are requesting that city council adopt the resolution, awarding
the design build contract for the petaluma public safety
facility project to alton construction. Uh, this is a major milestone for
the city. Uh, the project has completed, uh, entitlements received approval of
the design intent, and gone through a competitive, um, design build procurement
process. Tonight's action authorizes the city to enter into an agreement
with alton and move the project into final design and construction.
so, quick project overview that the pro the project is located at the intersection
of kennelworth drive and johnson drive at the fairgrounds. And we'll
bring together a new police headquarters, fire department headquarters, uh,
a new fire station number four, and a dedicated emergency operations center all
in one coordinated public safety campus. Uh, the new police headquarters
will replace the existing police station while fire station four will be an
additional forestation that expands the city's emergency response capacity.
a little history here on how we got here tonight. So this project being several
years in the making and has moved through a series of planning, funding,
design, and public approval milestones. The project began
with measure u in 2020, and the city's commitment to invest in
public safety. That was followed by an operational analysis and
the 2023 public safety facilities master plan, which
identified the need for an additional fire station, significant improvements to the
city's police facilities, and a preferred strategy
of bringing those functions together in a centrally located
consolidated facility. In november, 2023, staff presented
council with a preliminary vision of that project. That version occupied approximately
five acres, uh, included about 73,000 square feet of
building area relied on a phased delivery approach that would not have been completed
until 2035. And it carried a total project cost of approximately
142 million on construction costs of 120 million. Uh, council,
council naturally pushed back and the direction was, uh, staff was
instructed to pursue a more affordable and deliverable project with a better schedule
and a smaller footprint. So, in response, the city knuckle
down through 2024 and 2025. The city shifted
to a design build delivery method, reduced affiliate size by optimizing
shared spaces, simplified the construction approach by utilizing a tilt
up concrete construction and established a target construction cost of approximately
$55 million. In 2024, measure h was
approved, which provided an additional funding source for the project. In 2025,
the city presented the revised project to the planning commission and city council.
that version reduced the site footprint by approximately 1.5 acres.
uh, it reduced the building size by about 42%, and it
brought the construction costs in line with our $55 million target.
and, uh, it established a target completion date of 2028 for the
entire facility. Uh, the city then completed the basis of design
detailed programming, environmental review, and the entitlement process. Earlier this
year, council approved the financing strategy and the city completed a
competitive design build procurement process. So tonight's contract award is the
next major step in this timeline. If approved, the project will move into
a final design, permitting and construction with occupancy targeted for mid 2028.
I'll just quickly, um, talk about design build here. 'cause this
is not how we typically deliver projects in the city. Uh, we usually go to design,
bid, build, or redesign it, then we put it out to build, to bid, and then it gets built.
uh, this project is, is slightly different. So I'll just quickly explain. Uh, every project goes
through a life cycle of, um, sd drawings, which is schematic design.
then you have design development, which is the engineering, to get that schematic design
into reality. Then you have your cd phase, which is your construction documentation, where
you submit through, um, building and you get your permits to build. So the city's already
completed the schematic design and portions of early design development. On this project,
we've defined what the facility will look like, how it will function, how it's laid out,
and the materials and performance standards that we expect. Those
requirements are captured in what's called bridging documents. So alti is not starting
over. Its team will take the approved vision and complete the detailed
engineering permitting and construction documents needed to build it. The benefit
of this design build is that the designer and the contractor work together under one contract,
giving the city a single point of responsibility for completing the rest of
the project. Um, so for
the procurement method of design build being slightly different, the city used a two step
competitive procurement process. First, we issued a request for
qualifications to identify design build teams with the experience, financial
capacity and safety record and technical expertise necessary to deliver
a project of this size and complexity. The qualify teams
were then invited to respond to a request for proposals based on the
city's bridging documents and contract terms. Three proposals were
received and publicly opened all in construction. In partnership with pbk
architects submitted the lowest responsive responsible bid amongst
the approved design build entities. Staff reviewed alton's proposal,
confirmed its responsiveness and qualifications, and received no
bid protests.
so therefore, for those reasons, staff recommends that council adopt the
resolution, awarding the design build contract to alter construction in the amount of $51,573,911,
and authorize the city manager to execute the agreement. Uh, two things about
this number. You might notice it is slightly more than what was shown on the previous
page. Um, that's because, um, we, uh, we
based the award off of the base bid. Um, this number includes add alternates.
uh, essentially if we didn't, if this came in over our budget, we were willing to make some cuts to
get it back on their budget. But, um, the other thing about the number you may have noticed
is it's below the 55 million threshold. So we have plenty of room and bandwidth to add
back those, uh, those items. Uh, they include additional ballistic protection,
um, some day lighting devices to allow, uh, natural light into the heart of the
facility for wellbeing. And, um, it's kind of a fancy fire protection system to protect
all our data and servers and things like that in the event of a fire so you don't get destroyed,
uh, with water. Um, so that's, that's the method
behind the procurement and the numbers. And, uh, just before I, I close out here,
uh, this was a, a huge effort. I came in here in 2024 and
I've had the pleasure of working with so many fantastic staff and people across the
board. So I just want to sh a big thank you to our police and fire departments, uh, public
work staff who assisted me every day through this, uh, our planning department,
andrew triple was fantastic with mike janick and this through all our entitlements,
uh, our finance team, our legal team, uh, we had to pretty much rewrite the
entire contract, which was, you know, no easy ordeal. So me and dylan had plenty
of early mornings working together, uh, going through that. Uh, also wanna
thank our city manager's office, uh, all our consultant teams, uh, our planning commission,
city council for the guidance and direction on the design and the members of the public who, uh,
brought the project to this point and made it possible. So, tonight's action
just before I close, tonight's action is significant. It moves the city from planning, talking
about dreaming, hoping, wishing we had a public safety facility to actually delivering
one in about 12 months time. It's gonna look very different out there to fairgrounds. You're gonna see
walls stood up a roof going on this building, and in basically
two years from today, we should be having a ribbon cutting. So it's, uh, it's a pretty exciting time.
so, uh, I'll be here to answer any questions that come up. And, uh, I have these two great
general members beside me as well. And I'm sure you guys will, will help out where I needed. So thank you.
thank you very much. Great presentation, generational project. It's
a fun one to have under our belts. Chiefs, anything to add at this point?
thank you. Um, counsel, any questions?
um, see none. Let's go to, uh, public comment.
we have not received any comments ahead of the meeting on this item. We do have eight attendees
online, uh, at this time. I'll start a 32nd clock.
during these 30 seconds, members of the public attending in person should bring their speaker cards to
my desk. Members of the public attending online should raise their virtual
hand. Those attending, uh, via phone should press star nine to raise their
hand. Speaker request received after this time may not be accommodated.
so, um, following our, uh, practice, I will ask, uh, the clerk any
hands up? No hands up. Just one card. Thank you. So our speaker
tonight, mac thompson. Um, it, it's yours for three
minutes, . All right. Thank you. It's really nice to see you
all. Nice to be here tonight. And, uh, uh, my name's mac
thompson. I'm the union president for the petaluma firefighters, uh, local
1415. I've been a employee here in petaluma firefighter for
19 years. Uh, and actually my first month
of working here, uh, I was asked to paint, uh, shovels gold,
uh, to break ground for the casa grande hotel
site. And, uh, and that was exciting. Um, we
had a plot of land and that was also a dream. Uh, but right now
we have all done the work. And, and, and I'm here
tonight to really acknowledge how much work has been put into this, uh,
and how much pride I see from all of us, um,
uh, in, in getting to where we are today. I know we still have a lot of work to do,
uh, and, and, and excited about that work to come.
uh, but really acknowledging the incredible leadership of the city manager flynn
and the assistant city manager, cochran, uh, the entire city council
and city staff, and all of the layers of community involvement
with the planning commission and different, different community members involved.
uh, but also the incredible leadership of chief shock and chief miller.
um, and, uh, my fellow, uh, firefighters and, uh,
police officers and, and, and, uh, public safety that are here to serve.
uh, the amount of work that goes into this is, is incredible and takes all
of us. And, and in talking to all of you about this project, I know
that there's a pride in this, but it also is personal and something that we
all take. We all look at it as something that we really care about. And that
is, uh, that is unique. I think that being, uh,
a labor leader in this community, knowing that we
are able to support this city and to feel supported by this council
and by the, the leadership of this city, uh, is an incredible feeling. And
it's really exciting. So I just wanted to come here to acknowledge all of the teamwork
and, uh, really acknowledge how far we've come and, uh, and look
at the horizon. And, and, and thank you all for, for, for all of your work. So
thank you. And thank you. And with that, that
closes, um, public comment on the item, bring it back to council. Any comments? Council
member now? Um, well a little deja vu because I was there
20 years ago when those gold shovels were being painted. And, um,
I wasn't a hundred percent supportive of that project because I wanted
a new police station and I wanted a fire station. And I knew
we had a location perfect for it on that corner of the fairgrounds
parking lot. So do we have a, a groundbreaking, uh, ceremony date
chiefs? I, I'm ready for that gold shovel again
after the staff schedule. , we gotta get through this. Anyway.
I have to, I'm excited to see the, the plaque with all of your names on it, on the side of the
door. Well, you have to get reelected . Um,
anyway, thank you to staff for doing this because this is, I've
been advocating for this for before I ran for council 20 years
ago, so thank you so much. And it's gonna be so important to
our, um, community going forward
and for generations. So thank you council memberships.
uh, yeah, this is a true milestone and so if that, I'd like to just
move the item. Let's move forward. Okay. Uh, note motion
by strips, uh, council member barnicle. I'll, I'll second the motion.
I also just wanna say, um, september 29th, 2007, 608,
6,854 days ago. That was when we broke ground on the last,
uh, attempt at this. So, um, you are right, it is very personal. It's the stuff we
don't wanna let continue to get kicked down the road. Um, I also just wanna note
that a few things that we did on this, there were so many people that came together to
focus on doing something big. And that's what happens when we're all one team
as a city. And I, um, I just really, uh, respect the
city manager's office, the city attorney's office, all of the, the leaders, the labor
leaders, the chiefs, everybody who, everybody who's come together to support this project.
'cause it really is a full team effort. Um, and then the other thing is, is we had to do
something differently to get it done right? We moved to a design build contract. And,
um, I just think as a city, we have to not be so set in our ways of like, what's
the municipal code say? And what does our charter say? And think about ways that we can bucket sometimes
to get something done. Um, because that's ultimately why we're elected. That's what,
um, why we all want to work in, in public services to get s**t done.
um, and so I just appreciate that we, um, that we did that, that we thought outside
the box and now we're moving forward with what is truly a generational project.
um, and I would be remiss to not say with all these folks here is that
we gotta focus on revenue. Um, 'cause this stuff all costs money and we just need to
continue to, um, increase our property tax base, grow our sales
tax base, grow, all the, the different ways that we fund all this, um, important work. Um,
'cause our city's, um, this is gonna be here to, to support our city, you
know, 50, a hundred years out. And, um, that's gonna require revenue. So
thank you council member cater thompson.
um, I don't really have anything to add except I hope those, um, shovels are
ready, . And, um, that's it. I mean, this
is great. I mean, this has been, I mean, for me, I've always wanted it at the fairgrounds and it's
probably been two plus decades and I'm gonna be alive to see it
happen. And so, you know, when you start gauging things by your age, um,
it's kind of exciting to see how things actually come about. You might have
a vision, um, and it could be on any project and it just takes
a lot of time. And this is coming at the perfect time, um, with everything that
we're doing at the fairgrounds. It's centrally located and I think, uh,
we have the community support on this. Thank you. Certainly the council support. I, I
hope vice mayor. Uh, just
a quick question for mac. I'm just wondering how the gold paint held up on those shovels, if we can reuse
them , but, um, you know, otherwise though, I, you know, we,
we want to give police and fire the best that we can. And so looking forward to that. Thank
you. And, um, uh, I just want to note to paul, I mean, thanks
for, uh, being the point man on this. And I know that success comes from following
the schedule. The staff report says spring, I heard mid 2 28. Tonight.
I'm thinking if we stay on schedule, we stay on budget and we get it built.
and now we're all, um, excited for get it built part. So with
that, uh, we have a motion and a second from strips and barnacle
and like a roll call. Vote barnacle. Aye.
cater thompson. Yes. To carly? Yes. Now, yes.
sch shrimps. Yes. Mcdonald. Yes. Motion carries unanimously.
thank you.
okay, moving on. Our next order of business is resolutions, ordering abatement of
nuisances consisting of hazardous vegetation, rubbish growing on
public and private property, and ordering the fire department to abate such
hazardous vegetation and rubbish and helping us,
helping us with this. Today is amy c sge,
sge sigge sge. Tough. Thank you very much. It's a tough one for being here. You're our fire marshal
and uh, this floor is yours. Thank you very much. Well, it's a tough act to follow.
um, but good evening mayor, vice mayor, council, city manager and staff,
as well as our community before you. Tonight is our second hazardous
vegetation abatement hearing for the 2026 season. This hearing covers
just two additional properties identified after our initial hearing that continued
to present a wildfire risk. Staff has completed all noticing requirements
and provided the property owners multiple opportunities to voluntarily abate the hazard.
we are requesting adoption of the resolution authorizing the city to proceed with
abatement only if the properties remain out of compliance after the established deadline.
and I'd be hap happy to answer any questions you have. Thank you very
much. Any questions? Council member schibs? Yeah, in
the, in the report, it seemed like there was a, a possible suggestion that is it really worth
doing this whole process? Uh, because there's only two properties that really need abatement
and that the cost of doing those two is less than the actual cost
of the program. So, um, there's a benefit cost ratio here that was
implied as maybe worthwhile or not. But I see this as a, um,
a possible, um, good thing, uh, that it's working.
'cause it being, it's working, people are complying. So I just wanted to just bring that up, that,
that it is such a good program that, um, it's been very cost effective
and that was only a couple properties available. Is there any comments you'd like to make
on, um, how that program, how you feel the program is working and,
uh, is it worth continuing this effort? So I'd just like to hear you, uh, talk
about it a little bit. Sure. Um, it is a very laborious process
for fire prevention staff, um, to, we have, you know,
as, as you're aware, our initial list is quite lengthy. There are a lot of parcels
that have been identified over the years as, um, regularly
out of compliance with our weed abatement and our hazardous vegetation program.
um, that being said, uh, it's an important step that
we take. Um, as we all know, the risk of wildfire in our community
is real and present and only seeming to get worse, um, every year.
and so it's, we've taken additional steps this year, including
more staff time, um, making personal calls to every
single property that, um, was being considered to be sent for
city abatement, which resulted in a lot of a additional voluntary compliance.
and so that's a, a, a plan that will continue. I'm proud that we
only have nine properties we've sent to city abatement thus far this year, um,
which is greatly reduced from years past. And so, um, our,
our program is working, our community is becoming more and more aware of the risk.
I think, um, there is, with the amount of reports that
we get from concerned residents and citizens, um, asking
us to look at this property or that property for abatement, I think the concern is
high and it's important that we respond to those concerns.
good. Thank you. And the next one, uh, question would be, um, compared to, 'cause you also
inspect buildings as well as open areas. So, um,
how's that compare, uh, looking at buildings and the amount of effort to put there
and the amount of safety that that generates versus from wildfires? So,
um, can you do a comparison between the tomb at all in in cost time
value, or an increase in safety? Sure. We,
our fire inspectors do mostly building inspections
all year round for general fire knife safety as well as our coupa
hazardous materials, safety and compliance. Um, that's most of
what we do. Our weed abatement focus really ramps up in
may, june, july, um, and continuing through those hotter months. So it's
a more concentrated effort, uh, where we truly look
at vacant parcels, um, under a, a stricter lens that don't
contain buildings. Most of what we do is, is focused on building inspections
throughout the year. So this is a concentrated effort during, you know, the, the high
high fire season, which we know is continuing, continuing to expand to more
of a year long issue. But during those hot summer months when the rains
have ceased and we're starting to get those tall high grasses, that's really where we
need to look at, especially where our wild land urban interface interacts with the edges of our community
and where fire might take hold and spread if we were to have a wildfire threat in
our borders. So it's, as far as the, the effort,
that's kind of what I'd say it's, it's more of a month, a shorter month
focus for our weed abatement program versus our annual fire
building inspections. Good. And then to save any time and money is, uh, any worthwhile
properties we could take off the list instead of keeping 'em on the list? Yes, we
have been taking buildings off of, or parcels off of the list, um,
especially folks who reach out to us and, and say, hey, I've been doing a
really good job with my property, come and take a look at it this year. If, if they have been
compliant, um, we will remove them from the list. So we don't wanna just see it continuing to
expand. We, we do wanna take properties off, especially we've had properties,
uh, parcels on the list that have since been developed. It no longer really applies to
a highly concentrated residential area. Um, there are certain cases where
that's true and we work with code enforcement on those, but, um, we are trying to shorten that list.
it has gotten quite long. . Thank
you. Other questions? No other questions. Let's go to, uh, general public
or to public comment on the item.
uh, we did not receive any comments ahead of the meeting and we have seven
attendees on zoom at this time. I will start a 32nd clock
during these 30 seconds. Members of the public attending in person should bring their speaker
cards to the clerk's desk. Members of the public attending online should raise their
virtual hand and those attending via phone should press star nine to raise
their hand. Speaker request received after this time may not be accommodated
and we do not have any hands raised and I have not received any cards.
okay, then, uh, that closes public comment on the
item and back up the council and council member shrives,
I'd like to move the item second. Second. We have a second from, uh,
gator thompson. And a motion from shrives and a roll call vote
please. Barnacle. Aye. Cator thompson?
yes. Yes. Di carly? Yes. Now
yes. Trips? Yes. Mcdonald? Yes. And motion.
thank you very much for being here tonight. The motion passed. Thank you.
um, our next item is, uh, resolutions confirming the annual engineer's
report and ordering the levy and collection of assessments
within the city landscape assessment districts for the year 26 27.
and to help us with that, we have deanna bradford, our senior management analyst list.
well, there is nothing better than a room full of people waiting for you to get something online.
,
should we start? We have, yes, please.
all right, here we go. Good evening, mayor, council members
and community. Tonight we are providing an update on the city's landscape
assessment districts or leds. Leds are one of those local
government topics that sounds simple at first. Landscaping,
maintenance, neighborhood improvements, and then very quickly becomes
parcel boundaries. Assessment rates, service levels, fund balances, and enough spreadsheets
to make even a committed excel user reconsider their life choices.
but at the core, this work is about something very visible and very important,
maintaining the shared landscapes that help shape the character of petaluma neighborhoods.
these districts help fund landscaping trees, pathways,
medians, irrigation systems, and other common areas, residency every
day when maintained well. They support neighborhood pride, walkability,
shade, beautification, and the sense that our public spaces are being cared
for. This
slide outlines the four main reasons we are here tonight. First, this is
the final step in the annual lad process. Each year, the city
council reviews, the district's confirms assessments and completes the required
steps to continue maintenance services. Second, we are sharing
what we learned through community outreach. Staff worked hard to reach property
owners in several ways. And while we remain hopeful that someday every
public notice will be read immediately and with great enthusiasm we learned,
it helps to provide information in multiple formats. Third
fiscal year 27 represents a reset moment for the lad program.
the city has paid off the current program deficit associated with these districts,
which allows us to reset the financial baseline and focus more clearly on current
services, current costs, and what e district can realistically support.
lastly, we will discuss what comes next, a new petition based
pathway to higher service levels that puts our community members in the driver's
seat forward thinking, irrigation improvements, opportunities to work with
our nonprofit partners and continue to asset documentation to prepare
for a comprehensive capital assessment. So tonight is both a closeout
point and a starting point.
over late 2025 and early 2026, staff conducted a
comprehensive outreach campaign to 1,121. Parcel owners
outreach included district web pages, faqs, postcards,
door hangers, webinars, youtube videos, emails, council presentations,
and surveys. The goal was to provide multiple ways for property owners
to learn about landscape assessment districts, how they're funded, the
services they provide, and why the city is discussing them. Now,
participation was admittedly limited across the 1,121
parcels. There were 83 webinar attendees, 73 survey
responses, and 202 youtube views. These results show that
while the city successfully reached many residents, not every property owner
chose to participate. We did find that this was a common outcome for
technical topics such as assessment districts. The outreach also
confirmed that district priorities vary. Some neighborhoods support higher service
levels and are willing to consider increased assessments while others prefer
to maintain current service levels and avoid additional costs. Based on this
feedback, staff refined the program to focus on a petition based pathway.
districts with demonstrated property owner interests can pursue higher service levels through
the proposition two 18 process. While districts without clear support
are not required to do so, this approach creates a path for improvement
that is driven by property owner interest rather than imposed citywide.
this slide groups the districts into three categories based on anticipated
service reductions highest, high and moderate. The key
takeaway is that the districts are not all in the same financial position. Some face
immediate challenges because maintenance costs are outpacing available revenue
while others remain more stable, but require ongoing monitoring. The
highest risk districts have the largest funding gaps, and in most cases, no
annual inflator to keep pace with rising costs. These districts
are expected to see significant service reductions in fiscal year 27.
the high and moderate risk districts generally have annual inflators,
but those increases are not keeping pace with actual costs. While service
reductions are expected to be less severe, they're likely still noticeable.
this risk-based approach helps staff prioritize resources where financial concerns
are greatest while planning proactively for districts that remain sustainable
today, but could face challenges in the future. In short,
this slide is the fiscal weather report for the leds. Some areas are
partly cloudy, some are stormier, and a few districts may just need us
to check the roof before it rains.
so you want a nicer neighborhood? Good. This slide is for
you. The key point is that higher service levels require both
district interest and parcel owner approval. The city cannot
increase assessments or services on its own. The process begins
with a property owner request, ensuring the effort is community driven.
next, a petition signed by at least 25% of parcel owners
demonstrate sufficient interest before additional work begins. Because the
cost of the proposition two 18 process is paid by the district, this
threshold helps ensure resources are invested where there is a strong likelihood of success.
once the threshold is met, staff prepares a preliminary scope and cost
estimate based on the improvements requested, such as enhanced maintenance, irrigation
repairs, tree work, or general beautification and engineers.
engineers analysis then evaluates the proposed assessment property
benefits and assessment structure. The district then proceeds through the proposition
two 18 ballot process where property owners decide whether to approve
the increased assessment if approved, the enhanced service levels implemented.
if not, the district remains at its current service level. This process provides
neighborhoods with a clear property owner driven path to higher service levels
for districts that are ready to begin. The petition is now available@cityofpetaluma.org
slash leds.
through the outreach process, many property owners express concern about
longstanding deficits that had accumulated in their districts. In
response, the city is eliminating approximately 768,000
in accumulated lad program deficits. This gives each
district a clean financial starting point, allowing future discussions to focus
on current service levels, current costs in which each district can realistically
support rather than past shortfalls. While eliminating deficit will
not immediately improve landscaping, it creates the final financial
foundation needed to move the program forward. With this reset,
the focus shifts to three priorities. Maintaining appropriate service
levels, managing rising costs for labor, fuel, water,
materials, and contracted services. And investing in ivis invisible
improvements such as healthy landscaping, irrigation repairs, weed
control, and plant replacement. It is important to note that eliminating
the deficit does not create new ongoing funding. Each
district must still operate with its an available assessment revenue unless
property owners choose to support a higher level of service through the proposition two
18 process. Fiscal year 27 is not a cure-all, but it
does provide a fresh start for the lad program.
this slide outlines the next phase of work. First, modernizing
irrigation systems. Rather than simply replacing existing equipment,
staff will prioritize water efficient technology and improvements that support the long-term
health of the city's urban canopy, especially during times of drought.
second, expanding our nonprofit partnerships to help in enhance
landscaping, shade, beautification, and climate resilience while stretching our
limited resources. Third, preparing for a comprehensive capital assessment
by documenting led assets, including irrigation, infrastructure, trees,
plantings, pathways, medians, and other maintained features.
together these efforts move the program from financial reset to long-term
strategy by improving infrastructure building partnerships and creating the asset
data needed for informed future planning.
the lad program is entering a new chapter by eliminating the
accumulated deficit, the city is providing a clean financial foundation for the
future. Staff has completed extensive outreach, gathered community
feedback, identified district risk levels, and established a clear property owner
driven pathway. For districts that wish to pursue higher service levels
for the first time, interested neighborhoods now have a clear roadmap to shape
the future of their district through the petition process. Rather than
a one size fits all approach, communities that are ready to invest in enhanced
landscaping and neighborhood improvements can choose to move that conversation forward
before that work can continue. Staff recommends that the council approve the fiscal
year 27 lad assessments, ensuring each district can
continue operating within its available revenues while these long-term improvements move forward.
this effort is about protecting neighborhood investments, improving transparency,
and building a more sustainable, responsive, and community driven lad
program. Thank you. And we are happy to answer any questions.
thank you. Appreciate you bringing the item back to us. Any questions up from here
from the diocese?
uh, um, I guess I have a question. Council member cater thompson. Um, on
the slide there were, um, areas that are not part of the landscape
district mentioned. So are we talking about reducing those services also
existing that are not connected to this program?
we are only talking about, um, parts of the neighborhoods
that are included in the lad program. Nothing else. Okay. I didn't
know the park place neighborhood was included in an assessment district.
is it? Park place is one
of our districts. So there are areas within park place that are a part of the assessment
district, but the entirety of the subdivision would not be in the districts.
thank you. Council member schibs? Um,
yeah, so one of the, um, uh, only concerns I had for the whole program,
uh, I'd like the way it's set up that it is initiated now by the, the petition process.
but in the report it didn't mention that it would have to go through this pretty long process
here. And one of the steps was an engineering report and then getting
the petitions and there was a price tag put on it. 7,000 to like $25,000
of staff time to, to do this. And many of these leds, the total
cost for the whole annual care is a lot less than that. So we're talking
it would take five years of current payments to even pay for the study
to raise the price, even a few dollars. Is there any way we can
reduce that down or simplify it? Uh, so that the folks in each of these
leds, um, know that if they start this process, it can be
completed. Um, uh, it'd still be financially
balanced between dollars in and, and, and, and services obtained.
one of the challenges with the prop two 18 process
is the necessity to have a special versus general benefit analysis completed.
and so depending on the complexities of any given district, that's where the majority of
that cost comes from. So if you have a smaller district that has, you
know, 20 parcels in it, that's a much easier assessment to do than a district that
has 445 parcels in it. So the pri the primary
cost driver of that is the complexity of determining, determining what elements
will be within that district, and then how each parcel owner
benefits from those as from those assets within that district.
so there's a cost
that cannot be avoided in that, but the long-term benefits of going through
that analysis and setting these districts up now so
that they can be successful for the next 30 years is worth that cost.
the path that we're on right now, if districts do not choose to go through
the prop two 18, we'll be continuing diminished returns. They will see less
and less and less service because the costs are not going to go down. But if we
don't increase those assessments, the service level has to go along with those set
assessments, right? So anyway, I'm hoping that, uh, folks will wake
up and realize, ah, we will put a little bit more money in to get the service that we really need down long
term and they'll start this whole process up. Um, now that we've, uh,
got this pretty well completed, um, given that we, we have like close to
50 leds now, um, now that you've, we've learned a
lot about this process and the legal requirements and all that, um, in
the future, should we look at leds as a really a way to
go or should we think about different ways of doing it? Hoas or even
just city park and just make 'em part of the city park and, and take care of it that way? So
do you have any opinions now that you've gone through this process?
I think both for the city of petaluma and several cities across the state of california,
we've learned the fallacies of landscape assessment districts. Uh, if
I had the key to the city, I would never write another one. .
um, there are other similar cost sharing mechanisms
that exist. We do have a community facilities district at riverfront
that appears at this point to be a much stronger financial,
um, program for making sure that our community stays safe,
clean, you know, all of the things that we were hopeful that leds would do. Um, but
they do provide a stronger roadmap than all of the concerns that have
been raised with leds over the past 30 years. Thank you. That's
all the questions I have. Uh, thank you. I had a, um, a couple in
and a couple opinions too. Um, I, I think that the finance
districts you talk about, I think they just, their leds, they just incorporated all
the better lessons we learned so that we don't get burned on finance. And
I think we find that in any kind of sprawl, um, subdivision development
is that we don't have enough money later. The property taxes don't generate enough
to co cover services, which is why they took the landscaping out
of the property tax and put it back on the owner. And then that's not even turning
out that well. But, but once we do today, we've, like in many industries,
we've learned the lessons of the past. Uh, I'm okay with this raise. I
appreciate that you raised every llad to the maximum
and that turned out to be about 15%, uh, uh, increase on everybody.
um, but then I appreciate that you showed the slide that showed those first 10.
uh, they don't, they, they don't have enough money in them to,
to do the service they get today. So I
asked in the questions, did we send them a letter saying your
landscape assessment district will look worse next year. Is that,
is that a direct letter we send? Uh, that letter hasn't been sent, but it is
being drafted. So community members can look forward to those letters and there'll be different iterations
of those letters because each of those, uh, 42 active districts ha are
in, have different circumstances. So some of them will not see
a reduction in their services. Just that first group, that first group's gonna see, it's gonna be really a lot worse.
the middle group will say it's a little bit worse in the bottom group, amy. It was just right.
yes. But, um, but that's the, the, the
answer for the two 18 here. Thinking at 15 to 25,000
per group, um, I I
I see a tr I see a tremendous public backlash to us telling them
that they need to put together upfront money into this.
and, um, you know, a lot of assessment district work is done on, uh, distributed
over property tax over a longer period and stuff like this. But the shock value of 15 to
25,000 just to get it, you know,
to pay you another $50 a month or a hundred dollars a month per parcel,
that shock value, like you're noting, I mean, we're, we're gonna, we're gonna be revisiting
this issue with very unhappy people because either it'll all have fallen
to brown and weeds or they're gonna pay $25,000.
and I, I, I don't envy that pr campaign and
I know it will end up here. Um,
um, I I I, I think
I need, we need to drive them to the table, but to people to, to know that their
their landscaping, their neighborhood values are dropping because of this. And
I think that's the comment we'll hear is the neighborhood value is dropping. Um,
but I think we also need to figure out how rock solid
two 18 is. Can we do a citywide, um,
di minimis if the, if if it's less than a hundred dollars per year,
can we do a one action without a new, can we do a drive
through and say, if, if, if there are no new developments in this subdivision
and it's a completed subdivision from 25 years ago, can we assume
that there's no basic difference in the benefit nature? You know, uh, can we, can we
cut out that whole, anything you can do to knock that 25,000 down to
something that won't get us shot or you shot , um,
would be really helpful. 'cause I, I see this as a real
pending problem, but I, I'm really glad you got the, this year's to its maximum
levels for every, uh, group. And
I'd like to ask the clerk if there are any, uh, comments, public comments. We
did not receive any comments ahead of the meeting. We do have nine people
in the zoom still at this time. I will start a 32nd clock during
these 30 seconds. Men, members of the public attending in person should bring their speaker
cards to my desk. Members of the public attending online should raise
their virtual hand and those attending via phone should press nine
to raise their hand. Speaker request received after this time may not be accommodated
and I have not received any cards and I do not see any raised
hands. Thank you very much. That will close public comments on
the item. And, um, that brings us to, um, council
motions. And there are, um, a, you know,
a number of them and, um, if we are ready for voting on this,
then um, I'd like a motion for the, um, no
recusal resolution.
so moved. Thank you. Motion by barnacle. Second. Second by di carly.
and for the no recusals we have roll call vote barnacle.
aye. Cater thompson. Yes. Di carly? Yes. Now?
yes. Shrives? Yes. Mcdonald? Yes.
motion carries unanimously. Alright, I'll be recusing be probably the
next one because I live too close. And, uh, we will see
a series of recusals based on council members living in the proximity with where
they need to recuse. So this is the, I'd like a motion for the,
um, resolution with barnacle. Recusing. I'll move that. I'll
second then we have a motion by cater thompson. A second by now. And roll call vote please.
barnacle. Recused. Uh, cater thompson. Yes.
di carly? Yes. Now? Yes. Shrives?
yes. Mcdonald? Yes. Motion carries unanimously. Let's
invite council member barnacle back and ask, uh, vice mayor di carly to, uh,
weigh in. Um, I'll be recusing for where I live too.
thank you. Make the motion. Second. We have a motion by cater thompson.
a second by now. Roll call vote barnacle.
aye. Cater thompson? Yes. De carly recused
now? Yes. Shrives? Yes. Mcdonald?
yes. Motion carries unanimously. Wonderful. And let's invite, uh, council
member shrives to announce recusal. And I'm, uh, recusing
'cause I live in the same neighborhood as the st. James estates.
I'll move the item. I'll second that.
we have a motion by now and a second by cater thompson. May, may we have a roll call. Vote
barnacle. Aye. Cater thompson? Yes. Di carly?
yes. Now yes. Bbs is
recused and mcdonald. Yes. And we invite,
uh, council. Thank you. And we invite council member shri back. And I'll
be leaving for much the same reasons
and I'll make the motion. All right. So now we'll be looking at the areas that mary mcdonald's affected by,
um, motion by councilwoman caterer thompson. We have a second. I'll second. Second by
councilwoman. Now. Roll call, vote please. Barnacle aye.
gator thompson? Yes. Di carly? Yes. Now?
yes. Shrives? Yes. And mcdonald. Recused. Motion carries
unanimously. Invite the mayor back into the room.
do we need to do one for the quint recused, or can we assume that that's part of the
no, recusal. Recused. Okay, so
I'll make the motion on five. We don't need to. We don't need to. All
right. Um, let me defer to the clerk here and, and ask have we covered
all the resolutions needed? I'm thinking it would be safer just to include
the quentin one right now without here. Let's do one more unless you
guys wanna just assume that first one was. So I'm looking for a motion
for, for, uh, council member quint. I'll make some motion for attachment five.
resolution. Second. Second. So we have a motion by cater thompson. And a
second by barnacle. And a roll call. Vote please. Uh,
barnacle. Aye. Cater thompson? Yes. Di carly? Yes.
now? Yes. Repps? Yes. Mc mcdonald?
yes. Okay. Motion carries you unanimously. Thank you. All
right, well, thank you very much, melinda. That's, uh, always an adventure.
. Appreciate the presentation. Yeah.
and now, um, we have our workshop for the evening. And thank you all
for, uh, andrew, uh, allowing the lineup change in this.
to bring this one as the main event for the evening. At this time,
it's a recommendation to the city of petaluma council to receive staff presentation,
public comment, and conduct a workshop concerning the north petaluma,
north smart station priority development area and specific plan,
proposed vision and preparation of the specific plan associated environmental
impact report. And leading this
augusta team is tom ford, principal planner and andrew,
uh, triple planning manager.
and this may take a second to get all the microphones and computers in
the right place. And let us know when you're ready.
thank you.
no, um, if it's agreeable to the group, we might take an
adjournment for five minutes and, and give the team a chance to pull it together here.
and so, um, madam clerk, will you put us in adjournment
for five minutes?
okay. We are back in session now, and we are, um,
about to start our conversation on the petaluma north smart station
priority development area specific plan proposal, uh,
in the form of a workshop. So that's, that's us
and welcome team. Good evening, mr. Mayor.
council members. We're really happy to be here tonight and share, uh,
the vision that we have for the specific plan area. I'm tom ford. I'm the
project manager on behalf of the city, and I'm joined by annie
ryan, our consultant from perkins. And will, who's the lead designer on a lot
of what you're going to see. Um, when we sent out the staff
report last week, um, we had attachment six, which was, um,
60 slides. And this afternoon we decided to condense
it a little bit. So we went through and we did two things. We weeded some things
out to make it, not that they were superfluous, but that they were
per perhaps not needed. And then we also took a land use discussion
that's more about implementation. After we receive, uh, go ahead from
you folks on the vision, uh, we can, we have those slides, but we'll
pause at the end of the, we've now shortened it to 40.
and when we get to that, we'll pause it. And if you wanna see those later during your discussion, we
can bring them up. So,
so I'll be brief. I just have a very, uh, quick overview and then I'm
gonna turn it over to annie. I want to just talk about the specific plan, background,
what we've done to date, uh, then we'll have annie's presentation and then with
public comment. Um, and you guys can have a discussion and hopefully we can leave
here tonight with either the vision we're bringing to you or your, um,
thoughts on how we might amend that vision. So the specific plan
area is about, uh, 1060 acres from washington street
all the way up to, uh, about where, um, the
brewery is. I , I usually know the name of that. Yes. Uh, lagunitas.
and on the, on the other side of mcow, it's scott street. So it goes all
the way up there. And then, um, in the middle, the metropolitan transportation
commission has identified a half mile radius that they call the
toc, the transit oriented communities area. So there's some pretty focused,
uh, policies that need to be put in place for that area specifically, but
then also for the entire specific plan. Um,
looking at it from the citywide, you can see that it's
somewhat, um, remote in that it's across a freeway, it's across a river,
and, um, it, it's on the other side of town and it's
adjacent to your other, um, uh, pda
priority development area as identified by mtc. And you'll be having a separate
planning effort, uh, for that very soon.
where we are in the process, we're just a little bit behind. We are exactly where the
red arrow is. We're trying to get, we're in that knuckle between developing all
of the options and alternatives and thoughts and coming to you folks with what we
think our preferred vision is. We want to see if you can either bless it or, or
amend it. And then we'll go forward and perkins and will will go off and write
a specific plan. They have a consultant that works for them that'll start to do
the ca documentation and we'll be back in the fall with a draft
plan. So our goals are to implement the, uh,
pending general plan, uh, implement metropolitan
transportation commission policies for that, that trans transit oriented
communities area, um, to create a unique identity and
sense of place. And we've heard a lot from the community about what they think about what the
sense of place is now and how ideas they have for changing it.
and then the last piece is that once the specific plan gets written is
in place, it'll, uh, create the regulatory structure that you can then implement
development, implement, uh, public improvements, and start to see change
over the 20 year course of the specific plan horizon
planning process. To date, we did, um, a pretty extensive, um,
existing conditions analysis. We had a lot of stakeholder interviews and outreach to community
members, um, with community, um,
workshops and such. And using the stakeholder information we've developed with perkins,
perkins and will has developed a vision, some ideas about land use and
improving circulation networks. Uh, we had a planning commission
session. We gave detailed, um, re uh, reporting
on that in the, in the, uh, staff report. So
the community engagement has been pretty, pretty robust to date.
in addition to some focus group meetings at the very beginning, we met with
city staff on december 4th. Uh, the leaders of, uh, city
staff, like public works, a lot of people to get a lot of ideas about what
we can do about flooding, what we can do about traffic, things like that. We had the
community open house on december 10th, um, and then we
also had pop-up workshops, uh, lumon such as that.
and then, uh, back at, um, the community center on
march 21st, we had a community workshop where perkins and will led
exercises with people to really, uh, small group exercises to
look at how we might, um, think about the vision for what
is identified in the staff report as the focus areas. Um, in
addition to that, we were here in november, um, to speak with you about a
community outreach partners working group. That working group was assembled largely
along the lines that you, uh, gave direction on. It has about 15
members. We've had three meetings, and the fourth one is going to be next monday
to incorporate what we hear from you tonight and give perkins and will
some additional ideas.
so, um, recently you hired a new economic development director
and that person, uh, put on her hat and really went out to the community and sort of
dug down a little deeper than we had already gotten with some of the outreach, and really
started talking to some of the business owners and, uh, businesses
out there and came away with some takeaways. These are, we, uh,
discussed in the staff report and they're, um, on the screen right now.
and so then as we said in the staff report port, we
narrowed it down to seven, um, things that we'd like you to give us direction
on, if possible. A couple of planning efforts that we'd like to, uh, sunset
just because we feel like this specific plan happening in 20 26, 20 27
will enable us to, uh, update the planning area
for those. Um, we want you to think about taking the
mtc assigned plan area and converting it
slightly to, um, adopt to the measure y, um,
boundaries that were for the unincorporated part of the, the
land north of, um, corona road. Then we
also want to see, we're gonna, andy's got a lot of material to show you,
um, if we're on track with what we see as these focus development planning in
the, in the, uh, the, the three focus areas, the transit village, the health
district, and the mcdowell corridor. And then put in
place bold, um, urban design policies and a framework for
really placemaking and community building tools. And lastly,
uh, if you can, um, approve the vision or, or amend it in whatever way
you please. After discussion, we'd like to go away and prepare the specific plan,
bring that back in about in the fall as a draft with a draft
eir. And with that I'm gonna turn it over to annie. Um, like
I said, she'll go through most of the slides and then we'll get to a stopping point. And if you want
to see more, we'll bring it up later. Thanks, tom.
hi everyone. I'm annie ryan. I'm an urban designer with perkins and well, it's nice to be here with you
all this evening. Um, I am going to try to
be quick, uh, but we can talk about all of this, um, in as much detail as you would
like after. Um, I'm gonna start with some context and then we'll talk a little bit about engagement, what we've
heard, what we're hearing. Um, and then I'll move into the proposed version. So just
a little orientation, as tom said, it's about a thousand acres. We've got some
key boundaries, um, established by 1 0 1 corona road, washington
boulevard, maria drive. Um, and it's sort of, it's, you can really see the, the shape,
right? It's sort of the, it balloons out around the station area. So it's capturing this half
mile, um, transit area. And then this entire corridor, it's about two miles
that runs all the way down north mcdowell till you get to washington. Um, and
uh, I think it's important to note some, some features here. Um,
'cause these become drivers of the plan and how we think about, uh, the east side. So there's,
I said there's 1 0 1, there's petaluma river, um, there's smart line,
and you know, these are all connectors in their own right, but they also are, are barriers
and these are big, you know, pieces of infrastructure, um, or geographic
features that that can be crossed, but with great challenge or sometimes not, not crossed at all.
and so I think it's important to just sort of take this in as we think about the east side,
how people experience it today, and also how it's sort of perceived in, in overall petaluma.
um, so what's happening in the plan area today? Um, it's, it's
a pretty remarkable place. This is a very unique part of the city. There's
a lot of existing assets here. You know, we start with smart station, the smart pathway.
these are tremendous assets. Um, huge economic potential,
um, and investments that the city has made. Um, there are some really well-defined,
really well sort of understood neighborhoods here that provide homes
to really wide diversity of people. Um, that includes several manufactured
home neighborhoods that are just vital sources of affordable housing, especially for our, our
seniors. Um, there are open spaces, creeks, trails, throughout the plain area, including,
including the very beloved, um, lynch creek trail. You know, these are really great
assets. We don't find these very often in cities around the bay area.
um, and there's also, I just wanna point out, you know, these sort of what we're calling vital community
resources. So we've got petaluma valley hospital, the petaluma valley, petaluma health
center. Um, these are really critical, um, sources of service,
not just for the east side, of course, not just for petaluma, but from at a regional stage. So
these are, these are really important assets to point out. Um, and,
you know, when we think just about the, the, the business, the commercial side of the east side,
I mean, there's a really, really rich legacy of local entrepreneurship here. Um,
small businesses that have gone very global. I mean, lagunitas is like,
of course a , a well known example, but there's so many different industries
and businesses that have sort of taken root here. Um, the name makers alley
is getting used. Um, you know, there's, there's a real sense of place here that I think this plan is
well equipped to help, um, see forward to the next, the next many decades.
um, and I just wanna underpin too that, you know, this is a real job center. There's a
lot of important jobs that, that happen here. And so this plan needs to be very, very cognizant
of how it doesn't, um, disrupt, dismantle that. And that really finds a way to
continue to be an important job center for, for the city and for the region.
um, the, the east side, you know, many, many great things, but it's not without
its challenges. Um, this is an exhibit from the, the pending general plan
update. Um, the areas you see in pink, or what are referred to as equity priority
areas. So, um, as defined in the general plan, these are areas comprised of
lower income residents, um, that are disproportionately affected by environmental pollution
and other negative health impacts. So you can see, I mean, it's quite clear, right? A huge
amount of, um, that category of, of area, um, falls within our, our
plan area. So for any kind of planning effort here, um, we really, we
need to be thinking about this, um, at the forefront. It's not just business as usual. This is a planning
opportunity to repair real harm that's occurring in the plan area today.
uh, so whether it's higher pollution rates due to the proximity of 1 0 1, um, or high
concentrations of seniors that are living, living in areas that experience a lot of flooding or
have sort of traffic, um, and, and, and, um, uh, road roadway issue,
roadway safety issues, you know, equity has to be a major driver for this plan.
um, so I wanted to just, you know, we can't walk through the plan right now, but maybe we can kind of quickly all
do this together on screen virtually, um, to sort of just get our minds in, in place
and, and think about this place a little bit. So there's a lot of amazing things happening, right? We
have the new smart station, the pathway, I mean, these are tremendous assets and
getting more and more popular every day. Um, so much connection to
nature. I mean, the parks are really, it's so fun how they all have different characters.
I mean, I was really love it. I'm not from petaluma, but I really have loved getting to know this
area. 'cause I just find it so tremendous. All these different types of open spaces that weave throughout
the neighborhoods, um, these diverse businesses. It's so, um,
interesting to see the variety, um, and how they all have stories. And we've
gotten to connect with a lot of people at workshops and hear about sort of what these businesses
mean to them, um, and what they mean to, you know, their, their families in petaluma.
um, and there are some serious challenges. And I would just say the constant
refrain we hear is about safety on our streets and in our public realm.
um, the road quality is not conducive to pedestrian trips, to bicycle
trips. Um, all of you, I'm sure have probably know this intersection
very well. I mean, these are, these are serious hardships. And so when we're talking about transit oriented development,
we have to think about an environment that is actually encouraging people, um, safely to, to
use that transit. Um, and I, you know, I just wanna point out like it's all
ages when we're talking about this type of infrastructure. We're thinking about kids, we're
thinking about people pushing strollers, um, elderly folks, like when we design
for all ages, um, that's where we see sort of our safest, um, greatest outcomes on
our streets. Um, there's some really interesting and important, uh,
environmental features here, right? So we have creeks that are running all the way through.
they go through sort of various stages of, of naturalization to what you're seeing on the left, like
very culverted and sort of, um, engineered, um, pretty significant
flooding issues that are a constant refrain as well. We've heard a lot from public works about the flooding
challenges, but residents and business owners as well. And then also just wanna flag, you know, the heightened
wildfire risks. One of the earlier presentations today was talking about that urban wildland interface. I
mean, that we are right on the sort of front lines here in this plan area.
so what did we hear? Um, , I mentioned this, but I would say
like the biggest highlights really are around mobility, around people feeling safe
to use, um, to, to get out of their cars and to be able to walk and
bike and, and, and do so, um, with, with their children as well. Um, this
sort of, um, refrain, this constant refrain for wanting more green space, wanting more connection
to nature, but also just wanting places where they can socialize and be with
their families, be with friends, a place to, to meet up after work. Um,
you know, this is a residential area, but it's also a place, um, where, where people come
to work. And so having those types of spaces and places, um, is really critical.
um, I would say from all of that sort of feedback we are
seeing, um, we've sort of latched onto these four priorities, right? So this
idea of really maximizing the station as a community asset, um,
thinking about north mcdowell as a place that puts people first. So not just something that
you are driving through or moving through, but actually a place that can be a destination
in its own right. Um, thinking about local industries sort of
anchoring the place and really creating a strong sense of place that where makers and
breweries and all of these sort of creative enterprises are really flourishing together.
um, and then I would say, you know, thinking about nature and climate, it, it's
gotta be at the forefront. I mean, just thinking about why people wanna live in petaluma, it's
because you can be sort of immersed in nature, but, um, we can't control
nature. And so thinking about how we do this in a, in a sensible way and thinking long term is
critical. Um, and so with all of this feedback, uh, we have sort of
this emerging vision, which I can just read to you, um, a vision statement. So
the petaluma north station specific plan area will be a resilient, connected,
and vibrant place where housing, jobs, and recreation come together in
a walkable, nature oriented district that supports health, community, and
long-term economic resilience. It's about complete neighborhoods and distinctive
mixed use hubs that will offer homes, jobs, and daily amenities within a short
walk or ride transit corridors that will be active and welcoming with
art public spaces and human scale development that supports ridership and car
optional living creeks and green streets that will form ecological spines,
linking people to open spaces, managing water cooling neighborhoods,
and protecting from wildfire risk and a thriving ecosystem
of different businesses that will be supported by a mix of amenities that generate vibrancy
and enable people to live near their work, school and families.
so these are all great, these are words . So we need to turn these into,
um, in, into strategies that can, that it can inform a place. And so we
start to think about design pillars. Like I I'm an urban designer, so this is gonna get a little,
a little artsy, but, you know, we think about these pillars to kind of drive decisions about how we would think
about things like land use. Um, and so these pillars, um, that we've latched onto are environmental
resilience, circulation and access and housing economy in place.
and what could that start to look like? So when we think about a big picture, urban
design framework, I think there's three big ideas that we're trying to sort of bring, bring
to life here. The first one being distinct neighborhoods. So a really contextual mix
of housing and jobs and everyday uses that are all sort of coalescing
together, and you really have a strong sense of place with that development. There needs to be a playfulness
in how we think about these future development coming forward. Um, green
stitches, which are this idea of, you know, bringing our creeks and parks and trails,
all of these sort of moments of nature, having them work together so that they become places
that are connecting, um, the larger fabric that they really can be, the stitches that hold it
all together. And then, um, the circuits, which is what you see in orange or sort
of the reddish color, um, these are what we're calling people priority routes. So
these ideas of, um, networks that are connecting all neighborhoods no matter where you
live on the east side to transit, to open space, and everyday uses. And it's going to
use a combination of public streets, trails, um, connections
between new development, all ways to get people around safely.
um, and so I'll, I'll try to just kind of quickly walk through, like, what could this start to be
as a specific plan? Like if we think about taking these big picture sort of concepts
and now translating them to, um, to standards and, you know, p priorities,
but ultimately standards and, and, uh, guidelines. Um, and so when
we think about environment and resilience, what we could imagine is establishing an overlay
zone, um, whether it's for fire hazard, um, or for flood hazards, sort of
thinking through how development in these areas needs to be, um, uniquely responsive
to those conditions. Um, we can think about our streets being multipurpose, so
whether they're there to, um, actually help buffer from fire spread. You know, we can think
about the spacing of trees, um, how they trees, pla placing trees can be wind
buffers, um, but also flood management. So how we can start to think about our tree, our
streets as being places that hold water, that slow it down, that recharge
the aquifer. Like all of this can be multipurpose and multifunctional, um, and
can look really, really great as well. Um, we can think about our open spaces being
very multifunctional. So there's already this huge network of open spaces, but now we can start to think about
potentially new open spaces, um, in new parts of our, uh, our plan area.
so these are conceptual, but the idea is that we wanna have a framework that we can build from
circulation and access. You know, I, I talked about the, the mobility concerns, the
safety concerns. It's all about creating a network that is human scale that
encourages people to walk. And wherever we are finding, um, areas for new
development, we're really impo. We're bringing, we're super imposing this walkable
framework, um, first and foremost, so that we get, um, an environment where people,
um, are feeling like they can live without their cars if that's what they choose to do.
um, all of this has to be thought about in a way that preserves the
integrity of the district. So what you see at number five, this idea of, um, improved
freight access and industrial and business park areas. This is directly relating to what
we were hearing in that, um, it, it, it echoes the feedback that was received in
the memo from the business community that there's really important work that's happening here. And so when
we think about safe streets, these are streets that have to work for many different users,
um, housing and economy in place. You know, what do we mean when we think about land
uses here? Um, there has to be some context, some intention behind it.
um, and what we've started to, to sort of coalesce around is this idea of
character areas. So thinking about these sort of zones or like smaller sub areas with
the plan area that could start to have their own unique character,
um, that's directly informed by the streets that sort of abut them, but
also the surrounding land uses. So I'll just sort of quickly walk through. But, um,
you know, this idea of like a maker's alley where we're really focusing, um,
an intensive sort of effort to, to support the jobs support sort of
industry there. Um, the corona transit village is, is of course the area
right around the smart station. Um, it's includes
quite a bit of un um, incorporated area that does not have a lot of development today. So
we really need to be thinking about to develop there. What does that actually want to be? And
could that be? Um, and then moving down mcdowell, we of course have sort of the
immediate station, right? Um, the heart of the station is what we're calling it. Um,
a sort of central zone in the middle. Um, and then all the way at the bottom. Um, we have
what we're referring to as the community and health hub. So this idea of really creating a
strong sense of purpose that is sort of anchored by the lucchese complex,
but also the, the hospital. So what could this look like? I'm
just gonna sort of splash some images on the screen, but this idea of a maker's alley
that is really about bringing together places for people where, where people work, but also places
where people can enjoy in what sort of interesting
businesses and industries are occurring here. Places that workers want to spend time at after
work places that you want to come to on the weekends, um, places that really celebrate,
um, the industries that make this area special. The station could be this very vibrant
place that, you know, is, is capturing the fact that there are gonna be so many people arriving by foot
by bike. Sort of what could that sort of immediate, um, sort of, uh,
capture area start to feel like central mcdowell
could start to be a place that maybe has some interstitial moments. So ideas of sort of taking
advantage of maybe, um, larger setbacks, um, uh,
uh, uh, parcels that maybe are underutilized that could start to become places for
smaller pockets of open spaces, places for rest. Um, starting to think about how we
sort of take advantage of these, these smaller moments as part of a larger system.
um, and then lastly, the health and community hub. You know, this is really civic, uh, a civic
type of sub area where we have large convergence of people coming together,
um, but also places that need to, you know, sort of support that, that larger
population thinking about retail and, and such. So this
is a very conceptual sort of land use plan that gives you a sense of how, um, we could start
to think about these types of land uses arraying, um, in the plan area. So
this focus on very walkable, um, 15 minute neighborhood centers, of course,
as something that comes straight from the general plan. So this is an opportunity to really see that through,
um, prioritizing the job centers as places of, of, of employment.
um, thinking about a diversity of housing options, and especially thinking about housing, um,
that is really focused around transit. How, how can we maximize that transit asset,
um, and encourage as many people as possible to, to take advantage of it. Um,
and then thinking as well as just about a, a sort of a full diversity of uses, um,
in, in areas where there is the greatest potential for change. So starting to identify,
um, opportunity sites. So just some
sort of precedent imagery to kind of, um, put some image to to, to those
words. And, and what I, um, we'll try to sort
of move through quickly now is just what does this actually start? Like how could we start to do
this, right? Like a specific plan. Um, this is a very large area, it's a thousand
acres. So it's not about mass change , it's about really thinking
through intentionally where are the opportunities where more change is potentially needed.
um, and, and then where there are opportunity sites that maybe are underutilized
or, or wanting to be something more. And many of these actually were raised as part of
the general plan process. And so what we've, um, brought here, uh, this
evening are these sort of three focus areas. The first being the transit village, which
is parcels right around the, uh, the transit, the smart station, um,
the health district, which I mentioned is sort of the area that captures, um, sort of the zone
around the lucchese, uh, complex, but then specifically the, um,
shopping center across the street, an opportunity or a change area that was identified in the general
plan. And then the segment of north mcdowell is sort of the remainder in between,
um, that captures a few sort of, um, smaller opportunity sites along the street.
so if we think about starting to, um, translate sort
of these higher level principles into land use strategies, um, we could look at
something like this, what you see conceptually here. So we're imagining, um,
walkable blocks that start to, um, connect the sort of new unincorporated,
uh, new development in the unincorporated area that you see just sort of north of the
station, um, into the sort of larger fabric, right? Starting to, to connect with
neighborhoods that are across, uh, corona road. We're thinking about a really diverse mix of
uses. Um, a mix of housing types in particular. So enabling, um,
a lot more affordability, more workforce housing people able to live close to where they
work, and always sort of thinking about how are we supporting transit? How are we
enabling this station to be, um, to, to, to be the, the asset that the city
had sort of dreamed of when, when it was first announced that there there could be a, a second smart station
in petaluma. Um, and of course, thinking about active uses, how do we
bring in open spaces? Um, all of this is sort of coming
together in a sort of complete sort of land use framework.
um, moving further down, this is, um, sort of zoomed in around the health district.
so thinking here about, um, you know, future connections that could be brought
into the plan area that double, um, as I mentioned before, these sort of flood management
streets that are sort of dual purpose, not just creating more walkability, but also, um,
improving our resilience. Um, we're thinking about streets scape enhancements, of course
along north mcal, um, just sort of overall improving the
experience of that street. Um, and then I wanna just sort of focus your attention to,
um, what you see in the, the darker purple. So these are mixed use areas,
um, identified as change areas in the general plan, uh, these land use
designations. We are just sort of bringing from the general plan to this, uh, to
this plan. But starting to think through how might these, um, sort of, uh,
land use blocks these existing shop. One of them, the larger one of course, is the
existing shopping center. How can these start to be integrated with their surroundings? So if we think about
sort of, um, a green edge along, um, uh, the, the larger
shopping center, like how can that start to be something that now connects to, to lucchese park?
um, and then the last piece I wanna talk about is that that third area I mentioned, sort of the segment
of north mcdowell, that that is right in between the station and,
and east washington. Um, and so really what's driving the change here, what we
wanna be thinking about is how do we just think about a street that works for
everyone? How are we sort of balancing all these needs? Um, right now it's a street of course, that's
very focused on vehicles, but we can think about bringing in these other users
into the design of a future street that is not going to compromise. Um, the ability
for all these other users to coexist like that is really the beauty of, of really well
designed streets as that they can balance and work, um, for everyone.
um, and so just to sort of remind ourselves, right, like we have these sort of five, um,
character areas that we've established around, um, the plan area.
and so these character areas can start to inform the qualities, um, and
experiences of these different segments of both north mcdowell but also corona
road. So we can think about a design of a street that is responsive to the land uses
that are on either side of it, and how all of that can work on, on the street itself
without compromising, um, you know, things like level of service and its ability to to
to work as a, as a viable street.
um, and so just to sort of conceptually give you a a sense of this, right, this is, um, an
existing like typical cross section for north mcdowell. So you can see lots of vehicle,
lots of space for vehicles. There's, um, five travel lanes plus sort of a,
a bus turnoff space. So a lot of distance that people are having to cross, um, by foot if
they're crossing the street. Very little planting or shades. So when you're walking
along the sidewalk, it's a narrow sidewalk and it doesn't really have a lot of shelter from the elements.
um, and then we've got sort of limited and uneven bike facilities. Um, this particular
cross section was cut where we have this sort of shared use path, like a, it's really
just a concrete band that sort of, um, sits adjacent to the sidewalk.
so not really giving much to most people, most users of the street.
um, so how can we start to think about, you know, putting forward a new vision that sort of
re reprioritizes a little bit, redistributes thinks about everyone getting to benefit from
this corridor. Um, and so,
you know, this, this is the logic, right, that we're really shifting the priorities from cars
to people and really to, to the planet, thinking about how this street can be something that's
gonna live long term, um, and, and be very viable in that way.
so with that, I think these are rephrased versions of the key recommendations
that tom, um, kicked us off with. And, uh, I think
we can move to questions.
okay. Great presentation. Thanks. Uh, I
appreciate you, uh, um, ta cutting that slide count in half.
. I know that causes us to have many questions and, and things like this, but,
uh, but I, I think we got a good gist of it there. And, uh,
who on council has a question I wanna lead with?
I will start, um, council member barnal. So appreciate this presentation.
it's the second time where I've seen some of it. 'cause I was on the planning commission. Um,
so, and it's nice to see the land use coming, coming
out too. Um, can you talk about the, on the
mobility, the, the part about maintaining freight access and things like that
and, um, you know, some of the other mobility topics that we were
talking about of, you know, bringing down the number of lanes and things like that. There's
quite a few cars on this proposed growth. I would hard, it's hard to see that
coming down. So that's the one thing I'm sort of grappling with when we've thought about
this street in particular, this is the one where we're like, it's gonna be a road,
you know. So can you just talk about what your thoughts are of how that actually would transition
and things like that? Yes, I can, I can start and then I'm gonna, um,
pass it off to my, uh, colleague and friend at fair and pierce as well, uh, to back
up what I'm saying with some authority. But, um, I would just say that in our sort
of preliminary studies, we've looked at many, many different, we we're
cutting cross sections of this entire corridor and looking at different conditions and you
know, there's, there's a lot of excess, um, that
there are multiple travel lanes, um, in both directions. But then also these turn
lanes, there's sort of extra spill out space, um, because in general
probably there was just, the space was there and so it was taken and given to the vehicles and there
probably wasn't too much, um, thought, thought beyond that. Um,
but what's critical is like, we have to think about how people are using this street
to get to the properties, right? Because it's not just that, um,
cars are, are driving down and turning at intersections, there's driveways, there's curb cuts.
I mean, like, it is very important to think about this as an important conduit for commerce.
and so what we're looking at is sort of, it's two-pronged. We're of course we
need to model this and like we, we can rely on data, I think to, to some extent to
help us understand, um, what are the volumes and what can sort of be, um,
adjusted there. Um, but we also need to be thinking about like overall as
an entire network, does it actually support us, you know, in terms of like
overall congestion, right? Does it actually support us to have all of this space for vehicles
when there can be more sort of thoughtfully, uh, designed ways that we're sort
of coordinating our movements? Um, and we, we feel like there
are very good precedents that we can learn from at this. Um, so kelly, I don't
know if you would like to sort of give your thoughts on that too.
sure, I can, I can add on, um, to that. So yeah, based on initial
analysis that we've done, which is just looking at existing conditions, we'll still need to look at like future
growth and I'll take that into consideration. But, um, yeah,
based on the, the analysis of existing conditions, we've, we're exploring a few different different
options and that's in tandem with, uh, public works staff about what might
be, oh, excuse me. Could you speak a little closer to the mic? Oh, sure. So I can, I think I have a
tendency of speaking too close, so I tried to adjust this time, but thank you for the feedback council
member. Um, yeah, so working in tandem with, with public works staff
around what, um, is palatable, what might be feasible and coming up with,
um, starting to explore what potential solutions might look like. And that will, we'll
continue, we're kind of at the, the start of that process. And so we'll continue as
we build out the plan and get some buy off from you all on the vision tonight. Um, dive
a little bit deeper into that and look at, uh, projections for, for future
growth, knowing that a lot of the future users, if they're coming from
the train station, are not gonna have a car they're gonna be getting here on foot, um, and
maybe biking using the bike share that's at the station. Um, and so
yeah, the, the type of user that might be, uh, using this corridor in the future
might be using a different mode. Or what are some other strategies that, um,
you know, where, where, where's freight getting off of the highway right now? Is there an opportunity
for them to get off at the, you know, the redwood highway, uh, exit
and travel down north mcdowell? So kind of taking the, um, the
business owner feedback that, um, we, we've received into account and
trying to better understand and dive deeper where, how are they using the corridor? And so,
and we think there are opportunities to balance all these different users.
um, there are a lot of creative solutions out there that other cities have, have done.
so we can, we can certainly look elsewhere and don't need to reinvent the wheel, um,
but all within the context of what the local community here would
like to see. And, um, yeah. Cool. Thanks.
um, couple other questions. Uh, I really appreciate the sort
of, um, maker micro at the, where
currently the post office is. I think that's a nice, um, balance and
a nice way to sort of establish some sense of identity and place, um, from
the station as you arrive at the station and you realize like,
oh, there's all these great, you know, maker micro businesses down there that I should go check
out. You don't necessarily get that feel with the, uh, post office
and, and a fire station there. Um, how do you
actually create that, the demand for those businesses and things like that, right? Like,
um, it feels like a chicken and the egg situation a little bit where like, you know, you've
gotta have the spaces and you gotta have it. Um, but also you need the businesses to come
into. Can you talk a little bit about how these sort of places come to come to be?
I can, I can take a stab at this. Um, it's very complicated and it
is, well it is very chicken and egg, but I think part of it is like signaling to
the, to future, um, applicants that
you're, this is an option that's on the table now. So sort of even just
the first step that you all took with establishing that land use designation is really huge because now
that indicates to a different sort of market that this is a type
of, um, development, this is a type of use that is going to find, you
know, um, a home here. Um, so I think that that is a first
step. I think also thinking through like what, um, are the inherent
needs of those types of businesses and then ensuring that we can put forward
standards and guidelines in the specific plan that maybe make that more friendly to them.
um, I know we think a lot, um, other projects that we've worked on in the bay area
along the peninsula in particular where there's, you know, el camino real has, I think
kind of a similar fabric and, and sensibility about how it's trying to preserve certain types of
uses. Um, we've looked a lot at how we can, um, uh,
d encourage that type of, we call it production, distribution and repair. So this idea
of light industrial that, um, wants to be
close to other light industrial, like you want to see that clustering. Um, but part
of the reason that they want to be close to one another is because they tend to need to share certain types
of resources like surface parking or like loading space. And so all of
that, a specific plan is really well equipped to help put in place
standards and guidelines to help, um, sort of problem solve some of that, I would say.
um, and so all of those can be ways to sort of help just ease the burden
a little bit on, um, on the developer or the existing business, what
have you. Um, that those are, those are ways that we can kind of help encourage those things to,
to percolate. I don't know, andrew, if there's more you wanted to add to that. I think I
want to add also that, you know, certainly the work, the time that we spent in the, in
the plan area, we're seeing where these businesses have located, right?
these, these highly entrepreneurial business activities, many of them are very,
very stable and very committed to, um, where they're located
along mcdowell boulevard. So, so it's great to see that sort
of that in the dna of the plan area and to be able to build up
on that by celebrating them, uplifting them and, and kind
of bringing them forward in that way that blends them as businesses, as
entrepreneurs, as incubators, but then also creating that attachment
that annie showed in some of her imagery where you're creating those sort of
third spaces for employees to come out to socialize
with one another, to celebrate the work that they're doing and more fully engage
in the, um, in the community. Great. And then one
final question. Um, so when we
talked about this at planning commission, there was some, I brought up some points that like, there's
actually quite a few like large heavy duty parking lots
essentially there, right? Whether it's, there's like a truck stop, there's the,
um, the post office recology, I saw ecology's logo
there. Like are we envisioning long term that we want to continue to have these large,
like heavy duty parking lots, you know, businesses, obviously
critical businesses to our community, or are we, do you, do we envision those moving
to a different corridor in the city or something like that? Long term?
I think we, so we, what we have done and those comments, um, you, you hopefully see
the, some of the changes that reflected in the land use plan. Um, 'cause you were very astute
to point out that they're these sort of key, um, sites that are producing a lot
of greenhouse gas emissions, right? There's a lot of like truck idling, like these are sort of not conducive to
this like livable green, um, like corridor experience that we're
trying to achieve. Um, and so I think in some cases, potentially some of those opportunity
sites, um, we, we see, um, this
specific plan as being able to put forward a vi a vision to see those change into something that
is maybe a little bit higher and better used, something that is maybe multi-purpose.
um, but I think, uh, in terms of, um, the, to your second
point about, you know, are, are all of these things going to go away? I think that's part of
a bigger question about sort of the, the actual sort of character and vision. Um,
overall, like that has not been something that I would say this plan is sort of
strongly, um, pushing forward wholesale. Yeah, sure. Thank you. I appreciate
that. Thanks. That's all for me. I, that
council memberships. Yeah, I've got a fairly long list
of stuff, uh, questions and comments. Do I but they're more blend them
deep. So do you want me to wait till andrew or after it now?
go for it. Alright. Okay. Um, first I just want
to thank, uh, nicola fry. I think, uh, senator, one of the nicest, uh, emails
with a list of comments. So I'd like to make sure the staff really
pays attention. Uh, I liked a lot of the stuff that, that she listed down in there, maybe
even using a little ai I suspect to help, um, get the consistency going,
uh, through the different sections. But, uh, most of the comments I thought were very
valuable to, to, uh, look at. So please look at her comments for sure.
um, the other email I received that was very interesting was about water flow, vernal pools,
um, water catchment systems and the like, and the whole water flow, the diagrams
that you showed really did not show that well at all. Um, and
I think we, uh, you even show development of housing on places that absolutely should
not have housing. 'cause it's actually a pond and a vernal pool
on some of these spots. And I don't think you'll be even allowed to even get close to housing on
a couple of these spots. So you really have to pay attention to the actual vernal pools
out there on that. Um, the, um, there's
a piece of property we're trying to upgrade to like three stories. And I've, and that's part of the
area that I've canvassed when I was, um, going the last time I was going for, uh,
this position. And after talking several of the houses there, right on the
fence line, absolutely hate the idea of three stories looking out
over and they will fight you tooth and nail over it, um, on
that one. So, um, the recommendation and, and I have friends who actually live in the, one of
those old, really old houses right on corona road right there. And,
um, after talking with them, uh, a couple discussions actually that would
be a really good area for a, um, uh, a manufactured
home such as geo ship box bowl and various other manufactured homes could
be actually placed there in a community setting. Um, and that would be a,
a, a separate its own little fi a five minute community
that could be created in that spot, maybe even with cots services that
going in that would be a blend from everybody from, um, moving in
from the homeless all the way up to single families, uh, a single folks,
um, to maybe even some seniors, all even these basically tiny
homes. So that would be a good spot for that. So I just want you to think about that
as a possibility. And then that area right behind those, those couple
of those older homes, the one that is actually almost, uh, looks like it may need to
be pulled down, but it's historic house right behind there is actually, it turns into
a lake in wintertime, uh, when the wet rains are flowing. It's actually a good place
for a, um, a drain basin for recharge is
a possibility. And there's, uh, and wildlife frequent that spot in
wintertime. So you really have to pay attention to that particular spot. It's been documented, um,
to have a very high value as a vernal pool for wildlife.
so, um, please pay attention to that spot, which is right part of that 10 acre area
that's in there, um, in the areas in the, uh,
transit, um, uh, mixed use type area.
um, you had some retail lined out and I think there's gotta
be more than retail in in those sections. There needs to
be a lot more of community meeting spaces in that transit, uh,
housing area. So instead of just building up and putting lots of housing in, not just
retail, but there needs to be more gathering spaces. And
my recommendation is a library annex. The library folks want to get in there
but actually build out a library annex that does more than library.
it's actually a gathering spot, um, for people to come in and do
things, uh, together, crafts for kids, hobbies, make it a
separate, almost a community center as well as a library. So a mini community
center there, uh, as well as a library that has multiple uses for, for that
community. Um, so that has to be incorporated and which means
that you have to think of much more holistic people centered. I know you
talked a little bit in your reports about the people centeredness of it all. I think you need to up up at
one more level. I think nicola fry mentioned that several times in, in the
verbiage and in the pattern, more people centered entirely, uh, not just
housing, uh, that needs to be put in and not just high density housing.
oh, it's gonna work. Um, so, uh, and it needs to be a better plan with,
um, where you're gonna put the housing, how, what the shapes gonna be. And I think
even if you pre-design a, uh, an actual 3d
structure, what it might actually look like as part of the plan development that you're
doing a 3d structure, what that property might look like just from viewpoints
might be helpful to actually see what it might end up being. If it's three, four or
five stories, what that looks like from different angles, that should be easy to do using
3d modeling now. So that should be part of your plan development.
um, and so I really wanna make sure, and then the, the
person that it shouldn't be blocked out, okay, parcel by parcel has to be bought
and then each one, each parcel gets, gets developed differently by a different developer.
no, it needs to be planned out so that holistically gets developed maybe by
a single developer. Let's work on that. The other
area in that transit area, because the, uh, touching that little circle that's
going around is, okay, this is absolute rule, okay? If it touches that little circle, it gets to include it if it
doesn't touch it. And so it makes it kind of weird shape to that areas.
if we're going to include most of it, there's a couple properties not in there, let's go ahead and,
and let's try to include those properties and allow that to make it a more uniform
so they have choices on those properties to join or not join into
this, the transit so that they can do things or whether they can develop even into
turn into retail. 'cause it's right there on the edge there. Um, for these private properties,
they're, they're stuck there. It's like, okay, I've got this farmstead and, and
I'm surrounded by these five story buildings are all around me. You destroyed my, my,
my living habitat and yet you're now allowing me to do it and sell my
property to do the same thing. So let's make sure that all those properties in that
block of right by on, on that eli road, there's two or three of those parcels
not included. Let's get those included. So it's blocked out as to what
it actually does and or transition or, or back off. But
it needs to be, um, uh, shaped so that those property owners also have
options for their future, otherwise they are stuck in a place where they
don't want to live anymore. Right? Okay. So that's the area there.
um, uh, just as a comment, uh, just really look at the
2013 master plan for the transit. I think there's a lot of stuff that you
used in your plans. I think you looked at it, there's a lot of, um, wednesday
copying, but a lot of use. You use a lot of the same language and concepts and ideas.
so that was a really good report. So look at it again and make sure those are included in that.
and maybe even let's copy some of that for even our
downtown station. Also. Maybe we can even just say, oh, let's just copy it down there and let's
do the same thing, uh, for the downtown to kind of upgrade the whole master plan
for the smart stations while you're doing this. That's, that's just like, could ai
just do that automatically develop your report? Let's copy it for the downtown,
do it. Thank you. Five minutes, seconds later, it's done. Deal. Can you do that?
so whatever. Um, then on the, um, okay, then
I'm looking at the district. Okay, it's almost all in district one,
councilman j canada thompson may have to go out to a thousand more
homes to, to do it if it stays in district one. So maybe
we need to divide that out and push out, so eventually, not this round,
but plan out maybe for the next round of voting in four years from that,
as people move in, we're going to have to redistrict our voting for districts,
uh, one, two, and then probably six across the way. Have to shift the
lines a little bit to accommodate that large population growth in
that area. So think about that as you're doing this, thinking about who's gonna
live there, how many folks are gonna live there, and how we actually divide up the folks by voting district
and school district. Seems like a lot of folks will go to the law, make sure we
have law principal and superintendent for the school district really engaged,
involved in how he's going to take over these students and plan ahead does is his schools
capable of, of absorbing that many young people. If young people move into
this place, I'm not sure he has the capacity to do that, so let's make sure
that happens. I didn't see anything about the school system supporting the,
the, the population density. Um, there, there was a,
um, uh, what was mentioned was actually building a sidewalk and bike path on washington
just east of, uh, mcdowell. So there was one little line mentioned
there. You even showed a picture of that particular corridor in your, in your slideshow here.
um, but you mentioned it, but you didn't say how that might
actually work. So you have to transform washington street in that section
and that whole ditch in that section and how are you going to, how are you gonna actually put in a bike
path and, and a sidewalk and make that work
right into that intersection to get people from our, from the area where
I live, right? Right there down into the malls. So
that was a concern that I had. Um, and then there was another one of
the bike path you listed out that actually going across lynch creek where there is no
bridge. So do we need to build a bridge? And that's location that you're located
on your maps because you have a line dotted line. It's gonna go from here right across
lynch creek, right into the, uh, housing development there, creekside, and
then, and then turn around and come on down and, and get across, uh, mcdowell washington
intersection so I can see them on, on a couple of the streets. That
might work if it's a side streets, but you have it going right through a housing development
and, and over a creek that there's where there's no bridge right now. So how does that
actually work? Uh, so make sure you get, you clear that up. Um,
at the smart station, uh, especially near meridian, the meridian is going to
have a little bit of like a store or something, a little gathering spaces there, but mostly for the
residents. And how are you going to, I looked at your slides, beautiful slides of
what a makerspace and not makerspace, but a gathering spots around
the smart station might look like. Where is that actually gonna
go? What actual space is that gonna fit in? Is it gonna be on the other
side of the tracks? Is it gonna be part of the meridian property? Is it gonna be part of the
triangle that's there? So why, where exactly can that space that you show
these beautiful settings where people are gathering, what does that actually look like in
that space? What does it shape? Is it gonna be this long
trek of these separate little buildings? And how are people actually going to get there to that spot
because the train tracks are right there. So you've prevented an idea,
but I don't see the how to implement it in the actual space that exists
there. So nice words. I wanna see implementation process
as part of your plan that's part of that station to make it so that people get off
the train and how do they physically get across the tracks or, or down down the, the
path to wherever this space is and who else is going to be there to
gather. So a nice concept, what's what's the reality
reaction gonna look like, right? So make it make it more real because you have lots
of nice words in this whole plan, all these beautiful things that you're going to produce,
but the implementation, I'm going, huh, how so I wanna
see a lot in your plan, how and where exactly you're gonna put something.
um, same thing with the, that goes down to where, um, you go to the
health district where you're gonna transform maybe the, uh, the plaza a little bit and
that and uh, uh, rainier road as it crosses, um, under rainier because
there is a proposal for a, um, some development across the freeway.
so how are you going to tie that into that section across rainier and
there's spaces there, the dog park right there. Uh, is that gonna transform
or not? You didn't even mention the dog park and what that might turn into. So where's
that go? What's happening there? So, um, and that road and what, how rainier
is, so if that development goes in or not goes in assuming it, it's gonna eventually
go in. Um, if, if that's gonna be the part of the plan. Uh,
'cause that's what's in the books, what's being proposed now, it's, it's sort of been been asked for.
so how are you going to incorporate that into this whole system? Because you're gonna have a bunch
of housing across that freeway in, in the plants, but it, it's not in your plans.
so please add it, make sure it's there and how, how are you gonna connect it
all and make those people happy and what they come across and how are they going to gather
and participate in all this? Um, and then, um, there's
of course connecting that. And then there's all the bike path we want to produce in the whole greenway area there,
which I think should be part of your plan, uh, since you're so close to the freeway.
but that, that may not be part of your, um, mission. 'cause the line where the lines
are drawn. Um, there wasn't much talk about, um, how you're
going to get the, um, the other forms of transit besides just
buses going and the train going. There's gonna be a whole lot of, um, where
we're gonna be be moving into autonomous vehicles, shared ride vehicles,
uh, various, uh, electrified handicapped vehicles coming in.
wheelchairs included, encapsulated, uh, compartments. But there's very
little discussion on how you're going to incorporate all of that type of
movement. You included pedestrians and bikes, but you didn't include, include handicap
and you didn't include, uh, microcar or autonomous vehicles. Um,
and, um, uh, so there's, there's forward thinking. The, um, there's,
even if you really wanna look forward at calistoga recently, they had,
um, um, a data center that was proposed. Part of the data center
was an autonomous drone to carry people around as part of that project
in calistoga that was just proposed to calistoga, which included that type of
modern transport. Um, so, but that, that's a whole
nother topic there to think about, but how are you gonna include autonomous vehicles, buses
and cars that are coming as part of the transit
oriented community so that they can get from there to the other areas where
they're going to work and back home again. So, so
that has those concepts need to be included. Um,
and then the other one is on the, uh, you had nice ideas about the maker space,
but if you go down there, am I riding my bike down there? I've visited some of the industries. I've actually bought things
that in those industrial park di in that whole section, and it's pretty industrial
looking. A lot of maker shops that are pretty, uh, the buildings are very,
um, um, they're, they're a little bit squareish and, and,
and so they don't look as friendly and a nice, there isn't. Uh, there's very little nice you have, uh,
um, the farm stand there, which is, uh, for the marijuana that's being retailed,
it'd be really nice if there was a, a, a cafe, a marijuana cafe
added next door maybe that they could convert and, and do something with. So
the needs gathering spot. I know griffo, I've been there a couple times to events and they're
trying their best to create that into a event type area, but it's not really that
friendly to get there and do things there. So how are you actually going to
put the words you're saying about making this huge makerspace all this beautiful stuff
so that all these beautiful buildings you sewed doesn't look like that at all? How are
you gonna make that happen and how are you gonna get people to actually make it work to
get there and back again? You have a lot of great theories and, and hopes
and dreams. I'm talking about conversion in reality here for a
lot of this stuff. Okay. Um, alright,
that's actually my list. And will you be able to submit the
list so that uh, we can, um, well, well, well, you see is handwritten yeah, yeah.
brainstorm ideas. But if, if you want me to type turn it in. Do you like me to type this up for you?
? I think it would be actually helpful to get the con context. Okay. I get context.
I can type this all up. Um, thank you.
um, I think I, you know, I, I was gonna jump in here for a minute and
I, one of the things I heard from the council is that, uh, the
plan looks lovely. Um, there's, I mean, the vision side of it is
really bold and, and good stuff, but my mind being
the engineer is, is like, well, how do we recruit the investment that fulfills the
vision? You know, where's, where are the tools that connect? Um, many
of the things I think the public feedback in is really a referendum
on what's good and what's not good in my community at this time. And, and
the remedy being asked is fix what's already wrong.
and, um, that's, that's difficult for a futuristic plan
to address a retroactively a problem, but that's what the public kind of
wants to hear. Um, many of the things like, uh, stormwater improvements
in front of the shopping center, um, the green stitches that we called them, um,
you know, if there was redevelopment, if there was a residential property, uh,
proposal onto that, we could nick them. But I think
that, um, the street is the high end, so property water
doesn't drain to that side. All of their stormwater improvements would be towards the freeway side of
the property. And, um, so it would be treating street water, which would
be awesome because that's where the crap is that you want to filter in
your bio retention soils. And, um, but
all of that is city subsidy. All that is
fixing it retroactively. And so it bothers me, the plan focuses so much
on that. 'cause the more we focus on that, the more interested we'll
be to put that burden on developers. And the more we put it on the developers, the
less likely that any of the vision comes true, because we burdened a developer with
the historic problem. So I would love to see policy that clearly distinguishes
that the improvement makes things, makes itself
better, but doesn't maybe go into the community. And it has to be explained
to the public why that those two things can't happen at the same time.
um, but, um, I, I think also the big assumption
is, is that, uh, we're creating something that will happen. That there
will be growth because of this and maybe lots of growth because of this.
I, I, I'm not that optimistic. I think the plans, we've done
many, many quality plans, but they disconnect
with the abilities of developers to, um,
change. And, um, those ugly tilt up warehouses we
look at there, griffo's doing something inside of it, but there's essentially no
outside, uh, beneficial rollout. So he gets the maker
space and his business does well and that, and that's good,
but to tear down the one next to it to have a courtyard is highly unlikely.
we would visualize that , we would like to have that. But
the way retrofits works, I don't, I I see the more modest
things happening rather than the, the bold. I think
then the question is, is does the city stake out the intent for
the city to be bold? You know, um, a lot of these, uh,
could form assessment districts, you know, uh, redevelopment
districts, uh, a red district, you know, um, uh,
redevelopment, um, 0.2. So, um, you
know, what are the, what are the chances that business owners would get together and do a thing?
and those are kind of the conversations that I feel need to be had and,
and, uh, maybe aren't, uh, fully fleshed out yet.
when we talk about the annexation area,
um, I think that we are pushing
urban or at the station into rural, away from the
station, and there needs to be a tapering or a, a transition.
so I would assume there'd be parklands at the perimeter of that arc that
are clearly identified. And right now it looks like streets carve up the hole of the,
the circle. And I think we could be more specific that
more density stays near the existing road corona
and it tapers out, which would mean it tapers out towards,
um, eli and doesn't connect
to eli. And if there were more park lands
along the trail there, would that even be an, an, um, an annexation
or would the city and we should identify to people whether a park owner
would arise, or it would be
a landscape assessment district that, um, that has the
perimeter of that circle area. You know, we need to figure out
ownerships while we're, while we're making a vision, let's figure
out who's really gonna be burdened by or benefited by
those decisions. Um, I concur on the, the
freight con, uh, conditions along mcdowell. We had this discussion there, but again,
I would suggest that it's more nuanced than that.
um, there's a dense business community at both ends
of, uh, this study zone, but in the middle, it's a dense residential
area, and I would rather that trucking didn't go
from one commercial area through the residential into the next commercial
with that. And I think that can be done by, um, tapering
road width in there. So it was obvious if you come off washington, you return
to washington. If you come off old redwood, you return to old redwood and
you want to do it where you don't impinge on the businesses. You, you're
sensitive to the comment they made about good freight, but you're also
sensitive to the fact that maybe traffic counts in that middle part would allow for a narrower
road and the narrower road would encourage trucks not to come
through that area. Um,
and a general plan comment that I've made a number of times is
that I worry we're losing, um, grocery store
potential. When we talk about, when we talk about, um,
how to redevelop an area. If someone, like,
say they're doing down in san rafael proposing a big housing project on top of
a safeway, well then you are creating a food ghetto. And the same can be said
of other types of use in that area. So when we
call something maker, I mean, I really appreciate that we're identifying it and
zoning it kind of away from those non those use.
are we zoning in any food for the residential?
and, and again, not just the pretty picture, but why would anyone do that?
I mean, or put differently, what's the investment motivation?
um, there were discussions, uh, about stakeholder input
and things and uh, and I want to make sure that, um,
our nonprofit affordable housing partners are consulted. Each
of them has a different model. Some, some suggest, um, that
50 units is a buildable space. Others are saying n no, at this point, a hundred
is the minimum buildable space. It's important that we achieve affordable
housing. I think the only way we can do that is if we talk to those folks
about the different models and find out which one might work. And
some of this zone, um,
I, I did like, uh, council member sch shrimp's comment on, uh, manufactured homes, but,
um, and there's a real nice one in kadi where they, they,
the city had a little property and they put, they dropped in five houses real quick, uh, for
affordable housing, right on east ka. Um,
how do we zone that? How do we objective design then? How
does, how does that get in where that's a good thing?
partially, I'm asking because you don't know which property is interested in what development.
so how do you put a pallet out? And I think I'll
actually ask that one as a question. You know, of all the things we're doing, how
do we make sure they're attractive? How do we recruit the
investment?
um, I can, I can start, I don't know that example. Um, I don't
know how it would comply with whatever the existing,
like zoning was there. Um, I think there's
a lot of opportunity with a specific plan to get creative. Um, I
think what we also, I, I mean it's very heartening to hear, I'm sensing an
interest in trying things differently, um, because there's a desire
to maybe see some different outcomes and not just keep rolling the dice and see
what happens. So I think this is actually a really good opportunity.
um, I think in terms of, um, sort of creative housing production
types, um, I think it's a question of like, how much do you need the
specific plan to actually codify like different standards for development
versus just having be, you know, the city having better
conversa d different types of conversations with developers, sort of get gauging
interest, understanding what are their pain points. Um, I would want to
think about dense, like if we look at the specific plan and what tools are available there, we could think about density.
are there sort of thresholds that are just not working for those types of products?
um, it oftentimes with those, I I, I don't, again, I don't know exactly
what this project is, but sometimes, um, looks can be deceiving. And so
you can have, um, these types of manufactured, um, or sort of, uh, uh,
sort of pre-designed, you know, offsite products that are brought in. They're
very, very dense. Um, and so they might not be compliant with, um,
density thresholds, even though they are single family, you know, they're very small
lot, they might be stacked units. And so while they look like, um,
great, you know, sort of modest density, um, they, they might not
be. And so they might not be compliant with, with some of the, the density thresholds that exist. So
I would, I would, we'd need to look at that, but this is very much the kind of thing that
I would perkins and well would love to bring forward into a specific plan, like if there's appetite
for this. Um, that's something that, that is very exciting to us,
I guess. Um, thank you. And that's, you know, you're right. It's, uh, it's about being
creative and, and it's about the partnerships that get formed between different developers
and different property owners. Um, I guess my question is, I, which
I asked, uh, in council questions to staff early, um, can
we get anything to entitlement or a by right level?
so much of development is, um, challenged
by not knowing exactly what this means. And I think the better
the vision, um, appears, the
less the vision is specific, and it leaves us in a,
it leaves a developer in a place where they're uncertain of a project.
and, you know, our growth rate has been quite slow. We have not built many houses
like 99 houses last year, of which only 30 were market rate. So,
um, what do, what do we do to get
it very specific on the properties? What can be built
and what are the hurdles that we should be trying to solve here?
that's a, I think, a really important question. And it's, it's a question that we're asking,
not just of the specific, of this specific plan project. We'll also be asking
that same question of the downtown station area, um,
transit oriented communities update project, and we're asking it through the
petaluma zoning reform project. So I think it's one certainly that
I, and, and several others are thinking about and talking about on a daily
basis. I, I think that a, a strong
vision is important. You, you want to have a vision that inspires,
you want to have a vision that encourages people to invest.
you know, to your point, um, how, how do we get people to invest?
part of that is because they see that you're very committed to the future of
an area through your vision and, um, through your,
your policies and such. However, I I think
that some of the conversation we have to have through zoning reform and through
these other projects is how, how do
you set forth what you want, but not to such exquisite detail
that it can't be achieved. And so I, and
perhaps a great example of that is when we look at the downtown smart station
and the work that was done in the 2013 tod master plan
that was very highly specific about what was wanted for the
smart site. And if that is what is established as the community's
vision for that site and the community's expectation,
and a developer looks at that, then then the, the developer's making that
decision on the front end without ever consulting you, they're looking at it and saying, well,
that's not the product we develop, or that's, that's not going to pencil.
and so they're not even brought into it to explore further and to, to,
um, see if that's a project that they want to pursue. So
I do think it's finding that balance, it's creating those opportunities. It's having some
objective standards in place to make sure that you get, you know, some of the things that
you want. But then it's also indicating through your vision and through your policies
that you are flexible and that you are looking for those creative moments
and opportunities for people to invest in your community. Yeah, I
appreciate how well we've done that in the general plan. I'm just wondering, is there
a philosophical or a technical difference when you get to specific plan where you should
be trying to narrow that? So you do have specific investment
encouraged? Yes. Yes. I
mean, that's, that's the value of the specific plan is that we can start to
think about actual places and what are the sort of conditions that
seem to be evident there that then lend themselves to a certain development
type. Um, so we can establish things like scales,
um, you know, thinking about sort of how large blocks might want to be. And
those blocks should be sized to be thinking about a development type that can be self-park
or that, um, works well with other types of, um, like development
types that we see in the market today. Like we can sort of align ourselves to be
market ready. Um, and then what you're describing is like, we don't, we don't
need to just think about what's currently getting built because that's already outdated. , I mean, so much of like
what developers look at, they're looking at the past, like they don't have crystal balls. They don't,
they're very risk averse. Um, but what you're describing is people that want
to be creative and recognizing that this current system is not actually getting
us, um, the types of, um, new neighborhoods that we wanna see
that, that people wanna live in. There's a, there's a market for it, but maybe the market is not delivering on
that. So how can we then think about possibly, um, some strategies that
are, that are a little bit different? Um, so we'd need to look at that. I mean, the kati example you're
describing, I would love to look into that. I think there, there's definitely precedence that we can start
to, to think about. Um, but I think we also need to think about maybe what is the role
of this specific plan where it's sites or it's more specific, it's
more location specific, and then what needs to happen at a city level, at a
policy, you know, citywide policy level. And maybe it's finding some balance there.
thank you. Um, council member now.
um, thank you. Um, I have some land use
questions and I'm looking at the study session,
page 14 in that area right
across from the smart station,
there's a gold area that says higher intensity
residential. Can you tell me what
ha is that two story, three story? What, what are we talking about?
higher intensity residential. What are we, what are we thinking
about? Yes. So this, um, and I apologize
'cause we were sort of trying to like truncate the presentation . Right, I understand. But then I understand in
the process we've now made it longer underst to understand. Yeah. So I can, I can, um, I can
explain this. So what you're seeing on that slide, and I think I was sharing the screen
and now, now I'm, is it gold not, um, yes, it's a,
it's slide 41 computer so they can see what you're looking at.
do you wanna see what I'm looking at? Reha? Oh, reshare. Okay. It's the study
session. Oh, shoot. But I'm not, we got it. I know, but I'm
not sharing screen. Sorry. The study session planning commission. So I should 14?
yes. Uh, can you see it?
I can't see it attorneys wide.
it just has, it has a legend. And this on the left side
it says housing economic economy and place.
yes, yes, yes. Okay. So plan priorities. Yes.
walkable 15 minute community. Yep. You know, neighborhood. Um,
so think about this as we're wading into actual land use designations.
and so first it's just about sort of relative use and relative intensity.
and so that sort of marigold color that you're, you're correct. Highlighting.
yes. So the idea is that, um, is the area that is most
proximate to the station. Correct. And so we would, um, you
know, that's an opportunity to think about a higher intensity, but it's agnostic
to stories. Like when you're asking about is this three stories, is this four? This is
just thinking about overall we wanna see a bit more, um,
more, more intensity of use closer to the station and then it
feathers out. And then the idea exactly is that as you move further
out, that intensity would reduce. And then what you're seeing actually in
sort of a hatched sort of rim at the farthest edge
of the, um, plan area, the sort of green hatch, um, is this
idea of really a reestablishing a buffer land. Because
when we think about what this land is today, it's effectively,
um, it, it's so undeveloped that it really does serve as pretty significant
open space and transitional space between our more urbanized, you know, part
of petaluma, um, and, and the perimeter. Um, and so that
having that transitional space is, is really important for so many different reasons for fire,
for wildfire risk. Correct. Um, just in, from an ecological standpoint, how we think
about, I mean, petaluma is so well known for the urban growth boundary, right? Like
we need to maintain these, these thresholds and, and there's a reason for that.
and so, um, that, that is sort of the intent there is the feathering
or the sort of transitioning from the center out. So help
me with that. Is it zoned ag? Correct. Right now, um,
the entire unincorporated area, I believe is a mix of agricultural
residential. It's county, county land use designation. Okay. So it's a mix
of ag residential and, um, I think just very low density residential.
so what would the lot size be if we're, we're talking about single family homes,
are we, is it acreage or is it because
it can't be dense? 'cause we're feathering out. So what would the
parcel size be? So I might go to the next
where we actually show the land use designation. Does that make, so, um,
what you're seeing now on slide 52, it
says rural residential yeah. Would be sort of translating now the general
plan update land use designations, how could those potentially
apply here if we were to take those designations? And so the feathering that's
occurring, um, it starts with the town center mixed use, which is the purple
that you see, right? Um, and I believe that's a four story maximum.
um, it goes then to high, closer to the street, correct?
yes. Corona. Um, and, and most, you know, this is within like a five minute walk
of the station. So it's really thinking about, um, that proximity and then it
would feather, it could feather out to what is, um, high density residential
in the general plan, which is, I believe also four story maximum. Okay.
but again, um, it, the, what we maybe didn't sort of talk about enough
is the m-t-c-t-o-c policy, which establishes,
um, minimum densities that need to be sort of achieved in order to
stay available for, for future funding. So we have to stay within that framework, but it's an average.
okay. And so I think that's really, really critical to understand is that this is not
uniform monolithic. It's about how do we just maintain, um, what
mtc establishes is a 25 dwelling unit per acre average. Um,
and so that can be applied in many different types
of ways. Um, and it, that feathering approach that several people have mentioned feels
like right. A really good way to think about that, start higher and
then move out. Okay. Um, the other thing is the pathway.
would it go all the way to login lagunitas? I hear that complaint
quite a lot from people that are taking a smart up to go to lagunitas.
they don't wanna walk on mcdowell, they wanna walk on a nice
path. Sonoma has paths like that between I think their wineries
and, and, and subdivisions, and they
want to walk on that, you know, a bike. Yeah. And the
brody ranch residents, they also want to use a path that takes them
to lag anitas or in house across the street. So is
that path gonna go? So, um,
not maybe that, let me define the path. Okay. First of all, yes, we
definitely want people walking and biking to lag anitas that I think should be a goal goal overall.
um, and so right now, the smart pathway, the alignment, it's on the
other side of the smart rail from where the lag anitas parcel is,
and there's no, it's very difficult to punch through, you know, like how you would
bridge that or tunnel. So, um, what this plan could bring forward
though, um, is, uh, we could use some of the extra space
that is actually on the other, that is on the log anita side of the smart rail line.
um, there's actually city owned land that runs sort of, it's,
it's almost, we could think of it as like frontage. Um, it's like access space to
get to the smart path or to get to the smart rail. Um, and so we've been
looking at that as maybe an opportunity to basically create a second,
um, pathway that would be on the other side of the rail line that would get you right to log anita. It would get
you into the sort of industrial district. So people that are commuting, you know,
you could really imagine commuting, um, in a much more sort of human
oriented way. Um, but also potentially we could think about mcdowell
as, you know, if there was a ability to maybe redistribute a
little bit of space, it does not take much, um, to create a really viable
safe, um, uh, vertically separated is what we call them bike
paths. So you have some sort of physical barrier between the path of travel for
the bike and the cars. Um, that could also be an option. And maybe they both could be, you
know, I mean, I think like that's sort of what we're trying to bring forward is that, um, there's, there's
a lot of different spaces where we could imagine introducing that type of connection here,
especially north of corona. Yeah, I was happy to see that you had skippy's.
um, another area that, um, I have frequent is
there's a church hidden in that industrial area, attended
a few funerals, and as a community space, I've
seen, you know, people gather there. Um, and then
there's also a little hidden gem called central milling
that a lot of people come for bread flour
and for pizza flour and for cooking classes. So that,
that's another tourist draw up to this area, but it's
not really a walkable right now. So I'd like to really see some
walkable areas. And then of course, we have the pallets of fruit at the
far end. So anyway. Thank you. And, um,
I look forward to hearing from the stakeholders.
can I bring in public comment at this point? I think. All right. Council member schb,
just one more item I forgot to mention. Um, I did look at the 2013,
um, report for the, uh, transits, uh, for the, uh,
smart train. And looking at the on page, it actually ended
page 83, which is three dash 11 in the report. Um,
there is a list, and it's a long list of all the businesses
in that entire makerspace with their retail demand,
retail sales and leakage, uh, surplus type thing.
so there's actually numbers, lists of all the businesses and numbers, which I did not see in this report.
and wanna just make sure that you have all of the businesses
in this area listed and we know, and then, oh, maybe there's
a lot more connections that could be made for the, for all these little businesses. Um,
as we mentioned, like a, the bakery, which I've been to, which is a beautiful little,
um, uh, cookery, um, stations in there for, for teaching cooking of
baking. Um, so yeah, so how do we get there? And if we don't, there's
even a, a, um, in the mac beds, there's a place where they make, uh,
wall beds, fancy things for the hotels, very high end quality
type things. So how do we get people to walk in and look at that, look at those beds,
there's a little showcase there, but it's hidden. So there's all sorts of little businesses
there, um, that people need to know about. Uh, most people don't,
don't even know it's there. So let's, let's make sure that that is part of your report as to
what's available to go, go buy or see in that area.
thank you. Council member. Uh, carly,
uh, no thank you for your report. Um, I'm curious in the area that's being
considered for the transit village, was there any outreach done to the people
who, whose properties those are, or whose homes those are that are looking
at being very affected by this? Yes. We're just getting ready to reach
out to them as a, as a collective, but right now,
two me two property members in that area are on the working group.
so they've been coming to the meetings, I think they're here tonight too, and giving us input.
and they've also been giving us anecdotal stories about other property owners, but
we're trying to establish a, a meeting with all of them. We've also
already started talking with lafco about what would that process be like if the
council, future council wants to annex that. So they've
started giving us advice for what we need to do for contacting
owners, contacting registered voters, and, um, doing
a municipal services review. I realize tonight is
a workshop and there's no voting action here, but why would we not invite all
of those property owners, you know, to have a say in, in this as it is a
workshop, they're invited to
anything that we do, I can't make them come. But yes, we, we put out notice
about this. And also one of the working group members who I said is a
property owner in there, he's been doing outreach. He's been responsible for bringing people,
for instance, to the march 21st workshop. But we haven't
actually convened an organized meeting with all of the
property owners that we can get into the room at one time. Mm-hmm . I just, I just think it
would be more the right thing to do to tell them ahead of time, because I spoke to
a couple that had no idea that tonight was happening, um, you know,
who could not make it. But, um, I think if we're proposing
massive changes to people's lands that they should know about it.
and then, um, why is it
that we're allowing the 2013 plan to expire
or being asked to let it expire? Is that the todd plan,
the 2013 todd plan? Yeah. Yeah. It's largely because mtc,
the metropolitan metropolitan transportation commission has advanced their
transit thinking and their public, their published policies, if
you will. And the grant that's actually funding this needs to
adhere to what their policies are. Now, the toc, the transit
oriented communities policy, so everything we're doing about the four
pillars of that are, um, density, housing, um,
station access, and, um, policy. So we're
actually adhering to more relevant policy right now.
how much do we anticipate that this new plan is going to cost from start to finish?
someone from the city might know, or, or anybody,
the planning process or to develop the, the vision, pardon
the planning process or to develop the vision. I mean, all of it to end up at
the end with a plan in our hands for, for this area. Oh, well, right now
we're working just with the 1 million, um, $150,000
grant from mtc, and that's all that's been identified so
far. So we're proceeding along those lines. Do we anticipate it
may cost more? It we do not.
I heard something . Okay. And then
did we reach out to the consultant that created the
2013 plan coming into this?
no, we haven't done, so the plan was adopted by the city. Um,
so in terms of reaching out to that consultant, it's, it's, uh,
it's not a plan that we wouldn't typically consult with them.
okay. Because, so this, you know, this 2013 plan I'm talking about, you
know, it includes both, um, both stations and it's actually, it
won an award, um, that because it was such a good plan and, um,
you know, even though it, you know, the $1.15 million
is, is a grant, it's still still tax dollars. It's not free money.
um, you know, I, I think that that 2013 plan is
something we should really be looking at as, as the foundation. Um,
you know, and starting with that and, and changing it as we need to, it's only 10 years old
or 13 years old, you know, we probably should have reached
out to the consultant that performed it. Um, I think that would've made sense.
I think that would've probably saved money for the city, um, because
it's largely a lot of it is what we're talking about tonight, you know, and the area itself
hasn't really changed all that much. It's, it's had a little bit
of development, but it's at large, it's, it's pretty much the same area, pretty much the
same buildings, um, pretty much the same footprint. And so,
you know, I, um, I think that plan is actually really important. I wish that would've
been, I mean, I went and found it. I read through it, wish that would've been included in
everything that we were given tonight. And then, um,
so then let's see,
you know, um, councilman shrives mentioned, you know, some of the level of detail
in that 2013 plan, and, you know, that that includes, um, market
demand, regional demographics, income demographics, retail market
overview, impact of future retail employment overview, expected market for land
use. Um, a couple other things. I mean, it's, it's very
detailed and it, and it tells you exactly what that plan is going to do, how it's going
to affect the area, um, in a, you know, good way or bad way, whatever,
you know, whatever they considered at the time. But it tells you what's going to happen right there in great detail.
is that something we're going to see in this plan?
are you gonna, well, you're gonna see our vision implemented. I can't explain
why the 2013 plan hasn't been implemented yet.
right. But I'm looking, I mean, I'm looking for vision with substance, you
know, with, with actual studies to say, this is what our vision is going
to do for your city. And they included several things that they studied
that show that. So I'm asking if, if you're going
to include that. Yes. I don't know that we'll
be able to get to the detail that the council member explained with each business being, you
know, leakage and retail leakage, because some of that analysis has already been
done, and it's in the existing conditions report. But there will be
other chapters besides vision. Like what is, what are the development
standards? What are the public realm standards? How do you achieve the vision either through
private development or public development, right? But
I mean, we've, we've really focused slightly on developing an economic
plan and really driving home that that is, you know, kind of at the center
of our, our town that controls everything that, that affects the health of our town.
you know, um, I, I, I think that's something we would all really want
to see is, is that level of detail and looking what at what this plan is
actually going to do. So, um, and then
as far as sense of place and view sheds go, are we
identifying view sheds and what, like what do those actually look like and what,
what are you trying to preserve and keep in place in your vision?
um, I would, I believe the general plan
probably has some, um, guidance on
v sheds view court, like protect, uh, view corridors,
corridors to be preserved. This specific plan would need to adhere to those.
um, at this point, we are not put, like, this vision
that we presented doesn't propose alternative or additional view
corridors. But, um, I mean, that's certainly
something that could be discussed. I mean, if it,
if it's a vision, we should see what we're trying to preserve, right? Sure.
yeah. You know, like, I mean, I, I can tell you standing on
mcdowell kind of across from the new, the new development that's going up by the train depot,
um, you can't see the snow mountains anymore. You know, and, and
really that sense of place and white people move here and live here. I
mean, that's, that's very important to them. That's, that's a lot of white people live here, is
so they can look around, they know they're in petaluma, they know they're in our valley, and they can see the mountains
and the hills and, you know, looking at some other
aspects of what's proposed here, I think you lose a lot of that. And so
I, I really would encourage, we, we actually look at and define
what sense of place is here, what we're actually trying to preserve in this vision.
and then, um, kind of moving on to
mcdowell and redesigning that street, just in the last few years,
we spent, I think around $12 million or so, maybe,
you know, repaving that entire road. And that is the
only major road that we've actually paved in, in the five
year plan. Actually, that's incorrect. We paved maria,
we've paved garfield. So, but those aren't major roads like mcdowell
maria. I mean, it's, it is a significant
road, but it's not like mcdowell either way. Point take, point taken. Let's move
on either way. We just spent $12 million on it now. We're already talking about
redesigning it, and there's lots of other very important roads in town, heavily
trafficked, you know, used that. People every day ask, when is this gonna get repaved?
and so I don't understand what, like, why are we actually looking at
repaving that? Well, it's definitely more than repaving. It's, it's
a, it's a 30, 40 year vision. So while repaving,
there's like, we can think about maintenance and just ensuring that our public facilities,
our roads are kept to a certain minimum standard of quality.
um, this vision is about proposing an alternate
like identity for that street. So it goes beyond repaving. And that, that would
be the reason. I'm gonna interfere here for a second. Um, this, this is a vision.
this is not a project. So I, I think in terms of priority and expenditures
and things, and that's why my question earlier went to to this about like, how
do these things actually occur? 'cause I concur with you. The people want their streets paved
and you can't do a complete vision without showing the
completeness of this area, but you're not funding a project for it. That conversation about
funding and priority and projects around town will have a
different date. I'm just pointing out that we've already spent a significant amount of
money there. You know, the vision probably shouldn't include it.
um, you know, and so that, that would be your input on it as you prefer the vision
as it is versus a different, it's not a question of other things.
I mean, I understand that the vision of connectivity and, and there is, there
is the path along the railroad tracks, there are other trails. There's, you know,
what's been proposed on corona. I mean, there's, there's a lot of connectivity
already in place or going in place. There's, there's bike lanes on mcdowell.
we had to buy a special street sweeper just for it. Corona has
a project associated, or no project associated with it, and improvements.
and the vision will occur with a project. Mcdowell would have to be
investigated independently as a priority unless it was funded by a project. Like
if the post office converts, then you can nick the post office developer for the
adjoining, um, improvements of your vision. So you wanna
talk about what vision is. I think that's where you wanna focus there, right?
no, that is, I mean, I'm, I'm focusing on the vision and I'm saying we, we've already
just done something here. I don't think we need to redesign it.
so, um, and that,
that kind of does it for my questions. I'll save the rest of her comments. Council member
cater thompson. Well, um,
I look at soma village in roar park, and I see the housing around there, and I see how
that area has really become really vibrant over
the last 10 years. It's a real difference. And then I look at
this area and, well, first of all, I just wanna say the downtown smart
station development, and this should be looked at very differently. There
are two different animals. One is close to a downtown, and the other
one is an industrial area and housing. And so you really can't
compare the two. Um, so as far as, um,
this project, and I'm just gonna specifically talk about
the land that needs to be annexed in, um, I feel as
though we have to be really sensitive to the rural area. Um, but I
think we, we don't have enough housing in this community and we need
housing. And what I'd like to see is that more dense toward,
um, the rail station. I wanna see a lot more green space though,
and I'd like to see, um, single family homes on the
outer area with smaller yards, but a lot of green space
that people actually, um, can go to. And I look at mcnear park, you
know, before, um, you know, it, it was a gathering space.
and so I look at this area as a space that needs, um,
gathering. I'm not talking about ball fields, but I'm just talking about, um, picnic
areas. And so people will actually use these areas as part of their,
um, living instead of big backyards.
um, I don't really wanna see huge homes here. I wanna see modest homes
that are for sale, first time home buyers. Um,
I would wouldn't mind seeing some, you know, maybe quads, lots there,
you know, with not quad lots, but, um, development
with, um, four units in one. Maybe
look at something like that. Um, but I think we really have to be careful about
feathering into the rural area and not, um,
not overdeveloping. And I don't wanna see these, you know, big, huge, you
know, 3000 square foot homes with, you know, three car garages.
um, so I really wanna make sure
that the water retention is with this area.
um, it's an area of concern and I just really wanna see what
we're gonna be doing, where the water's gonna be flowing,
either onsite, does it go offsite, any of it,
what happens with the water? And then of course, um, corona road,
um, needs to be redone all the way up to eli.
and then we need to look at eli kind of, so it incorporates eli and corona,
so it incorporates into the rural area, into, um, urban
areas. Um,
I think I wanna just go into mcdowell since that seems to be a topic.
when I look at transport, commerce, and dynamic street, those are
three streets really close together. It's an industrial area. And if it
was originally built and thought out a little bit differently, you probably would've had just one
driveway going in and out. And so you're not having all this cross traffic.
and so that's part of the problem with mcdowell, is you have too many driveways
and yet they're going into the same area. And so figure a way of
lessening the driveways. And so making it so,
uh, mobility, um, is safer
'cause it's not a very safe street. It may have had a nice, you know, resurfacing,
but the safest street itself is not safe. Go get out, go
out of the cottages, the mobile home park, take a left. It's really not safe.
and so what I'm looking for, um, mcdowell is safety improvements,
less driveways, um, and safer
for the public to walk because nobody wants to walk on mcdowell, um, because
of those reasons. Um, it's when, um, sid commons
was approved, there was a bridge access area there, and that should be incorporated in
this. So we know that we can go from one side of the river to the other. And
since that area was set aside, um, it should at least be considered.
and c consider having, um, an access underneath the
rail bridge so you can actually get to the smart, um,
path. 'cause right now from this side of town, you really can't get to the smart
path unless you go down the lich creek trail and then down pay ran and
eventually get there. Um, so I'd like to see more interconnectivity there.
um, I would like
to see workspaces. So if you build small, let's go back to the, um,
development area. If we go there, if you have workspaces, so
you can have smaller houses, so people can actually leave their space and be able
to work, but they don't have to necessarily be in their homes.
um, I don't wanna see a, a co parking
in this area. If there is parking, I'd rather
have it. So it's not seen. And
that's one thing about brody ranch, um, where the condos are.
um, it's just a really blank asphalted area,
and I think it could have been designed a lot better that you really don't see the cars. And
what's the one on lavia on peta boulevard? I mean,
the cars are underneath and they're really not seen.
um, the gsa, the, the groundwater,
um, committee that I'm part of, I know is talking to
the cords, um, about recharge, even though that's
not part of this project, it is interconnected. And so
I think it's important that you, um, work with the gsa group
just to make sure what, what they're talking about with the cordons
on their property and the other properties up north of the rail
of the rail station. Um,
and that's probably all I have to say now. Um, but I will
have more comments later. Okay. I want this. Well, one thing, I mean,
it needs to be really vibrant, and I think that's what we're really looking for. How do
you interconnect mcdowell? Now we have sidewalks
going up north, so it's not as daunting
as it is walking up mcdowell from washington street.
so I think we can make it a much better corridor and
a much safer corridor. And I think we can get the housing that we need.
you know, we here, we, we have, we have a city that people
can't buy a house. People can't downsize from a house.
and so I think this area has a lot of opportunities and, uh, but
most importantly for me is really feathering into the rural area. So it doesn't look
like it's, um, I don't want three, four stories and I don't want huge houses
right into the rural area. I'd rather see more internal green space.
thank you. Let's go to public comment and have the clerk help us out here.
we did receive two public comments, uh, ahead of the meeting, and those are posted online.
we also have eight attendees in the zoom meeting. Thank you.
um, at this time I will start, oh, well, I'll start at 32nd
clock. And during these 30 seconds, members of the public attending in person should bring their cards
to my desk. Members of the public attending online should raise their virtual
hand, and those attending via phone should press star nine to
raise their hand. Speaker request received after this time may not be accommodated.
okay, I do have two hands. That's frank cordem and veronica
olson.
okay, thank you. Um, public comment on the item tonight. And,
um, let's see. We have a number of speaker cards
here, and we will allow those speakers, um, to speak first, and
then we'll go back to the clerk. And the clerk clerk will bring in our zoom people.
and at this time, um, we have, and on
an item we would allow all speakers. So first speakers, julie groves,
and our second speaker is nicola fry.
and is, uh, well, do I have one minute or three
minutes? Three minutes? You have three minutes. Okay. Um, so I have
first thank you on all these, these comments are very, very
helpful and, and I am, um, repeating,
oh, sorry. And I'm repeating some of the things that you have mentioned,
so I appreciate that. So I've submitted a plan to manage
four water issues, um, in a strip of land that runs from
the corona smart station all the way up to eli. And on,
um, if you put up that slide that you mentioned on page 14,
um, it, it shows part of that strip of land
right along the, uh, the tracks, um,
within the, within that circle. And I'm, and I'm
proposing extending that. Um, and that would,
that strip of land would be part of the, the voter approved
expansion land. And it continues to strip that, as I said, that
is already identified next to the train station.
um, it addresses, um,
primarily the, the vernal pools that, um, would also
help with aquifer recharge. And we've talked
the, the word resiliency was used earlier. It also at
the end, near the, um, where we're
planning to have more building, it decreases the runoff into the pet ofri
river. And at the end, closer up to eli, it
can address the flooding that occurs regularly, um, at five
four oh oh old redwood highway, which is city annex land.
um, and I, and I wanna give credit to steve
a of the planning manager of sonoma county regional park, who called our attention
to the significance of these few remaining vernal pools.
um, and, and then the information you have, it shows a picture of
those pools. And I picture it. I appreciate that. That's been mentioned by several of
you. And, and you identified john, that the,
um, that there may be other vernal pools further along corona
road that may need to be identified also. Um,
and so the, our, our family would welcome
the opportunity to fa facilitate, um, discussions about funding
and mitigation, um, among the interested parties.
um, some of who, many of who have already made site visits, including the landowners,
gsa, people from g-s-a-r-c-d-c, open space
parks, um, several of you and others have already
have already visited this land to see, see what's involved. So
I'm here if anybody has questions, and I wanna thank all of you for your attention
to all of these, all of these details.
thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker is nicola fry,
to be followed by doug auer.
hi. Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate them.
um, those were five of the nine proposals that I put together. The wording
form them came from a lot of discussions that we had as
the working group, but also were many, many meetings
I had with residents who live in the area, both coffee meetings
and larger meetings, and in between meetings and all sorts of discussions that
I had with lots of residents in the area. As petaluma
continuous implementing the general plan, the climate action framework,
and the north station specific plan. I believe we have an
opportunity to reimagine one of the city's most important transportation corridors,
the north mc d boulevard from corona road to washington street.
for decades, this corridor has been designated primarily to move vehicles,
but the future of north mcdowell should be about moving people safely,
efficiently, and sustainably. I believe north mcdowell
is the missing link. As the city connects many of the investments this
council has already made, you've invested in smart, you've
adopted a general plan that encourages complete neighborhoods and housing near
transit. You're planning a vibrant north station district, and we're,
and you're committed to ambitious climate zones. What we need now is that
corridor that brings these investments together. South mcdo
boulevard and the other traffic projects have already shown that this is possible
improvements like roundabouts, traffic, calming, landscaping,
and safety accessible pedestrian crossings have demonstrated that we can
improve safety and mobility at the same time. And north
mcal deserves that same word, forward thinking approach.
imagine a treeline boulevard with protected bicycle lanes,
wider sidewalks, safer accessibility crossings,
landscape medians, and mon modern roundabouts with a where appropriate
a quarter that connects the neighborhoods to schools, businesses, parks,
and the smart station, while creating a welcome northern gateway
to petaluma. This isn't a transportation project,
it's a housing project, an economic developments project,
and a climate project. I encourage the
council to work with input from residents and begin developing a
comprehensive north mcdowell corridor plan that lines transportation,
housing, economic development, and public space into one unified
vision. Let's make north mcdowell more than road.
let's make it the quarter that connects petal plans with its future.
thank you. Thank you,
doug auer to be followed by dwayne bellinger.
good evening. Uh, mr. Mayor, uh, members of the city council. My name is doug
ledor. I represent the, uh, partnership that owns
the two parcels on corona road that I think have been referred to by a couple
of council members this evening. Uh, the address is four 70 and
4 98 corona road. Um, our parcels
are within the sphere of influence, uh, within the urban growth boundary and
lie about a quarter mile east of the transit center. Uh, I
wanted to first thank the consultant team. Um, I think the process thus far has been very
transparent, um, collaborative and, uh,
accessible to everybody. Um, while we're at a very
preliminary stage, I wanted to offer two constructive comments regarding the consultants
presentation on the map that was, uh, up there just
a moment ago. Um, the focus area, one transit village
map, it shows a, uh, conceptual open space hub that
runs kind of north and south on the eastern side.
um, the way it shows on the plan, it just
bisects our property, which would really limit our ability to
develop it. Um, during that workshop meeting, um,
in march, the group that I was with, uh, discussed, kind
of focused on maybe a transition as that crosses
corona road. Um, we were looking at an enhanced pedestrian
pathway that would lead and ultimately connect to sonoma mountain
parkway trail and turnbridge park. Um,
we could probably accomplish this by expanding one side of a
residential public street with a green belt or a pass, um,
which, uh, this basically would preserve design flexibility, allow
the street to meander naturally and encourage a creative site plan.
I'm definitely in favor of open spaces or maybe, uh, a pocket park of
some kind, but bisecting this parcel, um, with
a, a huge open space hub would make it very difficult to deliver the
type of housing that I think you're looking for. Um,
additionally, uh, the land use map showed the front part of our
property is medium density residential, the back portion as lowest intensity
residential, which being a quarter mile from the transit center
I don't think makes sense. I think it would be, uh, beneficial to
look at, uh, zoning the entire piece, medium density residential.
but as councilman sibs mentioned, um, limiting the height to
two stories which would preserve the neighbor's privacy,
uh, yet you'd still be able to yield additional housing units. Um,
I think toc policies are pretty clear. Uh, jurisdiction
should increase residential capacity on parcels located within
a half mile of the transit center. And I think our land provides you that opportunity.
um, thank you for your time and I can answer any questions that you might have.
thank you very much. Thanks. Uh, dwayne bellinger to
be followed by darren kuzen.
uh, good evening council members. Uh, first of all, I wanna say that, uh,
uh, the, the terms I enjoyed hearing, uh, transit oriented,
uh, village, uh, trans, uh, transit centered mixed use, urban mixed
use neighborhood shopping centers. I wanna say that all of those beautiful
and they need a shopping center. They need a market. You
can't have walking community that doesn't have a market.
and we went to put into crony eli, they put in, um, uh, the, um,
leghorn market and at this point for, for fewer
houses. But if it's gonna be walkable, we need to at least a portion of it
reserved, maybe even just two acres. Um, the, um,
the other thing I'd like to say is that, uh, the, um, issue
about the rural, I turned in a map that addresses the rural use. The people
who live along. Um, eli, if you look at the map,
all of them would have a choice to continue as is if they were annexed into
the city, they'd be also able to add granny units at some time in the future.
once the utilities are in. What I wanted not see happen is if we try to make
a circle out of what was um, uh, vallejos lot, 300
we will end up with making the same mistake was made across the gentleman who just spoke
that property there, as you see, it's, has a flood problem that wasn't
settled when the rest of the property was annexed. It's got, uh,
a no no sidewalks because of that lack of planning. And
the worst part of it, I think, is that monica's street was closed
off to being an access to the rest of the city. And I, I
think it's too large. He could probably tell you that whether monica street could be used
for a walkway for the children to walk into the other neighborhoods
and other than walking on corona, which probably won't be fixed for
some time, I asked in my map, I asked to have a, a walking trail on
corona. I could um, I could explain why it is the trail
on, uh, along the rail is on the side. It's on, it's because it's
delivering freight. It's delivering seeds on the other side, um, that
the other side of the rail is saved for use to deliver,
um, rail, uh, rail material. So they put the walkway on the,
um, north side. Um, what other question?
um, oh, in, in terms of, uh,
concentrations, uh, the, the state is expecting us to average in the neighborhood
of 20 per unit, uh, per acre. And that's, that's
gonna be difficult to get it designed properly so that it doesn't look like,
uh, the, the area that we, uh, built, uh, more recently,
uh, we, we've gotta have, uh, possibly toler buildings but spaced apart.
so you can see between them and, and give you a feel of, um, uh,
a a nice modern city not, uh, with, with the
ground may be covering no more than 80% of any lot.
anyway. Thank you very much. Thank you darren
zen to be followed by morgan bellinger.
thank you mayor and council. And I think from the council's commentary, it's pretty clear everyone
wants to jump past visioning into implementation. 'cause that's where all the exciting things happen.
I think a discussion of land use right now, whether it's the general plan or this specific plan,
were hindered a lot by not understanding what the zoning code is gonna be.
I would assume the specific plan will be like the cpsp and have its own zoning designations,
not necessarily one-to-one with our, our izo updates are gonna be,
so the one that always sticks out to me, whether we're talking general plan or this plan is make or
micro business, what does that mean? Uh, the general, I mean the name means nothing.
I get the vision that is invoked by that. But when you look at the actual general
plan land use designation, it's the same as business park except for a couple uses. So
what is our eventual, like, what are hints of a potential zoning designation
that get you there? And I think you could say that about any of these designations.
you know, we've talked a lot about, uh, design standards. That's something that came up at planning commission.
I think we've hoped for that citywide. And when we say the word objective design
standards, we wanna be careful whether we're talking like design guidelines or objective design standards
for projects that are streamlined under residential projects that are exempt from
discretionary review to get really clear about what design standards we're talking about. And then
are those baked into the zoning designations or are those more citywide
or where do those live in this specific plan? Because when we talk sense of place,
it's another thing that gets really nebulous without some of that specificity. Uh,
I like saying sense of place, but it's important to codify like what
is this place? So we are on the agricultural boundary, we are next to this industrial
area. We are next to rail. What is that invoke or look like?
I like the discussion of feathering as we get toward the edges. There's kind of balancing that
with what we sold voters to even expand this area in the first place, right? It
was kind of like there was a purpose to doing that. So if we wanna, so I think there's a balance there
to strike. Uh, and then when it comes to industry and economics, I think
it is really important to understand who's there and what the capacity is. I would love
to have grocery stores on every block, but you need a lot of people to support a grocery store that
actually works and makes money. So, you know, the leghorn shopping center is already right there.
I'm not sure you're gonna build one in this housing, even if you get 1000
to 2000, 3000 people that it can support another grocery store and
you're not that far from the rest of town. So I think an economic component of this, if
it's an existing condition in the general plan with statistics we can pull from. Excellent.
and I think when we cross reference plans like that, it is important to have exact
references. So if you say this is already in the general plan, we already went over that, we don't need to analyze
that great point right to it. Uh, and we're gonna get there. This is vision.
I'm just saying for that future plan, we wanna make sure that we integrate these things effectively. But
I think a real economic stress test of like, here's the amount
of people we think we're gonna inject per the eir, which will need a some kind of number
established, uh, what does that mean for actual demand and industry
impacts? And then yeah, how do we define when we say we want
these small business rows and everything? What does the zoning code look like to get there? Thank
you. Thank you morgan bellinger to be followed by
tom scott.
uh, good evening. It's great to see this coming together.
if we get this right, we have an opportunity to make a dent in decades of redlining by
growing vibrant housing supply. I was disappointed to hear
a council member relay the story of a neighbor to proposed medium or high density
zoning saying they would fight tooth and nail against a three story building
next door. The state has spent the last 20 years taking away
those teeth and those nails. Most recently with sb 79. Look
at what's happening in brisbane as of july 1st, the trend of the state
encouraging housing near transit is only going to intensify over the lifetime of this specific plan.
but more importantly, measure y and measure b are the foundations for focus
area one and looking at the enormous margins by which they passed.
I don't understand why we would entertain such a strange attempt at a hyper-local tooth
and nail filibuster with those measure y and be foundations. And with
the state's new orientation towards housing, I question what role unelected
neighbors with parcels whose zoning isn't changing, have and approving housing on adjacent lots
that they don't own. I think it'll be helpful to get specific about how they'll be impacted
if I own a house next to a proposed three story apartment building. The only things that'll
change about my quiet enjoyment of my home are parking, noise, privacy, and shadows.
we have a noise ordinance, curtains and fences. I don't know what we can do about
those pesky shadows. Uh, that brings us to the real issue.
uh, I hope the plan can include specifics eventually about street parking management.
nobody owns city street parking in front of their house. And the idea that someone can block
the will of the voters and the state because someone might
park there is absurd. Let's implement parking maximums and unbundled
parking, require overnight parking permits on nearby streets
and distribute those permits equitably. I know that's very in the
weeds for a visioning exercise, but when building community support,
it's important to outline the tools available that we can use to achieve housing justice.
also, I have a couple of quick, much less severe ideas. Is there a potential
for a high school anywhere near this, maybe north or east
of it? It's sad that the nearest options are miles away and
it seems like a good opportunity for a tech maker or ag integration with a new school.
and then I appreciate the mayor's comments about grocery access. I think it's critical when imagining
walkable communities to consider residents getting off the train
and stopping for dinner ingredients as they walk home from work, although not
as council member kate thompson mentioned one with a cf parking.
uh, again, thank you very much for your work on this
and thank you and tom scott,
uh, letters for the council that I will give to the
clerk. Thank you.
I just wanted to say, uh, thank you for your time tonight and,
um, I just mainly wanted to come here and hear you deliberate about this subject
and find out what your different, different opinions are and
what your positions are. I do have one unusual,
um, idea that I thought I'd present tonight,
which is to believe it or not, get a ukrainian tank.
there's been 4,000 of them captured in, in ukraine by russia, by
ukrainians from russia. And, uh, I think it would be just
incredibly strange and, and, uh,
and it, it, it would kind of put pum
on the map as far as, um,
I don't know. I just think it, it represents the, the fight for freedom that that
has been missing in this country for a long time in a very strange way.
and, uh, it's an interesting idea. I I just wanted to throw
it out there. It's not, uh, set in stone, obviously
, but, uh, we send ships over to europe for ln
with lng, and so I thought one of them could come back and I thought the ukrainians
would love the idea of getting more support from the united states
for, uh, weapons and various things that they might need. It's an
amazing story, what's going on over there. I think it just, it just really
fascinates me. Anyway, thank you and I enjoyed hearing
you deliberate. Thank you. Bye again. With
that, do we have any hands on zoom for us? We do.
our first speaker on zoom will be frank cordo,
if you'd like to unmute and make your comment.
it looks like we might be having some technical difficulties. He is unmuted,
but we can't hear you, frank. Um, this is frank cordem.
can you hear me now? Yes, we can hear you now. Your three minutes starts now.
uh, I appreciate all the comments of the council members recognizing
the importance of groundwater recharge and vernal pools
and, um, I think, uh, I would look along
with my sister julie groves. I appreciate the opportunity working with all the stake various
stakeholders, including the groundwater sustainability
agency and friends of the peloma river and, um,
resource conservation district and the open space district. Um,
see if there's ways to protect some of these resources and, uh, and
improve the health of the aquifer, the peloma valley aquifer.
um, and I won't repeat the, the council
members were very eloquent, so I won't repeat what they've had to say, but
I do want to, uh, note that this is
the, the property that's being considered for development is basically at the edge
of the community separators that I think are a valuable resource in
an era when, um, uh, open spaces
under siege and not properly valued as, as,
um, for the benefits that it provides. And so
I, I appreciate the council's efforts to kinda keep
that the future development, which is inevitable for this area
under control. Um, so thank you very much.
thank you frank and veronica olson,
please unmute and make your comment.
veronica, you there should be an option to unmute.
we can't hear you
well, veronica,
we can't hear you.
and that's our first technical difficulty. I understand.
and she has not managed to weigh in at this point.
then she did send a comments comment and, uh, okay. Counsel
advises me that some comments were received from veronica and, uh, um, if
there is more we be welcoming and, and a any further
comment, but lacking the ability to connect with the, the speaker right
now, we will close public comment on the item and bring
it back up to council. Um, and,
um, I, I see, uh, staff would like to weigh in first.
yes, good evening, mayor council members, heather heinz, special projects
manager. I just wanted to provide a little bit of, um, context
with the existing tod plan from
2013. Um, so
we're in a much different situation than we were in in 2013
with regard to this station. Um, this specific plan is
definitely building on that existing plan. Many
of the priorities, the recommendations from that
specific plan are things that the community has continued to
echo and that annie covered as part of her presentation. There's
a lot of things that have changed. One, we have the station, um,
two, we have a new pda in this area, which we did not have in 2013.
we have the, um, new measure y that was passed
with the urban growth boundary that got into a little bit more, um, specificity
about, um, potential annexation area. We,
um, two out of three of the priority, um, opportunity
sites around the corona station have already been developed since the development
of the tod. Many of the transit improvements on mcdowell
have been completed. The, um,
the mop along the smart rail has been completed. So there's a lot
in the existing plan that has been, uh, either
augmented or completed. And so this specific plan building
off of that as opposed to ignoring or erasing
it, when you also look at the 2013 tod,
the downtown station had about 40 pages about,
uh, vision and, um, you know, those beautiful pictures
that are in that, in that plan. Whereas the corona station
had like five pages. So this is really giving
this petaluma north station its moment, its attention, the additional
detail in, into it. So just wanted to make sure
we didn't take the opportunity to think about that specific plan and that this is
actually building on it and giving it some of the attention that
it warrants to take it to the next level. It also, this was,
um, released as an rfp by the city, so there was opportunity for
a whole range of consultants to submit and be selected for this to build
off of it as well. So I just wanted to add that as a little bit of follow up.
thank you very much. Um, I think we've had a, some good public
comment. Appreciate that and a good bit of, uh, council dialogue tonight.
so I'm sure we're, um, trying to synthesize our last, uh, thoughts and last pro
last questions probably too. I'd like to start with council member barnacle. Well,
I separated my questions and comments, so I, um, I do have some
more, uh, extensive stuff. First, thank you to everybody who commented
in particular nicola and julie for submitting such well thought out,
um, commentary. Um, and to heather for the background, um,
when we were looking at the first station project and like literally a catalyst for
me running one of the lacking pieces was a vision for around this area.
and it was the lack of consistency between the zoning code and the general plan and
the stationary master plan and things like that. All that stuff created this like
chaos of like, well, I don't know what they wanted. Well, this one said this and this one said that.
so, um, I totally echo what what heather said there. Um,
it actually really brought back a lot of the sort of traumatic public commentary
from that process. Um, so thank you. Um, so jumping
into my comments now, um, um,
some of the public comments talked about this, but I think one of the things
about this is like, just as a council, we and the community needs to understand this is
like, this is a huge community asset. It's not a neighborhood asset. Like
this is a regional asset. And, um, when you live next to something
that's desirable, you need to plan to share it. Um,
and that's like how I feel about this. Um, having worked on the
first smart campaign intentionally and tabled and called like phone banked
and worked with your father, um, on this, um, the vision
was for these walkable communities centered around transit. And that's what we get to plan
out here. This is like literally the, the vision that like, you know, I didn't
love trains. I didn't campaign for this because I love trains. I com
campaign for it because I love walkable communities. So, um, this is
like an amazing opportunity for us to think about this. Um,
the, I think a few things that come to mind for me, um,
the, there's a few parcels that I think are gonna need some
real thought, uh, in terms of how we make this happen. Um, I don't
think the whole thing, but I think there's a few of 'em that really do. Uh, one is the,
the usps building. Like we really need to think about how we
pry that away from the hands of the federal government. How we
like, bring in some, you know, maybe large institutional tenant or
something like that, that wants to be there for a considerable period of time
and, and put in money and, and be the anchor tenant. But I feel like there's
some sort of like, you know, I don't want to get too much into the implementation, but
like give us a little bit of a playbook for how we actually go about that because,
um, I don't see how we create an identity of the makerspace
without a few things happening. And that parcel just feels so damn
critical to actually making, making that sort of vision start to come to life on
that alley, um, or corridor area. Um,
the second one that I just didn't see in here again is the rainier at
1 0 1 going under the highway, like that strip right there
is this place where there's a ton of people that will funnel down
and that's gonna be a, there's gonna be a amazing river access
that's created there. And so like we have to
think about that last little stretch there where the petaluma transit facility
is. And then there's another series of small things, and then there's the,
um, the egg the egg shop. Like how do we make
that like a welcoming, you know, walk into that area or
way to transition into that space because that to me is this,
um, this real, uh, nexus for a lot
of people to be reemerging back toward the corridor or leaving the
corridor, passing through the corridor. So, um, and then the
third area is just the shopping center and thinking through like, how do
we start to transition this large, probably 40 acre shopping center
into something. I like the idea of focusing over by lou casey and
starting to give it some edge and things like that. Um, but I'm
excited about all those prospects and I would just, uh, encourage
a little more going deeper on a few of the real, like sticky
wicket hard, hard topics versus like trying to do everything.
um, the other thing is I think our maker industrial stuff
is, a lot of it is just us getting out of our own way.
um, I think we do need to have some like street design
standards for this area because obviously they've been
desi like the design was not for spilling out into the street
and you know, places like henhouse like sort of had to like go
against the grain a little bit. And I think the same with, uh, the cannabis dispensary.
you know, like all of that was, there is like truly industrial space and we're seeing that
griffo and henhouse and lagunitas. They like, wow, actually people want to come
here. Um, but it's really hard to do certain things there. And
I know from talking to places, like I would encourage you to go talk to griffo about
their experience and trying to have events there and things like that because
they're still in the middle of a fight, you know, or not a fight, but like
in the middle of like, I don't think I can do this because of the city's process or
the city's zoning code. And I don't know all the details of it, but like, it's a, it's a
health story where like a business tried to be innovative and creative and create this space
and it's like, I want that and they can, right? And so, um,
like a lot of it I think is just us getting out of our own way, um, and
being more flexible and even encouraging that sort of thing.
um, otherwise those parking lots are just gonna be parking lots, fronting things. We
need to figure out how we activate 'em. Um,
then, uh, we talked some about buffers. Um,
I would prefer to, like, I try not to say what I don't want.
so, um, but in this case, I don't know how to say it. Like, uh, I
don't want the big concrete walls that just sort of like create this like,
you know, really sort of militaristic wall of like, that's
the city and this is not the city. And we see it down at like south gate, down on, on
lakeville where the house is, and then there's just this big wall that sort of
walls off the land and like talk about view sheds and like what's the view shed
when you're looking at a concrete wall. So I'd love to see us try and like
do some more integration there. I like the idea of like a green buffer along the edge
of the, the city properties and stuff. But, um,
I certainly would hate to see like a big concrete wall around it, you
know, and like that's the city and out there's the county. Um, I think it really sort of like
that's what will, in my opinion, like start to really sort of undermine
the, the integrity of the view sheds and the, and the, just the, the ambiance
of everything, not necessarily people living there. Um,
uh, a couple of the council members, I think council member cater thompson talked
about some of the areas, like outside of the study area, like down under the, the,
at the, the crossing and whatnot. You're not able to look at that, right? Like
you're specifically focused in the study area. Right. Okay. Um,
if so, I've got a few extra things to throw in there. Um, so
then I just want to get to the housing piece of it. And, uh, I think,
um, and I think this goes to the, the jobs piece
of it too is just like, uh, one of the big
things that we've seen is just like a lot of our greenfield
growth has not been economically viable long term, right there.
um, I don't want to see us extending infrastructure out for
things that where the tax base is not gonna actually cover
the infrastructure long term. Like let's use this as an opportunity to not
just like, um, build it because it's easy and the neighborhoods will accept
it. Um, but like, let's actually like learn from the, the failures
of, of our current development paradigm and realize that like, you
know, we need to have, um, some sense of density and walkability and things like
that to, um, to really encourage it narrow streets. I'd
like us to design for like 15 mile an hour streets in this area. I don't think
we're gonna continue to go out. So if we think about this as like
the final hurrah of, of streets in petaluma maybe is like,
you know, think about it that way at least, right? If like, what does a 15 mile an hour street look
like? It probably is very narrow, um, with a, with a sharp edge.
um, I think we can minimize private open space to encourage more
of a public lifestyle. Um, so, uh,
you know, small, lots less open space, things like that, um, really
sort of like resonates with me. I don't think that this is, I don't think we're designing
for, um, all the people who currently live here. We're designing for the people
who might live here. So, um,
I appreciate council member strips always coming back to advanced mobility. And, um,
to me like that's like one of the big unknowns in the future
of, of all this is like autonomous vehicles and like,
it's like walkability and all that stuff like that really helps with like being a one car household
or being in, you know, living without a car. But like when we think about the impact of autonomous
vehicles on people and people who are trying to like eliminate fixed costs
and eliminate insurance costs and things like that, like eliminating your transportation
costs and just paying for an autonomous, you know, ride every once in a while,
like that's the potential, like that's truly disruptive. And so, um,
I mean, waymo's already approved to come to petaluma. It's just a matter of having a
business case for it. So, um, I, uh, I'm not saying this
plan's gonna give him a business case, but I do think, um, it, it
can contribute to it. Um,
and then, yeah, I think those
are my big points. Um, I
appreciate the comment about not bisecting the property in general. I
want to create as much flexibility as we can to, um, to see,
you know, as much affordable by design housing products as we can see.
um, and, uh, I think you
nailed the land use designations for, for me personally. So
thank you. Thank you. Uh, council member
cater thompson. Um, I agree with council member brian
barn's comments, um, but I just wanna bring, come back to, um, we don't really want this
to be a food desert. You don't have to have huge grocery stores. They
can be smaller. Um, you know, maybe you're not gonna get all your items,
but you have your basics there. And so I think that that's really important.
um, and I just think that, um, you know, with the, I do want more flexibility,
um, and when we were talking about the land, um, and the
moderate size homes, I'd like to see small and moderate, um,
lots, I mean smaller lots, but, um, moderate and smaller homes,
um, combination. And I am,
I'm really not looking forward. I I'm not looking at apartments in this area.
I'm looking at more condos for sale housing is really what
I'd like to, um, see in this area. So people have an opportunity to
move back to this city and actually live here, such as my grandkids
and other people. Um, I think that's just
really all I have to say except the, um, I realize that with sid commons
that that's not part of this, but I think we need to look at the bridge access
and going underneath the rail bridge just as the larger picture
of, um, mobility, um, with, within the general
plan that would incorporate, um, that into this plan also.
thanks. And just for the audience at home, that's a pedestrian
bike. Um, bridging it is a pedestrian bike and
maybe emergency vehicle bridge is all, I mean, it's basically
just a bridge so you can get across. It's not a road. It's not a road.
okay. No, thank you vice mayor di carly.
thank you. The, uh, the first thing I would like, I would like to address is,
you know, housing in the, the, what's being called the transit village,
um, you know, in, in land use with the general plan, we've done a
lot of back and forth and, and, you know, a lot of negotiating on how to reach
our numbers. And we did, and I think we exceeded them. Um, but
I, you know, something like going beyond the current urban, urban
growth boundary should be a last resort. If we don't have enough housing
in town, if we can't get enough infill, if we didn't meet our numbers, um,
you know, we had measure y to renew the urban growth boundary.
I, I supported that. I think it's been a great thing for petaluma, but I think, uh, in part
it was a little deceptive to add areas of potential expansion
because most voters, I believe, were under the impression that
we were renewing the boundary, not adding to it, which is
what we're talking about right now. And so, you know, we, we
shouldn't be building over there, you know, everybody up here loves to talk about
how they wanna preserve and save farmland and protect our rural character.
that's a few hundred acres of farmland. That's, that's its own
little pocket of it between eli, the railroad tracks and corona of farmland.
and, you know, once that's gone, it's gone and we shouldn't
be expanding into it. There's, there's no way to feather that
off and make that, you know, more palatable.
I think. Um, it's, it's, you're gonna be looking at development no matter what.
and for the mtc standards, it's gonna have to be extremely dense.
so there's, there's not gonna be kind of what's talked about up here
of all these small homes everywhere. It's, it's gonna have to meet a minimum standard for
the city to qualify for grant money, otherwise we don't qualify for it.
and, and part of me wonders if that's the whole reason we're doing the plan anyway,
is just to do grant is just to get grant money and, you
know, so is this, is this for petaluma? Is this what petaluma really wants or is this to
get more grant money for transit? It, and,
you know, I appreciate the comments. I didn't know anybody else that's gonna bring this up. But, um,
talking about water and those lower areas that flood,
um, it is a recharge for the aquifers down there. And that soil
throughout those few hundred acres is, is a very sandy soil. It
absorbs water like crazy. And water's an extremely important asset
around here. And I don't think we should, I don't think we should choke off the
aquifer's potential to recharge itself. So, you know, it's
not just the lower area that floods annually during the winter, it's,
it's that entire area. And then if we build over it, we're also
gonna have the problem of runoff from it as well.
then, um, you know, another, another problem with looking
at putting housing over there is one I mentioned I think during the
economic plan, but, um, if we
put housing next to industrial, which lagunitas is very close, it's
almost right on the other side, you, you introduce the potential
for problems between housing and industrial. You know, in
my example last time, which is happening right now, is over on first street, you have alex
ice cream and they're leaving and they have some reasons
for it, but they've been getting hounded for months and months and months because at
some point the city allowed housing to be built right next to them, and then the
noise they create to do their business became a big problem for the residents there.
and I can understand people being upset about noise, but this was a situation
that should have never been. And so we shouldn't
be encouraging housing near industrial areas in places
of business where there's gonna be noise, where there's gonna be smells, where there's gonna be work
at all hours. You know, we shouldn't be doing that.
I do appreciate that, um, that this plan
does really look at the businesses that are existing and, you know,
promotes, promotes finding ways to make, you know, to help them out, to
create opportunities for new businesses. Um, I would like to see,
you know, the, the rail is such an important asset in petaluma. I
I think it would be foolish not to look at more ways we can be creative and try to utilize
that for freight. You know, that would help smart, that would help our economy,
um, that would do a lot of things. Um, but anyway, I do appreciate the
emphasis on trying to help businesses. I think that
at this point, we shouldn't take the 2013 plan off the table.
thank you, heather, for filling in some stuff on that, but I don't think we should
be taking it off the table. I mean, it's very, very much in line with what we're talking
about tonight. I think if we use that as the foundation, I think that
would save us a lot of money and, you know, and a lot of headache too.
um, because that area is largely unchanged, you know, the station is built.
I mean, I think the big difference was the 2013 plan as far as
the corona station went, emphasized that, um, through
their findings that this was mostly gonna be a park and ride station and
not housing oriented. And so obviously now there's, there's development
going on where they had proposed parking in their plan,
but, um, you know, that's, that's really the major difference. And then there's a huge
emphasis on obviously the downtown station. There's actually, I mean,
it's, that is probably the best plan that I've read through. It's a little over 200
pages long and it's extremely detailed. It's extremely thoughtful.
it has design standards in it, you know, mostly for downtown.
and it, and it gives a vision of what petaluma wants to see, you
know, at least at the downtown station. But I would love in
this plan coming forward to see actual design standards and what we want this to
look like, and not leaving it up to whichever developer
comes along, you know, what, what their vision is for it, because it
should be what petaluma's vision is. And so I, I
really don't think we should be taking the 2013 plan off the table. I think actually between
now and the next time this comes back, that plan should be sent to
all of us. Everybody should look at it, read through it, really understand what we're
being asked tonight to let expire and go away. Um, I think it's actually a
very, very important plan that would be great for petaluma.
and then, you know, I, I kind of wanna emphasize again,
um, that this vision also includes some, you
know, some real stuff in it. Um, as far as different demographics
and what's gonna happen with the market and what the actual impact of this plan could
be. I think that's, that's extremely important. We can't,
I, I don't think we should be approving a plan without knowing what that plan's going to actually
do. And then, um, I wanna see more
emphasis on, you know, what view sheds and sense of place we're trying to
preserve and what that actually means, you know, because again, that's, that's why people live
here. That's why people move here. And I think that
the people that are here are the ones that we really need to be taking care of.
you know, it's, they, they make a huge investment to move here, to live here, and
they all wanna be here, and we, we need to respect that.
and then as far as, you know, again, I'll go into mcdowell.
I don't, I don't think we should be looking at or redesign there. Um,
I don't, I don't think that should be part of the vision. There's a lot of connectivity in that area and
putting more emphasis into something. We just spent $12 million redoing,
uh, we shouldn't, we shouldn't be. And so that's,
those are my main comments about it. Um, you know, as far as,
as far as what you want us to actually consider tonight, the 89
plan, um, does seem largely completed. You know,
I I, I don't see any reason at this point to keep that
the 2013 plan. Like I said, I don't think we should be taking off the table. We should,
we should be considering making that the foundation for this and keeping it.
and then, um, you know, the third one about including
the transit village for annexation, I don't support that.
I think that's farmland. And I think we need to keep that farmland,
uh, focused development planning on transit village and healthy health
district sub areas. Yeah, I mean, I can see a lot of that being necessary.
um, I mean, as far as the grocery stores go, we have one safeway
few minutes away, another safeway, maybe less than 10 minutes.
aras a trader, joe's a grocery outlet going in. There's palace of fruit, there's
a couple little quickie marts. I mean, there's, there's a lot of stuff within a few minutes
of this area. And you know, I think if we were gonna even look
at putting a grocery, another grocery store in there, some type of market, we'd have to look at
how those would be impacted. And then,
you know, the next one, mcdowell, I don't support that.
um, you know, and then maybe,
yeah, I don't know. I mean, the next two are I've, I've kind of mentioned already, but those
are my main comments on this. Thank you very much.
um, council member now. Um, thank you. Um,
first off, mcdowell has to be safer. So
I'm all for safer streets. And, um, I forget which
councilman cater thompson about less driveways, because
if you have gone into henhouse or over to the farmhouse,
it, it's very confusing and I like to see
that improved. And, um, I would
also like to see, um, our first time
home buyers have an opportunity to have a supply to purchase
something that's not over a thousand square feet, that
they're smaller. Um, some of my, um, very favorite
people are first time owned buyers in the brody ranch subdivision,
and their kids go to corona creek and to meadow school.
and I, they're, they're very happy and that neighborhood,
they just wanna walk to log and need us. And, um, it is a
real tourist opportunity. We have griffo who has bands that
play out in their parking lot. We've got the farmhouse, we've got
the henhouse, we've got lag anitas, we've got this central
milling and skippy's can expand. It's a market.
I mean, you go in there and you can buy pretty much everything on your shopping list and I can get
my clover products. So, um, we do wanna look
at those opportunities and maybe even a shuttle
that they could work on. I don't know who, how then they would
pay for it, but connecting that neighborhood to those local
businesses and to the smart station. Um, and
it would be a great mixed use area, um, where you have
restaurants and then above the restaurants you have the,
you know, uh, a tenant and you have, um,
like we have downtown in the industrial area off of first street acas
cafe that would be perfect in that little area, which is a community
hub that people go and have coffee in their neighborhood.
so there's lots of opportunities. I, um, really like the things
that council member bartle had to say for his vision and, um,
the other council member. So I'm looking forward to seeing this, come back and see what
we can do in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Council member schibs.
okay. Thank you for the reports and all the discussions. I agree with just about everything that's
been said. Um, I'd just like to add on what, uh, um, um, council
member alex was saying about the, um, the roads.
I sort of agree with the north mcdo section that since we just put that money in, but we, what
we didn't do was actually from, uh, the section that's actually just south
of there that goes all the way to washington street, that was not repaved and redone.
and that is actually fairly the more dangerous section for transport
by both walking and by bike because I've been on that area
a lot. Um, so that the graph that you showed might be a
good concept for the section between washington and then all the way to
the trained, uh, tracks where they cross. 'cause that's about where, where things are are change over.
so I, I'd like to keep that concept in there. But more important than
that road is the corona road, um, that was also mentioned.
we need to have that concept developed and we need to work with the county
to make sure that the road all the way to, um, adobe road and all
the way to, uh, pum boulevard, what does that redesign actually look like
to support all this new housing? And part
of that new road has gotta be these pathways and all these
students that are gonna be living there, there's no school in that little section. None was being mentioned,
or just where are they gonna go to school and how are they going to get there
by walking and biking. What pathway is there
to go from that little section to where they need to be in
a safe manner so that they're not have to be driven. So that
path has to be established as a key safe routes to school program.
how they, how they make that happen. So that, that is absolutely critical,
uh, that they get through a neighborhood. Um, and then over to the area. So they can go
to the law school district or to the corona school or to the junior high school.
that all needs to be mapped out now. Uh, so that there, that those routes
are established. Um, uh, I also like to comment about the, the, the
feathering, but I'd like to enhance that. Feathering would be nice as on the edges,
not the brick walls that were mentioned, but we need to have gardens and trees
that lead up to non fencing backyards,
which then leads up to more landscaping in a backyard, which then goes
to a single family house, which then leads to maybe a, a two
story, then three story inland. So that feathering up needs to be not just the buildings, but
also the landscape needs to be feathered right down to the rural area.
and maybe even include commun a community garden area in the area as a community
space to, that folks can work on, on those areas so that we actually have
rural actual production in these areas that are on these edges.
okay. Then on, um, there's another idea
that's come up. I saw, uh, earlier at another city did, um,
these parcels, unless you organize it, well all gonna be bought
one at a time, but by a developer or some prospector that's gonna go, okay,
I'm just gonna buy the land and just to sit on it and I'm gonna force people to be buy a lot more
or pay a lot more for it later down the road. 'cause I, I'm gonna control this land. I've seen that
happen in other cities. Whereas one city said, no, we're not doing that.
we're gonna form a development corporation nonprofit,
quasi-governmental private, and it's a nonprofit and they
actually like sponsored with the bank and they go out and, and say,
okay, we're gonna buy all the land from all the people at equitable price and,
and nobody gets a dime until everybody agrees to pay the equitable price.
so we need to have this corporation, nonprofit buy all the land ahead of time
now and then work with the developer to get it developed.
maybe even a design build type of design as we go forward. So
that process needs to be put in place now. 'cause if you could leave it up, always
leave the parcels out there, whoever wants to come develop, come develop, no, that's not gonna work
at all. That's gonna be a crazy mishmash of craziness that we don't
want to go toward. So that way that, that's a, I want to reemphasize that
process. The purchasing and the development plan needs to be organized,
holistic, singular entity in the middle before
it's released to developers. Okay. Then on the um,
um, I mentioned the corona road and what, what is not included in the master plan,
which is in the circle was the auction house and that property there
that's inside that circle. What, what are your plans for that
property? Is that gonna be housing? Is it going to be park? Is it going to
stay the way it is? Because right now it's used as a parking lot for trucks, um,
um, uh, a base of hotdog restaurant and occasionally may
be used even as an auction house once in a while. Um, but that, that's a one of those
properties that, okay, it's up for grabs as to what could it be, could it be a complete wetlands
area as a park part of the greenway? Could it be that? But that
has to be included in, 'cause that's part of that circle right there.
um, then on the, um, oh one
recommendation ahead of time, since all this makerspace and we're talking about all these
places that may and, and all these mobile homes that we
are talking about. I don't know how many of us actually walked it or biked in this and
actually gone through all these neighborhoods to really feel it and see it. So maybe
we should have the whole council get on bikes and, and take a ride and
go down all these streets on a day and, and, and really see it. Or at
least a group of folks work group, whatever you have should actually physically go
out there and see it together as a group and talk about it as they're going and make
a, a whole day tour out of it. Nice easy bike ride tour of these areas.
so I'd like to see that happen with your work group and with you guys actually do that so that you understand
what it's like to bike and walk in these areas.
'cause then you gotta feel it. You just can't look at it from a map and, and think about it. No, you gotta feel
these things. So I really highly recommend you actually get out there, um, maybe with
some of us and let's take a tour. Um, so otherwise I like everything that
that's been said and what, what you're working on and let's make it all happen as soon as possible.
so those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you. And we are at now at nine minutes to
11 and I'm gonna try and bring it in under the wire so we don't have to have a vote for
after 11. Um, first, um, I, I thank, uh,
council member di carly for, uh, saying such kind things about the 2013
report. I'll get to go home and tell my wife who was on that committee,
um, that she did a great job. Um, she did think that the corona
station effort was kind of a little ticktack onto the edge of the big thing
downtown. Um, but that, that's how that works. Uh, and I would concur, um,
on the park, um, and, um, community gardens,
uh, and we have the showcase for that, that sunrise community gardens is the gem of the city
for, for gardens and the it's in the work area to could
be replicated. Um, also in the ugb,
uh, I mean, we told the voters we were reducing the
possible annexations by three quarters and we only left in the one who
we thought had value because of the corona station. So we really reduced
all potential encroachment into ugb when we did that,
um, when we in our public messaging there. Um,
and broadly I would agree with, um, what, uh, council member barnacle and
cater thompson mentioned. Um, and then I did like, uh, council
member shrives bringing up biking because, uh, when rebuilding had their
big workday, uh, I like to get out and thank the work crews and an awful lot of 'em from
the mobile home parks. And so I just bike on across and, and there I am in
doodling around the middle neighborhood. So I've got a good feel for that. But also,
um, you know, you're a bicyclist too. Um, we can shoot
up the smart trail to smart's offices for a meeting so we can
attend. And thank god for the e-bike. I arrive polite. But, um,
the, uh, but we have great access and I want to continue
to have the group have great focus on mobility. Um, but now healthy
petaluma's offices is in the smart offices. And so, you know, that's
another business meeting I get to go to that's easy access. Uh, we had
this county supervisor debates at, uh, healthy petaluma or at, um, petaluma
health center and, uh, able to bike to that pretty darn easily too.
we're making pieces come together in this town. It's very cool. Um,
also we had transit day at the jc and, and we, we biked over
to that and, um, uh, uh,
if I wasn't here tonight, I would've been watching, uh, the, the game
. Don't say the answer, anybody who was watching, I'm got that taped. But
I would, um, I would've been at either hen house or beyond the glory who
have, uh, big screens for sports events like that. And I would've biked to those
events. Um, today for lunch, um, we wanted a bike somewhere
two nine or diner was closed for lunch today, monday we went to
pen grove market. Pen grove market would be the ideal installation
to drop in. I mean, it's, it's a little boutiquey. It means, um,
uh, things, but actually shockly prices are good at the pen grow market. So
they'll tell two niner, I said this, but, and this weekend I was in the city
and my sister-in-law made pizzas with dough from skippy's or from central milling.
central milling. Uh, we have a gem going on in this area, um,
but I wanna make sure that the, that the plan has the tools that
drive investment into the area. I love the vision, um,
and it's a good vision and I think we will be able
to create the vi the, the future from
this plan. I'm looking forward to it and um, I'll
make a quick few. Thank you. Quick comments. Um, I just wanna say in 1998 when the ugb
was, uh, voted in by the voters, this land was designated
as an area that was gonna be annexed. And then the other thing is, if you
wanna bring agricultural back, you wanna talk about people complaining, wait
till the poop of the cows start and the wind goes south. And plus
we have property owners that have property rights and if they wanna sell their property, they have
a right to, these are not agricultural, um, they're not used
as agricultural today the way it was in the past.
and um, and that's a good one. And I read that
just something like a pen grove market. I mean, that's what you really need in an area
like this. Something small that actually has coffee and everything. So council member barnacle
one last one. Graduate together. Okay. Yeah. Um, I appreciate you
bringing up the ugbi just, I really take issue with the idea that we did some sort of a
bait and swish on voters with the ugb. Like we had multiple meetings, council
member di carly where we were talking about this, where we pulled certain things back
and we put it right here for a very intentional reason. It was noticed over
and over again. It was written as such. And so, um, like we really
shouldn't be misrepresenting the council and, and the transparency we brought to the ugb
process, um, secondarily, um, park and ride
stations overwhelmingly don't perform as well as mixed use stations do
in the network on smart and, and just in general. They just don't. So if
we're learning from experience and learning from examples, we should be trying to build mixed
use more vibrant, um, stations if we care about
smart being an actual like, um, a, you know,
long-term piece of infrastructure that is cost effective. Um, and
then finally, you know, just having gone through my election in 2024,
I talked to people in lavia that live right next to hunt and barron's. I talked to people who
moved in right adjacent to clover and um, they love
living in petaluma and they don't want the industrial things to leave. They want, they
love living in petaluma because they have those industrial uses here.
and so I think that more than people moving here and then saying, I want log
anitas to shut down, they're moving here because they want to live next to log anitas.
and I think that we'd like, there's a reframe on all this stuff and
the benefits of living close to where you want to be. And, um, I just,
I wanted to drop those things in. Let me just check with staff here.
um, have you guys gotten an earful? Any, do you need to drive a question
or? We, we've done it all for one evening.
my decision , you know, andrew just brought up
something. It would be great to maybe get mike,
mike, it would be great to get more, um,
clarity on, on what you guys feel about the plan area
taking on the annexation area. Can you put the,
is there a slide that you have with a specific thing you want? Or
is it, there was the seven things that council member di carly referenced. I imagine
you're asking about one of those
2013. I think that the,
I think we have clarity on all the other items. The reason we want maybe a straw
poll on, on planning for the annexation area is because
that's a significant investment of, of the budget in that
planning. So if you were to give us, yeah, let's do that. Right. Okay.
so I think we talked a lot about the annex, uh, the annexation area, and we
talked about a lot of different things going on with it. But the base question that staff is asking us to weigh
in on, and we'll do it in a straw poll, is do we want to continue
exploring and, and crafting the annexation area? And so
as, um, uh, hands up if you want 'em to continue. So 2, 3, 4,
and be clear. Okay.
and hands up if you wish them to drop it from the, the we.
we have, we have five votes. Sorry, but thank you. Okay. We clear? Thank you.
we're very clear. Excellent. Thank everybody
for staying tonight. And there's a, there's a lot of going on, going on, so I appreciate
y'all being here. And mr. Mayor charlie,
we still do have this second public comment period. So we are moving into,
um, thanking, thanking your team for being here and, and, uh, and
we're, and we're set. And, um, do we have to, and it is 11
mayor. Yeah. All right. I'll make a motion to, we have a motion extend the meeting
past 11. Wait, wait, how many minutes?
uh, yeah. Um, so through, through the public comment period.
and um, there we go. So we have a motion. I need a second. I'll second. We
have a second by now. A motion by cater thompson. And uh, can we do this by a claim?
so we do this by a claim. All those in favor say this doesn't anything up there either online, right? This
is your moment to say aye. Okay. Aye. 11 because
we don't even even know if they're online. Okay, good. So then we are how many
cards? 11 and there's 13 people
online. Okay. So, um, we are
opening the continued public comments for the evening and um,
we have checked online and we have, uh, no hands raised
online for this. So I will read your name and I give you a,
a count of five. And it's maria perez. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
nicole sandoval, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Pamela,
er. Thank you.
um, gabby ortiz.
nico fry. Yeah. You wanna come speak on ice out?
yes, I do. Come on down. , come
on down. I'm around. Is your turn
and
because these were the general comments where everyone got one minute I reset the
clock to one minute. Okay. Thank you. And, uh,
is the clock ready? And the speaker's ready? Go. And here we go. Okay.
I'm here tonight to ask you to see an opportunity where today you can only
see a parcel of weed infested unused land
just south of the meridian housing development between north mcdowell
and the smart rail line. It is a small city
owned triangular parcel. Well, it may seem insignificant.
I believe it has the potential to become the front door to the proposed north station
neighborhood or the new north east side of petaluma.
as our community invests in the north station plan, implements the general
plan and continues to promote housing near transit. This is exactly
the kind of space that should become a public asset, not simply remain
vacant and unused. Imagine a small park with
shade trees, native landscaping, benches, bicycle parking,
public art, and rain gardens that capture the storm water.
it could provide a welcoming place for residents, especially those living in the nearby
mobile home parks. Thank you commuters, cyclists and visitors. We were one, one
minute while creating a recognizable gateway to this growing
district. This parklet area supports many of the goals of the city,
has already a dock. Thank you nicola. We are at one minute
minute and you are one minute. So you've run your time.
thank you. Okay. Uh, michael trione
is our next speaker, alex mensing.
nancy shin erickson, uh, maria perez.
maria said that. And,
uh, unnamed person and sierra moran.
and, and with that we'll close the public comment, the continued public comment,
and, uh, adjourn the meeting. Thank you all very much.